September 1, 2025 • 46 mins
John Middlekauff reacts to the Miami Hurricanes defeating the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in their Week 1 matchup. John applauds Miami head coach Mario Cristobal for sustaining the lead when Notre Dame was rallying in the 4th quarter, and believes this early test against the Fighting Irish will bode well for Miami this season in the ACC. Next, John welcomes Jackson Groff to discuss Notre Dame’s outlook for the rest of the season. John then reacts to Alabama’s loss to Florida State and what that means for head coach Kalen DeBoer. John also applauds Florida State head coach Mike Norvell for getting a big time win after a forgettable season for the Seminoles last year. John wraps up debating whether some college football coaches should be on the “hot seat” after Week 1 due to their large buyout contracts.
02:16 - Miami-Notre Dame
09:48 - Chubbies
11:03 - John & Jackson talk Notre Dame
28:13 - Alabama Crimson Tide
34:12 - Florida State Seminoles
39:37 - Couch Scout: LSU-Clemson
43:35 - Hot Seat Watch?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. What is going on everybody? How are we doing?
John Middlecalf to Renown Podcast. Just watched a little football
because that's what we do during the football season. And
(00:22):
the Miami Hurricanes beat the Fighting Irish and uh huh,
kind of a boring game, then it kind of thrilling,
but big win for Mario Notre Dame. It's gonna be okay, Well,
we'll dive into that. I'll bring my guy Jackson on
and he's a big Notre Dame guy. I did a
reaction video and podcast yesterday to Arch Manning, meaning I
didn't talk about Alabama and Florida State, and I didn't
(00:45):
talk about Clemson and LSU. So we'll touch on those
games tonight and just some overall theories and just thoughts
I had from the last twenty four hours in college football.
And that'll be the game plan. So hopefully everyone's had
a relaxing Labor Day Monday, probably not working, just enjoying yourself.
So I thought i'd do a little podcast on Sunday
(01:08):
night because football is back. Obviously, we got NFL games,
we got a lot of we got a lot of content,
so we are full speed ahead, and we got Bill
Belichick coaching again North Carolina on Monday night, So I'm
sure I will do something else come Monday night, but
I think I'm going on Colin as well. But you'll
see all this stuff. Other than that, make sure you
(01:29):
subscribe to the podcast, Make sure you subscribe to the
YouTube page, and appreciate everyone for listening, sharing the content,
and yeah, let's rock and roll baby. Before we dive
into what we just witnessed, I do need to tell
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(01:50):
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(02:12):
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Time app Today, last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. You
know what's funny is sometimes during games, you know this week,
the early on in some of these games could be
a little slow, So you just get on your phone.
You're just googling different guys. And I just went to
the Wikipedia for Mario Christobal. And in nineteen ninety eight,
before his coaching career really started, he had just finished playing.
(02:56):
He was GA currently at Miami. He was thinking about
joining the Secret Service, and he went through all the training,
all the testing, and he got in. He was going
to be a Secret Service agent. And he accepted the job,
and he told the team, and he told the players,
and then he slept on it and he declined it,
and he went into coaching and Obviously, all these years later,
(03:19):
almost three decades, he's on an eighty million dollar contract
at his own water And there is no disputing this
guy is an elite recruiter. He became a star for
Nick Saban in the mid twenty tens. He did an
awesome job at Oregon, and you just watched the talent
that he has in Miami. There is no disputing his
ability to identify, recruit and land. Now, obviously that's changed
(03:42):
over the years with Nil, but he can stack a team.
You know, Dan Lanning the cupboard, Listen, I gotta be fair, right,
I'm hard on not hard, but I just acknowledged the
fact that Ryan Day took over a rocket ship. So
Dan Lanning, I mean that team has a lot had
a lot of talent when he showed up. Because Mark
now Candy Win, that's a different question. And last year,
(04:04):
a little like a couple of years ago with Brian Kelly,
it's like he's got cam Ward. He's got this incredible
offense and the defense as a joke, and there's always
something with his teams. One they melt down a lot,
and two you just watch them from a buttoned up standpoint.
They just don't feel that well coached relative to the
highest level of teams, and tonight was big because if
you would have told me before this game, I didn't
(04:25):
bet on this game because I thought it was a
coin flip. It's in Florida. Anytime you get these teams
that aren't from the South going to the South, it
was a Boise State thing. When they went to South Florida,
you're just getting I mean, there's ninety one percent of humidity.
It was hot as hell, So that's just going to
be advantage Miami. Now, toward the end of the game,
(04:46):
it looked like they were melting down again and Notre
Dame scores. Then he scores again, and then it's tight game.
You're like, is what's going on here? Is he's gonna
blow this game. It looked like not only was he
in full control, looked like he was gonna win it
going away, and it was just gonna be another meltdown
on the guy's resume. But at the end of the day,
like no one will remember because the guy kicks a
field goal, his defense comes through and Miami looks really
(05:08):
good and another star that kind of came out of
this game. I don't know that much about him, but
the offensive cordon coordinator Shannon Dawson. Last year he proved
what he cam Ward was viewed as like a fifth
or fourth or sixth round pick, right, so the reason
at best maybe like high fourth round pick. It would
have been pretty shocking after Washington State if people had
got drafted on the second day turned him into the
(05:30):
number one overall pick. And the reason guys like me
kind of like the Titans this year is because of him. Well,
Shannon Dawson, Like he was the offensive coordinator last year.
I'm and I listen, if you watch cam Ward at
Washington State, there was no disputing his physical attributes, like
he was really talented. A couple when he first got there,
You're like, this guy's from what school? Damn? Who is
(05:51):
this guy? I did not think that about Carson Beck.
It's like still about the biggest Carson Beck fan. But
he looked way better tonight with Dawson on the plays. Listen,
if their offense is good again, which most teams aren't
gonna be as good at as Notre Dame on defense
throughout there, you know this year on their schedule, I
don't see how this guy doesn't either become a head
(06:13):
coach in twenty six or NFL teams don't start offering
this guy an offensive coordinator job. So the one thing
you say about you know, Mario Crystobal, clearly he can
recruit and build this roster. His offensive coordinator is really
good back to back years, like they're gonna be potent
on offense. That little guy number ten, Tony, I mean,
holy shit, keep an eye on that cat for the
(06:34):
next couple of years. And the question marks defensively, well,
their defensive lines flying around, their dbs made plays was
really impressive. I mean that that was a big time
win for Mario. Honestly, I'm pretty impressive with Notre Dame
and the one thing with Marcus Freeman. There were times
tonight where I just thought, like, guys are kind of
getting worked. You look like crap. And sometimes college coaches
(06:56):
can be pretty emotional in basketball and football. They're all screaming,
like they're just always going nuts. You know. In the NFL,
assistants go nuts sometimes, but the head coach he has
to stay pretty even keel because the team's kind of
looking at him. And the good coaches in college now,
Saban was kind of an outlier, but you kind of
gotta contain yourself because if you get frazzled, if you're
(07:18):
going nuts, your team's gonna really fall apart. And Marcus
Freeman kind of had a Belichickian thing tonight and I
was like, damn, you know this guy because I was
down on him his first year when he took over
for Brian Kelly. Remember they lost to Marshall that they
should have lost a cal They just it was like
they just looked really, really bad. And what he's done
obviously last year even this year, that they're really the
(07:40):
David Shaw Jim Harbas Stanford team. They're never gonna have
elite wide receivers, can't get him into school. But in
terms of top flight defense, their defense is gonna be
really good. I mean, Miami's probably top six or seven
roster in the league or in the country. But like
they're gonna struggle to be a potent passing team. If
you notice as the night went on, like they can't
(08:02):
really push the ball down the field beside to the
tight end. So the way this team's gonna have to
operate is offensive line, run the ball with two starbacks
and get the ball to your tight end and manipulate
passes to your wide receiver. But when you get down
in that situation, it can be difficult. And I just
thought he did a pretty good job of like their
team's pretty batterly tough, Like this is not some fraudulent
(08:24):
you know out last year being an outlier season. I
know they lost to Night, but to go down there
in the humanity to be playing like craft with a
first year quarterback, who listen, like at any time that
these guys make their first career start, I think people
are gonna be pretty critical at these big time programs,
but like, we gotta let it breathe a little bit.
We got to give the guy some time. And that's
(08:45):
a really, really tough opponent. But like they're always going
to struggle outside David sew and Jim Harbaugh did forever,
and they were consistently in the top five. They were
consistently competing to win the Rose Bowl, to be in
the BCS, you know, to be a top three or
four team in the country. And they just never had
Justin Jefferson or Jamar Chase, Like Ceedee Lamb's not going
to school at Notre Dame, so you've got to be
(09:06):
buttoned up on defense, which they're gonna be under Barcus Freeman.
But tonight he saw, especially toward the end of the game,
that last drive, it looked like their tackles were gassed.
I mean that right tackle got embarrassed, you know, I
mean he got it was bad. Now was he just
you know, sucking wind? As Jimmy Johnson famously said to
(09:28):
the Miami Hurricanes way back in the day, fatigue makes
cowards of us all. And his big thing was always
being the best shape, because the moment you get tired,
you could be David Goggins, you could be Chuck Lydell,
or you could be me or you you're just not as
tough and you're definitely not as mentally tough. And you
just saw that right tackle. It looked like he was gassed.
And this is what Stanford hung their hand on. Their
(09:49):
offensive lines were elite. So if Notre Dame's gonna want
to compete and get back to the National Championship and
just have a team that can win playoff games, because
we know, I guess this year the seating has changed
a little bit. They got to button up that offensive line,
but they're gonna have to win with their running backs
and tight ends because as we saw last year. You know,
wide receiver is gonna be a little issue. I did
(10:11):
want to bring in my guy Jackson, who I know,
the biggest Notre Dame fan I know, probably beside Lou Holtz. Listen,
last year you play Texas A and M you you
get a big win. Now, granted you were playing a
quarterback who barely could walk straight and chew gum. But
(10:31):
you know this year, you know, down big, but come
storming back. It's weird. You know. You know in college
now with the playoff, you're not out of it just
because you lose a game. And I would say that
for Clemson obviously Texas. This isn't twenty fourteen, this isn't
two thousand and eight. You don't have to run the
(10:51):
table like you can, especially with your guys schedule this year,
unlike last year, you can afford to lose a couple
of games. But where do you stay at Jackson, what
do you think of the quarterback? I know you were
hard on the offensive coordinator throwing those quick screens, but
you don't exactly have Randy Moss out there. Yeah, you
know the quick screens.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
And then you know we kept texting our group chat
it was like, when is you know, Jeremiah Love gonna
get involved. He only had ten carries and CJ. Carr
actually had more carries than he did, which was kind
of surprising. And you know twenty four Jerion Price comes in.
