Top 12 Toughest Places To Play + Chaos Scenarios In 2025

Josh Pate’s College Football Show Ep 641 features Josh Pate discussing potential chaos scenarios this season. Could the SEC cannibalize itself again this season? What if the USC backslide continues? Bold prediction season has returned with you calling your shot including Ole Miss vs Florida in the SEC Championship Game, Jeremiah Smith setting records at Ohio State, Mike Norvell getting fired at FSU, and South Carolina making the College Football Playoff. Which teams will be better and which teams will be worse this year than they were in 2024? Josh also takes a look at the toughest places to play including UGA, Oregon, Penn State, Alabama, Ohio State, and more

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:30):
I love this show I have in my hand. I
love tonight's show. It's very how should I say contemplative show?
And you know how rarely I use that word. We're
jam packed, we're high a top. What was a spirited
but is now a drenched downtown Nashville, Tennessee. Still spirited though,
on this Thursday night, June twenty sixth, the over lad
of twenty twenty five. What kind of contemplative show could

(00:51):
we have in the works? Well, we were sitting around
earlier today and you're all talking about all these teams
and you're thumbing through your preview magazines and media days
are almost upon us. What do you want to know?
You want to know are they going to be better,
worse or the same as last year? So why not
do a show about that? I'm not going to do
the whole show about that, mind you, but we are
going to do that, which I don't think we've ever

(01:13):
done that kind of segment here before. I don't know
why it only took us five years. I got some
chaos scenarios on the show tonight. I have got bold predictions.
We do that this time of year. But you know what,
I saw some content, some would call it propaganda. I
would just call it good old fashioned content floating around
the other day, not from us, but from someone else.

(01:35):
They were talking about the toughest places to play in
college football, and the I don't know how else to
put it, it was wrong. The list was just wrong. Your
opinion is wrong, and that's an absolute fact. As Memoi
used to say, So, how can we know what the
toughest place is to play in college football are when
we haven't even released our list at PAYT State. But

(01:55):
do you hear how thick that stack of papers is.
We got it in here, We got everything in here.
Tonight're watching us in Youngstown, Ohio, Acilla, Georgia, Modesto, California.
Saint Petersburg, Florida is tuned in. I promise you this.
You may think that when the season gets here, that's
our busy time of year. It is June twenty sixth.

(02:18):
I'd be willing to bet for reasons that you'll find
out about several weeks from now our June has been
busier than on our October or November will end up
being this year. I'm almost looking forward to the season
for obvious reasons, but also because it'll think things will
settle down a little bit crazy. All good things, mind you,
all good things, but nevertheless, it's a busy, busy time

(02:39):
of year. So let's dive into the show tonight. Because
you don't really care about that. You care about this.
Are you gonna be better than you were last year?
Are you gonna be worse than you were last year?
Is your record gonna be the exact same as it
was last year? Well, I was thinking about that, and
I got four teams at least to start off with that.
We drew out of the hopper, ping pong balls came out,
and these are some of the teams that we're thinking

(03:00):
about right now. And I'm talking about your record in
the regular season. Okay, So like take LSU. Let's just
start off with them. LSU was an eight and four
team last year in the regular season. They're over underwent
total for what it's worth is eight and a half
at FanDuel right now. Is that team gonna be better
or worse than they were last year? Or they gonna
stay the same? I lean better if I'm betting money

(03:22):
on this, and full disclosure, I have a little bit
with LSU. I'm gonna bet a little bit better. So
it's all because of the number one portal class. I
am a big believer that if you erase that portal
class or you just shave it down a little bit,
this team would be in big trouble this year. But
I don't think they are because they did that. Now
everyone's gonna look at nus Meyer rightfully so, and everyone's

(03:44):
gonna zoom in on the continuity at quarterback in a
world and in a year where there's not a lot
of that outside of Baton Rouge, and that's valid. The
reason I would be to the net up on LSU
in relation to last year's because well, I get Blake
Baker in his second year's defensive coordinator with better ingredients

(04:06):
in the kitchen. That's really what it comes down to.
I got faith in him. Now we know LSU cannot
win a Week one game to save their lives. So
let's say they lose at Clemson. I would still slightly
lean that they finished better than last year's record. It
would help, you know, if they mess around and accidentally
win against Clemson, well then watch out. But I just

(04:26):
I know a lot of people who are baking in
a Clemson loss, And also predicting a good year for LSU.
I think they're gonna be okay at offensive tackle. I
know that's gonna be thrown around a lot as people
start getting closer and they look at the projected starting lineups.
I'm okay with them. I think I'm okay with them
at tackle. So I'm gonna go better than eight and
four regular season for LSU. Now the next one I

(04:48):
cannot do better on. At least, Colorado was nine to
three last year, phenomenal year to unbelievable year. They went
over by like four or five games or something like that,
so they're over underwent total six and a half coming
into this year. I can't bet Colorado to be better
than nine to three. I gotta lean that they're worse.

(05:10):
They could overachieve and be a couple of games worse
than they were last year. It's just who's who's starting
a quarterback? Is Cayden Salter starting for him at quarterback?
That's the best. That's the best guess around here right now?
Should do or save them so much when I'm trying
to think forward about how you're gonna look, I don't

(05:30):
try and dwell on the past, but I do think
about the past, as any sane person would. So when
I think about Colorado in the past, should Or Sanders
is obviously playing quarterback for him, But I am thinking
about not just his production, but him running for his life,
his his off schedule production, if you will. In other words,
the plays that were made that weren't drawn up on

(05:52):
a piece of paper, they were just broken down play.
You got a phenomenal athlete there and he makes something
out of nothing. Well, you don't have a version of
him there. And secondly, you're relying on the portal again
and you got to you just got to keep hitting.
And I haven't even mentioned the Heisman Trophy winner in
Travis Hunter. So you lose all that. You're already in

(06:12):
a highly volatile league in the Big twelve. Well what
that means is nine and three is never far away
from five to seven in a league like that, And
so you know you could fall off to five and
seven and not really a fallen off all that much
production wise. So what happens if you actually do fall
off significantly production wise? So Colorado I would have to
go worse than nine and three. Miami is a tough

(06:33):
one for me. So Miami was ten and two last year,
Miami goes ten and two. A season ago, they have
the number one overall picking the draft at quarterback in
cam Ward. How do they do better than that? I
would have to slightly lean worse for Miami. They're over
in a wintal is nine and a half, So you know,
it's a very slight lean to the under. For me,

(06:55):
it's a very slight lean at worse than nine and two.
The wide receiver rooms got to pan out. If you
were to promise me the wide receiver room pans out,
then they got a good shot at going ten and
two or better. Heatherman the new defensive coordinator. I trust
he'll have an impact, a positive impact there. Is it
an eventual impact or is it a glaringly immediate impact

(07:17):
like they play Notre Dame in Week one? Is it
immediately obvious that, oh my, that's a different squad defensively. Well,
if it is, then again, forget about what I'm saying,
that's a ten and two or better team. But the
other thing to think about, in the interest of just
comparing records year over year, you in a lot of
cases are what your schedule says you are in this sport? Well,

(07:41):
they're out of conference as no joke. They opened against
Notre Dame. They've got Florida in here. Both of those
games are at home, but they play both of them.
And then I keep going back to the way they
finish the season. You guys can say whatever you want
to say about the ACC strength of schedule, like, no,
it doesn't measure up to the big ten of the
SEC by and large. But notice Florida State here right there.

