College Football Week 7 Reaction: Big Ten Bangers, SEC Nailbiters & the Big 12 + ACC Blender

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to the solid verbal hull. That for me.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
I'm a man, I'm forty.

Speaker 3 (00:08):
I've heard so many players say, well I want to
be happy.

Speaker 4 (00:10):
You want to be happy for a day? Edo State
is that? Whoo whoom? And then and tie.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Whoa baby, oh baby, oh baby, oh baby, oh baby
wow Dan Wow. What a week of college football. We
thought Week six was packed. Week seven had plenty more
to discuss as we come on the airwaves tonight. Yeah,
LSU was just beaten old missing over time. There are
fallings storming the Tiger Stadium field. We of course had

(00:41):
the madness that took place on the West coast, on
the East coast, in the heartland. College football week in
and week now we week out. Now we have come
to this point where each week brings us a whole
slew of new surprises. My good friend, how is your
voice after that Organ game?

Speaker 4 (01:02):
Well, it wasn't great going into the Organ game. And
not that I was screaming, I was I was watching
most of it alone. Just the emotion that was sapped
out of me. Ty, I think it took some of
the voice with me. And I mean really, the entire
day was draining in the best possible way. I don't
know where you want to start. I don't know how
you want to even begin to organize this reaction show,

(01:23):
but I'm game.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Well, look, you know the drill. What we try to
do on these Saturday night at midnight reaction shows is
give kind of our spur the moment thoughts on what
transpired throughout the day. It is obviously an incomplete reaction
That's why we've got a Tuesday show where we cover
the stuff that we don't get a chance to discuss
on these here episodes. If you are new here, even

(01:47):
if you're not, make sure you hit follow, make sure
you hit subscribe wherever you can so that you don't
miss any of our episodes. Of course, you can go
on out to verballers dot com. Ver ballers dot com
has been very popular Dan, not just because we offer
cool perk, but also because you get to vote in
the Forballer Top twelve pole, which gets seemingly more interesting
by the day. So if you go and sign up

(02:07):
out there, you can vote on that. Yeah, this is
kind of a crazy week again. We had a loaded
day of games across the country, especially in the SEC,
which had a bunch of close games that as I
think it did. Last week left us in some sense
with more questions and answers. That was true to a

(02:28):
lesser degree in the Big twelve, which had another important
week of sorting itself out, actually still in the process
of doing that, because we got the Case State Colorado
game that is ongoing as halftime as we required. Yeah,
also true in the ACC. Right, I'm going to make
the case here that ACC's got the most interesting middle

(02:48):
class in an election year, and we could talk through
exactly what that means here and what it looked like
in week seven. And of course Vanderbilt let's roll. Yeah,
do you want to start with any other dub another?

Speaker 4 (03:03):
We can go where if you want.

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Don't step on my toes here in this preamble. I'm
getting all worked up, I know, I know, because we
got to talk about the Big Ten first. We had
two obvious headliners in the Big Ten, not the least
of which was the Oregon Ohio State thriller. Penn State
USC also made a pretty good claim as one of

(03:24):
the one of the more exciting games of the day.
But our first point of the evening has to be
your Oregon Ducks eking one out over Ohio State Ohio
State flew in from Columbus. It was a back and
forth game, a very evenly matched game for my money,
and Oregon came out in front thirty two to thirty one.

(03:47):
They were at about a three point dog, but for
all intentsive purposes, Vegas had them pretty even. Yes, what
is your takeaway from this? I mean, I hear your voice,
whether you were alone or not. There were definitely some
shouts at the TV yep. And I'm sure people who
are listening at home, people maybe who are watching us live,
were in a very very similar situation. But what was

(04:09):
it like to watch this game as a fan of
a team playing in it.

Speaker 4 (04:13):
It was a roller coaster. It was an absolute roller coaster.
It was Dylan Gabriel's best game as a duck, with
his fearlessness downfield right that there were so many more
positives to Dylan Gabriel, punctuated perhaps by that touchdown run
late when he had the keep, when JT Toumalu crashed
down on Jordan I think it was Jordan James. But
what he was able to do with Evan Stewart downfield,

(04:36):
what he did with Tes Johnson, it was remarkable. Finding
Terrence Ferguson the way that he did. The way that
this Oregon game went was kind of rocky. Otherwise, they
survived some big plays from Ohio State, namely the long
Trey Henderson run early on in the game, and then
some big catches from Jeremiah Smith and I mean the

(04:57):
whole host of receiving corps for a Bio State g
Scott had, you know, a couple of huge catches with
the tight end spot. Look, the positives from Oregon are
obvious that they were able to get stops, that they
were able to you know, make timely plays, and the
negatives were that they're still not a buttoned up team.
This is still not a finished product. I thought. By

(05:18):
and large, Ohio State did not shoot itself in the
foot as much as Oregon did with the bad snapped
extra point, the the bad two point conversion, you know,
trying to make up for that fact. Trey Shawn Holden,
one of Oregon's best receivers are number two or three
receiver spin spit in the face of a dB for
Ohio State and get ejected when Oregon was deep into

(05:41):
a scoring opportunity. Ohio State is a terrifying team and
it's so obvious. Why it's so obvious, the speed and
skill with which they play on both sides of the ball.
I just I couldn't believe the ending of that game.
So Oregon one has twelve guys on the field, but
the clock still goes and Will Howard just sort of

(06:06):
with the clock running, with the clock running near the
end of the game, with the clock running before the
second to last play, it was just a lot of
Chris Berman tick tick tick tick tick tick tick, and
he knew it, it seemed, but the offensive line sort
of seemed to be going through the motions and he
couldn't sort of get everybody on the same page. And
then with six seconds left on third and twenty, desperate

(06:27):
to get into field goal range, he ran for it
with nobody open, and ran a little bit too long,
and by the time he slid, time had run out,
and the Oregon sideline and all of Outson Stadium seemed
to collapse on the field. I couldn't believe Oregon was
able to weather the issues that they weathered. I was
furious that they didn't even get a review with that

(06:47):
interception on that opening drive where didn't even get a review.
It was by the way brilliant, tactical move, super savvy
from Chip Kelly to go tempo tempo, tempo tempo, don't
give him time, And the refs, even though everybody at
home is watching that at the very least, is like, oh,
we should take a closer look. This is a little
bit strange and different. They're afsou like, well, we gotta

(07:08):
keep playing this football, I don't know. And then the
rest of the game they seemed to be okay in
terms of whether or not a place should be reviewed
or not. But that was kind of wild to watch. Yeah,
Orgon made a ton of plays. Organ didn't just belong
on the field Oregon one. And you know, other than
maybe rushing the passer, Oregon was they were electric on

(07:31):
their biggest night of the year.

Speaker 1 (07:33):
What I found interesting about this game is actually when
we did our preview, a lot of what we said
in that moment came to fruition. A lot of what
we were seeing going into this game is what I
think we're going to talk about coming out of it.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
Right.

Speaker 1 (07:48):
One of the big points of interest for us was
is Oregon going to try and go downfield through the air,
and they did frequently in this game that was part
of why they had the same excess that they did.
I thought, to your point, Dylan Gabriel looked like a
completely different quarterback in this game. He looked like the
Dylan Gabriel that I think I've been expecting throughout the

(08:09):
first month of the season, the one that we have
seen four years running now at various schools around the country.
I thought Dylan Gabriel looked really, really solid. Three forty
one to two touchdowns, no interception.

Speaker 4 (08:21):
Had time by the way the Oregon offensive line protected him,
which has not always been the story this year. Was
able to buy time himself when needed, but on those
longer developing downfield throws he was protected. You know, this
vaunted Ohio State secondary I still think is excellent, but
they haven't seen receivers like what Oregon brought to the table.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
No, it just it. I think what I come away
from this game feeling most is how much better Oregon
looked compared to the other games of theirs that I
have watched. I don't know if they were just waiting
for the big game. I don't know if they're the
opponent's snob the way we have.

Speaker 4 (08:58):
Well, they they definitely weren't taking shots against inferior secondaries
to Ohio States, the way that they were taking shots
on Denzel Burke et cetera, Caleb Downs, et cetera, Lithe
and Ransom, et cetera. They weren't doing that to Boise
or UCLA with that kind of consistency.

Speaker 1 (09:15):
No, and you know, I'm not I'm not a conspiracy
theorist insofar as I tend to think these teams are
holding a lot back in some of those games. I'm
sure there are some things that they hold back, but yeah,
this just felt very drastically different to me. It felt
drastically different. It definitely seemed like they were up for
this game and good for Dan Lanning to get the

(09:35):
monkey off his back. I mean, they were reading the
stats aloud through the broadcast about you know, some of
his troubles against top five teams, and notice.

