October 22, 2025 • 60 mins
College football Week 9 picks, AP Top 25 shake-up, CFP outlook, and conference power checks across the SEC and Big Ten—George Wrighster breaks down where Georgia Bulldogs and Alabama football really stand, why Ohio State football, Oregon football, and rising Indiana belong in the title convo, and what the latest results mean for Texas Longhorns, LSU football, Texas A&M, UCLA football, and Penn State football. George reveals his CFB Top 25 built on three pillars—quality wins, schedule played, and dominance—then applies it to the weekend slate with no-nonsense picks and coaching context.
We start with the SEC football hierarchy and why brand bias still clouds national perception. George’s Top 25 runs from tough calls at the back end (LSU Tigers, Missouri, Cincinnati/USF tier) to a top-10 that spotlights Indiana football, Ohio State football, Oregon Ducks, plus Georgia and Alabama closing fast. From there, it’s matchup time: UCLA vs Indiana (can the Bruins’ physical reset travel to Bloomington?), Wisconsin vs Oregon (can the Badgers score enough to avoid a rout in Eugene?), and Michigan vs Michigan State (what Sharrone Moore and Jonathan Smith must prove now). The show also hits pivotal games with job-market stakes—Auburn vs Arkansas, Missouri vs Vanderbilt, Northwestern vs Nebraska, and Texas at Mississippi State—and explains how coach rumors affect locker rooms and results.
George digs into Illinois vs Washington (Bret Bielema’s program-builder résumé vs a Husky team needing a signature win), the Colorado vs Utah rivalry and what Deion’s staff changes mean for bowl hopes, and Alabama vs South Carolina where quarterback play decides whether it’s close or a blowout. We close on Group-of-6 leverage (South Florida vs Memphis) and quick hitters (BYU vs Iowa State, Houston vs Arizona State). If you want straight film notes, recruiting reality, and picks with reasons—not vibes—this episode is for you. Like, subscribe, and drop your Top 25 and upset alerts below.
Chapters:
00:00 – Welcome, method (quality wins • schedule • dominance)
01:00 – SEC hierarchy: Georgia Bulldoga & Alabama football vs the field
03:10 – College Football Top 25 reveal: why it differs from the AP
06:30 – Louisville/Miami ripple; USC, Michigan, USF slots
09:00 – Why Indiana is No. 1 today; Ohio State’s ceiling
12:16 – UCLA vs Indiana: confidence vs “rat poison”
16:40 – Keys: Mendoza’s efficiency, UCLA run fits
18:42 – Hot seat: Auburn vs Arkansas, Texas A&M vs LSU Football
21:10 – Northwestern vs Nebraska: Matt Rhule noise & trap risk
23:15 – Missouri vs Vanderbilt football: résumé check and home edge
27:45 – Illinois vs Washington: Bielema vs DeBoer, QB notes
33:40 – X-factors: Jonah Coleman & Illini RB rotation
36:20 – USF vs Memphis: G6 leverage, playoff access
37:35 – Texas A&M vs LSU at night: who’s real, who’s reeling
42:10 – Wisconsin vs Oregon: health, OL statement game
44:45 – Michigan vs Michigan State: narrative game
49:20 – Texas at Mississippi State: Arch’s reality check
53:36 – Colorado vs Utah: bowl path & turnover math
56:48 – Alabama–South Carolina: QB run threat or rout?
59:40 – Quick picks: BYU–Iowa State, Houston–ASU; final call
#cfbprediction #alabamafootball #ohiostatefootball #oregonfootball #CollegeFootball #indianafootball #texaslonghorns #texasfootball #LSU #TexasAM #uclafootball #APTop25 #CFP #SEC #BigTen #georgiabulldogs #pennstatefootball #michiganfootball #michiganstate #wisconsinfootball #washingtonhuskies #illinoisfootball #coloradofootball #utahutes #auburnfootball #arkansasrazorbacks #vanderbiltfootball #missouritigers #memphistigers #southfloridafootball #byucougars #iowastatecyclones #arizonastatefootball #asu #oregonducks #UnafraidShow #georgewrighster #accfootball #big12
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the College Football Show. We got a lot
to talk about. This is an amazing week nine in
college football. I gotta give you the picks against the spread.
We gotta talk about the meaningful impact of these games
because the slate doesn't look that, you know, interesting right now.
But there could be some upsets. But there's some drama
(00:24):
involved because coaches are literally fighting for new contracts that
they're trying to hold schools hostages for they are up
for new jobs. Behind the scenes, I am going to
explain to you how this whole thing works because I've
talked to agents about it, and I'm going to reveal
my top twenty five for this week because it differs
(00:45):
from the ap pole because mine is about the three
most important criteria quality wins, schedule played, and absolute dominance.
So and then we're gonna pick the games this week
against the spread. I am so so excited, and I'm
your boy. George Reister, former NFL player, college football player,
college football analysts for c W can't wait to be
(01:07):
back on there in all of November, So you guys
make sure that you guys check that out as well
and like, subscribe, get notifications, Tell a friend, and most
importantly share. All Right, So the SEC, there has been
some confusion because with eight conference games now you're looking
(01:28):
at it like, oh, who's gonna win the conference? And
the teams look so even, But I'm gonna tell you
they are not. There are two teams at the top
of the A seed of the SEC, and no it
is not Texas A and M. Georgia and Alabama are
the two best teams in the SEC right now. Now.
Of course, texts saying M They're gonna try to make
(01:48):
a lot of this LSU win if they get it
this weekend. LSU ain't that good. They are a fringe
top twenty five team. Head coaches kind of getting on
the hot seat and everything else. But another thing about
the SEC is this is that it is very difficult
for people in the SEC. I've heard Paul Feinbaum, his guests,
(02:08):
of their callers, everybody, it is hard for them to
believe that Indiana is a really good football team. Well,
I'm here to tell you Indiana is a really good
football team. And I know that there's a lot of
rank games played in the SEC. But part of it
is because you're judged against yourself. There's history still playing
a part of it, and we got to understand and
(02:29):
people are gonna start to see what a lot of
these coaching football hires is that yes, history matters, but
it also matters what your future is going to bring.
So first thing we are gonna do today, we are
gonna get into my top twenty five reveal before we
even get into the college games this week. So coming
(02:50):
in at number twenty five, I got those LSU tie us.
Their offense looks futrick. Their defense was looking good, pretty
good until last week too, where they got dominated by Vanderbilt.
So but it was still Vanderberg, who is a very
good football team. So LSU is hanging on for dear
life in the top twenty five. In my top twenty five,
(03:12):
we got Michigan at twenty four, Arizona State at number
twenty three. We got Missouri at twenty two, because I'm
not even sure if Missouri should even be ranked at
this point in time, but they put on a good
performance versus Alabama, so yeah, Okay. Then we got Cincinnati
Brendan Towardsby. They're looking really good and this feels right now.
(03:34):
Over in the ap pole, they got Michigan at twenty five,
and then USC unranked, which don't make a lick of
sense to me at all. But let's go to number
sixteen through twenty. We got Louisville, Tennessee, Illinois, USC and usself.
(03:55):
Now I don't understand how the ap pole doesn't have this,
because this makes so much sense. Louisville absolutely took Miami
behind the woodshed. They were up the entire game pretty much.
They dominated this football game and it was a very
very good showing by Jeff Brohm, who is a name
(04:15):
that people are yelling about, Oh, he should be the
next head coach of my team at Penn State at
this at Florida. Well, he's at his alma mater. And
people don't always now people who either went to the
school that they root for or have a better understanding
(04:36):
of what it means to be an alumni at a place.
I am an Oregon alumni graduating from Oregon. You're treated
differently at a place that you are an alumni of
than a place that you are not, unless you became
a legendre Now, granted, if you're a dude who went
to Middle Tennessee State and you were Middle Tennessee State's
(04:57):
head coach and then Tennessee offers you the job. Nobody
at Middle Tennessee State is going to begrudge you for leaving.
But if you are a Tennessee alum and then the
Alabama job comes open and you leave Tennessee to go
to Alabama, you are then going to be put in
the persona non grid a box over there at Tennessee.
And honestly, rightfully so so you have you know, Brent
(05:20):
Key over there at Georgia Tech, Clark Lee at Vanderbilt,
who's still talking greasy. Them dudes ain't leaving where they're
at because it's their alma mater and they're able to
have success there. These things matter, and this is why
schools try to hire Michigan man, somebody who loves USC,
(05:41):
who knows the fight song, who's ingrained into the community
because there is less likelihood to leave at that point
in time. But USC, who's not who's ranked behind Michigan
in the ap pole, which is insanity considering that Michigan
got beat by three scores by the USC team a
(06:03):
couple of weeks ago, and despite USC losing a Notre dame,
which you can't, you know, look at anybody sideways for
all right number eleven through fifteen, BYU at eleven, who's
still undefeated, Old Miss twelve. I was kind of iffy
back and forth on Old Miss at twelve and Texas
Tech at thirteen because I felt like I gave Texas
(06:24):
Tech way too big of a penalty after losing to
Arizona State, who is also ranked in my poll last
week without their starting quarterback, Baron Baron, And you're like,
is that really is that really right? But here we
go Oklahoma at fourteen, Virginia at fifteen, who continues to
(06:45):
win and continues to look good. I don't think I
have any arguments here in this point. Now the top
ten Indiana one, Yes, people, Indiana one, George, why do
you have Indiana one? Indiana has the best win of
the college football season in heading into Autin Stadium and
beating the Oregon Ducks, who is one of the top
(07:07):
teams in college football. Ohio State two. And this is
no slight to what Ohio State has been doing. I
know their defense is allowing point zero zero zero zero
two points per game. No, I mean it's really like six.
But still I appreciate everything that they're doing. Ohio State
with Jeremiah Smith, Carnell Tate, they got the young quarterback
(07:34):
Julian Saying, and Matt Patricia the defensive coordinator who's absolutely
balling right right now. But who's the toughest team that
they've played all year? Right now? Texas looks atrocious. I
don't even know why they're ranked in the AP pole
after going to double after going overtime, double overtime with Kentucky,
(07:56):
and they have looked awful this season. They are not
a team. People just keep letting their logo watching with Texas.
They want them to be good. They're not good, that
is there. They're stareing three, four, maybe even five losses
down the stretch, and they don't even have the toughest
schedule that you've ever seen in your entire life. So
(08:18):
that's why I get so their toughest games against Illinois
Ohio States is so this is why I'm giving Indiana
the edge right now, even though Ohio State could be better.
But remember quality, wins, schedule, playing dominance, and Indiana has
been dominant in every single game that they have played.
Oregon at three. This is a case where I believe
(08:40):
that they that the three best teams in the country
reside in the Big twelve. However, every single team in
the country looks like they can be beat right now,
maybe except for Ohio State because they haven't gotten a
dogfight yet. But everybody looks vulnerable. Everybody has weaknesses. So
I can give a little bit of flexibility for some
(09:03):
people looking at Alabama and Georgia at four and five,
maybe potentially putting them at three. But I did. This
is the way I see it Georgia's first half defense.
If they play any of the teams in the top four,
they're gonna have a problem on their hands because they're
gonna get too far behind to catch up in the
second half. And this ain't all miss number six. Now,
(09:24):
remember a couple weeks ago, I did the the video
with Brooks Austin and we talked about the most overrated
teams in the country. He said Miami was the most
overrated team in the country. Turned out that they lost,
not that anybody expected. I mean, people did expect them
to go and defeat it after they got through what
was considered the meat of their schedule, because they absolutely
(09:44):
were sleeping on Louisville. So this is the way I
feel about Texas A and m that Notre Dame. Win
is doing a lot of heavy lifting early in the season.
Forty four to forty one or forty two to forty one.
It was a close game in South Bend. So yes
Tex saying him is a good football team. I do
not believe that they are the class of the SEC
(10:06):
when I watched them a lot of times. There's too
many penalties. Red has to develop more as a passer
for me to really take them serious as a contender.
