# CFP QUARTERFINAL REACTIONS: Miami Upsets Ohio State, Indiana Crushes Bama, Oregon Blanks Texas Tech & Ole Miss Wins A Thriller! | College Football

An episode of [The Solid Verbal College Football Show](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/270037732), 2 Jan 2026, 1 h 37 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/21437ee1-47d9-4b16-8696-b30d011a2c26/d0f7788b-f4a6-4f32-b1b5-b3c6003015f3/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=51c7e0eb-425c-4d93-b5a8-b30d011a2c46

The CFP Quarterfinals are officially in the books! In this episode, we react to Miami's upset of Ohio State, Indiana's obliteration of Alabama, Oregon's shutout of Texas Tech and a wild finish as Ole Miss got revenge on Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. Relive the madness as we go through and react to each game. Timecodes: 0:00 - Intro 9:07 - Miami upsets Ohio State 27:09 - Oregon shuts out Texas Tech 45:34 - Indiana clobbers Alabama 1:10:40 - Ole Miss gets revenge on Georgia 1:29:41 - Closing Thoughts Support the show!: https://www.patreon.com/solidverbal See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:02] Speaker 1: Welcome to the solid verbal hullah. For me, I'm a man,
[0:07] Speaker 1: I'm forty.
[0:08] Speaker 2: I've heard so many players say, well, I want to
[0:10] Speaker 2: be happy.
[0:10] Speaker 1: You want to be happy for a day?
[0:12] Speaker 2: Edith State is that?
[0:13] Speaker 3: Whoo whoo?
[0:14] Speaker 2: And now Dan and tie Dan Rubinstein, So, dude, whoa.
[0:26] Speaker 1: It is.
[0:28] Speaker 2: Tomorrow as we're recording this. It is twelve thirty am
[0:32] Speaker 2: Eastern time. Yes, something like that. Man, Yeah, good lord.
[0:38] Speaker 2: So we have the quarterfinals in the books. We are
[0:41] Speaker 2: into twenty twenty six. We have four winners who will
[0:45] Speaker 2: be squaring off into against each other in the semifinals.
[0:49] Speaker 2: And we had and still have a lot of thoughts.
[0:55] Speaker 1: Correct.
[0:57] Speaker 3: I feel like I lived a year today, or maybe
[1:01] Speaker 3: just since eight pm Eastern time with the Sugar Bowl. Man.
[1:05] Speaker 3: The way today unfolded, the way today finished was crazy.
[1:11] Speaker 3: All of the things that we wanted to get out
[1:13] Speaker 3: of the first three games we got in the fourth.
[1:17] Speaker 3: So this thing.
[1:18] Speaker 1: Finished up in the most incredible way.
[1:20] Speaker 3: If you're a college football fan, I am so excited
[1:23] Speaker 3: to talk about all of it with you here over
[1:26] Speaker 3: the next however long lord knows how long this episode
[1:30] Speaker 3: is going to be. Please hit follow, please hit subscribe
[1:34] Speaker 3: if you are out there. We would love to have
[1:35] Speaker 3: you with us on the remainder of this journey here
[1:38] Speaker 3: for the twenty twenty five now twenty twenty six college
[1:42] Speaker 3: football season, our final four is set. We had Miami
[1:46] Speaker 3: winning the first game. We had your Oregon Ducks blanking
[1:50] Speaker 3: the Texas Tech Red Raiders in the second. We had
[1:53] Speaker 3: Indiana winning and resounding fashion in the third, and you
[1:56] Speaker 3: and I are recording shortly after Old Miss got it done,
[2:00] Speaker 3: got some revenge on the Georgia Bulldogs, winning thirty nine
[2:04] Speaker 3: to thirty four to close things out in the all
[2:06] Speaker 3: stage Sugar Bowl. Those are going to be your final
[2:09] Speaker 3: four teams. We will talk over the course of the
[2:12] Speaker 3: next hour or so about those matchups and what the
[2:15] Speaker 3: semifinals are going to look like. I should add at
[2:19] Speaker 3: this point in time, now that we've had our second
[2:22] Speaker 3: full round of quarterfinal games, teams coming off a bye
[2:26] Speaker 3: are one in seven outright right, There is definitely a
[2:31] Speaker 3: Russ conversation that needs to be had. There is definitely
[2:35] Speaker 3: a whole multitude of discussion that needs to be had here.
[2:40] Speaker 3: What were your overall impressions of the four games that
[2:43] Speaker 3: we saw.
[2:44] Speaker 1: I've got some, but let me kick.
[2:45] Speaker 3: It over to you to start here, because I feel
[2:48] Speaker 3: like we could take this thing in a whole number
[2:49] Speaker 3: of different directions before we actually jump in and talk
[2:53] Speaker 3: about specifically what we saw transpire.
[2:56] Speaker 2: Overall, feeling was in the first three games there was
[3:02] Speaker 2: so much good defensive line play, and I don't know
[3:05] Speaker 2: if that's just a separator of the teams in this
[3:09] Speaker 2: final eight, just between what Miami and some of what
[3:12] Speaker 2: Ohio State had to offer, and then of course Oregon
[3:15] Speaker 2: and Texas Tech were both terrific on the trenches in
[3:17] Speaker 2: the trenches on defense, and then what Indiana was offering
[3:20] Speaker 2: against Alabama, and at times obviously the Georgia and Ole
[3:23] Speaker 2: Miss defensive lines and defensive fronts made huge plays. But
[3:27] Speaker 2: for some reason that stood out to me, at least
[3:29] Speaker 2: until you know, the Chegger Bowl, when there was just
[3:33] Speaker 2: the offensive back and forth, Right, Ye, we didn't get
[3:36] Speaker 2: that in any of the other games. Right, we had
[3:38] Speaker 2: Ohio State cut it and make it a game, but
[3:41] Speaker 2: it wasn't back and forth and back and forth and
[3:42] Speaker 2: back and forth, and somebody goes on a crazy run
[3:44] Speaker 2: and then somebody else goes on a crazy run, and
[3:45] Speaker 2: we didn't have that in any of the other games.
[3:48] Speaker 2: Indiana was basically over immediately. But if I were to
[3:52] Speaker 2: take one thing away from it, it was really good
[3:56] Speaker 2: coaching from these winning teams, which is not a surprise
[3:58] Speaker 2: they won big games, but I would impressed that nobody
[4:01] Speaker 2: sort of There wasn't like dumb luck into winning a game, right,
[4:04] Speaker 2: There wasn't. There wasn't freak turnovers that led to a win.
[4:07] Speaker 2: There wasn't horrible calls at the end of a game
[4:09] Speaker 2: that led to win something like that. I thought the
[4:11] Speaker 2: coaching was by and large really sound, if not excellent
[4:15] Speaker 2: in these games, and quarterback play was varied, but we
[4:22] Speaker 2: saw some great plays from a number of these guys,
[4:25] Speaker 2: and just that it was great to get interesting football.
[4:32] Speaker 2: Even if we didn't get completely competitive football all the time,
[4:35] Speaker 2: it was good to get it after a first round
[4:38] Speaker 2: that saw a focus on narratives rather than games. I mean,
[4:43] Speaker 2: obviously we had texts A and M and Miami be
[4:45] Speaker 2: pretty close, but otherwise that wasn't really what came to
[4:50] Speaker 2: define that first round. So I'm glad we got to
[4:53] Speaker 2: see a little bit of that between Miami and Ohio
[4:55] Speaker 2: State and then tonight with the Sugar Bowl game between
[4:58] Speaker 2: Ole Miss and Georgia.
[5:00] Speaker 3: Yeah, and though the storylines didn't so much define in
[5:04] Speaker 3: this round. I actually found coming out of this that
[5:07] Speaker 3: some of the confirmation that we got on assumptions was
[5:12] Speaker 3: quite interesting. There was I think an open question about
[5:15] Speaker 3: a team like in Indiana going up against Alabama. Indiana
[5:20] Speaker 3: has been very, very good this season. Indiana was the
[5:22] Speaker 3: only undefeated team coming into the College Football Playoff quarterfinals,
[5:26] Speaker 3: but going up against a traditional blue blood like Alabama.
[5:30] Speaker 3: I know there were people out there that took Alabama.
[5:33] Speaker 3: Thankfully we did not, but I could understand the case
[5:36] Speaker 3: for taking Alabama.
[5:38] Speaker 1: I can't well, but I can get it.
[5:41] Speaker 3: And what we saw on display was confirmation that Fernando
[5:45] Speaker 3: Mendoza is really freaking good and that what we saw
[5:48] Speaker 3: out of the Indiana Hoosiers this year was not a fraud.
[5:52] Speaker 3: Even if you came into this game thinking that the
[5:54] Speaker 3: Hoosiers could be they most certainly were not right. How
[5:58] Speaker 3: about what we saw from the Miami Hurricanes and their
[6:01] Speaker 3: defensive front. You talk about defensive line play, the way
[6:04] Speaker 3: that they went up against the Ohio State Buckeys, there
[6:07] Speaker 3: was an open question about how much of an impact
[6:10] Speaker 3: could that defensive front actually have on an offense that
[6:14] Speaker 3: felt very complete Granted, maybe they weren't the most explosive unit.
[6:18] Speaker 3: That was also true for Miami, But how much of
[6:21] Speaker 3: an effect could they have on what you and I
[6:24] Speaker 3: were led to believe was a very complete offensive unit
[6:27] Speaker 3: for the Ohio State buck guys. Could they be as
[6:29] Speaker 3: good as many in the Miami community thought they've been
[6:32] Speaker 3: all season?
[6:33] Speaker 2: And by the way, to be, I mean, you're not
[6:35] Speaker 2: saying otherwise, they're suggesting something different. But Miami was more
[6:40] Speaker 2: than just their defensive line, which was obviously chaotic and
[6:43] Speaker 2: violent everything, because it was a they called a pretty
[6:47] Speaker 2: good offensive game all things considered with what Ohio State
[6:51] Speaker 2: was giving them, which wasn't much downfield. But you know
[6:54] Speaker 2: that early touchdown and then the way Charmar Brown especially
[6:57] Speaker 2: closed out that game with the touchdown, the sort of
[7:01] Speaker 2: the I don't know, the swing pass type thing near
[7:04] Speaker 2: the end of the game. Miami closed that game really
[7:07] Speaker 2: nicely on offense as well, and then converting a ton
[7:10] Speaker 2: of huge third down CJ. Daniels is big in that game. So, yeah,
[7:13] Speaker 2: you're not winning this game. You're not winning a game
[7:15] Speaker 2: like any of these without a more complete performance. But yeah,
[7:18] Speaker 2: I thought Miami, you know, did a ton to to
[7:21] Speaker 2: sort of prove itself worthy.
[7:23] Speaker 3: And the other bit of confirmation that I think we
[7:25] Speaker 3: got out of the Sugar Bowl was really on the
[7:28] Speaker 3: Old missfront, because there were no more distracting storylines out
[7:34] Speaker 3: there than the one that we saw at Old Miss
[7:35] Speaker 3: with Lane Kiffen, the will he the won't he go
[7:38] Speaker 3: to LSU? Will he coach? Even if he does go
[7:42] Speaker 3: to LSU? How many guys will he take with him
[7:46] Speaker 3: if he goes to Baton Rouge. With all of this
[7:49] Speaker 3: stuff swirling, there was even some conjecture out there that
[7:53] Speaker 3: maybe the committee should consider dropping Old Miss. They're losing
[7:56] Speaker 3: their coach. After all, it's not even the same team, right,
[8:00] Speaker 3: I remember having that conversation with you. What we saw
[8:04] Speaker 3: on display was a team that had all of its
[8:07] Speaker 3: big guns, playing at a very very high level, and
[8:11] Speaker 3: they did not skip a beat. They answered the bell
[8:13] Speaker 3: when they had to against a very good Georgia team,
[8:16] Speaker 3: and now they find themselves in the semifinals. So this
[8:19] Speaker 3: was definitely not around to find up front by some
[8:23] Speaker 3: of those narratives. But I felt coming out of it
[8:25] Speaker 3: we got some confirmation and we got a little bit
[8:28] Speaker 3: more clarity on.
[8:30] Speaker 1: Some of those assumptions.
[8:31] Speaker 3: Maybe we had coming in and where we should be
[8:33] Speaker 3: now as we head into the college football Playoff semifinals. Again,
[8:37] Speaker 3: the first three games maybe debatable whether or not they
[8:40] Speaker 3: were any good. I guess it depends on your point
[8:43] Speaker 3: of view, but certainly the way things closed out here
[8:45] Speaker 3: with the Sugar Bowl was a hell a lot of fun.
[8:48] Speaker 3: Please go on out to verbalers dot com to support
[8:51] Speaker 3: what we do. Check out Bowl bingo. I'll be making
[8:54] Speaker 3: a post about that in very short order to let
[8:56] Speaker 3: you know when the next card is out there, and
[8:59] Speaker 3: of course please hit follow or subscribe if you have
[9:02] Speaker 3: yet to do so. Why don't we dive in and
[9:04] Speaker 3: talk about some of these specific games. Let's Miami knocks
[9:09] Speaker 3: off the defending champions, the Ohio State Buckeyes by a
[9:13] Speaker 3: twenty four to fourteen score. They entered this game as
[9:16] Speaker 3: a nine and a half point dog, they emerge as
[9:20] Speaker 3: a ten point victor. This will certainly send some shockwaves
[9:24] Speaker 3: as we embark upon the other three games in the
[9:27] Speaker 3: college Football Playoff quarter final action.
[9:29] Speaker 1: Dan, Wow, what a way to kick things off. Huh.
[9:33] Speaker 2: An unbelievable win for Miami covering Ohio State. Spread right
[9:37] Speaker 2: that they win this game by at least nine and
[9:38] Speaker 2: a half points, a terrific performance, an overwhelming performance at
[9:42] Speaker 2: times for Miami. Slow start, no score after the first quarter.
[9:46] Speaker 2: Both of these quarterbacks look a little bit slow out
[9:48] Speaker 2: of the gates, certainly, Julian Sayan did. We talked a
[9:51] Speaker 2: lot about, as everybody did, the Miami ability along their
[9:55] Speaker 2: defensive line to hound and overwhelm and harass, and they
[9:59] Speaker 2: were violent the entirety of this game. They were violent,
[10:02] Speaker 2: and Ohio State did succeed at times, definitely on offense.
[10:05] Speaker 2: But if there's one specific story of this game, it
[10:08] Speaker 2: is the Miami defense. And I don't know how you
[10:10] Speaker 2: could argue otherwise. But look doesn't feel so great having
[10:16] Speaker 2: the long by time off, does it? Ohio State doesn't
[10:20] Speaker 2: feel so good? Okay, sorry, I got a little bit
[10:24] Speaker 2: of field there tie watching this game, watching Miami make
[10:29] Speaker 2: the plays, doing just enough to keep chains rolling, to
[10:34] Speaker 2: play smart, efficient football. After what I thought was a
[10:38] Speaker 2: bad call on third and short deep in Ohio State territory,
[10:41] Speaker 2: relatively early on, when Ohio State knows that they're going
[10:46] Speaker 2: to be running the ball on third and three straight
[10:48] Speaker 2: up the gut, they force a fumble from Mark Fletcher
[10:52] Speaker 2: and Miami bounces back. They just keep getting stops on defense,
[10:56] Speaker 2: They keep finding CJ. Daniels open for six, seven, eight
[10:59] Speaker 2: yards right that. I thought he was low key one
[11:03] Speaker 2: of the most valuable players in this game. Yeah, there's
[11:06] Speaker 2: a few of those guys that are not going to
[11:08] Speaker 2: be the first name to jump out when you think
[11:09] Speaker 2: about Miami football success, like Charmar Brown at the end
[11:13] Speaker 2: of that game getting those tough yards setting up success.
[11:16] Speaker 2: And obviously Mark Fletcher, Malachai Toni didn't do a lot
[11:20] Speaker 2: actually fumble the ball twice. Caleb Downs I think forced
[11:23] Speaker 2: two Malachay Tony fumbles, but the ball bounced the right
[11:26] Speaker 2: way for Miami. But I look, I'm all over the
[11:30] Speaker 2: place a little bit. But what Miami was able to
[11:33] Speaker 2: do on defense in harassing Julian Saying, even when they
[11:36] Speaker 2: were absorbing extraordinary Jeremiah Smith plays, performances, catches, whatever, the
[11:44] Speaker 2: single best thing in this game was Miami on defense.
[11:46] Speaker 2: And I don't know how anybody could argue otherwise other
[11:49] Speaker 2: than maybe Jeremiah Smith's individual effort.
[11:51] Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think that's where we need to
[11:53] Speaker 3: focus the attention. By the way, as I'm watching the
[11:57] Speaker 3: first half of this game, I'm kicking myself because I had,
[12:00] Speaker 3: and you know I mentioned this on the preview, I
[12:03] Speaker 3: had myself at one point in the build up to
[12:06] Speaker 3: this one convinced that I should be taking Miami. Yeah,
[12:10] Speaker 3: you'll recall, and we both discussed it when we did
[12:12] Speaker 3: our preview. How Ohio State was going to deal with
[12:16] Speaker 3: that pressure up front was going to dictate a lot
[12:19] Speaker 3: of this game. And that could not have been more true.
[12:22] Speaker 3: And it wasn't necessarily a secret. Anybody who's watched Miami
[12:26] Speaker 3: all year knew that the combination of a key Mesidor
[12:29] Speaker 3: and Reuben Bain Junior were going to be an issue.
