Games Of The Year + Camp Intel & Preseason Poll Haters

Josh Pate’s College Football Show Ep 647 features Josh Pate discussing the latest College Football news including revealing his College Football regular season games of the year. Where do matchups like Texas vs Ohio State, LSU vs Clemson, Alabama vs UGA, Notre Dame vs Miami and Penn State vs Ohio State stack up? Next we deal with reaction to Tuesday’s JP Poll release. Where should Ohio State be coming off a national title? What about Texas, LSU, UGA, and Alabama in the SEC? Where do we slot Clemson and Miami? Could we see Notre Dame make a run? College Football as fall camps have opened and tonight we share the latest whispers and intel from across the country. We also take a look at wild card teams across the country.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Well, here we are, here, we are. I've been told
this day was coming. Actually we're on the eve of
the day. We are live earlier in the day than usual,
so I'm nervous because news could break at this time
of day. But we are on the eve of the
whole NCAA press conference. Here's what's gonna happen to Michigan,
and there are a lot of different theories. I am

(00:35):
on the record. You can't say that I've backtracked on this.
Come hell or high water, as Mima would say, on Friday,
when this press conference is announced and all the results
are official, I'm telling you, I'm on the record. I
don't think there's anything that's going to be done to
Michigan that damages the viewership viability of Michigan. You can

(00:55):
find them, I expect them to. You can give show causes,
I expect them to. You can suspend coaches, maybe you
can take away wins. Possibly none of those things damages
the viewership viability of Michigan. A postseason ban would. I
don't think that's coming, though, So we'll see I've been
wrong a time or two. We'll see. I will show

(01:18):
up either way. We're jampacked We're high a top of
humid downtown Nashville, Tennessee, on this Thursday, August fourteenth, the
year of our lower twenty twenty five. I am on
the air early because I have to go and get
on a plane later and fly to watch a practice
tomorrow and then go to someone else's practice Saturday. And
I just recommend you follow on the socials at Josh

(01:38):
pat CFP because that's where you can see that sort
of behind the scenes nonsense. We've got hinge games of
the year. You can just do normal games of the year.
I want to talk about hinge games, you know, the
kind of thing we're in December when the dust settles
and we've got the playoff picture. Those are the games
we look back on and we say that played a
large part in this. I want to talk about those games.

(02:00):
We've got plenty of canth intel. Of course, it's August.
Why would we not. I have got also, believe it
or not, some of you wanting to do away with
preseason polls. Preseason rankings are a thing of the devil,
as some of you are telling me. And I am
going to address that because somebody asked me, shouldn't we
just get rid of preseason polls. Not even the JPA pole.
They're talking about the AP pole. They're talking about the

(02:21):
coaches polls. They're talking about the concept of ranking teams
before like could they say Jesse week six? They want
to wait until week six. So I'll give you my
thoughts on that. And we got some amazing sound to
play for you a little bit later on. So we
got a jam packed show. Let's get right into it.
Jefferson City, Missouri is tuned in Santa Monica, California, Tifton, Georgia,

(02:42):
close to tie Ti, Georgia, and Middleton, Wisconsin. I was
in Wisconsin yesterday. I went up there not to see
Luke Fickle. I should have stopped by, but I didn't.
I was in a hurry. We went to an alpaca farm,
Eagle Eye Farms up there, very reasonably priced. I highly
recommend a visit. They didn't pay me a dime to
say that. In fact, I paid them for the privilege

(03:04):
of going to visit those alpacai, which is the plural
of alpaca. That was a fun time. Now we're back
in Nashville and then we'll be gone again tonight. So
let's dive in. I want to ask you this question
and you can. Basically, this is one of those fun
segments because this is the kind of thing where you
can follow along with me. Bradley, here's a good endpoint
for you. I'm going to ask you to do something. Okay,
I'm gonna ask you think about December. Regular season's done,

(03:26):
Conference championship Saturday is done, the playoff field is set.
We know who's facing who. We know who had a
great year, who had a terrible year, who had oh
enough gas to get to November but not through November,
who's getting fired? We know all that by December, I'm
asking you to name me the games that they're going
to go the furthest in deciding that picture. That's what

(03:47):
we call a hinge game. And I want to talk
about the biggest hinge games in college football this year
to start the show tonight. This is in no particular order,
although it's going to sound like it's in order, because
the first game is noon East time in Week one,
and that's Texas Ohio State. That's AP one versus two,
that is JP poll one versus two. Here is why

(04:10):
I am going with this. This is kind of obvious.
I feel like obviously, Obviously there's highest spectation. Obviously, there's
a lot of unknown It's college football. It's not the
first time, won't be the last time. But I think
someone's hype meter pegs off the chart after this game.
Someone's panic meter pins off the chart after this game,

(04:30):
especially if Texas loses. I am of the opinion there's
more pressure on Texas here because they're the ones who
didn't just win a national championship. They're also the ones
who happen to have Arch Manning starting at quarterback for
him and the Ohio State quarterback situation we'll see. I've
got my own swinging philosophies on that. It's not just
who starts against Texas, it's who plays well against Texas.

(04:53):
Do we see multiple quarterbacks in that game? But yeah,
so that is I mean, someone's gonna win that thing.
Hipes through the roof, Someone's gonna lo is that thing?
Unjust panic through the roof. Next game features a team
that is not features two teams actually that are not
on that board right now, Bradley's showing you the odds
to win the whole thing this year. And you know

(05:14):
who you don't see there. You don't see Illinois because
Vegas hates Illinois and you don't see USC because apparently
everyone hates USC. USC goes to Illinois in Week five.
I think this is the hinge game of the year
for USC. I think it's the hinge game of the
year for Illinois. I think it's one of the big
hinge games in college football this year because what we

(05:34):
could have coming out of this game if USC wins,
is a five and oh University of Southern California trojan
football team coming home with a buye to get ready
for Michigan coming to town and then taking a trip
to Notre Dame. And I've just got news for you.
If USC's five and oh with Michigan coming to town,
that's the game of the week and on the white

(05:56):
hot spotlight is on the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Now,
if Illinois were to lose that game in that scenario,
it's not like it's the end of the world. But
it was their first shot against a big boy at
home and they lost it. And then a couple of
weeks later, they'll have Ohio State coming to town. And
what they'd probably be saying if Illinois lost is we

(06:17):
saw their ceiling last year, and they never got any
better than that this year. Of course, Illinois could win
the game, and if Illinois wins that game, it's off
to the Race's time for Illinois, because then you're talking
about maybe the ability to lose a game or two
and maybe still be in the Big Ten title picture,
the playoff picture. So that's the whole Illinois piece and
then the usc pieces. You'll never convince me USC is

(06:40):
gonna have a great season this year if they don't
beat Illinois. So if they lose to Illinois and then
they go downward spiral at the end of the year,
you will look back and say, that Illinois game, that's
where that started. So that's why that's a hinge game.
Let me take you to Week four, and let me
take you to beautiful picturesque. I don't care what the
haters say. Norman Oklahoma, Auburn at Oklahoma in Week four.

