MY Top 25 Rankings + Week 2 Upset Alerts & Cole Cubelic

College Football upset alerts are everywhere as week 2 approaches. Tonight we take a look at games like Illinois vs Duke, James Madison vs Louisville, Ole Miss vs Kentucky, Oklahoma State vs Oregon, USF vs Florida, and Arizona State vs Mississippi State. Where do things stand with Kalen DeBoer and Alabama? Josh Pate and Cole Cubelic discuss whether the Tide can pull the nose up on the season. The month of September has several huge matchups on the horizon including Oregon vs Penn State, Alabama vs UGA, Texas Tech vs Utah, Texas A&M vs Notre Dame, and Florida facing both LSU and Miami. The Week 2 edition of the JP Poll caused so much chaos Josh has decided to release his personal rankings for the first time ever. Where are Ohio State and Texas? Could Miami be top 5? What about Tennessee?

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Week two. Huh, sure is sure is quiet out there.
It's a little bit too quiet. I would even go
as far as to say suspiciously quiet. It's one of
those weeks people tell you you can afford to do
yard work, you can afford to have a social life.
Some people even suggest scheduling fall weddings during weekends like these.

(00:36):
Of course those are casuals we don't acknowledge, but those
people do exist. And yet, time and time again, college
football teaches us it's the weekends you fly over that
are the weekends that cause you to crash and burn.
We're jam packed, we're high a top of glorious, beautiful
sunset outside downtown Nashville, Tennessee, on this Thursday, September, fourth
year of Our Lord, twenty twenty five. Yeah, we're going

(00:58):
to do upset alerts. We do them every Thursday. I'm
just growing mildly to moderately concerned about some of you who,
after one week, believe you know everything you need to
know about not only your teams, but all the teams,
and you believe that you can afford to overlook this week.
You cannot. You cannot. In fact, we know it's gonna happen.
Immunity to everything. We know it's coming, we just don't

(01:20):
know when I am taking unprecedented steps on Tonight's show.
I have listened as the future commissioner of this great
sport of ours. I have listened to people complained about
the JP poll. And I know once upon a time
I told you we weren't gonna bend on this. But
I've got my reasons for doing what I'm about to
tell you I'm doing on tonight's show. For the first
time ever during a season, I am not releasing my

(01:43):
power ratings. I'm gonna flat out give you my rankings.
If I were an AP voter, Here's how I'd vote them.
Not power ratings, not neutral field favorability, good old fashioned merit,
earn it on the field, and it's gonna be pretty exotic.
I tell you, September is changing. The schedule is changing rapidly.

(02:04):
We got some huge games over the next three weeks,
four weeks. Really it's the entire season. But dude, we
got some landscape playoff, field altering, at conference race deciding
games that you don't have to wait until November for. Also,
Kublic may be on the show tonight Jesse told me
there is a what do we think, Jesse like fifty
five to forty five, sixty forty maybe maybe sixty five

(02:28):
to thirty five chants that Kublic's on the show within
the next thirty minutes. I don't know our balls are
in his court. I don't know they're watching us in Abilene,
Texas Des Moines, Iowa, where I will be sometime, very
very very late tomorrow night. Alexandria, Virginia, Sunrise, Florida. Thank
you so much. Now listen, I'm going to do something
stupid tomorrow, very stupid. It has long been my dream

(02:52):
to be able to do some recreational activities during the fall.
And what I mean by that is play men's league
softball on Friday nights. But we're normal traveling. Well, we've
gotten a little more flexibility in our travel this weekend.
So I'm gonna play softball tomorrow night, and then me
and pres I believe we're gonna fly up to Iowa
in the middle of the night. Anyway, I say all
that to say this, I've got to do Friday Night

(03:13):
lines earlier tomorrow night, much to the delight of some
of you who have an early bedtime so listen here,
listen up Instagram Live tomorrow night. I'm looking at seven
eastern sixth Central or thereabouts for Friday Night Lines. I'm
gonna give you two more best bets on the Ramnudle
Express on this show tonight. But those of you who
think Friday Night Lines is a little bit too late

(03:34):
for you, or you know you're better than the rest
of us and you're out partying on Friday night, well
I bet you're not out by seven eastern. So check
us out over there at Josh Pate CFB. And while
you're there, I'm just gonna go ahead and let you
know again we live a very stupid life around here.
We get to do a lot of fun stuff. The
Instagram story this weekend will be evidence of that. Two

(03:56):
games on Saturday, softball on Friday night gonna be great,
Okay in the meantime. In the meantime, the upset alert
meter is pinging all across the country, and frankly, I'm
not even sure in the one, two, three, four, five,
six games that I'm about to discuss here if we're
even going to scratch the surface of the threat. There
are shark fins everywhere. Do not listen to people who

(04:19):
tell you this is some sleepy weekend. This is some
overlooked weekend in wrestling. What would they call this Jesse
like a one match card. People are telling you it's Oklahoma,
Michigan and nothing else. Well, that can't be true because
I myself will be at two games Saturday. But outside
of that, what just because you got a thirteen point
spread on a game you think it can't happen. You

(04:40):
checked out Alabama lately. Bama's the first one, they may
not be the only ones. So let's look at some
of these games. The first one wouldn't even be an upset,
but you can't tell that to the college football public.
Illinois is at Duke. You haven't looked at it. If
you haven't looked at it the spread, that is, what
do you think the gap between these teams? Is Illinois
number six in the Big Ten odds but ranked pretty high.

(05:05):
Duke's number seven in the acc odds. What would you
think you're running your own sportsbook, now, what would you think? Seven? Eight?
Maybe Illinois by ten. Illinois a two and a half
point favorite there, but it's moved to three and a half.
We got it. The other of the night. This is
one of our best bets. So I'm kind of talking
to myself right now. I love Illinois in this game.
But in the interest of talking about the upset alert meter, yeah,

(05:27):
we got to put it at a seven. We got
to acknowledge it could happen here. We're going to find
out about Darien Menzo. So that was the quarterback. If
you'll recall, it was a two lane last year, and
then he got paid. I think the number was like
half a billion dollars to go to Duke. It's a
rough estimate, and this is the kind of game that
he's there for. I want to tell you something. I

(05:50):
know it's only week two, but I want to tell
you if you're thinking a long game here, if you're thinking,
how does this game fundamentally impact the playoff picture? It
does for both teams. So I want you to just
quickly just think this through with me. Let's say Duke
wins this game. They're two toughest remaining games, not for

(06:11):
this month but the whole year are Georgia Tech and
at Clemson. What if they lose both of them, ten
and two Duke. What if they split them maybe eleven
and one Duke? Now, of course they could lose other games,
but I'm giving you the toughest remaining opponents as we
see it. If Illinois wins this game, they got at
Indiana and Ohio State at home as their toughest remaining games,

(06:34):
not their only losable games, of course, Like they got
to go to Washington, that'll be a very tough game.
They play USC at home, That's not an easy game,
but you get yourself some wiggle room. Anyway. I'm gonna
put a seven on this one on the upset Alert
concern scale. Gonna be a one to watch though. Now,
as for the goings on in Lexington, Kentucky this weekend,

(06:55):
you might or might not have heard that Ole Miss
is in town. You probably remember that Kentucky won this
game outright last year. So what are we thinking, revenge
spot run it up Lane? Well, if you thought that
this morning, then I've got great news for you this evening.
The line I think when I woke up was like
ten and a half. It's dropped two points today. Now,

(07:16):
if you care about betting, that matters for obvious reasons.
If you don't care about betting, you're probably still curious.
They're like, wait a second, that means Old Miss is
minus less points now, which means they're favored by less.
Why would that be the case? Why? God, to be
real with you, I don't know. I don't know to
the point where I'm gonna have some action on this game.

