October 8, 2025 • 17 mins
The national CFB writer for CBS Sports on Utah vs ASU Saturday, A must-win for the Utes (?), Can Utah take advantage of Sam Leavitt's underwhelming performance so far (?) + more
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You were listening to The Shan O'Connell Show from the
Murdoch Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two
to one.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
A f am national college football writer for CBS Sports
and the most stylish man in the business, Shahanja Roger,
joined us on The Shan O'Connell Show talk all things
college football.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Shahan, welcome back. How are you, sir?
Speaker 3 (00:34):
I'm doing great. Thanks much for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
So Utah hosting Arizona State Night game at rice Ecles
and the team, the coaching staff, everyone has been made
acutely aware of the fact that rice Ecles, that developed
this reputation over the years, especially in the Pac twelve
as being a horror show for visiting teams in the
(00:57):
Big Twelve, has not been hostile utsarrow and five and
conference competition so far in the early goings in the
Big twelve conference at home, and now that you know
the coaching staff's aware of, it's something that they seem
to desperately want to reverse. It's going to be a
little bit blustery, is going to be a little bit rainy.
(01:19):
What what do we expect from not only the game
but rice Ecles as the host venue for a really
important contest in the Big Twelve Conference this weekend.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Yeah, I mean it's it's a huge game I think
for this program. I think it's a huge game for
this season, of course. And look, I mean you go
back and look at the matchups that they played at
Rice Cycles last year, Like they just happened to get
a lot of good teams last year, right, the last
three games I think over there were against ranked opponents.
And you know when when you're playing good teams, sometimes
(01:50):
you just lose games, especially when you frankly don't have
a good team like you thought I did in last year.
So I don't necessarily know that there's too much to
be read into that heading into this one, but this
is a massive game for Kyle Whittingham and his program.
This is I think a game where the winner of
this game is a true Big twelve contender. I don't
know if the loser is just from the perspective of
(02:12):
losing a tiebreaker, losing a key conference game, and I
think that especially for Utah after what happened against Texas
Tech in that first game at Rice Ecles, like this
is a moment where I think they need to go
out and prove themselves in a big way. They got
physically manhandled on both sides of the ball by Texas Tech.
Devin Dampier had by far the worst game of his
(02:34):
Utah tenure during that matchup. And this is an Arizona
State defense that can cause some problems, but certainly is
not the same level of team as Texas Tech. So
this is a big one. This is one that I
expect Utah to come out very motivated, and it's one
that certainly if they want to be taken seriously nationally,
they have to win.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
How do we evaluating Sam Levitt to this point in
the season. He came in in the early part of
the year and in the preseason with this incredible amount
of hype. If I'm not mistaken, when we went back
to the preseason Heisman Trophy odds, he was given the
best odds for any Big twelve player. And you know,
he's been pedestrian with his arm. He's been good with
(03:13):
his legs, very opportunistic with his legs. But I don't
think we can say he's been the best quarterback in
the conference. I don't think he's been a top four
quarterback in the conference. That's not to say he doesn't
have tremendous upside and couldn't turn it on at any point,
But how are we evaluating How are you evaluating Sam
Levitt to this point in the season.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Yeah, I think he's in very lackluster to the Frank,
I think that he has been underwhelming. Now, something that
I will throw out is that when you look at
his receiving court outside of Jordan Tyson, I think his
wide receivers have not done him very many favors. And
in fact, you look at their receiving charts, Jordan Tyson
of course leads the way. He's an All American caliber receiver.
(03:52):
After that, it's a tight end and a running back.
They just have not had receivers step up to the moment,
and I think that that's been an issue with Levit
of course not having very many safety blankets, and you
see him staring down Jordan Tyson a lot. But it's
also I think that Levi hasn't done a great job
of creating opportunities for other people. He hasn't thrown guys open,
he hasn't made great decisions consistently. And again, like you
(04:15):
see some of these matchups and you know they have
obviously three major games against you know, kind of big
time opponents, and Baylor, TCU Missippi State they go to
in one of those games, but each of them is
maybe a little more, a little closer than they should
have been at times because Levitt just wasn't really able
to put the hammer down and put this game away.