(07:01):
That's the stuff that hinge games are made of. First,
we get Jackson Arnold going back to Norman. Yes, that's
on the schedule this year. In case you didn't notice,
we've got a couple of coaches that are on every
hot seat list I have seen out there. Hugh Freeze
at Auburn, Brent Venables at Oklahoma. Everyone's talking about it.
I don't think we've done a hot seat segment. I

(07:21):
don't think we have. If we did, yeah, those guys
would be on it. Auburn's already played at Baylor by now,
Oklahoma's already faced Michigan by now. Are they both undefeated?
Do they both have a loss? Is one of them
in Wounded Animal? Do or Die mode? I'm very high
on Oklahoma, obviously you saw that. The other night the
JP pole came out. I had Oklahoma top ten. I

(07:42):
don't have Auburn in the top twenty. I think I've
got them in the top twenty five. I think they're
a very good quality roster. But there are two wild
card teams, which we'll talk about later in the show.
But I want you to think about this. This is
where this game, right here is where the season will
turn one way or the other for both teams. Auburn
wins this thing, and that probably also means they were
good enough to go on the road and beat Baylor,

(08:04):
I think, and at that point they're kind of off
to the race. It's very challenging schedule, but they're off
to the races and they start to build up some equity,
build up some confidence. You're not going on the road
and winning at Oklahoma. If Jackson Arnold didn't play good,
I mean he's got to face that defense, used to
face it every day in practice. If he goes into
Norman and they win, I mean Auburn was able to

(08:25):
move the ball. Auburn was able to have some synergy
about itself offensively, which means if Auburn's got that and
they prove it by beating Oklahoma, Auburn's good enough to
compete with anyone because the roster's that good. If Oklahoma
were to win this, I think Oklahoma could be undefeated
going into the Red River Shootout, a game known by
no other name than that on this show. And if

(08:47):
that is the case, then I'm going to feel good
because it means the JP pole has been validated and vindicated. However,
either person, either head coach, that loses this game, I
want you to think of the uncomfortability. I want you
to think about what we would call the pucker meter
on this show. Because you've got over half of your
season left to go, this could be the first, or

(09:09):
god forbid, the second loss. For someone look at that's
going to be a really good gift. Someone who's going
to take that out of context. That's probably going to
circulate on the USC message boards if you're listening on podcasts.
Don't worry about it. Next up, back to week one.
Hinge game in Week one, of course, I can't believe
I even didn't lead with this one. LSU and Clemson.

(09:32):
LSU at Clemson Week one already a hinge game. That's
the beauty of college football. Don't ever let him tell
you this is in the greatest sport in the world.
When you can be sitting on the edge of your seat,
when your fingernails can be bitten down to the nubs,
and that includes people who don't even bite their fingernails,
that is a sign that you still have a very,
very valuable regular season. Now, has it been diminished a
little bit, Yes, but this is still a great regular

(09:54):
season and evidence of that will be in the Clemson
Death Valley on Saturday night in Week one. Clemson favor
by three and a half. Right now, LSU has been
crippled by slow starts, and if they have another one here,
then it could really set the train with a flat
wheel down a very very treacherous set of tracks. The

(10:17):
flat wheel, you know, that's that's a problem on a train.
That's when you hear go um dum dum dum dum
dum as it comes through. It's cause it's got a
flat spot on it. Normally it's faulty breaking that does that.
A more seasoned engineer would never let that happen. But
you never know because the LSU train has gotten out
of the gates very slowly in week ones. So if
they go in there and they lose, hey they're a

(10:38):
three and a half point dog. It's a national championship
contender that you're losing to in their own building. No
one cares. They're still going to rag you. And then
you've got to come and you got to play Florida
a couple of weeks later. Then you got to go
to Ole, miss and you got South Carolina at Vanderbilt,
Texas A and m All the games I just listed
are before Halloween. So if you start slow, actually, if

(11:00):
you start with anything other than an outright win on
the road, it's going to be the same old, same old.
Until you changed the tune on that. Clemson was zero
to three against the SEC last year. So this is
an immediate opportunity to rectify that. It's an immediate opportunity
to announce to the world we're more than just an
ACC championship contender. Because everyone has LSU in some order

(11:22):
in the top four of the SEC. So if you
beat them at home, it's a big deal. So it
doesn't guarantee anything, but think about it. We're talking about
it through the prism of December. If Clemson is the
ACC champ and they got one of the top four
seeds in December, you'll probably be saying, hey, man, this
team showed what it was made up early on. Remember
that LSU game. If LSU wins, if it's a different

(11:45):
season for LSU, in all likelihood that vibe will have
cranked up on the road at Clemson in Week one. Now,
I'm a believer that LSU could could validate itself quite
nicely and lose a competitive game there, But I think
I'm in the minority on that next up. All the
way to Week fourteen, this is the easiest one on
the entire board. Ohio State at Michigan. This is rivalry week.

(12:09):
This is the last week of the year. I've been
to three of these last four games. It's amazing. It's
the greatest rivalry in college football. This is the end
of the year, which means, if Bryce Underwood is starting
for Michigan, he's got an entire season under his belt.
It's his first start in the game, this his first
starting the rivalry. If he is the starting quarterback, which
we think he will be, but he'll have a whole

(12:29):
season under his belt. Also, there's that pesky little four
game losing streak or winning streak, depending on which side
of this year on. Now, some people will tell you,
because of the way last year played out, this game
doesn't mean as much anymore. They're wrong, but they will
tell you that. I am here to remind you that
you have a one game sample size, so last year

(12:50):
is not forever. Last year's last year. What I mean
by that is you saw Ohio State go into this game,
they lost it, but they still won the national title,
and so your mind tells you, oh, well, that means
the outcome of the game didn't mean nearly as much
as it could have. Well, part of that's true, but
I also want to remind you Ohio State had wiggle

(13:11):
room when they went into that game. What if Ohio
State's a two loss team here. What if they lose
to Texas and then they drop a game at Illinois
or something like that, so they got one conference loss.
So they're going into Michigan and they know, Hey, if
we win this thing, we're going to the Big Ten
title game, we're in the playoff. But difference being unlike
last year, they don't have any wiggle room, there's no

(13:33):
safety net under them. They know if they lose the
Michigan game, they're out of the whole thing. They're out
of the playoff entirely, because that could be the case.
You don't know that three seed Ohio State's going in
ann Arbor. It could be eleven seed or projected eleven
seed Ohio State. My point there is, could it be
a win or go home situation for them? Could Michigan
have surprised people and be in the Big Ten title race?

(13:56):
In the playoff race? Hinge game? Either way, the hinge game,
no matter if the playoff exists or not, but especially
because it does. I've got the underrated game of the
year in the SEC here. So let me take you
to Week six. No one's talking about this game. I
have no idea why it's Texas Florida. Texas goes to
Florida this year Week six. I think it's the underrated

(14:18):
game of the year in the SEC because no one's
talking about it. Everyone's talking about Texas, Ohio State, Texas, Georgia.
People are talking about Florida going to LSU. They're talking
about Florida Miami. No one's talking outside of Gainesville and
Austin about Texas going to Florida. Both teams are off
a bye here. It is arch Manning's second really tough
road game. He will have gone to Columbus Ohio in

(14:39):
Week one. This is Gainesville. I remember I went to
Austin back in the spring and they were already talking
about this game logistically. They were talking about how tough
it was to find accommodations for the team. Competitively, they
were talking about how misremembered last year is because Lagway
didn't play in this game last year. So, I mean

(15:00):
Florida got splattered when they went to Texas, and everyone
looks back on that game. Oh, we blew them out
last year. You know it'll be tougher. It's a good
home field, the swamp and whatever, but we'll go in there.
We'll take care of business. Well, you misremember last year's game.
Last year's game has no bearing on this year's game. Now,
I am a believer that Florida is the real deal
this year. For the record, I think Texas is too,

(15:22):
but no one doubts that about Texas. There are people
who doubt it about Florida. This is the game where
they'll announce that if I'm right. This is the game
where they'll announce it because they could go to LSU
and win. But the thing about it is that could
move LSU to one and two. For all we know,
Florida could go to Miami and win, and people would
tell you, eh, Miami, though, man, they're so jeckling high,

(15:45):
they're overrated. They're a paper tiger that could also move
Miami to two and two or something like that. This
right here is either an undefeated Texas or a one
lost Texas. And that loss came on the road to
Ohio State and now their backs against the wall already
and they come into Gainesville. That right there, depending on
how this season turns out in up in December rather

(16:07):
for both of these teams, this is the game where
it will have turned for both of them I'm fully
convinced of that. Next up, back to Week one. See
I told you we weren't going in order. Yeah, Notre
Dame at Miami is absolutely a hinge game. Notre Dame
at Miami Week one Sunday night game. Remember, standalone game.
So no matter what your team does Saturday, you got

(16:29):
time to watch this one on Sunday. Miami started hot
last year. We were at the game in the swamp
and they went in there and they handled Florida. Even
though the season ended up being somewhat of a disappointment,
it didn't start that way Notre Dame. Same way. Now
Notre Dame goes all the way to the National title game.
Well where did that downhill momentum really start? It started

(16:51):
on the road at Texas A and m also a
Week one game, so both of them started hot last year.
Someone's got to lose this game. The Notre Dame quarterback
situation is still very much in a state of flux.
That is not the case from Miami. It's not who's
going to start, it's how good will that starter be.
Now they're really high on Carson Beck. They don't think
the injury thing is an issue at all. They think

(17:13):
his head is in the right space. They think he's
plenty talented enough, they believe they've got a good enough
supporting cast around him. That's why God makes us play
the games, so you don't just have to think it.
We can find out. But if that's right, if all
that's accurate, you'll know because Miami will show it against
Notre Dame. If Notre Dame's got the kind of staying

(17:33):
power instead of just kind of a flash in the
pan one year wonder sort of vibe, you'll know it
in week one. Now. You could also know that in
one of these teams loses a really really tight game
and you come out saying, man, both of those teams
are probably going to make the playoff. I always go
to this, what happens if someone loses thirty to thirteen.
It is Week one college football. You don't know anything.