(08:06):
If you're tough, I feel like I'm on a green screen.
They play Florida State on October fourth. Big deal. Okay,
But notice they have a bye week before Florida State.
Also big deal. They've got one after they play Florida State.
In the interest of sabotaging Miami, the ACC schedule maker said,

(08:26):
we're gonna give you both of your bye weeks in
a three week stretch. Then what we're gonna do is
we're gonna have you play one, two, three, four, five, six,
seven consecutive games to end the year. Oh, by the way,
if that's not enough, you're going back to back road
games to finish that seven games in a row stretch. Oh,
by the way, you're from Coral Gables. Let's send you

(08:47):
to Blacksburg and Pittsburg in late November, and if you
get through all that, you get to go on the
road for a third straight week to go to the
ACC championship game. Have fun, little butt pat immunity, have fun.
So because of those things, Yeah, if I had to bet,
I'd slightly lean worse than tending to from Miami. Now

(09:08):
you'll notice I've been brave so far. I haven't gone
same record. That is because I knew we were coming
to Notre Dame, who Miami opens with. Notre Dame went
eleven and one last year. Better this year would mean undefeated.
So I'm not going better. But you know what, I'm
not going worse either. I'm pretty high on Notre Dame,

(09:29):
so I got them right around that same caliber. Notice
I'm not saying go to the national title game. I'm
just talking about the regular season record. Whatever happens in
the playoff is whatever happens. They're in a good spot
because they accomplished a lot last year, but they maintained
the hunger. You know, they had a nice regular season.
They also lost in Northern Illinois. So you've got that take.

(09:50):
Can you got that whole you know, tension in the shoulders,
looking over them constantly. Can't rest on your laurels, can't
take anything for granted. You also lost in the National
title game, so you can pound in your guys' heads.
They didn't accomplish anything. You've got a new quarterback. So
I don't think amplacency is an issue up there whatsoever.
And it's a three game season in terms of teams

(10:11):
that will line up across from them that can come
close to matching them athletically. That doesn't mean that they
couldn't lose at Boston College. That doesn't mean they couldn't
go to Arkansas and lose. But if they do that,
it's a legit upset. They go to Miami Week one,
that's a very athletically competitive game. They've got amm coming
in there, that's a very very athletically competitive game. And

(10:33):
they've got USC the eighteenth of October. And I don't know, man,
I just I think it could be a really, really
good team. And so for that reason, I'm sticking right
there around that eleven and one mark. They're over under
win totals ten and a half. I'm going same. I
limit myself to one same record per four teams. I'm

(10:55):
going same record for Notre Dame. Academy Sports and Outdoors
probably gets some Notre Dame gear there and Miami and
Colorado and LSU. In fact, Academy Sports and Outdoors had
a nice meeting with them this week, which is very
good that it wasn't recorded, because a vast majority of
the flavor of conversation between myself and the Academy reps,

(11:15):
we get all of us fired if it were ever
made public. But it's not. I'll tell you what is public.
Every one of their stores. No private academies out there. No, no, no,
This isn't where management grew up. This isn't management neighborhood.
No private academies. Every academy here's public. The doors are open,
at least from open to close, and even after they close.
Academy dot com is wide open. So you want to

(11:39):
go camping this summer, They got your hookup. You want
to go play soccer this summer. We'll do both. I
don't care. They got your hookup. You need a refill
on big Leak chwo. They got your hookup, rods and
reels for fishing. They got your hookup, bucket of softballs,
they got your hookup. They are the presenting partner of
this show. We are brought to you by Academy Sports
and Outdoors. They've been with us from day one. I
always tell people, because believe it or not, they ask

(12:01):
fairly regularly, number one, where do you get your T? Shirts?
And then number two how do we like? How do
you support the show? Above and beyond just watching and listening,
to which I answer, You're doing plenty if you're watching
or listening, but also go shop at Academy. You're going
to buy stuff they have anyway, go do it at Academy.
They are friends of the program. They keep the show
free and we appreciate it. I hold in my hand, Sorry, Bradley,

(12:25):
I went pretty quick there. All Right, here we go.
I hold in my hand chaos and the interest of chaos.
Scenarios for college football in the year of Our Lord
twenty twenty five. What would start the pot the most well?
I think one of the things is one of you
brought up the other day that would be fairly chaotic,

(12:47):
is if the SEC just cannibalized itself again, which just
happened this past year, and it I think is more
likely than not that it happens again this year if
we're going you know, we're going sides of the coin,
or if it gets that wouldn't be good because that's
fifty to fifty. Like, if we're going to percentages, what's
more likely you've got a couple of elite teams that

(13:08):
just elevate and leave everyone in the dust in the SEC?
Or is it kind of like last year where yeah,
you've got a hierarchy, but Georgia won the league and
they were very vulnerable. Last year Texas played them in
the SEC championship game and Texas got eliminated in the playoffs.
And so the point is you could have that again

(13:28):
this year in the conference. Now you could also listen
to me say that if you've never beaten the drum
of a conference. Let's just say you're a Portland State
fan and you watch major college football above and beyond
watching your guys play, well, you're like, okay, well, who
cares if there's not an elite team in the SEC,

(13:49):
If there's just a bunch of really good teams, what
does that matter? Good question? The answer, everything, It matters everything.
Because of the conversation around this league's most of it
own doing. But because of the conversation around this league.
There is no conventional wisdom when talking about the SEC.
There is no logic based reasoning when talking about the SEC.

(14:11):
This is a conference where people will look you dead
in the eye and tell you they're in the middle
of a drought because they've gone twenty four months without
winning a national championship. And when you laugh, they'll look
at you and say, what's so funny, what's so funny,
SEC fanboy, what's so funny? Nothing, sir. Where does chaos

(14:35):
come from? Well, it comes from in this sport expectation
not being met. But the chaos is really born here
from the public perception. You know, if the public looks
at the SEC and they do anything less than win
a national title, the public's gonna say SEC's done, SEC,
cooked by SEC, yesterday's news. SEC just not what it

(14:55):
used to be. The follow up question to that could
be why does that matter? Well, aside from just the
nature of what this sport is about, which is you
and a guy named Carl at work around the water
cooler talking about it back and forth the path of
the time during the day, which I used to do
in the fabric warehouse every day. So I know good
and will how that works. Aside from that, there's this

(15:17):
small little matter right now of the power leagues, and
by that I mean the Big ten in the SEC
sort of deciding how they're going to rule the world,
because we know everybody wants to rule the world. But
the follow up Tears for Fear song that didn't do
so good on the charts is only the Big ten
in the SEC actually do rule the world. I think

(15:38):
the title was too long anyway, what happens if the
SEC throws all their weight around and they decide on
some format that no one likes and it's sort of
born in the idea or the premise that they are
so far above and beyond superior to the likes of
the ACC, the likes of the Big twelve, and then

(15:59):
they just crackh burn because remember, the way the timeline's
going to work this year is college football season starts
since September and it ends who knows sometime in January.
But they've got to decide on that future playoff format
by early December, so you don't know how the season
turned out before they have to, you know, etch that

(16:19):
in Stone. I never get how those deadlines work because
that's kind of like me saying I've got to be
in bed by eleven tonight. Well, what happens if I'm
up at eleven thirteen? I just go to bed at
eleven twenty. What's the penalty? It's kind of self imposed.
So anyway, aside from that, I always think in documentary terms,

(16:40):
which I've shared many times on the show, I always
think when anyone talks about anything that's currently happening, I
always think about the documentary that's going to be made
ten years from now. So ten years from now, when
we are watching the documentary about this period, what a
documentary it will be, by the way, But when we're
watching the documentary about this period, there will be a

