Fox Sports Radio's Countdown to Kickoff Presented by BetMGM!

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the biggest tailgate party in the nation that
Fox Sports Radios Countdown to Kickoff presented by bet Maked Legendary.
We're setting you up with the information you need to
watch your team win.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Let's go.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
We're here to break.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
It all down.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
This is Fox Sports Radios Countdown to Kickoff presented by
bett emg app No, We're live from your tailgate. Here's
Brian No, former Penn State All American, Rich Hornberger and
FSR betting analyst Jared Smith.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
Oh, good morning, Welcome in, Happy Saturday.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
It is man.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
We got ranked versus ranked all over the place in
college football today. I'll tell you what I was thinking
right before the show, that there are two ends of
the spectrum. At least last night there were on the
high end. There would be a time on the low end.
That would be Miami quarterback Carson Beck. That was a
rough one last night for the you. My goodness, I

(01:07):
don't know what it is. I don't know what's in
the water down there with the Miami Hurricanes and Mario
Christopaul routinely just losing to a team they have no
business losing to their home favorites. By thirteen and a half,
they lose outright, Carson Beck throws four interceptions. It's a
big loss for Miami. Their playoff hopes are right there

(01:29):
in front of them. But yet again, I don't know
why this continues to happen to christ ball coach teams.
They will look dominant in multiple games at the beginning
of the season, and it's just like that girl where
you're like, I can't put my thumb on it, but
there's something I just don't trust about this scirl. That's Miami,
And yet again they proved anyone thinking like that, right.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Yeah, yeah, Well, I mean that's college football this season.
To be perfectly honest with you, I mean, I wish
I could say it's just Miami. And there are definitely
head coaches. There's definitely football programs historically that it feels
like can't get out of their own way, and maybe
the U is an example of one of those. But

(02:11):
I digress on the individual accolades that we can hand
to any one given program. To just focus on the
twenty twenty five college football season for a second and say,
what the hell is in the water. What's in the
water across America? Everybody can beat anybody. It doesn't matter
if it's unranked Miami or excuse me, Louisville taking down

(02:34):
a second rank Miami. It doesn't matter if it's a
you know, a Penn State getting knocked off by Northwestern,
or on the road to a UCLA who's favored by
or excuse me, who's dogged by a million. It's just
the way this football season has gone. If you are
close to or in the top five, it's hunting season

(02:57):
this year. I mean, it almost benefits you not to
be a top ranked team in the country right now,
because you're gonna be embarrassed. I mean, think about on
this side of it, everybody feels like, oh, it's normal
that Indiana has an enormous win under their belt because
now they have an eleven million dollar man as their
head coach. But before Indiana went out to Eugene and

(03:22):
beat the Ducks, there were a lot of people in
the country thinking that'll never happen, that can happen. Well,
guess what, in twenty twenty five, it did. So I
don't know, man, I mean, it doesn't matter. It doesn't
matter who you are, It doesn't matter where you're ranked,
it doesn't matter how good you think you are it's
hunting season this year.

Speaker 4 (03:42):
I'll tell you what's happening in Miami. We've talked about
it before, guys.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
It's a severe.

Speaker 4 (03:47):
Case of TSS tight sphincter syndrome. I mean this is
not new with mister crystaball down there. Yeah, to Rich's point,
like we're in the parody era, I think Ohio State's
maybe above it all. Maybe. I think maybe they're the
one team. They're one of the few that have undefeated

(04:10):
against the spread this year. Texas Tech's another one, and
I think Memphis. I think those are your three teams
that you know, good teams win, great teams cover, right,
can you meet the expectation every week that has set
forth on you by us quote unquote Vegas people. Ohio
State has passed every test so far, so as Memphis

(04:32):
and so as Texas Tech. We'll see if that continues.
I think the latter two certainly some volatility. I feel
pretty comfortable, guys, feel pretty comfortable here in mid October
saying that Ohio State is the best team in college
football yet again? How about that?

Speaker 3 (04:46):
Well that was crazy right going into last night, Miami
had thirteen first place votes.

Speaker 5 (04:51):
That's that's decent amount right there, and.

Speaker 3 (04:55):
Yeahs, no loss, no moss in Miami. Before we get
to more of college football headlines, just for a second,
the night that was with Otani, my lord, six plus
innings pitched, he strikes out ten, which would be a
stud performance just based on its own.

Speaker 5 (05:13):
Then he just added, uh, I'll just hit three home runs.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
I'll go three for three and go yard three times,
including a shot that traveled nearly four hundred and seventy feet.

Speaker 5 (05:24):
That's insanity.

Speaker 3 (05:25):
And you know, you get all the headlines and all
the columns like the is this the greatest playoff?

Speaker 5 (05:31):
Yes, yes it is. Yes.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
The only way you could say something was better is
if it was on the World Series stage, you know
what I mean? And it's like the perfect game that
the Don Lars.

Speaker 4 (05:43):
Give it a week, I never know.

Speaker 5 (05:46):
That's fine. If it's on a bigger stage, I get it.

Speaker 3 (05:48):
But if we're just talking playoff performances individual, how do
you top that? How do you top six plus innings,
ten strikeouts and three home runs? And he was ice
cold hitting and man he broke out. That's a scary,
scary thought for whoever comes out of the al which
is possibly a hot Otani from the plate hitting on

(06:12):
top of all that starting pitching. Man, I'll tell you
Brewers fans, they're gonna wake up with nightmares if someone
just says, hey, hey, Dodger starting pitching, they'll be like,
you know, they couldn't do anything.

Speaker 5 (06:23):
All series is they get swept.

Speaker 3 (06:26):
Hats off to the starting pitching and especially Otani last
night that was unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (06:30):
Yeah, look, what Joe Otani is doing right now isn't
just special. It's once in a century stuff. I want
to say, once in a lifetime stuff. But you may
live two lifetimes and not see something like him again.
You can't even compare him to anybody in the game today.
The guy's dominating as a hitter. He's dominating as a

(06:51):
pitcher on the biggest stage possible. Now, Like you said,
he can only best what he's doing right now if
he could replicate it in a World Series game or
in a clinching World Series game. But I mean, like,
how much more can we ask from a player? He
is dominant from two different parts of the game that

(07:12):
it has rarely ever seen a player able capable to
be dominant from. They've literally rewritten the rules about baseball
in the major leagues to basically usher in this era
of Otani. I don't think enough people are valuing what
he's done so far. I think there's gonna be more

(07:36):
and more people as the you know, the Dodgers continue
to have more success who catch up to the storyline.
It almost feels like a young Tiger Woods. You remember
how a lot of people didn't buy into the storyline
until he was winning Masters after masters and major after major,
and it felt like there was this enormous like wave

(07:58):
of support that came in later in his career. That
that's what it feels like. It's going to have to
be with show Hao Tani too, because what he's doing
has no precedent, Like when people say, you know, just
like Babe Ruth. No, not just like Babe Ruth, better
than Babe Ruth, better than Babe Ruth. We have no

(08:19):
precedent for what show Hao Tani is doing. It is marvelous,
and that's what you should do when you watch Shoeo Tani,
especially when he's performing the way he did, you have
to just marvel at it.

Speaker 4 (08:34):
Do you guys watch the Office? Uh? Yeah, there's a
famous quote or a famous quote in the Office from
Andy Bernard for those the Nard Dog Office fans will
understand this. I wish there was a way to know
you're in the good old days before you've actually left them. Yeah,
I think that's what Yeah, us as broadcasters can hopefully

(08:54):
frame for you. We are in the golden days right now,
the prime of the best player of all times career.
We're in it right now. You're in the prime of
show Aotani's career, the best baseball player of all time.
And I feel very comfortable saying that just because of
how far athletically nutritionally these players have advanced since the

(09:17):
Bay birth days. Like we're just in a completely different
era of athletics where everything is heightened, you know, like
Babe Ruth was so much better than the average player,
but the average player back then was so much worse
than the average player is now, where the average pitcher
today is throwing ninety five miles an hour like the
average pitcher.

Speaker 2 (09:38):
So it just.

Speaker 4 (09:41):
I can't frame it to you enough, just how awesome
it is to be living on this timeline with Otani
doing this and us being able to be in the
middle of it, and you know, we're hosting a show
on National radio the morning after after we do, you know,
just an awesome, just incredible performance. So it's cool, like
honestly as this is more me as a fan, just

(10:01):
like kind of like trying to soak in what we're
watching right now and try to can captualize it. Because
he is the greatest player of our time for sure,
maybe of all time, and he is in his prime
right now and he's showing it to you. It is
awesome to watch.

Speaker 5 (10:13):
No, it's a great point.

Speaker 3 (10:14):
I'm glad that you made it, because it's an endless
search for what's next. You know, especially sports betting wise,
you can't bet, you can't bet on what just happened.
You're looking for the next thing constantly.

Speaker 5 (10:26):
It's like what's next, what's next?

Speaker 3 (10:27):
But sometimes you have to stop and appreciate what's now.
I always say this at the end of the football season,
the Super Bowl is just played. We crown whoever we crown,
and immediately it's like, here are the odds for the
next next year's Can we just take a breath and
appreciate what just happened?

Speaker 2 (10:44):
Right?

Speaker 5 (10:44):
I think he can't lose that.

Speaker 3 (10:46):
There's nothing wrong with looking for what's next, but you
can't be so beholden to that. You totally miss what's now. So, yeah,
you gotta appreciate Otani for what we're seeing.

Speaker 5 (10:56):
It's historic stuff.

Speaker 3 (10:57):
It's crazy, okay. And uh, last, but not Lee, We've
got to rip the band aid off yet again. Penn
State goes down to.

Speaker 5 (11:04):
North freaking Western week my.

Speaker 3 (11:08):
Gosh, yes, and James Franklin gets fired. Crazy where his
record in his twelfth season, right, nearly twelve seasons at
Penn State one oh four and forty five, and his
buyout was forty five million dollars, which I find to
be a little bit striking, right, their second biggest buyout
in college football history. And now the bad news is

(11:31):
you got this four star and that four star.

Speaker 5 (11:33):
This quarterback's like, yeah, I'm not gonna go there. Got
I love this.

Speaker 3 (11:36):
A four star safety said At this time, I am
still committed to the current staff at Penn State. However,
due to the recent changes and uncertainty, I have decided
to reopen my recruitment.

Speaker 5 (11:49):
D's like saying, no, no, girl, I'm.

Speaker 2 (11:52):
Committed to you.

Speaker 3 (11:53):
I just want to talk to other girls, that's all.
But I'm committed. I am so comp I just want
to talk to them, that's a that's what these guys
are doing at Penn State. Meanwhile, connected to this, Indiana's
head coach Kurt Signetti, he signs an eight year, ninety
three million dollar extension. So no Signetti going to Penn State.

(12:15):
And you're gonna see that. It's going to be commonplace.
A lot of guys like Denzel at the end of
training day who want to get paid, right like all
these coaches that might be in line for the Penn
State offering, They're gonna get paid big time like Signetti,
but Penn State looking for a new guy. What do
you guys think fired mid season?

Speaker 2 (12:32):
Yeah, it's it's pretty incredible what expectations can do to
a program. We were just talking about really how we
live in What's Next culture, Brian and I think this
is a perfect example. It is very hard to appreciate
what you have now when your eyes are on the future.

(12:54):
And I think there were a lot of people at
Penn State who, even when Penn State was still on
the rise, weren't appreciating the fact of where Penn State
was coming from when they started the James Franklin era
and where he was taking them to. And then when
Penn State was on top and they were having the

(13:14):
success that Franklin created. Culturally, there were complaints that he
wasn't getting it done against teams and in spots that
mattered the most to the program's fortunes. And this season, obviously,
he took a slide that was unprecedented in his own
career and maybe in Penn State history. To be perfectly

(13:35):
honest with you, I mean, I don't know if you
could name a three game stretch where expectations were so
high where the performances have been so poor. But I
digress on the historical context. Just to bring us back
to the moment, what coach is going to come in
and do automatically do a better job than James Franklin.

(13:57):
They better get that right. This board of direct there's
this board of trustees, these people who are in charge
of hiring the next head coach, the consultants that Penn
State are going to use the Athletic department that they're
going to use to go headhunting and find whatever viable
candidates they can fill. James Franklin's very large shoes, because

(14:18):
that guy has had a lot of success at this program,
both from a recruitment standpoint and a winning standpoint. Now again,
was he able to get over the top. Did he
bring home a national championship?

Speaker 4 (14:28):
No?

Speaker 2 (14:29):
Did he fail in a lot of big moments. Yeah,
the record is the record. But I always think about
this when I think about life, when I think about,
you know, situations in sports. The grass always seems so
much greener when you're sitting in the outfield of this
baseball field and you're looking over the outfield fence at

(14:49):
that baseball field, It's like, oh, we just need to
go over there because look how oh they got freshly
manicured everything. And it's just like, well, what happens if
you get out there and you realize, oh, no, you
know there's some rocks in this infield dirt. Oh yeah,
you know what, they have a gopher problem over here.
You know what. The landscaper at this baseball field, man,
he's kind of mean to us. It always looks better

(15:11):
from this side of the fence. So just be careful
what you wish for. I mean, that's kind of giving
advice too late to a team that's already made a
mid season firing. It may have been a knee jerk reaction.
It may have been necessary. I don't know, but I
do know. We're living in the what's next time, and
Penn State they already want to see what's next, and

(15:33):
it ain't gonna be Kurt Signetti because Indiana just made
him the highest paid coach in Indiana history. And he's
not going anywhere until it seems like at very least
a late you know, twenty twenties, if not the twenty thirties,
if they extend him beyond this.

Speaker 4 (15:50):
Yeah, where do we start here? Let's start with the buyout.
I think the buyout is a headline at this point.
I don't think Penn State's going to be on the
hook for all of the money. There's an insurance clause,
there's a mitigate clause, Like there's all these little, you know,
back channel clauses that they built into this whopper of
a contract because you know, financial people will do financial things.

(16:11):
Like the insurance clause apparently states that if you lose
a certain amount of games, the like Penn State's been
paying an insurance company premiums on this contract, and if
you lose a certain amount of games, the premiums kick in,
and if they fire him, the premium the insurance company
will cover part of it, and then of course they'll
he finds another job, that salary will then be reduced
from the overall payout. And again, it's an annual buyout.