He's kind of that in between the tackles downhill runner
just to get some kind of momentum.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
But I thought CJ. Carr played well.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
I mean, with all the new quarterbacks that we saw
this weekend, Tys Simpson Julian saying arch Manning like one
thing that I mean you know too, like the young
quarterbacks is the confidence between behind their arm. And you
saw him rolling back and it almost got me flashbacks
from Shandor Sanders in preseason. You're like, oh my gosh,
he's on the thirty yard line. Makes that throw. The
(11:45):
momentum switch over to Notre Dame. A couple of fluke plays,
I mean, the fumbles and then the interception off of
that guy's foot is something that's just gonna roll their way.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
But you talked about it.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
I mean, Notre Dame's a tough team under Marcus Freeman,
and this was Brian Kelly what he's got now and
them beating Clemson with all these transfers and you know,
a veteran quarterback, they probably don't.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Win that game.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
And you we were even texting in the group chat too,
like these are the games that Mario Christobal loses. And
maybe it's this year with Dawson and the defensive coordinator
they got from Minnesota where he kind of just takes
a step back and lets them coach. And like you said,
they went out and recruited Tony's a stud up front.
I didn't expect Miami to out physical Notre Dame on
(12:27):
both sides of the football up front. And you're talking
about the heat being a factor, but yeah, I mean
I think Notre Dame fought. Like you said, it's it's
a one It's not a one game season for Notre Dame.
You got a bye week and then you play a
and m It's not the worst thing ever. We see
Notre Dame after losing the NIU bounce back and end
up making the National Championship. It is gonna be interesting
(12:48):
how it plays out. And if this game could have
been twenty eight to seven, it could have been over.
It felt like it was teetering there for a meet. Yeah,
it was a running back yeah, running back slips. But
I mean, I'm curious your thoughts about CJ.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Carr.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
I think he played good. It's it's just the last drive.
You see the freshman in him. You can't take a sack.
And like you said, the tackles, I mean they were gassing,
baying the ruined bay, and Miami's defender of their best
defensive line showed up last. But overall, I was shocked
that Notre Dame through the ball thirty times. But maybe
this is something that will benefit him in.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
The long run. Well, when you're down, you know, twenty
one to seven, especially in the fourth quarter, you gotta score.
So I you know, if we look how many times
they passed the ball in those last couple drives, it
probably inflated it to what it would have been if
the score was fourteen to fourteen, right, so they had
to get away from the run, but they were throwing
the ball then to the running back, you know, countless times.
(13:45):
This is my comparison though to the Stanford teams. Sometimes
it's hard to judge the quarterback. Let's use Carson Beck
as an example, who I was probably too hard on,
as was everyone last year. Disastrous season. But the offensive
line was and they had lost Bowers and they had
lost Latin Maconky. So unless you're Mahomes or Josh Allen,
(14:06):
if I remove those two guys, you're gonna look worse, right,
dramatically worse. And he looked really bad. Well then tonight.
You know, one thing Miami's always been able to do
is like they get skill guys, right, and Mario's good
at that. So you bring in this true freshman Tony
that obviously is gonna probably be a freshman All American.
I always put money on that if he's healthy. I mean,
you just saw they never took that guy off the field,
(14:27):
like he's just part of their group and they're playing. Listen.
I think it's stupid that you can play a nobody
like Penn State's really good, right, some of these teams
are really good, Georgia, when you play the Sisters of
the Poor, I don't know how to judge you with
your current team. I know you're good, but like I
know way more about Texas in a loss or Clemson
in a loss, like this was a real game, like
(14:49):
a real game, and so when you treat usually these
Mario is like I wonder if he learned a lot
from Sabin, Like sometimes when you got a blue chipper
and he's ready, you just got to play. And they
were just riding that kid. But on my point is
Carson looked a lot better and he just pushed the
ball down the field more like you guys just are
only gonna push the ball down the field if the
tight ends wide open. And that's that was a little
(15:12):
like Penn State last year. Now Penn State because of
academic like they can get guys in. We'll see what
their unit looks like the better teams they play. But
like you're just not gonna have NFL star receivers outside
like Miami, like Texas and Ohio State, and some of
these teams are gonna get and that's gonna be your
downfall because there are gonna be times. Who knows, maybe
Miami's like a final fourteen this year. I think that's
(15:32):
possible that if you do get down fourteen to nothing
or in the second half, like these games not this
isn't Texas Tech first, Washington State, that every game is
gonna be fifty to forty. It's kind of is nice
and I enjoyed it a lot this last forty eight
hours of just seeing physical ass football and it was hard,
Like these dbs are making plays. The d lin's all hitting,
(15:54):
and you do need your wide receivers though, like to
run it. I don't know, like a ten yard out
or something, and I just don't have that much faith
in Notre Dame at that position. And that could be
like if they were more explosive, if I just gave
them a top ten type college wide receiver, you would
feel the team would feel a lot more balanced. So
the moment the defense isn't dominating, they do feel like
(16:17):
they're up against the ropes a little bit because you
thought Tony and again it could have just been probably
was the heat was insane. But if their defense isn't
dominating the game last year against Ohio State, right, if
you're losing a little bit, it's like, how are they
gonna come back? And that's how I love who clears
these an elite player saying, is it Price number twenty four?
(16:38):
Darien Price? Like you just you're not just gonna unless
you're Kyle Shanahan, just keep calling runs down twenty one
to seven. Right, You're gonna have to throw the ball
a little bit and then they can kind of tee off.
So that's just not how I would imagine Marcus is
talking as we record this, but he's like, we can't
get down double digits, Like that's not how we're built,
and it's it's just true like LSU the last couple years,
(17:00):
Miami last year, like they could get down fifteen points.
Remember Caw they were down like thirty to ten. It's
like whatever, we'll just start slinging around. But that's not
that's gonna be Notre Dame's ultimate downfall. I don't really
know how they changed that unless it's like, you know what,
we're gonna make a couple exceptions. It's gonna be specifically
toward wide receivers. I do think they.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Showed some flashes of potentially throwing the football. I mean
they had that Malachi Feels number zero had that crazy catch.
He's the Virginia sixty five wide receiver they got. Obviously
the tight end had that sixty five yard but besides that,
they didn't really have any explosive plays. And even Jaden
Greyhouse tonight, the guy that went off the National Championship
when they were down against Ohio State, that kind of
got him back into that game. He was quiet tonight,
(17:43):
So I'm not I get what you mean in terms of,
like we had an expect CJ. Card to run a
ball eleven times. This is the guy who supposed to
be a pocket passer, pass first quarterback. But you did
see some flashes and what they did in the offseason
where I'm kind of like, okay, let's hold off a
little bit on them being maybe a run first team.
I know you have Jeremiah Love and Price, but I
did think you did see some flashes for a true
(18:04):
fresh or a red shirt freshman. I should say, with
the wide receiver they have on the outside that they
could be two dimensional. And if they are, then they
could be a problem. But it all starts with the
offensive line that got beat up, and they could run
the ball early, which kind of got him in that
hole to begin with.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Could also make the argument, you know, kind of a freak.
I mean they ran the play over and over, the
quick screen that turned into a turnover that then turned
into a touchdown. But also the CJ. Daniels the one
handed catch. If he doesn't make I don't know, like
you know, Odell Beckham justin Jefferson like grab that's intercepted.
I don't think a Georgia receiver catches that again on
(18:41):
his feet and he's going I don't know if he
scored a touchdown, but he was gonna land on his
feet with the ball in his bread basket. And the
guy just made an incredible catch. So Georgia did hit
a couple. I mean, Carson had some Yolow throws today
that that landed. Now he is playing like they got
a lot more talent on that team right outside. I
actually think it's not. But I have no problem when
(19:02):
you lose a close game to a team that's clearly good.
And that's the great part about this, this playoff, right
is that it's a little more NFL. You know this
notion all the games aren't gonna matter as much. Bullshit. Yeah,
like when Alabama plays Mercer, no one's gonna care. They
didn't care when Nick Saban was there. But this, I
bet Notre Dame's devastated in the locker room right now.
(19:23):
Clemson was devastating in the locker room right now. Texas
is devastating in the locker room right now. They all
could easily make the playoffs, and it's it's football. Just
like if the Cowboys get their ass kicked in a
couple nights. It's gonna suck for them. Like football, you
only play so many games. So I actually think it's
that that notion of that, like this game felt really big.
(19:44):
All these games, right, all the four straight big games. Sorry, Shane,
I'm not counting Syracuse, Tennessee, even though that in theory
decent game, that's better game than most. But the morning
game Ohio State, Texas, Florida State, Alabama now assuming that
Florida's APEC, which I think they easily could be, and
then the night game LSU Clemson, and then this game,
(20:05):
you could even say a little bit South Carolina Virginia Tech.
Virginia Tech. Now quick grant the neutral site games. If
Josh Pate ever becomes the commissioner someone, we got to
ban those. I listen bowl games. I totally understand the
conference championship games. But what made tonight so badass is
about like, oh Miami's like kind of has a home
(20:27):
field thing going, obviously Clemson, obviously Ohio State. Like that's
that's what college football is. The NFL is not as
much about that. The NFL is more about the crowd
beside three or four places. But in college football, like
Iowa let alone, you know, just you go all round,
all the power forwards. Like playing at home is a
really big deal. Winning on the road in college is
(20:49):
insanely hard. Right. I don't even know what Nussmeyer stats are.
I don't care. I watched him. He was awesome. You
know how hard it is to win there? Right, It's
just like it was it was Listen, Alabama might turn
out to be eight and four, right, but like that's
a hard place to go when they start doing the
Tomahawk chock chop and that fucking place is rocking. These
(21:09):
neutral site playing at the Mercedes Benz, that sucks for
the fans. I thought this day before I left Hawaii.
When Nebraska is playing Cincinnati at Arrowhead, I mean, it's
cool that Mahomes and Kelsey get to go, but that
sucks for Nebraska Cincinnati that loses a home game. I
mean that's what college football is for the twelve games,
the home and away games really really matter. And just
(21:30):
if that game would have been at Notre Dame, it
would have been a huge evans for Notre Dame. That's
one thing. You got a factory in college. But yeah,
I wouldn't be that down. If I were you, I'd
still be pretty bullish on the squad.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
The last thing I'll say, the perspective on the ACC
after this weekend. You know, if Clemson goes down and
beats LSU, it's probably even a bigger perspective on the conference.
But you looked at Florida State different, you look at
Miami different. Miami has to go to Florida State in
about three or four weeks. Florida State has to play
Clemson and Miami. That conference looks a little interesting.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Now.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Now you start to look back and you say, okay,
if they could potentially get two bids or what happens
with the Big twelve, Like if you're the AEC Commission,
you gotta be smiling ear to year and what you
saw from both those squads because like myself, you didn't
know what Mario Christball was gonna produce out there. And
then Florida State, everybody counted out. That conference has got interesting.
Like Clemson, I picked them to win the national championship.
I think a lot of people picked them in the ACC.
(22:23):
If they can't run the football and they can't get
things around, like I mean, Miami, Florida State definitely looked
a lot more impressive than Clemson did this weekend.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
If you just base it on the games itself, I
would say, remember last year Clemson got curb stomp by
Georgia week and then by the end of the year
they were really good. So I think they'll still be okay.
