# Six Big CFB Questions, Lingering Week 11 Thoughts + Early Picks for ND-Pitt & Texas-Georgia | College Football

An episode of [The Solid Verbal College Football Show](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/270037732), 11 Nov 2025, 1 h 40 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/21437ee1-47d9-4b16-8696-b30d011a2c26/5c74a625-a60d-4140-8d31-b39101654cc0/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=51c7e0eb-425c-4d93-b5a8-b30d011a2c46

Welp, we ran long... but we had a lot to unpack! In this episode, a quick look back at some of the storylines from Week 11 (and beyond) that deserve a little more attention, including Nebraska's "professional" win over UCLA, Bear Bachmeier's measurables, Delaware's quiet season, the weirdness of Kentucky and Duke football, and something we're calling the Pitt Measuring Stick. Then, we pose six big questions for each other, taking a look at our favorite team outside the top four, the best landing spot for James Franklin, how to fix bad refs, the most and least trustworthy QBs, the best remaining game, and more. And finally, we close out with an extended look at Notre Dame's trip to Pitt and a revenge spot for Texas on the road against Georgia. Timecodes: 0:00 - Intro 3:33 - Nebraska's win over UCLA 5:13 - An apology to Bear Bachmeier and Matt Zollers 10:17 - Delaware's quiet first FBS season 12:21 - Kentucky's weird season 15:15 - Duke's wild ride 20:18 - The Pitt Measuring Stick 23:42 - The new Verballer Top 12 34:16 - Ty & Dan Q&A 35:22 - Favorite team outside the top four? 41:51 - Best landing spot for James Franklin? 45:27 - Fixing bad refs? 54:46 - Most & least trustworthy QBs 59:58 - Importance of schedules? 1:05:28 - Best remaining game? 1:12:19 - Notre Dame vs Pitt Preview 1:22:51 - Texas vs Georgia Preview 1:30:56 - Under-The-Radar Week 12 Games 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 holleh 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. You want to be happy for a day?
[0:12] Speaker 1: Edo State is that? Whoo whoo and no Dan and
[0:16] Speaker 1: Tie Dan Rubinstein, welcome back. Happy eleven eleven. My friend,
[0:22] Speaker 1: how are you? I'm good? I want to say.
[0:25] Speaker 2: That's a lyric in something Corporate's constantine, the saddest and
[0:29] Speaker 2: most emotional song of Dan Rubinstein's I don't Know eighteenth
[0:34] Speaker 2: nineteenth year on this beautiful planet. I didn't plan on
[0:36] Speaker 2: starting the show talking about that, but here we are, Ty,
[0:40] Speaker 2: I'm great. It's post week eleven heading into week twelve.
[0:44] Speaker 2: I know you're like itching to talk Delaware football and
[0:47] Speaker 2: they're crazy ending from Saturday? What else do we have
[0:50] Speaker 2: late Saturday? By the way, though Nebraska UCLA was going on.
[0:53] Speaker 2: I have a couple thoughts about that. So I love
[0:56] Speaker 2: this like zone where people I speak with say like, oh,
[1:00] Speaker 2: what's you know? What are the narratives going on? What's
[1:02] Speaker 2: you know? What were your reactions? And then looking ahead
[1:05] Speaker 2: to the following week and having this Monday Tuesday show
[1:07] Speaker 2: to do. So I don't know where I want to start.
[1:10] Speaker 2: But this is all a roundabout way of me saying
[1:13] Speaker 2: I'm good. Thanks for having me back.
[1:14] Speaker 3: Well, it is a pleasure to have you back as well.
[1:16] Speaker 3: Happy Veterans Day to all out there who's served. We
[1:19] Speaker 3: appreciate you.
[1:20] Speaker 1: Thank you for tuning in with us.
[1:21] Speaker 3: Hit follow, hit subscribe if you have yet to do so,
[1:25] Speaker 3: not just so that you can listen to this episode,
[1:27] Speaker 3: but so that you can be with us the remainder
[1:29] Speaker 3: of the season, because things are just starting to heat
[1:31] Speaker 3: up as we get into ty Vember.