Georgia Tech at seven they are just gritty. I thought
they were gonna lose that duke. They did not. Miami
at eight. Still like this Miami team. Still like this
Miami team. Carson Becks gotta cut down on the turnovers.
(10:28):
This is the same thing that Georgia fans were yelling
at about him about, is that sometimes he'll just go
through these pickfests where he is predetermined determining where he's
gonna throw the ball. But if those guys are open
when he predetermines it, it's a problem. Because CJ. Daniels
and Malachi Tony absolutely special. Ruben Baying on defense the
defensive line, they are good, they are tough. They just
(10:51):
got to find a way not to lose games that
they shouldn't lose, and then you got Notre Dame at
nine after Notre Dame lost them two games in the
beginning of the season, to my me in tex saying,
m I told you they were still a top twelve team,
and all they have done is just beat the hell
out of everybody since. And then Vanderbilt number ten because
they have earned it. That is the bottom line. Because
(11:13):
stone Cold said, so all right, now, we're gonna get
to the games, because I believe that this weekend in
particular has a lot of unique situations because you have
a lot of coaches who are fighting for jobs. They
are fighting for new contracts, and they are fighting for
(11:34):
other jobs. So this is why you've been watching the
press conferences, and you know, guys won't explicitly say I'm
not leaving and this and that because they're all angling
for something. They're angling for a new contract, either they
just want, you know, their egos stroked, or they are
about to leave somewhere else. So this is why I've
(11:55):
divided this bucket of games into two different categories. Three. Really,
there is the most important, sorry, the biggest games of
the weekend, like the most impactful games of the weekend
and the most important games of the weekend. Now, the
most important games of the weekend are not the best
games of the weekend. We gotta be clear about that.
(12:16):
And we are going to start with a game that
four weeks ago, nobody on Earth would have thought this
game would have been bit on Big Neon kickoff. Nobody
would have thought that this game would have been important
at any bit of reverence. And that is UCLA three
(12:36):
and four UCLA at number two Indiana. Now I applaud
Kurt Signetty for doing what he did, because this man
has found a way to pump up his team and
tell them that UCLA is a three and o team,
that you are not playing against a three and four team,
(12:57):
because they really aren't. And I asked the couple of
AP voters, I said, hold up, if UCLA wins this
game and goes and move to four and four on
the season, but won four straight games, Michael fired the coach.
It was like a total reset. Now you got Tim
Skipper bawling, Jerry Neuheisel, their new defensive coordinator. Everybody looks
(13:18):
good and COEASA team looks good. They look they look physical,
they're tackling, they're catching the ball, all of those sorts
of things. Would you then rank them in the top
twenty five because I was like, if they beat Indiana
and after the last month, because the the and the
response I got back generally was probably because the top
(13:40):
twenty five is who are the best twenty five teams
right now? It is the playoff committee's job to do
who's the most deserving or his best resume, anything like that.
So I'm looking at this game. Indiana is a twenty
five and a half point favored In this game in Bloomington, Illinois,
the over under is fifty five and a half. And
(14:01):
let's I give you the context of this. UCLA is
not gonna be scared. They are used to being twenty
point underdogs. They are used to people doubting them. But
they are now three and one into Big Ten. Indiana's
four to zero, and Indiana is ripped through the first
half of the schedule. Michigan State, they beat Oregon. They
(14:22):
have knocked down everybody in front of them. Their toughest
game in terms of that coming down to the very
last second, was the Iowa game. This is a really
good football team and kurse Signetty knows that his team
is battling the rat poison right now. This is why
he's propping UCLA up right now, is because he's like,
(14:44):
we cannot have a rat poison game that our team
sees the press clippings. We are not used to this
sort of thing. We're used to being the underdog and doubted,
and now people are starting to believe. That changes the
mentality of your team. And he knows that. So their
only prior series meeting was in twenty twenty four. Listen,
(15:08):
Indiana forty two, Ucla thirteen. Now, this momentum that they
have is serious, and when you think about it, Ucla
is banged up right right now, and Indiana is not
the team that you want to be facing. Their quarterback,
(15:30):
Fernando Mendoza, I believe should be the Heisman front runner
right now. Him number one, Diego Pavia, number number two.
He's completing seventy four percent of his passes, twenty one touchdowns,
another two Russian and Mendoza's efficiency in production is similar
to the pace that bo Knicks was on in twenty
twenty three when he finished third in the Heisman voting.
(15:53):
And you know that was the year that Jay and
Daniels got it. He was outstanding, but he also didn't
put up a lot of them. Number is against good competition,
So I want to hear nothing about about Fernando mint Mendzi.
Indiana number nine in the country and yards per play,
second and first downs per game, and they hold the ball,
(16:14):
they move it relentlessly. But the question is, after watching
the tape against Oregon, are they gonna be able to
stop Indiana simulated pressure and be able to diagnose it
because they have to be able to run the football
and they're one hundred and six and rushing yards allowed
per game on the season. That UCLA is so getting
(16:37):
stops on this Indiana run game, which in I believe
four or five of their games this year is run
for over three hundred yards, So they gotta This is
a mean run game, mean run game. But over the
last three games since they've been three and oh, they've
moved up to thirty seventh. And then pair that with
(16:58):
already having a top twenty five pass defense, and you
got a competitive team for UCLA. But being competitive ain't
gonna work. It is not gonna work against against this
Indiana team. You actually have to have special performances, and
then Big Ten leader and assistant tackles John John Bonds
he actually might be able to deliver one of them
(17:19):
fantastic performances. So this head coach, we got Tim Skipper
interim coach, and Jerry Neuheisel, who people believe is the
head coach. We got nico Ia Maliava, who's playing very
well since things have changed. He is running the ball well,
throwing the ball well, not turning the ball over too much,
even though he had a pick six against Maryland against
(17:42):
Fernando Mendoza, who is cooking with Crisco right now, hot
is Fish Grease. I am going to take UCLA plus
this twenty five and a half. Now, I don't believe
that they're gonna win this football game, but this feels
like this could be one of the Angels in the
outfit old Major League moments where you're like, how the
(18:03):
hell did this happen? Because if UCLA rattles off five
games in a row and against Indiana, Nebraska, Ohio State, Washington,
I think and then USC bruh, you're gonna have to
put them in the playoff at eight and four. I'm
(18:24):
telling you, now, do I think that that's happening. No,
but stranger things have happened, and if so, they will
be making a movie about it. So I am going
to take Indiana plus twenty five and a half. Now,
let's look at the most important games of the weekend.
These six games I believe are the most important games
(18:46):
of the weekend. We got Auburn Texas. I'm sorry, Auburn Arkansas.
Excuse me, Auburn Arkansas. We got Northwestern Nebraska, Missouri, Vanderbilt, Illinois, Washington,
Texas A and m LSU and South Florida Memphis. These
(19:06):
are by far the sixth most important games of the
weekend of week nine in college football. So Auburn Arkansas,
you got two coaches fighting for their life. You got
Hugh Freeze, who said, you know, he would love to
get a voter confidence from the administration. They ain't giving
him nothing until he wins a football game in the SEC.
(19:30):
And I don't even know if Arkansas is gonna be
enough because they're at the bottom of the SEC. Bobby Petrino,
since he has gotten control of Arkansas again, since he
has you know, slizzited his way back back in the
Fox got in the henhouse, and he took over. They've
been close. They had a chance to beat Texa and
(19:50):
him last week and they did not, and now they
have a chance to beat Auburn. So both of these
coaches are fighting for every single thing that they have.
And I'm looking at this game and I'm like, yo, yo,
who wins this football game? Because it is important to
(20:10):
both of these coaches. And when I get deeper into it,
and I look at the line on this game, so
you have Arkansas, who's at home, is actually favored by
a point and a half, and Arkansas's defense is bad.
Hugh Freeze at Auburn is thinking about changing quarterbacks from
(20:31):
Jackson Arnold. I am going to take Arkansas minus a
point and a half. I actually believe that they are
going to score big points in this game. And Auburn,
who has been atrocious on offense, even against Arkansas's defense,
I don't think they put up more than twenty points.
But Arkansas with Green at quarterback, They're going to find
(20:53):
a way to score at least twenty one points. That
means that Auburn cannot win. Cannot win. Get me Auburn
in I mean, excuse me, Arkansas in this football game,
the Northwestern versus Nebraska game. You're like, George, why is
this game important? First of all, North Northwestern, who people
(21:15):
was poop going on when Oregon played them, they're now
I believe five and two. This is not a game
that Nebraska can can sleep on. Nebraska's favored by seven
and a half in this game. But this game is
important because Matt Rule is not saying I'm not leaving Nebraska.
He just keeps praising the Nebraska job, praising craft the
(21:40):
Penn State athletic director. He is behind the scenes negotiating
a way to potentially get out of Nebraska, and his
team played like it. Last week. Dylan Ryola said, my
coach ain't leaving. Are you sure about that? Power you
sure about that? So if if Matt Rule wants to
(22:01):
be able to win the press conference at Penn State
or people still be happy with him at Nebraska, he
cannot lose this football game. This game is highly, highly
important for him because Nebraska is a seventy five percent
chance to win this game according to ESPN Analytics and
(22:21):
Preston Stone compared to Dylan Riola in terms of pedigree
and stats and everything else. Delan Roola looks looks better.
But if Nebra, if Northwestern, they keep everything in front
of them, they make you dink and dunk. They make
it hard on you. And if they can get to
Dilan Roola or not make it clean for him, he
(22:44):
will take sacks. This is an opportunity for Northwestern to
win this football game. I like Northwestern in Lincoln plus
seven and a half. This one feels good to me.
The next game, Missouri versus Vanderbilt, You're like, George, how
in the hell is this a game where something is
(23:04):
on the line? How is this one of the most
important games of the weekend? Because we have another coach
and Eli Drinkwitz, who is potentially his name, keeps getting
floated out for head coaching jobs and you and to
(23:24):
get that, you have to win football games. You have
to because Missouri just had a double overtime win at Auburn,
which ain't real pretty, and they have not beaten a
top twenty five team. The best thing on Missouri schedule
is a win against excuse me, is a loss against Alabama.
(23:49):
That's the best thing on their resume right now. Because
when you look at this at the let me pull
up their schedule for you. The way you guys, don't
think I'm over here just hating. They got Central Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana,
South Carolina, who's bad on offense, and the losing record.
You mass lost to Alabama, then a win against Arburn.
(24:12):
They got no win, They got no rank wins. They
got a close ranked loss. That's all they got. So
when when y'all talk about anybody else in they ran
ranked wins, make sure y'all speak about the SEC as well,
because this is why college football is honesty. Brokeer, George,
why don't you talk about any of the Big ten teams?
(24:33):
Go back and look in the channel. When Kurt snick
Signetti said that he wanted to play an SEC schedule,
I was like, this is weak as hell. Play somebody
don't do that. I criticized Ohio State in their national
championship season, Michigan in their national championship season because they
didn't play any competitive non conference games. So I am
consistent here. So Missouri at Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt is favored by
(24:58):
two and a half points. They're playing at home again,
and I like the Commodoores at home minus two and
a half. I love the Clark Lee's confidence and he
was the twenty twenty four SEC co Coach of the
Sorry Coach of the Year. And this win for drink
(25:22):
Witz is either gonna get him a raise or it
is gonna get people questioning whether he should be their
head coach or not. And granted, people make way too
much out of a situation and one single football game.
This is how you hire the wrong person because you
gotta look at the body of work, which is why
I said Penn State should be hiring Fran Brown full stop,
(25:45):
full stop. Oh well, this coaching record against Listen, the
man can recruit, he puts together a good offense, and
he's winning at Syracuse. He just lost his quarterback. Stop
relying on one game as the the definition for who
should be a head coach and a head coach contender.