[12:32] Speaker 3: They've been an issue all season long. But the way
[12:34] Speaker 3: that they deployed those guys, there was no denying from
[12:37] Speaker 3: the jump that this was going to be a problem
[12:39] Speaker 3: for Ohio State. I didn't see the final tally on sacks,
[12:42] Speaker 3: but for sure they got after the quarterback. And even
[12:45] Speaker 3: if they weren't bringing Julian Saying down, they were in
[12:47] Speaker 3: his face, they were speeding him up, they were definitely
[12:50] Speaker 3: affecting the play, and they were not giving him a
[12:52] Speaker 3: clean pocket to throw out of. And that, I think,
[12:55] Speaker 3: to your point, above all else, is where we need
[12:57] Speaker 3: to start the conversation. For Miami, what they did defensively
[13:01] Speaker 3: was really inspired and that was what dictated the pace
[13:04] Speaker 3: of this game. If we've turned the page a little
[13:06] Speaker 3: bit and flipped to the other side of the ball,
[13:09] Speaker 3: on the Ohio state side of things, there's definitely a
[13:13] Speaker 3: question that needs to be asked about what their strategy
[13:16] Speaker 3: was for covering the Miami passing attack. Granted, Mark Fletcher
[13:20] Speaker 3: had some hard yards and Chamar Brown, as you said
[13:22] Speaker 3: later in the game, had some hard yards as well,
[13:24] Speaker 3: both on the ground and that nice little swing passes
[13:27] Speaker 3: out of the backfield I think to convert a big
[13:29] Speaker 3: third down. But they were playing off coverage for a
[13:32] Speaker 3: good chunk of that game. It wasn't until I don't
[13:35] Speaker 3: know five minutes into the second half that we started
[13:37] Speaker 3: seeing them man up a little bit more, play a
[13:40] Speaker 3: little bit tighter on Miami receivers. I had tweeted out
[13:43] Speaker 3: a stat that through three and a half quarters or
[13:46] Speaker 3: near the end of the third quarter, Carson Beck had
[13:49] Speaker 3: only thrown one ball longer than twelve air yards. This
[13:52] Speaker 3: was not necessarily a passing attack on the Miami side
[13:55] Speaker 3: that was trying to stretch anybody deep.
[13:56] Speaker 2: No, and you know what, it wasn't there. They they
[14:01] Speaker 2: took what was there to the best of their ability,
[14:03] Speaker 2: absolutely didn't force There were not interceptible balls either. Right,
[14:07] Speaker 2: the passes that carson Beck sort of let fly were
[14:14] Speaker 2: largely not.
[14:15] Speaker 1: Anywhere near danger right there.
[14:16] Speaker 2: It's a lot of horizontal stuff, it's a lot of
[14:18] Speaker 2: shorter stuff, It's a lot of like this is the read,
[14:21] Speaker 2: get it to him quickly. Should also point out Miami
[14:25] Speaker 2: absorbed probably at least two pass interference non calls right
[14:31] Speaker 2: the Devin Sanchez one down the field, Dermiah Smith full
[14:35] Speaker 2: extension OPI not called on a big gain or like
[14:39] Speaker 2: a twenty twenty two yard gain as well, But no
[14:42] Speaker 2: on offense for Miami. They weren't taking shots and chances haphazardly.
[14:49] Speaker 2: And so credit to Shannon Dawson, credit to carson Beck,
[14:53] Speaker 2: credit the game plan, credit the protection for Miami, because
[14:58] Speaker 2: Carson Beck largely was not you know, harassed and harangued
[15:02] Speaker 2: however you want to say it. And so Mark Fletcher
[15:06] Speaker 2: ran well that he didn't bust as many long runs,
[15:08] Speaker 2: but busted enough long runs and like turned three yarders
[15:12] Speaker 2: into like eight nine yarder types like more often than
[15:16] Speaker 2: he probably should have. And so look this is against
[15:19] Speaker 2: what's arguably the best defense in America, and what Miami
[15:22] Speaker 2: was able to do got a couple of the breaks
[15:24] Speaker 2: as we mentioned with Malachai Toni dropping those or you know,
[15:27] Speaker 2: having the ball jostled out of his arms a couple times,
[15:30] Speaker 2: but no the red zone. The play call on that
[15:32] Speaker 2: first touchdown, the sort of like weak.
[15:35] Speaker 1: Side RBO hesitation. It was t BO esque, wasn't it.
[15:38] Speaker 3: The little stutter step like maybe he's gonna run up
[15:41] Speaker 3: the gut and then suddenly the swing out to Fletcher.
[15:44] Speaker 2: It wasn't the jump pass. It was the like little
[15:46] Speaker 2: flip swing to the weak side.
[15:48] Speaker 3: I love that play.
[15:49] Speaker 2: Great execution, a great play call after a great drive.
[15:52] Speaker 2: That was a settled in drive for Miami after the
[15:54] Speaker 2: slow start. And then we've gone this far without mentioning
[15:58] Speaker 2: the absolute brilliant Kante Scott jump into the lane eighty
[16:02] Speaker 2: yard house call pick six.
[16:03] Speaker 3: And by the way, we could talk a good game
[16:06] Speaker 3: about Jeremiah Smith, who had seven grabs for one hundred
[16:10] Speaker 3: and fifty seven yards and a touchdown and is still
[16:12] Speaker 3: largely uncoverable by anybody in college football totally full stop.
[16:19] Speaker 1: Also also Whift on that block on the other pick six.
[16:23] Speaker 3: Yeah, Miami defender shoots through catches it like he's the
[16:28] Speaker 3: intended receiver, runs seventy two yards for a pick six
[16:31] Speaker 3: to make it fourteen to zip. Early on. Now, Ohio State,
[16:34] Speaker 3: to their credit, did come back a little bit. They
[16:36] Speaker 3: were able to re establish some momentum. There was a
[16:39] Speaker 3: definite moment in the second half of this game where
[16:42] Speaker 3: you and I are messaging back and forth like is
[16:44] Speaker 3: this going to happen here?
[16:45] Speaker 1: What's what?
[16:46] Speaker 3: You know? We've seen this before with Miami where they've
[16:48] Speaker 3: got a lead and then something that This wasn't like
[16:51] Speaker 3: a classic crystal ball game where he's playing uber conservative
[16:55] Speaker 3: and giving the game away. But you could feel at
[16:58] Speaker 3: a point in this one where the momentum was a
[17:00] Speaker 3: bit in favor of Ohio State. But again, Miami, to
[17:04] Speaker 3: their credit, was able to recapture it. I do want
[17:07] Speaker 3: to come back to something else that you mentioned about
[17:09] Speaker 3: Carson Beck. Please, how much of the narrative in the
[17:12] Speaker 3: build up to this one was about Carson Beck? And
[17:15] Speaker 3: you can confuse him and he's got a big mistake
[17:17] Speaker 3: in him and we can just you message me about it.
[17:20] Speaker 3: In the second half, Absolutely, there's going to be a
[17:22] Speaker 3: backbreaking Carson Beck turnover, isn't there dot dot dot.
[17:26] Speaker 2: No, he he played within himself, by the way, just
[17:29] Speaker 2: in terms of complimenting Carson Beck, I don't think it'll
[17:32] Speaker 2: ultimately ended in points on that drive. But the third
[17:36] Speaker 2: and eleven run where he's shoulder down, lowers his shoulder
[17:42] Speaker 2: and wrecks a couple of a hot maybe that's too
[17:44] Speaker 2: strong a term, but bowls over and gets you know,
[17:47] Speaker 2: he's hit you know, a couple of yards short and
[17:50] Speaker 2: uses his momentum to sort of uh collide through and
[17:54] Speaker 2: get to the first down in a conversion. And it
[17:57] Speaker 2: was just a gutty play knowing that every one of
[18:01] Speaker 2: these players on both sides needed to give everything they had.
[18:03] Speaker 2: And so, yeah, Miami closing out the game the way
[18:06] Speaker 2: that they did, and even with the interception at the
[18:08] Speaker 2: end of the game right that they weren't phased. It
[18:11] Speaker 2: was under a minute for Ohio State when they got
[18:13] Speaker 2: the ball back after they let Miami in for that
[18:15] Speaker 2: late touchdown. But this was a seventeen to fourteen game,
[18:19] Speaker 2: Like you could feel a little bit of Miami tightening up,
[18:22] Speaker 2: not fully now, but when Ohio State started moving the ball,
[18:25] Speaker 2: you know, Bo Jackson was running it well. Julian Sayin
[18:28] Speaker 2: was getting rid of the ball quicker and quicker, and
[18:30] Speaker 2: he was finding cosmeric and Brandon Innis and Carnel Tait,
[18:34] Speaker 2: obviously Jeremiah Smith. There was momentum there. Ohio State was
[18:38] Speaker 2: finding chunks of yardage and obviously the Jeremiah Smith touchdown
[18:41] Speaker 2: late was a brilliant play by him. But Miami stayed
[18:45] Speaker 2: the course. Miami really did a nice job.
[18:48] Speaker 3: And my point on Beck is we saw this as
[18:52] Speaker 3: the best version of him when he was still at Georgia.
[18:56] Speaker 3: Now it might have been more of a supporting cast thing,
[18:58] Speaker 3: and those Georgia teams were able to on the ball
[19:00] Speaker 3: really effectively, much more so than they have recently. But
[19:03] Speaker 3: the best of Carson Beck. When people were talking up
[19:06] Speaker 3: Carson Beck as a potential top ten pick in the
[19:09] Speaker 3: NFL draft way back when it feels like an eternity ago,
[19:14] Speaker 3: those were teams that didn't rely on Carson Beck to
[19:17] Speaker 3: go out there and throw for three hundred and fifty yards.
[19:19] Speaker 3: Those were teams that had a good supporting cast around him,
[19:22] Speaker 3: and they relied on him to not make a big mistake.
[19:25] Speaker 3: You know, I hesitate to call game manager, but a
[19:29] Speaker 3: little bit of game manager, with the way that they've
[19:31] Speaker 3: used quarterbacks at Georgia and Carson Beck. The best version
[19:34] Speaker 3: of him before he came over to Miami was that guy,
[19:38] Speaker 3: and we saw I think a lot of that in
[19:40] Speaker 3: this game. We saw some of that in the game prior.
[19:42] Speaker 3: The stat line here is not going to knock anybody over,
[19:45] Speaker 3: just one hundred and thirty eight yards. I think he
[19:46] Speaker 3: had one hundred yards passing a week.
[19:48] Speaker 2: Ago stat line for Julian saying literally knocked Julian saying
[19:51] Speaker 2: over though, yeah, exactly.
[19:53] Speaker 3: So. I'm just I'm really impressed by the effort we
[19:56] Speaker 3: saw out of him, even though it's not going to
[19:58] Speaker 3: jump off the box score at anybody. I'm really impressed
[20:00] Speaker 3: by the inspired defensive effort that we saw on the
[20:03] Speaker 3: Miami side of things. And I would just say, more
[20:06] Speaker 3: broadly speaking, my big takeaway is that this is a
[20:09] Speaker 3: Miami team that is now playing with a lot of momentum.
[20:12] Speaker 3: They're playing with a lot of momentum. They believe there
[20:15] Speaker 3: is a storyline that emerges three weeks down the road
[20:18] Speaker 3: of them playing a home game potentially for the National Championship,
[20:21] Speaker 3: which is, well, we'll get there when we get there.
[20:25] Speaker 3: As if ever, there were going to be a shortage
[20:27] Speaker 3: of storylines. That was never going to be the case
[20:29] Speaker 3: regardless of who won this game. But I think it
[20:32] Speaker 3: is even richer on the Miami side now, given it's
[20:35] Speaker 3: been a drought since they were here. And I'm excited
[20:38] Speaker 3: for Miami fans that watch our stuff, that listen to
[20:41] Speaker 3: our stuff, that have been common things since the jump
[20:44] Speaker 3: about what they thought the Canes could be this season
[20:47] Speaker 3: and e s Yeah. I mean, I'm excited for that
[20:50] Speaker 3: fan base to now have something to be excited about,
[20:52] Speaker 3: and they're going to be in the Final four. It's
[20:55] Speaker 3: pretty cool.
[20:56] Speaker 2: So a couple stray thoughts here as well, that pick
[20:59] Speaker 2: six was the game ultimately in retrospect, right, Miami just
[21:04] Speaker 2: beat Ohio State scoring two offensive touchdowns. That's a very
[21:09] Speaker 2: difficult thing to do unless you're also Indiana, Right, Like
[21:14] Speaker 2: the idea of Ohio State with the amount of firepower
[21:17] Speaker 2: they have at their best scoring only giving up two
[21:21] Speaker 2: offensive touchdowns and still losing that game is pretty wild
[21:26] Speaker 2: considering where they've been this season, where they've been recently
[21:28] Speaker 2: with a lot of these players. And you know, I
[21:31] Speaker 2: thought a little bit about how Miami didn't do a
[21:35] Speaker 2: ton that will wow you. But they did the right
[21:37] Speaker 2: things at the right time. I think they ended up
[21:39] Speaker 2: going eight to fifteen on third and fourth downs, Like
[21:42] Speaker 2: there are third and fours, third and six, as we
[21:44] Speaker 2: mentioned the third and eleven that ultimately didn't end in points.
[21:46] Speaker 2: But what does that do that takes time away from
[21:48] Speaker 2: Ohio State?
[21:49] Speaker 3: Right?
[21:50] Speaker 2: The third down play calling was really good. The execution
[21:53] Speaker 2: just again right place, right time. I thought about what
[21:55] Speaker 2: I was trying to say before I thought about like
[21:57] Speaker 2: teams in baseball who were really good at the show
[22:00] Speaker 2: shift right, they were just like, we have a plan
[22:03] Speaker 2: for this guy, We have a plan for this moment.
[22:06] Speaker 2: And Miami just looked locked in. And I don't know
[22:11] Speaker 2: if that's a combination of them obviously being very very good,
[22:15] Speaker 2: them playing a game recently and more recently than Ohio State.
[22:18] Speaker 2: And you mentioned the h to five after these long stretches,
[22:21] Speaker 2: so tomorrow, good luck to you know what it would
[22:23] Speaker 2: be Georgia, Texas Tech and Indiana trying to break that streak.
[22:29] Speaker 2: But it was just a really well run game from Miami.
[22:33] Speaker 2: And it's going to be a long off season for
[22:36] Speaker 2: Ohio State and trying to figure out things. I guess
[22:38] Speaker 2: along the offensive line patching a couple holes up on defense.
[22:42] Speaker 2: The defense clearly not the issue, but maybe third down
[22:45] Speaker 2: play calling and execution is the issue in these higher
[22:48] Speaker 2: leverage moments against the top teams potentially faced in December
[22:51] Speaker 2: and January, it looked like at times like the Ohio
[22:57] Speaker 2: State offensive line got there by like an essay contest,
[23:02] Speaker 2: that they just didn't naturally belong on the field. And
[23:06] Speaker 2: to be fair, very few offensive linemen, if any, have
[23:10] Speaker 2: looked like they've belonged on the field against this Miami
[23:12] Speaker 2: defensive front this season. You tip your cap to Miami,
[23:16] Speaker 2: who was basically not going to make this field except
[23:20] Speaker 2: for the committee deciding after a few weeks of having
[23:22] Speaker 2: Notre Dame ranked ahead of them to flip it.
[23:24] Speaker 1: Hey for them good. Miami was always.
[23:27] Speaker 2: A playoff caliber team, to be absolutely, absolutely, and you know,
[23:31] Speaker 2: just to kind of put a bow on the Ohio
[23:34] Speaker 2: State conversation, we have spent hours deliberating the Ohio State
[23:42] Speaker 2: just general approach this season.
[23:46] Speaker 3: They had played slower, There were different nuances to how
[23:49] Speaker 3: they went about this season, and there had been a
[23:51] Speaker 3: lot of speculation that they're doing this, They're playing slower,
[23:54] Speaker 3: they're reducing the number of plays that they run because
[23:57] Speaker 3: they're in this for the long haul. They want to
[23:59] Speaker 3: preserve their players health. Right, a whole multitude of reasons
[24:03] Speaker 3: that we're floating around out there. I don't know if
[24:06] Speaker 3: any of that's true. I have no idea, But what
[24:09] Speaker 3: I do know is it's a game like this where
[24:11] Speaker 3: you expect them or maybe a game like the Big
[24:14] Speaker 3: Ten Championship, where you expect them to sort of flip
[24:17] Speaker 3: the switch. And there is like this false promise that
[24:21] Speaker 3: I think we have all too often believed in college football,
[24:27] Speaker 3: where teams at some point have it in them to
[24:31] Speaker 3: just flip that magical switch. I thought about that with
[24:34] Speaker 3: Penn State last year, Drew Aller in the offense. At
[24:37] Speaker 3: some point they're gonna there, the switch is gonna flip,
[24:41] Speaker 3: and then we're gonna see the real version of them. Now,
[24:43] Speaker 3: Ohio State did flip a switch last year. It took
[24:46] Speaker 3: them losing the Michigan before they got to that point,
[24:48] Speaker 3: and they went on this torrid pace.
[24:50] Speaker 1: But I didn't get a month off to think about it.
