November 18, 2025 • 29 mins
This week on Weekend Warriors, Anish and Tom react to the Panthers thrilling overtime win over the Atlanta Falcons, praise Bryce Young's mental toughness on Sunday, preview tonight's College Football Playoff rankings, and so much more!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You've seen the movie pulp Fiction before, right, absolutely?
Speaker 2 (00:04):
And I hate the greatest.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Dialogue driven movie of all time? The what the greatest
dialogue a driven movie of all time?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Yes, I think I think that's accurate.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Right. And so you remember when Jules, right before he
would go hit man on somebody, he had a little
Bible verse that he would speak Ezekiel twenty five seventeen.
Do you remember how that ends?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
I don't refresh me.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
You will know my name is the Lord, and I
shall lay my vengeance upon thee the now? Was that
not Bryce Young on Sunday?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (00:42):
I mean to talk about datement everybody nationally locally killing
them all eek killing it. Just move on, it's over,
it's done. And I mean like it wasn't just like
he played well, I mean four forty eight franchise record
for passing yards. It was kind of it was kind
(01:02):
of a neat moment. I think it shows you a
lot of what he's about. And he did it in
a fashion which I think if his career takes off
and he becomes the guy that this franchise thinks he
can be, we may look back at that the ankle game.
I mean, he went down with an injury that looked bad.
He's down for several moments. At one point he walks
(01:23):
off the field. In the first half. They bring the
cart out and we're watching from upstairs and he kind
of waves the cart off. He's near the tunnel, so
he's walking toward the tunnel. The cart's going with him.
Were wondering like, maybe he doesn't want to be seen
getting on the cart. Maybe he'll get on the cart
in the tunnel. And once he goes in, I mean,
you know, guys going to the locker room, like you
don't expect him back at least for the rest of
(01:45):
the half. Yeah, he's out for the next series. He's
like bouncing around on the sideline warming up, and all
of a sudden, it's like a little pop to his step
and you know, say what you want. Atlanta was the
number one pass defense in the NFL going into that game.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Were they really I didn't know that?
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Yeah, wow, one pass defense. Now. I always say sometimes
those numbers are skewed when you are a losing team
because teams in the second half run the ball right.
Probably weren't the best pass defense, but statistically they were
number one against the pass and they were top five
in the NFL going into the game in total.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Sacks, so getting after people too.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
When you see a game like that, what does that
tell you?
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Well, it tells me a little bit about competitive temperament,
mental toughness. To be able to have a week like
you had the week before and then it's impossible to
block out all the noise. You can't possibly go anywhere,
You can't walk in for a cup of coffee somewhere
without somebody snickering behind your back. You can't turn on
the radio, you can't look at the internet. You I mean,
(02:50):
that could consume people, right, and so I think the
ability to flush that, ignore it and literally not allow
it to have any impact on your preparation, your performance,
your focus.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
I mean it's a.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
It's it's hard to explain, like some guys can do
that and other guys can't.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Usually guys who can do that who.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Are less talented than more physically gifted players are going
to overcome those physically gifted players at the position.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
To me, it reinforced a couple of things. One, I
don't think the mental toughness of the kid is a question,
nor should it be going forward, because right we saw
it in his rookie season where the offensive line was
essentially a sieve, and you know, he had no help
(03:44):
up front all season with injuries, and they're picking up guys,
you know, off the street, calling them up off the
practice squad. All right, and right guard, you know, you
just got here, and yeah, he's getting killed sack sixty
some odd times. You had the coaching changes, the play changes,
and okay, you got through that, and then two weeks
into your second season, your benched and people wrote you
(04:07):
off again. And then you came back and you kind
of authored a second act toward the end of your
second season, and then you know, I always look at
this from the context of what balance really is, and
we can talk about that in football. But people made
a big deal about his low passing yardage numbers. Nobody
talked about the fact that they won a lot of
(04:28):
those games, right, And if you're running the football successful,
you're gonna keep running the football. That's just football, one
on one. But New Orleans made a schematic adjustment, load
up the box. Can you beat us vertically? He couldn't
do it? Do it? And so Atlanta said, all right,
let's reuse that blueprint. Let's see if he can beat us,
(04:49):
and he beat them. I mean, was a team that
struggled to make big plays in the past game and
Tteroa McMillan got a thirty nine yard catch, Jalen Kocher
at a catch of twenty plus yards, Lee get out
of thirty six yard touchdown catch, Mitchell Evans had a
catch of twenty plus yards, Tommy Tremble catch run late
in the game fifty four yards. I think, yeah, it
(05:10):
was awesome. And Tommy is just like, you know, he's
kind of one of those heart and soul guys, like
really good locker room guy. But you started to see it,
and I think the way the guys played for him,
I think that tells you a lot about what guys
in the locker room think of him. Forget the noise
on the outside. And you know, Tommy's twenty four years old.
(05:32):
He's twenty four years old. And we've said this a
thousand times with all these quarterbacks, Like sometimes I understand
the shows where whoever yells loudest wins. It's kind of
this race to be right and first, not necessarily in
that order, and so it's got to be he's a
bust or he's the goat with a very limited sample size,
(05:56):
and it's not great TV when you say, well, wait
and see, yeah, yuh right, sometimes you gotta wait and
see you do.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
I mean it's I look at like, what if Jordan
Love didn't get to sit behind Aaron Rodgers for a
couple of years.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Right backup quarterback right now for somebody else, Yeah, very
could very well have been. And so I think the
the other thing too about Bryce is you just get
the sense that the team likes him, like they like
him as a guy, like they like there's a I
(06:31):
don't know, appreciations the right word, maybe it is, but
I think they I think they appreciate him.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
I think they see the intangible traits that they that
he brings and they know the value of it and
they appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Right.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
And then when things don't go well, to Bryce's credit,
what he hasn't done is lous confidence. To Wayne, he
just keeps kind of plugging forward. He just keeps kind
of chopping.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Away, you know.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
And because and that's the first thing that will crush
a quarterback is if you start to lose your confidence,
you're a toast man and it is hard to get
it back.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
I think, more than anything, the one thing. And you've
seen him in high school and you saw him in college.
