CBS Sports' Shehan Jeyarajah Joins The Show!

CBS Sports College Football writer Shehan Jeyarajah joins Wex and AC to dicuss Saturday's slew of games, including the showdown in Columbus for Texas against the reigning national champions

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
To our current guests. Tough act to follow at Jay
Farrow and Studio. Last segment and change and we'll shift
from basically having fifteen guests at one time with all
the voices and impressions to talking college football. And we
certainly appreciate bumping into this spot. Sheehan Ji Raja of

(00:26):
CBS Sports College Football, a national writer and in Texas
in Waco for one of the many key games in
and around the state, this big opening, real opening weekend
of college football, Baylor and Auburn tonight. We certainly appreciate
your time and schedule juggling the weekend. Definitely, I think
has an opportunity to be something special Sunday night, certainly

(00:48):
Saturday morning and night. And I actually was most interested
in the game. You're actually covering the Baylor Auburn game
because both of those teams, probably more Baylor than Auburn,
thinks that this season is important for in Baylor's case,
maybe we can win the Big twelve and in Auburn's case,
maybe it's time for us to make a change. How
do you see tonight's game that you happen to be covering.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Yeah, No, I think you're absolutely right and By the way,
I'm sorry that you guys have to downgrade from Jay
Fair to me.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
I'm a huge stand but if you want, you.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Know, I just got the one. But you know, this
is this is I think it'd be a huge game
for both these programs. You mentioned. On the Baylor side
of things, they finished last year on a six game
winning streak in Big Twelve play and they feel like
heading into twenty twenty five, they've got one of the
most talented rosters in the conference. Sawyer Robertson at quarterback
is somebody who I think will very much contend for
first team All Big Twelve. Bryce and Washington is clearly

(01:43):
to me the best running back coming back in the conference.
And they have four offensive linemen coming back, So this
is a this is potentially a launching pad for their season.
But on the other side, I mean, you want to
talk about pressure, Auburn I think has a lot on
the line as they go on the road to play
their first game in a Big twelve stadium. You know what,
when you look at Auburn, they have four straight losing

(02:04):
seasons for the first time since nineteen fifty and this
is kind of the moment when things are expected to change.
Shu Freeze has put together a bunch of good recruiting
classes in a row. This is kind of the culmination
season for this program, so they need to come out
looking good in this first game because it doesn't get
any easier from here.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
We're so locked in on those key games this weekend
Texas and Ohio State at LSU, Clemson, Notre Dame, Miami.
I feel like there, since the season hasn't really truly
started yet, we're not focusing on the big picture, the
guesswork of this upcoming season. We spent a segment earlier
today calling this college football season extremely wide open and

(02:45):
maybe eight to ten fan bases could go into the
season thinking, if things go right, our quarterback, our coach,
our talent, we're gonna win the national title. We're definitely
going to the playoffs. We think this is our year.
Do you think it runs that deep, maybe to eight
to ten different teams.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Well, I think that If you look at the Vegas
odds right now, there are I believe nine teams that
have fifteen to one or better odds. Miami's kind of
that swing team. We'll kind of see if they can
force their way into the conversation at number ten, but
one hundred percent. And I'll tell you what, this was
probably the hardest year that I can remember to pick
a preseason number one. Texas I think is a very
deserving pick, and I ultimately went that direction. But they

(03:22):
have plenty of holes at receiver, replacing two tackles, a
new quarterback, even though he's one that we're very excited about.
You know, you even look at Penn State, right probably
the most complete roster in the country, but also have
come up short so many times against top five opponents.
You go down and down the list, Georgia, Ohio State
with all they have to replace, Notre Dame. With the

(03:42):
quarterback questions, there is not a true complete team heading
into the year, and I think that makes that a
really exciting opening to the season with.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
The Texas Ohio State matchups. It's the one that so
many people in this area of the country especially, are
talking about, what do you look for with a quarterback
matchup like this, because it's not quite like to quote
unquote rookies going at it like Arch had starts in
moments last year, but so much pressure on him and
then just trying to duplicate the success of not even

(04:14):
a year ago at Ohio State. Do you see some
butterflies playing effect into this thing? Is that why the
numbers a little bit lower? Like, what do you think
we're gonna get tomorrow around noon?

Speaker 2 (04:26):
Well, I think that people give a lot of credit
to Ohio State, and it's deserved, right. This is the
team that just won the national championship. They have the
best player in the country and Jeremiah Smith, and they
might have the second best player in the country in
Caleb Downs. But you know, I think you're right. I
think that Texas ironically is a little undervalued coming into
this game, even though they do replace a lot on
the offensive line and at receiver. The reality is the

(04:49):
best unit in this game is going to be Texas defense.
You look at their front seven, Colin Simmons at Edward thrusher,
Anthony Hill at linebacker. These are two of the best
players in the entire country, both all Americans, and I
think that they have a lot around them as well
to potentially help give their opponents trouble. So I think
that Texas defense is actually going to own this game.

