August 15, 2025 • 43 mins
College Football fans—AP Top 25 vs Coaches Poll, the ESPN–FOX streaming bundle, and SEC/Big Ten/ACC/Big 12 storylines are all on deck. We break down why the polls see Texas, Ohio State, Clemson, Georgia, Notre Dame, Oregon, Alabama, LSU, and Miami so differently—and what that means on the field. Plus: Oklahoma headlines (John Mateer Venmo noise), Oklahoma State’s hire of Todd Grantham after a rough 2024, and Michigan recruiting talk with 2027 QB Peter Bourque.
We kick off with the who/what/when/where/why of my new gig (shoutout Mike Yam) and a reminder that Ryan Leaf was elite in CFB—NFL outcomes shouldn’t erase college greatness.
Streaming power shift: Starting Oct 2, ESPN’s new DTC app + FOX One bundle at $39.99/mo could let fans drop cable and still access the vast majority of live sports. If it sticks, ESPN/FOX gain leverage—and college football remains the anchor of U.S. sports streaming.
Venmo & compliance: Mateer says he doesn’t gamble; Oklahoma is aware. Public memos are dumb, proof is tricky—likely much ado about nothing.
OSU & Grantham: Cam Jordan blasted his NFL DL stint, but college DC ≠ NFL position coach. For Oklahoma State, scheme fit and results will decide 2025.
QB ages in 2025: Older QBs are normal now (think Bo Nix/Cam Rising). Bourque being nearly 18 with two HS seasons left isn’t unusual—maturity and reps beat birth dates.
AP Poll snapshot: Texas barely at No. 1; Penn State surged; Georgia/Alabama split voters; Oregon/Notre Dame steady; LSU/Miami polarizing; fringe volatility for ASU, Illinois, K-State, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Boise.
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:30 Life Update! George Wrighster on the CW Studio Show!
02:27 Fox and ESPN create a bundle TV package- will you subscribe?
08:10 John Mateer denies gambling over Venmo- Should he be punished?
13:30 How worried should Oklahoma State be about Todd Grantham running the defense?
17:25 Are we about to see the return of Jimbo Fisher to college football?
20:47: 2027 Michigan QB commit Peter Bourque is older than freshman Bryce Underwood
25:39 George Wrighster breaks down the 2025 AP Preseason Poll
#CollegeFootball #APPoll #CoachesPoll #ESPN #FOX #Streaming #SECFootball #BigTenFootball #Big12Football #ACCFootball #TexasLonghorns #OhioState #Clemson #GeorgiaFootball #NotreDame #OregonDucks #AlabamaFootball #LSUFootball #MiamiFootball #Oklahoma #OklahomaState #MichiganFootball #CFBNews #UnafraidShow #Polls #CFB
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to The Unfraid Show aka George Reister's College Football Podcast.
And the world is going crazy right now in college football,
and I gotta give it to you simply and quickly
the way you know what's going on. And we are
going to well today in general, we got a lot
so ESPN and Fox have now teamed up. They are
(00:26):
now going against the world instead of going against each other.
John Matteer his Venmo account is now the subject of
gambling investigations, and I'm gonna tell you what the truth
of this matter is and how this is all going
to work out. The ap Top twenty five has come out.
I got my reaction to it, and we're gonna talk
about the past the present and compared it to The
(00:49):
Unafraid Show, Paul, and we got to talk about old
quarterbacks in college football, and Jimbo Fisher wants to come
back to the sideline and I'm telling.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
You I would absolutely hire this man with one caveat.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
But we're gonna start today because remember the Unafraid Show,
George Reister's College Football Podcast is where it is show
prep for everybody else. So if you want to know
what's going on with all these other shows you're gonna
be talking about two weeks from now, three weeks from now.
That's why you come here. Make sure that you like, subscribe,
get notifications, and be one of us, leave a comment
(01:25):
and everything else so we can get the dialogue going.
All right, So first thing up, big life update here,
and I want to thank you guys, because this could
not be possible without you guys watching the Unafraid Show,
watch the interviews, everything else. So you see this CW
College Football crew.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
For this season.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
You see that guy down there at the bottom right,
that's your boy, George Reister. I'll be doing a studio
show with Michael Bumpus and with mister Mike Yam as
well doing ACC PAC twelve Action and.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
We are growing.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
I could not be more and I want to thank
you guys for that. And also a guy that you
see on their guys that I played with in the
NFL too. You got Will Blackman like him Wine Samoyer
as well. He'll be doing games for the ACC. And
then you got Ryan Leif, friend of mine, and I
love this because Ryan has been able to do a
(02:21):
lot of things in his career since he got out
of jail and everything else, and college football legacies should
not be judged by NFL. You know NFL outcomes. And
Ryan is a good dude. I'm super happy for him,
super pumped, and it is going to be a great
college football season. All right, Now, onto the business next
(02:44):
thing up. Okay, So Fox and ESPN have now joined forces.
So they have created a bundle that their TV executives
are going to try to pitch to sell to you
and it is going to be starting on October second,
(03:07):
for thirty nine to ninety nine per month. So the
question is why would you pay for this and why
does this even matter? Because for so long, television executives,
we're fighting against each other, which is exactly what the
conferences are doing. SEC trying to have a bigger media
rights deal than the Big ten, trying to squish the
(03:27):
Big twelve, trying to kill the ACC, trying to minimalize
the G five, all of them killing the PAC twelve.
All of those things are happening at the same time.
And when you look at the landscape, what are the
networks doing. You had the Big ten deal, Fox is partnering.
You have them advertising games on NBC and Peacock and
(03:49):
ESPN's showing where games are played instead of fighting against
each other. So the conferences are still doing the exact
same thing that the TV executives are saying, Ooh, can
either keep fighting against each other or we can team
up forces for this direct to consumer service that ESPN
and Fox one are combining upon. Now, Fox Corporations who
(04:14):
is you know, They're wholly owned. They own the whole
thing for their direct to consumer streaming service. They announced
today that their agreement is going to give me and
you the opportunity to purchase both services bundled together. Now,
college football was not the only factor here, because the
(04:35):
ESPN app that we've heard about all the changes and
all that stuff, and the UFC with no pay per
view events except for data waits that there could be
some that it is going to give consumers access to
their programming, and Fox one is going to include local stations,
national news programs.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
And a whole lot more. So, think about this.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
If you are a person and who used to have
Direct TV, Spectrum or anything else and the only reason
why you kept those or Hulu TV, YouTube TV, any
of those, the reason why you kept them is because
you wanted to see live sports. Well, now with this
you are gonna be able to see like eighty percent
(05:19):
of everything that you want to see as a sports fan.
And then you can find if you're an NBA fan,
you can find some TNT, you can.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Get NBA League Pass, any of those things.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
So it is just allowing consumers to control their pocketbook
and control what they you know, that they don't feel
like they're paying for stuff that they don't want because
for decades and especially the last ten years, the companies
have tried to fragment the audiences and sports fans, like
(05:50):
the only thing that really keeps them going is live programming,
and college sports is one of those things. Because we
are in football season, so you can get the NFL
games on Fox, you can get Monday Night football on
the ESPN, and you can get other games along the way,
oh Man for thirty nine to ninety nine, and you
(06:11):
can get local stations as well. This could be something
that then challenges YouTube TV, Hulu, Roku and all these
rest of them in terms of their prices keep rising.
They're because the companies, the channels are charging more for
their rights. Now things may be able to come back
down because there's some competition. So think about this similar
(06:35):
to cell phones. When cell phone plans first came out
crazy expensive, you got daytime minutes, you got weekend minutes
and everything. And now you can go to Mexico, Canada,
all your Roman and calls are included for free. Now
because the market has come down and there are more competition,
(06:56):
that means the price has the lower. So this is
the barriers to entry have too lower. So if you
were not a person who was adapted to streaming and
you want to save money and all you care about
is sports, this is a potential option for you and so.