(16:34):
They're not giving him a fifty million dollars lump sum.
He gets paid per year. And everyone who's worked in
any financial industry knows when you stretch out money over time,
it's not as big of a hit. Eight million per
year sounds a lot better than fifty million. Here you go,
here's your check. So there's a way around Penn State
getting absolutely obliterated by this buyout. I think the headline

(16:55):
of fifty million is just for clicks. Now let's get
to the firing. I agreed with the firing, but you
have to have someone to replace him. This has been
going on in my Penn State group chat for years.
I have fired James Franklin one hundred times in this
Penn State group chat for the last decade. The question
that we always get back to, that always stops us
dead in our tracks is who are we hiring to

(17:15):
replace him. It's not a coincidence that Kurt Signetti and
Lane Kiff and both got fat raises this week. That
is not a coincidence. They leveraged whoever the agents are.
Maybe it was Kurt, maybe it was Laying Individually. They
leverage this firing higher than Crypto, like it was leveraged
to the max and credit on them. Listen, that's a

(17:37):
ball or move. You see an opening for an opportunity
to get money, you get your money. I don't know
who they're gonna hire now. It's probably gonna be Matt Ruhle.
I hate that hire. It's a lateral move. Even if
you bring Rayola with him, it's still a lateral move.
Maybe they go coordinator route and they go spicy young coordinator.
I like Buster Faulkner what he's doing at Georgia Tech.
I mean, there's some names out there that are solid,
but Signetti was the guy. Signetti the guy that can

(18:01):
come in right away and turn the program on its
head immediately. He wins Google him. But now that he's
not on the table, I think all of them are
going to be settling.

Speaker 3 (18:10):
Brian, Yeah, hey man, it's it's just kind of wild.
We've even gotten to this point. At the beginning of
the season, it was look at Penn State's talent.

Speaker 5 (18:19):
They are just.

Speaker 3 (18:20):
Oozing with talent all over them. How does this team
not win a championship? And now it's this, It's like, wow,
holy cow, but here we are here, we are man
embrace these times.

Speaker 5 (18:30):
Penn State fans.

Speaker 4 (18:33):
Pikes fink their syndrome is a real thing, guys. James
Franklin had a bad case of it.

Speaker 5 (18:37):
Yeah, no doubt.

Speaker 3 (18:38):
I'd rather go out aggressively, you know, instead of being
tight careful, just go down swinging. And they certainly did
not think about the first half against Oregon. How many
yards do they have? So conservative, so careful, That's not
the way I'd want to go down. And unfortunately for
James Franklin, at least in the final year, that's how
he went down. So and anyway, we move on, We

(19:01):
press forward over here with Rich Ornberger, Penn State All
American Jared Smith, FSR betting analyst. I'm Brian No. Register
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(19:23):
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Speaker 5 (19:28):
Make it legendary, all right. Coming up next, it's the
third Saturday in October. You know what that means. These
two teams will be butting heads yet again. We'll get
to that.

Speaker 3 (19:38):
Coming up, it's Fox Sports Radios Countdown to Kickoff, presented
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(20:15):
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Speaker 5 (20:26):
Right, third Saturday in October.

Speaker 3 (20:28):
That means Tennessee against Bama, and Bama man money's pouring
in on the Crimson Tad. They're up to nine and
a half point favorites against Tennessee. And maybe that has
something to do with Tennessee can't stop anyone.

Speaker 5 (20:42):
Maybe I don't know.

Speaker 3 (20:43):
Look at the points that they've given up this year
in games twenty four points given up, twenty six, thirty one.

Speaker 5 (20:49):
Thirty four, forty four. Yikes.

Speaker 3 (20:52):
Their defense has regressed big time. They played really really
solid defense last season they allowed about sixteen points per
Now they're allowing over twenty nine points per game. And
so against this Alabama offense, at least this passing offense
is scary to stop. The one thing though at Alabama
has not been able to run the ball effectively, and

(21:13):
now jam Miller is questionable. He got a concussion in
the fourth quarter last week against Missouri, so he's questionable today.
So that's the question is can Bama be one dimensional
and still just be a hot knife through butter against Tennessee.
Maybe they might be able to. But when you're just
one dimensional, routinely. There are gonna be games like last week.

(21:35):
You know, ty Simpson was not prolific. He was good
through for two hundred yards. When you're just one dimensional,
there are gonna be times where it's gonna be a
scary type situation where you even trying to survive the game.

Speaker 6 (21:46):
You know.

Speaker 3 (21:47):
I don't think that happens today, but something to keep
in mind with Bama going forward.

Speaker 2 (21:50):
Yeah, no question about it. I feel like Bama and
Tennessee actually struggles from some similar things this year. Feels
like their offenses are pretty well buttoned up. Although Bama
it's different than how it's looked in the past. Alabama,
we're used to seeing quarterbacks play in a system where

(22:11):
you're really relying on the running game, and that is
a staple of the offense, and they just sort of
sprinkle in the play action pass and they try to
play clutch in big moments. And that was sort of
the Nick Saban way to win football games. Control the
field with field position in great defense. And we've graduated
obviously from that to the de Boor years here with

(22:33):
the Crimson side, and then you look at Tennessee, who's
defense absolutely has taken an amazing step backwards from last season.
That was really the hallmark of their team for the
Valls last year, and now it's been their offense, which
has improved in a great deal. You know, they got
this transfer in from Appalachian State. He's been playing well.
Their offense is averaging double digits more than they did

(22:57):
last year points per game wise, and his play has
really buoyed them. But yeah, not a ton of defense
to speak of, So this feels like a game where
the total could be in play on the overside. Yeah,
it's tough though, because these are top ranked teams, and
sometimes in these matchups teams can play tight when they

(23:20):
know there's a lot of eyes on them. But you know,
in terms of the spread, could I see Tennessee keeping
it close? Yeah, you know, I know a lot of
money tends to pour in on the Crimson Tide, So
taking dogs against the Tide and especially these days, maybe
not a terrible idea. But I'm more looking at the

(23:40):
over potentially hitting here. Yeah, there's a few things here.

Speaker 4 (23:44):
First of all, this bread was thirteen over the summer,
so at nine and a half now you're getting a discount. Albama,
for sure, a lot of people like Tennessee too. There
are a lot of public dogs this week in college football.
If you're an underdog in the SEC, odds are the
public likes you. That's what the vibe that I'm getting
from our market friends at bet MGM this week. I

(24:06):
think this is a fascinating matchup because I think the
way Tennessee wants to play defense is not a good
idea against against Bama. Tennessee likes to play man to
man and I don't think that is a favorable matchup
for their corners against these Bama receivers. What I see
on TATE when I watched Tennessee's defense really good in
the box. Jordan Ross, their edge rusher, five star Kittie

(24:28):
forced to fumble last week. He's a You know, they
can create havoc with their front, but their secondary is
a disaster. Big issues with tackling bad angles, not getting
off blocks. They cannot get guys on the ground in
the secondary. So Bama has I think the best trio
of receivers in the country and they played well last week. Listen,

(24:49):
I mean Ty Simpson on the road early start at Mazoo.
You had one of your weapons get hurt on the
first drive. Then jam Miller got knocked out with a
concussion in the second half. He still went twenty three
to thirty one, three touchdowns, no picks. He had the
weird fumble on the sack where his own guy ran
into him in the pocket and he fumbled the ball.
That was the one mistake he made, but it was

(25:09):
kind of fluky, and Bama had a two score lead
late Missouri, you know, snuck through the back door. Like
I honestly, I thought Bama played a really good football
game last week. They had almost forty minutes time of possession.
They're a Boa constrictor right now. They will squeeze the
life out of you. Why because they're good in the
run game. They'll They're very comfortable going first down, run,
second down, run, third and short. Go make a play
Ty Simpson because he's made all the plays this year.

(25:31):
He made a throw on fourth down last week, probably
the best throw of the season that any quarterback has made.
So I think this Bama team is still top of
class good and now you're getting a bit of a discount.
So I still feel bullish. I mean, maybe I'll die
on the Bama hill this year. Like I think this
is the best team in the country outside of Ohio State.
I think Ty Simpsons QB one in the Heisman race
right now, and I am a Bama believer this year.

Speaker 3 (25:54):
You are, man, you love Ty Simpson also, and I
get it right, played really well outside of the first game.
It's so weird to look back at the Florida State lost.
Now look where Florida State is and look where Bama
went from that first game of the season.

Speaker 5 (26:11):
But it's still a tough schedule.

Speaker 3 (26:13):
You know, you get Tennessee today, you get a couple
other home games LSU, Oklahoma at Auburn to close things out.

Speaker 5 (26:20):
I don't know, man, you call me crazy. Maybe I'm too.

Speaker 3 (26:23):
Beholden to last season, but I still get crystal Ball
Miami vibes with this Alabama team, just in terms of
I can't fully trust them.

Speaker 5 (26:33):
I just can't.

Speaker 3 (26:34):
Yeah, based on how many double digit favorites have they been,
how many times have they been at double digit favorite
and lost outright under Kaylin Debor, it looks like they're
headed in the right direction. Maybe it was just you know,
you know, first year snaff foos or working everything out
and things are gonna be much better going forward. I
just I gotta see more to fully fully trust them.

(26:56):
I don't think that's undy flare.

Speaker 2 (26:58):
I think I think some of it is because they
stumbled out the gate against Florida State. Because when you
really start recounting their games, and I just did, I
was looking at their schedule and I was sort of
marveling at how good they've been since then. They rattled
off five wins in a row. They've had three straight
wins against top twenty teams in Georgia, Vanderbilt, Missouri. Look,

(27:24):
Ty Simpson didn't look great to start this season, but
he's he's starting to look really great. He completed seventy
one percent of his passes so far this season in
just one turnover. I mean, that's pretty damn good. That's
pretty damn good. So I mean, when when you really

(27:46):
think about where they're at and where they started, you
can you can trust that Alabama is a good football team.
Are they great? Though? And that is the measure that well, frankly,
I mean, that's what got the penn Stead Penn State
head coach fired, right, I mean, are we great? That

(28:06):
is such a tough question to answer, and the only
thing that's going to answer it is the results. You know,
I'm sure there were a lot of Penn State alumni
who said, yeah, we're really good, but are we great?
Is this the guy who can make us great? And
we have our answer? Now obviously he's they've moved on
from him. But that is the struggle. When you are
a top program and you're producing good results, it is

(28:30):
so hard to trust the results until you see the
end product. And that's why it's so difficult to handicap
football games. And that's why you know, shows like ours
are are are popular because we're really trying to dive
in and give you what we know about this game
from a football analyst standpoint or a betting standpoint. But
the reality is Bama doesn't even know who they are yet.

(28:53):
I mean, if you think about it, this is ty Simms.
Simpson's first spin on the roulette wheel as a starting
quarter back with a major amount of stress and pressure
on his plate. At this level, you have a head
coach who's still settling into the role after replacing Nick Sabin.
Nick Saban will go down as one of the greatest
football coaches of all time, you know what I mean,

(29:15):
Like they will be saying his name in fifty years.
That's how impactful he was. Imagine those type of shoes
to fill in for kaitaln de Bor. This program still
doesn't even know who they are yet from an identity
standpoint year to year, and they're discovering that as they
move forward. So to handicap these games, or for me
to sit here and tell you that, oh yeah, Alabama, Brian,

(29:38):
you could trust them. They don't even know if they
could trust themselves yet.

Speaker 4 (29:43):
Man, you guys are tough critics on Bababad. Wow, does
Kaylen Debor have a more talented or alster than he
did twenty twenty three Washington when he went to the
National Championship game.

Speaker 5 (29:55):
I would argue, yeah, yeah, but he's in the SEC.

Speaker 7 (29:59):
Yeah, Okay, is it though, Like I mean, because I
think we're asking if we can trust it? Is I disagreed,
because I think we're asking if we can trust him
to raise the level of his talent past his station.
That team for Washington was not expected to be a
top five team.

Speaker 4 (30:16):
Not expecting. We were waiting for them to lose every
week we kept betting against them. That was a completely
unexpected run. He raised the level of his talent. That's
what great coaches do they raised the level of their
talent past their station. Bama has arguably the best roster
in the country. That's what everyone told me coming in.
They have the most five stars on their too deep.

(30:36):
If he is able to raise that level of talent,
then how what is the ceiling for this Bama team?
I tweeted out a couple of weeks ago, I said,
we're gonna look back on the season and we're gonna say,
how the heck did Florida State be Bama by two scores?
And we're starting We're already to Brian already said it today.
How did that happen? Weird Fluci game? You go back

(30:56):
to last year. Last year was the transition year. You
inherit Jaln Milroe, who is not the style of quarterback
that Kaitlin de Bore wants to play with, and you
still win nine games and almost make the playoff. Now
you get the quarterback that you actually want with your
comfortable OC back in town, and now you're starting to
see the ceiling. Listen, I'm wrong all the time. I'm

(31:18):
not saying BAM is gonna win the national championship, but
I think you guys are giving them a bad rap.
What they've done the last three weeks. They've won at Georgia,
where no one's won in six years. They beat Vandy
in a revenge game, covered the spread, and then they
went to Missouri and if ty Simson doesn't get stepped
on on the goal line, they probably cover that number two.
But they still won the game. Like, I mean, what
else does Bama have to do? Miami's losing to Louisville, Like,

(31:41):
what else does Bama have to do at this point
to prove to you guys that they're an elite football team.

Speaker 5 (31:46):
Or they have to do more? I don't know what
you want.

Speaker 3 (31:50):
Beating Georgia, Vandy, Missouri great, that's good. I'm not saying
it's not. It says I can't forget about last season,
whether it's losing the Vandy and it's losing to this
other team.

Speaker 5 (32:02):
Is it's about last year?

Speaker 2 (32:03):
Though?

Speaker 3 (32:04):
I do I care about it because I don't trust. Like, okay,
we'll put it in uh, I don't know. Let's put
it in dating terms. Okay, you go out with this
girl and she gives you a reason to not trust her,
and then she gives you another reason to not trust
and she gives you another reason enough, that was.