(07:39):
But if I were to put together the case for Kentucky,
they did win this game last year. They did have
four sacks and seven tackles for loss in this game
last year. Matchup wise didn't go well for Old Miss.
I would go as far as to say offensive line
is still something that you need to see several weeks
of in terms of proof of performance. It is a

(07:59):
team going on the road in conference for the first
time this year. It's a first year starter at quarterback
going on the road. I still look at it and
I say, I gotta see it. I'm putting a four
on this. Everyone that I've seen is circle in this game.
Be careful, ol Miss, be careful. How about Kentucky? Be careful?
This is the Zach Calzada led Kentucky Wildcats. They got

(08:21):
out gained by Toledo last week. I don't often say
these words, but man, there's no way this is gonna happen.
Is that the general consensus out there. I know it is.
I know everyone thinks that, and yet obviously someone with
a ton of money's betting on Kentucky here it Sometimes,
oftentimes when that happens, it gets my attention. I'm looking

(08:44):
at it this time saying, I hope you enjoyed your money.
You're gonna be partnering with it soon. Don't embarrass me,
Lane next up, Boy, oh boy. Sometimes the Sarah McLaughlin
special sneaks up on you. Other times you can see
here from a mile away, and I really think she's
going to be coming to us from Eugene, Oregon this Saturday.

(09:06):
Oklahoma State at Oregon. This line is right now, twenty
eight and a half, which is a shame because once
upon a time, not too long ago, kids, if you're
like six years old watching Thank You, subscribe, Thank You,
But uh, what if I told you this would have
been a marquee matchup not too long ago? Oregon is
still what they're supposed to be. Oklahoma State's sort of

(09:28):
falling on hard times, a poverty program by their own admission. Lately,
this game, according to Mike Gundy, has been sort of
set up like where I grew up in rural Georgia
around Christmas time. One Friday night, you go to Golden Corral,
you get stuffed, get you maybe a to go box,
even though I'm not sure you're supposed to do that

(09:49):
at Golden Corral. Anyway, you'd leave and before you go home,
it's December. Your mom or your dad says, you, guys
want to go look at Christmas lights. Kids in the
back seat joyously ring out, yeah, we want to go
look at Christmas lights. Now, that means you're going to
the nice neighborhood and you're gonna drive up down these
hills and look at those long driveways up to these

(10:11):
immaculate Christmas decorations and lights on these three and four
story homes. But all the while, you know you got
a finite amount of time in there. You're only there
to visit. That's not the neighborhood you live in. You
eventually got to turn around and you got to go
back home. Oklahoma State's going to see Christmas lights this weekend.
Oklahoma State's going to see a program that is flush

(10:34):
with cash they spend to win up there, and it's
been talked about a lot this week. If you've missed it,
the sniping back and forth. Landing just popped two more
Zen's in to talk about it while I've been doing
this segment, so I can tell when Dan Landing's about
to run it up on someone. They're about to run
it up on Oklahoma State. Oklahoma States quarterback I think's

(10:54):
hurt too. So one and a half kindly, right now,
one and a half is my concern for this game.
To say I'm not concerned about it. However, Arizona State
is going to Mississippi State, and this one has my interest,
It may even have my outright attention. The Big Twelve
has a big week coming up. This is an example
of that. We got the number three team in the

(11:16):
Big Twelve according to the odds right now, versus the
number fourteen team in the SEC. And the conference has
a lot of marquis out of conference games this weekend.
They had some last week and it didn't go great
outside of Utah, which is criminally underrated right now. I'll
get to that later. This can't happen. And yet the
line on the game six and a half, so Arizona

(11:37):
State favored by less than a touchdown. On the road.
Arizona State was very isolated in offensive production numbers last
week against Northern Arizona. Of course, they didn't open the
bag against Northern Arizona. But if they get on the
road here in Cowbell Country and Jordan Tyson gets limited,
do they have the depth of playmaker? Do they have

(11:58):
the depth and the wide receiver room? Can they run
the ball consistently here? Because Mississippi State with a healthy
shape and is a pretty solid team, not upper echelon
in the SEC, nothing like that. But I keep thinking
back to that Arizona State game last year, your eventual
Big twelve champ last year, goes on the road to
Texas State. They eke out a win, and that number

(12:20):
was small too. I think this is going to be
a fight, four quarter fight. I got it at eight
and a half on the Upset Alert Concern Meter. It's
the kind of game where just not many people are
talking about it, but if the upset happens, everyone's looking saying, oh,
who saw that coming?

Speaker 2 (12:36):
Well?

Speaker 1 (12:36):
Why not you? Why wouldn't you know? Why wouldn't this
be on your radar? Because you felt for the casuals
telling you this is a sleeper week. That's why USF
is going to Gainesville. USF Alex Golish has made sort
of an early career down there out of playing SEC
teams tough. Did it twice against Bama. I think he's
played either Florida or Miami and did it tough with

(12:57):
them too. They just beat Boise. They're on extra rest
a couple of days extra rest. Here's the way I
see this game going. I don't think Florida is just
going to blow them out wire to wire. There is
a world where Florida gets out to an early lead,
third quarter, it's a four score game, and so then
they start thinking to themselves, hmm, we go to LSU

(13:20):
and then we go to Miami. Foot comes off the
gas a little bit, maybe Lagway comes out. That's just
for point spread purposes. That's how the back door cover
would happen. But that's not what we're talking about here.
We're talking about can USF win the game out right?
There's a path for it to happen. Yes, there's a
world where that happens. I got it at a four
and a half on the upset Alert concern scale because

(13:41):
I do think that Florida is athletically totally different caliber. Obviously,
I do think that they're dynamic enough to where this
doesn't actually happen. It would not shock me at all.
If you're getting text if your phone's getting blown up
wherever you are, midway through third quarter or late third
quarter of this game. Hey bro on the USF Florida game,
you've seen. What's happening here would not shock me. I'm

(14:04):
gonna put a four and a half on it. I
am paying attention to it. For the record, I would
lean South Florida plus the points and one more game
Friday game here James Madison at Louisville. Hm hmm, I
don't know. We already bet it this week. I like

(14:25):
James Madison to cover. I've got a solid seven on
the upset alert concern scale here. Now the line's fourteen
and a half, and I actually like Louisville. I'm just
worried that they haven't geled yet. It's a portal heavy team.
Miller Moss had three picks last week. I believe against
Eastern Kentucky that they ran it well. James Madison, that is,

(14:49):
ran it for three hundred last week against a high school,
but nonetheless ran it for three hundred. Weber State is
the name of the high school James Madison is always
one of the best GFI programs. You never I don't.
I'm not pretending to know what they have this early
in the season. I don't think they do. But we
do have one of their grads on staff, so we
constantly get fed intel. That's not true, but we are

(15:10):
kept up to date about James Madison. I would keep
a close eye on this game if it just if
it dive bombs you out of nowhere. I think it
may be Louisville, Kentucky where it happens. So I have
a strong eye, both eyes on that game. You can
get to any of them. Fuel up at Quick Trip,
of course, you can get to any of them. The

(15:31):
whole has almost said the wrong tour name again. The
Fall Don't Lie Tour is on the road two stops
this weekend. We're going to be in Ames, Iowa for
the early kickoff Iowa versus Iowa State, and then we
will make our way down to Norman, hopefully well before
kickoff of the Michigan Oklahoma game. Looking forward to seeing
a lot of our friends in both places. But it's

(15:54):
gonna be a great day. Would not be possible without
Quick Trip. They should send us some cold brew to
have with us. I don't even want to stop for it.
I just want to have it. Of course, we have
to stop eventually to fuel up, and we're not driving
from Iowa to Oklahoma. But you know what, some of
you may not all in one day, but some of
you may, whatever the case may be, wherever your journeys

(16:14):
take you this weekend, make quick trip one of the stops.
We appreciate them. They are the exclusive fuel provider of
every tour virtually that we've taken over the last few years.
There's no virtually every tour we've taken over the last
few years, and we appreciate them so much. One more,

(16:36):
just quick note before I get to why a lot
of you are here right now. Some of you may
be here for Cublic. I don't know. There's no guarantee
he's even going to be on the show, so be
careful with that. I do have my Top twenty five
coming up in just a second. Some of you saw that,
and then you ask about the thing that I did
with Colin Cowherd. Yeah, that's another partnership that we've entered into.