[1:33] Speaker 1: Here, as we like to call it on the show.
[1:35] Speaker 1: Do we like that as I like to call it
[1:37] Speaker 1: here on the show. Excuse me, this is.
[1:40] Speaker 3: When things tend to break. This is when we tend
[1:42] Speaker 3: to have weird tiebreaker discussions. We'll have Heisman discussions, We'll
[1:45] Speaker 3: have playoff discussion. A lot remains to be seen here
[1:49] Speaker 3: in the twenty twenty five college football season. So hit follo,
[1:51] Speaker 3: hit subscribe so you don't miss any of that. Of course,
[1:54] Speaker 3: for Ballers dot COM's where you can go if you
[1:55] Speaker 3: want to get this episode, all of our episodes without
[1:57] Speaker 3: the ads. We also do bonus content Every Thursday. We
[2:01] Speaker 3: have a discord server that pops off during all the games.
[2:04] Speaker 3: You can vote in the polls. A whole slew of
[2:07] Speaker 3: things available to you. If you are a superverballer, go
[2:10] Speaker 3: toverballers dot com. If nothing more, you help Dan and
[2:13] Speaker 3: I keep the lights on.
[2:15] Speaker 2: What about Govember Colin, it's Diego Pavia's time. No, that's
[2:20] Speaker 2: better than Diego's empic. I have to say Govember Colan,
[2:24] Speaker 2: it's Diego's time.
[2:25] Speaker 3: I don't hate that. I didn't like the o zempic one.
[2:29] Speaker 3: I just didn't think that was it was too much.
[2:31] Speaker 2: It was a little too much Diego z empic Colin
[2:35] Speaker 2: taking shots to help them lose something like that. It was,
[2:38] Speaker 2: it was, It was a lot. It was fraught with
[2:40] Speaker 2: too many words and letters. Are we starting with lingering thoughts?
[2:43] Speaker 2: Where are we going?
[2:44] Speaker 1: Well, we can't start with lingering thoughts.
[2:46] Speaker 3: So over the course of the next like hour or so,
[2:50] Speaker 3: we have some questions for one another about football, maybe
[2:54] Speaker 3: not about maybe about life, I don't know, but about football, sure,
[2:57] Speaker 3: or at least going to start there about those. We're
[3:01] Speaker 3: also going to go into two of our early bird previews,
[3:04] Speaker 3: as we do it every Tuesday, We're going to do
[3:07] Speaker 3: some under the radar games. A little bit early this
[3:10] Speaker 3: week because I wanted to make sure that people had
[3:12] Speaker 3: them on their radars. I find them incredibly interesting. I
[3:17] Speaker 3: want to talk through a few of those before we
[3:19] Speaker 3: high tail it out of here, and of course we'll
[3:21] Speaker 3: give you a brief rundown of some of the other
[3:23] Speaker 3: interesting games, many of which we will preview on the
[3:27] Speaker 3: Thursday episode. But yes, before we do that, and before
[3:29] Speaker 3: we reveal the latest Reballer Top twelve poll. Lingering thoughts,
[3:35] Speaker 3: dam lingering thoughts from the week that was in Week eleven.
[3:38] Speaker 2: It was a harrowing experience because I had the Nebraska
[3:42] Speaker 2: UCLA game on mute sort of as we were going
[3:45] Speaker 2: in to record the Week eleven recap episode, watched it
[3:50] Speaker 2: full volume, only to be met by Tim Brando immediately
[3:53] Speaker 2: was like a like a Street Fighter two character in
[4:00] Speaker 2: slow motion being uppercut, falling his or her way to
[4:04] Speaker 2: the turf.
[4:07] Speaker 1: So that wasn't great. So okay.
