Sam Pittman Fired, Conference Power Ratings + Early Week 6 Picks for Miami-Florida State & Vandy-Alabama | College Football - The Solid Verbal College Football

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the solid verbal. I'm that for me. I'm
a man, I'm for it. I've heard so many players
say what I want to be happy? You want to
be happy for Dake Edo steak? Is that woo whoo?
And then and.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Tie Dan Rubinstein, Welcome back to our home bases. Welcome
out to all of thever Bawler hood. Thank you for
stopping on by. This is our Tuesday recap show where
we're going to do a little bit of a look back,
a little bit of a look forward, and also maybe
give some details from our travels from this past weekend.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Sir, welcome back. How you feeling. I feel good.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
Got a good night's sleep last night after not really
sleeping all that much the night before after the white
out Penn State Orion game, and then working doing our stream,
working some more and driving back to your neck of
the woods, flying back immediately being told where to pick
up one of the kids and take to an event
to then dinner, and so yeah, got a good night's Sleepeah, buddy,

(01:03):
we're rocking and rolling. I'm ready to both look a
little bit into the past to figure out present situations
and then look ahead to future situations.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
All with Die Hilding, Bread, die Hield and Bread. Yes, well,
welcome back in one and all again.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Don't forget to hit follow or subscribe if you like
what you hear on this episode. If you've like what
you have heard on all of our episodes, don't forget
to go back and check out the episode that we
did live from State College. We can talk through in
a little bit more detail what went into that later
on in the episode, but a very well reaction in

(01:39):
response to that Oregon Penn State game, and part of
what I think we're going to try to do today
is take a bit of a look back at some
of the games that we didn't have a chance to
discuss in the normal amount of detail. Frankly, because we
didn't have a chance to watch games. We were meandering
from tailgate to tailgate. We had kicked around the idea
of doing something live on Sunday night, but I don't
think either of us had the juice to do that,

(02:01):
so we thought, well, we'll punt until our normal recording
football term, yes, and drop it on Tuesday morning with
the appropriate amount of energy.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
So we're going to do some of that.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Don't forget again, Verballers, dot com is where you can
go if you want to support what Dan and I do.

Speaker 4 (02:19):
Now, before we get to that, we did have some
breaking news boo boo, boo boop.

Speaker 2 (02:32):
That dropped on Sunday afternoon. Sam Pittman officially now fired
at Arkansas. That game against Notre Dame appealed, appeared to
be the nail in the coffin. Sam Pittman was in
year six with the Hogs. He finished with a career
record of thirty two and thirty four. This came as
no great surprise. Sam Pittman was on the hot seat

(02:53):
last year. Sam Pittman was on the hot seed for
the majority of the early part of this year as well.
As such, they have now turned over the reins to
one Bobby Petrino, previously the Arkansas head coach for four seasons.
You may recall he went eleven and two with the
Hogs back in twenty eleven.

Speaker 3 (03:13):
Do you have the excite byte music ready to roll?

Speaker 1 (03:16):
Or is that I know?

Speaker 3 (03:17):
Is that nothing that you you're a pro tie I
don't and people are counting on you.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
I don't have it.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
So he goes eleven and two and twenty eleven, and
then in the early part of twenty twelve is when
the infamous motorcycle incident happens. Still the most ridiculous press
conference I think I've ever seen, yes, of course in
the span of time that we have been covering this
damn sport. But the motorcycle incident goes down. Patrino was
subsequently fired, recently brought back into the family as the

(03:45):
offensive coordinator and now per Pete Thamil. Earlier today, again
we're recording this Monday around midday. Patrino has done a
little bit of his own redecorating, as such, dismissing the
defensive coordinator and co defensive coordinator as well as the
defensive line coach. So a lot here to unpack. Again,
not a huge surprise that Arkansas decided to do this

(04:08):
in light of the pretty big defeat at home against
Notre Dame. But your reaction to this, Dan, just as
first blush.

Speaker 3 (04:16):
My reaction is, how does it always end with Bobby Petrino?
Super well, mixed bag? Sometimes all right, oftentimes pretty good.
Often nope, it never ends well. It never ends well
with Bobby Patrino. You hope for the best because he's
the guy who has led your program to the modern

(04:36):
heights that they haven't been able to really replicate consistently.
But we know how it's gonna end. And that's you know,
there's a lot of chaos in this world. Tie And
you know how people go back and rewatch their favorite shows,
They go back and watch Friends, they go back and
watch The Office because it's comforting, right, there's so much
chaotic around them. Maybe that's what this is for Arkansas.

(04:56):
Maybe this is just a late night Netflix re watch
that sort of recalibrates everything inside. I don't think it's
going to go well. I think Arkansas has potential to
win a bunch of games as a program, no matter
the year, if they have the right guy. I just
think there's enough in place if they can get that
money up, which I think they're just not on the

(05:18):
same plane as other places. If they can get that
money up, Arkansas as a place that is sports rabbit
and can have a winning culture.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
But not with this guy.

Speaker 3 (05:29):
Well, but it's just not with this guy.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
For what it's worth, Our friend Bruce Felman over at
The Athletic did write the usual candidate's column for some
of the names that he expects to be part of
the running here. Bobby Petrino is one of them. He
lists him as the ultimate wild card but also scandal laden,
which I think we understand pretty well at this point.
Some of the other names among current head coaches that

(05:53):
Bruce kicks around the one that he says first and foremost,
it's his if he wants it. R Att Lashley at
SMU right, Eric Morris at North Texas another one, as
well as Ryan Silverfield at Memphis.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
GJ.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
Kinney at Texas State, John Sumrall at Tulane.

Speaker 1 (06:11):
Some really intriguing names there.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
Jeff Trailer from UTSA ever the candidate in this part
of the country also in the running, and a name
that Bruce throws out there, just I think because of
some previous connections between him and the current ad at Arkansas,
Hunter Yurchek Dion Sanders. Sure Deon Sanders was interviewed by
your check at Jackson State. Jackson State at the time

(06:37):
came away extremely impressed by what they heard from Dion.
Would he entertain a move? I listen, I have no idea,
but those are the names among current coaches that Bruce
throws out there. And then, in addition to Petrino on
the coordinator side, of this, he also includes Gus Malzan,
who had a cup of coffee of course with Arkansas
and is familiar with.

Speaker 3 (06:55):
Has a lot of roots, goes way back. Last head
coaching tenure at UCF. I wouldn't say went swimmingly, did
not go swimmingly.

Speaker 2 (07:03):
But Gus Melson, currently the FSU offensive coordinator, throws his
name out there as well. So all these offensive guys
in some way, shape or form. Deon Sanders sort of
a mixed bag.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
I guess.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
Deon Sanders to me seems like the all time wild
card on this list. But Arkansas another school now going
to be looking for a new head football coach.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
YEP.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
As we've been saying it's going to be a very
active cycle. It does not surprise me at all that
some of these schools are getting on the carousel a
little bit early, and my hunch is that they're going
to be a number more to follow.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
The stay tuned.

Speaker 3 (07:40):
Colorado currently all in three against power conference programs at
the moment, So if he is going to be a
candidate anywhere, it seems that very happy in Colorado. They've
been very supportive of him. Probably going to need to.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
Get that record up quickly. I agree all right. No
other news here, at least not to that extent.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
We will dive into much much more or as we
get into previews throughout the course of the week.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
Let's talk some polls, Dan, buddy, Let's reveal some polls.

Speaker 2 (08:10):
Your Oregon Ducks up four spots, all the way up
to number two in the AP pole.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
Oregon, by the way, all the way up to number
one in Oarver Bowl or Top twelve poll. We've also
got Ole, miss up nine in the AP poll, all
the way up to number four. Alabama, on the heels
of their win against Georgia on the road twenty four
to twenty one, they are up seven now cracking the
top ten at number ten terms of the AP pole.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
Some of the biggest losers Penn State down four to
number seven, Georgia down seven to number twelve, LSU down
nine to number thirteen, and Florida State down ten all
the way down to number eighteen. Notably, they are now
ranked below Alabama. Okay, and USC has dropped entirely out

(08:57):
after their loss to Illinois. They were previously at number
two twenty one. They're out entirely. Some other names here
of teams that I think are just of interest in
our universe. Virginia is now ranked number twenty four after
upsetting Florida State. They weren't even in the others receiving
votes column last week. Vandy, who we will talk about
a little bit later in this episode shh very quietly,

(09:23):
very quietly at number sixteen after turning it on a
little bit later than expected and rolling Utah State, and
among some of the other notables who benefited from losses
of teams in front of them, Oklahoma up to number five,
Texas A and M up to number six, Indiana up
to number eight. These are all results of the AP pole.

(09:47):
Any thoughts initially to those we can get into our
verball or top twelve, which again remains the most accurate
poll in all of college football polling in just a minute.
But how do we feel about what we saw on
the AP side?

Speaker 3 (09:59):
Totally in internally split on who should be one between
Ohio State and Oregon. It's hard to argue against what
Ohio State did on the road, not allowing I don't
believe they allowed a touchdown at Washington, who had displayed
a lot of offensive firepower early on in the season,
and zero touchdowns against the Ohio State defense. Not a

(10:21):
ton of pop from the Ohio State offense, but efficient, right,
they eventually take care of business after a slow start.
What Oregon did at Penn State in that kind of
environment and the way that they pulled that game out,
I think just should have number one consideration, which when
you're ranked number two, it seems like there's number one considerators.

Speaker 2 (10:39):
So yeah, and looking like I said niverballer Pole, Oregon
was number one. Oregon was my number one pick. And listen,
Ohio State beating Texas and the manner that they did
week one, that's great at home, going to Washington, putting
on the display that they did, especially defensively. I think
that's also something that we should commit.

Speaker 3 (10:57):
To memory here. Both have arguments, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
Absolutely, both have arguments.

Speaker 2 (11:01):
But Oregon going to Penn State and winning that game
singularly might be the most impressive win we have seen
so far in college football this season. So it's hard
for me, given the fact that Oregon looked really good
before that game and then the way that they just
went into State College and got that dub. For me,
Oregon's won based on the body of work. Right now,

(11:21):
Ohio State's a close second. Ohio State has been impressive
in their own right, But I tend to agree a
little bit more with a verballer pole. My hunch is
at there was a fair amount of second guessing where
Oregon belongs, where Ohio State belongs, but consensus is that
those are one and two in any order.

Speaker 3 (11:39):
Also that the Texas win hasn't aged well through no
fault of Ohio States, but Texas has not looked especially
strong and otherwise a top five type program at the moment.
Miami has an opportunity this weekend to make a statement.
They haven't played on the road yet. I don't believe
no now this is going to going to a top
twenty team as a favorite this week coming off of
a bye, they have the opportunity to lay claim to

(12:01):
being in that I mean, they're in this conversation by
just being number three in the country, but they will
have an opportunity to make a strong statement against Florida
State to be in that conversation even further.

Speaker 1 (12:11):
Oklahoma at number five.

Speaker 3 (12:12):
That's Oklahoma with John Matier at number five, it's what
are they without John Mattier? Big old shrug. Who's to say?
But I don't think the assumption is that they are
a top five team with Michael Hawkins. Yes, and he
has the chance to prove it and silence people like myself.
But right now, that's a sort of assumption based on

(12:33):
what we've seen from a different quarterback. LSU seems high
with how incompetent during stretches they seem on offense, and
the Clemson win hasn't aged as particularly impressive. Neither has
the Florida win. And that's fine, Alice. You can only
take care of business against the teams they're playing. I
would have Texas lower. I don't think they've done anything

(12:55):
since losing to Ohio State to establish themselves looking like
a top ten ish team. I might have Vandy higher
than they are at sixteen, just because they've taken care
of business against teams that they've been on the field against,
not crazy good teams that like South Carolina's flawed, Virginia
Tech is flawed. Obviously they've already fired their coach, but

(13:18):
Vandy looked strong in those games. I might have Mizoo
a little bit higher. I might have Byu a little
bit higher, though, you know, as we mentioned, Colorado hasn't
won a Power Conference game yet. And Texas Tech might
be a little bit higher. That win against Utah, That
fourth quarter has aged well, but there is a question
about where they stand at quarterback, who's playing quarterback, who

(13:40):
how well that player will either continue to play or
not necessarily continue to play. But Texas Tech has looked
very strong. I don't mind having them even a little
bit higher. What about you.

Speaker 1 (13:50):
One of the more interesting.

Speaker 2 (13:53):
Means of comparison here, if we're looking at both the
ape pole and the verbowl or top twelve, is Texas.
And I feel like our verballerhood has done a good
job putting Texas where I feel Texas should be. I
don't think Texas has looked all that impressive.

Speaker 1 (14:09):
Now. For sure, it's a good team, and for sure
it is still early. Totally.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
They are three to one. Their only losses on the
road against Ohio State. That's not a brand loss by
any stretch of the imagination. But right now in the
AP Texas is nine. The for baller pole has them
outside the top twelve at number fourteen. Yeah, and I
think that tracks were I've got Texas at as well.
There are going to be ample opportunities here coming up

(14:34):
for Texas. The remainder of the season to move up,
and as I think arver ballers have done a really
good job of, they will move teams around very quickly.
It is not like, oh, you have to wait for
teams in front of you to lose. I think there
is more of this mentality of flexibility the limber pole,
as you've put at time and again.