The guy's a winner and he's always been a winner.
And the first time he really had to deal with
losing at any scale, especially the scale that he felt
in his first two seasons, was at this pro level,
and he's bounced back from it. And I think, more
(07:30):
than anything, he wants to win. I don't think he
cares whether he throws for one hundred and two yards
and wins at Green Bay or throws for four to
forty eight and wins at Atlanta. Right the end of
the day, the wins count exactly the same. And in football,
sometimes the people who just peruse the box scores and
don't watch the game, they get a warp sense of
(07:54):
what a balanced offense is. Well, they're running it too much,
they're not throwing it enough. Well, okay, if teams are
stacking their defense in a way where you have opportunities
to run and they're not matching up with your two
and three tight end sets, and you're running it for
five six yards every play, why would you stop. You're
(08:17):
moving the ball, you're shortening the game. So just by
that you're going to have less possessions less time. Now,
if teams are going to stack the box and say
we dare you to throw, you may have to throw
it forty times. But that is balance.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
The late great Mike Leach defined balance as doing what's working.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
That's balance, Yeah, right, because you don't want to tip
the scales in the opposite direction for no reason.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
And there's a great sidebar to that because you look
at all these Mike Leach disciples who are now in
college football. What's the one fundamental change they've made to
their philosophy? What are they doing more? Why? Because we've
kind of figured out the spread in college football. Yeah,
so okay, we're gonna thin you out all right. Well, like,
(09:07):
let me go get a two hundred and twenty pounds
back who can hammer through a light box and pick
up five, which is what I was getting off the
bubble screen to begin with.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Well, in the NFL start to see some of that too, right,
We've talked about it on this podcast. When you start
getting lighter and faster on defense because you're having to
adapt to the spread in the open field, then what's
gonna happen. It's gonna come full circle. Now somebody's gonna
get into twelve and thirteen personnel, and they're gonna get
a big back, and they're gonna line up and put
you in a phone booth.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
We'll spin forward on what the next game means for
Bryce Young and the Panthers.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Throws to the episode bick fillin left corner figs to
catch sucks down Weekend Warriors. You can make the case
this upcoming game for the Panthers Monday Night at San
fran it's probably the biggest game they've had since at
(10:09):
least twenty eighteen. You're coming off Bryce Young's best game
as a pro. You're six and five, You're a half
game out of first and food for thought. If the
Rams beat the Bucks on Sunday Night, the Panthers would
be playing for sole possession of first place. You have
the specter of Christian McCaffrey playing his old team for
(10:30):
the first time. Obviously it's an opportunity. But the second component,
the Panthers did not have a single primetime game last year,
not a single Sunday night or Thursday night or Monday nighter.
This is the first time really since early in Bryce's
(10:50):
rookie season. They were on Monday night, week two of
his rookie season against New Orleans. They had a Thursday
night game, I believe that year against Chicago. But you know, really,
for the first time in about a year and a
half at least, the franchise is in a national spotlight,
and there is something to talk about. If you're Dave Canalis,
(11:13):
if you're inside that locker room, how are you handling
everything that goes into the lead up to this game?
Speaker 3 (11:21):
I think you don't make it bigger than it is,
because if you try to magnify the moment, I think
you can get caught up in it and you're set
yourself up for a letdown. I think it has to
be business as usual. It's about what we do, not
what they do. That each and every time we take
(11:44):
the field, we have an opportunity to take another step.
All right, This just happens to be that next step.
But I think if you fall trap into a fall
victim to the trap of what will become like public
news about the Panthers going into that game, right, and
(12:05):
then everybody on Sports Center's talking about it, and everybody
on the NFL networks talking about it and all of
a sudden it becomes this big, over magnified thing.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
I think that can be a bit dangerous. I think
you got to downplay it. I think that's going to
be hard to do, because it is going to be
hard to do.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Unlike last week, this is a week where everybody's going
to be singing your praises all week.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
I know.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
And what we've seen the growing pains with this team
this year. They're a much better place than they were
the last few years. But you know, they started owing
to everybody counts them out. You go and beat at
Lanta thirty to nothing, right, m hm, okay, Hey the
Panthers they might be back. They showed you something. How
do you handle success? Will? They went on the road
(12:48):
and they got blitzed by New England. Now we found
out later New England's a lot better than we thought
they would be. Ye, we have the best record in
the AFC. All right, So how do you handle you know, adversity.
Everybody's writing you off now one and three? Well, you
go and win three straight. You beat Miami, beat Dallas,
you beat the Jets. You're feeling pretty good coming into
(13:09):
the Buffalo game at home. You get blitzed again. All right,
maybe they're not quite ready for prime time. That's kind
of the narrative that's taken.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Hold.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
You know, they're better, but they're not in the top tier.
Let's get through Green Bay and then we'll take care
of New Orleans at home, and then you go and
beat Green Bay on the road and it's like, yeah,
hold on a second, there might be something here. Then
you lose to New Orleans at home. Right, Like, that's
been a challenge this year handling success. So I think
coming off of this week, especially with the way the
(13:38):
schedule stets up, it's a bear down the stretch. You
got the forty nine ers, you got the Rams at home,
and then you finished with Tampa, Seattle, Tampa.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
So I think finding that level of consistency, especially off
of the big moments, building off of those big moments,
that to me, represents a real growth opportunity for this team.
And I'm not saying you got to win every single
one of these games, but you know, they fell flat
to New England, they fell flat to Buffalo, they felt
right against the Saints. I think you're kind of looking
(14:09):
for a measure of consistency here over the last six.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Well, that, yeah, the measure of consistency, and you said
it best. Handling success when people are singing your praises now,
I think, and everybody always talks about dealing with adversity,
I'm not so I'm not so sure it's not more
difficult to deal with everybody telling you how good you
are and then you fall victim to believe in it. Now,
all of a sudden, your habits wane.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
You know, you're not finishing the play, you're you've got
that we've arrived mentality, right.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
I think that's the greatest challenge for coaches today is
and especially in college football, maybe not so much in
professional football, but handling success and then carrying it over
without becoming consumed by it by thinking you've arrived.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
And in the age of social media, you know, you
get the negative as the kids say, well, I forget
what the word they use, but like when people speak
highly of you, but there's a word the kids use,
I don't know, it's like six seven.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
I don't really don't even get me started.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Yeah, I think that's jumped. If you and I are
talking about six seven, that has clearly jumped the shark.