So I think that, you know, again, like this is
(04:36):
a very good quarterback conference right now, there are I
think at least four quarterbacks. He's certainly been playing better
than him. I think that maybe even more than that
with the rise of guys like Brendan Sowersby. But again,
like you also said, I mean, this is a quarterback
who we know is talent. He has all the physical tools,
he has the ability to turn it on. He one
needs to continue to play better and more accurately. And two,
(04:59):
they're wide receivers outside of Jordan Tyson need to rise
to the occasion.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
So we've had that conversation about Utah wide receivers all
year long, and in the preseason we did as well,
who's going to be the guy that emerges? And the
new Mexico transfer Ryan Davis has been the most reliable
target and the most reliable receiver. We're still kind of
waiting to see if there's anyone who can be a
true deep threat for this team. Dallan Bentley at the
tight end spot has looked pretty good for the Utes.
(05:25):
But I guess I'll ask you to kind of handicap
this Utah offense in the same way you just did
Arizona States, with the quarterback being the spearhead for that.
I mean, Devin dan Pier the last two games was
not as mobile as we expect him to be when
fully healthy, but still against West Virginia found ways to
be effective. Where are you putting this Utah offense in
(05:46):
your power rankings, at least on that side of the ball.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Yeah, I think that i'd have them sort of upper
middle of the pack. This is a team that you know,
and again this is what I said kind of coming
into the year, right, is that they're going to be
able to run the ball, They're going to be able
to move the ball. Is a huge difference compared to
where they were at not just last year, but the
past two years. And you see that three two hundred
and fifty yard rushers through the first couple games of
the year. But like you said, I mean it's really
(06:12):
been very inconsistent passing. I think that what Texas Tech
was able to do that I don't know maybe any
other team in the Big twelve can do to that level,
is they forced seven Dampier to stay in the pocket
and make decisions with his arm, and I think that
he has done an okay job of that. But you mentioned,
I mean, probably the player on the offense that we've
been looking most at waiting for him to break out
(06:32):
is Tobias Merriweather. He's a player who came over and
was kind of supposed to add a little bit of
that deep threat from Notre Dame, and he just hasn't
been really any sort of factor to this point. And
so look, I think that if this is almost exclusively
a run based offense with some passing steff off of it,
that's enough to be a really good team to be
(06:53):
in that eight to nine win conversation. I think to
be a Big twelve contender, they have to be dynamic
passing the ball just have not showed it to that point.
So you know, again, like you said, I think that
they've had one or two guys step up more in
the short to intermediate game that their season I think
in a lot of ways hinges on whether they can
create something in the deep passing game.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Where where does the winner of this game emerge for
you in the kind of overall power structure of the
Big twelve conference, Because I think Tech is right on
top right now for obvious reasons, and there's nine other
teams probably in the conversation still as we approach the
halfway point of the year.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Yeah, I think that Tech Tech you just put in
a class of their own right now. I think that,
I mean you can almost pencil them into Arlington one
because of how good they are, and two because they
have one of the most manageable schedules remaining in the
Big Twelve. So you put that team there. I think
that I put the winner of this game in probably
the lead for that number two spot. And like you said,
(07:57):
it's a pretty big group. Right now, you have the
winner of this Utah Arizona State game. I think that
right now Cincinnati belongs there. I think that Iowa State
very much still belongs there. They learned TCU saw the
way the opportunity to play their way back into that
group as well. So I think though that the sort
of second tier starts to materialize after this week because
(08:20):
of some of the matchups that we're getting this week,
and again I think that probably the winner of Utah
Arizona State, at least in this moment, becomes the favorite
to be that number two.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Is anything going to bring Texas Tech back down to earth?
