Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Hello and welcome back to the Hold the Line Sports Bedding
(00:02):
podcast where we do the work so you don't have to.
Conference championship week is here, boys.
Is it?
By the way, Nate, it is fantastic to see
your bright and shining face.
It's great to be back.
Distracted me from the task at hand for a minute.
Super glad you're here.
Hopefully you had a great vacation.
Glad that you're back.
(00:25):
But yeah, conference championship week,
the final test that will reveal who has what it takes to play
amongst the elite in the playoffs
or to see who wins the conference USA championship
if you're Western Kentucky and Jacksonville State,
because that's pretty much all they have left to play for.
Which is not as cool, but still pretty cool.
The agenda today, week 14 recap.
(00:47):
Final playoff predictions, really only a couple things
we'll have to talk about there.
It's pretty much set in stone, but there
are a couple things at stake.
And a game preview with our picks for every conference
championship game on the docket.
So you get all nine as long as you're here watching.
Let's get started.
Brandon, let's recap the games of the week
(01:07):
from the final week of the regular season.
The plan, pretty solid final regular season week,
I would say.
I mean, not getting ahead of myself,
but this week gave us a solid look at what our playoffs
going to look like with some ups and downs,
whether depending on whether you're a fan of.
(01:29):
Well, we started out with Miami versus Syracuse.
Miami was an 11 point favorite.
The over and under in that game was 67 and 1 half, which smashed.
And Syracuse took the W42-38, which indeed did get Clemson
to the ACC championship.
Shout out Syracuse coach for shouting that out in the post
(01:52):
game, which is kind of funny.
I think to me, that was just basically what Miami has been
all year.
And I think you describe that game as perfectly as you could,
as it was going to be a shootout for sure.
Could Syracuse keep up with the shootout or the high scoring
game that you'd predicted?
Cam, so that was awesome.
(02:13):
I think all of us either took Syracuse plus 11 or the over.
And I think we all hit on that one.
So nice to see the boys working together to get some money.
We move over to some ACC versus SEC, which
had a lot of playoff implications on the line.
South Carolina versus Clemson.
(02:33):
South Carolina, I think most of us
took either South Carolina plus 3, right?
Which ended up being a winner because.
Or the money line straight up.
Yeah, which ended up both being a winner because South Carolina
won 17 to 14.
And I would say that was a classic ACC versus SEC game
where you take the top team from the ACC, or not the top team,
(02:57):
but top three team in the ACC versus a extremely hot SEC
team.
And Lenore Sellers did his thing.
I mean, like Beamer said at the end of the game,
he said he's the best player in the league.
I'm not doubting that.
I'm not doubting that anymore.
I've been high on him since.
(03:18):
I want to say like week three.
But tough news for South Carolina
is the committee still has them not making the playoff.
And Clemson has now a shot to still win it, even though they
lost.
So kind of crazy ups and downs for college football.
Then we have the final game.
We talked about Texas versus Texas A&M.
(03:38):
This game was depending on who goes and plays Georgia
in the SEC championship.
Almost kind of a sleeper to me.
I had the over 48 and 1 half.
Texas wins 17 to 7.
I mean, good defense from Texas for sure.
I would say average defense, even worse offense from Texas A&M.
(03:59):
So Texas covered and won the game, did not hit the over,
and I did have the over.
So that's my L on the games of the week.
But on all college football, really, really fun,
regular season to watch, ended with a bang,
ended with a lot of teams.
I think rivalry weekend this far was the best thing
for college football in the last 20 years.
(04:22):
I mean, I think top to bottom with every rivalry game
that we saw, it was a close game.
If it wasn't a close game, there was still
somewhat of a brawl at the end.
And I think, yeah.
Someone trying to plant a flag.
Yeah.
I think with the transfer portal and guys moving around,
rosters and new head coaches with the carousel and all that,
(04:46):
it's still good to see that there's
a lot of passion that goes into the final regular season week
of college football.
Whereas a lot of people, when the 12 team playoff got
introduced, was on the side of this
is going to make the regular season less appealing.
And I think it's a good thing for college football
that there's still that much passion.
And I would say school pride.
(05:08):
You care for the guys you play with.
You care for the team that represents
the front of your jersey, that kind of cliche stuff.
But it's good to see.
I like that there's passion still going into the sport,
especially in 14 weeks into the season.
No, I think you said that really well.
(05:29):
College football has become so much more of a business.
I mean, they're really leaning into it being a lucrative.
It's no different from the NFL in a sense.
Like that part of it has really become front and center
of what college football is.
But it's good that we have what, even if it's just one week,
we have this one week where it feels old school.
(05:52):
It feels like there's these rivalries,
they still mean something.
It's not just a business.
But there's also a lot of pride and want to.
The best example is that is like Michigan
had an awful season, very, very down year for Michigan.
And now if you're a Michigan fan,
I'm sure that you're leaving this season thinking,
(06:12):
hey, it's a good season.
Good job, boys.
So I mean, and like you said, just like the NFL,
I think there's only a few teams in the NFL
that guys really play with that kind of passion for their team.
Like, you know, you think about the Steelers or the Cowboys
or, you know, teams like that where it's like, you know,
you're not going to take any disrespect,
especially for a rival that's in your division
(06:34):
or somebody you're going to play every year.
So I love that.
I love that for college football.
And I'd say 90% of the games were like barn burner games,
even though and a lot of talk around, you know,
this conference is better than this conference.
And this, you know, we get to see some out-of-conference
(06:54):
competition here.
And every game that I watched that was a big one was huge,
like close, nail-biter, down to the wire, stuff like that,
back and forth.
So it was awesome.
For sure.
All right, let's dive in.
Go game of the week number one, Miami at Syracuse.
I definitely have some thoughts here.
(07:16):
Colm Accord is, he's QB1.
Oh, yeah.
Like, for all intents and purposes,
no one has more passing yards than Colm Accord.
This is how I was hoping the game was going to go.
I did not foresee a victory.
I'll be honest with you there.
I've watched Syracuse's offense all season,
(07:38):
and I know they were the perfect type of offense
to hang with Miami as long as Miami didn't make
any defensive adjustments during the buy-a-week, which
they said they did, which is why I had some uncertainty.
Cristobal was like, yeah, we saw a lot of things
in terms of leverage and holding.
A lot of stuff that just did not happen.
So it was a lot of eye-wash.
(07:59):
They had the same exact defense that they've
had the entire year.
So Syracuse was able to score at will.
The one thing, did you guys watch the game?
A little bit.
The one thing that I did not understand at all
is why Miami is kicking a field goal when they are in the opponent's
red zone.
(08:20):
Knowing full well, they have spent the entire game
not stopping Syracuse.
And then you want to give them the ball back
when a touchdown is going to give them the lead.
And I'm like, that doesn't make any sense to me.
You haven't stopped them a single time this entire game.
What will change now in quarter number four
after the first 45 minutes?
(08:42):
You couldn't do anything.
So that to me was, that's Cristobal just being.
This is also the same coaching staff that ran the ball.
I think you can score today.
So it's just about to say, it's like the shadows of the past
came back to haunt them again.
Like, I thought he'd be doing so good the entire year
with the way they were playing.
And then they finally, they get in this tight one at the end
(09:03):
and it's like, oh, there he is.
That's the coach that I remember.
And he just, when they needed it the most,
he made the worst possible decision.
That was like the main thing that I took away from that.
The true colors always come out like we know with Cristobal,
he's just an idiot.
Ryan Day can't win big games.
It comes out in Michigan and Oregon,
can't win big games.
Neither can James Franklin.
(09:24):
Comes out against Ohio State every year.
Even when they look so good up until that point,
build all the hype.
They're like, no, this is our year we win this big game.
And then they don't every year.
But I think it's just in Cristobal's nature.
He's just an idiot.
I just thought it's because he had been doing so well,
the entire, like a lot of good late game stuff.
Like the game against Cal, you know, with that comeback
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and engineering that, like I was like, oh, OK,
there's some good stuff here.
You see it a little bit against Georgia Tech
and then not making any adjustments against Georgia Tech.
And I'm like, OK, there's, but Georgia Tech had a really good
game plan.
I'll let that one go.
This was egregious.
It was awful and awful coaching decision
that cost them the game.
Might not have won anyways, but it cost them their season.
(10:07):
And I feel like if I've got a chance to kick a field goal
or put the ball in Cam Ward's hands
and have him go win us a football game,
like that's not a decision.
That's an easy call to make.
I think legitimately the reason that he has looked good
in those calls is not because of him making the calls,
is because of Cam Ward.
Yeah.
He's never had a Cam Ward.
So that's why he's never looked this good this
(10:29):
long into the season.
Yeah.
So it just got exposed at the worst time.
It finally came back to him.
But also Ohio State is definitely still wishing
to add Cam a court when I know how it played.
I'm happy.
I'm happy that he is getting some shine.
I mean, this is Syracuse and they had a great season.
Like nine and three.
Really, really good year.
(10:51):
I mean, so that's something to be proud of.
Do I think he's a NFL quarterback?
I don't know.
The arm strength, arm talent's not all the way there,
but he's a great decision maker and processor.
And that plays at some level.
So I'm just really happy that he had a good year
and was able to have kind of a staple win like that one
against Miami.
Good decision maker until he plays Pitt.
Jesus.
(11:12):
And like to me, that's like an anomaly at this point
because that was really the only game of that kind of nature.
Pitt just had his number.
But every other game, I mean, if you throw 56 times a game,
you're going to have some interceptions.
Probably not five.
But you'll have.
You're going to live with a couple.
That's James Winston.
You're going to live with a couple interceptions
if you throw the ball 50 times.
(11:33):
Did you watch the last game with James?
Oh my god.
You just can't tell me that.
Like I remember seeing, I saw a video on TikTok.
And this is completely away from what we were actually
talking about.
I know.
It's distracting.
But James threw for like 400 yards, something like that.
(11:54):
They had over 550 total yards of offense, scored 32 points.
And Denver's defense and fantasy still scored 13 points.
Yep.
Two pick sixes.
He's awesome.
It's just the full James experience.
That was the James Winston game if I've ever seen one.
It's what you expect and what you love
when you watch James Winston.
(12:16):
Nate, Brandon, anything on Miami at Syracuse?
Not really.
As you know, I couldn't really watch all the games
like I would have liked to over there.
But I did take Miami minus 11.
I thought this was their time to go out and prove to the country
that they deserved to be in a playoff.
They started off the game the right way in doing that.
(12:36):
Absolutely.
They were up big.
Had my hope up for it.
And then true Mario Cristobal fashion, they washed it away.
Salma Cord buckled down.
He said not to.
He was going to be close, but I also knew points
were going to get scored.
So over 67 and a half was kind of free.
The over at the end of the day was probably the best bet.
Yeah.
I just thought when Miami jumped out that fast,
I was like, OK, they got this under control.
(12:58):
But yeah.
Usually you'd think that.
Yeah.
Normally.
Brandon, anything on this one?
I just think it was classic.
You can't do that coaching like you guys already explained.
It just felt like they took their foot off the gas pedal
a little bit when they shouldn't have.
And it just left the door open for Syracuse.
So I mean, I think we all had Syracuse plus 11.
(13:20):
So I'm a fan of it.
Except Nate.
Thank you, Mario.
Yeah, thank you, Mario.
Let's go to South Carolina at Clemson.
Brandon, you want to start us off with this one?
What are your thoughts here?
Good game.
Fun to watch.
Came down to the wire.
I think Dabo could have also been a better coach down
(13:43):
the stretch and run a better schematic design
throughout the late in that game.
I mean, they were up, I think.
There was 14 to 10 with a minute left.
You think, I think in that situation for me,
if I'm a coach in college football
and I'm going against a freshman quarterback who's
(14:05):
proven to be good, I'm going to make him beat me
by throwing the football.
Like Clemson, they always recruit well
as far as the cornerback position goes.
Linebackers go.
They have one of the best linebackers in the country.
And they love running man defense anyway.
So I don't know why there's not some kind of man coverage,
(14:26):
cover zero, and we put a spy on the quarterback
so we can't run up and down the field.
