TIM BRANDO

The guys chat with Tim about the first week of college football in 2024 and uconns potential of joining the big 12 conference.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
On the planet is joining us now. Tim Brando from
Fox Sports. He's been doing this for over forty years.
And I'm not trying to make him the gold because
he is such a good dancer and he's so young
and handsome. So what is this? Tim Brando joins us now?
And dude, you're all you're an Internet sensation right now
because you know, you enjoy doing what you do for

(00:20):
a living. And it rubs off. I mean, the younger fans,
I think dig some Tim Brando right now. How much
fun is doing games at Wisconsin?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Oh, it's awesome, It's absolutely awesome. I go throwback right
the Saturday night favorite. Don't mess with my hair? Why
you mess with my hair? Man, I've been doing I
work so hard on my hand, don't mess with my hair.
And then you and if you don't have elevation, and
when they're playing jump you know, jump around right? You
know Devin he's like six s three and I have

(00:50):
former Michigan quarterback.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
He's huge.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Yep, He's jumping up all around the place. And I'm like, hey, man,
I don't have the elevation anymore. But if you check
me from the waist down, it's gamebusters. Baby with the
best of them.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Oh God, bless you. Man. That's awesome. So you tell
me about the game. Tell me about Wisconsin. What's it like.
I try to tell people was like playing for fifty
thousand people. But whether you're calling a game in front
of one hundred thousand people or playing football in front
of one hundred thousand people, the atmosphere is just college football.
There's nothing like it.

Speaker 3 (01:27):
There is nothing like it.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
And that's a tradition that dates back. And most of
those stadiums do have a great tradition with regard to
when they play certain songs and music, and you know
at Oregon, at Austin Stadium, they go with shout, you know,
because of you know that when when Animal House was made,
and you know all of that, and they do that

(01:48):
when you start the fourth quarter and here that it's
been jump around for a long time. And when you're
at the fifty yard line and you're and the setup
there is there is an overhang and another deck above us,
so we're pretty close to the field. I mean, they're
literally fans within arm's reach of me when I'm calling

(02:09):
the game, and they're kind of looking up at us,
like like Cubs fans would a Harry Carey before singing,
you know, the seventh inning stretch, and they want to
see you having fun too. Hell, they might actually buy
you a beer after the game. You never know, so
you just enjoy it. And I've oftentimes said that as
seriously as I take my work, I don't take myself

(02:31):
seriously at all. And I think that's the key to
longevity in what you do. People will know right away
if you're not as enthused or not as energized as
you once were, and I absolutely am. And part of that,
I think, Dibbs is my background as an entertainer as
a child with my dad and his band, and I

(02:52):
get into when.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
You saw your hair? Do you put that picture of you? Ear?
What is that a pompadoor you had going on?

Speaker 2 (02:58):
Oh that nineteen seventy six.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
Oh my god, Terry Lewis and I was a carnival
personality at the Labor Day telethon in Shreetport in my hometown,
and I was going from place to place with these
parties and doing remote back then as a rock and
roll disc jockey.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
So yeah, and that was at.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
This whole thing going on, awesome, unbelievable, real all right,
Let's talk some football, sir. The Big Ten had a
really good day.

Speaker 4 (03:23):
I hate to start with this game, but the only
loss was Minnesota North Carolina nineteen seventeen to two point loss.
USC probably had one of the bigger wins of the
conference beating one of your favorite teams, LSU Tigers twenty
seven to twenty. Great game, but USC. Let's start there.
Bigger win for them, bigger loss for LSU.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
No, I think it was. I think it was. I
don't think it really measures as big for either because
I don't think either one of these teams were predicted
to be playoff teams. I think they're big, brand name
teams that are trying to get their mojo back for
being a top tier national contender. But I mean LSU,

(04:05):
even though it wasn't ten games last year, their defense
was ranked one hundred and thirty first out of one
hundred and thirty fourteen. They were awful. I mean they
were terrible. So they improved mightily from a defensive standpoint.
Even though they lost the game. USC made bigger plays,
especially at crucial times in the game. They were more
vertical in their passing game, and their receivers made bigger catches. LSU's,

