December 2, 2025 • 47 mins
The guys talk about this past weekend’s rivalry games and look ahead to the conference championship games.
:00 - Texas vs Texas A&M
12:50 - Alabama vs Auburn
15:05 - Oregon vs Washington
19:30 - Arizona vs Arizona State
20:45 - Ohio State vs Michigan
25:30 - Miami vs Pittsburgh
26:40 - Illinois vs Northwestern
27:40 - Georgia vs Georgia Tech
29:00 - Coaching carousel
36:50 - Conference championship games
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's now officially open. This is Draft Season presented by Moody's.
I am John Schmelck, joined as always by Tony Paul Lean.
He covers the NFL and the Draft for essentially sports
dot com. Tony, hope you had a great Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Man, it was fantastic.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
I hope you had enjoyed it as well, and our
viewers enjoyed it. I mean basically the same routine for
me every Thanksgiving. I get up at like four o'clock
in the morning, I go out for a run at
four thirty, drive down to the city, go see the
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Twenty ninth year in a row.
I've been down there, Absolutely love it. Come home and
we had about twenty people here till about eight nine
(00:44):
o'clock at night, a lot of fun. I hope it
was good for you as well.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah, it was a fun day, you know, just chasing
the kids around, saw a family, very good football games
on the NFL side, three very competitive games which were
fun to watch, which was good. And now the Ristmith
Tree is up in the living room, the Christmas music
presets are on the radio, and we are right into
Christmas season.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Baby, Yeah, I have a ladder with the Christmas presets.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
My wife is upstairs unloading the department fifty six of
those little houses. We have our tree. It'll be up
probably Friday or say we get a live tree, so
you know, we delay it a little bit. It'll be
up in the It'll be up in the family room
Friday or Saturday. And my job is to put the
tree up, take the decorations down from the attic, pack
(01:30):
the decorations boxes up and put them back up in
the attic. Everything else I stay with them. I do
set up my trains. I love my trains, which drives
my wife not so it's good that I you know,
I get to watch my with My trains are Christmas,
and I drive my.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Wife a little bit. It's kind of a two for
one deal.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Hold on, I need to dig into this. So she
is like a little Christmas village that she builds that,
that's fine. I'll my my sister does that. I have
like a Lego Christmas village whoe. Every year the Legos
they released a new Lego set that's Christmas theme. So
we get one of those every year. We have that
built on the mantle. What are the trains? Tell me
about the trains.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Well, we have a couple of them. Actually, we have
a very large Department fifty six set up with the houses.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
I'll email to you sometime if you want to.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
I want to see it.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
And I have an h an Ho set, a smaller
set that runs around the Christmas village and it's it's
a line old Christmas set, and then around the tree.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I actually have two sets. Right around the base of
the tree.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
I got a plastic battery operated Disney train, which is cool.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
And then on the outside I.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Have the Linel Polar Express set, you know, and it's
got voices and everything.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
You know.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
There's the Polar Express that it goes around and I
add to it and it's a lot of fun. I
guess the only bummer is it's only up for a month.
But yeah, yeah, we've got the trains go with the
around the tree, as a lot of people do, and
in our case, the trains also go around the department
to fifty six the Christmas scene.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
I love it. That's fantastic and it's funny. I used
to wait visit. We also get the live tree, and
I used to wait to get the live tree. Then
I talked to the people over at the tree place
we usually get the tree from. It's a place in town.
We like to buy local from, like a mom and pop,
like you know, kind of floorist, plant place or whatever.
And apparently most places just get all their trees in
(03:22):
now and they just like sit around. So even the
ones you buy three or four weeks from now to
the same trees that are sitting there now. So the guys, yeah,
I get it now. While it's fresh. You get the
good tree smell in the house, and the whole stake
house smells like pine. It's awesome.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Well, I'll tell you what, John, My in laws are
actually nursers. They own the nursery that we get the
tree from.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Oh that's.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
So.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
What happens is the trees actually come in, like the
Monday before Thanksgiving. I actually went there to fill up
the propane tank because we cooked two turkeys.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
I did in a greaseless air fryer outside.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
And the day I went to fill up the propane tank,
which was the Monday or Tuesday before the before Thanksgiving,
they got their tractor trailers full of trees. And then
what happens is my wife will go down or they'll
pull out a tree and put it on side for us.
Just a matter of you know, getting all the ducks
in a row. But yeah, I mean we'll have it
(04:15):
up early.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
All right, Well, I just learned a lot about Tony Pauline.
I was not aware of the trains. I am very
excited to see the pictures of the trains. All Right,
we got a busy show coming your way on draft
season today. It was just such a busy week in
college football and a busy week next week in college football.
Tony and I thought we really try to break down
some of the important draft prospect matchups and stuff that
(04:36):
happened in the games last week and rivalry weekend, and
we'll look ahead to the games in conference championship weekend
coming your way next week. And then next week's show,
we are gonna have a guest. We're gonna hope to
be joined by Drew Fabianic, who obviously runs the Senior Bowl. Now,
so we'll talk about invites going out in kind of
what the draft class looks like from his perspective. So, Tony,
(04:57):
let's talk about the rivalry games last week. Not as
many super close games as we would have liked. There
were a couple that went down to the wire that
were exciting, like Auburn Alabama will talk about that, but
let's go at Texas A and M and Texas. That
was on Black Friday night. You watch a little Eagles Bears,
and then you kind of tune into the college football
game afterwards. And Texas managed to win this game twenty
(05:19):
seven to seventeen, and you know, you watched it and
you just felt like Texas was always the better team.
Watching the offense was just it looked more like watching
an NFL offense than Texas A and M, which is
very collegiate type of offense, and they just couldn't get
anything going consistently. And I thought Texas just looked like
the better team throughout the matchup.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
I think the scorer made it look closer than it
actually was, because I agree Texas A and M from
the get go was playing from behind it and playing catchup.
And you know I agree with you. Number one, Texas
defense I thought did an outstanding job. And the Texas
A and M defense, which is usually pretty good, was nowhere.
They couldn't stop arch Manning. Now Manning wasn't phenomenal. On fourteenth,
(06:05):
twenty nine, one hundred and seventy nine yards one touchdown,
fifty three yards rushing.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
But he made big plays. He made the plays when
it was you know.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
On third down, when when they got to the red zone,
he was able to move the team down the field.
And you know, compared to where he is now versus
the opening game of the season against Ohio State, I
think he is head and shoulders a much better quarterback now,
by the way, and.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
By the way, he should be. You know, he's a
year of playing on there his belt. He should be,
And I think that's good and it's funny. I wanted
to talk to you about Arch because I think we
haven't talked about him in a while. Nick Tice, who
I respect a lot, does a great job for Yahoo Sports.
He said that if Arch Manning comes out, he would
still pick him as a number one quarterback in the draft.
Lastyon was because of his talent. Dan Orlofski has said
(06:52):
things that are similar. I have not watched him in
enough detail to have an opinion on that myself. A
do you are are you still convinced that he's going
back to school and be if he would come out
from talking to people? What are people thinking about him now?
Compared to what he showed the first half of the year.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
I would be shocked if he enters the draft. I mean,
you look at what his two buncles did. You look
at where his game is. Yeah, he's got great physical skill,
but he also still tends to stare down the primary target.
He's slow going through his progressions. You know, there are
some misthrows there. There are things that need to be
fixed which are much more easier to fix on the
college level than going to the pros. Now, you know,
(07:33):
where does he end up? Well, it depends on what
other quarterbacks enter the draft. I'm told Dante Moore is
very likely to stay. I'm hearing Ky Simpson he's going
to stay. Wo So arch Manning enters the draft, he
could be the second quarterback taken. I'm not taking him
before Fernando Mendoza, who's very likely to enter the draft.
I would be surprised if he enters the draft. Could
(07:56):
I see a team taking him in the top twelve, Absolutely,
but it better be a Patrick Mahomes type situation where
you sit him for a year because there are too
many things that he's got to figure out, and the
curve at the on the NFL level is so much
steeper than college, it's going to be much tougher to
figure those things out and get them ironed out, you know,
(08:19):
playing Sunday Football.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
And we will talk a little more about Frinando Mendoza
a little bit later on in the show. But Mantoni,
if your sources are correct, and those three quarterbacks Dante Moore,
Ty Simpson, and Arch Manning all go back. And by
the way, I think all three guys should go back
to be to be totally frank, neither one of them
has enough experience yet that really weakens what's already a
(08:41):
pretty weak top of the draft class.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
And I'm pretty confident about more. It's multiple sources as
of yesterday. I mean it started on Thanksgiving Day through yesterday.
That are from multiple people, you know, and Leonora Sellers
is another one. It's not in definite that he's going back.
There are some people in his camp that feel he
should enter the draft because he's going to be a
late first round pick. And the concern is if he
(09:06):
goes back to college and lays an egg, it could
turn out into a Drew a large type situation. That
situation with the Lenora sels is far from being complete.
The conversation really hasn't started yet. But there's another one.
And as we said on the show, you know, I
believe sell Sellers has got to go back to college,
(09:27):
but he's got to go to a different college.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
He can't go back to South Carolina.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Yeah, and we'll talk about some of the coaching movements
and then we'll see maybe he could hook up with
one of those coaches in one of these new spots
somewhere in college football. All right, Tony. Some other players
for Texas on offense that really made a mark for
you in this game.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Jack Injuries.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
We talked about him after Week one, after the Ohio
State game. He was one of the few bright lights
in that Longhorn loss. Four receptions for ninety three yards.
He's a playmaker at the tight end position. He's very athletic,
but his game is tied in with Arch Manning. You know,
the better Manning, who does the better Jack andrees does.
He really stood out and showed next level ability on
our Friday night game. Contravian Wisner nineteen carries one hundred
(10:08):
and fifty five yards. He's been up and down. He's
very inconsistent, but he is an explosive playmaker. He has
the speed to beat the fenders into the open field,
to run to daylight. Just saw it against Texas A
and M. He just has to do it on a
consistent basis. You know, it's a very bunched up group
of running backs after Jeremiah Love. If Weisner decides to
(10:30):
enter draft, which I think would be a mistake, you're
looking at maybe late day two and at Trevor Gooseby
did a good job against Cassius Howell, who howl ended
up with one tackle for loss. He really wasn't anywhere
in the game or did not impact the game. Gooseby's
a terrific pass protector. I mean, he's got excellent footwork.
(10:51):
He uses his hands well, it bends his knees, does
a little bit bending at the waist. I hear it's
fifty to fifty as to whether or not he's going
to enter the draft, but he's got a lot of upside.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Would like to see him go back to school.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
And Malik Mohammad, the cornerback from Texas, I thought they
played terrific. He's got a lot of John day Baron
in his game. I mean, he's a feisty guy. He
battles opponents. He's got real good ball skills. He's terrific
facing the action. Liked them coming into the season. Thought
he played well against Casey conception On, who only had
(11:23):
five receptions. Did impact that game as a punt returner.
But Malik Muhammed's a guy that we really don't talk
about too much, you know, through the year, because everyone's
talking about Arch Manning. Defensively, you're talking about Anthony Hill.
Mohammed the cornerback is a legitimate nickelback for Sunday.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
You know, you mentioned Wisner And it's funny. He gets
his yards. He has five to thirty seven, five ninety
seven yards on the season. Part in me, so almost
a quarter of his season one martshing yards came in
that game against Texas A and M. But I'm trying
to figure out what his best trade is. Like he's
not huge, he's not super fast, he's not super quid.
