Week 11 Upset Alerts + CFP Chaos Ahead & Cole Cubelic On Auburn Search

College Football week 11 upset alerts are here as we look ahead Saturday. We break down the upset potential on games like Indiana vs Penn State, UGA vs Mississippi State, Syracuse vs Miami, Auburn vs Vanderbilt, Navy vs Notre Dame, and Wake Forest vs Virginia. How will the Auburn coaching search play out. Cole Cubelic joins Josh to discuss. Texas A&M vs Missouri is an under-the-radar game this weekend. Can Mike Elko and his team avoid the upset?  College Football Playoff chaos scenarios are also fun to discuss this time of year. What will Dabo Swinney end up doing at Clemson? All that plus early best bets on the Ramen Noodle Express. Be sure to let us know what you think, SUBSCRIBE to the channel, and CLICK THE BELL for notifications as we bring you multiple live shows per week!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:19):
I know I always beg you guys to subscribe to
the channel. Really, I'm more advising you subscribe to the channel.
Every day you wake up, you think, man, there's some
crazy headlines in college football coaches, me and fire coaching
searches happening, all this and that. I am of the
belief there's a distinct possibility we haven't even seen the craziest.
So you need to be subscribed to the channel. With that,

(00:40):
We're jam packed. We're high top of glorious downtown Nashville, Tennessee. Thursday,
November sixth, the Year of Our Lord, twenty twenty five,
we got upset alerts all over the Thursday show, so
we always do that. I have got a question sent
to us by a viewer about daboswenty, and I figured
we got a couple of minutes on the Thursday show.
I didn't have time on the Tuesday show. Thursday Show,

(01:01):
I can talk about that a little bit. What's gonna
happen with him? Is one of the greatest coaches in
the history of the sport going through a little bit
of a thing over there right now. What's gonna happen there,
we'll talk about that. I've got three terrifying playoff chaos scenarios.
Everyone should be scared, except for me because I came
up with him. Everyone should be scared by these scenarios.
We got cublic on the show. We're gonna talk a

(01:24):
lot about the finer details of coaching searches out there
right now, specifically the Auburn one, but not just the
Auburn one. So we're jam packed. I'm even gonna do
A and M Missouri. We're gonna break the game down.
They're watching us in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Jupiter, Florida, Saint Paul, Minnesota,
East Lansing, Michigan. I ask you again. I implore you again,

(01:44):
because I got a DM like thirty minutes ago from
someone who said, you know, you keep asking us to subscribe,
and I thought I was subscribed the whole time, and
then I look down and I've been watching four years.
I wasn't subscribed. I know That's why I keep asking.
Our data says fifty two percent of our viewers are
not described to the channel, and I don't know why,
cause it's free and generally I think I'm a very

(02:05):
affable person. No one's out there rage watching, are they Jesse,
do we have demographics? Do we have data on rage viewership?
Even if you hate us, subscribe out of hatred, hate state,
pate state, whatever. Just make sure you're subscribed and it
helps us out a lot. That's it, Okay, let's dive
into the show fairly jam pack for a Thursday. I
would say upset alert concern meter is gonna spike on

(02:29):
several of these games generated by flex Power. Flex Power
has done a really good job of generating upsets by
the not dozens yet, who knows. After this week it
may be in the dozens, but they've been generating some upsets.
They can also generate your home anything you need power
generated too, But they can really generate some upsets here.
And I got to start with one that I have
trouble seeing. I couldn't even get Jesse to sell me

(02:52):
on this one. Indiana is at Penn State Saturday. It's
an early kickoff. Of course, it is Indiana's minus fourteen
and a half. This one's a little different dynamic. It's
been a long time since we thought about a Penn
State home game. And I asked the following question, is
the crowd really going to be a factor? But I'm

(03:12):
asking you, Penn State home game, one hundred and forty
eight thousand seats in that place, is the crowd really
going to be a factor. Hey, if it's close at halftime, yeah,
no one's going home. But I was telling Jesse, Hey, look,
I know how hard it is to get in and
out of that place immunity, and I know how turned
off the people are up there. By the way, the

(03:32):
season's gone. So if you're a season ticket holder, you're
gonna show up. But for the first time, in the
back of your mind, there's this voice that says, if
it's a three possession game at halftime, am I hitting
the exit door? Am I going to try and get home?
Am I going to get back down to Harrisburg, back
over to York or Johnstown? Am I gonna beat the traffic?

(03:53):
Beat the traffic vibes could be very high in State
College this weekend. Now, what if it's tied at halftime?
What if Penn State has the lead? That's why we're
talking about it on upset Alert. It just doesn't profile
as the kind of week where the Indiana third down
magic is going to cease. What is that, Well, it's
the biggest paper pop in this game. Indiana is number
one in the country in third down conversion percentage, to

(04:15):
the point where you wonder if they have a cheat
code on the sport. Penn State's defense one hundred and
third in third down conversion rate allowed. So if you
can't convince me that that's going to just like invert
itself magically, I have a tough time seeing this. Penn
State's backup quarterback is alleged to be a wide receiver

(04:35):
right now. By the way, then again, if they get
to the backup quarterback, it's a moot point. Anyway. Ohio
State had three cap buster plays against Penn State last week,
So theoretically you could say, hey, if Penn State has
turnover look and they have good defensive third down efficiency,
and also they make Indiana work to earn it, and
they don't give up the easy, over the top cap

(04:55):
buster plays, then maybe they can win. Did you notice
how many things had to go right? What a world
we live in now where all that has to go
right for Penn State to have an outside shot puncher's
chance at home against Indiana. I'm down on this. It's
what I'm saying, Jesse. I know I told you it's
a three. I just told you make feel good. I
got like a two on it. I don't see it.
I don't see it. Then again, that's the anatomy of

(05:17):
an upset. You're not supposed to see it on the horizon.
Next up, Startville, Mississippi. The boys at Mississippi State are
fresh off their first conference win over Jeff Levy. We
know that on this show because we picked them out right,
not that we deserve a ton of credit. We deserve

(05:37):
a little bit of credit. So they come home now.
Georgia is a nine and a half point favorite. According
to fan Duel at Mississippi State. Georgia some people think
is sleepwalking. I don't think that. I think Georgia just
is who they are this year. They are a team
that has to play a lot of these close games.
Four of their five SEC games have been decided by

(05:59):
one possession. Oh wait, that's not Georgia, that's Mississippi State.
Two of these we got two one possession kings in
this game. It's just one of them keeps winning them
and the other one has lost them until last week.
So yeah, I just read the stat I'll read it again.
Just know that this is Mississippi State. Yeah, the Bulldogs. Well,
Mississippi State Bulldogs four of their five SEC games decided

(06:21):
by one possession. Then Georgia four of their six have
been decided by one possession, and the Auburn games the
outlier there or one of them, and the Auburn game
feels like more of a one possession game than some
of the other ones that were one possession games. So
I say all that to say this could be a
very close game. Mississippi State is thirty fifth in the
JP Pole. To give you an idea, they're ahead of

(06:44):
Georgia Tech in the JP Pole. They're being badly overlooked
because of their record. It's not a bad team. They
also score thirty eight on Texas. You know, So if
Georgia comes in there and they don't get pressure and
Mississippi State starts moving the I got good news for you.
You can score on Georgia. And I got good news

(07:04):
for you, Mississippi State. You're very comfortable playing one possession games.
I've got bad news for you. Brandon Walker's come into
the game. I would have made this a nine on
the upset Alert concern meter, But now that we know
Walker's going to be at the game. I can't put
it any higher than a six and a half, and
so I'm sorry, guys, I'm sorry. I wish it wasn't

(07:24):
the case. We remember what happened when you had Texas
beat until a certain someone went horns down with time left.
I don't want to rehash that. That's very clickbaitish. We
don't want to do that. We don't trafficking that around here.
Next up, Syracuse at Miami. There's just no way, right,
there's just no way Miami's favored by twenty eight and

(07:46):
a half at home. Where are they mentally? Now? I'm
somewhat of an expert on Syracuse football because I watched
the entire game against North Carolina. North Carolina is bad,
Syracuse is terrible, and I watch some of the worst
football I've seen played in a long time. And after
that game where North Carolina one convincingly, might I add