Speaker 4 (09:42):
Did they squeeze that in between Jeremiah Smith praise?

Speaker 3 (09:45):
Did they?

Speaker 4 (09:45):
Were they? It was? It was Noah Eagle, Todd Blackledge
and the Jeremiah Smith spectacular continue.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
There was a lot of Jeremiah Smith love. Yeah, and look,
there's plenty of talent to go around on the Ohio
State side of things. Sure, I am very curious to
see what arver ball Er Top twelve pole looks like
with respect to Ohio State. Being so this is a
thirty two to thirty one final. Do Oregon and Ohio
State just switch spots in our poll? Do they just

(10:12):
switch spots in the ap pole? How far do you
drop Ohio State? I think is a real question unranked. Yeah, yeah,
not that it really matters that much in the grand
scheme of things, because we've got half a season to
go and Ohio State's going to win most, if not all,
of their remaining games. But for sure, this is one
of those matchups that I think we had circled coming
into the year, and it helps us answer some of

(10:34):
the questions now in the Big Ten, having seen them
on the same field, having seen how I think level
the game felt for a good chunk of the way through,
I thought Will Howard, by the way, was excellent.

Speaker 4 (10:47):
I thought he was really really strong, excellent in this game.
Got a little bit, you know, he heard footsteps a
little bit in the past rush even though he had
time to step in and throw. You could see that
he was The feat got a little happier as the
second half war on.

Speaker 1 (11:02):
But when he had a chance to plant and throw,
he was accurate. He was very accurate, and there were
some dimes that he was able to deliver in this
matchup that I just I was really in awe frankly
on both sides of this thing.

Speaker 4 (11:15):
So it was a great terrifying as an Oregon human
knowing the receiving corps in the pass catchers and running backs.
Quin Shawn Judkins did nothing that was crazy impressive from Oregon.
But you know, I was holding my breath anytime it
was Abuka or Jeremiah Smith or Trey Henderson, a G. Scott,
anyboy of these guys in the open field, even a
little bit an Oregon. For what whatever it's worth, they

(11:37):
kept it. They kept that offense for the most part
in front of them.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
Thirty two to thirty one is your final. We welcome
feedback from the for baller hood. This was a great contest.

Speaker 4 (11:47):
Really.

Speaker 1 (11:48):
The nightcap was loaded filled to the brim with awesome matchups. Basically,
if you were out on the town, if you were
doing any of the fall apple picking activities, hopefully you
got in front of your TV six pm Eastern. I
Also otherwise you missed a lot. That's what we're here for.
We're gonna do our best to try and get through.

Speaker 4 (12:07):
It definitely missed Dan Lanning cutting a wrestling promo with
a chain around his neck at the conclusion of Oregon Ohios.
And you know what, I loved it. It was great.

Speaker 1 (12:18):
Penn State thirty three, USC thirty or second point as
we come on the air this evening. This game was
also wild and the now new look Big ten. It
still feels odd to say that normally both of these
games would be rose bulls, but they're not. This year
the regular season games and Penn State was down early.

(12:39):
Penn State was in a hole in the first half
of that game. It looked like they were gonna get
blown out. It looked like they were gonna get blown out.
They had no answer for USC's offense. You could argue
that the full way through they didn't, although they tightened
up as the game wore on. But I on my
friend text thread among fellow Penn Staters, we were going

(13:01):
back and forth like this could be a runaway train here.
It just did not feel good. And you know we
I think all have nice things to say about Drew Aller,
but by a large it felt very different in the
first half than in the second. They come out after
halftime and they just sort of jump all over USC.
Before you know it, this game is tied at twenty

(13:22):
after being down I guess twenty to six at halftime,
whatever the score was, and from that point forward it
was really just a neck and neck race. I was
impressed by Drew Aller. I was impressed by Aler. I
thought this was the best version of him that we
have seen yet in his time as a quarterback at
Penn State. In mop up duty, in starting duty, however

(13:44):
you want to classify it. He had three hundred and
ninety one yards. I just thought that his ability to
be comfortable out there was different than we had seen before.
We've yet to see, or we had yet to see
Drew Aller in a moment like this, and I'm thinking
back to maybe the Michigan game last year, the Ohio

(14:04):
State game last year, and granted different offense. It's not
exactly apples to apples, but I just remember coming in
with all this five star acclaim. How on some level
we talked about it on the show. The expectation was,
if the running game can't get going, you need to
turn it over to the quarterback. The quarterbacks got to
give you something through the air. Either they weren't scheming

(14:25):
it up, or they didn't have the receivers, or he
wasn't confident enough in the system. But he was unable
to do last year what I think we saw him
do today, and that is essentially put the offense on
his back. That is what they did. They put it
all on Drew Aller, and he looked very confident down
the stretch in that game. It was clear he was

(14:45):
playing with a lot of confidence, a lot of momentum.
He was stepping into throws, he was accurate. I just
thought this was finally the moment where it felt like
he became that quarterback, the prince that was promised that
some have phrased it. To me as somebody who followed
Penn State very closely, that was kind of my biggest takeaway.

Speaker 4 (15:04):
Yeah, I mean, the only exception I would take with
what you said was if Tyler Warren is merely decent,
is merely pretty good, that Drew Aller had his best
game wearing blue and white, I would say wouldn't matter.
But let's be real, USC would find a way to
lose this game regardless, like Lincoln Riley is the Encyclopedia

(15:25):
Brown of losing like he just is.

Speaker 1 (15:28):
The USC thing is kind of its own separate topic.
By the way, Tyler Warren seventeen catches for two hundred
and twenty four yards and a touchdown. We have joked
about it now for a couple of weeks running James
Franklin legit wants him to win the Heisman. He is
cheessing Tyler Warren the way we do in the video
game if you've got a guy that you just like

(15:48):
playing with. He tied the record in FBS for most
receptions in a single game by a tight end. It
was an incredible showing. They're going to keep doing it.
They seem to be getting more creative with how they
do it, and I think that's exciting now as they
go a little bit deeper into it.

Speaker 4 (16:02):
Did he have him snapping to a receiver? Was that
a play?

Speaker 1 (16:06):
And he's also one of these guys who falls into
your category of a surprisingly lefty thrower when he gets
a chance to throw the ball.

Speaker 5 (16:15):
HM.

Speaker 1 (16:16):
So Penn State ties at thirty with about three minutes left.
USC gets the ball back. They get up to midfield
with like a minute or so fifty one seconds and
two timeouts. I think instead of calling the timeouts, they
let thirty seconds run off. Penn State actually calls a

(16:36):
timeout with fourteen seconds left to try and get themselves organized.
I think they were just as confused as we were
at home, thinking why the hell didn't they call time
out here? Why are they just letting this run off?
Lincoln Riley in that moment is essentially playing for at
best a fifty yard field goal. The college kickers pretty
good did miss one in overtime, but letting the clock

(16:59):
run off when you've got timeouts to burn, playing for
a fifty yard field goal, then not getting it on
fourth down as you throw an interception, then burning the
timeouts before Penn State runs two desperation plays was a
masterclass in horrible clock management. He stole the mantle from

(17:22):
Late Game James Franklin. It is now officially late games.

Speaker 4 (17:26):
It was it was transferred on the pregame handshake.

Speaker 1 (17:29):
It was it's like in boxing or in pro wrestling
when they take the belt and they put it in
a trash bag and then it's just up for grabs.
Lincoln Riley claimed that belt. He is now officially late
game Lincoln Riley. It was a horrible, horrible coaching performance
down the stretch to the point you've made a couple

(17:49):
times over now, USC just finds a way to lose
these games with Lincoln, and it's got to be frustrating.
As how I talked to a couple of our US
Cever bowlers out there. It's tough. It is tough to
watch him mismanage it the way that he did in
a big spot. They had plenty of chances to win
this game and they you know, I'm not going to

(18:12):
say it's all because of the clock management. I don't
think it's solely because of that, but Lord knows that
they didn't help themselves. They didn't do themselves any favors
down the stretch because it was they could have handled
it a lot better and given themselves a better opportunity
to win this one before going into overtime. They go
into ot they miss a kick, they turn it over
to Penn State, Penn State makes the kick, they went
thirty three to thirty.

Speaker 4 (18:33):
Well, it's not just the overtime, it's not just the
late game stuff. It's how many touchdowns did they score
in the second half against a very good Penn State defense.
Mind you one touchdown, yep, So there are opportunities, right,
they jump out to it was a twenty to six.

