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It's been quite the week in Husker Discourse Land! Let's talk about it.
On this week's I-80 LIVE, Jack Mitchell and Josh Peterson celebrate their recent entry into the 1,000-subscriber club by removing the paywall for their Wednesday night podcast. There's plenty to discuss, including Josh's recent column on Scott Frost, the reaction to the reaction, and Jack's thoughts as a bystander of the entire situation.
Plus, plenty else is going on in the world of college sports, including news surrounding the College Football Playoff's upcoming expansion, the lack of any news with the rev-share era, and so much more.
To watch the podcast, hit the link below! The guys go live at 7 p.m. CDT.
Stay tuned to the I-80 Club, as Jack and Josh get prepared to announce their upcoming summer podcast series, other plans, and more. For bonus episodes, newsletters, and access to every episode of Volleyball State, become a subscriber today: patreon.com/i80club
Want to reach out to Josh or the I-80 Club? Send emails to joshpeterson.huskermax@gmail.com or interstate80club@gmail.com!
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James Franklin is the head coach who can resurrect Virginia Tech
The college football head-coaching carousel is wilder than it has ever been. It got even wilder on Sunday when LSU parted ways with Brian Kelly. LSU, Florida and Penn State are all open at the same time. UCLA is, too, along with Oklahoma State. Virginia Tech is another. However, for the right head coach, it's one of the best jobs available. The Hokies used to be a perennial power in the ACC, even reaching the BCS National Championship game when Michael Vick was the quarterback. Since Frank Beamer retired, the program has been stuck in the abyss. At one point during Beamer's reign, the Hokies had 11 double-digit-win seasons in 13 years. Since his retirement, Virginia Tech has had one, which came the year after Beamer stepped down. It's gone downhill fast. In five of the past seven seasons, Virginia Tech has had a losing record. The Hokies are 3-5 this season. The program needs a jolt of energy, and luckily enough, James Franklin is available to provide it. James Franklin has the perfect pedigree for Virginia Tech The recently fired Penn State football head coach has one of the best resumes of any active college football coach. Franklin has won 68 percent of his games in 14 seasons as a head coach, which makes him one of three active coaches to do that. Penn State finished in the top 12 of the College Football Playoff rankings in seven of the past nine seasons. He's won five playoff games/New Year's Six bowl games. The resume is impressive. Maybe he didn't beat enough ranked teams in Happy Valley, but if he could replicate that success in Blacksburg, he'd be a legend. And if you think Franklin can't win in Blacksburg at a program like Virginia Tech, think again. The reason Franklin got the opportunity to coach Penn State was his unprecedented success at Vanderbilt. In three seasons under Franklin, the Commodores never missed a bowl game. They actually went 9-4 in his last two seasons, giving him a 24-15 record at Vanderbilt. If you can win there, you can win anywhere in college football. Especially nowadays, as revenue share and NIL have evened the playing field somewhat. Beyond the wins, Franklin can recruit. Penn State is Penn State. But he still landed players like Saquon Barkley and Micah Parsons. He coached 59 NFL Draft picks with Penn State. Recruits will pay attention to that. Speaking of recruiting — the lifeblood of any program — Franklin should be able to take advantage of the strong recruiting pipeline that is the DMV. Penn State often recruited from that area. Maryland has cleaned up in recent years, but with a big-name coach like Franklin at Virginia Tech, the Hokies would be better positioned to get some of that elite talent. Virginia Tech would be in a better spot for NIL, too. Franklin is proven. He could get fans and donors excited. People would talk about Virginia Tech again, plus, as Georgia Tech and SMU have shown, there is a path to the College Football Playoff in the ACC. Franklin might not be able to win the whole thing, but if there is one head coach who could get the Hokies to the College Football Playoff, it's him. Pete Nakos of On3 has reported that there is interest, and frankly, it makes too much sense not to happen.
Charles Barkley knows the real problem with LeBron James
LeBron James may be out due to sciatica, but Charles Barkley is not buying it. He thinks he knows what is really going on with the Los Angeles Lakers star. Barkley was goofing around during “Inside the NBA” on ESPN Wednesday and talked about the Lakers, who had several players out for their game at the Minnesota Timberwolves. James was listed as out due to sciatica, which is a nerve issue. Barkley thinks the sciatica injury is a cover for something else. “First of all, LeBron doesn’t have a sciatica. They just put ‘old.’ O-L-D, with an extra ‘D,’ too,” Barkley joked. An update on James’ condition came out this week, saying that the Lakers forward could return in a few weeks. The Lakers have seemed to suggest that there is no urgency to rush James into action. However, Luka Doncic also getting hurt recently may have changed things for the team. For now, the Lakers are 3-2 and have been relying on Austin Reaves to do plenty of scoring. He is averaging 34.2 points per game this season. James is 40 years old and entering his 23rd NBA season. He’s allowed to have “old” or sciatica as an injury issue. As Barkley knows and often says, Father Time is undefeated.