(17:01):
lot to talk about changes in the sport. Be allowed
to talk about the SEC. Now. You could find yourself
watching the documentary and they're saying the SEC was dominant
for a long time. Then the greatest head coach of
all time retired, and the league sort of stumbled for
a second, seemingly, but then it regained its footing and
it maintained itself as the predominant force in college football

(17:25):
for several more years to come. You could be hearing
someone say that, or you could be hearing someone say
the SEC was on top in an era, and as
that era gave way to a new era, the SEC's
power grip on the sport declined. That coincided with the
greatest head coach of all time retiring. The greatest head

(17:46):
coach of all time probably made a shrewd tactical move
to retire when he did, and then for an extended
period of time, it became obvious the SEC wasn't going
to be anymore what it had been. But it took
some it took some people a lot longer to come
to that realization. You could hear people say either of
those things in twenty thirty five. The fun part is,

(18:08):
right now, we don't know. You don't know how the
documentary is going to shake out, because we don't know
how the future's gonna shake out. I do sometimes they
give the spoilers to me, but I mean, in the
interest of drama, I don't share them. They're watching us
in Elmore City, Oklahoma, Jackson, Tennessee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Thank you

(18:29):
guys so much. We have. By the way, yes, our
friend orange creamsickles Via has made yet another appearance tonight.
I know I talk about Zvia a lot, and I
know I toouted cream Soda for a long time, and
I'm still a big fan of cream soda zero sugar Zvia,
huge fan of it. Okay, We'll always have a special

(18:51):
place in my heart, but orange creamsicle has a new
place in my hand because orange Creamsickle's number one now
and orange creamsickles Via available at Sprouts, and I'm told
only Sprouts for the time being. I got some offers
this week. I got some I'm not selling my Zvia creamsickle.

(19:11):
I'm not selling it, but I'm just saying I got
some offers for it. So apparently we did some pretty
effective taste testing on the show. I didn't even chill
this one. That is room temperature, and it's good. So
I'd be on the lookout. Some of you are going
to go to Sprouts and you've never even been there before.
Sprouts is not even a partner on the show. They

(19:33):
are just the beneficiaries of the fact that they are
shelving orange creamsickles z Eva. Anyway, that's not chaotic. But
I'll I'll just get back to one more. The whole
chaos scenario season that's upon us gave birth to another
possibility that one of you brought up the other day, USC,
the Curious Case of USC. If USC has that backslide continue,

(20:00):
it's a big problem. This would be a chaos scenario.
I really do believe that they had Lincoln Riley come
in there three years ago. It was kind of at
the dawning of a new era for college football. He
leaves Oklahoma really just like a bombshell moment. I know
everyone who's watching the show remembers it, but like, really
try and remember it. I don't know what the most

(20:23):
shocking moments of the past twenty years have been, but
that one's way up there. There was no rumor of
it whatsoever until it happened. You know how rare that
is this day and age to read any good news
on the newspaper page. So Lincoln Riley goes to USC.
Do you remember when he got there, how excited everyone

(20:43):
in LA was. I would have been too, But why
were they excited? They were excited because you were getting
a guy who who would put explosive offense after explosive
offense on the field. He's a proven winner, he's a
playoff guy. Heisman Trophy winners, at the quarterback position, and
it's tailor made for USC, and he's coming to USC

(21:04):
at the dawning of the new nil portal era. This
is where big brands in big markets are going to
have a massive upper hand on the Alabamas of the world.
I mean Alabama, Clemson. Their days of dominating are done.
Now it's going to be if you're in Los Angeles, California,
I mean, you could run college football. Well, it just

(21:25):
hasn't worked out that way, because it turns out the
sport's still pretty tough, still pretty tough. Eleven and three
the first year, looked like they were off to the races.
Eight and five the next year. Yeah, seven and six
last year and a bunch of one possession losses. Now,
the widely held expectation is that they'll bounce back from
that this year. Full disclosure. I believe that, so I

(21:48):
don't think they'll be worse than seven and six this year.
I do expect to bounce back, So I believe in it,
But I could be wrong. The chaos scenario would be
if I'm wrong, and the chaos scenario is they're over
under win totals eight or eight and a half. I
think right, now, what if they go six and six
or seven and five. What if they're no better than
they were last year, maybe slightly worse than they were

(22:11):
last year. Think about the can of worms that opens.
No one has faith in Lincoln Riley anymore. If that happens, nobody,
very few people would have faith in him, and so
the energy around the program would crater, which means that
recruiting class likely falls apart, or at the very least,
it splinters, it's fragmented at the very least. And that's

(22:35):
the genesis of a lot of the momentum around the
program right now is we just brought a new GMN.
We got this whole new approach to recruiting, and we
loaded up on the front end. We kind of went
and got ultra aggressive. They already got like fifty commits,
not quite that, but they got a loaded class with
verbals already. Penn hasn't hit paper yet. They got the

(22:58):
number one class in the country right now. What happens
if they're a loser this fall? And then you got
to ask yourself this, all right, if the recruiting class
starts to fall apart, you've got that, You've got Lincoln
Riley with back to back losing seasons. Now he's regressed
every year since he got here. We're opening brand new facilities.

(23:18):
I mean, I'm telling you a year from now, what
you're supposed to be saying is USC just bounced way back,
and we just signed a top five recruiting class, and
we're debuting brand new facilities, and everything's pointing up for
Southern Cal football. That's what you're supposed to be saying.
But all those tumblers have to fall into place. Most importantly,

(23:39):
you got to win on the field or I'll take
it all fall off the cliff. Then what do you
do with Lincoln Riley? I have no answer for you.
It's not in my game plan. When I'm forecasting right now,
I am not forecasting that for USC. And so if
I'm forecasting seventy five degrees tomorrow and I wake up
and it's forty six, I don't know what to do.

(24:00):
I'm not dressed for it, I'm not prepared for it.
I don't know what to do. So that would truly
be a chaotic scenario. And remember you're in the Big ten.
The Big Ten's not gonna sit around and just kind
of chill while you get your you know what figured out.
It leaves you in the dust. You don't have the
benefit of knowing no one's gonna pull away from you.

(24:24):
They will pull away from you. Now, some would argue
they already did. But the counter to that, And I
know this because we had Lincoln Riley on the show
a couple of months ago and he said it. He said,
anyone who believes that, did you watch us play last year?
And I nodded my head. I agree with him. But
that's all based on the kind of concept. Okay, well,

(24:45):
they'll bounce back this year if all that's right. But
if they're not right, they won't bounce back, and that
would be chaotic. So whoever sent that to us? Yeah,
valid points there, valid points you guys being tuned in live. Hey,

(25:05):
we run a fair amount of polling on our show.
We're not the only show that figured out the polling
mechanism on social I saw our good close friends over
there at the Dan LeBatard Show today. This is how
you know you're making an impact. All we want to
do is we want to talk college football year round,

(25:27):
and we want to make a positive impact on the world. Okay,
so we do one and then to achieve the other
we try and enhance the vernacular of this great society
of ours. Everybody talks about the public education statistics and
how everything's in the gutter. Well, all we can do
at Peyton State is try and rectify that. So we

(25:48):
speak the Queen's English around here. We're speaking proper English.
You hear me say the word hoopster every now and
then sometimes I'll throw in the hoopstaff And then if
you're really advanced in the four thousand level course, we'll
do the double apostrophe. Whomstead of? It's just a way
to save time? Who would have that takes so long?
Whomstead of? Whomstead of? Funk it? Dan Lebattard and Company

(26:10):
ran a poll this morning. Have you ever used the
word hoomst? Now these results may discourage you that only
forty four point nine percent said yes, while fifty five
point one percent said no. But you need to know,
before I brought this to the public's attention, we were
down like thirty seventy. The yes is we're down bad.