He just seems to grind yards a little bit.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Yeah, he does have an explosive burst and he has
a pension for picking up you know, long big yardage
from the line of scrimmage on occasion. But you know
he's got to do it on a consistent basis, and
then a NFCJ Baxter ever gets healthy, he may never
be able to do it on a cossister basis of Texas.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
That's right. And now for Texas A and M Casey
conception continues to produce Tony on offense and on special teams.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Well special teams. Is you know what he did? It
was this big impact in that game. Four pump returns
for sixty two yards, only had five receptions for fifty
seven yards. I think a lot of that had to
do with the way Malik Mohammad shut him down. You know,
but this guy is turning into, as you'd like to say,
the Swiss Army Knife at receiver. He's explosive, he's very
good running after the catch. You see him impact games
(12:49):
as a return specialist. All that's gonna do is just
increase his draft stock if he decides, you know, to
enter the twenty twenty six event.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
All right, let's stick in the sec the Alabama and
Auburn Tony the iron ball. This is one of the
games that went down to the wire. Alabama won twenty
seven to twenty. Auburn tried to drive late. They cannot
convert that drive. I think there was an interception to
close that game out if I remember properly, right, So
Alabama holds on. But another game late in the year
where ty Simpson did not play great, just nineteen to
(13:21):
thirty five one hundred and twenty two yards, though he
did have three touchdowns, but he took an awful lot
of sacks too, three.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Sacks, was hurried. Auburn had eight quarterback hurries. I liken
this game to the way Penn State played against Indiana
in the sense that Auburn went for broke Auburt. It's
not going to a ballgame. They got a new coach,
which we'll talk about later on. This was their ball
game and it was you know, they were just playing
non stop go and I thought that You're right. He
(13:51):
wasn't great, but he didn't make any mistakes. He protected
the football, he got the team into the end zone.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
He did what was necessary.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
I mean, he was sort of like what Archie Manning did,
although he was getting beat up pretty good by that
Olburn defense, by that Alvern pass rush. Kron Crawford, the
guy we didn't talk about, he was omni president in
that game. You know, it wasn't a great performance, but
though there was a good performance. I mean he won
the game for him and many instances, you know, he
stood in there, he got the pass away. The one
(14:23):
thing about the Simpson that concerns me. I said it
last week. He's not a big guy. I mean, he's
got an arm, get the ball now field, but he's
not a guy that's gonna be able to really take
that sort of punishment week after week.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Yeah, I think the other season for him, you can
be talking about him legitimately is the top pick in
the draft next year if he goes back and he
continues along his progression. A couple of Alabama defenders jumped out.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
To you, Tony, Yeah, Deontay lost, and we talk about
what a terrific off ball winebacker draft this is. It's
one of the strongest position and one guy that we
really don't talk about that much because he gets lost
in the shuffle. Is Deontay lost in seven tackles against
the Auburn sixty for the season, still has the SEC
Title game, still has the College Football Playoffs. He's a
(15:03):
terrific sideline to sideline linebacker, really stands out in pursuit,
good and pass coverage. Just another good off ball linebacker
in what looks like is going to be a stellar
class in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
All right, let's jump over to I can't believe I'm
saying this the Big Ten Oregon in Washington, a classic
Big Ten matchup. Oregon holds on wins this game twenty
six to fourteen, and Dante Moore is a standout again Tony,
he played.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Well, starting to grow on me.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
You know, I kind of like kept him at arden's
length when everybody jumped on to Dante more pandwagon.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
But the Iowa game was solid. But the guy makes
a lot of plays.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Now, I think it's gonna be it's gonna be harder
for him to transition to his style of play on Sunday,
which is probably part of the reason why I'm hearing
he's gonna stay back another year. But I mean, the
guy makes plays. The guy comes up with big plays,
important plays on third down in the red zone. He
shows some get on accuracy at times, all the times
(16:00):
the ball gets away from him. You like the athleticism,
the RPO type of ability. Although he looks to pass
first and run and play and run with the ball second,
plays well from the pocket. I could see why a
lot of people like Dante Moore real lot and why
they think he will be an early quarterback, an early
(16:21):
pick in the draft. Maybe I got on the bandwagon late.
But the guy who's really starting to grow on me, you.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Know, Tony, this wasn't on your rundown. So I'm putting
on this body or I apologize. What happened to your
guy Stewart, the wide receiver Oregon you liked so much
last year. He went back and you thought he could
really blow up this year. We haven't heard much from
him this season.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
I believe he tore an achilles your tour a new
ligament in August. Yeah, he has implated down he's been.
He was injured. It was it was like it was
supposed to be a devastating injury. You know, everybody was
like they lost their number one playmaker and they didn't know,
you know, what was going to happen with the new quarterback.
But Oregon's offense hasn't hasn't missed a beat. And that's
(16:59):
a good story that which I'm trying to delve into
to see if he's going to go back or he's
going to enter the draft, because if he entered last
year's draft.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
At worst, he's.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
The second round pick. I think it was a surprise
to many of us when he decided to go back.
That's the power of the nil. But unfortunately, and I
don't know it was an achilles or a knee injury,
like right when August Camp started it and he was
done for the season.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
And Tony one of the players you wanted to mention
from this game, correct.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Yeah, Drew as a party, the right tackle from Washington.
Keep an eye on him. He's very athletic, he's mobile.
He's a college right tackle who I think can play
left tackle or could be his own blocking guard in
the NFL. Really good on the second level, really good
pass protection. This guy get a little bit stronger. Sometimes
he gets knocked back off off the ball because he
doesn't have that strong base. But he's got a lot
(17:46):
of upside. Very likely to return, as I think would
be to his benefits. But an offensive tackle or an
offensive line prospect that's got a high upside.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
And Tony to one of the players I want to
mention from Washington's off And Jonah Coleman, the running back,
didn't do a whole lot in this game. In fact,
he was third on the team in terms of total
number of carries, which I was surprised by.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yeah, he was, and I was watching that game.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
He did well when the ball was handed to him,
but he wasn't the feature running back. I don't know
exactly what the situation is. I know there are some
people out there who love Coleman. I like him, you know,
I think he's kind of down the list in that
second tier of running backs. I think he'll be a
good rotational back on Sunday. He's got excellent vision. But
you know, you go back to what you said about
(18:32):
Wisner of Texas. You know, I watched. He's smart, he's
got great visions, some good short ear of quickness. He's
not really big, he's not super fast.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
He just knows.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
He's a brief, wole type of You give him the
ball and he's gonna find ways to pick up yardage,
all right.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
And then Denzel Boston, Washington wide receiver four catches twenty
four yards in this game, did have a pair of touchdowns.
Could he be trying to get himself into the first
round conversation, Tony, do you think as one of the
kind of the big traditional X skyscaper, a wide receiver.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
I'm hearing he's very likely to enter the draft and
could he be in the get in the first round,
possibly because it's so jumbled at the receiver position. I mean,
you talked to ten different people as who their number
one receiver is. You're gonna get twelve different answers. I mean,
that's that's the situation the position right now. You know,
if you want a big, strong, possession type guy, guy
(19:22):
that's gonna win out, you know, for the contested pass,
the got you throw the ball to on third and six,
for the first down in the red zone, Boston's your guy.
If you want that quick, explosive route runner, or you
want somebody with the vertical speed, you're probably gonna look
away from him.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
All right, Well, I want to know on tour of
the gamestony, these weren't on your list, So I want
to hit him fast and then we'll get to the
last two you wanted to touch on. We talked about
wide receiver. So Arizona played Arizona State. Arizona won that
game twenty three to seven. So we're probably not gonna
see Jordan Tyson again play football before he comes out
for the draft, and his last performance two catches, just
twenty two yards, and again his season kind of ended
(19:59):
on a little bit of a win. I'm here, Tony.
Another injury issue and he has not had a big
game in quite a while.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Spent more time on the sidelines than he did on
the field. And I watched that game because of the
two the couple of dbs at Arizona. We talked about
the safety Genesis Smith and Stokes the cornerback. It was
the other cornerback, Michael Dansby, who really played well. But again,
you know that's the concern with Jordan Tyson. He was
(20:25):
injured last year, missed the college football playoff game in
Arizona State when they almost beat Texas.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
He's been injured so much this year. And again, I know.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
You like him, and a lot of people like him.
He's not really big, he's not super fast. He's a
real good pass catcher. But when you get a guy
that's not that big that's got these constant injury issues,
that's a major red flag heading.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Towards the draft.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Now. Look, and Tony, I'm with you. I think the
injuries are huge red flag and that that is gonnas
and change why I eventually have him ranked all right,
and I want touch on Ohios Day in Michigan real quick. Well,
howise they wins that game twenty seven to nine. Ryan
Day gets the monkey off of his back after more
than two thousand days since they beat them, and Carnal
Tate stepped up big time. So I want to stick
with the wide receiver team theme. Five catches six is
(21:08):
that eighty two yards? Eighty two yards and a touchdown?
And you know, I just thought he continues to play well.
I think he's very much in the wide receiver one
conversation in this year's draft class. In fact, if I
had the guest, I think he will be the first
wide receiver taken just because of the draft class. I
think he might end up going in the top ten.
I'm not sure he's a top ten player, but he
might end up going there anyway. But Carnal Tait still was,
(21:31):
you know, four five games to go here in the
college football playoffs and the conference championship to kind of
show where he stands in this wide receiver hierarchy.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
I think the interesting name with Cardinal Tate is we
know he's a good receiver. He's a terrific handcatcher. He
comes away with the contested, contested throw as he saw
even last year in the playoffs, he comes away with
the important receptions. Two on third to six, he'll make
a reception for eight yards. I think the interesting name
with carnal tit that we got a track and we
won't know what's label is is he going to test?
Speaker 2 (22:01):
And how does he test? How fast is he in
the forty? How does he run the shuttles? What's his
ten split? Is he going to do any of that?
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Because if he does it, and he does it well,
I think without a doubt he'll very likely be the
number one receiver in the draft. If he doesn't do it,
then we know there's probably he's not doing it because
he won't test it well and the marks won't be
that good.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Then again, and remind me, I don't think Jackson's with
Jigma did much testing either when he came out either,
right did he did? He just do pro Day?
Speaker 3 (22:31):
But he did run the forty. I was actually at
that Proda. Yeah, he did ran like a four to
four eight. But the thing with Smith Njigba is you
were drafting him because he was such an exceptional route runner.
I mean, like I said, I was at that pro day.
He was cutting on a dime. He was catching everything.
You weren't drafting him for the downfield to be I'll
(22:51):
tell you the other guy, and it didn't show up
in the statue. But Max Claire again another big game
filed in a week ago. We talked about him when
the two Jeremiah Smith mc Cardinal Tate we're out with injury,
had five receptions for over one hundred yards, played really well,
had a couple of nice catches, but also the discipline
route running which opened things up for Jeremiah Smith McConnell tay.
(23:13):
I think Max Claire's really starting to tight end from
Ohio State's really starting to get in a good groove.
And you see why he was such a highly talented transfer.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Yeah, Antonio was trying to figure out what happens after
Jeremiah Love gets picked in this draft and who the
second running back is going to be and Justice Haynes.