[4:11] Speaker 2: My thought on that game specifically was really good job
[4:14] Speaker 2: by Nebraska because that was a trappy spot after having
[4:17] Speaker 2: a big game, losing your quarterback, having UCLA and UCLA
[4:20] Speaker 2: team that has taken down teams in vulnerable positions, Nebraska
[4:25] Speaker 2: was able to efficiently score in that first half on
[4:27] Speaker 2: some big plays. TJ Latif had I think a very
[4:30] Speaker 2: smart game plan, knowing that he was not going to
[4:33] Speaker 2: be able to go through a ton of progressions at
[4:35] Speaker 2: such a young age on the road in a tough
[4:38] Speaker 2: spot and a lot of crossers and one read looks,
[4:42] Speaker 2: and I just thought it was very smart. And I
[4:45] Speaker 2: thought Ima Johnson was very good as well. Ucla fought,
[4:48] Speaker 2: they made nice adjustments in the second half, but it
[4:50] Speaker 2: wasn't meant to be, and that there was a good,
[4:53] Speaker 2: like mature win for Nebraska.
[4:56] Speaker 1: They protected as we say here.
[4:58] Speaker 2: Yeah, I wasn't pretty the second half offense, there wasn't
[5:02] Speaker 2: much there, but I thought that's a good workmanlike win
[5:07] Speaker 2: for the Huskers. So that was cool to see, especially
[5:10] Speaker 2: with the down news obviously of Dylan Rayola and his injury.
[5:14] Speaker 2: I want to correct myself. Unless you have any other lingering, Nemero,
[5:17] Speaker 2: go ahead, please please continue. On a couple of items.
[5:21] Speaker 2: I think I undershot bear Bachmeier's weight by according to
[5:25] Speaker 2: BYU fans, eighty to ninety pounds.
[5:29] Speaker 3: Listen, I didn't want to be the bearer of bad
[5:31] Speaker 3: news for you on Saturday night, and I hear you
[5:35] Speaker 3: what people don't realize, or maybe they do.
[5:38] Speaker 1: When you and I are doing.
[5:39] Speaker 3: These streams and it's like one am Eastern time, we've
[5:43] Speaker 3: been watching games all day, all day. Boohoo, poor us.
[5:45] Speaker 3: I know, yeah, But when you've got when you've got
[5:49] Speaker 3: the camera and the microphone rolling and you're doing something live,
[5:54] Speaker 3: all too often we have brain farts where our mouths
[5:58] Speaker 3: get out a little bit ahead of our brains. It's
[6:00] Speaker 3: it's not uncommon. It's gonna happen seven times to me
[6:02] Speaker 3: before this episode is through. I guarantee it.
[6:05] Speaker 2: I fully disagree with you on this. I stand by
[6:08] Speaker 2: that bear Bachmeyer is five eleven, one eighty five. I
[6:11] Speaker 2: refuse to believe his listed weight and listed height.
[6:15] Speaker 1: I full people.
[6:17] Speaker 2: Every other YouTube comment or about that game was like, hey,
[6:20] Speaker 2: I know you said like once bear Bachmeyer fills out,
[6:23] Speaker 2: he will be like more of a weapon. But my guy,
[6:26] Speaker 2: he's two thirty five, and then like the next person
[6:28] Speaker 2: he's two fifty. He's a legit. Somebody said he's a
[6:31] Speaker 2: legit pushing two sixty, And I was like, am I
[6:34] Speaker 2: just being messed with?
[6:35] Speaker 1: Right now?
[6:36] Speaker 2: Are people just coming at me knowing that I am
[6:38] Speaker 2: a frail mind? I understand that he has to be
[6:42] Speaker 2: at least two hundred and twenty five pounds at this point. Okay,
[6:46] Speaker 2: But when I watch him underneath the pads, because he
[6:50] Speaker 2: also looks like the fifth most famous person that was
[6:53] Speaker 2: in camp nowhere, I refuse to believe that he is
[6:58] Speaker 2: any older than fifteen, that he is any taller than
[7:00] Speaker 2: five to eleven and a half and weighs any more
[7:02] Speaker 2: than one hundred and sixty three pounds. And I also
[7:05] Speaker 2: the rational part of my brain understands that he's likely
[7:08] Speaker 2: six one two thirty five, right, But I see him
[7:12] Speaker 2: against the monsters on the Texas Tech defensive line or
[7:15] Speaker 2: the Utah defensive line, the latter of which he beat,
[7:19] Speaker 2: and I think to myself, he is an up and
[7:22] Speaker 2: coming high school sophomore, okay, And I'm sorry. I can't
[7:26] Speaker 2: get away from it, and I apologize. The rational part
[7:29] Speaker 2: of my brain says, yes, of course you were wrong.