(04:29):
on the other hand, I thought were they were more
conservative in their passing game even after an Utsmayer had
a great start. USC, in my mind, can potentially be
more of a contender to win the Big Ten than
I had previously thought. But I put my top fifteen
out for this week and I still have them outside

(04:52):
the top fifteen because in my mind, LSU was not
a top fifteen team this year when you look at
the changes that had to be made from a defensive
stand part, I mean we're talking about Brian Kelly had
a new offensive coordinator, new defensive coordinator, new starting quarterback,
taken over for a Heisman winner, and Nussmeyer looked awfully good.
I think he looked almost as good as Miller Moss

(05:14):
of USC did. I'd have to say an more important
win for USC than terrible loss for LSU. I mean,
LSU is going to be, I think a factor in
their league. They've got a lot of talent. They can
bounce back from this. Look, they've lost five straight opening games.
I was just asked a moment ago on an internet show,

(05:36):
how does Brian Kelly lined up zero to three in
his first three years at LSU? In first games, I said, well,
he's not playing U two, Chattanooga, Western, Kentucky, Akron, or
you want to check the schedules and some of these
other teams that we're playing games. When you play games
like that in neutral sites, you put yourself in a
position to lose, but you also find out a lot

(05:58):
more about your team, and I think LSU will profit
from this and probably play well and be a factor.
I think they'll get to Week seven as a five
and one team even with that loss, Okay, so I
don't think it's especially now with a twelve team playoff.
It's not like your season is in peril because you

(06:19):
lost that game. But for USC, they also have a
new defensive coordinator Okay, and Danton Lynn who they got
from UCLA, who, in my mind, was one of the
reasons Ship Kelly left the call plays for Ryan Day
at Ohio State. He didn't like the fact that UCLA
would not match the USC offer for his defensive coordinator.
I thought that that part of it for USC was

(06:43):
noteworthy because that's been their problem. They're coming off of
seven and five year Okay, LSU went ten and three,
so I think they needed this victory more than ls
you did. Yes.

Speaker 1 (06:55):
Talking to Tim Brando from Fox Sports, he calls a
college football games across the board. Tell me about Georgia
over Clemson. I saw a thing on Kirby Smart and
how he treats these kids, and he's trying to make
them grow into young men and then men, and he's
a stickler for little things, which I absolutely love. But
Georgia look pretty good again against Clemson.

Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah, well, other than driver's education in the off season,
he's done a hell of.

Speaker 5 (07:20):
A yeah beyond, but beyond that, he's just right. He's
been phenomenal. Okay, and that team is just shocks full
of first round draft picks and Carson Beck is an
incredible quarterback. Clemson, on the other hand, for whatever reason,

(07:41):
Dabo Sweeney is trying to build his program the same
way he always did without having anyone from the transfer portal.
And I'm sorry, but they're not as good as Georgia.
Kirby can get away.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
With doing it that way. Clemson cannot. I mean, they
don't have anyone playing the position that remotely resembles trumbor
Lawrence or Deshaun Watson, do they? And you know, look
back at UIs aren't going to Lay before he transferred
to Oregon State and before he then transferred to Florida State, who,
by the way, is now zero to two after losing

(08:16):
the BC last night. He won eleven games with dju
as this quarterback a few years ago. Probably should have
done a better job of holding on to that kid,
because they don't have a quarterback right now, and they
don't have a passing game to speak of, and you're
not gonna be able to run it on a team
like Georgia. That's the sad part for Clemson is they've
got a tremendous defense, one of the top five defenses

(08:39):
in the country. Their front seven is probably as good
as any in the country, and they're not going to
get much out of it until he starts understanding that
in today's game, you got to go out and get
some players at the skill positions from the portal. Okay,
there's a reason Oregon had, you know, bow Knicks last