You talked about Joa Coleman. He didn't do much. Justice
Haynes didn't play in this game due to injury. So
that number two running back spot is really wide open
up for grabs and you might not even see that
guy picked a round three.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
Justin Hayes hasn't played and I believe in almost a
month because of the injury. So that is a major question.
You know, I'm pulling up my boy, and I doubt
Justin Haynes enters the draft. I mean, he would be
kind of crazy to enter the drafts all of the
fact that he missed half the season or almost half
the season with injury. Jadarian Price, don't you dain is
(24:04):
he going to enter the draft? I mean, you know,
it's kind of a half season's work because he's playing
behind Jeremiah love I like kJ Allen from Kate tron
Allen from Penn State a lot, But again, Kate trevn Allen.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
To your point, I'm looking at my board right now.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
I have a third round greade on him, Jeremiah Love,
Jadarium Price, Justice Hayes on my top three backs. Of
those three, Jeremiah Lovell one to the draft, the other
two are questionable. The next guy is Kate tron Allen,
the big running back out of Penn State who's seven
a terrific season but projects as a third rounder.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
And by the way, I will just since we're talking
running back here, Tony, I will take a collective bow
for the two of us if you listen to this
show the last two years. Both of us were huge
fans of Rutgers running back Kyle Mnungai, and he has
basically taken over a fifty to fifty time share with
DeAndre Swift in Chicago. The guy split the carries almost evenly.
(24:56):
Now he's averaging almost five yards per carry five hundred
and ninety one rushing yards. He's turned out to be
a really nice running back in the pros Man. It
shows you the testings, not everything at that position. If
you can run it, you can run it.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
Wasn't really big, wasn't super fast or quick. Incredibly in
a very smart guy. I got to interview on before
the draft. He had offers to go to Ivy League
schools after his junior year at Rutgers. He had huge
nil offers, but he was loyal to Schiano. He was
loyal to Rutgers, and he's just a terrific football player
(25:30):
who gets it between the Ears.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Draft season is presented by Moody's. Moodies is a proud
partner of the New York Giants. Decode Risk, Unlock Opportunity.
Learn more at Moodies Dot com all right, Tony. A
couple more games here before we move on to the
college coaching carousel. Mammi Pittsburgh. Miami continues to roll. They
win thirty eight to seven. If they didn't mess up
those two games early in the year, they be lock
stock and two smoking barrels into the college football playoffs.
(25:54):
Right now, they are very much still on the fringe.
But you were how you are on a couple of
matchups up front with two very talented Mammy edge rushers
against a good Pittsburgh offensive tackle.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
Yeah, the last two games it was offensive tackle against
pass rushers, and in both instances the pass rushers.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Run one out.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
Ryan Bear, who's slightly underrated, the athletic right tackle from Pittsburgh,
has not had a good year. He did not have
a good game against Miami. They were running circles around him.
Ruben Bain as well as the team messidor. I think
Bain had one and a half sacks, one and a
half tackles lost.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
They had five quarterback hurries.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
I mean, Bear is very indicative of what we see
from this tackle class going into the season with high expectations.
Kind of just late in eight was just he was
not good against Miami on Saturday. He did not live
up the expectations during the season. Should definitely consider going
back to school, all right.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
And then finally in by the Way, Miami won that
game thirty eight to seven. And then in the Battle
of Illinois, Illinois defeats Northwestern twenty to thirteen. And you
and your eyes on Caleb Tiernan, a guy who've been
tracking all year going against gave jackas another guy that
we've had our eye on since our first episode.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
You know, when we had Dame bruge leron and and
Dane was talking about how much he liked Tiernan, I questioned, Dane,
you know, do you think he can play left tackle
on Sunday? Because when I watched Tiernan, I saw him
as a right tackle, maybe a guard.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Dane thought for sure he could play left tackle.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
If you watch this game, there's no way Caleb Tiernan
Northwestern is going to stay at left tackle on Sunday. Now,
the first time of the game was played in a
half inch snow on the field, But I mean Jacchus
just ran circles around him. Two and a half tackles, lost,
two sacks, two quarterback hurries. I mean it was basically
like the varsity playing against the JV Tiernan struggled getting
out of his stance. Couldn't just I think, really this
(27:43):
game is going to be a big blow to his
draft stock and especially those who question whether or not
he can stay at left tackle on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
All right, Tony, let's jump down to the coach. Actually,
one of the game I want to mention just because
it was stark when I looked at it. So I'm
looking at my list, I'm like, well, the Tony not
list Georgia Georgia Tech on his list here, and I'm
looking at it Georgia one sixteen time. And then I
started looking at the at the box score and the players,
and I'm like, man, we've been doing this over a
long time, Tony, this might be the weakest Georgia draft
(28:13):
class that I And we'll talk more about him when
we do the Georgia Alabama game in the conference title game.
But man, there are not a lot of Georgia prospects
in this draft class that are gonna go in the
first or second round. And it's so odd we even
seen this in a long time.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Let's take that to the next step. Look at the
SEC as a whole, and we'll talk about that later
on when we talk about the coaching changes. I think
that Georgia is just a microcosm of the SEC this
year compared to previous years. In fact, it's funny, you know,
you bring that up. I had a reporter from the
Associated Press called me to interview me exactly about that,
(28:50):
the SEC being having a down year as far as
far as NFL prospects of concern, and Georgia that had,
you know, the past couple of years consistently had players
in the top ten, consistently had three four players selecting
the first round.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Are indicative or are the poster child for that?
Speaker 1 (29:08):
No question about it. And again we'll talk more about
the SEC title game in a little bit, But first
toy the coaching carousel and a lot of jobs opened
up and jobs that are pretty good in big conferences.
And early in this process we saw, you know, James
Franklin went to Virginia Tech. We'll talk about that. We've
mentioned it before, but you've seen some of these programs
(29:29):
reach into some of the non Power five schools that
have had a lot of success, pull guys up or
at least even some you know, not teams that are
not traditional powerhouse programs, pull coaches from those programs that
have done well and make them their head.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Coaches, and it's it's kind of it doesn't always work out.
You look at Florida. They take John Sumroll of Tulane, Arkansas,
Ryan Silverfield of Memphis, Auburn, Alex Scholarsh of South Florida.
The South Florida coach has been terrific, really pulled that
program them out from the sewer, if you will, and
now they're in the in the bowl game. But you know,
(30:05):
flawarda try this with Billy Napier and it didn't work out.
They go to Tulane. Now you remember Auburn with Brian
Harrison from Boise State didn't work out. So it's kind of,
you know, they hope to catch the lightning in a bottle.
But a lot of times when you get take these
coaches rather from non Power four or what used to
be Nonpower five conferences and make them your head coach,
(30:27):
a lot of risks there, as opposed to say maybe
taking an established coordinator. You see the success that Brett
Venables is finally having at Oklahoma, you know, and he
was such a terrific defensive forty in all those years
at Clemson. It's kind of interesting given the recent history
of going this route hasn't always worked out.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
Yeah, it really hasn't. All have to see, you know,
everything just so different. The type of players you're recruiting
are different, how you go about the recruiting is different.
It's just it's a completely different world than these guys.
I'd be great, they might not be wolf d Wait
and see. Now we'll go to the big name guys
that went to the big name programs. We talked about
it a little bit already, James Franklin going to Virginia Tech.
Virginia Tech has been down for a while, Tony, and look,
(31:11):
see what're you talking about? James Franklin. The guy knows
how to win, win a lot of regular season college
football games, and he does it pretty consistently.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
And they have some good young players on defense. They
got a couple of really good linebackers that we're going
to be talking about next year. And I think that
bringing in Franklin that early, what that does is he
gets them acquainted with those guys.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
He gets them to consider coming back to Virginia Tech.
Because usually what happens is when there's a change in coaching,
especially these days, everybody you know, there's people enter the
transfer portal, signed big anil deals and go elsewhere. Because
that coach who was fired as the one who recruited him.
I think Franklin it gives when they hired him, gives
(31:53):
a Virginia Tech a head start to, you know, to
get the players that are there that he wants to
return pluses, he say, as Franklin set himself. He knows
that area, that recruiting area because he recruited it so
hard at Penn State and knowing the high schools, knowing
the high school coaches, having a relationship with them is
very important.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
I thought it was a.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
Terrific hire by Virginia Tech. I hope James Franklin does
very well there.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
And then Michigan's say, I think they did as well
as you could have expected to. They've been really, really
down and they hire Pat Fitzgerald, who's the former Northwestern
head coach Tony and we all know what happened. He
ended up getting let go. There are allegations and stuff
like that, but for what I could tell, he's been
colmost completely exonerated from all of that, and I'm sure
Northwestern would like to have that back because he was
(32:39):
a don good coach for them, and I think Michigan
State is going to do well with him.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
I think this is a home run Higher. I mean
no doubt about it. Yeah, First of all, he was
a tremendous coach.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
Remember, Northwestern is like the IVY League of the Big Ten,
and you know they're not getting top football recruits. So
he had to basically do what he can to get
the most out of second tier recruits at Northwestern because
people are going there not to become NFL professionals, but
to get degrees in biology and nuclear science and things
(33:10):
like that. Now he goes to Michigan State, you know,
he's got to chip on his shoulder because of what
happened with Northwestern. You know, Michigan State is sick and
tired of being the redheaded step child in the state
of Michigan. With all success that Michigan has had, They're
gonna put money into Nil. They're gonna put more money
into getting players to transfer over. They got to prove
(33:31):
and winner at head coach. I thought this was a
home run higher by Michigan State. It may take a
couple of years, but watch out, they are going to
be in the end. They will be a competitor in
that conference.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
I totally agree. And they have some money to throw
around there as well. And then finally we buried the
big one for last, lank Kiffin making the big announcement
over the weekend, after all the anticipation, he decides to
head to LSU.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
Listen, I don't think lang Kiffin is a great head coach.
I don't think Key's a Nick Saban type. I know
LSU is kind of chasing chasing lightning here hoping that
they can you know, they got the best head coach
and that he can bring them back to prominence. When
I look at Mississippi, I thought the Mississippi team from
(34:18):
last year is better.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Than the one this year.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
And you look at all the players that they had selected,
the players they had selected in the first round. Yet
they didn't get They didn't even play in the conference
title game, never mind playing the College Football Championship. Now
they'll be in the College Football College Roble playoffs. They'll
be in the College Football playoffs but again this year,
but again they're not.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
In the conference title game.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
And as I was alluding to before it is Mississippi
that much better of a team? Or is the SEC
is a conference down compared to what it was? Georgia
is not the same team it was a couple of
years ago. Obviously LSU is not is not close to
being what it was Florida forget about. You know, when
when I look at I'm looking at my top twenty board,
(35:00):
when it's usually maybe thirty SEC players, it's barely a
handful of SEC players that are in the top thirty
as far as NFL prospects, which tells me that while
Glenn kiffen de deserves credit for the success he had
at Mississippi this year, it's as much as the rest
of the conference being down as Mississippi being that much
(35:21):
better of a team. I don't know how he's gonna do.
He was a disaster at Tennessee. It was a disaster
at USC, It was a disaster with the Raiders. He
had good seasons at Mississippi. You got to give him
credit for that. I'm just not a fan of the
way he left. You leave a team that's gonna fight
for a national championship and then you start whining. He say, well,
the players wanted me to coach. I mean, you know, listen,
(35:44):
you're getting your twelve million dollars a year. Say thank you,
get on the plane and shut up and leave.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
Strong words from Tony. I will say this. The fact
that these decisions have to be made now while like
the season is still going on, because the recruiting schedule
and you know, all that sort of stuff and the
transferport all that night no sense. It stinks like, I
don't know what you can do about it. But the
timing of this whole process is no good.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
What can you do about it?