(08:07):
and I think Syracuse's only score was defensive, their only
touchdown was defensive. So after all that, fran Brown made
some staff changes up there, they got to go down
to Miami. Theoretically, Miami's in a big bounce back spot here. Theoretically,
I think they're gonna win. I think they're gonna win
pulling away. I'm not gonna put anything bigger than zero

(08:28):
point five on the upset alert concern meter. This is
the kind of game though, that even if they win
and it's ugly, I still have concern about Miami. So
at Stanford game. As it turns out, final score is
forty two to seven, But they pulled away and covered
late in that one, so even that one wasn't quite
the blowout that it looks like. Will this game be
a blowout? We'll see next up right here in Nashville, Tennessee,

(08:51):
Auburn taken on Vanderbilt. Are Vanderbilt Commodores are laying six
and a half. This is the post freeze era for Auburn,
and we know what comes post freeze, right thaw. And
while I have no idea how that relates to football,
I just wanted to fit it in so that if

(09:12):
Auburn ends up winning this game, we can maybe use
it as a sound bite. Maybe the Auburn creative team
just weaves it into the post game cinematic recap. I
don't know, but Vandy goodrundy seventeenth in the country. They
struggle against the pass. But you know who else struggles
with the pass, Auburn. So I'm not quite sure how

(09:33):
they weaponize that or how they leverage that to their advantage.
Vanderbilt still a playoff team, guys. They're sitting right there
in the thick of the playoff hunt. In fact, I
think if they went out, they're in the playoff. So
this is one game they got to play. I think
they got Kentucky. Uh, there it is. Yeah, they got
Kentucky next week, and then they've got at Tennessee. That's
how they end the season. They play a very low

(09:54):
margin for aerostyle football, so does Auburn. The total in
this is forty five and a half, and frankly, I
think even that is a little high. Dj Dirkin wants
this job. He wants to be considered for this job.
I don't know what kind of they call it the
dead cat bounce out there. Some people do the bounce
that you get after you fire a coach, which is

(10:15):
antithetical to what common sense tells you what happen. I
don't know what that's gonna be here. I just think
Vandy showed they're not checked out of anything. They almost
came from behind to Ty Texas last week. So I'm
gonna put a seven on this game. Limited possessions, anything
could happen. I'm gonna put a seven on it, but
I'm not betting it or anything like that. Next up,
this one's pretty low, but it's not zero. Navy is

(10:38):
at Notre Dame. This is not being played at a
neutral site. This is Notre Dame Stadium. Sun's gonna set
like two thirty in the afternoon. Notre Dame favored by
twenty six and a half. As usual, Navy has the
top rushing offense in the country and the number one
hundred and thirty passion offense in the country, which means
if Notre Dame does what they did last year, get
a big lead, it's over. They won fifty one to fourteen.

(11:00):
They won forty two to three the year before that.
They just had a weird game at Boston College. Notre
Dame the kicking situation is atrocious and there's really no
help in sight. If they have to rely on kicking
to beat Navy, We've got much bigger issues here. I
don't think they will. They've got a game against Pitt
on deck yet. I'm not quite sure it's the look

(11:23):
ahead spot that you know the rankings would indicate. I
think Notre Dame will be okay here. I'm told they're
one of the hottest teams in the country. Like I'm
told they're in ascension mode. I don't necessarily disagree. So
I'm gonna put a two on this. And that's mainly
because I'm patriotic and I don't let Navy be anywhere
below a two on the upset Alert concern meter. I

(11:43):
don't think it's gonna happen. They really don't. Don't feel
great about it. Next up, maybe this one will wake
Forest at Virginia. Virginia, also in the thick of the
playoff hunt. They're eight and one. They're undefeated in conference play,
even though they've lost to an ACC team. Again, don't ask,
don't ask, ask what is left of wake Forest after
Mike Norvel took him and tossed him in a wood

(12:06):
chipper last week? Forty two to seven. Forty two to
seven was the final there. I don't love the wake
Forest matchup. They need to flip the turnover margin here,
That's really what they need to do. They need to
flip what we hope is a randomized statistic because one
of them is ninety seventh and turnover margin, that'd be
Wake and the other is tenth that'd be Virginia. So

(12:28):
you just need to be plus two turnovers randomly on
an afternoon in a matchup where you're not good at
that and they are good at that. Because if you
do that and you got Virginia, breathe in that November air,
it's the thinnest air in the sport. Contending for the
first time, competing for a playoff spot for the first time,
and now you're in November and you're favored, and people
are talking about you on shows like this, and sometimes

(12:51):
it can go to your head and sometimes you just
play a little bit tighter. And you got a team
that got left for dead and they got body bagged
last week, and then they unziped the body bag and
they're up to twenty three to twenty in the fourth quarter.
It's good enough for me to put a six on
the upset Alert concern Meter. I'm gonna be watching this
one closely, even though we'll be in Lubbock because Quick
Trip is taking us there. The Falldon't Lie Tour is

(13:14):
headed to Lubbock, Texas. I'm leaving tomorrow morning. Man, I'm
getting out there. I'm spending all Friday in Lobbock and
then all Saturday in Love It spend as much time
as you can. And Lubbock Mima always said, no problem,
no problem. Think Buddy Holly said that too. So the
Falldon't Lie Tour shirt there right there in the pet
State store paytstatematerial dot Com. We make a version for

(13:35):
every place we go, so there's a Fall Don't Lie
Tour T shirt for every stop we make. But we
only make it available for one week. So right now
the Lubbock T shirt is doing numbers this week first off,
and secondly it's available for like two more days and
then it's done. And I can't even get one. I
can't even my sister wants One's just a strange affinity

(13:57):
for Lubbock, Texas. Sorry, sorry, Wait till next year. So
we'll be there at Fault Lives will be there. Really excited,
really excited to get out there. I have been down
a rabbit hole all week of the two thousand and
eight Texas Texas Tech Game. I've been listening to like Stanford,
Steve and Rossillo and all these people tell stories about

(14:18):
how they were there and what it was like, the pregame,
end game, postgame scene, and I'm like, well, I was
watching at home, and that was fun. I was just
a little kid, not quite. I was a legal adult
by two thousand and eight, but still I didn't know.
I didn't know what it was like. Lubbock was on
the moon, Lubbock's in like Russia, isn't it. That's what

(14:39):
I thought in two thousand and eight. And then I
watched Michael Crabtree and Graham Harrell, and I watched Mike
Leach and I watched him using a kicker that they
had gotten out of a kicking competition during the season,
which I would advise Marcus Freeman to do, but he
can't right now because they can't add people to the
roster at Notre Dame. Anyway, I'm excited. That's how what
you just witnessed last forty five seconds is how my

(15:01):
brain works all day. It's a terrifying place to be,
and I'm able to control it just long enough to
do hour and a half shows every now and then.
I just keep it in the lines. It's like bumper bowling.
Just pull the bumpers out long enough to make the
show make sense, but that's normal for me. All right,

(15:21):
we gotta break this game down right quick. You know,
Texas A and M's at Missouri Saturday. We're gonna have
the audacity to talk about the game. Everyone else, it's
just foregone conclusion. A and M. Hey man, they've got
Texas left and that's it. False false false false. They're
favored by what are they six and a half Jess, Yeah,
they're six and a half point favorite at Missouri Saturday.

