Best of Outkick the Coverage: 01/13/2020

Clay Travis is live from New Orleans ,for the National title game, but starts off the morning celebrating the Titans victory over the Ravens. Clay highlights the 49ers, Chiefs and Packers huge Divisional Round victories. Jason Martin is part of Clay’s traveling show and they discuss Lamar Jackson and the many who are going to be critical of him, fair or foul? Clay previews the big National title game between LSU and Clemson and tells you who he thinks will win!

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of OutKick the Coverage podcast.
Be sure to catch us live every weekday morning from
six to nine am Eastern three to six am Pacific
on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for OutKick
the Coverage at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream
us live every morning on the I Heart Radio app
by searching f s R. This is the best of
OutKick the Coverage with Clay Travis on Fox Sports Radio.

(00:27):
I was scheduled to go down to New Orleans on Saturday,
so I was gonna go down. Wife was gonna come
down with me. We're gonna hang out French Quarter, have
a couple of days to chill, and then the Titans
beat the New England Patriots. You guys who listened to
this show for a long time know that I've been
a long time Titans fans, season ticket holder, that whole shebang.

(00:50):
So my favorite thing, my favorite way to watch games
in all honesty right now is with my kids. So
my two oldest kids are eleven and nine, and they
have become big football fans. And if you are a
dad or you are a mom and you have happened
to have kids who are around that age, you know
that that's pretty outstanding. I mean, that's almost the perfect age,

(01:14):
UH to be able to hang out and watch games.
And so we watched the Titans beat the Patriots. And
as soon as the Titans beat the Patriots, I said, well,
the Titans are gonna be playing against the Ravens on
another Saturday night, and I'm not leaving town. I want
to stay at my house and I want to watch
the game with my boys. Um, and so I changed

(01:37):
my flight, decided to stay in Nashville. And what a
unbelievable game that ended up being. What a spectacular decision
it was for the Titans to come out and take
it to the Baltimore Ravens like they did. Now, we
had four games going on over the weekend to on
Saturday to on Sunday. Three of them they may have

(02:00):
gone in ways that we might not have anticipated during
the course of the game. But I think most people
expected that the forty would win. I think most people
expected that the UH that the Chiefs would win, maybe
not in the way that they did. And I think
most people expected that the that the Packers would win.

(02:21):
Those were all three favored teams. The Packers were the
smallest of those favorites, but I think a huge percentage
of people anticipated that the Ravens would handle the Titans,
notwithstanding the fact the Titans had pulled off the upset
over the Patriots in Foxborough, and so the way that
game went down, I want to start off talking about it.

(02:41):
And by the way, we're gonna talk about every single
one of the NFL games, but I feel like there
are so many interesting storylines that come out of the
Titans Ravens game that maybe don't necessarily play out as
much in some of the other games. Although don't worry,
we're gonna talk about all of them equally. But I
want to start with the Titans win over the Ravens.

(03:05):
And there were a ton of things that jumped out
of me statistically about this game, and I want to
start with Derrick Henry. Derrick Henry has now run for
over a hundred and eighty yards in three straight games.
That is something that has never been done before in

(03:25):
the history of the NFL. And as the Titans head
coach Mike Vrabel said, anytime you hear someone say, oh,
he's done something that's never been done before in the
history of the NFL, that's a pretty amazing accomplishment. And
what's also amazing about it is it's not surprising what
the Titans are doing. They are running downhill, they are

(03:48):
coming right at you. There's not a lot of uncertainty
about what they're attempting to accomplish, and still they can't
be stopped. And what Derrick Henry is doing right now
is performing as well or better than any running back
has ever performed in the history of the NFL. I mean,

(04:08):
that's not an exaggeration, that's not hyperbole based on what
we've already seen. He is doing something that's literally never
happened before. So I don't think you can be two
worked up about how incredible that is. I don't think
you can overhype it. I don't think you can spend
too much time hyperbolizing what he is accomplishing right now. Okay,

(04:29):
on top of that, the Titans to go on the
road and win in Foxborough and then when in Baltimore
back to back weeks is pretty unbelievable in order to
be able to accomplish in general. Now, this is another
stat about how good uh Derrick Henry is. These are
next gen stats. The Ravens couldn't slow down Derrick Henry

(04:53):
despite stacking the box. That means eight plus defenders on
sixty of his rush attempts are right. He finished with
a hundred and twenty four yards on nineteen attempts versus
eight defenders in the box, most in any game by
any player this season. We heard Earl Thomas talk a

(05:14):
lot about how well it didn't seem like the New
England Patriots really wanted to tackle Derrick Henry. And we're
not going to put that ourselves in that position. We're
gonna come up and challenge him. Did you see Earl
Thomas try to tackle Derrick Henry in the open field?
Did you see Derrick Henry bludgeon him with that stiff arm.

(05:35):
It didn't seem like Earl Thomas wanted to be involved
in that at all either. Uh. And so this is I,
I just I honestly am sort of in disbelief over
what Derrick Henry has been able to accomplish. Now it's
not just Derrick Henry, by the way, but the Titans
won by sixteen points as a ten point underdog. That's

(05:59):
only the third time and underdog of that many points
has won by that much in NFL postseason history, So
that in and of itself was totally wild as well.
All right, that's the Titan side, uh. And the other
aspect on this is, prior to Saturday, to their game
against the Titans, the Ravens were the only team in

(06:20):
the Super Bowl era who had never lost as a
ten plus point favorite in their history as a franchise.
They were thirty six and oh and so there are
just so many different massive storylines that spiral out of that.
That's the Titan side. Now. Look, I thought that the
play calling by Arthur Smith, first year offensive coordinator. You

(06:42):
want to put a pin by somebody's name, who if
he has another year like this next year, will be
getting a lot of looks as potentially a head coach. UH.
Arthur Smith is one, he's super young, but I thought
the play calling that he had was flawless. On the
fourth and one a Titans are up seven nothing. They
stopped the Ravens at the raven forty five. Next play,

(07:07):
they get the ball and they go deep and hit
a forty five yard perfect pass to give the Titans
of fourteen to nothing lead. That was a perfect example
of a play call that was made at the exact
right moment. Same thing on the Derrick Henry jump pass,
uh as he faked as if he were gonna run in,
went up to the line and then hit Corey Davis

(07:27):
a perfect throw. In case you wondered how good uh
Derrick Derrick Henry was. He's even dropping dimes in on
touchdown passes and every time the Titans got close to
the goal line. And this has been one of their
calling cards with Ryan Tannehill has been they are scoring
at an insanely high rate touchdowns when they actually get

(07:48):
down near the goal line. So Ryan Tannehill again not
over under a hundred yards passing, but he made big
throws when he needed to. Titans got up six and
managed to withstand Lamar Jackson. Now what about the Lamar
Jackson side of the equation here? What about Lamar Jackson?
What do we think now about Lamar as we break

(08:11):
down his season, He's gonna be the NFL m v P.
But he now has major wobbl nous I would say
when it comes to the postseason. Last year we saw
him get exploited by the l A Chargers. They put
together a game plan. They were white hot, the Ravens