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Because so you know, LSU was in competition with Florida,
and Florida finally back now and you know somebody's gonna
go there with with the with the open checkbook. And
you know, I don't begrudtulate the coaches for getting this
money because the coaches successful teams bring a lot of
money into colleges. I think I read that LSU football
had in one hundred and seven million dollars in revenue
(36:30):
in twenty twenty four. So you know, but what are
you gonna do? I mean, it's the wild wild West
now in college football. It's been like that with coaches.
It's not like that with players, but it's a billion
dollar industry.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Yeah, and look link if and I'll basically have a
blank checks to write to try to get players to
come there for nil for LSU. So we'll see how
that goes down there in Louisiana. Draft Season is presented
by Moody's, a proud part of the New York Giants,
uniting the brightest minds to turn today's risk into tomorrow's opportunities.
Learn more at moodies dot com. All right, Tony, let's
look ahead to the conference championship games coming up this Saturday.
(37:09):
We're gonna start the Sun Belt. Well, James Madison Troy.
What do we got a big tone?
Speaker 3 (37:14):
Well, you remember James. Remember James Madison has the top defense.
James Madison, whose coaches, by the way, Jesney is at
the East Coast. Guy is on his way to coaching
UCLA next year next season. Top defense in the Sun Belt.
In one of the really terrific defense against Troy. Why
if you watch the game. Roron Thomas, the receiver from
(37:35):
Troy last week against Southern Miss five receptions, one hundred
and eighteen yards. He was highly rated entering the twenty
twenty four season when he played for Georgia, gotten to
some off the field issues, was dismissed from the Georgia program,
did not play football in twenty twenty four, has come
back and is slowly getting it into gear at Troy.
(37:56):
You know, scouts in twenty twenty four liked him as
a potent to late Day three, a Day two pick.
He's now more of a Day three type of prospect.
But rob Rod Thomas, the receiver from Troy against that
tough James Madison defense is an NFL a next level
matchup to keep.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
An eye on.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
Yeah, and Troy very quietly does actually produce a decent
number of NFL prospects, So definitely something to keep an
eye on down there. Giants. Osi Minuro, for example, was
a Troy graduate. Lawrence Tynes was a Troy graduate, So
they do have a lot of players that do come
out of there. Alright, let's go to the Big twelve
next Tony BYU Texas Tech, and we're gonna have some
good matchups between this Texas Tech defense and the offensive
(38:36):
line of BYU.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Well, you know, we talk.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
About David Baily, the Texas Tech pass rusher, the Stanford
transfer who's life very likely be a top fifteen pick.
They also have another pass rusher by the name of
Romelo Height, an undersize sort of stand up linebacker who
in college comes out comes out of a three point stance.
Going against Bear Bachmeyer, the big two hundred and thirty
(38:58):
pounds back that wears number forty seven because he used
to be a linebacker that has got that BYU offense going.
That's gonna be an interesting matchup to watch. And then
Texas Tech has got some outstanding pass catchers that a
lot of people aren't gonna haven't been talking about their
day three type guys. Receiver Reggie Virgil, who came from
(39:19):
I believe it was Ball State, is having a terrific year.
He's a smaller, sleek, quick guy that separates through his routes,
shows some decent deep speed. Caleb Douglas who's put up
big numbers in the past three years, more of your
possession type. And then Terrence Carter, the transfer from Louisiana
at the tight end. Very athletic guy, tough to miss
(39:40):
on the field. He gets downfield and creates mismatches. A
real good pass catcher who also does a solid job blocking.
So keep your eye on Everybody talks about David Bailey, understandably,
so keep your eye on those Texas Tech pass catchers.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
All right, now, let's jump to the sec tonal you mentioned.
We talk about the game Georgia and Alabama trying to
close this out here. We'll see how it goes.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
You know, it's interesting because you know, as you alluded to,
Georgia doesn't It's not the Georgia team of the past.
I'm looking at my board here, maybe one first rounder
in CJ.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
Allen.
Speaker 3 (40:11):
When I look at my board, it's Alabama heavy, especially
at the top. They've got the better players, They've got
the best prospects. I think what they've got to do
is what they haven't done the past two games. They
got to protect Ty Simpsons, and Simpson's got to be
able to get the ball to those dynamic receivers that
he has at his disposal.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
Some of them have really helped themselves. We saw Isaiah
Horton in that Auburn game really come to life. We've
been waiting for him.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
The receiver, Josh Quavid, I'm sorry, the tight end Josh
Quavis has played well as of recently. Georgia's got two
tight ends in Oscar delp and Lauren lost some lucky
that you got to keep an eye on. It's everybody's
going to talk about Ty Simpson and the irony is
unlike previous years. It's not just Georgia, it's also Alabama
(40:56):
that are not going to have those very early picks
that we are used too.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Yeah, I think it's interesting to keep an eye and
we'll see how that goes. And then Tony. This is
really the big one this week, right, Indiana and Ohio State.
We we touched out Ohio State in Michigan briefly, but
this is a all right, Indiana, we think you're pretty good.
You have a good record. You beat Oregon right like
like you feel pretty good about you know, what they've done.
(41:21):
But let's see how you do against the big boys
in Ohio State.
Speaker 3 (41:24):
This game is not only going to decide the winner
of the Big Ten, likely the top seed in the
college football playoffs, It's likely to decide the Heisman Trophy.
When you consider Julian Sane against Fernando Mendoza. This is
a huge challenge for Fernando Mendoza. I mean, this is
he's playing, He's going up against an NFL defense. They
(41:45):
got NFL players and they'll be drafted early. They're coached
by a former NFL coach. This is what Fernando Mendoza
is going to be facing on Sundays, except he's going
to be doing it this Saturday, and there is a
lot riding on the line for him. Like I said,
you know, besides the high schoo trophy and seeing in
the college football playoffs. If Fernando Mendoza plays well, doesn't
(42:05):
have to win the game, but he's got to play well.
It's got to stay away from the mistakes. He's got
to move the change and show that he can move
Indiana down the field. He's got to react well to
the pressure as he did against Penn State. Then I
think not only is he a top three pick, then
I think the conversation turns to where a team trade
(42:25):
up to get him with the number one pick. With
the team trade up, you know, with the Tennessee Titans
to get Fernando Mendoza if he shows his medal against
Ohio State. Because the Ohio State defense is just that good.
I mean, early draft picks, a great coach, a great
defensive coordinator, and they just keep getting better and better,
and the Indiana offensive line is good, they're not great.
(42:49):
They've got some really good receivers, but they're not great receivers.
They got a solid running game, but it's not Jeremiah Love.
So it's basically Fernando Mendoza and how he uses the
players around him. Huge challenge and there's a lot at
stake here.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
Yeah, he really is in that house. The defense, Tony
is just so good, but in the endas defense is
gonna be tested as well against some of the weapons
we talked about for the Buckeyes.
Speaker 3 (43:14):
D'Angelo Pons, we talked about him. I think with ched
Reuder when Chad was on. You know, he's small, but
he's got terrific ball skills. He's feisty, he's instinctive, but
he's barely five to ten. I mean, he's probably five
nine and change. He's gonna be going up against sometimes
Carnell Tate, who goes over six foot, sometimes Jeremiah Smith,
(43:35):
who goes over six too. So I think that you know,
Hans D'Angel Pons is gonna fight and he's gonna compete,
and he'll have his you know, he'll have his opportunities,
but he's also gonna be over MaTx by you know,
three to four inches, depending on who he's playing against.
That's gonna be interesting the match up to watch. And again,
you know, I talked about Max Claire and I think
(43:57):
he's turning it on going up against Aiden Fisher, really
good linebacker, Day three prospect from Indiana. He's terrific in pursuit,
covers a lot of area, has shown a lot of
ability and coverage, gets great depth on his past drops.
He's not just an up the field type of guy.
You can see him downfield twenty yards off the line
of scrimmage, making plays from the balls against the air.
(44:18):
It's gonna be interesting to see how much House incorporates
Claire into the offense, especially with Smith and Tate being
a little bit nicked up, and how Aiden Fisher responds
with his coverage assignments Unclaire all.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
Right, and then you have the defensive backs for Ohiose
day Tony who we've talked about, Caleb Downs a bunch.
You haven't talked about Davis and Agbinos in a ton
He another defensive pass interference penalty in that game last
week against Michigan, which he still is a thing for him,
but he had the big interception to close out the game,
rips out the helmet to celebrate, and he's they're gonna
go up against a couple of really good Indiana wide receivers.
Speaker 3 (44:53):
Yeah, you got Elijah Sharratt, who's your bigger possession wide out.
You may remember him from that Iowa game when it
was it was nip and talked. He caught a crossing
pattern five yards off the want of scrimmage to grow
up to tackle, went forty nine yards for the game
winning touchdown. And you got Omar Cooper who made that
sensational catch at the back of the end zone against
Penn State. Both of these guys are real good college
(45:15):
receivers who project well to the next level. They are
more third fourth round type guys, but they are favorites
of Fernando Mendoza. They are reliable, different types of games.
Sarat being more of your bigger, slower possession receiver, Cooper's faster,
Cooper's quicker. We'll see how Caleb Downs does if he's
putting coverage against him. One of the top players in
(45:35):
the draft, Igmund Nosen, You're right, got flagged for a
penalty last week, but he's really cut it down because
in twenty twenty four he was a human yellow flag.
I mean they were constantly throwing penalty flags. Yes for Pi.
He's cut that down. He's played much better than he
did in twenty twenty four. It's gotten back into the
good graces NFL scouts. Big challenge for him to cover
(45:57):
sarat Or Cooper and not get called for a penalty.
Speaker 1 (46:02):
Absolutely right. And then that OSU front Ohio state front man.
They are, they're really good. And Indiana's offensive line is
gonna have their hands full.
Speaker 3 (46:12):
And Yanna Jackson the defensive end who has been really
developing incredibly well the past year. Cayden Curry who took
over for Jack Sawyer, has had a great year. Arvel Reese,
who we've talked about awsome on this podcast.
Speaker 2 (46:25):
No reason to talk about him anymore because he's going
to be an early pick.
Speaker 3 (46:29):
Carter Smith, the left tackle for the Indiana really good
pass protective, fundamentally sound, does a great job. Doesn't blow
you away, but he's very efficient. Don't know whether he's
going to be a tackler or GUARDI he's only an
underclassman tackle or garden and the NFL, you know, like
Fernando Mendoz against the Ohio State defense like de'angelo Ponds
against the Ohio State receiver. This is a big test
(46:52):
for Corter Smith, who is considered a next level prospect
the left tackle for Indiana against that great Ohio State
pass rush.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
A fun week of college football, Tony. Hope you enjoy
it and we'll talk to you next week.
Speaker 2 (47:05):
Look forward to it.
Speaker 1 (47:06):
John, that is Tony Pauline. You can find all those
work at essentially sports dot com. I am John Schmulck,
coming to you from the Hackensack Marinine Health Podcast. You
keep getting better. That's all the time we have for
draft season, presented by Movies for Tony. I'm Schmelk. We'll
see you next time. Everybody,
It's now officially open. This is Draft Season presented by Moody's.