(26:31):
So just know out there, if you had a bad
day at work today, if the family situation is not
what you wanted to be, if my financial situation is
not what you want it to be. If your favorite
team is not even projected to make a bowl game,
this fault. You can at least rest comfortable tonight knowing
that in some small way we are making a difference.

(26:54):
Our voices are being heard. I don't know if that
I don't know if that helps a tough family dimic
at home or not. But we're making a difference somehow,
in some small way. Okay, that was a very lighthearted moment.
But it's about to get serious. I feel like I
paused there because we were going to play some sound effect. No,

(27:14):
but it's about to get serious. Let me calm myself.
I'm going to take a second sip of zevia. There is,
by the way, hidden meaning to the color of this
can tonight. I didn't realize that until right now, But
there is all right here we go. I was told

(27:34):
the other day that our friends at EA Sports committed
a hate crime against several universities, and I said, well,
that sounds serious. What happened. Well, it turns out they
did the worst thing that you could do. They released
the Toughest places to Play in College Football list and
didn't put everyone at the exact proper order that everyone
believes they should be placed. And so I had to

(27:59):
go look for myself. And I gotta be honest. Sometimes
there's false outrage in this great sport of ours, which
is great. I participate a lot. This is not false outrage. Okay,
they just got this wrong. Now. I don't know exactly
how they define toughest places to play. It could just
be who has the best winning percentage at home, It

(28:21):
could be that over the past five years. It could
be any of a number of things. But I got
to tell you, Bradley, throw that back up for a second.
I got to tell you something. There is some mild
oversight here. There's some mild under and overrating, but there
is some egregious oversight. So if you're listening on podcasts,

(28:43):
let me quickly tell you they're one through ten, LSU,
Penn State, Ohio State, Georgia, Alabama, it's already terribly flawed.
Clemson six, Florida seven, Oklahoma eight, Oregon nine, Michigan ten.
All right, keep that up, Bradley, immunity, you hope. What
are we doing with Ohio state number three? LSU one,

(29:03):
no problem, Penn State number two, no problem? Mind you.
I go to all these places I stand on the field.
This is an intentional flex. Got the greatest job in
the world. I am uniquely qualified to comment on these
matters because to the I go to all these places
when they're at their best theoretically, so I've seen most

(29:24):
all of them. Ohio State is not a top five.
Ohio State wins all the time because Ohio State's really good.
So if you're telling me Ohio State belongs in the
top three because their home winning percentage just through the roof,
I would encourage you to look at Ohio State's winning
percentage no matter where they're playing. So if that's the case,
we have different criteria. What I'm talking about is like,

(29:45):
how much better is a team at home because of
the environment that is created there. How worse is a
team when they go into your building than they would
have been elsewhere. Like, that's what makes a tough place
to play. When I'm standing next to someone on the
sideline and I'm trying to talk to them and they're

(30:05):
staring right at me but still going I can't hear you,
I can't. That's a tough place to play. Ohio State's great,
but it's not top five. George's not top five either. Bama,
although better now that Saban's gone and everyone doesn't sit
on their hands and just yawn and take for granted
that they're gonna win. Bama's not top five, So three
four five they will be out. I'm about to release

(30:28):
mine in a few minutes. By the way, Clemson is okay,
Florida is okay, Oklahoma. I went back and forth. I
was there for the Tennessee game last year, very lively.
I still thought maybe a tick off of the upper
echelon elites. Oregon absolutely belongs higher than number nine. Michigan

(30:50):
does not belong in the top ten. And I've seen
Michigan with Ohio State in town, a phenomenal atmosphere. But again,
you're talking about going against the heavyweight cathedrals in the sport,
and some of these places are built up and your
place is built out. You got four hundred thousand people
in there. But I think architecture hurts you a little bit.
They they went further than that, like they went all

(31:11):
the way to I believe a number twenty or something
like that. I'm just quickly going to tell you A
and M at eleven properly rated. The crime against humanity
is Tennessee at number twelve. But we're gonna make it
right in just a second. Texas at thirteen, all right,
Florida state fourteen, all right, Wisconsin fifteen. Never been there,
so I gotta take your word for it. South Carolina,

(31:33):
it belongs higher than sixteen. Auburn and Washington at seventeen
and eighteen. Make me wonder if anyone's ever even been
to those places. Iowa at nineteen. I could say the
same you taw at twenty. Okay, listen, when you watch
someone getting beat up on the side of the road,
you can either take pictures of it and post it
on the gram or you could go break up the fight.

(31:56):
So I saw this happening, I saw legitimate harm being
done to this great sport of ours, tongue in cheap
or it is, and I said, I gotta go break
this up. I gotta do something about this. I know
all these places, I've seen all these places. I know
which places are the toughest to go play. So you

(32:16):
know what, I got it right here. The toughest place
is to me. And this is definitive. And we all
agree that I'm the authority on this right, speak up now,
all right, Jesse Bradley, I don't hear anybody, Okay, So yeah,
we all agree that I'm the authority on this. I'm
going to go twelve to one because that's the amount
of teams that we can fit on the graphic and

(32:37):
make it look good. I have got Georgia at number twelve.
Georgia this year has an opportunity to skyrocket up this
list because Georgia finally has a really, really legitimate home plate.
They've got Texas coming in there, they got Ole miss
coming in there, they got Bama coming in there. Georgia
that can get a ton of big games at home.
They they're kind of like Bama has been for a

(32:58):
long time. When is Georgia threatened, Georgia rarely feels threatned
Tennessee game kind of sometimes like last year. But buy
a large note. So I put Georgia at twelve with
a ton of room to vault back up. Texas A
and M. I've got at eleven. Texas A and M
is one of the more underrated places in the country,
both as the program's potential and also home field. People

(33:22):
always have an ax to grind about the culture, and
they really emphasize the first four letters in the word
culture when it comes to Texas, A and M. But
I got no problem with it because I just call
that tradition. You call it culture, I call it tradition.
Place is insanely loud. And I also think that they're
just sort of at the period now where they can
get back into competing, they can get back into the

(33:45):
groove of like being a contender, and so you'll get
to see Kyle Field on display a lot more. But
I've been there, I know what it's about. So I
got it at number eleven. I put Ohio State at
number ten. While I'm not as high on Ohio Stadium
in terms of an vironment as EA, it's still a
really really good environment, so make no mistake about it.
Like I've been there for several big games, including night games.

(34:08):
For some reason, people think I haven't been there for
a night game. I've been there. I was that was
there for the Tennessee game that was a playoff game
last year. So yes, yes, Well will gladly put the
horse Shoe in the top ten, just not the top five.
It's partly a credit to the fact that you guys
have won for so long that again, you don't feel
threatened a whole lot. And then I've been in there,

(34:29):
you know when Michigan's come in there, and you know,
good and well you're supposed to beat them. So there's
this nervousness, very very surreal. But yeah, Ohio Stadium, top ten,
just not top five. Clemson at number nine, clembs in
great atmosphere, got no complaints. I also think that it's

(34:50):
just a wonderful thing that we get to see that
place in Week one this year. LSU going to Clemson,
not Atlanta, not New Orleans, great American cities, but college
football needs to be played on home CAMPI plural of campus,
and we get to see Clemson in all of its glory.
So release the balloons, Dabbo outrun his entire roster down

(35:14):
the hill. Let's go Clemson at number nine. I got
Alabama at number eight. I think last year's Georgia game
sort of re emphasized what Bryant Denny Stadium is supposed
to be. Bryant Denny Stadium for a long time because
of the guy the field is now named after, had
fallen down this list. It is a consequence of continued success.