(15:43):
It's the longest month of the year. Guys, don't pay
attention to what the calendar actually says. November is the
longest month of the year. If you're ranked, if you're contending,
in A and m's case, for something you've never done before,
go into the playoff. We went to this game last year.
Did you know that? We went there and and it
was a splattering, a rare tour visit splattering. Normally when

(16:05):
we're in the house, it's a close game. But we
went to Oklahoma State Kansas State one year and that
was a splattering. And then Missouri at Texas A and
M last year forty one to ten. Somehow it wasn't
even that close. That was the every given Saturday tour. Well,
the Fall Don't Live Tour will not be in Como
this weekend, but A and M will Missouri did not
really even see Marcel Reed in that game. Connor Wegman

(16:26):
played most of it, if I recall. So Missouri has
been left for dead and quarterbacks out for the year
and they're coming out of a buy. So you haven't
spoken about him in a couple of weeks, and I'm
just wondering how Missouri emerges from the bye because Matt
Zohlers is going to start this thing, and he's six
four two fourteen. He is a true freshman, really good

(16:48):
talent raw because of course he is, because he's a freshman.
But I don't need him to play a whole season's
worth of dynamite football. I just need him be good
enough on one Saturday. Missouri's got the number ten rushing
offense in the con So what I need from them,
what I need from a mad hardy, what I need
from Jamal Roberts is I need enough. I need that
offensive line to take control of the game. I need

(17:10):
enough to wear I'm not looking at that kid and saying, hey,
here we go third and seven again. Get the job done.
That's not fair. That's not even a fair spot to
put like k Klubnick and Garrett nus Myrin consistently, so
it's definitely not a fair spot to put him in. Now.
The good news is this is an interesting kind of
matchup for Texas. A and M. You've gotten this late

(17:31):
in the season and yet you're still looking at an
offensive line in a tailback room here that can give
you a pretty unique challenge up front, and A and
M you know they've dealt with several different kinds of teams.
This match up here, we've got reason to believe. Here,
the model's got reason to believe could give A and
M some fits and could end up if you don't

(17:52):
take care of business, if Marcel Reid and that passing
attack doesn't take care of business, and you're not putting
what you should put up on the and you've scored
forty plus two consecutive weeks. If you're not doing that,
Missouri can just slowly put their hands around your neck,
start to just squeeze, and all of a sudden you
can't breathe and it's too late. That can be this

(18:13):
kind of game, It has to be that kind of game.
From Missouri. Now, if A and M earns the right
to rush the passer, it's over. So if that offensive
line from Missouri's not doing what I said, if those
tailbacks are not doing what I said, and you've got
a bunch of third and six pluses, A and M
number ten pressure rate, number one sacks per game in
the country ballgame, Missouri cannot win a game that way.

(18:33):
A and M's offense, like I said, forty plus points
back to back games. They're also off a buy. They are,
in a perfect world, going to be shot out of
a cannon. They're gearing up for a stretch run. Mario Kraver, Casey, Consetts,
Filon should have favorable matchups each out wide here. But look,
Missouri is a top ten pressure rate team too, so

(18:54):
Missouri's defense can get after you as well. And for
all the accolades Marcel Reid is getting and should be getting,
he still makes some questionable decisions every now and then,
so it hasn't burned him. They're undefeated. But if it
just so happens to burn them a couple of times
on this one given Saturday, that's how the upset would happen.
Let's take a look at what the model thinks. By

(19:15):
the way, the FanDuel number, I think it may surprise
some people out there. It's only six and a half.
We've got it shorter than that. We've got A and
M minus five FanDuel minus six and a half. Payt
State model here at A and M minus five. So
I'm actually because i don't have a strong feeling on it,
I'm following the model. I think it's going to be
a one possession game, so I am taking Missouri plus

(19:38):
the points. I believe in Eli Drinkwitz that much. I
believe in the backup quarterback theory that much, the galvanization
effect it has on a roster, especially coming out of
a bye, especially because your season's not over. Missouri is
still in the thick of the playoff hunt. It's just
people have written them off because they assume, well, once
your quarterback goes down, your season's over. Not until you
lose games. It's not. So I'm gonna take Missouri to

(20:00):
cover A and M somehow someway very close when upset
wouldn't shock me here at all, and I'm high on
A and M. It's just it's hard to go undefeated, man,
So I'll take Missouri plus the points. We'll do that.
Flex power just powering the show. Look at these lights
wouldn't even be on if it weren't for flex power.
And now we've had a pretty good weather day here.

(20:21):
But storms could come through at any moment and they
could knock our power out and could knock your power out.
Or you could just have a tailgate that you want
powered on Saturday, or you could have a birthday party
and it's going to be out in the front lawn
and you need power for that. Flex power has got
you covered. Portable generators very quiet, might I add? We
prove that to some of our viewers at Vanderbilt a

(20:42):
couple of weeks ago when we gave one away and
then some other lady walked up who didn't even get one.
She just took pictures of it, took down some information. Said, wow,
that's quieter than my generator. I'm not making that story up.
Pres you witnessed that. I'm not making that up. Myflexpower
dot com slash Josh Pate. They are friends of the program.
How a nice lengthy conversation with him yesterday. Probably gonna

(21:04):
do one again tomorrow. So we appreciate them and you
will as well. I got one more thing that I well,
a couple more things that I wanted to get in
the show, this Dabo thing. Man Brian hit me up,
he said, why don't we see Dabbo's name on the
hot seat even though he's having a worse season than

(21:25):
some coaches who have been fired. Well, I think the
easy answer there, Brian is he's built up a lifetime's
worth of equity at Clemson because he's won championships there,
and he's got a one hundred and eighty three and
fifty two record, and he's been at Clemson eighteen total seasons.
Like dadis twenty's a lifer, well, not quite a lifer,
but Dabo's got a mountain of equity. I mean, he's

(21:46):
been well equipped to suffer some down years, and this
is the first really big down year. Like they may
not make a Bowl this year, that's how bad it's been.
They're three and five right now now. Dabbot Genius was
always five steps ahead of the room. Dabo lost Saturday
to Duke forty six to forty five. He marinated on

(22:07):
its Sunday and he shows up Monday and he did
what any smart coach would do. He spent ten minutes
at his press conference excoriating officiating in college football because
everybody agrees officiating sucks in the sport right now, And
all of a sudden, everyone's agreeing with Dabbo, and you're like, why,
wait a second, shouldn't that press conference have been spent
with him defending himself and people questioning his job security,

(22:31):
And instead, Dabo's got everyone with a torch in one
hand and a pitchfork in the other one. We're ready
to go after officiating. There's not going to be hot
seat talk with him. That's not the way it would happen.
I don't know what this kind of exercise would be,
but it'd be a fun exercise to just live in
hypothetical land and see how many sub five hundred years
would it take to burn up all the equity Dabbo has.

(22:54):
And this is a famously impatient society, sporting society at least,
and even within those elms, I think Dabo's got a
lot of equity built up. So the next thing that
I noticed Monday, part of it was joking with the
officiating thing. But you know, Dabo said something Monday that
stuck with me because I don't know what he's talking about.

(23:17):
I'm going to paraphrase this. He was talking about his instincts,
and he said, one of the things I've got to
do is I got to kind of get back to
following my instincts, trusting my instincts. That's what's really made
this place great. I've been able to trust my instincts,
and I've gotten away from that a little bit. And
I've listened to too many people and he refused to

(23:37):
get into specifics, so we're left to wonder what he's
talking about. And I am doing that. I'm wondering what
he's talking about. What pivot have they made? When you
say that, when you say I've gotten away from my instincts,
I take that to me, and I've gotten away from
who I am and what I do in the way
I do it. Well, I look at the Clemson program
and it feels the exact opposite to me. I look

(23:59):
at the Clemson program and he's in the past, he's
promoted from within and it's burned him. And he's refused
to start using the portal more and it's burned him.
And there hasn't been a huge infusion of new ideas
in there, And again that's a very very broad statement.
I'm not saying they haven't tried anything new, or they

(24:20):
haven't hired anyone new, or they've never used the portal,
but at the very least they've slightly dipped their toes
into those waters as opposed to diving, in which I'm
not saying is right or wrong. I'm just saying it's
felt like they've stuck very close to Dabos when his
instinct says of late. So I'm really wondering, open ended
if anyone wants to offer suggestion what he's talking about.

(24:41):
But the other part is what are the changes he's
gonna make? If you talk that way, then I assume,
all right, well you're taking the steering wheel and you're
going to turn it a little bit. What is it
you're going to do, because there's no way. He looks
around and says, yeah, I like the direction we're going.