I am John Schmelck, joined as always by Tony Paul Lean.
He covers the NFL and the Draft for essentially sports
dot com. Tony, hope you had a great Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Man, it was fantastic.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
I hope you had enjoyed it as well, and our
viewers enjoyed it. I mean basically the same routine for
me every Thanksgiving. I get up at like four o'clock
in the morning, I go out for a run at
four thirty, drive down to the city, go see the
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Twenty ninth year in a row.
I've been down there, Absolutely love it. Come home and
we had about twenty people here till about eight nine
(00:44):
o'clock at night, a lot of fun. I hope it
was good for you as well.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Yeah, it was a fun day, you know, just chasing
the kids around, saw a family, very good football games
on the NFL side, three very competitive games which were
fun to watch, which was good. And now the Ristmith
Tree is up in the living room, the Christmas music
presets are on the radio, and we are right into
Christmas season.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Baby, Yeah, I have a ladder with the Christmas presets.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
My wife is upstairs unloading the department fifty six of
those little houses. We have our tree. It'll be up
probably Friday or say we get a live tree, so
you know, we delay it a little bit. It'll be
up in the It'll be up in the family room
Friday or Saturday. And my job is to put the
tree up, take the decorations down from the attic, pack
(01:30):
the decorations boxes up and put them back up in
the attic. Everything else I stay with them. I do
set up my trains. I love my trains, which drives
my wife not so it's good that I you know,
I get to watch my with My trains are Christmas,
and I drive my.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Wife a little bit. It's kind of a two for
one deal.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Hold on, I need to dig into this. So she
is like a little Christmas village that she builds that,
that's fine. I'll my my sister does that. I have
like a Lego Christmas village whoe. Every year the Legos
they released a new Lego set that's Christmas theme. So
we get one of those every year. We have that
built on the mantle. What are the trains? Tell me
about the trains.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Well, we have a couple of them. Actually, we have
a very large Department fifty six set up with the houses.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
I'll email to you sometime if you want to.
Speaker 1 (02:16):
I want to see it.
Speaker 3 (02:17):
And I have an h an Ho set, a smaller
set that runs around the Christmas village and it's it's
a line old Christmas set, and then around the tree.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I actually have two sets. Right around the base of
the tree.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
I got a plastic battery operated Disney train, which is cool.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
And then on the outside I.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Have the Linel Polar Express set, you know, and it's
got voices and everything.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
You know.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
There's the Polar Express that it goes around and I
add to it and it's a lot of fun. I
guess the only bummer is it's only up for a month.
But yeah, yeah, we've got the trains go with the
around the tree, as a lot of people do, and
in our case, the trains also go around the department
to fifty six the Christmas scene.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
I love it. That's fantastic and it's funny. I used
to wait visit. We also get the live tree, and
I used to wait to get the live tree. Then
I talked to the people over at the tree place
we usually get the tree from. It's a place in town.
We like to buy local from, like a mom and pop,
like you know, kind of floorist, plant place or whatever.
And apparently most places just get all their trees in
(03:22):
now and they just like sit around. So even the
ones you buy three or four weeks from now to
the same trees that are sitting there now. So the guys, yeah,
I get it now. While it's fresh. You get the
good tree smell in the house, and the whole stake
house smells like pine. It's awesome.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Well, I'll tell you what, John, My in laws are
actually nursers. They own the nursery that we get the
tree from.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Oh that's.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
So.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
What happens is the trees actually come in, like the
Monday before Thanksgiving. I actually went there to fill up
the propane tank because we cooked two turkeys.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
I did in a greaseless air fryer outside.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
And the day I went to fill up the propane tank,
which was the Monday or Tuesday before the before Thanksgiving,
they got their tractor trailers full of trees. And then
what happens is my wife will go down or they'll
pull out a tree and put it on side for us.
Just a matter of you know, getting all the ducks
in a row. But yeah, I mean we'll have it
(04:15):
up early.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
All right, Well, I just learned a lot about Tony Pauline.
I was not aware of the trains. I am very
excited to see the pictures of the trains. All Right,
we got a busy show coming your way on draft
season today. It was just such a busy week in
college football and a busy week next week in college football.
Tony and I thought we really try to break down
some of the important draft prospect matchups and stuff that
(04:36):
happened in the games last week and rivalry weekend, and
we'll look ahead to the games in conference championship weekend
coming your way next week. And then next week's show,
we are gonna have a guest. We're gonna hope to
be joined by Drew Fabianic, who obviously runs the Senior Bowl. Now,
so we'll talk about invites going out in kind of
what the draft class looks like from his perspective. So, Tony,
(04:57):
let's talk about the rivalry games last week. Not as
many super close games as we would have liked. There
were a couple that went down to the wire that
were exciting, like Auburn Alabama will talk about that, but
let's go at Texas A and M and Texas. That
was on Black Friday night. You watch a little Eagles Bears,
and then you kind of tune into the college football
game afterwards. And Texas managed to win this game twenty
(05:19):
seven to seventeen, and you know, you watched it and
you just felt like Texas was always the better team.
Watching the offense was just it looked more like watching
an NFL offense than Texas A and M, which is
very collegiate type of offense, and they just couldn't get
anything going consistently. And I thought Texas just looked like
the better team throughout the matchup.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
I think the scorer made it look closer than it
actually was, because I agree Texas A and M from
the get go was playing from behind it and playing catchup.
And you know I agree with you. Number one, Texas
defense I thought did an outstanding job. And the Texas
A and M defense, which is usually pretty good, was nowhere.
They couldn't stop arch Manning. Now Manning wasn't phenomenal. On fourteenth,
(06:05):
twenty nine, one hundred and seventy nine yards one touchdown,
fifty three yards rushing.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
But he made big plays. He made the plays when
it was you know.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
On third down, when when they got to the red zone,
he was able to move the team down the field.
And you know, compared to where he is now versus
the opening game of the season against Ohio State, I
think he is head and shoulders a much better quarterback now,
by the way, and.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
By the way, he should be. You know, he's a
year of playing on there his belt. He should be,
And I think that's good and it's funny. I wanted
to talk to you about Arch because I think we
haven't talked about him in a while. Nick Tice, who
I respect a lot, does a great job for Yahoo Sports.
He said that if Arch Manning comes out, he would
still pick him as a number one quarterback in the draft.
Lastyon was because of his talent. Dan Orlofski has said
(06:52):
things that are similar. I have not watched him in
enough detail to have an opinion on that myself. A
do you are are you still convinced that he's going
back to school and be if he would come out
from talking to people? What are people thinking about him now?
Compared to what he showed the first half of the year.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
I would be shocked if he enters the draft. I mean,
you look at what his two buncles did. You look
at where his game is. Yeah, he's got great physical skill,
but he also still tends to stare down the primary target.
He's slow going through his progressions. You know, there are
some misthrows there. There are things that need to be
fixed which are much more easier to fix on the
college level than going to the pros. Now, you know,
(07:33):
where does he end up? Well, it depends on what
other quarterbacks enter the draft. I'm told Dante Moore is
very likely to stay. I'm hearing Ky Simpson he's going
to stay. Wo So arch Manning enters the draft, he
could be the second quarterback taken. I'm not taking him
before Fernando Mendoza, who's very likely to enter the draft.
I would be surprised if he enters the draft. Could
(07:56):
I see a team taking him in the top twelve, Absolutely,
but it better be a Patrick Mahomes type situation where
you sit him for a year because there are too
many things that he's got to figure out, and the
curve at the on the NFL level is so much
steeper than college, it's going to be much tougher to
figure those things out and get them ironed out, you know,
(08:19):
playing Sunday Football.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
And we will talk a little more about Frinando Mendoza
a little bit later on in the show. But Mantoni,
if your sources are correct, and those three quarterbacks Dante Moore,
Ty Simpson, and Arch Manning all go back. And by
the way, I think all three guys should go back
to be to be totally frank, neither one of them
has enough experience yet that really weakens what's already a
(08:41):
pretty weak top of the draft class.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
And I'm pretty confident about more. It's multiple sources as
of yesterday. I mean it started on Thanksgiving Day through yesterday.
That are from multiple people, you know, and Leonora Sellers
is another one. It's not in definite that he's going back.
There are some people in his camp that feel he
should enter the draft because he's going to be a
late first round pick. And the concern is if he
(09:06):
goes back to college and lays an egg, it could
turn out into a Drew a large type situation. That
situation with the Lenora sels is far from being complete.
The conversation really hasn't started yet. But there's another one.
And as we said on the show, you know, I
believe sell Sellers has got to go back to college,
(09:27):
but he's got to go to a different college.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
He can't go back to South Carolina.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Yeah, and we'll talk about some of the coaching movements
and then we'll see maybe he could hook up with
one of those coaches in one of these new spots
somewhere in college football. All right, Tony. Some other players
for Texas on offense that really made a mark for
you in this game.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Jack Injuries.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
We talked about him after Week one, after the Ohio
State game. He was one of the few bright lights
in that Longhorn loss. Four receptions for ninety three yards.
He's a playmaker at the tight end position. He's very athletic,
but his game is tied in with Arch Manning. You know,
the better Manning, who does the better Jack andrees does.
He really stood out and showed next level ability on
our Friday night game. Contravian Wisner nineteen carries one hundred
(10:08):
and fifty five yards. He's been up and down. He's
very inconsistent, but he is an explosive playmaker. He has
the speed to beat the fenders into the open field,
to run to daylight. Just saw it against Texas A
and M. He just has to do it on a
consistent basis. You know, it's a very bunched up group
of running backs after Jeremiah Love. If Weisner decides to
(10:30):
enter draft, which I think would be a mistake, you're
looking at maybe late day two and at Trevor Gooseby
did a good job against Cassius Howell, who howl ended
up with one tackle for loss. He really wasn't anywhere
in the game or did not impact the game. Gooseby's
a terrific pass protector. I mean, he's got excellent footwork.
(10:51):
He uses his hands well, it bends his knees, does
a little bit bending at the waist. I hear it's
fifty to fifty as to whether or not he's going
to enter the draft, but he's got a lot of upside.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Would like to see him go back to school.
Speaker 3 (11:03):
And Malik Mohammad, the cornerback from Texas, I thought they
played terrific. He's got a lot of John day Baron
in his game. I mean, he's a feisty guy. He
battles opponents. He's got real good ball skills. He's terrific
facing the action. Liked them coming into the season. Thought
he played well against Casey conception On, who only had
(11:23):
five receptions. Did impact that game as a punt returner.
But Malik Muhammed's a guy that we really don't talk
about too much, you know, through the year, because everyone's
talking about Arch Manning. Defensively, you're talking about Anthony Hill.
Mohammed the cornerback is a legitimate nickelback for Sunday.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
You know, you mentioned Wisner And it's funny. He gets
his yards. He has five to thirty seven, five ninety
seven yards on the season. Part in me, so almost
a quarter of his season one martshing yards came in
that game against Texas A and M. But I'm trying
to figure out what his best trade is. Like he's
not huge, he's not super fast, he's not super quid.