(17:56):
Miami's secondary was terrible last year. Notre Dame's wide receiver
corps is much better this year. Could they just pop
the top off Miami over and over and over again.
Could Miami dominate the line of scrimmage, because that's not
something anyone really does against Notre Dame. What if they
do that in week one. What if Miami wins and
you look at it and you say, dude, Carson Beck

(18:17):
didn't even play a great game and we still won
this thing, How good could we be? Once everything clicks,
you could say the same thing about Notre Dame. I mean,
we went on the road. That place was packed down there,
and it will be half of them will be Notre
Dame fans, but it will be that place was packed.
And I mean it was our quarterbacks first start on
the road, we won, and they played C plus football.

(18:38):
That kind of stuff could happen too, big Hinge game.
Next one is on approximately no one's radars outside of Atlanta, Georgia.
I don't even think this is on a Clemson radar,
but it's on mine. Week three, Clemson at Georgia Tech.
Now this is me thinking about how I think the
season's going to go, because I believe Georgia Tech is

(18:58):
going to be in the ACC championship race through the
entire season. If I'm right about that, maybe this game
was a core reason why I'm not talking about playing competitively.
I'm not talking about hanging in there with Clemson. I'm
talking about beating them. I'm talking about doing what you
almost did on the road against Georgia last year, what
you did do at home against Miami last year. Not

(19:21):
a lot of people are looking at this game right now.
That's okay, that's what makes it a hinge game. Maybe
a little off the radar, but I think it's a
hinge game. I think that if I'm right about Georgia Tech,
it starts here. Also, what is Clemson's record coming into
this game. Clemson's already come off the game obviously against LSU,
so they could be in wounded animal mode, they could
be in must win mode. But remember LSU is not

(19:43):
a conference game, just like Georgia Tech goes to Colorado
week one, that's not a conference game. So this is
the first really big conference game for these teams. I'm
excited about it. It's a really underrated game. Next up,
it's not underrated at all. This is going to be
on everyone's radar. This will be everyone's game of the year,
Top five candidate. It was last year too. Alabama goes

(20:07):
to Georgia in Week five. Bama at Georgia in Week
five is a rematch of last year's game in Tuscaloosa.
Remember it was a five Chalai Classic. Jesse. I don't
remember how many five Chalai rated games we had last year.
There was only a few of them, and this was
one of them. I think this has been the most
important rivalry in the SEC for a while now. And

(20:28):
if you want to know what a paper popper stat is,
to back up that statement, ten of the last eleven
SEC champions were one of these two teams. And you
knew they had dominated the league? Did you know they
had dominated the league that severely? LSU twenty nineteen. It
literally took Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase and Justin Jefferson

(20:48):
and ed Or Zaran to come in and say, uh,
we're just going to hit pause on this for one
year and then you can, guys can go right back
to normal. So no one loses this game and is
out of anything in all likelihood. However, if Bama goes
into Georgia and wins, you can just right the headlines

(21:10):
in all caps. It's true. Kirby didn't just have a
Saban problem. He's got an Alabama problem. Conversely, if Kirby
and Georgia beat Alabama, is that Bama's only lost so far?
Are they going to lose more games? Was it a
competitive game. Or did Bama get beat like they did
at Oklahoma last year? Did they get beat like they
did at Vandy last year? Did they get beat like

(21:33):
they did at Tennessee? Is it the kind of game
where you say, this team's got a ton of holes,
like I thought they were good, but man Kirby, they
just dissected Alabama, they just exposed him. Something's going to
be true. I think that'll be a hinge game that
starts setting a narrative very much in motion. And the
last one, and certainly not the least one, because I
only wanted to go ten deep. I could have just

(21:54):
gone the whole show on this. Penn State of Ohio
State's one of the hinge games of the entire country,
of the entire season. Penn State at Ohio State in
week ten means someone's probably punching their ticket to Indianapolis.
By this point, someone's probably You'd be hard pressed to
convince me the winner of this game is not gonna
play for the Big Ten championship. Let me put it
that way. This is the game for Penn State. Yes,

(22:17):
they've got Oregon in Happy Valley Week five. It's the
wide out game. It's a night kickoff. It's great, it's great.
That's not the game that Ohio State and Penn State
folks are really circling. In fact, Penn State folks, that's
not the one they're circling. They're excited about the Oregon game.
They've got the Ohio State game circle. And you know why,

(22:39):
because they know they should beat Oregon. They deep down
know they don't know that they're going to They know
Oregon's got a new quarterback. They're coming across the country.
We're off a bye. We finally get the night game
we want. We got our best team we've had in
a decade plus. We should beat Oregon. But we don't
know about the Ohio State game. We hadn't been able

(23:01):
to beat Ohio State's at twenty sixteen, Jesse, is that
the last time that Penn State beat Ohio State? So
by my math, I mean stat's in info random numbers.
That's nine years ago. You had a kid the same
year that Penn State beat Ohio State. Last that kid
can play Little league. Now you can play a ball.
I mean he could be facing like real live pitching

(23:23):
instead of just a coach throwing to him. It's been
that long that's the game. That's the game because the
Penn State's for real this year. Then they win a
game like that and Penn State could still be for real.
But if it's just the same old Penn State, they
go and they lose that game twenty seven to sixteen
or twenty seven to twenty something like that, and they're
still going to go to the playoff. It'd be tough

(23:44):
to see Penn State not going to the playoff. But
that's where it hinges. That's really where you train yourself. Nope,
don't don't buy in. Don't even get worked up about
Penn State. It's just the same old, same old, or wow,
it really is different this year. That attitude, which of
those attitudes you have will hinge on that game. You

(24:06):
can get to every one of them by going to
quick trip every one of them because we didn't do
a Hawaii game, we didn't do Kansas State, Iowa stayed
over in Dublin, Ireland, although I'm looking forward to it.
But my point being, all of these games were in
the continental United States, meaning you can drive to all
of them, but you can't do it without gasoline unless

(24:26):
you live very close to the stadium. And at some
point you still got to fill up, So quick trip
is there for you. Now you may be thinking to yourself,
live hack. I got a buddy and he'll drive to
all the games. Well, buddy needs gas. It may even
be named buddy. But point being, even if you yourself
are not responsible for the gasoline, good for you for
finding a way to freeload your way to college football games.

(24:48):
I'm not mad at it. I'm not hating on you.
I've done it myself. I would recommend it ten times
out of ten. If you can pull it off, If
you can get front seat privileges, that's better. But don't
you still need cold bri Don't you still need snacks?
Don't you still need a warm and welcoming environment where
you can walk in and feel like you belong. I'm

(25:09):
not talking about your guidance counselor's office, friends, I'm talking
about quick Trip. That's the place you really want to be.
Guidance counselors seeing one, seeing them all dime a dozen.
Quick Trip each place is unique, and yet each place
is the same. And that may sound counterintuitive, but if
you've been to a quick Trip you understand it's not.

