• TUESDAY'S SHOW: Joe Flacco ... John Calipari ... Michael Strahan ... Peter King
Calipari
John Calipari's young Kentucky Wildcats are 8-0.
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Kentucky coach John Calipari joined the show before his Wildcats face UConn on Wednesday night. Calipari tried to dampen expectations about his 8-0 squad.

"The reality of it is we are not that good right now," Calipari said.

Calipari said that they're very young and have squeaked through games they could have lost.

"We should be 4-4," Calipari said. He thinks they should have lost to Miami (Ohio), Sam Houston State, Stanford and North Carolina.

Calipari said Kentucky fans are happy now, but wouldn't be if they didn't pull off all those wins. If they were 4-4, Calipari said fans would "put 'for sale' signs on my lawn."

Calipari said he's trying to do much more with this team. "It's about more than just winning," Calipari said. "It's about are you getting your team better. are they coming together? That's what I'm trying to do."

Calipari also said that he's seeing a huge difference in his competition. The Wildcats are a big target every night. "We're everybody's Super Bowl," Calipari said. "It's almost stupid watching tape. They're not going to play the way they're playing on that tape."

Dan asked Calipari about freshman John Wall and his NBA future. "I'm gonna try to talk him into staying three years," Calipari said. But when Dan asked, Coach Cal admitted he is already recruiting Wall's replacement.

 

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Michael Strahan
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FOX NFL analyst Michael Strahan joined the show to talk about the NFL and more.

Strahan said the New England Patriots are no longer an elite team. "I think people don't have that same level of fear," Strahan said.

Strahan said the Pats have had too much turnover on defense and they can't stop teams in key moments any more.

Strahan also had interesting comments on the Giants' loss to the Patriots in Week 17 of 2007. Even though New York lost, that game convinced the Giants they could win the Super Bowl.

On a funny side note, Dan and Michael were talking about endorsements. Strahan said one time he was the main attraction at a dental convention. He said hundreds of dentists came up and told him they'd fix his teeth.

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Joe Flacco's Ravens lost to the Packers in Green Bay on Monday night.
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Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco joined the show after the Ravens fell to the Packers on Monday night.

Flacco refused to blame the cold in Green Bay for his poor performances. "I didn't have it last night ... but that had nothing to do with the game," Flacco said.

But Flacco said the team is focused on the final four games and still is a big part of the playoff race.

Flacco had some interesting comments on playing at Delaware and being in the Division I-AA playoffs. He said he really enjoyed it, and it didn't disrupt his class schedule.

SI Cover
SI

After beating Florida, Alabama got the Sports Illustrated cover this week. And Phil Taylor's column on Tiger Woods is teased at top.

Paulie suggested a cover with Boise State, TCU and Cincinnati and the title "Undefeated and Unrecognized."

Who would you have put on the cover of SI this week? Hit the "Comments" below or e-mail us.

Dan won't give out his Heisman vote, but he will put up his top five candidates. Here they are in alphabetical order:

Toby Gerhart
Mark Ingram
Colt McCoy
Ndamukong Suh
Golden Tate

SI's Peter King joined the show to discuss the big topics around the NFL. Here are some of his takes ...

-- King said he heard that Charlie Weis won't coach this regular season, and then he'll look at jobs across the NFL in the offseason. King said that Chicago and Cleveland are possibilities, but you have to wait to see who the head coach will be.

-- King said that part of the reason the Cowboys have struggled in December is because the schedule has often been tough. "The NFL wants most teams to be in contention until Thanksgiving," King said. "They're going to schedule teams that were good the previous year to play tough teams in the second half of the year."

King said the Cowboys have a lot of young players who have no idea about the team's late-season history.

King says he totally doesn't care about Tony Romo going to Las Vegas. King doesn't think a single player on that team has an issue with Romo.

-- King is surprised that New England can't carry its first-half offensive success in the second half.

And King thinks that Pittsburgh definitely has to make changes on the field.

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Colt McCoy
Aaron M. Sprecher/Getty Images

Five finalists were chosen to go to New York for the Heisman ceremony, Here's the list:

Toby Gerhard
Mark Ingram
Colt McCoy
Ndamukong Suh
Tim Tebow

We'll go over each player's strengths and weaknesses and try to predict who will take home the trophy on Saturday.

We'll also have the latest on the Notre Dame coaching search. Will Brian Kelly or Jim Harbaugh get the job?

And we'll break down the Packers-Ravens contest, Danica Patrick's next move and Allen Iverson's return to the 76ers.

Joe Flacco, Michael Strahan, John Calipari and Peter King will all join the show as well on a busy Tuesday. And we promise, no visits to the studio from the police ... at least we'll try.

If you want to get the Heisman debate started, list your top choice below in the "Comments" section or e-mail us at dp@danpatrick.com.

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Brian Kelly will reportedly interview with Notre Dame on Tuesday.
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The show is getting a lot of pub for today's interview with Cincinnati head football coach Brian Kelly. Since Dan talked to Kelly, reports are emerging he'll talk to Notre Dame on Tuesday.

Here are some of the spins folks put on the interview:

ESPN: The mothership noted Kelly took a different tone with Dan than he did with the media the previous weekend.

Chicago Sun-Times: The Notre Dame-heavy paper focused in on the line about Kelly not guaranteeing he'd coach in the Sugar Bowl.

The Sporting News: The national Web site said that Kelly's statement had to leave fans feeling "sick to their stomachs."

WKRC: The Cincinnati local news stattion also didn't feel good about Kelly's chances of returning after he spoke with Dan.

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Brian Kelly
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Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly joined the show to discuss his future.

"I really have not sat down and had a chance to evaluate what it is that's in the future," Kelly said. "I'm going to do that over the next few days."

Kelly said he has a team meeting today and then will take some time before his banquet later this week. Kelly said that we'll know by Saturday whether he's staying in Cincy.

Dan asked if he could guarantee he'd be coaching in the Sugar Bowl.

"No, there's no guarantees in anything that you do," Kelly said. "I've never given a guarantee whether I was going to make it home at the end of the day.”

Kelly admitted it's difficult to talk openly about this because he's still under contract. He said he's working on an extension with Cincinnati. "I may come out in 48 hours and say I'm staying here at Cincinnati even if the New England Patriots call," Kelly said.

But Kelly did leave his options open. "There's a chance I could look at another job. I haven't made that decision yet," Kelly said. Kelly also wouldn't guarantee he would coach in the Sugar Bowl.

Kelly also said that he had an offer from a "major BCS program" last year. But he wouldn't reveal which school it was.

Kelly, however, wants to focus on football as well as the Bearcats prepare for Florida.

"I'm quickly becoming the story and I don't want that to be the case," Kelly said.he's working on a contract extension right now. There's a chance I could look at another job. I haven't made that decision yet.

Regarding the Nebraska-Oklahoma contest on Saturday night, Kelly said he was more nervous for that game then he was against Pittsburgh.

"The kick-off specialist for Nebraska ... if he could just kick the ball in bounds ... I will tell you we’d be playing in Pasadena against Alabama." 

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Dan believes Notre Dame's Golden Tate deserves Heisman attention.
Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

Dan's Heisman vote is due today at 5 p.m. We have a poll up with some of the front-runners, but Dan said he wants everyone to think outside the box.

One player Dan really likes is Notre Dame's Golden Tate. And he feels Clemson's C.J. Spiller is probably a better back than Mark Ingram. Also, Cincinnati all-purpose threat Mardy Gilyard merits consideration.

Send in your thoughts and Dan will consider them when he sends in his vote this afternoon.

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