[24:52] Speaker 3: But they didn't get a month off to think about it, right,
[24:54] Speaker 3: And so there will be much speculation and I'm sure
[24:58] Speaker 3: much conjecture in the Ohio State community about how they
[25:03] Speaker 3: approached this game, and if the loss is on the interception,
[25:07] Speaker 3: if the loss is on the staff, the losses on
[25:10] Speaker 3: some combination of all of those things.
[25:11] Speaker 1: But I think yes, yes, yes, yes.
[25:13] Speaker 3: But if we were waiting for the answer to the
[25:16] Speaker 3: question of whether Ohio State had a switch that they
[25:19] Speaker 3: could flip in a big game like this, the answer
[25:21] Speaker 3: in this case was definitively no.
[25:22] Speaker 2: They weren't able to turn to the Oregon brain trust
[25:25] Speaker 2: of Chip Kelly this season, right.
[25:27] Speaker 1: That hurt him. It's just a different team, It was
[25:30] Speaker 1: a different team. It's a different situation.
[25:33] Speaker 2: And look, Ohio State losing to Michigan last year changed
[25:37] Speaker 2: the complexion of the playoff and now Ohio State losing
[25:41] Speaker 2: after a long time off will probably result in more
[25:44] Speaker 2: changes to the playoff and the amount of time teams
[25:47] Speaker 2: get off or whatever.
[25:47] Speaker 1: Because you can't have it. I guess Michael Irvin was
[25:50] Speaker 1: losing his mind.
[25:51] Speaker 3: I ray Lewis, Yeah, I floated something out there that
[25:54] Speaker 3: we just need a Michael Irvin cast next week, Like,
[25:57] Speaker 3: just do it. Put it on the ACC network, give
[26:00] Speaker 3: us a reason to watch the ACC Network. Just watch
[26:03] Speaker 3: him lose his mind for six and straight minutes. Who's
[26:05] Speaker 3: not watching that.
[26:06] Speaker 2: I think the FCC and Michael Irvin, the Michael Irvin
[26:09] Speaker 2: Network might run into some issues with each other if
[26:12] Speaker 2: you're gonna make him up and put him on live television.
[26:14] Speaker 1: But either way, either.
[26:15] Speaker 2: Way, man, big night from Miami, right, timp of the cat.
[26:18] Speaker 2: By the way, Mario christaball right, this is the biggest
[26:20] Speaker 2: win for Miami in twenty plus years. They played Mario Ball,
[26:24] Speaker 2: the best version of Mario Ball. He had a great quote,
[26:28] Speaker 2: I think in one of his sideline interviews where he
[26:30] Speaker 2: was just like, we just want each of our guys
[26:33] Speaker 2: to kick the ass of the guy in front of them,
[26:35] Speaker 2: and we feel good about that. And they did it right.
[26:39] Speaker 2: They absolutely He's recruited this roster. The portal worked out
[26:42] Speaker 2: really well. Keante Scott was almost I think a Houston Cougar.
[26:46] Speaker 2: He was at Auburn, went to Houston, ended up in Miami,
[26:48] Speaker 2: following a DB's coach, like a lot came together to
[26:52] Speaker 2: make this work for Miami and they bounce back after
[26:54] Speaker 2: losing those games to SMU and Louisville pretty masterfully, and
[26:58] Speaker 2: to go to Texas, A and M and then stay
[27:00] Speaker 2: within the state of Texas and do this to Ohio
[27:02] Speaker 2: State and Jerry World. It's a stage they haven't been
[27:05] Speaker 2: on in a long time, and they more than rose
[27:08] Speaker 2: to the occasion.
[27:10] Speaker 3: Oregon twenty three the Texas Tech Red Raiders, zero zip, Nada.
[27:17] Speaker 3: Oregon advances by winning in the Capitol One Orange Bowl,
[27:21] Speaker 3: Dan Rubinstein, They're moving on to the semifinals. I will
[27:26] Speaker 3: turn it over to you as our resident Oregon alum
[27:29] Speaker 3: and officionado. I have many thoughts on the game that
[27:32] Speaker 3: we saw, but I guess we could start off where
[27:35] Speaker 3: I think everybody's mind is going to go. First. This
[27:38] Speaker 3: was perhaps much more of a defensive struggle than we
[27:41] Speaker 3: thought coming in. We knew it would be to some
[27:43] Speaker 3: extent given the teams that were part of this one,
[27:46] Speaker 3: but twenty three to zip, the way that this one
[27:49] Speaker 3: played out, I don't know if anyone quite had this
[27:52] Speaker 3: level of defense on the Bengo card.
[27:54] Speaker 1: No, not to this extent, of course.
[27:56] Speaker 3: Not.
[27:56] Speaker 2: Okay, First and foremost, this year's Quarters as an Oregon
[28:00] Speaker 2: fan a lot better a day for me than last
[28:04] Speaker 2: year's Quarters as an Oregon fan. Given up the whatever
[28:07] Speaker 2: thirty one straight to start the game against Ohio State
[28:10] Speaker 2: last year in the Rose Bowl. Secondly, no nobody thought
[28:14] Speaker 2: about this in terms of a defensive back and forth. Obviously,
[28:20] Speaker 2: everybody knows about and continues to know about the excellence
[28:23] Speaker 2: of Texas Tech's defense, especially upfront. Oregon has not played
[28:26] Speaker 2: a defense as good as Texas Tech's, especially given that
[28:30] Speaker 2: the Texas Tech defense was on the field as much
[28:32] Speaker 2: as it was because of the ineptitude of their own offense.
[28:36] Speaker 2: That Oregon has fast, talented players that thrive in space
[28:42] Speaker 2: and making you know, linebackers, defensive lineman, safety, whatever, missing
[28:46] Speaker 2: in space. And I don't know if Texas Tech missed
[28:49] Speaker 2: a single tackle a bowl tackle in this game. It
[28:52] Speaker 2: was an incredible defensive performance from Texas Tech. And I
[28:57] Speaker 2: did not expect to shut out from Oregon. I did
[29:00] Speaker 2: not expect some of the issues Oregon had on offense,
[29:02] Speaker 2: specifically as good as Texas Tech defense is, those high
[29:05] Speaker 2: leverage moments, those fourth downs, the struggles with Dante More
[29:09] Speaker 2: and the exchange fumble, the bad snap, the interception is
[29:14] Speaker 2: whatever it actually would have been, you know the same.
[29:17] Speaker 2: It's kind of moot because they still gained yardage on
[29:19] Speaker 2: the play. I think had they even just thrown an intercepted,
[29:23] Speaker 2: had had he even thrown an incomplete pass. Excuse me,
[29:25] Speaker 2: but yeah, the high leverage moment struggles for Oregon on
[29:29] Speaker 2: offense deep in the red zone and going forth on
[29:32] Speaker 2: fourth down instead of taking points or instead of taking
[29:34] Speaker 2: a punt. Given how much Texas Tech's offense had struggled,
[29:38] Speaker 2: it's worthwhile to question Oregon in those moments. Dante Moore
[29:41] Speaker 2: also missed a wide open Kenyon Sadik early in the
[29:44] Speaker 2: second half on a fourth and short play action pass
[29:47] Speaker 2: that would have ended up in a touchdown, easy touchdown.
[29:49] Speaker 2: It looked like you were watching the skycast more than
[29:51] Speaker 2: I was. But all in all, it's hard to complain
[29:56] Speaker 2: about anything, even with the valid offensive complaints from when
[30:00] Speaker 2: your team wins a playoff game. It was sixteen to
[30:02] Speaker 2: nothing and it was a touchdown in garbage time for Oregon,
[30:06] Speaker 2: but Oregon made the Texas Tech offense and Baron Morton
[30:11] Speaker 2: look like pretenders look It's fair to say that Texas
[30:18] Speaker 2: Tech offense was worse than it had shown all season
[30:23] Speaker 2: long by a considerable margin. You want to blame the layoff,
[30:26] Speaker 2: that's fine. I'm certainly as an Oregon human used to
[30:29] Speaker 2: looking at that long layoff as a reason why a
[30:31] Speaker 2: team could start out the game at least in a
[30:33] Speaker 2: sluggish manner. Baron Morton looked lost, He looked skittish, He
[30:37] Speaker 2: looked like he didn't want to make mistakes. He was
[30:40] Speaker 2: off the entire game. The run game could get nothing going.
[30:42] Speaker 2: The offensive line for Texas Tech was overwhelmed by Oregon
[30:45] Speaker 2: upfront for most of this game. That a couple of
[30:47] Speaker 2: explosion plays, but this was a team that, if we're
[30:53] Speaker 2: going to believe, at some point they settled in with
[30:55] Speaker 2: the stage look like they had no concept of how
[30:59] Speaker 2: to play against a defense as good and as talented
[31:02] Speaker 2: as Organs because they simply did not play a team
[31:06] Speaker 2: anywhere near this level on their Big twelve schedule. That's
[31:09] Speaker 2: what became apparent to me, because they just could not
[31:12] Speaker 2: navigate what Oregon was doing on defense.
[31:15] Speaker 3: Right, So let me let me pause you for a second.
[31:16] Speaker 3: You please the Oregon guy for a second. Please, I
[31:19] Speaker 3: give you Barhood an objective third party view.
[31:23] Speaker 1: Okay, buddy, They scored zero, They scored zero. I watched
[31:28] Speaker 1: that game.
[31:29] Speaker 3: I was receiving texts from other non Oregon people, non
[31:32] Speaker 3: Texas Tech people who were also watching that game. Yeah,
[31:38] Speaker 3: most of the people I talked to were bored out
[31:40] Speaker 3: of their gourd watching that this was not a stellar
[31:43] Speaker 3: offensive performance one way or another. To your point that
[31:46] Speaker 3: you have made time and again it doesn't.
[31:48] Speaker 1: Need to be pretty. It just needs to work.
[31:50] Speaker 3: And it worked way better for Oregon than it did
[31:52] Speaker 3: for Texas Tech. I thought both defenses obviously carried their
[31:57] Speaker 3: weight in this one. Texas Tech on defense did ever
[32:00] Speaker 3: everything imaginable to keep themselves in that game. They didn't
[32:03] Speaker 3: get blown off the field by an Oregon offense. I
[32:05] Speaker 3: thought they made the Oregon offense look rather ordinary for
[32:08] Speaker 3: a good chunk of this game. And so that was
[32:11] Speaker 3: a huge credit to them, and a huge credit to
[32:14] Speaker 3: what they did in the offseason and what they did
[32:16] Speaker 3: all season long under shield Wood and Joey maguire and
[32:19] Speaker 3: even throw Cody Campbell in there to reconstitute their defensive
[32:23] Speaker 3: front and turn themselves into a team that had a
[32:25] Speaker 3: first Round by Yeah, so I want to give credit
[32:28] Speaker 3: where it's due. You're one hundred percent right to say
[32:31] Speaker 3: that they looked lost on offense. And I hate the
[32:34] Speaker 3: sound mean, but at one point in the fourth quarter
[32:37] Speaker 3: for people watching the game, when they came back from commercial,
[32:41] Speaker 3: they showed the Capitol one guy throwing oranges rather cheekily
[32:44] Speaker 3: with the Orange Bowl trophy throwing oranges and just sort
[32:47] Speaker 3: of they told them to have a good time in
[32:49] Speaker 3: front of the camera.
[32:50] Speaker 2: Yeah, that was part of I'm sure the deal where
[32:52] Speaker 2: they have to show him on the sideline.
[32:54] Speaker 3: Yes, my first thought was can he play quarterback in
[32:57] Speaker 3: the fourth quarter? No, because to say, as you did
[33:01] Speaker 3: on our slack chat that Baron Morton was seeing ghosts
[33:06] Speaker 3: implies that Baron Morton saw it all. I thought he
[33:09] Speaker 3: looked dreadful. You could say he looked jumpy. You could
[33:11] Speaker 3: say he made bad decisions. You can call whatever suits
[33:15] Speaker 3: you best. He did not live up to the bill
[33:18] Speaker 3: in this game, and I felt bad at the end.
[33:20] Speaker 3: You know, he's crying and like he had a very
[33:22] Speaker 3: good year, as did Texas Tech to get to this
[33:24] Speaker 3: game at all. But their offense let him down. They
[33:28] Speaker 3: didn't really run all that well outside of a longer
[33:31] Speaker 3: run earlier in the game. Nothing there on the ground
[33:35] Speaker 3: the passing attack, either because of pressure coming from the
[33:38] Speaker 3: Oregon front or because of inaccurate throws or bad decisions
[33:42] Speaker 3: or whatever. It was probably a combination of all of
[33:45] Speaker 3: the above that was not there either. So it is
[33:49] Speaker 3: unfortunate that Texas Tech went out like this with a whimper,
[33:53] Speaker 3: scoring zero points zero arguably the biggest game in program history.
[33:59] Speaker 1: If we are to.
[33:59] Speaker 3: Believe the effort a foot at Texas Tech, they will
[34:02] Speaker 3: be back in this game before long. But this was
[34:06] Speaker 3: undeniably a very underwhelming showing for Texas Tech and for
[34:11] Speaker 3: the Big twelve. And I'm not going to blow this
[34:13] Speaker 3: out of proportion and make it any side of sort
[34:15] Speaker 3: of grand indictment on the conference as a whole. I
[34:18] Speaker 3: don't want to go there with it. Texas Tech was
[34:20] Speaker 3: deserving of being in this game. They just did not
[34:23] Speaker 3: show up today and that was a huge blemish I
[34:26] Speaker 3: think to you know, whatever story we told ourselves about
[34:31] Speaker 3: Texas Tech being this dark horse contender as the four
[34:34] Speaker 3: seed coming into this tournament, they just did not look
[34:37] Speaker 3: the part on the Oregon front. I wasn't blown away either, frankly,
[34:41] Speaker 3: but they did a lot more. They didn't commit the
[34:43] Speaker 3: big mistakes. Texas Tech had four of them, and we
[34:48] Speaker 3: could debate which ones were more backbreaking than others, but
[34:51] Speaker 3: those four mistakes ultimately is what caused Texas Tech the game.
[34:55] Speaker 3: A side of the fact that they couldn't really get
[34:57] Speaker 3: any momentum going.
[34:58] Speaker 2: When they had the ball, buddy, and when they weren't
[35:00] Speaker 2: making the mistakes, they weren't doing anything on offense. Right,
[35:04] Speaker 2: It's on one hand is what you can count the
[35:07] Speaker 2: really positive plays from this Texas Tech offense.
[35:09] Speaker 3: Now, let me ask you a question as the Oregon
[35:12] Speaker 3: guy here.
[35:12] Speaker 1: Okay, I'm ready.
[35:13] Speaker 3: You mentioned some of the concerns that we may have
[35:16] Speaker 3: about the Oregon offense. My impression watching this game was
[35:23] Speaker 3: neither team really knocked me over all that much. Okay, defensively, yes,
[35:28] Speaker 3: but given the state of affairs, given the fact that
[35:31] Speaker 3: Oregon had a number of chances that they did not
[35:35] Speaker 3: convert on, and given the fact that at least for
[35:38] Speaker 3: me from AFAR. Again, I'm not the Oregon fan among us,
[35:41] Speaker 3: but I looked at the third and fourth down play
[35:43] Speaker 3: calling and I scratched my chinny chin chin a little bit,
[35:45] Speaker 3: and I said, some curious decisions there. Do you have
[35:49] Speaker 3: any issue Do you have any concerns now moving on
[35:52] Speaker 3: in this tournament based on what we saw from Oregon
[35:55] Speaker 3: in some of those types of moments right now? Nope, Okay,
[36:01] Speaker 3: You'll just take the win, is what you're saying.
[36:04] Speaker 2: You're in a playoff situation. If you're the Oregon Ducks, Okay,
[36:08] Speaker 2: did not come through in high leverage moments, did not
[36:12] Speaker 2: have the explosivity that you had all season long, from
[36:16] Speaker 2: your running backs, from your receivers, from your tight ends,
[36:18] Speaker 2: by and large, made mistakes that would be killer against
[36:23] Speaker 2: a lot of teams, right the bad snaps when you're
[36:26] Speaker 2: trying to get a cup points before the half, you know,
[36:29] Speaker 2: taking yourself out of field goal range, making mistakes in
[36:31] Speaker 2: the red zone, and you won the game twenty three
[36:34] Speaker 2: to nothing. Let's go through some teams. Ty, would a
[36:38] Speaker 2: Notre Dame fan be okay right now today with a
[36:41] Speaker 2: twenty three to nothing quarter final win in Penn State, Texas,
[36:45] Speaker 2: Ohio State? How would Ohio State feel about a twenty
[36:48] Speaker 2: three to nothing quarterfinal win in this moment?
[36:50] Speaker 3: Dan Notre Dame one ugly the entire way through to
[36:54] Speaker 3: the national championship last year. Yeah, you'll take it.
[36:56] Speaker 2: It's a playoff game. And if the result of the
[36:59] Speaker 2: play off game is you winning in a shutout, you say,
[37:04] Speaker 2: and I you know. Tom Herman wasn't a great coach
[37:06] Speaker 2: for Texas all the time, but he had the like okay, okay,
[37:09] Speaker 2: hook him, Okay, goducks right. Yeah that Everybody said, are
[37:14] Speaker 2: you concerned about the Oregon defense after giving up thirty
[37:17] Speaker 2: four points to James Madison? And I said, nope. They
[37:21] Speaker 2: were up forty eight to thirteen in that game going
[37:23] Speaker 2: into the fourth quarter. And am I concerned about the
[37:25] Speaker 2: Oregon offense moving forward against Indiana or Alabama whoever they
[37:29] Speaker 2: end up playing as we record this game right after
[37:31] Speaker 2: Oregon has won. I am not because the name of
[37:35] Speaker 2: the game is playing winning football despite mistakes. And sure,
[37:40] Speaker 2: I'd love for Oregon to be precise. I'd love for
[37:43] Speaker 2: Oregon to come out with a game plan that Texas
[37:45] Speaker 2: Tech could not have possibly seen coming. Oregon just beat
[37:49] Speaker 2: one of the one to three best defenses in the country.