Speaker 4 (32:18):
Last year, Brian. Don't you get a clean slate, new season,
new quarterback, new offensive coordinator. You're you're you're beholden to
last year's numbers. And I think that is a mistake.

Speaker 3 (32:27):
Well, that a mistake at all. When you can you
fully buy in, why do we not?

Speaker 6 (32:33):
Yes?

Speaker 4 (32:33):
I can fully buy in because they went on the
road and beat Georgia and then they went on the
road and beat Missouri and they are right now looking
like the best team in the SEC. They're right now
looking like the best team in the best conference. I
don't know what else you know?

Speaker 6 (32:46):
Why?

Speaker 5 (32:46):
Why why do we not?

Speaker 2 (32:48):
Why? Here?

Speaker 3 (32:49):
Let me let me finish. Why do we not trust
Miami because of what they've done?

Speaker 4 (32:53):
Years of crystal ball?

Speaker 2 (32:55):
Right?

Speaker 4 (32:56):
Calen de Board took Washington to the championship two years ago,
Miami Chris never sniffed a championship.

Speaker 3 (33:02):
He had one magical season and now he's bulletproof when
he's no.

Speaker 4 (33:05):
I'm not saying he's a bulletproof, But what you're saying
is Bama's no good not good enough. So who is
good enough to actually win a championship this year?

Speaker 3 (33:16):
And I'm beholden to the past in a bad way,
yet you're beholden to the past in a good way.

Speaker 4 (33:21):
Like, how does that ma, I'm not beholden to any past.
What I'm saying is Kaylin de Boor with this team
looks elite. I don't know why we're grading this year
off of last year with a completely different roster, whereas
Christo Baal with a better roster looks worse.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
Well, well, let's look at the numbers this year, you know,
and and look again. I'm I'm more supporting the chaos
that has been this college football season as opposed to
looking back at Kailn Debor's record as a head coach
when he was with a completely different team in a
completely different culture, in a completely different time of college football.
A lot's happened over the last three years. I'm looking

(33:57):
at this season. I'm looking at this King Womack defense
that's given up too many explosive plays. I'm looking at
an Alabama Crimson tie defense that hasn't towed the line
the way that we are typically used to seeing Alabama
perform against, you know, SEC football teams. Yeah, I mean
can't run the ball either, Yeah yeah. Jam Miller has

(34:19):
been jammed up. It's it's jams. Yeah. And and here's
here's the deal. I I look at ty Simpson as
a guy who I want to trust, like I was
talking about earlier. I look at Kaalin de Bor in
the SEC as a coach I want to trust, and
I think I can, but I need to see more
and and the and to answer your other question, Jared,

(34:40):
and this isn't to attack your point, because I think
it's well founded, but just to support what Brian's saying.
And kind of the point that I'm leaning more towards
is do I think Bama can win a national championship? Yeah?
But I felt that way three games ago about Penn
State and look at us now they're searching for their
next head coach. So it's it's really a unique situation

(35:02):
we find ourselves in these days in college football all together.
And then you start thinking about the context of losing
a historic head coach, restarting and looking vastly different than
Alabama has looked in this conference in years. It's hard
for my eyes to adjust to the picture I'm seeing.

(35:23):
It's like when you try on a new pair of
glasses and you're a little woozy the first couple of steps,
You're like, I mean, I'm seeing clear, but I sort
of feel like my head's disattached from my feet right now.
I gotta get used to this. That's how I feel
in the Kaylin de boor ty Simpson, you know, it's
it doesn't feel right. It doesn't feel like Bama. So

(35:44):
I'm very curious to see how they finish the season.
Am I impressed by the wins? Yes? Do I agree
that if ty Simpson doesn't get stepped on, they cover
the spread? Maybe? Yeah? But do I also feel like
Bama is the national power they were under Saban Right
now with kaelin Debor, absolutely not. I don't trust it

(36:04):
as much as I did when Nick Saban was that coach.
I'm willing to get there, but I need to see.

Speaker 3 (36:09):
More right and a lot of that's this year too.
I can't get the Florida State loss. They didn't just lose,
they were dominated. And now look at Florida State, you know,
so I just gotta see more. There's nothing wrong with it.
I gotta have more reasons to trust Alabama. And it's
a step today, It'll be a step the next couple

(36:30):
of tough home games.

Speaker 5 (36:31):
If they passed those steps, I'll trust them more. That's
how it goes.

Speaker 3 (36:34):
Have we got rich Orenberger, Penn State All American, Jared
Smith FSR betting analyst.

Speaker 5 (36:39):
I'm Brian in no.

Speaker 3 (36:40):
Every time you make a wager at BETMGM, you earn
BETMGM rewards points that can be redeemed for things like
bonus bets or converted to MGM rewards points that can
be used towards dining shows and hotel rooms at over
twenty MGM resorts. And be sure to follow BETMGM across
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Speaker 2 (36:57):
All right.

Speaker 3 (36:58):
Coming up next to parlay platter which have one selection
for you. We pull it together for a greater payout.
We will compare notes next. It is Fox Sports Radios
Countdown to Kickoff presented by bet MGM. It is Fox
Sports Radios Countdown to Kickoff presented by Bett MGM. Just
a little more than two hours away from kickoff, right here,
no time to waste.

Speaker 5 (37:17):
Let's dive right in.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
Check this out our late letter, all right.

Speaker 3 (37:25):
Which have one selection for you. We pull it together
for the greater payout. Here as we switch from I
don't know what it was like salt some music to
what did you say?

Speaker 5 (37:35):
It's more of like a no. This is the beginning
of the salta music right here. Very nice, We're in
our element. We start with you, Jared, what do you like?

Speaker 4 (37:43):
I will go Old Dominion on the money line at
James Madison today. This is best on best for the
Belt and the Belt two best teams in the Sun
Belt should be a fun one. Oh to you. We
gave him last week on the show. I don't know
what happened. They were a fourteen point favorite at Marshall.
They lost by twenty four. That was a disaster. Is
they were looking ahead to this game, So now we
get a little bit of a discount on Old Dominion.

(38:05):
Maybe if they blow out Marshall, they would have been
favored in this game. But now we get him as
a slight dog. This isn't peak JMU season that was
twenty twenty three. This feels like more of a coin
flippy game with a JMU team that is not as
dominant as they have been during this recent run. Monarchs
are really good on paper though. I really like the
quarterback Colton Joseph. He's actually tied with Tys Simpson inefficiency.

(38:27):
He's in the top ten right now in the nation.
And an emotional week for Ricky Ronnie, the head coach
of Old Dominion, mentor of James Franklin, obviously affected by
his firing this week. Maybe that's the final emotional push
to get this Old Dominion team across the finish line.
I think they go on the road and beat jam Unit.

Speaker 2 (38:42):
Give me South Carolina on the money line hosting Oklahoma.
Oklahoma's got a bad rushing offense against a particularly good
rush defense of South Carolina. The game Cocks haven't been
great offensively, but I don't trust that the Sooners quarterback
here is healthy, regardless of what he says. Give me

(39:03):
the game Cocks on the money line today.

Speaker 3 (39:06):
Okay, I'll go with the prop for you. I'll go
with Georgia running back Nate Fraser. He is he's the
backup to Chauncey Bowens, but Bowens is dealing with this
nagging calf injury and going up against Ole Miss today,
the Dogs should be eating. You talk about a horrible
rush defense, that would be Old Miss. They are one

(39:27):
hundred and sixth in yards per carry. That's what they
are against the rush, so expect a heavy dose of
the Dogs running game, and I expect Nate Frasier to
get his get his carries, get his touches, and against
that soft ole Miss rush defense, I think he's gonna
clear thirty eight and a half rushing yard.

Speaker 5 (39:48):
So I'll go with Frasier today of the Dogs.

Speaker 4 (39:52):
I like this nine to one, and I agree on
the Fraser pick. The one thing I noticed when I
watched it all Miss this year, they drop they drop seven,
they drop eight in the give you those yards and
they'll make you go seven, eight, nine, ten plays to
move it down the field. So there's there will be
yards available today in the run game. I think for Georgia.

Speaker 5 (40:09):
That's what we like to hear.

Speaker 3 (40:10):
You know, we're on the prop over yards available, you know, yeah,
yards available over it. Absolutely no doubt about that. Okay,
all right, how about we cash this one today.

Speaker 4 (40:19):
Guys, Yeah, let's do it.

Speaker 6 (40:20):
I like it.

Speaker 2 (40:21):
Carolina, goodau.

Speaker 4 (40:22):
You see one there?

Speaker 2 (40:23):
Rich, Yeah, come up up.

Speaker 3 (40:26):
This team's defense has been nasty in a good way,
but its offense has been nasty in a bad way.

Speaker 5 (40:34):
Oh what is going on?

Speaker 3 (40:35):
Welcome in happy Saturday to you as we get you
all set for a full slate of college football. I'll
tell you what before we get to LSU and Vanderbilt.
A lot of good SEC games, a lot of good
SEC Tilts. Today, I'm back home, fellas for the Notre
Dame game tonight. Wow, be in attendance, cheering.

Speaker 5 (40:57):
On my Irish.

Speaker 3 (40:58):
Actually it was funny because I was on a a
flight last night, was a connecting flight in Detroit. When
you think of Notre Dame Detroit connecting, any players come
to mind, any anybody. Jerome Bettis was on the flight.

Speaker 2 (41:12):
That's right, he was. It was funny.

Speaker 5 (41:15):
I walked by him on you know, like the whatever.
Good guess it was a very good dress.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (41:23):
That Honestly, I blanked on the city because I ran, Yeah,
I ran into a Golden Tate's family at a tire
place before I could just tell they I was waiting
for my tires to get fixed or whatever. And I
could tell based on their conversation this was like Golden
Tate's mom and like his sister or whatever. And I

(41:44):
thought it'd be the weirdest thing to be like, hey,
I know Golden Tates. I didn't say anything, but you know,
like the walkways, you know, like the how do you
call those.

Speaker 5 (41:53):
It's kind of like the vertical escalator. Yeah, the jetway
or yeah, the moving sidewalk, Yeah, the move there you go.

Speaker 3 (42:00):
I was on the moving sidewalk and I walked by
Jerome and I'm like, man, there's something about this guy
looks really familiar. And I passed by and I let
him like Jerome, like he must he must have that
all the time.

Speaker 5 (42:10):
But very nice guy.

Speaker 3 (42:11):
Talked to him for a little bit and he's in
town for the nd game, so very cool stuff. We
will get to a full usc Notre Dame breakdown next hour.
Very much looking forward to that. But we got business
right now with LSU and Vanderbilt. Vandy a home favorite here,
small favorite. It's fluctuated a little bit between two and
a half and three, but right now you look at LSU,

(42:36):
nasty and good and bad ways.

Speaker 5 (42:38):
Their defense has been unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (42:41):
Their offense has been the opposite of unbelievable. But they
have been a dead under team. Their games have been close,
like hard fought, low scoring games.

Speaker 5 (42:53):
What do you guys see to.

Speaker 3 (42:54):
Gain today against Pavia, Vanderbilt can put points on the board.
They had some red zone turnovers against Obama only scored
fourteen points, but they're more than capable of scoring points.
But against LSU's defense, what type of game do you
think we see in terms of higher scoring, lower scoring?

Speaker 5 (43:12):
What are your sense?

Speaker 2 (43:14):
Boy? I kind of feel like this could be a
lower scoring match. I really do. When you look at LSU,
they are so stingy on defense, especially on third down.
They've been rock solid. They've been disruptive up front, They've
done a nice job avoiding explosive against Yeah, Vandy's been
good offensively. There's a lot of blue chip talent on

(43:37):
that Tigers defense, though, you know, and then you look
at LSU's offense, and I just think that nus Meyer
has he's not footing the bill for the expectations. Again,
expectations are tricky when we talk about the higher echelon
of college football, there are such enormous expectations. But I

(44:01):
think that Garrett Nosmeier has been he's he's he has
not elevated his play to the level that LSU needs
to match what their defense has done. So I could
I could see this one being a lower scoring game
where it's a lot of field position, a lot of stops,

(44:21):
you know, and then you're gonna have a couple of plays,
you know, you know, get a team in plus territory
and we're going to see a field goal fest. That's
what I make of this game.

Speaker 4 (44:32):
M Yeah, went weeks out today. By the way, LSU linebacker,
of course, we talked about him a couple of weeks
ago in the Ole Miss game when he was, you know,
making making headlines for for dating Lang Kiffin's daughter. He's
not going to play in this game. So that's a
big loss for LSU's defense. The one thing I noticed
last week, LSU finally ran the ball against South Carolina,

(44:54):
who is not you know, murderers Road defensively, but it's
an SEC game and they ran it very effectively. Caden
Durham's best three games this year were LSU's best three
wins South Carolina, Florida, Clemson. He had at least seventy
yards and at least fifteen carries in all three of
those games. That's your recipe, right. We talk about nus

(45:17):
Meyer struggling, he is struggling. I'm looking at the stats.
He's sixtieth in EPA per dropback. He's behind guys like
Tucker Gleason and Noah Kim and Maddox Madson, so you know,
he hasn't played to that level despite the fact that
he's very experienced and he's got a ton of weapons
around him, so we need to see more from him.
Durham missed the game against Ole Miss and the Tigers

(45:38):
couldn't run in that game. So again, I think the
recipe's pretty simple here can you run it on Vandy.
I like the interior offensive lineman for LSU. They've got
two of them that are worth noting. The center Braylan
Moore has been playing really well. He's the guy I
would really try to run behind. And they can do
a lot with them. They can pull them, they can
you know, counter them, like he's a very experienced athletic center.

(45:58):
It's always in advantage when your center can get to
the second level and can move around. They're right guard.
Josh S. Thompson's also grading out really well. Like these
are two really good interior offensive linemen. And against South
Carolina it was between the tackles thirteen carries one hundred
and twenty one yards between the tackles. Last week against
the game Cocks, both of these teams are starting very
tough stretches. The LSU stretch is probably tougher because they're

(46:23):
on the road today, then they play A and M
at home and then at Bama the next two weeks.
I mean, that's brutal. They're five and one now, they
could be five and four very quickly if they dropped
this game today. Vandy a little bit softer, but still
no cupcake.