Speaker 1 (14:54):
With our own pool, our own poll.

Speaker 2 (14:56):
Excuse me, So, the way that hours broke down was
Oregon one, Ohio State two, Miami three, All miss four,
Texas A and M all the way up to six,
Bama all the way up to seven, Penn State drops
to eight. Oklahoma actually dropped one in hour poll to nine,
which I think makes sense given the fact that, hey,
they're going to be without John Matier. Georgia down to ten,

(15:21):
Texas Tech up at eleven. I think that tracks with
where they're at in the AP pole as well, and
then Iowa State at number twelve. But some teams outside
of that top twelve, notably Georgia Tech actually dropped the
spot Texas at fourteen. I just talked about them, Vandy
at fifteen, that's one spot up from where they're at
in the AP pole. And then LSU down at sixteen

(15:42):
by virtue of their loss, Florida State at seventeen, Missouri
at eighteen, Tennessee at nineteen, and if we want to
go all the way down to twenty, it'd be Michigan.

Speaker 3 (15:50):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (15:51):
I think our guys did a good job. Our guys
and gals and everybody listening who voted in this. We
opened it up to everybody who was a free Patreon member.
I think they did a pretty good job ranking these
teams accordingly. I might have some minor disputes with where
teams are at, but I think the general vibe of
where this thing is at tracks pretty well with how
I feel.

Speaker 3 (16:11):
Can I give you a couple of other teams that
are not ranked, that are behaving like ranked teams? Of course,
the best of USC, I think is a top twenty
five team. It was not a great ending. We'll get there.
Mississippi State. So Mississippi State at home beat what both
of our poles have as a top twenty five Arizona

(16:32):
State team. Okay, and then held again? Does fact check
me on this? Do they hold Tennessee to two offensive
touchdowns in this game in regulation?

Speaker 1 (16:41):
I believe?

Speaker 2 (16:41):
So?

Speaker 3 (16:42):
Okay, So it's two touchdowns, two field goals, and they
get a touchdown and overt overtime to win. And then
they had two defensive touchdowns, not on Mississippi State's defense,
most certainly on the Mississippi State offense, but took Tennessee
to the actual limit. We have them as a top fifteen,
top twenty team both of these polls, yep. So I'm
just saying, if Mississippi State is at four and one,

(17:05):
they're kind of playing in behaving like a top twenty
five team that I wouldn't hate to have. I mean,
I assume they got votes in the a people, but
I think it's worth maybe even more consideration, is like
somewhere between twenty and twenty five in this moment. You know,
I have my doubts about how well they can sustain
over the course of the season, given how much has changed,

(17:26):
and you know what our questions might be about the
depth and if they can sustain injuries. But with how
they've performed, I think they're worth that conversation. Also, Memphis,
Memphis at five and zero, they're able to somehow some
way take down a team who just fired their coach
in Arkansas, but they've been winning comfortably and I think
they're very quietly a quality team to be considered in

(17:48):
this top twenty five.

Speaker 2 (17:50):
Yeah, they checked in at number twenty five, I guess
tied for twenty four, okay in ours in our for
baller pole, got it, yeah, in our for baller pole,
but Memphis otherwise was in the other's receiving votes category
South Florida, Utah, Mississippi State, Memphis and Louisville were the
top five and others receiving votes also.

Speaker 3 (18:11):
I don't hate I don't hate having Michigan a little
bit higher than where they are in the apeopole right now.

Speaker 1 (18:16):
They're at twenty, they're at twenty. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (18:18):
I don't hate the way that they were able to
run against Nebraska, which a lot of teams are gonna
be able to do that, but that's a tough environment.
The offense for Nebraska's for sure improved. Bryce Underwood was
able to run well. If they can get a passing game,
they look like more like top fifteen than top twenty.
I just think they're a team worth monitoring with perhaps
an interesting ceiling.

Speaker 2 (18:38):
Let us know your thoughts on the ap pole, on
the verbal or pole solid Verbo at Gmail dot com
or wherever you can leave a comment.

Speaker 1 (18:47):
We would like to get your input on who is
too high, who is too low, who is just right yep,
and what you're looking for the remainder of this season.
Speaking of which.

Speaker 2 (18:59):
Dan, let's do some conference power rankings. We're now through
the month of September in college football. We have not
done this in a while, not since we did our
previews at the start of the year. We've got some

(19:20):
games under our belt. We've got some measuring stick that
we can use to grade out these teams. I've got
the ACC and the SEC. You've got the Big twelve
and the Big Ten. We're gonna give our power rankings.
We're gonna do some arguing here.

Speaker 3 (19:33):
Can we sort of include thoughts about Week five in this?

Speaker 1 (19:38):
Oh? Yes, that was what I had planned.

Speaker 3 (19:40):
Absolutely, Okay, that's what I'm so we'll do like some
sidebars along the way, like, Okay, I have Tennessee here. Okay,
I have Texas Tech here. I guess Texas Tech didn't play,
but I have Tennessee here, I have Minnesota there, sidebar
the nice Ruckers when I guess.

Speaker 1 (19:55):
Like, yeah, so let's do it like that.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
No, absolutely, so, why don't starting the SEC, since that
seemed to be one of the more interesting talking points
as part of the previous segment. Right now, my top
five in the SEC goes Alabama, Georgia, Ole, Miss, Texas,
A and M, and Tennessee in that order.

Speaker 1 (20:15):
Those are my top.

Speaker 2 (20:16):
Five obviously, Okay, continue Obviously Alabama with the big win
over Georgia. Yes, I gotta put Bama in front of Georgia. Now,
if you had talked to me three weeks ago, I
had Bama lower on this list. But again, limberpoles, these
are power rankings. My logic in putting this together was
if I put Team A against Team B, who do
I think is gonna win? We just saw Bama beat Site. Yeah,

(20:38):
usual site. We just saw Bama beat Georgia. I'm gonna
go Alabama. Okay, Alabama one, Georgia two. I struggle with
Old Miss. I like Old Miss. I like Old Miss
a lot. I really like Trinidad Chambliss. I think he's
the real deal. They have played better on defense than
I've expected so far, and I like where their schedule

(20:59):
is at. I'm just a little bit leery about having
them this high because I wasn't nearly this high on
them in the preseason, and I still feel like there's
going to be a boogeyman waiting for me around one
of these corners here that I don't see coming now.
But I like where Old Missus at currently. If this
is snapshot where we're at in the moment, Old miss
is probably three ahead of Texas, A and M.

Speaker 1 (21:20):
Now.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
The conversation between five and six for me was really
where it got interesting because Tennessee just went to overtime.

Speaker 1 (21:29):
Against Mississippi State.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
Mississippi State has been one of the better stories in
college football, have they not?

Speaker 1 (21:35):
So far? Definitely right? So I like where they're at.
They definitely are better.

Speaker 2 (21:41):
Than a lot expected, including myself. But where does Mississippi
State rank on this ladder? And where does that put
Tennessee on this ladder? To me was a huge question.
Tennessee did get the win on the road, and Starkville
is not always the easiest place to play, so I
give them credit for that. I had Tennessee by a
nose ahead of Texas. I reserve the right to change

(22:01):
my mind on that before long, because I just don't
think Texas has looked that impressive. Okay, So that for
me was one of like the initial breakpoints in my
power rankings in the SEC.

Speaker 3 (22:13):
Texas, by the way, so they're number nine in the
country and the A people and number six in the
in the SEC.

Speaker 2 (22:19):
For you, that's right, Okay, that's where I've got it.
And then after Texas, who I have sixth I have
LSU at seven, Vandy at eight, Missoo at nine, Oklahoma
at ten, And the logic there was Oklahoma five in
the country, five in the country, and I don't care.

Speaker 1 (22:38):
This is yours, this is your I appreciate.

Speaker 2 (22:40):
It, this is in the moment. And the truth of
the matter is that Oklahoma is a great defense and
Oklahoma is way better than they were a year ago.
But Oklahoma is going to be without their best player
for the next month now. Michael Hawkins Junior is not green,
he is not new to this. He played a fair
amount last season. They seem to have a great confidence

(23:02):
in him. But I still don't think it's the same team.
So I'm going to knock Oklahoma for that. That's why
I've got them as low as I do. That may
be unfair, I really don't care. These are my opinions
at this point in time. Okay, Missouri is another one
of these schools. I had no idea where to go
with Missouri. I like Missoo Massoo's look really good. Missou
hasn't played anybody. I struggled with them a lot.

Speaker 3 (23:26):
That seems reasonable.

Speaker 2 (23:27):
Yeah, and then after Oklahoma, then you start getting into
teams where I truly don't know where they stack up.
There's a lot of potential here, I think at the
bottom still for some of these teams to really take
a jump. I still think Florida has a lot of talent,
though I don't think they're organized enough to really mount
any kind of charge. Auburn very much falls in that
same category of having a lot of talent, but it
just feels like they leave us wanting week in and

(23:49):
week out a great Mississippi State. I don't know how
high to be on Mississippi State. I've got them all
the way down here, what is this fourth from the bottom.

Speaker 1 (23:57):
But here here's the idea.

Speaker 3 (23:59):
The idea of a power ranking is a snapshot of
how you're feeling about them right now, not necessarily how
you anticipate that. I know, I know how you anticipate
feeling about them in mid November.

Speaker 2 (24:09):
I have struggled with Mississippi State when I put this
list together, because there is a fair amount of me
trying to convince myself that they should be higher and
not lower. But then I look at the other schools
around them, and I cannot in good faith put them
above a school like in Oklahoma.

Speaker 1 (24:25):
But it's not a projection. I understand that. Yeah, so
I struggle with that.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
And then to round out the bottom, I've got South Carolina, Arkansas,
and Kentucky. I'm probably too low in South Carolina. I'll
just agree its out there. I'm probably way too well
in South Carolina. But again, if I am putting a
against B B, against c C against D neutral site,
this is how I would probably grade these teams out.

Speaker 3 (24:47):
Okay, So what is it about Auburn that has you
impressed with them enough to have them over Mississippi State
in South Carolina? It is I guess this deep balor
a month ago and didn't done nothing since they.

Speaker 2 (25:01):
Have been close? Okay, Okay, close. Close is definitely not
a stat that we track too much.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
Is there a close bowl like close playoff? Right that?

Speaker 3 (25:11):
Like we have the regular one and then we're reserving
these other twelve for teams who are just like, I
know you guys went three and the.

Speaker 2 (25:18):
One score playoff. It'll be Auburn, It'll be Nebraska from
last year.

Speaker 1 (25:22):
It'll be a few years ago, yeah, a few years ago.
It'll be a usc from a year ago.

Speaker 3 (25:27):
When Nebraska was the best three and nine team ever,
right right.

Speaker 2 (25:30):
So I struggle with the Auburn side of this as well,
because Auburn has been close. I still like the talent
that Auburn has, especially on defense, but I just I'm
at the point now where I'm ready to write Jackson
Arnold off.

Speaker 1 (25:43):
I don't think this is going to work. And he's
better as a runner than a thrower. For sure.

Speaker 2 (25:49):
There are moments of good productivity out of him, but
to say that he is this steadying force to your
point at the start of the year, Auburn is not
generally the place you go to like turn things around
because it's a stable program.

Speaker 1 (26:02):
Buddy, Aubret, It's not the place.

Speaker 3 (26:04):
Auburn's not the place you go to get a single
first down on third or fourth down against Texas A
and M for fourteen to six.

Speaker 2 (26:12):
That.

Speaker 1 (26:12):
Yeah, you know who else.

Speaker 3 (26:15):
Likes the talent on Auburn's defense. Texas A and M's offense,
who move the ball the entire game all of the time.
They just came up short in the red zone. So
I think you are probably leaning on your Auburn, your
August Auburn opinion.

Speaker 1 (26:30):
A little bit much. I'll admit it.

Speaker 3 (26:32):
I would have Mississippi State in South Carolina higher here.
Florida in the bottom half makes sense. I would have
Oklahoma a lot higher than you have them, because the
snapshot is they've beaten Michigan and a not so good
Auburn team kind of barely. But that's you got to
win your games. I would have Vandy higher here. What
has Vandy not shown you against their schedule?

Speaker 1 (26:54):
That's do you put Vandy above Texas? Yes? Wow? Yeah,
you put Vandy in the top five? I think so.

Speaker 3 (27:02):
Yeah, They're in America's top fifteen, top sixteen, right, Okay.

Speaker 2 (27:06):
Now listen, I would have I understand that this is
going to be drastically different from the the ap pole
and probably what a lot of people think, but I
don't really care.

Speaker 1 (27:13):
Sure you know my logic, that is my logic.

Speaker 3 (27:15):
Yeah, I would have Texas A and M higher, Like
why Georgia at number two? I bit about what Georgia's
season this year, that, like the winning at Tennessee, is
a legit, very good thing. Sure, they did everything they
could to lose that game.

Speaker 2 (27:30):
They did, they did, but they I think showed a
lot of resolve coming back winning in the manner that
they did. There is part of me that is still
intoxicated by that throw that Gunner Stock.

Speaker 1 (27:42):
You're one of Humphreys. I loved it. It was incredible.
They just lost.

Speaker 3 (27:46):
They just lost to a team at home who didn't
score a single point in the second half. Right, correct,
that's your second best team in the SEC.