And also it puts the Big Ten and the SEC
(07:18):
in a different situation because with them combining, So the
SEC was going to have the advantage on the ESPN
app and on the Fox app, the Big Ten was
going to have the advantage. But now with them together,
this creates like a super team. And this only this
only in college football, leads things more to a super conference,
(07:40):
which is then going to If you go back to
the last Live on Thursday where I talked about the
need for collective bargaining, these are the things that have
to happen to point them in the right direction, to
force the conferences into doing this, to having one entity
to negotiate with the go and people will be talking
(08:01):
about this in a couple of weeks and then all
of a sudden, oh my god, this great idea. Stay
on un Afraid Show. We'll give it to you early.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
The next thing up.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
John Mateer, a man that I picked to potentially win
the Heisman Trophy, a man that I tried to tell
last year when he was at Washington State, should be
considered for the Heisman Trophy. Three thousand yard past one
thousand yard rusher, that's who the dude is. Transferred over
to Oklahoma with Jay and not from cal to running
back from cal.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Well.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Yesterday there was a report that came out from Brian
Agwanda Oh and it looked fake. And this is where
we are in this point in the world now where
when you see a report you gotta be like, all right,
hold up, let's see. Is this one of them NBA sentails,
(08:55):
you know, fake pages? Is this a parody page somebody
pretending to be a reporter. Well the answer is no.
So jeometereered the new coach, well, excuse the new quarterback
for the Oklahoma suitors. He had these these things on
his venmo. And first of all, why Are we searching
three people's Venmo? This is searching two people's venmos. Is
(09:18):
actually worse than flight trackers in college football firing season,
because at least that makes some sense, right, And you're
trying to piece puzzles together.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Well, here's what I know.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
So on November twenty of twenty twenty two, when Jeometer
is a red shirt, and I believe up at Washington State,
there was a payment to Richard Roton. That's what the
person's name is on Venmo, who just so happened to
be the name of an offensive lineman on his team
at Washington State. Two payments on November twenty of twenty
(09:54):
twenty two, and the notes on it say sports gambling
parentheses you cla versus usc. Then the next one just
says sports gambling. You don't see the amount, And people
like see this is verifiable proof that he was gambling
on college football? Kick his ass out?
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Are we sure? Are we sure? Because I've seen plenty
of Venmo histories.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
I've seen people make bets on venmo's and people do
all sorts of things. And in terms of the comments
on the Venmo, if you look at my Venmo, Mike.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Don't don't look at my venmo.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
You are going to find, just like a whole lot
of other people's, you are going to find that some
of the notes, you're like, huh, I wonder, wonder what
this means? What is that it's emoji mean? Because it's intended.
I do it on purpose to throw people off if
they are looking or seeing. Now I do push the
private button, But in all actuality, how much stuff do
(10:58):
we really intend to be private? Even when that is
that intention. So there are a lot of people that
are pointing a finger at him and assuming guilt. I'm
not that person because as a quarterback, not have two
quarterback sons. Quarterbacks generally make good decisions generally to think
(11:19):
that he would be making a bet with his teammate.
First of all, a bet with your teammate is about
a game you're not playing in, or it could be
on a video game. Think about that, Oh, they were
playing a video game anything like that, or they were
watching anything, and.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
The assumption is guilt. The assumption is and.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Truthfully, do we want to start suspending people for bets
with a teammate?
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Hey yo, hey, hey yo, dude, I bet you twenty dollars.
I can beat you in a race. I beat you.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
I bet you twenty dollars on this Madden game. I
bet you twenty dollars. Or hey, yo, I'm telling you
UCLA is gonna beat usc today.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Bet okay? Bet? Are we really doing this? Yes?
Speaker 1 (12:15):
It was dumb for making it public, but there is
no way to prove what happened from the receipts unless
the recipient, mister Richard Roton, dimes him out. Because dudes,
especially in college guys, are notorious for putting embarrassing stuff
(12:35):
in the description lines when they're sending money. Jo Matier
told Oklahoma heat on gamble. Pete Dammill said, Oklahoma's aware.
It's a serious. It's serious, but doubt anything comes of it.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Dumb.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
What do we really think is going to come out
of this? So I hope John Matier learned a lesson.
I sent this to my kid. Put your bo on
private and also, don't do this, son. This is a
bad idea. So anybody that is just screaming at John Matterier,
I know Texas fans are hoping that he gets the
(13:12):
death penalty in college football style and everything, nah man,
this is going to turn out to be a nothing Burger.
This is just a stain. This is just a bad
idea that turned poor. That's it, Like, let's let's settle
settle down people. Uh. But speaking of bad pres though,
(13:34):
I wonder if Oklahoma State fans, I wonder if Oklahoma
State fans who ended a decade and a half of
winning football with last year's disastrous winless year in the
Big Twelve, and then they went to shore up the
(13:55):
defense they gave up thirty six points a game last year.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
So you know who they hired, Todd Grantham.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
And if you are a Florida fan, you know that
name because that man was blamed for everything that went
wrong with that defense. Recently, they have blamed him in
one form or another for the demise of the program
under Dan Mullen, who's now over at UNLV. And it's
been years since Grantham had control of a college defense.
(14:26):
And then you think about this week, one of the
most respected players currently in the NFL spoke out and
blasted the job that Todd Grantham did as his defensive
line coach. But his comments I was thinking about it,
is this something that Oklahoma State fans need to be
worried about, or they need to be anxious about is
(14:48):
it actually a good thing.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
I looked at this.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
And I was like, I don't mind Cam Jordan's comments
because Cam Jordan, who plays for the Saints, talked about
Todd Grantham on Tehran Armsteads Yet Tron Armsteads podcast. He said, quote,
there was a game last year that I walked off
in the tunnel and I made a phone call. The
next day we released probably the worst D line coach
(15:15):
I ever had, And he said, I think it was
like he was a decoordinator that was forced to deal
with a position. You know, when you have a broad spectrum,
you know, and you're looking at the bigger picture, and
then you deal with guys who have a very skewed focus,
like all they care about is beating the man in
front of him and getting to the quarterback and blah
(15:37):
blah blah. And I actually thought about this. I was like,
this makes sense, This makes sense, and this is exactly
why sometimes you have people who talk about coaching and
they're like, man, this guy needs to this guy needs
to be a coordinator before he turns.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Into a head coach. Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Do you think Dabo Sweeney would have been a good
offensive coordinator because he was a wide receiver coach before
he got the head coaching job at Clemson. That's not
what that means. You think John Harbor with the Ravens,
was he a position coach. No, he was a special
teams coach. He was not a core well, he was
special teams coordinator, but not an officer or a defensive coordinator.
(16:19):
Because people think the natural progression is that, no, these
are two separate jobs. This is exactly why we have
seen people thrive in the offensive coordinator role or the
defensive coordinator role and not do well at the CEO
job at well, yeah, at not do well at the
head coaching slash CEO job. And that's why we've seen
(16:41):
people do well at the CEO head coaching job that
weren't coordinators. It is two separate skill sets. The head coach,
big picture coach to coaches philosophy, you know, deal with discipline,
deal with culture, deal with all of those states. But
play calling, play sequencing, those things are left to the professionals.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Those are two separate jobs.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
And that's exactly why when I look at Todd Grantham
over at Oklahoma State, I am not concerned by Cam
Jordan's comments. In fact, I'm probably more encouraged by them. Yeah,
all right, Next thing up, Jim bow Fisher. Jim bow Fisher,
(17:29):
who now has collected the biggest buyout in college football
history at seventy six million dollars from Texas A and L.
He has said for over a year now, he made
it clear, oh, I'm thinking about getting the coaching. I
got that itch, blah blah blah. And some people are like,
(17:50):
I would never hire him. He checked out on Florida State,
didn't get it done at Texas Tech, Texas A and M,
and then got seventy six.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Million to go off into the sunset.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
I would absolutely hire jimbo Fisher again, I would.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
I would never give jimbo Fisher a long term contract.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Now, mind you, Texas, he didn't twist Texas A and
M's arm. They didn't have to after they gave him
the first, you know, seven year, seventy five million dollar deal.
They didn't have to turn around and re up the
deal two years later. That's their fault. But what he
can do to be my head coach. I'm paying him
(18:36):
a million dollars a year, and I will give him
every incentive in the book to get up to twelve
thirteen million dollars. Every incentive in the book. This is
a pay for a production type of situation with Jimbo.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
I'm not giving him no other chances, no other way,
because I do believe that he still has good value
as a coach. He's won a national championship, He's recruited well,
he's built the program, he's been out and now he
may understand how and be willing to handle the transfer
(19:15):
portal class may have a different sort of philosophy for recruiting.