He just seems to grind yards a little bit.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Yeah, he does have an explosive burst and he has
a pension for picking up you know, long big yardage
from the line of scrimmage on occasion. But you know
he's got to do it on a consistent basis, and
then a NFCJ Baxter ever gets healthy, he may never
be able to do it on a cossister basis of Texas.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
That's right. And now for Texas A and M Casey
conception continues to produce Tony on offense and on special teams.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Well special teams. Is you know what he did? It
was this big impact in that game. Four pump returns
for sixty two yards, only had five receptions for fifty
seven yards. I think a lot of that had to
do with the way Malik Mohammad shut him down. You know,
but this guy is turning into, as you'd like to say,
the Swiss Army Knife at receiver. He's explosive, he's very
good running after the catch. You see him impact games
(12:49):
as a return specialist. All that's gonna do is just
increase his draft stock if he decides, you know, to
enter the twenty twenty six event.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
All right, let's stick in the sec the Alabama and
Auburn Tony the iron ball. This is one of the
games that went down to the wire. Alabama won twenty
seven to twenty. Auburn tried to drive late. They cannot
convert that drive. I think there was an interception to
close that game out if I remember properly, right, So
Alabama holds on. But another game late in the year
where ty Simpson did not play great, just nineteen to
(13:21):
thirty five one hundred and twenty two yards, though he
did have three touchdowns, but he took an awful lot
of sacks too, three.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Sacks, was hurried. Auburn had eight quarterback hurries. I liken
this game to the way Penn State played against Indiana
in the sense that Auburn went for broke Auburt. It's
not going to a ballgame. They got a new coach,
which we'll talk about later on. This was their ball
game and it was you know, they were just playing
non stop go and I thought that You're right. He
(13:51):
wasn't great, but he didn't make any mistakes. He protected
the football, he got the team into the end zone.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
He did what was necessary.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
I mean, he was sort of like what Archie Manning did,
although he was getting beat up pretty good by that
Olburn defense, by that Alvern pass rush. Kron Crawford, the
guy we didn't talk about, he was omni president in
that game. You know, it wasn't a great performance, but
though there was a good performance. I mean he won
the game for him and many instances, you know, he
stood in there, he got the pass away. The one
(14:23):
thing about the Simpson that concerns me. I said it
last week. He's not a big guy. I mean, he's
got an arm, get the ball now field, but he's
not a guy that's gonna be able to really take
that sort of punishment week after week.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Yeah, I think the other season for him, you can
be talking about him legitimately is the top pick in
the draft next year if he goes back and he
continues along his progression. A couple of Alabama defenders jumped out.
Speaker 3 (14:43):
To you, Tony, Yeah, Deontay lost, and we talk about
what a terrific off ball winebacker draft this is. It's
one of the strongest position and one guy that we
really don't talk about that much because he gets lost
in the shuffle. Is Deontay lost in seven tackles against
the Auburn sixty for the season, still has the SEC
Title game, still has the College Football Playoffs. He's a
(15:03):
terrific sideline to sideline linebacker, really stands out in pursuit,
good and pass coverage. Just another good off ball linebacker
in what looks like is going to be a stellar
class in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
All right, let's jump over to I can't believe I'm
saying this the Big Ten Oregon in Washington, a classic
Big Ten matchup. Oregon holds on wins this game twenty
six to fourteen, and Dante Moore is a standout again Tony,
he played.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Well, starting to grow on me.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
You know, I kind of like kept him at arden's
length when everybody jumped on to Dante more pandwagon.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
But the Iowa game was solid. But the guy makes
a lot of plays.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Now, I think it's gonna be it's gonna be harder
for him to transition to his style of play on Sunday,
which is probably part of the reason why I'm hearing
he's gonna stay back another year. But I mean, the
guy makes plays. The guy comes up with big plays,
important plays on third down in the red zone. He
shows some get on accuracy at times, all the times
(16:00):
the ball gets away from him. You like the athleticism,
the RPO type of ability. Although he looks to pass
first and run and play and run with the ball second,
plays well from the pocket. I could see why a
lot of people like Dante Moore real lot and why
they think he will be an early quarterback, an early
(16:21):
pick in the draft. Maybe I got on the bandwagon late.
But the guy who's really starting to grow on me, you.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Know, Tony, this wasn't on your rundown. So I'm putting
on this body or I apologize. What happened to your
guy Stewart, the wide receiver Oregon you liked so much
last year. He went back and you thought he could
really blow up this year. We haven't heard much from
him this season.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
I believe he tore an achilles your tour a new
ligament in August. Yeah, he has implated down he's been.
He was injured. It was it was like it was
supposed to be a devastating injury. You know, everybody was
like they lost their number one playmaker and they didn't know,
you know, what was going to happen with the new quarterback.
But Oregon's offense hasn't hasn't missed a beat. And that's
(16:59):
a good story that which I'm trying to delve into
to see if he's going to go back or he's
going to enter the draft, because if he entered last
year's draft.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
At worst, he's.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
The second round pick. I think it was a surprise
to many of us when he decided to go back.
That's the power of the nil. But unfortunately, and I
don't know it was an achilles or a knee injury,
like right when August Camp started it and he was
done for the season.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
And Tony one of the players you wanted to mention
from this game, correct.
Speaker 3 (17:24):
Yeah, Drew as a party, the right tackle from Washington.
Keep an eye on him. He's very athletic, he's mobile.
He's a college right tackle who I think can play
left tackle or could be his own blocking guard in
the NFL. Really good on the second level, really good
pass protection. This guy get a little bit stronger. Sometimes
he gets knocked back off off the ball because he
doesn't have that strong base. But he's got a lot
(17:46):
of upside. Very likely to return, as I think would
be to his benefits. But an offensive tackle or an
offensive line prospect that's got a high upside.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
And Tony to one of the players I want to
mention from Washington's off And Jonah Coleman, the running back,
didn't do a whole lot in this game. In fact,
he was third on the team in terms of total
number of carries, which I was surprised by.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Yeah, he was, and I was watching that game.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
He did well when the ball was handed to him,
but he wasn't the feature running back. I don't know
exactly what the situation is. I know there are some
people out there who love Coleman. I like him, you know,
I think he's kind of down the list in that
second tier of running backs. I think he'll be a
good rotational back on Sunday. He's got excellent vision. But
you know, you go back to what you said about
(18:32):
Wisner of Texas. You know, I watched. He's smart, he's
got great visions, some good short ear of quickness. He's
not really big, he's not super fast.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
He just knows.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
He's a brief, wole type of You give him the
ball and he's gonna find ways to pick up yardage,
all right.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
And then Denzel Boston, Washington wide receiver four catches twenty
four yards in this game, did have a pair of touchdowns.
Could he be trying to get himself into the first
round conversation, Tony, do you think as one of the
kind of the big traditional X skyscaper, a wide receiver.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
I'm hearing he's very likely to enter the draft and
could he be in the get in the first round,
possibly because it's so jumbled at the receiver position. I mean,
you talked to ten different people as who their number
one receiver is. You're gonna get twelve different answers. I mean,
that's that's the situation the position right now. You know,
if you want a big, strong, possession type guy, guy
(19:22):
that's gonna win out, you know, for the contested pass,
the got you throw the ball to on third and six,
for the first down in the red zone, Boston's your guy.
If you want that quick, explosive route runner, or you
want somebody with the vertical speed, you're probably gonna look
away from him.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
All right, Well, I want to know on tour of
the gamestony, these weren't on your list, So I want
to hit him fast and then we'll get to the
last two you wanted to touch on. We talked about
wide receiver. So Arizona played Arizona State. Arizona won that
game twenty three to seven. So we're probably not gonna
see Jordan Tyson again play football before he comes out
for the draft, and his last performance two catches, just
twenty two yards, and again his season kind of ended
(19:59):
on a little bit of a win. I'm here, Tony.
Another injury issue and he has not had a big
game in quite a while.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
Spent more time on the sidelines than he did on
the field. And I watched that game because of the
two the couple of dbs at Arizona. We talked about
the safety Genesis Smith and Stokes the cornerback. It was
the other cornerback, Michael Dansby, who really played well. But again,
you know that's the concern with Jordan Tyson. He was
(20:25):
injured last year, missed the college football playoff game in
Arizona State when they almost beat Texas.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
He's been injured so much this year. And again, I know.
Speaker 3 (20:33):
You like him, and a lot of people like him.
He's not really big, he's not super fast. He's a
real good pass catcher. But when you get a guy
that's not that big that's got these constant injury issues,
that's a major red flag heading.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
Towards the draft.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Now. Look, and Tony, I'm with you. I think the
injuries are huge red flag and that that is gonnas
and change why I eventually have him ranked all right,
and I want touch on Ohios Day in Michigan real quick. Well,
howise they wins that game twenty seven to nine. Ryan
Day gets the monkey off of his back after more
than two thousand days since they beat them, and Carnal
Tate stepped up big time. So I want to stick
with the wide receiver team theme. Five catches six is
(21:08):
that eighty two yards? Eighty two yards and a touchdown?
And you know, I just thought he continues to play well.
I think he's very much in the wide receiver one
conversation in this year's draft class. In fact, if I
had the guest, I think he will be the first
wide receiver taken just because of the draft class. I
think he might end up going in the top ten.
I'm not sure he's a top ten player, but he
might end up going there anyway. But Carnal Tait still was,
(21:31):
you know, four five games to go here in the
college football playoffs and the conference championship to kind of
show where he stands in this wide receiver hierarchy.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
I think the interesting name with Cardinal Tate is we
know he's a good receiver. He's a terrific handcatcher. He
comes away with the contested, contested throw as he saw
even last year in the playoffs, he comes away with
the important receptions. Two on third to six, he'll make
a reception for eight yards. I think the interesting name
with carnal tit that we got a track and we
won't know what's label is is he going to test?
Speaker 2 (22:01):
And how does he test? How fast is he in
the forty? How does he run the shuttles? What's his
ten split? Is he going to do any of that?
Speaker 3 (22:09):
Because if he does it, and he does it well,
I think without a doubt he'll very likely be the
number one receiver in the draft. If he doesn't do it,
then we know there's probably he's not doing it because
he won't test it well and the marks won't be
that good.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Then again, and remind me, I don't think Jackson's with
Jigma did much testing either when he came out either,
right did he did? He just do pro Day?
Speaker 3 (22:31):
But he did run the forty. I was actually at
that Proda. Yeah, he did ran like a four to
four eight. But the thing with Smith Njigba is you
were drafting him because he was such an exceptional route runner.
I mean, like I said, I was at that pro day.
He was cutting on a dime. He was catching everything.
You weren't drafting him for the downfield to be I'll
(22:51):
tell you the other guy, and it didn't show up
in the statue. But Max Claire again another big game
filed in a week ago. We talked about him when
the two Jeremiah Smith mc Cardinal Tate we're out with injury,
had five receptions for over one hundred yards, played really well,
had a couple of nice catches, but also the discipline
route running which opened things up for Jeremiah Smith McConnell tay.
(23:13):
I think Max Claire's really starting to tight end from
Ohio State's really starting to get in a good groove.
And you see why he was such a highly talented transfer.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Yeah, Antonio was trying to figure out what happens after
Jeremiah Love gets picked in this draft and who the
second running back is going to be and Justice Haynes.
You talked about Joa Coleman. He didn't do much. Justice
Haynes didn't play in this game due to injury. So
that number two running back spot is really wide open
up for grabs and you might not even see that
guy picked a round three.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
Justin Hayes hasn't played and I believe in almost a
month because of the injury. So that is a major question.