Speaker 1 (18:47):
Lead, I want to say, yep at halftime.

Speaker 4 (18:49):
Twenty to six at halftime, and so things are working
right even if you're using bigger plays to generate those points.
And it's not necessarily that they're just pushing Penn State
around or something consistently, but it's you know, the end
a round that goes for a ton. It was a
couple of runs from Quentin Joyner that did really well,
like they did really well chunk wise, but you know,

(19:13):
at halftime to sort of evaluate what is and what
isn't working and to not have an offense that's at
all consistent and reacting to what Penn State is doing successfully.
That's why I say Encyclopedia Brown, Right, it's the case
of the missing W and he's always going to find
that L. He is always going to find that L.
And it's a shame because what USC has weapon wise,

(19:35):
what they've done in improving their defense wise, this is
a team that's built to win much more consistently and
in more ways. But for whatever reason, at the end
of games, they just freak out.

Speaker 1 (19:48):
I really like Woody Barks by the way. I mean
he's got.

Speaker 4 (19:51):
Those guys Joiner too, Yeah, Joiner.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
I mean wood marks a serious wiggle and he's tough
to bring down. It is a bummer because you're right,
they have great weapons. The final point on this game,
camp build an offensive line, but yes, Camp buill the one.
The final point on this game that we'll move on
is it is a good thing that Penn State has
renovated the offense because the defense definitely has some questions.

(20:15):
And maybe it's because they were up against a good offense.
I don't know. But they're going to have a game
coming up, a pretty big one, as I'm sure you're aware,
against Ohio State a little bit later this year, and
if they don't get the defense sort of, they're going
to need to put up forty five in order to
have a chance in that game.

Speaker 4 (20:29):
But I don't even fully care about the Ohio State game.
If I'm a Penn State I mean, obviously you care
about the Ohio State game. They're just it almost seems
to be impossible that they do any worse than eleven
and one at this point.

Speaker 1 (20:41):
Point number three is I'm just going to call this
the SEC Q and a yeah, man, we did this
show a week ago, and I'm pretty sure I said
that the results raised more questions than answers. I feel
confident saying that outside of Texas, the SEC is in

(21:03):
a total blender.

Speaker 4 (21:05):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:06):
All of our preseason notions and ideas and projections again
for teams outside of Texas are completely upside down at
this point. Alabama is lucky to have not lost at
home against South Carolina, where they were more than a
three touchdown favorite. Tennessee also at home, needed overtime against Florida.

(21:31):
A good chunk of that game was a friggin' rock fight.
Which where did that come from?

Speaker 4 (21:36):
I think they were down three to nothing deep into
the third quarter.

Speaker 1 (21:40):
Incredible. We had LSU going to overtime and knocking off
Old Miss. Now that game was in Tiger Stadium, it
was at night. Clearly ls was formidable in that circumstance.
But LSU knocking off a top ten Ole Miss, it's significant.
We had even other points of contention in the SEC. Georgia.

(22:04):
Georgia was up big on Mississippi State, but then in
the second half basically stopped playing defense. That final was
forty one to thirty one Vandy. Vandy gets another win.
Vandy beats Kentucky, this time on the heels and that.

Speaker 4 (22:18):
Plete performance twenty to thirteen on.

Speaker 1 (22:20):
The heels of that Bahma performance a week ago. It's
very easy. Now we didn't. We both picked Vandy plus
the points. I forget what the points bread was, but regardless,
you could imagine a scenario in which that emotional roller
coaster winds them up in a ditch a week after
against a team like Kentucky, which no disrespect to the Cats,

(22:42):
they're not Alabama Vandy Weiss. There's just a lot going
on in the SEC outside of that top round. We'll
talk about the Texas game next and maybe where that
fits in here within context, But I guess within the SEC, Dan,
what stood out to you the most of those games
that I just described.

Speaker 4 (23:01):
Not of the games. There's only one team that's three
and zer in the SEC, and it's your Texas A
and M fight. Naggy's right. I don't think Texas has
played three games. No, George's played five games. They're four
and one, Andandy's two and one or three and one
in conference. You're right, it's a total blender. Especially not
Ole Miss has lost again tonight to LSU. That was

(23:21):
a wild game, which I'm sure we're going to get
to of those games. I think the South Carolina Alabama one,
to me is sort of front of mind just what
I know. I, speaking for myself, thought of Alabama going
into the season. I was higher on the tide than
you were. And Vandy might be decent, and that might
have just been like, look, it's your de facto super Bowl.
They've got a lot of experience, they're well coached, and

(23:43):
like it's just going to be one of those weeks
freak things happen. South Carolina has struggled for stretches this year.
They've also thrived, but they've struggled. And South Carolina not
only wasted opportunities, but wasted opportunities and still had opportunity
at the end of this game.

Speaker 1 (24:01):
See, here's the thing. We talked about the Vandy Bama
game a week ago. We both and a lot of
people around college football media said the same thing. It
wasn't a fluke. If you watch the game, it wasn't
a fuke. Van you just beat him. I look at
this game, I am almost inclined to say that Bama's
win was a fluke, not wrong, because you're right. South

(24:23):
Carolina had so many chances. It felt to me like
they blew it. They had so many chances in this game.
They turned the ball over four times, two of which
were absolute momentum killers. They had a fumble after they
had a safety earlier in the game, then a fumble
the first play after they had an interception in the
second half. I think that was one in the end zone.

(24:44):
They also missed a two point conversion that would have
tied it. After that miraculous just chucker throw up to
Nick Harbor that he caught on the front corner of
the end zone. They recovered at on side kick, which
maybe was the most beautiful on sidekick these eyes have
ever seen.

Speaker 4 (25:01):
It's unbelievable. What did you tweet out? Three thousand RPMs
it had?

Speaker 1 (25:04):
It had like a three thousand rpm horizontally, it was
just spinning. If you're watching me on it was spinning
like a top on its side, and it came in
it like I think the Alabama special teams player did
his part to try and like, you know, suffocate it,
do what you would do if you're playing shortstop and

(25:26):
like knock the hop down, but it had so many
revolutions on it that there was nothing he could do.
It bounced off him. They get the on side kick, they.

Speaker 4 (25:35):
Bought mysterious score it through, if you will, the.

Speaker 1 (25:37):
Mysterious score it through. Then they botched the clock management
to a degree at the end. There were all those
chances and then there was just sort of like I
think the basic fundamentals of this game on the Bama side,
which was they had a hard time blocking South Carolina.

Speaker 4 (25:53):
Yes was everyone, to be clear, but yes.

Speaker 1 (25:57):
As does everyone, but you would expect more from Bama.
Damma had trouble running the football against South Carolina, perhaps
because of that front and some of their trouble blocking.
There's a lot of pressure on Jalen Milroe in this
football game. Dam is obviously a very very good team,
don't get me wrong, but clearly, Dan, clearly we have

(26:19):
overestimated where they are at, where they are at Post
Saban into this Kitlin de Boor era. As you know
full well from Debor's time at Washington, this was something
of a hallmark being in these close games, right And
it's not to say it's going to be this way
all year, but it has become more of a trend

(26:43):
than I think we ever could have expected.

Speaker 4 (26:45):
I think there's something about the sec right now that
the floor seems very high for basically everybody that you
can be pretty sure that every team does two and
a half things at least very very well. And if
it's South South Carolina, right, it's getting after the passer,
it's special teams. It's sort of creating plays out of
nowhere in the case of Lenora's Sellers, and retracting plays

(27:09):
out of nowhere. Also if you're Lenora's Sellers, and look,
if you were to bring in somebody that knew nothing
about the sport you were bringing in, like your a
buddy from Belgium or something, and be like, who do
you think got upset in this game? Or was able
to hold on and avoid the upset? To your point,
very difficult to see, very difficult to know, given the

(27:29):
back and forth. And like you talk about the pressure
on Jalen Milroe, it's not just pressure from defensive ends
and blitz is. It's there's a pressure put on him
unofficially by Alabama to do everything, to pick up every yard,
to make every explosive play. And yes, he's a dual
threat quarterback and that's part of the gig. But with

(27:49):
no help from the offensive line, inconsistent receiver play, running
backs not flashing like we thought they would consistently. If
he's not having a Heisman caliber game, they can lose
to just about everybody in this conference on the right day.