I mean, you mentioned how manageable the schedule is. They
have showed up at every test, Rice Cycles being the
one that we thought, you know, would be a really
tough one for them, and they've I think I just
saw this tweet that you know, it's a bunch of wins.
Not by a score or two. They've got like five
(08:53):
wins by twenty plus points or something hasn't happened in
half a century. Is anything going to bring them back
down to earth and up to play.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
In conference play? No, I mean, I'm very interested by
that BYU game on November eighth in Love, like I'm
planning to be in attendance. I think that's kind of
the game of the year. They also play on the
road against Arizona State, but I think that that's a
pretty good matchup for what Texas Tech brings to the table.
I think that they're going to handle that situation well,
but byus kind of that team that maybe can give
(09:24):
them some issues defensively, right Like, I think that the
obviously the ability to stretch the field, Chase Roberts really dynamic,
and then Isaiah Glasker at linebacker just is somebody who
I think is going to cause them problems. But for
the most part, again, you know, I think that they're
a team right now that with what they have in
the trenches is almost untouchable by anybody else in this
(09:44):
conference right now. I mean, I still think that that
Utah not only is the best line offensive line of
the Big Twelve, I still think that they're one of
the best groups nationally. And we saw what this testis
tech defensive front did to that team. They caused them
a lot of issues in that game. So no, I mean,
I think that again you can basically pencil them into Arlington.
I think you can basically pencil them win or lose
(10:06):
Big Twelve title game into the college Football Playoff, and
I would not be surprised whatsoever if this team won,
has a chance to go thirteen to zero and two.
If this is a first round by team in a
college football playoff.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Sehan J. Roger for a couple more minutes here on
the Sean O'Connell Show, Talk and all Things college football,
if through the UT's lens. Mostly of course, the transfer
portal change is official. We've talked about this in previous
visits you've made to the show, but it's now a
fifteen day window second to the sixteenth of January. It's
a one time deal, and the exception is when head
(10:44):
coach is being replaced, you've got another window after they
announce who replaces that coach, which is I guess going
to create some wildness, especially this coaching carousel this offseason cycle,
it's going to be a lot more chaotic than last year's.
But starting just with the fifteen day window, the one
time thing, this is what the coaches asked for for
(11:07):
the most part. Does it clean up some of the
problems we've had in college football related to NIL and
to the transfer portal.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Yeah, I think so. I think this is the right
move to me. I mean, I think that one of
the most chaotic things that nobody really talked about was
the fact that when the season ends, right and let's
say that there are teams setting into conference championship games,
the portal's open essentially right away. So you are both
trying to prepare for the conference championship game, while you're
also trying to prepare for either a playoff or a
(11:37):
bowl game, while you're also trying to lock in your
high school recruiting class, while you're also trying to recruit
your guys to stay on campus, and then on top
of that, you have to deal with the whole trying
to recruit the transfer portal as well. And it was
just a messy system that frankly didn't make a whole
lot of sense to me. And with this new model
where you're dealing with one windows, now we'll see. You know,
there's going to be low suits, of course, but assuming
(11:58):
this stands, I think that this makes a lot of sense. One,
you're really not touching any teams with this window except
for the ones that are going to play for the
national championship. Like every other person can very easily enter
that window and they're working on that same time for him.