(16:58):
I'm going to do something with Colin weekly over on
his channel yet again, it doesn't impact this show at all.
Yet again, it doesn't change anything about this show. Yet again,
everything remains the same on this show. So most of
what we planned has now been brought to light about
our content strategy for this year. And as you can

(17:20):
clearly see, the show still here. We still own it.
Same schedule, same vibe, same everything, same little coffee mug
over there, which is a relic from my wedding. By
the way, finally got ourselves one. I didn't even get
one of my own wedding gifts. I had to barter
with someone, not the way it's supposed to work, but
it worked that way anyway. So we got to deal

(17:42):
with We got a partnership with Busting with the Boys,
We got a partnership with On three, partnership with Yahoo,
partnership with the ESPM, partnership with Colin. We are taking
college football to every corner of the earth that we
possibly can. And I don't know if you saw the
rating for Ohio State, Texas and bam FS and LSU Clemson.

(18:04):
Are we responsible for it? I can't say no. No,
I can say no, but we're happy to be a
part of it. We're happy to be able to talk
about it all. Right, there we go, Bradley eyes on
me right here. I have to release my rankings. I
feel like I have to do this. So here's the deal.
I never do rankings. I only believe in power ratings.

(18:26):
I've never really cared about rankings all that much, but
in the power ratings world, it's all about neutral field favorability.
I put out the JP pole every week, and every
week it confuses people, but I explain it. So if
you're confused after that, it's up to you. You don't
have to agree with it, but you know it's kicked
over in ant bed. That's a lot bigger than I
was ready for this year, because our show's gotten so

(18:48):
big that there's so many new viewers and listeners that
the JP Pole when it's put in front of them
doesn't make sense. And I really feel like we've reached
a tipping point where if that is the only exposure
that someone's getting to our sho show, it is sullying
the good name of our show before they ever give
us a shot. So what am I going to do
about that? Well, I thought to myself self, continue to

(19:10):
do the JP pole community, But we are also tonight
and maybe tonight only, I don't know going to deliver
an actual top twenty five. I for the next five
minutes am going to be an AP voter, and I'm
going to tell you if I had to rank teams,
if I was a playoff committee member and I had
to rank teams, forget about neutral field, who would be

(19:32):
favored over who that's for Tuesday night? Forget that. No,
this is about merit. This is about earning it on
the field. This is about a body of work for
this year. And many of you have played nobody, some
of you have already lost. Well, you know what that
just means. If I'm going to really stick to my
principles here, that means I'm not gonna lie to you

(19:54):
and say I didn't have a preseason idea on teams,
But once the games have happened, I'm going to be
a about ten percent working off my preseason idea and
ninety percent what's happened on the field. Because to me,
that's how rankings should work. So I'm gonna do it
in random order. I'm gonna show you, for instance, Miami
right now, Miami's ranked fifth in the AP. I would

(20:16):
put them third. That was a very impressive game they
played the other night against Notre Dame, and look, you
could argue them higher than that. I would go no
lower than third from Miami Arizona State, I'd put about sixteen.
Nothing against Northern Arizona really moved me one way or
the other. They've got a much better shot going on
the road in the SEC this weekend, so i'd have

(20:36):
them sixteen. Michigan gonna see them in person Saturday night.
Give me Michigan at nineteen. I'd put the Wolverines down
there right now. AP's got him at fifteen. Not a
ton of separation. And it's a moot point because if
Michigan goes and dominates Oklahoma, Michigan probably vaults themselves up
into the top ten. Florida State's ranking makes no sense

(20:56):
to me. Not power rating their ranking makes that's no
sense to me. The AP's got them at fourteen. Florida
State's at seven for me, and I'm gonna tell you why,
because Florida State just pants to Alabama on national television.
And you can say what you want to about where
Alabama shutters shouldn't be ranked, and I'll get to that.
But if you're telling me. You're putting them at fourteen.

(21:18):
That means you've seen thirteen more impressive bodies of work
so far this year than Florida State. Drugs. You were high,
You're lying. What you're doing is you're too prideful to
come off your own preconceived notions in the preseason. Now,
if we're doing power ratings, that's okay, but that's not
what we're doing. You dragged me into this world kicking
and screaming. So I'm gonna explain to you how your

(21:40):
world should work. In your world, Florida State should be
a bona fide top ten team right now. I got
them at number seven. I've got Notre Dame the exact
same as the AP. I've got him at number nine. Okay.
The most egregious omission from the top fifteen this week
was Utah. Utah is number eight for me. Utah is

(22:01):
a top ten team because Utah committed some light crime
against UCLA, and I know what happened. I know what happened.
We all know what happened. Those of us who are
really die hard and we love the sport, we were
sitting up at one thirty in the morning watching Utah.
Most people with an AP vote were sound asleep, and

(22:23):
that's why Utah is currently what twenty fifth in the AP.
It's such a joke. This is why I don't have
time to be schooled about my power ratings by people
whose rankings are this big a joke. Utah dominated week one.
I will virtually guarantee you there will be severe upward mobility.
People will be so far behind the curve on them.

(22:45):
Well I'm out of the curve. Well, actually, actually I'm
just on the curve because I actually watched them play
the other night. The audacity, by the way of ranking
teams after you watch them play, Utah number eight, USF
is ranked for me, I've got them twenty fifth. The
AP is like USF us what they played already? Yeah, yeah,
you know who they played. They played the team every
single one of you were picking to go to the

(23:07):
playoff from the G five. Why do I get the
sneaking suspicion, by the way that if Boise would have
won that thing by three, they'd be ranked. But since
USF one going away, they're not ranked. I'll tell you why.
Pre season rankings. Nothing wrong with preseason rankings. Remember I

(23:27):
don't even do rankings. Except for this right now. But
I've always told you I got no problem with preseason rankings,
but you got to be able to come off of
those rankings once the season starts. You got to be
able to keep about ten percent of your preseason belief
and first few weeks ninety plus percent of your guidance
should be based on what's happened on the field. Well,
they convincingly beat a playoff projected team in Boise State,

(23:52):
so they ought to be ranked. So they are. For me.
I've got South Carolina number ten. I've got them the
same as the AP does. I've got Ohio State number one,
the same as the AP does, so I don't have
much disagreement there. I know there was some talk about
whether Ohio State should be one or LSU should be one.
If I'm ranking teams, guys, this is not that difficult.

(24:12):
That team just won a national championship. They just took
on an elite opponent, high level opponent, and they beat
them and led fourteen to nothing in the fourth quarter.
Like until someone knocks them off or they look extremely vulnerable,
or someone else just looks above and beyond dominant. Don't
overthink the room. Ohio State's the number one team in

(24:33):
the country. Ole Miss, I've got five spots higher than
the AP. I've got ole Miss at fifteen. I think
the AP's got them at twenty, right, Jesse. They sure
they went up and down the field on Georgia State.
They got some impressive athletes. And I was watching that
because we had Georgia State plus the points and that
didn't go the way we wanted it to. They ran

(24:54):
it up on Georgia State. They go on the road
this week to Kentucky. It's the kind of game where
they have everything to lose and virtually nothing to win.
Because they go smoke Kentucky, people will say it was Kentucky,
and then if they don't, they'll plummet because they lost
to Kentucky. I think they'll take care of business this week.
I believe in them, Elaine, I believe in you again.