Speaker 1 (27:53):
That's my second best team. I think you're.

Speaker 3 (27:55):
Stiffing way too much red and black.

Speaker 2 (27:57):
All right, then tell me your top five. I would
go right now, right now.

Speaker 3 (28:02):
I would go maybe A and M one, Okay, Alabama two, Ole,
Miss three, Vandy four, Tennessee five, Texas six, Oklahoma seven,
Miszoo eight, LSU nine, or I didn't put Georgia in there.
Georgia would probably be six or seven, Georgia sixteen, Georgia sixteen, Okay,

(28:26):
so something in that range. I would have Mississippi State
higher than Auburn and Florida and South Carolina higher than
Auburn and Florida at the moment. Okay, that's fair, people,
I do need I do agree with you that we
need to see something from Miszoo. Like when you actually
watch LSU football games, you come away thinking Brian Kelly

(28:48):
has messed this offense up. Like they are an extremely
average program right now because of this offense. And I
don't know how injured Garrettnsmeyer is or is not, but
they have not developed an offensive line over the course
of Brian Kelly's tenure. They're dealing with injuries obviously on offense.
Aaron Anderson went down against Like, this is a borderline
inept offense at LSU.

Speaker 2 (29:11):
And I think what's the most confounding to me on
the LSU offensive line front?

Speaker 1 (29:15):
Yeah, they got guys drafted.

Speaker 2 (29:19):
You know, these guys that they had on the line
last year, A bunch of them got drafted. The fact
that they were good enough to be drafted into the
league but not good enough as a unit playing together, Yeah,
speaks to I think something on the coaching side. If
you can't get those guys to mesh and play together
and all be on the same page, it is not

(29:39):
a talent thing that points directly at a coaching thing,
and I think that's definitely problematic.

Speaker 3 (29:45):
It could be call HM a columb They couldn't run
with their line last year, Like Will Campbell's a great
offensive lineman, but this unit couldn't push dudes forward. No,
I don't know. I think it's a combination of factors here,
But I don't think it's an over like. It's not
a skill talent thing. The best of Garrett us Myers
really good. He was just under throwing dudes against Ole
Miss like they're just they're off. It's a very flimsy

(30:08):
offensive plan and a mode of execution. So yeah, I
would have I think LSU is a very average SEC
team at the moment, which is where power rankings should
come into play. So take care of business against quality teams,
against average teams, against not so good teams like Vandy
has and you impress me. At the end of September,
if we're doing this exercise again at Halloween, at Thanksgiving, whatever,

(30:30):
it's just going to look different because of the data available.

Speaker 1 (30:33):
But this is what we have to go on. It's
what we have to go on.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
Give me your power ranking for the Big ten at
time of recording. Again, we're recording this on Monday, September
the twenty ninth.

Speaker 3 (30:43):
Oregon, Ohio State Penn State are my one, two three.
I have Penn State ahead of Indiana based on their
performance against my number one, and that's it, right. I
think their talent level. I believe their talent level on defense,
which is he's been really strong this entire year. They're
asked to do a lot against Oregon when the offense

(31:04):
wasn't doing anything against the Ducks and generally held up
really well. I don't think it was on the Penn
State defense that they lost that game. So I think
Penn State ceiling because of their defense, the way they
performed against my number one. I have Penn State ahead
of Indiana, who struggled to play like a top three
Big Ten team against Iowa, a decent but very flawed

(31:27):
Iowa team because of their offense. So I am impressed
with what Indiana did against Illinois, especially in the wake
of Illinois beating USC. But Illinois tried everything they could
to give away that USC game at the same time,
that's right, So I think Indiana at four to me
is pretty defensible. If you are positive they're better than
Penn State, we will get to see it on the field,

(31:49):
will we not?

Speaker 1 (31:49):
We will?

Speaker 3 (31:50):
Okay, So do you disagree? No?

Speaker 1 (31:53):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (31:53):
I mean I did go back and forth on Penn
State in Indiana, and I think even on the sheet
that I shared with you, I had Indiana over Penn State.
But I think cooler heads on this side have prevailed
a little bit, and I'm still inclined to go.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
Penste I mean Penn State. The way that they.

Speaker 2 (32:10):
Fought back against Oregon, who might be the best team
in the country, could well be the best team in
the Big Ten.

Speaker 1 (32:17):
That was impressive.

Speaker 2 (32:19):
It really was impressive because, as you know, we were
in the stadium, it felt when they went down seventeen
to three like they were dead. Yeah, so something woke
them up and lit a match and got them back
into that thing and they damn near won the game.
Penn State deserves some credit for that. So I still
I think by nose we give them the nod over Indiana.

(32:39):
But Indiana for me is a clear fourth. Then at
that point, okay, fair enough.

Speaker 3 (32:45):
I then go Michigan Illinois USC with my next three.

Speaker 1 (32:48):
I agree with that ordering.

Speaker 3 (32:50):
Yeah, I can't put USC ahead of Illinois, even though
I believe the best of USC is better than Illinois.
I believe if those two teams played on a neutral
field ten times, the USC would probably win six or
seven times. But Illinois literally just beat them.

Speaker 1 (33:05):
They literally just beat them.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
And if we are doing a little bit of a
look back at this game, I mean this was back
and forth and USC had the lead lead, Yes, what
was your.

Speaker 1 (33:16):
Probably too early late. They left them a little lot
of time, left them little too much time.

Speaker 2 (33:22):
This was not exactly a banner showing by the vaunted
USC defense, which I had mentioned on I guess our
previous episode that they looked a lot better to me,
and I've been saying that all year.

Speaker 1 (33:34):
They didn't look great. Well they were.

Speaker 3 (33:36):
They were also down there like all conference caliber safety
and Kamari Ramsey I think was that with food poisoning,
which man you choose something to wake up with or
to be held out of a game with. That's about
as horrible as it gets.

Speaker 1 (33:49):
Right Here's like I've been out of control of my body.
No talk about insult to injury. Feel bad for him.
Hope he's able to Uh, he should be able to
remember by next.

Speaker 2 (33:58):
Week when you went back and did the watch though
of Illinois USC.

Speaker 1 (34:01):
What was your reaction?

Speaker 3 (34:05):
Illinois looked a lot more creative on offense, a lot
more motion, a lot more like, let's do the boring
thing and hit like an open swing pass to what
was it Fagan for the long touchdown run, where like
they didn't anticipate that being a sixty five seventy yard
run or whatever it was, or you know, catch and run,
but they took what was there. Luke Altmeyer looked played

(34:28):
a lot more fearlessly, it seemed against USC. And on
the sc side, like they lost their starting center. I
believe in the first half they're already down their starting
left tackle. And it sort of showed in the run
game that they just over Lincoln Riley's tenure at USC.
Like at best, the offensive line results have been up
and down. At absolute best, there have been some absolute

(34:50):
lows on the offensive line. And I thought Jade Mayava
looked good. I thought it was really good. Obviously mackay
Lemon looked out standing. Yeah, front on defense, USC just
isn't ready to compete. They got pushed around by Illinois
way too much. And you know it's a slop factor
with USC. The penalties, you know, those big moment penalties.

(35:13):
Once again, I don't know how many penalties they have
in this game. I had to pull it up, but
there were a bunch. Yeah, they just they were playing
sloppy football. And even if you think Illinois is only
okay at home after a bad loss, you know they're
going to be juiced up a little bit and that
USC couldn't win this game, both scoring late and with

(35:36):
Illinois turning the ball over. And by the way, credit
the USC defense for turning the ball over. But it's
just hard to lose a game in which you get
two red zone turnovers, so you're erasing fourteen points off
the board from Illinois and Illinois still wins. So you know,
stop me if you've heard this one before, But USC

(35:57):
lost an absolutely winnable game on the road because of
how sloppily they played late. Like that's just the story
with USC. They have many more games to reverse that
this season. But I don't know, Illinois sort of did
more boring things well than USC, and they've been dealing
with their own injuries, so you can't use that as

(36:19):
an excuse. USC just has to, like I don't know,
bounce back and have a very short memory because it's
not a short season.

Speaker 1 (36:27):
Like.

Speaker 3 (36:27):
There are some definite landmines on the schedule for USC.
They have, you know, Nebraska and Michigan and Notre Dame
and Oregon. So if you want to avoid seven to five,
eight and four that starts yesterday.

Speaker 2 (36:39):
Yeah, yeah, eight penalties by the way for those playing
along at home.

Speaker 1 (36:43):
So you've got USC at seven. Yeah. My hunch is that.

Speaker 2 (36:49):
Since we agreed on that top seven for the most part, yeah,
the remaining teams, the remaining eleven teams, we're gonna have
a fair amount of disagreement on. Why don't we start
at the very bottom, right, UCLA second from the bottom,
Northwestern Perdue, Perdue, Okay, and then Northwestern Northwestern won a
game okay in the Big ten, I mean, and then Wisconsin.

Speaker 1 (37:14):
Wisconsin, Yes, I think that's right.

Speaker 3 (37:17):
Actually, is there anything that they've done to merit a
higher number.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
No.

Speaker 3 (37:23):
I have Michigan State here, not that I think their
Boston College win is all that crazy, but I thought
they competed really nicely in LA in a weird time
spot for them, So I'm going to credit them there.

Speaker 1 (37:33):
Okay, US Ruckers above them, yep, Maryland next, No, No, Minnesota.

Speaker 3 (37:41):
Minnesota below Maryland. Yes, I mean what has Maryland done
this season for you to knock? I mean, their offense
hasn't been great, but they've done really well with a
young defense and they've won.

Speaker 1 (37:52):
They have one, they have one.

Speaker 3 (37:54):
I mean that you gotta got to give them some
credit there. So I have them a little bit higher
than you. I think that's fair.

Speaker 2 (38:00):
One of the interesting stats that I pulled when I
was going through and looking at just passer grades and
things of that nature, because I like to look at
that stuff and again, you know, take some of that
stuff with a grain of salt. I mean, yeah, PFF's
been talking up CJ. Carr and they give them a
horrible grade. So there's there's a bit of conflict there.

(38:21):
I think it's some of the scores that I see.
But one thing that doesn't seem to be in too
much conflict is the fact that Drake Lindsay is the
highest graded passer in the Big Ten. He's slightly ahead
of Dante more Jade Mayava, and he's put the numbers up.
He's obviously had a really really good season. I'm curious
to see as the season goes on if that manifests
is a big upset at some point along the way,

(38:42):
or if Minnesota can kind of get over, you know,
a hump or two and get to maybe a different level.
But a nice win this past weekend against Rutgers thirty
one to twenty eight and the eighth in caliac Manus Bowl.

Speaker 3 (38:55):
Yes, No, he's been pretty good. Drake Lindsay's been pretty good.
This hasn't been an especially explosive offense. Obviously, dealing with
injuries in the backfield doesn't help. But I don't think
I'm as high.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
I don't know. Okay, that's fine.

Speaker 3 (39:10):
So you got are you taking Julian Saying and Dante
more behind Drake Lindsay? Uh, probably not, but Mon Williams
but also yeah, definitely better supporting casts. Also better supporting casts.

Speaker 1 (39:24):
All right, so you've.

Speaker 2 (39:24):
Got Maryland, Ijava, you've got Maryland ahead of Minnesota.

Speaker 3 (39:28):
I've got Maryland ahead of Minnesota. They're winning. Their schedule
has not been great, but they're winning. And Minnesota scored
thirteen points at Cal and they might got Cal's fine,
but they've got a big home game this weekend with
Washington traveling cross country. Yeah, that could be interesting. We'll
talk about that one a little bit later. All right,
So who is next up after Maryland? Then whos I
have Iowa above Maryland right there. Okay, So if you're

(39:49):
going Iowa above Maryland, I'm assuming you've got Washington. I
mean it's just Washington and Nebraska left. Yes, I have
Washington above Iowa, Nebraska above Washington.

Speaker 1 (39:59):
Okay, you score.

Speaker 3 (40:01):
Zero touchdowns at home against the best team arguably on
your schedule. They have both Ohio State and Oregon. That
tells me you have some work to do because the
defense isn't there. If you're gonna win, it's gonna be
with offense, and the offense isn't there.

Speaker 1 (40:15):
So where are we.

Speaker 3 (40:17):
Iowa's neck and neck with Rutgers. So I think they
should be right around Rutgers in the medy middle of this.
That's why I have them there. I still think Washington's
ceiling is higher than Iowa's, so I have them there.
I thought Nebraska acquitted itself really well against the number
five team here in Michigan. The offense is improved. I'm
still not crazy about it, but it's undoubtedly looks improved.

(40:37):
And Dylan Royola has gotten better. I'm not a Royola guy.

Speaker 2 (40:40):
Now, hold on not pausit right there, paus right please.
You've been taking some arrows about your thoughts in Dylan Roola. Yes,
I wanted to give you a chance to clarify where
you're coming from.