I think it was one of the last plays of the game where
Seller scored.
It was like a 25-yard run where he ran all over the football
field, literally up the middle, to the sideline,
then in the end zone.
And there was just for five seconds,
there was nobody watching him run.
(14:47):
And you just can't do that.
So I don't know why.
You're all the way back to the Clemson versus Georgia game
when they completely flipped who they are as a football team
and it hurt them.
I mean, like I think you go back to episode one
of this podcast, talk about how it's
going to be a little difficult for Georgia
to take it to Clemson when they're a man football team.
(15:09):
They like the blitz.
They don't let the quarterback get out of the pocket.
They force you to throw and trust their corners.
I mean, you go down to the last minute of the football game
and then you run a big zone offense
where one of the best athletes in college football
is going to have the ball in his hands.
You got to have a guy watching him.
I mean, we've seen that with Alabama.
We've seen that with, I mean, Haines King did it against Georgia.
(15:30):
You got to have a guy on these athletic quarterbacks.
And especially when your linebacker core is that good
and you got corners that are usually shut down corners,
especially for a deep fade pass.
Like they would have needed it in that situation.
So on the flip side, South Carolina, this is, I mean,
they're, I would say, arguably one of the hottest football teams
(15:52):
in the whole league right now.
They just keep finding ways to win.
Sellers puts the team on his back pretty much every game.
He does what it takes.
And it's another game where he has over 100 rushing yards.
And I mean, I think, like I make this comparison all the time,
when you get prime, Milrow, he's the best player
on the football field.
I think sellers, if he can stay true to who he is as an athlete
(16:17):
and keeps doing that, he's going to be a very, very highly thought
of threat for a long time in college football.
So great game.
I mean, now we got, Clemson has a shot thanks to Miami,
but it sucks because Clemson or South Carolina just beat
the number 12 team in the country.
And it's still behind the eight ball.
(16:38):
And probably there's no way for them to get in.
So it was an awesome rivalry game.
It sucks for South Carolina because there's no way they probably
get into playoff at all.
But to end the season on that note is good for them.
I think that's something to build off of.
I think there's a lot of momentum in South Carolina.
Beamerball is awesome to watch.
(16:59):
They got a good quarterback they're
going to be able to use for hopefully another three years.
And I just think it's South Carolina is trending up.
I think the old SEC East is all trending in the right direction.
Like you look at South Carolina, obviously Georgia, Tennessee,
Florida, the only team not trending I would say is Missouri.
So Kentucky.
(17:22):
Kentucky.
They just kind of.
March.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They're not in March anymore.
They did Ole Miss a season though, pretty much.
They have, Kentucky has a moment every year.
Like every year there's like one moment that's like that.
You know, it doesn't mean they're good.
Whose career was ended?
Oh, yeah.
Brock Van Der Griff.
His career got started.
(17:43):
There's literally rumors he might not.
There's rumors he might not play next year.
Like he's just done.
Like he won't play football.
The mighty have fallen.
Now about in Clemson's defense, going back to this game
a little bit, I would argue they probably executed their game
(18:05):
plan to some extent.
South Carolina only scored 17 points.
They liked running the zone against sellers
because I don't think they trusted him as a decision
maker throwing the ball.
And you kind of, you look at the tape
and there's no touchdowns thrown and there's a pick.
They also got a couple, I think they forced a fumble
(18:25):
from a seller's fumble.
And they also, I think they made Rocket Sanders fumble
one time as well.
So they forced three turnovers on defense.
Only gave up 17 points.
It looks worse than what it is because South Carolina
clutched up at the end.
Like you weren't going to, the North Seller's
is a game breaker.
That dude is going to get his.
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Like one way or another, you could see it.
Like he wasn't going to be denied the end zone.
Like he was going to lead them to a victory.
But I think for three quarters they really
did execute what they wanted to do.
The main issue is they can't score the freaking football
themselves.
They don't have a good run game.
They don't have a really polished offensive attack.
Club Nick is kind of a one man show.
He's got two receivers.
(19:07):
Like he's got Antonio Williams,
printing stools and R-Rite tight end.
But the weapons aren't really there for them
to be an explosive offense.
So they're going to get in these defensive struggles.
And if one team has a game breaker and the other one doesn't,
the team with the game breaker is going to win that football
game in the end.
But I think to Clemson's credit, I've
watched every Clemson game, that was the best football game
(19:28):
they have played against good competition.
Normally they lay down when they face good comp.
And that was the best game they played.
So I do have a little bit of pride in them for that.
Yeah, I mean like Clemson, you could see it like in their drives.
It seemed like they were always having at least like a 20,
25 yard catch at some point.
And then they just went capitalize on it.
Yep.
It's in spurts.
They do it in spurts.
(19:48):
But they don't sustain.
They don't ever sustain drives.
They haven't, unless they're facing like a Swiss cheese
defense, they don't sustain drives.
They don't have the playmakers.
And then like Clemson kind of had it in their hands.
Like wasn't it like third and like 15, third and 20,
something like that.
And then Sellers runs.
He was not going to be denied.
He was not going to be denied.
(20:08):
That one, I mean like they did, I think,
I think both teams played well enough to win the football game.
I thought it was a great game.
I thought it was a really good game.
Sellers just kind of put the whole team on his back
for the last drive.
And then.
I was watching and I thought it was a hot take.
Like this is the most dynamic player in college football.
And then I heard his coach talk afterwards.
(20:29):
And I'm like, maybe it wasn't such a hot take.
Maybe he is that guy.
Maybe he is.
I think the game plan as far as what they did was executed well.
I think situationally, their game plan was not.
Especially in the red zone.
Especially when they got down there.
And it was like, it's time to clutch up.
You can't be soft.
(20:50):
You can't be soft.
He had 10 yards uncontested before there was anyone near him.
Broken play, absolutely.
I just, for three quarters, I think
they did what they wanted to do.
I know you didn't watch Nate, but did you watch the highlights?
Any thoughts?
Well, I didn't really get to watch much of anything,
honestly.
(21:10):
But what I can say is just because I looked at the Barc scores
and all that throughout the last couple of weeks is people talk
about when we're sellers about South Carolina's offense.
Yeah, all that's great.
But the one thing people don't look much into
is how good their defensive line has been performing,
especially the second half of the season.
Absolutely.
And how good, I mean, dude, I mean,
(21:30):
personal opinion, they got some of the most talented players
on the defensive side of the ball in the SEC.
And if they didn't have that one bad call,
what was it, that blindside block against LSU,
that awful call at the end of the game,
they're in the playoffs right now.
How tough is that, dude?
Now you can look back at that week
and be like, no, that ruined their season.
Because what is a blindside block on Nussma, right?
(21:52):
On a pick?
Is that what it was?
Yeah.
I mean, if you take that call away, they're in the playoffs.
Well, also, yes, that stuff.
Quick, I mean, on that argument, there was that one play.
But LSU is not a good football team.
They should never have been in that situation.
Agreed.
But getting into the year, I would say LSU
(22:13):
was much better than they are now.
It's hard to say that.
Don't get me wrong, but they were playing better football.
So that win does look better, or it would have looked better
at that time.
I mean, any win that gets you to two losses as an SEC team
would have looked really good.
I mean, you see what's happening in the teams in the SEC
this year.
No matter who you beat at the end of the year,
if you're 10 and 2, like that's.
(22:33):
I heard this take earlier with the guys saying,
you know, they're a hot football team.
That more so just means you played
everybody capable of beating you earlier in the season.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
So I also, we can get into this later,
but you know, you hear Alabama, why people are saying
(22:56):
they should get in.
Why not South Carolina?
It's like, well, you know, if we want to look at it,
South Carolina lost LSU.
Alabama rolled them.
And then Alabama beat South Carolina too.
So.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Head to head it like that.
You can't really.
I mean, we get to the.
We get to play off committee talk, but we'll never
(23:16):
understand what they're thinking because sometimes it's
like, oh, this team is hot.
Then the next time it's like, oh, well, they lost this
early in the years.
Like, I don't know what's the.
And I do agree with or as South Carolina goes is last year,
sort of state didn't make it because their quarterback was
hurt in that same LSU game.
Sellers was hurt for the second half.
(23:38):
And Robbie Ashford is not a good quarterback.
Yeah.
That changed the complexion of the game.
I don't think they ran a single pass split when he was in.
I think they only ran.
Yeah.
I don't think they could.
They did not.
He didn't run first team.
So they didn't.
Yeah.
They couldn't run it through them.
OK, let's move.
Yeah, we got to start pushing.
We got nine games to cover.
(23:59):
Let's go Texas, Texas A&M last of the games of the week.
Whoever wants to start with this one, I am fine with whoever
wants to go.
I'll make it real quick for you because you know my stance on it
is I think Texas A&M, believe it or not, I mean, giving up 17
still played great defense, especially against a team that
scored like Texas all year.
But at the end of the day, you got to score.
(24:20):
You're at home, not game, hadn't played this rivalry in 10 years.
You got to put up points.
Alphence didn't even score.
Who's a pick six?
Yeah, I think I've been low on Texas
because they don't have these blowout explosive wins
that a lot of these other teams have had.
These dudes just take care of freaking business every week.
(24:43):
They just take care.
They're super disciplined.
I see I never see mistakes.
Like there's no pre-snap penalties.
Everyone's where they need to be.
They just execute good college football.
And they win by any means necessary.
Like you said, that Texas A&M didn't score an offensive touchdown
as a pick six.
(25:03):
So you held an SEC, a top 20 SEC offense to zero points
for the duration of the game and the biggest game of the year.
I've been too low on Texas because of the manner
in which they win football games instead of focusing on,
OK, they're going to win.
This is how they win this one.
(25:24):
They just do what they need to do with whoever
the opponent is outside of Georgia.
They do what they need to do to win football games.
They are a well coached team.
I think they're super dangerous.
I would still argue, though, with any other schedule.
I guess if you compare them to other SEC schools,
if they had an Alabama Georgia schedule,
they got more than one loss.
(25:44):
I can't argue against that because it does
because especially depending on those games,
fall week after week after week.
When those games fall, it does because then it impacts injuries
at that point too.
Like you get banged up from the prior game going to the next.
I get that.
But from what I've seen and who they played,
I can't argue against it until I see something different.
I think they only have two losses.
(26:06):
When Quinn Ewers was hurt, who did Arch
start to get sent next week?
It was like a nobody.
It was like ULM or something.
It was like ULM or something.
Whereas Georgia, another team is like, OK,
I'm going to quarterback now.
I've got to go play South Carolina.
I've got to go play Bama or whoever, Ole Miss.
Yeah.
Got depth at the most important position.
For that game, I don't think it's a good win for Texas at all
(26:28):
because I think Texas A&M is just as fraudulent as Missouri,
just on that level.
Florida State or Texas A&M, why I say Florida State,
Texas A&M first game of the year, lost in Notre Dame.
Then they played McNeese.
Then they beat Florida before Lagway took the reins.
(26:52):
Then they beat Bowling Green.
Then they beat Arkansas.
Then they beat Missouri.
Then they beat Mississippi State.
Then they beat LSU, lost to South Carolina,
beat New Mexico State, lost to Auburn, lost to Texas.
So that to me is a worse schedule than Texas,
(27:14):
possibly.
And anytime you play a defense with an actual pulse,
they lost.
I didn't realize it was that bad.
I think they have zero identity on offense
because they started Wiegman earlier.
They switched him out for the freshman guy.
And then they brought Wiegman back in.
(27:35):
And I don't think their offense is as explosive
as it was projected to be at all.
So.
Marcel is erratic in the red zone.
They drive the ball down the field decent,
but he makes erratic decisions in the red zone.
I do think they're well coached.
And I think Marcel has a chance to be a good player
(27:56):
because he's very young.
So I mean, that's typical freshman quarterback MO.
But I just think with their schedule being that weak
and them coming out with that many losses
to teams that are somewhat good, that's
a fraudulent team.
I mean, they definitely got something to build on.
(28:16):
Yeah.
I mean, Texas had a school that will always
have something to build on.