Speaker 1 (28:03):
Well, and what's really interesting now, especially in light of
what we saw this week, Alabama and Tennessee play next week.
Georgia and Texas play next week. Right, this SEC schedule
is only gonna get more interesting now from here on
out because we have so many questions about these teams.
The Tennessee game, the Tennessee Florida game, to me, blew

(28:26):
my mind. Man, that blew my mind, because what's the
rubbin on Florida. Rub on Florida has been they don't
play any defense. Three years running now they haven't played
any defense. Now. I pointed out on the preview that
I thought there were there were signs there that maybe
there are aspects of the defense that have improved. It's
still not a great defense. That being said, this game

(28:47):
was at home in Neiald Stadium in Knoxville. Three nothing
at halftime, Yeah, three nothing in favor of Florida, if
they are of Florida, didn't even score the three points.
They came on like a freight training. In the end,
obviously they end up winning this game. So it's a clunker.

(29:09):
It's a clunker. But the question is, now, after I
think a couple weeks of signs that Tennessee isn't as
bulletproof as we thought after the NC State game, it's
fair to start wondering now where their place is. I
voted them number one a couple weeks ago, doing that again,
not doing that again, Dan, So where do we stand here?

(29:32):
As we look at Tennessee and as we look at
old miss now and LSU, right, LSU kind of like
the forgotten team. Amid all this, it's gotten very very
dicey trying to sort out who belongs where.

Speaker 4 (29:46):
It's sort of a case of it's very difficult to
play a complete game. And we had sort of figured,
maybe or I had sort of figured, speaking for myself,
that based on the first three or four weeks of
the season, that Tennessee was going to continue to play
to like their ninety fourth percentile performance, ninety eighth percentile,
ninety first percentile. And then you look at the Oklahoma game,

(30:08):
which I still claim is decently impressive all things considered.
On the road, tough place to play, tough defense, Arkansas game,
and now the Florida game. Ot whin your clunkers. Winning
is always better than losing. Win is a win, is
a win. Good teams win. Tennessee's good. They're not great.
They're not on a great tier. They don't show up.
At the same time, the defense has by and large

(30:31):
looked really great this year. It's not good enough. It's
not good enough against some of these teams who circle
Tennessee on their schedule. Look at a Tennessee offense with
an inexperienced quarterback and say, I think we can trick
them a little bit. I think we get under his
skin a little bit. I think we can make him
think a little bit longer than he'd like to a
little bit. And obviously that's what Florida did today, forced

(30:52):
him to some mistakes, you know, got the offense out
of rhythm. Same for Arkansas. Same and especially in that
second half against Oklahoma. I maintained Tennessee is good, They're
most certainly not on that top tier right now.

Speaker 1 (31:05):
No, and Ole Miss isn't either. Ole Missus neither. There
might be a conversation PELLISSH.

Speaker 4 (31:10):
I don't know, But who's on that top tier in
the SEC right now?

Speaker 1 (31:14):
I think it's just Texas.

Speaker 4 (31:16):
It's just Texas.

Speaker 1 (31:17):
I think it's just Texas.

Speaker 4 (31:18):
What about A and M.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
I'm not putting A and M that high.

Speaker 4 (31:22):
Their loss was game one. The wasst was a decent team.
Their was was game one to a top I would
say a good team. Yeah, top ten caliber team in
Notre Dame. But outside of that, beat Missoo, I don't
think we're as.

Speaker 1 (31:37):
Sold on the didn't just beat them. They pounded Miszoo
by thirty one.

Speaker 4 (31:41):
They did. What a great team. I don't know if
Texas A and M's great, but they did what a
great team should do if they're going to be considered great.

Speaker 1 (31:47):
They won a close game against Arkansas twenty one to seven.
They did, and they won on the road at Florida.
Now their schedule will heat up. Next up, they've got
Mississippi State, but then after that it's LSU on the
road at South Carolina at Auburn close out the year
against Texas. We've talked about this before. It's a pretty

(32:09):
favorable SEC schedule all things considered, I'm not ready to
put them on that tier. I need to see more
out of Connor wegg more, out of the version of
Connor Wegman that we saw against Missouri before I'm ready
to go there with it. But A and M's definitely
a team that belongs in the conversation at this point.
I just I think of Texas and then kind of

(32:29):
a big mishmash, maybe with Georgia at or near the top,
and then everybody else kind of trying to play ketchup
after that.

Speaker 4 (32:37):
I don't know, man, if you're putting Georgia in the
top group with how they played against Alabama and how
close they played against.

Speaker 1 (32:43):
I'm saying Texas like one A. I know, Georgia like
one C, and then everybody else kind of right behind Georgia.

Speaker 4 (32:51):
I'm totally with you, and I don't ask this in
a weird way. Doesn't Vandy belong on that second tier
if they're beating can No, don't laugh. If Vandy's beating Kentucky.
What is Kentucky done this year? They beat Ole miss
in Oxford? Right, they were right there with Georgia. Oh, yes,
they were. I feel like it's irrefutable that Kentucky has

(33:12):
an excellent defense. I think they do. I think they
have a really strong defense.

Speaker 1 (33:17):
This is one of those conversations that we've had over
the last two years with Kansas, frankly, where Kansas actually
is pretty good and we're so used to them being
bad right that it feels a little uncomfortable to talk
about them in any kind of serious contact. And I
don't mean that in a derogatory sense, but I think
a lot of people are there with this and this

(33:38):
is actually a good Vandy team, Like, they played pretty
good defense. Yeah, and Kavia they've retooled the offense. I
mean they are clearly throwing some kind of ephis pitch
that teams are having a hard time with.

Speaker 4 (33:51):
Yeah, And the Mizoo game was winnable, and you can't
lose to Georgia State if you really want to be
taken crazy seriously, but within the SEC, and that just
might have been a lack lesser performance than oversight whatever.
I think it's a good thing, honestly, where the SEC
is right now.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
It is, It's going to make things very interesting down
the stretch. We'll unpack this a little bit more on Tuesday,
especially since the old Miss LSU game was going off
right as we were about to hit recording.

Speaker 4 (34:19):
And to be clear, LSU has not lost in the SEC.

Speaker 1 (34:22):
LSU was not lost in the SEC.

Speaker 4 (34:24):
So they should be in this conversation heavily as well.

Speaker 1 (34:26):
LSU was thirteen in the polls coming into this week.
My suspicion is with some losses, even without the losses,
they will find some way to work their way into
that top ten, because this is a pretty big way,
and they knocked off number nine Ole Miss. The team
that I didn't mention in any great detail was the

(34:49):
Texas long Horns, who won thirty four to three over Oklahoma. Honestly,
my takeaway is less on the Texas side and more
on the Oklahoma side.

Speaker 4 (34:59):
Oh that's not nice, that's not fair. But continue, Why
don't you go first to Texas?

Speaker 1 (35:03):
Then tell me what your thoughts are in Texas.

Speaker 4 (35:07):
Quinn Eewers, looked off for a chunk of this game,
found himself as the game war on ran the ball. Well.
I think Pete Kwikowski's defense, especially those freaking linebackers. Those
guys are everywhere. Colin Simmons, Anthony Hill, those guys like
so good and we can yes, I think you're right
to say that the more interesting talking point might be

(35:32):
what's going on with Oklahoma and the injuries and the
quarterback situation, the offensive situation, and the receivers in the
passing game. I think that's all correct. But what Texas
was able to do in taking care of business against
what I still think is a really good defense at Oklahoma,
and absolutely no doubt, a lot of teams have left
out good teams, quality teams, supposedly great teams have left

(35:53):
out against probably lesser teams. Texas left, no doubt, and
it was somewhat of a slow start, but they generated turnovers,
They scored off of those turnovers, They leaned, they sat,
They suffocated your right to sort of put Texas as
one A right now because they are the team in
the SEC and they're the only team in this moment

(36:15):
likely depending on ties, Texas A and M fight naggies
who are playing those upper percentile games and they're playing
those complete games.

Speaker 1 (36:24):
The immediate aftermath of this game, I drew a comparison
in my mind between what Ohio State did to Iowa
and what Texas did to Oklahoma, and it kind of
feels dirty to compare Oklahoma to Iowa. But that's frankly
just where the offense is at. This is a bad offense. Yeah,
And more than anything, you can look at the numbers,

(36:46):
you can understand full well that their top five wide
receivers are hurt. Whatever it is, they're clearly still going
through some sort of transition. They yank Jackson Arnold, they
put in the backup. What I am left with is
this feeling of hopelessness with their offense. Sure it didn't

(37:07):
matter what the score was. If you watch that game
for any period of time, ten minutes, whatever, a couple drives,
every drive was the same for Oklahoma. Every drive, every
play was the same, Every passing play was the same.
Snap the ball, drop back has a second to look around,
nobody's open, dance around in hopes of maybe finding a

(37:30):
seam to run through. That was the offense.