(25:16):
Don't embarrass me this week. LSU number two team in
the country. AP's got him at number three. LSU just
went on the road. Not only did they win a
game on the road, I actually if you just watched
the game, you understand there were a couple of calls
that kept that from being a game where LSU won

(25:37):
with margin on the road in the building of the
preseason ACC title favorite. So yes, LSU way up there.
Number two. I got Oregon the same as the AP.
I've got him number six. Here's another team that not
a lot of people watched last week, Tennessee. Tennessee was
impressive to me. If I'm going to sit here and

(25:58):
question Tennessee the preseason and then some of the things
I questioned are strengths of their Week one win over Syracuse,
I'm rewarding that I've got them number thirteen. The AP
has them twenty two. Guarant Look, I will guarantee you
that the game against Syracuse happened and not a lot

(26:20):
of people watched it because it was in a window
where other big games were happening, and people just looked
and said, Okay, well they beat Syracuse. That's not a
big deal. They their offensive line, the quarterback play defensively,
just so many things I had question marks about Tennessee
on one game sample size. I know that's all we
have to go on. We're not projecting with this. This

(26:41):
isn't power ratings. There's rankings. Tennessee's thirteen. I don't know
why people aren't higher on them after their Week one performance.
Very impressive Texas, all right, what do we do with them?
I dropped him a fair amount because I've got to
go on body of work, and the body of work
for Texas right now is a loss. But it's a
lost number one team in the country. Fair. They did

(27:03):
rally back, they gave themselves an outside shot to win
it late, but that offense was shaky. Matt, Patricia will
do that to you. As it turns out. I put
Texas at eleven. I put them a little bit lower
than the AP which has them at seven. And it
doesn't matter what you're ranked, obviously, and plenty of plenty
of opportunities to rebound, but I gotta come down on

(27:24):
you pretty harshly when you're as anemic offensively as that,
when you can't get it done inside the ten yard line. Again,
it's a lingering issue that we saw crop up last year.
I'm gonna put Texas at eleven right now. Iowa State,
I'm pretty in line with what the AP thinks they're
They've got them sixteen. I've got Iowa State fourteen. We
will see them in person Saturday morning Central time against Iowa.

(27:48):
You might be wondering, oh man, when's Bama gonna pop up?
Win's Bama gonna pop up? I don't have them ranked.
Alabama's unranked for me. The AP's got them twenty one.
Why would I rank Alabama. There are twenty five bodies
of work better than Alabama's right now. Indiana, I don't
have ranked. I saw him struggle to put old dominion away,
took old dominion in the points. By the way, if

(28:09):
you were listening on Friday night lines, the AP's got
them twenty third. Not a ton of disagreement there, But
I don't have Indiana top twenty five. Oklahoma is very
very conflicting for me, cause in the JP pole I'm
high on Oklahoma. Well, the model is at least and
I picked Oklahoma to beat Michigan this weekend. Who I
have ranked nineteenth, But I do not have Oklahoma ranked.

(28:29):
I think I have in twenty six. So just outside
the top twenty five. They're coming off a bad year.
Remember it's tough for me to reprogram my mind to
talk like this. But in rankings terms, why has Oklahoma
earned a top twenty five ranking. They came off a
bad year, yet they made moves and if I'm predicting.
I will predict Oklahoma to be a top twenty five team.

(28:50):
But they couldn't run the ball last week against Illinois State.
They struggled to run the ball. Matier looked good against
inferior competition, but hey, I could say that about him
at Washington State. I've yet to see him against legit competition,
which happens this weekend against Michigan. But I've got Oklahoma
just outside the top twenty five, and the AP has
them eighteen right now. Penn State AP's got them two,

(29:13):
I've got them four. It's just I've not seen them
play anybody. I just saw what Miami and LSU and
Ohio State did, so I'm rewarding those three. It's not
a punishment on Penn State. They've got plenty of opportunities
coming up. I've got USC ranked twenty third. I've got
USC this is arguable. They could be twenty third, they

(29:35):
could be twenty sixth. I think that there's again a
little pulse out there, maybe a little more pulse than
the public is ready to admit. They scored like one
hundred and forty seven points week one against a high
school team. I got USC twenty third. You can debate that.
That's fine. Georgia, I've got fifth, the AP has fourth.

(29:55):
No real difference in an opinion there. Illinois, I'm with
the AP on them. So there's a lot of agree
here with the AP. I've got Illinois twelfth, the AP
has them eleventh. SMU same deal. I got SMU eighteen,
the AP has them seventeen. I also agree on Texas Tech.
They're at twenty fourth. All right, here's one that will
probably be a little controversial, but I just think it

(30:16):
makes perfect sense. If we are ranking teams based on
their body of work, why is Clemson number eight in
the country. Clemson got stoned in their own building a
game that honestly on the scoreboard was a lot closer
than maybe it could have been or should have been.
At the end, that was dangerously close to LSU stretching
that thing. And I got Clemson at twenty one. That

(30:39):
is not that impressive a showing at all. I think
their offense is very limited right now. There's a ways
to go for that team. So I'm divorcing myself of
preseason expectation. Doesn't matter what I thought about Clemson preseason.
This is the rankings world. Right. This is how it's
supposed to work, Jesse. Right, that's what y'all told me.
So if we're going based on what we've had actually seeing,

(31:01):
Clemson's not a top fifteen team. They're number twenty one
right now. That's where they're parked. Be happy to be ranked.
You did play my number two team, I will grant you.
You could have scheduled a creampuff in one by forty,
but yet you didn't and you lost. So you're at
twenty one right now. Let's see Florida. I'm a little

(31:23):
bit lower on than the AP. Obviously the JP pole
would disagree. But I've got Florida seventeen. AP's got him thirteen.
Let's fill this out, Bradley, I got A and M twentieth.
AP's got him nineteen. I've got Georgia Tech ranked. Georgia
Tech committed the crime of playing too early. They go
out to Colorado, they turn the ball over three times
in the first quarter and still win the game. I

(31:45):
think Georgia Tech's impressive Haines King may not survive half
the season if they play him like they did the
other night. So we're gonna work on that. But I
got Georgia Tech ranked. So I mean, I don't get
what's so difficult about this. As far as I can tell,
rankings are judge a team based on merit instead of
what they would be favored by against who on a

(32:07):
neutral field. This seems very easy. People are making it
very complicated. I don't know why. I don't know why
at all. Academy Sports and Outdoors again very very simple.
This is the place that you can go if you
need let's say, camping equipment, grilling equipment, tailgating equipment. You
can go to Academy. If the little ones are about

(32:27):
to get involved in fall sports, yes, if you just
need a new pair of boots, if you're ready to
go fishing, all of these things, all of this equipment
can be found at Academy. If you can't get there
in person, sounds like a crisis, right, No, Academy dot
Com has your hook up, and so they have been
a longtime partner of ours. We appreciate Academy. I'll go

(32:47):
as far as to say we love Academy, and they'll
love you whether you're there in person or online. They're
watching us in Columbia, South Carolina, Los Angeles, California, and Wilkesbury, Pennsylvania.
Thank you guys so much. Jesse at seven thirty two.
What should we do right here? Oh? We do well? Well, well,

(33:11):
all right, here's what we'll do, Jesse. I've got a plan.
I got a plan. So let's get cublicqueued up and
then I'll tell you what we're gonna do. I am
going to do Rominouel Express. Then we'll do Cublic. Okay,
so Robinoel Express. I'm about to add two games too.