They'll always be competitive in recruiting,
and especially with their new coach, they'll be fine.
But I think they've got to figure out
a way to get more explosiveness on offense for sure.
Their defense is great.
I think their defense was a good defense.
It could have won them a lot of games
if they had a better offense in the wild.
(28:39):
Yeah, the defense is never the problem.
It's always like the only time Texas,
and I'm in recent memory, it feels like,
has had an elite offense or even a good offense.
Yeah.
It's Johnny Mansell.
And that was real.
It doesn't really seem.
It always seems like their defense is the one that gets them
to their eight, nine wins a year.
(29:01):
Bring back Kevin Sennem.
Yeah.
All right.
Are we ready to go toilet bowl?
Toilet bowl.
Southern Miss at Troy University.
Nate's favorite school.
Nate's favorite team.
The line was at minus 17 and 1 half, I believe.
(29:22):
Over under, correct me if I'm wrong, Will, was 48 and 1 half?
I got it at 49, but yeah, basically.
Good enough.
Me and Will called it.
Two words.
Fireworks.
Exactly.
Absolute fireworks.
The shootout from the beginning, 52 to 20 or something
like that.
Yeah, 52, 20.
(29:43):
Yeah, it's like they're covered up by themselves.
And you called that last week, too.
I went back and listened, and you said 45, 17.
That's pretty good.
That's pretty good.
You were cooking there.
You were extremely close.
One field goal and one touchdown, and you were on it.
(30:03):
So excellent work right there.
Yeah, the over hit super easily.
And almost hit by half time.
And then Troy just blew that thing open.
This scored, I don't know, like 20 something on it.
I want to say, they only needed like seven points going
into the fourth quarter.
Yeah.
And I was like, OK, hopefully Troy just doesn't run the ball,
(30:25):
like run the clock out.
And then I looked back, but I was like, OK, we got it.
Now look back, and they scored like there was like an extra
like 28 points in the fourth quarter.
I was like, oh my god.
That's a shout out to Troy's running back,
Damian Taylor, who took over that game around that time.
23 carries, 167 yards and three tutties.
So shout out to him for allowing our over to hit
(30:47):
and for allowing Nate to get his, I was talking about it
earlier.
No, it's not, Ben.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
It's two.
It is two words.
Fire works.
Exactly.
Fire dot works.
Yeah, Nate, I was telling you're lucky that I
allowed them to go with the Troy cover instead
of the Southern Miss Money line that I was going to make you have
(31:09):
because you left us for the week.
That's what I was.
I was going to make an executive decision,
but they were like, no, he would pick Troy.
No, 100%.
Like if we had done that and then that ended up hitting,
I think we would have had to give Nate like seven points.
He probably just gets the regular season record at that point.
He just wins the championship.
It was like plus like 800 or something like that.
(31:30):
It was ridiculous.
Yeah, no, it was.
It was close to a thousand.
Let's go into individual plays.
Nate, we will start with you.
I'm hoping you have your notes from.
I know how you did.
So hopefully you know how you did.
I got my memory and I will not take long.
So you got the few notes I wrote on my picks.
(31:50):
So I had Kansas minus one and a half at Baylor.
They were fighting for bowl eligibility.
And I just don't think they wanted
to go play in the outback bowl bad enough.
Or the smart water bowl, whatever it is.
We wanted to see Kansas versus Florida.
Yeah, they just didn't want to go play.
They got destroyed by Baylor, which I don't see how that man,
(32:13):
Dave Aranda, still has a job, but keeps kicking.
I hope they keep it.
Are they bowling this year?
Is Baylor bowling?
Yeah.
That's why.
That's all you need to be.
Yep, they are.
So Kansas was hot for a couple of weeks.
I rode the hot hand and they went instinct cold.
So TCU versus SINSEE, I had over 58 and a half.
(32:35):
My notes said no defense in this game.
These teams are averaging over 30 a game each
throughout the whole season.
And they just decide to score a class in 45 in this game.
It feels like, what was the finals for?
It was 20 to 13.
Yeah, so 33 points.
I mean, guys, like, I mean.
That is the opposite of two words, fireworks.
(32:58):
Yeah.
I mean, it was just an awful game in and out.
Then my last thing said, I can't see the plus money.
So buy Texas Tech up as high as you can.
They destroyed West Virginia.
So I did hit that.
Texas Tech, they were a few defensive stops away this year
from actually being very good and competing
(33:20):
for the Big 12 championship.
Their offense pretty early throughout the season.
Will, Big 10.
We'll start with the locker of the week,
because I know Cam had some strong feelings about this one.
Notre Dame minus 7 versus USC.
That game was definitely closer than the score shows.
I would say that.
Yes, thank you.
(33:41):
OK, I was because I was going to say that if you weren't.
I was going to say that if you weren't.
But two 99 yard pick six on one drive, then 100 yard pick six
the next drive.
Disaster.
Kind of helps.
So Notre Dame minus 7 versus USC.
It was a sweat.
I was so mad, dude.
I didn't have a stake in it other than just to prove you wrong.
(34:04):
And they just completely muffed it.
That was such a bad choke job.
That was the funniest thing I think I've ever watched.
Then I think honestly one of my best plays of the year,
Minnesota Moneyline plus money plus one of five,
and they go into Wisconsin and dominate 24-7.
Wisconsin couldn't do jack crap on offense.
(34:26):
It was bad.
And then last one, this one, to be honest,
did not watch a single snap of this one.
Illinois minus 7 versus Northwestern.
I thought it was going to be much more of a blowout than it was.
It was 38-28 Northwestern.
I actually kind of put up a fight.
(34:46):
But yeah, they won by 10.
So minus 7, minus 1-10 hit.
And if you guys have been keeping track,
that is a perfect 7-0 on these picks.
So basically when I write my notes down every week,
I write it and then I put a check next to it
if I got it right and the next to it if I got it wrong.
It was absolutely perfect and so satisfying.
(35:08):
When you just go check, check, check.
Like it's perfect.
It's like when you grade and test or something like that
and you're like, oh, OK, I got that right.
I got that right.
I dominated this thing.
I got that right.
It was perfect.
I was going to say it if you weren't.
But yeah, it's 7-0 and absolutely clinical.
But I thought I did good.
I went 6-1.
(35:28):
And of course, you had to 1-up me
on the last week of the regular season.
Heck of a comeback too.
We'll go over the standings after these.
But heck of a comeback.
Very competitive.
I'll go ACC.
I did go 3-0 on these.
The only miss I had was Texas, Texas A&M.
I thought Texas A&M was going to be a little more competitive
(35:49):
than they weren't.
But everything else I got.
Game number one, Georgia Tech at Georgia.
I had the first half cover plus 10 and 1 half for Georgia Tech.
They were up 17 to 0 at halftime.
So that makes it the most free bet of the season for me.
That was I knew it was going to be close.
I did not expect them to actually absolutely hand it
(36:10):
to them in the first half.
I've got a couple of thoughts on this one.
I normally don't go too deep into these.
But Haines King is a freaking warrior.
He is an absolute animal.
I have never been so proud watching a man I do not know
play college football in my entire life.
I was just like, you could see it.
(36:32):
Just everything he had on every single play,
he is limping to the sidelines on timeouts.
He is gassed.
He gave that thing everything he had.
And my second thought on this is I have decided I hate overtime.
I hate the format.
I think it.
Back to the OG.
I think it dilutes what would have been the absolute game
(36:54):
of this century.
I think if you want to do an overtime format,
I'm OK to an extent on the starting at the 25 yard line
and going.
But I would prefer maybe they move it to the 50.
So you don't start in freaking field goal range.
And then you actually have to drive your offense down the field,
see what you get, and then let the other team have a go.
I still think the game's end quick enough that way.
(37:16):
If there's two possessions there, and then if it's one,
then maybe you go to the 25 after that.
I don't know.
But I really feel like if you start at the 50,
you're going to find out who's going to win the game and who's
not more times than not.
Or just to shorten overtime and screw it.
If someone doesn't win it, then it's a tie.
And then it helps the playoff predictor.
It makes them, well, they got a tie in here.
(37:37):
They didn't lose to this team.
But the two point conversion thing, I hate.
I hate.
I think it's the dumbest thing ever.
I don't ever want to watch another game diluted by.
And then you do the two point conversion,
and then the other team gets a crack at it.
And then you walk to the other side of the field
(37:57):
and do it again.
But the other team gets to go first.
And then you got to walk back.
Why do we?
Why?
I think it should be after a touchdown,
you have to go for two like it used to be.
Why not just continue to do that?
Why not just do that?
If you're going to do the 25 yard line thing, do that.
But then just make it, you have to go for two.
(38:18):
Just continue to do it that way.
Like if the two point conversion thing, I think,
is asinine.
He only has like one to two two point plays drawn up a game.
And then they're just out after that.
They're just out after that.
Like you're just trying things.
And that's why UGA eventually just
wanted to be like, no, let's just hand the ball off.
We're out of the middle.
We're out of place.
(38:39):
The other thing, well, yeah.
And there's eight of them.
So yeah, you're out of place.
And the other thing is you get a free time out every time
you walk down to the other side of the field.
So then, I mean, good job on Kirby's part.
Like that's if I have that, I'm going
to burn the time out every time so I can see how they're lining
up and see how I got to defend that.
There's not going to be that much of a difference call
(38:59):
because you've already gone through every two point
conversion scenario you can think of.
So if I'm Kirby, like, yeah, let me call a time out
and see what they're running.
Now I got a game plan for it.
They can't change it that much.
I just the rule on that is I'm going on a tangent right here
and I apologize.
But that was such a good game.
And I really feel like it wasn't the ending it deserved.
(39:21):
I mean, I totally agree.
I think it was at the 25 for a long time.
And then there was one eight overtime game
or nine overtime game.
And it was at the 25 that made the NCAA change it.
So yeah.
It was an LSU A&M game.
It was one game like that.
But how many times does that happen?
(39:42):
So I agree with you.
I think at minimum they should start it at the 25.
But I don't understand as far as this game.
And I'm a Georgia fan.
But I don't understand is Georgia Tech's approach
to their two point conversion plays that they ran.
Because the majority of that game,
Haines King had been a dominant runner all game.
(40:03):
I don't understand that.
I think there was eight three options.
And he had one design run play for him.
Just read option.
They didn't get it in that time, though.
But still, yeah.
The odds are in your favor, though, Will.
Yeah.
That play works more times than not.
It's just the history will tell you so.
You're thinking of a guy who is one of the best athletes
(40:23):
on the field who is going to get in the end zone more times
than not.
And you're turning him into a pocket passer
on the two yard line.
I don't understand that at all.
Yeah.
Haines got a hurt shoulder.
I mean, Kirby and Bobo finally figured it out after seven
over times.
They're like, oh, hey, we're just
going to hand it off at the two yard line and run it.
Like my point is, in a normal game situation,
(40:45):
and say we're in the second quarter,
and you get the ball in the two yard line, it's first down,
what are you doing?
Running the football.
You're going to run it three times, probably.
And if it doesn't work, you're going to do something else.
Right?
And by those three times, it's going to get in.
I know you only have one shot in overtime,
but it's like, come on.
We've gotten ourselves here by Haines King running the football.
(41:07):
Give it to the best player on your offense and let him go.
I mean, I don't understand that.
Yeah.
100%.
That's going to feel that night.
And I agree.
He was the best player in the field that particular night.
I was a Georgia fan because I'm like,
we're supposed to be big bad Georgia from the SEC
with a really good offensive line and a really, really good
freshman running back.
Hand it to him and let him get two yards.
(41:28):
And I mean, we're going against Georgia Tech.
Great football team.
But if I'm taking Georgia's offensive line versus Georgia
Tech's defensive line or front seven, come on.
We're getting 10 yards.
Probably going to win that.
So I mean, total respect to Georgia Tech
because I took the same bet cam I had that 10 and 1.5.
So like you said, most free bet we could have taken.
(41:52):
I think Georgia Tech, just like Miami,
took their foot off the gas pedal.
And you know, it just can't do that, especially when you're
in upset territory and you go in there,
you're facing a big team.