They're already onto something else which we don't know about.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Yeah, and I still have no idea about six seven.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
So no, I have no idea what it means. But
every time I say it, my daughter thinks it's hilarious.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Oh god.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
But I do think there is going to be a
component here of Yes, it's a lot easier when people say, hey,
your quarterback can't do this, and you guys can't do this,
and yeah, ready to win, and you're, you know, still
what you were last year, it's easy to say, ah, yeah,
you know what, Like you're thinking about that on the
(15:43):
weight bench, when you're trying to do that extra rep,
you're thinking about that in practice, right, Like it's the
stuff that makes you angry, that's the stuff that fuels you.
When everyone's patting me on your back like they are
this week, and you know, so Dan Orlowski just put
something you know out there on social Media's like you
gotta start talking about the Carolina Panthers And I'm like, okay,
Like that's the national media. Now you're going, right, we're
(16:06):
going everybody's going to be all in after this week.
So it's going to be a challenge. And listen, San Francisco,
they have one of the best offensive schemes in the NFL.
McCaffrey has the highest usage rate. He's got the most
touches of any player in the league coming off an
injury plague season. I mean, they came into the ground
and he is that offense. That's a significant challenge. You know,
(16:29):
Christian's going to be fired up for the game. And
you grew up in that area. You were a forty
nine Ers fan grown up, I always kind of think
back to, you know, the Panthers' origin story. When the
Panthers broke into the NFL in ninety five, forty nine
Ers were at the time the defending Super Bowl champions.
It was San Francisco in Dallas. Those were the two
(16:52):
gold standards in the NFL, and the Panthers when they
started were in the old NFC West because divisions didn't
make sense. Anthers and the Saints in the West and
the Cardinals were in the East. Remember that, Oh yeah,
it didn't make any sense. But that's you know, And
in Carolina's expansion season, they go beat San Francisco and
(17:14):
it was kind of like like, dude, you just took
down the bully on the block. And then the year
after in ninety six when the Panthers ended up going
to the NFC Championship. They beat San Francisco twice, and
that was kind of like the first real okay, like
this is the new kid, and you know, they had
a team full of veterans with Sam Mills and you
(17:35):
kind of punched that bully in the mouth, which was
Santaho and it was still, you know, part of the
heyday of the forty nine ers. So you know, there's
a lot of a lot of history here. I remember
Wesley Walls used to haunt the Niners, former Niner when
he was Anthers. I mean like that was a revenge
game for Wesley Walls every time.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
The fact that you're talking about Wesley Walls tells me
just how invested you are in your job, because you're
not even old enough to be remembering Wesley.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Oh no, dude, I was all about So it's funny
like I grew up a Jet fan, but my favorite
player growing up was Jerry Rice. Oh cool, yeah, so
loved loved Jerry Rice. So you know, the forty nine ers,
like late eighties, early nineties, mid nineties, you know when
I was like growing up and becoming a sports fan
(18:25):
because they were so good it was like the Chiefs
or the Bills. Now they're on.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
TV all the time, right exactly.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Yeah, And so I mean I'm watching those teams and like,
I could you know Guy MacIntyre and Jesse Sepolou and
Harris Park on the offensive line, Tom Rathman, Roger Yeah,
I mean I love those teams. Like those teams were
fun to watch, and you know Joe Montana and John Taylor, Roder,
Craig Roder, Craig Ricky Waters who came after. And so
(18:56):
I remember like when the Panthers joined the league and
as an expansion teams, Like, dude, you guys are punching
San Fran in the mouth. That was a big deal
at the time. Yeah, because that team was like twelve
and four, thirteen and three every year.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Hey, so you brought something up to get you just
brought back a huge memory.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Do you remember growing up the awesome like like three
by four or three by five posters that Nike used
to put out with NFL players, just big, big pictures
of him and they were posters.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Do you remember those?
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Yes, So there was one I think it was a
I had one. It was a Sterling sharp one. Okay,
and it was the like a freight train. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Well, I had the Jerry Rice one and what it
was it was Jerry Rice in the air and it
almost looked like the Jordan logo. Okay, so he's in
the air and in the background they have Candlestick Park
at night with the lights on and the top said Rice,
be nimble, Rice, be quick, Rice.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Jump over the dot dot dot.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
It was awesome.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
That's great. It was so good. That is great. You know,
I think somewhere in eighth grade or whatever it was,
you know, the year they won the Super Bowl they
debuted those new jerseys. Do you remember, Yeah, so I
think I have like a Jerry Rice forty nine er jersey.
That version in a somewhere in the attic.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Had the white number with the black shadow outline.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
The black shadow outline, and it was, I know, like
a lot of.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
The traditionalists because they had white pants.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
I thought it was cool.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
And even the most subtle, if you remember, the SF
logo was white SF red inside and then the black
label and then they put a little black outline around
the SF, and people lost their minds, lost their minds.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
I mean kind of gave I don't know it kind
of gave that uniform a little bit of an ag.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Yeah, like forty nine Ers Panthers. Know they met in
the playoffs, you know, not too long ago. It was
at twenty fourteen, so I guess that's you know, been
eleven years now, so there's some there's some history there.
But this game represents I think a fast ending opportunity.
I'm excited. It's gonna be Monday night. Have now been
to that stadium yet in Santa Clara, So excited to
go there for the first time. Let's talk a little
(21:21):
college football to wrap up the show. New college football
playoff rankings come out on Tuesday, which is today. Here's
my question. Notre Dame right now is five spots ahead
of Miami, right, Yeah, Notre Dame's at nine, Miami is
at fourteen. Miami beat Notre Dame had to head yep.