Speaker 3 (40:50):
With Riola, he's got a terrible offensive line, but he
also holds onto the ball too long, maybe because he
anticipates his offensive line being bad on every snap. They're
bad a lot, they're not bad on every snap. And
so it's this weird I don't know, self fulfilling prophecy
sometimes with him that he holds on too long. The
receivers are fine, the running back is good. I just

(41:12):
think there were there are too many disastrous, potentially disastrous
throws from him because of like footwork that goes in
and out and had an opportunity to the end of
that Michigan game and it just wasn't happening. And there's
like this weird combination of insanely impressive arm talent, raw footwork,

(41:36):
fear of an offensive line that has led him down
a bunch that I just don't think it's a cocktail
I'm ordering at the college football bar right now. And
so it's a long season he has, like you just
watch him play. He's definitely improved from where they were, sure,
but the decision now to like go to Nebraska and
look look at Matt Ruhle and say, I trust you

(41:57):
to figure out an offensive architecture and vision for me,
it's not a great decision. Obviously. I understand his family
connection to Nebraska, but it doesn't seem like that's the
place to go to and that's the coach to play
for if you are looking to become a top flight quarterback.
So the best of him is really good. The ups

(42:18):
and downs are just not anything that I would have
fun with if I were a Nebraska fan. I know
they're they're throwing like numbers at me, like these counting numbers.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
All the counting stats, Dan, all the count the total yardage,
the yeah, don't we've graduated.

Speaker 1 (42:30):
He's not bad.

Speaker 3 (42:31):
I just wouldn't like to have him as my quarterback
given the uh what what you don't know what you're
getting that's barely English. The the the lack of let's
let's call it, the lack of consistency from anything and
figuring out how to best use him, and for him

(42:52):
to just sort of have a better plan when he's
looking at defenses.

Speaker 1 (42:56):
It's not for me, Okay, fair, I'm definitely a higher
on him than you are.

Speaker 3 (43:00):
Yeah, it's fine. USC has an opportunity to move up.
Washington has an opportunity to move up. All these teams do.
Michigan has an opportunity.

Speaker 1 (43:08):
To fall flat.

Speaker 3 (43:09):
Absolutely they do. But that's where I stand with the
big ten.

Speaker 1 (43:14):
Over in the ACC.

Speaker 2 (43:16):
Yes, the ACC is both easier and harder to grade out.
Miami is one. Miami is the clear number one.

Speaker 3 (43:25):
After you get Virginia eraser.

Speaker 2 (43:27):
But okay, after you get past Miami, that's when it
gets weird. Okay, that's when I think You've got a
number of teams you can put in any order and
it goes pretty deep. I've got Georgia Tech two. I've
still got Florida State three.

Speaker 3 (43:43):
I'm already differing.

Speaker 1 (43:45):
I've got Louisville four, and I've got Duke five.

Speaker 3 (43:50):
Okay, I have Miami. Louisville winning is boring, but it's
better than losing. Sure, Louisville has won. Florida State looks
sloppy at Virginia, the errors leading to Virginia touchdowns. Obviously,
the game ended on an error for Florida State after
that kind of performance. With what Virginia's offense did against

(44:12):
Florida State, I'm just not there. With Florida State at
number two. I have them number three. Okay, I actually
have Virginia behind them because of Virginia's lost obviously to
NC State.

Speaker 1 (44:23):
If I recall it correctly, you tell me you have
Virginia in the top five. Yes, WHOA come? Well, here's
the thing.

Speaker 3 (44:29):
If you beat number two or number three or number one,
you gotta be pretty good. I have Virginia ahead of
Georgia Tech. Who's number two? You're Virginia at number two. No,
Louisville's number of those number two, Virginia three, No, Florida
State at three, Virginia at four. Obviously Florida State has

(44:50):
lost to Virginia. And I'm being sort of a hypocrite here.
So Illinois USC, I understand if you disagree with any
of this, My answer to you is.

Speaker 1 (44:58):
Yeah, you're probably right.

Speaker 3 (44:59):
You're probably I don't know you're probably right, but you know,
I sat and thought about it, and my brain has
limited capacity and limited growth potential.

Speaker 1 (45:08):
So here we are. What do you have? So then
I have Georgia Tech at five?

Speaker 2 (45:12):
Okay, So we kind of have the same teams there.
Now I've got Duke at five, ahead of Clemson at six,
and then Clemson ahead of Virginia.

Speaker 3 (45:20):
I have, yeah, Duke, Clemson, and then Cal.

Speaker 1 (45:24):
Okay, we'll get to Cal in a second.

Speaker 2 (45:26):
Yeah, my thinking here with putting Duke above Clemson. I
still like Clemson's talent. I and Clemson is a preseason one.
But they're one and three mm h. And at some
point they're screaming who they are?

Speaker 1 (45:38):
You gotta believe them?

Speaker 3 (45:39):
Correct It doesn't seem likely high for Clemson at the moment.

Speaker 2 (45:43):
Yeah, I mean, look, it's hard not to like the talent,
it's hard not to like the veteran presence, it's hard
not to like just the pedigree of the program. But
one in three is screaming one and three. And we've
watched this team all year. They can't get their act
together on offense at times, have gotten pushed around on defense.
They just like, even that one in the one and
three was it all that impressive? I know, I know

(46:04):
absolutely they were losing at one point in that game. Yeah,
so I'm obviously going to be down on Clemson compared
to where I was in the preseason.

Speaker 1 (46:13):
But Duke.

Speaker 2 (46:14):
If nothing more, Duke feels much more organized. We know
that Duke is finding ways to put up points. I
think generally we still like their philosophy on defense, even
if we haven't always seen it this season. So for me,
Duke just has their act together a lot more. I'm
not going to bottom out on Clemson, but I'm not
going to put Clemson in my top what it is
a six, Duke is going to be five Clemson at so.

Speaker 3 (46:34):
There's very little argument to put Clemson in your top
nine or ten.

Speaker 1 (46:37):
Now I understand that. I understand it.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
And this is based solely on the August Clemson that
I tried to paint that picture when we did our.

Speaker 3 (46:43):
Career you had if you had no prior knowledge of
any of these teams and you just landed here from
Neptune and you're like, all right, I'm looking at what
I'm looking at. Let's see who's who and what's what Clemson?
Where would Clemson be? I know, I know this something
doesn't have a Power Conference win.

Speaker 1 (47:04):
This is based.

Speaker 2 (47:05):
Almost exclusively on my preseason prediction, which went up and
smoke almost immediately.

Speaker 3 (47:11):
Clemson's thirteen or fourteenth. If you're looking at it like that.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
I've got Virginia right after Clemson, ahead of SMU, ahead
of pitt, ahead of NC State, ahead of Wake Forest.

Speaker 3 (47:22):
Okay, we're starting to get a little different here. So
after Mike Clemson, I have cal NC State, Virginia Tech.

Speaker 1 (47:30):
You're really high on tech.

Speaker 3 (47:32):
I'm not really high on tech and tech. This is
a very stupid conference.

Speaker 2 (47:36):
Well it is, and this is why I say, after
that initial wave of five or six teams, it starts
to get really weird. I think we find ourselves in
this situation often with the ACC. We joke about it
here about like we can never remember who plays whom right,
But truly, you get past that top six and there
are a bunch of teams that kind of feel the same.
And that's not necessarily a bad thing. I mean, I

(47:57):
do think that is in part why the ACC is
so damn interesting. It was like this a little bit
last year. It's even more of the case this year.
There's a lot of big twelve in the ACC where
it feels like anybody can be at anybody almost at
any time, doesn't matter where they can played.

Speaker 3 (48:12):
Well, yeah, I mean you talk about that was the
ACC coastal that was always just a mix and match
of six and six, seven and seven, five and seven teams.
That's what we sort of have after Miami, Louisville, Florida State,
Georgia Tech. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Outside of that
top grouping of five or six teams. Yeah, yeah, it

(48:32):
kind of feels like that way throughout. So let me
read the rest of this off to you.

Speaker 1 (48:35):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (48:36):
So where I am with my is cal NC State,
Virginia Tech. Okay, even though Virginia Tech did just beat
NC State, I hear you.

Speaker 2 (48:42):
I have cal Virginia Tech, Syracuse, Boston College, North Carolina,
Stanford round out mine. By the way, full disclosure, I
forgot Stanford on the initial document I put together.

Speaker 1 (48:53):
That's what I think of Stanford.

Speaker 2 (48:54):
Okay, Okay, cal to me, though, was a team call
in wake Forest with the two teams that I had
no idea what to do with.

Speaker 3 (49:00):
Okay, I can help.

Speaker 1 (49:02):
I think wake Forest is going to be damn plucky.

Speaker 3 (49:05):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (49:06):
Wake Forest could have beaten Georgia Tech. Probably should have
been Georgia Tech. But there is another entry in your
close playoff.

Speaker 2 (49:13):
Another entry in the close playoff. They could be an
eight seed, but Wake Forrest is a team. I think
that's going to give many others in this conference white
knuckles throughout the course of the year trying to beat them.
They will be in every game, which if you're a
Wake fan, that's a plus you will take that.

Speaker 1 (49:30):
Yeah, I have.

Speaker 2 (49:31):
No idea what to make a cow. I love JKS.
I think Cal is definitely better than they were a
year ago.

Speaker 3 (49:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:40):
Cal, Also didn't they get shut out by San Diego
State a week ago.

Speaker 3 (49:44):
Look, you don't just go into Snapdragon and expect to
win time.

Speaker 2 (49:49):
You don't go in there maybe expecting to win, but
you do go in there expecting to score something.

Speaker 1 (49:53):
You know.

Speaker 3 (49:53):
How do you know how difficult it is to give
up thirty four points to San Diego State? This is
a special Cal program?

Speaker 2 (49:59):
Did it san Diego State just lose six to three
or or wins three over in Illinois?

Speaker 3 (50:05):
Yes, that's what I'm saying. It takes a special kind
of program, right that. There's something in the air with
Cal that you just have to reward that anything can
happen with the Cal Golden Bears. So I can't put
them too low because I'm just scared of him right now.
I can't put him too low, but I can't put
him too high. That's fine. So Cal beat a mid
tier as we see it right now, Minnesota team comfortably.

(50:28):
Cal just traveled across the country and beat probably a
lower to mid tier ACC team in Boston College. I
think it's hard to do just from a travel aspect
if you're Cal. So I'm I'm impressed enough to put
them at whatever I did, like eight.

Speaker 1 (50:43):
So you're telling me on a neutral field, you take
Virginia Tech over Cal. No.

Speaker 3 (50:47):
I have Cal head of Virginia Tech. Okay, I have
Cal NC State than Virginia Tech after Clemson, and then
I have Wake in SMU.

Speaker 1 (50:56):
You're pretty well in SMU. Tell me what.

Speaker 3 (50:58):
SMU has done this year typically where you're just like nothing,
all right, you got to keep them in that top
half nothing. They just haven't.

Speaker 1 (51:06):
No, they don't have a Power Conference win, right, No.

Speaker 3 (51:09):
So they're trying to tell us that they have some
work to do.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
Next of teams on this list that I do not understand,
I do not understand n C State. Okay, this means
it's like year seven of me not understanding n C State.
I have no idea NC State is. I don't know
which direction they're headed. I expected more just when I
think it is, Just when I thought it was safe
to expect more, they're basically telling me to expect less.

(51:36):
So they got to be somewhere, I think, bottom half
of the conference, but not fully at the bottom, because
it's a pretty good team with a fair amount of talent,
and for what it's worth, Pit's a kind of in
the same category as well.

Speaker 3 (51:50):
Can't lose to Virginia Tech, right if you want, NC
State as like a mid tier upper half team in
the ACC. But they also did beat the team that
beat Florida State.

Speaker 1 (51:59):
That's right into the ACC. That's what this is.

Speaker 3 (52:02):
But they gave a forty five to Duke, whereas you know,
Duke has struggled on offense at times this year, and
Duke is getting points. Duke has already won a couple
of ACC games, and they handled a Syracuse team which
we'll get to in a second, like they should have
if Duke.

Speaker 1 (52:15):
Is pretty good. It was pretty good with with Ricky
Collins and not Steve Vangeli.

Speaker 2 (52:19):
Yeah, and again my my bottom five are Virginia Tech, Syracuse,
Boston College, North Carolina, Stanford.

Speaker 3 (52:27):
Is there something Boston College has accomplished this year that
has you higher on them than these other teams.

Speaker 2 (52:31):
Well, they're third from the bottom. I think they're better
than North Carolina and I think they're definitely better than Stanford.
Oh okay, so have they accomplished not much, but they're
still better than those teams.

Speaker 3 (52:41):
I have QS fifth after fifth from the bottom, after
SMU just because of the quarterback situation, then Boston College,
then Pitt, then North Carolina, than Stanford. So I have
your ACC Conference championship Pitt Panthers as the third worst
team in the conference. Boy again, Pitt has lost to

(53:03):
arguably the worst Big Twelve team. We'll get there, and
lost a winnable moment to a top tier team with
a good defense, well maybe a good defense, and so
Pitt is underwhelming right now to say the least.

Speaker 1 (53:19):
Over in the Big Twelve.

Speaker 2 (53:21):
Yes, Iowa State one, No, Texas Tech one, Iowa State two,
Iowa State two, Arizona State three, Arizona State three.

Speaker 1 (53:36):
Who the hell is fourth? Utah?

Speaker 3 (53:39):
But I don't feel good about it.

Speaker 2 (53:41):
I've got Baylor fourth, but I don't feel great either.
Good luck, I know, I've got Baylor, TCU, BYU and
then Utah.