(25:29):
I highly advise it They are the official fuel provider
of the tour, which I was gonna name tonight, but
we're gonna wait until Sunday because frankly, I came up
with some better ideas and not for the name, but
for the graphic, and so we're gonna wait until Sunday
and Prez is gonna dial that up and it's gonna
be great, just like the JP Pole graphic was great.
Quick Trip is going to be the cause of it all.

(25:51):
We appreciate them, all right, let's move on. It got
a good solid crowd, you knowe to to get this
kind of live viewership when we're doing the show three
hours early on a random Thursday in the middle of August.
Very encouraging, very encouraging. I appreciate you all. In due time,

(26:11):
very soon, in situations like these, I'll be able to
hand out free stuff in the live chat. And trust me,
there is stuff on the horizon that you'll really want,
whether you've got to pay for it to whether it's free,
you'll really want it. I love giving out free stuff.
Oh it's great. I love getting it. I love giving
free stuff out. It's great. Okay, here we go, latest

(26:33):
fall Camp until from across the country. We're getting there
week zero next week. Everybody starts the week after that,
so you better get it in gear. What about LSU
defense was an improvement last year? It was terrible two
years ago. I am as high on their defensive staff
as I could be any defensive staff in the country.
Blake Baker is the truth. He had limited ingredients to

(26:56):
work with last year. I think they made more than
the most out of what was available last year. I
don't think we've talked about that enough. Actually, I don't
know that during the season last year people even realized
how overachieving that unit was. Now you may say to yourself,
do that, but it wasn't a great defense last year.
It should have sucked, should have still been really bad,

(27:19):
and it was only average. So this year it's going
to make a huge leap. All the intel we've gotten
out of LSU, and I believe every bit of it
is expect a pretty sizable production leap. Here. They got
six plug and play starters from the portal. Now, you
could listen to that, and you can interpret that two ways.
You can interpret that as saying, wow, the cupboard was bare,

(27:40):
so any old guy could walk in off the street
and start for him. You could be that way, knowing
the Internet like I do. Some of you are that way.
Or you could say, yeah, the cupboard was fairly bear.
But might they be one of the best front offices
and one of the best personnel departments in America led
by one of the best general managers in America spoiler alert.

(28:04):
The answer is yes on that. Might they gone. Might
they have gone and gotten really good pieces to plug in?
Might they have hit on all of them? I tend
to think it's the latter. It's not without its growing pains.
You don't just throw pieces in a blender and spit
it out and oh, look a top five defense. No,
that's not the way that happens. So there may be

(28:24):
busts early in the season. You may see Cad Klubnick
make you a little uncomfortable week one. Even if you
go win, maybe you look and you say, I can't
believe we went in there and won. That's great, But
we still got some holes to plug, we got some
things to clean up. That's okay. That's okay. That can
be part of the recipe of what ends up being
a great season. Harold Perkins is a story that LSU
fans have been following. I just want to let the

(28:44):
rest of the country know what's happening here. Harold Perkins,
once upon a time freshman All American at edge. Then
he goes to linebacker productions down he tears his ACL
and that's the last most of you heard of Harold Perkins.
He is still there. He is currently taking reps at

(29:05):
the star position in LSU's defense. The star position in
LSU's defense, like most defenses, is this safety linebacker hybrid,
so he can still rush the passer. But there will
be situations where it will be many situations where you
see Harold Perkins in coverage this year, and there aren't
many body types like that in coverage normally by design

(29:27):
at least, And you may think to yourself, that dude
looks like Harold Perkins. It's him. It's him. Just if
you catch yourself saying that about LSU, it's him. I
can't wait to watch that. What I can't wait to watch,
also with LSU, but for different and more concerning reasons,
is the offensive line. Because I got to tell you,
I came out of spring feeling pretty good about the

(29:48):
O line. There, I don't feel as good about it.
I hope they can get it together. I'm just saying,
if you look at the schedule right now, if Louisiana
Tech was their Week one game at home, it'll be
all right, we'll kind of will jump and we'll figure
out the parachute on the way down. In Week one.
You can't do that on the offensive line at Clemson.

(30:10):
You just can't. So you got another scrimmage to go,
and then you got two weeks of build up to
the Clemson game. You got a really good offensive staff
down there, like they know what they're doing. They better
know what they're doing because it's very mixed reviews right now.
Along the offensive line at LSU. Gotta have it, gotta
have it. Nus is only as good as that offensive

(30:31):
line in front of him. Remember, we're trying to run
the ball a lot more efficiently down there as well.
Offensive line gotta make it happen. What about Nebraska, Well,
as you may remember, Dana Holgerson has now assumed offensive
coordinator responsibilities here. So we got let's see, we got
Holgerson as the OC at Nebraska. Now we got Malson
as the OC at FSU. A lot of folks hopping

(30:53):
back into the coordinator chair. The feedback we're getting is
the wide receiver group in the running back group is
much better than anticipated. Now that doesn't mean they thought
they were going to be terrible. It's just the group,
especially the depth of wide receiver. The quality of player
there is just better. And then you pair that with
Dylan Ryola another year under his belt experience wise, teaming

(31:14):
up with Dana Holgerson. I just think the offense and
the level of production from that offense, the explicivity from
that offense may take some people by surprise. This year,
that offensive line, it looks like the starting five will
all have double digit games started experience the current projected
starting five there also, in the interest of putting you

(31:34):
onto a name early that I promise you no one
else around your local water cooler is talking about. I
want you to remember the name Archie Wilson. You probably
could have guessed that by the first name he's a punter,
because no one after the mid nineties named Archie did
anything other than punt. That's a fact that we didn't
look up. That's a fact in college football. Archie Wilson

(31:59):
is a true freshman. He has never played a game
of American football. I expect him to be a huge
weapon for Nebraska because he is an Australian punter and
all those people know how to do is kick the
ball seventy yards in the air and apparently the returns
out of practice have been that. And Nebraska is sitting
on this kid and they know they've got him, and
they know no one cares about special teams. People claim

(32:23):
it's a third of the game, yet they never talk
about it, and so they know that the guy's not
going to get over hyped aside from shows like this
spoiling it for everyone, Archie Wilson. As sure as this
pack of papers is hitting this desk, Nebraska has got
a weapon. And the dude's never played American football before
Ole Miss. All right, I don't want to backtrack, but

(32:47):
it's going to sound like I'm kind of backtracking a
little bit, but not really. You know what, Let's see
how it goes, Okay, So I expect defensive drop off
at Ole Miss this year. I think Old Miss was
too good defensively last year to just continue merrily alone
at that level. That's what I've thought. I've said that
on the show before. Maybe the defensive drop off will

(33:08):
only be very minor because they were top five at
various points in the year and a lot of the statistics,
so they could drop off and still be top ten.
To understand what I'm talking about here, to kind of
set a baseline, it's important to note when you say
a team is portal reliant, it's important to not just
say that blanketly. It's important to go case by case because,

(33:30):
for example, at Ole Miss, have they taken a lot
of kids out of the portal, Yes, they have. However,
Sunterene Perkins, they didn't take him out of the portal.
He's always been there. Xavian Harris has always been there.
Jim Mary's Brown has always been there. Will Eccles has
always been there. They recruited all those kids out of
high school. None of them are true freshmen, and those

(33:51):
are all starters along their defensive line. So Pete Golding's
got a defensive line there that is homegrown. They recruited them,
they developed them, and that's going to be a really
good group of players. Stay healthy, of course, but that's
going to be a really good group of players. dB
is a bigger concern, so maybe that's where the drop
off is. But that defensive front could be sneaky, really

(34:13):
good again for Old Mess. Now Austin Simmons quarterback kind
of being overshadowed, I think a little bit because of
all the other bigger names. I don't know why Simmons
wouldn't be a big name. He is to us, but
he's not like Arch Manning. He's not getting the run
that Ty Simpson is. He's not being talked about as
much as Gunner Stockton Julian saying some of these dudes

(34:36):
may or may not even win their job, but make
no mistake about it. Now, Austin Simmons is the real deal.
He'll eventually take off. The difference with Old Mess and
these other teams is Ole Miss does not play anyone
to start the year. All due respect, they don't play anyone,
so you won't notice Ole Miss for a little while.
You will not watch much of Austin Simmons unless you're