You've got to keep your foot on the gas pedal.
I think that coach for Georgia Tech is the right guy.
I think he's going to be there a long time.
I think Haines King is definitely going to return.
(42:14):
Brink he's a stud.
And they're going to be a force next year
because I'm pretty sure Haines King is going to come back.
And I'm pretty sure the running back will come back as well.
Jamal Haines or whatever his name is.
They did pretty good in the recruiting class today as well.
So I think they were the second highest ranked ACC team.
I think Miami had the number one for the ACC,
(42:34):
but I think Georgia Tech had number two.
So the future is bright for that team.
Hopefully they don't get the fourth hardest schedule again,
like they did this past year.
Yeah, exactly.
That's another topic we could spend some time on.
It's just how is the NCAA going to relegate
the strength of schedule battle that we face every single year?
(42:56):
And I mean, my best idea is just go back to East and West
or divisions and much the conferences.
The one thing that sucks though is the schedules
are set for the next couple of years.
I mean, that is set, but that's easily something
that could be changed.
And that's something that probably needs to be changed
because I mean, you have like the super conferences now
(43:18):
where like, we just talked about Texas a little bit.
They've played nobody.
And you have a Georgia team that's
gone through a gauntlet, same thing with Indiana and Ohio
State.
Yeah, I think it would take minimum at least five years
to realign everything again.
It should do something where it's like they have to require
(43:38):
that there's no meshing in between FBS and FCS anymore.
And then you're only allowed one group of five game
as a Power Five school, something like that.
Or up the amount of conference games.
Yeah, you've got to go 10 conference games.
I think we need to change it to where it's like an NFL style
where you have divisions to division guys.
(44:01):
They go play for their division title,
and then they go play for whatever else title.
But I mean, you've got to have somewhere like,
I like the idea of no FCS games.
And instead of playing like three or four really,
really bad schools to just pay them a bunch of money,
you've got to go play somebody outside like ACC, Big 10,
Big 12 school.
(44:21):
Something.
So you want to set up kind of like pods.
Like pods, like say four or five teams in each pod.
I mean, basically like just like an NFL style
where like say you have the, like it used to be,
SEC East, SEC West, both teams that go to the championship
are guaranteed playoff spots.
Then you have a wild card spot from each conference.
(44:43):
Yeah.
Yeah, because that was the original talk of the SEC
before they went into all one division.
Everybody was saying like, OK, so you break up the 16 teams.
You got four teams in each pod, then they play,
and then you go to the SEC championship.
I mean, if you're going to have 16 teams in a conference
and only play, you know, 12 games,
there's going to be teams every single year
that get the bottom end of the schedule every year.
(45:05):
And there's going to be teams that get the hardest end
of the schedule. 100%.
And then you go to the end of the season,
like Alabama right now over, you know,
say a Texas A&M or something like that.
It's like, well, Alabama's played all these hard games,
but Texas A&M has just as many losses now.
Why are they not the same level?
You know what I mean?
(45:26):
Right.
I'm with you.
Oh, yeah, I still have two more games.
So I'll go ahead and do these.
My plus money was I bought up Boston College cover.
So Boston College minus 5 and 1 half over Pitt.
They won 34-23.
That game was never really in question.
Pitt's broken.
(45:47):
Their injury riddled.
And Boston College is kind of ascending at the right time.
So that one hit pretty easy.
And then the last one was NC State at UNC over 55.
Actually a really slow start to that game.
It was like 7 to 6 at half time.
So I was like, well, shit, I'm not going to.
But they quickly turned around.
I think they scored like 23 points in the fourth quarter
(46:09):
alone, or 32 points in the fourth quarter alone.
Something crazy.
It ended up being 35-30.
I think I predicted like a 34-31 game.
So pretty accurate there.
NC State won that one, but it easily eclipsed the 55.
So 3-0 on my ACC individual plays.
Brandon.
Before we go there, we got something from the chat.
(46:31):
Saying, Vols got hosed.
I assume it's the committee saying you guys have to play Ohio
State at this moment.
USC didn't get hosed.
They hosed themselves.
Committee is a joke, though.
UGA by a million Saturday.
I mean, I can say it.
If you're in the tournament and you say you got hosed,
(46:52):
that just means you don't have confidence in your team.
Because you'd have to.
If you're saying they got hosed because they
have to play Ohio State, you're going
to have to play a really, really good football team at some point.
You can argue that anyone who doesn't get the five seed
is hosed.
Like, you can easily make that argument.
Though Notre Dame, 50 over Benema,
(47:13):
is might be the most insane tank I've ever heard in a whole lot.
Yeah, I don't agree with that one.
I think Notre Dame can win that game, do I think.
So no.
Would be in South Bend.
By 50 is a little crazy.
Would be with their ball.
Jesus, how's that?
So just go ahead.
Since we talked about Notre Dame real quick,
they played one ranked game this year.
(47:36):
All right, I'm done.
Who's played one ranked game?
Notre Dame.
They won.
No, they did.
No, yeah, they won.
They won.
That's it.
They lost a non-ranked.
They won a non-ranked.
Did he make a ball game in the Mac?
Or whatever conference they're in.
Yeah, it doesn't matter.
G5.
(47:56):
Brandon, SEC.
Well, first I had the Georgia Tech minus 10 and 1 half,
first half banged.
Plus money was Arkansas, money line over Missouri didn't hit.
I think Missouri won that game 28 to 21.
Yeah, so I mean.
That sounds right.
It was a good game for Arkansas.
(48:16):
They just turned the ball over too much.
I think they had three fumbles, two of them they lost.
And I just said Missouri up for good field position, stuff
like that.
So you hate to see it because we lost plus money,
but that's what happens when you bet plus money.
It's not supposed to happen.
So whatever.
Moving on to Auburn versus Alabama.
The Iron Bull.
Missouri, dude.
(48:36):
And the Iron Bull.
Milrow was back to his usual still, still through a pick.
But he did have three rushing touchdowns, I believe.
Anytime Milrow's running the football like that,
there's not a lot of teams in the country that can beat him.
And I will say, decent day for the Auburn offense.
I would have liked to see Alabama's defense play
(48:59):
a little bit better.
I did have an Alabama minus 11 and 1 half.
So we love to see that.
We want to bet.
But as far as the grand scheme of things,
I don't know, Nate, how do you feel about this one?
I think Alabama played good.
I think that they could have played better,
especially on the defensive side of the ball.
And that's been their struggle the last few weeks.
(49:21):
Yes.
So one thing people, I want people to look at is they
can say we struggled on defense all year, as much as they
won't.
Bem has actually played very good defense the last six, seven
games, minus a couple.
Because if you look at all the games, Oklahoma, for instance,
they put up 24.
One was off a pick that got taken inside the 10 yard line,
(49:43):
and the other was a pick six.
So they only gave up one touchdown that game.
They shut out Mizzou, Auburn.
I mean, our red zone defense against Auburn was Ely.
And a lot of that had to do with a lot of Hugh Fries play
calling too.
But we struggled a little bit at the beginning.
(50:04):
But as they got down the field, we got better.
And then second half we lost.
I'd say more so any time Alabama, the last half of the season,
has played a good offense, they've struggled.
And I would say with Oklahoma, yes,
that Alabama did have some offensive turnovers
(50:24):
that turned into points.
But Oklahoma also stayed on the field a very long time.
There was not a lot of three in half.
Yeah, I mean, no, they did.
But we weren't letting them get to the end zone as well.
Like our red zone defense has been very good.
I just think with the, and being a Georgia fan,
I've seen this all season where the Ben don't break defense.
(50:46):
Usually breaks with a good offense.
So it's just how far is that going to be able to carry them?
And I mean, Jaylin Milrow, I feel like where Alabama's at now
is going to be asked to play like that every game
if they want to go for.
He's got to have two or three rushing touchdowns.
(51:06):
No more than one interception.
He's got to be efficient with his passes.
And he can't let that defense go back on the field a lot.
No.
And that's why Alabama's defense has been playing a lot better,
like I said, the last six, seven games this calls.
And I think a lot of it's got to do with Nick Sheridan,
Katelyn DeBoer, but we are keeping our offense on the field longer.
(51:28):
Even though we don't result in points every time,
we're giving our defense the break it needs.
Fair.
Also from the chat, as Nate would probably say,
Bamal would run Notre Dame around the bush.
They ran him around the bush.
(51:49):
Ran him around the bush.
That is fair.
I don't agree with that, but I agree with.
I don't know if Milrow is consistent enough
to play four great games in a row to win a national championship.
That's a tough ask.
Yeah.
And that's the tough ask, because this dude,
the offense runs through him.
(52:11):
And he's asked if it's a good Alabama game offensively,
he's got 15 carries.
He's got 125 yards on the ground,
and he's got three scores by himself.
That's a lot to ask from a one-man army.
So it looks like he's king for six leopards.
I don't think I can name a single team in the playoff
right now that I would be confident saying they're
going to play four good, consistent football games.
(52:34):
No, for sure.
Yeah, agreed.
I'll point this out about Milrow real quick,
and I don't know if y'all watched the iron ball.
But for Bama to make it run like they want to,
he was like 18 to 24, almost 300 yards.
It was a lot of 10-yard ends, 10-yard outs, tight end seams.
Like they were hitting those short yardage passes,
and they did have good deep balls set up around Williams,
(52:56):
dropped one right in his hands.
But I think that's the game plan Bama needs to have going
forward is don't just let him air it out, let him work the field,
and then open up for that big pass.
Are we ready to do team of the week, dog of the week,
disappointment of the week?
Yeah.
Team of the week, I will start.
(53:17):
I'm going to go with South Carolina.
I thought they executed their game plan really well.
Lenora Sellers is, and I'm sure one of you guys
has him as dog of the week, but very impressive performance
for them, a little too late.
I would have liked to see what they could do in a playoff,
but I think the future is bright for them.
(53:41):
Yeah, I'll go.
My team of the week, I'm going to go with a team that
played for all this football, and that's why they won the game.
Memphis, they basically just ended two-lane season.
So like two-lane had a shot at the playoff if Boise
lost this week.
And now basically it's whoever the winner of Boise and LV
(54:04):
is that gets in the playoff.
Played spoiler.
Yeah.
All right, give me Michigan for team of the week.
Michigan single-handedly may cause Rinde a job soon.
I think they're one and four against Michigan
since he's been there.
One and four, yeah.
So if they're one and out in the playoffs,
(54:25):
they're going to be looking back to this game
when it comes to Rinde.
I go back and forth with Michigan being a team of the week
because they still played bad football,
like they have all year.
Ohio State just played worse.
No, for sure.
Yeah.
But I'll go with Georgia because if they would have lost
that game to Georgia Tech and lose the SEC championship,
it'd be a tough ask for them to still be in the playoff.
(54:46):
It was an impressive stretch of never say die whenever you get
eight over times.
And you're down 17 at halftime to come out and win
that football game is very impressive.
I don't know a lot of teams in the country that go down 17s
zero at halftime and then end up going to eight over times
and somehow coming out with the victory.
So that's that's that was pretty fun to watch.
(55:07):
That's pretty impressive.
And I think if if they play like they do in the second half,
just the whole game, then they're a lot better football team
than they've shown in the past couple of weeks.
Yeah, it's a tough ask for them.
It just a football game before they go out there
and then play a half of football and practice
(55:30):
right before the game starts.
Then it's like, oh, this is second half.
It should be good to go.
Yeah.
All right, dog of the week.
I'm going to go my king, Hanes king, 26 of 36,
303 yards with a bum shoulder, two touchdowns,
20, 24 carries, 110 yards and three touchdowns.
(55:52):
So he threw the ball 36 times.
You ran the ball 24 times and was
responsible for five touchdowns.
I mean, as my dog of the week, I don't care that they lost.
He's a beast.
That's mine.
Hanes king.
Way too early, Heisman prediction.
Man, he's something else, dude.
He's something else.
My dog of the week, it would be Nate
if he was tied in once for Bama.
(56:13):
Nate's got hands.
I don't know.
Nate's got hands.
My dog, he does.
He's got hands.
Some good ones.