You know, I'm pulling up my boy, and I doubt
Justin Haynes enters the draft. I mean, he would be
kind of crazy to enter the drafts all of the
fact that he missed half the season or almost half
the season with injury. Jadarian Price, don't you dain is
(24:04):
he going to enter the draft? I mean, you know,
it's kind of a half season's work because he's playing
behind Jeremiah love I like kJ Allen from Kate tron
Allen from Penn State a lot, But again, Kate trevn Allen.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
To your point, I'm looking at my board right now.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
I have a third round greade on him, Jeremiah Love,
Jadarium Price, Justice Hayes on my top three backs. Of
those three, Jeremiah Lovell one to the draft, the other
two are questionable. The next guy is Kate tron Allen,
the big running back out of Penn State who's seven
a terrific season but projects as a third rounder.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
And by the way, I will just since we're talking
running back here, Tony, I will take a collective bow
for the two of us if you listen to this
show the last two years. Both of us were huge
fans of Rutgers running back Kyle Mnungai, and he has
basically taken over a fifty to fifty time share with
DeAndre Swift in Chicago. The guy split the carries almost evenly.
(24:56):
Now he's averaging almost five yards per carry five hundred
and ninety one rushing yards. He's turned out to be
a really nice running back in the pros Man. It
shows you the testings, not everything at that position. If
you can run it, you can run it.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
Wasn't really big, wasn't super fast or quick. Incredibly in
a very smart guy. I got to interview on before
the draft. He had offers to go to Ivy League
schools after his junior year at Rutgers. He had huge
nil offers, but he was loyal to Schiano. He was
loyal to Rutgers, and he's just a terrific football player
(25:30):
who gets it between the Ears.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Draft season is presented by Moody's. Moodies is a proud
partner of the New York Giants. Decode Risk, Unlock Opportunity.
Learn more at Moodies Dot com all right, Tony. A
couple more games here before we move on to the
college coaching carousel. Mammi Pittsburgh. Miami continues to roll. They
win thirty eight to seven. If they didn't mess up
those two games early in the year, they be lock
stock and two smoking barrels into the college football playoffs.
(25:54):
Right now, they are very much still on the fringe.
But you were how you are on a couple of
matchups up front with two very talented Mammy edge rushers
against a good Pittsburgh offensive tackle.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
Yeah, the last two games it was offensive tackle against
pass rushers, and in both instances the pass rushers.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
Run one out.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
Ryan Bear, who's slightly underrated, the athletic right tackle from Pittsburgh,
has not had a good year. He did not have
a good game against Miami. They were running circles around him.
Ruben Bain as well as the team messidor. I think
Bain had one and a half sacks, one and a
half tackles lost.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
They had five quarterback hurries.
Speaker 3 (26:30):
I mean, Bear is very indicative of what we see
from this tackle class going into the season with high expectations.
Kind of just late in eight was just he was
not good against Miami on Saturday. He did not live
up the expectations during the season. Should definitely consider going
back to school, all right.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
And then finally in by the Way, Miami won that
game thirty eight to seven. And then in the Battle
of Illinois, Illinois defeats Northwestern twenty to thirteen. And you
and your eyes on Caleb Tiernan, a guy who've been
tracking all year going against gave jackas another guy that
we've had our eye on since our first episode.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
You know, when we had Dame bruge leron and and
Dane was talking about how much he liked Tiernan, I questioned, Dane,
you know, do you think he can play left tackle
on Sunday? Because when I watched Tiernan, I saw him
as a right tackle, maybe a guard.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Dane thought for sure he could play left tackle.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
If you watch this game, there's no way Caleb Tiernan
Northwestern is going to stay at left tackle on Sunday. Now,
the first time of the game was played in a
half inch snow on the field, But I mean Jacchus
just ran circles around him. Two and a half tackles, lost,
two sacks, two quarterback hurries. I mean it was basically
like the varsity playing against the JV Tiernan struggled getting
out of his stance. Couldn't just I think, really this
(27:43):
game is going to be a big blow to his
draft stock and especially those who question whether or not
he can stay at left tackle on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
All right, Tony, let's jump down to the coach. Actually,
one of the game I want to mention just because
it was stark when I looked at it. So I'm
looking at my list, I'm like, well, the Tony not
list Georgia Georgia Tech on his list here, and I'm
looking at it Georgia one sixteen time. And then I
started looking at the at the box score and the players,
and I'm like, man, we've been doing this over a
long time, Tony, this might be the weakest Georgia draft
(28:13):
class that I And we'll talk more about him when
we do the Georgia Alabama game in the conference title game.
But man, there are not a lot of Georgia prospects
in this draft class that are gonna go in the
first or second round. And it's so odd we even
seen this in a long time.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Let's take that to the next step. Look at the
SEC as a whole, and we'll talk about that later
on when we talk about the coaching changes. I think
that Georgia is just a microcosm of the SEC this
year compared to previous years. In fact, it's funny, you know,
you bring that up. I had a reporter from the
Associated Press called me to interview me exactly about that,
(28:50):
the SEC being having a down year as far as
far as NFL prospects of concern, and Georgia that had,
you know, the past couple of years consistently had players
in the top ten, consistently had three four players selecting
the first round.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Are indicative or are the poster child for that?
Speaker 1 (29:08):
No question about it. And again we'll talk more about
the SEC title game in a little bit, But first
toy the coaching carousel and a lot of jobs opened
up and jobs that are pretty good in big conferences.
And early in this process we saw, you know, James
Franklin went to Virginia Tech. We'll talk about that. We've
mentioned it before, but you've seen some of these programs
(29:29):
reach into some of the non Power five schools that
have had a lot of success, pull guys up or
at least even some you know, not teams that are
not traditional powerhouse programs, pull coaches from those programs that
have done well and make them their head.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
Coaches, and it's it's kind of it doesn't always work out.
You look at Florida. They take John Sumroll of Tulane, Arkansas,
Ryan Silverfield of Memphis, Auburn, Alex Scholarsh of South Florida.
The South Florida coach has been terrific, really pulled that
program them out from the sewer, if you will, and
now they're in the in the bowl game. But you know,
(30:05):
flawarda try this with Billy Napier and it didn't work out.
They go to Tulane. Now you remember Auburn with Brian
Harrison from Boise State didn't work out. So it's kind of,
you know, they hope to catch the lightning in a bottle.
But a lot of times when you get take these
coaches rather from non Power four or what used to
be Nonpower five conferences and make them your head coach,
(30:27):
a lot of risks there, as opposed to say maybe
taking an established coordinator. You see the success that Brett
Venables is finally having at Oklahoma, you know, and he
was such a terrific defensive forty in all those years
at Clemson. It's kind of interesting given the recent history
of going this route hasn't always worked out.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
Yeah, it really hasn't. All have to see, you know,
everything just so different. The type of players you're recruiting
are different, how you go about the recruiting is different.
It's just it's a completely different world than these guys.
I'd be great, they might not be wolf d Wait
and see. Now we'll go to the big name guys
that went to the big name programs. We talked about
it a little bit already, James Franklin going to Virginia Tech.
Virginia Tech has been down for a while, Tony, and look,
(31:11):
see what're you talking about? James Franklin. The guy knows
how to win, win a lot of regular season college
football games, and he does it pretty consistently.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
And they have some good young players on defense. They
got a couple of really good linebackers that we're going
to be talking about next year. And I think that
bringing in Franklin that early, what that does is he
gets them acquainted with those guys.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
He gets them to consider coming back to Virginia Tech.
Because usually what happens is when there's a change in coaching,
especially these days, everybody you know, there's people enter the
transfer portal, signed big anil deals and go elsewhere. Because
that coach who was fired as the one who recruited him.
I think Franklin it gives when they hired him, gives
(31:53):
a Virginia Tech a head start to, you know, to
get the players that are there that he wants to
return pluses, he say, as Franklin set himself. He knows
that area, that recruiting area because he recruited it so
hard at Penn State and knowing the high schools, knowing
the high school coaches, having a relationship with them is
very important.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
I thought it was a.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
Terrific hire by Virginia Tech. I hope James Franklin does
very well there.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
And then Michigan's say, I think they did as well
as you could have expected to. They've been really, really
down and they hire Pat Fitzgerald, who's the former Northwestern
head coach Tony and we all know what happened. He
ended up getting let go. There are allegations and stuff
like that, but for what I could tell, he's been
colmost completely exonerated from all of that, and I'm sure
Northwestern would like to have that back because he was
(32:39):
a don good coach for them, and I think Michigan
State is going to do well with him.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
I think this is a home run Higher. I mean
no doubt about it. Yeah, First of all, he was
a tremendous coach.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
Remember, Northwestern is like the IVY League of the Big Ten,
and you know they're not getting top football recruits. So
he had to basically do what he can to get
the most out of second tier recruits at Northwestern because
people are going there not to become NFL professionals, but
to get degrees in biology and nuclear science and things
(33:10):
like that. Now he goes to Michigan State, you know,
he's got to chip on his shoulder because of what
happened with Northwestern. You know, Michigan State is sick and
tired of being the redheaded step child in the state
of Michigan. With all success that Michigan has had, They're
gonna put money into Nil. They're gonna put more money
into getting players to transfer over. They got to prove
(33:31):
and winner at head coach. I thought this was a
home run higher by Michigan State. It may take a
couple of years, but watch out, they are going to
be in the end. They will be a competitor in
that conference.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
I totally agree. And they have some money to throw
around there as well. And then finally we buried the
big one for last, lank Kiffin making the big announcement
over the weekend, after all the anticipation, he decides to
head to LSU.
Speaker 3 (33:55):
Listen, I don't think lang Kiffin is a great head coach.
I don't think Key's a Nick Saban type. I know
LSU is kind of chasing chasing lightning here hoping that
they can you know, they got the best head coach
and that he can bring them back to prominence. When
I look at Mississippi, I thought the Mississippi team from
(34:18):
last year is better.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Than the one this year.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
And you look at all the players that they had selected,
the players they had selected in the first round. Yet
they didn't get They didn't even play in the conference
title game, never mind playing the College Football Championship. Now
they'll be in the College Football College Roble playoffs. They'll
be in the College Football playoffs but again this year,
but again they're not.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
In the conference title game.
Speaker 3 (34:39):
And as I was alluding to before it is Mississippi
that much better of a team? Or is the SEC
is a conference down compared to what it was? Georgia
is not the same team it was a couple of
years ago. Obviously LSU is not is not close to
being what it was Florida forget about. You know, when
when I look at I'm looking at my top twenty board,
(35:00):
when it's usually maybe thirty SEC players, it's barely a
handful of SEC players that are in the top thirty
as far as NFL prospects, which tells me that while
Glenn kiffen de deserves credit for the success he had
at Mississippi this year, it's as much as the rest
of the conference being down as Mississippi being that much
(35:21):
better of a team. I don't know how he's gonna do.
He was a disaster at Tennessee. It was a disaster
at USC, It was a disaster with the Raiders. He
had good seasons at Mississippi. You got to give him
credit for that. I'm just not a fan of the
way he left. You leave a team that's gonna fight
for a national championship and then you start whining. He say, well,
the players wanted me to coach. I mean, you know, listen,
(35:44):
you're getting your twelve million dollars a year. Say thank you,
get on the plane and shut up and leave.