Any of that, I would absolutely hire Jimbo Fisher. But
the thing about Jimbo Fisher is this, if you're like
a G five, if you're two lane Tulsa, you know
of Presno State, Boise State, any of those teams trying
to hire Jimbo Fisher.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Jimbo Fisher's leaving.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
He's getting up out out to the biggest, baddest place
possible as soon as possible.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
But mighty like, that's just what he gonna do. So
that would be a little.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Bit of a hesitation if I'm you know, a coach,
I'm sorry, program, But he could enter a program, Let's
say he entered. Let's say that silver Phield leaves Memphis
to go take a power for a job next year.
If he goes to Memphis, what Jimbo may leave Memphis
(20:09):
in an equal or even a better spot when he
leaves after that if he does good job. But if
he's not engaged and tired, just like I don't feel
like dealing with the administration or anything like that, he's
proven he'll check out on you.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
So, Jimbo, you got to earn your trust back. That's fair.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Just like if your kids, if they break trust in
the house, do you give them the same rope or
do you say, hey, come on, we gotta bread crumb
this thing out. Get I love you, I want you here,
But we got to show that you know that you
could be trusted. All right now, we got to talk
(20:48):
about the world of a world that I'm in. Quarterback, Dads,
because Peter boor K, he four star quarterback has committed
to Michigan twenty twenty seven commit. So who is Michigan's
hot shot quarterback for this year? Class class of twenty
(21:12):
twenty five highest paid one of the highest paid players
in college football was committed to LSU flipped to Michigan.
He is turning eighteen years old one month before a
twenty twenty seven quarterback, Peter borgac boory K.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
So this kid.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Has not one but two seasons left of high school football.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
He's about to turn eighteen years old.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
One month after Bryce Underwood, who's at Michigan already. And no,
we're not talking about the same situation like the kid
over there at Old miss who got there at No.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
So you're wondering, how does this happen?
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Quarterback dadding is how this happens and the new age
of whole backs or reclassing, because this happens when kids.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Because this kid is obviously going to be old.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
He's going to be like twenty years old when he
starts college football as a freshman in not in January,
when he'll probably check in in twenty twenty seven, January
twenty twenty seven, but the fall of twenty twenty seven, K,
it'll be twenty years old.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
And we've seen this before. It happened with Jaden Rashata.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
He turned twenty on the first day all excuse me,
on his first start as a true freshman at ASU.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
And quarterbacks are regularly in college football.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Playing until they're twenty three, twenty four years old, got
Chid Tyler Shuck cam Rising bow knicks. But a lot
of those were simply due to injuries and COVID and
transfers and extra years that amounted to there. But now
we are seeing parents that are holding their kids back
slash reclassing them because wanting an athletic advantage.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
But there is history. There is history that proves.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
There's a really good On three article that talks about
how kids that turn nineteen in high school, like before
their senior season is over, if they're nineteen, they do
not go get drafted in the NFL because all these
parents trying to get their kids to a great college,
(23:34):
big name college and then go to the NFL. Well,
the NFL prospects go down with being nineteen. There's a
whole history in data on it being nineteen in your
senior year. The Calvin Ridleys of the world, but his
case was a totally different case. Those are outliers that
(23:56):
don't really happen very often. The question is is this
good for the kid or is this bad for the kid.
So there's a good book that can shape your opinion
on it is Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers. So if you've not
read it and you're thinking about doing this with your kid,
read this book because Malcolm Gladwell talks about it depends
(24:17):
on when your birthday is.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Like.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
For instance, I have a kid who was thirteen years old,
just literally turned fourteen. He was getting ready to go
into He could have been going into high school at
fourteen years old, just turning fourteen years old, right at school,
was starting going to go play college high school football
at a big time school. Shaky situation, particularly at quarterback.
(24:45):
And sometimes kids need they need more maturity. Sometimes the
academic reasons something, There are a whole host of reasons.
Sometimes kids get hurt, family situations, all of this stuff.
So I'm not begrudging anybody in this situation. I'm just
telling you the reality of what we're seeing. And there
are schools that actually push for kids in kindergarten to
(25:07):
start kindergarten five and a half.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Is the youngest.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
There are schools that push that because there's a certain
level of maturity and of development that can happen, and
you're less likely to end up a follower. You're more
likely to be a leader, You're more likely to stand
out and all of those things. So check out the
Malcolm Gladwell book. This is not a plug because I'm
not getting paid for this. I just read it. You
(25:33):
enjoyed it, all right. The last thing up we gotta
talk about is the AP pole. We got to talk
about the AP pole in college football because this is
a situation where we talked about the College Coaches Poll
last week, and I find it very, very interesting that
(25:57):
we have voters in the AP. Now, mind you, I'm
gonna be pushing for an AP vote. Kevin Carter, You
inspired me, sir man I played against who beat me
as a rookie when he was playing with the Titans
at defensive end.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Inspired me.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
He gotta vote now, Reyze Davis, gotta gotta vote your boy,
gotta vote need Heisman votes, AP votes everything else. Because
I'm one of y'all, and y'all know I bring the
truth and bring the heat. So the AP pole has
come out, and.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
I knew it.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Would look very similar to the coaches Pole, but we
are going to compare it to the Unafraid Joe poem
coaches Poem and talk about the history and everything of this.
So here is the poll. The way you guys can
see it if you guys are watching it on the
X or Twitter or YouTube as well. So here is
(26:54):
the poll with the Unafraid Show poll as well. I
have been adamant that Clemson is the best team in
the country this year, but for some reason, and I
do think that we are having arch Manning overload right
right now. Not that the kid is not going to
be good or anything else, but there is arch Manning overload,
(27:15):
which is inflating Texas a little bit right now. Because
Texas they got the number one spot in the AP pole.
They got twenty five first place votes, and think about this,
they are still after that not even a favorite to
the number three team in the nation that they are
going to be playing against.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Ohio State.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Ohio State is a three Well, they opened up as
a three point favorite and now it's a two and
a half point line. So there is Texas, you know,
not biased, but there is Texas arch Manning overload right now.
They were a good team last year. I'm expecting them
to be a good team again. But are we talking
(27:59):
about an undefeated season.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
And we have to remember the difference between a preseason
ranking and how we expect games to go. Those are
two separate things. And before we get to the next
point in this, I want to talk about the SEC
bias in the AP Pole and what came out of it,
not in the pole itself, because there were ten SEC
(28:24):
teams ranked six Big Ten teams. The the SEC homers
use the preseason Pole when there have been no games
played as a referendum on their schedules. Say, look the
SEC schedules, they are so difficult, such a gauntless look,
(28:47):
and we got ten teams ranked. Hell does that mean
ain't nobody play the damn game yet? That is just
merely hype and recruiting rankings. So you still gotta go
out there on the field to prove it. And that's
why that Texas Ohio State game matters the most, because
if Ohio State runs Texas off the field and then
(29:08):
Texas goes and runs through the SEC, oh it's gonna
be hell to pay on the airwaves because you ain't
gonna be explained that way except for just the beginning
of the season. All right, next team up the number
two TV the AP Pole. Penn State twenty three first
place votes and everybody had them in the top five
(29:29):
except a man named Jerry Humphrey at of al dot
com who had them six, which is the departure from
the coaches pole, and then it actually deprived us of
a one versus two matchup to start the season because
AP rankings are usually the ones that are over coaches poles.
(29:49):
Because Ohio State, you look at them at number three,
they had eleven first place votes, finished third, and to
go back Penn State for a second, people like, oh well,
Penn State always crumbles, they always That's not the point
of the preseason rankings. The point of the preseason rankings
is what are they returning? Returners, coaching, recruiting. All those
(30:14):
things factor in the preseason rankings. Penn State has everything
on paper in their advantage, including a good schedule, so
that's why they should be up there in the upper echelon.
So then you got Ohio State eleven first place vote
and the media takes graduations and coachings leaving a lot
(30:37):
more serious than the coaches do. Because the lowest ranking
was actually from a Texas beat writer, Kirk Bowles, who
had Texas at number one.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
That's who.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
Ohio State's lowest ranking was from a Texas beat writer.
So then you got Clemson at number four. They had
four first place votes. I believe they are the best
team in the country preseason returning quarterback, great coaching, great
defensive defensive coordinator, offensive line. Running backs are kind of questionable.
Two of the top seven wide receivers in the country.
(31:09):
What are we talking about? But sixty two of sixty
four AP voters had Clemson as the top ACC team
and the lowest vote was number nine, by three different
voters had him at number nine?