(08:31):
were UH and the Titans put together a game plan
this year that was sort of similar to what the
Chargers did last year, and I thought this was interesting.
Logan Ryan said almost exactly what they did against Lamar Jackson.
He said, this is a quote from Logan Ryan, Titan
defensive back. We had eight nine boxes all night. You
play Madden and run engage eight all day, it's hard

(08:54):
to run the ball. We pretty much did that, he said.
They used the Bills as a blueprint. Here is Logan
Ryan explaining exactly what they did. We wanted to give him,
meaning Lamar Jackson, loaded boxes all night to get him
out of the run game. We were either playing with
a loaded box and man to man and make him
beat us throwing the ball outside man demand, or we

(09:15):
were gonna play his own defense, a quarters defense similar
to what Buffalo did. And Buffalo played them well. Buffalo
just didn't score a lot of points on offense. So
we had eight nine boxes all night. You play Madden
and run engage eight all day, it's hard to run
the ball. We pretty much did that, and we gotta lead.
And once we gotta lead, they had to go to

(09:37):
the past game. And that's our strength with the DBS
we have, and having the ball skills we have, when
we get a lead, we can get some interceptions, and
they did. They picked off Lamar Jackson twice, they caused
a fumble, and they basically created a really difficult situation
for Lamar Jackson. Now, Lamar Jackson's only twenty three years old.

(09:57):
He obviously has been a revel a in the first
two years in the NFL. But I think the question,
and it's gonna be one that's gonna be debated a
lot this offseason, is going to be what is the
staying power of Lamar Jackson? Because you heard some people
acknowledge as a running quarterback that they would acknowledge that
his shelf life was likely to be shorter than somebody

(10:18):
who did not run as much as he did. And
as a part of that, people would say, well, he
might have a shorter shelf life, but he's going to
be able to win a super Bowl, maybe even multiple
super Bowls, So does it really matter if he has
a shorter shelf life. What I would say in response
to that is, go ask Matt Ryan and Cam Newton,
two guys who got to the Super Bowl were in

(10:40):
prime position to win super Bowls and may never ever
get back close to it again. Cam Newton was a
lot like Lamar Jackson, came out of nowhere, had a
transcendent season. Everything went perfect except Cam made it to
the Super Bowl, he lost, and his career kind of
went up a smoke. So I think the challenge for

(11:02):
Lamar Jackson is going to be is he gonna be
like a Peyton Manning or even a John Elway, two
guys who had consistent failure were perpetually told, Oh, they
can't ever win the big game, and then they just
kept fighting. They kept just kept staying alive. They put
themselves in positions to win championships, and sooner or later

(11:23):
things broke their way. If you are an NFL fan,
Peyton Manning was forever the most criticized quarterback in the league.
We heard over and over and over again, this guy
cannot win the big game, and the big game was
defined as whichever game you lost, which is why it's
always kind of unfair, because, oh, if you win and
get to the a f C Championship and then you

(11:45):
lose that one, that's the big game. But if you
lose in the divisional round during the wild card, your round, oh,
that's the big game that you can't win, and so
it was always constantly a moving target. Peyton Manning finally
wins a Super Bowl and then it's like, oh, well,
Peyton Manning only won one Super Bowl. He should have
had a lot more. Finally he wins a second and
it's like that kind of shut the door on them.
Same thing was said about John Elway. John Elway can

(12:07):
win a lot of games, but he can't win you
the big game. So the question that I have for
Lamar and I think it's a really interesting one, and
I don't think we know the answer, which is why
it's a fun one to debate. Is he going to
have the longevity where he knocks on the door a lot?
Because he's knocked on the door twice now and he
hasn't been able to walk through the door. He's gotten whipped.
The Chargers came out and whipped him, the Titans came

(12:30):
out and whipped him. And you can say, oh, well,
he threw for three hundred yards, he ran for a
hundred yards. A lot of those numbers, A lot of
those numbers came long after the game was decided, when
the Titans were already up to six In fact, here
are Lamar Jackson's numbers in the first three quarters. Sixty

(12:50):
completion rate, two hundred and sixty two yards, passing, three
I n t s and a fumble. That's two career
playoff games. In quarters one through three, Lamar Jackson completing
less than half of his passes, three I n T
s of fumble, zero touchdowns. In the fourth quarter, remember
it happened to Chargers, to Chargers got a big Lamar
made a late run. Well, he made a late statistical

(13:12):
run here kind of felt a little bit like Blake Bortles.
You know how Blake Bortles always you looked at the
stats and you're like, man, the dude through for three
hundred and forty yards and three touchdowns, but they lost
like forty eight and they were never really in the game. Well,
in the fourth quarter of his two playoff games is
where Lamar Jackson's made his hey nearly three hundred yards
passing fifty seven percent completion percentage, three touchdowns. He scored

(13:37):
his points after the game was already decided. So I
think this is the big debate coming out of the
Divisional round of the playoffs. Is Lamar Jackson is he
gonna be like John Elway. Is he gonna be like
Peyton Manning, a guy who is good for a long time.
Because I'll tell you this right now, I feel like
Patrick Mahomes, he's gonna be good for a long time.

(13:58):
So if Mahomes goes out and he loses is let's
say the a f C Championship Game or he loses
the Super Bowl. I'm not worried about Patrick Mahomes disappearing.
I think he's going to be in the mix to
win championships for Chiefs fans theoretically, as long as he
stays healthy for the next ten to fifteen years. I'm
not sure about Lamar Jackson. I'm not sure frankly about
Jimmy Garoppolo, who's also now in the mix. We know

(14:20):
Aaron Rodgers has been doing it for like fifteen years.
It feels like so he's been around for a long time.
I don't feel like Ryan Tannehill is gonna be there
every year. I know he had a great year this year,
but I feel like this is Tannehill's a year to
get it done, and if he doesn't get it done,
may never happen for him. Where does Lamar Jackson fit
into that larger universe. Those are the kind of questions
that I think come out in a big way as

(14:43):
we break down what we just saw in that game. Now,
I mentioned that I'm in New Orleans and I'm fired up,
and I could talk all about these NFL games, probably
all by myself throughout. But we're gonna talk about Clemson
and we're gonna talk about L s U. And my
buddy Jason Martin, who often sits in on the show,
is with me for the next couple of days as
we get ready for this L. S U. Clemson game.