(21:45):
Does that come into play if both teams finished with
the same identical record? Okay?
Speaker 3 (21:50):
So you know how sometimes and I get this because
I believe in it. You know who you play, when
you play, where you play, and then all of a sudden,
the team finds itself and they're in week eleven than
they were in Week one or two or this and that.
But if you remember that game that was an exceptionally
well played game by both teams, that wasn't one team
versus a team that hadn't found itself yet, right, So
(22:13):
you're not gonna be able to default to that. You're
not going to be able to sit there and say, oh, well,
this is a different Notre Dame team now, right.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
My answer to that is if they don't, if both
finished ten and two and they don't acknowledge, head to
head scheduling in college football will change forever because what's
the incentive to do that? You are, just go schedule
(22:43):
ball state, right, Just go schedule and FCS opponent, right,
Because if you're gonna do that, and you're essentially gonna
say that the matchup head to head doesn't matter, and
that it didn't matter that you played a big time opponent,
then why would you put yourself in jeopardy to ever
do that again?
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Now?
Speaker 3 (23:02):
I do believe, and remember we do the show on
a Tuesday, So the rankings hadn't come out last week,
and when the committee came out and put Miami at fifteen,
knowing so well, they virtually had zero chance of even
playing in the ACC Championship game, let alone winning it.
That tells me that was an indicator that they think
(23:24):
Notre Dame is super talented. They plan on having that
if they win, They plan on having them in the
playoffs along with the ACC champ Okay, now here's where
Notre Dame could have a problem the Big twelve. What
if BYU and Texas Tech play again and BYU beats
(23:45):
Texas Tech.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
And if you look at the precedent set last year
in the ACC Championship game and the committee did not
bump out SMU after that loss. So now, yes, so
there's multiple factors.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
The good still has UH Cincinnati, which is in the
top twenty five. Correct, another chance for like another you know,
Carrot win if you will resume builder. Yeah, even if
they were to lose a second time to Texas Tech,
are you going to punish them for playing in an
extra game when it's a conference championship?
Speaker 2 (24:22):
I know, I know, And Notre Dame doesn't have to
play one. Right in Miami beat Notre Dame.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
So you're basically saying, right, you're gonna play a top ten,
maybe even a top five Texas Tech team at that point. Yeah,
you gotta play them again. If you lose, we're gonna
punish you and knock you out. But like the team
that stayed home and did nothing can back door its
way in with.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
The loss, or the other team that's got the same record, right,
I know, I think so. I think there's there's there's
other things that play here, just aside from that head
to head with the point that I think we're both making.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Listen, I think the the Big twelve champion obviously is in.
If BYU wins. I think both teams are in absolutely
if Texas Tech wins. I think BYU doesn't drop. I
don't think BYU drops now, they may not get in
because if they're in that you know, ten to twelve
range where they can get jumped by somebody else who's
(25:23):
lower but won a conference championship, right, Like, that could
potentially happen, But I don't I don't see a scenario
where if BYU is in the field, where wherever that
cutoff is, and if they lose in the conference championship game,
I don't see how you can dock them for being
in a conference championship.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
I'm with you, and let's maybe send a little teas
for next week, because obviously the group of five cannot
have nice things, and let's dive into a discussion next
week about whether or not they should get an automatic bit.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
No, don't answer it. That's called the teas.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
All right, Okay, all right, I'm gonna leave you with
this one because the last piece of this which I
found fascinating after watching the games last week. Right, Indiana
gets a scare in its previous game at Penn State,
A and M. We saw what happened with A and
(26:20):
M against South Carolina. I mean, you know, you talk
about lucky to escape. Alabama goes down to Oklahoma. Georgia
seems to have some pretty good mojo right now. Yeah,
outside of Ohio State, who's looked unbelievable from start to finish.
(26:42):
You know, their worst game was what that opener against Texas.
They held them to seven points. They've steamrolled everybody else
outside of Ohio State. I'm not sure like there's another
team where you're like, Okay, they're gonna go win a
national championship or they're gonna go play for a national
championship like Ohio State. I feel pretty comfortable saying like
I think they're gonna be at minimum in the semi
(27:03):
finals minimum. Yeah, going back to the championship, they've just
been that good and they still have a lot of
pieces everybody else. The more you watch, i mean, say
what you want, like the universe works in mysterious ways,
the transfer portal, the chaos that hasn't affected the sport.
(27:23):
It's created some parody. Oh, there's no question, that's the question.
And more parody than we've had in a long time.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Well, take a look at all the one possession games
that are being played in college football each and every weekend.
That's why, because the margin of error has become razor thin.
I mean, you mentioned Georgia, and you.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Know, george wasn't that long ago where Georgia went on
the field virtually against everybody they played, maybe outside of
some of those Nick Saban teams, and they.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Won the game before the ball was even kicked.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
And Georgia now has had to like play with a
blue collar workmanlike mentality and scrap and scrape and work
their way into the team that they are now. And
now they're peaking at the right time. But it's not
like they you know, that's not Georgia as we've you know,
come to know them, and but I'll I'll say this,
(28:17):
and I have a tremendous amount of respect for the
way Ohio State is playing.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
They're phenomenal.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
I think I could make a good argument that if
the University of Florida played the Ohio State schedule, billion
Napier would still be the coach of Florida.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
And that's fair. Yeah, you know, like this was the
closest game it was to Texas. You know, team Yeah
kind of underachieved this year compared to expectations. Yeah, well
we'll end on this because you know, you mentioned Georgia
can just kind of show up and steamroll people in
the past. I feel bad for our friends in the
(28:53):
university area because Charlotte plays Georgia. That's just.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Out as first season is not gone the way they
would like it.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
I'm not sure we have a show next week because
we have the Money Night game.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
So oh, a two week tease.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
So it'll be a two week tea so we'll actually
have some answers to talk about because I think we
would know the college football bracket then, right.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
I believe So, No, well that'll be the week one
week we moved from the championship week.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
Yeah, so that'll that'll be fun and we'll do it then,
So happy Thanksgiving to you, Tom,
You've seen the movie pulp Fiction before, right, absolutely?