I actually think their loss you feel better than Texas
because I thought cleb Nick wasn't that bad. You know
where Texas there's still a lot of question marks with Arch,
But how about cal They got like Tua two point
(22:53):
zero meets Michael Pennix, who looks really good. We'll see Belichick.
But listen, I don't not saying they're ten win team,
but they Bill freaking Belichick coaching, and they're not gonna suck.
They're gonna be tough on a weekly basis. I do
think it's insane they played Monday night, they have to
play next Saturday. How's that You can't give him like
(23:13):
a buy and that's crazy Bill O'Brien at Boston College.
The ACC is definitely gonna be solid. I think the
Big twelve to me clearly looks like the fourth Conference,
like a clear drop off. Though we'll see Utah Utah
is definitely a team that if you told me Utah
win eleven and one wins the Big twelve and then
(23:34):
like wins a playoff game, whether it's on the road
or at home, very believable. I mean a couple of
years ago, he was dominating the Pac twelve. When the
Pac twelve is good, right with Mario with debor with
Dan Lanning. You know he'd beat both those guys, like
he's he's a big time coach if he's got a quarterback.
I didn't know this, but I was listening stuff today
that they had stolen the new Mexico quarterback and their OC.
(23:57):
I love it when teams do this now package deal,
give me the play caller and the quarterback and the
play callers, Like it's like the dude from Washington State
of course you want the quarterback with the play callers,
Like wait, I get to go to the sweet school
too for double my money, Like I'm in. It's so funny.
And that team too lot.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
I know people would recognize when you're watching the UCLA game,
and I know people on the East Coast it kind
of felt like Pack twelve after dark because you got Utah,
Ucla got Oregon State. Cal Utah had three players playing
two ways and two guys that scored their best corner
and their best linebackers.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
I didn't see a snap of that game. I just
knew I just want followed on my phone. I kind
of had to look look out, lookout for Utah. I
mean damp here.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
I mean two hundred and thirty yards three hundred of
total yards. They ran the ball down ULA's throw. Nico
I Maliava like he probably regrets go to UCLA, and
I think Joey Aguilar for him. I mean, if Nico
doesn't go to UCLA, there's no chance he goes to Tennessee.
And now you look at Tennessee a little different. And
I know Syracuse defense isn't that great, but I don't know.
There's a lot of teams last night and that, Like
(24:59):
you said, it's tough to judg the Penn States, the
Georgia's and the Oregons who have to play Montana State,
but some of these other teams who got to play,
you know, other Big ten schools. It gets you get
a different perspective on those kind of teams and see
what they can do later on the season.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Okay, you got I'll get you out of here on this.
Which what were you thinking before the season, What are
you thinking right now? Because this is a big game, right,
you win this game? You worst case you're ten and two,
you lose this game. You know. Now there's more pressure
on these kind of swing games. You kind of gotta win.
Get you're playing A and M still right.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Yeah, I must win. Yeah, I think A M is
gonna be must win. You wonder what the involvement is
gonna be with Love in that next game. I think
den Brock probably regrets not implementing him more in the
first half and maybe calling a couple more screenplays.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
But who do they play this week? Bye week? Bye week? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Okay, they got that second week by which is nice
for Notre Dame. I mean after a loss like this.
I think when they played NIU they had a bye
week after that too. So, like like you said, Notre
Dame with Marcus Freeman, I have no heartburn on them.
It does think that Boise State Austin USF because you
look down the schedule, like the more ranked games the
better for Notre Dame, because yeah, it's not a one
(26:05):
game season, but you do have to have some ranked
wins on your schedule, like an A and M win
which they played Texas and they got some of those more.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
That's the difference though, is than they've changed the when
they talked about the schedule. If you just watch Notre
Dames a real team test and like, to me, if
Notre Dame's ten and two and there's some fraudulent power
for team that played nobody, Like I'm sorry, we saw
that song and dance last year. We're giving like Notre
Dame Texas, this clems. This is exactly what I'm talking about, Like,
we just saw they were real teams. So like, if
(26:34):
it's the difference of like one of them's nine and
three and the other team's ten and two but they
played nobody, that's where I think I'm more confident that,
like we picked the right team and they still got
to play well. They can't lose a bunch of games.
But this is not a bad thing. I guess this
is my overall take. But you gotta go ten and two,
nine and three Notre Dames probably not in right.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
You get one more loss, Yeah, and you wonder what
the SEC looks like too, I mean the SEC du
does a three loss team get in over a two
loss Notre Dame, and then you kind of got to
compare the big twelve in the ACC. That's where it's
gonna be interesting moving forward.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
How they do.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
I know, the SEC has a whole agreement where they've
got to go play another power for conference team in
their schedule, that's the thing. And they have this whole
new metric of strength to record. But we'll see tough
loss for Notre Dame, but they fought back.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Okay, thanks checks. Speaking of the SEC, let's just start
with Alabama because I've been a big proponent of Kaylin Dubor. Obviously,
(27:40):
he was a Frozen State guy and had success and
then went to Washington and dominated. I mean, this guy
was beating everybody and beat Sarkin, was in the National
Championship game, did a fantastic job, became the type candidate
that you not only seriously consider when a guy like
Nick Saban retires, you hire a real higher I know
(28:01):
a lot of people are like retweeting cowards tweet about
it being one of the best transitions in college football history.
Wasn't a crazy thought at the time. Dubor's record was like,
I forget off the top of my head but it
was like one hundred and eleven. I mean, he dominated
it everywhere he coached. I do believe this. I've always
(28:22):
had a theory and I stand by this, and I
think there are only a couple outlies, outliers in the
history of college football. Where in the NFL, it doesn't
matter where you are from, where you were born, and
where your career kind of takes off usually is where
you're gonna have success as a head coach. There are outliers,
like a guy from the Midwest can go to the South,
(28:44):
like Urban Meyer could have coached in China, in Spain,
in Alaska, in Florida. It wouldn't have mattered. He would
have won same thing with Nick Saban. But I saw
it out here on the West coast. Chris Peterson, who
had a ton of success at Boise State and then Washington,
grew up in southern California, went to UC Davis, coached
(29:06):
at UC Davis, coached at Oregon, coached at Boise, coached
at Washington, thrived on the West coast. Pete Carroll is
a great example. Well in the NFL, he could coach
any team, Tampa Bay, New England, Seattle. It wouldn't in college.
It does. I don't think Pete Carroll would have worked
at Florida. I don't think he would have worked at Alabama,
(29:27):
but he thrived at USC just like I don't think
a lot of non Southerners work in the South. When
I was at Fresno State, Jim mcelwaine had just left
and his close friend Doug Nussmeyer my first year at
Fresno State was our offensive coordinator and Garrett. I remember
him having a little Garrett must have been like two
or three years old, five years old at Max. He
(29:48):
was really really young. But those guys are West Coast guys.
And Jim mckawayan coached at Colorado State, had a bunch
of success and then went to Florida and it was
a disaster. Why because he's not one of theirs, Like
I kind of like your name to be Kirby or
Dabbo and have a Southern draw. In the South, it matters,
just like in the Midwest. You know, Jim Harbaugh played
(30:10):
at Michigan. It really helped when he took over the program.
And I just think this Kaylin Duboor thing, is he
as bad as is going right now? I don't think
he is. I don't know what's going on. They're five
and five in their last ten games. But Nick Saban
was a hard ass, like an old school throwback asshole
when it came to being a coach, and everyone in
(30:32):
the program, players, staff, administration kind of ate that shit up.
They liked him to tell them what to do. When
he said jump, they said how high, and then they
wouldn't stop leaping till he said stop. And it worked
and everyone profited, the players, the administration, the school, the
SEC as a whole. Do you know how many people
(30:53):
I know from northern California didn't now send their kids
to Ole Miss, to Tennessee, to Florida, did go to
school in the South. That was unheard of when I
was in high school. I remember being kind of nervous,
like should I even entertain going to Oregon or Arizona.
I encount more than probably almost both hands, the amount
(31:14):
of family friends I know that either their kids or
their kids girlfriends or whatever went to school in the SEC.
That a big part of that was how popular the
SEC came with their football programs. I believe that to
my core, and like Nick Saban obviously was the flag
bearer for that movement, and Kaylin Duboor is kind of
(31:36):
an intellectual. He's not a screamer. A couple of years ago,
when Fresno State was playing ASU, I went to the
tailgate and me and Marie ended up going to the
game and hanging out with a bunch of President State guys,
former players, and I was talking with with one of
the former players on the team that had played for
Debor and was an offensive player and really liked him,
(31:57):
And I said, what was he like? Because he had
played for both him and Jeff Tedford, He's like, Tedford's
a lot different and Teedford's a West Coast guy as well,
played at Fresno State from Los Angeles coach at Oregon
coach to cal like that's that's where his region is.
But Tedford's kind of an old school asshole, you know,
kind of a throwback the bores, like a cerebral not
(32:20):
a yeller, not a screamer like Chris Peterson. So when
he took over the University of Washington, that administration was
used to like an intellectual. I'm not saying that Saban
is not, but in terms of that's the way he
interacts googled Nick Saban or YouTube him at practice. He
screams at everybody I know, people that have worked for him.
You go into those staff meetings, your head was on
(32:41):
a swivel and you were dialed in because shrapnel could
come from any angle. That's not who this guy is.
And I wonder if these players whatever, they're not reacting
because it's not really working. I mean, they got their
ass kicked yesterday. Now when I see the staff that
Alabama hadn't lost to, I think it's like he's already
(33:02):
lost a four unranked opponents. Nick Saban lost to four
unranked opponents in like seventeen years. Week one in the
transfer Portal era, Like Florida State could be the seventh
best team in the country or they could be two
and ten. We have no clue beside three or four teams.
Like we know Penn State, we know how State, we
know Texas, we know Georgia. But Utah Utah could be
(33:25):
the seventh best team in the country or they could
be like the fiftieth. We don't know. Times have changed.
Here's what I know about Florida State and Mike Norvel,
specifically that two years ago on this weekend, he played
Brian Kelly pretty sure on Sunday Night, beat the living
piss out of them. Brian Kelly's team was led by
Jaden Daniels, Malika Neighbors and Brian Thomas Junior and Mike
(33:50):
Norvelle curb stomped them. Oh yeah. He happened to have
about seven or eight guys that were drafted in the
top one hundred. Jared Verse, many considered one of the
best young defensive line. Oh yeah, his teammate Brayden Fisk,
who statistically was better than him last year, who's a stud.
Keon Coleman, who I don't know is a starting wide
receiver for the Bills that most consider one of, if
(34:10):
not the best team in the league. Ronardo Green, who's
a starting corner for the San Francisco forty nine ers,
Like his team was loaded and then last year? What if?
Last year was an outliar to inten he's a big
transfer portal guy. It didn't work because I watched his team.
I went, they're fast, they're physical, they're explosive, and Mike
Norvell's proven a couple of years ago. Beat Brian Kelly,
beat Dabos Sweeney, beat Mike Elko, who's now the coach
(34:33):
at Texas A and m went thirteen to zero, ran
the table, won the ACC and if it wasn't for
his quarterback basically getting his leg amputated. I think Jordan
Travis legitimately retired with the New York Jets because his
legs all screwed up, that they would have made the playoffs,
and who knows that team was built, like they could
have won the national Championship if Jordan Travis was playing.