(33:32):
We are already Just to refresh you, the games were
already on and all of these numbers have moved. Some
say we're moving the line. I don't want to confirm that.
I'm just telling you Northern Illinois plus seventeen and a
half ain't available anymore. We locked it in on Tuesday,
James Madison plus fourteen and a half gone. We locked
it in on Tuesday. Illinois minus two and a half.

(33:52):
That thing crossed three. We locked it in on Tuesday.
Michigan Oklahoma over forty five and a half. Now that
one you can actually get better value on. Right now,
we have a difference of opinion FanDuel and I on
the way that game is gonna go anyway, lock in
right here. Two added best bets ole Miss. I cannot
believe this number is coming down to us ole Miss

(34:13):
minus eight and a half. Yes, yes, it's the squarest
bet in the world. I couldn't care less. People are
overthinking the room on this. They're winning by double digits
against Kentucky and Louisiana Tech is going into Death Valley. Well,
I guess they won the bragging rights last week. So
the real one at LSU. LSU's gonna win this Saturday convincingly.

(34:34):
I just don't think by thirty eight or more so
Louisiana Tech plus thirty seven and a half. That's another
game we're on. All of those numbers available at FanDuel.
FanDuel the exclusive odds provider of our show. They present
the Rama Noodle Express. They present Friday Night lines got

(34:54):
a profit boost on the Michigan Oklahoma game, by the way,
this weekend, so just makes sure you're checking it out
over there. If you don't bet, that's fine. It's very
interesting to just go peruse watching that line movement right
before kickoff, who's expected to win, which totals are dropping?
Is there bad weather? Very interesting way to pass the time.

(35:15):
At the very least, and at the most you can
go make yourself some money over there. We appreciate it,
all right, Jesse, prove it to me. I don't believe
he's here. I don't believe we have cublic. We've actually
never had cublic in our new setup here, so I
don't know how this works. Well, there, he is here,
I am, and you sound clearer than you ever did
in the old building.

Speaker 2 (35:36):
Yeah, Jesse got to work on it.

Speaker 3 (35:38):
Said that he wasn't going to allow you to pretend
like the technical difficulty was going to keep me from
being on the show again tonight. But I just appreciate
you waiting until thirty five million people were watching the
first quarter of the first NFL game of the season
to bring me on your show live when obviously everybody
is dialed in.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
You think there's a design behind that, huh.

Speaker 2 (36:00):
I know how calculated you are.

Speaker 1 (36:04):
So I don't know if you've talked about Alabama a
lot this week. You just do radio local Showah, yeah,
you just do radio and Birmingham Monday through Friday. Okay,
So I listened to you and McElroy a lot, so
I'm aware of what the tone of the show sounded
like this week for those unfamiliar, they kind of know
the stereotype, like if someone's in Seattle, they know the stereotype.

(36:26):
What's the state of Alabama? Like when Alabama loses or
god forbid both of them, Alabama Auburn lose the same week. Well,
this week we had Obama meltdown, we had an Auburn
win on the road at Baylor. What was the dynamic
like there.

Speaker 3 (36:40):
It's one of my most difficult times of the year
when it does take place the way that it did.

Speaker 2 (36:45):
To actually host a radio show.

Speaker 3 (36:47):
In Birmingham and it goes something like this, welcome back
in Macelroy and Cublic in the morning, eight hundred sixty nine,
eight hundred two three nine WJOX. If you'd like to
get in Pauz, go to phones, let people melt down live.
That's pretty much it. And the tone of those people
was that this is one hundred percent on the coaches.
The coach to board needs to be fired, that none

(37:09):
of the coaches there know what they're doing, and the
scheme was terrible, the design of the plays were terrible,
and sixty million is no big deal. Just pay it
out now, get it over with and let's move on.

Speaker 1 (37:19):
Someone else's money. It's the easiest money to spend. I
don't know if you heard. By the way, I don't
know if you heard. Cule you don't even have to
pay it all at once. You can pay it in
annual installments. So when you break it down like that,
When you break it down like that, what is seventy
million dollars? You get to split it out to twenty
thirty one. It's kind of easy when you think about it.

Speaker 3 (37:41):
Think about it this way though, And just to entertain
the stupidity that is that conversation, I had a conversation
with the buddy mine today and he asked me that question,
and asked it because he thought he had spoken to
some people who know that led him.

Speaker 2 (37:58):
To believe this could possibly be real somehow way.

Speaker 3 (38:00):
And I said, well, let's take the follow up to that.
So let's sit sixty three too. Whatever it is, let's
just call it sixty yep. Okay, you're gonna have to
buy out the rest of the staff. You're closing in
on seventy At that point.

Speaker 2 (38:12):
You're gonna lose a lot of guys of the portal.

Speaker 3 (38:16):
Okay, Now this is before we talk about new coach,
and when you lose players, what do you have to
do replace said players? And you may have to pay
a premium to get those backs to your nil's going up.
So now we're what eighty ish on top of that,
got to go hire a new coach that's gonna be
guaranteed money that somebody's got to come up with because
we're all scared of revenue sharing now, so we can't

(38:37):
use school money on that anymore. So now all the
folks that ponied up for all that, we either got
to go back to them, which we've been knocking on
their door weekly for the last couple of years anyway,
and we got to say, hey, we really like coach
so and so, but he's probably gonna command one hundred
million guaranteed to come be the head coach.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
Here because of what we just did to the last guy.
You're good for that, right, Oh? Sure, check after check
after check, and.

Speaker 3 (39:05):
You're talking, I mean, honestly, Josh, you're talking an eighty
eighty five million dollar decision. Yep, maybe more if you
were to go down that route. And it's not realistic
in today's landscape of college football. So it's unfortunate that
a lot of it goes a certain direction because I
never think it's all players fault. I never think it's
all coach's fault, just like it's never one player's fault,
just like one play never decides a game.

Speaker 2 (39:26):
But I will say this, I have lived through a
few of these.

Speaker 3 (39:31):
I'm not going to act like and listen. I live
through the mics and saw that firsthand. I was here
the last time they played Ulm at Brian Dennyan lost.
I know what that meltdown was like. I don't know
about you, but this one feels like it got a
lot more toxic, a lot more quickly than a lot
of the others in the past.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
And I don't necessarily know exactly what the reasoning is
for that.

Speaker 1 (39:52):
Yeah, well I'll tell you why. I don't think that
leadership at Alabama necessarily consulted everyone who believes it's their
birthright to be consulted before they went and made the
higher of Kaylen Debor.

Speaker 2 (40:04):
I think what you're trying to say is he ain't
from the South.

Speaker 1 (40:07):
That's exactly right, Saban. Now, Sabon was bored in with Tumka,
That's well known. Saban never absolutely Saban walked in town
with a straw in his mouth. But Kaylen Debor now, uh,
Kaylen de Bor, the Pacific Ocean, the Puget Sound. So
I think that's part of it. Now, I think you
get this, this kind of win win or lost lost stance,

(40:29):
depending on how you view it. Where Now we warned him,
you know, we warned old greg Burn there. This may
not work out, may not, by the way, may not
work out to where you get to reap all the
rewards and the benefits if they win. But you also
get to have the I told you so in my
back pocket if it goes sideways. And then so here's

(40:50):
what I wonder. And for anyone who's curious about what
we're talking about, it is a bad time in the
state of Alabama right now. There's been a lot of
talk about boosters unhappy and and hey, the unrest is real,
you know. That's what people keep telling me. It's not
made up. It's real. I don't doubt it's real. You know.
Manure is real. When I pass a cow pastor, that's real.