Speaker 2 (24:55):
No way.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
Now, he doesn't owe you an explanation or me an explanation,
but he owes himself an explanation. He owes his program
one his kids won, his players, and who knows, maybe
his children, I don't know, But I really just wonder
what kind of changes he looks at when this season
is done and the curtain falls, and it's Daboswenty assessing

(25:16):
Clemson football and Dabbo assessing Dabo. What has to change?
Or put another way, which lanes do you need to
course correct in by getting back to what you do instinctively.
That's a million dollars. It's a multimillion dollar question. Actually, now,
I'll tell you my feel I don't think Clemson football

(25:39):
will ever be what it was again under Dabbo. And
that's okay because everything has a natural shelf life. So
he is one of the greatest to ever do it.
He's a first ballot Hall of Famer. He is what
Clemson football will be remembered for. He's the face of
that program, my generation and moving forward. When we were born,

(26:00):
we thought something different about that Tiger Paul than we
will think today in moving forward. I mean that's huge.
That means someone came along and made themselves the historical
face of a program. That doesn't happen very often, so
we have witnessed that. So he's been phenomenal. He's been
a phenomenal run. I think Dabos Sweeney at his best

(26:21):
moving forward is good enough. To have Clemson be pretty good.
I just don't know. Unless there's fundamental change about that place,
I don't know if they're ever going to be in
the mix to be a championship contendering it. I know
he says otherwise, and who knows. Maybe he's right and
I'm wrong. I think most of you probably feel the
way I do. Most of you probably if you look

(26:43):
throughout history and you've seen a natural rise and then
an arc and then fall on the back end, there's
rarely a second arc. Look at the win loss records
on your screen right now. We did this the other night.
I read this to you, just the amount of losses
per year. I'm gonna start in twenty eighteen zero losses,

(27:05):
then one loss, then two loss, then three, then three,
then four, then four, then five so far maybe with
more to come. It's not like this as a blip.
What it is as a slow decline. It's clear as day.
It's almost perfectly linear. It's clear as day. So you know,
some people say, oh Man Dabbo is nothing without great quarterbacks. Okay,

(27:26):
but he recruited the great quarterbacks. They developed him. He
gets full credit for that. Who in the world would
have won without their best players. Saban won because he
got a bunch of great players. What do you say, well,
without those great players, Nick Saban wouldn't have been That's stupid,
just like it's stupid for people to try and undercut
Dabbo's accomplishments. But you lose great players, you lose guys
like Brenton Venables, and all of a sudden, you can't

(27:49):
hold Duke to under forty at home, Like that stuff
catches up to you. They have never replaced brent Venables
at that place. They have never replaced the caliber of
defense they were able to play. They have never restocked
the shelves with elite wide receiver play like they had.
They have not had elite quarterback play there. And it's
just it's not one thing. It's multiple things that for

(28:12):
them to return to what they were that have to
get back to And I just don't I don't know
that that's happening. That's okay, it's been a great run.
I just think we're more towards the end of it
certainly than we were the beginning. You can go on
a completely unrelated note, you can go to our store
right now. The Christmas the tis the season collection is there.

(28:33):
We moved some product the other day. I underestimated a
little bit the traffic the site was gonna happen, didn't crash,
and we've we've still got everything. So if you didn't
get to it the other day, we got some good stuff, man,
we've got some good stuff. That Merry Christmas, you filt.
The casual shirt was our best seller the other night,

(28:54):
and it's a sweat or too. And one of these
days I'll tell you who came up with that idea,
but I'm not ready to confirm it yet, but it
is in the store peytstatematerial dot com. We got I
had one very very noteworthy college football general manager hit
me up today and he screenshat his receipt. He bought
one of the Christmas sweaters and I was like, you

(29:15):
could have just told me. I would have sent one
to you. But if it's good enough for the GMS,
certainly it's good enough for our audience. Peytstatematerial dot com.
It's where it's at. I wanted to get to one
more thing and then I'll bring cublic in the college
football playoffs coming up, and we got the rankings out
and that's happening every Tuesday now. And I was just

(29:35):
looking over some things earlier today, and I think we
could have chaos on the horizon. In fact, I know
we probably will. But I was thinking about three different scenarios.
I want you to walk through these with me, because
I think there are some things that, if everything fell
into place perfectly, could just send this thing up in smoke.
One of them is what I call the Big ten conundrum.

(29:57):
So you're gonna have to follow me here. I know
some of you are visual learners. I am too. So
when everybody says, well what about this, this, this, this,
and this, and you're trying to close your eyes and
picture it, I know it can be tough, but just
follow me here. So Oregon they play Iowa this weekend.
Let's say Oregon loses to Iowa and then they went out.

(30:18):
Let's say USC beats Iowa, Oregon beats USC, Washington just
loses a game somewhere along the way, and then Washington
beats Oregon, Ohio State beats Michigan. I know I said
Oregon wins out earlier. Anyway, I know that's very convoluted.
What I'm telling you is I have some bullet points here.

(30:38):
None of these are out of the realm of possibility,
like Oregon falls this weekend, USC falls to Iowa. Oregon
over USC one more Washington lost. The point there is
if Ohio State, after all that goes and beats Michigan
at the end of the year, there's a world where
all these teams are nine and three. So Ohio State's
free and clear, they're in. Indiana's free and clear, they're in.

(31:01):
But given the scenario I just laid out to you,
which is not insane, Oregon's nine and three, USC's nine
and three, Washington's nine and three. I was nine and three,
Michigan's nine and three, I don't think any of them
are in. And the Big ten has two playoff teams.
That would be a disaster. As Tony Pettiti and crew
are steadily pushing automatic qualifier formats because they think they

(31:23):
deserve at least four or at least whatever in, that
would be a disaster of epic PR proportions. So that's
the first one. The Big Ten conundrum is the first
one we could have on our hands. The second one,
it's a happier one, would be what we call the
Big twelve lottery conundrum. This would be a conundrum for
the rest of the country, not for the Big Twelve.

(31:44):
So this Saturday, we'll be there for Texas Tech Brigham Young,
Texas Tech hosting Brigham Young. Let's say Texas Tech wins
that game. Let's say Utah just wins out, they go
ten and two, Brigham Young or Cincinnati beats Texas Tech
in the Big Twelve championship game. At that point, if

(32:05):
just those three things happen, I think we have three
Big Twelve teams in the playoff because Utah would almost
certainly be in as an at large. They're gonna go
ten to two. They were already thirteenth the other night,
and if they go to Baylor and beat both the
Kansas schools, they're not gonna drop. So I think they
would be in. Your Big Twelve. Champion would be in

(32:26):
and that's Brigham Young or Cincinnati. And if Texas Tech
makes the Big Twelve championship game, they will have made
it squarely in the top ten. I don't think the
Committee's gonna drop you out for losing your conference title game.
They didn't with Southern Methodists last year. I don't think
they're gonna do it with Texas Tech. So that would
be three Big twelve teams in what if the Big
twelve got more than the Big Ten. Also, there is

(32:52):
just as easily a world where the Big twelve is
a one bid league. Brigham Young just wins out and
wins the whole thing, Utah loses another game. Big Twelve's one.
Big League could be three, it could be one. Probably
more than likely it's two. But that both of those
things are in the cards right now. And then we

(33:13):
have what we call the SEC flood conundrum. And this
would be a conundrum for everyone who doesn't live in
the South because this would be the utter disaster scenario
for SEC haters. And here's all that has to happen.
Texas and Oklahoma and Vanderbilt went out. That's all that

(33:34):
has to happen. If that happens, A and M, Alabama, Georgia, Ole, Miss, Vandy,
Oklahoma and Texas, seven SEC teams all have one or
two losses. What are you going to do? What are
you going to do? Which two loss SEC team or

(33:55):
teams are we leaving out there? And even if you
remove Vandy, let's say goes and loses to Tennessee. All right,
so Vanderbilt's out of it. Tennessee's out of it. They're
both three loss teams. You'd still have half a dozen
two loss teams from the SEC. And to take that
a step further, Texas or Oklahoma would be locks with

(34:16):
two losses. But especially with Texas, I'm wondering right now,
if they're sitting here already on the bubble and they
go and they lose a very close game at Georgia
next weekend twenty four to twenty one or something like that.
The Committee just showed us the other night, you get
minimal punishment for losing competitive games against high level teams.

(34:41):
So I don't think Texas would fall off a cliff.
And then what if they go and they beat Texas
A and M in their last act of the year.
Would it be enough? In fact, I guarantee you it
would be enough where there would be a big conversation
about a three loss Texas, which would enrage most of
the country because number one, it's a three lost team,
and number two, it's Texas. That's why we call it

(35:05):
a conundrum. That's why we call them chaos scenarios. None
of those would shock me. On a somewhat kind of
not related note at all, I was trying my best
to find a connection here, but there's not. You know Fanduels,
the exclusive odds provider of the show. Yes, yes, yes, yes,
we all know that. Well. I know some of you

(35:26):
out there. You like to bet sides, some of you
like to bet totals. Some of you like in the
pro game, you do player props and stuff like that.
You don't have to do any of that. In fact,
you don't have to bet at all. But if you
want a different option, and you do want to bet,
you know they've got team props over there. I seldom
mentioned this, but I thought I would remind you, Like,
for example, Texas A and M plays Missouri or whatever.