Speaker 2 (46:34):
Right.

Speaker 4 (46:34):
They're off the by Miszoo and Texas the next two weeks.
So after they started five and zero, they lose the
game to Bama. If they dropped this one today and
then you got Miszoo in Texas, all of a sudden,
they could be five and four. So the sec because
of the gauntlet schedule that is in front of you,
it can turn so quickly, so big game for both teams.

(46:56):
This it feels like a toss up, like I think
Pavia probably scored. That's a plus money prop. I think
Durham has to be key. You could probably lean on
him in the prop market, But I honestly don't know.
This is a coin flip game. I don't know who's
going to win this game.

Speaker 3 (47:09):
Yeah, and a little bit of money on h on
LSU this morning, A Vandy down to just a one
and a half point favorite now and the total is
ticked down a little bit, a couple of points down
to forty seven and a half.

Speaker 5 (47:20):
For what it's worse right right there.

Speaker 3 (47:22):
And you know, not to pick a fight, Jared, but
I mean, we can't penalize Vandy too much for losing
to all powerful Bama, you know what I mean, Like.

Speaker 5 (47:30):
You just kind of throw that by the wayside right there.

Speaker 4 (47:33):
You know, they shut him out in the second half.
That defense that you guys are ragging on shut out
Bandy and Diego Pobby in the second half of that game.

Speaker 2 (47:41):
Yeah, well that is true.

Speaker 5 (47:43):
Yeah, we're ragging on their defense.

Speaker 4 (47:45):
Okay, well you did, you were ragging on.

Speaker 2 (47:49):
I said, they haven't been what Bama defense is, especially
against a run game, by the way, have been in
the past, you know, focusing on the Commodore's offense. Though
Diego has been one of the most efficient passers in
the country. I was just diving into his stats. I mean,
fourteen hundred yards over fourteen hundred yards, fourteen touchdowns with

(48:10):
just four turnover worthy plays in total the entire season.
PFF hasn't graded as one of the highest ranked quarterbacks
efficiency wise in the country, and a lot of games,
a lot of moments in a lot of games that
Vanderbilt has come out on top has been a result
of his clutch play. He's a talented quarterback. I think

(48:34):
he's one of the more under heralded quarterbacks in college
football right now because efficiency isn't rewarded with big headlines.
But efficiency is exactly what you need in college football
and frankly, in pro football. You need a quarterback who's
not going to make the big mistake. He's going to
be able to orchestrate orchestrate drives and good ones in

(48:54):
timely moments. And Diego Pavia has been able to do
that for Vandy all season long.

Speaker 4 (49:00):
By the way, Up says, Vandy plays well here, I
do too, And.

Speaker 2 (49:03):
I feel like this is this is primed for a
Kelly choke job, Like this is one of those games
where you just see him. I mean, look, LSU, how
many times have we seen this? Lsu? Aside, how many
times over the course of Brian Kelly's career have we
seen big moments like this where he's come up short.

(49:25):
I mean it happened this season already. This feels like
another one of those opportunities.

Speaker 4 (49:29):
Not having weeks is huge because in the run game
with Pobby, it's just really tough to stop that. When
they go plus one on the run game and he's
quarterback power, I mean, and they do that a lot,
it's gonna be a really I think it's a tough
matchup for Elsu's defense in this game.

Speaker 3 (49:40):
I do, well, you got quarterbacks on your mind. Let's
keep that going with another game here. How about Texas
Tech against Arizona State. Let's go to the Big twelve
for a second, because we've got what looks to be
the Big twelve champs this year in Texas Tech. They've
been magnificent thus far against the Big twelve champs last
season that was Arizona State. Right, So Sam Levitt is

(50:01):
back Arizona State's quarterback.

Speaker 5 (50:03):
And the interesting thing with.

Speaker 3 (50:05):
Texas Tech their quarterback situation, So Baron Morton, he's been
banged up. He's left three games this season, and so
they've had their backup.

Speaker 5 (50:16):
Remember Will Hammond, the backup quarterback.

Speaker 3 (50:18):
He came in against Utah and was unbelievable, and now
he's been coming back into these games. When Baron Morgan,
Baron Morton, I don't know why it's so hard for
me to say his name. When Morton gets knocked out,
incomes Hammond. So he had success early on, not as
much success last week against Kansas. Get these numbers, seven
for sixteen for forty two yards and a pick that

(50:41):
was Will Hammond last week. Now they ran the ball
all over the Jayhawks. But it's an interesting quarterback situation
here with Morton getting banged up, the backup Hammond, who's
been good, been bad, and then Sam sam Levitt being
back for ASU.

Speaker 5 (50:59):
Kind of interesting.

Speaker 3 (50:59):
Matt up here Texas Tech against the rush and their
front seven has been magnificent. You typically don't think, man,
how are you gonna run on Texas Tech?

Speaker 5 (51:09):
But that's where we are today. Their D line is legit.

Speaker 2 (51:14):
Yeah, yeah, there's no question about and look, there's no
replacing a player like Cam Skataboo. We're seeing what he's
doing for the Giants Now, ASU, I mean they're I
wouldn't say they're reeling from that loss, but they're having
a hard time replacing the sort of production that he
was able to post for them. Also against a fairly

(51:38):
mediocre Utah offense. They allowed over four hundred yards just
a week ago in Salt Lake City, including two hundred
seventy six yards on the ground. That's just awful. That's awful.
You can't get worn out like that and expect to
have a chance against the Texas Tech team. Like you said, Brian,
that's pretty much. I don't want to say it's a

(51:58):
fade out complete that they're gonna win the Big Twelve,
but they're they're the top team in this league. And
ASU comes into this game dog by seven. I'm not
a huge believer in ASU. I could I see it
being a tight game, Yeah, I could potentially, I could
see potentially a SU hanging around in this one, But

(52:21):
I mean there's no way I would be comfortable taking
them on the money line. Like, that's not even this.
This isn't a live dog. If anybody's thinking the sun
Devils could sneak up on someone.

Speaker 4 (52:31):
Here, yeah, and Arizona State's in a really tricky spot here, guys.
They really are, because on one hand, Levitt is definitely
not one hundred percent. I mean, I think that's that's
pretty clear. Maybe this is like a Mateer situation last
year where or which was me last week, where the

(52:51):
backup is such a dire strait that they're like, hey,
give us whatever you can, John, like, we we just
we can't have Hawkins in here. We saw that last year.
That's where Arizona State is. Jeff Sims. You want to
talk about bad numbers. I know Hammon's numbers were off.
Go look at Jeff sims numbers last week at Utah.
Oh really really gross. So you're pushing back a quarterback

(53:16):
that is definitely less than one hundred percent, who is
probably not taking all the reps in practice. You have
your best player on offense is a receiver. And we
talk about this a lot, like, don't get me wrong,
Jordan Tyson is elite. You can scheme a receiver out
of a game a lot more than you can scheme
a running back out of a game. Like it's just
easier to bracket coverage and take something away where it is.

(53:38):
If a running back is churning you up, it is
really hard to just take that away. And if you
do take it away, you're leaving yourself vulnerable in the
secondary to multiple one on one matchups and just explosives galore.
So I think the fact that Arizona State's best player
this year is a receiver and not a bull dozing
running back, it just changes the math. It changes the

(54:01):
dynamic of what the Sun Devils can do offensively. And
I think they're not as solid. They're not as consistent
of a team this year with a little more polish
and glitz and glamour on the outside than they were
last year with skatabow, hammer meets nail. Texas Tech's the
real deal, guys, Like, honestly, they spent all this money
in the portal. We didn't know what we're gonna see.

(54:21):
They're covering every number. Their defense looks great, like I
think if you are getting a discount, right, Like the
Arizona state number moved down a little bit once we
heard that Levitt was gonna play. As numbers will move
based off of quarterbacks. I think the value here is
on Texas Tech. I honestly do, because I just don't
trust Levit's healthy and if they have to go to SIMS,

(54:42):
it's gonna be a disaster.

Speaker 2 (54:44):
Yeah. Right.

Speaker 3 (54:46):
A prop bet caught my attention where I like, we're
leak Brown a lot the ASU running back, but man
against that that front four, that that front seven really
for Texas Tech, he's gonna have his work cut o
out for him. They might be playing from behind. You
know my gamescript type stuff. So releak Brown under seventy

(55:06):
eight and a half rushing yards, especially like you're saying, Jared,
without Sam Levitt being completely healthy, you might have, you know,
a lesser version of Sam Levitt today. He might be
able to throw it well, but look, man, a lot
of his game is running around and making things happen.
So if you don't have that same dimension with Levitt,
I think that's actually going to be more difficult for

(55:28):
their ground game as a whole.

Speaker 5 (55:31):
So I don't know.

Speaker 3 (55:31):
I think Leak Brown under seventy eight and a half
is is a live play something keep your eye on
right there. All right, We've got Rich Ornberger, Penn State
All American, Jared Smith FSR betting analyst.

Speaker 2 (55:43):
I'm Brian No.

Speaker 3 (55:43):
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(56:07):
make it legendary. Coming up next, our main man, Seamus McGee,
gets you all set for a full day of college ball.
He'll have a shamous special as well. It is Fox
Sports Radios Countdown to Kickoff presented by BETMGM. It is
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(56:29):
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Speaker 5 (56:38):
Okay, let's do this.

Speaker 1 (56:41):
Follow the money, real good money.

Speaker 2 (56:43):
Ah.

Speaker 3 (56:43):
Yes, we are following the money with our good friend
Seamus McGee, team Lead of Sports Trading at BETMGM. Good
morning to you, Seamus. Okay, let's get right to it.
What is on the bet MGM wish list today?

Speaker 5 (56:55):
Huh? What do you need?

Speaker 6 (56:56):
What do you want right now? Book? The number one
need we have right now? We're gonna need Oklahoma minus
five and a half. We took a pretty big wager
on South Carolina plus five and a half earlier this week,
so right now, it's looking like the biggest need. But
I think we're gonna need some dogs to bark this
week as well. I think we're gonna need Old Miss

(57:18):
plus seven. And this Vandy LSU game is kind of
all over. We're see mostly Vandy money. There's a worldly
fight in the LSU against Vanderbilt, which is just a
line I can't believe I'm alive for in my life.

Speaker 4 (57:32):
Rich was that you beton South Carolina big there making
Shamus sweat out Oklahoma. We just gave out South Carolina
money line on our parlay platter. All right. The big
news this morning Clemson. Kate club Nick not playing today.
Chris Vezina, the backup quarterback for Clemson, will start. We've
seen this number move considerably. It was eight and a
half earlier in the week, it was five and a

(57:53):
half this morning. Now it's three and a half after
the news Seamus. I'll be honest, Kate club Nick, I
don't know if he's playing five points better than anybody
right now. Have we moved to a certain point where
now we see some value on Clemson as a smaller
home favorite.

Speaker 6 (58:09):
Personally, I go, I mean I was on here a
few weeks ago, you know, ranting about how much I
don't like Cape Club Nick, so I agree. I think
three and a half is worth of bet now in
my opinion. But as far as the book is concerned week,
I mean, if anyone was betting this game, it was
you know, smu at the know as the numbers climbed down.
But oh, in all, the handle really wasn't that big

(58:31):
coming into today. We'll see what it turns up at
it three thirty, but just not a lot of interest
in this game right now.

Speaker 2 (58:37):
Seamus, listen, I don't know if you have any insight
here whatsoever, but you're going to help out me and Jared.
Maybe you get a better night's sleep tonight if you
can help us answer this question. Who's Penn State hiring
next man?

Speaker 6 (58:52):
I've I've tossed and turned with this like all week.
I really don't know. I think I'd be pretty underwhelmed.
If it was Matt Rule. I'd almost like take a
swing at like a younger guy coming up over Matt Rule.
It's just weird. You fire a guy who wins ten
games pretty much every year, obviously not this year, and

(59:16):
your replacement is Matt Rule. It just seems lateral or
like that. It doesn't instill a ton of confidence in me.
I really don't know if if I'd have picked today,
I see the Joe Brady rumors. I think that would
be a good I wouldn't hate that higher if I'm
being honest.

Speaker 5 (59:35):
What's the wow really line here today? Seamus?

Speaker 3 (59:38):
You might have looked at it with the LSU game
like you might need LSU at BETMGM to get this
done against Vanderbilt. It's pretty wild, But just in terms
of either a point spread or a total maybe line movement,
what's throughout the week caused you to say wow, really,
that's where we're at.

Speaker 5 (59:55):
What's caused you to say that the most? Heading into
this Saturday?

Speaker 6 (01:00:00):
I mean I was going to save the Shamous special
for the end, but the wrong team was favored in
Chestnut Hill all week and the line of finally got
back through zero with Yukon favorite. I'm picking a Yukon
money line is my pick this week. But that was
one where I was like, I I this VC team,

(01:00:21):
this program is in a bad spot right now. I
think Bill O'Brien is to buy up huge, so I
don't even know if they'll fire him, but I love
yu Con today and there were a dog all week.
But yeah, that was what Also, Duke minus three three
and a half against Georgia Tech. Orgia Tech hot to
Troup team right now, So I think that's a been

(01:00:44):
a surprising one for a lot of people.

Speaker 4 (01:00:45):
Yeah, that line thinks to high having Seamus.

Speaker 2 (01:00:48):
Yeah, Duke, Duke is.

Speaker 4 (01:00:50):
They've got waxed by Illinois. Georgia Tech is undefeated, they
beat Clemson, and you're telling me that Duke is a
field goal now plus field goal thing against Georgia Tech. Again,
the market tells you when these weird, funky games are
going to take place. You just have to open up
your eyeballs and look, this feels like a really fun

(01:01:12):
spot for Kurt Signetti this week. He used the James
Franklin leverage to get a much bigger extension than he
probably would have gotten if he just kind of waited
toil the end of the season. Now he's got to
put his money where his mouth is. Like they The
one thing I love about Indiana is they kind of
were the James Franklin Penn State teams of prior years

(01:01:32):
where they just hammer bad teams. Michigan State is an
awful football team. They just lost by twenty five to
Ucla at home. Now you're gonna cover twenty seven and
a half against Indiana on the road when Signetti just
got paid, Like, tell me how this isn't sixty to three.