(34:54):
But this guy's not some random scrub, honestly, Like part
of the reason I have so much respect for du Boris.
I saw what he did at Washington in a second
year there. They went to the Natty. That could have
been easily Mike Norvel if it wasn't for these weird
circumstance with his quarterback. So I think everyone is right
enough Mike Norvell, and maybe I bought into it too,
like he just had a weird year in the transfer portal.
He's a transfer portal guy, and sometimes teams aren't gonna
(35:16):
mesh and sometimes they are. That was a really, really
impressive win. But what I think Mike Norvell, like, yeah,
it kind of feels like he fits in in the South.
Kaylin Duboor doesn't really just like Lincoln Riley, does he
feel like La No, he doesn't to me. Now, maybe
his team's good enough, and maybe with NIL they can
recruit well enough. But I'm a huge believer that regions
in college football matter. Andy Reid could coach, the Patriots
(35:40):
could coach, the Rams could coach Chiefs. The NFL does
not matter in college it does. It's why listen. There's
no disputing what Brian Kelly did at Notre Dame was impressive.
If you look at Brian Kelly's resume, it is impressive.
He's won everywhere he went. Grand Valley State. I was
(36:01):
in my first year, second year. I think it might
have been my second year as a GA at President State.
We went to the University of Cincinnati Nippert Stadium. I'm
pretty sure Jason Kelcey might have been like a true
freshman on that team. They had Tony Pike. I think
their quarterback was Gilliard, this wide receiver that was drafted
the Rams. That team went undefeated. They went to a
(36:22):
BCS Bowl game. Now he left for Notre Dame if
you remember, and they ended up getting killed. I think
Tim Tebow's team played him and they destroyed him, but
Brian Kelly left. I remember thinking like this, this team's good.
This guy knows what he's doing. Now when he went
to the South and he faked the accident, like, I
don't know if it's gonna work. He's a little douchey,
but there's no disputing like he kind of knows what
he's doing, and offensively is not his problem. They always
(36:44):
had sweet offensive line, and they always had good running backs.
He clearly good at quarterbacks at LSU. Wide receivers are
never gonna be a problem at LSU. The question is
gonna be a defense. Well, the thing at these schools
they will give you unlimited cash to buy coaches and
LSU like he went and got h what's the guy's name,
Blake Baker who's wearing the LSU baseball hat. Last year,
(37:06):
they clearly had improved from Jayden Daniels season. This year
they looked real. I mean, defensive line wise, they were
flying around up front, they were working Clemson. The defensive
backs were making play after play. And this is the
thing with doing these preseason rankings, it's like, yeah, you
could have convinced me LSU's an eight and fourteen, or
you could convince me they were eleven to one, and
it's like, oh, this guy number four, he's this transfer
(37:27):
portal guy from Virginia Tech and he looks like Patrick
Peterson out there. And that's why it's so hard. I
heard someone say this today. I forget where. But like
a couple of years ago, pre transfer portal, if you
went to inten at Florida State what Mike Norvel just did,
it would have taken you years to turn that thing
around to get to like compete for nine ten wins.
(37:49):
Years Now, it's like you could do it in six months.
If you told me that Florida State's ten and two
or eleven to one and wins, the acc wouldn't be
shocking at all, wouldn't be shocking at all. So the
game has really really changed. It's about getting the right
couple players and at schools like LSU, Clemson, definitely, Ohio State,
Florida State, or I mean Texas, we're talking like three
(38:11):
or four guys swing the whole thing. Last year, what
happened with Ohio State. They got Caleb Downs, who's one
of the best players, not the best player in the country.
They got Will Howard, who down the stretch was incredible.
So if you hit on the right two or three players.
I mean, if Miami last year hadn't signed cam Ward
and it signed like an average quarterback, they're going like
five and seven or six and six. But they had
(38:33):
the number one pick in the draft, one of the
worst defenses in the country, and they went nine to three.
So the transfer portal is this unless you're living in it,
like a college football GM. We're all just taking educated guesses.
We don't really know. We think we kind of know,
and we have some idea, but there are huge swings
(38:54):
with individuals, and like, let's face it, I was thinking,
I was on the couch and Maria looks at me
last night watching LSU Clemson. She goes, who would you draft? Like,
what do you mean? She's like, who'd you draft? I
don't know. I don't even know half these kids are.
She's like, you should do a segment on that. And
I was like, oh, a segment on who I draft.
(39:16):
She's like, yeah, call it like the couch scout. Honestly, honey,
that's not a bad idea. And I was thinking, like
I'm sitting there watching these two quarterbacks, Garrett nus Meyer, who,
like I said, I've known Doug nuss Meyer for fifteen years.
I saw him at the Combine two years ago walking
down the hall. I love that guy. I absolutely I
(39:36):
have loved Doug. He's the man. He's always been a
huge supporter of me, loves the podcast. Always gets a
huge smile when he sees me. And he's walking with
Brent Seleek. This is when he was the quarterback coach
for the Eagles the year they I mean, he's had
an awesome little run here when the Super Bowl with
Jalen Hurts as the quarterback coach, then goes with Kellen
to New Orleans. That's his guy, and then his son
(39:57):
like that was and I guess the couch scout in
me goes listen, Garrett Nessmyer's good and obviously he showed
flashes last year, had some great moments and had some
down moments. That performance on the road. You know, some
of these quarterbacks are playing nobody's and average teams, non
(40:17):
like power forward teams. I don't even know what to
make of it. Like that was a real opponent on
the road. You probably can't hear yourself think this guy
Garrett got crushed time and time again, and he kept
getting up. It's like, this guy's tough, sob he's making
great throws, but he's kind of a throwback quarterback. You know,
he's not mister athletic to me, he kind of has
(40:40):
like and I'm talking the good versions of these guys.
What Jimmy Garoppolo was early on in his San Francisco career.
I would call him mobile, but he definitely could move
a little bit. And like Kirk Cousins, he's more mobile
than Kirk Cousins. But he's that style of player. But
he's really good in the pocket. He's really tough. He
will sit in there and make throws. The guys really
(41:01):
like him. I mean, that's an NFL quarterback. Now, how
high a ceiling is, Like, I'm not I'm not saying
Mahomes or Lamar Jackson or Joe Burrow. But he's a
really good player. And that was a really impressive game.
It's why you can't box score scout because didn't throw
seven touchdowns, but every single big play they needed, he
was on the money. Every time he got knocked down,
(41:23):
he'd fucking shake it off and jump right back up. Honestly,
I was impressed with Kate Clubnick as well, And to me,
like this is gonna sound a little I think he's
kind of got some brock purty vibes, athletic not I
wouldn't call him a runner. He's not Lamar or Kayler,
but he definitely can move, definitely a good playmaker, also
pretty tough. And his offensive line I thought kind of
(41:43):
under achieved last night getting rocked by LSU. I mean
I thought LSU and Florida State dominated the line of
scrimmage on defense. I would say the same thing for
Miami tonight. They were dominating the line of scrimmage. And
you can tell you like, God, that guy looks like
an NFL defensive end. God, that guy looks like an
NFL defensive end. That really is the difference. If you
get good quarterback play and then good defensive line play,
(42:04):
you're gonna have a chance to win the national championship.
So I was really impressed. To me, ness Meyer kind
of gives off cousins Jimmy Garoppolo vibes. I would say,
kid gives maybe a little more athletic party, but like
just just a good player. And I have no problem
like I said, the neutral site games need to go away,
because I wish we could get to the point where
(42:26):
we don't even play these meaningless games. And I know
Coward's high on USC because they beat Missouri State Western Eastern.
Like that game's not real to me, Like that's just
my guy Haveberman was calling it. So I was watching it,
but it was like, this is this is a massacre.
What do I even take away? Then you watch Texas
and Ohio State or Clemson and LSU or Notre Dame
(42:47):
in Miami. It's like their NFL players all over this field,
like this is real football. This is what we want
to watch. It's just fantastic TV. And the one thing
I want to end on big win by I mean
awesome for Mike Norvia. Well, listen, gotta give Brian Kelly
his flowers. Gotta give Mario's flowers. Some of these coaches
that were like some people are like domn this notion too.
(43:07):
The guys are on the hot seat. Kaylan Dubor is
not getting fired. I've seen different numbers, but the buy
out this year is between sixty and seventy million dollars.
He could go four and eight. They do not have
the money to give Kaylan Dubor sixty five million dollars
to go away, to pay a roster twenty to thirty
million dollars to feel a high end team. Well, if
(43:30):
they're fired Kaylin Dubor, who do you think they're gonna
hire me or you for one hundred grand. No, they're
gonna want some sweet coach ten million dollar coach. That
means you gotta give him ninety million. You gotta pay
his coordinators multimillions. Alabama is not Notre Dame, It's not
USS Texas. These their athletic director a year ago was
on Twitter begging for money the day and age of
(43:51):
paying like Jimbo Fisher that those days are done and
Texa a m has way more money. They could pull
it off. Alabama cannot. There is no paying. When I
see these people like reputable college football media being like,
I wonder could they fire him for John grud Kaylen
Bor is not getting bought out. The Alabama cannot afford
to do that. It is not happening now. Could get
(44:11):
really ugly, And I get why they'd be really mad
because you're coming from Nick Saban. You know, if you're
dating a supermodel in her prime and then all of
a sudden, it's like you're dating some ugly chick. It's
gonna suck. And if you're starting losing games and you're
used to kicking everyone's ass, it's not gonna be fun.
But there's no these fifty sixty seventy billion dollar buyouts
when you're paying the players. Now, those days are done
(44:35):
unless you have some t Boon Pickings or Phil Knight
that just give you here's one hundred million dollar check
to buy a guy out, to buy the new guy
and pay the player. I don't know who's doing that.
I don't think it's going to happen. I really don't. So, yeah,
what was other neutral site? I just think we got
to get rid of these neutral site games. I truly
(44:56):
don't know. I've been trying to wrap my head. Who
benefits Arthur Blank, I mean he hosts like four of
these things, or Jerry Jones. I got no problem in
the conference championship, put in Vegas, put in India. I
get it, the Orange Bowl, I understand it. I have
no problem with that. But the first game of the season,
like Nebraska and Cincinnati or you know, South Carolin, I
(45:19):
think awesome. That would have been if you were South
Carolina hosting that game with Virginia Tech, or vice versa,
Virginia Tech hosting your coach's son. How sweet that would
have been, What a cool moment for the Beamer family.
But instead we're playing this thing at Mercedes Benz. I
just it's bullshit, it really, it sucks. For as great
as the Clemson was or Ohio State was, the pageantry,
(45:41):
the intensity, just how much it means. That's what college
football is, is the environment. It's what I didn't go
to any of these schools, and yet it draws me
to watch these games. We gotta get rid of it.
That being said, it's probably not going away anytime soon.
So hopefully everyone enjoyed the weekend. And it's not quite
done because we've got Bill Belichick tomorrow at five o'clock.