(34:56):
a Rebels fan. You won't be seeing much of them
because you don't care about the or just state game.
Ole Miss goes to Kentucky, even though they lost to
him at home last year, you will still not convince
yourself that game's worth watching. You don't expect anything from Arkansas,
whether you're right or wrong, you don't expect anything. Ironically,
the two lane games probably the game that may get
the most attention up until the LSU game the twenty

(35:17):
seventh of September. That's when you start watching Ole miss
for the first time. Well by then, Austin Simmons has
got a month worth of live action under his belt. Also,
Kawan Lacy probably the starting running back there, just a
Missouri transfer. Interesting, just keep an eye on him, very interesting.
How about Ucla? People blame us for not talking about

(35:39):
Ucla on the show much. They're right, we don't talk
about him a whole lot. But maybe this won't be
a mess. Keep getting feedback, Maybe this won't be a mess.
Eric Binamy was not a good college football offensive coordinator,
and he's not there anymore. He's moved on. Tino Sunseri
probably will be and he is there now, and so

(35:59):
it's a lot better fit at coordinator. Niko i aam
Aliava is the quarterback there now. You remember that whole
thing from spring, But they hired really good They hired
a good offensive coordinator there. I don't think Tina will
be there five years. I don't think I don't think.
I think he'll be good enough to where he'll get
opportunities very very quickly. But in the meantime, Quasi Gilmer

(36:20):
I believe is the wide receiver whose name will pop
pretty immediately for them because they lost their top two
receivers to the portal. Remember, so that's a guy who
has a long runway in front of him, and you
got a guy who can throw you the ball if
Nico has progressed as a passer, or you got a
coordinator who's going to dial it up. I'm interested to
see what kind of production level they get there because

(36:41):
they got five upperclassmen on the offensive line, so like
everything was pretty bad last year? How how how far
would they have to improve to be any kind of factor.
They're not gonna win the Big Ten, they're not going
to compete for the Big Ten, but to be any
kind of factor because look, they do play Nebraska, they
do State, they do play at Ohio State, they do

(37:03):
play USC so they play almost all the contenders outside
of Oregon. They play UNLV as well. Could they mess
it up for someone else? They play Utah? They they
could spoil someone's year. They could spoil a couple of
your years. Let's continue the pace, the pace, the pace.

(37:23):
It's important. This is a travel day. Hey. Look, someone
asked a question that I think we have to be
honest with ourselves about. Big Jay. Jeremiah from Atlanta, Georgia said,
which teams do you feel could be the most unpredictable
this year? Like they could be a playoff sleeper or
have a losing record? Oh, it's everywhere, Jeremiah, Florida State's

(37:45):
one of them. In fact, Florida State has been the
entire body of that tweet. Over the past twenty four months.
They've been a playoff team or a playoff contender. In
a twelve team format, they would have been in the playoff.
And then they've been the worst thing that I've ever
seen in my entire life, not just in football, the
worst thing I've ever seen period. They were three games
below the worst case scenario last year. Do you realize that?

(38:08):
Do you realize what that does to one's confidence? When
I stand here or I sit here every year and
I do my record projections, there they go. Is that
the Florida State b role? Bradley, you roll in Florida
State beer. I think that was a Florida State bure
role from last year. So Florida State last year ended
up going two to ten, right, Jesse, that was their
final record. We did their worst case scenario on the

(38:32):
show in August, and we had five and seven as
the worst case, three full games below the worst case.
It made me rethink everything. The team quit on them now.
They had a lot of players go out, they had
a lot of players come in. They only had the
number thirty six portal class though. But I can tell
you when I was down there in spring, Mike Norvel said,
we went back to trusting proven production over potential, so

(38:56):
they didn't go and load up on a lot of
guys that were former four stars that just hadn't started
at Bama or hadn't started at Texas or Ohio State.
But you're thinking, oh, but there'll be stars here. No, No,
you don't know that they may not have been starting
at Bama because they weren't good enough to play for
many reasons anywhere, you know, because Bama misses on guys

(39:17):
occasionally too. Georgia misses on guys occasionally too, So you
can't just go take the big boys backups and magically
think throw them in the pot mix it all up,
pour it out, boom ten wins. That's arrogance, and they
had a little of it last year. So Mike Norvel said, no,
we went and got players who have played before and
we're counting on them. Okay, if it works out, great,

(39:39):
But you got a new QB, you got a new
offensive coordinator, you got a new defensive coordinator. You play Alabama, Miami, Clemson,
n FSU or yeah, Bama Miami Clemson. How fragile are
you if you lose Week one? How mentally tough are
you if you lose Week one? I guess it's the
positive spin on that. So I mean Florida's take a
b ounce right back, Florida State could also be a disaster. Again,

(40:03):
I have no idea next up. I have no idea
what to expect from the Auburn Tigers. Auburn was five
and seven last year, all right, So Auburn goes five
and seven. Last year. They had nine combined turnovers against
Cal and Arkansas, both losses. They had that pick six
late against Oklahoma, a game I was sure they'd win,
and they lost that one. They led Missouri by two

(40:26):
scores in the fourth quarter. The quarterback comes back from
the hospital, like Austin at Royal Rumble nineteen ninety nine,
only that was pro wrestling and it was fake. This
is real life. This happened to Auburn, so they invented
ways to lose games last year. There is a school
of thought out there that is flawed that anytime that

(40:46):
happens to you one year, it magically inverts the next year.
Usc people are counting on this, Oh, we lost all
those one possession games, we'll be on the plus side
of those this year. No, you could just be on
the minor side, or you could lose games by more
than in one possession the next year. There's no guarantee
of that. That's not how the world works. That's not
how the universe actually operates. If I had a bad

(41:06):
day yesterday, my day the next day could suck. What
you hope is you learned lessons from the bad times,
and you applied them and you course corrected. That's why
the good times followed. But if they didn't correct, or
in this case, if they went and got the wrong
quarterback out of the portal in Jackson Arnold, it's gonna
blow up again. They got a good roster, they got

(41:28):
four recruiting classes stacked on top of each other. Two
of them were top twenty, two of them are top ten.
They've got the number seven portal class there. They play
five of my top twenty five teams in the country though,
in the first seven games, so you better have it
figured out. This is not a situation like the old
miss schedule, where you got a whole month in the

(41:48):
front half of your season to figure things out. Nope,
that's not Auburn. Auburn could be a playoff team, Auburn
could miss a bowl game, and neither would surprise me.
Next up, USC just mentioned them foreshadowing. I can't believe
we're in a spot. It stuns me. It floors me
that we are in a position in the United States

(42:09):
of America in twenty twenty five where the AP has
given up on USC. They ranked them thirtieth to start
the year. And it's me, or rather the JP pole
powered by the model that is propping USC up. We
got them fifteenth. We have not given up on USC.
I hope people are listening out there. We have not
given up on Lincoln Riley. We have not given up

(42:31):
on the Trojans. But how do we get to the
place where I'm the one from rural Harris County, Georgia.
As a youth, I was taught to despise USC. They
love talking about that on the message board, like it
has any impact on how I viewed the team present day.
Obviously not because I'm rooting for you to prove me right. Yeah,
people don't believe in USC because they lost a lot

(42:52):
of games last year. Does that carry over or did
they learn lessons? Did they apply those lessons, and do
they course correct If they did, If they've big ten proofed,
there are lines of scrimmage, and they're bigger and more
physical and able to withstand a pounding and maybe maybe
even inflict some punishment that is illegal in this game.
They could be eleven and one. They could also be

(43:15):
six and six. You could be looking for a new
head coach. All of those things could happen Illinois, Notre Dame, Nebraska,
and Oregon all on the road. So if you don't
have good decision making at the quarterback position, if you
don't have the ability to be consistent offensively, if you
can't control the line of scrimmage, you're just gonna disappoint again.

(43:40):
They are so convinced they've made the right moves there.
It's not window dressing. I'm around window dressing a lot.
I know hollow words when I hear them, They're not
hollow at usc they are firmly convinced. I mean Lincoln Riley,
when I was out there in the spring, it was
almost I mean, he wasn't being cocky about it, but
it was hard for him to contain how resolute he was.