Dak Prescott addresses comment from Jerry Jones that infuriated Cowboys fans
Jerry Jones made some comments in a recent interview that angered Dallas Cowboys fans, and Dak Prescott says he can understand the frustration. The Cowboys have had one of the worst defenses in the NFL through the first eight weeks of the season. They rank 31st out of 32 teams in points allowed (31.3) and total yards allowed (404.6) per game. Jones has spoken openly about trying to find ways to fix that, but he was criticized for making light of the issues during a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal. In the interview, which was published on Wednesday, Jones spoke about a $1B investment he has made in natural gas company Comstock Resources. The 83-year-old made a quip about how there is so much money to be made in natural gas that it has taken his attention away from the Cowboys' defensive struggles. "There's $100B present value with natural gas out there," Jones said. "That’s why I’m talking to you on the telephone rather than trying to fix our defense with the Dallas Cowboys.” Dak Prescott understands why Cowboys fans were angry Prescott was asked on Thursday about Cowboys fans being irritated with Jones' comments. The star quarterback defended Jones but said he understands where fans are coming from. "I don’t know the full context of it. I do know a piece of it. But being a fan and you just hear that or read that, yeah, of course. ... That can definitely be frustrating," Prescott said. "But in that sense, I would just say, the guy has never really lied about who he is or what he’s trying to do. "Hopefully he was talking about in that one particular moment. Maybe in those five minutes is what he was alluding to, and having a chance at a $100B opportunity I think you might take five minutes as well to answer a call. Hopefully that’s what he means, right? But I could see how it could be frustrating." Jones, of course, is not a passive team owner. He is still the general manager of the Cowboys, and many of his recent moves have been questioned. The most obvious was his decision to trade Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers just before the start of the 2025 season. Jerry Jones has tempered trade-deadline expectations While Jones has claimed he is open to any and all moves that might improve the Cowboys ahead of the Nov. 4 trade deadline, he said this week that nothing notable is close. He did not sound all that confident in that changing prior to Tuesday, though that could merely be posturing. The Cowboys acquired two first-round picks in the Parsons deal. Fans want Jones to use the additional draft capital to help the 2025 Cowboys make a run, but there is no guarantee of that happening.
Protest banner to fly over MetLife Stadium for Giants' home game vs. 49ers
Sixteen-year-old high school junior and New York Giants fan Joshua Reynolds had paid to fly a banner over MetLife Stadium during the Giants' Week 4 home game against the Los Angeles Chargers. However, the weather didn't cooperate that weekend. It seems that the rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart's performance hasn't convinced Reynolds to change his mind about what team co-owner John Mara needs to do sooner rather than later. Giants fan wants to send a message to John Mara On Thursday, Darryl Slater of NJ Advance Media for NJ.com reported that Reynolds is using money he raised from his previous GoFundMe campaign to fly a banner over MetLife Stadium — weather permitting — when the 2-6 Giants host the San Francisco 49ers (5-3) on Sunday. The banner is slated to read: "MR. MARA ENOUGH IS ENOUGH CLEAN HOUSE." "Mostly the fact that the coaching staff has still been the same," Reynolds told Slater about sticking with the message that was planned for the Sept. 28 game. "Even though every year we’ve been getting new players, it’s the same result. You can’t keep trying the same thing that hasn’t worked at all." Under head coach Brian Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen, the Giants have gone 11-31 since Week 1 of the 2023 season. Additionally, defensive coordinator Shane Bowen faced criticism after his management of two separate in-game situations contributed to the Giants' losses this season. How Giants could've avoided this latest protest Last December, Giants fans flew banners over MetLife asking Mara to "please fix this dumpster fire" and warning the owner that "we won't stop until you fire everyone." While the Giants beat the Chargers in September, Big Blue has gone 1-3 since then. "If they did keep winning [after the Chargers game], I was planning to change it to something positive about Dart," Reynolds said about this Sunday's banner. "But that never happened. It’s disappointing." Things have gone from bad to worse for the Giants, who lost star receiver Malik Nabers to a torn ACL and meniscus during the Chargers game. In Week 8 against the Philadelphia Eagles, fan-favorite rookie running back Cam Skattebo suffered a gruesome dislocation of his right ankle, a fractured fibula and a ruptured deltoid ligament. Meanwhile, Reynolds is worried about what could go wrong for Dart if the signal-caller keeps losing under Daboll. "We have to rip the Band-Aid off sooner rather than later, because there is no point in Dart developing if he’s not winning games," Reynolds added while chatting with Slater.
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