But when we're looking at these quarterbacks, Boprabula versus Diego Pavia,
(26:11):
Bouprah Buula is kind of a Diego Pavia type guy,
except for with the He's not outwardly you know, braggadocious
in the media as Pavia is. But Pavia is now
a Heisman contender. He could have his team in the
SEC Championship and potentially in the College football playoffs, and
(26:33):
I love it. I love it. The dude is efficient.
He is he is Tim Tbow without a Bible. I'm
not sure what he believes in his personal life when
I'm just saying, he ain't thumping it around the way
that Tim Tim Tebow did. And when you look at
you know, in this game, Missouri has to get Arnold
(26:54):
Hardy going at running back because he's the hammer. They
gotta get Kean Coleman Junior going, Eric Stowers, they got to.
But this Vanderbilt front of Miles Capers, who has four
and a half sacks, they have absolutely been, you know, opportunistic.
(27:14):
So I cannot wait to watch this football game because
it is going to be special. It is going to
be really, really good. And if Missouri's pass rush, you know,
with Darius Wilson, who has five and a half sacks,
if they can get to Pavia and force the and
stop the run early and force them into passing situations,
(27:35):
they are going to have a chance. And you know,
and Missouri shortyardist defense is gonna have to be good.
They can't let Pavia extend drives. Come on, man, this
could be a tough one, but I am buying Vanderbilt
at home minus two and a half in one of
the most important games of the weekend. Another super important
(27:57):
game this weekend is this Illini Washington game because I
picked Illinois to make the college football playoff prior to
the season, and this is a game that is important
to both of these head coaches because I do not
(28:19):
understand why, and I find it very interesting that Brett
Beelima's name is not one of these names being tossed
around for open coaching jobs. I mean, I know he's
not going back to Arkansas for sure, but look what
he did at his current role in Illinois and prior stops,
(28:39):
not at Arkansas but at Wisconsin before that, versus what
other people have done. He has been highly successful, four
double digit winning seasons at Wisconsin in seven years, and
they've had five in the last thirteen years since. Three
winning seasons in five years plus three bowl appearances at
Arkansas and then three winning seasons and three bowl appearances
(29:03):
plus two fired coaches in the eight years since. Come on, man,
and now Brett Beelama is one win away from having
Illinois in its third Bowl game since he took over
the program, and he's had the Aliini ranked in three
separate seasons, and he gave them their first ten win
season in twenty three years last year. This sounds like
(29:23):
a guy that maximizes the opportunities to me, so I
do not understand unless he is keeping this on so
much quiet, and he could be back dooring back down
to Florida or if Florida State opens up, or any
of these other jobs. But his name should absolutely be
listed as one of the top names and program builders
(29:46):
in this nil era in college football. Mister Brett Beilam, Now,
I know I got a lot of Illinois fans on
this channel and they don't want to hear that, but
I gotta tell the truth. What the hell you want
me to say? You got one of the better coaches
in college football. On the other side of it, you
got Jadfish who's over at Washington and he gets mentioned
every single year that a job comes open for what
(30:09):
he did when he left Arizona to take over at Washington. Now,
I can't blame him Arizona that I have a whole
video on that whole situation situation and how he had
to take the Washington job not just for himself but
for his assistant coaches because people forget that coaches have
a responsibility not just to themselves, because they make the
(30:31):
majority of the money to their assistance. When you can
double your assistance, pay, get them additional years, put their
families in better situations. And you're the head man and
they've been with you for years. You don't take one
of them jobs, bro, they gonna be looking at you.
Kind of kind of funny. And Jedfish has been linked
to everywhere, especially you know, with UCLA and Florida being opened,
(30:54):
it's only natural that his name is gonna get thrown
out because he's a Florida alump and his family is
back living in Arizona and that's closer to UCLA and
the weather's nicer. But this is an extremely important game
for Jed Fish because he's been good at Washington, especially
at home, but that doesn't but at this point in time,
(31:17):
he doesn't have a signature win yet, and it is
arguably that he doesn't have a good win yet, and
this is his you know, his team is actually stacked
with young talent. They've been notoriously slow starters, and against
an Illinois team that's eighty eighth and first quarter points allowed,
(31:37):
that is not going to cut it. But these quarterbacks.
You got Luke Altmar, who is having a fantastic year
for the Aligned. Now, now the senior isn't gonna be
getting any heisman buzz, but he's the only quarterback so
far that has even looked semi functional versus Ohio State.
And he's getting, you know, setting personal best for a
(31:58):
completion percentage, yards per attempt, touchdown, at turnover ratio. And
he's the engine that makes this Illinois offense run. And
he's not overly dependent on any one weapon. He's got
a maturity in the pocket and a toughness that makes
him a threat against any opponent, but he is vulnerable
to being overwhelmed at times in the pass rush. Now
(32:20):
on the other end, you got Demon Williams, who hasn't
really been himself the last two weeks for Washington, and
that's been both a good thing and a bad thing
because although his high school career and his time at Washington,
he's been in control. He's been efficient, calculated machine. But
against Rutgers he went off for five hundred combined yards
(32:42):
and that might have reset his own internal bar for
what he's capable of. But it is also possible that
It also resulted in him trying to do too much
as a passer against Michigan after they took his running
lanes away, and it resulted in more interceptions in one game.
And he's previously thrown in two hundred and sixty three
(33:03):
pass attempts in college going into the Michigan game, so
he threw more that one game than in two hundred
and sixty three pass attempts before that. So that matters.
And it's Illinois offense versus Washington's defense because Washington's defensive
line they have not been very effective this year in
the pass rush. They've absorbed blocks, you know, their linebackers
(33:28):
and safeties are having to do way too much work.
And their three primary safeties are averaging a combined eleven
solo tackles per game, with Alex mcgoughlin leading away with
thirty five of his own. That is mediocre at the
best in defensive categories. It ain't good. They are fortieth
(33:51):
in the country in total yards allow, points giving up,
and yards per play. It ain't good. Now teams they
can overcome them ranking, but you have to do better,
you know. And their seventieth they're tied with Clemson in
turnovers per game, So that ain't good because Clemson ain't
good right now. And also that actually could be a
(34:13):
recipe for the Illinois offense to feast. So as long
as they can do it through the through the air,
they're going to have an opportunity. So when I look
at this game, I believe the X factor in this
game is going to be Washington's offensive line and Jonah
Coleman because he has had three straight games where he's
(34:34):
been bottled up in the run. He's still leading the
Big Ten in touchdowns, but when he's not picking up
big chunks, this Washington offensive team is a lot easier
to beat. And he has not had a hundred yard
game since the second game of the season versus U
See Davis. That ain't good. And then on the other
(34:56):
side of things, in terms of X factors, Illinois has
to be looking the at the way that Michigan kept
Washington at arms length to give running back Jordan Marshall
twenty eight touches, and then looking at his roster to
see at Valentine, who is a lot more slender than
Marshall or Keaton Fagan, because he actually might be the
(35:17):
heaviest running back in college football this year if he
could have a similar impact on the game because the
ALIGNI are probably gonna be spreading the love offensively as
they have all season. So when I look at this game,
I'm looking at him like Washington is at home. They
are four and a half point favorites, but unfortunately they
(35:38):
are going to drop this game to the ALI nine.
I'm sorry. Sorry. The next game up that is totally
I am totally excited about, which is one of the
most important games of the season, is this South Florida
versus Memphis game. And like South Florida versus Memphis, yes, yes,
(35:59):
Memphis lost week to UAB first time of the season.
Brendan Lewis at quarterback, who's not gonna throw a bunch
of touchdowns and do a lot special But their head coach,
Ryan Silverfield has been outstanding and you got him and
Alex Goldish, whose names are being thrown about for some
of these big time head coaching jobs. While they're at
(36:21):
a G six school, they're gonna have a chance to
three x their salary based upon wins like this. So
this game means a lot for Memphis and then potentially
going to the College Football Playoff because South Florida's ranked sixteen.
If Memphis beat South Florida, Memphis is going to be
(36:43):
ranked in front of South Florida when it comes to
the College Football Playoff and which group of six group
of sixteen gets a automatic berth to the playoff. That
matters one hundred percent. So this game matters to the
coach and their ability to get to the playoff, and
(37:04):
it matters for them and which jobs that they are offered,
where they land on the pecking order. Even though I
said one game shouldn't matter too much, but it does
two fans, so you got to pay attention to that.
The last game that is an absolute doozy for this
(37:25):
weekend that I am excited about is Texas A and
M versus LSU. This game is a night game in
Baton Rouge. Everything is in LSU's favor. They're still ranked
in the top ten. Well, they're still ranked highly. They
(37:45):
are a team that is that people are still excited about.
I am looking at LSU and I'm like, everything is
in your favor right now. You have your or night game,
death Valley, your backs against the wall, everything and you
(38:09):
are an underdog. So now Brian Kelly can say nobody
believes in us everything like that, because Texas A and
M is a two and a half point favorite in
this game, and we are going to either have Texas
A and M exposed as the fraud that I believe
that they are in terms of being a top twelve team.
I do not believe that they're one of the twelve
best in college football, or they are going to be
(38:32):
shown that they are one of the better teams in
college football because and not because I believe that LSU
is great, because I do not. Their offense has been
putrid this year. It has been hard to watch. People
are calling for Garrett Nussmyer, who people thought could be
a Heisman winner, number one overall pick through for over
(38:53):
four thousand yards last year and then now's on pace
for twenty eight hundred. That's a big deal. So I
so LSU has an opportunity. A and M comes in
this game seven and zero four and oh in the
sec they barely snuck by Arkansas last week forty five,
(39:16):
forty two. So if Arkansas, who's one of the better offenses,
is putting up a lot of points on A and M,
you should who's a bad team who no notre Dame
shut down as well. LSU should be able to score.
They should, but I don't believe that this is going
(39:38):
to be a case where that is it. I actually
like Texas AY and HM to win this game two
and a half points. And this game is also important
because Mike Elko, whose name has been floated about, I
don't know if I believe that he would leave Texas
A and m Buddy Buddy Buddy might listen if you
want to live on a coast. If Lane Kippen says
(40:02):
no to Florida, they gonna keep going down the list
and being like all right, and keep up and up.
In the ending, somebody gonn get one hundred million dollars
fully guaranteed contract because it is. And Brian Kelly, if
he loses this game at home, this is going to
send the the the sentiment about him in Baton Rugs
(40:23):
tumbling down. They'll fall to five and three out of
the SEC race, out of the playoff race, and be like,
what are what are what are we doing? You went,
you went all in in the transfer portal. This was
supposed to be your year and it is not. And
(40:44):
you can't even blame Garrettnsmar for it. Come on, man,
the Tigers are fiftieth and past yards per game and
this is supposed to be wide receiver you and the
Tigers are even worse than yards per play there sixty fifth,
and that's because there are one hundred and twelfth overall
in rush yards per game. You got a pocket passer,
(41:07):
you gotta support them with the run game, which is
not happening. And then you got text A and m
They come into this game with two running backs that
can carry the load, and Rubin Owens and Le'Veon Moss
and Marcel Reid has been one of the more effective
dual threat quarterbacks in the country with fifteen touchdown passes
and two hundred and forty yards Russian. But they haven't
(41:27):
just been resorting out scoring opponents, because they gave up
forty to Notre Dame and forty two to Arkansas, But
against teams that have struggled to move the ball like Auburn,
Mississippi State and Florida, they've given up just four touchdowns
in twelve quarters. So what do you think is gonna
happen to LSU? Just saying, all right, So those are
(41:49):
the sixth most important games of the weekend. Now, let's
get to another game, Wisconsin versus Now it might be like, George,
why do we care about this game? Cuz see that
back there, That's why we care about this game. So
(42:09):
we're gonna talk about it. But this is more because
I did a whole preview on this game. You guys
can go on the channel and peep that out as well,
where we get way deeper down into the woods. But
Oregon is favored byt thirty three and a half points.