(46:03):
So buckle up and enjoy your holiday Monday off and
I will talk to you soon. The volume
The volume. What is going on everybody? How are we doing?
John Middlecalf to Renown Podcast. Just watched a little football
because that's what we do during the football season. And
(00:22):
the Miami Hurricanes beat the Fighting Irish and uh huh,
kind of a boring game, then it kind of thrilling,
but big win for Mario Notre Dame. It's gonna be okay, Well,
we'll dive into that. I'll bring my guy Jackson on
and he's a big Notre Dame guy. I did a
reaction video and podcast yesterday to Arch Manning, meaning I
didn't talk about Alabama and Florida State, and I didn't
(00:45):
talk about Clemson and LSU. So we'll touch on those
games tonight and just some overall theories and just thoughts
I had from the last twenty four hours in college football.
And that'll be the game plan. So hopefully everyone's had
a relaxing Labor Day Monday, probably not working, just enjoying yourself.
So I thought i'd do a little podcast on Sunday
(01:08):
night because football is back. Obviously, we got NFL games,
we got a lot of we got a lot of content,
so we are full speed ahead, and we got Bill
Belichick coaching again North Carolina on Monday night, So I'm
sure I will do something else come Monday night, but
I think I'm going on Colin as well. But you'll
see all this stuff. Other than that, make sure you
(01:29):
subscribe to the podcast, Make sure you subscribe to the
YouTube page, and appreciate everyone for listening, sharing the content,
and yeah, let's rock and roll baby. Before we dive
into what we just witnessed, I do need to tell
you about my friends, my partners, and the official ticketing
app of this podcast. Game Time. That looked pretty fun tonight. Now,
granted it was ninety percent humidity at kickoff, a little
(01:50):
humid for my taste. Michael Irvin is just soaked in sweat.
But if you want to go to one of these games,
they look really, really fun. Not gonna lie. We got
a big one one coming up this weekend, Oklahoma hosting Michigan.
That'll be fun, but any of these games. Obviously, the
NFL is finally here. We got an NFL game on Thursday.
We then got an NFL game on Friday. Now, granted
(02:12):
that's in Brazil. Obviously Sunday we're off and running, So
you want to go to one of these games this
fall doesn't get any easier. Just use my friends at
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(02:34):
Time app Today, last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. You
know what's funny is sometimes during games, you know this week,
the early on in some of these games could be
a little slow, So you just get on your phone.
You're just googling different guys. And I just went to
the Wikipedia for Mario Christobal. And in nineteen ninety eight,
before his coaching career really started, he had just finished playing.
(02:56):
He was GA currently at Miami. He was thinking about
joining the Secret Service, and he went through all the training,
all the testing, and he got in. He was going
to be a Secret Service agent. And he accepted the job,
and he told the team, and he told the players,
and then he slept on it and he declined it,
and he went into coaching and Obviously, all these years later,
(03:19):
almost three decades, he's on an eighty million dollar contract
at his own water And there is no disputing this
guy is an elite recruiter. He became a star for
Nick Saban in the mid twenty tens. He did an
awesome job at Oregon, and you just watched the talent
that he has in Miami. There is no disputing his
ability to identify, recruit and land. Now, obviously that's changed
(03:42):
over the years with Nil, but he can stack a team.
You know, Dan Lanning the cupboard, Listen, I gotta be fair, right,
I'm hard on not hard, but I just acknowledged the
fact that Ryan Day took over a rocket ship. So
Dan Lanning, I mean that team has a lot had
a lot of talent when he showed up. Because Mark
now Candy Win, that's a different question. And last year,
(04:04):
a little like a couple of years ago with Brian Kelly,
it's like he's got cam Ward. He's got this incredible
offense and the defense as a joke, and there's always
something with his teams. One they melt down a lot,
and two you just watch them from a buttoned up standpoint.
They just don't feel that well coached relative to the
highest level of teams, and tonight was big because if
you would have told me before this game, I didn't
(04:25):
bet on this game because I thought it was a
coin flip. It's in Florida. Anytime you get these teams
that aren't from the South going to the South, it
was a Boise State thing. When they went to South Florida,
you're just getting I mean, there's ninety one percent of humidity.
It was hot as hell, So that's just going to
be advantage Miami. Now, toward the end of the game,
(04:46):
it looked like they were melting down again and Notre
Dame scores. Then he scores again, and then it's tight game.
You're like, is what's going on here? Is he's gonna
blow this game. It looked like not only was he
in full control, looked like he was gonna win it
going away, and it was just gonna be another meltdown
on the guy's resume. But at the end of the day,
like no one will remember because the guy kicks a
field goal, his defense comes through and Miami looks really
(05:08):
good and another star that kind of came out of
this game. I don't know that much about him, but
the offensive cordon coordinator Shannon Dawson. Last year he proved
what he cam Ward was viewed as like a fifth
or fourth or sixth round pick, right, so the reason
at best maybe like high fourth round pick. It would
have been pretty shocking after Washington State if people had
got drafted on the second day turned him into the
(05:30):
number one overall pick. And the reason guys like me
kind of like the Titans this year is because of him. Well,
Shannon Dawson, Like he was the offensive coordinator last year.
I'm and I listen, if you watch cam Ward at
Washington State, there was no disputing his physical attributes, like
he was really talented. A couple when he first got there,
You're like, this guy's from what school? Damn? Who is
(05:51):
this guy? I did not think that about Carson Beck.
It's like still about the biggest Carson Beck fan. But
he looked way better tonight with Dawson on the plays. Listen,
if their offense is good again, which most teams aren't
gonna be as good at as Notre Dame on defense
throughout there, you know this year on their schedule, I
don't see how this guy doesn't either become a head
(06:13):
coach in twenty six or NFL teams don't start offering
this guy an offensive coordinator job. So the one thing
you say about you know, Mario Crystobal, clearly he can
recruit and build this roster. His offensive coordinator is really
good back to back years, like they're gonna be potent
on offense. That little guy number ten, Tony, I mean,
holy shit, keep an eye on that cat for the
(06:34):
next couple of years. And the question marks defensively, well,
their defensive lines flying around, their dbs made plays was
really impressive. I mean that that was a big time
win for Mario. Honestly, I'm pretty impressive with Notre Dame
and the one thing with Marcus Freeman. There were times
tonight where I just thought, like, guys are kind of
getting worked. You look like crap. And sometimes college coaches
(06:56):
can be pretty emotional in basketball and football. They're all screaming,
like they're just always going nuts. You know. In the NFL,
assistants go nuts sometimes, but the head coach he has
to stay pretty even keel because the team's kind of
looking at him. And the good coaches in college now,
Saban was kind of an outlier, but you kind of
gotta contain yourself because if you get frazzled, if you're
(07:18):
going nuts, your team's gonna really fall apart. And Marcus
Freeman kind of had a Belichickian thing tonight and I
was like, damn, you know this guy because I was
down on him his first year when he took over
for Brian Kelly. Remember they lost to Marshall that they
should have lost a cal They just it was like
they just looked really, really bad. And what he's done
obviously last year even this year, that they're really the
(07:40):
David Shaw Jim Harbas Stanford team. They're never gonna have
elite wide receivers, can't get him into school. But in
terms of top flight defense, their defense is gonna be
really good. I mean, Miami's probably top six or seven
roster in the league or in the country. But like
they're gonna struggle to be a potent passing team. If
you notice as the night went on, like they can't
(08:02):
really push the ball down the field beside to the
tight end. So the way this team's gonna have to
operate is offensive line, run the ball with two starbacks
and get the ball to your tight end and manipulate
passes to your wide receiver. But when you get down
in that situation, it can be difficult. And I just
thought he did a pretty good job of like their
team's pretty batterly tough, Like this is not some fraudulent
(08:24):
you know out last year being an outlier season. I
know they lost to Night, but to go down there
in the humanity to be playing like craft with a
first year quarterback, who listen, like at any time that
these guys make their first career start, I think people
are gonna be pretty critical at these big time programs,
but like, we gotta let it breathe a little bit.
We got to give the guy some time. And that's
(08:45):
a really, really tough opponent. But like they're always going
to struggle outside David sew and Jim Harbaugh did forever,
and they were consistently in the top five. They were
consistently competing to win the Rose Bowl, to be in
the BCS, you know, to be a top three or
four team in the country. And they just never had
Justin Jefferson or Jamar Chase, Like Ceedee Lamb's not going
to school at Notre Dame, so you've got to be
(09:06):
buttoned up on defense, which they're gonna be under Barcus Freeman.
But tonight he saw, especially toward the end of the game,
that last drive, it looked like their tackles were gassed.
I mean that right tackle got embarrassed, you know, I
mean he got it was bad. Now was he just
you know, sucking wind? As Jimmy Johnson famously said to
(09:28):
the Miami Hurricanes way back in the day, fatigue makes
cowards of us all. And his big thing was always
being the best shape, because the moment you get tired,
you could be David Goggins, you could be Chuck Lydell,
or you could be me or you you're just not as
tough and you're definitely not as mentally tough. And you
just saw that right tackle. It looked like he was gassed.
And this is what Stanford hung their hand on. Their
(09:49):
offensive lines were elite. So if Notre Dame's gonna want
to compete and get back to the National Championship and
just have a team that can win playoff games, because
we know, I guess this year the seating has changed
a little bit. They got to button up that offensive line,
but they're gonna have to win with their running backs
and tight ends because as we saw last year. You know,
wide receiver is gonna be a little issue. I did
(10:11):
want to bring in my guy Jackson, who I know,
the biggest Notre Dame fan I know, probably beside Lou Holtz. Listen,
last year you play Texas A and M you you
get a big win. Now, granted you were playing a
quarterback who barely could walk straight and chew gum. But
(10:31):
you know this year, you know, down big, but come
storming back. It's weird. You know. You know in college
now with the playoff, you're not out of it just
because you lose a game. And I would say that
for Clemson obviously Texas. This isn't twenty fourteen, this isn't
two thousand and eight. You don't have to run the
(10:51):
table like you can, especially with your guys schedule this year,
unlike last year, you can afford to lose a couple
of games. But where do you stay at Jackson, what
do you think of the quarterback? I know you were
hard on the offensive coordinator throwing those quick screens, but
you don't exactly have Randy Moss out there. Yeah, you
know the quick screens.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
And then you know we kept texting our group chat
it was like, when is you know, Jeremiah Love gonna
get involved. He only had ten carries and CJ. Carr
actually had more carries than he did, which was kind
of surprising. And you know twenty four Jerion Price comes in.