(09:01):
year in his seventh year, and hell, what is what
is Dylan Gabrielim now is his twenty fifth year. Uh,
and he's got him out there. That's part of the
game now, femas h H sixty three percent. This is
a stat factoid you need to hang on to, and
it's something Dabo Swemy needs to read up and brush
up on. Sixty three percent of the starting quarterbacks in

(09:24):
FBS are transfer players sixty three percent and forty four
of those thirty three percent of sixty three percent, forty
four of the sixty three percent are in the Power
four conferences. So you need to start surveying, you know,
the portal. It's part of the game now coaching, You know,

(09:48):
coaches have to adapt, and Debo is trying to play
old school as though those two national titles he got
against Alabama are still resonating in the game, and they're not.
You know, you got You've got to get it done now.
And if your quarterback play isn't any.

Speaker 3 (10:04):
Good or is not up the par you got to
go and get some of these.

Speaker 2 (10:07):
Guys out of the portal that you know can pick
up your offense right away and have impact, and they
don't have that at Clemson right now.

Speaker 4 (10:16):
Down in Florida, it's worked real well for one team
and not so much for another. I love what I
see from cam Ward in this Miami offense that looks phenomenal,
but then Florida State, I brought them up. Dj U
Galilei from Oregon State does not look good in the
first two games.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
Well, hey, I'mililay has not gotten any help. Their run
game has been atrocious, their defense has been pathetic. And
I think what happened at the end of last year
the residue of what happened to that program, and also
to some extent fellows when you're in a college town
like Tallahassee, and all of the important players within the
administration of the school and all of the donors that

(10:57):
bring all their money into that program are crying foul
about what happened at the end of last year, filing
lawsuits against the acc and going through all this litigation saying,
you know, we're too good for this, we should be
making more money. I think that some of that gets
down to the players. They're they're hearing it on campus.
They can't get rid of the noise. And I feel

(11:18):
badly for j norvel who you know, Mike Norvella is
a good coach. He's a really good coach. Jay by
the way coaches Colorado State. But Mike Norvela is a
good coach. And I think that all of the noise
outside the game itself has infiltrated that locker room, and
he's gonna have to do something about it. That being
said the Castellanos kid who played so well last night

(11:41):
and was trying to do it as an impression of
cam Ward of Miami who did in Florida. Castellanos is
one of about eight or nine guys that we're on
the Gus Maldon's roster, and he likes to have about
ten to twelve quarterbacks and he transferred to VC. That
kid looked like he was a showstop for last night.
So that's what can happen at the position. For As

(12:04):
for cam Ward, I knew I've seen him an incarnate word.
I saw him a couple of times at Washington State
last year, and he is a transformational quarterback and Mario
Cristapaul was very wise to get him. I think Miami's
going to win the ACC with relative ease. I really do.

Speaker 1 (12:22):
All right, So tell me what game you're on this
week and what other games do you think are cool?

Speaker 2 (12:26):
Guy?

Speaker 1 (12:27):
I mean, I'm looking at Texas Michigan right off the top,
But what game? What game did Fox puts you on?
And what kind of do you fancy this week?

Speaker 2 (12:35):
Well, Saturday night late. It'll be a throwback to Pac
twelve after Dark, but it'll be Pack two after Dark
hosting the Big twelve. Texas Tech is going to be
at Washington State. We'll be on at nine o'clock. Will
be the last game on Big Fox. It's coming Saturday night,
and then we'll turn around the very next week with
a short week, Fellas, and we begin that brand new

(12:56):
package of thirteen games, three involving the Big twelve, nine
involving the Big Ten, and won the Mountain West. I mean,
thirteen outstanding games on Friday night that are absolute must
watches in my view, and we should have a lot
of eyeballs on that game between Kansas State and Arizona.

(13:17):
Arizona is another team, by the way, in the Big
twelve to keep an eye on. I think there's six
or seven teams that win that league. I've got Utah
rated higher. I think I've got them number seven, I
think in the country this week, and I think they're
gonna win the league. But Case State is the next
best team, and they'll be playing Arizona a week from
Friday night, and that'll be where Devin and I are

(13:39):
on Big Fox on the thirteenth of September. So Friday
the thirteenth will be there. But this week, you guys
on the East coast left, stay up a little bit
late with me.