(44:03):
It was almost like, I mean, you'll see you just
watched the Fall. It was like he had the movie
script in his hand, Like he's holding the script of
Almost Famous in his hand, and I haven't seen Almost
Famous yet. He's gotten no doubt this is a great
movie in my hands. You'll see come fall. That's how
he was talking about his team. He was talking about

(44:24):
his team like it was still water. And there's some
people in the audience that may not have seen Almost Famous.
Almost Famous is one of my top ten movies of
all time, so I highly recommend you watch it. But yeah,
so was that it does he really have a classic
in the works. We'll see. I told you so in advance.
If you're watching this in November, and that came to fruition,

(44:46):
I told you, so also, yeah, I gotta put North
Carolina in this batch. Now, this is mostly schedule based,
so I don't know if you heard Bill Belichick's the
head coach there. I kind of went under the radar.
Not many people talked about that. So Bill Belichick is
the old head coach. She's the old ball coach there
at North Carolina. Now, they had forty one players leave,

(45:07):
they had forty two players added. They had the number
eight portal class. They've got one game against teams that
I have power rated top thirty. That's Clemson. They play,
according to Fanduels odds, five of the bottom five teams
in the ACC. So if you're able to maintain a

(45:30):
pulse and draw a breath every three seconds for most
of the year, you could win eight games. I don't
know how much more you could do than that. What
I am saying is if North Carolina is terrible this
year with this schedule, I don't know what their schedule
looks like next year. It will never be as workable
as this. Even in the ACC, It'll never be as

(45:51):
workable as that. Again, So for that reason alone, I
gotta put North Carolina in there. I mean, they could
just play good, solid football, Like if they did nothing
more than not lose games, they could win nine. Like
if they just stand on the field and wait for
the other team to hand them a game, they could
win nine. That's the kind of year it could be,
and you'd watch them and you'd say, this team is

(46:14):
not good. How in the world are they ranked nineteenth
in the country. Could be that kind of year, or
it could be a disaster. Thus the unpredictability Academy Sports
and outdoors not on the list because they're very predictable.
They are predictably excellent, predictably hospitable, predictably awesome. I just

(46:36):
had one of you about an hour or two ago.
Hit me up. It's back to school time. So like
everyone's pulling in the parking lot. They're taking the picture,
they're tagging me, they're tagging academy. I didn't ask you
to do that, but I appreciate you doing that. And
they're saying, look, man, kiddo's headed back to school. Had
to gear them up, or I'm headed off for a
family camping trip this week. I had to gear up.

(46:58):
Or hey, my little nieces playing field hockey this year,
had to gear up, or man, I'm low on gum.
I'm gonna go get some big leads. You had to
gear up. The point is you can get all of
these things at one place, and that is Academy Sports
and Outdoors. And if you can't get there in person,
Academy dot Com is there to help you out. They
help us out. Longtime partner of the show. We appreciate them.

(47:18):
I think they appreciate us, and you will appreciate them
as well. Let's move on. We got one more team preview.
There were allegations circulating on tech SAgs the other day. Well,
let me back up. There were allegations circulating on the

(47:39):
Texas message boards that I was in the tank for
A and M, which is false. I appreciate A and M.
I'm not in the tank form. But then there are
some very hurtful allegations on tech SAgs considering I'm in
the tank for A and M, that we had left
them out of the team preview series. And then I realized, wait,
they're right, tank or no tank. We've left A and

(48:00):
M out of the preview series. So let's rectify that
for about five minutes here, what do we expect from
Texas A and M this year to set the table
for you. How well do you remember last year? Do
you remember A and M as a success or a
failure in Mike Elko's first year. I think a lot
of people would say failure. I don't know why. They
went into their last game of the season with a

(48:21):
trip to the SEC Championship game on the line. You
remember that, Yeah, Texas game, they win it, They're in
Atlanta playing Georgia. They lost it, and then they lost
the bowl game. So no one really remembers, but it
was true. I was there. It really happened. Since twenty thirteen,
this program has been the model of consistency. That's the

(48:44):
good news. The bad news is they've been consistently average
paper pop total wins per season since twenty thirteen nine
eight eight eight seven nine eight nine eight five seven eight.
Jimbo wants to get back in coaching. Unrelated note, so
they've averaged seven and a half eight wins. They're over

(49:06):
underwin total seven and a half this year. I can't
shake the feeling there's something more there. Thus the end,
the tank allegations start to resurface. So big questions for
Texas A and M. First, is there a big jump
coming defensively this year. We saw it at LSU last year,
we saw it at USC last year. Do we get

(49:28):
a big defensive jump year two here? Mike Elko's sort
of taking the reins here. This is the Elko spot.
They were sixty thirty yards per game given up. They
were ninetieth and pass yards per game given up. Pass rush.
Need to address it, dB got to address it. But
this is the Mike Elko spot because I believe in
his developmental ability about as much as anyone out there. Well,

(49:48):
if that's the case, that's where it'll shine through. It'll
shine through this year. You'll you'll just be saying the
overall collective output here is better. It's not any one
or two players, it's the unit itself is a whole
lot better this year. That's just Mike Elko working his magic.
That's what you need to be saying. The second question,
of course, is Marcel Read at quarterback and his development

(50:10):
this year. You've got the mobile threat. You saw him
at times being assassin with the deep ball last year consistently,
you need to see it more often. I think the
wide receiver group is really upgraded here, and that's why
I think the threat of the deep ball. The threat
of the vertical passing game will be more potent this year.
Colin Klein's just got better personnel to work with when

(50:31):
he calls plays. Also, I mean, what about the intermediate
the underneath an intermediate passing game. Those are areas of
Marcel Read's development that you should see an uptick in
You're one to year two. So it's a question, but
I think I may know the answer to that one,
and then the third one. This is kind of intangible
in nature, but the competitive character of this team is

(50:55):
going to be put on display. They're going to be
exposed one way or the other this year because what
Mike Elko is going to ask that team to do
not many people could do. And this is kind of
a hunch I'm playing here. I think that coaching staff
at A and M is going to demand a brand
of football, a level of physicality over the span of
an entire season that most teams wouldn't be capable of delivering.

(51:18):
So they're going to ask them to do something most
players wouldn't be capable of doing. They're going to ask
them to do something most teams wouldn't be capable of delivering.
So that's a competitive character thing you've gotten after it
in the weight room. I don't doubt that you worked
hard over the summer. I don't doubt that you're big enough,
fast enough, strong enough, or they wouldn't have recruited you
there to begin with. You wouldn't be on the field

(51:38):
at Texas A and M if you didn't have the
physical characteristics. But mentally, do you have the competitive character
not to do that stuff for a quarter? Understand what
I'm talking about. I'm talking about bludgeoning people over a
twelve game season. Doing that the second week of November
when you're beat to death and it hurts to get
up in the morning, and you got to go and

(51:58):
practice on Tuesday the same way that you did in
week three, in week six and week nine. That stuff's hard.
That's why no one does it. No one plays that
way anymore. I think they're gonna ask them to play
a style of football that is a little throwback in nature,
and if they do it effectively, they'll go play for
the conference championship. If they do it effectively. Who's the
best position group here? I'd go with running back. I

(52:19):
would listen to offensive line. I would absolutely listen to
o line. I went running back, Le'Veon Masson, Rubino and Owens.
If they're healthy then especially my answer is running back
because if they're good, it could be lethal and it
kind of goes hand in hand with the offensive line.
But the breakout player for me is not in the
running back room. The breakout player for me is Casius Howell,

(52:43):
because that's a guy that if they turn him loose
this year and he stays healthy, he could be one
of the best edge players in the country. He's six four,
two forty five. He was third team All Mac at
Bowling Green in twenty twenty three, so you may hear
that and he'sa a big deal. Well, I'm not not
looking in the rearview mirror. I'm looking in the windshield.