My dog of the week is giving a little love
to a guy who maybe doesn't get the credit on Colorado
that he deserves because, I mean, we also
Travis Hunter go for 10 for 115 and three touchdowns.
Obviously, you should get the praise.
(56:34):
But then there's also a guy that went 11 for 175
and two touchdowns who hasn't been talked about at all.
So Lejante Wester, he's a dog.
11, 175 and two touchdowns.
That'll play.
That'll definitely play.
I'll go with Heisman runner up again, Ashton Gentie.
(56:59):
He had another stellar performance, two touchdowns,
226 yards.
I mean, it's just hard not to go with this guy every week.
He's a video game.
Yeah, I was going to go Sellers because he had 164 yards
passing, 166 yards rushing.
And I was also going to mention Shidore
(57:20):
because we did mention Colorado.
Shidore Sanders had 438 yards passing, five touchdowns.
Good lord.
He might have solidified his number one overall pick.
Yeah, first overall pick.
He did play an absolutely strong football team,
but that's still pretty cool.
(57:40):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Disappointment of the week, I am going to go with Miami.
Bad defense, bad coaching, season over, Miami.
Mine is a team that their season is not over, Ohio State.
(58:00):
I mean, yeah, you lose to Michigan, then you start a fight,
then multiple players get pepper sprayed.
That was brutal.
Yeah, so yeah, mine.
And your coach can't beat Michigan to save his life,
even when this is probably one of the worst Michigan teams.
It's the worst Michigan team he's faced,
and one of the worst Michigan teams in recent memory.
(58:21):
In the last decade.
So yeah, it's Ohio State.
I'm going to go with Tech Sandin.
I know a lot of us could say, hey, they weren't even
supposed to win that game.
Maybe, but I mean, you got to go out there
and be a little bit more competitive on the offensive
side of the ball, especially at home.
Mine is Georgia Tech because I know they
(58:42):
played a heck of a football game,
but they were given 17 points to nothing at halftime
and then ended up losing after eight over times.
That's pretty much their Super Bowl for a team that's
not in your conference championship game.
You've got to go out and beat your rival at the end of the year,
just like Michigan.
You've got to win that football game.
They should have won.
(59:04):
I agree.
All right, before we move on, I'm
going to present the final standings of the regular season.
Let me know if you guys can see this I am sharing now.
Yeah.
I just want to say I'm extremely proud of each of you.
Excellent job this regular season.
Anyone who followed us would have easily won money.
(59:27):
It's not easy to do.
Not easy to have all four podcasters go positive
on the season.
All four of us pulled it off.
Brandon gets the regular season title at 53, 44, and 1.
Excellent work.
I was in second by half a game, 52, 44, and 2.
That push really helped me solidify second place.
(59:48):
Nate, 52, 45, and 1 right behind me.
And then Will with a crazy comeback,
negative going into the final week,
goes 7 and 0 and finishes the season 51, 46, and 1.
Clinical performance by all involved gentlemen.
Very proud of you guys.
Let's switch gears real quick.
(01:00:09):
Let's just talk about the playoffs for just a minute.
Will, if you want to pull it up.
And there's not going to be a ton to sift through,
because it's pretty much set.
But there's a couple areas that we can delve into and just
get your thoughts on.
Yeah.
I mean, my main thought right now
is that it's basically set between,
(01:00:30):
but then there's three teams that there's two.
There's three teams fighting for two spots.
Do you have one you can pull up on the screen?
Yeah, I'm grabbing it right now.
I didn't know I was pulling it up.
I didn't have it ready.
Sorry to surprise you.
But yeah, I think it's basically everything set
(01:00:53):
except for SMU, Clemson, and Bama.
SMU loses.
We've heard the committee.
They said that SMU could get in over Bama.
But they also could not.
So we really don't know with that one.
I think what the committee ends up doing
(01:01:14):
is that Bama will get in over SMU, regardless.
But I do think I think SMU just goes heads
and ends that real quick and just goes and beats Clemson.
But that's my thoughts on it.
(01:01:35):
Because basically anything that wasn't in the top 12,
beside Arizona State, is done.
I think SMU would have to lose bad to Clemson
for anything to happen.
I think they have to lose by double digits.
I think if they lose by double digits,
(01:01:57):
you look at SMU's schedule before this moment,
and it's not great.
They've executed wins, and they've won pretty well.
But they got a one point win versus Duke.
You got the loss against BYU.
And that was the only really ranked game
you played up until that point.
So the strength of schedule might hurt them.
(01:02:17):
If they take a two touchdown loss in this game against Clemson,
I don't think they stay in.
Y'all can tell me if I'm being supervised here,
more than likely I am.
But I got this thing pulled up, like I told you earlier,
is you look at the body of work between Alabama, SMU,
right, two totally different schedules.
(01:02:38):
SMU is 0-1 against current top 25,
BAMMA is 3-1 against top 25.
We do have a couple bad losses in there.
Don't get me wrong.
But if you're looking at the whole body of work,
which direction do they go?
If we're talking better team, I think it's BAMMA.
But they've already.
It's most deserving.
(01:02:59):
Like I'm tired of hearing that.
They've said that they aren't going to punish conference
championship losers.
So if they actually stick to what they've said,
SMU should be in, basically, already.
Because I mean, like, I mean, yes, strength of schedule
is not great.
(01:03:19):
There were 11-1.
So why is SMU, if they go to 11-2, there out?
But let's say Georgia loses Texas 10-3,
they're automatically in.
Now, strength of schedule comes into play there.
But still, like, or like Penn State goes into loses to Oregon,
they're 10-3.
(01:03:39):
Or now they'd be 11-2, the same thing.
But why are they automatically in compared to SMU?
I think it's just strength of schedule.
They're 10-biased.
SEC bias.
I mean, yes.
It's strength of schedule at the end of the day.
A two-loss Miami team is not going to get in.
Why would a two-loss SMU team get in?
(01:04:01):
Is this going to be the other arguments?
Like, two, those top two outside of Clemson.
If Clemson wins, SMU would then be
0-2 versus current top 25.
Yep.
And they don't have a really good,
they don't have a statement win.
Like, anyway.
Here's the other thing.
On the flip side, you could say like, if Georgia loses to Texas,
(01:04:21):
they've already beat Texas once.
So can't really take them out of the bracket
because they've already beat that team one time.
So.
No.
No.
I completely agree with that.
Georgia's automatically in.
If Georgia loses this game no matter what happens,
that would be six games on the year with top 25 opponents
in this ranking.
(01:04:42):
And they'd be three and three.
I mean, you cannot take a team out.
That's like six top 25 games.
No, I support that fully.
I think they're at it.
The real team messing up the bracket is like Boise State
and Arizona State because they've played nobody.
So listen, OK.
So let's say Oregon wins Big 10.
There we go.
(01:05:03):
Let's say Clemson wins ACC.
Let's say we'll go Texas or whoever.
Yeah, Texas wins.
So one and two are good.
But let's say Boise wins, Arizona State wins,
and Clemson wins.
And Boise gets the three seed.
(01:05:24):
That's crazy.
So how ridiculous would that be?
I just don't understand that there
being such a value on strength of schedule, how Boise State can
get any.
I don't.
I think they should be putting the same tears no to day.
Like if you're not going to play.
If that happens, like.
It's like if you're not going to play top 25s all year
(01:05:46):
because of your schedule, we can't put you top four.
There's no way.
Yep.
So yeah, that's what would happen though.
Because Clemson's not going to move up to 10 for beating SMU.
They might move to 12.
I think Arizona State at that point.
I mean, either Clemson or Arizona State
would be the 12 seed, right?
(01:06:07):
You and LV's got to win again.
Boise wins.
And then they get the three seed.
Yeah.
I just want you to think of this real quick.
If you and LV upsets Boise and say it stays the same right here,
you and LV goes to Penn State for round one.
Guys, nobody on this earth wants to watch that football game.
Nobody.
I don't want to watch Arizona State play them low key.
(01:06:28):
No.
I mean, it's I mean, Arizona State, I think,
has a better chance than you and LV.
Oh, yeah.
Which is still minimal chance.
Yeah, still minimal.
I mean, even Boise State is going to Penn State.
They're from Arizona.
Yeah.
They're going to freeze to death.
Yeah, it's won't even make it on the field.
Now, if Tulane wouldn't have messed up earlier in the year,
(01:06:49):
there's a chance if Boise State got beat,
neither them or you and LV would have got in.
But no Tulane had to go lose some games they shouldn't have.
So Ben Dover seems to think SMU has to win to make it.
I think due to the body of work, yes.
I agree.
I don't think it's right.
But I think that's what they're going to do.
(01:07:12):
Probably.
And I'm not trying to be ACC bias.
I just I tend to I've watched the body.
Like I watched the games.
I know how good SMU.
It's not SMU's fault.
They haven't played comp.
It's not their fault.
They have executed in a lot of facets.
They are a legitimate top 10 team.
I'll stand by that.
So for them to lose a conference championship
(01:07:33):
that they didn't have to make, and then get punished for it,
that would suck.
Especially not because Bama would get in.
But because a team like Boise State would get in.
Arizona State would be in over them.
Like that's where I have the issue.
Get away with conference championships.
(01:07:54):
I know there's been talks about it, but at this point,
this is how you're going to do things you might as well.
They're going to have to change this format.
This has to be changed.
This cannot be next.
Let's just go to FCS style.
What is it, 32 teams?
What I think is what it should be is what
and this was originally the plan.
They didn't think a group of four team
would be this highly ranked.
(01:08:15):
It's just literally that group of four conference champion
is reserved to 12.
100% reserved there.
And then every single power of four conference
is reserved for one through four.
The order can be mixed, matched, cool, whatever.
And then I guess maybe even you have every team
that makes the conference championship and loses
(01:08:38):
is reserved for five through eight.
And everyone else who doesn't make is fighting for eight,
nine, 10, 11.
Like I said before, I think the only way to solve this
is to go to an NFL style format.
Because you never get these arguments in the NFL.
Everything is settled on the field for a game.
You play the game, that is how you get your ticket
(01:09:00):
to go to the national championship.
OK, and so.
Yeah, there's no committee.
Yeah, there's no.
OK, well, Boise State would never get that chance
because they don't play the competition.
It's like make them play the competition.
You know what I'm saying?
Make them play the games.
Yeah.
(01:09:20):
I say let's go all FCS style and just let everybody
fight it out.
All 32 teams just fight it out.
All 32, 32.
Let's just go back to the BCS.
And have the best two teams.
Well, no, you don't have a committee.
Choose it.
You let the votes of the eight people choose the 32 teams.
I think we need to go back what it was like when it was
(01:09:41):
early, early college football years, where literally just
the riders just choose who the national championship winner
is.
That's it.
There was never any issues with that.
Yeah, there was never an issue with that one.
There was no controversy at all.
And people loved it.
So I think.
That's why Auburn claims their co-championship back in 52.
I think realistically, you go back to when there was divisions
(01:10:04):
within conferences.
So for example, say Texas was in the SEC West,
Georgia was in the SEC East.
They play SEC West and East opponents all year.
Figure out who's the best in that conference.
Now, we would probably end up Georgia, Texas.
Now they play for the SEC Championship.
(01:10:24):
But both those teams are guaranteed a spot in the playoff.
Now for the other bottom, let's go the next two teams
with the best record in the SEC, which
would be Ole Miss and Alabama right now.
Those two teams would play for a wildcard spot.
And that wildcard spot, that win would guarantee you
a spot in the playoff.
(01:10:45):
So if we go to another conference, then let's see.
Oregon and Penn State, Oregon's in the Big 10 West.
Penn State's in the Big 10 East.
Then those two teams would play, but they're
both going to be in the playoff.
It just matters about seeding at that point.
Then you would get in Ohio State versus, like, let's say,
Indiana in a wildcard game, which would technically
(01:11:06):
still be playoffs.
But then that would legitimize who the best team is,
because we actually play a game to find out.
So like, busy state, the only team
they've played on this whole thing right here is Oregon.
And they lost, right?
