CFP Chaos and Playoff Quarterfinal Takeaways

A full breakdown of the College Football Playoff quarterfinal games, including what actually happened on the field, why several games were effectively over early, and how line-of-scrimmage dominance decided outcomes. Miami controls Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl, Oregon overwhelms Texas Tech with possession and physicality, Indiana humiliates Alabama in the Rose Bowl, and Ole Miss shocks Georgia in a chaotic Sugar Bowl finish.

The episode also looks ahead to the semifinal matchups, coaching instability surrounding Ole Miss, the impact of CFP byes failing across the board, and what these results mean for future playoff expansion, conference championship games, and the evolving structure of college football.


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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today we got to roll through a recap of what
happened in the college football playoff game yesterday and what
might happen in the next round. It's football. I've been
watching it for forty years. Are you kidding me? You're
listening to Winning Cures Everything? Game day? Baby? Wake up

(00:21):
or get out. Here's your host, my confident young man,
a deferm a play, Gary Siegers, Welcome in Winning Cures
Everything is a college football podcast. I'm your host as always,
Gary Siegers at Gary WCE on all the socials and
most active on X. You want to reach me, you

(00:42):
can do that Gary at Winning curesverything dot com the
old school way, or just reach out on X That's
where everybody else typically does it. And if you want
to subscribe and help out the show, you can do
that and get bonus content over at of course buy
me at coffee dot com slash Winning Cures. All right,
it is now official. Teams with a college football Playoff

(01:04):
by are one and seven, so I would imagine we
are definitely going to see sixteen teams next year, which
who knows if all of the MOUs still hold up.
If they do expand to sixteen as opposed to fourteen,
because I think all of those memorandum of understandings were
all about a potential fourteen team playoff. But I would

(01:28):
imagine we're going to sixteen because a bunch of these
teams don't want to buy. They just want to play.
And I don't know how they're going to change championship
week because championship week, like, it doesn't make any sense
if you are like, why would you play in a
conference championship game? That's an extra game for some of
your guys to get hurt, et cetera. It can change seating,

(01:51):
it can change all these things. If the regular season
is what we're worried about, then they'll have to do
something with that. But either way, either way, we're gonna
talk a little bit about each one of these games.
So let's get into well, you know, you know what
the matchups are. If you like college football, if you're
listening to this show, you probably know what's going on
right now. We have got in the Fiesta Bowl Miami

(02:12):
against ole Miss, and who knows what's going to happen
there because it looks like some of the well the
some of the six that coaches that are coaching for
ole Miss but are moving to LSU. Some of them
may not be available for this game, so who they'll knows.

(02:35):
And then on the other side in the Peach Bowl
Indiana and Oregon, we've got another rematch. In the SEC.
There were three rematches this year, and the loser of
the first game won the rematch in all of those
different rematches, So who knows if that is going to
be the case in the Big Ten or not. But

(02:56):
it's fun matchups. So let's talk about what actually happened.
And let's start it off with Wednesday night's game, which
was of course Miami twenty four in Ohio State fourteen.
Ohio State outgained Miami five points sixty yards per play
to four point six. The problem in the Cotton Bowl

(03:19):
was that Ohio State only ran fifty nine plays and
they were thirty percent on third down. Miami was fifty percent.
And then the pick six that saying through just absolute killer,
absolute killer. At the end when it all came down

(03:39):
to it, Ohio State could not stop Miami from running
the football. They couldn't get them off the field. The
line of scrimmage was a huge difference in this game,
and I thought it would at least be comparable. But
I mean it just goes to show I mean, if
you've got a line of scrimmage advantage, it's you can

(04:02):
win a lot of ball games. And Miami certainly showed that.
So that was that was not a beating, but Miami
just showed a little bit of dominance in that game
that I don't feel like we had seen. Even with
the Ohio State lost to Indiana. You thought they held
on to the football for a long time, they didn't
finish drives they could have, you know, is what it is,

(04:26):
could have gotten there. But in this game, it did not.
It did not feel like they were going to get there.
It did not feel like Ohio State had any chance
because Miami came out and immediately jumped on them. I mean,
that was a great opening drive, not opening drive, but

(04:48):
one of the early drives from Miami that went what
was it eight minutes? It was what sixteen plays and
they scored a touchdown. I mean it was just you know,
textbook stuff right down the field. Took a long time
to get there and just showed them, all right, we
are here to play, and Ohio State could do nothing
about it, nothing about it. So Miami advances then we

(05:14):
get to Saturday morning and we've got the Orange Bowl
where Oregon and Texas Tech, and obviously the Orange Bowl
was not completely full, felt like there were more Texas
Tech fans there by far. That did not help their
offense in any stretch of the imagination for turnovers for
the offense is not good. The defense played well, but

(05:37):
they got gassed. I mean, Oregon was more physical than
I think Texas Tech had seen any team be thus
far this season. And that's the problem when you have
a week non conference schedule and you play in the
Big Twelve. And this is not crapping on the Big Twelve,
this is just the level of competition is not the same.