He's kind of that in between the tackles downhill runner
just to get some kind of momentum.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
But I thought CJ. Carr played well.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
I mean, with all the new quarterbacks that we saw
this weekend, Tys Simpson Julian saying arch Manning like one
thing that I mean you know too, like the young
quarterbacks is the confidence between behind their arm. And you
saw him rolling back and it almost got me flashbacks
from Shandor Sanders in preseason. You're like, oh my gosh,
he's on the thirty yard line. Makes that throw. The
(11:45):
momentum switch over to Notre Dame. A couple of fluke plays,
I mean, the fumbles and then the interception off of
that guy's foot is something that's just gonna roll their way.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
But you talked about it.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
I mean, Notre Dame's a tough team under Marcus Freeman,
and this was Brian Kelly what he's got now and
them beating Clemson with all these transfers and you know,
a veteran quarterback, they probably don't.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Win that game.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
And you we were even texting in the group chat too,
like these are the games that Mario Christobal loses. And
maybe it's this year with Dawson and the defensive coordinator
they got from Minnesota where he kind of just takes
a step back and lets them coach. And like you said,
they went out and recruited Tony's a stud up front.
I didn't expect Miami to out physical Notre Dame on
(12:27):
both sides of the football up front. And you're talking
about the heat being a factor, but yeah, I mean
I think Notre Dame fought. Like you said, it's it's
a one It's not a one game season for Notre Dame.
You got a bye week and then you play a
and m It's not the worst thing ever. We see
Notre Dame after losing the NIU bounce back and end
up making the National Championship. It is gonna be interesting
(12:48):
how it plays out. And if this game could have
been twenty eight to seven, it could have been over.
It felt like it was teetering there for a meet. Yeah,
it was a running back yeah, running back slips. But
I mean, I'm curious your thoughts about CJ.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Carr.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
I think he played good. It's it's just the last drive.
You see the freshman in him. You can't take a sack.
And like you said, the tackles, I mean they were gassing,
baying the ruined bay, and Miami's defender of their best
defensive line showed up last. But overall, I was shocked
that Notre Dame through the ball thirty times. But maybe
this is something that will benefit him in.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
The long run. Well, when you're down, you know, twenty
one to seven, especially in the fourth quarter, you gotta score.
So I you know, if we look how many times
they passed the ball in those last couple drives, it
probably inflated it to what it would have been if
the score was fourteen to fourteen, right, so they had
to get away from the run, but they were throwing
the ball then to the running back, you know, countless times.
(13:45):
This is my comparison though to the Stanford teams. Sometimes
it's hard to judge the quarterback. Let's use Carson Beck
as an example, who I was probably too hard on,
as was everyone last year. Disastrous season. But the offensive
line was and they had lost Bowers and they had
lost Latin Maconky. So unless you're Mahomes or Josh Allen,
(14:06):
if I remove those two guys, you're gonna look worse, right,
dramatically worse. And he looked really bad. Well then tonight.
You know, one thing Miami's always been able to do
is like they get skill guys, right, and Mario's good
at that. So you bring in this true freshman Tony
that obviously is gonna probably be a freshman All American.
I always put money on that if he's healthy. I mean,
you just saw they never took that guy off the field,
(14:27):
like he's just part of their group and they're playing. Listen.
I think it's stupid that you can play a nobody
like Penn State's really good, right, some of these teams
are really good, Georgia, when you play the Sisters of
the Poor, I don't know how to judge you with
your current team. I know you're good, but like I
know way more about Texas in a loss or Clemson
in a loss, like this was a real game, like
(14:49):
a real game, and so when you treat usually these
Mario is like I wonder if he learned a lot
from Sabin, Like sometimes when you got a blue chipper
and he's ready, you just got to play. And they
were just riding that kid. But on my point is
Carson looked a lot better and he just pushed the
ball down the field more like you guys just are
only gonna push the ball down the field if the
tight ends wide open. And that's that was a little
(15:12):
like Penn State last year. Now Penn State because of
academic like they can get guys in. We'll see what
their unit looks like the better teams they play. But
like you're just not gonna have NFL star receivers outside
like Miami, like Texas and Ohio State, and some of
these teams are gonna get and that's gonna be your
downfall because there are gonna be times. Who knows, maybe
Miami's like a final fourteen this year. I think that's
(15:32):
possible that if you do get down fourteen to nothing
or in the second half, like these games not this
isn't Texas Tech first, Washington State, that every game is
gonna be fifty to forty. It's kind of is nice
and I enjoyed it a lot this last forty eight
hours of just seeing physical ass football and it was hard,
Like these dbs are making plays. The d lin's all hitting,
(15:54):
and you do need your wide receivers though, like to
run it. I don't know, like a ten yard out
or something, and I just don't have that much faith
in Notre Dame at that position. And that could be
like if they were more explosive, if I just gave
them a top ten type college wide receiver, you would
feel the team would feel a lot more balanced. So
the moment the defense isn't dominating, they do feel like
(16:17):
they're up against the ropes a little bit because you
thought Tony and again it could have just been probably
was the heat was insane. But if their defense isn't
dominating the game last year against Ohio State, right, if
you're losing a little bit, it's like, how are they
gonna come back? And that's how I love who clears
these an elite player saying, is it Price number twenty four?
(16:38):
Darien Price? Like you just you're not just gonna unless
you're Kyle Shanahan, just keep calling runs down twenty one
to seven. Right, You're gonna have to throw the ball
a little bit and then they can kind of tee off.
So that's just not how I would imagine Marcus is
talking as we record this, but he's like, we can't
get down double digits, Like that's not how we're built,
and it's it's just true like LSU the last couple years,
(17:00):
Miami last year, like they could get down fifteen points.
Remember Caw they were down like thirty to ten. It's
like whatever, we'll just start slinging around. But that's not
that's gonna be Notre Dame's ultimate downfall. I don't really
know how they changed that unless it's like, you know what,
we're gonna make a couple exceptions. It's gonna be specifically
toward wide receivers. I do think they.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
Showed some flashes of potentially throwing the football. I mean
they had that Malachi Feels number zero had that crazy catch.
He's the Virginia sixty five wide receiver they got. Obviously
the tight end had that sixty five yard but besides that,
they didn't really have any explosive plays. And even Jaden
Greyhouse tonight, the guy that went off the National Championship
when they were down against Ohio State, that kind of
got him back into that game. He was quiet tonight,
(17:43):
So I'm not I get what you mean in terms of,
like we had an expect CJ. Card to run a
ball eleven times. This is the guy who supposed to
be a pocket passer, pass first quarterback. But you did
see some flashes and what they did in the offseason
where I'm kind of like, okay, let's hold off a
little bit on them being maybe a run first team.
I know you have Jeremiah Love and Price, but I
did think you did see some flashes for a true
(18:04):
fresh or a red shirt freshman. I should say, with
the wide receiver they have on the outside that they
could be two dimensional. And if they are, then they
could be a problem. But it all starts with the
offensive line that got beat up, and they could run
the ball early, which kind of got him in that
hole to begin with.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
Could also make the argument, you know, kind of a freak.
I mean they ran the play over and over, the
quick screen that turned into a turnover that then turned
into a touchdown. But also the CJ. Daniels the one
handed catch. If he doesn't make I don't know, like
you know, Odell Beckham justin Jefferson like grab that's intercepted.
I don't think a Georgia receiver catches that again on
(18:41):
his feet and he's going I don't know if he
scored a touchdown, but he was gonna land on his
feet with the ball in his bread basket. And the
guy just made an incredible catch. So Georgia did hit
a couple. I mean, Carson had some Yolow throws today
that that landed. Now he is playing like they got
a lot more talent on that team right outside. I
actually think it's not. But I have no problem when
(19:02):
you lose a close game to a team that's clearly good.
And that's the great part about this, this playoff, right
is that it's a little more NFL. You know this
notion all the games aren't gonna matter as much. Bullshit. Yeah,
like when Alabama plays Mercer, no one's gonna care. They
didn't care when Nick Saban was there. But this, I
bet Notre Dame's devastated in the locker room right now.
(19:23):
Clemson was devastating in the locker room right now. Texas
is devastating in the locker room right now. They all
could easily make the playoffs, and it's it's football. Just
like if the Cowboys get their ass kicked in a
couple nights. It's gonna suck for them. Like football, you
only play so many games. So I actually think it's
that that notion of that, like this game felt really big.
(19:44):
All these games, right, all the four straight big games. Sorry, Shane,
I'm not counting Syracuse, Tennessee, even though that in theory
decent game, that's better game than most. But the morning
game Ohio State, Texas, Florida State, Alabama now assuming that
Florida's APEC, which I think they easily could be, and
then the night game LSU Clemson, and then this game,
(20:05):
you could even say a little bit South Carolina Virginia Tech.
Virginia Tech. Now quick grant the neutral site games. If
Josh Pate ever becomes the commissioner someone, we got to
ban those. I listen bowl games. I totally understand the
conference championship games. But what made tonight so badass is
about like, oh Miami's like kind of has a home
(20:27):
field thing going, obviously Clemson, obviously Ohio State. Like that's
that's what college football is. The NFL is not as
much about that. The NFL is more about the crowd
beside three or four places. But in college football, like
Iowa let alone, you know, just you go all round,
all the power forwards. Like playing at home is a
really big deal. Winning on the road in college is
(20:49):
insanely hard. Right. I don't even know what Nussmeyer stats are.
I don't care. I watched him. He was awesome. You
know how hard it is to win there? Right, It's
just like it was it was Listen, Alabama might turn
out to be eight and four, right, but like that's
a hard place to go when they start doing the
Tomahawk chock chop and that fucking place is rocking. These
(21:09):
neutral site playing at the Mercedes Benz, that sucks for
the fans. I thought this day before I left Hawaii.
When Nebraska is playing Cincinnati at Arrowhead, I mean, it's
cool that Mahomes and Kelsey get to go, but that
sucks for Nebraska Cincinnati that loses a home game. I
mean that's what college football is for the twelve games,
the home and away games really really matter. And just
(21:30):
if that game would have been at Notre Dame, it
would have been a huge evans for Notre Dame. That's
one thing. You got a factory in college. But yeah,
I wouldn't be that down. If I were you, I'd
still be pretty bullish on the squad.
Speaker 2 (21:41):
The last thing I'll say, the perspective on the ACC
after this weekend. You know, if Clemson goes down and
beats LSU, it's probably even a bigger perspective on the conference.
But you looked at Florida State different, you look at
Miami different. Miami has to go to Florida State in
about three or four weeks. Florida State has to play
Clemson and Miami. That conference looks a little interesting.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Now.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Now you start to look back and you say, okay,
if they could potentially get two bids or what happens
with the Big twelve, Like if you're the AEC Commission,
you gotta be smiling ear to year and what you
saw from both those squads because like myself, you didn't
know what Mario Christball was gonna produce out there. And
then Florida State, everybody counted out. That conference has got interesting.
Like Clemson, I picked them to win the national championship.
I think a lot of people picked them in the ACC.
(22:23):
If they can't run the football and they can't get
things around, like I mean, Miami, Florida State definitely looked
a lot more impressive than Clemson did this weekend.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
If you just base it on the games itself, I
would say, remember last year Clemson got curb stomp by
Georgia week and then by the end of the year
they were really good. So I think they'll still be okay.
I actually think their loss you feel better than Texas
because I thought cleb Nick wasn't that bad. You know
where Texas there's still a lot of question marks with Arch,
But how about cal They got like Tua two point
(22:53):
zero meets Michael Pennix, who looks really good. We'll see Belichick.