Speaker 3 (53:50):
I've got Baylor further down, but again, if you think
that's incorrect, I'm not going to argue with you on
any of these picks. After probably the top three, So
I have Utah four, BYU five, TCU six, and then
I have Cincinnati, Kansas and Baylor. I'm not as high

(54:12):
on Baylor as you are, as close as they were
at home against Arizona.

Speaker 1 (54:16):
State, and you're pretty low in Houston. Apparently.

Speaker 3 (54:19):
I don't think much of Houston right now. If you
need every single second to beat Oregon State, I don't.

Speaker 1 (54:25):
Know about you. Did you mention k State at all?

Speaker 3 (54:28):
I didn't, So I have that Baylor in four like eighth,
and then I go Arizona, Kansas State UCF. Kansastation's beat UCF,
which is good, but they've already lost Arizona as well,
who did not look good against Iowa State.

Speaker 1 (54:46):
And then you round it out with what Oklahoma State
in West Virginia.

Speaker 3 (54:49):
Colorado Okay, So Houston after UCF, Colorado, West Virginia, Oklahoma
State okay, Colorado's two and three. West Virginia has the
nice went against Pitt but they've otherwise been kind of donkey.
And then Oklahoma State.

Speaker 1 (55:07):
Who actually had some fight against Baylor.

Speaker 2 (55:10):
I just feel like we're hurtling towards another four or
five way tie in this conference.

Speaker 3 (55:15):
Same.

Speaker 2 (55:16):
I mean, it just I think it's inevitable that it's
going to end up there. I feel better about Iowa
State right now because it feels like among the teams
at the top, they're the most trustworthy. And a lot
of that falls on the arm of rock obecked Sure,
who seems like he is playing with veteran poise and

(55:37):
veteran leadership. And as the offense is coming along, which
by the way, looked okay this past week right as
the offense is coming along and kind of growing into
this new form after losing two eleven hundred yard receivers,
he has been a real steadying force. Now this is
not to say they're blowing teams out.

Speaker 1 (55:56):
That they did blow out this this weekend against Arizona.
I mean they had a huge.

Speaker 2 (55:59):
Lead, but otherwise, separate from this win this past weekend,
it's not like they're out there bowling the doors off teams.
But I think they've definitely shown some veteran leadership and
I feel good about that. I also feel good about
what we have started to see from Arizona State. That said,
this was not the most impressive win that we saw

(56:19):
on Friday night. Yeah, like Sunny Dyke's put it best
in the postgame that TCU kept shooting itself in the foot,
they had three turnovers, they gave up six sacks. Arizona
State was good enough to win despite the fact that
if you look at the box score, they should have
won by more. They outgained them by a five hundred

(56:40):
to two seventy one margin. They still only beat TCU
by three points. Yeah, I think the best of as
was really interesting, but I also think that next four
games should tell us everything because they're at Utah home
against Texas Tech, home against Houston, and then on the
road at Iowa State. The Houston conversation is also kind

(57:00):
of interesting for me. Okay, Houston is off to their
best start since twenty sixteen.

Speaker 1 (57:05):
I believe.

Speaker 2 (57:05):
Okay, they had a nice little fourth quarter come back here.
I saw some fans online calling them the Cardiac Koogs,
which is perfect.

Speaker 1 (57:12):
Sure. They ended up scoring fourteen points in the final
six minutes to go to overtime to win this game
against Oregon State, who's not good on Friday night, by
a field goal.

Speaker 2 (57:22):
Right, it just feels like Houston. As I said when
we did our previews way back, when Houston has a
coach who knows what he's doing, that stands for something
in my book. Agree, and this team is already leaps
and bounds better than were a year ago. This is

(57:42):
not to say they're one of the top teams in
the conference, but I think they are good enough at
present to influence the conversation the remainder of the way.
It will have a bite at the apple against some
of these teams in front of them, and if they
dump one, if they dump two of them, that's going
to have a real impact in a conference that could
be decided by a mass tiebreaker.

Speaker 1 (58:03):
That's why I'm interested in Houston.

Speaker 3 (58:06):
Okay, they currently sit as the one hundred and thirtieth
most efficient offense in America, I know, which is why
I have them in the back half of the big Time.
I understand that they beat Colorado's third string quarterback and
they needed overtime to beat an zero to five Oregon State,
So I just think it's better to win than lose.
But the manner in which they're doing it doesn't leave

(58:26):
me sweaty and hot and bothered.

Speaker 2 (58:28):
No. I mean, but case in point, this week at home,
a twelve and a half point dog against Texas Tech
come into town. Sure, I like Texas Tech a lot.
I would think that point spread would be a little
bit higher. It's not that tells me something in its
own right.

Speaker 3 (58:46):
Is the Texas Tech coming off of a bye?

Speaker 1 (58:48):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (58:49):
With quarterback questions? I mean Will Hammond was obviously very good,
but we'll see.

Speaker 2 (58:53):
I would think that would be a bigger line. That's
just me and another team that we mentioned I guess
didn't mention enough is since it Addie. Cincinnati is actually
favored by one at home against Iowa State this week.

Speaker 3 (59:03):
Which kind of makes sense. They've been very quietly competitive
in that opening game loss against Nebraska. Who do they
just beating the shootout Kansas?

Speaker 1 (59:12):
Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (59:14):
I think they can move the ball. I think they're interesting.
They have the fourth most efficient offense in America. Cincinnati
runs the hell out of the ball. They're throwing the
ball really well. Their defense has been fine as long
as you run at them and don't throw at them.
That's right, because Jalen Daniels let them up. But I
h Yeah, I think Cincinnati is a really good story.

Speaker 1 (59:33):
Right in sovereigbogio dot com. Let us know your thoughts
on all of these power rankings and more. I want
to hear yours.

Speaker 3 (59:40):
So there's almost no thought that you could offer up
that I will disagree with other than Ty hilden Brand
is not one of the most hundred handsome men.

Speaker 1 (59:49):
In this Wow. Thank you, Dan.

Speaker 2 (59:50):
Yeah, of course you can spare yourselves from calling a city.
That's perfectly fine. We know that we already agree. We
already agree with you, so it's totally cool. Just let
us know in the comments or in the email box
or on social media how you would rank these teams
out why you disagree with us.

Speaker 1 (01:00:05):
It's all good, Okay, it's all good.

Speaker 3 (01:00:07):
Can I ask you a question?

Speaker 1 (01:00:08):
Yeah? Please?

Speaker 3 (01:00:10):
I know we have to look ahead to week six, right,
can we go like just some stray thoughts from week
five that we didn't have time to sort of get
to in our power rankings?

Speaker 1 (01:00:21):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:00:21):
And on Saturday night, now that I've watched all of
the games that I've tried to watch and read everything
that I've tried to read, like, I just want the
Ty hilden brandt like Monday Morning quarterback, like, here are
some things I think. I think that's what I'm looking
for from you.

Speaker 1 (01:00:38):
Tay, Okay, I don't know why.

Speaker 3 (01:00:40):
I sounded like Andy Rooney reading Peter King's call our
segment title, but continue, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:00:46):
I mean I went back.

Speaker 2 (01:00:48):
I watched I know we saw this one on Friday,
but I went back and I watched that UVA win
over Florida State. And what I find interesting about it is,
of course it's going to be defined by the field storming,
which is crazy and apparently everybody's okay, but it was
like the wildest thing two milliseconds after the game is over,
the entire crowds out on the field. That's going to

(01:01:09):
define this game. But I think as a whole, the
ACC season could well be defined by teams like Virginia
having a real effect on the conversation.

Speaker 1 (01:01:19):
And we've already seen this a couple.

Speaker 2 (01:01:20):
Times over now, like a little over a week ago,
Syracuse knocks off Clemson, they sent him to one and three.

Speaker 1 (01:01:25):
Georgia Tech almost went down this week to Wake. We
talked about that. YEP.

Speaker 2 (01:01:30):
I happen to think as we discussed that Miami's a
clear number one. But they've now got a target on
their back and they might be more immune to these
types of losses given the strength of their lines, but
they're certainly not invincible, and we've seen that in the past.
We can get into that. We're going to do a
preview and advanced preview here at that Florida State game
in a few minutes, But the conversation and the teams

(01:01:53):
that could affect it in a real meaningful way, both
in terms of the conference in terms of the playoff,
is I think where I'm thinking or going Charlottesville. Yeah,
I'm thinking a lot about that now as we've got
a month into the season and UVA is one of
those interesting teams. There are a bunch of those types
of teams in the ACC, as we discussed in the
power ranking. But for me, just going back, you're looking

(01:02:14):
at at how they beat Florida State and how they
looked against a team like Florida State. That to me
is really really interesting in terms of how they could
affect things moving forward.

Speaker 3 (01:02:24):
Virginia on Friday night was an elite cockroach. You think
you're done with them. You couldn't just keep coming back,
You couldn't kill them. Yeah, unkillable. Who's okay? I agree
with you there just going through that. I don't know
if you want to start at the top. I don't
know if you've go on however you want to organize this.
I have some things I think. I think, just based
on watching some of these games, Ohio State on defense

(01:02:50):
is incredible. What they did against Texas or what we
you know, however you want to perceive Texas, what they
did going to Washington, which is usually a very difficult
place to play, uh, didn't seem super difficult. It seemed
didn't seem like a crazy difficult environment. But you never
know how people mix audio in the truck. But Ohio
State seemed very comfortable. And I say, you know, I

(01:03:11):
say that because I walked. I watched the TV version
of the Whiteout game back and I was like, this
is a terrible audio mix. They in no way captured
the energy. So I don't know if it was just
like the regular mixer for NBC in the truck sprained
an ankle, and you know, it wasn't loud to mix.
I do not think the crowd was loud enough. I

(01:03:32):
did not think it captured what was going on in
that stadium.

Speaker 1 (01:03:35):
Well, okay, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:03:37):
If it was a microphone thing. I don't know if
it was a mix thing. I don't know if they're
you know, the director the producer was just like, this
is how my broadcast should sound. I did not think
it was indicative of the environment. I did not think
NBC captured it.

Speaker 2 (01:03:48):
Well.

Speaker 1 (01:03:49):
Interesting, okay, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:03:51):
Did you think it was like it was like, oh,
that's what it was like, I'm showing you this thing here.

Speaker 1 (01:03:55):
You can see it on my phone. Maybe you can,
maybe you can't.

Speaker 2 (01:03:57):
Oh you have a decibel thing, Yeah, you can see
on here that at spots it gets up to like
one hundred and twenty decibels. Yeah, ear splitting in the
stadium one of those deals where it feels like you're
at a concert a little bit, and if it stays
at that level your ears are ringing the next day
or certainly the night after.

Speaker 3 (01:04:16):
It feels like you're working in a jamba juice.

Speaker 1 (01:04:18):
Yeah. I did not pick that up from the highlights
that I saw, but I didn't go back and rewatch
the entire getme.

Speaker 3 (01:04:24):
I didn't think they did a good jump.

Speaker 1 (01:04:26):
Okay, what else you got?

Speaker 3 (01:04:29):
I mentioned LSU and offensive ineptitude. Conversely, ole Miss is good.
Ole Miss is not perfect, far from it. I don't
know what ole Miss is going to do if a
team decides to run the ball well or just like
really focus and game plan well on the ground against
ole Miss, because this is a defense and I think
can be had on the ground. That said, what they're

(01:04:51):
able to do on offense, what they're able to do,
weathering issues on offense, whether it's turnover issues or whatever.
They I think it was Kaden Lee fumbled it into
the end zone recovered by LSU. There's a certain amount
of resilience and a certain amount of like, Okay, you're
gonna give us this. Well, they get to Old Miss,
and I think they're a really good team. So I
thought that win was super impressive. I sort of alluded

(01:05:11):
to this talking about Georgia and why you had them.

Speaker 1 (01:05:13):
Ranked number two.

Speaker 3 (01:05:15):
Got a lot of problems, man, I don't think the
offensive line is all that good. You saw that in
the big moments late when they had opportunities on the ground,
whether it was Gunner Stockton or was.

Speaker 1 (01:05:24):
It Cash that they were handing it too late.

Speaker 3 (01:05:27):
I just thought there were issues on George's offense and
you know, you'll have Georgia people screaming about Mike Bobo.
I thought the defense did a nice job of justin
Alabama in the second half. I thought ty Simpson was
electric in that first half.

Speaker 2 (01:05:40):
Oh yeah, I mean, do we not give Georgia some
benefit of the doubt though? Four just for being Georgia.
More often than that they figure it out.

Speaker 3 (01:05:50):
But like that's your sort of like you know, somewhere
in the air, Georgia is gonna be good and they're
gonna grab the pixie dust out of the air. Like
I don't see it. I think they're good. I just
don't see that, like benefit of the doubt for what
Jordan Davis did three years ago was realistic at this point, right,
so fair enough. I thought Alabama bounced back really well.
There was an Ty Simpson had one of the best

(01:06:11):
throws of the year to Ryan Williams that Williams dropped
and doesn't make me think any less of Ryan Williams
at least because they won, so it didn't end up
costing them in the long run. That the best of
Ty Simpson. He's one of the best four or five
quarterbacks in the country. He looks great, He looks great.