(35:49):
If you just want to bet Texas A and M
total rushing yards as a team or total receiving yards
as a team, you can go do that. It doesn't
even matter who wins or loses, no matter how many
points are scored, although if you got over in receiving
yards it probably helps the points get scored. But yeah,
you can go do that. You can go do that
right now, or you can just do it the old
fashion way, or you can wait until the Romanuel Express

(36:12):
gets finalized, which we're gonna add a game to in
just a couple of minutes, and you can do it
that way. You can go over there if you're a
new sign up. By the way, FanDuel dot Com slash
Josh paid. If you sign up that way, I love it.
But you bet five dollars and win a game, you
get one hundred and fifty dollars in bonus bets, just
like that. It's great. There's the QR code on your
screen if you trust QR codes. If you don't, that's okay.

(36:34):
Just do it the old fashion way there too, FanDuel
dot Com slash Josh Pate. We have, let's see two
games to add to the Romenudle Express before we get
Cublican here. I hear him out there. I hear him
knocking on the door. So we're already on Florida State
plus two and a half at Clemson. We are already
on Maryland plus one and a half at Rutgers. A reminder,

(36:57):
Mike Loxley did not get fired. That was a false headline,
So congrats Mike Loxley on being It almost feels like
you signed an extension. In reality, it was just a
fake tweet. So we got FSU and Maryland. All right,
here are the games. We're adding Kansas plus five and
a half at Arizona, and we've waited on this game

(37:18):
all week. Nine and a half is the best we
can get. Alabama minus nine and a half. It is
the model's favorite play of the week. I don't know why,
but we don't question the model. The model's been chugging lately,
Robin Noddle Express been chugging lately, and we are going
to take FSU Maryland, Kansas, and Alabama. And a reminder,
Tomorrow night, Friday Night Lines emanates from a hotel somewhere

(37:40):
in beautiful downtown Lubbock, Texas. I will give you the
time for sure. Make sure you're following on Instagram at
Josh Paate CFB and I'll let you know about that
tomorrow night.

Speaker 3 (37:50):
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(38:12):
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seven eight Hope, n y or text Hope and Why

(38:33):
in New York.

Speaker 1 (38:34):
Cole Jeremetrius Kubliic of SEC Network got Florida, Kentucky this Saturday.
I know you don't like your last name or middle
name being thrown out there, but I am. I am
of the opinion that the more the audience knows you,
the more connectivity they have to you, the more likely
they are to subscribe to Cube Show, which is available
free of charge on YouTube. You don't even charge people

(38:55):
over there to subscribe. I don't think you guys have
a newsletter or anything over there yet, But how are
things on this fine Thursday?

Speaker 2 (39:03):
I am sorry, Cooper, your big brother apparently has taken
this personally and please accept my apology.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
Yeah, I mean Cooper Protagna, a friend of the program,
just a friend of ours, goes on your show this morning,
you and mackel Worth. We have him on in Birmingham.
McElroy didn't even try and say his last name. You
tried and failed miserably to say his last name, and
you were to his last name. What the unibomber was
to the postal service, so much so that he hit
me up and said, I don't know if Cole even

(39:30):
knows me?

Speaker 2 (39:30):
Does he know me?

Speaker 1 (39:31):
Does he know my last name? You even spelled it
on air to help people search him, and you spelled
it wrong.

Speaker 2 (39:37):
How does that happen? I was looking at his Twitter
and the letters just got jumped up. I get I
don't who knows. Yeah, it was early. It was early
in the morning. I needed more coffee and he helped
us through a tough spot there, So we're appreciated.

Speaker 1 (39:53):
I have in my hand three matchups that are happening
this weekend. We already talked about him, You've talked about
him all week. Just tell me, on the order of concern,
which of these favorites you have the biggest concern. For
we got Texas A and M at Missouri, We've got
Oregon at Iowa, we got Georgia at Mississippi State. The
points spreads are roughly equal on those games. Oregon a

(40:16):
little bit shorter of a favorite. Which one concerns you
the most?

Speaker 2 (40:19):
Oregon? I just think going there this time of year
for anybody unless you are built almost exactly the way
that they are. Like if this was a service academy,
I might say, yeah, I'm not real worried about you.
They're going to try to drag you into their style fight,
which is going to be a third or fourth less
possessions than you're used to getting. And then obviously the

(40:40):
way that they're going to strangle you defensively, not allowing
you to run the football is going to put more
pressure on one aspect of your football team, which is
your passing game, and then they can take advantage of that.
So doesn't mean they're going to be able to get
up and down the field offensively. But Grenowski's been great
running the football. I think that if Oregon goes and tries,
in any way, shape, form, or fashion to make this

(41:00):
some sort of attract meet offensively, it's probably going to
be an issue, and styles make fights. It's a bad
style fight for Oregon right now. I think they have
individuals up front on both lines of scrimmage that don't
mind the dirty work and don't mind physicality. But I
don't know if collectively it matches exactly what Iowa brings
to the table. On the flip side of that, you

(41:22):
have speed, athleticism, potential to create big plays. All those
could play into Oregon's hands. But going and doing it
there this time of year, I don't think I'm ever
gonna feel good about a team doing that.

Speaker 1 (41:34):
When you were at Auburn or just your time living
in Alabama, have you ever been to East Alabama Motor Speedway?
You know where that is?

Speaker 2 (41:41):
If you're referencing Talladega, Yes I have.

Speaker 1 (41:43):
Nope, Nope, I'm glad you mentioned Talladega. I am. I
am very very note notably not referencing Talladega. East Alabama
Motor speed Motor Speedway.

Speaker 2 (41:51):
I've been to that one.

Speaker 1 (41:51):
Definitely not that either any times.

Speaker 2 (41:53):
Yeah, I actually saw the ones where they raced the
RVs at that thing. And that's not frash and burn
the whole time.

Speaker 1 (41:58):
Yep, that's not it either. A lot of burn though. No,
this is East Alabama Motor Speedway. This is a dirt track.
This is out in the middle of nowhere in East Alabama,
and you could go out there on a Saturday night
be very entertained. But the dirt track cars look way
different because they're running on dirt. And you could have
the best street racing car in the world, But if
you try and take it to East Alabama Motor Speedway

(42:18):
EMES for short, it's gonna be a bad night for you.
And basically that's what it sounds like. You're telling me.
You try and take a street racing car out there
in Kennick Stadium, rain possibly changing over to snow as
the sun sets, it's gonna be a fun time. That
doesn't sound like it's gonna be a good time for
the Ducks now number one in the country.

Speaker 2 (42:37):
You know what it does sound like? Though? It sounds
like football is what it sounds like.

Speaker 1 (42:41):
Oh, that's what we're doing here. That's what we're doing here, Oregon.
Can you play football? Are you still a football team?

Speaker 2 (42:48):
I'm just saying you like snow when the sun starts
to go down with a game that has meaning late
in the season into the postseason, like that just sounds
like football. Sign me up for that.

Speaker 1 (43:00):
I was like, you are of the opinion that I
was willing to do the dirty work, and Oregon maybe
kind of somewhat is willing to do the dirty work.

Speaker 2 (43:09):
Case by case, that's okay, and that's fine. There are
a couple of teams living that life this year. Texas
is living that life this year, maybe not collectively wanting
to be that football team on a weekly basis. Saw
them last week. A lot of them were that way
in that game. So I don't know how many teams
in the country right now are built to go out

(43:31):
there and just do your job, and if that means
never making a tackle, never catching a football, it might
be for the love of the game. Route Not a
lot of guys like running those so you can get
something open underneath and be able to get eleven yards
instead of eighty one yards if it's blocking, if it's
taken on a double team. I don't know if there's
a ton of teams that I see in college football
that collectively want to be that across the board. So

(43:52):
it's not a real knock on Oregon. I think the
portal has something to do with that. I think not
having a lot of guys in the locker room for
multiple years together takes away from that just a little bit.
It's hard to build one of those football teams. USC
has been living that life for a couple of years now.
It's cool to go out there and dip and rip
around the edge and speed rush and go catch footballs
down the field and be on kickoff cover when the

(44:12):
ball's going four rowers up into the stands. When it
comes down to taking on a double team or setting
the edge or being the penetrator on a twist when
you're probably not gonna get anywhere near the quarterback, but
you're gonna get double team. Not a lot of guys
like that. When I see the teams that have guys
that do like that, those are the ones that stick
out more than the others.