Speaker 2 (00:04):
And I hate the greatest.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Dialogue driven movie of all time? The what the greatest
dialogue a driven movie of all time?
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Yes, I think I think that's accurate.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Right. And so you remember when Jules, right before he
would go hit man on somebody, he had a little
Bible verse that he would speak Ezekiel twenty five seventeen.
Do you remember how that ends?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
I don't refresh me.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
You will know my name is the Lord, and I
shall lay my vengeance upon thee the now? Was that
not Bryce Young on Sunday?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (00:42):
I mean to talk about datement everybody nationally locally killing
them all eek killing it. Just move on, it's over,
it's done. And I mean like it wasn't just like
he played well, I mean four forty eight franchise record
for passing yards. It was kind of it was kind
(01:02):
of a neat moment. I think it shows you a
lot of what he's about. And he did it in
a fashion which I think if his career takes off
and he becomes the guy that this franchise thinks he
can be, we may look back at that the ankle game.
I mean, he went down with an injury that looked bad.
He's down for several moments. At one point he walks
(01:23):
off the field. In the first half. They bring the
cart out and we're watching from upstairs and he kind
of waves the cart off. He's near the tunnel, so
he's walking toward the tunnel. The cart's going with him.
Were wondering like, maybe he doesn't want to be seen
getting on the cart. Maybe he'll get on the cart
in the tunnel. And once he goes in, I mean,
you know, guys going to the locker room, like you
don't expect him back at least for the rest of
(01:45):
the half. Yeah, he's out for the next series. He's
like bouncing around on the sideline warming up, and all
of a sudden, it's like a little pop to his step
and you know, say what you want. Atlanta was the
number one pass defense in the NFL going into that game.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Were they really I didn't know that?
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Yeah, wow, one pass defense. Now. I always say sometimes
those numbers are skewed when you are a losing team
because teams in the second half run the ball right.
Probably weren't the best pass defense, but statistically they were
number one against the pass and they were top five
in the NFL going into the game in total.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Sacks, so getting after people too.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
When you see a game like that, what does that
tell you?
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Well, it tells me a little bit about competitive temperament,
mental toughness. To be able to have a week like
you had the week before and then it's impossible to
block out all the noise. You can't possibly go anywhere,
You can't walk in for a cup of coffee somewhere
without somebody snickering behind your back. You can't turn on
the radio, you can't look at the internet. You I mean,
(02:50):
that could consume people, right, and so I think the
ability to flush that, ignore it and literally not allow
it to have any impact on your preparation, your performance,
your focus.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
I mean it's a.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
It's it's hard to explain, like some guys can do
that and other guys can't.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Usually guys who can do that who.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Are less talented than more physically gifted players are going
to overcome those physically gifted players at the position.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
To me, it reinforced a couple of things. One, I
don't think the mental toughness of the kid is a question,
nor should it be going forward, because right we saw
it in his rookie season where the offensive line was
essentially a sieve, and you know, he had no help
(03:44):
up front all season with injuries, and they're picking up guys,
you know, off the street, calling them up off the
practice squad. All right, and right guard, you know, you
just got here, and yeah, he's getting killed sack sixty
some odd times. You had the coaching changes, the play changes,
and okay, you got through that, and then two weeks
into your second season, your benched and people wrote you
(04:07):
off again. And then you came back and you kind
of authored a second act toward the end of your
second season, and then you know, I always look at
this from the context of what balance really is, and
we can talk about that in football. But people made
a big deal about his low passing yardage numbers. Nobody
talked about the fact that they won a lot of
(04:28):
those games, right, And if you're running the football successful,
you're gonna keep running the football. That's just football, one
on one. But New Orleans made a schematic adjustment, load
up the box. Can you beat us vertically? He couldn't
do it? Do it? And so Atlanta said, all right,
let's reuse that blueprint. Let's see if he can beat us,
(04:49):
and he beat them. I mean, was a team that
struggled to make big plays in the past game and
Tteroa McMillan got a thirty nine yard catch, Jalen Kocher
at a catch of twenty plus yards, Lee get out
of thirty six yard touchdown catch, Mitchell Evans had a
catch of twenty plus yards, Tommy Tremble catch run late
in the game fifty four yards. I think, yeah, it
(05:10):
was awesome. And Tommy is just like, you know, he's
kind of one of those heart and soul guys, like
really good locker room guy. But you started to see it,
and I think the way the guys played for him,
I think that tells you a lot about what guys
in the locker room think of him. Forget the noise
on the outside. And you know, Tommy's twenty four years old.
(05:32):
He's twenty four years old. And we've said this a
thousand times with all these quarterbacks, Like sometimes I understand
the shows where whoever yells loudest wins. It's kind of
this race to be right and first, not necessarily in
that order, and so it's got to be he's a
bust or he's the goat with a very limited sample size,
(05:56):
and it's not great TV when you say, well, wait
and see, yeah, yuh right, sometimes you gotta wait and
see you do.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
I mean it's I look at like, what if Jordan
Love didn't get to sit behind Aaron Rodgers for a
couple of years.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Right backup quarterback right now for somebody else, Yeah, very
could very well have been. And so I think the
the other thing too about Bryce is you just get
the sense that the team likes him, like they like
him as a guy, like they like there's a I
(06:31):
don't know, appreciations the right word, maybe it is, but
I think they I think they appreciate him.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
I think they see the intangible traits that they that
he brings and they know the value of it and
they appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Right.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
And then when things don't go well, to Bryce's credit,
what he hasn't done is lous confidence. To Wayne, he
just keeps kind of plugging forward. He just keeps kind
of chopping.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Away, you know.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
And because and that's the first thing that will crush
a quarterback is if you start to lose your confidence,
you're a toast man and it is hard to get
it back.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
I think, more than anything, the one thing. And you've
seen him in high school and you saw him in college.
The guy's a winner and he's always been a winner.