[7:31] Speaker 2: You screwed that one up. But also did it?
[7:35] Speaker 1: Did it? Did my brain screw that? I didn't want
[7:37] Speaker 1: to be a jerk on Saturday.
[7:39] Speaker 3: No, you handled yourself well, And I think I pushed
[7:42] Speaker 3: back gently because I didn't have the exact height and
[7:46] Speaker 3: weight in front of me. I knew, just from you know,
[7:50] Speaker 3: looking at enough bear Bachmeyer stats and watching enough of
[7:52] Speaker 3: his play this year that you were a bit off.
[7:56] Speaker 3: But I was not even confident enough in my own
[8:00] Speaker 3: retelling of bear Bachmeyer's stats to push back too art
[8:04] Speaker 3: ecause I didn't know for sure, but I.
[8:05] Speaker 1: Knew I knew he was over two hundred and at
[8:07] Speaker 1: least listed as such. So okay, thank you for.
[8:10] Speaker 2: Literally the BYU fans were like acting as if he
[8:13] Speaker 2: were the Pillsbury throwboy, acting as if he who was it,
[8:16] Speaker 2: Jeremy Gibbs, who was the old miss guy who would
[8:19] Speaker 2: come in in specialty situations, the large high school quarterback
[8:23] Speaker 2: who was also like a defensive tackle. I forget his name,
[8:25] Speaker 2: So okay, hand up my fault on that one.
[8:28] Speaker 1: Okay.
[8:28] Speaker 2: Also more straightforward apology wise, and it's just this is
[8:32] Speaker 2: both of us in talking about mad Zolers and what
[8:35] Speaker 2: even corrected me on this. I just saw it after
[8:37] Speaker 2: the fact that the reference he's the third string Missoo quarterback.
[8:41] Speaker 1: Well, he was a third string Missoo quarterback.
[8:43] Speaker 2: What I'm saying is like on that roster fall camp wise, obviously,
[8:47] Speaker 2: until Sam Horn got hurt, I just thought I could
[8:49] Speaker 2: have extended more grace. We could have extended more grace, like,
[8:52] Speaker 2: this is the third best quarterback on this roster, all
[8:55] Speaker 2: things being equal, and he wasn't able to get it done,
[8:58] Speaker 2: certainly against an M. I and I don't think bou
[9:01] Speaker 2: Bribuela would have been able to. I don't think sam
[9:02] Speaker 2: Horn would have been able to. But I thought we
[9:04] Speaker 2: should have provided more context to that one as well.
[9:07] Speaker 3: Listen, I think that's totally fair. I also think that,
[9:10] Speaker 3: and you're right. I mean, look, your first game as
[9:12] Speaker 3: a starter against Texas A and M is not, yeah,
[9:15] Speaker 3: exactly the easiest ask, right, So, but that being said,
[9:20] Speaker 3: I thought, at least in limited action in spots, he's
[9:23] Speaker 3: proven that he's capable. It's just going to take some
[9:26] Speaker 3: seasoning to get there. He was still a four star,
[9:28] Speaker 3: but he's just a true freshman, so it's going to
[9:30] Speaker 3: take a minute. Again, you're going up against the best
[9:32] Speaker 3: of the best in the SEC. So yeah, extending some
[9:36] Speaker 3: grace to him originally started out the year as a
[9:38] Speaker 3: third string quarterback.
[9:40] Speaker 1: By the way, this was sort.
[9:42] Speaker 3: Of the main point of pessimism when it came to Missoo.