Speaker 1 (44:30):
All Right, So we got a coaching search under way
at Auburn right now. Message boards are really fun to
listen to. You do talk radio five days a week,
so you've taken a ton of calls on this. You
played there, you talk to people there. I've been sort
of fascinated by, at least this is the way it
seems to me. It seems to me. The further away
people are from Auburn, the further removed they are from

(44:52):
understanding the inner workings they are, the more likely they
are to just kind of traffic in the same old stereotypes. Now,
the stereotypes, this is my opinion, you can give me yours.
They exist for a reason. Like, for instance, if someone
just runs around and says, Auburn man boosters medal there
too much, you don't want anything to do with that job, Well,
it's because in the past there's a track record of

(45:12):
that in some cases happening. But just because something's happened
in the past doesn't automatically mean it is what's happening
right now, all right. So I said on the show
earlier this week that for a program that sometimes famously
can't get out of its own way, I think there
are shocking amounts of relative alignment right now by Auburn's
standards that may not have existed in the past. And

(45:35):
so the people who are yelling at I think they're
yelling at without really being on the ground and being
in the weeds of the here and now with Auburn.
Then the second part is for all these names that
get thrown out there and the candidates, and it's Kenny Dillingham,
or it's DJ Diurkin maybe on a permanent basis, or
it's John Sumrall. Whoever's getting thrown out there. I always
want to know. Number One, that's great, who's staffing? Like,

(45:58):
who you're bringing with you? What your staff going to
look like? Number Two, I'm wondering, Okay, do I really
have alignment? I'm just asking the same thing about LSU.
I'm asking the same things about all these places. If
I were to get Kenny Dillingham just pulling a name
out of the board that we have written on over here.
If I were to get him there, who's this DC?
What kind of Nil coffer does he have? Is there alignment? Like?

(46:18):
Who is he answering to? Is John Cohen there for
the next ten years? Is the athletic director that hired
him going to be the one who's there for the duration?
Do you have all your big money players in line?
If I have those it's my opinion Auburn's the top
fifteen job if all those boxes are checked, And it's
my opinion, all of these guys could win there if
that's all checked. So that's me and I'm up here

(46:39):
like on the roof, you're down there on the ground.
How do you perceive just the overall state of that
place right now?

Speaker 2 (46:46):
I am in line with your assessment of it. I
think that in the past there has been a power
struggle from starting with the administration, and I don't mean
the athletic administration. I mean the academic admitted wanting to
maybe have more say, or the say, the only say,
and then at times that went over to the athletic

(47:07):
department and who was actually going to make the call there,
and then those two faction sort of butting heads, and
then once then there's been other times when I think
inside the athletic department there have been money guys who
wanted to be the big dog, wanted to be the
only one, didn't want other people to have a say,
that then began to cause problems. I think there have
been some that have taken a little step back, some

(47:28):
that maybe have heard a little voice of reason as
to together, we can probably do this a lot better.
And I think the direction of college football almost forced
a little bit of that with where a college athletics,
I guess not even college football. So I'm with you.
I think there's also a part of Josh that last
hire was, even if it may not have been told

(47:50):
or presented that way, that was hand selected by some
of those individuals that were referencing. So I also think
that there's a little bit of it now that's like,
all right, we got it wrong. We're gonna trust maybe
somebody else's opinion on this just a little bit more
than we did last time. Doesn't mean that they won't
share their opinion. Does it mean that they won't at
least say we would love to see this, or that

(48:11):
you and I both know some of the names that
have been floating around. That's obviously happening. But I don't
think it's gonna be a pound the table, my way
or the highway. If you don't hire my guide, the
checks run out, there will be no more donations, anything
of that matter. So I think that the alignment is
about as smooth and in line right now as I've
seen maybe in my lifetime. I'm not gonna act like

(48:32):
I was paying attention to it when I was twelve,
but since I've had an idea of what it was
and what was going on and how things operated, I
don't think i've seen it better than it is right now.
Of the amount of people who want to line up
and help, the amount of people who are willing to
just push a smidge of their ego to the side
and say, let's figure out a way to get this
done together. I'll tell you this. I think there's a

(48:54):
lot of those people, both administratively on the academic side,
administratively on the athletic side, and from the financial support
system side, that are sick of losing. They want to
be proud of the team that they put out, their
teams orl that they put out there, so they're willing
to put a little bit of the ego to the side.
They're willing to maybe not exactly get their way on
every single thing that takes place because they want Auburn

(49:15):
to be great again. I think that has almost forced
a little bit of this alignment that we're talking about.

Speaker 1 (49:21):
It just occurred to me the other day. This is
the first post Saban Higher that Auburn will have made.
And you will never convince me that the Hugh freeze
Hire didn't have a ton to do with just two
wins that he had against the guy a decade ago.
And so that like I mean that was those were
bullets in the chamber when I'm defending the Hugh Freeze
higher if I'm responsible for making the hire down there,

(49:43):
and look, if he was the right guy for the job,
he was the right guy for the job. But that
always seemed kind of nonsensical to me. So anyway, Freezer not,
we're on from the era where you're hiring a guy
and the first words out of your mouth that right now,
you got to compete against Saban in Alabama. You got
to compete against the elephant in the room there. So
you've got that. You've also got what you talked about

(50:03):
with the alignment thing. Here's the third thing. This applies
to Auburn. I think it's gonna apply to several There's
this bygone idea that if you're a top fifteen program,
if you fancy yourself one of the elites out there,
you don't have to settle for anything other than a
finished product, Like you can go and just there's gonna
be this endless supply, this orchard of finished product head

(50:25):
coaches with multiple years power for coaching experience, and they've
got hardware in the trophy case. And when it comes
time for you to fill your job. You're just gonna
you're just gonna pluck it right off the tree. That's
never been the case in any era. It's definitely not
the case in this era. So my mentality with this,
if I'm Auburn or if I'm anyone else, is I

(50:46):
keep hearing names. So if someone mentions John Sumraw, someone
could say, yeah, but he's just a G five coach.
You didn't have a whole lot of head coaching experience.
Kenny Dillingham. Yeah, but I mean that dude lost in
Mississippi State this year and lost to Utah and lost
a huge and I just don't know. And they're all
these knits that you can pick with any one of them,

(51:06):
just like Ohio Stick could have when they elevated Ryan
Day from within, just like Oregon could have when they
went and got Landing, Just like Oregon can have had
with Landing on the job. I mean, he got really
got circles coached around him by Debor the first couple
of times they faced him. My point is Orgon kind
of invested in their guy and said, all right, we're

(51:28):
gonna we're gonna bite the bullet of the notion that
he's gonna have to professionally develop on our dime a
little bit. But they look at it no different than
if I go and recruit a true freshman five star
left tackle that I think could be All Conference in
two or three years. It doesn't automatically mean he's a
plug and play as a true freshman. I'm not saying
you go hire a head coach in red shirt. And

(51:49):
what I'm saying is, it's not the craziest notion to
me these days, where it's harder to get guys to
move than ever because the sport is flattened out a
little bit. It's not the craziest notion that if I'm Auburn,
if I'm Florida, if I'm whoever, I may need to
go get a guy and just acknowledge, no, he's probably
about seventy eight to eighty two percent of the way
to where we ultimately hope he is. But he's gonna

(52:10):
find that final twenty percent with our logo on his chest.
And I could say that about any of those guys.
I could say that about a lot of these jobs. Look,
if Marcus Freeman wants to leave Notre Dame and come
to Auburn, that's awesome. I'd sign up for it tomorrow.
I'm not sure that that's realistic. I'm not sure that
a lot of the established candidates are really looking to
leave right now. So I just look at it. You

(52:32):
can tell me if you disagree. I look at it.
No matter who I hire, I'm gonna have to swallow
a little bit of that.