(05:57):
It is not close. And Oregon has been through the
ringer with several of their opponents this year. They did
play some easy teams too. It is what it is.
But they were four of eight on fourth down. And
the reason why they went well, I think the reason
why they went four on fourth down so many times,

(06:18):
I mean eight times in one game, it's pretty nuts,
but it's because they never respected Texas Texas offense. They said,
whatever position we are put in our defense is better
than their offense. So there is nothing they can do
from anywhere on the field that would make us regret

(06:40):
going forward on fourth down and getting another opportunity to
keep the football. They kept the ball what thirty seven minutes?
Thirty eight minutes? I mean, it was just it was
a women. This was a beating of epic proportions. I
would say didn't run the ball very well. Oregon did not,
but they ran it well enough, which is to be

(07:00):
expected against the Texas Tate defensive front. So now Oregon
moves on to the Beach Bowl Saturday afternoon. I mean,
you might as well have been watching The Stranger Things
for Nale like you would have gotten more entertainment out
of that, unless you are an Alabama hater, in which case,
this is what teams used to feel like when vintage

(07:23):
Nick Saban teams would come to town, right when they
would have to play against Nick Saban in you know,
the twenty tens. This is what it was like. It
was a beating Indiana thirty eight Alabama three. In the
Rose Bowl. Indiana ran the ball fifty times in Alabama

(07:44):
could not stop. Now when you look at what Alabama
has done over their last three games, they went down
twenty one to nothing against Georgia and the SEC championship,
went down seventeen to nothing against Oklahoma in the playoff
first round in Norman, and then went down twenty four
to nothing to start this game, and it was seventeen
to nothing at the half. Alabama is slash was a

(08:09):
severely flawed team, and Indiana does not beat themselves. So
if you don't give Alabama anything to work with, they
are not going to be able to beat you. And
we can talk about certain points when the game was over,
because there's nothing that cracked me up more than in

(08:30):
the second half when who was it? Somebody tweeted out, like, up,
that's a ballgame, and it's like, no, now it's twenty
four to nothing. It was ballgame. When Indiana went sixteen
plays and took nine minutes off the clock and kicked
a field goal, and then Bama went four and out

(08:52):
because they went for it on fourth and one from
their own thirty five. That was immediately waving the white
flag in that Oh, we already know that we can't
stop you, so we have to try and keep the football.
And instead of just running the football to get fourth
and one, trusting your offensive line to go and push
somebody else off the line of scrimmage. They ran a

(09:15):
reverse jet sweep thing to try and get a yard
and couldn't get it. Like that's when the game ended,
Like it wasn't when this thing got to twenty four
to nothing or whatever, or when Indiana scored right before
the half. Now this thing was over. Like you could
tell immediately. Indiana scored on five of their first seven
possessions and only through thirteen completions. It was a whipping.

(09:39):
Shanahan absolutely schooled Kane Wamick on national television, like it
was so it was so disgusting to watch because you
could see Alabama could get stops with the running game
when they would line up with four down linemen. As

(10:00):
soon as they would show a three man front, Indiana
would bust off long run Indiana would get. I mean,
it was like clockwork. Oh, it was ridiculous. Ty Simpson
with the broken ribs. And then of course afterwards, it's
so I love how all of the accounts. Oh, Alabama
benched their starting quarterback. It's like, no, the sunbitch got hurt.

(10:22):
Like why are we jumping on things so quickly? Why
does everybody have to be first? I don't understand. I
did find it interesting that ty Simpson talked after the
game about it basically did not dispel any rumors that

(10:44):
he had been injured. And the latest thing is that
he had been dealing with an ebo problem or something
to do with his elbow. Whatever it was, it didn't
matter because, like Austin Mack went through the same problems.
Indiana had to simulate a lot of pressure. They had

(11:04):
to force pressure in some cases, but it didn't matter
because the offensive line kept missing assignments and they have
missed asignments all year. I talked about the fact on Twitter.
I talked about the fact that Indiana transferred in three

(11:24):
upperclassmen offensive linemen, but they all jelled. Alabama has multiple
transfers on the offensive line and they did not gel.
And Ryan Grubb has tried so many different lineups and
so many different things, but there's only so much that
you can do with an offensive line that's not good,

(11:45):
and this Alabama offensive line is not good by any stretch.
So Indiana puts a whipon on him thirty eight to three,
and it was even uglier than that, if you can
believe it. I'm certain that all of you watched that game,
beat Georgia in the Sugar Bowl thirty nine to thirty four,