And the first time he really had to deal with
losing at any scale, especially the scale that he felt
in his first two seasons, was at this pro level,
and he's bounced back from it. And I think, more
(07:30):
than anything, he wants to win. I don't think he
cares whether he throws for one hundred and two yards
and wins at Green Bay or throws for four to
forty eight and wins at Atlanta. Right the end of
the day, the wins count exactly the same. And in football,
sometimes the people who just peruse the box scores and
don't watch the game, they get a warp sense of
(07:54):
what a balanced offense is. Well, they're running it too much,
they're not throwing it enough. Well, okay, if teams are
stacking their defense in a way where you have opportunities
to run and they're not matching up with your two
and three tight end sets, and you're running it for
five six yards every play, why would you stop. You're
(08:17):
moving the ball, you're shortening the game. So just by
that you're going to have less possessions less time. Now,
if teams are going to stack the box and say
we dare you to throw, you may have to throw
it forty times. But that is balance.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
The late great Mike Leach defined balance as doing what's working.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
That's balance, Yeah, right, because you don't want to tip
the scales in the opposite direction for no reason.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
And there's a great sidebar to that because you look
at all these Mike Leach disciples who are now in
college football. What's the one fundamental change they've made to
their philosophy? What are they doing more? Why? Because we've
kind of figured out the spread in college football. Yeah,
so okay, we're gonna thin you out all right. Well, like,
(09:07):
let me go get a two hundred and twenty pounds
back who can hammer through a light box and pick
up five, which is what I was getting off the
bubble screen to begin with.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Well, in the NFL start to see some of that too, right,
We've talked about it on this podcast. When you start
getting lighter and faster on defense because you're having to
adapt to the spread in the open field, then what's
gonna happen. It's gonna come full circle. Now somebody's gonna
get into twelve and thirteen personnel, and they're gonna get
a big back, and they're gonna line up and put
you in a phone booth.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
We'll spin forward on what the next game means for
Bryce Young and the Panthers.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Throws to the episode bick fillin left corner figs to
catch sucks down Weekend Warriors. You can make the case
this upcoming game for the Panthers Monday Night at San
fran it's probably the biggest game they've had since at
(10:09):
least twenty eighteen. You're coming off Bryce Young's best game
as a pro. You're six and five, You're a half
game out of first and food for thought. If the
Rams beat the Bucks on Sunday Night, the Panthers would
be playing for sole possession of first place. You have
the specter of Christian McCaffrey playing his old team for
(10:30):
the first time. Obviously it's an opportunity. But the second component,
the Panthers did not have a single primetime game last year,
not a single Sunday night or Thursday night or Monday nighter.
This is the first time really since early in Bryce's
(10:50):
rookie season. They were on Monday night, week two of
his rookie season against New Orleans. They had a Thursday
night game, I believe that year against Chicago. But you know, really,
for the first time in about a year and a
half at least, the franchise is in a national spotlight,
and there is something to talk about. If you're Dave Canalis,
(11:13):
if you're inside that locker room, how are you handling
everything that goes into the lead up to this game?
Speaker 3 (11:21):
I think you don't make it bigger than it is,
because if you try to magnify the moment, I think
you can get caught up in it and you're set
yourself up for a letdown. I think it has to
be business as usual. It's about what we do, not
what they do. That each and every time we take
(11:44):
the field, we have an opportunity to take another step.
All right, This just happens to be that next step.
But I think if you fall trap into a fall
victim to the trap of what will become like public
news about the Panthers going into that game, right, and
(12:05):
then everybody on Sports Center's talking about it, and everybody
on the NFL networks talking about it and all of
a sudden it becomes this big, over magnified thing.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
I think that can be a bit dangerous. I think
you got to downplay it. I think that's going to
be hard to do, because it is going to be
hard to do.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Unlike last week, this is a week where everybody's going
to be singing your praises all week.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
I know.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
And what we've seen the growing pains with this team
this year. They're a much better place than they were
the last few years. But you know, they started owing
to everybody counts them out. You go and beat at
Lanta thirty to nothing, right, m hm, okay, Hey the
Panthers they might be back. They showed you something. How
do you handle success? Will? They went on the road
(12:48):
and they got blitzed by New England. Now we found
out later New England's a lot better than we thought
they would be. Ye, we have the best record in
the AFC. All right, So how do you handle you know, adversity.
Everybody's writing you off now one and three? Well, you
go and win three straight. You beat Miami, beat Dallas,
you beat the Jets. You're feeling pretty good coming into
(13:09):
the Buffalo game at home. You get blitzed again. All right,
maybe they're not quite ready for prime time. That's kind
of the narrative that's taken.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Hold.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
You know, they're better, but they're not in the top tier.
Let's get through Green Bay and then we'll take care
of New Orleans at home, and then you go and
beat Green Bay on the road and it's like, yeah,
hold on a second, there might be something here. Then
you lose to New Orleans at home. Right, Like, that's
been a challenge this year handling success. So I think
coming off of this week, especially with the way the
(13:38):
schedule stets up, it's a bear down the stretch. You
got the forty nine ers, you got the Rams at home,
and then you finished with Tampa, Seattle, Tampa.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
So I think finding that level of consistency, especially off
of the big moments, building off of those big moments,
that to me, represents a real growth opportunity for this team.
And I'm not saying you got to win every single
one of these games, but you know, they fell flat
to New England, they fell flat to Buffalo, they felt
right against the Saints. I think you're kind of looking
(14:09):
for a measure of consistency here over the last six.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Well, that, yeah, the measure of consistency, and you said
it best. Handling success when people are singing your praises now,
I think, and everybody always talks about dealing with adversity,
I'm not so I'm not so sure it's not more
difficult to deal with everybody telling you how good you
are and then you fall victim to believe in it. Now,
all of a sudden, your habits wane.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
You know, you're not finishing the play, you're you've got
that we've arrived mentality, right.