So why do they deserve to be in this bracket right here
(01:11:27):
and mess up like a situation for, let's say, Alabama, Ole
Miss, South Carolina, all those teams that are bubble teams
that are clearly better than Boise State or, let's say,
Miami or Arizona State.
SMU potentially, too.
I mean, that would make it to where I think it would be what?
(01:11:48):
Eight teams make, or not eight, but yeah, it would be 12.
It'd be 12.
It'd be 12, because it's three teams.
So we've got to go back to divisions just because there's
more, there's like 100 more teams in the college football
world. That doesn't mean that we can't split it up into
divisions like it was back in the old days.
I mean, when you have these super conferences,
(01:12:09):
we're always going to have ties.
And how do you break the tie?
Now, right now, how do we break a tie?
Is it solely based on a committee, strength of schedule,
strength of opponent, all these things?
Just have them go play a football game.
High test, yeah.
And find out.
Don't forget, though, this format is only
(01:12:30):
a two-year contract to have this format.
So it's- They need to alter it now.
I'm just saying, in year three, I guarantee you,
if I had $1,000 to put on it, it's a 16 team.
I guarantee you they're just going to raise a number of teams.
Oh, I know it's not this.
Whatever.
Yeah, I'm having more teams in the way of like this 12 team
format is good the way the teams get there is flawed.
(01:12:54):
There's always, and you can argue, even in the NFL,
there's probably always teams, even if we did the 32 team
playoff, Nate, 33 and 34 would be complaining they didn't get it.
And so would your fans.
I think if you're 33 and 34, you just start losing the shot.
And that's what I don't like about Ole Miss right now.
And they're playing Kiffin, going on Twitter
(01:13:14):
and fighting for their case.
It's like, dude, this is a 12 team playoff.
Now, all you had to do was go beat Mark Stoops in Kentucky
and you're in the playoff.
Like, that's all you had to do.
So you can make that same argument against South Carolina,
the bubble teams, like we're at 12 games.
This is the other side of it that I do like.
Now that it's 12 teams instead of four,
(01:13:36):
it's like just go win your football games
and you're in the playoff.
That's all you have to do.
So yeah.
Or we can just combine the Big 10 and Big 12
and then the SEC and ACC take the two winners
after they duke it out.
Don't combine the SEC and ACC.
There you go.
I think the NFL has a good playoff.
Situations.
And I think to get there, they're
(01:13:58):
going to have to add more games to the schedule
if they want to keep it this way and have super confidence.
I think they need to add more conference games.
I think they can have the same amount of games,
but there needs to be more conference games.
Do you see NCAA ever get into 14, 15 game seasons?
No.
I mean, because the main thing that I see
(01:14:19):
is that hinders them from doing that,
is that they are athletes, yes, but they're also
student athletes.
The semesters are weird.
I mean, that has been a factor since 1970.
I mean, do you think any of these guys
care about school or doing the work?
No.
Especially with athletics.
(01:14:39):
Especially when guys are getting paid $10 million now.
18 years old.
Yeah, now with NIL, they're not students anymore.
The good players, yes.
But they're like half the players actually
on like over half the players.
They're going for degrees.
My college teams are going for degrees.
They're just also playing football,
because maybe that's how they're going to be free.
I mean, the NCAA basketball season goes through the semester.
(01:15:02):
They start in October and go all the way through March.
So why can't football go starting in August
and go all the way through in January
through February a little bit?
I think I still think football daily life
as a college athlete is one of the most just gruesome things
you can do.
(01:15:22):
And we see with NFL players, they play 17 games,
and they're complaining about how many games they have to play.
They don't want to do that to $80 million.
Oh, no.
Oh, no.
I'm getting paid $50 million.
I have to play 18 games a year.
Oh, no.
Cry me a river.
(01:15:43):
I mean, yes.
Like, I'm like, I agree with that.
I agree with that. I don't play football.
That's why.
Is that simple?
There's no way you can play 12 games and decide
based on this structure.
Unless everybody's playing in a high level sketch.
(01:16:04):
With more games, you guarantee that in conference.
Because this year, Indiana, they've played 12 games.
They've only played Ohio State.
That's their only comp they've played in conference.
So to end this, let me just count real quick.
One, two, three, four, five.
No names, one and 0.
(01:16:24):
In top 25 games.
But there's only five teams in the top 12
that have played one game all season.
Or quite a team that's still ranked.
So if you lengthen the amount of games
and it's all in conference, you guarantee it.
Least everybody in the conference plays against three
(01:16:46):
or four ranked opponents.
True.
I mean, yes, but then you also see,
if you increase the games, even if you increase the games
in the big 12 this year, is the big 12
as much of a gauntlet as the SEC?
But it's not even close.
Yeah, it's still end up.
(01:17:07):
Like, it's literally going to depend
on how good your conference is.
Instead of playing FCS, you'll play outside your demeanor.
And then what you set up for non-conference games,
yeah, that you help yourself in that case as well.
Where's the big 10 drop off?
Where would you draw the line?
I mean, there's a, I think there's a major drop off after four.
(01:17:28):
So, and when you say major, I mean, it is just,
if I'm not mistaken, unbelievable.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure.
It's huge.
I mean, some people think that there's a drop off after three
because they don't think Indiana is as good as Penn State,
Oregon or Ohio State.
Record wise, sorry, like record wise.
Record wise, I can check real quick.
Let me get the standings pulled up.
But like teams wise, I think there's a big drop off after four.
(01:17:50):
Because like the SEC, everybody is together.
SEC, you have, I think, eight teams that would,
that should be in the mix.
I think it's, I think it's six teams with three losses
and two teams above them with only two losses or less.
I mean, record wise, you're always going to be
somewhat together, but I will say,
(01:18:11):
I don't think that the SEC has, let me see.
10 teams in the conference with the losing record
in the conference.
Who?
The big 10 has 10.
Dude, that's out of what, 16?
I think 18.
18.
(01:18:32):
The SEC has 18.
Like from a betting perspective, think about this.
What do you guys guess the line would be at for Georgia
versus Indiana at home?
If I'm not mistaken, I actually think I saw it
was like Georgia minus like 20 and a half.
So what do you think the line if this game was flipped
to Georgia versus South Carolina at Georgia?
(01:18:57):
Three and a half.
No, I don't have.
Two and a half.
I think it's, I think it's, I went way higher than you.
I thought, I thought like eight and a half.
Now, I mean, Alabama right now is minus or plus three
and a half at Notre Dame.
But my point is like, you get these drop off.
You get these teams that are borderline drop off.
(01:19:18):
Okay, we'll take it another level.
What would the line be if Georgia or let's say Oregon?
Now, Ohio State versus Boise State,
what do we think the line would be there?
Yeah, at least three touchdowns.
I think, yeah, right at it.
The minimum is 16 and a half, 17 points.
What would the line be if Ohio State played Ole Miss?
(01:19:41):
I think it'll be a touchdown maybe.
Maybe a touchdown.
I'm thinking two and a half.
I think it's, I think it's a two and a half.
Well, we're at the, you know, we're going based on the best 12
or the most deserving or whatever it is.
Then why are we going to allow, you know, a matchup to happen
where the line would be 20 and a half
(01:20:02):
when there's another team out there
where the line would be two and a half?
I agree.
I'm with you.
I get it.
It cannot be this.
This is, there's parts of it that work,
but we still have broken some.
I think the group of five.
Yeah, when Vama got left out, that was Sabin's argument too.
(01:20:24):
Yeah, Sabin literally said we'd be favored again, so.
Yeah, I think a group of five champions
should not be guaranteed a spot.
Yeah, I think Bama that year, like Sabin said,
Bama would have been favored against every team
that you're except Georgia.
So what needs to happen is power five needs to stop playing
power five, play some big boy schools,
(01:20:45):
and then you can become deserving of a spot once you do that.
But if not, then you're not deserving.
Okay, we have 40 minutes.
Let's preview the conference championships.
That went a little longer than I anticipated it would.
But good conversation.
I think it's something, this thing needs to,
(01:21:07):
I don't know, something different's gotta happen.
Boise State cannot be the three seed
in the college football playoff.
Okay, you can take that off the screen if you want, Will.
And we will go into conference championship preview.
We'll start with the Friday slate.
Pull it up on my screen, but I have it written down as well.
We will start with Western Kentucky at Jacksonville State.
(01:21:32):
This is in Jacksonville, Alabama.
Jacksonville State minus five on ESPN,
over under is 57 and a half.
What do you guys have on this one?
They actually just played each other last week.
Last week. Western Kentucky won 1917,
but it was at Western Kentucky,
and Jacksonville State's quarterback
(01:21:53):
got hurt the second half, didn't return.
Barring health, I think he will play.
I think, what's his name?
Tyler Huff.
Huff, Huff.
Yeah, I think he will.
It's his ankle.
Yeah, I think he will play.
He might be a little hindered,
but I still think him being on the field
is a massive thing for Jacksonville State.
And this game is at home for Jacksonville State.
(01:22:15):
Jacksonville State is very good at home.
And surprisingly, they have a beautiful stadium.
I've been there.
So I am going to, I got it at a different line
than what ESPN had it.
I had Jacksonville State minus four and a half.
I saw that too on Bavata.
Yeah.
I just got ESPN pulled up.
I had Jacksonville State minus four and a half.
For me, so you talked about the score
(01:22:37):
for the last time they played.
It was like 19 to what?
19 to 17.
So it was 36 points there.
The over under is 58.
It is a week's time that has passed by.
How many different offensive wrinkles
can you come up with in one week facing the same team?
Probably not that many.
I think 58 is way too high.
(01:22:57):
So I'm going to take the under in this game,
under 58 points.
The one thing that scares me with that is that,
like we've never seen Jacksonville State's run game
get shut down like that all year until Western Kentucky.
I don't know if it happens two weeks in a row.
I'm just, and again, but I go back to
what new wrinkles are you going to come up with?
Like how different is it going to be?
(01:23:18):
So I'm actually with Cam because, like you said,
it did get shut down well, but if they're running the ball
over 50% of the time, what does that do?
That eats up a lot of clock.
Also true.
Eats up a lot of clock.
So I'm actually taking the under 58 also
because I just don't see how you go from 19 to 17
to absolute fireworks with adjustments.
Yes, you know.
(01:23:39):
Two words.
Unless the offensive line just decides to buckle up
and drive down the field.
But even if it works this time.
But say, even if Jack State does run up and down the field
on Western Kentucky at the end of the day,
that still eats up clock.
Yeah, two words.
Not fireworks.
Not fireworks.
Brandon?
Don't care.
But you mean the under.
(01:24:01):
OK.
All right.
That's why he's our regular season winner, folks.
Yeah.
All right, let's go to game number two.
We'll probably spend a little bit more time on this one.
Some actual good stakes in this.
UNLV at Boise State.
(01:24:22):
This one is at Boise State on the Smurf turf.
What do you guys got?
I told you all before.
I went through all the games, and I legitimately
had to skip this one.
I think this is the hardest one to pick this week.
Spreads so close.
I think UNLV team is a good team.
(01:24:42):
But Boise is also playing for a playoff spot.
But I mean, UNLV is as well.
I have two plays written down for it.
Are we required to have a plus money play this week?
No.
No.
No.
UNLV spread, plus four.
I was going to go money line if we were.
I think they can win this game.
(01:25:05):
That's what I put to.
I put UNLV plus four.
That's what I put to.
The one thing, this is one of the few teams that has,
they played earlier, right?
This is one of the few teams that has stopped Gentie.
It's one of the few that's done it.
He got like 139 yards, but he needed 40 carries to do it.
OK, so if they can slow him down from that capacity,
(01:25:25):
they've got a chance to make this a close game.
My only concern, and I was like, I was kind of back and forth.
This is at Boise.
It's going to be like 29 degrees.
UNLV is Vegas.
Like, I don't know how comfortable they're
going to be playing it.
I looked at cold weather games.
They haven't had any cold weather games.
(01:25:47):
So that does concern me a little bit.
But I think they have the talent to make this a competitive game.
I still think Boise State wins, but I think it's like a field
goal.
So I'm going to go UNLV plus four.
So, Cam, me and you're on the same wavelength.