Speaker 2 (31:22):
What are we doing? As ACC biased? Number five Georgia.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
They got one first place vote and that was from
Brett McMurphy on three and eleven votes were outside of
the top seven, including by my guy John Wilner. Now
those votes are an actual real statement about the state
of Georgia football, considering that they've spent the last seven
years and eleven months inside the AP's top seven. Because
(31:49):
Georgia has some question marks right now at quarterback, they
are super young, so yeah, so number one is very
ambitious for them.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Number six Notre Dame.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
This is very interesting because Notre Dame got no first
place votes, but they are one of the most consistent
placements of any team out well in the AP Top
ten because they only got four votes outside of the
top seven, that is seven less than Georgia, and almost
two thirds of the voters had Notre Dame in the
five to seven range, so people feel like they have
(32:22):
a good handle on Notre Dame right now.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Number seven. The Oregon Ducks.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
They had one first place vote and that was from
news for Jacksonville's Jamal Saint Cyr. And now you gotta
love those EUGENEA Jacksonville connections. I don't know nothing about it,
but they had no votes outside of the top ten,
but most of the votes were actually for the number
eight spot, which nearly was one third of the voters
(32:48):
who slotted Oregon at number eight. Then you got Alabama
at number eight because their votes were actually.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
All over the map.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Javon Edmonds of the Syracuse Post Standard had the Crimson
tie at number two, one of nine votes for Alabama
to be in the top five, but an equal amount
of voters had Alabama tenth or below. Then you got
Kevin Carter, my guy of CBS Sports Nashville, who even
(33:16):
put them at twenty third. Now eight is a big
deal because the lowest Alabama has been in the opening
ap pole since two thousand and nine is fifth, which
is where they started last year. So Alabama people are
all over the map with them. We're gonna see number nine.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
LSU.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
They come in right there, and they are a five
point margin that Penn State is behind Texas. Let me
reach restate that the way you can understand what it
is that came out. So LSU they come in at
number nine by the exact margin, which is five points,
(34:00):
that Penn State is behind Texas for the number one spots.
So you had seven voters who have LSU inside of
the top five, including ESPN's Rhech Davis who has n't
at number four.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Only one voter, Damian.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
Soil of Debt of the Rowanope Times in Virginia, has
the Tigers outside of the college football playoff position at
number thirteen. You got number ten Miami, and they actually
might come in at number ten, but there is a
huge drop off in voter confidence behind LSU for this
(34:33):
number ten spot because the gap between LSU at nine
and Miami at ten is almost the same size as
the gap between Texas at number one and Oregon at
number seven. Now, Miami's highest vote was number four from
Brian FORSECA out of New Jersey, but nine voters had
Miami outside of the top fifteen, and Damian Sword Debt
(34:58):
Sword Delett did ranked them at all. Do you realize
how crazy that is? Miami didn't get ranked at all.
Then you look at number eleven through fifteen. You got
Arizona State, Illinois, South Carolina, Michigan, and Florida. Now everybody
knows how I feel about Arizona State. You see it
in the Unafraid Sho Poe. You know how I feel
about South Carolina and Michigan and Florida. Now Arizona State
(35:21):
was included on sixty three or sixty four black ballots?
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Weren't they own all sixty four? Anyways?
Speaker 1 (35:27):
And their highest preseason ranking since nineteen ninety eight. Illinois
comes in at number twelve despite almost two thirds of
the voters having them outside of the top twelve. And
then you have five AP voters who left them outside
of the top twenty five altogether, like what are you
talking about? Sixteen returning starters, And then one of their
two top nine votes came from their actual beat writer,
(35:49):
Bob Amson Asthmusson, Bob Asthmassen and South Carolina when you
look at them, they have two interesting national voices that
left them off their top twenty five all together, Rhych
Davis and Brett McMurphy. Now I think that this team
is going to be good, but they were the darlings
of last year and can they repeat it now? Michigan,
(36:11):
they had people slot them in every single spot from
number nine all the way to twenty one, and half
of the voters putting the Wolverines between fourteen and seventeen,
and then Florida over there at fifteen with sixteen voters
thinking that they actually might be a CFP team this year,
and nine voters left them out of the top twenty
five all together. So this is why preseason rankings are
(36:33):
all over the place because there is no consensus. So
then you look at sixteen through twenty SMU Kansas State, Oklahoma,
Texas A, and M in Indiana sixty three of sixty
three ballots, sixty three of sixty four excuse me ballots
had SMU on the ballot, but only five voters are
(36:55):
actually thinking that they're even worthy of being inside the
top twelve at all, and that's exactly where they finished
in twenty twenty four. You had Bob blou and Kirk Bowles,
who are both based out of Austin, Texas, who didn't
even think that.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
Then you got Kansas.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
State, who is my pick to win the Big twelve,
and almost a third of the voters have the Wildcats
in their top fifteen. But my guy, John Wilner is
one of five voters who don't even think that they're
a top twenty five team at all. John, what are
we doing? Fail Oklahoma at seventeen? Now, this is a
(37:34):
huge departure from the coaches bol which had the Sooners
at twenty six. Now eleven voters have Oklahoma in the
top twelve after a six and six season. And then
you got a man out of Dayton, Ohio, mister David Jablonski,
who has them at number eight overall and one of
(37:54):
his six SEC teams in the top thirteen. He got
six SEC teams in the top thirteen?
Speaker 2 (38:00):
What are we doing? Fam?
Speaker 1 (38:02):
In fact, his number thirteen vote went to Texas A
and M, who comes in at nineteen in the AP Pope,
you know that David, They well that Greg Saki is
sending Christmas cards and holiday messages and well wishes to
David Jablonski and his ballot.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Then you got Indiana.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
They come in at number twenty with only one voter,
Andy Yamasita of the Seattle Times picking them inside of
the top twelve. Now we're gonna finish up with twenty
one through twenty five. You got Ole Miss, who I
do not have ranked, Iowa State, who I have ranked higher,
Texas Tech, and Tennessee who I do not have ranked.
(38:42):
In Boise State, because you have Brian Vonseca and Craig Stevenson.
They gave Lane Kiffin a top think about this. They
gave him a top twelve vote, but fourteen voters left
Old Miss off their top twenty five all together. Iowa
State came in with one win short of making the
college football Playoff last year, and only Kirk Bowles win
(39:06):
an eleven place vote. Thinks that they may even leap
make a leap in the top twenty well in twenty
twenty five. Texas Tech, they weren't able to impress almost
a thirty of the voters with their resources. Nineteen writers
left them off their ballot altogether, but three had them
inside of the top twelve.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
John Wilder put him at number eleven.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
Tennessee CFP team last year, Los Nico eam Maliava lost,
squirreld Right lost guys to the draft, and half the
voters left them off their ballots completely, including your Boy.
But they did get three top twelve votes. How does
this make sense? And the final twenty twenty four in
(39:51):
college football playoff participant in the top twenty five was
Boise State, and you saw eleven writers that actually gave
Boise State the twenty fifth spot.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
Overall, that feels like a token vote. Come on, man.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
Then we got to talk about the stuff like you
got BYU at twenty six, Utah at twenty seven, and
they were left off of forty nine and forty four
ballots now BYU.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
On cool with Utah the whole different story.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
But that don't matter because one writer had them ranked
so high that they almost made the top twenty five.
Chad Bishop of the Atlanta Journal constitutional had a wild
top twenty five preseason ballot BYU at eight, Utah at eleven.
I think you're just trying to mess the whole thing up.
And then when he was the only writer of the
sixty four to leave ASU off and and SMU, he
(40:46):
had fifteen different picks that were considered extreme. That means
five or more spots away from the agrig. Now I'm
not mad at that in the preseason because there should
be some distortion because we don't know what these teams are.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
Come on, man, all right.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
Another thing is that USC got left off of the
AP top twenty five when they I've seen people have
them inside the top ten and number eleven and everything else.
And this is the first time since twenty and nineteen
and only the second time since two thousand and one.
Because you got Clay Helton when he was over at USC,
because he got to coach another eight games after being
(41:27):
unranked going into twenty nineteen, and even though he went
six and two, program confidence was then so low that
he had to go. Now will Lincoln Riley be held
to the same standard or will the contract keep him there?
Speaker 2 (41:44):
Now?
Speaker 1 (41:44):
I do want to talk about Ralph Russo because you
probably have not heard about them, because this dude is
a first time voter, and I love what Ralph Russo
is doing because after running the AP pole for the
last twenty years, he wrote a great article in The
Athletic talking about what he learned in his time running
the pole, and he outlined his philosophy going into this
(42:06):
year as a voter, and his strategy. He said he's
a moneyball fan, and he likes advanced metrics, and he
wants to use the four prominent computer rankings. He said
he created a top forty from that and then broke
them into tiers of five to eight based upon the
range of ranking, and then he included Bill Connelly's power
(42:27):
ranking data blue Chip rankings from.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
Two four to seven.