Speaker 6 (01:01:48):
Usually you look at this and like that was last
week was the biggest win in the history of the
Indiana program. So you'd think coming home big favorite. Maybe
it's just a little sleepy, maybe a little let down.
But I'm with you. This Michigan State side is just
this defense is just poorus and they looked awful against

(01:02:10):
Ucla last week. And I think Signetty might be impervious
to letdown spots, Like I don't think he knows what
those are. He will go out if he has to
beat Michigan State by four touchdowns. I think he will.

Speaker 2 (01:02:25):
Just looking forward at Ohio State schedule the rest of
the season. They go to Wisconsin this weekend, they'll host
Penn State. Perdues on the schedule, Ucla, Rutgers, Michigan. I mean,
is there a loss anywhere here? There can't be, right,
I mean, Ohio State stays perfect on the season.

Speaker 6 (01:02:45):
Yeah, yeah, I just don't know where they lose this game.
I think they're pretty easily the best team in the country.
I wouldn't. They're probably gonna beIN the national Championship in
my opinion, but will when they have to go November
twenty ninth to ann Arbor. If Ryan Daken finally get
it done right we spend this last year.

Speaker 3 (01:03:09):
It's crazy, right, it seems like it's a good and
that's like no, no, but really right, Like they've been
huge favorites before and of late eggs against Michigan so well,
I feel weird like you gave out the shame of
special So what do we do now?

Speaker 4 (01:03:23):
Shame double special home.

Speaker 1 (01:03:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:03:26):
On the topic of Ohio State football, I mean I
love Wisconsin team total under seven and a half call
me hook where I don't know if Wisconsin crosses midfield.
We're talking about programs in it talking about programs in
a bad spot. I mean, I can't believe Pickle is
still coaching this team right now. I think this team

(01:03:47):
is just dead.

Speaker 3 (01:03:49):
Yeah, hey man, fair enough, Okay, under seven and a
half Wisconsin team total.

Speaker 4 (01:03:54):
It's time that screws us.

Speaker 5 (01:03:56):
Probably do we parlay it with yukon money line? What
do you think, Jamous? You an advocate for for parlays
over there responsibly.

Speaker 4 (01:04:07):
Yeah, we gave out a three legger that was nine
to one.

Speaker 2 (01:04:09):
That's not bad.

Speaker 6 (01:04:10):
Yeah, three legs, okay, pushing.

Speaker 2 (01:04:12):
It, pushing it.

Speaker 4 (01:04:13):
Yeah, we like to push it here on the show.

Speaker 3 (01:04:15):
That's what we do, all right, Seamus, great stuff as always, buddy,
have a good day.

Speaker 5 (01:04:19):
We'll catch you soon. Thanks guys, and you too.

Speaker 3 (01:04:22):
There he is Seamus McGee, team lead of sports Trading
at BEDMGM.

Speaker 4 (01:04:26):
Great stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:04:27):
Love it.

Speaker 5 (01:04:28):
Hey, be sure to subscribe to the Fox Sports Radio
YouTube channel.

Speaker 3 (01:04:31):
Just search Fox Sports Radio on YouTube and you'll see
our best videos from all of our shows. And don't
stop there. Hit the thumbs up icon and comment away.
Let us know whose takes you like and even whose
takes you don't like. Just search Fox Sports Radio on
YouTube and subscribe. Okay, So a little like quick no
huddle action. How about the some of the top five

(01:04:53):
teams in action today. So we were just talking about
Ohio State at Wisconsin. Ohio State is favored by twenty
five and a half points. Ohio State has outscored opponents
get this two twenty one to forty one this season. Wow,
and they were all ticked off about allowing sixteen points
against Illinois last week. That's the first team to reach

(01:05:13):
double digits this season against them, and so they're they're
in a bad mood against Wisconsin. This Wisconsin team is
beyond broken. Like seam has just said it right there.
How is Luke fickle? It's cruel to be like, all right,
one more Luke, like, well, they'll have to be the
sacrificial lamb this week and then we'll get you out
of town. But man, it is just it's beyond dire

(01:05:36):
for the Badgers at this point. Man, they have no
offense whatsoever, and now they're going up against the Buckeyes.
It's like under seven and a half team total. I
can absolutely see why Seamus went with that.

Speaker 2 (01:05:47):
Yeah, yeah, I mean that that is another Big Ten
program that maybe quickly searching for a new head coach,
and who knows, maybe Matt Rule will land there. It
doesn't seem like Shamus all that convinced that he's the
right choice for Penn State. But yeah, I again, looking
at Ohio State schedule for the rest of the season,

(01:06:09):
first of all, they seem invincible. They seem un beatable,
except for perhaps the team up north. Looking at this game. Specifically,
Wisconsin stands next to zero chance against this Ohio State defense.
I know we're talking about the scoring. I know everybody
concentrates on the offensive side of the ball and their

(01:06:30):
fantasy football lineups, and it's way way more fun to
bet overs, and we know how it all feels and
overs on props especially, but this Ohio State defense is special.
Matt Patricia, his rebirth as the defensive coordinator for the
buck Eys has been incredible. He has been confounding opposing quarterbacks.

(01:06:52):
They have no idea what to do against Ohio State
on third down. He's done a tremendous job with not
only blitz packages, but also he gets inside of the
head of lesser talented or less experienced quarterbacks where they
don't know if pressure is coming. That's when you know

(01:07:13):
you've really won defensively, when you're only rushing three or
four and the quarterback has no idea if he's under
pressure or not. It's been impressive this season for Ohio State.

Speaker 4 (01:07:24):
Hunter Simmons is the lucky quarterback this week right, Wisconsin's
now started three different quarterbacks for you know, extended time
this year. We thought it was gonna be Billy Edwards
coming into the year, he was the preseason guy, he
was the transfer and then he got hurt. Then it
was Danny O'Neil rich is San Diego State dude who
came in and didn't really do much in relief duty.

(01:07:45):
And now it's Hunter Simmons, who, to be fair, played
okay against Michigan, like it was like the numbers don't
jump out at you, but it wasn't a total disaster.
Last week against Iowa was a disaster. Nothing. My mom said,
if you have nothing nice say about anyone, don't say
anything at all. So I'll just leave it there with
Wisconsin and I'll echo with everything that you guys said

(01:08:09):
about Ohio State, like there it very quietly, And I
don't really care about Julian saying not having experience. Will
Howard won a national title last year with this team.
So I think as long as the quarterback plays steady
and doesn't you know, upset the Apple car Like if
there's one team in the country where having a conservative

(01:08:30):
game plan like the James Franklin approach is actually okay,
I think it's Ohio State because of like they're just
so freaking talented and they know how to win. They
understand how to play close games. They don't get tss.
They don't have those tight moments unless they're playing Michigan,
I guess. But it just it feels like this Ohio

(01:08:51):
State team is the steady force in what is a
just insane volatile weather pattern sweeping through college football. But
the one steady factor is we know every week Ohio
State's defense is gonna show up and shut you down,
and that offense is just so tough to defend because
of how many weapons they have on the outside.

Speaker 3 (01:09:11):
By the way, a little bit of Alabama vibes offensively
with Ohio State, wouldn't you say? A lot of simply
like really talented passing game wide receiver talent galore for
both Obama and Ohio State. But the ground game for
both teams. If you look at Ohio State last week
against Illinois, just averaging two point nine yards per carry.

(01:09:32):
It's just not a dynamic ground game for Ohio State. So,
I mean, it hasn't factored in in terms of you know,
close games or anything like that. But something to keep
in mind, as we you know, get closer and closer
to playoff time, are they going to be able to
run the ball more effectively because they might need to.
There might be some games where you really need a
better ground game. How about another top five team, Indiana

(01:09:55):
in Action taking on Spardi here today. What a win
for Indiana last week heading into Oregon and taking down
the Ducks. I love this, So Kurt Signetti, he signs
this huge extension. Kurt gets ninety three million dollars over
the next eight years, and he is seventeen and two
at Indiana. I think what makes it the most impressive

(01:10:17):
is the three years before Indiana hired Signetti, they were
nine and twenty seven.

Speaker 5 (01:10:23):
Think about that.

Speaker 3 (01:10:24):
They've gone from nine to twenty seven to seventeen and two.
Like to get Indiana to where they are right now,
you would think it would take years and years. He's
done it immediately. So hell of a job by Kurt Signetti. Man,
he's there's a reason why he's almost one hundred million
dollars richer here.

Speaker 6 (01:10:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:10:42):
And then you look on the other side of the coin.
Jonathan Jonathan Smith, it's like the sky is falling in
East Lansing. They started three and oh this season, and
there was some confidence that Okay, you know, it looks
like the Spartans are gonna have a little bit of
a season here, and then even the losses to USC
and Nebraska weren't so bad because they look competitive in

(01:11:06):
the losses. No moral victories, but you know what I mean,
Not all losses are built the same, not all wins
are built the same. But that all comes to a
screeching halt with the outcome to UCLA last week, a
thirty eight to thirteen home loss, Michigan State celebrating their
homecoming or I should say, I guess crying sobbing through

(01:11:29):
their homecoming. That was brutal. And so now all of
a sudden, you go from an undefeated team through the
first three weeks of the season. Too Spartan fans scratching
their heads, thinking themselves like, maybe we're also comfortable with
the idea of making a change at the top of
our football program, the big ten. Man, It's like you

(01:11:52):
have the top of the heap, Indiana. You know they're
looking down at everyone. Oregon, Dan Lanning, you know that's
a top program, Ohio State, and then you have Wisconsin
and Penn State right now, and you know the likes
of some of these programs that have really struggled this year,

(01:12:13):
and Michigan State's going through it right now.

Speaker 4 (01:12:17):
Yeah, I really wish Michigan State would have went through
it two weeks ago against Nebraska when I laid twelve
and a half and they lost by eleven. Would have
been nice if they gave me an extra score there
to chew on. But yeah, I mean, at the end
of the day, I think it's obvious where the class
of the Big Ten rains, you draw a line after
and maybe us He can change that math a little
bit tonight. I don't think they will. But if USC

(01:12:38):
figures out a way to pull off a win in
Brian's neck of the woods tonight, I think pushed them
up to the I don't listen, we'll get to that game.
I don't think it's going to happen. I'm very heavy
on Notre Dame here, and you'll be very happy with
my handicap in that game. But if us He does
win that game, you got to take them seriously at
six and one with the rest of their schedule, and
then they had that huge game at Oregon in a
few weeks. But right now it's Indiana, Ohios and the

(01:13:00):
rest of the Big Ten is very much in the middle,
beefy middle of the pack. I do feel like this
is a good spot for it. I know that sounds
crazy coming off the Oregon win, but I think Signetti
is the best coach in college football guys, I really do.
I think he has the edge to him that I
think a lot of coaches cove it like you, Like

(01:13:23):
James Franklin lost the Edd like that's why he got fired.
He got fired because on the sidelines they're losing to
Northwestern and he just looks like it's just another walk
in the park, like he lost that fire in that
fight where I think that's where coaches like Signetti. Lane
Kiffin's another guy that comes to mind, Like these guys
just they're just always on fire, passion and energy, like

(01:13:43):
it's just it's really intense. That's where I think if
you go up against that and you're not ready to
match that energy like Orgon was not ready, it can
be it can be overwhelming because Indiana just keeps coming
at you and you overlook them because you don't view
them as this this highly talented team with all these
great dudes. But when you're coached to that level, the

(01:14:06):
average player plays great and that is why Indiana is
so dangerous this year.

Speaker 3 (01:14:11):
Man, I'll tell you it's like for this quick of
a turnaround to build it through the defense as well.
If you look at Indiana, they just allowed sixty four
yards in the second half against Oregon.

Speaker 5 (01:14:23):
Think about that.

Speaker 3 (01:14:24):
Oregon's at home, a healthy favorite, they're down by two scores.

Speaker 5 (01:14:28):
It's go time, right.

Speaker 3 (01:14:30):
You would think a team as talented as Oregon would
be able to move the ball better than they did.
And so that's the thing with Signetti taking over at IU.
It'd be one thing if this crazy turnaround was mainly
because they just have this wide open, gimmicky, weird offense
and they're like, we're just trying to score sixty four points.

Speaker 5 (01:14:48):
You can score whatever you want. It's all good.

Speaker 2 (01:14:50):
We don't really care.

Speaker 5 (01:14:51):
And you're like, okay, that's not sustainable.

Speaker 3 (01:14:53):
But what IU has built so fast, like instantaneously, is
sustainable because because of their formula. You know, that to
me is the most impressive part about what Signetti has done,
Like they have a formula already that's built to last.
So hats off to him. Man, maybe you can throw
me a spare million. You know, he's got money to
burn at this stage. Here we've got Rich Hornberger, Penn

(01:15:15):
State All American, Jared Smith FSR betting analyst. I'm Priban
and no be sure to check out the new looking
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(01:15:35):
personalized rewards and new players can receive up to fifteen
hundred dollars back in bonus bets with bonus code countdown
if they don't win their first bet. That's code countdown
in the BETMGM app. All right, coming up next, prop
it up. We will look at the prop betting market.

Speaker 2 (01:15:51):
Man.

Speaker 3 (01:15:51):
There's one prop that I loved last night. It's come
down quite a bit.

Speaker 2 (01:15:56):
I still like it.

Speaker 5 (01:15:57):
I'll share that with you. Around the corner.

Speaker 3 (01:15:59):
It is Fox Sports Radios Countdown to Kickoff presented by
bet MGM. It is Fox Sports Radios Countdown to Kickoff
presented by bet MGM. Bet MGM players will receive college
football odds boost tokens and college football parlay boost tokens
throughout the season to use on college football bets. Score
extra winnings if your bet with the token applied wins.

(01:16:21):
Check it out in the bet MGM app Okay, let's do.

Speaker 1 (01:16:24):
This, drop it up plays all right.

Speaker 5 (01:16:32):
Prop bets galore, Jared, we start with you.

Speaker 3 (01:16:35):
I picture you like with your Sean Payton Weiser on
and the like the de Niro Coke bottled glasses, just
looking over pie charts and coming up with some big
prop bet angles.