[9:50] Speaker 3: After sam Horn got hurt. It immediately shifted to a
[9:55] Speaker 3: question of quarterback depth because of how Bo Brabulah at
[9:58] Speaker 3: least tended to play up at Penn State.
[10:00] Speaker 1: Likes to use his legs, definitely more of a dual threat.
[10:02] Speaker 3: Guy.
[10:03] Speaker 1: Put him on the run, that type of stuff. If
[10:05] Speaker 1: Bo goes down, what happens then behind him?
[10:08] Speaker 3: We see what happens now, Like the nod doesn't mean
[10:11] Speaker 3: they won't be good moving forward, but just wasn't ready
[10:15] Speaker 3: for this moment as you might expect.
[10:17] Speaker 2: I sort of opened the show talking about Delaware in
[10:20] Speaker 2: a sort of joking way, but kind of not joking.
[10:23] Speaker 2: I don't know if you saw the end of that game.
[10:25] Speaker 1: At the end of the game, yeah, so.
[10:26] Speaker 2: It's two touchdowns and under a minute for Delaware. I
[10:29] Speaker 2: think it's a They punch it in and then they
[10:31] Speaker 2: get a pick six, immediately give up a touchdown and
[10:35] Speaker 2: then execute maybe the on side kick of the year,
[10:39] Speaker 2: like perfect bounce up and I think that sets up
[10:42] Speaker 2: a game winning field goal. Delaware in their first I
[10:45] Speaker 2: believe this is their first FBS season, was right there
[10:48] Speaker 2: with I want to say Western Kentucky was. They were
[10:52] Speaker 2: competitive with Jacksonville State, really impressive, like under the radar,
[10:57] Speaker 2: I know that's the second we're going to sort of
[10:58] Speaker 2: look at in a little bit, but under the radar
[11:00] Speaker 2: season so far for Delaware because that transition can be
[11:04] Speaker 2: very tough. Obviously they've had a good amount of success
[11:05] Speaker 2: as an FCS program, but a really cool under the
[11:09] Speaker 2: radar season long thing going on for the Blue Hens. Yeah,
[11:13] Speaker 2: go Blue Hens.
[11:14] Speaker 1: Yep.
[11:15] Speaker 3: My first visit, my first visit as a or a
[11:19] Speaker 3: high school senior when I was looking at colleges was
[11:21] Speaker 3: University of Delaware.
[11:22] Speaker 2: Yes, So I just wanted to highlight that because it's
[11:26] Speaker 2: it's been a cool story.
[11:28] Speaker 3: All right, Well, listen, if you've got anything out there
[11:31] Speaker 3: that you'd like to add, you can always email cliverblegmail
[11:34] Speaker 3: dot com or reach out on social media. Edit. I
[11:37] Speaker 3: just kept thinking about if you're a Nebraska fan and
[11:41] Speaker 3: you just had Dylan Royola go down, you had to
[11:44] Speaker 3: deal with weeks on end of Matt Ruhle rumors. Obviously,
[11:49] Speaker 3: you you lose a big game in a big spot,
[11:53] Speaker 3: like you've had so many little daggers that you've had
[11:55] Speaker 3: to contend with. Is it not insult to injury to
[11:58] Speaker 3: turn it on late and then realize on man, we
[12:00] Speaker 3: got a brando game. Oh, the universe is turning against
[12:06] Speaker 3: Nebraska people.
[12:07] Speaker 2: Yes, I don't know if I could have handled Gary
[12:09] Speaker 2: Danielson and Tim Brando back to back. I don't know
[12:13] Speaker 2: if like the Danielson Brando syndrome would have been curable
[12:18] Speaker 2: in that moment.
[12:19] Speaker 1: mAbs, Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[12:21] Speaker 2: The other thing, by the way, I should mention one
[12:23] Speaker 2: of those stranger seasons that we should spend just like
[12:26] Speaker 2: thirty seconds to ninety seconds on right now, Kentucky football.
[12:30] Speaker 3: Oh my god, Well, we joked about zombie Kentucky on
[12:33] Speaker 3: the last episode.