Speaker 1 (42:31):
But he said he didn't overthink the schedules and he
doesn't believe that ranking Penn State above Ohio State is
necessarily a prediction for what will happen in that team.
And the result of that is that Russo's pole featured
ten teams that were considered extreme variations from the aggregate,
including Alabama at three, SMU at twenty four. But twenty
(42:52):
three of the twenty five teams that made the AP
pole were on Russo's ballot. The only ones that weren't
were Iowa State in Tennessee, which is honestly pretty reasonable. Now,
I will say every AP voter should aspire to this
sort of transparency and give the secret sauce to my
rankings away every single week, because when the rankings come
in during the season. When The Unafraid Show, George Reister
(43:15):
rankings come out every single week. You will see the
variation and understand why because I break it down for you.
It is about schedule, play, dominance, and quality wiz. That's
how we rank it. But you guys be one of
us here on the Unafraid Show. Thank you for watching.
I'm George Reiser, peace out, catch you guys later.
Welcome to The Unfraid Show aka George Reister's College Football Podcast.
And the world is going crazy right now in college football,
and I gotta give it to you simply and quickly
the way you know what's going on. And we are
going to well today in general, we got a lot
so ESPN and Fox have now teamed up. They are
(00:26):
now going against the world instead of going against each other.
John Matteer his Venmo account is now the subject of
gambling investigations, and I'm gonna tell you what the truth
of this matter is and how this is all going
to work out. The ap Top twenty five has come out.
I got my reaction to it, and we're gonna talk
about the past the present and compared it to The
(00:49):
Unafraid Show, Paul, and we got to talk about old
quarterbacks in college football, and Jimbo Fisher wants to come
back to the sideline and I'm telling.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
You I would absolutely hire this man with one caveat.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
But we're gonna start today because remember the Unafraid Show,
George Reister's College Football Podcast is where it is show
prep for everybody else. So if you want to know
what's going on with all these other shows you're gonna
be talking about two weeks from now, three weeks from now.
That's why you come here. Make sure that you like, subscribe,
get notifications, and be one of us, leave a comment
(01:25):
and everything else so we can get the dialogue going.
All right, So first thing up, big life update here,
and I want to thank you guys, because this could
not be possible without you guys watching the Unafraid Show,
watch the interviews, everything else. So you see this CW
College Football crew.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
For this season.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
You see that guy down there at the bottom right,
that's your boy, George Reister. I'll be doing a studio
show with Michael Bumpus and with mister Mike Yam as
well doing ACC PAC twelve Action and.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
We are growing.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
I could not be more and I want to thank
you guys for that. And also a guy that you
see on their guys that I played with in the
NFL too. You got Will Blackman like him Wine Samoyer
as well. He'll be doing games for the ACC. And
then you got Ryan Leif, friend of mine, and I
love this because Ryan has been able to do a
(02:21):
lot of things in his career since he got out
of jail and everything else, and college football legacies should
not be judged by NFL. You know NFL outcomes. And
Ryan is a good dude. I'm super happy for him,
super pumped, and it is going to be a great
college football season. All right, Now, onto the business next
(02:44):
thing up. Okay, So Fox and ESPN have now joined forces.
So they have created a bundle that their TV executives
are going to try to pitch to sell to you
and it is going to be starting on October second,
(03:07):
for thirty nine to ninety nine per month. So the
question is why would you pay for this and why
does this even matter? Because for so long, television executives,
we're fighting against each other, which is exactly what the
conferences are doing. SEC trying to have a bigger media
rights deal than the Big ten, trying to squish the
(03:27):
Big twelve, trying to kill the ACC, trying to minimalize
the G five, all of them killing the PAC twelve.
All of those things are happening at the same time.
And when you look at the landscape, what are the
networks doing. You had the Big ten deal, Fox is partnering.
You have them advertising games on NBC and Peacock and
(03:49):
ESPN's showing where games are played instead of fighting against
each other. So the conferences are still doing the exact
same thing that the TV executives are saying, Ooh, can
either keep fighting against each other or we can team
up forces for this direct to consumer service that ESPN
and Fox one are combining upon. Now, Fox Corporations who
(04:14):
is you know, They're wholly owned. They own the whole
thing for their direct to consumer streaming service. They announced
today that their agreement is going to give me and
you the opportunity to purchase both services bundled together. Now,
college football was not the only factor here, because the
(04:35):
ESPN app that we've heard about all the changes and
all that stuff, and the UFC with no pay per
view events except for data waits that there could be
some that it is going to give consumers access to
their programming, and Fox one is going to include local stations,
national news programs.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
And a whole lot more. So, think about this.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
If you are a person and who used to have
Direct TV, Spectrum or anything else and the only reason
why you kept those or Hulu TV, YouTube TV, any
of those, the reason why you kept them is because
you wanted to see live sports. Well, now with this
you are gonna be able to see like eighty percent
(05:19):
of everything that you want to see as a sports fan.
And then you can find if you're an NBA fan,
you can find some TNT, you can.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Get NBA League Pass, any of those things.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
So it is just allowing consumers to control their pocketbook
and control what they you know, that they don't feel
like they're paying for stuff that they don't want because
for decades and especially the last ten years, the companies
have tried to fragment the audiences and sports fans, like
(05:50):
the only thing that really keeps them going is live programming,
and college sports is one of those things. Because we
are in football season, so you can get the NFL
games on Fox, you can get Monday Night football on
the ESPN, and you can get other games along the way,
oh Man for thirty nine to ninety nine, and you
(06:11):
can get local stations as well. This could be something
that then challenges YouTube TV, Hulu, Roku and all these
rest of them in terms of their prices keep rising.
They're because the companies, the channels are charging more for
their rights. Now things may be able to come back
down because there's some competition. So think about this similar
(06:35):
to cell phones. When cell phone plans first came out
crazy expensive, you got daytime minutes, you got weekend minutes
and everything. And now you can go to Mexico, Canada,
all your Roman and calls are included for free. Now
because the market has come down and there are more competition,
(06:56):
that means the price has the lower. So this is
the barriers to entry have too lower. So if you
were not a person who was adapted to streaming and
you want to save money and all you care about
is sports, this is a potential option for you and so.
And also it puts the Big Ten and the SEC
(07:18):
in a different situation because with them combining, So the
SEC was going to have the advantage on the ESPN
app and on the Fox app, the Big Ten was
going to have the advantage. But now with them together,
this creates like a super team. And this only this
only in college football, leads things more to a super conference,
(07:40):
which is then going to If you go back to
the last Live on Thursday where I talked about the
need for collective bargaining, these are the things that have
to happen to point them in the right direction, to
force the conferences into doing this, to having one entity
to negotiate with the go and people will be talking
(08:01):
about this in a couple of weeks and then all
of a sudden, oh my god, this great idea. Stay
on un Afraid Show. We'll give it to you early.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
The next thing up.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
John Mateer, a man that I picked to potentially win
the Heisman Trophy, a man that I tried to tell
last year when he was at Washington State, should be
considered for the Heisman Trophy. Three thousand yard past one
thousand yard rusher, that's who the dude is. Transferred over
to Oklahoma with Jay and not from cal to running
back from cal.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
Well.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Yesterday there was a report that came out from Brian
Agwanda Oh and it looked fake. And this is where
we are in this point in the world now where
when you see a report you gotta be like, all right,
hold up, let's see. Is this one of them NBA sentails,
(08:55):
you know, fake pages? Is this a parody page somebody
pretending to be a reporter. Well the answer is no.
So jeometereered the new coach, well, excuse the new quarterback
for the Oklahoma suitors. He had these these things on
his venmo. And first of all, why Are we searching
three people's Venmo? This is searching two people's venmos. Is
(09:18):
actually worse than flight trackers in college football firing season,
because at least that makes some sense, right, And you're
trying to piece puzzles together.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Well, here's what I know.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
So on November twenty of twenty twenty two, when Jeometer
is a red shirt, and I believe up at Washington State,
there was a payment to Richard Roton. That's what the
person's name is on Venmo, who just so happened to
be the name of an offensive lineman on his team
at Washington State. Two payments on November twenty of twenty
(09:54):
twenty two, and the notes on it say sports gambling
parentheses you cla versus usc. Then the next one just
says sports gambling. You don't see the amount, And people
like see this is verifiable proof that he was gambling
on college football? Kick his ass out?