(15:04):
But we are breaking down the NFL first and the
game that got the most attention, and I think we'll
get the most blowback on different directions in terms of
what the Titans did, in terms of what the Ravens did.
You just heard me dive into that game for about
fifteen minutes. Jason Martin, what say you? What additional thoughts
do you have? What do you agree with disagree with
about everything that I just said. The Lamar Jackson questions

(15:26):
the one everybody is going to tackle first. It's what
every show is gonna go to, and it's gonna be
a referendum and it's gonna be based on to playoff performances,
and it's gonna be if you didn't like him before,
then you're gonna have evidence. And if you liked them before,
then you're gonna give him some leeway. That's just kind
of the way it's gonna go. But in terms of
just what happened on the football field, the Tennessee Titans

(15:46):
beat their rear ends like they just they ran through
their faces Marshawn Lynch style, but at this point you
can just say Derrick Henry style, because that's what he's doing.
They played exquisite defense, especially in short yardage situations and
in the red zone, just like the goal line stand
in Foxburg last week. In Baltimore, Baltimore was on fourth
down and once this season, and they went over to

(16:08):
last night, including an awful quarterback snake attempt. They wrote
for four and fourth down overall, but fourth down and
one more than one they got. I mean I I
we talked earlier, or I said earlier that that first
stop where in the next play with the touchdown, Uh,
that those were stunning stops when you looked at how
good Baltimore had been in those two too, and both

(16:30):
of the situations where they happened. Right the first drive
of the second half, it's fourteen six. If the Ravens
go down and score a touchdown there, or even kick
a field goal, you know, like I mean to cut
it down to a touchdown gives you the lead. Both
of those I agree, we're just monumentally massive stops. Also,
I think we saw in these last two weeks something
about both Baltimore and New England that they have in common.

(16:53):
Those two quarterbacks couldn't be more apart in age, meaning
Tom Brady and Lamar Jackson, but neither one of them
has a ton of seaving talent around him. You saw
Kansas City able to throw themselves back into that game
because Mahomes is the best quarterback in football. And people
may have kind of forgotten about that. But that's why
I picked the Chiefs win the Super Bowl before this
year started, because of how good we know he is.

(17:14):
But look at what Lamar Jackson had last night, and
look at what Tom Brady had last week when it
came down to it, Brady had Edelman who dropped the pass.
The Ravens had dropped fourteen passes all season long. Last night,
they dropped seven or Saturday night. They dropped seven passes
in their first playoff games, through it fifty nine times,
but there were some key drops early in that one.

(17:34):
And I said, the biggest play in the entire football game,
Clay was the first interception. It was the tip all
when Mark Andrews went up, wasn't able to go fully
up and Lamar floated it just a little bit high.
Bayard's not gonna miss that play. He's one of the
best dvs in football. It's why he's paid like it.
He deserves to be. He picks it off and then
Lamar gets the fifteen yards tacked on at the end
of the play. That changed the game to me. If

(17:56):
Baltimore goes down and scores a touchdown there after defer
ring and forcing the punt, they go up seven nothing.
I don't know what kind of discussion we're having today,
but that's not what happened. Tennessee got an opportunity, took
advantage of it. And I believe after that interception Baltimore
that and after the first fourth down in one failure,
Baltimore looked like a team that had no more answers.

(18:18):
They just didn't understand what to do. Anymore. That was
a team that had been so dominant in the first
quarter of football games, outscoring everybody by ninety seven points,
and then you get to the end of that quarter
and now they've outscored everybody by ninety because they trailed
by seven. There was a totally different deal. And the
Titans walked in unafraid and just punched them in the
mouth and they couldn't answer it. And we should also

(18:40):
point out that John hu Smith touchdown. Oh my gosh,
I mean the Titans. If if you go back and
just look at individual plays, the Titans made some extraordinary plays. Now,
look the catch that Hollywood Brown made played in the
first half, like the one hander that got the that
got the Ravens three points, was also an exquisite play
by him. But the catch that John hu Smith made

(19:01):
to give the Titans a seven nothing lead was a
we're here and we're gonna be here all night kind
of play, right uh, And then to have it come
shortly thereafter the best throw of the postseason for Ryan
Tannehill was I mean, he just dropped it on a dime.
Khalif Raymond diving and making that catch to give the
Titans of fourteen to nothing lead. Um, those are those

(19:22):
are just monumental plays. You said you had some other
and others. This is this is this willa blow your mind.
And this is just a credit to the garbage time
staff that you mentioned as well. Since nineteen forty six
football teams have had at least five hundred thirty yards
of offense in an NFL game, regular season or postseason.
You know how many of those three twenty six haven't scored?

(19:43):
Fourteen points one the Baltimore Ravens against the Tennessee Titans
on Saturday night. Now, to be fair, the yardage was
like if very skewed. Yeah, when it was twenty eight
to six and the Titans scored again that the other
thing about the raven defense is the Ravens gave up
a touchdown basically every time the Titans had a scoring opportunity.

(20:04):
It wasn't just that the Titans got points, it was
that they scored touchdowns all four times that they had
the ball down near the Ravens goal line. But what
was uh what? A lot of those yards came for
Lamar Jackson Because people are like, again, we're gonna hear
oh he through for three and he ran for a
hundred and I'm sure people are tweeting us right now
if I go into my mentions, But if you look

(20:25):
at those numbers, a huge percentage of the yards came
once they were down six, and at that point in time,
the Titans are just dropping back and saying, Okay, we're
just not gonna let you beat us over the top.
We'll let you nickel and dime your way down the field.
Oh yeah, for sure. Definitely garbage yards. This is outkicked
the coverage with Clay Travis. You know, you can just

(20:49):
feel the intensity when there's a big sporting event that's
close to occurring. New Orleans is one of those towns
where it really just feels like you could walk outside
and you're like, Okay, something's going on here. And it's
not just the normal craziness of the French Quarter in
Marty Garras and everything else, uh that's usually going on
down here. You've got a ton of L s U people,

(21:09):
obviously because this is their home base. You've got a
ton of Clemson Tiger people. The Battle of the Tigers
going on tonight in the Superdome down here, and either
so much at stake. First of all, I don't want
to oversell this game, because sometimes when you oversell games,
you end up with it not being that close, and
that sometimes it's very frustrating. But I feel like this

(21:31):
could be a classic tonight a lot of points. We
have something that is incredibly rare, which is I will
be stunned beyond belief if Joe Burrow isn't the number
one overall pick in the NFL Draft by the Cincinnati Bengals.
I will be stunned beyond belief if whoever is picking
first overall in one isn't drafting Trevor Lawrence. And I

(21:53):
can't believe I'm saying this, but what Joe Burrow has
done this year. If L s U is able to
close out this game and win, he will put together
I believe the greatest single season in college football quarterbacking history,
at least in the era where Hey, I'm forty years old,

(22:14):
I've watched college football for thirty five years pretty closely.
I can't speak to what might have happened in the
nineteen forties or the nineteen thirties, but I find it
hard to believe anybody's been better than Joe Burrow right now,
the best quarterback season I've ever seen by any one
individual guy in any one individual season is Cam Newton
in the year that Auburn went fourteen and oh, and

(22:35):
Cam came out of nowhere, won the Heisman Trophy, led
Auburn to a championship. I don't believe that was that
good of an Auburn team in the grand scheme of things.
He was just that splendid in that year, in that
moment in time. And Joe Burrow has been on that
level better even potentially. As we get ready for tonight's
game with L s U trying to get to fifteen

(22:56):
and oh, it's a big statement game for coach at Ogeron,
who has never quite been able to win the big game,
who was always sort of the the left behind coach
because of his accent, because and I'll admit to you,
I didn't believe in coach Oh when he got hired
at L s U. I didn't buy into the idea
that he was gonna be able to compete with the
Nick Sabans of the world in the SEC West. And

(23:19):
there's a lot of you out there listening right now
who are USC Trojan fans that kind of felt the
same way that coach O didn't feel like the kind
of guy who could take over the Trojan program, even
though he went six and two as an interim. It
crushed him that he didn't get that job, but he
ended up in a better spot, the perfect spot for him,
and tonight has the opportunity to make him a legend

(23:43):
in L s U fan circles for all time and
to put the capstone on what would be one of
the greatest seasons in the history of college football. It's
hard to go fifteen and oh, I believe I'm correct
and that Clemson is the only team to who have
gone fifteen A no to Bama go fifteen, you know,
I can't even remember. It's hard to go fifteen, you know.