Speaker 2 (14:37):
I think that's the greatest challenge for coaches today is
and especially in college football, maybe not so much in
professional football, but handling success and then carrying it over
without becoming consumed by it by thinking you've arrived.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
And in the age of social media, you know, you
get the negative as the kids say, well, I forget
what the word they use, but like when people speak
highly of you, but there's a word the kids use,
I don't know, it's like six seven.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
I don't really don't even get me started.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Yeah, I think that's jumped. If you and I are
talking about six seven, that has clearly jumped the shark.
They're already onto something else which we don't know about.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Yeah, and I still have no idea about six seven.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
So no, I have no idea what it means. But
every time I say it, my daughter thinks it's hilarious.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
Oh god.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
But I do think there is going to be a
component here of Yes, it's a lot easier when people say, hey,
your quarterback can't do this, and you guys can't do this,
and yeah, ready to win, and you're, you know, still
what you were last year, it's easy to say, ah, yeah,
you know what, Like you're thinking about that on the
(15:43):
weight bench, when you're trying to do that extra rep,
you're thinking about that in practice, right, Like it's the
stuff that makes you angry, that's the stuff that fuels you.
When everyone's patting me on your back like they are
this week, and you know, so Dan Orlowski just put
something you know out there on social Media's like you
gotta start talking about the Carolina Panthers And I'm like, okay,
Like that's the national media. Now you're going, right, we're
(16:06):
going everybody's going to be all in after this week.
So it's going to be a challenge. And listen, San Francisco,
they have one of the best offensive schemes in the NFL.
McCaffrey has the highest usage rate. He's got the most
touches of any player in the league coming off an
injury plague season. I mean, they came into the ground
and he is that offense. That's a significant challenge. You know,
(16:29):
Christian's going to be fired up for the game. And
you grew up in that area. You were a forty
nine Ers fan grown up, I always kind of think
back to, you know, the Panthers' origin story. When the
Panthers broke into the NFL in ninety five, forty nine
Ers were at the time the defending Super Bowl champions.
It was San Francisco in Dallas. Those were the two
(16:52):
gold standards in the NFL, and the Panthers when they
started were in the old NFC West because divisions didn't
make sense. Anthers and the Saints in the West and
the Cardinals were in the East. Remember that, Oh yeah,
it didn't make any sense. But that's you know, And
in Carolina's expansion season, they go beat San Francisco and
(17:14):
it was kind of like like, dude, you just took
down the bully on the block. And then the year
after in ninety six when the Panthers ended up going
to the NFC Championship. They beat San Francisco twice, and
that was kind of like the first real okay, like
this is the new kid, and you know, they had
a team full of veterans with Sam Mills and you
(17:35):
kind of punched that bully in the mouth, which was
Santaho and it was still, you know, part of the
heyday of the forty nine ers. So you know, there's
a lot of a lot of history here. I remember
Wesley Walls used to haunt the Niners, former Niner when
he was Anthers. I mean like that was a revenge
game for Wesley Walls every time.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
The fact that you're talking about Wesley Walls tells me
just how invested you are in your job, because you're
not even old enough to be remembering Wesley.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Oh no, dude, I was all about So it's funny
like I grew up a Jet fan, but my favorite
player growing up was Jerry Rice. Oh cool, yeah, so
loved loved Jerry Rice. So you know, the forty nine ers,
like late eighties, early nineties, mid nineties, you know when
I was like growing up and becoming a sports fan
(18:25):
because they were so good it was like the Chiefs
or the Bills. Now they're on.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
TV all the time, right exactly.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Yeah, And so I mean I'm watching those teams and like,
I could you know Guy MacIntyre and Jesse Sepolou and
Harris Park on the offensive line, Tom Rathman, Roger Yeah,
I mean I love those teams. Like those teams were
fun to watch, and you know Joe Montana and John Taylor, Roder,
Craig Roder, Craig Ricky Waters who came after. And so
(18:56):
I remember like when the Panthers joined the league and
as an expansion teams, Like, dude, you guys are punching
San Fran in the mouth. That was a big deal
at the time. Yeah, because that team was like twelve
and four, thirteen and three every year.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Hey, so you brought something up to get you just
brought back a huge memory.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Do you remember growing up the awesome like like three
by four or three by five posters that Nike used
to put out with NFL players, just big, big pictures
of him and they were posters.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Do you remember those?
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Yes, So there was one I think it was a
I had one. It was a Sterling sharp one. Okay,
and it was the like a freight train. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:36):
Well, I had the Jerry Rice one and what it
was it was Jerry Rice in the air and it
almost looked like the Jordan logo. Okay, so he's in
the air and in the background they have Candlestick Park
at night with the lights on and the top said Rice,
be nimble, Rice, be quick, Rice.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Jump over the dot dot dot.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
It was awesome.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
That's great. It was so good. That is great. You know,
I think somewhere in eighth grade or whatever it was,
you know, the year they won the Super Bowl they
debuted those new jerseys. Do you remember, Yeah, so I
think I have like a Jerry Rice forty nine er jersey.
That version in a somewhere in the attic.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Had the white number with the black shadow outline.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
The black shadow outline, and it was, I know, like
a lot of.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
The traditionalists because they had white pants.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
I thought it was cool.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
And even the most subtle, if you remember, the SF
logo was white SF red inside and then the black
label and then they put a little black outline around
the SF, and people lost their minds, lost their minds.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
I mean kind of gave I don't know it kind
of gave that uniform a little bit of an ag.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Yeah, like forty nine Ers Panthers. Know they met in
the playoffs, you know, not too long ago. It was
at twenty fourteen, so I guess that's you know, been
eleven years now, so there's some there's some history there.
But this game represents I think a fast ending opportunity.
I'm excited. It's gonna be Monday night. Have now been
to that stadium yet in Santa Clara, So excited to
go there for the first time. Let's talk a little
(21:21):
college football to wrap up the show. New college football
playoff rankings come out on Tuesday, which is today. Here's
my question. Notre Dame right now is five spots ahead
of Miami, right, Yeah, Notre Dame's at nine, Miami is
at fourteen. Miami beat Notre Dame had to head yep.
(21:45):
Does that come into play if both teams finished with
the same identical record? Okay?