[37:53] Speaker 2: And even though the Texas Tech offense did not belong
[37:56] Speaker 2: in this tournament whatsoever, this was a November offense playing
[37:59] Speaker 2: in January.
[38:00] Speaker 1: I think we can agree now when.
[38:01] Speaker 2: You say that you know Texas Tech was under Texas
[38:04] Speaker 2: Tech was not underwhelming in this game. The Texas Tech
[38:07] Speaker 2: offense was underwhelming in this game. The Texas Tech defense,
[38:10] Speaker 2: paired with any above above average playoff offense, could win
[38:14] Speaker 2: a national championship without question. In my mind, they're that good.
[38:18] Speaker 2: They're that talented upfront, they're that fast, even though maybe
[38:20] Speaker 2: the secondary isn't where other you know, national championship caliber
[38:23] Speaker 2: defenses are what they look like upfront, how well coached
[38:26] Speaker 2: they are.
[38:26] Speaker 1: This is a national championship defense.
[38:28] Speaker 2: The problem is Texas Tech did not build a full team,
[38:32] Speaker 2: not in one year. They're recruiting, well, they are going
[38:34] Speaker 2: to get They're going to build on this year. They
[38:36] Speaker 2: are going to be a force moving forward. Will absolutely,
[38:39] Speaker 2: but also but also if you're an Oregon fan, you
[38:43] Speaker 2: can say, well, not right now, not today. You win
[38:49] Speaker 2: playoff games, and so it feels good, especially after last year.
[38:54] Speaker 2: I wasn't happy in a lot of those moments. But now,
[38:57] Speaker 2: upon reflection, you just can't apologize after.
[39:01] Speaker 1: Winning a game twenty three to nothing. You just can't.
[39:04] Speaker 1: So I'm okay with it.
[39:06] Speaker 2: I thought it was strange as an Oregon fan to
[39:09] Speaker 2: have a kicker as good as Addis Sappington was in
[39:12] Speaker 2: this one. Automaticus is what the Oregon fans call him. Yeah,
[39:16] Speaker 2: opened the game up with a fifty yard bomb. That's
[39:20] Speaker 2: pretty good. That's strange for me as an Orgon fantasy.
[39:23] Speaker 2: That was great. I thought, all things considered, the Oregon
[39:27] Speaker 2: running backs even though there was nothing there and they
[39:29] Speaker 2: couldn't break tackles. They ran hard the entire entirety of
[39:33] Speaker 2: this game. I would love to see Dante more receive
[39:36] Speaker 2: zero running play calls moving forward.
[39:39] Speaker 3: He looked a little banged up in this one.
[39:41] Speaker 2: Well, not only to look banged up, but like every
[39:43] Speaker 2: single time he came to a fork in the road,
[39:46] Speaker 2: should I follow this guy or should I go to
[39:48] Speaker 2: that lane? Without hesitation, he took the wrong way every time.
[39:54] Speaker 2: And he's just not a natural runner. And that's okay,
[39:56] Speaker 2: not every quarterback is. He's athletic enough to buy time
[39:59] Speaker 2: and hopefully scal downfield and make plays. We've also gone
[40:03] Speaker 2: I don't know, thirteen plus minutes now without mentioning the
[40:06] Speaker 2: name Brandon Finnie.
[40:07] Speaker 3: Brandon Finnie had a monster game. Brandon Finnie had two interceptions,
[40:11] Speaker 3: I believe had a fumble recovery as well. He's a
[40:14] Speaker 3: young player in the Oregon secondary. Yeah, so all of that,
[40:18] Speaker 3: for sure is exciting for the future. But to get
[40:21] Speaker 3: this kind of experience in a high leverage situation like
[40:24] Speaker 3: this second round of the College football Playoff, that's confidence
[40:28] Speaker 3: your secondary can build on, and it's something that the
[40:30] Speaker 3: defense can build on right to your point of were
[40:33] Speaker 3: there questions after Jmu? Should there have been questions after Jay?
[40:37] Speaker 3: Obviously they put a lot of those to bed here,
[40:39] Speaker 3: but they have true freshmen step up in the manner
[40:41] Speaker 3: that he did. If you're an Oregon fan, he gotta
[40:43] Speaker 3: be delighted about that.
[40:44] Speaker 2: Should also mention the Sun Belt scored thirty four points
[40:48] Speaker 2: on the road at a Big Ten team. In the
[40:50] Speaker 2: previous round, the Big Twelve did not score a single point.
[40:53] Speaker 2: The Americans scored ten points against an SEC team on
[40:56] Speaker 2: the road. The Big Twelve did not manage to score
[40:58] Speaker 2: a point. And I don't say that to make fun
[41:01] Speaker 2: of the Big Twelve. There are quality teams in the
[41:03] Speaker 2: Big Twelve. These teams are going to grow by you
[41:05] Speaker 2: had a true freshman quarterback. Texas Tech's offense is going
[41:07] Speaker 2: to improve. But let's all calm down with the like
[41:11] Speaker 2: G five teams. It's a safety issue.
[41:13] Speaker 1: They had to travel across the country. It's just let
[41:16] Speaker 1: them play for something that.
[41:17] Speaker 2: They Let's just can we all like take a break
[41:20] Speaker 2: from that now. Texas Tech is going to grow into
[41:23] Speaker 2: something fierce, fear sir, and you should watch out if
[41:26] Speaker 2: you're in the Big twelve. Oregon did a really nice
[41:28] Speaker 2: job getting this team ready to play, even though it
[41:31] Speaker 2: was a body clock situation. Maybe they certainly on that
[41:35] Speaker 2: opening drive, looked ready to roll right. They were moving
[41:38] Speaker 2: the ball downfield, even with as much as Texas Tech
[41:40] Speaker 2: was able to sort of silence the run game. Organ
[41:43] Speaker 2: has things to clean up. And that's what if you're
[41:45] Speaker 2: a coach, you'll love to have, right that you can
[41:48] Speaker 2: self scout and say, look, it's great to win, just
[41:50] Speaker 2: like they could do after the first round game against
[41:52] Speaker 2: James Madison. It's great to win a playoff game and
[41:55] Speaker 2: you just move on and you're happy to do it.
[41:57] Speaker 2: But that Oregon didn't win this game forty five I
[42:00] Speaker 2: nothing fully operational. I think keeps the team locked into
[42:04] Speaker 2: a certain extent. They have a game in whatever it is,
[42:05] Speaker 2: eight or nine days, and they have things to clean up.
[42:08] Speaker 2: They need to work on the play calling, they need
[42:10] Speaker 2: to work on just getting healthy. The offensive line could
[42:13] Speaker 2: definitely get better. And they're doing this with two coordinators
[42:16] Speaker 2: that are working two extremely full time jobs and Will
[42:20] Speaker 2: Stein and Toash Lupoy. So really nice win for Oregon.
[42:24] Speaker 2: Oregon shut out a very good team in a playoff game.
[42:27] Speaker 2: I'm not going to bathe in the Are you worried
[42:30] Speaker 2: Jacuzzi in this moment?
[42:33] Speaker 1: Talk me through.
[42:35] Speaker 3: Your current heart rate right now as you think about
[42:37] Speaker 3: Oregon going into the semifinals.
[42:39] Speaker 2: Yeah, my heart rate right now is fine because if
[42:43] Speaker 2: you're rooting for a team in this playoff, once again,
[42:46] Speaker 2: you take the win however you can get it, and
[42:49] Speaker 2: you know that your team is good enough to compete
[42:52] Speaker 2: with the best, and if they're able to clean up
[42:55] Speaker 2: whatever they need to clean up, they have a good chance.
[42:58] Speaker 2: And once you get to that final or everybody's going
[43:01] Speaker 2: to be in that spot. All of these teams have
[43:03] Speaker 2: shown flaws, all of these potential teams have shown reasons
[43:07] Speaker 2: why they could win huge And so my heart rate's fine.
[43:11] Speaker 2: My heart rate's totally fine. I am coaching a first
[43:16] Speaker 2: grade basketball practice at kickoff of the semi finals. We
[43:22] Speaker 2: have practice from six to seven Central and kickoff is
[43:24] Speaker 2: right around six thirty central.
[43:26] Speaker 1: Can you move it?
[43:27] Speaker 2: I can't move it. I actually consider going to Atlanta. Obviously,
[43:31] Speaker 2: my duties as a head coach supersede everything. Sure, so
[43:34] Speaker 2: I think, truly I'm going to have to turn off
[43:36] Speaker 2: my phone and like when parents come to pick up.
[43:39] Speaker 3: Oh, I love this for you.
[43:41] Speaker 1: L L L this for you.
[43:43] Speaker 3: I love this for you.
[43:44] Speaker 1: Do I do you have any recommendation otherwise? Of course
[43:48] Speaker 1: not say.
[43:49] Speaker 3: Either bring like a laptop or a phone or an
[43:52] Speaker 3: iPad or something that can stream the game while you're
[43:55] Speaker 3: doing that thing, and maybe put a little AirPod in.
[43:58] Speaker 3: But if you want to go full dedication to the cause,
[44:01] Speaker 3: and I don't see another way through this otherwise you
[44:05] Speaker 3: could turn it over to an assistant if you care
[44:07] Speaker 3: about the game, if you want to go to Atlanta
[44:09] Speaker 3: or whatever.
[44:10] Speaker 1: No, this is the first practice. I need to establish
[44:13] Speaker 1: my alpha ness in this moment.
[44:15] Speaker 3: This is you're already showing Mario Cristobal poor time management
[44:20] Speaker 3: skills is what we're seeing here out of coach Dan Buddy.
[44:23] Speaker 2: I did not anticipate. I didn't want, I don't want
[44:26] Speaker 2: Friday evening practice. This is what we are given. No
[44:30] Speaker 2: very excited as an organ person to see them in
[44:32] Speaker 2: the final four. Obviously, Oregon's been in this spot before
[44:34] Speaker 2: in the smaller playoff. Kudos once again to Texas Tech
[44:38] Speaker 2: for a crazy impressive season and kind of why we
[44:41] Speaker 2: talk about Winter Wonders a little bit on this show,
[44:44] Speaker 2: kind of why we say do you have that player
[44:47] Speaker 2: that scares everybody on New Year's Day on January fourteenth, whatever.
[44:52] Speaker 2: And Texas Tech will get those guys, they will develop
[44:55] Speaker 2: those guys, and they will have a terrific path to
[44:58] Speaker 2: get back to the playoff. Oregon had more of those
[45:01] Speaker 2: guys on both sides of the ball, especially on offense
[45:04] Speaker 2: to get the job done ish and we'll see what
[45:08] Speaker 2: that looks like as they match up further and further,
[45:10] Speaker 2: hopefully for me.
[45:11] Speaker 3: A tough one for Baron Morton, a tough one for
[45:13] Speaker 3: Texas Tech, but a big one for Oregon. The thirteen
[45:16] Speaker 3: and one fifth seeded Oregon Ducks win by a twenty
[45:20] Speaker 3: three to zip score over Texas Tech. The Red Raiders
[45:23] Speaker 3: finished the year with a twelve and two mark Big
[45:25] Speaker 3: Twelve Champions, yet another team to fall victim to not
[45:30] Speaker 3: just the Oregon Ducks, but perhaps the bye week. Let's
[45:35] Speaker 3: talk about the Rose Bowl, Dan, we have a final.
[45:40] Speaker 3: Indiana thirty eight Alabama three.
[45:46] Speaker 1: Can't confirm?
[45:47] Speaker 3: Let me repeat that for the people in the back.
[45:49] Speaker 3: Indiana thirty eight Alabama three. I believe Indiana's first Bowl
[45:55] Speaker 3: win since the Year of Our Lord nineteen ninety one.
[45:57] Speaker 3: It has been a minute since Indian I got.
[46:00] Speaker 1: Anywhere close to this.
[46:03] Speaker 3: Here we are on New Year's Day, the Indiana who
[46:07] Speaker 3: Hoo Hoosiers advancing through, not just beating Alabama, advancing into
[46:11] Speaker 3: the Final four for a rematch with your beloved Oregon Ducks. This,
[46:16] Speaker 3: my friends, is what you call a thorough beatdown.
[46:20] Speaker 1: Guess who just got burded?
[46:23] Speaker 3: Before we went live, I went into our beautiful Discord
[46:27] Speaker 3: chat and I asked the fine folks there, which sound
[46:30] Speaker 3: do I even play to signify what we saw here
[46:33] Speaker 3: on display?
[46:34] Speaker 1: Yeah?
[46:35] Speaker 3: Crock Potting murdered. Do I make something else I tried
[46:39] Speaker 3: to pull from Like my cousin Vinnie, I could use
[46:42] Speaker 3: a good ass kicking Albi Veria. I couldn't find anything
[46:46] Speaker 3: that I thought properly symbolize what we just witnessed. This
[46:50] Speaker 3: was a thorough beatdown from Kurt Signetti, Fernando Mendoza and
[46:56] Speaker 3: the Indiana Hoosiers.
[46:58] Speaker 2: Just to give you a sense high of what exactly
[47:02] Speaker 2: went down on that field. Punt downs, punt fumble, end
[47:08] Speaker 2: of half, punt, field goal, punt downs, and that's it,
[47:13] Speaker 2: because Alabama barely did anything with the ball, and then
[47:16] Speaker 2: it just became the end of game.
[47:23] Speaker 3: I was wondering how you were going to stretch that
[47:25] Speaker 3: out because you didn't have a whole lot to work
[47:27] Speaker 3: with there.
[47:27] Speaker 2: They didn't have a lot of drives. Indiana just sort
[47:30] Speaker 2: of sat on it and killed it. It was thorough,
[47:33] Speaker 2: it was lethal, and it was I guess, kind of
[47:38] Speaker 2: hard to watch if you are at all like a
[47:41] Speaker 2: Bama fan, or a fan of a competitive game, or
[47:44] Speaker 2: just like somebody who believes in the humanity of man,
[47:48] Speaker 2: to watch what happened Alabama and four K we're available.
[47:52] Speaker 2: Indiana's been this team. They haven't always been this team
[47:56] Speaker 2: against the best teams on their schedule.
[47:58] Speaker 3: Right.
[47:58] Speaker 2: The organ game was tied in the fourth quarter, was
[48:00] Speaker 2: a game against Ohio State, both playoff teams. I've always
[48:04] Speaker 2: I'm not always been. In the last few weeks, I've
[48:05] Speaker 2: questioned the validity of Alabama's inclusion in this postseason. But
[48:09] Speaker 2: they won their opening round game. They came back in
[48:12] Speaker 2: impressive fashion. They clearly belonged against the Oklahoma defense that
[48:16] Speaker 2: had been so good. Indiana just you know, whistle to whistle,
[48:22] Speaker 2: bell to bell, whatever, destroyed them in every phase. And
[48:27] Speaker 2: I guess it was a little bit close early, right,
[48:29] Speaker 2: there were moments where you're like, well, Ty Simpson might
[48:31] Speaker 2: be moving the ball a little bit and then he
[48:33] Speaker 2: fumbled it. Like there were moments I guess where it
[48:37] Speaker 2: kind of seemed like Alabama because of their talent on
[48:40] Speaker 2: defense or something like that, and they forced a field
[48:42] Speaker 2: goal after a long drive early on we were like, well, okay,
[48:45] Speaker 2: maybe they'll settle into this, right, So a lot of
[48:48] Speaker 2: travel travel across the country for both of these teams,
[48:50] Speaker 2: you know, weird layoff for Indiana. Maybe we'll see if
[48:53] Speaker 2: that comes and bites them.
[48:55] Speaker 1: No, no, not at all.
[48:58] Speaker 2: They were completely immune do any sort of layoff rust
[49:02] Speaker 2: And I think I saw on game day they were
[49:04] Speaker 2: having conversation about rusted versus rested. Indiana was rested. Oh yeah,
[49:08] Speaker 2: Indiana was well. They got a great night's sleep and
[49:11] Speaker 2: they performed well.
[49:12] Speaker 3: When Fernando Mendoza gave his little ted talk in the
[49:15] Speaker 3: postgame interview, he did see.
[49:16] Speaker 1: He saw a lot of people talking about Yeah, yeah,
[49:18] Speaker 1: well he did.
[49:19] Speaker 3: I mean, he's a great interview. He spoke to it
[49:21] Speaker 3: a little bit. How the first couple drives took a
[49:23] Speaker 3: little bit to get back in the swing of things
[49:26] Speaker 3: they had had so much time off. But after that
[49:28] Speaker 3: it was just a ball rolling down hill. Fernando Mendoza
[49:32] Speaker 3: in this game, of course, now your Heisman Trophy winner.
[49:35] Speaker 3: Fourteen of sixteen, one hundred and ninety two yards, three touchdowns,
[49:39] Speaker 3: of course, no interceptions. I don't know what the final
[49:42] Speaker 3: stat line ended up being, but at one point in
[49:46] Speaker 3: the third quarter he was something like seven of seven
[49:48] Speaker 3: passing when Alabama decided to blitz him. It was again
[49:52] Speaker 3: one of those deals where we talked about this too
[49:55] Speaker 3: as we tried to figure out what was going to
[49:56] Speaker 3: happen in this one. But how do you stop the guy?