(24:04):
And the only way you could have gone fifteen to
know is in the last five years. And uh, I
know Clemson went fifteen. To know last year, I think
L s you would become only the second team to
ever go fifteen. And oh, and so there's a ton
at steak for Joe Burrow and for L s U
and for coach O. But also let's not overlook what
could happen with Trevor Lawrence and with Clemson if Trevor

(24:26):
Lawrence wins this game, he will have completed the first
two seasons of his career without a single loss. He
would be coming back a back to back national champion,
with a chance to go undefeated in three years and
win three straight national championships, maybe who knows when, the
Heisman Trophy, and be the overall number one pick in

(24:48):
the NFL Draft. Arguably that would make him the greatest
college quarterback of all time. For Dabo Sweeney, he could
I believe, if he were to win tonight past Nick
Saban officially to be the best and biggest and baddest
coach in all of college football right now, to surpass
what Nick Saban has accomplished. If Debbo could win tonight,

(25:12):
and and Clemson is sending a message that it is
going to be a force to be reckoned with for
years and years and years to come. If they win
again tonight, all of those things at play over under
around sixty six points is gonna be a ton of
points scored. I think in this game, they're gonna be

(25:32):
a lot of explosive playmaking talents on the field, and
I just flat out cannot wait to see what's gonna
happen tonight, and I feel like I need to pinch
myself a little bit coming off of four NFL games
to follow this one up with two future NFL quarterbacks
going head to head for all the marbles, for all

(25:53):
the cliches that you want to toss out there. Jason Martin,
you've been what is this like, multiple National champ and
ship games with me. I'm as hyped for this one
as any of them. And look, we thought last year's
game between Alabama and Clemson was gonna be a big
time when uh, look, I've been I've been fortunate. I've
been to every single one of these national championship games,

(26:14):
and it's not that I've ever been not looking forward
to them, but I think this may be the game
that I'm looking forward to the most of all of them,
just because I think Burrow and Trevor Lawrence are gonna
be flat outsiner later. Yeah, I agree, and I think
both of them are gonna put on a show. And
I think, look, I thought, as long as we didn't
get Oklahoma beating l s U, which I've had l
s U being the best team in the country since

(26:35):
basically the fourth week of the season, and I'm not
backing off that right now. If we got Ohio State
in l s U, I thought it would have been
a good game. But getting these two quarterbacks that have
so much hype behind what they could do on the
next level, in addition to what we've already seen them
do on the college level, makes this a little bit
more interesting. And just because I know you love facts
and numbers, Clemson becomes the second college football team ever

(27:00):
to finish a fifteen to know when they did it
last year, Penn did it back in that's the team
that's correct that there's nobody else in modern college football
that has gone fifteen correct. It is a very difficult
thing to do, um, but I do think you've got
two offenses that are going to score points. You've got
an improved LSU defense with Delpa getting healthy, and just
they played so much better after they gave up all

(27:22):
those yards to Ole Miss on the ground. Everybody said, oh,
they're gonna give up that many points. Yeah, but they
also scored over fifty in that game. And then Clemson
came back from the dead basically looked terrible against Ohio
State early rallied won that game, and now here we
go We've got Trevor Lawrence versus Joe Burrow, and I
just can't think of a better way to cap off

(27:43):
this college football season than these two teams. Last year,
we were wondering, we're sitting there watching the game, claim
We're just like, uh, do we even need to keep
watching this? Because all of a sudden it was stover
like Clemson just bludgeoned Alabama and took them to the
wood ship. I do not anticipate that either way. I
think that this is gonna be a game that's gonna
be fun down to the end, where guys are making

(28:04):
plays and I can't wait to see it. We both
love college football more than anything else. And as good
as the NFL has been this postseason, how much fun
this has been to watch and take part in? College football?
May have the ultimate answer, because this game is about
as good as we could possibly hope. For Joe Burrow.
It's not that Trevor Lawrence's stats are unimpressive. Joe Burrow

(28:26):
has fifty five touchdown pass year against six interceptions. I
believe last year he went for sixteen and six, and
coming into this college football season, I thought, if there's
gonna be an sec quarterback that takes the next step
and is an incredible I first of all, I got
it wrong, but I thought there would be a guy,
and I thought it would be Jake from And I

(28:46):
know that Joe Burrow has a lot better receiving corps,
and I think he has a lot better coach, certainly
with Joe Brady in terms of what Brady brought to
bear in the passing game. But we're talking about it
not being crazy for Joe Burrow to go out and
have sixty touchdown passes this year. In other words, I
don't think it would stun a lot of people listening
to us right now. If he had four or five
touchdown passes in this game. That means that he would average,

(29:11):
over a fifteen game season, nearly four touchdowns per game.
I mean, it used to be that somebody's game of
their career they might have four touchdown passes. Joe Burrow
is gonna average it for an entire season while playing
fifteen games. I mean, this is just a revolutionary performance
by him and the throws that he's making. Yes, sometimes

(29:33):
his receivers are open, but he's making NFL throws. I
mean he looks like an NFL quarterback in the pocket,
and so, to be fair, does Trevor Lawrence. And I
think one thing that is probably underrated about both of
these guys is how athletic they are. They can move
out of the pocket, scramble for first downs, move within
the pocket, keep plays alive. I mean, I think a

(29:54):
lot of people were stunned by the speed that Trevor
Lawrence brought to bear on that sixty plus yard touchdown scramble.
Uh design quarters Clay. I mean, look at his strides.
I mean he covers so much ground with every stride
he is. I know that it's funny to call him
sneaky athletic. He's sneaky athletic. He is sneaky athletic. I

(30:15):
think he's just athletic. But he's such a good passer
that we didn't anticipate for him to be running the
football as much as he did against Ohio State. And
I'll be honest with you, As I was sitting watching
that game between Ohio State and Clemson, I was thinking
to myself, I don't know that I liked the idea
of Clemson putting him in the firing line over and
over again with a very athletic and talented Ohio State defense,

(30:38):
but when he took off and nobody could catch him
on that sixty plus yard run. Uh. To his credit,
I think Clemson noticed in the in their breakdown of
that game the way they were going to be able
to win and exploit Ohio State was by taking advantage
of Trevor Lawrence's ability to run. I'll give credit to
to Kirk herb Street who said, and I thought it
was crazy early in that game. Herb Street said, yeah,
I think that Trevor Lawrence might keep it fifteen or