Speaker 1 (35:49):
Strong words from Tony. I will say this. The fact
that these decisions have to be made now while like
the season is still going on, because the recruiting schedule
and you know, all that sort of stuff and the
transferport all that night no sense. It stinks like, I
don't know what you can do about it. But the
timing of this whole process is no good.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
What can you do about it?
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Because so you know, LSU was in competition with Florida,
and Florida finally back now and you know somebody's gonna
go there with with the with the open checkbook. And
you know, I don't begrudtulate the coaches for getting this
money because the coaches successful teams bring a lot of
money into colleges. I think I read that LSU football
had in one hundred and seven million dollars in revenue
(36:30):
in twenty twenty four. So you know, but what are
you gonna do? I mean, it's the wild wild West
now in college football. It's been like that with coaches.
It's not like that with players, but it's a billion
dollar industry.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
Yeah, and look link if and I'll basically have a
blank checks to write to try to get players to
come there for nil for LSU. So we'll see how
that goes down there in Louisiana. Draft Season is presented
by Moody's, a proud part of the New York Giants,
uniting the brightest minds to turn today's risk into tomorrow's opportunities.
Learn more at moodies dot com. All right, Tony, let's
look ahead to the conference championship games coming up this Saturday.
(37:09):
We're gonna start the Sun Belt. Well, James Madison Troy.
What do we got a big tone?
Speaker 3 (37:14):
Well, you remember James. Remember James Madison has the top defense.
James Madison, whose coaches, by the way, Jesney is at
the East Coast. Guy is on his way to coaching
UCLA next year next season. Top defense in the Sun Belt.
In one of the really terrific defense against Troy. Why
if you watch the game. Roron Thomas, the receiver from
(37:35):
Troy last week against Southern Miss five receptions, one hundred
and eighteen yards. He was highly rated entering the twenty
twenty four season when he played for Georgia, gotten to
some off the field issues, was dismissed from the Georgia program,
did not play football in twenty twenty four, has come
back and is slowly getting it into gear at Troy.
(37:56):
You know, scouts in twenty twenty four liked him as
a potent to late Day three, a Day two pick.
He's now more of a Day three type of prospect.
But rob Rod Thomas, the receiver from Troy against that
tough James Madison defense is an NFL a next level
matchup to keep.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
An eye on.
Speaker 1 (38:14):
Yeah, and Troy very quietly does actually produce a decent
number of NFL prospects, So definitely something to keep an
eye on down there. Giants. Osi Minuro, for example, was
a Troy graduate. Lawrence Tynes was a Troy graduate, So
they do have a lot of players that do come
out of there. Alright, let's go to the Big twelve
next Tony BYU Texas Tech, and we're gonna have some
good matchups between this Texas Tech defense and the offensive
(38:36):
line of BYU.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Well, you know, we talk.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
About David Baily, the Texas Tech pass rusher, the Stanford
transfer who's life very likely be a top fifteen pick.
They also have another pass rusher by the name of
Romelo Height, an undersize sort of stand up linebacker who
in college comes out comes out of a three point stance.
Going against Bear Bachmeyer, the big two hundred and thirty
(38:58):
pounds back that wears number forty seven because he used
to be a linebacker that has got that BYU offense going.
That's gonna be an interesting matchup to watch. And then
Texas Tech has got some outstanding pass catchers that a
lot of people aren't gonna haven't been talking about their
day three type guys. Receiver Reggie Virgil, who came from
(39:19):
I believe it was Ball State, is having a terrific year.
He's a smaller, sleek, quick guy that separates through his routes,
shows some decent deep speed. Caleb Douglas who's put up
big numbers in the past three years, more of your
possession type. And then Terrence Carter, the transfer from Louisiana
at the tight end. Very athletic guy, tough to miss
(39:40):
on the field. He gets downfield and creates mismatches. A
real good pass catcher who also does a solid job blocking.
So keep your eye on Everybody talks about David Bailey, understandably,
so keep your eye on those Texas Tech pass catchers.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
All right, now, let's jump to the sec tonal you mentioned.
We talk about the game Georgia and Alabama trying to
close this out here. We'll see how it goes.
Speaker 3 (40:02):
You know, it's interesting because you know, as you alluded to,
Georgia doesn't It's not the Georgia team of the past.
I'm looking at my board here, maybe one first rounder
in CJ.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
Allen.
Speaker 3 (40:11):
When I look at my board, it's Alabama heavy, especially
at the top. They've got the better players, They've got
the best prospects. I think what they've got to do
is what they haven't done the past two games. They
got to protect Ty Simpsons, and Simpson's got to be
able to get the ball to those dynamic receivers that
he has at his disposal.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
Some of them have really helped themselves. We saw Isaiah
Horton in that Auburn game really come to life. We've
been waiting for him.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
The receiver, Josh Quavid, I'm sorry, the tight end Josh
Quavis has played well as of recently. Georgia's got two
tight ends in Oscar delp and Lauren lost some lucky
that you got to keep an eye on. It's everybody's
going to talk about Ty Simpson and the irony is
unlike previous years. It's not just Georgia, it's also Alabama
(40:56):
that are not going to have those very early picks
that we are used too.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Yeah, I think it's interesting to keep an eye and
we'll see how that goes. And then Tony. This is
really the big one this week, right, Indiana and Ohio State.
We we touched out Ohio State in Michigan briefly, but
this is a all right, Indiana, we think you're pretty good.
You have a good record. You beat Oregon right like
like you feel pretty good about you know, what they've done.
(41:21):
But let's see how you do against the big boys
in Ohio State.
Speaker 3 (41:24):
This game is not only going to decide the winner
of the Big Ten, likely the top seed in the
college football playoffs, It's likely to decide the Heisman Trophy.
When you consider Julian Sane against Fernando Mendoza. This is
a huge challenge for Fernando Mendoza. I mean, this is
he's playing, He's going up against an NFL defense. They
(41:45):
got NFL players and they'll be drafted early. They're coached
by a former NFL coach. This is what Fernando Mendoza
is going to be facing on Sundays, except he's going
to be doing it this Saturday, and there is a
lot riding on the line for him. Like I said,
you know, besides the high schoo trophy and seeing in
the college football playoffs. If Fernando Mendoza plays well, doesn't
(42:05):
have to win the game, but he's got to play well.
It's got to stay away from the mistakes. He's got
to move the change and show that he can move
Indiana down the field. He's got to react well to
the pressure as he did against Penn State. Then I
think not only is he a top three pick, then
I think the conversation turns to where a team trade
(42:25):
up to get him with the number one pick. With
the team trade up, you know, with the Tennessee Titans
to get Fernando Mendoza if he shows his medal against
Ohio State. Because the Ohio State defense is just that good.
I mean, early draft picks, a great coach, a great
defensive coordinator, and they just keep getting better and better,
and the Indiana offensive line is good, they're not great.
(42:49):
They've got some really good receivers, but they're not great receivers.
They got a solid running game, but it's not Jeremiah Love.
So it's basically Fernando Mendoza and how he uses the
players around him. Huge challenge and there's a lot at
stake here.
Speaker 1 (43:05):
Yeah, he really is in that house. The defense, Tony
is just so good, but in the endas defense is
gonna be tested as well against some of the weapons
we talked about for the Buckeyes.
Speaker 3 (43:14):
D'Angelo Pons, we talked about him. I think with ched
Reuder when Chad was on. You know, he's small, but
he's got terrific ball skills. He's feisty, he's instinctive, but
he's barely five to ten. I mean, he's probably five
nine and change. He's gonna be going up against sometimes
Carnell Tate, who goes over six foot, sometimes Jeremiah Smith,
(43:35):
who goes over six too. So I think that you know,
Hans D'Angel Pons is gonna fight and he's gonna compete,
and he'll have his you know, he'll have his opportunities,
but he's also gonna be over MaTx by you know,
three to four inches, depending on who he's playing against.
That's gonna be interesting the match up to watch. And again,
you know, I talked about Max Claire and I think
(43:57):
he's turning it on going up against Aiden Fisher, really
good linebacker, Day three prospect from Indiana. He's terrific in pursuit,
covers a lot of area, has shown a lot of
ability and coverage, gets great depth on his past drops.
He's not just an up the field type of guy.
You can see him downfield twenty yards off the line
of scrimmage, making plays from the balls against the air.
(44:18):
It's gonna be interesting to see how much House incorporates
Claire into the offense, especially with Smith and Tate being
a little bit nicked up, and how Aiden Fisher responds
with his coverage assignments Unclaire all.
Speaker 1 (44:32):
Right, and then you have the defensive backs for Ohiose
day Tony who we've talked about, Caleb Downs a bunch.
You haven't talked about Davis and Agbinos in a ton
He another defensive pass interference penalty in that game last
week against Michigan, which he still is a thing for him,
but he had the big interception to close out the game,
rips out the helmet to celebrate, and he's they're gonna
go up against a couple of really good Indiana wide receivers.
Speaker 3 (44:53):
Yeah, you got Elijah Sharratt, who's your bigger possession wide out.
You may remember him from that Iowa game when it
was it was nip and talked. He caught a crossing
pattern five yards off the want of scrimmage to grow
up to tackle, went forty nine yards for the game
winning touchdown. And you got Omar Cooper who made that
sensational catch at the back of the end zone against
Penn State. Both of these guys are real good college
(45:15):
receivers who project well to the next level. They are
more third fourth round type guys, but they are favorites
of Fernando Mendoza. They are reliable, different types of games.
Sarat being more of your bigger, slower possession receiver, Cooper's faster,
Cooper's quicker. We'll see how Caleb Downs does if he's
putting coverage against him. One of the top players in
(45:35):
the draft, Igmund Nosen, You're right, got flagged for a
penalty last week, but he's really cut it down because
in twenty twenty four he was a human yellow flag.
I mean they were constantly throwing penalty flags. Yes for Pi.
He's cut that down. He's played much better than he
did in twenty twenty four. It's gotten back into the
good graces NFL scouts. Big challenge for him to cover
(45:57):
sarat Or Cooper and not get called for a penalty.
Speaker 1 (46:02):
Absolutely right. And then that OSU front Ohio state front man.
They are, they're really good. And Indiana's offensive line is
gonna have their hands full.
Speaker 3 (46:12):
And Yanna Jackson the defensive end who has been really
developing incredibly well the past year. Cayden Curry who took
over for Jack Sawyer, has had a great year. Arvel Reese,
who we've talked about awsome on this podcast.
Speaker 2 (46:25):
No reason to talk about him anymore because he's going
to be an early pick.
Speaker 3 (46:29):
Carter Smith, the left tackle for the Indiana really good
pass protective, fundamentally sound, does a great job. Doesn't blow
you away, but he's very efficient. Don't know whether he's
going to be a tackler or GUARDI he's only an
underclassman tackle or garden and the NFL, you know, like
Fernando Mendoz against the Ohio State defense like de'angelo Ponds
against the Ohio State receiver. This is a big test
(46:52):
for Corter Smith, who is considered a next level prospect
the left tackle for Indiana against that great Ohio State
pass rush.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
A fun week of college football, Tony. Hope you enjoy
it and we'll talk to you next week.
Speaker 2 (47:05):
Look forward to it.
Speaker 1 (47:06):
John, that is Tony Pauline. You can find all those
work at essentially sports dot com. I am John Schmulck,
coming to you from the Hackensack Marinine Health Podcast. You
keep getting better. That's all the time we have for
draft season, presented by Movies for Tony. I'm Schmelk. We'll
see you next time. Everybody,
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