I think the other thing too, is that you know,
the way that it works is that the teams are
(12:19):
playing for national championship, they also have like an additional
i think five days after the fact, so you're mostly
going to be working on the same timeline from that perspective,
and I look at one of the most glaring situations
last year, which was the departure of Boat Pabula at
the quarterback at Penn State before the college football playoffs,
who was basically told like, look, you just have to
enter it now because if you wait until tenn State eliminated,
(12:42):
which was I believe on January tenth, like you're just
going to be too far behind the curve to be
able to find a home. Well, I think that it
creates a situation that's a little more palatable where yeah,
maybe at BO Pabula leads or at least enters the portal,
let's say on January eighth or whatever, but he doesn't
necessarily have to lead his team, can start his recruitment
(13:02):
process at the same time as everybody else, stay with
the team, and then ultimately make a decision on a
timeline and extent. So it's a situation makes a lot
of sense to me. I think that, you know, the
trouble that's always going to be there is the sort
of drop ad deadlines for literal enruling in college So
I think that with all those dynamics in play. This
is something that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Because you just mentioned Penn State is good the enemy
of great to the extent that James Franklin and Penn
State are gonna have some tough conversations and maybe they
have to go a different direction with their head coach. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Interesting. I will say this, Ten States will not fire
James Franklin. They cannot afford to fire James Franklin. But
I do think there are going to be some very
legitimate conversations after the season for this reason. I mean,
they invested a lot monetarily into this season to retain
Drew Aller, Nick Singleton, k Sean Allen, to add guys
like Trevor Pannet through the portal to like they they
(14:00):
put a lot on this team and in a way,
by the way, that's similar to twenty twenty four Ohio
State in twenty twenty three Michigan, and unlike those two teams,
the team has already kind of fallen to the wayside,
and I don't know that they have a path to
the College of Ball Play. I think it's probably over
with after losing to UCLA, with Indiana and Ohio State
(14:21):
still left on the schedule. So this is a tough
situation for them. I think that. Look, I mean, James
Franklin has never been shy about the fact that he
wants to be the first black coach to win a
national championship, and they got pretty tank close last year,
up with five minutes left in the fourth quarter in
the National semifinals. But to have a situation like this,
in a flopla like this, I think that it makes
(14:42):
people around State College really think we've reached our ceiling
with this guy, and maybe for James Franklin to think,
maybe this is the most that I can do and
accomplish here, So there's gonna be a lot of good
openings this year. I think that that's going to be
a potentially really attractive situation for frank to decide it's
time to move on, and these conversations are going to
(15:03):
happen because the reality is, it's one thing to struggle
against the best of the best, But when you kind
of waste a roster like this against a team like
UCLA and become the first top ten team to lose
to an OH and four and worst team since nineteen
eighty five, I mean, again, these questions become a lot
more fair.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Before I let you go swinging back to focus on
the Big Twelve Conference. Much like last year, there's been
some surprise teams that look like they belong in the
conversation as groups to be reckoned with Houston, Arizona, Cincinnati
all look a lot better than we thought they would
to this point in the season. Who of those teams
(15:43):
do you believe in the most.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
I believe in Cincinnati the most, and it's for a
simple reason. I think that they are really really good
in the trenches. You know, Joe Cotton, their left tackle,
was named Outland Player of the Week this past week
for his performance against Iowa State. And again you look
at that game and you look at that team. I mean,
they believe Iowa State for a lot of that game.
Now I was say it also came back at the end,
but like I think, I would say, it's also a
(16:06):
very quality team. So it's the combination of strengthen the trenches,
the way they're running the football, the development of Brendan
Soersby on the offensive line, and this is a team
that I think has maybe been a little better than
their record the past two years. And frankly, that was
my big question about them coming into the year, I said,
if this was a team that was coached by a
coaching staff that I had a lot of faith in,
(16:27):
Like if Kyle whittinghams coach of this team, they have
a pathway to top five in the Big Twelve Conference.
I didn't have a lot of faith in Scott Saderfield
and his staff. Well, they've done a really good job.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
With this team.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Some of that close luck game has finally started to
turn after losing nine to ten one score games in
a row, which is a crazy stat and I think
that that's going to give them a chance down the stretch.