(31:00):
twenty times. And I was thinking, are you kidding me
with e t n you know, with the talent that
they haven't running back, or you really that seems like
it's playing in Ohio State's hands that you can have
him keep the ball or or or give it to
et En that you would want for that to be
the situation. But Trevor Lawrence proved me wrong. And I
do think that when it comes to crucible moments in
this game, and both of these guys need to extend

(31:22):
drives without the ability necessarily to throw the ball in
the end and convert first dounds by passing, they have
the ability to scramble and present a lot of matchup
problems for each of the defenses here. So I don't
know how many points it's gonna take to win, but
I'm terrified of of taking the under on this game.
If for no other reason, then it wouldn't stun me

(31:43):
if one of these teams goes out and and then
puts up forty five or fifty. I mean, and if
you're talking about, you know, sixty eight or sixty nine
is the over under. I think if one of them
is gonna hit forty five or fifty, then the other
one's definitely gonna put put up some It's not like
you're just totally gonna get a total beat down here.
And so this is, uh, this is about as good
as he gets for college football. Yeah, I agree. I mean,

(32:04):
I think it was shocking that Lawrence was used so
much in the running game, and it seemed to be
done so out of necessity, and it really helped to
change that game, along with the penalty in the ejection
on the targeting foul. But the thing that has stunned
me the most is because it's happened multiple times. Now.
I knew Joe Burrow was the kind of guy that
could win. I saw flashes of it last year. I

(32:24):
didn't expect he was gonna throw fifty five touchdowns this year,
mind you, and be the first pick in the draft.
But he's got the Patrick Mahomes gene where he's about
to roll out of bounds and then he's able to
find somebody like a half step before he steps out
of bounds on a full run, and he throws a
rope down the field like he's done it. He did
it to Alabama, he did it to Georgia in the

(32:46):
SEC Championship game. He did it to Oklahoma in the
round of four in the semi final. That right there
is not something I was expecting to see Joe Burrow
do this year. I don't know where that came from.
I don't know if you can teach it, but he's
got it, and that's something that's incredibly rare, even for
an NFL quarterback to be able to. Yeah, I don't
think there's any doubt about that. And I would say
this in general. Um, if you are out there and

(33:08):
there's always a lot of people who come in for
the National Championship Game who aren't hardcore college football fans,
right there are a ton of people out there listening
to us, all fifty states around uh the globe right
now listening. And you may be a hardcore NFL fan
because the NFL is a straw that stirs the drink,
I get it. But if you want to see two
guys who will one day be making plays I believe

(33:31):
at a very very high level in the NFL. I
think both of these guys. I know it's difficult sometimes
to say, are can't miss NFL quarterbacks. As long as
they stay healthy, I think they will win a lot
of games based on what I have seen them do
in college. And so if you are a NFL fan
and you don't usually pay a lot of attention to college,
I think if you watch this game, you will leave saying, Wow,

(33:52):
those guys can make throws that your average quarterback, even
in the NFL, might not be able to make. I mean,
they can throw into crowded areas. By the way, that
the talent at wide receiver, you're probably talking about what
five six guys who are potential first round uh at
at at at wide receiver. You're talking about two first
round caliber running backs with Edwards Hilaire and et T

(34:14):
n um So there is gonna be When you look
at the future drafts, you know, sometimes they catalog how
good the quality of competition was in a game by
how many future NFL players are on these teams. I mean,
it would not stun me at all if there are
forty players or more, and forty might be low. You know,
twenty from each team that will one day be being

(34:35):
drafted and playing in the NFL. That's how high the
level of talent is going to be in this game tonight.
So I understand that there are people out there who
say I'm not a huge college football fan. I would
just say to you, give this game a try. It's
Monday night. You don't have a lot of NFL games left.
You got two NFL games left of the a f C,
NFC and then the Super Bowl, so three real NFL games.

(34:56):
You're gonna be wishing for a game like this come,
you know, March or April, especially once the n C
Double A tournament is up. You would give anything to
have a game this good. I would just say, make
sure you don't miss this one added to your repertoire.
And you agree with me, I mean, is that a
crazy like if you were setting over under for number
of NFL guys. I mean, I don't even think it's
crazy to say that the over under could very comfortably

(35:18):
be twenty for each of these teams. Yeah, no, I
agree for sure. I mean, we know how good Clemson's
defensive front is year after year after year. We know
what the dvs are on both sides of what they're
capable of. From a talent standpoint. Receivers LS You has
been receiver you off and on at different times in
Alabama certainly has had that crown as well. But Clemson,
we know exactly what they're capable of. We know they've

(35:39):
got multiple dudes that are absolutely outrageous. You've got E. T. N,
You've got Claude Edward Hilaire, You've got There's just so
much ability all across the football field on both sides
that this is like watching that that great team. We
saw that Miami team clay back towards the turn of
the century that had basically an NFL roster on it.

(36:00):
This right here is about the closest that you're gonna
get between two teams that are just flat outloaded with
Sunday talent. Like there's just no excuse not to watch
this game if you love sports at all, I just
can't wait to sit down and enjoy this. Well. I
think the one that I would compare to is another
L s U game. But L s U Alabama, you
know that, not in the six game when they went back.
I think there was something like forty five different NFL

(36:22):
guys played in that game comparison to teams, and the
talent was just off the charts. Now the talent this year.
I don't think these defenses are bad. I think you'll
see a lot of these guys have very good NFL
careers on the defensive side of the ball. But I
think that the offense, unlike that nine to six game
back in two thousand eleven, I think that the offense
here is a lot more established. And by the way,

(36:45):
since we're down in New Orleans, that was where the
last time LSU played for a national championship, that was
here in the Superdome. Alabama got the rematch against l
s U after they lost nine to six in the
regular season, and they just absolutely dominated. It wasn't remotely close.
I don't believe L s U, if I remember correctly,
I was at that game, crossed the fifty yard line.

(37:05):
I mean, it was a dominant, dominant performance by Alabama
to avenge that loss. Remember, Alabama was very fortunate to
be able to find their way into that game. Oklahoma
State lost a game late. It looked like for a
while it was gonna be l s U against Oklahoma State.
And that was an LSU team that at the time
was thirteen and o and trying to go fort seen
to know and the really big playmaker they had on

(37:25):
the team at that time. For everybody out there's a
guy who had some plays that he made yesterday. Uh
in the NFL playoffs, The Honey Badger Tyronne Matthew was
running all over the field. He was kind of the
heart and soul of that l s U. Uh, that
LSU team back in two thousand eleven, the last time
they got an opportunity to play for a championship. Fox
Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.