Speaker 4 (37:33):
That was it.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
On occasion they hit a play great, but thirty four
to three was your final And honestly, that makes it
seem closer than it was. As I watched that game,
I wanted, as somebody who was pretty high on Oklahoma
coming into this game just because of the rivalry aspect,
not because of the offense. But these games have always
defied logic. The Red River games, you know this, They're

(37:55):
always close. Most often they're close, and so I was
expected that we would see a little bit more fight
from Oklahoma. This was a hapless offensive effort, and I
don't know where they go from here. I suspect if
you get a little bit healthier out why that will help.
But you still have to have somebody throwing the ball
and a plan and a lot of plan. And that
was the other thing too. As I kind of posted

(38:17):
some stuff online, there were a number of Oklahoma people
who did chime in and say that was actually their
biggest problem with it. The biggest problem was they know
what they're up against, given injury situations. They know what
they're up against, given it's a good team on the
other side in Texas with a really solid defense. But
this sense of not knowing what the plan is makes

(38:38):
it really hard to feel good about anything. And so
I don't know, man, I don't know what to make Oklahoma.
We knew that the schedule was going to be brutal
coming into this year. That is no great surprise, but
I think we all expected that this team would be
in a much much better place than it is right now.
On offense, it just it seems like they're playing with

(39:00):
a well we think is a good defense, but in
a very Iowa sense no offense.

Speaker 4 (39:07):
There's also this is Brent Minnibles has been there for
years now, So there's levels to this.

Speaker 2 (39:12):
Right.

Speaker 4 (39:13):
You take over a team, you try to make it
worth work with whoever's there and any transfers you bring in.
You see what you have, you see what you don't have.
You hit the portal some more. You recruit super hard,
you know, is it a quarterback thing? Is it a
ligne thing? Lines are hard to replace via the portal.
But like you build right, you plug in gaps. You
figure out what kind of team you want to be.
You bring in Jeff Levy, Okay, you want to be

(39:33):
like a pace lane Kiffanny that like that kind of system,
that's what you want to be. Great, let's find the
next guy who believes in something similar, and let's find
a quarterback who fits that. Oh it's Jackson Arnold. Great,
he's going to run a similar type system. Great. Who's
the coordinator? Oh, Seth Latrell, we're going internal with it. Okay,
are they running the same thing? No? Yes, kind of
sort of like it just seems like the it's tapering off,

(39:58):
and injuries are a big deal with it. But if
you're Brent Venables and you're recruiting super well and your
transfer destination, which they should be Oklahoma always should be,
it's a huge deal. It's a huge program. And this
is what they look like in year three after benching
their five star, blue chip quarterback of the future and
sort of abandoning, essentially abandoning that path for the program.

Speaker 1 (40:20):
And he's gone by he's gonna leave after the Oh yeah,
I mean that's it's not official official obviously, but I
think we can see the riding on the wall because
that's where college football is. Jackson Arnold's gonna leave now,
and so you've alienated that option, right, And he has
recruited fairly well obviously as you as you said, you know,
he's been able to make it something of a transfer

(40:41):
destination for guys like Dion Burks or whoever. Right, I mean,
it's still Oklahoma. But on some level, yeah, that does
start to wear off. And if they look like this
the rest of the way against the SEC, I mean,
this is just really bad. It was really bad against
your biggest rival, and this is the kind of stuff
that drives people crazy when you lose to your rival
like this.

Speaker 4 (41:01):
And it's an ideal situation, right If Brent Ventnables is
going to recruit a defense, if he's going to build
up depth, if the talent level is going to be
super high, it should be crazy attractive to the best
offensive coordinators, the best transfer quarterbacks. The mean, I know
it's not attractive if you know Jackson Arnold is the
obvious starter, the best transfer receivers, like the best up

(41:21):
and coming offensive linemen in high school like Oklahoma should
be it. And even in the move to the SEC
in year three, there's this kind of falloff. I don't know, man,
it's pretty worrying.

Speaker 1 (41:33):
I mean, the vibes at Oklahoma are bad, yeah, and
I think it's meaningful to say that they're worse at
Oklahoma right now, at least from the sentiment that I've gotten.
You can you guys can yell at me if I'm
wrong about this. Right from just kind of the straw
poles that I took, seems like it's way worse at
Oklahoma than it is at Florida. It's been horrible at Florida,
but at least it feels like they fought in this

(41:55):
game against Tennessee. And I again I maintain that that
Florida has gotten better and is not bad as many
people might think given the narratives that are out there.
But Oklahoma just feels different right now. It's not a
good thing. It's not good at all.

Speaker 4 (42:13):
Where are we going next? Acc Big twelve? Anywhere?

Speaker 2 (42:16):
Well?

Speaker 1 (42:16):
Cam Rising was back.

Speaker 4 (42:18):
Camp Rising was back.

Speaker 1 (42:19):
Cam Rising was back on Friday night against Arizona State.
Did you see Kenny Dillingham on the field after Arizona
State won that game?

Speaker 4 (42:27):
I mean, speaking like a Dan Lanning protege cutting a
wrestling promo after a win.

Speaker 1 (42:31):
Yeah, sounded like you.

Speaker 4 (42:33):
I know he did, absolutely, he left it all out
on the field.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
I love this guy. I love everything he stands for.
I love the fire that his teams play with. I
love the fact that they are pesky as hell, that
they are still rebuilding. Yeah. I love the fact that
he inherited a mess and has turned it very quickly
into something that is It changes week to week, as

(42:57):
it did last year when they were running weird set.
They again are doing really creative stuff with offense. If
you watch that game, some of the play calls, and
it just seems like they are having fun out there.
Be real ty. You love Cam Scataboo's mid section. I mean,
who doesn't. Yeah, of course, of course, But they win
this game. They win this game by a twenty seven

(43:18):
to nineteen score over Utah, which only further makes the
Big twelve in a state of disarray. I can't help
but feel very underwhelmed now that Cam Rising is back,
Like we waited all this time for him to come back.
I thought he looked bad. I don't know if it
was rust. I don't know if he's still hurt. He's

(43:40):
still hurt. I mean he three picks, I mean, and
they were ducks. Dan. It didn't seem like his passes
had any I compared him to you when we talked
earlier to Eddie Harris for Major League One, there was
just no zip on anything. He's got the glove on
it just it felt very off. He was late, he
was behind guys. If this is what Utah was hoping

(44:03):
to get back, maybe not this version of him, but
the version that they got was not good enough to
beat a team like an Asuasu by the ways five
and one point that out.

Speaker 4 (44:13):
But coming for that big twelve.

Speaker 1 (44:15):
ASU winning twenty seven to nineteen over Utah on Friday
was a very big deal. We've also got this situation
now where BYU continues to roll in the conference. They
hammered Arizona forty one to nineteen, and again the weird
thing about bau BYU is something of a mirage. Now,
maybe not the kind of mirage that I said before

(44:37):
where I don't trust them at all, right, but they're
the type of mirage that if you don't watch the
games and simply look at the stats, you will look
at the score and say, how did they win?

Speaker 5 (44:49):
Right?

Speaker 1 (44:49):
How did they score forty one points with these numbers?

Speaker 4 (44:52):
Well, today's mirage was they made their secondary look like
Arizona players. And know if of PA kept throwing it
into that mirage.

Speaker 1 (45:01):
So we've got the BYU thing. We had Iowa State
going on the road and taking it to West hand.

Speaker 4 (45:06):
My lot in West Virginia.

Speaker 1 (45:08):
Which is a real nice win for Iowa State, who
is borderline top ten team there. Quietly cleared their way
up there. So good to go on the road to
West Virginia and more.

Speaker 4 (45:18):
Jada Higgins Higgins for Iowa State, Rocco your bore. Another
really strong knight from him on the road. The defense
really tightened up against CJ. CJ. Donaldson and Jaim White, like,
I don't know, man, This Iowa State team is something good.

Speaker 1 (45:34):
And then we've got the game that's going on now
as we're recording, which is in the third quarter. Let's
try not to do what we did with Miami a
week ago and we talked about any team winning or losing.
Will just say that the game is on going between
k State and Colorado.

Speaker 4 (45:48):
Just track a reaction to each of the potential outcomes. Yeah,
Colorado came back and won. Oh my god, that was
so crazy. He super impressive by the boffs oh Man,
Kansas State hang hung on Man. Good win for Chris
Climbing and the boys on the road. There we go.