And the other piece of this too is that you know,
they were arguably the better team in that Nebraska game
that they ultimately lose by three points in front of
a basically at Nebraska home crowd. So this is a
(16:59):
team that I think it showed up every single week
and that's going to give them a chance heading down
the stretch to be one of those teams contending for
number two in the Big Twelve.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Sjahan always love catching up with you. Thanks for your
time today.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Shahan jay Rajah, CBS Sports College Football Insider,
You were listening to The Shan O'Connell Show from the
Murdoch Hyundai Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two
to one.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
A f am national college football writer for CBS Sports
and the most stylish man in the business, Shahanja Roger,
joined us on The Shan O'Connell Show talk all things
college football.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Shahan, welcome back. How are you, sir?
Speaker 3 (00:34):
I'm doing great. Thanks much for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
So Utah hosting Arizona State Night game at rice Ecles
and the team, the coaching staff, everyone has been made
acutely aware of the fact that rice Ecles, that developed
this reputation over the years, especially in the Pac twelve
as being a horror show for visiting teams in the
(00:57):
Big Twelve, has not been hostile utsarrow and five and
conference competition so far in the early goings in the
Big twelve conference at home, and now that you know
the coaching staff's aware of, it's something that they seem
to desperately want to reverse. It's going to be a
little bit blustery, is going to be a little bit rainy.
(01:19):
What what do we expect from not only the game
but rice Ecles as the host venue for a really
important contest in the Big Twelve Conference this weekend.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Yeah, I mean it's it's a huge game I think
for this program. I think it's a huge game for
this season, of course. And look, I mean you go
back and look at the matchups that they played at
Rice Cycles last year, Like they just happened to get
a lot of good teams last year, right, the last
three games I think over there were against ranked opponents.
And you know when when you're playing good teams, sometimes
(01:50):
you just lose games, especially when you frankly don't have
a good team like you thought I did in last year.
So I don't necessarily know that there's too much to
be read into that heading into this one, but this
is a massive game for Kyle Whittingham and his program.
This is I think a game where the winner of
this game is a true Big twelve contender. I don't
know if the loser is just from the perspective of
(02:12):
losing a tiebreaker, losing a key conference game, and I
think that especially for Utah after what happened against Texas
Tech in that first game at Rice Ecles, like this
is a moment where I think they need to go
out and prove themselves in a big way. They got
physically manhandled on both sides of the ball by Texas Tech.
Devin Dampier had by far the worst game of his
(02:34):
Utah tenure during that matchup. And this is an Arizona
State defense that can cause some problems, but certainly is
not the same level of team as Texas Tech. So
this is a big one. This is one that I
expect Utah to come out very motivated, and it's one
that certainly if they want to be taken seriously nationally,
they have to win.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
How do we evaluating Sam Levitt to this point in
the season. He came in in the early part of
the year and in the preseason with this incredible amount
of hype. If I'm not mistaken, when we went back
to the preseason Heisman Trophy odds, he was given the
best odds for any Big twelve player. And you know,
he's been pedestrian with his arm. He's been good with
(03:13):
his legs, very opportunistic with his legs. But I don't
think we can say he's been the best quarterback in
the conference. I don't think he's been a top four
quarterback in the conference. That's not to say he doesn't
have tremendous upside and couldn't turn it on at any point,
But how are we evaluating How are you evaluating Sam
Levitt to this point in the season.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Yeah, I think he's in very lackluster to the Frank,
I think that he has been underwhelming. Now, something that
I will throw out is that when you look at
his receiving court outside of Jordan Tyson, I think his
wide receivers have not done him very many favors. And
in fact, you look at their receiving charts, Jordan Tyson
of course leads the way. He's an All American caliber receiver.
(03:52):
After that, it's a tight end and a running back.
They just have not had receivers step up to the moment,
and I think that that's been an issue with Levit
of course not having very many safety blankets, and you
see him staring down Jordan Tyson a lot. But it's
also I think that Levi hasn't done a great job
of creating opportunities for other people. He hasn't thrown guys open,
he hasn't made great decisions consistently. And again, like you
(04:15):
see some of these matchups and you know they have
obviously three major games against you know, kind of big
time opponents, and Baylor, TCU Missippi State they go to
in one of those games, but each of them is
maybe a little more, a little closer than they should
have been at times because Levitt just wasn't really able
to put the hammer down and put this game away.