(05:09):
And when I do look at these two offenses, I
trust Arch just a little bit more. He's been in
this program for two years, learning and growing. He has,
like you mentioned, two starts under his belt where he
looked pretty good. And I think that you also just
look at his demeanor overall. I mean, he is somebody
who has really, I think handled the spotlight well, has
not tried to make it about him. Everybody else, frankly,

(05:30):
has tried to make it about him. And I think
that he's going to have a great opportunity to go
in and have a great game at Ohio States.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
Sheehan jay Raja joining us here for CBS Sports covering
college football. Another big picture question, all things considered, the
NIL era, the transfer portal, the era of general managers,
the CEO of the program, everything the money involved. Who
do you think the two best college football head coaches

(05:59):
slash program runners are right now? Well?

Speaker 2 (06:03):
I think I think Kirby Smart has to be number one.
It's not just what he's done winning national championships, it's
the way that he's built his program. You know, people
have kind of asked, Hey, is Texas the spiritual successor
to Alabama? And No, I mean I think it's clearly
right now, at least that program at Georgia they have
some questions about whether they can kind of get back
to the level that they were at with their all

(06:24):
time defense in twenty twenty one. But this is a
program that every single year is going to be top five,
going to be in that conversation, going to be in
the College Football Playoff, going to at least be in
the tiebreaker for the SEC title game, essentially every single year.
So I think that he is far and away right
now number one. I think number two gets really interesting.
There's a couple of different directions that you can go.

(06:46):
I mean, I think that after he's adjusted a little bit,
Dabos Winny very much to me re enters that conversation,
I think that you know, you have a coach who
finally got over the top in Ryan Day. You have
a coach that very soon we accept will get over
the top in Steve Sarkisian. But I think that for me,
I do lean Dabus Swenny. Now I think that have

(07:07):
to deliver it this year. It is a very precipitous
number two spot, I would say. But I think that
they've done a really good job of adjusting now to
the rev Share era. They didn't handle the NIL era
very well, but I think the revshare era they've jumped on,
and I think that they've realized, hey, we've got to
continue to build through the trenches. And you look at
the way that they've recruited over the past couple of years,
I think they've done a really good job.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
Interesting just looking at some of the other coaches that
clearly you said, naming a second one becomes rather difficult.
I heard Sark just kind of mentioned he acted like
he didn't know it for real, but he was talking
about Ryan Days. You know, he's won like seventy of
his eighty games. He's like seventy and ten. No, he's
exactly seventy and ten, which is insane, and they've just
won the national title, and yet he's always being kind
of cut down for what they didn't do in other

(07:50):
seasons with the unbelievable roster. But my actual question is,
in that you're at an SEC game tonight SEC Big
twelve Auburn and Baylor, are you in the camp that
the leaves it just means more?

Speaker 3 (08:03):
Well?

Speaker 2 (08:04):
I think that yes, I think it does mean more.
And I think that when people talk about that, like
what they need to understand is that this is a
conversation about how rabid the fans are. And I think
that there's no question that as seat fans are the
most rapid. Now there's in some cases, I think, a
greater number of fans in the Big ten, and I
don't think people realize that. And you know, I think

(08:24):
the the interesting dynamic heading forward is that Fervency was
kind of the thing that you define fan bases and
value by in a previous era, and how is that
going to change as we move into an era that's
more defined by just stacking as much money as possible.
But I think that when you talk about some of
the things like you know, poisoning trees and all this

(08:46):
sort of thing, like I think that you gotta be
you gotta know like it does in fact mean more
out there?

Speaker 3 (08:52):
Yeah, real quick, then, yeah, college football fans are nuts.
But uh, Bill Belichick, did you, like, in your wildest
imagination could you have seen this scenario? And secondly, and
more importantly, especially for you know, U and C fans,
what do you think he's gonna do there?

Speaker 1 (09:11):
Well?

Speaker 2 (09:11):
It's interesting, right because I think that even the day
before he officially got the job, didn't really believe that
it was going to happen. You know, we started to
hear Rumley's like, no, this is real. Our inside Carolina
side at two four seven is a tremendous job. They
broke the news and it was just like, come on, like,
there's no way, right, there's no way. I don't really

(09:33):
understand why he's doing it. You know, when you take
over an NFL job, Yeah, it takes a minute to
revamp the roster, but you're working with professionals. You know,
you know what you're getting yourself into. But I think
the bottom and the floor is lower than people realize
in college football when you're trying to compete and contend
and find a roster out of thousands and thousands of

(09:56):
kids who you have access to. So it's going to
be an intro thing challenge for him coming in. I
think of this first year, I just don't see a
lot of playmaking on that roster on either side. I'm
sure they're gonna find a couple guys on defense. I've
heard really good things about their secondary. They've got a
couple of corners who came in with Steve Belichick from Washington.
But ultimately, like I think that this is a team

(10:17):
that you know, I think because of their schedule they're
gonna have a chance to finish with a winning record,
but it's going to be a weird, a weird deal
every single week.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
We'll definitely have some of our attention on Monday night
to close out which should be a spectacular week one
of college football beginning last night and running all the
way through Monday. Shihan, we certainly appreciate you juggling the
schedule a little bit joining us here. Enjoy the game
tonight and the rest of the season. Hopefully we'll have
a chance to catch up again.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
Thank you so much for having me the ad on
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