(41:11):
It's there. Not gonna do much with it, but it's real.
But I will ask you this and anyone. I guess
I could just speak into the void. So let's say
Cole Kublick is the biggest donor they have. Let's say
your picture is hanging up in the Malamour facility there
when you walk in, and everybody just steps to the
side when you stroll across campus. That's how big a

(41:32):
deal you are. I assume you want Alabama to win.
I assume that in your heart of hearts a perfect Saturday,
as you're up forty two to nothing in the fourth
quarter and the starter's coming out and you want to
see championships and blah blah blah. Do you think it's
best accomplished by running your mouth to writers and having
them anonymously citing you talking about how we're ready to

(41:55):
make a move if he doesn't get the job done,
or maybe keeping that in house. What do we think
gives the football program a better chance to succeed? Because
I keep looking at this and how laughable and how
much of a circus it is from the outside, and
I don't necessarily think some of the clowns inside the
circus really realize that, well, we have.

Speaker 3 (42:15):
Seen what it looks like when it's the part that
you're describing about two and a half hours West. Yeah,
one coach ago when a lot of folks decided it
would be best to go to certain writers and make
up certain stories and have those printed and have those
on message boards, and it ended in an ugly divorce
and all of a sudden, everybody thought they were loving

(42:36):
what they had up until last Friday night that was
on rocky terms. So I personally would want it all
to stay in house as much as humanly possible, because
I would want to be able to fix the problem
that not potentially caused. I think you know, like I know,
egos don't allow that to happen, and it's never going
to be the reality. So one of the biggest possible

(42:58):
downfalls of this higher switch or replacement was the amount
of people that had not had their tentacles.

Speaker 2 (43:05):
On that place or in that place that.

Speaker 3 (43:08):
We're going to be able to at least attempt to
do it and maybe get back inside there. Because I've
said it for a long time, Josh, I think you
and I have talked about this. The greatest accomplishment Nick
Saban had at Alabama was stiff arming certain people out
of there and removing their control. And he didn't do
it to them individually. He went to the administration and said,

(43:28):
get them away or it's.

Speaker 2 (43:29):
Not going to work. And that's it, bottom line.

Speaker 3 (43:32):
So stay away, let us do what we do, you
help the way you help, and we'll move on and
win championships.

Speaker 2 (43:38):
And they did. No other coach has been able to
do it to the effect that he did.

Speaker 3 (43:43):
I would imagine that Cale in to Bore struggles with
a lot of people that now feel like, well, Nick's gone,
so I deserve my time to be back in there.
And it's not necessarily comfortable to have to manage that,
especially now with nil and you need the money that
those guys can provide, and you probably need it more
times than you ever needed annually. It's tough, but you're
not going to be able to keep them from keeping

(44:04):
their mouths shut and getting their way. I'm not just
reverencing Alabama here, I'm referencing Mega Booster in general. At
big program. They're all going to want to get their
message out through certain people.

Speaker 2 (44:14):
It's just it's it's how they operate.

Speaker 1 (44:16):
It is it's amazing. So I've talked to you about this,
but I want to talk to you about it on
the show. So that was like a sledgehammer to the face.
The result was like A said, let me tell me, hold.

Speaker 2 (44:29):
On, I gotta go back real quick. I forgot to
do this.

Speaker 3 (44:31):
It's not necessarily rough times in Alabama right now, because
I mean, Auburn did just run for three hundred to Getst.

Speaker 2 (44:39):
Baylor on the road Friday night. So it's it's not
all it's not all bad. Dred Dilfrid did win his opener.

Speaker 1 (44:45):
You know, that's not an undersized Baylor front. I was
told that was. That was a front that was ready,
willing and able to take on the task, and then
the task found them and not so much. So, if
you're done interrupting, I do want to talk to you
about the Alabama out come itself, because that was a
sledgehammer to the face to me. So you've got their

(45:05):
game this weekend, actually, so great timing on your part.
But I remember talking to you throughout spring, throughout summer.
You go over there and watch and practice. I go
over there and watching practice. We both talked to a
lot of people who watch in practice. Was there ever
any inclination forget about any one person's viewpoint collectively people
you trust? Was there ever any inclination that any kind

(45:28):
of threat of what we saw last Saturday was on
the horizon, because I will tell you the feedback I
got it was swift, and it was immediate, and that
was Don't you feel like an idiot now for saying
what you said about your observations when you watched in
practice and the vibe that you got from them. Look,
I fully admit, Hey, man, I could whiff, So look
beyond me. I mean, you've probably talked to a dozen

(45:51):
people who were around that program in the fall. It
all sounded pretty much the same to me. I noticed
a lot of people saying what I was saying. That
was what took me so much by surprise. But I
kind of wanted you to share some of the feedback,
you know, some of the generic intel that you had
gotten and then how badly it didn't sync up with
the result.

Speaker 2 (46:11):
Well, there's four or.

Speaker 3 (46:12):
Five people that either played there or have been there,
that were at practices this fall that I spoke to
that said similar things. It's not the exact same thing
that you did. The physicality seemed like it had rammed
up a little bit. That might be the oddest part
of what we're talking about and what we saw on
Saturday afternoon that it was fast.

Speaker 2 (46:28):
Guys look athletic. A couple of guys looked like they were.

Speaker 3 (46:31):
In better shape than they had been in the previous
year or years. And that didn't seem to be sloppy.
They're not dropping snaps. There's now procedure penalties.

Speaker 2 (46:38):
It was clean.

Speaker 3 (46:39):
It was crisp, And that's from Ian McElroy told me that.
And I trust his opinion and his eyes when he's
there watching that, probably more so than anybody because of
his history there and what he does and how he
knows ball. I talked to Corey Reimer about it. We
had Tyler watch on the show who does Radio. He
talked about it. I mean, it wasn't just you that
was saying that. I mean it was eight nine, ten

(46:59):
people who I spoke to that all said the exact
same things. And I think we spoke at Media Days
and I brought it up to you. I said, this
late momentum for Alabama of not just being able to win,
but deep in the playoffs, national championship, I just feel
like there's a lot of people jumping on board with that.
And I think some of it was that people generally
got to see them and felt great about and felt

(47:20):
great about. I mean, Greg and I talked about it
on our show. Which team did you fear more or
feel better about?

Speaker 2 (47:26):
Either way? Really?

Speaker 3 (47:28):
Alabama last year, Alabama this year, And when you started
going through position by position, there were a lot of
reasons to be a little bit more concerned if you
were playing against them.

Speaker 2 (47:37):
About this team this year.

Speaker 3 (47:39):
Yeah, And you know, it's one of the biggest oddities
I have seen in college football in a long time.

Speaker 2 (47:46):
And I've shared this with you.

Speaker 3 (47:47):
The reason for that is there are a lot of
people on Sunday posting their clips of you know, Bray
Hubbard not chasing a guy or safety's not running after
a guy twenty yards in front of the field.

Speaker 2 (47:57):
That's scary, and you don't like that. It's not good.
But Josh, that was That wasn't even.

Speaker 3 (48:03):
A third as bad as the stuff that I saw
that I was concerned about.

Speaker 2 (48:07):
And the things that I was concerned.

Speaker 3 (48:09):
About was the lack of physicality and the fact that Alabama.

Speaker 2 (48:14):
Absorbed for almost four or full quarters of that game.

Speaker 3 (48:17):
And by saying that, what I mean is striking their
opponent from the defensive line position, from the linebacker position,
from the safety position, striking their opponent from the offensive line,
tight end running back position.

Speaker 2 (48:30):
I thought eighty played well. I thought I thought Parker.