But listen, I don't not saying they're ten win team,
but they Bill freaking Belichick coaching, and they're not gonna suck.
They're gonna be tough on a weekly basis. I do
think it's insane they played Monday night, they have to
play next Saturday. How's that You can't give him like
(23:13):
a buy and that's crazy Bill O'Brien at Boston College.
The ACC is definitely gonna be solid. I think the
Big twelve to me clearly looks like the fourth Conference,
like a clear drop off. Though we'll see Utah Utah
is definitely a team that if you told me Utah
win eleven and one wins the Big twelve and then
(23:34):
like wins a playoff game, whether it's on the road
or at home, very believable. I mean a couple of
years ago, he was dominating the Pac twelve. When the
Pac twelve is good, right with Mario with debor with
Dan Lanning. You know he'd beat both those guys, like
he's he's a big time coach if he's got a quarterback.
I didn't know this, but I was listening stuff today
that they had stolen the new Mexico quarterback and their OC.
(23:57):
I love it when teams do this now package deal,
give me the play caller and the quarterback and the
play callers, Like it's like the dude from Washington State
of course you want the quarterback with the play callers,
Like wait, I get to go to the sweet school
too for double my money, Like I'm in. It's so funny.
And that team too lot.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
I know people would recognize when you're watching the UCLA game,
and I know people on the East Coast it kind
of felt like Pack twelve after dark because you got Utah,
Ucla got Oregon State. Cal Utah had three players playing
two ways and two guys that scored their best corner
and their best linebackers.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
I didn't see a snap of that game. I just
knew I just want followed on my phone. I kind
of had to look look out, lookout for Utah. I
mean damp here.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
I mean two hundred and thirty yards three hundred of
total yards. They ran the ball down ULA's throw. Nico
I Maliava like he probably regrets go to UCLA, and
I think Joey Aguilar for him. I mean, if Nico
doesn't go to UCLA, there's no chance he goes to Tennessee.
And now you look at Tennessee a little different. And
I know Syracuse defense isn't that great, but I don't know.
There's a lot of teams last night and that, Like
(24:59):
you said, it's tough to judg the Penn States, the
Georgia's and the Oregons who have to play Montana State,
but some of these other teams who got to play,
you know, other Big ten schools. It gets you get
a different perspective on those kind of teams and see
what they can do later on the season.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Okay, you got I'll get you out of here on this.
Which what were you thinking before the season, What are
you thinking right now? Because this is a big game, right,
you win this game? You worst case you're ten and two,
you lose this game. You know. Now there's more pressure
on these kind of swing games. You kind of gotta win.
Get you're playing A and M still right.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Yeah, I must win. Yeah, I think A M is
gonna be must win. You wonder what the involvement is
gonna be with Love in that next game. I think
den Brock probably regrets not implementing him more in the
first half and maybe calling a couple more screenplays.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
But who do they play this week? Bye week? Bye week? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Okay, they got that second week by which is nice
for Notre Dame. I mean after a loss like this.
I think when they played NIU they had a bye
week after that too. So, like like you said, Notre
Dame with Marcus Freeman, I have no heartburn on them.
It does think that Boise State Austin USF because you
look down the schedule, like the more ranked games the
better for Notre Dame, because yeah, it's not a one
(26:05):
game season, but you do have to have some ranked
wins on your schedule, like an A and M win
which they played Texas and they got some of those more.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
That's the difference though, is than they've changed the when
they talked about the schedule. If you just watch Notre
Dames a real team test and like, to me, if
Notre Dame's ten and two and there's some fraudulent power
for team that played nobody, Like I'm sorry, we saw
that song and dance last year. We're giving like Notre
Dame Texas, this clems. This is exactly what I'm talking about, Like,
we just saw they were real teams. So like, if
(26:34):
it's the difference of like one of them's nine and
three and the other team's ten and two but they
played nobody, that's where I think I'm more confident that,
like we picked the right team and they still got
to play well. They can't lose a bunch of games.
But this is not a bad thing. I guess this
is my overall take. But you gotta go ten and two,
nine and three Notre Dames probably not in right.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
You get one more loss, Yeah, and you wonder what
the SEC looks like too, I mean the SEC du
does a three loss team get in over a two
loss Notre Dame, and then you kind of got to
compare the big twelve in the ACC. That's where it's
gonna be interesting moving forward.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
How they do.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
I know, the SEC has a whole agreement where they've
got to go play another power for conference team in
their schedule, that's the thing. And they have this whole
new metric of strength to record. But we'll see tough
loss for Notre Dame, but they fought back.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Okay, thanks checks. Speaking of the SEC, let's just start
with Alabama because I've been a big proponent of Kaylin Dubor. Obviously,
(27:40):
he was a Frozen State guy and had success and
then went to Washington and dominated. I mean, this guy
was beating everybody and beat Sarkin, was in the National
Championship game, did a fantastic job, became the type candidate
that you not only seriously consider when a guy like
Nick Saban retires, you hire a real higher I know
(28:01):
a lot of people are like retweeting cowards tweet about
it being one of the best transitions in college football history.
Wasn't a crazy thought at the time. Dubor's record was like,
I forget off the top of my head but it
was like one hundred and eleven. I mean, he dominated
it everywhere he coached. I do believe this. I've always
(28:22):
had a theory and I stand by this, and I
think there are only a couple outlies, outliers in the
history of college football. Where in the NFL, it doesn't
matter where you are from, where you were born, and
where your career kind of takes off usually is where
you're gonna have success as a head coach. There are outliers,
like a guy from the Midwest can go to the South,
(28:44):
like Urban Meyer could have coached in China, in Spain,
in Alaska, in Florida. It wouldn't have mattered. He would
have won same thing with Nick Saban. But I saw
it out here on the West coast. Chris Peterson, who
had a ton of success at Boise State and then Washington,
grew up in southern California, went to UC Davis, coached
(29:06):
at UC Davis, coached at Oregon, coached at Boise, coached
at Washington, thrived on the West coast. Pete Carroll is
a great example. Well in the NFL, he could coach
any team, Tampa Bay, New England, Seattle. It wouldn't in college.
It does. I don't think Pete Carroll would have worked
at Florida. I don't think he would have worked at Alabama,
(29:27):
but he thrived at USC just like I don't think
a lot of non Southerners work in the South. When
I was at Fresno State, Jim mcelwaine had just left
and his close friend Doug Nussmeyer my first year at
Fresno State was our offensive coordinator and Garrett. I remember
him having a little Garrett must have been like two
or three years old, five years old at Max. He
(29:48):
was really really young. But those guys are West Coast guys.
And Jim mckawayan coached at Colorado State, had a bunch
of success and then went to Florida and it was
a disaster. Why because he's not one of theirs, Like
I kind of like your name to be Kirby or
Dabbo and have a Southern draw. In the South, it matters,
just like in the Midwest. You know, Jim Harbaugh played
(30:10):
at Michigan. It really helped when he took over the program.
And I just think this Kaylin Duboor thing, is he
as bad as is going right now? I don't think
he is. I don't know what's going on. They're five
and five in their last ten games. But Nick Saban
was a hard ass, like an old school throwback asshole
when it came to being a coach, and everyone in
(30:32):
the program, players, staff, administration kind of ate that shit up.
They liked him to tell them what to do. When
he said jump, they said how high, and then they
wouldn't stop leaping till he said stop. And it worked
and everyone profited, the players, the administration, the school, the
SEC as a whole. Do you know how many people
(30:53):
I know from northern California didn't now send their kids
to Ole Miss, to Tennessee, to Florida, did go to
school in the South. That was unheard of when I
was in high school. I remember being kind of nervous,
like should I even entertain going to Oregon or Arizona.
I encount more than probably almost both hands, the amount
(31:14):
of family friends I know that either their kids or
their kids girlfriends or whatever went to school in the SEC.
That a big part of that was how popular the
SEC came with their football programs. I believe that to
my core, and like Nick Saban obviously was the flag
bearer for that movement, and Kaylin Duboor is kind of
(31:36):
an intellectual. He's not a screamer. A couple of years ago,
when Fresno State was playing ASU, I went to the
tailgate and me and Marie ended up going to the
game and hanging out with a bunch of President State guys,
former players, and I was talking with with one of
the former players on the team that had played for
Debor and was an offensive player and really liked him,
(31:57):
And I said, what was he like? Because he had
played for both him and Jeff Tedford, He's like, Tedford's
a lot different and Teedford's a West Coast guy as well,
played at Fresno State from Los Angeles coach at Oregon
coach to cal like that's that's where his region is.
But Tedford's kind of an old school asshole, you know,
kind of a throwback the bores, like a cerebral not
(32:20):
a yeller, not a screamer like Chris Peterson. So when
he took over the University of Washington, that administration was
used to like an intellectual. I'm not saying that Saban
is not, but in terms of that's the way he
interacts googled Nick Saban or YouTube him at practice. He
screams at everybody I know, people that have worked for him.
You go into those staff meetings, your head was on
(32:41):
a swivel and you were dialed in because shrapnel could
come from any angle. That's not who this guy is.
And I wonder if these players whatever, they're not reacting
because it's not really working. I mean, they got their
ass kicked yesterday. Now when I see the staff that
Alabama hadn't lost to, I think it's like he's already
(33:02):
lost a four unranked opponents. Nick Saban lost to four
unranked opponents in like seventeen years. Week one in the
transfer Portal era, Like Florida State could be the seventh
best team in the country or they could be two
and ten. We have no clue beside three or four teams.
Like we know Penn State, we know how State, we
know Texas, we know Georgia. But Utah Utah could be
(33:25):
the seventh best team in the country or they could
be like the fiftieth. We don't know. Times have changed.
Here's what I know about Florida State and Mike Norvel,
specifically that two years ago on this weekend, he played
Brian Kelly pretty sure on Sunday Night, beat the living
piss out of them. Brian Kelly's team was led by
Jaden Daniels, Malika Neighbors and Brian Thomas Junior and Mike
(33:50):
Norvelle curb stomped them. Oh yeah. He happened to have
about seven or eight guys that were drafted in the
top one hundred. Jared Verse, many considered one of the
best young defensive line. Oh yeah, his teammate Brayden Fisk,
who statistically was better than him last year, who's a stud.
Keon Coleman, who I don't know is a starting wide
receiver for the Bills that most consider one of, if
(34:10):
not the best team in the league. Ronardo Green, who's
a starting corner for the San Francisco forty nine ers,
Like his team was loaded and then last year? What if?
Last year was an outliar to inten he's a big
transfer portal guy. It didn't work because I watched his team.
I went, they're fast, they're physical, they're explosive, and Mike
Norvell's proven a couple of years ago. Beat Brian Kelly,
beat Dabos Sweeney, beat Mike Elko, who's now the coach
(34:33):
at Texas A and m went thirteen to zero, ran
the table, won the ACC and if it wasn't for
his quarterback basically getting his leg amputated. I think Jordan
Travis legitimately retired with the New York Jets because his
legs all screwed up, that they would have made the playoffs,
and who knows that team was built, like they could
have won the national Championship if Jordan Travis was playing.