So I think that, you know, again, like this is
(04:36):
a very good quarterback conference right now, there are I
think at least four quarterbacks. He's certainly been playing better
than him. I think that maybe even more than that
with the rise of guys like Brendan Sowersby. But again,
like you also said, I mean, this is a quarterback
who we know is talent. He has all the physical tools,
he has the ability to turn it on. He one
needs to continue to play better and more accurately. And two,
(04:59):
they're wide receivers outside of Jordan Tyson need to rise
to the occasion.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
So we've had that conversation about Utah wide receivers all
year long, and in the preseason we did as well,
who's going to be the guy that emerges? And the
new Mexico transfer Ryan Davis has been the most reliable
target and the most reliable receiver. We're still kind of
waiting to see if there's anyone who can be a
true deep threat for this team. Dallan Bentley at the
tight end spot has looked pretty good for the Utes.
(05:25):
But I guess I'll ask you to kind of handicap
this Utah offense in the same way you just did
Arizona States, with the quarterback being the spearhead for that.
I mean, Devin dan Pier the last two games was
not as mobile as we expect him to be when
fully healthy, but still against West Virginia found ways to
be effective. Where are you putting this Utah offense in
(05:46):
your power rankings, at least on that side of the ball.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Yeah, I think that i'd have them sort of upper
middle of the pack. This is a team that you know,
and again this is what I said kind of coming
into the year, right, is that they're going to be
able to run the ball, They're going to be able
to move the ball. Is a huge difference compared to
where they were at not just last year, but the
past two years. And you see that three two hundred
and fifty yard rushers through the first couple games of
the year. But like you said, I mean it's really
(06:12):
been very inconsistent passing. I think that what Texas Tech
was able to do that I don't know maybe any
other team in the Big twelve can do to that level,
is they forced seven Dampier to stay in the pocket
and make decisions with his arm, and I think that
he has done an okay job of that. But you mentioned,
I mean, probably the player on the offense that we've
been looking most at waiting for him to break out
(06:32):
is Tobias Merriweather. He's a player who came over and
was kind of supposed to add a little bit of
that deep threat from Notre Dame, and he just hasn't
been really any sort of factor to this point. And
so look, I think that if this is almost exclusively
a run based offense with some passing steff off of it,
that's enough to be a really good team to be
(06:53):
in that eight to nine win conversation. I think to
be a Big twelve contender, they have to be dynamic
passing the ball just have not showed it to that point.
So you know, again, like you said, I think that
they've had one or two guys step up more in
the short to intermediate game that their season I think
in a lot of ways hinges on whether they can
create something in the deep passing game.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Where where does the winner of this game emerge for
you in the kind of overall power structure of the
Big twelve conference, Because I think Tech is right on
top right now for obvious reasons, and there's nine other
teams probably in the conversation still as we approach the
halfway point of the year.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Yeah, I think that Tech Tech you just put in
a class of their own right now. I think that,
I mean you can almost pencil them into Arlington one
because of how good they are, and two because they
have one of the most manageable schedules remaining in the
Big Twelve. So you put that team there. I think
that I put the winner of this game in probably
the lead for that number two spot. And like you said,
(07:57):
it's a pretty big group. Right now, you have the
winner of this Utah Arizona State game. I think that
right now Cincinnati belongs there. I think that Iowa State
very much still belongs there. They learned TCU saw the
way the opportunity to play their way back into that
group as well. So I think though that the sort
of second tier starts to materialize after this week because
(08:20):
of some of the matchups that we're getting this week,
and again I think that probably the winner of Utah
Arizona State, at least in this moment, becomes the favorite
to be that number two.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Is anything going to bring Texas Tech back down to earth?