Speaker 1 (46:02):
Clearly, we need to see what the result of this
game is. We will talk about this on Tuesday before
we can draw any hard conclusions about the state of
the Big Twelve. But at least where I'm at right now,
I still favor and no disrespect to our BYU people
that listen, who rightfully pointed out to me very kindly

(46:23):
that I need to do in about face on BYU,
They're not wrong.

Speaker 4 (46:26):
Now, look, if I'm gonna claim winning is a skill,
ty winning as a scale for BYU.

Speaker 1 (46:29):
Of course, I'm still an Iowa State guy at present.
I still think I put Iowa State up here. But
then just by default, I mean, we have to start
talking about BYU. Seriously. I think the winner of this
Kansas State Colorado game also clearly deserves to be as
part of that conversation. We are seeing a interesting creep

(46:55):
of that top tier of the Big Twelve. And it's
some teams we expected, some that we didn't. And again
I am left with more questions than answers because it
feels like everybody's got a fatal flaw. Maybe with the
exception of Iowa State, it seems to be rolling.

Speaker 4 (47:11):
I can tell you this, Ty, The C in TLC
is creep. If you're talking creep, might just be Cincinnati tie.
It's not c for Central Florida. It's not that Oho
bench kJ Jefferson and lost to Sincy. But no, that's
an interesting tier tie a top the Big twelve.

Speaker 1 (47:30):
Right now. The Utah situation I think is probably the
most disappointing. I really don't know where to put Utah anymore,
and especially if this is the version of came raising
that we're going to get.

Speaker 4 (47:42):
Utah, Oklahoma State, and Kansas are combined one in eight
in this conference. That's unreal, unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (47:55):
All right, our next point here, I don't even know
what we're up to. It doesn't matter. The acc And
as I said at the top, the most interesting middle
class in college football maybe in the world, in our
great land here in an election year. You've got Clemson,
You've got Miami. Okay, Clemson was down early against wake Forest,

(48:19):
struggled very very early against wake Forest, and then when
on a forty nine to seven run the rest of
the way zoomed out to the lead. They won forty
nine to fourteen. Obviously, we know that Miami played. They
were in a tight one last week. They ended up
winning Clemson in Miami. Clearly are in that upper crust
at this point. You got a bunch of teams right

(48:40):
below them, though, that are damn interesting, Dan, damn interesting.
You got teams like Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech. Did you
see the way Georgia Tech won against North Carolina?

Speaker 4 (48:51):
Of course I did.

Speaker 1 (48:52):
If you are a North Carolina fan. That was an
absolute stomach punch. So it's the final play, basically the
final play of the game where the trender on the
clock out and Jamal Haynes breaks through for a sixty
eight yard touchdown run which gave him the lead and
the eventual win. Three seventy one and five touchdowns on
the ground for Georgia Tech. They are obviously very good

(49:14):
on offense. Defensively, that's kind of where the question is there. Pitt.
Pitt did not play a great game. Justin Wilcox totally
had Eli Holstein in a bit of a headlock. Pitt
ends up winning seventeen to fifteen. My pit minus three
lock did not hit, though Pitt did win. We had

(49:35):
Louisville going up against Virginia. Virginia, by the way, plays
a lot of these teams down the stretch.

Speaker 4 (49:41):
I would it say, up late, by the way, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (49:44):
Up late. They end up covering the points spread at home.
Louisvio gets a win, gets off the schneid after losing
two in a row. But Virginia is a team that
is worth monitoring, if only because they are going to
have a large part to play and who ends up
winning this conference. Also Syracuse five and one Syracuse knocked
off NC State. I think our opinions of NC State

(50:06):
have been dampened a bit since the start of the season.

Speaker 4 (50:10):
Somehow, fifty eight teams are five and one as I
look at these standings.

Speaker 1 (50:15):
A bunch of teams and by the way, my SMU Mustangs,
who I left for dead. But I think I'm coming
back to now now because it seems as if they
have really found themselves over the last couple of weeks.
So it's like I almost don't know who the worst
teams are in the ACC, because it feels like there
are a growing number of schools that I want to

(50:35):
put in that middle tier of teams that could knock
each other off or maybe give those two schools in
the upper crust to run for their money.

Speaker 4 (50:43):
Well, I think it's probably Florida State in this moment,
even though they've technically won an ACC game over Cal.
Although beating Cal to me is still not an ACC game.
I don't care what the standings call Cal in terms
of their home conference. NC State's one of the worst.
North Carolina is one of the worst. I thought Wake
put up an interesting performance for a minute against Clemson,

(51:04):
but I don't know. I think Stanford's probably in that
conversation right now, by the way, if I can just
like veer just slightly off for a second. I was
totally gutted by the Tailee Kraft stuff of North Carolina.
Like I know, this has been sort of like an
ongoing thing, and to hear about his passing for North
Carolina and to see Mac Brown with his family like

(51:26):
that snaps me out of like football brains so quickly. Yeah,
and just super heartbreaking, And obviously our thoughts go out
to the North Carolina community.

Speaker 1 (51:37):
Yeah, tough stuff, man, Yeah awful.

Speaker 4 (51:41):
But yeah, I mean on a much more you know,
on a much less important note. Whatever, ACC is really fun.
It's really really fun football for the most part, especially
story wise, right with where Syracuse has been, with where
Pitt has been, with the mystery of SMU, Like, I
don't know, Virginia looking pretty feisty this year. Boston College,

(52:04):
we didn't know what to expect, and they come out
of the gates strong. I don't know how impressed I
am by the actual top of this conference in terms
of comparing them against some of the better teams in
this country. But like as I messaged you earlier, nobody's
anything ty, No, nobody is anything in this sport. Penn
State's good, maybe Penn State's not good. Ohio State's good,

(52:24):
maybe Ohio. I mean Ohio State is likely excellence, Oregon
is likely excellent, Texas is likely excellent. But like outside
of six or seven teams that we think are likely
very strong, you know, it's weak to week, and that's great.

Speaker 1 (52:39):
It's weak tweet. The ACC is definitely worth monitoring because again,
I think we've got this growing middle class with teams
that are are just interesting.

Speaker 4 (52:48):
Right.

Speaker 1 (52:49):
There is the Notre Dame story too, which is sort
of acc adjacent the Stanford this week, but Notre Dame
goes out there a couple of weeks back, they lose
to NIU. And I have been here on this show
for a couple of weeks running now saying Riley Leonard,
ain't that good? Ain't that good? He is not him?

(53:10):
They're not getting what they wanted from Riley Way. But
well they have started to kind.

Speaker 4 (53:16):
Of give me that big stanky butt.

Speaker 1 (53:18):
They have started to rejigger things a little bit. Yeah,
and I think what we saw today, albeit against Stanford,
was very promising. Riley Leonard completed passes to eleven different receivers.
He was much more likely to go down the field,
seemed comfortable doing so, was throwing passes on a rope

(53:39):
over the middle to guys, running slants, things of that nature.
It didn't seem as if he was snapping the ball
and looking at the line the way that he had
in previous games this season. There was a little less
inclination to snap the ball and then automatically run. He
still ran a fair amount. That is clearly going to
be part of this offense moving forward, right, There's no

(53:59):
secret about that. But it seems as if there was
a concerted effort through Notre Dames by week and then
today in this game against Stanford to try and develop
that passing game a little bit more. It felt a
lot more balanced. To me. I am taking it with
a grain of salt because it's Stanford, Okay, I get that,
But just to see it on display I think was

(54:23):
really really promising.

Speaker 4 (54:25):
Now, who's the biggest challenge left?

Speaker 1 (54:27):
Sc the biggest challenge. The biggest challenge left is definitely
USC You could probably make a case for Army. You
could probably make a case for a Navy. I don't
know if that's the kind of case that's going to
hold up around the office water cooler. Okay, I've been
in those conversations people kind of shrug off a service academy,

(54:47):
even if they're undefeated and actually quite good in their
own right. They also have Georgia Tech this coming week.

Speaker 4 (54:53):
It's three good running teams for if I mean usc
Is too, it's a lot of teams that are gonna
either win or lose that game on the ground.

Speaker 1 (54:59):
So there are some teams coming up here that I
that I think offer an interesting wrinkle that Notre Dame
is going to have to get ten with. I don't
know if any of them are balanced enough on both
sides of the football or on both sides of one
side of the football to truly knock them off. But
we did see and I you do it in Notre

(55:21):
Dame Stadium a couple of weeks ago. So who's to say.
I just Notre Dame is interesting because they've got one loss,
because the schedule is incredibly favorable, and because I think
what we saw today was a step forward. So I
remain optimistic.