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Are we sure? Are we sure? Because I've seen plenty
of Venmo histories.
Speaker 1 (10:21):
I've seen people make bets on venmo's and people do
all sorts of things. And in terms of the comments
on the Venmo, if you look at my Venmo, Mike.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Don't don't look at my venmo.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
You are going to find, just like a whole lot
of other people's, you are going to find that some
of the notes, you're like, huh, I wonder, wonder what
this means? What is that it's emoji mean? Because it's intended.
I do it on purpose to throw people off if
they are looking or seeing. Now I do push the
private button, But in all actuality, how much stuff do
(10:58):
we really intend to be private? Even when that is
that intention. So there are a lot of people that
are pointing a finger at him and assuming guilt. I'm
not that person because as a quarterback, not have two
quarterback sons. Quarterbacks generally make good decisions generally to think
(11:19):
that he would be making a bet with his teammate.
First of all, a bet with your teammate is about
a game you're not playing in, or it could be
on a video game. Think about that, Oh, they were
playing a video game anything like that, or they were
watching anything, and.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
The assumption is guilt. The assumption is and.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Truthfully, do we want to start suspending people for bets
with a teammate?
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Hey yo, hey, hey yo, dude, I bet you twenty dollars.
I can beat you in a race. I beat you.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
I bet you twenty dollars on this Madden game. I
bet you twenty dollars. Or hey, yo, I'm telling you
UCLA is gonna beat usc today.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Bet okay? Bet? Are we really doing this? Yes?
Speaker 1 (12:15):
It was dumb for making it public, but there is
no way to prove what happened from the receipts unless
the recipient, mister Richard Roton, dimes him out. Because dudes,
especially in college guys, are notorious for putting embarrassing stuff
(12:35):
in the description lines when they're sending money. Jo Matier
told Oklahoma heat on gamble. Pete Dammill said, Oklahoma's aware.
It's a serious. It's serious, but doubt anything comes of it.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Dumb.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
What do we really think is going to come out
of this? So I hope John Matier learned a lesson.
I sent this to my kid. Put your bo on
private and also, don't do this, son. This is a
bad idea. So anybody that is just screaming at John Matterier,
I know Texas fans are hoping that he gets the
(13:12):
death penalty in college football style and everything, nah man,
this is going to turn out to be a nothing Burger.
This is just a stain. This is just a bad
idea that turned poor. That's it, Like, let's let's settle
settle down people. Uh. But speaking of bad pres though,
(13:34):
I wonder if Oklahoma State fans, I wonder if Oklahoma
State fans who ended a decade and a half of
winning football with last year's disastrous winless year in the
Big Twelve, and then they went to shore up the
(13:55):
defense they gave up thirty six points a game last year.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
So you know who they hired, Todd Grantham.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
And if you are a Florida fan, you know that
name because that man was blamed for everything that went
wrong with that defense. Recently, they have blamed him in
one form or another for the demise of the program
under Dan Mullen, who's now over at UNLV. And it's
been years since Grantham had control of a college defense.
(14:26):
And then you think about this week, one of the
most respected players currently in the NFL spoke out and
blasted the job that Todd Grantham did as his defensive
line coach. But his comments I was thinking about it,
is this something that Oklahoma State fans need to be
worried about, or they need to be anxious about is
(14:48):
it actually a good thing.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
I looked at this.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
And I was like, I don't mind Cam Jordan's comments
because Cam Jordan, who plays for the Saints, talked about
Todd Grantham on Tehran Armsteads Yet Tron Armsteads podcast. He said, quote,
there was a game last year that I walked off
in the tunnel and I made a phone call. The
next day we released probably the worst D line coach
(15:15):
I ever had, And he said, I think it was
like he was a decoordinator that was forced to deal
with a position. You know, when you have a broad spectrum,
you know, and you're looking at the bigger picture, and
then you deal with guys who have a very skewed focus,
like all they care about is beating the man in
front of him and getting to the quarterback and blah
(15:37):
blah blah. And I actually thought about this. I was like,
this makes sense, This makes sense, and this is exactly
why sometimes you have people who talk about coaching and
they're like, man, this guy needs to this guy needs
to be a coordinator before he turns.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Into a head coach. Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Do you think Dabo Sweeney would have been a good
offensive coordinator because he was a wide receiver coach before
he got the head coaching job at Clemson. That's not
what that means. You think John Harbor with the Ravens,
was he a position coach. No, he was a special
teams coach. He was not a core well, he was
special teams coordinator, but not an officer or a defensive coordinator.
(16:19):
Because people think the natural progression is that, no, these
are two separate jobs. This is exactly why we have
seen people thrive in the offensive coordinator role or the
defensive coordinator role and not do well at the CEO
job at well, yeah, at not do well at the
head coaching slash CEO job. And that's why we've seen
(16:41):
people do well at the CEO head coaching job that
weren't coordinators. It is two separate skill sets. The head coach,
big picture coach to coaches philosophy, you know, deal with discipline,
deal with culture, deal with all of those states. But
play calling, play sequencing, those things are left to the professionals.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Those are two separate jobs.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
And that's exactly why when I look at Todd Grantham
over at Oklahoma State, I am not concerned by Cam
Jordan's comments. In fact, I'm probably more encouraged by them. Yeah,
all right, Next thing up, Jim bow Fisher. Jim bow Fisher,
(17:29):
who now has collected the biggest buyout in college football
history at seventy six million dollars from Texas A and L.
He has said for over a year now, he made
it clear, oh, I'm thinking about getting the coaching. I
got that itch, blah blah blah. And some people are like,
(17:50):
I would never hire him. He checked out on Florida State,
didn't get it done at Texas Tech, Texas A and M,
and then got seventy six.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Million to go off into the sunset.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
I would absolutely hire jimbo Fisher again, I would.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
I would never give jimbo Fisher a long term contract.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Now, mind you, Texas, he didn't twist Texas A and
M's arm. They didn't have to after they gave him
the first, you know, seven year, seventy five million dollar deal.
They didn't have to turn around and re up the
deal two years later. That's their fault. But what he
can do to be my head coach. I'm paying him
(18:36):
a million dollars a year, and I will give him
every incentive in the book to get up to twelve
thirteen million dollars. Every incentive in the book. This is
a pay for a production type of situation with Jimbo.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
I'm not giving him no other chances, no other way,
because I do believe that he still has good value
as a coach. He's won a national championship, He's recruited well,
he's built the program, he's been out and now he
may understand how and be willing to handle the transfer
(19:15):
portal class may have a different sort of philosophy for recruiting.
Any of that, I would absolutely hire Jimbo Fisher. But
the thing about Jimbo Fisher is this, if you're like
a G five, if you're two lane Tulsa, you know
of Presno State, Boise State, any of those teams trying
to hire Jimbo Fisher.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Jimbo Fisher's leaving.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
He's getting up out out to the biggest, baddest place
possible as soon as possible.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
But mighty like, that's just what he gonna do. So
that would be a little.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Bit of a hesitation if I'm you know, a coach,
I'm sorry, program, But he could enter a program, Let's
say he entered. Let's say that silver Phield leaves Memphis
to go take a power for a job next year.
If he goes to Memphis, what Jimbo may leave Memphis
(20:09):
in an equal or even a better spot when he
leaves after that if he does good job. But if
he's not engaged and tired, just like I don't feel
like dealing with the administration or anything like that, he's
proven he'll check out on you.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
So, Jimbo, you got to earn your trust back. That's fair.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
Just like if your kids, if they break trust in
the house, do you give them the same rope or
do you say, hey, come on, we gotta bread crumb
this thing out. Get I love you, I want you here,
But we got to show that you know that you
could be trusted. All right now, we got to talk
(20:48):
about the world of a world that I'm in. Quarterback, Dads,
because Peter boor K, he four star quarterback has committed
to Michigan twenty twenty seven commit. So who is Michigan's
hot shot quarterback for this year? Class class of twenty
(21:12):
twenty five highest paid one of the highest paid players
in college football was committed to LSU flipped to Michigan.
He is turning eighteen years old one month before a
twenty twenty seven quarterback, Peter borgac boory K.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
So this kid.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Has not one but two seasons left of high school football.