I mean, you mentioned how manageable the schedule is. They
have showed up at every test, Rice Cycles being the
one that we thought, you know, would be a really
tough one for them, and they've I think I just
saw this tweet that you know, it's a bunch of wins.
Not by a score or two. They've got like five
(08:53):
wins by twenty plus points or something hasn't happened in
half a century. Is anything going to bring them back
down to earth and up to play.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
In conference play? No, I mean, I'm very interested by
that BYU game on November eighth in Love, like I'm
planning to be in attendance. I think that's kind of
the game of the year. They also play on the
road against Arizona State, but I think that that's a
pretty good matchup for what Texas Tech brings to the table.
I think that they're going to handle that situation well,
but byus kind of that team that maybe can give
(09:24):
them some issues defensively, right Like, I think that the
obviously the ability to stretch the field, Chase Roberts really dynamic,
and then Isaiah Glasker at linebacker just is somebody who
I think is going to cause them problems. But for
the most part, again, you know, I think that they're
a team right now that with what they have in
the trenches is almost untouchable by anybody else in this
(09:44):
conference right now. I mean, I still think that that
Utah not only is the best line offensive line of
the Big Twelve, I still think that they're one of
the best groups nationally. And we saw what this testis
tech defensive front did to that team. They caused them
a lot of issues in that game. So no, I mean,
I think that again you can basically pencil them into Arlington.
I think you can basically pencil them win or lose
(10:06):
Big Twelve title game into the college Football Playoff, and
I would not be surprised whatsoever if this team won,
has a chance to go thirteen to zero and two.
If this is a first round by team in a
college football playoff.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Sehan J. Roger for a couple more minutes here on
the Sean O'Connell Show, Talk and all Things college football,
if through the UT's lens. Mostly of course, the transfer
portal change is official. We've talked about this in previous
visits you've made to the show, but it's now a
fifteen day window second to the sixteenth of January. It's
a one time deal, and the exception is when head
(10:44):
coach is being replaced, you've got another window after they
announce who replaces that coach, which is I guess going
to create some wildness, especially this coaching carousel this offseason cycle,
it's going to be a lot more chaotic than last year's.
But starting just with the fifteen day window, the one
time thing, this is what the coaches asked for for
(11:07):
the most part. Does it clean up some of the
problems we've had in college football related to NIL and
to the transfer portal.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
Yeah, I think so. I think this is the right
move to me. I mean, I think that one of
the most chaotic things that nobody really talked about was
the fact that when the season ends, right and let's
say that there are teams setting into conference championship games,
the portal's open essentially right away. So you are both
trying to prepare for the conference championship game, while you're
also trying to prepare for either a playoff or a
(11:37):
bowl game, while you're also trying to lock in your
high school recruiting class, while you're also trying to recruit
your guys to stay on campus, and then on top
of that, you have to deal with the whole trying
to recruit the transfer portal as well. And it was
just a messy system that frankly didn't make a whole
lot of sense to me. And with this new model
where you're dealing with one windows, now we'll see. You know,
there's going to be low suits, of course, but assuming
(11:58):
this stands, I think that this makes a lot of sense. One,
you're really not touching any teams with this window except
for the ones that are going to play for the
national championship. Like every other person can very easily enter
that window and they're working on that same time for him.