Speaker 1 (13:47):
Sorry. I'll be just settling into maybe my second glass
of wine, and I'll be like, oh, let's put Brando on.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
Yeah, you know, if the game gets a little boring,
we'll do a little dance sever for you. Nobody get
you back.

Speaker 1 (14:00):
If it gets boring, I'm gonna text you'd true.

Speaker 4 (14:06):
All right, So I know our football program did not
help this conversation one iota, But can you tell us
anything you know that we might not when it comes
to Big twelve expansion.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
Well, I'll be, I'll be. I'll be interested in what
the talk there is. You you can enlighten me more
than probably I can. We want to enlighten you. We
want you do want it?

Speaker 1 (14:28):
Yes, you do want it.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
Well, I think it's a I think it's a tremendous
opportunity for uh Mora and that program. And I thought
what he did at the end of last year for
you guys, I didn't think they could win that many games.
I mean I really didn't. I thought it was a
lost cause. In fact, I was one of those that said,
what would Jim Morgan, Why would he want to go

(14:50):
to Yukon. I mean, it's not like Wrinchler Field is
a frozen tundra that everyone fears, right, So he look
it because he saw possibilities. And what's happened here with
the Big Twelve. And we've talked about him before, Brett
Rmark is looking for a number of ways to do

(15:11):
what to create greater inventory and new revenue streams, and
he believes Yukon is a great opportunity to do that
for his league. In turn, Yukon's administration can say to
itself and to everyone else, yeah, we know basketball is
a standalone. That's who and what we are. Those are

(15:33):
our banner programs, our men's and our women's basketball programs.
But if we want to be a revenue producer the
way other schools in today's intercollegiate athletics are, we can't
just have a pedestrian independent program in football. We can't.
You just can't function that way. So I think that's

(15:55):
something that could be of great importance to the long
term future of the program. Now here's my second question
to you. Would the fans prefer saying Big East in
basketball and then go to the Big Twelve and everything else.
Is that what they want that? Yeah? Yes, yeah, yeah.
Well I don't know that that can't be worked out.

(16:17):
It potentially could. I'm not as aware of what their
negotiations are like. But fellas if you, if you happen
to have to say, well, it's either one or the other.
If you had to leave the Big East. And I
know you listen, you know how I feel about Big
East basketball. I cover it, I care about it deeply.

(16:39):
But if you had to leave the Big East Conference,
what league would you most want to be in basketball?
I mean, I mean you'd have to say the Big
Twelve is next, right, I mean that that league with
Kansas and Baylor. I mean it's not like those are
teams that your fan base wouldn't know anything about. But
I know it's a difficult situation for your administration and

(17:03):
one that they'll have to take a long look at financially.
As I said, I'm not in the business of running
inter collegiate athletics at any level, but as someone that
sees the landscape for what it is, I think it's
I think it's important for the staff and the administration
to make Ukon as great as it can be in

(17:25):
all sports, Okay, and we'll see what that what that
could possibly be. Maybe maybe they can work it out
to stay in the Big East in basketball only and
then go to the Big twelve and everything else. I
think your Mark would be open to it if it
came to that. But as they say that, we'll have
more on that story film at eleven.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
I guess dude, you are one of the best. Love you, man,
and yeah, keep on dancing, dude. You're you're so entertaining
during some of these games. Is worth the watch, just
you and your your partners. So we really appreciate your time.

Speaker 2 (17:58):
Tim, Thank you fellas always anytime.

Speaker 1 (18:01):
All right, save travels my friend. All right, uh, Tim Brando, everybody.
When we come back, we'll do the daily Picko. We'll
talk about Garrett Cole and everybody always gets scared when
you hear injury. But we'll talk about that and some
of the other stuff going on in Major League Baseball,
including the disappointing weekend the Yankees had that was kind
of awful the way they played, especially with this being

(18:24):
the final month of the season. We'll talk baseball next