(35:36):
It's tough to go in there and feel threatened when
you're favored by double digits every week. Then you got
an entire season, like a generation now really of season
ticket holders and students and alumni that have become conditioned
to it. Well, then last year, all of a sudden,
you're not conditioned to it, and you feel very vulnerable,
and then Georgia comes in there and place is just
on fire. It may have been the best atmosphere we

(35:58):
experienced all of last year was that Georgia Alabama game.
Now I'm putting Bama at eight because I need to
see more for it. Here's what I think about Bama.
I think that place was louder before they finished the
full enclosure of the end zone construction projects, because they
hadn't become conditioned to be in a national title favorite

(36:19):
every year. Back then. The trade off to all the
enhanced amenities and the increased capacity was you got that
because Sabin was winning a whole lot, which just means
one hundred and one thousand people that are fairly into
it does not out audible eighty eight thousand people that
are really into it. But you could have both. You
could have both. Number seven, Oh, this ought to go

(36:42):
over well down there Auburn. Auburn is at its best,
one of the best in the country. I'm going to
have people who are going to throw Auburn's home record
in my face. They're going to point out that Diego
Pavia and New Mexico State went in there, and one
having a G eight home field atmosphere being a tough

(37:03):
place to play doesn't overcome your team sucking. There's no
amount you could just line jet engines up around the
field and if your team sucks, they just suck. And
the place is gonna look like a COVID game by
the fourth quarter cause there're gonna be five feet between
every spectator that's left, mainly family and close friends of players.
But when Auburn is decent to good and you get

(37:26):
a big game in Jordenhair Stadium, the only people who
doubt that are people who haven't been in there. A
Jordenhare Stadium is just insane. It may be low at
number seven, really, it may be low at number seven.
Call up Kirby, Smart, call up Saban, call up less
miles back in the day when LSU would go in there.
So jorden Haare Stadium gets slept on because their team's

(37:49):
not perennially good. Auburn's good in flashes, so you only
get to see what I'm talking about in flashes. But
when you see it, and especially if you've experienced it,
if you've ever been in there, you know what I'm
talking about. The next place. Take everything I just said
about Auburn, and it applies even more to the next place.
They didn't have Washington in the top ten. Washington is amazing.

(38:13):
Husky Stadium. When Washington's good and there's a big game there,
I don't care what the capacity is. Most of you
will doubt this. I don't think you've ever been there.
I hadn't for a long time. Until two years ago.
I had never been up there, so I mocked people
when they talked about how loud and intimidating Husky Stadium

(38:35):
wasn't like pretty much everything Washington did to me two
years ago. I got my mouth shut when I went
up there for the Oregon game. I don't need it
explained to me in physiological terms or even terms of architecture.
Whatever it is, it sounds like it sounds like a
runway at SeaTac, which is the airport up there. It's

(38:57):
just amazing. Unbelievable sustain decibel level. And so not only
do you get beautiful scenery, you get an incredibly loud
and hostile and intimidating environment. You are going to have
people from Okalla, Florida and Spartanburg, South Carolina who are
going to argue this till they're blue in the face

(39:18):
and they've never been there. Go to a game there,
a big one where Washington's good and it's competitive through
four quarters, and you won't come back feeling the same way.
Washington is an insanely hard place to go play. Oregon's
right there with them, two of the most lively hostile
places that I ever have been to watch college football games,

(39:41):
Seattle and Eugene. I put Oregon right here at number well,
actually I got one in between them. Oregon's four. Give
me Florida at number five. EA had Florida properly rated.
I think they had him at like seven or something
like that, just a little bit higher on Florida. And
this is again with the caveat that if Florida's not good,

(40:03):
there's really not much the swamp can do to help
the team. But if Florida is good, there is a
ton the swamp does This was not something that needed
to be debated in the nineties and the two thousands,
it was accepted. Then Florida had a downswing for an
extended period of time and people forgot about the swamp.
People started sleeping on the swamp. And that's a mistake.

(40:26):
That's a big mistake. I am a believer that the
Texas game this year is the Swamp's opportunity. That is
Florida's opportunity to re establish the home field environment and
the home field edge that's always been there. It's just
waiting to be taken advantage of. The Miami game was

(40:48):
their opportunity last year, but they tripped over themselves. It
got dominated by Miami, is another way to put that.
So I got ben Hill Griffin's Stadium down there the
swamp at number five. I got Austin Stadium before we
went up there for the Ohio State game this past year. Incredible, incredible.
I was with several Ohio State people, let me just

(41:12):
leave it at that, before, during, and after the game.
Mainly before and during the game. I was with a
lot of Ohio State folks that obviously they've been to
the Shoe a lot, and they came out there and
it was like they might as well have been taken notes.
They saw what game day's supposed to be, and it
was good. It was good for Ohio State to go
out there and see that, and it was good for

(41:34):
everybody with the ability to make decisions to go out
there and see that. Sometimes you just need to get
your shoulders shaken a little bit. And they went out there.
They lost a competitive game, a great game, but more
importantly for what we're talking about here, they went out
there and saw this place has a fraction of the
capacity as our place, and its louder. It's crazier in here.

(41:55):
Why is that? Well, that's part of the beauty of
college football. You don't always have to have a solid
reason why. But Oregon's number four, Penn State at number three,
noon game, after noon game, after noon game, which you
know what, they still deliver. But what do we know
about that Oregon game? This year? They get the white
out game in primetime. That's Week five, right, Jesse. It's

(42:16):
early in the season, but it's the NBC. It's the
seven thirty games. So anyone who's forgotten hadn't been that long.
But anyone who's forgotten what that place is under the lights,
white out conditions. They've they got a little reminder coming
when Oregon goes in there. That's the same night at
the same time as Bama at Georgia. What a day

(42:39):
that's gonna be. So I got Penn State at number three.
I know it feels like I'm kind of skipping over them.
I just don't feel like a whole at eulse needs
to be said. I remember we went up there a
few years ago. My first game at Penn State was
a whiteout game. It was weird. I think like Auburn
went up there and played or something like that, and
that was a white out game. I remember the way
I the way I experienced it was it was it

(43:00):
was like a football game but also a rock concert
and a major pro wrestling event. That's the way I
experienced it. That's the way I came back and explained
it to my buddies who hadn't been there. Give me
LSU at number two. LSU's one of the things that
gets hyped up a lot. Death Valley at Night is
one of the things that gets hyped up a lot
in this sport that's not overhyped. There is really not

(43:24):
much justice that I could do it until you've experienced
it in person. Now, if you're an LSU fan, it's
a fun experience. It's a very very intimidating and hostile
experience going in there as an opposing fan, much less
a player, which I always thought college football should be.
It's not the worst thing in the world. Like you

(43:45):
should you never put your hands on anyone else. And
don't do what that little small cadre of OKC fans
did to the little Pacers kid the other night. Don't
be doing all that. But outside of that, you shouldn't
feel all that comfortable when you're going into a road
teams building. That's what it's like going into LSU. The
smells are wonderful, the sounds are wonderful, the food beforehand

(44:08):
is wonderful. The game's usually wonderful. Just make it a
point to do it, make it a point to go there.
Just some of the most if you like, if you
cut college football open, you want to know what bleeds
out of it. That right there, that's kind of what
you should see bleeding out. Go ahead and throw it up, Bradley,

(44:31):
I don't. I got all the respect in the world
for the folks at EA. To have Tennessee outside the
top ten of toughest place that's playing college football is
evidence of drug use. Not only is Tennessee top ten
neland stadium is the toughest place to play in college football.
Don't start with me. You can go argue with this
wall over here. I've been there for the best of it.