Speaker 2 (01:16:45):
Here, what do you have for Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:16:46):
I was actually digging into a lot of film this
week on USC's defense. You're gonna like this one a lot, Brian.
I think Notre Dame offense has a big edge here
in this game. Now we've seen this number for CJ.
Carrs passing yards. Prop drops significantly this week. I did
a video on Wednesday for BETMGM. It was two eighty
five and a half. Now it's two sixty. I like
it even more. Now here's why again, size matters people

(01:17:10):
USC Secondary hosted this year. Why well, they're undersized. DJ
Harvey five ten one ninety, Marcellus Williams Retro freshman five eleven,
one eighty five. Raylan Conley freshman six to ozho one
ninety de Carlos Nicholson sixty three, two hundred. He's a
senior transfer. He's really the only big body they had,
but Notre Dame's bodies are bigger. Eli raard In six
seven two fifty, the tight end finally got going last week,

(01:17:31):
and Malachi Fields. This guy is a stud six four
to two twenty five true alpha receiver, averaging a career
high nineteen yards per reception US. He's got problems if
they have to commit bodies to the box to shut
down this run game. They are exposed on the outside
with these very small, undersized corners against.

Speaker 2 (01:17:48):
Very big Notre Dame receivers. Give me CJ.

Speaker 4 (01:17:50):
Car over to sixty and a half passing yards.

Speaker 2 (01:17:53):
South Carolina's quarterback Leonoris sellers under twenty two and a
half yards rush. Here's the reason why they've had to
reshuffle the offensive line. Okay, when you do that with
the team that's already given up nineteen sacks so far
this season, it's not good for a rushing total for

(01:18:14):
a quarterback. They gave up five sacks against LSU, five
sacks against MISSOO. Oklahoma has an elite defensive line. I
think Leonora's Sellers is running for his life, but I
think he's gonna get tackled behind the line of scrimmage
a bunch. Give me Leonora's Sellers under the twenty two
and a half. Okay, wow, I like it. I like
the handicap right there, stunning the music.

Speaker 5 (01:18:35):
You stop the music.

Speaker 2 (01:18:36):
I thought something went horribly wrong. It was good.

Speaker 3 (01:18:45):
It was under alert, you know the music, like the
needle right off the record, emergency break on the broadcast.

Speaker 5 (01:18:52):
Yeah, you know, I'm gonna take the under baton from you.

Speaker 3 (01:18:57):
Like we're running the four by one hundred relay here,
I'm looking at Missouri running back of mad Hardy, who's
a stud d and his rushing prop.

Speaker 5 (01:19:06):
Total has come crashing down.

Speaker 3 (01:19:09):
Normally you don't get this on game day, right Like
we're typically the public did a lot of people are
betting overs, you know, sharp public whatever.

Speaker 5 (01:19:18):
But this is the different, the different movement here today.
So mod Hardy.

Speaker 3 (01:19:22):
It was eighty eight and a half rushing yards last
night at Auburn.

Speaker 5 (01:19:26):
It's down to seventy nine and a half rushing yards
against Auburn.

Speaker 3 (01:19:30):
I still like the under I don't like not getting
the best number, but I still do like the under This.

Speaker 5 (01:19:36):
Auburn rush defense is nasty.

Speaker 3 (01:19:39):
And when you saw for Beulah struggle the way he
did last week, what do you think the defensive game
plan is?

Speaker 5 (01:19:45):
Do you think it's?

Speaker 3 (01:19:45):
Hey, man, we got to just slow down for Beulah,
like let him get whatever they want to get on
the ground. No, they're led by their ground game. That's
what Auburn does. Well, that's gonna be their focus heading
into this thing. So I like a mod hardy under
seventy nine and a half rushing yard. It's gonna have
to game tackle this guy. He's legit, but I think
he stays under right down all right? Coming up next?

(01:20:06):
Which team are you more skeptical of?

Speaker 2 (01:20:11):
Oh? What is going on?

Speaker 3 (01:20:12):
Happy Saturday to you as we get you all set
for Notre Dame. Now I'm just kidding, as we get
all set for a full slate of college football action,
including Notre Dame right around the corner, though, but we
focus on a top ten matchup first. How about number
five All miss against number nine Georgia. Georgia favored by
seven totals at fifty seven and a half. It's ticked

(01:20:35):
up a little bit during the week, simple question, which
team are you more skeptical of? I'll give you a
couple of, like small picture reasons to doubt both teams.
So how about Georgia. They can't get off the field
on third down. That's their their main problem right now.
They rank thirteenth in the SEC and third down defense,

(01:20:57):
So opponents are converting about forty percent of the time.
I'm on them on third down. That's a huge problem,
Ole miss. One of their big problems. Their rush defense
is brutal. They're one hundred and sixth in yards per
carrie giving up. That doesn't include sacks when you're in
the one hundreds of anything that's really bad, really bad.
So those are a couple of, like, you know, small

(01:21:20):
picture things, like the micro things, but if you look
big picture here outside of that small stuff, just in general,
who do you who are you more skeptical of?

Speaker 5 (01:21:29):
Is it old miss who?

Speaker 3 (01:21:31):
They'll They'll dazzle you a little bit, and then last
week they're you know, they're sleep walking against Washington State.
They don't have like that huge win in a season,
or maybe they do have a big win and they
can't parlay it into another big win. Give you reasons
to doubt them, and then Georgia we compared to Alabama
to what they once were. If you do the same
thing with Georgia and what they once were, they're not

(01:21:53):
there right now. So who are you more skeptical of
heading into this one?

Speaker 7 (01:21:57):
Man?

Speaker 2 (01:21:57):
Who am I more skeptical of guess ole Miss? Especially
considering they're playing at one of the more difficult venues
in the country to win at. But I will say
this Ole Miss they can pour it on and they
probably will today. I mean, there are only fifteen teams
nationally to average more than twenty points over the first

(01:22:19):
two quarters, and they've averaged over twenty points over the
first two quarters of play. So they can get on
the board early, and they can get a lot of
teams that they're facing to chase them. The question is
can they keep Georgia, even if they lead early in
this game behind them the whole way? It's tall task

(01:22:40):
playing between the hedges.

Speaker 4 (01:22:43):
Yeah, I'll be honest, I think I trust Georgia waymore.
I mean, it's Trinidad Chambliss. He's had an unbelievable start
this career, but this will be his first road start,
and things don't always go as well on the road, Like,
I can't trust the team in college football until you
go on the road and win a tough game. Until

(01:23:04):
you do that, I am still reserving my judgment, reserving
my opinion. When you go on the road and you
win a tough football game in a tough environment, then
I start to take you seriously. Their one road game
this year was at Kentucky and they barely got past Kentucky.
Remember laying after the game was like, I'm sorry we
couldn't cover this spread. That was their only time leaving

(01:23:24):
the state of Mississippi all year. Well, now they go
to Georgia, which, as Rich has said, one of the
toughest places to play. The script to this game feels
like ole Miss gets off to the fast start and
then Georgia wakes up, kind of similar to what happened
last week. Here's the difference with last week, though last
week Georgia was facing Auburn, which has a much more

(01:23:44):
methodical offense, not as explosive. Can Georgia catch right? Like
the Tortoise and the hair, The hair is gonna start fast,
Lane Kiffin's gonna have a great script. I'm sure Ole
Miss will start fast can the tortoise catch the hair
in this scenario when the hair is a little bit quicker,
a little bit more shifty with Ole Miss than it
was with Auburn last week. I think Alexander's your X

(01:24:05):
factor here. They're gonna line him up all over the field,
and he's coming back to his home state. He's a
Georgia kid coming back home. I'm sure he wants to
show up and show out. I kind of like Georgia
here minus the points. I think if you were gonna
ask me again, Brian, to go back to your original question,
do I trust link Kiffin on the road with kind
of a rookie quarterback more than I do the best
defensive coach in our generation to get the most out

(01:24:28):
of his talent. Like George is still very talented on paper,
They're very young. We haven't seen their ceiling yet. I
do think at some point we are going to see
George's defense flash. Maybe this isn't the week because of
the matchup, but I definitely trust Kirby in this spot more.

Speaker 3 (01:24:42):
Yeah, No, I get it, totally get that. How about
if we stick with the SEC. How about Texas A
and M against Arkansas? Another good matchup so you have
top five team against an unranked team. But the thing
to me in this one is if you look at
Texas A and M when they played Notre Dame and
they won forty one to forty, they have taken that

(01:25:05):
formula and they've been like, Yeah, let's do less of this,
Let's do less of these crazy shootouts. Let's try to
lean in our defense, Let's do a little bit more
ball control instead of just up and down the field.
And it's this wide open, crazy style. So Mike Elco,
he's tried to rely on his defense a lot more.
The question against Arkansas who can have an explosive offense.

(01:25:26):
Taylor Green and company. They can gain yards and chunks,
they can put up a lot of points on the board.
Can Arkansas forced Texas A and M to play a
style that they don't really want to play here?

Speaker 5 (01:25:39):
I think that's one of the main questions.

Speaker 4 (01:25:40):
In that one.

Speaker 2 (01:25:41):
I just sort of feel like in this game, even
though Texas A and M has an elite defense nationally
ranked in all of the stat categories you want them
to be, Arkansas has big play potential on every single down,
especially because of the play of Tailing Green. Their quarterbackers,
dual threat, uber talented. I really has buoyed this offense

(01:26:02):
for the Razorbacks all season long. And then you look
at the Aggis offense a little bit more of a
methodical approach. They're not the big play team that the
Razorbacks are. Arkansas is gonna get chunk plays. They're gonna
find their way down the field and you know, some
explosive moments. It's a little bit more like the traditional

(01:26:24):
SEC slugfest you're used to seeing when Texas A and
M has the ball. So I could see this. I
could see this actually being a higher scoring game. I
know an M can give up ground grudgingly, but sometimes
the best way to beat a defense like that is
to throw it over the top, or you know, to
make one tackle or miss and then you're off to

(01:26:45):
the races. And then, in terms of A and M,
I don't think Arkansas is gonna be able to stop
what they do offensively, So I think this is gonna
be kind of a punch fest. I feel like the Razorbacks,
especially if they score early, say they get up by
ten at any point in the first half or the

(01:27:07):
first three quarters, I feel like the points scoring could
really creep up in this one.

Speaker 4 (01:27:13):
Yeah, totals dropped because of some weather, perhaps in Fayetteville.
I'm not a meteorologist. It looks like storms, it looks
like it's scattered. It looks like it could come during
game time. It could not. The wind looks relatively light, though,
so that's always more important to me than rain. I
love this matchup. Why do I love this matchup? I
love when coaching staffs have histories. Bobby Patrino, offensive coordinator

(01:27:37):
at Texas A and M in twenty twenty three under
Jimbo Fisher. Fisher gets fired, they bring in Elko. Elko
says thanks, but no thanks, Bobby. I'll look elsewhere from
IOC job. Patrino. Actually, I was watching the presser this week.
He coached Mars like Marshall Reid was a red shirt
in twenty three. He wasn't playing yet, but Patrino was
his offensive coordinator. So I again, really interesting dynamic. Of course,

(01:28:01):
Petrino has been in the SEC before. He wasn't the
head coach at Arkansas for a while. You know, he's
bounce around some other jobs and now he gets his
introm tag plays to him, and it was it's kind
of funny. I don't think it's a coincidence, guys, that
Arkansas couldn't move the ball for worth a darn against
Notre Dame, and then all of a sudden, you get

(01:28:23):
Pittman fired, and now Arkansas's offense wakes up against Tennessee.

Speaker 6 (01:28:26):
Look at that?

Speaker 4 (01:28:27):
How about that? It's absolute magic. Maybe Petrino, oh, that's
sandbag and son of a gun. Maybe he was holding
back some plays against Notre Dame knowing that the end
was coming for Pittman, and then all of a sudden
it woke up. I think Elko the one thing I
like about his game is that he's a very disciplined coach.
He preaches it every week, penalty for his sack free defense.
Balance like, I like his approach. I don't know what

(01:28:50):
the ceiling is for A and M just yet. I
think they're a good team. I don't think they're in
that great category, but because they've stacked some w's in
the SEC, they're probably going to be in the playoff.
They should win this game. But it's Petrino's first game
as the interim coach at home. You would expect there
to be some buzz in Fayetteville.

Speaker 2 (01:29:08):
This is a fun one.

Speaker 4 (01:29:09):
I agree with Richard's take. I think points, especially now
totals drop to fifty eight. I think both of these
teams probably are sniffing thirty. One of them is definitely
getting a thirty.

Speaker 5 (01:29:19):
Wow the sand bagging angle right there, Huh, how about that?
I like a good conspiracy theory.

Speaker 3 (01:29:25):
But man, Tennessee's defense is just trash, you know what
I mean, Like it's so I don't know that he's
holding back against Notre Dame and now they're high flying.
I just think Tennessee's defense is so bad, you know,
I don't know if you can sandbag if the weeks
were flip flopped, you know what I mean? Can you
sandbag as an offense against Tennessee?

Speaker 5 (01:29:45):
That'd be hard to do. That'd be a hard one
to pull off right there.

Speaker 2 (01:29:49):
But you know, I don't know. I don't know.

Speaker 5 (01:29:51):
We'll see interesting theory right there.

Speaker 3 (01:29:54):
But I'll tell you what they always say, defense travels,
and we'll find out today if Texas A and M
their defense been really really good in SEC play and
it's a tougher task man like Arkansas has a lot
of weapons, and rich you've seen Taylor green a Ton.
We both have hold him in high regard. He is
a playmaker, but you know, rushing wise throwing the ball.

(01:30:17):
So we'll see they this Texas A and M defense,
they're like the opposite of Georgia. Georgia is having a
hard time getting off the field on third down. That's
all Texas A and M does. They've allowed like one
third down conversion over the last couple of games. You know,
like that, when you're getting off the field on third down,
it just sets everything up for your offense, your team collectively.

(01:30:40):
That's the challenge for Georgia getting off the field. That's
the luxury right now.

Speaker 5 (01:30:44):
Texas A and M. They're doing a great job getting
off the field.