(37:45):
Catch all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot
com and within the I Heart Radio app search f
s R to listen live. We have got a lot
to talk about, as we always do. Uh. With the
divisional round of the off four different games, two on Saturday,
two on Sunday. I watched, I believe, every snap of

(38:06):
all four games, and uh I had a decent number
of takeaways. First of all, you guys know I am
a diehard Tennessee Titan fan. This was the biggest win
for the Tennessee Titans in basically seventeen years since they
won to advance to the a f C Championship game
against the Oakland Raiders. Yes back when Danny G's team

(38:28):
was actually somewhat decent. Uh, and they lost the Titans
did there? Uh? Now the Titans are advancing to play
against Kansas City Chiefs. But they put together one of
those games that you hope your team is going to
bring to bear on the biggest stage at the biggest moment.
And I have said before, I wasn't a believer in
Mike vraybell. I wasn't a believer in this coaching staff.
They were sitting at two and four. Uh, they benched

(38:50):
Marcus Mariotta. I didn't think that there was gonna be
a solution. I thought that they were just floundering about
trying to find some reason, some like life vest, some
sort of flotation device to keep them from going underwater,
and basically giving up the season, and they got hot.
They've gotten super hot behind Ryan Tannehill and more importantly,

(39:10):
behind Derrick Henry, who is right now I think the
m v P of the NFL post season. Uh if
you look at what he's done, going for over a
hundred eighty yards in three straight must win games, including
the final game of the regular season to put the
Titans into the playoffs, going on the road and dominating
like he did against the New England Patriots, dominating like

(39:31):
he did against the Baltimore Ravens, two of the best
defenses in the entirety of the NFL, and now getting
ready to go up against the Kansas City Chiefs. I
think that Derrick Henry has been the most transcendent player
in the NFL post season so far. We'll see whether
or not that can continue, as the Titans are now
a seven point underdog against the Kansas City Chiefs. And
I would say the other most transcendent player, even though

(39:54):
he has only played one games, Patrick Mahomes. Patrick Mahomes
is the best quarterback in my opinion, in the nf
and he proved it on Sunday. His team went down
twenty four to nothing. They didn't blink they scored twenty
eight points in the second quarter to erase that twenty
four point deficit, went on to outscore the Tech the

(40:14):
Houston Texans fifty one to seven over the over the
second quarter, third quarter, and fourth quarter after they went
down twenty four to nothing. That's unheard of. That is
unheard of in the NFL. We said it an hour one.
I tweeted it to me. It's more remarkable what the
Kansas City Chiefs did in coming back from a twenty
four to nothing deficit and out scoring their opponent from

(40:36):
that point forward fifty one to seven than what we
saw when the then Houston Oilers gave up a thirty
five to three lead to the Buffalo Bills to lose.
It was more improbable that when the Houston Texans were
down twenty four to nothing that they were going to
score fifty one and only give up seven than even

(40:57):
that the Bills were gonna come back and find a
way to win against the Houston Oilers. That's how improbable
I think that was Russell Wilson. You just heard us
talking about it. I mean, I don't know what more
the guy can do. He just didn't have enough to
be able to drag his team across the finish line.
Against Green Bay, the Packers survived. Packers are now a
seven point road underdog against the Uh the San Francisco

(41:20):
forty Niners, who were dominant, who were flat out dominant.
Nick Bosa maybe the best defensive player in the NFL
right now. Uh that a lot of people are just
now learning about. And uh, frankly, the Minnesota Vikings could
not block for Kirk Cousins. They couldn't run the football.
Their offense was out of whack, out of sorts and
never had any flow at all in what was just

(41:42):
a massive win for the forty Niners. And then, uh, look,
I mean we now have what I think is gonna
be too intriguing battles, right the physicality of the Tennessee Titans.
Can they go on the road and keep Derrick Henry
performing at the rate that he is right now? Uh?
Can they win a third straight on the road? Jason
Martin pointed this out earlier. They've won. If they beat

(42:04):
the Chiefs, they will have beaten four straight division winners
on the road. They had to beat the Texans on
the road. Granted, the Texans rested some of their players,
they had to then go beat the dynasty that is
the a f C East champ uh New England Patriots.
Then they had to beat the Baltimore Ravens, who are
only the best team in the NFL this year, historically
great team. And now they have to go beat maybe

(42:26):
the greatest quarterback in the NFL right now in Patrick
Mahomes as he tries to advance to his first ever
Super Bowl. And that is the storylines in general as
we come in. You guys know how much of a
Titans fan I am. Best decision I've made in a
long time was to flip my flight. I was supposed
to get down to New Orleans on Saturday. I told
my wife, I said, hey, maybe we can decide to

(42:48):
come down on Sunday instead, uh And because otherwise, if
we get down there on Saturday, I'm just gonna want
to sit in a hotel room and watch this game
and see what happens. And you know, I don't really
want to go out uh in the Frenche quarter or
go out in New Orleans. Gotta care too much about
this football game. And more importantly, I want to stay
at home and watch with my kids. And one of

(43:09):
the fun things about being a dad or mom is
when your kids get to be kind of like the
sweet spot of ages and minor here right now, they're
eleven and nine years old, kind of the perfect age
to want to sit and watch a game with dad
or mom. Like they're not, uh, you know, hanging out
with their friends, yet they still think it's super cool
to hang out with you. And they're old enough to
be able to understand the game and really be excited

(43:30):
when the team's going well. My nine year old just
kept saying, I can't believe that this is happening. I
can't believe this is real, dad. Uh. And So as
the Titans beat the Ravens. Titans have had a couple
of bad losses to the Ravens back in two thousand
and two thousand and eight, I was there for both
of them in the playoffs divisional round when the Ravens
came into town and upset the Titans kept the Titans

(43:50):
from hosting a a f C championship game. So all
of that factors in in a big way. It was
an awesome experience. What game. What a game planned by
Mike Vrabel and Dean Piece, the defensive coordinator and Arthur
Smith the offensive coordinator all around. You know, Jason Martin,
who was with me here as we do the show

(44:12):
from New Orleans. You know how much I care about
this team, you Uh, I think last time you saw
me was when the Titans were choking it away in
Week two against Jacoby Brissett. And uh, you know how
how I take these games way too seriously for someone
at my age. So this was I mean, I went
out after the game in downtown Nashville and we had

(44:33):
an awesome time out. It was the city was celebrating, uh,
in a way that the city hasn't been able to celebrate,
frankly the Titans in a very very long time. Yeah.
I mean the last like real celebration in the city
had to be the Predators getting to the Stanley Cup.
And this is a different level obviously if they were
able to make the Super Bowl. Uh. I told my wife.
I told her, I was just like, I have a
feeling Clay's got to go to Kansas City. But you're

(44:55):
making me sound like you're making it sound like now
you're not going to Kansas City. I thought maybe we
were gonna go to that game. I gotta say this, Uh,
I have had We've got a big audience in Kansas
City without kicks. So a ton of people who are
Kansas City Chiefs fans have reached out and said, hey,
you should come to Kansas City. I guarantee you have
a good time at Arrowhead. Uh. You know, we're excited
to play against the Titans. You know, Kansas City people

(45:18):
are so excited and they should be about Patrick Mahomes
and the opportunity that he offers for them, not just
for this year, or certainly for last year when they
were so close to the super Bowl, but in the
years ahead. Because again, I think there's an argument if
you told me right now, who would you like to
buy stock in in the entirety of the football universe,
it's Patrick Mahomes. Like I would love to have stock

(45:39):
in him for the next ten to twelve years, maybe longer.
Uh if if you know he can just do it all.
And and I think that the Chiefs, if you were
gonna say, like, who's who's the guy who's gonna step
in and take over for Brady and Manning, I think
Patrick Mahomes is the answer. I'm not sure who the
other person is who could be like the rival. I'm
not really bought into the idea that it's gonna be
Lamar Jackson for the staying power element of it. I'm