[49:59] Speaker 3: Do you do you not blitz? Do you try to
[50:01] Speaker 3: throw something new at him? We've heard time and again
[50:04] Speaker 3: about his preparation, really the preparation of a Kurtzignetti team,
[50:08] Speaker 3: that it seemed like it would be a bit of
[50:10] Speaker 3: a shocking result if in fact they were throwing new
[50:13] Speaker 3: things at Mendoza that he hadn't seen, that completely confused
[50:16] Speaker 3: him and turned him into a player other than what
[50:18] Speaker 3: we had seen so far this season. That clearly did
[50:21] Speaker 3: not happen. He was ready for this. It didn't seem
[50:24] Speaker 3: as if they had really any formula to try and
[50:27] Speaker 3: stop him. For the most part, he was unflappable again,
[50:30] Speaker 3: only missing two passes throughout the course of the game
[50:33] Speaker 3: before they eventually pulled him in favor of his younger
[50:35] Speaker 3: brother about good way through the fourth quarter. The other
[50:38] Speaker 3: element of this game on the Indiana side, and I
[50:40] Speaker 3: promise we'll talk a little bit about Alabama.
[50:43] Speaker 2: Sixteen throws, by the way, sixteen attempts, that's all it took.
[50:46] Speaker 2: That's all it took to drop forty on Alabama in
[50:49] Speaker 2: the Rose Bowl.
[50:50] Speaker 3: And the further point there is the physicality of Indiana,
[50:55] Speaker 3: which we could talk about Mendoza until we're blue in
[50:57] Speaker 3: the face, and we could talk about the fact that
[51:00] Speaker 3: Indiana ran for over two hundred yards on fifty attempts
[51:03] Speaker 3: two touchdowns. I mean, the physicality that we saw on
[51:07] Speaker 3: both sides of the line of scrimmage from Indiana to
[51:09] Speaker 3: me remains the story. Because if you had traveled to
[51:13] Speaker 3: like the year of Our Lord twenty twenty one and
[51:17] Speaker 3: tried to convince young Dan Rubinstein and younger Ty hilden
[51:21] Speaker 3: Brandt that we would see a matchup in twenty twenty
[51:24] Speaker 3: six in which Indiana out physicaled Alabama, yeah, we would
[51:29] Speaker 3: laugh at the mere idea of that even being a possibility,
[51:34] Speaker 3: the remotest possibility. This is so far removed from what
[51:38] Speaker 3: we would have thought a couple of years ago. But
[51:40] Speaker 3: Kurt Signetti has obviously taken hold in Bloomington. He has
[51:44] Speaker 3: worked miracles in very short order, got him to the
[51:47] Speaker 3: playoff last year, gets him back to the playoff this
[51:50] Speaker 3: year as the number one overall seed with the first round,
[51:52] Speaker 3: by the fact that they went up against a traditional
[51:55] Speaker 3: blue blood, a place where Signetti used to coach and
[51:59] Speaker 3: where this physical and this dominant to me is overwhelmingly
[52:03] Speaker 3: the story in this game. The final was thirty eight
[52:05] Speaker 3: to three. We could sit here and read stats if
[52:07] Speaker 3: we really want to. My hunches that the people at
[52:09] Speaker 3: home already know the result and don't care about that.
[52:12] Speaker 3: To me, the theme of this and when I'm going
[52:15] Speaker 3: to take away not just throughout this course of the
[52:18] Speaker 3: playoffs now, but really as we think about this season
[52:22] Speaker 3: six months down the road. Indiana's ability to dominate on
[52:25] Speaker 3: both sides of the line of scrimmage was damn impressive.
[52:27] Speaker 2: We talk a lot about games and try to put
[52:30] Speaker 2: games into context where it's something like, yes, that was closed,
[52:34] Speaker 2: but they had like a bunch of short fields. They
[52:35] Speaker 2: had a three yard drive and had a nine yard drive,
[52:38] Speaker 2: and so that sort of skews how successful they were
[52:40] Speaker 2: when they actually had regular drives and it wasn't a
[52:43] Speaker 2: crazy penalty thing. It wasn't like a five interception thing
[52:47] Speaker 2: for Alabama and pick sixes and everything that ran this
[52:49] Speaker 2: score up. Everything Indiana did worked. Every time they had
[52:55] Speaker 2: a third and four, they figured out how to get
[52:57] Speaker 2: six and a half every time. They sort of set
[53:01] Speaker 2: Alabama up to think something was gonna happen in the
[53:04] Speaker 2: run game, the play action took hold downfield. You know,
[53:07] Speaker 2: the beautiful Fernando Mendoz a touchdown pass to I think
[53:10] Speaker 2: it was Charlie Becker for twenty plus yards or something
[53:12] Speaker 2: early on right, Like, everything is just so crisp about
[53:16] Speaker 2: Indiana in everything that they do. If you're going to
[53:19] Speaker 2: succeed against Indiana, you're gonna do so one on one.
[53:24] Speaker 2: You're gonna do so because your guys somehow win more
[53:27] Speaker 2: one on one battles and it's close that you need
[53:31] Speaker 2: perfection on every snap to be competitive, not just with Indiana,
[53:35] Speaker 2: but any team like Indiana. We've seen Bama teams like this,
[53:38] Speaker 2: We've seen LSU teams like this, We've seen Ohio State
[53:40] Speaker 2: teams like this, and Indiana just plays with that style
[53:45] Speaker 2: and with that intensity where every single second and seven
[53:49] Speaker 2: is the most important play ever to this Indiana defense, right.
[53:54] Speaker 2: And so that's coaching, that's belief, you know, on the roster,
[53:59] Speaker 2: and that is just an unbelievable amount of preparation and focus.
[54:02] Speaker 2: And so they are well coached, they will, they execute
[54:04] Speaker 2: super well, They have great They were without their best
[54:07] Speaker 2: arguably their best defensive lineman, and they will be for
[54:09] Speaker 2: the entirety of this playoff. And Stephen Day, who got
[54:12] Speaker 2: injured against Ohio State, I think celebrating or whatever. It
[54:15] Speaker 2: was a weird circumstance. Indiana's that team and I'm not.
[54:18] Speaker 2: I truly am doing everything I can to avoid going
[54:23] Speaker 2: the route of like, well, maybe Bama shouldn't have been there,
[54:25] Speaker 2: maybe they were exposed. Maybe this is who they've been,
[54:28] Speaker 2: like we saw it in the SEC championship game, and
[54:30] Speaker 2: that's worthwhile, and that's where you know, part of my
[54:33] Speaker 2: gut goes. But if they were a fraud, this is
[54:37] Speaker 2: what a legitimate team would do against that fraudulent team.
[54:41] Speaker 2: So I don't take a single molecule away from Indiana,
[54:45] Speaker 2: no matter what you think of Alabama and how legit
[54:48] Speaker 2: or not they actually were this season.
[54:50] Speaker 3: Well, And I think that's a really valid point, because
[54:52] Speaker 3: you know, I mean, we we do our thing here,
[54:55] Speaker 3: and part of why people tune is in is for
[54:57] Speaker 3: us to be goofballs about these results, make fun of
[55:00] Speaker 3: things whenever we can, and obviously we appreciate the chance
[55:04] Speaker 3: to add a healthy layer of snark to most of
[55:07] Speaker 3: what we saw.
[55:07] Speaker 1: Hold on that'll that'll be the closing portion right now.
[55:10] Speaker 3: We can get to that if we really want to,
[55:12] Speaker 3: depending on how long this goes. But this was such
[55:15] Speaker 3: a thorough ass kicking that I think it almost rises
[55:19] Speaker 3: above that. You know, we can talk about whether or
[55:21] Speaker 3: not Alabama should have been here, whether or not they
[55:24] Speaker 3: deserved it, whether or not this exposed them, or Kaalin
[55:28] Speaker 3: de boor or anything like that. I just think what
[55:30] Speaker 3: we saw was a really good team on display, and
[55:34] Speaker 3: I'm not so sure it mattered whether it was Alabama
[55:37] Speaker 3: or Oregon or Notre Dame, if Notre Dame had made
[55:41] Speaker 3: it in, or really anybody in this field thus far.
[55:45] Speaker 3: This was about the most complete performance we have seen
[55:47] Speaker 3: throughout the course of the playoff, and I don't think
[55:49] Speaker 3: there's much argument about that.
[55:51] Speaker 2: And by the way, they were one of those teams
[55:53] Speaker 2: of the layoff. They were one of those teams of
[55:55] Speaker 2: the first team, first team with the first round by
[55:59] Speaker 2: in the two years now of the twelve team field
[56:01] Speaker 2: to actually emerge victorious. The Russ bothered him for about
[56:04] Speaker 2: one and a half drives, at which point Indiana flipped
[56:07] Speaker 2: the switch, and then that was all she wrote. But
[56:09] Speaker 2: by my broader point is just that I too, am
[56:12] Speaker 2: fighting the urge to kind of go the rout of
[56:15] Speaker 2: jokes because I think it is almost as a disservice
[56:18] Speaker 2: to what Indiana did. And I almost don't even know
[56:21] Speaker 2: if it says anything about Alabama based on how good
[56:23] Speaker 2: and how affish in Indiana looked in this one. Well,
[56:26] Speaker 2: here's what we know. Indiana dominated Alabama in every phase.
[56:30] Speaker 2: Alabama not a significant amount of time into the game
[56:35] Speaker 2: bench their starting quarterback, who was a legit Heisman threat
[56:38] Speaker 2: two thirds of the way through the season that he
[56:41] Speaker 2: was beat up too. To be clear, right, he had
[56:44] Speaker 2: taken hits. I think he had gone to the tent.
[56:46] Speaker 2: But Austin Mack was in at quarterback and wasn't all
[56:48] Speaker 2: that much more successful. Had a nice throw I think
[56:50] Speaker 2: to Jeremy Bernard down the right sideline, but otherwise was
[56:54] Speaker 2: kept at bay. One of the things I said before
[56:56] Speaker 2: we started, and it's just sort of an aside, was
[57:00] Speaker 2: if we're all kind of agreeing that Nick Saban is
[57:04] Speaker 2: one of like one in terms of college football analytical thinkers. Sure,
[57:10] Speaker 2: and his entire job is looking at Indiana tape, looking
[57:13] Speaker 2: at Alabama tape, and he came to the conclusion that yes,
[57:16] Speaker 2: it's Alabama now obviously No, he is history with Bama
[57:19] Speaker 2: and he worked, he has an office on campus and
[57:20] Speaker 2: stuff like that. It's still weird that he would go
[57:24] Speaker 2: on national TV nowhere of things and say, like, I
[57:28] Speaker 2: like Bama, I hear have them lose by thirty thirty
[57:31] Speaker 2: eight to three, but thirty five points. That was kind
[57:33] Speaker 2: of funny to me that that clip was going around
[57:35] Speaker 2: the picks after the fact. I don't know what to
[57:37] Speaker 2: make of whatever you want to say about Alabama or
[57:40] Speaker 2: the SEC or whatever. I just want to keep the
[57:42] Speaker 2: focus on Indiana and their preparation. And one of the
[57:46] Speaker 2: things that was striking to me, because I had an
[57:49] Speaker 2: emotional interest in the organ game, was I am not
[57:51] Speaker 2: a fan of Dante Moore running the ball, whether it's
[57:54] Speaker 2: a called run, whether it's a scramble. I just his
[57:57] Speaker 2: nose for the lane, his nose for open grass, his
[57:59] Speaker 2: ability to get past the first down marker or whatever,
[58:02] Speaker 2: get into field, will range with his legs, whatever the case.
[58:05] Speaker 2: That's just not who he is as a quarterback. Fernando
[58:08] Speaker 2: Mendoza navigating the pocket when nothing is there to find
[58:12] Speaker 2: a lane to get eight yards on third and seven
[58:15] Speaker 2: is I think the most underrated part of his game.
[58:18] Speaker 2: Because you know, he's cerebral. You know he has the arm.
[58:20] Speaker 2: You know he has the athleticism to buy himself time
[58:22] Speaker 2: to scan downfield and make plays. You know, his ability
[58:25] Speaker 2: to diagnose defenses before the snap. You know all of
[58:27] Speaker 2: the obvious things that made him a Heisman winning quarterback.
[58:30] Speaker 2: I just don't think we should neglect the fact that
[58:34] Speaker 2: his legs and extending drives. I think they were like
[58:36] Speaker 2: nine to fourteen on third down. They didn't even attempt
[58:39] Speaker 2: a fourth down because why would they. I think his
[58:41] Speaker 2: legs are just an underrated part. We talked about it
[58:43] Speaker 2: a little bit in the preview in what Indiana might
[58:46] Speaker 2: try to accomplish in the red zone, but it was
[58:48] Speaker 2: to me, it was the when it's not there to
[58:51] Speaker 2: make something out of nothing, to turn a possible sack
[58:54] Speaker 2: into a four yard gain into a seven yard gain.
[58:56] Speaker 1: Whatever.
[58:57] Speaker 2: I just his his eye and his balance and his footwork.
[59:03] Speaker 2: I think we're just you know, again, Heisman winner. This
[59:05] Speaker 2: is nothing new, but against Alabama's front to navigate it
[59:08] Speaker 2: like he did, it's just another feather in his cap.
[59:11] Speaker 3: One of the more eye popping stats about Fernanda Mendoza.
[59:14] Speaker 3: And we could talk about his completion percentage being somewhere
[59:18] Speaker 3: seventy two percent only through a handful of interceptions all
[59:21] Speaker 3: year over thirty touchdowns. I mean, all the numbers that
[59:24] Speaker 3: people recognize on the quarterbacking front were there clearly to
[59:29] Speaker 3: win the Heisman Trophy. But the idea of him being
[59:33] Speaker 3: mobile in the pocket, even though as Kirk curve Street
[59:35] Speaker 3: I think aptly put it on the broadcast, he does
[59:38] Speaker 3: kind of run like a baby giraffe. If you look
[59:41] Speaker 3: at what he did so far this season averaged over
[59:44] Speaker 3: six and a half per carry and furthermore, about sixty
[59:48] Speaker 3: nine percent of the time nice got to the first
[59:52] Speaker 3: down chains when he was running the football. Right, Okay,
[59:56] Speaker 3: so this isn't just running for the sake of running.
[59:58] Speaker 3: This is often running with purpose, and more often than not,
[1:00:00] Speaker 3: this is getting to the chains and extending a drive.
[1:00:03] Speaker 3: So whether it is by hooker by crook, the guy
[1:00:06] Speaker 3: is figuring out a way to get it done. Clearly,
[1:00:08] Speaker 3: we know as a cerebral player he understands the defense
[1:00:11] Speaker 3: and what they're trying to throw at him long before
[1:00:13] Speaker 3: the game is even being played. But again he gets
[1:00:16] Speaker 3: it done. He serves as a great engineer for this
[1:00:19] Speaker 3: Kurt Signetti offense. And you cannot say enough good things
[1:00:23] Speaker 3: about how they were able to a be physical at
[1:00:25] Speaker 3: the line of scrimmage and then be beyond that be
[1:00:29] Speaker 3: very efficient execute whenever they needed to, and really control
[1:00:34] Speaker 3: the tempo and the tone of this game the full
[1:00:37] Speaker 3: way through again save for maybe like two drives from
[1:00:40] Speaker 3: the very beginning. That to me is super impressive and
[1:00:43] Speaker 3: it's going to continue being impressed. And now as we
[1:00:45] Speaker 3: go into this final four, where by the way, yes,
[1:00:49] Speaker 3: Chick fil A Peach Bowl, we're going to have a
[1:00:50] Speaker 3: rematch between the Indianda Hoosiers and your Oregon Ducks. What
[1:00:55] Speaker 3: are your initial thoughts now as we're headed into a
[1:00:57] Speaker 3: rematch a week from today.
[1:01:00] Speaker 2: I favor Indiana, just my gut, right, now just when
[1:01:03] Speaker 2: a team plays that well with that kind of layoff,
[1:01:07] Speaker 2: and now that they're going to be more in a
[1:01:08] Speaker 2: rhythm ahead of and you know, during their preparation for
[1:01:12] Speaker 2: the Oregon game, and have now film on Oregon against
[1:01:14] Speaker 2: Texas Tech and see what did and didn't work, And
[1:01:18] Speaker 2: a lot didn't quite work for this Oregon offense, though
[1:01:20] Speaker 2: there was still a good amount of success against Texas Tech.
[1:01:23] Speaker 2: I favor Indiana just because of the execution and that
[1:01:26] Speaker 2: they're so well coached and that they can win in
[1:01:28] Speaker 2: a number of ways. And this was a game obviously
[1:01:30] Speaker 2: in Eugene, and so you know, Oregon fans would be
[1:01:33] Speaker 2: quick to point out that, like Dante Moore has improved,
[1:01:35] Speaker 2: and Oregon has improved since then, and their defense just
[1:01:38] Speaker 2: pitched a shutout, which Indiana's basically did as well. Indiana
[1:01:41] Speaker 2: has improved since that game too. Everybody's allowed to the
[1:01:45] Speaker 2: potential and the possibility to improve. So it's hard to
[1:01:48] Speaker 2: look at Indiana when they go undefeated and say like, well,
[1:01:50] Speaker 2: obviously they've improved. You just assume they've been this good
[1:01:53] Speaker 2: this whole time. This is Fernando Mendoza's first year in
[1:01:56] Speaker 2: this program, so he's picking up new things every week.