Speaker 2 (21:42):
He's about to turn eighteen years old.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
One month after Bryce Underwood, who's at Michigan already. And no,
we're not talking about the same situation like the kid
over there at Old miss who got there at No.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
So you're wondering, how does this happen?
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Quarterback dadding is how this happens and the new age
of whole backs or reclassing, because this happens when kids.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Because this kid is obviously going to be old.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
He's going to be like twenty years old when he
starts college football as a freshman in not in January,
when he'll probably check in in twenty twenty seven, January
twenty twenty seven, but the fall of twenty twenty seven, K,
it'll be twenty years old.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
And we've seen this before. It happened with Jaden Rashata.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
He turned twenty on the first day all excuse me,
on his first start as a true freshman at ASU.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
And quarterbacks are regularly in college football.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Playing until they're twenty three, twenty four years old, got
Chid Tyler Shuck cam Rising bow knicks. But a lot
of those were simply due to injuries and COVID and
transfers and extra years that amounted to there. But now
we are seeing parents that are holding their kids back
slash reclassing them because wanting an athletic advantage.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
But there is history. There is history that proves.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
There's a really good On three article that talks about
how kids that turn nineteen in high school, like before
their senior season is over, if they're nineteen, they do
not go get drafted in the NFL because all these
parents trying to get their kids to a great college,
(23:34):
big name college and then go to the NFL. Well,
the NFL prospects go down with being nineteen. There's a
whole history in data on it being nineteen in your
senior year. The Calvin Ridleys of the world, but his
case was a totally different case. Those are outliers that
(23:56):
don't really happen very often. The question is is this
good for the kid or is this bad for the kid.
So there's a good book that can shape your opinion
on it is Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers. So if you've not
read it and you're thinking about doing this with your kid,
read this book because Malcolm Gladwell talks about it depends
(24:17):
on when your birthday is.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Like.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
For instance, I have a kid who was thirteen years old,
just literally turned fourteen. He was getting ready to go
into He could have been going into high school at
fourteen years old, just turning fourteen years old, right at school,
was starting going to go play college high school football
at a big time school. Shaky situation, particularly at quarterback.
(24:45):
And sometimes kids need they need more maturity. Sometimes the
academic reasons something, There are a whole host of reasons.
Sometimes kids get hurt, family situations, all of this stuff.
So I'm not begrudging anybody in this situation. I'm just
telling you the reality of what we're seeing. And there
are schools that actually push for kids in kindergarten to
(25:07):
start kindergarten five and a half.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
Is the youngest.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
There are schools that push that because there's a certain
level of maturity and of development that can happen, and
you're less likely to end up a follower. You're more
likely to be a leader, You're more likely to stand
out and all of those things. So check out the
Malcolm Gladwell book. This is not a plug because I'm
not getting paid for this. I just read it. You
(25:33):
enjoyed it, all right. The last thing up we gotta
talk about is the AP pole. We got to talk
about the AP pole in college football because this is
a situation where we talked about the College Coaches Poll
last week, and I find it very, very interesting that
(25:57):
we have voters in the AP. Now, mind you, I'm
gonna be pushing for an AP vote. Kevin Carter, You
inspired me, sir man I played against who beat me
as a rookie when he was playing with the Titans
at defensive end.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Inspired me.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
He gotta vote now, Reyze Davis, gotta gotta vote your boy,
gotta vote need Heisman votes, AP votes everything else. Because
I'm one of y'all, and y'all know I bring the
truth and bring the heat. So the AP pole has
come out, and.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
I knew it.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
Would look very similar to the coaches Pole, but we
are going to compare it to the Unafraid Joe poem
coaches Poem and talk about the history and everything of this.
So here is the poll. The way you guys can
see it if you guys are watching it on the
X or Twitter or YouTube as well. So here is
(26:54):
the poll with the Unafraid Show poll as well. I
have been adamant that Clemson is the best team in
the country this year, but for some reason, and I
do think that we are having arch Manning overload right
right now. Not that the kid is not going to
be good or anything else, but there is arch Manning overload,
(27:15):
which is inflating Texas a little bit right now. Because
Texas they got the number one spot in the AP pole.
They got twenty five first place votes, and think about this,
they are still after that not even a favorite to
the number three team in the nation that they are
going to be playing against.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Ohio State.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Ohio State is a three Well, they opened up as
a three point favorite and now it's a two and
a half point line. So there is Texas, you know,
not biased, but there is Texas arch Manning overload right now.
They were a good team last year. I'm expecting them
to be a good team again. But are we talking
(27:59):
about an undefeated season.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
I don't think so.
Speaker 1 (28:02):
And we have to remember the difference between a preseason
ranking and how we expect games to go. Those are
two separate things. And before we get to the next
point in this, I want to talk about the SEC
bias in the AP Pole and what came out of it,
not in the pole itself, because there were ten SEC
(28:24):
teams ranked six Big Ten teams. The the SEC homers
use the preseason Pole when there have been no games
played as a referendum on their schedules. Say, look the
SEC schedules, they are so difficult, such a gauntless look,
(28:47):
and we got ten teams ranked. Hell does that mean
ain't nobody play the damn game yet? That is just
merely hype and recruiting rankings. So you still gotta go
out there on the field to prove it. And that's
why that Texas Ohio State game matters the most, because
if Ohio State runs Texas off the field and then
(29:08):
Texas goes and runs through the SEC, oh it's gonna
be hell to pay on the airwaves because you ain't
gonna be explained that way except for just the beginning
of the season. All right, next team up the number
two TV the AP Pole. Penn State twenty three first
place votes and everybody had them in the top five
(29:29):
except a man named Jerry Humphrey at of al dot
com who had them six, which is the departure from
the coaches pole, and then it actually deprived us of
a one versus two matchup to start the season because
AP rankings are usually the ones that are over coaches poles.
(29:49):
Because Ohio State, you look at them at number three,
they had eleven first place votes, finished third, and to
go back Penn State for a second, people like, oh well,
Penn State always crumbles, they always That's not the point
of the preseason rankings. The point of the preseason rankings
is what are they returning? Returners, coaching, recruiting. All those
(30:14):
things factor in the preseason rankings. Penn State has everything
on paper in their advantage, including a good schedule, so
that's why they should be up there in the upper echelon.
So then you got Ohio State eleven first place vote
and the media takes graduations and coachings leaving a lot
(30:37):
more serious than the coaches do. Because the lowest ranking
was actually from a Texas beat writer, Kirk Bowles, who
had Texas at number one.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
That's who.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
Ohio State's lowest ranking was from a Texas beat writer.
So then you got Clemson at number four. They had
four first place votes. I believe they are the best
team in the country preseason returning quarterback, great coaching, great
defensive defensive coordinator, offensive line. Running backs are kind of questionable.
Two of the top seven wide receivers in the country.
(31:09):
What are we talking about? But sixty two of sixty
four AP voters had Clemson as the top ACC team
and the lowest vote was number nine, by three different
voters had him at number nine?
Speaker 2 (31:22):
What are we doing? As ACC biased? Number five Georgia.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
They got one first place vote and that was from
Brett McMurphy on three and eleven votes were outside of
the top seven, including by my guy John Wilner. Now
those votes are an actual real statement about the state
of Georgia football, considering that they've spent the last seven
years and eleven months inside the AP's top seven. Because
(31:49):
Georgia has some question marks right now at quarterback, they
are super young, so yeah, so number one is very
ambitious for them.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Number six Notre Dame.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
This is very interesting because Notre Dame got no first
place votes, but they are one of the most consistent
placements of any team out well in the AP Top
ten because they only got four votes outside of the
top seven, that is seven less than Georgia, and almost
two thirds of the voters had Notre Dame in the
five to seven range, so people feel like they have
(32:22):
a good handle on Notre Dame right now.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
Number seven. The Oregon Ducks.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
They had one first place vote and that was from
news for Jacksonville's Jamal Saint Cyr. And now you gotta
love those EUGENEA Jacksonville connections. I don't know nothing about it,
but they had no votes outside of the top ten,
but most of the votes were actually for the number
eight spot, which nearly was one third of the voters
(32:48):
who slotted Oregon at number eight. Then you got Alabama
at number eight because their votes were actually.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
All over the map.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Javon Edmonds of the Syracuse Post Standard had the Crimson
tie at number two, one of nine votes for Alabama
to be in the top five, but an equal amount
of voters had Alabama tenth or below. Then you got
Kevin Carter, my guy of CBS Sports Nashville, who even
(33:16):
put them at twenty third. Now eight is a big
deal because the lowest Alabama has been in the opening
ap pole since two thousand and nine is fifth, which
is where they started last year. So Alabama people are
all over the map with them. We're gonna see number nine.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
LSU.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
They come in right there, and they are a five
point margin that Penn State is behind Texas. Let me
reach restate that the way you can understand what it
is that came out. So LSU they come in at
number nine by the exact margin, which is five points,
(34:00):
that Penn State is behind Texas for the number one spots.