(44:51):
This right here is not footage that we rip from
a network. That is that is straight from the eye. Josh,
I shot this myself. I've been there, I've been a
part of it. Deafening. And also there is the psychological
factor of the fact that Rocky Top's the most annoying
sound in the world to anyone who's not a Tennessee fan.
So you practice with it all week, blaring on the

(45:13):
loud speakers, and everyone's drilling it into your head. Gotta
go beat Tennessee or this is what you're gonna hear.
And it's great if you go beat him and shut
them up, but if you don't, do you know what
it's like to be trailing Tennessee. Tennessee takes the lead
on you in the fourth quarter and they're just blaaring
Rocky Top. You got one hundred plus thousand people singing
it at the top of their lung. Psychologically, it does

(45:34):
something to you because you convinced yourself all week we
ain't letting that happen, and then it starts to happen.
I've never been in an avalanche before, but I imagine
Tennessee taking the lead on you in the fourth quarter
and Rocky Top blaring during one of the nine minute
commercial breaks you're gonna take depending on the network. That's
what an avalanche of orange feels like, Bill Martin, avalanche

(45:56):
of orange. Get the marketing ready, get the promotion machine ready.
So I not only do I have them top ten,
Not only do I have them top five, I got
Tennessee as the number one toughest place to play in
college football. These are non negotiable. They are not debatable.
These are not opinion. This is fact. You take that

(46:17):
to the bank and it's stats. It's it's fluid, it
could change year to year. But these are the definitive
rankings right now, not even ratings. These are rankings, and
you can take that to the bank. So congratulations to Tennessee.
Someone loves you, at least someone you know. Mainly just
the people who are paying attention. Quick Trip got two

(46:38):
of them. I think if we drove from here to
to not Soul, we got at least two of them
that we would go by. Not only would we go by,
then we would go inside and we would fill up outside. Okay,
first off, we need car fuel and then we also
need me fuel and that comes in the form of
col brew on tap or maybe are you not a

(47:00):
cold brew fan? Well, well maybe if you're not a
cold brew fan, go get your little protein shake or
just a normal coffee or one of fifty seven different
varieties of slushies or flavored teas. They really really got
you covered. And then you go get a various various
roll over there on the roller grill, or just some
good old fashioned pizza, maybe some trail mix, whatever your flavor.

(47:25):
Quick Trip has you covered. We appreciate them. Had a
meeting with them today, had a meeting with with QTJ today.
He knows who he is, He knows whom he is.
All right, let's continue on more questions? Are so ready
to get answers? So ready? Oh the orange cream sickles

(47:47):
ev is calling me. Jesse has got to be a
record number of SIPs on the show tonight. You know,
I asked you for some of the biggest questions in
college football this year, and someone just got straight to
the point. Charles said, can Dabo capitalize with a roster
that gives him his best national title shot since twenty nineteen?

(48:08):
You know what, Charles, good question. I would put this
up there with the most intriguing questions of this college
football season. Really, if you think about what we're looking at,
where else would you rather be? Like if you were
placing your hope somewhere? Just let's say you walk in.
You're an agnostic fan. You don't really side with anyone.

(48:30):
You're just kind of figuring out, all right, well, what
can I depend on the most? Well, why not Clemson?
When are they going to do it again? If they
don't do it this year? They're number one in returning
production from a team that won the conference last year.
You got like a third year starter at quarterback who
was great last year down to stretch. His same coordinator

(48:51):
is there again. They added Tom Allen On the defensive side.
They got NFL guys at all three levels of the
defense they have. In fact, I would call this a
paper popper stat They got twenty one underclassman that played
two hundred plus snaps. I had a hiccup there. Let
me repeat in case anyone wanted to clip that twenty

(49:12):
one underclassman got two hundred plus snaps last year for Clemson.
Those guys will be back this year. That led FBS.
So here's what's really really intriguing about this. To me,
you can feel however you want to about it. It's
a classic fork in the road moment because if they

(49:35):
win the national title this year, I don't know that
I've ever seen a bigger I told you so in
the history of this sport. If Dabo Swinney, after several
years of having people tell him he's going about the
portal era the wrong way, he's going about the nil
era the wrong way. After all that, I'm included in that.
So I am over here with the people who to

(49:58):
a certain degree said that about him. For all that,
not only does he stay afloat, but he wins a
national title. I don't remember a bigger I told you
so in the recent modern era of college football. It's
one thing if he ignores it all, stays the course
and just keeps his head above water. If they win

(50:19):
the whole thing, the storybook says he drops the mic
and rides off into the sunset and goes and signs
with ESPN and takes over on college game day for
Lee Courso or something like that. I don't know that
he would ever do that. I'm just saying that's what
the storybook ending would be, because he certainly has nothing
left to accomplish. He already has his legacy sealed. It's

(50:41):
not even a legacy thing, it's just it would be
a testament to about ten different things you could teach
a college course if Dabo wins the national title this
year on the lessons learned along the way. However, what
if they fall off this year, what if they're just
like nine and three or eight and four, not terrible,

(51:03):
but well off the pace, Well, then you'd probably look
at it. It wouldn't be disastrous. What it would be
is a pretty telling sign that Clemson's time in that
conversation may be done. And that'd be okay. Yeah, not
for a Clemson fan, they'd hate that. But as the

(51:25):
onlooker that's outside the bubble, you would look at it
and you'd say they had a multi year run, they
won a couple of national titles, they were the standard
bearer in their league for a long time. Still are
by the way, good for them. That was a good
solid run. Probably over they're probably back in the pack now,
but it was a good solid run. So you can
clearly tell why that's intriguing because you've got you got

(51:47):
this fork in the road and you can go one
way or the other way. Now there is a third path,
which is just I guess not a fork in the
road where they're kind of equal to what they were
last Year'd be good enough to win the conference, make
the playoff, but nothing more. And that kind of leaves
you in the nether world, like in between. But that's

(52:08):
why it's so intriguing. Can go a number of different ways,
but they legitimately could win the national title this year.
I was doing something with Cuberlic the other night where
we just turned on zoom and rambled for like an
hour and a half and he recorded it and then
he uploaded it on the Cube Show YouTube channel try
and encourage you to go check out. But one of
the things he did, I was like, I was holding

(52:30):
up a piece of paper of the preseason rankings. He said, hey,
hold that piece of paper up of all those teams
who do you feel most comfortable with? And I said Texas.
For a second, he said, you know mine is clumsing.
And the more I thought about it, I said, yeah,
I want to change my answer. I think it's clumsing too.
Doesn't guarantee anything. It's a long season, you know, So

(52:53):
even if they go beat LSU thirty seven to twenty
in Week one, it's a long season. It's just man,
that expectation level. If they meet it or exceed it
this year versus if they regress it, it so heavily
determines the next five years. And it so heavily determines

(53:15):
how Dabos talked about, you know, not legacy per se,
but like if there's a second chapter to the Dabbo legacy,
well that's that's the core of it. The twenty twenty
five championship run. You know how hard it is to
ever win a national title period, much less winning two
of them, what nine years apart, and there was another