Oregon enters this game six and one. Wisconsin has been
shut out the last two games versus Iowa and versus
(42:33):
Ohio State, and if given up seventy one points, this
is going to be a bloodbath. However, I do believe
that Wisconsin is gonna have a chance to score this
football game, and only because the administration has backed Luke Fickel.
(42:54):
They said, we're keeping our head coach, we don't care
what happens. We are going to invest in the transfer port,
We're gonna invest in nil and we're gonna give them
a shot. So I think that that is going to
energize the team because they're not trying to make plans
about next year. They're like, Okay, at least the coach
will be here if we can figure something out. So
(43:14):
I do believe that they will score, but I'm still
gonna put it in about fifty six or seven. This
is gonna be an absolute runaway for the Ducks. They're
gonna get a chance to because they're at home. They're
gonna get a chance to play some more of the
younger guys and get them that fourth game of experience
if they haven't played already. Red Shirt's not getting burned.
(43:37):
But for the Ducks, the most important thing in this
game is to come out healthy. For Dante More to
walk in the stadium, walk out of the stadium healthy.
Same thing with Mateo Uyangalle Tatum Tuyoti, the superstar cornerback Finny.
They need to figure out who the other starting corner
(43:57):
is going to be. Establish the run because Wisconsin's run
defense has been able to shut people down. And Oregon,
if you are going to be a Joe Moore Award
winning offensive line, this is your moment to show it.
Not just exposive offense where you're pitching it all over
the place. I want to see you line up and
(44:19):
Marshawn Lynch run through a mofo face, run through his
face over and over and over and over and over
and over again. That's what I want to see, run
through somebody face. And yes, Dante more can still add
in another fifteen for twenty performance for two hundred ninety
yards four touchdowns. Love it, Sign me up. But I
(44:41):
want to see that run game and I want to
see this defense which absolutely stoned Rutgers last week. Rutgers
was eight for twenty five pass and for like seventy
some yards. And that's an offense eight for twenty five. Yes,
we're talking like thirty percent on a team that it
was averaging like two ninety seven passing per game. I'm
(45:06):
just saying. And who threw for three eighty five the
week three sixty five, three eighty five a week before
against Washington, So that matters are the next game that
we got to talk about. We got to talk about
this Michigan versus Michigan State game. I am excited about
this football game because this game could have been in
(45:27):
one of the six games that mattered the most important
games of this weekend. Michigan is a fourteen and a
half point favorite in this game. This game is at
Michigan State Michigan State is three and four. They have
not looked good in term. They got beat up by
UCLA even so, but I don't know if we should
(45:49):
say like even at this point in time. But here
is what we know. We know that Michigan is five
and two. We know that they just beat up Washington,
and we also know that Michigan State has dropped four
straight Big Ten games. We got Sharon Moore versus Jonathan Smith.
(46:11):
This entire game is about the narrative about these coaches.
If Sharon Moore loses this game, now where I pick
Michigan to be a twenty twenty six powerhouse and a
legitimate national championship threat, if they lose this football game,
it's going to cause major problems for Sharon Moore on
the recruiting trail and with the sentiment with Michigan fans
(46:34):
because you already got him a little bit of you know, feisty,
which they should not be, but they are. And then
you got Michigan State, who Jonathan Smith came to them
in the same situation as mel Tucker did, where they
mel Tucker wanted to stay at Colorado, Michigan State offered
him an offer he could not refuse and Colorado couldn't
(46:58):
even get close, like not even double damn there. And
then you got Jonathan Smith. He left Oregon State where
he would have stayed because Oregon State didn't have a conference.
He didn't never choice. So Jonathan Smith's future and the
future sentiment around the boosters at Michigan State, the nil
folks and everything else is going to be teetered on
(47:20):
this football game right now. Teetered on this football game
right now. And this game is at seven thirty eastern
on NBC, is going to be dry forty seven degrees.
This is and you know this one of them block
out the noise games. Now, the quarterbacks in this game,
(47:42):
Bryce Underwood, who is young true freshman from Michigan fourteen
hundred yards, seven touchdowns, two picks, last game had two
thirty versus Washington, showed off some nice little arm angles.
And then you got Eighten Childs, who has cut down
the turnovers a lot from last year, but he's only
thrown for twenty well for like thirteen hundred yards this year,
(48:02):
ten touchdowns, three interceptions, and then there and then in
their last outing versus Indiana, did not throw the ball
away two hundred and forty three pass yards. Now, Childs
is dangerous off script, but he's honestly been hitt and
miss versus top defenses. So we are going to see,
(48:25):
and we're gonna see if Michigan can lean on Jonathan
Hayes in the running back room play clean, mistake free football,
because Michigan State's defense has struggled to get off the
field and hasn't held a power to the SEC or
Big ten under thirty one since late September after Wolverines,
(48:45):
if they can stay ahead of the sticks, oh, it's
gonna get nasty. It like, the score is not gonna
get bad, but it's gonna look like a blood bath. Now,
on the offensive side, if the Aiden, Childs and Marsh
can get at the wide receivers Marsh and Keller, they
can hit some chunk plays and keep Derek Moore Michigan's
edge up off them, They're gonna have a shot. I
(49:10):
am putting this game as a potential upset special, upset special,
you can this is one of them games that you
need to really pay attention to because it is going
to be the penalties and the mistakes that are going
to put these different teams in situations and Michigan State
for Jonathan Smith. They have to make a bowl game.
(49:30):
So they have to win some fraction of games between
this one Minnesota Penn State the week after that, and
then they got Iowa and then one more game against
against Maryland. So they got five games to win three,
three games to win, five games to win three to
(49:52):
get to a player to get to a bowl game,
which is necessary for the future of what they got
going on. All right, the next game that we got
to talk about, Texas versus Mississippi State. Why are we
even talking about a team that is not a top
twenty five team and people want to keep propping up
in Texas Mississippi. Think about this. Mississippi State is favored
(50:17):
at home with the cow Bells by one and a
half points. Texas is five and two and just went
over time and won sixteen to thirteen at Kentucky where
they got out gained by Damnar Double. And we're sitting
here putting a whole lot of stock in that Red
(50:38):
River Rivalry game. I said, y'all putting a lot of
stock in this Red River Rivalry game. For what John
Matteer shouldn't have been playing in the game. They should
have started Hawkins and just played it out. He threw
three picks in his game in that game, he didn't
look like it like hisself. I do not give Texas
no whole lot of stock in that game. I'm letting
you know that right now. But this is Starkville at night.
(51:02):
Cow bells are gonna be loud. I will take Mississippi
State plus a point and a half. I'm sorry, minus
appointing that point point and a half because they are
favored in this football game. Steve's are keysying. He's gonna
probably have to give up play calling duties after this
season if they don't figure out this offense. And truthly,
(51:25):
he's a head coach. It's too much to be doing
both jobs. Arch Manny versus Blake Shaping. Who would you
think has the better stats right now? It is Blake Shaping,
which is wild. Come on, man by Arch through for
one hundred and thirty two yards last week, Like, let's
(51:46):
just put Arch in the regular quarterback category. He's in
the Blake Shaping category until he pulls himself out, Like
I'm not slandering them. There's just not a lot to
talk about in terms of like a difference maker in
the football game until he proves he's difference maker. So
I'm not going down the kid. I'm just gonna treat
him the same way that I do regular quarterbacks who
(52:06):
don't offer like superhero ability and all of this stuff.
We'll just say, canny game, manage them to a win.
That's the way we're gonna handle Arch Manning from now on,
because there's no reason to slander the kid. He didn't
ask for all this puff, so we're gonna treat him
exactly like what he has played like, and no, no hate,
no slander. Let's just keep keep it a buck, you know,
(52:30):
just reality, you know. Uh. Texas averages twenty six point
seven points per game, thirty eight percent on third down.
So we're gonna see what they are gonna be able
to do in this game if Arch can help, if
he can manage them into a victory, but if they
(52:50):
get stuck behind the chains. This is going to be
a signature win for Mississippi State, even though it really
ain't that signature. It'll be signature in terms of logo,
but it will not be signature in terms of an
actual win. Are another game that I find very interesting
on this slate. Another night game, we got Colorado at Utah.
(53:12):
Now Utah's favor about thirteen and a half points in
this game. This game's a Rice Echo Stadium, one of
the best college football environments. Should be about sixty degrees
and clear. Utah's five and two two and two in
the Big Twelve. Colorado is three and four one and
three in the Big Twelve. And this is apparently I
learned something new in research for this that this is
(53:33):
called the Rumbling the Rockies. Did anybody else know that?
Drop dropping into comments if you knew, and make sure
that you like, subscribe and get notifications. Now, Utah and
Colorado they have always been presented and pitted as rivals
in the Pac twelve, but this week the teams are
in a fight for survival. Utah is in a fight
(53:54):
to stay relevant in terms of getting to the Big
twelve championship. But they have They lost to Yeah, they
lost to Texas Tech already, which is gonna hurt some
of their tiebreaker options. And now you're looking at this
Colorado team and you're like, yo, they're three and four,
but it seems like that they need to stay in
(54:16):
bowl game contention because they've been getting inconsistent quarterback play.
They've been going back and forth between Ryan Stob Caten Salter,
and then over the bye week they held a scrimmage
for the portal players, which I absolutely love was me
and Ralph talked about on College Football Apostles, which is
one of the dopest things that a college football coach
(54:36):
has done. Give players an opportunity to either move up
the depth chart with a real live scrimmage on your
bye week, or give them an opportunity to get some
film if they so choose to hop into Portal and sey,
because that's one of the hardest thing for players is
to be able to find places to go with just
a practice tape. When you got real live reps smacking
(54:57):
people quarterbacks where where they're not you know, where they're
actually under pressure and everything else. It's good. It is good.
Now Colorado has more games with thirty five plus carries
in the run running back room with four than it
did in twenty twenty four all together, which they only
had three. So you can expect the Buffalos that they
(55:19):
will likely try and push the Utah off the ball,
and since Utah has given up one hundred and fifty
rush yards per game, that actually could be doable. I'm
just saying, but Devin Dampier for Utah is gonna have
to be better in this game. He has not been
consistent struggling running the ball, I'm sorry, throwing the ball.
And they have really struggled to manufacture points when it
(55:42):
comes to taking care of the football because they have
six turnovers in their two losses and two turnovers in
their four wins. They run the ball extremely well because
their offensive line is fantastic. They're averaging two hundred and
sixty six yards on the ground outside of the Texas
Tech loss. So we are gonna see Kyle Whittingham coaching
legend versus Deon Sanders legend. Who is going to flinch
(56:07):
first and who is going to win? So I'm excited
about that. The last game that we got to talk
about today is Alabama versus South Carolina. And you're probably like, George,
how is this at the bottom of the slate? No
knock on Alabama. This is South Carolina's doing. Alabama's eleven
and a half point favorite in this game, and I
(56:29):
am excited to see. The over under in this game
is forty seven and a half according to ESPN bet
and this is you know, a three thirty Eastern kick,
twelve thirty Pacific. Alabama's number six in the country in
six and one four and on the SEC. South Carolina
one and four in the SEC and three and four overall.
(56:53):
Alabama according to ESPN Analytics, eighty two point two percent
chance to win this football game. Leonora sellers, and this
offense is playing terrible. They are like, he's thrown for
under two hundred yards a game in the last few
few games. This is not what this team is looking
(57:13):
for at all. It's not And Leonora's sellers, I've said
if I've said it once, I've said it ten times.
This kid needs to stay in school. He absolutely does.