Speaker 4 (55:35):
Where do they measure up in terms of, you know,
the nation's best right now? If they're likely going to
you know, win double digit game.

Speaker 1 (55:43):
They're gonna win double digit games. I think at this
point anything less than ten and two is an abject failure.
I have them right now kind of on the fringes
of the top ten, on the fringes of the top ten,
and you know that's subject to change each week, because
I think many of the same curiosities we have about
Notre Dame could be asked about a number of the

(56:04):
teams in front of them right.

Speaker 4 (56:05):
Now that in Iowa State on a neutral field.

Speaker 1 (56:08):
I probably would go Notre Dame over Iowa State neutral field. Yeah, interesting, Okay,
But a number of the teams in front of them,
maybe not Texas, maybe not Ohio State and Oregon, maybe
not Penn State, But most of the others that we
would put in that top ten a lot have the
same questions as Notre Dame. Even if some of those

(56:29):
teams got more talent, it's I don't know's it's a
very very interesting spot for them right now. Provided they
keep winning, they're gonna work their way back into this thing.
Whether you like them or not, They're gonna end up
in the playoff.

Speaker 4 (56:40):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (56:41):
That's just where we're at here with this A few
other things that I did want to mention before we
get to your tweets, before we get to your reverbs,
we mentioned Army. Army continues absolutely pounding everyone in its path.
They beat UAB forty four to ten. I wish I
would have locked up Army.

Speaker 4 (57:00):
It seemed obvious.

Speaker 1 (57:01):
It seemed obvious they were about a four touchdown favorite.
I saw that. I freaked out a little bit. But
UAB doesn't play defense in this game. They didn't play
offense either, which has sort of been their thing. At
forty four to ten, I mean, they are just killing
teams right now, and they are going to have a
very very interesting case in that American Conference. I still

(57:22):
think Boise is probably your G five representative push comes
to shove. But if Boise drops a game, if it
does end up being Army Navy for the American title,
I still think that is a very very compelling storyline
to pay atten. Navy didn't play today, but Army did.
Army one by thirty four. I also want to give

(57:42):
a shout out to the Chokethold Baby Okay, Nevada knocked
off Oregon State forty two to thirty seven. Nevada was
by our projections by many projections, one of the worst
teams in college football coming into this season. It seemed
like a total rebuild. It's such just a tough job.
It's a tough job. This this program was ripped down

(58:04):
to the studs. They gave it to Jeff Choate and
they have been pesky as hell. They have been a
pesky team. To beat Oregon State today is a really
big deal for them, So kudos to Nevada for a
job well done. Sorry Oregon State people who are out there, I.

Speaker 4 (58:22):
Got it, it didn't sound like you were that Sorry.

Speaker 1 (58:25):
I'm not I'm sorry. I'm not sorry. Wazoo knocked off
Fresno in a game that was of particular interest. This
is one that I think you were pretty high on
Wazoo coming into it.

Speaker 4 (58:36):
Do they went on a pick six? Did I see that?

Speaker 1 (58:38):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (58:39):
Just recorded?

Speaker 1 (58:40):
Yeah, I mean it was midway through the fourth quarter,
and effectively it costs Fresno the game. From Mike vi Kean,
Fresno's defense seems like it is coming back after what
was a really bad season a year ago. Right, And
I don't know if the Washington State offense was super impressive,

(59:03):
there were it was very conservative it felt kind of
like it went away for long stretches of this game,
and Fresno had chances, they did they they kind of
did themselves in in this one, Dan. So it's one
of those deals where if you're a Fresno fan, you
kind of feel sick because I think you feel like
maybe you had better opportunities in this one instead he

(59:25):
end up losing by eight. Yep, shall we read some
of those tweets that would love floating around the reballer hood.
We asked you throughout the course of today. I am
a blank fan, and right about now I feel blank
role play I'm with me? Who the hell am? I

(59:48):
went all across the web, on Twitter, on Facebook, on Instagram,
you name it. We got a ton of responses here,
some conflict frankly with one another, many in a green
pull out, some for me that are exciting to you.

Speaker 4 (01:00:03):
I'm a Texas fan and I'm feeling oh so back, baby,
all those years and the trenches and the haters are
real quiet right now. I got pseudo yelled at by
my brother in law, who is a diehard Texas fan
and alum, and he's like, you should be saying nice
stuff now, you should be saying nice stuff. Blake Texas
is very good at college football.

Speaker 1 (01:00:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:00:20):
I'm an Iowa State fan and I'm feeling a heartburn. Okay,
I'm an Iowa State fan and I'm feeling undefeated. That's good.
I'm a West Virginia fan and don't know how to
feel as we are three and three and our losses
are the teams who are combined eighteen and Oh so
if Notre Dame is an opponent snob, then West Virginia
is a lost snob. Yeah, the only lose to undefeated teams.

(01:00:42):
I'm a Wisconsin fan, feeling happy to watch football for
the first time in five years. Destroyed Rutgers tie as
imposing my voice.

Speaker 1 (01:00:49):
Yeah, I'm going to bring up some of these points
here as we as we close out the show, some
of these finer points that we didn't get through at
the top. Yeah, but yeah, that was something else with
what Wisconson did to Rutgers.

Speaker 4 (01:01:01):
I'm a Clemson fan. I'm feeling hidden and happy. Okay,
Doak John. I'm an Oregon fan and I'm feeling sweaty,
real moist all over. Okay, Brandon, I'm a UCF fan
and I'm feeling like gusher retired to the country club
golf course. It's not been a great stretch. No, No,
have not been great.

Speaker 1 (01:01:20):
They haven't put up twenty points in consecutive weeks and
they've lost three in a row.

Speaker 4 (01:01:24):
Now, I'm a Notre Dame fan and I'm feeling bored.
The schedule sucks and I want to see meaningful games.
Fair a Penn State fan and feeling freaking fantastic, huge, gutsy,
meaningful win. Penn State did what only a school like
Minnesota could do and beat us.

Speaker 1 (01:01:42):
Like yeah, By the way, for people who are watching
on camera, I am paging through all the responses that
we got when I pose the same question out on Instagram.
I'm a Michigan fan. I'm feeling utterly disappointed, but still
salivating over last year's title. Good South Carolina fan feeling
crushed dot dot dot again. I'm a Florida fan. Even

(01:02:06):
though uh it's ten ten right now in the third quarter,
I feel like the game is over. I'm a Vols fan.
I feel broken inside.

Speaker 4 (01:02:16):
Oh in a win.

Speaker 1 (01:02:18):
A lot of big emotions here, big emotions coming through
in the verbowler hood. Love that we appreciate everybody writing
in some of the points that were mentioned here that
we I don't think had a chance to get through.
You know, we talked a lot about what transpired in
the ACC but some of these other games in the
Big Ten, Iowa throttled Washington. Man Iowa throttled Washington. They

(01:02:43):
turned Will Rogers over a couple times. They had a
fumble and a pick. I was essentially running the Michigan offense.
Is what I'm gonna start saying now, mm hmmm, because
Kay McNamara had one hundred and eight passing yards, two touchdowns,
but just went away through the air in the ground.

Speaker 4 (01:02:57):
Did I was leading receiver have one catch for thirty yards?
Was that's what I saw? Correct?

Speaker 1 (01:03:01):
I believe so. But a big win forty to sixteen.

Speaker 4 (01:03:05):
Huge twenty and a half split it evenly.

Speaker 1 (01:03:07):
Forty to sixteen over Washington in a dominant effort. You
mentioned the Wisconsin game, they outgained Rutgers five forty nine
to two seventy one. YEP, Rutgers also running a bit
of the Michigan offense with one hundred and three passing yards.
The Illinois Perdue game was kind of nuts.

Speaker 4 (01:03:24):
Whoa wild game.

Speaker 1 (01:03:27):
Yes, Perdue was down twenty seven to three at halftime,
they mounted a furious comeback, still lost, mind you, forty
second half points. Yeah, fifty to forty nine was your
final Illinois wins that game. Yes, And then if you
go back to earlier in the week, we had Northwestern

(01:03:48):
winning by twenty seven over Maryland thirty seven to.

Speaker 4 (01:03:52):
Ten in College Park.