(53:38):
one in between, but like the first and then maybe
the last one nine years apart, and how much changed
and how little you changed? Talk about pride. That would
be a point of pride. All right, let's move on
a lot of orange in the show. I didn't plan
it this way, including the ZBA. I didn't plan it
this way, but it just turned out this way. One

(54:01):
of our most popular segments that's been recurring lately, Oh
know what I'm saying? Like that has been the Truth
Teller Series. It so I might continue it tonight. Bradley,
here's a good endpoint for you. Let's continue the Truth
Teller Series. I would like us to tell the truth
about Josh Hypel, head coach at Tennessee. Josh Hypel, what's
the truth? What do you think about him? He has

(54:22):
thirty wins over his last three seasons. Okay, so just
to give you some Tennessee context, that is the most
they've had since the Golden era of Tennessee really in
color TV history, and that's nineteen ninety six through nineteen
ninety eight, the Philip Fulmer era won a national title
during that stretch. Well, Hypel's won thirty games over his

(54:43):
past three years. That's the kind of stuff they were
doing back then. People wouldn't put him on par right
now with where they had Phil Fulmer in the late
nineties early two thousands. Of course, you got to win
a title, you know, ten or trash title or bust.
You know. I when I hear people tell the Hypel

(55:05):
story or they give their opinion on him, it's like
some of some of his history's memory hold to me.
If that makes any sense, I'll tell you what I
mean by that. He to me, Josh Hipel to me,
is an example of right guy at the right place
in time, because he came there from UCFS, as did

(55:26):
his ad. So Danny White was the AD at UCF,
and Tennessee hires him, and then Danny White hires his
head coach at UCF, Josh Hipel. But here's what people
sometimes forget. They had just gone six and four at
UCF in twenty twenty. I think their record had fallen
off a little bit each year since he took over

(55:46):
for Frost. Since he got there, there were whispers around
Orlando that if they didn't significantly pick up the pace
the following year, that Hypel would be in the hot
seat conversation. And it's hired by Tennessee and it becomes
a moot point. And I'm sitting there thinking to myself,
that's peculiar. But yet the guy who hired him is

(56:06):
the guy who knows him better. Than anyone, So I'm
gonna trust Danny White on this one. That was that
was the extent of my reaction when josh Hipel got
hired and he's gone there, and from two thousand and
eight to twenty twenty one, prior to josh Hipel's arrival
in Knoxville, from eight to twenty twenty one, they didn't

(56:27):
have a single double digit win season. Two of his
first three years have been double digit win seasons. But
think about this, in that thirteen year stretch where Tennessee
was out wandering in the wilderness, it's like there are
the Israelites, there's Tennessee kind of following them. Eight of
those thirteen seasons, they were five hundred or worse inexcusable

(56:50):
amounts of ineptitude at Tennessee, which just goes to show
you how bad the wrong hire can compound matters. And
then when you follow the wrong higher with another wrong
hire with another wrong higher, oh, just flaming bags of
trash in your winning loss records when you pull up

(57:10):
the Wikipedia page. And then josh Hipel came in and
he's rectified it. So they're in a very weird spot
right now. To tell you the truth, about how I
feel about Tennessee. They're in a very weird spot. On
one hand, I think it could be a transition year
for them this year. I'm not as high on Tennessee
this year as the oddsmakers are, as many people around

(57:35):
here are. Since I live in Nashville, I hear a
ton of Tennessee talk. I'm not as high on Tennessee
as some people are. That's not the terrible thing. It's
that's gonna happen in college football. That's transition. That's gonna
happen every now and then. The reason I say that's
a weird spot is because I'm very high on Tennessee's program,
and I'm extremely high on what happened last year. All

(57:57):
people remembers they got blown out at Ohio State. That's
the way they ended the year. But that's one game.
What I remember is for all to talk about how
big an offensive genius Josh Hypel is, and he is
that how'd they win last year? They were good offensively,
but there were several extended periods last year of offensive drought.

(58:20):
Defense is what won him games. They had a top
ten defense last year. To me, one of the surest
signs of upward mobility of upward trending as a team
and a program is when the side of the ball
you don't specialize in starts to elevate. Lincoln Riley is
a classic example of the other side of this coin.

(58:41):
Lincoln Riley scored fifty every game at Oklahoma, but they
needed to because they were given up forty five every game.
And now he's gone to USC and to a certain extent,
he had the same problems at the outset. They were
terrible defensively. He made the proper HighRes and it looks
like they're getting better there. But at Tennessee, like Hypel
last year, it's it's defense. It was a defensive oriented team,

(59:04):
and so that on one hand makes me feel good
about the trajectory of the program. Even if they have
a temporary hiccup this year, I still feel that about Tennessee.
Now could be wrong. They could go eleven and one
this year, but I'm just saying, even if they're eight
and four this year, I still feel the same way
about him. Now, speaking of the way people feel about him,
the Niko Iamliava stuff is still fairly fresh in everyone's mind.

(59:27):
But Batt'll fate in the public's mind. They got too
much else going on in their lives. They're worried about
their own team, or they're worried about everything else that
they're not going to remember intimate details of how Josh
Haipel handled the nico I Amaliava drama in spring of
twenty twenty five. Tennessee fans will so that really endeared

(59:49):
him to Tennessee fans, as it should, because he finally
stood up when so many other coaches were bending a
knee to players and representatives of players asking for this
and that, and Josh Hypel finally just chested it up
and said, yeah, go on, go on. You know what,
even if we have to take a step back this year,
go on, we don't need that here. And he got

(01:00:11):
a standing round of applause from his fan base, and
I applaud him too, even as I looked at it
and I said, you know, I'm not a believer this
will necessarily help their overall record this upcoming year. It
may help their standing as a program overall. And I
want you to also think about this. If Tennessee is
the kind of team that's just scrappy, and they got

(01:00:34):
they got the hateful three stars, which are worth their
weight in gold if they just got enough of those
sprinkled with some foreign five star talent. But if if
they're nucleus just decides to go all in for Josh Heipel,
and they're the kind that'll take your kneecaps out in
a close game, then you may find yourself late in
the year and Tennessee's just battered and bloodied, but they're

(01:00:56):
still coming from more and they're still in the fringe
of the playoff ray. You may find yourself saying, you know,
those kids are playing for him in the way they are,
partly because of how he reacted in the spring to
a guy that didn't necessarily want to be all in.
I could see that. I could see that. So that's
the truth to me about Josh Hipel. Right now, Bradley

(01:01:20):
showed you the odds for Tennessee to win the SEC.
Not great odds. Right now. However, it may be that
you're sitting home in Kingsport or Johnson City or Memphis
and you're saying, you know, that last thing you said
about Tennessee, I think that's right. I think there's going
to be an intangible nature to the grit and just

(01:01:43):
the hard nosed determination of this team this year that
they want to play and they want to fight for
a guy who stood up for him in the spring,
and I think they're going to overachieve. Well, you're in
luck because you can go bet on all those sorts
of things right now at FanDuel. You can go look.
If you saw that list and you said, oh wait,
they have that for every team over there, I'm not
a big better. I just want to go look. Yes

(01:02:03):
you can go look as well. Penalty free, you can
go look. But if you want to go bet over there,
and if you want to get early value on this stuff,
now's the time to do it. You know how you
know how long the line's going to be at the
window come August. It's not really a window, it's the internet.
But you get my point. A lot of the value
is going to be pounded out of those numbers by August.
So there's value on the board right now. And they're

(01:02:25):
the exclusive betting and odds provider of the show. We
appreciate them. Sign up for FanDuel atfanduel dot com. Backslash
CFB promotion must be twenty one plus and present in
select states. For Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino
or eighteen plus and present in Washington, DC. First online
real money wager only ten dollars first deposit required. Bonus

(01:02:49):
issued is non withdrawable bonus bet that expires seven days
after receipt. Do you have a gambling problem if so
called one eight hundred gambler or visitfanduel dot com, backsloe
RG call one eight eight eight seven eight nine seven
seven seven seven, or visit CCPG dot org backslash chat
in Connecticut, or visit MD Gamblinghelp dot org in Maryland.