(34:54):
But this guy's not some random scrub, honestly, Like part
of the reason I have so much respect for du Boris.
I saw what he did at Washington in a second
year there. They went to the Natty. That could have
been easily Mike Norvel if it wasn't for these weird
circumstance with his quarterback. So I think everyone is right
enough Mike Norvell, and maybe I bought into it too,
like he just had a weird year in the transfer portal.
He's a transfer portal guy, and sometimes teams aren't gonna
(35:16):
mesh and sometimes they are. That was a really, really
impressive win. But what I think Mike Norvell, like, yeah,
it kind of feels like he fits in in the South.
Kaylin Duboor doesn't really just like Lincoln Riley, does he
feel like La No, he doesn't to me. Now, maybe
his team's good enough, and maybe with NIL they can
recruit well enough. But I'm a huge believer that regions
in college football matter. Andy Reid could coach, the Patriots
(35:40):
could coach, the Rams could coach Chiefs. The NFL does
not matter in college it does. It's why listen. There's
no disputing what Brian Kelly did at Notre Dame was impressive.
If you look at Brian Kelly's resume, it is impressive.
He's won everywhere he went. Grand Valley State. I was
(36:01):
in my first year, second year. I think it might
have been my second year as a GA at President State.
We went to the University of Cincinnati Nippert Stadium. I'm
pretty sure Jason Kelcey might have been like a true
freshman on that team. They had Tony Pike. I think
their quarterback was Gilliard, this wide receiver that was drafted
the Rams. That team went undefeated. They went to a
(36:22):
BCS Bowl game. Now he left for Notre Dame if
you remember, and they ended up getting killed. I think
Tim Tebow's team played him and they destroyed him, but
Brian Kelly left. I remember thinking like this, this team's good.
This guy knows what he's doing. Now when he went
to the South and he faked the accident, like, I
don't know if it's gonna work. He's a little douchey,
but there's no disputing like he kind of knows what
he's doing, and offensively is not his problem. They always
(36:44):
had sweet offensive line, and they always had good running backs.
He clearly good at quarterbacks at LSU. Wide receivers are
never gonna be a problem at LSU. The question is
gonna be a defense. Well, the thing at these schools
they will give you unlimited cash to buy coaches and
LSU like he went and got h what's the guy's name,
Blake Baker who's wearing the LSU baseball hat. Last year,
(37:06):
they clearly had improved from Jayden Daniels season. This year
they looked real. I mean, defensive line wise, they were
flying around up front, they were working Clemson. The defensive
backs were making play after play. And this is the
thing with doing these preseason rankings, it's like, yeah, you
could have convinced me LSU's an eight and fourteen, or
you could convince me they were eleven to one, and
it's like, oh, this guy number four, he's this transfer
(37:27):
portal guy from Virginia Tech and he looks like Patrick
Peterson out there. And that's why it's so hard. I
heard someone say this today. I forget where. But like
a couple of years ago, pre transfer portal, if you
went to inten at Florida State what Mike Norvel just did,
it would have taken you years to turn that thing
around to get to like compete for nine ten wins.
(37:49):
Years Now, it's like you could do it in six months.
If you told me that Florida State's ten and two
or eleven to one and wins, the acc wouldn't be
shocking at all, wouldn't be shocking at all. So the
game has really really changed. It's about getting the right
couple players and at schools like LSU, Clemson, definitely, Ohio State,
Florida State, or I mean Texas, we're talking like three
(38:11):
or four guys swing the whole thing. Last year, what
happened with Ohio State. They got Caleb Downs, who's one
of the best players, not the best player in the country.
They got Will Howard, who down the stretch was incredible.
So if you hit on the right two or three players.
I mean, if Miami last year hadn't signed cam Ward
and it signed like an average quarterback, they're going like
five and seven or six and six. But they had
(38:33):
the number one pick in the draft, one of the
worst defenses in the country, and they went nine to three.
So the transfer portal is this unless you're living in it,
like a college football GM. We're all just taking educated guesses.
We don't really know. We think we kind of know,
and we have some idea, but there are huge swings
(38:54):
with individuals, and like, let's face it, I was thinking,
I was on the couch and Maria looks at me
last night watching LSU Clemson. She goes, who would you draft? Like,
what do you mean? She's like, who'd you draft? I
don't know. I don't even know half these kids are.
She's like, you should do a segment on that. And
I was like, oh, a segment on who I draft.
(39:16):
She's like, yeah, call it like the couch scout. Honestly, honey,
that's not a bad idea. And I was thinking, like
I'm sitting there watching these two quarterbacks, Garrett nus Meyer, who,
like I said, I've known Doug nuss Meyer for fifteen years.
I saw him at the Combine two years ago walking
down the hall. I love that guy. I absolutely I
(39:36):
have loved Doug. He's the man. He's always been a
huge supporter of me, loves the podcast. Always gets a
huge smile when he sees me. And he's walking with
Brent Seleek. This is when he was the quarterback coach
for the Eagles the year they I mean, he's had
an awesome little run here when the Super Bowl with
Jalen Hurts as the quarterback coach, then goes with Kellen
to New Orleans. That's his guy, and then his son
(39:57):
like that was and I guess the couch scout in
me goes listen, Garrett Nessmyer's good and obviously he showed
flashes last year, had some great moments and had some
down moments. That performance on the road. You know, some
of these quarterbacks are playing nobody's and average teams, non
(40:17):
like power forward teams. I don't even know what to
make of it. Like that was a real opponent on
the road. You probably can't hear yourself think this guy
Garrett got crushed time and time again, and he kept
getting up. It's like, this guy's tough, sob he's making
great throws, but he's kind of a throwback quarterback. You know,
he's not mister athletic to me, he kind of has
(40:40):
like and I'm talking the good versions of these guys.
What Jimmy Garoppolo was early on in his San Francisco career.
I would call him mobile, but he definitely could move
a little bit. And like Kirk Cousins, he's more mobile
than Kirk Cousins. But he's that style of player. But
he's really good in the pocket. He's really tough. He
will sit in there and make throws. The guys really
(41:01):
like him. I mean, that's an NFL quarterback. Now, how
high a ceiling is, Like, I'm not I'm not saying
Mahomes or Lamar Jackson or Joe Burrow. But he's a
really good player. And that was a really impressive game.
It's why you can't box score scout because didn't throw
seven touchdowns, but every single big play they needed, he
was on the money. Every time he got knocked down,
(41:23):
he'd fucking shake it off and jump right back up. Honestly,
I was impressed with Kate Clubnick as well, And to me,
like this is gonna sound a little I think he's
kind of got some brock purty vibes, athletic not I
wouldn't call him a runner. He's not Lamar or Kayler,
but he definitely can move, definitely a good playmaker, also
pretty tough. And his offensive line I thought kind of
(41:43):
under achieved last night getting rocked by LSU. I mean
I thought LSU and Florida State dominated the line of
scrimmage on defense. I would say the same thing for
Miami tonight. They were dominating the line of scrimmage. And
you can tell you like, God, that guy looks like
an NFL defensive end. God, that guy looks like an
NFL defensive end. That really is the difference. If you
get good quarterback play and then good defensive line play,
(42:04):
you're gonna have a chance to win the national championship.
So I was really impressed. To me, ness Meyer kind
of gives off cousins Jimmy Garoppolo vibes. I would say,
kid gives maybe a little more athletic party, but like
just just a good player. And I have no problem
like I said, the neutral site games need to go away,
because I wish we could get to the point where
(42:26):
we don't even play these meaningless games. And I know
Coward's high on USC because they beat Missouri State Western Eastern.
Like that game's not real to me, Like that's just
my guy Haveberman was calling it. So I was watching it,
but it was like, this is this is a massacre.
What do I even take away? Then you watch Texas
and Ohio State or Clemson and LSU or Notre Dame
(42:47):
in Miami. It's like their NFL players all over this field,
like this is real football. This is what we want
to watch. It's just fantastic TV. And the one thing
I want to end on big win by I mean
awesome for Mike Norvia. Well, listen, gotta give Brian Kelly
his flowers. Gotta give Mario's flowers. Some of these coaches
that were like some people are like domn this notion too.
(43:07):
The guys are on the hot seat. Kaylan Dubor is
not getting fired. I've seen different numbers, but the buy
out this year is between sixty and seventy million dollars.
He could go four and eight. They do not have
the money to give Kaylan Dubor sixty five million dollars
to go away, to pay a roster twenty to thirty
million dollars to feel a high end team. Well, if
(43:30):
they're fired Kaylin Dubor, who do you think they're gonna
hire me or you for one hundred grand. No, they're
gonna want some sweet coach ten million dollar coach. That
means you gotta give him ninety million. You gotta pay
his coordinators multimillions. Alabama is not Notre Dame, It's not
USS Texas. These their athletic director a year ago was
on Twitter begging for money the day and age of
(43:51):
paying like Jimbo Fisher that those days are done and
Texa a m has way more money. They could pull
it off. Alabama cannot. There is no paying. When I
see these people like reputable college football media being like,
I wonder could they fire him for John grud Kaylen
Bor is not getting bought out. The Alabama cannot afford
to do that. It is not happening now. Could get
(44:11):
really ugly, And I get why they'd be really mad
because you're coming from Nick Saban. You know, if you're
dating a supermodel in her prime and then all of
a sudden, it's like you're dating some ugly chick. It's
gonna suck. And if you're starting losing games and you're
used to kicking everyone's ass, it's not gonna be fun.
But there's no these fifty sixty seventy billion dollar buyouts
when you're paying the players. Now, those days are done
(44:35):
unless you have some t Boon Pickings or Phil Knight
that just give you here's one hundred million dollar check
to buy a guy out, to buy the new guy
and pay the player. I don't know who's doing that.
I don't think it's going to happen. I really don't. So, yeah,
what was other neutral site? I just think we got
to get rid of these neutral site games. I truly
(44:56):
don't know. I've been trying to wrap my head. Who
benefits Arthur Blank, I mean he hosts like four of
these things, or Jerry Jones. I got no problem in
the conference championship, put in Vegas, put in India. I
get it, the Orange Bowl, I understand it. I have
no problem with that. But the first game of the season,
like Nebraska and Cincinnati or you know, South Carolin, I
(45:19):
think awesome. That would have been if you were South
Carolina hosting that game with Virginia Tech, or vice versa,
Virginia Tech hosting your coach's son. How sweet that would
have been, What a cool moment for the Beamer family.
But instead we're playing this thing at Mercedes Benz. I
just it's bullshit, it really, it sucks. For as great
as the Clemson was or Ohio State was, the pageantry,
(45:41):
the intensity, just how much it means. That's what college
football is, is the environment. It's what I didn't go
to any of these schools, and yet it draws me
to watch these games. We gotta get rid of it.
That being said, it's probably not going away anytime soon.
So hopefully everyone enjoyed the weekend. And it's not quite
done because we've got Bill Belichick tomorrow at five o'clock.
(46:03):
So buckle up and enjoy your holiday Monday off and
I will talk to you soon. The volume
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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