[1:02:00] Speaker 2: This is Dante Moore's second year in the program, and
[1:02:02] Speaker 2: he has improved in his first year starting. But I
[1:02:05] Speaker 2: think I favor Indiana. It's on a neutral site. It's inside, right,
[1:02:10] Speaker 2: it's in Atlanta, inside, so the elements won't play a
[1:02:13] Speaker 2: role here.
[1:02:14] Speaker 1: I don't know.
[1:02:14] Speaker 2: I think Oregon is still prone to some weirdness that
[1:02:19] Speaker 2: Indiana isn't. I think Oregon's defense can be incredible like
[1:02:22] Speaker 2: it was today. Indiana's defense was basically incredible all season long.
[1:02:27] Speaker 2: They didn't play in any shootouts or anything like that.
[1:02:29] Speaker 2: Even their close calls against whatever Iowa Oregon and Penn
[1:02:32] Speaker 2: State and Ohio State that they weren't winning thirty eight
[1:02:36] Speaker 2: thirty five. So I just they don't make mistakes. No,
[1:02:41] Speaker 2: Oregon sometimes occasionally makes mistakes. And so again, if Oregon's
[1:02:46] Speaker 2: going to win that game, I think it's going to
[1:02:49] Speaker 2: be a lot like that first matchup. Like maybe they
[1:02:51] Speaker 2: get a pick six or a very tiny field like
[1:02:53] Speaker 2: they did in that first matchup. But they're going to
[1:02:57] Speaker 2: need to capitalize and basically play perfect offense, and they're
[1:03:00] Speaker 2: going to have to do much more in those high
[1:03:02] Speaker 2: leverage moments than what they were able to do against
[1:03:03] Speaker 2: Texas Tech. So that's my initial read, and I just
[1:03:07] Speaker 2: think you're asking more of Oregon in this moment to
[1:03:09] Speaker 2: show more than they consistently showed on both sides of
[1:03:11] Speaker 2: the ball, whereas you're just asking Indiana to, you know,
[1:03:15] Speaker 2: play within like a standard deviation of what they normally do.
[1:03:18] Speaker 3: The initial line at time of recording I am just
[1:03:21] Speaker 3: seeing this come across now is Indiana minus four. This
[1:03:25] Speaker 3: game is going to take place on Friday night, January ninth,
[1:03:29] Speaker 3: at seven point thirty pm Eastern time. It is on ESPN.
[1:03:34] Speaker 3: We will obviously be covering that one in great detail
[1:03:38] Speaker 3: here in very short order. But in the meantime, the
[1:03:42] Speaker 3: Indiana Hoosiers move to fourteen and oh, still the only
[1:03:46] Speaker 3: undefeated team in FBS college football. They knock off the
[1:03:50] Speaker 3: Alabama Crimson Tide. Alabama closes out its season eleven and four.
[1:03:54] Speaker 3: It's going to be a very important offseason, I think
[1:03:57] Speaker 3: for Kalin de Boor and the Alabama football to see
[1:04:00] Speaker 3: what they do to try and shore things up and
[1:04:03] Speaker 3: make sure that we don't have a repeat performance of
[1:04:05] Speaker 3: this next year. Otherwise there's gonna be a lot of
[1:04:07] Speaker 3: talk about Kaylen Debor and whether he's the right guy.
[1:04:09] Speaker 2: Hold on, it's not there will be, there has been
[1:04:12] Speaker 2: and will continue to be. By the way, I'm not
[1:04:15] Speaker 2: saying it's funny. I'm not saying we should giggle about it,
[1:04:19] Speaker 2: but it is interesting that Kaylen de Boer at least
[1:04:24] Speaker 2: received information, even if it wasn't fully reciprocal, received no information,
[1:04:28] Speaker 2: received interest from both Penn State and Michigan, and like
[1:04:32] Speaker 2: issued a statement, I'm good, we love it here. We're
[1:04:36] Speaker 2: working on a new deal that Alabama, if it hasn't
[1:04:40] Speaker 2: happened yet or recently did happen, has to send the
[1:04:45] Speaker 2: agent of Kaylen de Boor a PDF that indicates that
[1:04:48] Speaker 2: he's getting a massive raise or some sort of substantial
[1:04:51] Speaker 2: promises about nil or whatever based on the leverage he
[1:04:55] Speaker 2: had with Penn State and Michigan Interest. Reportedly after losing
[1:04:59] Speaker 2: the thirty eight to three that this is the moment
[1:05:02] Speaker 2: in which we have to do everything we can to
[1:05:04] Speaker 2: lock in Kaylen Debor. That's got to sting a little.
[1:05:07] Speaker 3: All I'm saying is, if this happens again next year,
[1:05:10] Speaker 3: it's going to be like the plot of Argo, where
[1:05:12] Speaker 3: they got to sneak him out of there to make
[1:05:14] Speaker 3: sure that he has not taken on any bodily harm
[1:05:16] Speaker 3: because the natives will grow restless if this happens again. Dan,
[1:05:21] Speaker 3: I mean Lane Kiffin will always listen.
[1:05:23] Speaker 1: We know that.
[1:05:24] Speaker 3: I credit Alabama for winning the game a week ago
[1:05:28] Speaker 3: against Oklahoma. And despite the fact that there was on
[1:05:32] Speaker 3: this show and many others out there and just go
[1:05:35] Speaker 3: online and read what people had to say, everyone had
[1:05:38] Speaker 3: an opinion on Alabama. They won that game in Norman
[1:05:42] Speaker 3: at night, total Friday night, the eyes of the college
[1:05:45] Speaker 3: football world upon them. They did capitalize on some breaks.
[1:05:49] Speaker 3: They got some breaks this time around against Oklahoma. To
[1:05:52] Speaker 3: their credit, they executed. They were able to win. They
[1:05:54] Speaker 3: went on a thirty four to seven run to win
[1:05:56] Speaker 3: that one. Going away, You cannot take that away from them. Okay,
[1:06:00] Speaker 3: I credit them on that win. That was a tough spot.
[1:06:03] Speaker 3: They got the job done. They met their match. And
[1:06:06] Speaker 3: to be fair, there might be a bunch of teams
[1:06:08] Speaker 3: that meet their match against a team like Indiana with
[1:06:10] Speaker 3: the way that they're playing right now. So I'll do
[1:06:12] Speaker 3: credit Tobama forgetting to this game. But as luck would
[1:06:16] Speaker 3: have it, they ran into a buzzsaw and it just.
[1:06:18] Speaker 1: So happens again.
[1:06:20] Speaker 3: Go back to twenty twenty one, and tell a younger
[1:06:23] Speaker 3: version of yourself that that buzzsaw would be the Indiana
[1:06:26] Speaker 3: Hoosiers Man.
[1:06:28] Speaker 1: What a world in twenty twenty six.
[1:06:30] Speaker 2: By the way, if you want to do something funny,
[1:06:33] Speaker 2: Nike dot Com has Alabama Playoff Mode T shirts twenty five.
[1:06:39] Speaker 2: So if there are any Auburn fans watching with Alabama
[1:06:42] Speaker 2: people in their family, it's about to be discounted.
[1:06:44] Speaker 1: Folks.
[1:06:45] Speaker 2: This forty dollars charge is about to come down to
[1:06:47] Speaker 2: about eighteen maybe twelve. I sent it to Tie after
[1:06:52] Speaker 2: what Notre Dame was in the Pinstrip Bowl, disappointingly for him.
[1:06:54] Speaker 2: I guess it's always a worthwhile investment to send somebody
[1:06:58] Speaker 2: a shirt that poor salt in their wound. It's funny
[1:07:02] Speaker 2: to do to an Ohio State fan, It's funny to
[1:07:04] Speaker 2: do to a text A and M fan. It might
[1:07:06] Speaker 2: be funny to do an Oregon fan next week. But
[1:07:08] Speaker 2: those shirts are gonna be discounted and that, by the way,
[1:07:13] Speaker 2: this is something else I thought of this, and then
[1:07:15] Speaker 2: we can finish whatever Indiana went. What was Indiana's record
[1:07:20] Speaker 2: last season? They lost two games. So Indiana loses to
[1:07:23] Speaker 2: Ohio State and it lose to Notre Dame last year
[1:07:25] Speaker 2: and they finish whatever it is, I'll love it into
[1:07:29] Speaker 2: They did that with Ohio's quarterback who also had like
[1:07:32] Speaker 2: a torn acl so at a certain point, maybe before
[1:07:35] Speaker 2: this season or early on this season, we saw Fernando
[1:07:38] Speaker 2: Mendoza was going there and was going to be pretty good.
[1:07:39] Speaker 2: It was like, well, if they did that with a
[1:07:42] Speaker 2: mac quarterback with a semi shredded knee, they.
[1:07:46] Speaker 1: Might be better with Bernando Mendoza. That's a my bad.
[1:07:50] Speaker 2: Yeah, that's something I should have recognized in my own
[1:07:53] Speaker 2: soul and I didn't. But yeah, there's a lot of
[1:07:55] Speaker 2: in retrospect to be said about a lot of these
[1:07:57] Speaker 2: teams right now.
[1:07:57] Speaker 3: I do think that for those of us who have
[1:08:01] Speaker 3: followed college football our entire lives, when you have a
[1:08:04] Speaker 3: team like this in Indiana that has historically been a doormat,
[1:08:09] Speaker 3: it is very difficult to bend your mind into the
[1:08:13] Speaker 3: appropriate pretzel, to do those mental gymnastics to convince yourself
[1:08:17] Speaker 3: that this is real. I know, I know, and that
[1:08:20] Speaker 3: this isn't just a cute story. I think it was
[1:08:23] Speaker 3: very easy to do that. Last year they lost the
[1:08:25] Speaker 3: playoff game to Notre Dame.
[1:08:26] Speaker 1: Is still very good.
[1:08:27] Speaker 3: Team. I thought they acquitted themselves well, but the mere
[1:08:30] Speaker 3: idea that they could follow that up with a better team.
[1:08:34] Speaker 3: Even for us, this is all we do with all
[1:08:38] Speaker 3: of the information at our fingertips and nothing but time
[1:08:41] Speaker 3: to study these teams. It is still truly fighting against
[1:08:45] Speaker 3: that stigma that I thought flew in my face. I
[1:08:48] Speaker 3: had a hard time with it. I had Illinois over Indiana.
[1:08:51] Speaker 3: I had Indiana like fifth in the Big Ten. So
[1:08:54] Speaker 3: for sure not going to be making that mistake again.
[1:08:57] Speaker 3: I think Kurt Signetti and what he is done in
[1:09:00] Speaker 3: just two years now in Bloomington very much deserves the
[1:09:03] Speaker 3: benefit of the doubt, regardless of how this season ends.
[1:09:06] Speaker 3: And it's just about time that we recognize in this
[1:09:09] Speaker 3: new world order of college football that stories like this
[1:09:13] Speaker 3: are not only possible, but sustainable if you have the
[1:09:15] Speaker 3: right guy in place and if you have the right
[1:09:18] Speaker 3: infrastructure around the program. This is a wake up call
[1:09:21] Speaker 3: for all of us who appreciate this sport, root for
[1:09:24] Speaker 3: the underdog whenever we can and appreciate a good Cinderella story.
[1:09:29] Speaker 3: Sometimes Cinderella turns into a juggernaut in the short span
[1:09:32] Speaker 3: of one year, and kudos to them for doing it,
[1:09:35] Speaker 3: because It is not anything any of us saw coming.
[1:09:38] Speaker 3: And Kurt Signetty obviously deserves all the praise and all
[1:09:41] Speaker 3: the money they want to throw at him.
[1:09:43] Speaker 2: By the way, to answer your question of like, what
[1:09:45] Speaker 2: would you have said in twenty twenty one if you
[1:09:47] Speaker 2: were told that Indiana was going to just absolutely shellack
[1:09:50] Speaker 2: Alabama in the College football Playoff?
[1:09:53] Speaker 1: My first response.
[1:09:54] Speaker 2: Would have been what kind of assassin did Tom Allen become?
[1:10:01] Speaker 2: What happened with Tom Allen that he was able to
[1:10:05] Speaker 2: because in that time, you were like, look, Indiana's not great,
[1:10:08] Speaker 2: but they're feisty, right, they go to Penn State, they
[1:10:10] Speaker 2: throw you know, Michael Pennix is obviously a big talent,
[1:10:12] Speaker 2: like you know, Kaylin de Borr offensive coordinator, did nice
[1:10:15] Speaker 2: things for them.
[1:10:16] Speaker 1: So you're just like, you're thinking to yourself, what.
[1:10:17] Speaker 2: Did who did Tom Allen become? And obviously that was
[1:10:21] Speaker 2: not to pass, but man, good for the Hoosiers.
[1:10:25] Speaker 1: What can I say? So?
[1:10:27] Speaker 3: The number one Indiana Hoosiers advance courtesy of a thirty
[1:10:30] Speaker 3: eight to three drubbing of the Alabama Crimson Tide. They
[1:10:34] Speaker 3: will play a rematch next week in the Chick fil
[1:10:37] Speaker 3: A Peach Bowl against your Oregon Ducks, and last, but
[1:10:41] Speaker 3: not least, there was the Sugar Bowl. Dan Rubinstein, This
[1:10:48] Speaker 3: game was friggin' nuts. Thirty nine to thirty four was
[1:10:53] Speaker 3: your final. It was a nail bier, It was a thriller.
[1:10:57] Speaker 3: It had everything you could possibly one from a game
[1:11:01] Speaker 3: of this magnitude. Ole Miss gets revenge on the Georgia Bulldogs.
[1:11:06] Speaker 3: Thirty nine to thirty four again is your final. Wow,
[1:11:11] Speaker 3: I am still catching my breath. I'd imagine McDonough and
[1:11:15] Speaker 3: McElroy and the booth are doing exactly the same. I
[1:11:18] Speaker 3: am getting text messages from friends. I am seeing Twitter
[1:11:21] Speaker 3: go by like it's the friggin' Matrix. This was a
[1:11:26] Speaker 3: baller way to close out the first day of the
[1:11:30] Speaker 3: Year of Our Lord. Twenty twenty six, Dan.
[1:11:32] Speaker 1: Twenty twenty six. Yeah, absolutely incredible.
[1:11:35] Speaker 2: I treated the end of this game like I was
[1:11:37] Speaker 2: watching the final season of Breaking Bad. And I have
[1:11:39] Speaker 2: no rooting interest in neither Georgia nor Ole Miss. And
[1:11:43] Speaker 2: I was eating tortilla chips like my life depended on it.
[1:11:46] Speaker 2: I was eating chocolates. I was just pacing around the room.
[1:11:50] Speaker 2: This game took it all like Waltz back in New Mexico.
[1:11:53] Speaker 2: It took it all out of me, and in the
[1:11:55] Speaker 2: best possible way. I don't know how to describe the
[1:11:58] Speaker 2: rhythms of this game at all, other than both of
[1:12:02] Speaker 2: these teams road waves of fury. I guess you could say.
[1:12:07] Speaker 3: That's a great way to put it.
[1:12:08] Speaker 1: It was.
[1:12:09] Speaker 2: I mean, look the mountain that. I wouldn't even say
[1:12:14] Speaker 2: that ole Miss climbed a mountain to come back in
[1:12:16] Speaker 2: this game, because the ole Miss defense did a reasonable
[1:12:19] Speaker 2: job for a chunk of this game holding George's offense
[1:12:22] Speaker 2: not down, but at least surviving for longer stretches. But
[1:12:26] Speaker 2: Georgia had the scoop and score which pushed it to
[1:12:28] Speaker 2: I want to say, twenty one to twelve right in
[1:12:30] Speaker 2: that region, yep. And then in the second half Georgia
[1:12:34] Speaker 2: went cold and ole Miss got hot all at the
[1:12:36] Speaker 2: same time. What I took from this was every time
[1:12:41] Speaker 2: Georgia needed some kind of burst, there was Nate Frasier,
[1:12:45] Speaker 2: or there was Zachariah Branch and Gunner Stockton made plays.
[1:12:50] Speaker 2: He wasn't huge with his legs. It was just two
[1:12:52] Speaker 2: heavyweights wailing on each other the entire time. It wasn't
[1:12:55] Speaker 2: nobody was dancing around, nobody was doing anything, and then
[1:12:58] Speaker 2: when it comes down to it and Trinidad Chambliss is
[1:13:01] Speaker 2: making play after play like for my money, the play
[1:13:04] Speaker 2: where Trinidad Chambliss is scrambling and then in the last
[1:13:08] Speaker 2: possible millisecond just sort of flicks the.
[1:13:12] Speaker 1: Ball just floats it right, a little floater.
[1:13:15] Speaker 2: But it was like the backhand like option like it.