Speaker 2 (01:06:25):
And one of the things that I thought a lot
about was how after Week one and that loss to
Florida State, it was easy to wonder if they made
the right decision right, if maybe they should have gone
a different direction at quarterback. And what I think we're

(01:06:45):
finding out, as we do every year, it seems we
forget it is that.

Speaker 1 (01:06:50):
Week one is not real life. No it's not.

Speaker 2 (01:06:53):
It's not real life, and it's certainly not any more
real life now that it counts less because of the
playoffs setup.

Speaker 3 (01:07:00):
It can be the beginning of real life, but it
should not be assumed.

Speaker 2 (01:07:03):
It should not be assumed. And what we have seen
since from Ty Simpson, perhaps against teams that are lesser than.

Speaker 1 (01:07:10):
The one they played in Week one, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:07:12):
Yeah, I guess it depends what you think of Georgia
versus Florida State or some of the other schools that
have been on that lineup. But he is definitely not
the athlete of Jalen Milroe. But at the same time,
he's probably a better quarterback for that system. They are
a very one dimensional team right now. The way that
they are building this thing that may not be bad

(01:07:34):
and that might get them pretty far, and a lot
of this is built around ty Simpson. And I think
he is showing week in and week out why because
he is very good. He's very good in the system,
and he's super efficient. So I give a lot of
credit to him. I give a lot of the credit
to the coaching staff are building something that really really
works with him because he's been very good.

Speaker 1 (01:07:53):
Yeah, I agree. Next, I like A and M because
the best of A and M is super fun.

Speaker 3 (01:08:02):
Right. The way Marcel Reid played against Notre Dame, the
way they ran the ball against Auburn at times was
really like those running back There's an immense amount of
talent in this A and M backfield Situationally, they're a
wild team to root for A and M. On third
down in the red zone, they were having issues like
there needs to be like erase the whiteboard, let's come

(01:08:25):
up with third down plays, let's come up with plan
situation like that. That's what Colin Klein I think has
in front of him right now. But otherwise they left
points on the board against Auburn.

Speaker 1 (01:08:37):
For sure.

Speaker 3 (01:08:38):
The defense I think has improved since that Notre Dame game.
I think they're going to be and I don't love
Auburn's offense, so to what degree, who knows, But I
think A and M is for real in that they
are going they have the ability to beat just about anyone,
and they have the ability to lose and dumb ways
to a lot of teams as well.

Speaker 1 (01:08:54):
Yeah, I'm not fully there with A M's offense. That's fine.

Speaker 2 (01:08:59):
And I think what we saw on the I guess
third week of the year, whatever it was when they
squared off against Notre Dame, I also don't know how
much of real life that was. I mean, I think
Notre Dame's defense is going to improve.

Speaker 1 (01:09:15):
They did improve this past weekend against against Arkansas, and
I think will continue to see it improve at least.
Maybe I'm just telling myself that.

Speaker 2 (01:09:21):
Yeah, I'm curious to see what the A and M
offense looks like against other SEC defenses. You know, was
scoring sixteen points against Auburn going to be more a
trend or was that an aberration?

Speaker 1 (01:09:39):
Yeah? That I don't know yet.

Speaker 2 (01:09:40):
I mean, I like a lot of their talent, and
I still really like what they could do on the ground,
what they can be on the ground, But I feel
a bit conflicted on the A and m sign The
defense is legit. Defense is I love see caliber. The
defense just gets off the field. Man. The defense is incredible.
Mike Elko's done a really good job. I mean, the
defense is going to take them very far, and they
deserve to be in that top run of the power
rankings for sure. But offensively, offensively, I feel like I've

(01:10:04):
picked up some conflicting signals and I'm not sure what
to believe yet.

Speaker 3 (01:10:09):
Indiana looks sloppy, but I guess that's to be. You know,
that's understandable given where it was a letdown spot. It's
at Iowa, which is very dangerous. They have Oregon coming up.
It wasn't a sandwich spot. I don't think that game
will define Indiana. Win your clunkers and lose Better's money.
If you're Fernando Mendoza running into the end zone for
a safety. By the way, the clock ran out like

(01:10:30):
far be up but far before he ran into the
end zone.

Speaker 1 (01:10:33):
He could have just slid down. But yeah, and he
apologized to betters All that, Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:10:38):
You mentioned the Iowa state came over Arizona. I don't
have too much to add to that other than rock
Oback look great, look really really strong. Mississippi State is
a flawed team. Mississippi State is an improved team.

Speaker 1 (01:10:52):
There's a story of the year. They're one of the
stories of the year.

Speaker 3 (01:10:55):
Absolutely Tennessee had They were just sloppy on offense. Some
of if it was self inflicted, some of it, you know,
the Chris brasl offensive pass interference call, Like, if you
thought it was a good call, I don't have a
strong argument. If you thought it was a bad call,
I don't have a strong argument. This is a lot
of me sitting on the fence this episode. But it
kind of looked like he shed the dude. Obviously he

(01:11:16):
caught it and ran in for a touchdown that was
called back. That was an incredibly losable game for Tennessee
that they won. So good for Tennessee for pulling that out,
But they're not going to be able to get away
with playing like that for very much longer. No, So
that was an interesting watch for me. What else do
I have here? I didn't watch a ton of Georgia
Tech Wake. I don't know if you have any lingering

(01:11:36):
thoughts on that now.

Speaker 2 (01:11:37):
I mean, my lingering thought is just what I said
in the run up to that game. Yeah, that Wake
is going to be a pay in the ass. Yeah,
They're going to be a pay in the ass.

Speaker 3 (01:11:45):
They needed to come back, Georgia Tech did.

Speaker 2 (01:11:48):
Yeah, And I also think in underscore is something that
you talked about with Georgia Tech in advance of this game,
which was Georgia Tech is very good, Georgia Tech very tough.
Georgia Tech has a lot to like and they're a
fun team to watch, but at present, they're not going
to rip through the remainder of this schedule without taking
a loss somewhere, right, and you know, whether it's Wake

(01:12:10):
or whether it's somebody else. I mean, there are a
bunch of plucky teams in this acc and somebody will
dump Georgia Tech before long.

Speaker 3 (01:12:18):
Notre Dame against Arkansas, yeah thoughts.

Speaker 2 (01:12:24):
I mean speaking of real life versus not real life. Yeah,
I don't know fully what we make of the Notre
Dame offense at this point, but I am starting to
get really excited about what I'm seeing. I mean, CJ.
Carr looks incredible and he's getting better each week. Yeah,

(01:12:46):
I'm not going to confuse Arkansas with any kind of
brick wall of a defense. They just fired their coach okay,
But what I really liked out of the Irish was
that they went out there and they left no doubt.
That's what we were waiting for for people who watch
Notre Dame, people who root on Notre Dame, even for
people who are just interested casually in Notre Dame. Yeah,
you were waiting for a moment like this where they

(01:13:07):
went out there and they murdered someone, and they did it.
They looked really good on the ground.

Speaker 1 (01:13:12):
CJ. Carr looked really good through the air. No notes
on what they're doing on the offensive side of the ball.

Speaker 2 (01:13:18):
Defensively is where I think the biggest questions are, and
defensively they answered the belt. They absolutely looked really, really
solid against a good Arkansas offense. They might be in
a bit of disarray, but they have good talent and
I expected that they would have a lot more success
against the Notre Dame defense that has been problematic. Notre
Dame's defense was outstanding. They were outstanding in this game.

(01:13:41):
It was a huge step forward. I would expect another
step forward this coming week at home against Boise State.
It's all building towards that USC game in mid October.
That's really the big land mine that's still on the
schedule for the Irish, but I think they understand what's
in front of them. I like the fact that they're
playing with real purpose and intention, especially on offense, and

(01:14:03):
if the defense continues to improve, there are going to
be other teams in front of them that lose. Notre
Dame before a long could have a claim for that playoff.
But yes, let's not put the cart before the horse.
This is also not a finished product, but I think
there are really strong indicators here that this is a team.
Much like last year, right after Week two when they lose,
it's like, oh my gosh, which direction are they headed?

(01:14:24):
They went on this incredible run down the stretch and
they ended up finding their way eventually into the title game.
I'm not saying they're going to do that again, but
we have seen them before kind of build after a
tough start to the season, make their claim, and then
perform pretty well by the time all of a said
and done, and I think we're kind of headed on
that same course.

Speaker 3 (01:14:42):
Now, okay, old dominion is now three to one. Your thoughts.
They did not get blown out by Indiana. They did
beat Virginia Tech watch out for the Monarchs.

Speaker 1 (01:14:52):
Watch out the Monarchs.

Speaker 3 (01:14:54):
Any more stray thoughts. You know, Boise State wins, Stanford
comes back and wins. Lenora Sellers was incredible against was
You just constantly loved to see that. Memphis took care
of business against FAU. I can just list all. You know,
there's a million games anything else that when you look
at the scoreboard, I know you want your San Diego
State Northern Illinois deep dive. They did win that game,

(01:15:15):
only six to three. They didn't lose that game, that's right, correction.
Yukon keeps on winning. Utah blew out West Virginia.

Speaker 1 (01:15:23):
The Utah West Virginia one was interesting to me. Actually yeah,
they blew him out right away.

Speaker 2 (01:15:28):
Yeah, I mean they just laid the wood and we
both felt pretty good about Utah. But again, how do
you respond? Is ever the question in college football, and
I think more important now than ever before, because nobody
is truly out of this thing until you're really out
of it, right. And Utah to go on the road,
even against the team like we West Virginia, that to

(01:15:48):
me was impressive. Forty eight to fourteen was your final there?
The big twelve to me, just it remains the most
interesting conference. I truly don't know which end is up.
I like Iowa State, I like Arizona State, like Texas Tech,
everybody else. You could convince me one way or another. Yeah, Cincinnati, though,
is I think the team that I am watching closest,

(01:16:08):
not just because the points spread this coming week is interesting,
but that was a fun game last week. Man, fun
game last week. They pull it out over Kansas thirty
seven to thirty four. As you mentioned earlier, they're doing
a lot well, and I think there are caveats with
the Cincinnati season that we saw in twenty twenty four
that maybe made it hard to judge how good they

(01:16:30):
were or weren't sure. But so far this season, I've
liked what I've seen watching them closely.

Speaker 3 (01:16:37):
Here here's the caveat to tie statement. Not the pass defense.
Kansas is an Emmanuel Henderson. I believe five catches for
two hundred and fifteen yards or.

Speaker 2 (01:16:46):
Yea not great as a pass defense, and that will
certainly come back to bite them. But there are other
aspects of the Cincinnati season so far that I'm I'm
actually encouraged by.

Speaker 3 (01:16:55):
So you know plants better than I do? Well, no,
you know birds better?

Speaker 1 (01:16:59):
Than I don't know a thing about playing.

Speaker 3 (01:17:01):
So the Big Tens associated with the Rose Bowl. Northwestern
wins the Corpse Flower Bowl over Ucla.

Speaker 1 (01:17:07):
They were up seventeen zip, right, and then that's a
hold on? Yeah, yeah, there you go. Well, preview a
few games real quick. Let's do a couple early Bird special.

Speaker 2 (01:17:18):
We got two games this week of note here as
part of our Early Bird Special. The first is a
revenge game for the Alabama Crimson Tide. It is three
point thirty on ABC. It is Vanderbilt, it is Alabama.
Alabama's favored by ten and a half at home.

Speaker 1 (01:17:36):
Yes, correct.

Speaker 2 (01:17:37):
This is the second year in a row for Alabama
where this game is in a huge letdown spot after
a win against Georgia. This one happens to be at
home in Tuscaloosa, which is helpful. I cannot imagine that
Alabama is going to be sleeping on Vandy after what
happened a year ago.

Speaker 3 (01:17:55):
Isn't game day going to be there?

Speaker 2 (01:17:56):
Game Day is going to be there. Yeah, They're not
going to be sleeping on They're just not. If they
can score seventy, they will. If you did not have
a chance to go back and listen, if you're a
Patreon subscriber, even if you're not. Two thursdays ago, we
did a Vandy deep dive. The Vandy philosophy basically is

(01:18:17):
to play slow, force their opponents to be super efficient.
And what I find interesting in this matchup is that
Alabama kind of does that too. Yeah, they both play
very slow, and it feels to me like this is
one of those games that you're going to look down
at your watch and be like, wait, we played the
entire first half in sixty three minutes.

Speaker 1 (01:18:39):
How did that happen?

Speaker 2 (01:18:41):
If you've got a scenario like that, it's a game
that's moving quickly, it's two teams that generally are playing
slower when they have the football. Ten and a half
points feels like a lot to be in that scenario.

Speaker 1 (01:18:51):
Agree.

Speaker 2 (01:18:53):
So I came into this one thinking Bama is going
to blow the doors off Bandy, it's a revenge spot.
Out of this one feeling like Vandy's going to cover
and they're probably going to keep it close. Just because
of the play style of these two teams. Is that
track for you?

Speaker 1 (01:19:07):
It does?

Speaker 3 (01:19:10):
I think I'm gonna take Vandy to win this game.

Speaker 2 (01:19:12):
Outright, outright If Vandy goes in the road and beats Alabamo.

Speaker 1 (01:19:18):
Where are they ranked next week? Are they top ten
to top ten?

Speaker 3 (01:19:21):
It would have to be co ten.