(12:05):
and I I almost can't believe it. Just I'm kind
of shocked. I didn't have that one on the bingo card.
I'll admit it did not have that one. Ole Miss
out gained Georgia four to seventy three to three forty four.
Both teams ran over seventy plays. Charlie Weiss and Trinidad

(12:25):
Chambliss just carved up that Georgia secondary three hundred and
sixty two yards. N Yes, I know, starting safety for
Georgia went out due to the targeting call, which is
just like targeting is so brand. There's only so many
times you said right like it's this is ridiculous either way.
The rebel kicker Lucas Carnero, I believe it was. He

(12:51):
had a forty seven yard game winner, and before that
he hit two fifty plus yarders. And I saw a
Twitter account say that Ole Miss hit two from fifty
plus in this game. And the last time Ohio State
hit a fifty plus yardfield goal was in twenty nineteen.

(13:11):
And not to make this about Ohio State, but that
is mind blowing. I could not believe that could not
believe that. But either way, ole Miss, I mean they
got that kid. He transferred him from Western Kentucky a
couple of years ago and he is awesome, like he
really like they counted on those points. So the Georgia

(13:32):
thing like, when you are getting into a game like that,
you know. Don't get me wrong, Gunner Stockton was great
when this game was in Athens. They had over five
hundred yards of total offense when they were in Athens
against ole Miss. The problem is your defense, which we
all thought had gotten better. The defense couldn't do anything

(13:54):
to stop ole Miss today, Like it looked like those
vintage Saban defenses that don't know what to do when
the quarterback gets out of the pocket and just makes
something happen. It looks like they had no idea what
to do with that, because well, this play is completely
out of structure. What the hell am I supposed to
do here? And they had no answer and Trinidad Chambliss

(14:17):
hit those receivers over and over and over again, and
it was mind blowing to watch. The end of the
game was insane as well. Obviously you've got uh the
on side kick, which why you wouldn't like I did not.
So that's where some of the Pete Golding not being

(14:38):
a head coach stuff comes in because like he typically
doesn't have to worry about it, but Joe Judge is
especially names coordinator, and he's acting as the associate head
coach or assistant head coach whatever it is, he should
have known like, yes, that was a safety, so yes
it's thirty nine to thirty four, and yes they still
have one more play because there's one second on the clock,

(15:00):
but no, time doesn't run off the clock if they
recover an onside kick, So just touch it, like, just
get on the football, Like what are we doing it?
It's just it's insane. What a wild game. And now,

(15:20):
of course nobody knows if all six of the coaches
are going to stay with ole Miss through the semi
final game in the Fiesta Bowl, because LSU is doing
the portal stuff now and it's almost like ole Miss
even the coaches didn't expect them to win this game.
I mean, that's a weird thing to come out the

(15:40):
day after the game and be like, eh, it's unclear
whether or not all six coaches are going to stay
with the Rebel Football program through Ta Dah da da da.
It's like, then, what was the purpose of even coaching
in the first one and then allowing them to coach
in the second one? I mean, what the hell is
I don't know. It's pretty mind blowing. So now we

(16:03):
got ole Miss in Miami. Miami is favored by about
a field goal in the Fiesta Bowl, and you've got
Oregon in Indiana in the Peach Bowl. Oregon is a
four point dog to the Hoosiers there, And if Oregon
or Indiana wins the national championship, it will be the
first time since nineteen ninety six that we have had

(16:26):
a first time national champion. That's pretty wild. So neither
one of those has ever won a national title. Ole
Miss last won one in the sixties, so I don't
even know if that really counts. And Miami, of course
was two thousand and one with Larry Kocher, who was
who had Butcher Davis's bunch and Butch Davis like that's

(16:51):
back when you could recruit a team and you didn't
have to worry about the portal. Like if he had
that team today and then he left, there wouldn't be
a team for Larry Coker to take over and win
a title with so different times, different things, different everything,
just nuts. All right. We will be going over these

(17:11):
early next week. I believe I'm gonna run some numbers
and whatnot and see. But I mean, my goodness, how
do you even begin to handicap the ole miss thing
if you don't know which coaches are going to be
there and all that. I mean, it's a whole it's
a whole thing. The portal opens today. We'll talk about
some of that next week, but man, what a weird

(17:31):
couple of days of football. Just insane. You guys are phenomenal.
Subscribe wherever you subscribe to podcasts. I would certainly appreciate that.
And with that said, we're going to get out of here.
Take care of yourself, take care of each other. God
bless college football, and hopefully all of your tickets cash
this week. Thanks for listening to Winning Cures Everything. Subscribe,

(17:55):
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