[1:13:20] Speaker 2: It was so perfect. And it's Kewon Lacy with a
[1:13:22] Speaker 2: bump shoulder and the ole Miss players. I'm just like
[1:13:25] Speaker 2: free It's free form jazz in the worst possible way
[1:13:27] Speaker 2: is how I'm describing this game. But that's where my
[1:13:29] Speaker 2: mind is, like there is a super ball bouncing around
[1:13:32] Speaker 2: my brain right now thinking about this game and the
[1:13:35] Speaker 2: speed on display. The kicking in this game, good and bad,
[1:13:40] Speaker 2: was huge, especially for ole Miss early. It was huge
[1:13:43] Speaker 2: in a good way. It felt chaotic in the best
[1:13:46] Speaker 2: possible way. And I'm I'm glad it ended like it
[1:13:49] Speaker 2: did because at least it didn't end with like a
[1:13:52] Speaker 2: catastrophic error. It ended with ole Miss success. It really did.
[1:13:57] Speaker 2: I mean again, this game was crazy. This game was crazy.
[1:14:02] Speaker 3: Georgia kicked a field goal short field goal late after
[1:14:05] Speaker 3: a nice defensive stand from old Miss that nodded the
[1:14:09] Speaker 3: game up at thirty four. A piece ole miss gets
[1:14:13] Speaker 3: the ball back on what was that a third down play,
[1:14:16] Speaker 3: a beautiful throw from Trinidad shambals right over the top
[1:14:20] Speaker 3: that got them deep into field goal territory. And then
[1:14:24] Speaker 3: Lucas Carniro bang through a forty nine yarder, speaking of
[1:14:28] Speaker 3: a mega leg that dude's got ambialitzer that made it
[1:14:32] Speaker 3: thirty seven to thirty four. And then there were some
[1:14:34] Speaker 3: hijinks at the end. Georgia trying to make something happen.
[1:14:38] Speaker 3: On the ensuing kickoff, they try a backwards pass, a
[1:14:42] Speaker 3: lateral that hits the pileon gets ruled the safety makes
[1:14:45] Speaker 3: it thirty nine to thirty four. But because of when
[1:14:48] Speaker 3: it occurred, there was one second left on the clock
[1:14:51] Speaker 3: that gave Georgia an opportunity to not only attempt, but
[1:14:54] Speaker 3: then recover an onside kick because the guy who recovered
[1:14:58] Speaker 3: the on side.
[1:14:58] Speaker 1: Kick was grounded.
[1:14:59] Speaker 3: No no time ran off the clock that set up
[1:15:02] Speaker 3: one final play. All sorts of crap is out on
[1:15:05] Speaker 3: the field, confetti, ice, gatorade, whatever they threw on Pete
[1:15:10] Speaker 3: Golding after they thought they won the game before a
[1:15:13] Speaker 3: few minutes before, and then there was just sort of
[1:15:16] Speaker 3: like a haze of back and forth lateral laying where
[1:15:21] Speaker 3: I'm wondering, is this gonna be a Miami Duke situation
[1:15:23] Speaker 3: where we have a crazy play perhaps the band on
[1:15:27] Speaker 3: the field Cal Stanford, that does not come to fruition.
[1:15:31] Speaker 1: Eventually Ole Miss gets the win. Here.
[1:15:33] Speaker 3: I can only imagine the range of emotions you had
[1:15:36] Speaker 3: if you were a fan of a team in this game.
[1:15:39] Speaker 3: And I'll speak to it from the Old Miss side
[1:15:41] Speaker 3: of things, because I was watching from that perspective, if
[1:15:44] Speaker 3: only because you and I had Ole Miss in the points,
[1:15:47] Speaker 3: I think you came damn near close to guessing the
[1:15:50] Speaker 3: exact final store.
[1:15:51] Speaker 2: I had them outright, I had the over I had
[1:15:53] Speaker 2: it was like thirty eight, thirty five, thirty five, thirty three,
[1:15:56] Speaker 2: something like that. And I guess I just I went
[1:16:00] Speaker 2: four for four against the spread this weekend.
[1:16:02] Speaker 3: I mean, because the way the game ended and the
[1:16:05] Speaker 3: high that I'm sure Old Miss fans are on now
[1:16:08] Speaker 3: as they go into the semi final against Miami, some
[1:16:11] Speaker 3: of the early game stuff is probably going to be
[1:16:14] Speaker 3: water under the bridge. But early on this was also
[1:16:17] Speaker 3: a very frustrating watch for Old Miss fans because for
[1:16:21] Speaker 3: a minute, there. I thought this was going to be
[1:16:23] Speaker 3: death by a thousand cuts. There was the very big
[1:16:26] Speaker 3: mistake which you mentioned towards the end of the first half.
[1:16:29] Speaker 3: Kawan Lacy coughs it up that goes back for a
[1:16:32] Speaker 3: scoop and score. Elijah Griffin runs it for like forty
[1:16:34] Speaker 3: seven yards to make it twenty one to twelve. But
[1:16:37] Speaker 3: beyond that, there were drop passes. Beyond that, there were mistackles.
[1:16:40] Speaker 3: Beyond that, there were some of those gunner stocked in
[1:16:43] Speaker 3: third down conversions that drive you baddy because it looks
[1:16:46] Speaker 3: like you have them and then suddenly you don't. There
[1:16:49] Speaker 3: was also a botch sequence which Greg McElroy rightfully brought
[1:16:53] Speaker 3: up at the end of the game. We saw it
[1:16:55] Speaker 3: at the end of the first half where instead of
[1:16:58] Speaker 3: going out of bounds, they on Wright state in bounds.
[1:17:01] Speaker 2: Yeah, it was weird, like it was very specifically cutting
[1:17:04] Speaker 2: back inbounds as well.
[1:17:06] Speaker 1: It was a conscious decision.
[1:17:07] Speaker 3: I don't know if he didn't know where the clock
[1:17:10] Speaker 3: was at or thought he could get to the first time.
[1:17:11] Speaker 3: I don't know what was going on there, but they
[1:17:13] Speaker 3: were out of timeouts that could have given them three points.
[1:17:17] Speaker 3: With the way Carneiro was kicking. So there were a
[1:17:20] Speaker 3: bunch of issues that took place earlier on in this
[1:17:23] Speaker 3: game for Old Miss. I'm not going to say that
[1:17:25] Speaker 3: they fully cleared up the deeper we got into this one,
[1:17:29] Speaker 3: but certainly the way Trinidad Chambliss played down the stretch,
[1:17:33] Speaker 3: I mean, he's not going to remember any of this.
[1:17:36] Speaker 3: I wonder if he was even conscious down the stretch.
[1:17:39] Speaker 3: With how he was playing, that was ridiculous.
[1:17:42] Speaker 2: To be clear, he was great in the first matchup
[1:17:44] Speaker 2: and then when ice cold and only offense went into
[1:17:47] Speaker 2: a shell in the fourth quarter. He was one of
[1:17:48] Speaker 2: ten in the fourth quarter in that first matchup in Athens,
[1:17:51] Speaker 2: and so for him to light up and light up
[1:17:54] Speaker 2: the Georgia defense like he was able to do, and
[1:17:56] Speaker 2: he was rotating out. Obviously we talked about the improvising thing,
[1:17:59] Speaker 2: but taking shots. This was not like screens with yards
[1:18:03] Speaker 2: after the catch, yards after contact whatever. Taking shots, rolling
[1:18:07] Speaker 2: out and hitting dudes in stride and on the biggest
[1:18:12] Speaker 2: possible stage that Ole Miss has ever played in, at
[1:18:15] Speaker 2: least in the modern era, and certainly the biggest stage
[1:18:18] Speaker 2: he's ever played on. And Pete Golding in his second
[1:18:21] Speaker 2: game as a head coach of Ole Miss, like so
[1:18:24] Speaker 2: many different things.
[1:18:25] Speaker 1: You have Trey Wallace.
[1:18:26] Speaker 2: Transferring in this first year, making play after play, Dejen stribbling,
[1:18:30] Speaker 2: Kewan Lacy right, So it's like kind of a patchwork situation,
[1:18:33] Speaker 2: but everything is like pointed in the same direction in
[1:18:36] Speaker 2: that fourth quarter that Ole Miss can basically do no wrong.
[1:18:39] Speaker 2: And I, by the way, was Dalen Everett who it
[1:18:42] Speaker 2: was Elijah Griffin who forced the fumble, Dalen Everett who
[1:18:44] Speaker 2: ran the ball back right on the scoop and score
[1:18:47] Speaker 2: to just be specific, but yeah, the field goal kicking
[1:18:52] Speaker 2: that Georgia was able to come back. They go down
[1:18:55] Speaker 2: ten with all of the momentum like just moving very
[1:18:59] Speaker 2: dramatically towards Ole Miss to come back and get that.
[1:19:02] Speaker 2: It was like a seventy seventy five yard drive to
[1:19:04] Speaker 2: go down three, and then they get that field goal
[1:19:07] Speaker 2: relatively close to tie it up, and so Ole Miss
[1:19:09] Speaker 2: gets it back with under a minute. It's just like
[1:19:12] Speaker 2: there's no fear with these dudes. I know you pulled
[1:19:14] Speaker 2: this sound because Greg McLaury was talking about Trinidad Chambliss,
[1:19:17] Speaker 2: you know.
[1:19:17] Speaker 1: Hitting three after three fire there you go, yeah.
[1:19:20] Speaker 2: And it's totally true. And there are plays where the
[1:19:24] Speaker 2: Georgia offense looked like they couldn't be stopped. Once again,
[1:19:27] Speaker 2: the speed from Nate Frasier, just the how hard he
[1:19:30] Speaker 2: hit the lane time after time and getting Zachariah Branch
[1:19:34] Speaker 2: in space, and then like you see a play that
[1:19:36] Speaker 2: you think is going to ultimately like decide the game
[1:19:39] Speaker 2: or at least end ole missus hopes to win this
[1:19:41] Speaker 2: in regulation, when I want to say, Zion Branch just
[1:19:44] Speaker 2: had a huge hit on an ole miss receiver and
[1:19:47] Speaker 2: sort of knocked the wind out of him at least,
[1:19:49] Speaker 2: and you're like, man, that might have been a game
[1:19:51] Speaker 2: saving moment for Georgia, and ultimately it wasn't because Trinidad
[1:19:55] Speaker 2: Shambless makes play after play an incredible narrative win for
[1:20:00] Speaker 2: ole miss. It's hard to fully look at the defenses
[1:20:05] Speaker 2: and say it was an incredible game, but both of
[1:20:08] Speaker 2: these defenses made huge plays. Even though this game was,
[1:20:11] Speaker 2: you know, thirty nine to thirty four, just ole Miss
[1:20:14] Speaker 2: in on those fourth downs. The key four I was
[1:20:16] Speaker 2: think fourth and two was Centaian Perkins off the edge.
[1:20:19] Speaker 2: I think he forced fumble, but ultimately was fourth and two,
[1:20:21] Speaker 2: so a second fumble. They were basically the same thing,
[1:20:24] Speaker 2: but the huge plays, the high leverage moments for both
[1:20:27] Speaker 2: of these teams from these defenses when they needed stops
[1:20:30] Speaker 2: sometimes was incredible to behold. So an incredible game. And
[1:20:34] Speaker 2: I you know what, after Oregon and twenty three to
[1:20:38] Speaker 2: nothing and after thirty eight to three Indiana, after just
[1:20:41] Speaker 2: these dominant Big Ten performances tied, don't pay attention to
[1:20:44] Speaker 2: Ohio State game. It was nice to see it like
[1:20:47] Speaker 2: a really fun back and forth, like an exciting you
[1:20:50] Speaker 2: know one two from these teams.
[1:20:52] Speaker 3: All the excitement that you wanted out of the first
[1:20:54] Speaker 3: three games, we got all of it in the last
[1:20:57] Speaker 3: game of the College Football Playoff Corner Final quarterfinals in
[1:21:00] Speaker 3: the Sugar Bowl. I mean, this one really had it all.
[1:21:04] Speaker 3: And this isn't even to mention some of the decisions.
[1:21:07] Speaker 3: I know you just referenced it briefly in passing, but
[1:21:10] Speaker 3: some of the decisions to go forward on fourth down
[1:21:13] Speaker 3: Kirby smart find it got a little too close to
[1:21:15] Speaker 3: the sun going for it fourth and two from his
[1:21:18] Speaker 3: own thirty three yard line and not But that was it.
[1:21:21] Speaker 2: That was sort of after calling a brilliant fake punt.
[1:21:24] Speaker 2: It was like a Philly Special fake punt situation.
[1:21:28] Speaker 3: The whip saw of emotion in this game, I think
[1:21:31] Speaker 3: made up for the fact. And like we got some
[1:21:34] Speaker 3: emails from people who are a little bit disappointed by
[1:21:37] Speaker 3: the first round of games, the first couple of games
[1:21:39] Speaker 3: that we saw, this one, in my opinion, made up
[1:21:41] Speaker 3: for it in a really significant way. I Mean, this
[1:21:45] Speaker 3: had everything that you won as a college football fan,
[1:21:48] Speaker 3: and I find it hard to believe for people who
[1:21:49] Speaker 3: stayed up to watch it that they weren't at least
[1:21:52] Speaker 3: somewhat amused down the stretch. Because whether it's a big play,
[1:21:57] Speaker 3: whether it's weird happenings, whether it's you know, just all
[1:22:01] Speaker 3: the oddities that we come to know and love about
[1:22:04] Speaker 3: this sport. We had a chance to see all of
[1:22:06] Speaker 3: that in like the last fifteen minutes of gameplay.
[1:22:09] Speaker 2: Yeah, and by the way, so this game was exciting
[1:22:11] Speaker 2: basically from the jump. But weird decisions, great decisions, great
[1:22:14] Speaker 2: plays back and forth, seemingly over comebacks, whatever.
[1:22:18] Speaker 1: You see.
[1:22:18] Speaker 2: What Joel Klatt tweeted out, he said he hated every
[1:22:21] Speaker 2: second of this game. I'm just making that up. But
[1:22:24] Speaker 2: you froze and you were like, wait that kind of tracks. Sorry,
[1:22:28] Speaker 2: I'm making you cough. You're just getting off of an illness.
[1:22:30] Speaker 2: I apologize, strangely, Belie continue, I did not notice either way. No,
[1:22:36] Speaker 2: you're You're absolutely right the decision making. Look, you're on
[1:22:39] Speaker 2: a stage like this, I honestly the coaching by and large. Look,
[1:22:44] Speaker 2: I know it's Charlie West Junior calling this offense all
[1:22:46] Speaker 2: season long. Called a great game Tonight obviously put Trinidad
[1:22:49] Speaker 2: Chambliss and Keiwan Lacey in a great.
[1:22:51] Speaker 1: Position to succeed.
[1:22:53] Speaker 2: But this is still Pete Golding's second game. Yeah, on
[1:22:56] Speaker 2: this stage, you know, given everything that has happened behind
[1:22:58] Speaker 2: the scenes, or not really behind the scene, in front
[1:23:00] Speaker 2: of the scenes with Ole Miss and Lane Kiffin and
[1:23:03] Speaker 2: everything who apparently wanted to appear in the booth reportedly,
[1:23:06] Speaker 2: I don't know if you saw that.
[1:23:07] Speaker 3: Of course he does. Of course he does. That's Lane
[1:23:09] Speaker 3: for hey.
[1:23:09] Speaker 2: So if you guys are interested, I'm around games in state.
[1:23:13] Speaker 2: It's not that far from Baton Rouge, New Orleans, So
[1:23:16] Speaker 2: I don't know if you might do it also next week,
[1:23:18] Speaker 2: Who the hell knows that's true?
[1:23:22] Speaker 1: This was I lost my train of thought.
[1:23:23] Speaker 2: Oh Ole Miss and Pete Golding like just very cool
[1:23:27] Speaker 2: to be thrust into this.
[1:23:28] Speaker 1: And that was a key word here right on the thrust.
[1:23:31] Speaker 3: We were talking about thrust on targeting calls and whatnot. Yeah,
[1:23:35] Speaker 3: we saw thrusting in this game as well.
[1:23:37] Speaker 2: But just such an unusual circumstance for Pete Golding and
[1:23:40] Speaker 2: Ole Miss given everything and to come away beating Georgia
[1:23:43] Speaker 2: in a revenge spot. Tough to beat a team twice,
[1:23:46] Speaker 2: a good team twice in the same year, and this
[1:23:49] Speaker 2: this cemented that as well.
[1:23:51] Speaker 3: Let me call out one other thing and then I
[1:23:53] Speaker 3: do want to look a little bit forward at the
[1:23:55] Speaker 3: next matchup for Old Miss, because I think that's going
[1:23:57] Speaker 3: to be really interesting on a number of different fronts.
[1:24:00] Speaker 3: But Georgia, with how they improved throughout the course of
[1:24:03] Speaker 3: the year, with some of the strides we saw Gunner
[1:24:05] Speaker 3: Stockton make down the stretch, with how they still ran
[1:24:09] Speaker 3: the ball rather effectively, and still with all of that,
[1:24:13] Speaker 3: they found a way to lose this game. That to
[1:24:16] Speaker 3: me is very surprising.
[1:24:17] Speaker 1: The fact that.
[1:24:18] Speaker 3: Pete Golding later in this game, is it fair to
[1:24:22] Speaker 3: say he out coached Kirby. He didn't not out coach Kirby.
[1:24:27] Speaker 3: I just thought some of the ways that this thing
[1:24:29] Speaker 3: went down were really really surprising. On the Georgia side.
[1:24:32] Speaker 2: I mean yes and no, I mean this was a
[1:24:35] Speaker 2: back and forth affair the first time they played it was.
[1:24:38] Speaker 2: But here's the thing, right, if they happened to lose
[1:24:40] Speaker 2: it this way, it was back and forth the first
[1:24:42] Speaker 2: time around.