Speaker 2 (52:38):
I don't think there's any doubt because how many legitimate,
proven candidates. And when I say that, and we're going
to get into these myths of hiring a college coach
here in a second, how many of those are going
to be out there with big game experience quote unquote
or a national championship conference championship under their belt, have
coached in a Power five conference and have experience as

(53:01):
a head coach there. I mean, you tell me, Josh,
how many of those guys are gonna be floating around
during this coaching cycle. And then to go further than that,
certain schools, how many of them are going to have
their pick of numerous guys that have those qualifications, Like
the national championship thing, we know how that dwindles things down.
So then you go to the P five conference championships

(53:23):
and guys who have legitimate, big game experience at that level,
there's going to be a small handful of those, So
one two of those go away, then are you really
selecting from the same candidate if that's your criteria. I
just think some of these myths of having had been
there and done that, or winning the press conference, or
proven resume, all of those things have been proven wrong before.

(53:44):
And by the way, the attitude and the mindset going
in to hire that guy has also been proven wrong.
We have seen national championship winning coach in this league
come in from another conference and not win much in
this league, referencing the s because that's mostly the open
jobs we're talking about right now. So to me, it

(54:04):
goes down a little bit more of the bare bones.
And it's why I've been talking about relatability a lot recently,
being a people person, understanding how to manage people. I
think in today's day and ag Josh, you have to
go out of your way to have more people want
to be around you than you ever have before. In
college football, because guys can hit the portal and if

(54:25):
you're a good receivers coach, hell, if you're just a
good recruiter, we'll find a place for you to coach
on the team. We can make you one of our
army of analysts. We can come up with one of
these fun titles like Sergeant at Arms, of Affiliation with Equipment,
whatever we need, social media investor. I mean, we'll come
up with something to get you on staff. If you

(54:45):
can bring people in and help us recruit talent to
our team and then keep it on our team. Yeah,
you gotta go find gms to come and run the
financial side of your team. Some teams are going out
and finding talent evaluators to make sure when we're going
to look at this guy in the portal, he really
is what he is because he's been playing in the
MAC or he's been playing D three, and he looks

(55:07):
like he might be good, but we don't know, and
we need him to help right this very second. So
I think being able to go get good people to
work for you and have people to want to stay
with you is more important than ever. And that's why
the relatability part of this keeps coming up to me.
So you can talk about all the criteria. I would
look at it this way. Do you have someone that
knows how to rally individuals, be it the players on

(55:29):
your team, your staff, fan base, maybe even more so
community that's going to be around your program and go
out and win games. If you've done that, I'll take
a flyer on you. And then if I know yourself
motivated and you're going to go out and wake up
every day and not have to have me tapping you
on the rear end saying come on now, let's go
get him. Let's go find us some five stars today.

(55:50):
He's gonna be out there doing that before I even
thought about sending that text message. That's the guy that
I want at Auburn University, and I think every other
university probably wants it too.

Speaker 1 (55:58):
I think what you said about the real ability thing there,
it gets glossed over because it's not on anyone's Wikipedia page,
it's not on anyone's bio. You just want to know,
all right, how many check marks do you have in
the trophy column? When Debor came to Alabama, I remember
the biggest refrain around the state and around the South
for any detractor of the move that they made there

(56:19):
at Alabama was well, he doesn't know people down there,
he doesn't know how to recruit the South. You remember
all that. So I had someone in the NFL side
of things. Tell me, it's so funny to watch the
South's reaction to Alabama hiring Kaitlin de Bor because he said,
you're emphasizing the wrong word. I said, what do you
mean by that? He said, they keep saying he doesn't
know people, and they're saying, like, he doesn't know people

(56:41):
is in he doesn't know the high school coaches down there,
He doesn't know this, he doesn't know that. But what
you're failing to realize, or what they're failing to realize,
is he doesn't know no people, but he knows people.
And I said, interesting, stroke of the chin. Go on.
They said, dude, all the rest of the stuff will
fall into place. People want to work for him, people
want to play for him. People love being a part

(57:01):
of the organization. It's a very magnetic culture. And now
Alabama hadn't struggled to recruit, they hadn't struggled to attract
talent in the portal, and he's learning in some of
the highways and byways and the state and so it's
just it works because you get a person that knows people,
and then you've got you got a good staff because
people want to work for you. Which works at Auburn.
You've got the ability to evaluate which works at Auburn.

(57:24):
You've got the ability to develop the talent because you
get the infrastructure in place and get the talent which
works at Auburn. And then the other thing that I
pay attention to. And it's kind of hard to know
this because, like the dollar figures aren't always available, but
you know from talking to guys, there are some places
that have to pay one hundred and twenty five one
hundred and fifty percent premium value to acquire talent. There

(57:48):
are other places where guys will take a fifty seventy
five percent discount to go play because some places are
desirable to be plus, you're going to get developed better there,
whereas other places it's free agent, it's mercy. And if
you get a guy that's the latter instead of the
former and creates that kind of ecosystem that to me
in the modern age, along with the relatability factor, those

(58:10):
are two of the most underrated aspects you can you
can accomplish.

Speaker 2 (58:14):
I'm gonna go two places with you. I'm gonna start
with Kaylen quickly. I love the way the person that
you're referencing stated that because I think it's absolutely perfect
and stated beautifully about the person that he is. I
thought of this when you were saying that Kaylen de
Bor has met my children on multiple occasions. He's met
my wife, and the second time he was around my wife,
he acted like he had known her for twenty years.

(58:35):
He would have never known that he had only met
her one other time. The first time I was ever
around him was at a banquet at the Alamobile and
we had lunch sitting next to each other, and we
literally talked football the entire time. We had never met
one another, we had never spoken a word to one another,
and we sat down for about an hour and a
half that afternoon and we just talked ball back and
forth the entire time. And the thing that came to

(58:56):
my mind in describing him, Kaylen de Bor has never
had a thirty second commation in his life. And I
have been able to watch him observe him both at
Washington and now at Alabama. I've been around him, covering him.
I've been around him a little bit more on a
personal level. I've never seen Kaylen Debore I have a
thirty second conversation with anybody. And I think that's kind
of what you're referencing there. It's never passing someone in

(59:18):
the wind. It's never you know, hey, can I please
shake this hand and just get by this guy and like,
let's get this over with. He's engaging. And when you're engaging,
people obviously want to engage with you because you know
you're getting a little something in return, as opposed to just
thanks man, Okay, good on to the next one. That's
and so Kayln has that I was also thinking about
when you were referencing, like what he has. It's almost

(59:39):
like quarterback with intangibles. It's not in the box score.
You're not going to see it, but you're like, that
guy's got it, Like he understands when to throw the
ball away, when to tuck the ball and run. We
don't mark that down in the statistical categories, but he
has it. And coaches players, whatever it is, broadcasters, some
of them have it, and we just know it. We
can't describe it, tell you what it is, but those

(01:00:00):
guys have that. And then to your second point, specifically
with this Auburn search, and I would say the same
thing to Scott Strickland and the Florida search. I would
say things to the fifty seven people making the LSU
decision that find someone that wants your job. Because with
all of these I do believe there are a few
of those out there. There are a lot more that

(01:00:22):
are weighing all the jobs against one another. But with
certain jobs that are out there right now, there is
a guy or two, maybe one with each that wants
that job. And if you can find that, I would
waste no time going and hiring that individual right now.
Because you and I both know there's a lot of
people that are weighing contracts against one another. There's a

(01:00:45):
lot of folks that are trying to leverage jobs against
other jobs. There are very few guys out there that
can look at an opening and say that's the one
I want. And when you find that guy, you better
do what you gotta do to go get in.