There is like people talking about him potentially being the
number one pick in the draft. If he does that,
he will not have a successful career. He's thrown for
(57:35):
this season two oh nine, one eight ninety four in
the Vanderbilt game where he got hurt three to oh
two versus Missouri, one fifty three versus Kentucky, won twenty
four versus LSU, and one twenty four versus Oklahoma. This
ain't it. This is not it. And yes, the completion
percentage is about sixty five. But it's a lot of
(57:58):
dink and dunk and throwing behind the line of scrimmage
screens and all of that is taking up a lot
of air. I am going to take Alabama minus eleven
and a half. This game could get ugly. This game
could get absolutely ugly unless unless Alabama struggles with the
quarterback run. Because if they can run the quarterback, if
(58:21):
South Carolina can run Lenora Sellers and pick up that
and then they hit some chunk plays over the top,
that is the only way that they win this football game.
Only way. And Kaitlin de Boor has started to cool
the whispers or the loud roar around his name being
fired and all this stuff. But you know who has it,
Shane Beemer, all of that Virginia Tech. Shane Bieber to
(58:44):
Virginia Tech talk started and all of a sudden, no duve.
This is what happens to coaches when you do not
shut down rumors. Coat a parent start whispering, kids start whispering.
They start thinking about other players, which means they ain't
all the way bought in. This gets nasty. So give
(59:04):
me Alabama in this game. But you guys, let me
make sure I didn't miss any of the games that
we needed to talk about, because there are some good ones. Yeah,
that is it. Oh, I'll give you my prediction BYU
versus Iowa State. Iowa State's actually favored in that game
(59:26):
by two and a half points. Iowa State's getting more healthy,
but something feels good about BYU. But Matt Campbell's name
is starting to float around and they don't want him
to leave in names. So actually, you know what, forget
by you. I'm flipping my pick right now. Iowa minus
(59:47):
two and Iowa State minus two and a half against
b YU. And the last game up Houston versus Arizona State.
Arizona State is favored by eight and a half points
in this game. Give me Houston plus eight and a half,
but I am going to take Arizona State to win
this game. But you guys, though I'm George Reiser, make
(01:00:10):
sure that you like, subscribe, get notifications, tell a friend
about the show, and most importantly share peace out. Catch
you guys on Thursday for college football Apostles.
Welcome to the College Football Show. We got a lot
to talk about. This is an amazing week nine in
college football. I gotta give you the picks against the spread.
We gotta talk about the meaningful impact of these games
because the slate doesn't look that, you know, interesting right now.
But there could be some upsets. But there's some drama
(00:24):
involved because coaches are literally fighting for new contracts that
they're trying to hold schools hostages for they are up
for new jobs. Behind the scenes, I am going to
explain to you how this whole thing works because I've
talked to agents about it, and I'm going to reveal
my top twenty five for this week because it differs
(00:45):
from the ap pole because mine is about the three
most important criteria quality wins, schedule played, and absolute dominance.
So and then we're gonna pick the games this week
against the spread. I am so so excited, and I'm
your boy. George Reister, former NFL player, college football player,
college football analysts for c W can't wait to be
(01:07):
back on there in all of November, So you guys
make sure that you guys check that out as well
and like, subscribe, get notifications, Tell a friend, and most
importantly share. All Right, So the SEC, there has been
some confusion because with eight conference games now you're looking
(01:28):
at it like, oh, who's gonna win the conference? And
the teams look so even, But I'm gonna tell you
they are not. There are two teams at the top
of the A seed of the SEC, and no it
is not Texas A and M. Georgia and Alabama are
the two best teams in the SEC right now. Now.
Of course, texts saying M They're gonna try to make
(01:48):
a lot of this LSU win if they get it
this weekend. LSU ain't that good. They are a fringe
top twenty five team. Head coaches kind of getting on
the hot seat and everything else. But another thing about
the SEC is this is that it is very difficult
for people in the SEC. I've heard Paul Feinbaum, his guests,
(02:08):
of their callers, everybody, it is hard for them to
believe that Indiana is a really good football team. Well,
I'm here to tell you Indiana is a really good
football team. And I know that there's a lot of
rank games played in the SEC. But part of it
is because you're judged against yourself. There's history still playing
a part of it, and we got to understand and
(02:29):
people are gonna start to see what a lot of
these coaching football hires is that yes, history matters, but
it also matters what your future is going to bring.
So first thing we are gonna do today, we are
gonna get into my top twenty five reveal before we
even get into the college games this week. So coming
(02:50):
in at number twenty five, I got those LSU tie us.
Their offense looks futrick. Their defense was looking good, pretty
good until last week too, where they got dominated by Vanderbilt.
So but it was still Vanderberg, who is a very
good football team. So LSU is hanging on for dear
life in the top twenty five. In my top twenty five,
(03:12):
we got Michigan at twenty four, Arizona State at number
twenty three. We got Missouri at twenty two, because I'm
not even sure if Missouri should even be ranked at
this point in time, but they put on a good
performance versus Alabama, so yeah, Okay. Then we got Cincinnati
Brendan Towardsby. They're looking really good and this feels right now.
(03:34):
Over in the ap pole, they got Michigan at twenty five,
and then USC unranked, which don't make a lick of
sense to me at all. But let's go to number
sixteen through twenty. We got Louisville, Tennessee, Illinois, USC and usself.
(03:55):
Now I don't understand how the ap pole doesn't have this,
because this makes so much sense. Louisville absolutely took Miami
behind the woodshed. They were up the entire game pretty much.
They dominated this football game and it was a very
very good showing by Jeff Brohm, who is a name
(04:15):
that people are yelling about, Oh, he should be the
next head coach of my team at Penn State at
this at Florida. Well, he's at his alma mater. And
people don't always now people who either went to the
school that they root for or have a better understanding
(04:36):
of what it means to be an alumni at a place.
I am an Oregon alumni graduating from Oregon. You're treated
differently at a place that you are an alumni of
than a place that you are not, unless you became
a legendre Now, granted, if you're a dude who went
to Middle Tennessee State and you were Middle Tennessee State's
(04:57):
head coach and then Tennessee offers you the job. Nobody
at Middle Tennessee State is going to begrudge you for leaving.
But if you are a Tennessee alum and then the
Alabama job comes open and you leave Tennessee to go
to Alabama, you are then going to be put in
the persona non grid a box over there at Tennessee.
And honestly, rightfully so so you have you know, Brent
(05:20):
Key over there at Georgia Tech, Clark Lee at Vanderbilt,
who's still talking greasy. Them dudes ain't leaving where they're
at because it's their alma mater and they're able to
have success there. These things matter, and this is why
schools try to hire Michigan man, somebody who loves USC,
(05:41):
who knows the fight song, who's ingrained into the community
because there is less likelihood to leave at that point
in time. But USC, who's not who's ranked behind Michigan
in the ap pole, which is insanity considering that Michigan
got beat by three scores by the USC team a
(06:03):
couple of weeks ago, and despite USC losing a Notre dame,
which you can't, you know, look at anybody sideways for
all right number eleven through fifteen, BYU at eleven, who's
still undefeated, Old Miss twelve. I was kind of iffy
back and forth on Old Miss at twelve and Texas
Tech at thirteen because I felt like I gave Texas
(06:24):
Tech way too big of a penalty after losing to
Arizona State, who is also ranked in my poll last
week without their starting quarterback, Baron Baron, And you're like,
is that really is that really right? But here we
go Oklahoma at fourteen, Virginia at fifteen, who continues to
(06:45):
win and continues to look good. I don't think I
have any arguments here in this point. Now the top
ten Indiana one, Yes, people, Indiana one, George, why do
you have Indiana one? Indiana has the best win of
the college football season in heading into Autin Stadium and
beating the Oregon Ducks, who is one of the top
(07:07):
teams in college football. Ohio State two. And this is
no slight to what Ohio State has been doing. I
know their defense is allowing point zero zero zero zero
two points per game. No, I mean it's really like six.
But still I appreciate everything that they're doing. Ohio State
with Jeremiah Smith, Carnell Tate, they got the young quarterback
(07:34):
Julian Saying, and Matt Patricia the defensive coordinator who's absolutely
balling right right now. But who's the toughest team that
they've played all year? Right now? Texas looks atrocious. I
don't even know why they're ranked in the AP pole
after going to double after going overtime, double overtime with Kentucky,
(07:56):
and they have looked awful this season. They are not
a team. People just keep letting their logo watching with Texas.
They want them to be good. They're not good, that
is there. They're stareing three, four, maybe even five losses
down the stretch, and they don't even have the toughest
schedule that you've ever seen in your entire life. So
(08:18):
that's why I get so their toughest games against Illinois
Ohio States is so this is why I'm giving Indiana
the edge right now, even though Ohio State could be better.
But remember quality, wins, schedule, playing dominance, and Indiana has
been dominant in every single game that they have played.
Oregon at three. This is a case where I believe
(08:40):
that they that the three best teams in the country
reside in the Big twelve. However, every single team in
the country looks like they can be beat right now,
maybe except for Ohio State because they haven't gotten a
dogfight yet. But everybody looks vulnerable. Everybody has weaknesses. So
I can give a little bit of flexibility for some
(09:03):
people looking at Alabama and Georgia at four and five,
maybe potentially putting them at three. But I did. This
is the way I see it Georgia's first half defense.
If they play any of the teams in the top four,
they're gonna have a problem on their hands because they're
gonna get too far behind to catch up in the
second half. And this ain't all miss number six. Now,
(09:24):
remember a couple weeks ago, I did the the video
with Brooks Austin and we talked about the most overrated
teams in the country. He said Miami was the most
overrated team in the country. Turned out that they lost,
not that anybody expected. I mean, people did expect them
to go and defeat it after they got through what
was considered the meat of their schedule, because they absolutely
(09:44):
were sleeping on Louisville. So this is the way I
feel about Texas A and m that Notre Dame. Win
is doing a lot of heavy lifting early in the season.
Forty four to forty one or forty two to forty one.
It was a close game in South Bend. So yes
Tex saying him is a good football team. I do
not believe that they are the class of the SEC
(10:06):
when I watched them a lot of times. There's too
many penalties. Red has to develop more as a passer
for me to really take them serious as a contender.
Georgia Tech at seven they are just gritty. I thought
they were gonna lose that duke. They did not. Miami
at eight. Still like this Miami team. Still like this
Miami team. Carson Becks gotta cut down on the turnovers.
(10:28):
This is the same thing that Georgia fans were yelling
at about him about, is that sometimes he'll just go
through these pickfests where he is predetermined determining where he's
gonna throw the ball. But if those guys are open
when he predetermines it, it's a problem. Because CJ. Daniels
and Malachi Tony absolutely special. Ruben Baying on defense the
defensive line, they are good, they are tough. They just
(10:51):
got to find a way not to lose games that
they shouldn't lose, and then you got Notre Dame at
nine after Notre Dame lost them two games in the
beginning of the season, to my me in tex saying,
m I told you they were still a top twelve team,
and all they have done is just beat the hell
out of everybody since. And then Vanderbilt number ten because
they have earned it. That is the bottom line. Because
(11:13):
stone Cold said, so all right, now, we're gonna get
to the games, because I believe that this weekend in
particular has a lot of unique situations because you have
a lot of coaches who are fighting for jobs. They
are fighting for new contracts, and they are fighting for
(11:34):
other jobs. So this is why you've been watching the
press conferences, and you know, guys won't explicitly say I'm
not leaving and this and that because they're all angling
for something. They're angling for a new contract, either they
just want, you know, their egos stroked, or they are
about to leave somewhere else. So this is why I've
(11:55):
divided this bucket of games into two different categories. Three. Really,
there is the most important, sorry, the biggest games of
the weekend, like the most impactful games of the weekend
and the most important games of the weekend. Now, the
most important games of the weekend are not the best
games of the weekend. We gotta be clear about that.