So you had seven voters who have LSU inside of
the top five, including ESPN's Rhech Davis who has n't
at number four.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Only one voter, Damian.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
Soil of Debt of the Rowanope Times in Virginia, has
the Tigers outside of the college football playoff position at
number thirteen. You got number ten Miami, and they actually
might come in at number ten, but there is a
huge drop off in voter confidence behind LSU for this
(34:33):
number ten spot because the gap between LSU at nine
and Miami at ten is almost the same size as
the gap between Texas at number one and Oregon at
number seven. Now, Miami's highest vote was number four from
Brian FORSECA out of New Jersey, but nine voters had
Miami outside of the top fifteen, and Damian Sword Debt
(34:58):
Sword Delett did ranked them at all. Do you realize
how crazy that is? Miami didn't get ranked at all.
Then you look at number eleven through fifteen. You got
Arizona State, Illinois, South Carolina, Michigan, and Florida. Now everybody
knows how I feel about Arizona State. You see it
in the Unafraid Sho Poe. You know how I feel
about South Carolina and Michigan and Florida. Now Arizona State
(35:21):
was included on sixty three or sixty four black ballots?
Speaker 2 (35:25):
Weren't they own all sixty four? Anyways?
Speaker 1 (35:27):
And their highest preseason ranking since nineteen ninety eight. Illinois
comes in at number twelve despite almost two thirds of
the voters having them outside of the top twelve. And
then you have five AP voters who left them outside
of the top twenty five altogether, like what are you
talking about? Sixteen returning starters, And then one of their
two top nine votes came from their actual beat writer,
(35:49):
Bob Amson Asthmusson, Bob Asthmassen and South Carolina when you
look at them, they have two interesting national voices that
left them off their top twenty five all together, Rhych
Davis and Brett McMurphy. Now I think that this team
is going to be good, but they were the darlings
of last year and can they repeat it now? Michigan,
(36:11):
they had people slot them in every single spot from
number nine all the way to twenty one, and half
of the voters putting the Wolverines between fourteen and seventeen,
and then Florida over there at fifteen with sixteen voters
thinking that they actually might be a CFP team this year,
and nine voters left them out of the top twenty
five all together. So this is why preseason rankings are
(36:33):
all over the place because there is no consensus. So
then you look at sixteen through twenty SMU Kansas State, Oklahoma,
Texas A, and M in Indiana sixty three of sixty
three ballots, sixty three of sixty four excuse me ballots
had SMU on the ballot, but only five voters are
(36:55):
actually thinking that they're even worthy of being inside the
top twelve at all, and that's exactly where they finished
in twenty twenty four. You had Bob blou and Kirk Bowles,
who are both based out of Austin, Texas, who didn't
even think that.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
Then you got Kansas.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
State, who is my pick to win the Big twelve,
and almost a third of the voters have the Wildcats
in their top fifteen. But my guy, John Wilner is
one of five voters who don't even think that they're
a top twenty five team at all. John, what are
we doing? Fail Oklahoma at seventeen? Now, this is a
(37:34):
huge departure from the coaches bol which had the Sooners
at twenty six. Now eleven voters have Oklahoma in the
top twelve after a six and six season. And then
you got a man out of Dayton, Ohio, mister David Jablonski,
who has them at number eight overall and one of
(37:54):
his six SEC teams in the top thirteen. He got
six SEC teams in the top thirteen?
Speaker 2 (38:00):
What are we doing? Fam?
Speaker 1 (38:02):
In fact, his number thirteen vote went to Texas A
and M, who comes in at nineteen in the AP Pope,
you know that David, They well that Greg Saki is
sending Christmas cards and holiday messages and well wishes to
David Jablonski and his ballot.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Then you got Indiana.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
They come in at number twenty with only one voter,
Andy Yamasita of the Seattle Times picking them inside of
the top twelve. Now we're gonna finish up with twenty
one through twenty five. You got Ole Miss, who I
do not have ranked, Iowa State, who I have ranked higher,
Texas Tech, and Tennessee who I do not have ranked.
(38:42):
In Boise State, because you have Brian Vonseca and Craig Stevenson.
They gave Lane Kiffin a top think about this. They
gave him a top twelve vote, but fourteen voters left
Old Miss off their top twenty five all together. Iowa
State came in with one win short of making the
college football Playoff last year, and only Kirk Bowles win
(39:06):
an eleven place vote. Thinks that they may even leap
make a leap in the top twenty well in twenty
twenty five. Texas Tech, they weren't able to impress almost
a thirty of the voters with their resources. Nineteen writers
left them off their ballot altogether, but three had them
inside of the top twelve.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
John Wilder put him at number eleven.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
Tennessee CFP team last year, Los Nico eam Maliava lost,
squirreld Right lost guys to the draft, and half the
voters left them off their ballots completely, including your Boy.
But they did get three top twelve votes. How does
this make sense? And the final twenty twenty four in
(39:51):
college football playoff participant in the top twenty five was
Boise State, and you saw eleven writers that actually gave
Boise State the twenty fifth spot.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
Overall, that feels like a token vote. Come on, man.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
Then we got to talk about the stuff like you
got BYU at twenty six, Utah at twenty seven, and
they were left off of forty nine and forty four
ballots now BYU.
Speaker 2 (40:20):
On cool with Utah the whole different story.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
But that don't matter because one writer had them ranked
so high that they almost made the top twenty five.
Chad Bishop of the Atlanta Journal constitutional had a wild
top twenty five preseason ballot BYU at eight, Utah at eleven.
I think you're just trying to mess the whole thing up.
And then when he was the only writer of the
sixty four to leave ASU off and and SMU, he
(40:46):
had fifteen different picks that were considered extreme. That means
five or more spots away from the agrig. Now I'm
not mad at that in the preseason because there should
be some distortion because we don't know what these teams are.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
Come on, man, all right.
Speaker 1 (41:06):
Another thing is that USC got left off of the
AP top twenty five when they I've seen people have
them inside the top ten and number eleven and everything else.
And this is the first time since twenty and nineteen
and only the second time since two thousand and one.
Because you got Clay Helton when he was over at USC,
because he got to coach another eight games after being
(41:27):
unranked going into twenty nineteen, and even though he went
six and two, program confidence was then so low that
he had to go. Now will Lincoln Riley be held
to the same standard or will the contract keep him there?
Speaker 2 (41:44):
Now?
Speaker 1 (41:44):
I do want to talk about Ralph Russo because you
probably have not heard about them, because this dude is
a first time voter, and I love what Ralph Russo
is doing because after running the AP pole for the
last twenty years, he wrote a great article in The
Athletic talking about what he learned in his time running
the pole, and he outlined his philosophy going into this
(42:06):
year as a voter, and his strategy. He said he's
a moneyball fan, and he likes advanced metrics, and he
wants to use the four prominent computer rankings. He said
he created a top forty from that and then broke
them into tiers of five to eight based upon the
range of ranking, and then he included Bill Connelly's power
(42:27):
ranking data blue Chip rankings from.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
Two four to seven.
Speaker 1 (42:31):
But he said he didn't overthink the schedules and he
doesn't believe that ranking Penn State above Ohio State is
necessarily a prediction for what will happen in that team.
And the result of that is that Russo's pole featured
ten teams that were considered extreme variations from the aggregate,
including Alabama at three, SMU at twenty four. But twenty
(42:52):
three of the twenty five teams that made the AP
pole were on Russo's ballot. The only ones that weren't
were Iowa State in Tennessee, which is honestly pretty reasonable. Now,
I will say every AP voter should aspire to this
sort of transparency and give the secret sauce to my
rankings away every single week, because when the rankings come
in during the season. When The Unafraid Show, George Reister
(43:15):
rankings come out every single week. You will see the
variation and understand why because I break it down for you.
It is about schedule, play, dominance, and quality wiz. That's
how we rank it. But you guys be one of
us here on the Unafraid Show. Thank you for watching.
I'm George Reiser, peace out, catch you guys later.
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