Speaker 1 (01:00:58):
There are guys guys that fit both categories. If you're
an Auburn fan watching, I would take comfort in the
notion that there are qualified people out there who want
the Auburn job, not a job who want the Auburn job.
There's one other little conundrum here. Because of the way
the calendar's changed, we're all a sudden firing coaches in October,

(01:01:19):
and we've got job openings, and there's like a month
and a half's long runway in some of the Penn
States had a month and a half by the time
December hits to hire a coach. And so you know,
you got these coaches whose names are in the Tumblr
earlier than they've ever experienced before. So a lot of
them are going through firsts. And then I'm on the
phone with some folks the other day. You and I've

(01:01:39):
spoken about this too, about what's the perfect way to
do it. Let's say I'm coaching at a lower level
and Pete State is offering me the job, and I'm
pretty sure I'm going to take it, but my team's
in the thick of a postseason hunt ourselves, and like,
I've got such a split compartmentalized mentality right now that

(01:02:00):
I want to be all in for this team. I
demand that they're all in for me. I want to
be all in for them at the same time I'm
about to head to the highest level of competition this
sport has to offer. Every second, every day is critical.
It is my opinion. I really want to see where
your head's out on this. It's my opinion that there
is coming a day, maybe even in this cycle, where

(01:02:22):
someone agrees in principle at the end of November that
they're going to take the job, take the LSU job,
take the Florida job, take the Auburn job. But they're
season's not over, and there is a public statement made.
I am taking the LSU job, I'm taking the Auburn job,
I'm taking the Florida job. I am going to finish
things out as long as our season goes here. And

(01:02:44):
I am trying to do this on the up and up.
I want to be fully transparent. I think once one
person does it, it'll become a little bit more of
a norm. But right now, with the way the college
football calendar is and the way the hiring cycle works,
you've got places that are legitimately saying we fired our
old coach because we want to get a playoff caliber coach. However,
are we willing to wait for a coach that's in

(01:03:04):
the playoff And it's so counterintuitive, and people who just
watch pro sports have to be laughing at it, But
this is the world we live in in college I
think that's gonna happen. I think someone's gonna get hired,
and it's gonna some in some form or fashion. Either
there's gonna be a public statement or they're gonna strategically
have it leaked to where they then have to address
it publicly and begrudgingly they say, yeah, I'm taking the

(01:03:26):
other job, but I'm not leaving here until our work's done.
And it's like last dance, like McElroy said the other day,
you just treat it like the ninety seven bulls and
whatever happens after this, that's the edge of the cliff.
Don't even worry about what's over the cliff.

Speaker 2 (01:03:39):
And I'm sure most ads will look at it and say,
if we can chase that title and get it, what's
the value that's gonna bring next year, five years, ten
years from now, which is probably the right way to
look at it. And I didn't share McElroy's brain on
that one, where I don't think I could do it.
And then the main thing that kept popping into my
brain is you're spending how many hours day, Like let's

(01:04:01):
hypothetically say you had Auburn's roster right now and you
were doing this and you're making a playoff run. The
amount of guys that could be back next year. That
are good football players, that are talented football players, and
I'm giving that guy another month to recruit all of
those gentlemen to go play at the next place. I
would be terrified of that, because we know what happens

(01:04:25):
when our coach decides to go take a different job.
That portal opens up. Now we still only have the
one window, and I get that, but that would be
a runway into that window that would terrify me, Josh.
That would be the one thing that I would look
at and say, I don't know if I can allow
this to happen. I get chasing a title. I understand
what it would mean to the school, specifically if it's
one that hadn't been done before. But where would it

(01:04:47):
go if let's hypotheticals again. If we're referencing Lane here,
an ole Miss is in and we get further down here,
they win their first round game and LSU just sitting there, vacant.
Florida's just sitting there vacan Scott Strickland saying we're trying
but can't find anybody, and Ole Miss wins again. Scott Strickland,

(01:05:10):
We're looking. Every other job is filled like we've vetted
all the candidates, maybe somebody else is gonna show up,
Like you know at that point in time. Can you
imagine the press conferences on a daily basis after practice
that a certain coach would have to deal with if
that were the case. So, if you're gonna do it,
you have to put it out there. You have to

(01:05:32):
put part of that to rest. If the ad is
gonna allow it, the coach is okay doing it, the
players are okay with it. You have to get out
in front of it one hundred percent. You can't try
to play secret. You can't try to say this isn't
happening and then really you're gonna leave in the middle
of the night a little bit later, once your playoff
run is over. You have to put it out there.
But I think it's gonna be more complicated than even

(01:05:52):
we're thinking about right now. Different aspects are gonna show
up with it, and I still don't know. I go
back and forth of if I was the athletic director,
do I want to allow that because I just want
that title and what that's going to be moving forward,
or do I say no and I'll pull the ripcord
and whoever else wants to stay. We'll try to figure
that out. What's that SE's even a dangerous game too,
because you know most of them are going with that guy. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:06:14):
And then so the follow up there, like a fan
may listen to that and say, all right, well, maybe
there's a happy middle ground. Maybe if a coach is
going to leave school A to go to school B,
which is in the same conference, you know, maybe you
make him agree, either verbally or contractually, that none of
his current players will follow him. You can't do that
for two reasons. Number one, I think in the real

(01:06:35):
world we understand a lot of these hires are package deals.
A lot of these dudes get a leg up in
the hiring process because of who they can bring with him.
It's gross. I hate it, but that's the way the
game works now. So you couldn't do it for that reason.
Then number two, it doesn't matter if if Lamee Kiffin
signs his name on a piece of paper that says, yeah,
I won't take any of my players to LSU. The

(01:06:56):
players get to decide where they go really ultimately, so
I'm not Yeah, that's a mess man. Happy December to everyone.
That sounds like it's going to be really, really fun.
I don't know what the perfect way is. If someone
paid you a billion dollars to consult them, what would
you tell them. The perfect way is.

Speaker 2 (01:07:13):
If you're winning like that at that place, unless it
is literally night and day different, which in this day
and age, i'm not sure any of those are. Stay
where you are.

Speaker 1 (01:07:23):
That's exactly what I would do if I were. If
that's exactly what I would do, not knowing anything about
your personal life. If it's just through the professional spectrum,
that's absolutely what I would do.

Speaker 2 (01:07:34):
And then I would follow that up with I know
what you're looking at. But like Biggie always said, more money,
more problem exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:07:41):
I tell Jesse that every day, every single day.

Speaker 2 (01:07:44):
And he knows exactly what you're talking about.

Speaker 1 (01:07:46):
Yeah, all right, Tell people where they can find Cube Show.
Please YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify. I'm sure there's some random
hosting sites out there for podcasts.

Speaker 2 (01:07:57):
As well that will allow it to be played on
their servers. But just go to YouTube search Cube Show
every Sunday, Monday Tuesday, depending on travel wows and servers
being down. We're gonna let you know what happened in
every SEC game. We'll talk about some of these coaching
moves and take you a little bit behind the scenes
from whatever game we were covering that weekend, which this.

Speaker 1 (01:08:17):
Weekend is Florida at Kentucky. Have fun up there. Get
out before the cold weather hits. I don't want you
catching cold. This is not the time of year that
we need you doing that. You've seen that immunity stuff
Alyssa Lang takes. I ordered some of it. I haven't
sneezed in days. I don't know what's this.

Speaker 2 (01:08:32):
Little shot like she takes a little shot.

Speaker 1 (01:08:34):
Yeah, and I don't know what the name of the
company is and they haven't paid me anyway. But like
I saw her using it, and I've used it. It's
changed my life.

Speaker 2 (01:08:42):
Is that why you say immunity all the time?

Speaker 1 (01:08:45):
That's cold Cublic, ladies and gentlemen. We'll talk to him
next week, and we'll talk to you next week. Friday night,
Lines is gonna come to you from Lubbock, Texas, first
time ever from Lubbock, Texas, and we'll be in a
hotel room. I don't really know where we're staying yet.
I'll tweet out the time. I'll put it in the
Instagram story tomorrow probably sometime later at night. Classic Friday

(01:09:06):
Night Lines start time, and if you're unfamiliar with what
Friday Night Lines is, just follow me Josh pat cfb
over on Instagram and join in on the fun. We've
won money several weeks in a row now and make
sure you subscribe.

Speaker 3 (01:09:18):
To the channel.

Speaker 1 (01:09:19):
That's it, that's all. That's how we end the week.
If you've been holding out all week, just subscribe to
the channel. It's free. Nothing else happens. You'll forget you
even did it, but it will help us. For director Bradley,
for producer Jesse, I'm Josh Pate. We will be in
Lubbock Saturday. We'll be back here in Nashville Sunday to
talk about it all. Until then, enjoy the weekend, enjoy
the games, take care, and God bless.

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Speaker 2 (01:10:37):
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