(46:01):
not sure about Deshaun Watson. I'm not sold on Jimmy
g Uh. You know, I don't know, you know, I
I certainly have not sold on Baker or any of
those guys. So I'm not really sure who the other
person that can kind of stand up on the stage
and and be the guy to go head to head
with Patrick mahomes a lot who that person can be. Uh,
But they have been so incredibly uh welcoming and like

(46:23):
encouraging for me to come. But it is it strange
that I just I would rather watch games in the
house with my kids, unless it's in the stadium in
my town than go on the road. No, not really
at all, especially with the quality of the broadcast and
and just how easy it is, and yeah, you get
it in your environment so much worse if you go
on the team loosen because you're spending all that time

(46:47):
to get on an airplane or take a long drive
and then and I don't feel like I feel that
much better being there in person. If my team wins,
then I do in my house now I will say
this and and this is already kind of put things
in motion. If the Titans were to win, I would
get the Travis Boys and my family and get them
to Miami for the Super Bowl. Because there's not very

(47:09):
many times you get a chance to go watch your
team in the super Bowl. So I feel like that's
a little bit different. Um and uh and and I
would want to do that in person. But in terms
of going on the road, if the Titans were playing
in the a f C Championship game at home, of
course I would be there. But in terms of going
on on the road to go watch, I think that's tough,
especially with kids, um, you know, in general, with young kids,

(47:30):
to get them on the road and then, uh, it's
just that there's nothing worse than taking your kid on
the road and having your favorite team lose and then
they're crying, and then you gotta go back to the
hotel and then you gotta get them in the next
get up the next morning, go to the airport, and
like everybody's just beaten down. So no, I'm not gonna
go to Kansas City. Okay, Well, I mean I think
that's a no. No. Um, I mean I'll be in

(47:54):
Miami if the Titans are there. But and I will
stay for the game. I've never stayed for the actual
Super Bowl, but I would stay for the game, and
I would Abby would come down. She'd fly down for
the game as well, and we would. We would do
it however we needed to do it. But I mean,
I kind of agree with you. You get your conduct,
you know, you get your concessions, you don't have to
pay for parking, you have comfortable chairs, you have anything

(48:14):
that you really need right there. The quality of the broadcast.
I don't know what you're missing. I do think that
taking a trip and watching your team loses that makes
a really long trip back. It just I don't mind
making Yeah, I don't mind making a trip if it's like, hey,
let's pick a city that we want to go to
in the off season, right so oh, you know, like

(48:35):
if the Raiders are gonna be now in Vegas, and
if you're a fan of a team that's gonna be
going to Vegas, and you're like, oh, I want to
go to Vegas, and we'll also go to the game
and we'll build a trip around it, like we went
to UH. I always told my family, Hey, if the
Titans ever play in London, I'll take you and then
the whole they end up going to London, right, and
so I went over there to watch that game. They

(48:56):
lost that game, but we went to London, so it's
a whole trip built to round the game itself. So
it doesn't like if they win the game, it's great,
but you've already had Like we went to Lego Land,
you know, we went all around the one that and
get got to do a cool cool things, and then
the game was just kind of the friend there's like
the cherry on top right, like it it''s it's on
the top of the Sunday. You're gonna have a good
time otherwise, but going specifically for a game, and especially

(49:19):
it being a game that big, I just I'm too
nervous to be sitting in the crowd unless it's my
home crowd. Yeah, you know when it also feels worse
when your team loses and everybody else is having an
amazing time around you except for you. YEA, walking around
is never fun after that, or just being stuck in
the stands everybody wearing that other jersey and go into

(49:41):
the freaking super Bowl and you're like, oh, this is
like the lowest of the low. UM, And it's not
even like losing the super Bowl, because I do feel
like losing the super Bowl stinks, But making the super
Bowl is something that you do. It's just such an
incredible thing to do. Like it does that make sense?
Like it's hard to get to the super Bowl, it's
hard to win and everything else, but going to the

(50:02):
super Bowl is a big deal, Like it's a celebration
to go to the super Bowl. Um, winning it is
a totally different universe. But I do think it's an
interesting Uh, it's just it's just such a big drop
off if you lose the a f C or the
NFC championship. Back to your point about Mahomes being the
future in buying stock in m I agree. We're both
right there. We both picked the Chiefs to be in
the super Bowl this year before the season start. I
believe we picked chief Saints. I think I picked Chiefs Cowboys.

(50:24):
So we're halfway. I picked the Chiefs to win it.
You picked the Chiefs to win it. And the reason
is because Mahomes and that's how good he is. So
who are the other people? And you said you don't
fully buy into de Shawn. I think it almost has
to be de Shawn. But let me mention one thing
that I think we've all kind of forgotten about what
sent this entire league into upheavil and open this door
even wider as if it needed to be widened for

(50:46):
Patrick Mahomes. Was Andrew Luck retiring? Yeah, that's because he
might have been the other guy in this conversation. This
is outkicked the coverage with Clay Travis. We have been
all in on the NFL, all in on the big
game going on tonight between l s U and Clemson. UM.

(51:08):
We have the final four set in the NFL, and
we're gonna be breaking that down all week. Tomorrow will
obviously be breaking down a lot of what happens in
this game between Clemson and l s U. But I
thought maybe it made sense as we finished off the program,
given the fact that we are actually in New Orleans,
UM in the big easy getting ready for what is

(51:28):
an electric environment for a fantastic, I mean just utterly
scintillating game that I expect to see in the Superdome tonight.
I thought maybe predictions from myself and Jason Martin. J Martin,
how many games we went to, is this the fourth
year in a row that we've been on the road
for where the out kick show for college football playoff

(51:50):
we I'm trying to think now the first one. The
first one was the Deshaun Watson game where Jalen Hurt
scored with two minutes left. We're on the sidelines. I
looked at you and I said, they left too much
time on the clock and we had to pick play
the Hunter Ren for where Clemson beat Nick Saban. Right.
It was a it was a fantastic uh, just a
fantastic uh end of the game scenario there where Hunter

(52:11):
Renfro became a celebrity for the rest of his life.
That was an unbelievable ending. Uh. And then we had
the double overtime game as well, or overtime game, sorry,
I think it was Georgia and Alabama where two comes
off the bench and basically takes over that game. Uh.
Last year we had an utter beat down that kind
of came out of nowhere for Clemson, and I was

(52:33):
talking with my guy uh cousin sal unlock it in,
and we pointed out that based on where the numbers are,
all five underdogs so far have covered in every national
Title game. So you had Ohio State kind of beat
Marcus Mariota and Oregon. Surprisingly that was when Ohio State
was the four seed. Uh. And then you had uh,

(52:54):
you had Alabama bounced back. I think was at the
next year when uh, when Jake Coker when they managed
find a way to to win against Clemson. And then
you had you had the Deshaun Watson pass. Then you
had Alabama takedown Georgia, and then you had Clemson again. Uh.
And so this will be the sixth year, and so
far the underdogs have won all five and the top