I think the other thing too, is that you know,
the way that it works is that the teams are
(12:19):
playing for national championship, they also have like an additional
i think five days after the fact, so you're mostly
going to be working on the same timeline from that perspective,
and I look at one of the most glaring situations
last year, which was the departure of Boat Pabula at
the quarterback at Penn State before the college football playoffs,
who was basically told like, look, you just have to
enter it now because if you wait until tenn State eliminated,
(12:42):
which was I believe on January tenth, like you're just
going to be too far behind the curve to be
able to find a home. Well, I think that it
creates a situation that's a little more palatable where yeah,
maybe at BO Pabula leads or at least enters the portal,
let's say on January eighth or whatever, but he doesn't
necessarily have to lead his team, can start his recruitment
(13:02):
process at the same time as everybody else, stay with
the team, and then ultimately make a decision on a
timeline and extent. So it's a situation makes a lot
of sense to me. I think that, you know, the
trouble that's always going to be there is the sort
of drop ad deadlines for literal enruling in college So
I think that with all those dynamics in play. This
is something that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Because you just mentioned Penn State is good the enemy
of great to the extent that James Franklin and Penn
State are gonna have some tough conversations and maybe they
have to go a different direction with their head coach. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Interesting. I will say this, Ten States will not fire
James Franklin. They cannot afford to fire James Franklin. But
I do think there are going to be some very
legitimate conversations after the season for this reason. I mean,
they invested a lot monetarily into this season to retain
Drew Aller, Nick Singleton, k Sean Allen, to add guys
like Trevor Pannet through the portal to like they they
(14:00):
put a lot on this team and in a way,
by the way, that's similar to twenty twenty four Ohio
State in twenty twenty three Michigan, and unlike those two teams,
the team has already kind of fallen to the wayside,
and I don't know that they have a path to
the College of Ball Play. I think it's probably over
with after losing to UCLA, with Indiana and Ohio State
(14:21):
still left on the schedule. So this is a tough
situation for them. I think that. Look, I mean, James
Franklin has never been shy about the fact that he
wants to be the first black coach to win a
national championship, and they got pretty tank close last year,
up with five minutes left in the fourth quarter in
the National semifinals. But to have a situation like this,
in a flopla like this, I think that it makes
(14:42):
people around State College really think we've reached our ceiling
with this guy, and maybe for James Franklin to think,
maybe this is the most that I can do and
accomplish here, So there's gonna be a lot of good
openings this year. I think that that's going to be
a potentially really attractive situation for frank to decide it's
time to move on, and these conversations are going to
(15:03):
happen because the reality is, it's one thing to struggle
against the best of the best, But when you kind
of waste a roster like this against a team like
UCLA and become the first top ten team to lose
to an OH and four and worst team since nineteen
eighty five, I mean, again, these questions become a lot
more fair.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Before I let you go swinging back to focus on
the Big Twelve Conference. Much like last year, there's been
some surprise teams that look like they belong in the
conversation as groups to be reckoned with Houston, Arizona, Cincinnati
all look a lot better than we thought they would
to this point in the season. Who of those teams
(15:43):
do you believe in the most.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
I believe in Cincinnati the most, and it's for a
simple reason. I think that they are really really good
in the trenches. You know, Joe Cotton, their left tackle,
was named Outland Player of the Week this past week
for his performance against Iowa State. And again you look
at that game and you look at that team. I mean,
they believe Iowa State for a lot of that game.
Now I was say it also came back at the end,
but like I think, I would say, it's also a
(16:06):
very quality team. So it's the combination of strengthen the trenches,
the way they're running the football, the development of Brendan
Soersby on the offensive line, and this is a team
that I think has maybe been a little better than
their record the past two years. And frankly, that was
my big question about them coming into the year, I said,
if this was a team that was coached by a
coaching staff that I had a lot of faith in,
(16:27):
Like if Kyle whittinghams coach of this team, they have
a pathway to top five in the Big Twelve Conference.
I didn't have a lot of faith in Scott Saderfield
and his staff. Well, they've done a really good job.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
With this team.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Some of that close luck game has finally started to
turn after losing nine to ten one score games in
a row, which is a crazy stat and I think
that that's going to give them a chance down the stretch.
And the other piece of this too is that you know,
they were arguably the better team in that Nebraska game
that they ultimately lose by three points in front of
a basically at Nebraska home crowd. So this is a
(16:59):
team that I think it showed up every single week
and that's going to give them a chance heading down
the stretch to be one of those teams contending for
number two in the Big Twelve.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Sjahan always love catching up with you. Thanks for your
time today.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Shahan jay Rajah, CBS Sports College Football Insider,
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