Might be a different pick here, but we're
on the same wavelength.
Are you going to go the cover for Boise?
No, so my notes were, it was a close game last time.
(01:26:09):
UNLV made it close to the end.
Five points.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Unfortunately.
Yeah.
I think Boise State as a year has went on,
has become a lot more one-dimensional than I would
like, especially playing against a good team like UNLV.
My note says, if UNLV can limit Gentys yards per carry,
(01:26:30):
my class game, they will win.
So I'm taking UNLV's money on straight up.
Oh, he's just going to do it.
Oh, my gosh.
I love it.
I love it.
I think Boise State has not had that game
yet this year where they've really been tested and should
have lost, except Oregon.
They almost won that game.
I would love to see a UNLV win.
(01:26:52):
No, that would be awful for the playoffs.
But.
That'd be awesome.
Yeah, then the group of four winners
guaranteed to be the 12th.
The 12th.
True, true.
But guaranteed a 12.
I just think if they can take Gentys, just out of this game,
limit them to like 120, 130 yards they win this game.
(01:27:12):
Limiting to 120 and 130 yards.
Proves he should be the Heisman.
No, I'm just saying.
Proves he should be the Heisman one.
Is that not true, though?
Yeah.
No, it was 3.8 yards a carry.
Last time they played, he had 138 yards.
What was that?
They limited him.
What was that, his lowest of the year?
No, I think there was one game where
he played like a half and had like 112 yards.
(01:27:34):
Also, Ben Dover, you can tell Beth
from someone who thinks fireworks is two words, because we all
were positive this year.
And we still think fireworks is two words.
Go look at all the records.
They don't pay us to know words.
Yeah, go look at the records of all these other podcasts
and come back to us.
Yeah.
(01:27:54):
Brandon, what do you got on this game?
I'm actually going the opposite of the boys here.
We've got a Boise State minus four because this game,
like you said, Cam, it's going to be probably
a under 30 degree windshield at night outside at Boise State.
It's a win and get in situation here.
Crowd's going to be loud.
(01:28:15):
I mean, we talk about Gentie.
Boise State's quarterback isn't the worst quarterback ever,
either.
I mean, yeah.
He's a game manager.
He only has three interceptions in a year.
He has 21 touchdowns or something like that.
So he does his fair share.
And given he doesn't have a lot of opportunities
to turn over the ball.
But when he does have opportunities to throw it,
he doesn't generally turn over the football.
(01:28:37):
So I think in a game like this, Boise State's
got more talent from top to bottom.
And the atmosphere is in their favor.
The weather is in their favor.
They're used to it at this point.
I just think everything's leaning towards Boise State.
They've already played them.
They got an opportunity to game plan for them
a little bit more this time.
I'm going Boise State to cover.
(01:28:59):
I wouldn't be surprised at all, honestly.
I got this question as well.
Absolutely not.
That would be a farce.
Because it literally has to be conference winners.
So it literally cannot happen.
UNLV will make it.
Now, it would shock me.
But Boise could technically make it at large.
(01:29:22):
Will they?
They may not large it.
But UNLV will be in.
Because they're going to move to 14 or 15 if they lose this game.
Maybe 16, 17.
I don't think there's anything that could go wrong.
And there would be a riot as a committee.
Yeah, that would be chaos.
OK, I can see this.
I do not have an edge on this game.
(01:29:43):
I can easily see it going.
This is the toughest state.
This is the toughest state.
It was my hardest one too.
It was my hardest one too.
Yeah.
All right, last one for the Friday slate.
We've got two lane at Army.
This is at West Point.
What do you guys have here?
I can go first again.
Yeah, I'll go.
OK.
(01:30:05):
I think Army can win this football game, boys.
Two lane, kind of reeling.
They know their season's over.
They're not making the playoffs.
And they know they get a ball game regardless.
They get those 20 extra practices.
They're just going to try and make it there.
Now, I mean, it's a conference championship.
You want to hoist the trophy regardless.
But these are our troops we're talking about.
They never give up.
(01:30:25):
Absolutely.
Army.
We're not taking the money line.
Plus five.
I've got, I saw it.
Is it plus five now?
Because I had it at plus six this morning.
Yeah, I went down.
Or plus, OK, fine.
I have plus five as well for Army.
(01:30:46):
What I will say, two lane has a formula
for stopping this kind of offense.
They played Navy earlier this year
and held them to zero points.
So that would be in two lanes favor.
They have a summer all the coach.
He's good against these kind of offenses.
So he's got a good history against them.
I think it'll be low scoring because I think Army also
(01:31:07):
has a really good defense.
It's also not, it's going to be cold.
It's going to be like 27 degrees.
It is not fun to hit a team, tackle a team that
wants to run the ball over and over and over again.
That is not a fun offense to play against in 20 degree
weather.
So I think Army keeps it competitive and low scoring.
If it's a low scoring game under the total, which
is 45 and a half, that's not a lot of points for two lane
(01:31:31):
to win by.
So I feel like an Army cover is a realistic scenario there.
So I'm going to take the Army plus five.
All right.
So I'm going to ask the question real quick before I say my pick.
Do you think by any chance if Army goes out there
and just drags to lane by 21, UNLV scrapes by Boise State,
is there a chance Army can jump up?
(01:31:51):
Possibly.
Because UNLV's ranked 20, Army's ranked 24.
And it's a highest ranked conference champion gets in.
I think if Army's lost to Notre Dame,
was a little more competitive, I think
they would have a better case.
But I think they're going to look at that, you know,
drubbing that they took against Notre Dame.
And I think that's going to be held against them.
It's just sad because, dude, it's that close to having chaos.
(01:32:15):
But anyways.
It's worth the conversation.
They're going to be 1s 20 and 1s 24.
They're going to be close.
Now, with that being said, Tulane
has shown that they can stop these one dimensional teams.
I just think they can outmatch Army,
especially on the outside of the numbers,
on the opposite side of the ball, give me Tulane minus 4 and 1 half.
(01:32:36):
I can see it.
Yeah.
I just had to ask that question first.
If it happens.
Tulane's got a formula.
Tulane has a formula to stop this offense.
Yeah.
I'm also going to go Army plus 5.
I think, I mean, it's tough to say which team.
I mean, the game's at West Point.
So I hope some outs going to be super cold in West Point as well.
But it's tough to tell both teams kind of have stuff still
(01:33:00):
riding on the line a little bit.
But Army still got Navy to look forward to after this week as well.
So slight look ahead potential for them, I would say.
Because that's, I mean, that's their biggest game of the year,
regardless if they get in or not.
Yeah.
That Navy game is more important than this.
(01:33:20):
Oh, yeah.
It's going to be cold.
I think it's going to be like sub 25 out there.
It's 8 PM game in New York.
So I don't know.
We'll see.
I'm taking Army to cover, though.
I think they've done enough to this point to show me
that they're obviously well coached.
They obviously don't make mistakes.
And if they can get some kind of offense rolling,
like how Navy was not able to, if they can get something rolling,
(01:33:43):
I see them taking this game down to the wire
and potentially winning the game.
I don't think they'll get beat by a touchdown or more.
Am I the only one that took to lane?
Yeah, I think so.
Also a question from the chat.
We kind of went over it a little bit earlier,
but everyone just answered yes or no question.
You have to.
This is your final answer.
Clemson beats SMU.
(01:34:04):
Will Bama get knocked out?
Yes or no?
No.
No.
I will go also no.
So yeah, question from the chat.
But if you want to see some more in depth,
go a little previous.
We were talking about it for probably like 20 minutes.
But yeah, we do not think they'll get knocked out.
(01:34:26):
Yeah.
Yeah, I think if Clemson has a dominant victory,
I think SMU is like, I think it's
the quarterback for SMU gets hurt.
That too.
Yeah, that's a thing.
That's punish teams for that.
I'll just leave it record against top 25.
(01:34:47):
We talked about it earlier.
So yeah, I get it.
All right, Saturday slate.
We're moving on.
Iowa State at let's start Big 12.
Iowa State against Arizona State.
This one is in Arlington, Texas on ESPN.
I've got Arizona State favored by 2.
Over under is 49 and 1 half.
(01:35:07):
I don't know if you guys have anything different,
but that's what I see.
I think I saw 50 and 1 half.
Let's see we're back talking about division 1 football.
Give me Arizona State minus 2.
How does team and football, I would say,
arguably other than South Carolina maybe?
But I just like, they beat BYU, they beat Kansas State.
(01:35:29):
They're rolling through this.
They want to win this game to get into the playoff.
I don't think, now guaranteed, we will probably
see some fireworks, but the line being 2.
I don't, I mean, it's pretty low that you're
going to see a one point football game.
So give me the spread minus 2 for Arizona State.
(01:35:50):
Yeah, I looked at money line as well.
It's minus 25.
So I think low enough.
We'll allow it.
I'm going to go minus 2 because I'm not a wuss.
But the money line is the smart play, guys.
But for the podcast, I'm going minus 2.
I am taking the Arizona State money line.
(01:36:10):
The thing that Arizona State is good at offensively
is the thing that Iowa State is bad at defensively.
That's running the ball.
I think Camp Scataboo is going to be a difference maker
in this game.
I think they're going to give him the ball 30 times.
He's going to run for 200 yards.
And I think that's going to push it in Arizona State's favor.
Both teams are pretty bad red zone defense.
(01:36:31):
So points might also be another thing to consider.
But I'm going to go Arizona State money line.
Cam, you got to get out of my head, man.
My notes where Iowa State has a 96-rate rush defense.
Yep, that's in there.
Yeah, so give me Arizona State minus 2
because they love to run the ball.
(01:36:51):
All right.
OK, let's do these two garbage ones.
Let's go Ohio and Miami.
Let's get these done real quick.
And then we'll go to the three that matter.
Cool?
I'll go first on this Miami, Ohio one.
Miami, Ohio, go.
Date it back to the very first podcast that we ever did.
What was my plus money play of the week?
Does anyone remember?
Oh, boy, I don't know.
(01:37:11):
It was Miami over.
God, it was kind of, was it an ACC team?
No, it was Big 10.
I'm a big 10.
Sorry, sorry, Big 10.
Miami over.
Fair key, straight.
The ACC.
Oh, no, Northwestern.
Yeah.
Northwestern.
(01:37:32):
Miami is over Northwestern.
And they almost pulled it off.
So for that, Miami, Ohio, money line minus 120.
I am going to go money line on this one
because I didn't write the spread down.
So I don't know what the spread is.
So Miami, one and a half.
One and a half.
(01:37:52):
Miami, Ohio minus one and a half.
I'll keep it simple.
Miami already beat them about 10 earlier this year.
So give me Miami.
Find me on minus one and a half as well.
Miami, Ohio, money line.
Ohio played their worst game of the season
against Miami, Ohio earlier this season.
(01:38:13):
I think they probably play another bad one here.
Miami, Ohio, money line.
That was confusing to say.
Miami of Ohio is going to win this game either straight up
or by more than one and a half points just
for those who are tracking.
All right.
Marshall in Louisiana, last of the bad games.
Marshall in Louisiana, Sunbelt championship.
Louisiana favored by six over under 56 and a half.
(01:38:37):
Let's go boys.
What do you got?
We are Marshall.
Plus six.
OK.
I got it at plus 5 and a half.
Oh.
You can get a plus six.
I'll allow it.
You allow it?
OK.
I'll allow it.
I mean, yeah.
I wrote down plus 5 and a half.
When he said six, I'm saying six.
OK.
I'll take a plus six.
I'll take plus six.
Whatever USPN says here is fair game.
(01:38:59):
You got a favorable line.
Take it.
Plus six.
Division two football game here.
I'm actually going to go with the over 56 and a half.
Both teams score.
Fire works.
Both teams score.
Let's go over 56 and a half points.
I'm with you, Brandon.
(01:39:19):
So me and you got the over on that one.
OK.
Dealers choice.
We want SEC, Big 10, or ACC.
Let's start, dude.
I'll be honest.
Let's just start with the Big 10 because let's go Big 10 first.
Big 10.
We're going Big 10.