(53:16):
the top seed has never won. I don't believe the
three seeds ever one of the So we've got in
this matchup, the number one seed of l s U
going up against the number uh, the number three of Clemson. Now,
the challenge here for me is you were talking earlier
in the program, Jason, and you said, hey, you know what,
I kind of bought in on l s U early.
I did unlock it into so we have the ability

(53:38):
to make future wagers on the television program. And so
I took l s U. But I also took Clemson.
And what's wild is L s U was so utterly
dominant over Oklahoma. I think it was sixty eight if
I'm not mistaken, was never really in doubt at all
that game. You felt like, if if LSU had needed
to score eight, they could have scored eighties. But what

(53:58):
was particularly the interesting I thought about that game was
if l s U had been playing against Clemson, Clemson
would have been like they were against Ohio State, a
point or two favored. And yet because of how good
LSU looked and how frankly I think fortunate Clemson was
to survive Ohio State, at least in the minds of many,

(54:19):
we ended up with a a situation where now l
s U is a six point favorite. So as I'm
looking forward, I think you have to bet on Clemson.
I think they have the value the fact that five
underdogs have already won. Dabbo seems to love almost more
than anything, selling his team on the idea that no
one respects him and no one believes in him, and

(54:40):
they have to be the the the convinced to themselves. Now,
despite the fact that they've won whatever it is, twenty
nine straight games, they feel like they are the most
disrespected team in all of America. I do feel like
the home crowd is going to be substantial for L
s U. Joe Burrow kind of has an opportunity to
ride off into the sunset, like we said earlier, and
maybe have the greatest single season for any quarterback ever,

(55:04):
finish off things for L s U in such a
dramatic fashion, and then right off into the sunset to
be the overall number one pick. So my prediction here
is it makes me a little bit nervous, but I'm
gonna take the under because I think that the defenses,
in particular L s u s defense has played really
well in the final four games of the season against
some decent offenses. All Right, they took care of Texas

(55:25):
A and m uh, they took care of Georgia, they
took care of Ah I think a really explosive Oklahoma
team down the stretch run of their season, and also
Arkansas was not very good, but that was another game
they did pretty well in the final four, and so
I think that's gonna continue. I think they'll have a
lot of success against Clemson. So I'm gonna take the under,

(55:46):
but I'm gonna take Clemson to cover the six, but
L s U to win the game. So there's a
lot of different moving parts there, but I think the
value is on Clemson plus six. I still like L.
S U to find a way to win the game.
I see a final score of something like thirty one
L s U uh and Joe Burrow completes his cycle

(56:07):
of of the greatest season ever in the history of
college football, and Clemson comes up just a little bit
short and probably will be the number one overall team
in America for next season, given the fact that Trevor
Lawrence will be back and a lot of that talent
for Clemson. There's reloading. What say you, what's your prediction
as we get ready for this game tonight. Yeah, I

(56:27):
think you're right. I do think that taking taking the
points that Clemson makes a lot of sense. I I
said before the season I thought Clemson would repeat, but
I changed it about three or four weeks into the season.
I watched enough and said, I think L. S U
is the best team in the country, and I think
they're going to prove it tonight. I think they'll be
the first top seed to actually win this thing. But
it is gonna be fun because either way you have

(56:49):
a great story, and either way you have a worthy champion.
And it's gonna be a heavyweight slug fest where the
best two teams we've seen go at it Mono and mono,
and it may down to who has the football last.
I think you make the sound bet if you bet
with Clemson and the points, but I believe L s
U is actually gonna win the game. What do you
think in terms of a larger national significance. I've made

(57:10):
the argument that Clemson is right now basically USC when
USC was with Matt Liner, Reggie Bush and Lyndell White
and dominating the Pack twelve. The rest of the a
c C right now is an embarrassment. There are not
a lot of good teams in the a c C
right now. I'm not even sure at this exact moment
who's the second best team in the a c C.

(57:31):
They were awful in the bowl games. Uh, there was
nobody really that ever. I know. I know that North
Carolina took Clemson to overtime, but I think it's fair
to say, based on the entire season that that was
the statistical anomaly. Credit to Mac Brown in his program,
but nobody. Florida states not stepping to him, Miami's not
stepping to him, even Virginia Tech. There's nobody that really

(57:54):
you felt like could line up and beat Clemson. And
to give Clemson credit, they played against Texas A and
HIM and South Carolina and the SEC, and they really
didn't seem very challenged, certainly not by UH by South Carolina,
but they really didn't seem that challenged even though it
was maybe a close game in the score. I think
to tend uh ish in the final score if I'm

(58:15):
not mistaken, but I really don't feel like UH it was.
It was ever really in doubt for them. So I
think this is big for the a SEC uh really
because it allows them to argue and other I think
it's big for college football as well, because if the
SEC wins this one, then the SEC will have had
in the first six years two different teams win the

(58:39):
national championship. And arguably Georgia kind of gave it away
down in Atlanta a couple of years ago. Sorry Georgia
fans to have to bring it up to you, but really,
if they don't go to tah and he doesn't come
in and play remarkably well, then Georgia had that game won.
So you almost in six years would have three different
SEC teams that have been right there to win a championship.

(59:01):
Uh So, I think that Clemson, if they could continue
this kind of dynasty, they can make the argument we
are every bit as good as the SEC. And now
we've really established it because we whipped Alabama last year.
We beat two SEC teams and now we're beating another one.
Clemson's kind of become its own conference. Yeah, I mean,
that's just the truth of it. I mean, there are
some other schools there and that the North Carolina game

(59:23):
was a weird game, and that's gonna happen every once
in a while, especially to a team that's favored by
thirty every week. It's hard to get motivated over and
over again. It's why Dabbo keeps trying to find that
underdog card, because that's how he inspires his team. But
that's what has become. It's become whatever that conferences that
Clemson plays in, and then it's Clemson. Everybody pays attention
to them and no one else, but we all recognize
how good that football team is. Not any of us

(59:45):
will be surprised if they repeat his national champions tonight.
I don't think it will happen, but I won't be
shocked at all if I'm wrong, and beyond the shadow
of a doubt, if Dabbo wins tonight, then he eclipses
Nick Saban absolutely time. When can someone really challenge Nick Saban? Well, tonight,
if Dabbo wins, then it is now he is the

(01:00:08):
king of college football. And it's not some you know,
like short interregnum where somebody else comes in. Like I know,
Nick Saban has been the greatest dynasty, has created the
greatest dynasty of all time at Alabama. And there are
different schools that have stepped up for individual years and
been capable of beating Alabama, but we haven't had anybody
who has had the same dynastic, uh sort of goals

(01:00:30):
as as we've seen from Clemson going up against Alabama.
And here's the answer, I mean, I think we may
well know and uh, it may be Dabbo as the
king of college football if he could win tonight, and moreover,
Trevor Lawrence as potentially setting the table for the greatest
college career ever. It's got either the greatest single season

(01:00:52):
I believe with Joe Burrow, or maybe the greatest college
career ever. The table being set. Be sure to catch
live editions about Kicked coverage with Clay Travis weekdays at
six am Eastern three am Pacific,