Speaker 3 (21:50):
So you know how sometimes and I get this because
I believe in it. You know who you play, when
you play, where you play, and then all of a sudden,
the team finds itself and they're in week eleven than
they were in Week one or two or this and that.
But if you remember that game that was an exceptionally
well played game by both teams, that wasn't one team
versus a team that hadn't found itself yet, right, So
(22:13):
you're not gonna be able to default to that. You're
not going to be able to sit there and say, oh, well,
this is a different Notre Dame team now, right.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
My answer to that is if they don't, if both
finished ten and two and they don't acknowledge, head to
head scheduling in college football will change forever because what's
the incentive to do that? You are, just go schedule
(22:43):
ball state, right, Just go schedule and FCS opponent, right,
Because if you're gonna do that, and you're essentially gonna
say that the matchup head to head doesn't matter, and
that it didn't matter that you played a big time opponent,
then why would you put yourself in jeopardy to ever
do that again?
Speaker 1 (23:01):
Now?
Speaker 3 (23:02):
I do believe, and remember we do the show on
a Tuesday, So the rankings hadn't come out last week,
and when the committee came out and put Miami at fifteen,
knowing so well, they virtually had zero chance of even
playing in the ACC Championship game, let alone winning it.
That tells me that was an indicator that they think
(23:24):
Notre Dame is super talented. They plan on having that
if they win, They plan on having them in the
playoffs along with the ACC champ Okay, now here's where
Notre Dame could have a problem the Big twelve. What
if BYU and Texas Tech play again and BYU beats
(23:45):
Texas Tech.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
And if you look at the precedent set last year
in the ACC Championship game and the committee did not
bump out SMU after that loss. So now, yes, so
there's multiple factors.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
The good still has UH Cincinnati, which is in the
top twenty five. Correct, another chance for like another you know,
Carrot win if you will resume builder. Yeah, even if
they were to lose a second time to Texas Tech,
are you going to punish them for playing in an
extra game when it's a conference championship?
Speaker 2 (24:22):
I know, I know, And Notre Dame doesn't have to
play one. Right in Miami beat Notre Dame.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
So you're basically saying, right, you're gonna play a top ten,
maybe even a top five Texas Tech team at that point. Yeah,
you gotta play them again. If you lose, we're gonna
punish you and knock you out. But like the team
that stayed home and did nothing can back door its
way in with.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
The loss, or the other team that's got the same record, right,
I know, I think so. I think there's there's there's
other things that play here, just aside from that head
to head with the point that I think we're both making.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Listen, I think the the Big twelve champion obviously is in.
If BYU wins. I think both teams are in absolutely
if Texas Tech wins. I think BYU doesn't drop. I
don't think BYU drops now, they may not get in
because if they're in that you know, ten to twelve
range where they can get jumped by somebody else who's
(25:23):
lower but won a conference championship, right, Like, that could
potentially happen, But I don't I don't see a scenario
where if BYU is in the field, where wherever that
cutoff is, and if they lose in the conference championship game,
I don't see how you can dock them for being
in a conference championship.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
I'm with you, and let's maybe send a little teas
for next week, because obviously the group of five cannot
have nice things, and let's dive into a discussion next
week about whether or not they should get an automatic bit.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
No, don't answer it. That's called the teas.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
All right, Okay, all right, I'm gonna leave you with
this one because the last piece of this which I
found fascinating after watching the games last week. Right, Indiana
gets a scare in its previous game at Penn State,
A and M. We saw what happened with A and
(26:20):
M against South Carolina. I mean, you know, you talk
about lucky to escape. Alabama goes down to Oklahoma. Georgia
seems to have some pretty good mojo right now. Yeah,
outside of Ohio State, who's looked unbelievable from start to finish.
(26:42):
You know, their worst game was what that opener against Texas.
They held them to seven points. They've steamrolled everybody else
outside of Ohio State. I'm not sure like there's another
team where you're like, Okay, they're gonna go win a
national championship or they're gonna go play for a national
championship like Ohio State. I feel pretty comfortable saying like
I think they're gonna be at minimum in the semi
(27:03):
finals minimum. Yeah, going back to the championship, they've just
been that good and they still have a lot of
pieces everybody else. The more you watch, i mean, say
what you want, like the universe works in mysterious ways,
the transfer portal, the chaos that hasn't affected the sport.
(27:23):
It's created some parody. Oh, there's no question, that's the question.
And more parody than we've had in a long time.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Well, take a look at all the one possession games
that are being played in college football each and every weekend.
That's why, because the margin of error has become razor thin.
I mean, you mentioned Georgia, and you.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Know, george wasn't that long ago where Georgia went on
the field virtually against everybody they played, maybe outside of
some of those Nick Saban teams, and they.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
Won the game before the ball was even kicked.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
And Georgia now has had to like play with a
blue collar workmanlike mentality and scrap and scrape and work
their way into the team that they are now. And
now they're peaking at the right time. But it's not
like they you know, that's not Georgia as we've you know,
come to know them, and but I'll I'll say this,
(28:17):
and I have a tremendous amount of respect for the
way Ohio State is playing.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
They're phenomenal.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
I think I could make a good argument that if
the University of Florida played the Ohio State schedule, billion
Napier would still be the coach of Florida.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
And that's fair. Yeah, you know, like this was the
closest game it was to Texas. You know, team Yeah
kind of underachieved this year compared to expectations. Yeah, well
we'll end on this because you know, you mentioned Georgia
can just kind of show up and steamroll people in
the past. I feel bad for our friends in the
(28:53):
university area because Charlotte plays Georgia. That's just.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
Out as first season is not gone the way they
would like it.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
I'm not sure we have a show next week because
we have the Money Night game.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
So oh, a two week tease.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
So it'll be a two week tea so we'll actually
have some answers to talk about because I think we
would know the college football bracket then, right.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
I believe So, No, well that'll be the week one
week we moved from the championship week.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
Yeah, so that'll that'll be fun and we'll do it then,
So happy Thanksgiving to you, Tom,
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