Speaker 4 (01:30:46):
On third down.

Speaker 2 (01:30:48):
Yeah, yeah, they absolutely are. And also they have they
have an incredible success rate you know, against against teams
in terms of you know, playing penalty free. They don't
make mistakes. The one place they could use a little
work defensively, if I'm being perfectly honest, really digging into
what they've done over the course of the whole season,

(01:31:10):
is they give up some explosives. If you look at
if you look at explosive plays allowed against that's where
A and M struggles. So again, This sets up to
be a little bit of a Barnberg burner if the
weather holds up. If that doesn't become a factor talent.
Green has all the talent around him, and then he

(01:31:32):
does possess the talent to make it hard on a
team that gives up explosive plays. And then likewise, I
don't think the razorbacks are gonna be able to hold
the dam against a highly efficient offense. So I think
points are gonna be the premium today in this game
between Arkansas and A and M.

Speaker 4 (01:31:51):
Yeah, I'm betting the over. I was already gonna think
about betting it this week, and now that it's dropped,
I think you have to bet the over. And I
think if you really want to get fun, you throw
in a Marcel Reid and Taylor Green anytime touchdown parlay
with the over. Listen. The one thing I've noticed in

(01:32:11):
college football this year is in the red zone, good
offenses will run their quarterback. It just because it's such
a numbers game. And when you can add that plus one,
and what I mean by plus one is if you
turn the running back into a blocker and your quarterback
is the runner, it just gives you that extra edge
to get that extra yard or two. And in the

(01:32:34):
red zone that matters so much more than it does,
you know, at midfield. So I think the one thing
you look for with good quarterbacks that have mobility in
high scoring games, you look for red zone quarterback draws,
red zone quarterback powers, counters where your quarterback is the
plus one in the run game. And I think that's
both of these teams. Embody that to a t especially Arkansas,

(01:32:55):
but A and M they like to spread you out.
No Leveon Moss this week. It's gonna be backups in
the run game. Now they have a good backfield to
you know, pick from. But in the red zone, when
the money's on the line, I want my best players
carrying the ball, and in this case that's Marceau Reid
and Taylor Green. So I think that's a fun way
to play this game. I bet the Taylor Green prop
touchdown prop solo. It's plus money. And I think I'm

(01:33:17):
gonna get to the window on the over as well.

Speaker 5 (01:33:20):
All right, I like this very confident Jared Smith right here, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:33:26):
Correpa there, Yeah, Saturday morning, baby, Yes, hey in state stinks.
I got nothing else to go on here, it's grunked Ober.

Speaker 2 (01:33:35):
Wake up, kids, it's grunkked.

Speaker 5 (01:33:36):
Ober in Iowa.

Speaker 3 (01:33:40):
Yeah, you're ready to fire here today. I know there's
a little spring in your step. You know you've transitioned
from Penn State. You're now a diehard Roll Tide fan.

Speaker 4 (01:33:47):
You know I'm a Notre Dame fan tonight, Brian, I
got a lot of money on Notre Dame.

Speaker 2 (01:33:51):
I got C J.

Speaker 4 (01:33:52):
Carr prop I'm in your corner tonight. Let's keep that
weather nice and tidy in South Bend.

Speaker 5 (01:33:56):
Please, hey man, especially with me in attendance.

Speaker 4 (01:33:58):
You know, when come on, come on the anti Raindas.

Speaker 2 (01:34:01):
Yeah, he's like a chihuahuaana parka unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (01:34:05):
We got Rich Orenberger, Penn State, All American, Jared Smith FSR,
betting Analyst. I'm Brian no. With the iHeartRadio app, you
can stream us wherever you happen to be. Catch us
in all of our Fox Sports Radio shows live twenty
four to seven in the new and improved iHeartRadio app.
Just search Fox Sports Radio in the app to stream
us live all day every day, and be sure to

(01:34:25):
select Fox Sports Radio is one of your presets in
the iHeart app. So it'll always pop up at the
top of your screen. All right, coming up next. This
rivalry turns friends into enemies. It is Fox Sports Radios
Countdown to Kickoff, presented by BETMGM. It is Fox Sports
Radios Countdown to Kickoff, presented by bet MGM. Yeah, it's

(01:34:47):
great timing. We can drown out this nonsense. Here it
is time for the tire Rack play of the day.

Speaker 8 (01:34:55):
Big Righty McGill shats on the mountd here's the pitch
you know. Telly drives one enterfield dig you.

Speaker 1 (01:35:05):
Show, hey, old Toney, the stuff of legend.

Speaker 8 (01:35:10):
The Brewers on the brink. First pitch, hit in the air,
right field. Pat Haus going back on the warning track.

Speaker 2 (01:35:17):
He makes the catch ballgame series. The Dodgers are going
back to the World Series.

Speaker 3 (01:35:26):
There you go, compliments of AM five seventy LA Sports,
Dodgers Radio Network, Dodgers going back to the World Series.
For over forty years, Tireck's been helping customers find the
right tires for how, what and where they drive. Shipped
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Speaker 5 (01:35:48):
The way tire buying should be Man. I was talking
to my former.

Speaker 3 (01:35:52):
Friends Bo Benson and Chris Drippet, you know, because of
this Notre Dame, the USC rivalry, but like you might
have picked at this, Jared, did you see Otani one
NLCS MVP and heading into game four he had done nothing.
I would love to know what the best price heading

(01:36:13):
into game four would have been for Otani to win MVP.

Speaker 4 (01:36:16):
I didn't track it. I don't even know if they're listed.
I'll be honest, that's not a market that I see
very often. Maybe in far away lands, but definitely not
at BETMGYM. Also, I would like to make an official
request to management that every segment be bumped back in
with a different college football fight song, because that well, yeah,
and I know USC it's you know, we're doing it

(01:36:36):
to kind of troll Brian because they're playing Notre Dame
this week. But the so so fun fact when I
used to have warm ups in high school football, our
coach only played college fight songs, and so it stirs
the echoes in me. I love college football fights.

Speaker 1 (01:36:50):
I have a good collection of college football fight song
so I might be able to make this happen if I.

Speaker 5 (01:36:54):
Get the beat out like every time. I every once
in a while, I know the words the wake Forest
fight song, like we can make this work.

Speaker 2 (01:37:03):
Wow, some of them are really good.

Speaker 5 (01:37:05):
Wake Forest is extremely underrated.

Speaker 1 (01:37:07):
That might be have to be next bounced back.

Speaker 2 (01:37:09):
Okay, all right, fair enough.

Speaker 3 (01:37:11):
Yeah, by the way, this Notre Dame USC rivalry is
on thin ice. We don't have any game scheduled after
this game today. And I get some of it, like, honestly,
this is you know, South Bend born Notre Dame.

Speaker 2 (01:37:27):
Honk.

Speaker 3 (01:37:28):
I'll be completely honest with you, and then I'll take
a complete cheap shot at USC.

Speaker 2 (01:37:32):
You know that's what I have to do.

Speaker 3 (01:37:35):
But I do, honestly, I do get it because if
you look at USC, you're in the Big Ten. In
a given year, you might have a gauntlet of a
Big Ten schedule, so to schedule up in the non
conference when that could cost you a playoff berth. I
get why this rivalry is on thin ice, because you
can make an argument it just doesn't make all the

(01:37:56):
sense in the world for USC to continue it in
terms of playoff aspirations. Right, So I do, on one hand,
absolutely get this. Now the football fan in me, and
especially a lover of this rivalry. It would be so
sad to see this go away. I get the logistics
and the you know, like the personal advantages and reasons

(01:38:18):
for SEC for USC not wanting to play Notre Dame,
but I mean, it just sucks for a rivalry like
this to possibly not continue.

Speaker 5 (01:38:26):
That's just not good for college football as a whole.

Speaker 2 (01:38:29):
Well, especially because when you look at the matchup and
the fact that this is not a conference rivalry, and
the fact that USC has not played well when it
crosses time zones and faces big ten teams on the road.
You could see the reluctance of especially SC but maybe

(01:38:50):
Notre Dame at some point too traveling to continue this tradition.
And that is the unfortunate reality of conference realignment. But
on this game and talking about the reality of what
we're about to see, here's the good news for Notre Dame.
I think overall they're the better team. Here's the bad news.

(01:39:11):
I think Maeva is one of the better quarterbacks in
college football right now, and he's particularly successful against single,
single high coverage, which is what you're gonna see a
lot from Notre Dame. They run a very large portion
of their defense is going to come out of that
cover one single high package. They like to zone blitz.

(01:39:37):
Miava has been successful and he's had a high success
rate against teams that that that run that particular coverage.
So I'm very curious to see what happens in this game,
especially from a passing standpoint, when USC has controlled of football.

Speaker 4 (01:39:54):
Yeah, I'll be honest. I really like the matchups for
Notre Dame. And we mentioned this and prop it up.
I like the matchups for Notre Dame's offense. Again, this
USC defense. The film that I'm watching on CJ. Carr
is showing me that he's making improvements in his freshman year.
And that's what I love about college football. The markets
sometimes don't fully catch up to a freshman or an

(01:40:15):
unheralded player making improvements or you know, on the other side,
like a great player, like a k club neck making
you know, getting worse. Like the market is slow because
it banks on the priors. And when I watch CJ.
Carr six three two ten athlete, big physical kid, can
make the throws, very twitchy with his delivery, I love, honestly,

(01:40:35):
I love everything about him. He's starting to figure out
the line of scrimmage battle a little bit more. That's
the one thing that it's really hard to get up
to speed quickly. You go from a high school kid
where you're just you know, you're you're better than everyone.
You don't really need to make any changes, make any checks.
Then you get to a next level of college football
and everyone's better and you have to adjust. And the

(01:40:57):
one thing I like about Mike Denbrock is he is
willing to put the ball in Car's hands. Because the
scouting report on Notre Dame is we got to stop
the run. They got the two best backs in the country,
the best back and then Prices right there, probably a
starter on most teams. So you get a lot of
those a heavy sets because they'd like to run out
of heavy sets and be you get a lot of
bodies in the box. Well, Mike Denbrock, light bulb. Hey,

(01:41:20):
if they're gonna be eight nine guys in the box,
we got to hunt, and he has been very willing
to hunt this year with the explosives. The one thing
I would look for in this game, there's two ways
to take advantage of a team that is bigger, faster,
stronger than you. On the outside. Right, you could go
twelve personnel two tight ends, and then you could try
to get the ball to your tight ends in the

(01:41:40):
flats and in the seams and kind of stretch the
field vertically that way, or you could spread everything out
and you could try to seek one on ones with
the undersized USC corners against these very big, physical Notre
Dame receivers. I don't know what the game plan is
for Mike Denbrock, but you have two very good options,
right You either bunch it all in the middle heavy
form and then try to stretch vertically or spread out

(01:42:03):
and seek those one on one matchups. But I really
like Notre Dames offense against this USC secondary.

Speaker 5 (01:42:08):
Yeah, and listen Notre Dame's defense. It's been weird.

Speaker 3 (01:42:11):
First three games, terrible, last three games fantastic. If you
look at Notre Dame the last three games defensively, they've
allowed twenty seven total points. That's really good. That's against Arkansas,
Boise State, and c State. Arkansas is a real offense.
So I mean, even a lot of people wouldn't have
thought they would have held Arkansas at twenty seven points.

(01:42:31):
They've held their last three opponents to twenty seven points collectively.

Speaker 5 (01:42:35):
So that's the question. Is Notre Dames defense fixed? Is
it a lot better?

Speaker 2 (01:42:39):
Now?

Speaker 3 (01:42:40):
Do they regress against the team as offensively talented as USC?
So that's a major question. We'll see what the defense
comes up with tonight for USC. But yeah, getting back
to the rivalry that might not be any more if
you look at USC, I.

Speaker 2 (01:42:55):
Get it, you know.

Speaker 5 (01:42:56):
And to pay off the cheap shot.

Speaker 3 (01:42:57):
You have the Big Ten schedule right now, you have
non conference scheduling up that could be problematic. Maybe you're
in the Big Ten title game, then the college football playoffs.

Speaker 5 (01:43:07):
That's a lot.

Speaker 3 (01:43:07):
That's a lot, so I can understand how you might
want to scale back a little bit, you know, a
lot of attrition, you know, you don't want to lose dudes,
all that type of stuff. So in all of this,
I don't know if you've heard of their new model,
their new slogan here, have you heard this?

Speaker 2 (01:43:23):
I don't.

Speaker 3 (01:43:23):
I don't know if it's live to fight on another
day is what we're doing with USC. Maybe not scheduling
Notre Dame anymore, and we're just gonna attack it that
way is what we're going to do here, and also
turning friends into enemies. You know, we've got bo Benson,
Who've got Chris Purfett trusted, you know, our working team

(01:43:45):
over here, and they both went to USC, you know,
And so I have to have to take complete cheap
shots with old school Lou Holtz talking trash about USC.

Speaker 5 (01:43:53):
How about this is a good one right here, like
this like most of.

Speaker 8 (01:43:55):
The football players shows USC over UC LA LA the future.

Speaker 5 (01:44:00):
That's a good one right there. That's a solid.

Speaker 2 (01:44:05):
Yeah. I'll say this about Notre Dame's improved defense. I
think over the past two games against Poise State and
NC State only allowing really one explosive run that I
can remember, that's been better. Their defensive line has been

(01:44:26):
a problem for them all season long. I will say this,
though They've had a tough schedule this season, especially when
you look at opposing offenses, it hasn't been an easy
govid for Notre Dame defensively when you think about the
sort of offenses they've had to face throughout the season.
Here's the negatives for USC. Though they're hurt and not

(01:44:48):
having Jordan in the backfield, they have some offensive line
issues as well. Uh their their big left tackle Page
he didn't play against Michigan. They're going to substitute in
another offensive lineman if he still can't go, We'll see
how that goes. Look, the great news for Notre Dame

(01:45:10):
is that you see USC's blue print runs revolve around
zone read and power, and it's not the man blocking
schemes that the fighting Irish defense has really struggled with.
Like when teams line up and they play smash mouth
football against Notre Dame, where they say, hey, we're gonna

(01:45:32):
double team this defensive tackle into the lap of that
linebacker and we're gonna run straight downhill at you. That's
where Notre Dame struggles the most defensively because their d
line is an issue, but against the zone where their
linebackers can play a little bit more downhill, when their
linebacker their speed of their defense can play against more

(01:45:53):
mobile quarterbacks. Usually that spells disaster for certain defenses. Notre
Dame's more comfortable against that style and that sets up
well for for them against USC. So I don't know,
I'm leaning Notre Dame in this one. I think I
think Notre Dame is probably the winning side of this one,

(01:46:13):
and for good reason. I they they're But but when
I look at the game overall, can USC keep it close.
You know what, am I willing to take Notre Dame
to cover nine? I don't know if I can get there.