That would be Penn State at Oregon for those of you
(01:39:42):
who don't know.
Oregon favored.
We got minus 3 and a half on ESPN over under.
It looks like 49 and a half is what I got over here.
Whoever wants to go, what do you guys got?
Let's talk about it.
Big 10 guy can go first here.
This, honestly, it's the same exact line.
I don't know what the over under was in the other game.
(01:40:04):
It's the same exact spread as the Ohio State Penn State game.
And what did I do in that one?
I took Ohio State minus 3 and a half.
I'm doing the same exact thing.
Oregon minus 3 and a half.
Yeah.
Oregon is actually going to drag Penn State across to grass.
So give me Oregon minus 3 and a half.
I really don't even think this game is close.
(01:40:25):
So I've got like this.
I've got kind of a different viewpoint on this game.
I don't, low key, I don't think Penn State even
wanted to play in this game.
Like I think they were fine with Ohio State playing
in the Big 10 and they could just sneak their way
into the postseason.
And I don't think they are prepared to play.
(01:40:47):
I don't think they had this.
I know they didn't think Michigan was going to beat Ohio State.
So I know they weren't planning on playing this game.
And since they snuck up on them, they
will not be ready for this moment.
Oregon minus 3 and a half.
If Penn State loses this game at 30, do they get knocked out?
No.
They're in.
Automatically.
No.
Which is the other thing.
It's like it's a horrible foul.
(01:41:07):
They lose the game.
It's like whatever if they lose the game,
they know they're still in.
Yeah.
They were about to walk in.
They'll probably be OK with losing
because they've got a chance of getting the 5 seat
and then playing Arizona State.
Yeah, they were about to walk into a freaking home game
without it.
But they're fine.
So we got a little time.
So I'll ask you this question.
Would you put in SMU if they lose by 2?
(01:41:30):
Or Penn State if they lose by 3 touchdowns?
You still put in Penn State because they have played.
They've got a better resume and only 2 losses.
Let me pull it up a quick.
Penn State is 1 and 1 against ranked teams.
Which is more wins than SMU has against ranked teams.
Yeah, it's so to be 0 and 2 and then 1 and 2 if that happens.
Yeah.
(01:41:51):
I think they're in.
I don't know how this line is so low.
I was thinking it was going to be Oregon minus 7 and 1 half,
at least.
So we're definitely taking it.
I might buy it up to like 5 and 1 half.
Because this game is also in the Colt Stadium.
So it's indoor.
Lucas Oilfield.
I mean, that's Oregon's bread and butter.
(01:42:12):
They don't even have to play in the cold.
And they're a much better team top to bottom.
So why not?
Oregon, as high as you can get it.
All right.
We've been on the same page on a lot of these fellas.
There's not going to be a lot of,
there's a couple differences.
But for the most part, we're pretty much in lock step.
(01:42:32):
Let's go ACC Clemson against SMU.
This one is in Charlotte, North Carolina.
So basically Clemson's backyard almost, which is pretty fair.
SMU favored minus 2 and 1 half over under.
I've got it at 55 and 1 half.
I, my heart wants to go with SMU because I've
(01:42:57):
been a fan of SMU from the beginning of this season.
Like they're teaming up pretty high on.
I am concerned.
I think Clemson is kind of ascending a little bit
on defense.
They looked really good against South Carolina.
That's also a really good test.
Facing a team with a dynamic quarterback
(01:43:17):
and you're able to hold that team to 17 points.
You're going in the next week facing
another fairly dynamic quarterback.
But you've got to, you're tested there
and you've got some success against.
You didn't win the game, but you made it competitive.
Which tells me they'll probably be competitive in this game
as well.
The other thing, Clemson dominates ACC championship
(01:43:41):
games.
They're like 9 and 1 or something with Dabo.
They're like 9 and 1 in games like these.
SMU doesn't have the experience in these games.
So as much as I want to take the SMU cover,
I am going to go under 56 and 1 half points.
I'm taking that as well.
That's crazy.
That's crazy.
(01:44:05):
I can't take a winner.
But I know that Clemson can't score
and they have a formula for stopping SMU,
or at least slowing them down.
56 and 1 half is too high.
Good for you because I can pick a winner.
I think this is going to be a bounce back game.
And it's in Clemson's backyard, home field advantage,
basically.
I think Clemson, all 22, up and down the board is,
(01:44:29):
at the end of the day, I think more talented than SMU.
I mean, head to head, they are.
I think Clemson wins this game.
I would climb some money on.
Low key, I do too.
I mean, there's more to this.
I do too.
But I'm going to Clemson points, plus 2 and 1 half.
Yeah, I think that's fair.
Yeah, almost.
Brandy, you had the under.
(01:44:52):
Excellent.
Last one, SEC.
All right.
Georgia and Texas.
This is in Georgia's backyard in Atlanta, Georgia.
Texas is favored minus 2 and 1 half.
The over, under, I've got at 49 and 1 half.
Brandon.
Yeah, this one is tricky.
I mean, what I like for Georgia's sake
(01:45:15):
is that earlier in the year, the game plan they
had going into Georgia or against Georgia at Texas
did not work.
So what they're going to have to do
is change their entire game plan.
I think the line being at 2, Texas favored,
that's an easy pick for me to take Georgia at plus money.
I think as far as SEC championship goes,
(01:45:38):
Georgia's been to this game the last four years in a row.
So I think they're more prepared for this game.
I think the game against Georgia Tech
is going to help them out because that's a game where
you kind of transcend as a team, I think.
And what we've seen from Texas each week
is they play very, very average opponents.
(01:45:59):
And they barely squeak by, and then they've already
lost to Georgia regardless.
So I think I'm going to go with Georgia, like I said,
plus money, I think they're starting to click a little bit
better on offense.
I know last game against Georgia Tech,
it didn't start going off till the second half.
But the defense, again, I think we've
(01:46:20):
seen it before with Quinn Ewers.
We get pressure on Quinn Ewers.
He turns into a very average quarterback.
You can't tell me that if they put Arch Manning in there,
he's going to run all over Georgia.
There's just no way.
And if, like I say every week, Carson Beck
plays a clean football game, which I think he will,
because he played a pretty clean game against Texas
(01:46:41):
last time, because I don't think that their defense is all
it's worked up to be, because they don't play good opponents
so much.
So I think when they do play a good offensive line
and somebody with a run game, a pro style offense,
they can get exposed a little bit.
So why not take Georgia plus money?
I think they want this game a lot more.
(01:47:06):
I'll go ahead.
Yeah.
I'll be honest.
And I'm not saying this is going to influence the game,
because obviously Kirby Smart is a dog.
I don't know if Georgia wants a two seed.
I mean, to be quite frank with you,
I really don't know if Georgia wants that.
Because we've put up the board before,
this sleigh is just hosting a home game
(01:47:27):
first round is much easier than being that two seed.
I see your face, Brandon.
Why would you not want to buy?
Being that the extra week of rest is an obstacle.
We've put it up before.
And that two seed.
It's the week of pre-paration.
That two seed.
I get it.
But that two seed gets destroyed.
(01:47:50):
By who?
I mean, it's just a gauntlet that they have to run through.
It'll most likely be one of Ohio State, Tennessee, Texas,
or Penn State.
I'm worried about anybody in that entire thing.
OK.
Ohio State is terrible.
We saw that against Michigan.
All that being said, anyways.
It's already deep, Tennessee.
(01:48:11):
They were just a board player.
I just want to throw that out there.
And Penn State is terrible.
I just want to throw that out there.
Agree or disagree, that two-spot is not the sweetest
spot there is on the table.
So yeah.
Not a sweetest five.
That's too far, dude.
I was the one you wanted.
I know.
Playing these games all year.
They've had the hardest schedule in college football.
I know.
(01:48:31):
True.
Do you think Texas wants to go against Georgia?
I didn't say Tennessee, Ohio State, Penn State, then Oregon,
Alabama, whoever.
No.
Give them that first round game.
Get them out of here.
So on to my pick.
I think the last time they played, what really hurt them
(01:48:52):
was the first half.
They didn't really have an answer for Georgia in that game.
I think this time they're going to come out,
have a little bit more preparation.
I know they haven't played really the talent of Georgia
all year.
And they did get beat pretty bad that game, I guess you could
say, but they played a much cleaner second half.
I think Sarka's going to come out here, do a lot better job.
And I'm taking Texas points, minus 2 and 1 half.
(01:49:17):
So I have a concern.
So Georgia has an extra day of rest,
but they just played an eight overtime game for Georgia Tech.
You cannot tell me they will be absolutely 100%
full strength going into this game.
That you just can't.
That was a, if you watch that game,
(01:49:39):
both teams are exhausted.
I think that's more mental exhaustion.
After that game.
Really, it's only eight plays.
Any sort of exhaustion is still exhaustion,
especially when you have to play the number two team
in the nation the following week.
Quote unquote, number two team in the nation.
I don't think it would stop them from winning the game,
(01:50:03):
but I think it is going to limit their explosive playmaking
ability in this game.
Because Texas does have an extremely good defense.
So I think Georgia will have more of an issue putting up
points than they did the last time they played.
That being said, Texas also does not
have an explosive offense.
And Georgia has already shown that they can stop Texas
(01:50:26):
from scoring.
Therefore, I am going to take the under 50.
Don't forget, this game is also in Atlanta
and pretty much every time, unless it's against Alabama,
it's a Georgia home game.
With sir, I will say Georgia is not.
When you have to go against, you know,
probably arguably the top 10 best Alabama football teams ever
(01:50:47):
to play college football.
It's kind of tough.
Well, we saw the last last week, probably the most free bet
of all time with Georgia Tech plus 10 and a half
in the first half.
I'm going to take Texas to have the lead at halftime,
minus half, minus 120.
(01:51:07):
Georgia's not a first half team.
Georgia's not a first half team.
So we're going to take that.
Just a steep cut.
Texas to have the lead at halftime, minus 120.
Yeah.
All right, Will, flip them to the B sides of the tape.
OK, I like that.
Actually, nope, I made my pick.
But low key, I'm going to tail that.
(01:51:27):
Like on the side.
Yeah.
OK, that is all nine games.
So we have covered everything.
We got nine minutes.
We did a great job.
Super efficient before we go.
Brandon, tell the people what they need to be doing
if they haven't done so already.
You actually follow us on Twitch.
And that gives you the option to hit the bell.
So when we do go live, same thing on YouTube,
(01:51:49):
you'll get notifications.
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(01:52:11):
Hit the follow button.
Don't be afraid to share information about our podcast
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And we thank all of you guys that tune in with us.
I know we got some people that are pretty consistent
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They come in every week.
(01:52:31):
So thank you to you guys.
Thank you to everybody that listens to us.
And thank you for following along with us
through this crazy regular season of football.
It can only get better, I think, with the playoffs coming up
and conference games.
So I look forward to next week and chatting
about what our playoff brackets actually look at.
(01:52:51):
So stay tuned.
Hopefully you guys are keeping up with the bets as well.
So you're making some money here and there.
But from the whole line crew, we appreciate every one of you
guys.
Yeah.
All right.
Please also, if you guys want anything for us
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(01:53:12):
DM us on Instagram, TikTok, anything like that.
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We'll see how I do running it for the first time.
But yeah.
Thanks, guys.
We really appreciate it.
I think we really.
I have fun with these lives.
Seeing all your guys' comments, just putting them up
on the screen.
(01:53:33):
I think it's a lot of fun.
Yeah, the engagement's awesome.
Nate, you got anything?
Roll tide.
All good.
Nice.
Roll tide.
All right, that is going to do it.
We will have to figure out Friday for NFL.
I am moving.
So it's either going to be Friday night or Saturday morning.
We'll do a drop.
But we'll keep you guys posted on that.
Otherwise, we'll be back next Wednesday.
(01:53:55):
Signing day happened.
Transfer portal's opening up.
Selection Sunday.
We're also going to recap the conference championship games.
Probably talk about some bowl games that are coming up.
So a ton to talk about that you won't want to miss.
Thanks for watching.
And we will see you guys next time.
See you.
Bye-bye pieces.