Speaker 3 (48:33):
The most unfortunate part of this whole thing is nobody's
talking about how will Parker Brailes were played. He plays
rear end off and Jimmy Bernard also did. And that's
about it. And to see guys getting pushed around, to
see guys getting jarred back, I see guards double team
and and combo and climbing up to Deontay Lawson and
kind of having a free run.

Speaker 2 (48:55):
I'm used to c J.

Speaker 3 (48:56):
Mosley, Ruben Foster, Reggie Raglan, Rolonda McClain hop in that
helmet and it's like, the way I'm telling you, the
way it looks on film is like that offensive lineman's helmet.

Speaker 2 (49:06):
It kind of like jars back and just like just
like that, and there's an offensive lineman.

Speaker 3 (49:11):
When I see that, you're like, ooh no, not good.
That's because the feet almost come off the ground. You
have to completely reset your body. By the time you're
they're doing that, they're shedding you off and they're going
to make the play.

Speaker 2 (49:25):
And it was either Paddy Cake.

Speaker 3 (49:28):
Walk up to each other and hand fight like literally
my eight year old and five year.

Speaker 2 (49:32):
Old will do or it was, and this was I'm
I'm because I've ever seen this in an album uniform.

Speaker 3 (49:40):
Duck turns shoulder and take on block that way, not
even front side shoulder, literally the back of the back
side shoulder, so you're turning your back to the ball carrier,
which from a defensive perspective, it's no different than anything
else in sports. You want to shoot a basketball, you
probably to look at the rim. You want to hit
a baseball, you probably to watch the ball. How are

(50:00):
you going to tackle someone looking the way they're running.
It's not possible. So Alabama has been the enforcer for
a decade plus. They have been the striker for a
decade plus. And I explained this on Read and React
Monday night when Roman and I got into it. A
lot of people will say, oh, well, I mean whatever.
It's like, maybe they're faster, maybe they're more athletic. The

(50:23):
reason that's important is because for that period of time, Josh,
when that was happening, there was nothing you could do
about it. There was no play call, there was no
way to circumvent it, there was no formation when.

Speaker 2 (50:37):
You had to go Monoi mono on that guy. He
was kicking your tail.

Speaker 3 (50:42):
And that's why we have spread offense, triple option, hurry up,
no huddle, offense, air.

Speaker 2 (50:46):
Raid because all those coaches said, with teams like that
that could do that, that were capable of that, we
have to have this to even be competitive.

Speaker 3 (50:56):
And Dust did a good job of bringing some of
that out and they're guys got after them and won
the game physically, and that's why you got the outcome
that you did. And I said, and I'll say it again,
the scariest part to me is if that's.

Speaker 2 (51:09):
Gone, how do you win?

Speaker 1 (51:11):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (51:12):
Do you out quarterback people? Do you out offensive line people?

Speaker 3 (51:16):
Because that group didn't look like they're gonna just give
solid protection all year. Are you just out pass rushing people.
Is your defensive line that dominant to where they're just
going to be in the backfield causing those kind of problems.
Are your safeties covering everything up to where it doesn't matter?
Because that didn't look like a reality. So if that
portion of here's what we do, good luck, buddy, is gone.

(51:39):
I mean, seriously, the board company are gonna have to
scheme their pails off to win.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
Games this year.

Speaker 1 (51:47):
You know, a lot of people, even having watched Saturday,
keep on circling the Georgia game. We were on the
phone earlier today. You interrupted my workout for this. I
knew it had to be important. And so you've got
them this weekend play u Ellmanroe. Then they've got Wisconsin
coming in, then there's a bye, then they go to Georgia.
It's better part of a month between now and that

(52:07):
Georgia game. But what you're talking about all gets balled
up into competitive character. That's basically what basically what we're
talking about here. Let's just say it is a terminal
issue with them. Competitive character. It's not a mirage. What
we saw in week one is really it's there and
it's not going away. We were talking earlier today. Neither

(52:31):
one of us expect, you know, u Elmanroe to challenge
to beat them this week. But we've both seen situations
throughout history where a big favorite ends up winning a game.
But there's so many oh moments, there are so many
warning signs, so many so much red sharpie all over
that game to where you say this is going to

(52:51):
manifest itself in something ugly down the road. Likewise, with
the Wisconsin game, that's a Big ten opponent coming in,
not a great team in all likelihood. But point being so,
if we're talking through this and those flaws really are there,
those are just permanent fixtures of the Alabama team this
year or this yeah, this year, why is there such
a certainty these next two weeks are all right, Well,

(53:13):
we'll get it in order, and then when we go
to Georgia, like I've been told all week, the Georgia
game will tell the tale. How do you know you
won't learn a whole lot this weekend about that team?

Speaker 3 (53:24):
I think you will, And I think maybe the most
intriguing part about this weekend is the folks that say
what you just said, and that is they're gonna bounce
back this weekend. They're gonna they're gonna punish them, draw
them into the ground, smash them, and then come back
against Wisconsin. And as you just stated, the scary part
about that, and I want everybody to understand I'm still

(53:45):
using if and maybe and could be because I don't
know if this is a real problem. It was one game.
I'm not judging a team, I'm not judging a coach,
I'm not judging a.

Speaker 2 (53:54):
Player on one game.

Speaker 3 (53:56):
Because I don't know all the extra parameters of what
was going on, and the circumstantial evidence has not been
presented to me. So I'm gonna give them another chance
to show me who they may really be.

Speaker 2 (54:06):
The scary part, Josh, is.

Speaker 3 (54:10):
If that mentality and that competitive character is flawed, there's
no reason to believe that they will do what Bamba
teams of the past have done, or just other good
programs in the past have done, and that is bounce back,
smash face, go to the next game. Because I would
imagine if you are weak minded in a way that

(54:35):
it forced you to play the way you did last week,
it's gonna be harder to get ready.

Speaker 2 (54:39):
For this game this week. Yeah, because no.

Speaker 3 (54:42):
One likes you right now, and everybody's telling you how
bad you are, and no one's liking your posts, and
no one's jumping on your Instagram lives, and no one's
how many on your tiktoks and you're sitting there thinking
what is happening? So that to me would be more
concerning than any of it if it's a big if,
because we don't know that's what's going on, and that's

(55:04):
a real problem right now.

Speaker 2 (55:05):
Well, I think we find out this weekend if that
is a terminal flaw or if.

Speaker 3 (55:11):
That was something that they allowed to creep in and
it's not just that day, because if it happened that way,
it creeped in during fall camp, yep, and it prevented
them from excelling the way that they needed to to
be competitive in that game. They didn't fall apart on
Saturday morning in Tallahas. That happened in fall camp and
prevented them, somehow someway from being able to put up

(55:31):
a better fight than what they did against Florida State.

Speaker 1 (55:34):
So that's the glass half empty part. But you talked
about using the word if. I've tried to be very
careful to do that this week too, because you never know.
You don't have revisionist history on your side, you don't
have benefit of hindsight. We're not sitting in December judging
week one. We're in week two judging week one, So
September is going to give us a lot of context
on what Week one meant. Florida State maybe a top

(55:56):
five team for all we know. I want to ask
you this, though, how much would it shock you scale
of one to ten if you fast forward to the
December and that team's in Atlanta playing for the SEC
Championship anyway.

Speaker 2 (56:09):
Shock me, No, but I would be surprised.

Speaker 1 (56:11):
I would too, because.

Speaker 2 (56:15):
Here's the hardest part about it.

Speaker 3 (56:18):
Take the exact conversation that you and I had at
SEC Media Days when you perfectly laid out the scenario
of the difference between five and eleven or twelve.

Speaker 2 (56:28):
Yeah, what again, here's another if.