Speaker 1 (01:19:23):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:19:23):
So my thing is, if Vandy were wearing a different uniform,
if Vandy were wearing a Missoo uniform, if Andy had
been wearing a Texas A and M uniform heading into
the stadium this week, I think you would like them
more with the way that they have performed. I just
the way that they play and the way that they
were able to It was like a blood letting last year, right,

(01:19:44):
every third and three was converted, Every third and six
was converted, every fourth and whatever that they played very deliberately,
and Diego Pavia made plays. What are they doing this year?
They're playing deliberately, Dave, Diego Pavia made plays. Now, they
barely won that game last year. Alabama can't run the ball.
Alabama's red zone defense has been very quietly atrocious this year,

(01:20:06):
and Vandy just makes those high leverage plays over and
over again with their thirty three year old quarterback. So
right now, as it stands now, there have been some
slow starts from Vandy. Right they were going back and
forth with it. I think it improved Utah State team,
but that's not a measuring stick type opponent for Vanny.

(01:20:26):
And they pulled away and they scored whatever, fifty sixty points.
I think Vanderbilt very specifically is in a very specific way,
is dependable in a way that Bama is not. That
Bama can come out and score a bunch of points,
or Bama can come out and look like they're completely
lost and may not even be playing the right players
or playing the right team. That there's nothing terribly dependable

(01:20:47):
about Alabama week to week. And it's the dependability of
Vandy right now that I think gives them the edge.
And I hate that Bama doesn't and can't run the
ball well, like they counted on their quarterback these last
couple of years, as they've been getting worse and worse
at running the ball.

Speaker 2 (01:21:05):
And this is what I said earlier. I mean they
profile as a one dimensional offense, their best running backs
running from Michigan. It is ty Simpson and his offense.
The pop is going to come through the air, not
on the ground. Ty Simpson has been very good. I
think we'll continue to see a game plan that revolves
around him, especially since last year. The Achilles Heel for

(01:21:25):
Vandy was a pass defense, and this is where I
think it's an interesting test for both sides of this.
The Vandy pass defense has been better so far, and
we expected it to be better, but how much better
are they really? We saw it against Charleston Southern, against
Virginia Tech and South Carolina, a Georgia State, Utah State
a week ago. They don't have the same amount of

(01:21:47):
pop out wide.

Speaker 1 (01:21:48):
They just don't.

Speaker 2 (01:21:49):
So this is an important test for them. And this
is I think going to be a really important test
as well for ty Simpson because this is I think
a pretty disciplined Vandy team. Obviously they're up set, mind
we saw it a year ago. Clearly this is a
letdown potential spot for the Alabama Crimson Tide, even knowing
that game is going to be in town and Vandy
BEATAM last year.

Speaker 3 (01:22:10):
Taylor debor only loses to Vanderbilt.

Speaker 1 (01:22:13):
Lose to Vanderbilt.

Speaker 2 (01:22:14):
So show me proof otherwise that that side of Alabama's
offense and their philosophy and how they are building this
thing up against a Vandy defense that we know what
the problem spots were a year ago.

Speaker 1 (01:22:27):
They've been better.

Speaker 2 (01:22:28):
How do they equit themselves against an Alabama offense that,
to me is going to be a fascinating chess match.
The other thing that I would add here on the
Vandy side, their offense is actually being really good this year.

Speaker 1 (01:22:39):
Very quietly. Yes, I mean it's quiet because of the opponents,
but because of the opponent.

Speaker 2 (01:22:42):
But like our friend Bill Connelly from ESPN does the
sp plus, it's opponent adjusted. He's got all sorts of
voodoo that he does behind the scenes. He's got them
right now, very early as the number six offense in
the country m hm, which is better than Alabama's for
what it's worth. Now very early, I know, like handagun.

Speaker 1 (01:23:02):
Alabama's played Florida State in Georgia.

Speaker 2 (01:23:03):
Yeah, very early, okay, But thus far the offense has
been really good. Diego Pavia looks like he's taking a
big step forward as a passer.

Speaker 1 (01:23:13):
If nothing more.

Speaker 2 (01:23:15):
Everything on my spreadsheet is saying that Vandy's a better
team than last year, especially on offense. So either you
believe the numbers or you don't. I've watched enough of
Vandy this year to feel pretty good about the direction
at their head, and it seems to me like they
are better.

Speaker 1 (01:23:30):
I don't think that's a mirage. So my gut was
to lay the points with Bama in a revenge game.
My brain, every other thing that I have.

Speaker 2 (01:23:40):
Is now telling me that this is way too many points. Okay,
and I still think Bama is better. I still think
they went at home. I think it's twenty eight twenty
three right now. By the way, the over under is
fifty seven. I'd lean under just because of the play style.
These teams do not rush to get up to the
football and run a play as quick as they can.
They're too slow most teams in college football. Fifty seven

(01:24:02):
to me. In a game that I know, we know
Vandy wants to slow it down as much as they can,
I would go under. But I still think Bama wins.

Speaker 3 (01:24:11):
Good weather maybe a little bit on the hot side
in the eighties sunny kick off. It's a two thirty
Central Time kick. Uh yeah, I'm going I'm going Vandy outright.
I don't hate your underpick. I'm gonna say twenty eight
to twenty seven.

Speaker 1 (01:24:25):
I could see that. I totally see that. Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:24:29):
The other big one in Week six on ABC seven thirty,
it is number three Miami on the road at Florida State.
Florida State is a four and one half point home dog.
I believe this opened closer to seven seven and a half.
It is very slowly crept down now to four and
a half. It was five and a half this morning
when I made her document. Yeah, Miami on bye last week.

(01:24:51):
Florida State, of course dropped that game on Friday night
in ot against Virginia. This is another one where first
impulse was Miami's gonna drill them, They're gonna drill him.
But then I see the point spread and I start thinking, Okay,
what am I missing here? Vegas is obviously expecting something
a little bit closer. This is gonna be Miami's first
road game. As you said earlier there at night at

(01:25:14):
the Dope, I don't want to discount Florida State's loss
against Virginia. It was an obvious look ahead spot. And
also Virginia could be pretty good, Like there's an eighty
six percent chance this year that Virginia is going to
finish with eight or more wins. So we will see
how that game holds up over time. But that actually

(01:25:35):
could be like an okay loss. Agree, So for as
good as that Florida State defense looked in Week one
against Alabama. That's how bad it looked a week ago
against Chandler Morris and Virginia and.

Speaker 3 (01:25:52):
Mike and overtimes.

Speaker 2 (01:25:53):
Yeah, and my issue is trying to figure out who
is the real defense, Like, well, the real Florida State defense,
please stand up right. I don't know what to expect
on that side of the ball. That's my sticking point here.

Speaker 3 (01:26:06):
I think the Miami defense is more dependable. I like
that the Florida State defense is playing at home. I
like that the best version of this Florida State team
will be one with a fire under itself after that
loss to Virginia. The mismatch here is to me Thomas Castellanos,
who can be a positive or negative chaos agent? Yes,

(01:26:29):
throwing and running into the Miami defense, which appears to
be a very positive chaos agent for Miami this season. Yes,
And so that would have me worried if I were
a Florida State fan. At this point, I'm not super
worried of like it was a game against Florida late
for Miami in Miami, it was I don't think Miami

(01:26:51):
is a finished product. I think they're going to continue
to get better over the course of this season. It
was a close win against Notre Dame, it was close
against Florida until very late. So I just I don't
think that score is representative of the rhythm of that game.
I think Miami is the better team here.

Speaker 1 (01:27:07):
They are.

Speaker 3 (01:27:07):
I'm going to take the points though. Yeah, I'm going
to take a home dog Florida State. I think Miami
wins this game close. I think it's going to be
reasonably low scoring. I think it's going to be something
like I mean, this game always seems to be closer
than it should be if one of these teams is down,
and neither of these teams appear to be down. So

(01:27:29):
something in the vicinity of twenty four to twenty one,
twenty three to twenty something like that. I have Miami
winning on the road.

Speaker 1 (01:27:35):
Yeah, I mean, you bring up a good point, and
I think Miami has a.

Speaker 2 (01:27:40):
Clear advantage because of their lines. Yeah, offensive, defensive line.
There's a clear advantage there that should allow them to
set the tone in this game on the ground. Maybe
the way they did a little bit against Notre Dame.
I think they're good enough on defense to limit Tommy
Castellanos kind of the same way they did Byron Brown two.

Speaker 1 (01:28:01):
You know, like I was thinking.

Speaker 2 (01:28:02):
This through, Miami has sort of already beaten Florida State
in the aggregate with how they've performed against other teams
that have similar enough parts. I think Miami wins. I
also think it's close, and I'm also taking the points.
I think it's a little higher scoring. I've got at
like thirty one to twenty seven. Okay, I've convinced myself
this one is going to be closer. And for as

(01:28:25):
much as I think that Miami does have the solution
to a guy like a Tommy Castellanos, I also get
the sense that he that Florida State that they're big
game hunters and that they will be juiced up for
this one.

Speaker 3 (01:28:36):
They definitely will be.

Speaker 2 (01:28:38):
Like, do not be surprised at all if Florida State
tries to game plan some fireworks early, because this is
a very explosive team. And I didn't mean to make
that a pun, but it's okay. They're a very explosive team.
The two things I love about Florida State A is
that they've been explosive, and B is that they've been
pretty good on third downs.

Speaker 1 (01:28:58):
They're very good at.

Speaker 2 (01:28:59):
Extending drives and that that tends to work really well
in some of these rivalry games where you're at home
at and I got a lot in the line, I
think you want that.

Speaker 1 (01:29:09):
Florida State's got that dog in them. They do.

Speaker 2 (01:29:12):
Even though they lost on the road of Virginia. I
still think this version of Florida State is leaps and
bounds better than a year ago. And I think they've
got upset on the mind here. I don't think they
get the upset, But I also don't want to underestimate
a home dog in a rivalry. There's probably some element
of the knowles that after the loss against Virginia they
feel like they've got their back to the wall. I

(01:29:32):
don't want to underestimate the desperate team at home at night.
That still is very explosive. So I'm going canes. I
like Florida State with the points.

Speaker 3 (01:29:43):
Two things to pay attention to as well. By the way,
Nebraska fans complained about Tony White on third down last year,
Florida State in the red zone on defense has been
very bad. Yes, situational defense in the red zone has
not been great. Just something to pay attention to. It's
a very small sample size, so it might not matter
at this point. I'm also curious about what Miami looks
like on a different part of the field when there

(01:30:04):
are shot opportunities. Carson Beck pushing the ball downfield, right,
I think Carson Beck can be excellent, But I'm saying,
is that going to be a part of Miami's game
plan against Florida State? Are they going to test Florida
State deep? Are they going to test them long intermediate stuff,
long passes? Is that something that Miami feels comfortable as

(01:30:26):
part of their passing attack because it's sort of come
and gone so far this season against good opponents, good defenses,
and uh well, I would say defense is a good
defense probably in Florida likely eventually a decent defense and
Notre Dame will see. But that's an element of the
of the Miami attack that I don't I think is
a little bit underdeveloped at the moment. And they've been

(01:30:48):
very good, but how do they how well can they
keep Florida State honest deep with Carson Beck? And is
you know, rebuilt elbow and everything like that? Just something
I'm curious.

Speaker 2 (01:30:59):
About right in salverbogmail dot com. Let us know your
thoughts on these games and much much more. There are
some other really interesting games in week six. I mean,
week six is not Week five. I'll just shoot you straight.

Speaker 1 (01:31:11):
It isn't.

Speaker 2 (01:31:12):
But Kse State at Baylor could be interesting. Was Continent
at Michigan is at least a matchup of two blue
blood programs or two name brand programs. I don't know
if we consider Wisconsont of blue blood or not. That's
probably a separate conversation.

Speaker 3 (01:31:25):
Not not myself.

Speaker 2 (01:31:26):
Iowa State at Cincinnati I mentioned earlier since he right
now at recording is favored by one. Texas at Florida.
We didn't preview that one, but we will on the
next episode. I mentioned Boise at Notre Dame. Virginia on
the road at Louisville's a really good matchup now in
light of what we saw happened last week. Are Texas
Tech at Houston I mentioned earlier as being of interest

(01:31:47):
to me. And Mississippi State at Texas A and M
A M favored by fourteen points.

Speaker 3 (01:31:52):
So letdown spot for Mississippi State after getting so close
against Tennessee.

Speaker 2 (01:31:56):
But yeah, but that's like a lot of points for
a team that I think is very quickly becoming noteworthy
in the SCA. Yeah, we'll get into those games of
much much more on Thursday again.

Speaker 1 (01:32:08):
Hit follow, hit subscribe.

Speaker 2 (01:32:09):
If you made it this far, do go on out
tiverbowlers dot com if you want to sign up to
support what Dan and I do. Go on a little
bit longer here today because we, you know, left some
meat on the bone with what we did on Saturday night,
but I think it was worth it. It was a
great trip. I'm glad we finally got you in here.
So fun for a little bit of a road trip
across PA. And again like we would not have been

(01:32:31):
able to do this without the support of many people
who helped us make it all possible this past weekend.
Any highlights that you'd like to share here before we
let the find people go from our trip.

Speaker 3 (01:32:41):
I've got a Google document with seventy seven highlights. Tie okay,
one middle Child Sandwiches in Philadelphia, unbelievable sandwich spot highly
recommend mild.