Speaker 5 (01:46:29):
Yeah, it's it's taken up even more. We're up to
ten now. I was like an auctioneer, you know, can
you get me?

Speaker 6 (01:46:34):
Get me?

Speaker 5 (01:46:36):
It's gonna be. It might be even more than that
by kickoff.

Speaker 2 (01:46:38):
It could be.

Speaker 4 (01:46:40):
I think the team total is intriguing too at thirty
five and a half. Like I really again, I think
the matchup that I really like in this game the
most is the Notre Dame receivers, most notably are Fields
and Rareed in the tight end against that undersized USC secondary.
I just I don't want. I went back and I
watched the Illinois game this week and they were just

(01:47:01):
getting dashed by Illinois. And no knock on Altmeyer, but
I just I think I think Notre Dame is better,
and I think their scheme is a little bit more aggressive,
and I think that really Fields is an absolute rock
star and he's going to be a really tough cover
in this game. Also, Miami's lost last night muddies the
waters in the college football playoff. Now there's a chance

(01:47:22):
we have a three bid acc now there is a chance.
I don't think it's gonna happen, but there's a chance.
And that makes Notre Dame at ten and two a
very tricky conversation. You might be grading Notre Dame at
ten and two against the ten and two ACC team.
So you need this game bad and you need to
look good because the College of Ball playoff picture is narrowing,

(01:47:45):
and Miami's lost last night makes the ACC waters very muddy.

Speaker 2 (01:47:49):
Okay, we'll go.

Speaker 5 (01:47:51):
No huddle here. I want your track shoes on. I
want speed, I want lightning.

Speaker 2 (01:47:57):
Do you all right? Quick?

Speaker 3 (01:47:58):
Well, quick preview? We move it all right? We got
Oklahoma South Carolina. I know you've got this one circled
there Rich where John Mattire? What kind of performance is
going to see from John Mattire really struggled against Texas
being rushed back from that hand injury. What do you
see in Oklahoma South Carolina?

Speaker 2 (01:48:17):
Yeah, I mean I don't love Oklahoma in this matchup.
I don't love South Carolina in this matchup, to be
perfectly honest with you, So I think where I'm at
here is if you force my hand. Actually, let's put
it this way. This is South Carolina's game to lose.

(01:48:37):
If I'm being honest, I have them on the money
line in the parlay platter. I like them on the
spread as well, for I mean for the same reasons
I like him on the money line. I'm not in
love with this pick, but Leonora sellers he's got enough
to get them through this game. And Matier, I don't
believe that he's healthy. I don't believe a single thing.

(01:48:59):
We're here out of Boomer Sooner Nation. I think he
was really limited during that game against Texas. I think
he is. They are trying their hardest to get him
back into the game because they really don't trust their
backup quarterback and that's a tough spot to be him.
So look, South Carolina's hosting them. I think that this

(01:49:22):
game will skew toward the under, and I like South
Carolina on the spread. And if you, if you have to,
if you, if you fall him in love with them,
I would take them on the money line as well.

Speaker 4 (01:49:35):
Dead nut undergame. Oklahoma's defense is great. South Carolina's whole
line is not great, and matears banged up.

Speaker 3 (01:49:43):
Dead nut undergame all right, Utah BYU Utah favored by
three and a half on the road bear Backmeyer the
true freshman. That's kind of crazy, right, The undefeated BYU
team is a three and a half point underdog against
the Utah team that is not exactly, you know, offensively
firing on all cylinders, even though they looked a lot

(01:50:05):
better last week against Arizona State.

Speaker 5 (01:50:07):
What do you think in the Holy War here?

Speaker 2 (01:50:09):
Rich? Okay? Yeah, look through six games, we really haven't
seen a great formula against BYU. Yet we've also seen
Utah fall to Texas Tech. I don't know. I like
I like the Cougars in this one. I think I
think I would back the Cougars on the spread. So

(01:50:32):
if if, if, if I'm getting three and a half,
I'm taking them.

Speaker 4 (01:50:37):
Yeah, I think this is another undergame. I guess I'll
take the three and a half two. But I think
Utah might be a little better than we think. But
these games have been funky. I think they're the second
best team in the Big twelve actually, But the again,
these games have been a little funky. And BYU just
ripped my heart out last week against Arizona. So I

(01:50:57):
was on Area on Arizona and I thought I was
covering that one, and then they went overtime and then
you weren't covering anymore. So maybe I'm a little biased,
but I think Utah is the better team.

Speaker 5 (01:51:07):
Yeah that was gross, wasn't I?

Speaker 2 (01:51:09):
It was really gross.

Speaker 3 (01:51:10):
No team has screwed me more this year than BYU. Yes,
can I tell you just one, like a real quick
story here? This is how bad BYU has got me
this year. It wasn't just last week where I went
Arizona and I had three in the hook I went
in game. It wasn't just plus two and a half.
I was plus three and a half and we didn't one.

(01:51:30):
That was just gross, but gross. They hosted Stanford earlier
this year. This is a funny, this is a good,
like bad beat story. But they're hosting Stanford and I'm like,
Stanford is decrepitly bad. You know, I'm gonna lay six
and a half in the first quarter with BYU. So
BYU scores a touchdown and BYU says, you know what,

(01:51:51):
instead of kicking the extra point, which Brian really needs,
let's go like Oregon swinging gate. They try to run
a two point play and they got stuffed and they
then after that they got an interception. They're a little
bit more than two minutes to go, They're almost in
the red zone. Got an interception. I'm like, all right,

(01:52:12):
we got life.

Speaker 5 (01:52:12):
Maybe we get this thing.

Speaker 3 (01:52:14):
Three straight plays where it was like a running play
and maybe two short completions, I'm like, just one incomplete pass.

Speaker 5 (01:52:23):
We're good.

Speaker 3 (01:52:24):
They so the clock keeps running, running running. They could
have kicked the field goal. There was enough time, but
they're like, why kick it in the first quarter, Let's
just wait until the second quarter.

Speaker 5 (01:52:34):
That's what thing is.

Speaker 3 (01:52:35):
I lost my first quarter bet after those bumps, didn't
kick an extra point and then elected not to kick
the field goal until the second half. So that's how
it's gone with me in BYU this year. There you go, Yeah,
it's been rough one last one Missouri against Auburn. Auburn
has had some rough rough outcomes. You know if you've

(01:52:56):
been backing them to the safety at the end of
the game at Oklahoma last week against Georgia was disgusting
if you took the points with Auburn. What do you
think about miszoo first road game, their first road game
of the season at Auburn, tough place to play, night game.

Speaker 5 (01:53:14):
What do you see in this one?

Speaker 2 (01:53:15):
Rich yeah, I think Auburn's much better than people think,
and I think Miszoo is not as good as people think,
and so I think this game sets up well for Auburn.
They're playing at home again, Miszoo's first road trip. Their
defense has been sharp, Missouri's offensive production has been shakier

(01:53:36):
than when they started the season with some cupcake matchups.
So when you dig into their stats, you say to yourself, like,
whoa Missoo's extremely you know, explosive beneficient, And then when
you look at some of the recent history, you say,
now there are some problems here. I think that this
game sets up for an Auburn victory. I really do.

(01:53:59):
I like Auburn in this one.

Speaker 4 (01:54:01):
I would agree, and I like Brian's handicap earlier about
Missouri's run game against his Auburn defense. It's the strength
of the team up front. Here's their d line. They
have Beef Keiroan Crawford six four three twenty five. That's
your defensive end. That's like a nose tackle size. Their
defensive tackle Malik blocked in sixty three three hundred nose
tackle Bobby Jamison Travis six four three thirty and in

(01:54:23):
their edge rusher Kendrick Falko, I think is their best
overall defensive player, sixty six two fifty five, long, lanky,
can get off the edge like. This is a really
good Auburn defense. Now I don't trust Jackson Arnolds far
as I can throw them, but this one feels kind
of rock fighty too.

Speaker 2 (01:54:37):
Total forty four.

Speaker 4 (01:54:38):
I would lean Auburn in the.

Speaker 5 (01:54:39):
Under There you go, all right, very nice, well done, chaps.

Speaker 3 (01:54:43):
We've got rich Orenberger, Penn State All American, Jared Smith
FSR betting analyst. I'm Brian Nell. Coming up next, the
Moment of Truth rapid Fire. We each have a bushel
of picks for you. We will throw them at you
Frisbee style. Coming up next, it is Fox Sports Radios
Countdown to kick Off, presented by bet MGM.

Speaker 5 (01:55:02):
It is Fox Sports Radios Countdown to kick Off, then
it by bet MGM.

Speaker 3 (01:55:07):
If you miss anything on today's show you want to
catch the podcast, just search Fox Sports Radio where every podcasts.
Right after the show, today's pod will be posted. Be
sure to follow it, readit five stars, and you can
even provide a review. Again, just search Fox Sports Radio
wherever you get your podcasts, and you'll find today's full
show posted.

Speaker 5 (01:55:25):
Right after we get off the air.

Speaker 3 (01:55:27):
Props to the crew, Bo Benson the Dodger Zone Pod
even though he's a USC grad Technical producer, extraordinary Chris
Purfett even though he's a USC grad as well. And
the shout out to our guy Elijah on Digital Today
filling in for Sager Elijah posting our clips. Appreciate his
hard work. Give Fox Sports Radio follow on x you

(01:55:48):
can see all of our videos, all of our smiling faces.
Top of the hour up on Game LaVar Arrington, TJ Hushman,
Zada Plaxico, Burist. They have got you covered in less
than ten minutes from now. Keep it locked right here
on Fox Sports Radio. Okay, we got some picks to make.

Speaker 5 (01:56:04):
Let's do it rapid fire, all right, Jared Smith, we
start with you.

Speaker 2 (01:56:13):
All right.

Speaker 4 (01:56:13):
Let's go Indiana minus twenty seven and a half against
Michigan State. Kurtz Signetti leveraged the James Franklin firing and
got himself a fat raise. Good for you, pal, that's
a boss move. I would have done the same thing.
Now it's time to put your money where your mouth is.
He loves running up the score against bad teams. Michigan
State fits the profile. They just lost to UCLA by
twenty five at home. Wolf, I think Indiana can cover

(01:56:35):
twenty seven and a half at home. Kentucky plus twelve
and a half versut Texas. Did you know fun fact?
Texas zero to four against the spread the last four years.
The week after red River last year they got absolutely
deep pants by Georgia. Their worst loss of the year
actually was worse than the margin that they had in
the playoff against Ohio State. So Kentucky's got some big

(01:56:58):
dudes on both sides of the ball. They're not to
be a push over here.

Speaker 2 (01:57:00):
I think Texas.

Speaker 4 (01:57:01):
Listen, maybe they win, but twelve and a half's a
lot of points. I'll take Kentucky in the post red
River hangover plus twelve and a half against the Long Horns,
and finally Clemson minus three and a half against SMU.
Big move on this spread with Kate Clubnick announced out
Chris Vezina. He is the starter this week, former four
star big kid six four two ten limited playing time,
but I don't think he's worth I don't think Clubnick's

(01:57:22):
worth five points over anybody right now. So I think
Clemson ears perked up after the Miami loss, they'd look
good and back to back weeks.

Speaker 2 (01:57:30):
SMU's bad in the secondary.

Speaker 4 (01:57:31):
Their best two games this year TCU and Baylor, the
two best opponents they face, they allow to combine eighty
three points. So I think Clemson at home gets a
big win minus three and a half against SMUN.

Speaker 2 (01:57:41):
All right, I'll give you the one I like the
least first, and that's Oklahoma visiting South Carolina. I got
the game Cocks getting four and a half. I'm taking
the points. And here's the reason why. This is a
battle of which quarterback do I trust the least, And
right now that's John Mattia. I think he's too hurt
to really booye this Oklahoma offense on the road. Moving

(01:58:03):
on to kind of a short thing, or at least
it has been the entire season. I'm not gonna overthink it.
Ohio State has been great. They've been perfect against the spread,
their favorite twenty five and a half against Wisco. Wisconsin's
been dreadful. You heard Seamus say it earlier. I don't
know how Luke Fickle still has a job. I'm taking
Buckeyes to cover their giant spread against Wisconsin on the road,

(01:58:26):
and then Texas A and M at Arkansas. The number
to get over is fifty eight and a half, and
I think they sail past the number. Arkansas is an
explosive quarterback, Texas A and M struggles against explosive offenses.
Texas A and M has a methodical offense. Arkansas can't
stop them. Give me the over on that fifty eight

(01:58:48):
and a half total.

Speaker 3 (01:58:49):
Okay, I got a couple of running back unders for you.
Give me Releak Brown, who I love Arizona State running back,
but against the best rush defense in college football. Texas
Tech gives up an average of sixty two point five
rushing yards per game. I've got Releak under seventy eight
and a half rushing yards against Texas Tech.

Speaker 2 (01:59:07):
Tonight.

Speaker 3 (01:59:08):
Give me a mod Hardy who I also love, Missouri
running back. Give me under seventy nine and a half
rushing yards against Auburn shared detailed the beef. The beef
up front with war Eagle over there. It's gonna be
hard to run on that defense, and I'm gonna double down.
I'm gonna go with war Eagle plus two point and
a half against Missouri. Miszoo's first road game, tough to

(01:59:30):
crank it up after an emotional Alabama loss last week.
What could go wrong backing Auburn. They've been so legendary
this year. I think this is the spot. I think
it's the spot to back Auburn, So I will do that.
Twofold all right, enjoy the action, Go Irish, We'll see
you

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