(12:16):
And we are going to start with a game that
four weeks ago, nobody on Earth would have thought this
game would have been bit on Big Neon kickoff. Nobody
would have thought that this game would have been important
at any bit of reverence. And that is UCLA three
(12:36):
and four UCLA at number two Indiana. Now I applaud
Kurt Signetty for doing what he did, because this man
has found a way to pump up his team and
tell them that UCLA is a three and o team,
that you are not playing against a three and four team,
(12:57):
because they really aren't. And I asked the couple of
AP voters, I said, hold up, if UCLA wins this
game and goes and move to four and four on
the season, but won four straight games, Michael fired the coach.
It was like a total reset. Now you got Tim
Skipper bawling, Jerry Neuheisel, their new defensive coordinator. Everybody looks
(13:18):
good and COEASA team looks good. They look they look physical,
they're tackling, they're catching the ball, all of those sorts
of things. Would you then rank them in the top
twenty five because I was like, if they beat Indiana
and after the last month, because the the and the
response I got back generally was probably because the top
(13:40):
twenty five is who are the best twenty five teams
right now? It is the playoff committee's job to do
who's the most deserving or his best resume, anything like that.
So I'm looking at this game. Indiana is a twenty
five and a half point favored In this game in Bloomington, Illinois,
the over under is fifty five and a half. And
(14:01):
let's I give you the context of this. UCLA is
not gonna be scared. They are used to being twenty
point underdogs. They are used to people doubting them. But
they are now three and one into Big Ten. Indiana's
four to zero, and Indiana is ripped through the first
half of the schedule. Michigan State, they beat Oregon. They
(14:22):
have knocked down everybody in front of them. Their toughest
game in terms of that coming down to the very
last second, was the Iowa game. This is a really
good football team and kurse Signetty knows that his team
is battling the rat poison right now. This is why
he's propping UCLA up right now, is because he's like,
(14:44):
we cannot have a rat poison game that our team
sees the press clippings. We are not used to this
sort of thing. We're used to being the underdog and doubted,
and now people are starting to believe. That changes the
mentality of your team. And he knows that. So their
only prior series meeting was in twenty twenty four. Listen,
(15:08):
Indiana forty two, Ucla thirteen. Now, this momentum that they
have is serious, and when you think about it, Ucla
is banged up right right now, and Indiana is not
the team that you want to be facing. Their quarterback,
(15:30):
Fernando Mendoza, I believe should be the Heisman front runner
right now. Him number one, Diego Pavia, number number two.
He's completing seventy four percent of his passes, twenty one touchdowns,
another two Russian and Mendoza's efficiency in production is similar
to the pace that bo Knicks was on in twenty
twenty three when he finished third in the Heisman voting.
(15:53):
And you know that was the year that Jay and
Daniels got it. He was outstanding, but he also didn't
put up a lot of them. Number is against good competition,
So I want to hear nothing about about Fernando mint Mendzi.
Indiana number nine in the country and yards per play,
second and first downs per game, and they hold the ball,
(16:14):
they move it relentlessly. But the question is, after watching
the tape against Oregon, are they gonna be able to
stop Indiana simulated pressure and be able to diagnose it
because they have to be able to run the football
and they're one hundred and six and rushing yards allowed
per game on the season. That UCLA is so getting
(16:37):
stops on this Indiana run game, which in I believe
four or five of their games this year is run
for over three hundred yards, So they gotta This is
a mean run game, mean run game. But over the
last three games since they've been three and oh, they've
moved up to thirty seventh. And then pair that with
(16:58):
already having a top twenty five pass defense, and you
got a competitive team for UCLA. But being competitive ain't
gonna work. It is not gonna work against against this
Indiana team. You actually have to have special performances, and
then Big Ten leader and assistant tackles John John Bonds
he actually might be able to deliver one of them
(17:19):
fantastic performances. So this head coach, we got Tim Skipper
interim coach, and Jerry Neuheisel, who people believe is the
head coach. We got nico Ia Maliava, who's playing very
well since things have changed. He is running the ball well,
throwing the ball well, not turning the ball over too much,
even though he had a pick six against Maryland against
(17:42):
Fernando Mendoza, who is cooking with Crisco right now, hot
is Fish Grease. I am going to take UCLA plus
this twenty five and a half. Now, I don't believe
that they're gonna win this football game, but this feels
like this could be one of the Angels in the
outfit old Major League moments where you're like, how the
(18:03):
hell did this happen? Because if UCLA rattles off five
games in a row and against Indiana, Nebraska, Ohio State, Washington,
I think and then USC bruh, you're gonna have to
put them in the playoff at eight and four. I'm
(18:24):
telling you, now, do I think that that's happening. No,
but stranger things have happened, and if so, they will
be making a movie about it. So I am going
to take Indiana plus twenty five and a half. Now,
let's look at the most important games of the weekend.
These six games I believe are the most important games
(18:46):
of the weekend. We got Auburn Texas. I'm sorry, Auburn Arkansas.
Excuse me, Auburn Arkansas. We got Northwestern Nebraska, Missouri, Vanderbilt, Illinois, Washington,
Texas A and m LSU and South Florida Memphis. These
(19:06):
are by far the sixth most important games of the
weekend of week nine in college football. So Auburn Arkansas,
you got two coaches fighting for their life. You got
Hugh Freeze, who said, you know, he would love to
get a voter confidence from the administration. They ain't giving
him nothing until he wins a football game in the SEC.
(19:30):
And I don't even know if Arkansas is gonna be
enough because they're at the bottom of the SEC. Bobby Petrino,
since he has gotten control of Arkansas again, since he
has you know, slizzited his way back back in the
Fox got in the henhouse, and he took over. They've
been close. They had a chance to beat Texa and
(19:50):
him last week and they did not, and now they
have a chance to beat Auburn. So both of these
coaches are fighting for every single thing that they have.
And I'm looking at this game and I'm like, yo, yo,
who wins this football game? Because it is important to
(20:10):
both of these coaches. And when I get deeper into it,
and I look at the line on this game, so
you have Arkansas, who's at home, is actually favored by
a point and a half, and Arkansas's defense is bad.
Hugh Freeze at Auburn is thinking about changing quarterbacks from
(20:31):
Jackson Arnold. I am going to take Arkansas minus a
point and a half. I actually believe that they are
going to score big points in this game. And Auburn,
who has been atrocious on offense, even against Arkansas's defense,
I don't think they put up more than twenty points.
But Arkansas with Green at quarterback, They're going to find
(20:53):
a way to score at least twenty one points. That
means that Auburn cannot win. Cannot win. Get me Auburn
in I mean, excuse me, Arkansas in this football game,
the Northwestern versus Nebraska game. You're like, George, why is
this game important? First of all, North Northwestern, who people
(21:15):
was poop going on when Oregon played them, they're now
I believe five and two. This is not a game
that Nebraska can can sleep on. Nebraska's favored by seven
and a half in this game. But this game is
important because Matt Rule is not saying I'm not leaving Nebraska.
He just keeps praising the Nebraska job, praising craft the
(21:40):
Penn State athletic director. He is behind the scenes negotiating
a way to potentially get out of Nebraska, and his
team played like it. Last week. Dylan Ryola said, my
coach ain't leaving. Are you sure about that? Power you
sure about that? So if if Matt Rule wants to
(22:01):
be able to win the press conference at Penn State
or people still be happy with him at Nebraska, he
cannot lose this football game. This game is highly, highly
important for him because Nebraska is a seventy five percent
chance to win this game according to ESPN Analytics and
(22:21):
Preston Stone compared to Dylan Riola in terms of pedigree
and stats and everything else. Delan Roola looks looks better.
But if Nebra, if Northwestern, they keep everything in front
of them, they make you dink and dunk. They make
it hard on you. And if they can get to
Dilan Roola or not make it clean for him, he
(22:44):
will take sacks. This is an opportunity for Northwestern to
win this football game. I like Northwestern in Lincoln plus
seven and a half. This one feels good to me.
The next game, Missouri versus Vanderbilt, You're like, George, how
in the hell is this a game where something is
(23:04):
on the line? How is this one of the most
important games of the weekend? Because we have another coach
and Eli Drinkwitz, who is potentially his name, keeps getting
floated out for head coaching jobs and you and to
(23:24):
get that, you have to win football games. You have
to because Missouri just had a double overtime win at Auburn,
which ain't real pretty, and they have not beaten a
top twenty five team. The best thing on Missouri schedule
is a win against excuse me, is a loss against Alabama.
(23:49):
That's the best thing on their resume right now. Because
when you look at this at the let me pull
up their schedule for you. The way you guys, don't
think I'm over here just hating. They got Central Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana,
South Carolina, who's bad on offense, and the losing record.
You mass lost to Alabama, then a win against Arburn.
(24:12):
They got no win, They got no rank wins. They
got a close ranked loss. That's all they got. So
when when y'all talk about anybody else in they ran
ranked wins, make sure y'all speak about the SEC as well,
because this is why college football is honesty. Brokeer, George,
why don't you talk about any of the Big ten teams?
(24:33):
Go back and look in the channel. When Kurt snick
Signetti said that he wanted to play an SEC schedule,
I was like, this is weak as hell. Play somebody
don't do that. I criticized Ohio State in their national
championship season, Michigan in their national championship season because they
didn't play any competitive non conference games. So I am
consistent here. So Missouri at Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt is favored by
(24:58):
two and a half points. They're playing at home again,
and I like the Commodoores at home minus two and
a half. I love the Clark Lee's confidence and he
was the twenty twenty four SEC co Coach of the
Sorry Coach of the Year. And this win for drink
(25:22):
Witz is either gonna get him a raise or it
is gonna get people questioning whether he should be their
head coach or not. And granted, people make way too
much out of a situation and one single football game.
This is how you hire the wrong person because you
gotta look at the body of work, which is why
I said Penn State should be hiring Fran Brown full stop,
(25:45):
full stop. Oh well, this coaching record against Listen, the
man can recruit, he puts together a good offense, and
he's winning at Syracuse. He just lost his quarterback. Stop
relying on one game as the the definition for who
should be a head coach and a head coach contender.
But when we're looking at these quarterbacks, Boprabula versus Diego Pavia,
(26:11):
Bouprah Buula is kind of a Diego Pavia type guy,
except for with the He's not outwardly you know, braggadocious
in the media as Pavia is. But Pavia is now
a Heisman contender. He could have his team in the
SEC Championship and potentially in the College football playoffs, and
(26:33):
I love it. I love it. The dude is efficient.
He is he is Tim Tbow without a Bible. I'm
not sure what he believes in his personal life when
I'm just saying, he ain't thumping it around the way
that Tim Tim Tebow did. And when you look at
you know, in this game, Missouri has to get Arnold
(26:54):
Hardy going at running back because he's the hammer. They
gotta get Kean Coleman Junior going, Eric Stowers, they got to.
But this Vanderbilt front of Miles Capers, who has four
and a half sacks, they have absolutely been, you know, opportunistic.
(27:14):
So I cannot wait to watch this football game because
it is going to be special. It is going to
be really, really good. And if Missouri's pass rush, you know,
with Darius Wilson, who has five and a half sacks,
if they can get to Pavia and force the and
stop the run early and force them into passing situations,
(27:35):
they are going to have a chance. And you know,
and Missouri shortyardist defense is gonna have to be good.