[1:24:43] Speaker 3: But you brought this up earlier. How second half they
[1:24:48] Speaker 3: locked Trinidad Chambliss down. They started changing up their coverage. Yeah,
[1:24:52] Speaker 3: and suddenly Trinidad Chamblis couldn't do a whole lot against them.
[1:24:55] Speaker 3: So either all mislearned from that, or Trinidad Chamblass got hot,
[1:25:00] Speaker 3: or some combination of those two things. But either way,
[1:25:04] Speaker 3: Georgia is usually really good at making those in game
[1:25:06] Speaker 3: adjustments to stop a guy going on a run like that,
[1:25:10] Speaker 3: and this was an instance where we did not see
[1:25:12] Speaker 3: that happen on maybe the biggest stage that George has
[1:25:15] Speaker 3: been on all year. And so to that end, I
[1:25:17] Speaker 3: was quite surprised that this game took the turn that
[1:25:20] Speaker 3: it did, not that Old Miss would be close, because
[1:25:23] Speaker 3: we both expected it to be close. But the manner
[1:25:25] Speaker 3: in which this unfolded particularly is Trinidad Chambliss got hot
[1:25:29] Speaker 3: and Georgia seemingly did not have an answer because when
[1:25:32] Speaker 3: he got the ball on that final drive. Was there
[1:25:34] Speaker 3: anybody who watched that game who didn't feel like Trinidad
[1:25:37] Speaker 3: Chambliss was going to engineer some kind of magic. He
[1:25:40] Speaker 3: had all the momentum. He was thirteen for thirteen, like
[1:25:43] Speaker 3: five minutes prior. So for me to see the way
[1:25:46] Speaker 3: that he was going off and continue to go off
[1:25:49] Speaker 3: and crunch time, I don't know. That to me caught
[1:25:53] Speaker 3: me a bit off guard.
[1:25:55] Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm with you, and look even to underscore your
[1:25:58] Speaker 2: point further. Even though this was a back and forth game,
[1:26:00] Speaker 2: a higher scoring game. The first time they played the
[1:26:03] Speaker 2: last three opponents that Georgia did play with good offenses Texas,
[1:26:08] Speaker 2: Georgia Tech, and Alabama, they held to ten, nine and
[1:26:11] Speaker 2: seven points respectively. So whatever you think about those three
[1:26:16] Speaker 2: offenses at their best, those are good offenses at their best,
[1:26:20] Speaker 2: and Georgia held each of them down and.
[1:26:23] Speaker 1: It just didn't seem.
[1:26:24] Speaker 2: To bother ole miss. Now there is a layoff factor.
[1:26:26] Speaker 2: But once again, Georgia was up twenty one to twelve
[1:26:29] Speaker 2: at halftime. So this wasn't a situation like Ohio State
[1:26:32] Speaker 2: last night where they just couldn't get things going on
[1:26:35] Speaker 2: offense and it looked like they were just off. This
[1:26:41] Speaker 2: was just a master work performance from ole Miss to
[1:26:46] Speaker 2: whether the body blows from Georgia to weather the speed
[1:26:49] Speaker 2: to whether by the way, I don't know how you
[1:26:51] Speaker 2: feel about this, and maybe if I go back and
[1:26:53] Speaker 2: rewatch it, I'll feel differently. I thought ole Miss got
[1:26:56] Speaker 2: kind of a ticki tac defensive like a pi there
[1:27:00] Speaker 2: late when Georgia took a shot up the left sideline.
[1:27:02] Speaker 2: I also kind of thought Zachariah Branch pushed off on
[1:27:05] Speaker 2: that touchdown catch late, not called I don't know, I'll
[1:27:08] Speaker 2: go back and rewatch in the moment there was the
[1:27:10] Speaker 2: misface mask. So I just I think ole Miss absorbed
[1:27:15] Speaker 2: a good amount in this game and still was able
[1:27:18] Speaker 2: to weather everything and win. And just I don't know,
[1:27:21] Speaker 2: I can't say enough good things about that performance. And
[1:27:23] Speaker 2: the helmets looked great, right, the.
[1:27:24] Speaker 3: Helmets were pretty cool. Yeah, Yeah, that was pretty neat.
[1:27:27] Speaker 3: I mean, this was a prize fight through and through.
[1:27:30] Speaker 3: Both teams took a bunch of shots. Ole Miss emerges
[1:27:34] Speaker 3: victorious by a thirty nine to thirty four score, which
[1:27:37] Speaker 3: means that your Verbo Fiesta Bowl next Thursday is going
[1:27:44] Speaker 3: to be ole Miss, the sixth seed in this tournament
[1:27:47] Speaker 3: against the Miami Hurricanes, perhaps the last team in the tournament,
[1:27:52] Speaker 3: the number ten. Right now at time of recording, Miami
[1:27:55] Speaker 3: is opening up at about a three point favorite. That
[1:27:58] Speaker 3: line is moving around a little bit. Will if it
[1:28:00] Speaker 3: moves much more. But that to me is a matchup
[1:28:05] Speaker 3: I need to think a lot more about. I know
[1:28:07] Speaker 3: we're going to do our preview here in the next
[1:28:09] Speaker 3: few days and we're going to have some time to
[1:28:11] Speaker 3: think about it. But the athleticism that I think we
[1:28:14] Speaker 3: saw on display from ole Miss, so we've seen all
[1:28:16] Speaker 3: year from Ole Miss, the athleticism we see from Miami,
[1:28:20] Speaker 3: if only on their defensive front, Like there are going
[1:28:23] Speaker 3: to be so many athletes out there on the field,
[1:28:26] Speaker 3: a lot of speed, a lot of violent hitting on display.
[1:28:30] Speaker 3: That to me features some of the most exciting players
[1:28:34] Speaker 3: in all of college football. And I think that's going
[1:28:37] Speaker 3: to be a hell of a matchup. Say what you
[1:28:39] Speaker 3: want about in Indiana Oregon rematch, but Ole Miss Miami
[1:28:44] Speaker 3: playing for the first time this year, that to me
[1:28:47] Speaker 3: is going to be a hell of a fight that
[1:28:48] Speaker 3: I'm real, real excited about. And frankly, like I said,
[1:28:51] Speaker 3: I need more time to dissect how I feel about it.
[1:28:54] Speaker 2: Yeah, By the way common opponent. Both beat Florida. So
[1:28:57] Speaker 2: congratulations to the Gators for their place the college football
[1:29:00] Speaker 2: playoff conversation.
[1:29:02] Speaker 1: Yeah, that's going to be a great matchup.
[1:29:04] Speaker 2: I can't wait, just because you know the speed of
[1:29:07] Speaker 2: ole Miss and the both the speed and power of
[1:29:11] Speaker 2: Miami with what they were able to do against both
[1:29:14] Speaker 2: Ohio State and Texas A and m Miami by the way,
[1:29:16] Speaker 2: So it's Miami flying and playing in college station, flying
[1:29:21] Speaker 2: home to practice, flying back to play in what North
[1:29:24] Speaker 2: Texas or whatever in Jerry World, flying back to practice,
[1:29:27] Speaker 2: and then flying to Phoenix Glendale.
[1:29:31] Speaker 1: Right, it's hefty. It's hefty travel.
[1:29:33] Speaker 2: I don't think it'll affect Miami in the slightest just
[1:29:36] Speaker 2: because they're well coached and have been well prepared. But
[1:29:38] Speaker 2: that's you know, that's college football playoff. It's a hefty ask.
[1:29:42] Speaker 3: So that's it, Dan, We've got our Final four again.
[1:29:46] Speaker 3: It is going to be your Oregon Ducks in a
[1:29:48] Speaker 3: rematch against the Indiana Hoosiers.
[1:29:50] Speaker 1: It's going to be ole Miss.
[1:29:52] Speaker 3: Against Miami, and perhaps the more interesting of the two matchups,
[1:29:56] Speaker 3: at least the newer of the two matchups. Those games
[1:30:00] Speaker 3: going to take place next Thursday and Friday, January eighth
[1:30:03] Speaker 3: and ninth, first in the Fiesta Bowl, next at the
[1:30:07] Speaker 3: Chick fil A Peach Bowl. Of course, the winner moves
[1:30:09] Speaker 3: on for the National Championship game, which is going to
[1:30:12] Speaker 3: be played in hard Rock Stadium down there in Miami.
[1:30:15] Speaker 3: The possibility does exist that Miami could have a home
[1:30:18] Speaker 3: game in the National Championship, which'll be crazy if that
[1:30:22] Speaker 3: ended up happening. But one step at a time. If
[1:30:24] Speaker 3: you're a Miami Hurricanes fan out there, there's a lot
[1:30:27] Speaker 3: of football left to be played.
[1:30:29] Speaker 2: There is the narratives involved. By the way, it's a
[1:30:33] Speaker 2: pretty great narrative Final four right that, like Mario Christibaal
[1:30:38] Speaker 2: can't break through. We're not even sure if Miami is
[1:30:40] Speaker 2: going to make the playoff after all the rankings shenanigans
[1:30:42] Speaker 2: from the committee this season. They make it in Notre
[1:30:45] Speaker 2: Dame is not in. I don't know if you had
[1:30:47] Speaker 2: seen that news update. No, they did not make it.
[1:30:50] Speaker 3: I'm going to make a note to Google that at please.
[1:30:52] Speaker 2: Do please do, of course, bing whatever you need. And yeah,
[1:30:57] Speaker 2: Miami breaking through not winning the ACC obviously can't have both,
[1:31:02] Speaker 2: but like you'll always take this, of course, Miami and
[1:31:04] Speaker 2: in position to play for a national championship, and then
[1:31:07] Speaker 2: Ole Miss without Lane Kiffen. But somehow, I guess getting
[1:31:11] Speaker 2: a little bit better, just as it relates to how
[1:31:13] Speaker 2: they match up against Georgia and they get Miami in
[1:31:16] Speaker 2: what should be a very exciting game in Arizona, and
[1:31:19] Speaker 2: then we get a rematch with Oregon Indiana. Obviously, the
[1:31:23] Speaker 2: Indiana story sells itself that Kurt Signetti is so good
[1:31:27] Speaker 2: that he can just will his team through layoff rustiness.
[1:31:31] Speaker 2: It's I mean, it's not just Kurt Signetti. Obviously, it's
[1:31:34] Speaker 2: a coaching staff, it's a roster, but he's that lone exception.
[1:31:38] Speaker 2: And then Dan Lanning the last two years has needed
[1:31:44] Speaker 2: Oregon to win a rematch in order to have national
[1:31:49] Speaker 2: championship hopes against a team in their conference. Right, so
[1:31:54] Speaker 2: they needed the Washington rematch a couple of years ago
[1:31:56] Speaker 2: in the Pac twelve championship game after losing at Washington
[1:32:00] Speaker 2: and earlier in the season couldn't win the rematch, beat
[1:32:03] Speaker 2: Ohio State. Last season, couldn't beat Ohio State in the rematch,
[1:32:07] Speaker 2: lost to Indiana, which I feel great about now right
[1:32:11] Speaker 2: that they only lost by ten, They were tied in
[1:32:15] Speaker 2: the fourth quarter. Game was at home, so that makes
[1:32:17] Speaker 2: it a little bit better for Oregon. So you have
[1:32:19] Speaker 2: a rematch for Oregon as Dan Lanning tries to help
[1:32:22] Speaker 2: Oregon win its first national championship. Indiana obviously looking for
[1:32:25] Speaker 2: its first modern national championship. There's a lot of play here,
[1:32:30] Speaker 2: and then you could have Oregon Miami, right, you could
[1:32:31] Speaker 2: have Mario Christabaul against his old team. You could have
[1:32:35] Speaker 2: Kurt Signetti and Indiana in the National Championship either against
[1:32:39] Speaker 2: Ole Miss or Miami.
[1:32:40] Speaker 3: I mean, it really doesn't matter to if you got
[1:32:42] Speaker 3: Indiana in the Jational Championship. Isn't new, It's just there's
[1:32:45] Speaker 3: a lot of new here. I mean, these are four
[1:32:48] Speaker 3: first time semi final teams. You've only had the twelve
[1:32:52] Speaker 3: team fields to your.
[1:32:54] Speaker 2: Oregon has made the National Championship in the four team air,
[1:32:57] Speaker 2: that's correct, so they've won a semi final, but that
[1:33:00] Speaker 2: was the only early round game in that format.
[1:33:04] Speaker 3: But I think what we're seeing with Miami getting in
[1:33:07] Speaker 3: is an at large. What we're seeing is Oregon and
[1:33:09] Speaker 3: Old Miss getting in is an at large. Obviously, Indiana
[1:33:12] Speaker 3: won its conference, but part of why they wanted to
[1:33:15] Speaker 3: expand this field part of the draw was to give
[1:33:18] Speaker 3: teams like Old Miss in Miami and Oregon a shot
[1:33:21] Speaker 3: to get in and play for something more, even if
[1:33:24] Speaker 3: given the old system, they weren't going to find their
[1:33:26] Speaker 3: pathway into the top four. So I'm excited to see
[1:33:30] Speaker 3: what we've got in front of us. We will have
[1:33:32] Speaker 3: time to dissect all of these matchups. I think our
[1:33:35] Speaker 3: plan right now is to drop something probably early part
[1:33:39] Speaker 3: of next week, not on Sunday. I got to give
[1:33:41] Speaker 3: this voice a chance to heal.
[1:33:42] Speaker 1: But yeah, that's probably for the best. We're Gon.
[1:33:44] Speaker 3: We're gonna work on getting something out there as early
[1:33:47] Speaker 3: as we can next week that's going to preview these games. Also,
[1:33:52] Speaker 3: as we are recording this right now, I'm looking at
[1:33:54] Speaker 3: my clock twelve forty two am Eastern time. I believe
[1:33:58] Speaker 3: the transfer portal is now also open, yhich Is. I
[1:34:01] Speaker 3: think that's right crazy that they're just stacking these things
[1:34:04] Speaker 3: on top of each other like a short stack of pancakes.
[1:34:08] Speaker 3: But we will of course have a show very soon
[1:34:12] Speaker 3: talking about the transfer portal, some of the names, some
[1:34:15] Speaker 3: of the rumors.
[1:34:16] Speaker 1: All of that stuff.
[1:34:17] Speaker 3: There is a lot happening right now in the world
[1:34:20] Speaker 3: of college football. We are, like the rest of you
[1:34:23] Speaker 3: doing our best to try and keep tabs on all
[1:34:25] Speaker 3: this stuff.
[1:34:26] Speaker 2: Correct. Yes, very excited. As I mentioned before, I will
[1:34:31] Speaker 2: be coaching first graders at this kickoff of Oregon semi
[1:34:35] Speaker 2: final appearance. I will be teaching teaching the basics of
[1:34:43] Speaker 2: competitive basketball to first graders with or without attention spans.
[1:34:47] Speaker 1: I have a whistle. I have.
[1:34:49] Speaker 3: You might have the least attention span of anyone there
[1:34:51] Speaker 3: on that night.
[1:34:52] Speaker 2: I've already alerted one of my assistant coaches. I've alerted
[1:34:56] Speaker 2: my staff all phones off like going to like one
[1:34:59] Speaker 2: of those like a Dave Chappelle show or something where
[1:35:01] Speaker 2: you have to put your phones into the boxes where
[1:35:04] Speaker 2: you don't get any signals and you have to lock
[1:35:06] Speaker 2: it up.
[1:35:07] Speaker 1: This in a skiff, that's correct.
[1:35:10] Speaker 2: So I'm gonna tell I'm probably probably gonna tell parents
[1:35:13] Speaker 2: when they drop off their kids. I don't want to
[1:35:15] Speaker 2: hear a single thing. I swear to God, Carol, I
[1:35:19] Speaker 2: swear to God. So that's my plan. That's because I
[1:35:23] Speaker 2: don't want to be distracted during practice. I owe it
[1:35:25] Speaker 2: to the kids, and I will I will hurry home
[1:35:28] Speaker 2: and I will start it from the jump and I
[1:35:30] Speaker 2: will catch up to live using my trusty DVR and
[1:35:33] Speaker 2: we will record after that game. Are we going to
[1:35:37] Speaker 2: do the same thing we did? I think go around
[1:35:39] Speaker 2: Thursday and Friday night.
[1:35:40] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[1:35:41] Speaker 1: I think that's great.
[1:35:42] Speaker 2: Yeah, and then we'll have a national championship matchup by
[1:35:45] Speaker 2: Friday evening. Friday night to talk about going into I
[1:35:49] Speaker 2: guess the nineteenth is when they have the National Championship
[1:35:51] Speaker 2: game down there in Miami.
[1:35:53] Speaker 3: A very fun way to close out twenty twenty five
[1:35:58] Speaker 3: and get twenty twenty six started. Happy New Year to
[1:36:01] Speaker 3: one and all listening out there in the verballerhood. Much
[1:36:04] Speaker 3: much more to come. We've got a Final four, We've
[1:36:08] Speaker 3: got the portal. There is no end in sight here
[1:36:11] Speaker 3: for college football. Thank you all for hanging with us,
[1:36:14] Speaker 3: Hit follow, hit subscribe, check us out at forballers dot
[1:36:17] Speaker 3: com for that guy over there, my good friend Dan Rubinstein,
[1:36:20] Speaker 3: for myself, ty hild To Brant will catch you out soon.
[1:36:21] Speaker 3: In the meantime, stay solid, peace,

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