(53:03):
I'm looking down the road, and I think he is
due for a breakout season this year. He is an
impact player. I think he can change games. There have
been guys through there like that in the past. I
think he could be another one. Take a look at
the schedule here, We've got them playing the number ten
strength of schedule in the country. That's our internal metrics.
Before you go looking for it. That game at Notre

(53:24):
Dame in week three is interesting because of what I
just said. I just said they're going to ask this
team to do something that most teams couldn't do. If
they can do it, that's where they'll show it. They'll
go up to South Bend and they'll win. And if
they do, they out physical Notre Dame in South Bend.
If you do that kind of stuff, that's how you
know you're capable of playing that different brand of football.

(53:46):
That's not the kind of game and M football's won lately.
They didn't win it last year at home, so that's
a big circle game for me. Four of their toughest
five games are on the road. You do need to
know that Week four game is actually a Week five game.
You see they play Auburn as their fourth game, but
they got to buy before that. Auburn doesn't. That's a
huge situation alledge. When you're playing a team at home

(54:08):
and you're off a buy and it's their fifth game
in a row, that's a big situation alledge. So keep
that in mind. Best case, worst case, most likely. What
do we think here? We're pretty high internally on A
and M. So the model has their best case at
eleven and one, not even ten. And two. The model
shoots all the way up. It sees a path where

(54:30):
A and M's eleven and one. Basically, what the models
saying is if that identity starts to crystallize itself, then
that's going to be a tough, tough team to be.
There are worlds where they win eleven of their twelve games.
But if it doesn't come together, there's a five and
seven in here. It's a very high variance team. Actually
I don't agree with that. I think six and six

(54:50):
is the floor for them, But the model seid five
and seven. But what's the most likely record here? The
model has A and M going nine to three, and
that is like a one hundred simulation season sort of thing.
Nine and three is a really good year there. That
means you can go eight and four, you can go
ten and two, but it all kind of averages out
to nine and three. It's pretty high mark over under

(55:13):
seven and a half, so that's a game and a
half over. That's it's not a bad year. Now are
you happy with nine and three? If you can go
nine and three, why not go ten to two? And
if you go ten to two, you can go eleven
and one. Nine and three is basically undefeated. That's how
I'd look at that if I were an A and
M fan. They're watching us in Melbourne, Florida, Columbus, Ohio, Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Appreciate you, guys being tuned in. I have great news.

(55:40):
Thomas Hammock is the head coach at Northern Illinois. You
may remember him for such things as upsetting Notre Dame
at Notre Dame last year, but that's not all he does.
He is also really good with words, and he doesn't
hold back a lot, pretty unfiltered. So he was having

(56:00):
a press conference the other day. I'm judging by our
audience metrics. I don't think most of you are dialed
into Northern Illinois University post practice football press conferences very often.

Speaker 2 (56:11):
But we are.

Speaker 1 (56:13):
This has no context. I just threw it in the show.
I told him to dial it up. It's a little
bit lengthy. It's like a two minute SOT that's a
sound on tape for those who have never worked in
local news. But I want you to listen to it
because by the end of this, knowing our audience like
I think I do, ninety eight or more percent of
you will be nodding your head in approval. This is

(56:33):
Thomas hammock head coach Northern Illinois.

Speaker 2 (56:38):
Yeah, and to me, I mean to be honest with you.
I love the challenge. You know. It don't bother me
one bit because you know what, in life, you're gonna
make decisions, right, Sometimes it's gonna work in your favor
and sometime it's not. I told our teamed the other day,
you know, we lost all these guys. Let's see who plays.
So it's all good when people put it on Twitter. Hey, all,
glory to God. I'm going on transfer portal. Let's see

(57:00):
if they play. How many of other guys gonna play
or travel or get snaps? You know, I was thinking
I was gonna tweet something the other day, a picture
of me and say, you know what, I enjoyed my
college experience. I didn't get one dime, but the lessons
I learned was more valuable than any money you can
ever pay me. And I appreciate that because that is

(57:21):
long term. People are losing the fact that this is
short term. I coached in the National Football League for
five years. Five years, right, don't lose fact, don't lose
focus or what the long term? Get your degree learn
valuable lessons that's going to help you in the long
term of your life. That's the whole purpose. This is

(57:44):
a transition from being a kid to a grown up,
and I hope people don't lose focus of that. Everybody's
talking about everything else besides, what is the most important
thing for going to college? Because if you going to
college to go get a couple of dollars, you might
have to go get a job. This is too hard
to go get a couple dollars. Learn the lesson that

(58:06):
you need to learn to be successful in life for
the next forty to fifty years of your life. That
I would do it again for free, for free because
of the things I learned. That's why I'm standing here today,
because of what I learned in college, not because of
how much somebody gave me. That's what I would tell
people and parents. They need to learn that lesson too.

(58:27):
Stop trying to live through your kids. Teach your kids
what the order the things they need to learn to
be successful. That's what I'm telling my kids. I don't
care about no nil, no revenue share. I can care less.
You need to learn things in college to get you
prepared for life, to be a father, a husband, to work,

(58:49):
everything else. Those are the most important things. That's what
people are missing, in my opinion, just my opinion.

Speaker 1 (58:58):
Yeah, So I enjoyed it, thoroughly enjoyed it, agreed with
all of it. So I saw most people agreed with it,
that had almost unanimous approval. However, you know, some people
disagreed that the sky is blue, so some people had
a little issue with that. And what I noticed is
how quickly people outed themselves. The few dissenters to what

(59:22):
Thomas Hammick just said, They outed themselves quick because what
they did is they talked about what he didn't say.
This happens often on our show, so I'm used to it.
And I noticed the few people who had a problem
with what Thomas Hammick there said, they started taking issue
with what he didn't say. This is how you know

(59:42):
who's fake and who's real in the room. This is
how you know who has a preconceived agenda that they're
trying to push. This has how you know someone has
a vested interest in the current structure of the game
being as chaotic as it is. Because I noticed what
a lot of people said was shame on Thomas hammock
for not wanting these players to be able to get money,

(01:00:03):
for wanting barriers between them and opportunities, for wanting rules
that prohibit this and laws that prohibit that. I saw
all that today. But you know what I didn't see
or hear is him say any of that. Did I
just listen to the entire thing. Did you hear him
talk about rules? Did you hear him talk about laws?
In fact, all I heard him talk about was his opinion.

(01:00:24):
All I heard him give were personal anecdotes. He offered
a perspective, and that was it. There are people out
there who take that for what it is. I'm one
of them. I appreciated what he had to say. I
happen to agree with him, but even if I didn't,
I'd appreciate his viewpoint. There there are other people. I mean, look,
I'm just going to shoot straight with you. There are

(01:00:46):
some people who find it in their best financial interest
for college football to be chaotic and for some players
to make some real piss poor decisions that are going
to impact them forty years down the road. Cause the
people profiting off those decisions in the here and now
will have long forgotten those players forty years down the road. Now,
what you may have just heard is I threw every
agent under the bus. I didn't. I know a lot

(01:01:08):
of them. Some of them give very good guidance. Some
of them truly do have the player's best interest in mind.
But there are of course many more who could not
care less. At the end of the day, it's about
putting money in their pocket. Look, they're playing the same
game that a lot of administrative types play on the
other side. So before anyone in a sweater vest worth

(01:01:28):
eight figures starts nodding their head, you guys do the
same thing. Do you really have the best interest of
college football at heart? Or do you really have your
bank account at heart? This is a tale as old
as time. We're just applying it to college football. But
I will tell you I would just look around and look.
I talk to players all the time. I'm around them

(01:01:49):
all the time. I'll be in three different programs in
the next five days or six days, just trying to
do my math there. So I talked to players constantly.
Many of them get it. Like many of them get it.
The feedback they gets way better now than it even
once five years ago. Just ask yourselves, what kind of

(01:02:09):
feedback are you getting from people who don't stand to
make a dime either way, because those are the people
who are shooting straight with you. Now. It may not
always be the best advice. That does not mean take
advice from everyone, but it does mean when someone stands
to benefit or profit off of your decisions, you better
be careful with the filters you're running their opinions through.