Speaker 2 (01:32:55):
I was a little bit worried because you had it
wrapped up, not on ice, but wrapped up up in
the front seat for a couple hours, and You're like, here,
do you want this?

Speaker 1 (01:33:02):
And I'm like, yeah, I do and it.

Speaker 2 (01:33:04):
Was really easier forever, and I was I was worried
that maybe, you know, we didn't preserve it well enough,
but the stomach held up okay, and the sandwich was delicious,
So yeah, I couldn't recommend that highly or more highly.

Speaker 3 (01:33:15):
The game day experience at Penn State is great. There
appears to be seven hundred and forty four thousand people
tailgating before the game.

Speaker 2 (01:33:24):
It just goes on forever. We walked eleven hiking eleven
point two miles per my Apple Watch.

Speaker 3 (01:33:31):
I love that the fans at Penn State were legitimately incredible.
Everybody was very nice, very hospitable, welcoming. The food was great.
You shouted out various tailgaters that we met and hung
out with. I thought the tailgate scene was great and expansive.
I thought the in game experience was incredible. The white
out is one of one like it was ear splitting.

(01:33:51):
Fans were all in their seats way way way before
kickoff there. Everybody was back when the second half was starting.
Nobody was hostile to to me a green dot, you know,
in the middle of a white sea. Everybody was very
cool to me as an organ fan, which was nice.
So every you know, I guess it's because I'm not
Ohio State in Michigan, I guess that's where if you

(01:34:11):
were more hostile.

Speaker 1 (01:34:12):
There were a.

Speaker 2 (01:34:13):
Few loons in the crowd wearing Ohio State gear. Yeah,
that was weird, which I just don't get. And I
saw some guy who was confronted out in the concourse,
which is the concourse conversations like a whole other conversation. Yeah,
but there was a dude out there wearing it was
white but it had Ohio State on it, and there
were a bunch of men staters like, what is what

(01:34:34):
are you doing?

Speaker 1 (01:34:35):
I as well enjoy college football.

Speaker 2 (01:34:36):
Yeah, well it was the only white thing I had.
Was his weird explanation that nobody bought. But continue, go
to target, get a white shirt. You're you're okay.

Speaker 1 (01:34:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:34:47):
The the in game experience, you know, the marching band
and the fireworks and all that was incredible. Penn State
makes very weird music decisions. I mean, even aside from Obamba.

Speaker 1 (01:35:00):
This is a point of contention for me as well.

Speaker 3 (01:35:02):
Yeah, they remove juice from this stadium for no reason.
Here's how I would describe this.

Speaker 2 (01:35:08):
If you go out on YouTube and you run a
search on failed fireworks finales.

Speaker 1 (01:35:15):
Okay, there's one out there. I believe it was in
San Diego. I think so too, where somebody hit the wrong.

Speaker 2 (01:35:21):
Button and they accidentally lit off all the fireworks at once. Yeah,
and it's just this like thirty second cavalcade of every
single pyrotechnic available.

Speaker 3 (01:35:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:35:35):
That seems to be Penn State's philosophy when it comes
to the in stadium like sound experience. They're playing Crazy
Train and Ozzie yelling all aboard as they're playing something
else simultaneously as they're playing something else. I haven't been
back in a while for this, and I have not
been part of the white out industrial complex since they

(01:35:56):
started making this more of a thing, since we were
both there for the first one, parently in two thousand
and seven. I would like a little bit more cohesion.
It still works, it's still one of one, as they say,
the greatest show in college sports. I agree with that, Yeah,
but I would like a little bit more, like just
more of a like theme to make it all fit

(01:36:16):
fit together, if that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (01:36:18):
Yeah. I thought the game.

Speaker 3 (01:36:19):
I thought that the pregame festivities were incredible, but went
on a little bit too long. Like the videos went
on a little bit too long, the pump up stuff, like,
there was such an amazing amount of juice in the
stadium that I would just you know, ride that wave
and get right into kickoff. So I thought that went
on that was a little bit too extended between the
third and fourth quarter. When you go around college football,
like the sing alongs and the dancy stuff like, there

(01:36:41):
are so many amazing traditions new and old, and Penn
States is a zero out of ten with the band
playing hey Baby, nobody cared in the entire stadium beyond
maybe some octagenarians and we'll be there soon. Yeah, but
they removed juice from a tight game playing that when
you you know, see Dixie land delight and won't back
down and shout and jump around and all those things.

(01:37:02):
There was zero juice musically towards the end of the
game when you could have gotten the crowd into it.
So I don't think that was like a traditional thing.
But I don't think I heard the white stripes once.
If they did, it was very brief. I don't think
I heard the white stripes. I don't think I heard it.
They did the like we rea, They did that a

(01:37:23):
few times, and that was fine, and they do like
the what is It the Joker and the Thief the
wolf Mother song that got people up, and they did
a lot of good with it, but there was some
like why are you doing this right now?

Speaker 1 (01:37:34):
Who is this for?

Speaker 3 (01:37:35):
Nobody cares get rid of this from the playlist.

Speaker 2 (01:37:37):
I mean it's the same reaction I get when I
try to play DJ, when I'm playing songs out in
the patio.

Speaker 1 (01:37:41):
I'm sure Kate's like, just move, go give me the phone.

Speaker 3 (01:37:44):
Yeah, I and Ty almost got abducted by a crowd
trying to make his way back from the urinal Listen,
there is it's an F minus fan experience everywhere but
inside the stadium field area.

Speaker 2 (01:37:58):
I don't want to be a complainer because it was
an incredible experience.

Speaker 3 (01:38:01):
Yeah, a bunch of amateurs running the show behind the scenes.

Speaker 2 (01:38:04):
Though, I am absolutely thrilled that we were there. Yes,
I have never in my life had an experience like
I did in the concourse. Yeah, I mean it was
legitimately somebody could have gotten hurt. Yeah, and Penn State
needs to fix that immediately. They need to fix that immediately.
And it was to the point where it was shouldered

(01:38:25):
the shoulder. Nobody could move in the concourse in the
upper deck. Yeah, and there were Oregon people who were
terrified trying to get through and they could. They were
just like worming their way through as best they could.
And there were Penn State fans and Oregon fans kind
of sympathizing with one another because of how legitimately scary
it was. Yeah, there were women out there having panic attacks.

(01:38:48):
It was really unfortunate. I damn near had a panic attack. Yeah,
and I'm not claustrophobic, but I don't know if it's
going to take somebody getting hurt for them to fix that.
I don't know how much of that is due to
ongoing and can structure. There's a lot that I probably
don't know, but I can tell you I know enough
to know that that was not safe. Yeah, and they
need to fix that, and I hope with whatever they're doing,
they're going to fix it next.

Speaker 3 (01:39:09):
I doubt that that they bring in like Dutch engineers.
I do no loyalty to Penn State.

Speaker 2 (01:39:14):
I doubt that Paccraft is listening to this, but maybe
somebody can send it to them, because that was an
absolute embarrassment and as a Penn State alum who does
this in front of a lot of people. I'm not
afraid to say that that was embarrassing. And I hope
that Oregon people come back when they get their acting gear.

Speaker 1 (01:39:30):
Because that was hard. Yeah, it was hard.

Speaker 3 (01:39:32):
I would I would never go back to a Penn
State game unless it was of this size, just because
it's such a pain in that stadium. But the actual
in game stuff is a plus.

Speaker 1 (01:39:43):
Like it was incredible.

Speaker 2 (01:39:44):
Yeah, twelve out of ten for the overwhelming majority of it.
But yeah, unless you got there super early, yeah, and
were content in your seat and didn't need to get
up for anything. And maybe it was on me for
trying to go to the bathroom an hour and a
half before.

Speaker 3 (01:39:58):
Kick got off to a catheter. Yeah, but that was that.

Speaker 2 (01:40:01):
I was genuinely embarrassed as an alum for how that
was outside the stadium, and there were no shortage of
people out there who were talking about writing letters to
the administration. Whether or not they take that the heart
remains to be seen. But that was a joke in
an embarrassment.

Speaker 1 (01:40:15):
Yeah, I agree.

Speaker 3 (01:40:17):
The other thing that was ten out of ten, aside
from like the goosebumps from the White out in a
good way. Getting a tour of the state of Pennsylvania
from ty hildenbrand Holy moly. If you guys ever get
the opportunity, Yeah, Pennsylvania. In my I've been a lot
of places. The state of Pennsylvania, the Keystone State, is
the most American state in America. I'm not saying it's

(01:40:38):
the best state. I'm not saying it's the worst state.
I have no idea where it would fall in my
rankings of favorite states. But in terms of the variety
that you can get. When ty hilden brandt is touring
you from Philadelphia to Central PA. And I don't know
Western Pa at all, but you think about what's going
on in Philly, you think about proximity to things, you
think about, you know, the most beautiful forestry. Then Tye

(01:41:01):
telling you about super fun sites, and then Tye showing
you like, oh, yeah, this is where so and so
is from, this is where Taylor Swift is from. And
she's marrying like, what a Philadelphia podcaster, right, So it's
a very Pennsylvania union.

Speaker 1 (01:41:13):
She's Philadelphia podcaster adjacent.

Speaker 3 (01:41:16):
No, I'm saying she's marrying a Philadelphia podcaster, right.

Speaker 1 (01:41:19):
Well, Travis is in a Philadelphia podcaster. His brother is
what are you talking about, Travis kelce Travis Kelsey plays
with the Chiefs.

Speaker 3 (01:41:27):
She's not marrying him.

Speaker 1 (01:41:29):
She's not married.

Speaker 3 (01:41:30):
Shoot, yo, she is marrying Travis. I was wrong about that.

Speaker 1 (01:41:33):
Yes, she is already that octagenarian stage. I know I have.

Speaker 3 (01:41:38):
Yes, Jason Kelcey is happily married. Already, we're gonna she
is adjacent to Philadelphia podcasting. The areas that you took
me through in I guess central eastern Pennsylvania, where it's
just like, here are the Amish, here are the horse
and buggies. They seem okay, they make a lot of
good produce and chicken and furniture. There was such a

(01:42:00):
variety of life in Pennsylvania. I mean the Declaration of
Independence was signed in Pennsylvania. Yes it's there.

Speaker 1 (01:42:08):
I don't know where it was signed, but sure.

Speaker 3 (01:42:10):
Okay, I don't know. I'm screwing up left and right.
But the amount of information you gave me as i'm
peppering you with questions about Pennsylvania, it was incredible.

Speaker 2 (01:42:20):
Well, it's good to hear that seventh or eighth grade
PA history class came in handy.

Speaker 3 (01:42:24):
I'm looking up where the Declaration of Independence where it
was signed.

Speaker 1 (01:42:28):
Yeah, I don't know if it was signed in Philly,
but Alas okay, yeah, Philadelphia, Piladelphi Hall, beautiful.

Speaker 2 (01:42:34):
Well look, I'm glad you came. You're gonna have to
come back again sometime soon. It was a fun road trip.
Our show for what it's worth, the live one that
we did a little bit late with Avery for ball
or Avery's help so kindly giving us his basement.

Speaker 1 (01:42:49):
It was.

Speaker 2 (01:42:50):
It was the biggest reaction show that we've done it ever.

Speaker 1 (01:42:54):
Actually, so it was.

Speaker 2 (01:42:55):
It was huge, and part of that was the game,
but I think part of that was us given some
on the on experience being there. Sure, it's a lot
of fun, So thank you to everybody who helped make
that possible and for everybody, if nothing more who listened
and kind of cheered it on in the background.

Speaker 1 (01:43:09):
That was a lot of fun. We'll have to do
it again soon.

Speaker 3 (01:43:11):
Have the best time, all.

Speaker 1 (01:43:13):
Right, Dan, We went way over time here, but you
know what, it's our show. We can do whatever we want.
We want.

Speaker 2 (01:43:18):
We appreciate those of view taking the time to hang
in with us here.

Speaker 1 (01:43:22):
Hopefully you enjoyed the weekend as much as we did.
Hopefully we all enjoy week six as much as we
did Week five. Much more to come.

Speaker 2 (01:43:29):
Don't forget to tune in by hitting follow or subscribe
so that you don't miss any of our episodes verballers
dot com.

Speaker 1 (01:43:34):
We will talk more about verballers dot.

Speaker 2 (01:43:36):
Com the deeper we get into the week. What you
run the board prize will be for week six. Of course,
there is new merch out there in the merch store
at merch dot sliverbal dot com. We've been hard at
work and that front. More to come on that front
as well, so make sure you stay tuned. We'll be
talking a lot more about that in the very near future.

(01:43:56):
But in the meantime, I got to get a drink.
My voice is starting to and I feel like two
sticks rubbing together. Back there, please do. We've got to
rest up. We've got a big week of games in
front of us. For that, go over there, Dan, for myself, Tie,
thanks again for tuning.

Speaker 1 (01:44:08):
You will talk to you also. Stay solid. Peace,

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Sam Pittman Fired, Conference Power Ratings + Early Week 6 Picks for Miami-Florida State & Vandy-Alabama | College Football

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Sam Pittman Fired, Conference Power Ratings + Early Week 6 Picks for Miami-Florida State & Vandy-Alabama | College Football