They can't let Pavia extend drives. Come on, man, this
could be a tough one, but I am buying Vanderbilt
at home minus two and a half in one of
the most important games of the weekend. Another super important
(27:57):
game this weekend is this Illini Washington game because I
picked Illinois to make the college football playoff prior to
the season, and this is a game that is important
to both of these head coaches because I do not
(28:19):
understand why, and I find it very interesting that Brett
Beelima's name is not one of these names being tossed
around for open coaching jobs. I mean, I know he's
not going back to Arkansas for sure, but look what
he did at his current role in Illinois and prior stops,
(28:39):
not at Arkansas but at Wisconsin before that, versus what
other people have done. He has been highly successful, four
double digit winning seasons at Wisconsin in seven years, and
they've had five in the last thirteen years since. Three
winning seasons in five years plus three bowl appearances at
Arkansas and then three winning seasons and three bowl appearances
(29:03):
plus two fired coaches in the eight years since. Come on, man,
and now Brett Beelama is one win away from having
Illinois in its third Bowl game since he took over
the program, and he's had the Aliini ranked in three
separate seasons, and he gave them their first ten win
season in twenty three years last year. This sounds like
(29:23):
a guy that maximizes the opportunities to me, so I
do not understand unless he is keeping this on so
much quiet, and he could be back dooring back down
to Florida or if Florida State opens up, or any
of these other jobs. But his name should absolutely be
listed as one of the top names and program builders
(29:46):
in this nil era in college football. Mister Brett Beilam, Now,
I know I got a lot of Illinois fans on
this channel and they don't want to hear that, but
I gotta tell the truth. What the hell you want
me to say? You got one of the better coaches
in college football. On the other side of it, you
got Jadfish who's over at Washington and he gets mentioned
every single year that a job comes open for what
(30:09):
he did when he left Arizona to take over at Washington. Now,
I can't blame him Arizona that I have a whole
video on that whole situation situation and how he had
to take the Washington job not just for himself but
for his assistant coaches because people forget that coaches have
a responsibility not just to themselves, because they make the
(30:31):
majority of the money to their assistance. When you can
double your assistance, pay, get them additional years, put their
families in better situations. And you're the head man and
they've been with you for years. You don't take one
of them jobs, bro, they gonna be looking at you.
Kind of kind of funny. And Jedfish has been linked
to everywhere, especially you know, with UCLA and Florida being opened,
(30:54):
it's only natural that his name is gonna get thrown
out because he's a Florida alump and his family is
back living in Arizona and that's closer to UCLA and
the weather's nicer. But this is an extremely important game
for Jed Fish because he's been good at Washington, especially
at home, but that doesn't but at this point in time,
(31:17):
he doesn't have a signature win yet, and it is
arguably that he doesn't have a good win yet, and
this is his you know, his team is actually stacked
with young talent. They've been notoriously slow starters, and against
an Illinois team that's eighty eighth and first quarter points allowed,
(31:37):
that is not going to cut it. But these quarterbacks.
You got Luke Altmar, who is having a fantastic year
for the Aligned. Now, now the senior isn't gonna be
getting any heisman buzz, but he's the only quarterback so
far that has even looked semi functional versus Ohio State.
And he's getting, you know, setting personal best for a
(31:58):
completion percentage, yards per attempt, touchdown, at turnover ratio. And
he's the engine that makes this Illinois offense run. And
he's not overly dependent on any one weapon. He's got
a maturity in the pocket and a toughness that makes
him a threat against any opponent, but he is vulnerable
to being overwhelmed at times in the pass rush. Now
(32:20):
on the other end, you got Demon Williams, who hasn't
really been himself the last two weeks for Washington, and
that's been both a good thing and a bad thing
because although his high school career and his time at Washington,
he's been in control. He's been efficient, calculated machine. But
against Rutgers he went off for five hundred combined yards
(32:42):
and that might have reset his own internal bar for
what he's capable of. But it is also possible that
It also resulted in him trying to do too much
as a passer against Michigan after they took his running
lanes away, and it resulted in more interceptions in one game.
And he's previously thrown in two hundred and sixty three
(33:03):
pass attempts in college going into the Michigan game, so
he threw more that one game than in two hundred
and sixty three pass attempts before that. So that matters.
And it's Illinois offense versus Washington's defense because Washington's defensive
line they have not been very effective this year in
the pass rush. They've absorbed blocks, you know, their linebackers
(33:28):
and safeties are having to do way too much work.
And their three primary safeties are averaging a combined eleven
solo tackles per game, with Alex mcgoughlin leading away with
thirty five of his own. That is mediocre at the
best in defensive categories. It ain't good. They are fortieth
(33:51):
in the country in total yards allow, points giving up,
and yards per play. It ain't good. Now teams they
can overcome them ranking, but you have to do better,
you know. And their seventieth they're tied with Clemson in
turnovers per game, So that ain't good because Clemson ain't
good right now. And also that actually could be a
(34:13):
recipe for the Illinois offense to feast. So as long
as they can do it through the through the air,
they're going to have an opportunity. So when I look
at this game, I believe the X factor in this
game is going to be Washington's offensive line and Jonah
Coleman because he has had three straight games where he's
(34:34):
been bottled up in the run. He's still leading the
Big Ten in touchdowns, but when he's not picking up
big chunks, this Washington offensive team is a lot easier
to beat. And he has not had a hundred yard
game since the second game of the season versus U
See Davis. That ain't good. And then on the other
(34:56):
side of things, in terms of X factors, Illinois has
to be looking the at the way that Michigan kept
Washington at arms length to give running back Jordan Marshall
twenty eight touches, and then looking at his roster to
see at Valentine, who is a lot more slender than
Marshall or Keaton Fagan, because he actually might be the
(35:17):
heaviest running back in college football this year if he
could have a similar impact on the game because the
ALIGNI are probably gonna be spreading the love offensively as
they have all season. So when I look at this game,
I'm looking at him like Washington is at home. They
are four and a half point favorites, but unfortunately they
(35:38):
are going to drop this game to the ALI nine.
I'm sorry. Sorry. The next game up that is totally
I am totally excited about, which is one of the
most important games of the season, is this South Florida
versus Memphis game. And like South Florida versus Memphis, yes, yes,
(35:59):
Memphis lost week to UAB first time of the season.
Brendan Lewis at quarterback, who's not gonna throw a bunch
of touchdowns and do a lot special But their head coach,
Ryan Silverfield has been outstanding and you got him and
Alex Goldish, whose names are being thrown about for some
of these big time head coaching jobs. While they're at
(36:21):
a G six school, they're gonna have a chance to
three x their salary based upon wins like this. So
this game means a lot for Memphis and then potentially
going to the College Football Playoff because South Florida's ranked sixteen.
If Memphis beat South Florida, Memphis is going to be
(36:43):
ranked in front of South Florida when it comes to
the College Football Playoff and which group of six group
of sixteen gets a automatic berth to the playoff. That
matters one hundred percent. So this game matters to the
coach and their ability to get to the playoff, and
(37:04):
it matters for them and which jobs that they are offered,
where they land on the pecking order. Even though I
said one game shouldn't matter too much, but it does
two fans, so you got to pay attention to that.
The last game that is an absolute doozy for this
(37:25):
weekend that I am excited about is Texas A and
M versus LSU. This game is a night game in
Baton Rouge. Everything is in LSU's favor. They're still ranked
in the top ten. Well, they're still ranked highly. They
(37:45):
are a team that is that people are still excited about.
I am looking at LSU and I'm like, everything is
in your favor right now. You have your or night game,
death Valley, your backs against the wall, everything and you
(38:09):
are an underdog. So now Brian Kelly can say nobody
believes in us everything like that, because Texas A and
M is a two and a half point favorite in
this game, and we are going to either have Texas
A and M exposed as the fraud that I believe
that they are in terms of being a top twelve team.
I do not believe that they're one of the twelve
best in college football, or they are going to be
(38:32):
shown that they are one of the better teams in
college football because and not because I believe that LSU
is great, because I do not. Their offense has been
putrid this year. It has been hard to watch. People
are calling for Garrett Nussmyer, who people thought could be
a Heisman winner, number one overall pick through for over
(38:53):
four thousand yards last year and then now's on pace
for twenty eight hundred. That's a big deal. So I
so LSU has an opportunity. A and M comes in
this game seven and zero four and oh in the
sec they barely snuck by Arkansas last week forty five,
(39:16):
forty two. So if Arkansas, who's one of the better offenses,
is putting up a lot of points on A and M,
you should who's a bad team who no notre Dame
shut down as well. LSU should be able to score.
They should, but I don't believe that this is going
(39:38):
to be a case where that is it. I actually
like Texas AY and HM to win this game two
and a half points. And this game is also important
because Mike Elko, whose name has been floated about, I
don't know if I believe that he would leave Texas
A and m Buddy Buddy Buddy might listen if you
want to live on a coast. If Lane Kippen says
(40:02):
no to Florida, they gonna keep going down the list
and being like all right, and keep up and up.
In the ending, somebody gonn get one hundred million dollars
fully guaranteed contract because it is. And Brian Kelly, if
he loses this game at home, this is going to
send the the the sentiment about him in Baton Rugs
(40:23):
tumbling down. They'll fall to five and three out of
the SEC race, out of the playoff race, and be like,
what are what are what are we doing? You went,
you went all in in the transfer portal. This was
supposed to be your year and it is not. And
(40:44):
you can't even blame Garrettnsmar for it. Come on, man,
the Tigers are fiftieth and past yards per game and
this is supposed to be wide receiver you and the
Tigers are even worse than yards per play there sixty fifth,
and that's because there are one hundred and twelfth overall
in rush yards per game. You got a pocket passer,
(41:07):
you gotta support them with the run game, which is
not happening. And then you got text A and m
They come into this game with two running backs that
can carry the load, and Rubin Owens and Le'Veon Moss
and Marcel Reid has been one of the more effective
dual threat quarterbacks in the country with fifteen touchdown passes
and two hundred and forty yards Russian. But they haven't
(41:27):
just been resorting out scoring opponents, because they gave up
forty to Notre Dame and forty two to Arkansas, But
against teams that have struggled to move the ball like Auburn,
Mississippi State and Florida, they've given up just four touchdowns
in twelve quarters. So what do you think is gonna
happen to LSU? Just saying, all right, So those are
(41:49):
the sixth most important games of the weekend. Now, let's
get to another game, Wisconsin versus Now it might be like, George,
why do we care about this game? Cuz see that
back there, That's why we care about this game. So
(42:09):
we're gonna talk about it. But this is more because
I did a whole preview on this game. You guys
can go on the channel and peep that out as well,
where we get way deeper down into the woods. But
Oregon is favored byt thirty three and a half points.
Oregon enters this game six and one. Wisconsin has been
shut out the last two games versus Iowa and versus
(42:33):
Ohio State, and if given up seventy one points, this
is going to be a bloodbath. However, I do believe
that Wisconsin is gonna have a chance to score this
football game, and only because the administration has backed Luke Fickel.
(42:54):
They said, we're keeping our head coach, we don't care
what happens. We are going to invest in the transfer port,
We're gonna invest in nil and we're gonna give them
a shot. So I think that that is going to
energize the team because they're not trying to make plans
about next year. They're like, Okay, at least the coach
will be here if we can figure something out. So
(43:14):
I do believe that they will score, but I'm still
gonna put it in about fifty six or seven. This
is gonna be an absolute runaway for the Ducks. They're
gonna get a chance to because they're at home. They're
gonna get a chance to play some more of the
younger guys and get them that fourth game of experience
if they haven't played already. Red Shirt's not getting burned.
(43:37):
But for the Ducks, the most important thing in this
game is to come out healthy. For Dante More to
walk in the stadium, walk out of the stadium healthy.
Same thing with Mateo Uyangalle Tatum Tuyoti, the superstar cornerback Finny.
They need to figure out who the other starting corner
(43:57):
is going to be. Establish the run because Wisconsin's run
defense has been able to shut people down. And Oregon,
if you are going to be a Joe Moore Award
winning offensive line, this is your moment to show it.