(01:03:12):
Hope is here, visit gambling Heelplinema dot org or call
eight hundred three two seven fifty to fifty for twenty
four seven support in Massachusetts. Or call one eight seven
seven eight Hope, n Y. Or text h op E
n Y in New York. Let's wrap the show up
with bold predictions. Everything is a nine or bowlder on

(01:03:34):
this particular show tonight, Bradley, here's a good endpoint bold
prediction season the things that you believe that you have
agreed to let me put on the air tonight in
hopes of December glory. Let's take a look at the
first one. This comes to us from our buddy John
JD for sure right here in Tennessee and Tazewell Ole

(01:03:55):
mess in Florida in the SEC Championship game. I'm gonna
make that a nine point five on the boldness scale.
These are the number five and number six teams and
the odds to win the SEC right now at FanDuel.
They do play each other in the regular season. What
are we counting on here, Well, we're counting on Florida
to overcome what is, in our estimation, the toughest schedule
in the country. And we're also counting on Austin Simmons

(01:04:19):
and Ole Missus defense to shine. That's just a lot
to count on. So I mean, they're up there, like
it wouldn't be a stunner if either or made the
SEC title game, but for both of them to make
it over the likes of Texas or LSU or Alabama
or Georgia, it's a little bit tougher for me to see.

(01:04:40):
That's a nine point five. Next up, this one I
wrestled with a little while today, Carson from Houston, Texas.
He said, Jeremiah Smith breaks the all time receiving yards
record of over two thousand yards due to the expanded
playoff adding more games. Okay, so Trevor Ensley at Nevada
a while back, I think late nineties he set the record.

(01:05:02):
The record is two thousand and sixty receiving yards in
one season. I think he did it in twelve games.
I think now what we're saying here is okay, But
Jeremiah Smith's probably gonna play more than twelve games, so that,
in part is why he's gonna break the all time record.
I only made this a nine on the Bolden scale,

(01:05:24):
Like you're telling me a guy's gonna break a record
that stood since the turn of the millennium, and it's
only a nine. That should tell you how good he is.
DeVante Smith won the Heisman in twenty twenty. He played
thirteen games. He had a little over eighteen hundred receiving yards.
Jeremiah Smith he averaged one hundred and forty two point
eight yards per game last year. That pace over sixteen

(01:05:48):
games comfortably gets him the record. In fact, he doesn't
even need to be close to one hundred and forty
per game for him to get the record. It's just
does he sustain that over an entire year? Does he
stay healthy and does Julian Saying have the kind of
game that it takes to get him the ball like that,
I certainly can count on Ohio State to have the
supporting cast where they're not trying to force him the

(01:06:10):
ball enough. I also look, I think if Brian Hartline
sort of in the back of his mind decides this
is one of my goals. I want to get that
kid the Heisman. I want to get that kid records.
Even in the games they know we're gonna be blowouts.
That's just when you feed him the ball ten times
in the first half so he gets his as you
know he's gonna be on the bench in the second half.

(01:06:31):
I'm gonna put a nine on that one. The next
one would be sad Alan from Melbourne, Florida said, sadly,
there you go, his words, not mine. Mike Norvel gets
fired before the end of the season, that is a
nine point five to me. Is it a disaster season?
Because if it is, you know, there's really no limit

(01:06:55):
at that point. It would be two of them in
a row. Is it just an up and down season? Though,
if it's an up and down season, I don't think
he's gonna get fired before the season's over. He may
not be fired at all, but if he was fired,
it wouldn't before the season's over. Bradley, if you've got
Florida State schedule, show me for a second, because I
just want you to look at this. So they don't

(01:07:16):
Their bye week is after the Stanford game, So if
they're going to fire him, my point is, if they
don't do it after the Stanford game, there's not another
bye week the rest of the way, and there's really
no FCS game, Like, there's no convenient place to do it.
They go Wake Forest at home, at Clemson, VA Tech,

(01:07:39):
at NC State, at Florida. Their schedules backloaded, so the
the biggest risk games are on the back end, Like
they should win some games to start off the season
at least not be terrible. And then if they want
to fire him, do you fire him the week you're
about to go on the road in conference play? You
fire him the week you're about to go to Gainesville.

(01:08:00):
I just even if they're gonna do it, I don't
know if that's gonna happen during the season. And I
know that's the new trend to do it and go
ahead and rip the band aid off and let's get
the search started and maybe they will. Maybe it'll be
a moot point and Florida State wins nine games, but
I make that a nine point five. And lastly, h
oh yeah. South Carolina. Okay, so this was from Lexington,

(01:08:24):
South Carolina. South Carolina has a top ten offense, a
top fifteen defense and makes the playoff. And there was
some Lenora Cellar stuff too. Let's just go with that.
That's a nine point seventy five. South Carolina was sixteenth
in defense last year and lost a bunch, so we're
asking them to improve despite all the draft departures. They

(01:08:45):
had the forty fifth offense last year, and I don't
know who in the world they're gonna count on for
depth at wide receiver. The tailback situation is still a
little weird because of the eligibility thing, and they just
have to significantly improve offensively. Yeah. I don't think this
is gonna happen. They could make the playoff without this happening. However,

(01:09:06):
you would think if this does happen, they're a lock
to make the playoff, Right, No Ole Miss did this
last year? Do you know that Ole Miss was top
fifteen in defense? Top ten offense, they didn't even make
the playoff. Tennessee was the other one. So the defense
just lost a lot. And on the offensive side, the

(01:09:27):
wide receiver position, the running back position. You just count
on Lenora's sellers becoming that much better this year. If
any of that doesn't happen, you got no shot at
a top fifteen offense. So I'm gonna make that a
nine point seventy five on the boldness scale. Good stuff,
good stuff, as always, all right, we will be back

(01:09:48):
what Sunday night. We'll be back same time we're supposed
to be, and we really appreciate it. So much going on. Oh,
make sure you're following on social at Josh Pate CFB.
There's so much going on. It's all good stuff. I
would even go as far to say great stuff. Heavily involved,
but great stuff, and you'll know all of it before

(01:10:08):
the season starts. In the meantime, we've got to go home.
It's dinner time. So for producer Jesse Director Bradley, I'm
Josh Pate. Take care, have great start to your weekend,
and God bless. Sign up for FanDuel at FanDuel dot com.

(01:10:34):
Backslash CFB promotion must be twenty one plus and present
in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino,
or eighteen plus and present in Washington, DC. First online
real money wager only ten dollars first deposit required. Bonus
issued is non withdrawable bonus bet that expires seven days

(01:10:54):
after receipt. Do you have a gambling problem if so
called one eight hundred gambler or visit at FanDuel dot
com backslash RG call one eight eight eight seven eight
nine seven seven seven seven, or visit CCPG dot org
backslash chat in Connecticut, or visit MD Gamblinghelp dot org.
In Maryland. Hope is here, visit Gamblinghelplinema dot org or

(01:11:18):
call eight hundred three two seven fifty fifty for twenty
four seven support in Massachusetts. Or call one eight seven
seven eight Hope, n Y. Or text h O P
E n Y in New York