Speaker 1 (01:03:54):
Yeah, in College Park. A lot to unpack with all
of those game games. As for what else transpired around
the country, Dan, We've got some of these games that
are going on now, and we've got some more Group
of five action that I think we need to get
through on Tuesday. But by and large, that is what

(01:04:14):
the verballer hood was reacting to. Here are your week
seven reverbs. You gave us a call it a five
to five verbel three. Have listen.

Speaker 5 (01:04:22):
This is Will from Maine. What is happening? Oklahoma can't
play offense, Georgia and Alabama can't play defense. Army is
six and oh well, at least you Mass still sucks,
so that's a comfort.

Speaker 1 (01:04:37):
Hey, this is Heather from Montreal, Canada.

Speaker 4 (01:04:39):
It's Lindsay Sun Louisville, dam and Tye.

Speaker 1 (01:04:42):
It's Jeffrey call him live from the State Bear Texas.
It's not that Texas croc Pott in Oklahoma. Today we
beat sprite up okamoar tie Dan, guess who got murdered.

Speaker 4 (01:04:57):
Texas on top and oh you sucks Hookham horns, Dan Ti.

Speaker 1 (01:05:03):
The Hawks were rolling, so you know I had to
go visit the Best Video Games Star and all the
land quick save games with Madison Wisconsin, Go Hawks and
go quick save games.

Speaker 5 (01:05:13):
Just wondering.

Speaker 1 (01:05:15):
Alabama beat Georgia.

Speaker 5 (01:05:17):
But did they realize that they had the rest of
the season to finish.

Speaker 1 (01:05:20):
It's time to talk to your kids about James Franklin
winning a big game on the road.

Speaker 4 (01:05:26):
We all have.

Speaker 5 (01:05:27):
Baby pitt did a Pittsburgh week thing for this game.

Speaker 1 (01:05:31):
They had Patnar Doozy dress up as mister Rogers.

Speaker 5 (01:05:35):
I can't imagine a worse neighbor than Patnar Doze.

Speaker 1 (01:05:38):
He would be yelling and all the children, the children
would not want to come to his house.

Speaker 2 (01:05:42):
All right, that's a bit. Let's go. If we've learned
one thing about Illinois this year, if you do not
drop back pass against them in overtime on the game
deciding play when you're Clunker's baby.

Speaker 1 (01:05:55):
Hello, I don't know if BYU is actually that good
but I'm living in the moment.

Speaker 4 (01:06:00):
Go Cube.

Speaker 2 (01:06:01):
This is Shay.

Speaker 1 (01:06:02):
I have a message for presnes State starting quarterback mikey Keane.

Speaker 5 (01:06:05):
It's something my dad would say to me all the
time when I was growing up. I'm not mad, I'm
just disappointed.

Speaker 1 (01:06:11):
If you're ain't Gator, you're Gator bait, and tonight the
Tennessee balls on Gator bait.

Speaker 5 (01:06:17):
Five and one solid matters.

Speaker 3 (01:06:19):
Quack quack, crack quack crying, Ryan Day, go duck from
your friends in aunt Alba.

Speaker 5 (01:06:30):
There are no words, there are no emotions. There is
no way I can describe.

Speaker 1 (01:06:36):
How I feel right now other than than grabbing my
wife and together yelling good.

Speaker 3 (01:06:44):
Tie.

Speaker 4 (01:06:44):
Dan.

Speaker 1 (01:06:44):
I've only got one percent left on my phone, and
all I gotta say is.

Speaker 3 (01:06:50):
Do you picked ten teams still seem to understand We're
not trapped in you with you? You're trapped in you
with docs?

Speaker 2 (01:07:02):
Go doc?

Speaker 1 (01:07:04):
Did I catch a UMass stray at the very top
of that, Dan.

Speaker 4 (01:07:07):
I believe so you mass still sucks something like that.

Speaker 1 (01:07:10):
Yep, big emotions coming through. Thank you to everyone who
dialed in at eight five or five well three, got
a bunch of calls. Of course that we left on
the cutting room floor. Thanks to our guy Shay for
putting those together as he does wonderfully week in and
week out. Again, as a reminder, we will be doing
our spillover show on Tuesday, being so we're reacting kind

(01:07:31):
of in the moment here. There are not only games
still going on, but games that we want to go
back and rewatch. We just can't watch all of the games.
We're only two people, so give us that grace. We
will do our part to go back and put together
a more comprehensive look at what we missed as part
of that Tuesday episode. Hit Fall, Hit subscribe if you
have yet to do so so that you don't miss

(01:07:54):
that episode or any of our episodes. We of course
appreciate everybody reacting with us, and we would encourage you
to reach out on social media. Give us a holler
at soliverble at gmail dot com. However you can get
in touch. We'd love to hear what your thoughts are
on the week, what we got right, what we got wrong.
One thing that I feel like we mostly get right

(01:08:15):
with the exception of last week because it was a
crazy week and I forgot to do it. Let's do
our doodle worts. Shall we let's we do this every week?
We want to honor the so called dudes in college football.
The guys would put in performances that are dude worthy. Dan,
Who do we got this week?

Speaker 3 (01:08:35):
So?

Speaker 4 (01:08:35):
I've got Penn States, Tyler Warren, I've got tight end,
Tyler Warren, I've got do everything Penn State or Tyler Warren.
I have thorn and usc side Tyler Warren. Yeah, you
put this on our list with Tyler Warren dot dot
dot easy obviously, Caleb Johnson, Luke Altmeyer, is it Tawie Walker?

(01:08:55):
This game was on mute for me Wisconsin running wild,
Isaac Brown Louisville for Louisville in a winning effort. Ryan Brown,
new quarterback for Purdue in a losing effort, was all
over the place in a dual threat capacity. Christian McCrae,
Evan Stewart for Oregon. Ricky White hohum another day, another
one hundred plus yard performance, a couple touchdowns I had?

(01:09:19):
Who else did I have here on my list? Dj
Giddens is live and at almost two hundred yards with
twelve minutes left in the game against Colorado for Kansas State.
Parker Navarro. What does Ohio do? They just keep winning.
Ohio just keeps on winning. And I have CJ. Bailey
NC State in a losing effort, a bunch of losing

(01:09:39):
eth for performances. He seems to be quietly coming into
his own. Hopefully that's some hope for the future for
the Pack.

Speaker 1 (01:09:45):
And just because we don't mention this, we will get
angry messages Bryce and daily from Army.

Speaker 4 (01:09:50):
Oh.

Speaker 1 (01:09:51):
Yes, who turned in another good performance, had like the
random eighty four yard touchdown pass to Ketch.

Speaker 4 (01:09:56):
Always has to happen, always you hate be off guard.

Speaker 1 (01:09:59):
But rush for one point thirty six and four touchdowns
in addition to one hundred and two through the air
in that long touchdown. So Army keeps things rolling. They
had four hundred and thirteen yards on the crowd in
this game against UAB Sure why not six and L
Six and L for the first time in a while.

(01:10:20):
So good.

Speaker 4 (01:10:20):
Oh, it's Navy's record.

Speaker 1 (01:10:21):
Navy is also undefeated. But Navy was on bye this week.

Speaker 4 (01:10:24):
They were on by this week, and so that game
still on the table for the American Championship with a
potential playoff berth on the line ahead of another Army
Navy matchup in the standard scheduling matchup.

Speaker 1 (01:10:35):
Will be very interesting to see. Still on the transpires,
it's a much easier path, I would say, for Army
than it is for Navy. But it seems to me
like both are headed there sooner than later, So I'll see.
Thank you one, thank you all for tuning in with
us as we react to all things. Week seven it

(01:10:55):
was another banger of a week. Guess what week ate,
It's going to be another.

Speaker 4 (01:11:00):
Banger of Oh I can't wait. It looks so good.

Speaker 1 (01:11:02):
Get your chores in throughout the week. We will be
with you on Tuesday and on Thursday to help you
prep accordingly. But we have now rounded this bend DAN
officially into the second half of the twenty twenty four
college football season, and this is when things are going
to get interesting. These are when conferences are going to

(01:11:23):
break themselves into pieces and reform before our very eyes
in probably shapes and colors and whatever that we could
not have possibly expected. That seems to be their oad
we were walking down. So I'm excited to walk that
path with you, and of course with Arvor baller hood.
Make sure you hit follow, make sure you hit subscribe,
check us out at forballers dot com if you want

(01:11:44):
to vote in the poll, and as always, give us
a holler. We'd love to hear from you. For myself,
Ty Hildenbrandt or that guy over there, my good friend
Dan Rubinstein. Thank you so much for downloading, listing, supporting,
hanging out with us once more, We'll talk y'all. Seesday
out peace,

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