Not just exposive offense where you're pitching it all over
the place. I want to see you line up and
(44:19):
Marshawn Lynch run through a mofo face, run through his
face over and over and over and over and over
and over again. That's what I want to see, run
through somebody face. And yes, Dante more can still add
in another fifteen for twenty performance for two hundred ninety
yards four touchdowns. Love it, Sign me up. But I
(44:41):
want to see that run game and I want to
see this defense which absolutely stoned Rutgers last week. Rutgers
was eight for twenty five pass and for like seventy
some yards. And that's an offense eight for twenty five. Yes,
we're talking like thirty percent on a team that it
was averaging like two ninety seven passing per game. I'm
(45:06):
just saying. And who threw for three eighty five the
week three sixty five, three eighty five a week before
against Washington, So that matters are the next game that
we got to talk about. We got to talk about
this Michigan versus Michigan State game. I am excited about
this football game because this game could have been in
(45:27):
one of the six games that mattered the most important
games of this weekend. Michigan is a fourteen and a
half point favorite in this game. This game is at
Michigan State Michigan State is three and four. They have
not looked good in term. They got beat up by
UCLA even so, but I don't know if we should
(45:49):
say like even at this point in time. But here
is what we know. We know that Michigan is five
and two. We know that they just beat up Washington,
and we also know that Michigan State has dropped four
straight Big Ten games. We got Sharon Moore versus Jonathan Smith.
(46:11):
This entire game is about the narrative about these coaches.
If Sharon Moore loses this game, now where I pick
Michigan to be a twenty twenty six powerhouse and a
legitimate national championship threat, if they lose this football game,
it's going to cause major problems for Sharon Moore on
the recruiting trail and with the sentiment with Michigan fans
(46:34):
because you already got him a little bit of you know, feisty,
which they should not be, but they are. And then
you got Michigan State, who Jonathan Smith came to them
in the same situation as mel Tucker did, where they
mel Tucker wanted to stay at Colorado, Michigan State offered
him an offer he could not refuse and Colorado couldn't
(46:58):
even get close, like not even double damn there. And
then you got Jonathan Smith. He left Oregon State where
he would have stayed because Oregon State didn't have a conference.
He didn't never choice. So Jonathan Smith's future and the
future sentiment around the boosters at Michigan State, the nil
folks and everything else is going to be teetered on
(47:20):
this football game right now. Teetered on this football game
right now. And this game is at seven thirty eastern
on NBC, is going to be dry forty seven degrees.
This is and you know this one of them block
out the noise games. Now, the quarterbacks in this game,
(47:42):
Bryce Underwood, who is young true freshman from Michigan fourteen
hundred yards, seven touchdowns, two picks, last game had two
thirty versus Washington, showed off some nice little arm angles.
And then you got Eighten Childs, who has cut down
the turnovers a lot from last year, but he's only
thrown for twenty well for like thirteen hundred yards this year,
(48:02):
ten touchdowns, three interceptions, and then there and then in
their last outing versus Indiana, did not throw the ball
away two hundred and forty three pass yards. Now, Childs
is dangerous off script, but he's honestly been hitt and
miss versus top defenses. So we are going to see,
(48:25):
and we're gonna see if Michigan can lean on Jonathan
Hayes in the running back room play clean, mistake free football,
because Michigan State's defense has struggled to get off the
field and hasn't held a power to the SEC or
Big ten under thirty one since late September after Wolverines,
(48:45):
if they can stay ahead of the sticks, oh, it's
gonna get nasty. It like, the score is not gonna
get bad, but it's gonna look like a blood bath. Now,
on the offensive side, if the Aiden, Childs and Marsh
can get at the wide receivers Marsh and Keller, they
can hit some chunk plays and keep Derek Moore Michigan's
edge up off them, They're gonna have a shot. I
(49:10):
am putting this game as a potential upset special, upset special,
you can this is one of them games that you
need to really pay attention to because it is going
to be the penalties and the mistakes that are going
to put these different teams in situations and Michigan State
for Jonathan Smith. They have to make a bowl game.
(49:30):
So they have to win some fraction of games between
this one Minnesota Penn State the week after that, and
then they got Iowa and then one more game against
against Maryland. So they got five games to win three,
three games to win, five games to win three to
(49:52):
get to a player to get to a bowl game,
which is necessary for the future of what they got
going on. All right, the next game that we got
to talk about, Texas versus Mississippi State. Why are we
even talking about a team that is not a top
twenty five team and people want to keep propping up
in Texas Mississippi. Think about this. Mississippi State is favored
(50:17):
at home with the cow Bells by one and a
half points. Texas is five and two and just went
over time and won sixteen to thirteen at Kentucky where
they got out gained by Damnar Double. And we're sitting
here putting a whole lot of stock in that Red
(50:38):
River Rivalry game. I said, y'all putting a lot of
stock in this Red River Rivalry game. For what John
Matteer shouldn't have been playing in the game. They should
have started Hawkins and just played it out. He threw
three picks in his game in that game, he didn't
look like it like hisself. I do not give Texas
no whole lot of stock in that game. I'm letting
you know that right now. But this is Starkville at night.
(51:02):
Cow bells are gonna be loud. I will take Mississippi
State plus a point and a half. I'm sorry, minus
appointing that point point and a half because they are
favored in this football game. Steve's are keysying. He's gonna
probably have to give up play calling duties after this
season if they don't figure out this offense. And truthly,
(51:25):
he's a head coach. It's too much to be doing
both jobs. Arch Manny versus Blake Shaping. Who would you
think has the better stats right now? It is Blake Shaping,
which is wild. Come on, man by Arch through for
one hundred and thirty two yards last week, Like, let's
(51:46):
just put Arch in the regular quarterback category. He's in
the Blake Shaping category until he pulls himself out, Like
I'm not slandering them. There's just not a lot to
talk about in terms of like a difference maker in
the football game until he proves he's difference maker. So
I'm not going down the kid. I'm just gonna treat
him the same way that I do regular quarterbacks who
(52:06):
don't offer like superhero ability and all of this stuff.
We'll just say, canny game, manage them to a win.
That's the way we're gonna handle Arch Manning from now on,
because there's no reason to slander the kid. He didn't
ask for all this puff, so we're gonna treat him
exactly like what he has played like, and no, no hate,
no slander. Let's just keep keep it a buck, you know,
(52:30):
just reality, you know. Uh. Texas averages twenty six point
seven points per game, thirty eight percent on third down.
So we're gonna see what they are gonna be able
to do in this game if Arch can help, if
he can manage them into a victory, but if they
(52:50):
get stuck behind the chains. This is going to be
a signature win for Mississippi State, even though it really
ain't that signature. It'll be signature in terms of logo,
but it will not be signature in terms of an
actual win. Are another game that I find very interesting
on this slate. Another night game, we got Colorado at Utah.
(53:12):
Now Utah's favor about thirteen and a half points in
this game. This game's a Rice Echo Stadium, one of
the best college football environments. Should be about sixty degrees
and clear. Utah's five and two two and two in
the Big Twelve. Colorado is three and four one and
three in the Big Twelve. And this is apparently I
learned something new in research for this that this is
(53:33):
called the Rumbling the Rockies. Did anybody else know that?
Drop dropping into comments if you knew, and make sure
that you like, subscribe and get notifications. Now, Utah and
Colorado they have always been presented and pitted as rivals
in the Pac twelve, but this week the teams are
in a fight for survival. Utah is in a fight
(53:54):
to stay relevant in terms of getting to the Big
twelve championship. But they have They lost to Yeah, they
lost to Texas Tech already, which is gonna hurt some
of their tiebreaker options. And now you're looking at this
Colorado team and you're like, yo, they're three and four,
but it seems like that they need to stay in
(54:16):
bowl game contention because they've been getting inconsistent quarterback play.
They've been going back and forth between Ryan Stob Caten Salter,
and then over the bye week they held a scrimmage
for the portal players, which I absolutely love was me
and Ralph talked about on College Football Apostles, which is
one of the dopest things that a college football coach
(54:36):
has done. Give players an opportunity to either move up
the depth chart with a real live scrimmage on your
bye week, or give them an opportunity to get some
film if they so choose to hop into Portal and sey,
because that's one of the hardest thing for players is
to be able to find places to go with just
a practice tape. When you got real live reps smacking
(54:57):
people quarterbacks where where they're not you know, where they're
actually under pressure and everything else. It's good. It is good.
Now Colorado has more games with thirty five plus carries
in the run running back room with four than it
did in twenty twenty four all together, which they only
had three. So you can expect the Buffalos that they
(55:19):
will likely try and push the Utah off the ball,
and since Utah has given up one hundred and fifty
rush yards per game, that actually could be doable. I'm
just saying, but Devin Dampier for Utah is gonna have
to be better in this game. He has not been
consistent struggling running the ball, I'm sorry, throwing the ball.
And they have really struggled to manufacture points when it
(55:42):
comes to taking care of the football because they have
six turnovers in their two losses and two turnovers in
their four wins. They run the ball extremely well because
their offensive line is fantastic. They're averaging two hundred and
sixty six yards on the ground outside of the Texas
Tech loss. So we are gonna see Kyle Whittingham coaching
legend versus Deon Sanders legend. Who is going to flinch
(56:07):
first and who is going to win? So I'm excited
about that. The last game that we got to talk
about today is Alabama versus South Carolina. And you're probably like, George,
how is this at the bottom of the slate? No
knock on Alabama. This is South Carolina's doing. Alabama's eleven
and a half point favorite in this game, and I
(56:29):
am excited to see. The over under in this game
is forty seven and a half according to ESPN bet
and this is you know, a three thirty Eastern kick,
twelve thirty Pacific. Alabama's number six in the country in
six and one four and on the SEC. South Carolina
one and four in the SEC and three and four overall.
(56:53):
Alabama according to ESPN Analytics, eighty two point two percent
chance to win this football game. Leonora sellers, and this
offense is playing terrible. They are like, he's thrown for
under two hundred yards a game in the last few
few games. This is not what this team is looking
(57:13):
for at all. It's not And Leonora's sellers, I've said
if I've said it once, I've said it ten times.
This kid needs to stay in school. He absolutely does.
There is like people talking about him potentially being the
number one pick in the draft. If he does that,
he will not have a successful career. He's thrown for
(57:35):
this season two oh nine, one eight ninety four in
the Vanderbilt game where he got hurt three to oh
two versus Missouri, one fifty three versus Kentucky, won twenty
four versus LSU, and one twenty four versus Oklahoma. This
ain't it. This is not it. And yes, the completion
percentage is about sixty five. But it's a lot of
(57:58):
dink and dunk and throwing behind the line of scrimmage
screens and all of that is taking up a lot
of air. I am going to take Alabama minus eleven
and a half. This game could get ugly. This game
could get absolutely ugly unless unless Alabama struggles with the
quarterback run. Because if they can run the quarterback, if
(58:21):
South Carolina can run Lenora Sellers and pick up that
and then they hit some chunk plays over the top,
that is the only way that they win this football game.
Only way. And Kaitlin de Boor has started to cool
the whispers or the loud roar around his name being
fired and all this stuff. But you know who has it,
Shane Beemer, all of that Virginia Tech. Shane Bieber to
(58:44):
Virginia Tech talk started and all of a sudden, no duve.
This is what happens to coaches when you do not
shut down rumors. Coat a parent start whispering, kids start whispering.
They start thinking about other players, which means they ain't
all the way bought in. This gets nasty. So give
(59:04):
me Alabama in this game. But you guys, let me
make sure I didn't miss any of the games that
we needed to talk about, because there are some good ones. Yeah,
that is it. Oh, I'll give you my prediction BYU
versus Iowa State. Iowa State's actually favored in that game
(59:26):
by two and a half points. Iowa State's getting more healthy,
but something feels good about BYU. But Matt Campbell's name
is starting to float around and they don't want him
to leave in names. So actually, you know what, forget
by you. I'm flipping my pick right now. Iowa minus
(59:47):
two and Iowa State minus two and a half against
b YU. And the last game up Houston versus Arizona State.
Arizona State is favored by eight and a half points
in this game. Give me Houston plus eight and a half,
but I am going to take Arizona State to win
this game. But you guys, though I'm George Reiser, make
(01:00:10):
sure that you like, subscribe, get notifications, tell a friend
about the show, and most importantly share peace out. Catch
you guys on Thursday for college football Apostles.
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