Speaker 3 (56:31):
What if we just threw Alabama and Texas into that race,
and all of a sudden, it's there's two more teams
in there, and it's it's literally three through twelve or
thirteen are all the same, and you got to fight
that uphill battle the entire season and essentially play flawless
football to even be in the mix for that. Because

(56:53):
the ones that are looking like they're at the top,
maybe it's just Georgia LSU. Maybe Oklahoma shoots all the
way up there, we don't really know. If one of
the other two teams does, you're still going to have
to play more teams than a lot of people thought
could even be in the mix.

Speaker 2 (57:06):
For an SEC Championship game. Birth.

Speaker 3 (57:08):
So, I think now the thing that would surprise me
the most is, though it appears is though we don't
even have four teams in that upper quadrant of the
SEC is probably a lot more crowded in the middle
than we imagined at media Days, and we thought we
had never really seen it that crediblefore since we've been
watching football.

Speaker 2 (57:23):
So that would be the part that I would.

Speaker 3 (57:25):
Look at and say, I am surprised they ran through
that shocked.

Speaker 2 (57:30):
No, they still have takeover players.

Speaker 3 (57:32):
They still have players that can dominate a game, and
they still have a great coaching staff, and they still
have depth that some other teams don't have. So to
be the things that can be repaired, there are easily repaired.
Proper pass sets not getting beat inside. Understand now, you
can't change your agility and lateral movement, which I've been
trying to tell people the whole offseason. Just because PFF

(57:54):
says the guy's a first pick in the draft, Calm down.
He hasn't been through two consecutive spring balls, and we
just think he's better magically, like to say, lucky charms,
things don't just happen. You earn things in football. But
they still have guys that can go out and be dominant.
Take the first series of the game. I mean, I

(58:15):
posted like three clips from the first series, like, good lord,
they've got that be tackle seven yards downfield. I might
have just done that with the whole game, but the
game was obviously one that wasn't going to allow them
to play that way because what Forlorida State was doing offensively,
I would be surprised. But Josh, you know this, there
is almost nothing that can shock me in college football

(58:35):
these days. Literally, we've seen more in the last two
years that if you and I wrote a movie script,
we've been.

Speaker 2 (58:41):
Laughed at a Hollywood.

Speaker 1 (58:44):
Yet you also never telling.

Speaker 3 (58:45):
Their coaches they're not playing in games and their starters
after four games.

Speaker 2 (58:49):
Take that somewhere interesting.

Speaker 1 (58:52):
You also never know when a new normal is setting itself.
You never know when you're in the process of a
new normal happening.

Speaker 2 (58:59):
Like you that's a scary thought right there.

Speaker 1 (59:01):
Well, you just never know, Like it's I mean, we're
talking about pretty much non negotiables, terminal, this terminal that well,
that's because your entire life playing and watching this game,
my life watching this game. There were a lot of
things Alabama exhibited last week that if you see that,
that's just going to be a problem that's going to
derail any chance you have of doing this or that. Well,
that's based on history. This based on certain pillars of

(59:24):
college football throughout history. You never know when the things
that win and the things that can be tolerated, or
the things that really matter and are really correctable and
aren't you never know when that's being rewritten right in
front of your face. Like I remember when Ohio State
lost that game against Virginia Tech that year. They go
on to win the national title, and people were sitting
there after week one saying how overrated. I mean, this

(59:46):
is a historically overrated team. After Week one they go
on to win the title. I'm sure they were conversations
at that point pointing to this and this, which will
be a terminal flaw on this team and it will
keep them from going on. Now, we were probably talking
about schematic based things instead of things from the neck up,
you know, things in here, maybe like we're talking about

(01:00:06):
with this Alabama team. But I'm like you, I'd be
surprised by it, shocked though. I hadn't seen the rest
of these teams get pushed yet, I have to. I
tend to believe Bama was the first high profile example
of someone getting exposed this year. I'm not sure we
don't have three or four more of them, some of them.

Speaker 3 (01:00:23):
Just more because there are so many teams that were
way ahead of ourselves. On again, like you and I
have said, we don't know. I said I was going
to give it three weeks before I make any sort
of definitive statements about anybody. It might need to be
five or six. Honestly, you brought up Ohio State. They're
a perfect example right here. None of us thought they
were going to be as physical as they were last year.

(01:00:45):
None of us thought that the defense was going to
be able to operate at any kind of a similar
level to what they did last year. Two edge defenders drafted.
You know, yeah, you had the best safety probably top
three player in college football coming back.

Speaker 2 (01:00:57):
Okay, but could he mask everything? Look how they looked
up front.

Speaker 3 (01:01:00):
Yeah, they gave Texas's offensive line, which it's mostly new. Yes,
a lot of problems, But how about the flip side
of that. They went out there and pushed Texas around and,
by the way, won that game without having the best
player in college football get to seven catches. So they
found different ways for a new quarterback and a limited

(01:01:21):
best player on their football team to go out there
and get a win, which at the end of the
day is almost more impressive to me than going to
beat somebody forty to nothing. You take all the things
and all these uncertainties and you say, we're not gonna
let that beat us. We're not gonna lean on that
to the point to where if it's not.

Speaker 2 (01:01:37):
Elite today it crushes us. We're just gonna go win
a game. And that's what Ryan Day did.

Speaker 3 (01:01:42):
And so that's almost the flip side of what we're
talking about right here is the team that everybody looked
at and.

Speaker 2 (01:01:47):
Said no, no, no, no, no, no, probably not, I
can't see it, definitely no. And they went out there
and got a big yes.

Speaker 1 (01:01:53):
Yeah, all right, Cube Show, we're doing it again this year,
right doing it. We're doing it. Tell people where they can.

Speaker 2 (01:02:01):
Some guy commented on the on the on the SEC
preview that we did.

Speaker 3 (01:02:06):
He's like, this fool says he's gonna watch every game
and tell us what happened.

Speaker 2 (01:02:10):
We only been doing it for three years. Yeah, I
mean sorry, guy.

Speaker 1 (01:02:14):
So so Cube Show. That's that's how you find it's there.

Speaker 2 (01:02:17):
That's out there somewhere in the interwebs. It's this guy's podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:02:20):
It's out there at Cube Show on Socials. You can
follow it there. Please subscribe. I think we're up to
seventeen thousand, of which sixteen five hundred can attribute directly
to you.

Speaker 1 (01:02:31):
Do you think twenty k by Halloween? Like? Is that
what we're aiming for right now?

Speaker 3 (01:02:37):
I feel like that's a stretch. We've been moving slow here. No,
in the off season.

Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
We're gonna figure it out.

Speaker 2 (01:02:43):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:02:44):
Look, we're gonna do this. If your internet works, in
my truck works, We're going to do this the entire year.
So I appreciate you, Thank you as always.

Speaker 3 (01:02:51):
I will say the advantage we have getting a twenty
thousand is we didn't take four weeks off before the
season started, so.

Speaker 1 (01:02:55):
We go just do some film study. That's what everyone
tends to be doing these days. Work, goodbye, have fun
in Tescaloosa. Goodbye. Oh what do I need to do? Jesse?
Oh that's right, all right, listen tomorrow night, I'm going
to be earlier than normal seven eastern, sixth Central doing

(01:03:16):
Friday night Lines Instagram Live at Josh PATECFB. That is
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(01:03:38):
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Speaker 1 (01:04:25):
I appreciate you guys so much. We've got a very
very busy weekend coming up. We're going to see you
guys at Iowa State. We're gonna see you at Oklahoma.
I again strongly encourage that Instagram story is going to
be very lively. At Josh PATECFB, make sure you're following
for director Bradley, producer Jesse. I'm Josh Pate. Take Care
will be here Sunday night to react to what I
think maybe a volcanic Saturday. So hang in there, hope

(01:04:48):
it doesn't victimize you. We'll see you Sunday. Until then,
take care.

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