(01:02:33):
And it sucks that you're not fifty years old. It
sucks that you're nineteen years old having to make these
decisions because you don't have a lifetime of experience. You
don't have a lifetime of wisdom, which is just applied
knowledge through experience. You don't have that, and yet you're
having to make decisions now. I know, like I talk
to you guys all the time about it. I understand,
I understand. But point is, that's reality. That's reality. So

(01:02:56):
you got to equip yourselves like drinking water from a
fire hose. You got to equip yourself with the knowledge
as quickly as you can. Try and acquire that wisdom
as quick as you can. Just be careful, like guys
like Thomas Hammock, you are going to have people in
your ear telling you that fool don't know what he's
talking about. He's trapped in a bygone generation. He's just
bitter because he didn't get the opportunity to make the

(01:03:16):
money and now that you're in the new era where
you can make money. A lot of these folks are
selfish and a lot of these folks are envious. Hey,
there may be some. That guy I don't think is
one of them. That guy I don't think is one
of them. I think, and then call me crazy here,
call me drinking the kool aid. I do think he
has the best interest of the player at heart. Forty

(01:03:37):
years down the road instead of four months down the road.
I don't think that's the worst attitude in the world
to have. That's all I'm saying. I had a meeting
earlier today. In fact, we've had several meetings about the
season with all our partners, and one of the partners
that we meet with frequently is FanDuel because what I'm
interested in doing during the season is I'm interested in

(01:04:00):
layering their information into our show to give you a
more accurate read on teams, like, for instance, who would
be favored against who if they played today. That's really fun,
It's stuff we do. We did with them last year,
We're gonna do with them again this year. You could
also say, hey, man, I think Michigan's going to be
ten times better than America. Things. Well, FanDuel says here,
you can go bet them plus points against Ohio State

(01:04:22):
right now if you want to. Do you think Clemson's
going to make the playoff? Yes? Ooh, someone said no,
You could go bet that right now. The prop market
is there, your preseason over under win totals. Are there,
Games of the year are there, odds to make and
miss the playoff, odds to win conferences, odds to win
the national championship. It's all there. Do it responsibly or

(01:04:43):
don't do it at all. But if you can do
it responsibly, if you shake that pocket and you hear
a little spare change in there and you're looking for
something to do with it, might I suggest Georgia Tech
to make the playoff. It returns good money right now,
I should know. Sign Up for FanDuel dot Com backslash
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(01:05:05):
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(01:05:29):
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(01:05:52):
eight Hope, n Y. Or text h op E n
Y in New York. All right, let's wrap the show
up with a very important question. I got strong feelings
on this, strong feelings. It's about something that's near and
dear to all of our hearts this time of year. Bradley,
here's the endpoint when you edit this. I snapped Phil

(01:06:14):
from Montgomery, Alabama, Bradley's hometown. He said, do you agree
with me that someday preseason rankings don't even exist? In
college football? The first polls shouldn't exist until week six
at the earliest. Thank you for asking this question, Phil. No,
I don't agree with you at all. No, I'm not
with you whatsoever. I love preseason rankings, I love preseason

(01:06:36):
power ratings, I love odds, I love it all. In fact,
as the future commissioner of this sport, I stated this
morning that when elected, my platform does not include a
ban on or preseason rankings. My platform actually encourages preseason rankings. However,

(01:06:57):
when I'm the commissioner, my office will hand out massive
cash prizes to the most accurate polsters every December, while
publicly shaming the least accurate polsters. I believe two things work.
Scratch that. Mem I used to always tell me, two
things work, Joshua, when all else fails. Money is the
incentivizer and bullying is the deterrent. So money works and

(01:07:21):
bullying works. And Mehmi used to tell me all the time,
you want someone's absolute best, just reach one hundred dollars
right above their head, just tall enough where they got
to jump for it. They'll jump. And if you really
really want to correct behavior, sometimes you gotta take actions.

(01:07:42):
You got to take matters into your own hands, and
so look, I love that kind of environment. But to
be real with you, I want to ask you, Matthew,
because I know you're not alone. I know many people
out there field this way. Many of you hate preseason rankings?
Why are preseason rankings bad? For all of you who
just want them scrapped? Knowing it's impossible, but let's it
was possible to completely do away with and outlaw preseason

(01:08:04):
rankings and preseason polls. Why are they bad? The first
thing I always get told is all they create biases.
It crystallizes mistruths in the preseason. How is that? How
is that? What barrier have preseason rankings created? Last I checked?
Sm you got in the playoff last year, Indiana. If

(01:08:26):
there's ever been a preseason barrier built in front of
a team by way of polling and rankings, it would
have been Indiana football last year. How'd they do? They
got in the playoff? Like by week five and week six?
Where is this even factoring in anymore? This is just
stuff that gets said. And then the other part of
it is, oh, Josh, you're intentionally misrepresenting it. You know

(01:08:47):
good and well. When I say biases, I mean the
poles prop up the SEC. Therefore it makes all the
strength of schedules look better than it actually is. And
I always ask the same thing. Don't speak in the abstract,
don't speak generically, speak specifically. Look at the specific top
twenty five this year, power ratings or rankings. I don't

(01:09:09):
care who's where they shouldn't be, like who unfairly I'm
looking at the AP right now. Who is unfairly placed?
Because as much as you want to talk about that,
I could go with other schools. I could go to
any other conference. Like it's an SEC thing, because the
SEC is either you're a fan of one of their
teams or they are evil. But it's mainly just noise

(01:09:34):
the preseason biases. The next thing people say is it
impacts the way the committee votes. Hey, if that's true,
you don't have a pole problem. You got a committee problem.
Because if anyone on the playoff committee in December is
making a decision and they're tapping the temple on the
right side of their head, say hell, let's see where

(01:09:54):
was that team ranked in the preseason, you got the
wrong person on the committee. In fact, if anybody on
the committee is taking into account anything in the past,
even after they've seen something that proves otherwise than those
people don't need to be on the committee, So complain
about the committee. To me, you don't plain about complain
about preseason rankings. I just always ask when someone wants

(01:10:19):
to do away with something, is it a net positive?
And I think preseason rankings are a net positive because
they create conversation and there's not a whole lot of
consequence around it. The key is be open minded. If
you're going to rank teams, or in my case, if
you're going to power rate teams, do it, but be
open minded. That's why Week one so important. You've got

(01:10:41):
to be ready to pivot on a dime, but also
not fall victim to knee jerk reactions. It's a very
very fine balance that you have to strike there. Also,
in what world do you expect people to stop comparing
teams and having opinion? Everybody does it. The people who
say they don't want preseason holes do it. So that's

(01:11:01):
not going anywhere. So, by my estimation, we've got something
fun that makes August go by faster. There's really no
consequence to it. It's written in pencil. It's not written
in pen anybody worth their salt on the playoff committee
has long since forgotten about the preseason rankings long before
they release their poll in week nine or week ten.
If anyone is allowing it to cloud their judgment, you

(01:11:23):
need to get them out of the room entirely. I
believe that it would be great if I could be
the commissioner of this sport and give the top ten
pollsters a million dollars each, which further removes the allegation
of nefarious activity propping up of one conference or the other.
You got cash on the line, you get rid of
all that. And I am a big fan of publicly

(01:11:44):
shaming posters who whiff fantastically unless it's me. So yeah,
I'm all for preseason polls. I'm all for them.

Speaker 2 (01:11:51):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:11:51):
I gotta go. We got a lot of traveling to
do at Josh Pate, CFB, TikTok Twitter, Instagram. I would
recommend following because it's going to be very active over
the next few days. I'm going to a lot of places.
You know, I haven't even told you. We're doing our
Tuesday show live from someone's campus. It's not open to

(01:12:11):
the public, That's why I haven't told you. But it
will be a playoff contender. I will just tell you
that I'm going to go to a couple of places
next few days. Just just check the socials. You'll find
out more there. For producer Jesse For director Bradley, I'm
Josh Pate. Take care, have a great start to your weekend.
We'll be back Sunday night.

Speaker 3 (01:12:29):
Until then, God bless.

Speaker 1 (01:12:43):
Sign up for FanDuel at FanDuel dot com backslash CFB
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(01:13:04):
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(01:13:24):
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York