[12:34] Speaker 2: So Kentucky nearly beats a top ten team in Texas,
[12:39] Speaker 2: destroys a Florida team to the point where and look,
[12:41] Speaker 2: it's a lame duck Florida program with Billy and Napier
[12:43] Speaker 2: being fired but having their like superstar potential quarterback bench
[12:48] Speaker 2: after was it three first half interceptions only to replace
[12:52] Speaker 2: him with a true freshman. Getting Hugh Freeze fired two
[12:57] Speaker 2: weeks ago in scoring one touchdown against Auburns, like, oh,
[13:01] Speaker 2: that's plenty, that's plenty to get Hugh Freeze fired. Actually
[13:05] Speaker 2: scoring a bunch against Tennessee, but they gave up way
[13:08] Speaker 2: too many points in that game. Kind of finding an
[13:11] Speaker 2: exciting quarterback all things considered with Kentucky's quarterback history of
[13:15] Speaker 2: the past ten fifteen years and a young quarterback and
[13:17] Speaker 2: cutter Bowlie forget all the noise around Florida, and it's
[13:21] Speaker 2: always good if you're a Kentucky fan to beat Florida.
[13:24] Speaker 1: They smashed them thirty eight to seven.
[13:27] Speaker 2: And this was also a program that like was in
[13:29] Speaker 2: position to beat maybe or not, I don't know beat,
[13:32] Speaker 2: but like competed with ole Miss early on, had a
[13:34] Speaker 2: down couple weeks mid season, but after the bye have
[13:38] Speaker 2: been like a totally new team. And this is all
[13:41] Speaker 2: within the context of also paying a quarterback and Zach Calzada,
[13:45] Speaker 2: who has made TikTok videos taunting people with one hundred
[13:48] Speaker 2: dollars bills and benching that dude moving on and becoming better.
[13:54] Speaker 2: Like it's a it's kind of a narrative out of nowhere,
[13:58] Speaker 2: and so I just wanted to, like flowers whatever for Kentucky,
[14:03] Speaker 2: I think are in order.
[14:04] Speaker 3: Here's the other aspect of the Kentucky season that you know,
[14:07] Speaker 3: as he said, maybe flying a bit under the radar,
[14:09] Speaker 3: and it's been kind of weird and gone on. I
[14:11] Speaker 3: just watched that game more closely this morning, and I
[14:13] Speaker 3: felt some things. They've got Tennessee Tech this week, who
[14:16] Speaker 3: they should beat handily, but their final two games, both
[14:20] Speaker 3: of which are on the road at Vandy at Louisville.
[14:25] Speaker 3: In both instances they are projected to be the underdog,
[14:28] Speaker 3: but they have been playing better, as you said, since
[14:30] Speaker 3: the bye week, and I think on both fronts, if
[14:34] Speaker 3: you knock off Vandy, that's got SEC implications, maybe playoff implications,
[14:37] Speaker 3: depending on how this week goes for Vandy. They've got
[14:42] Speaker 3: Louisville to close out the season Louisville right now seven
[14:45] Speaker 3: and two. Louisville, who knows.
[14:46] Speaker 1: What the season brings the rest of the way.
[14:50] Speaker 3: You know, it would take I think an act of
[14:52] Speaker 3: God to put them in the ACC title game at
[14:54] Speaker 3: this point. For a lot to go wrong. I'm not
[14:56] Speaker 3: even sure it's mathematically possible. But those are two games
[14:59] Speaker 3: that to me feel winnable, even though they're probably gonna
[15:03] Speaker 3: be projected underdogs. Both are on the road, but given
[15:06] Speaker 3: the fact they're playing better, two games that have like
[15:10] Speaker 3: ripple effects if they were to pull an upset.
[15:12] Speaker 1: The other thing.
[15:12] Speaker 2: By the way, and again we spend a little bit
[15:14] Speaker 2: of time on this the insanity that is Duke football
[15:20] Speaker 2: showing nothing in the non conference portion of their schedule,
[15:23] Speaker 2: losing to Yukon, Tulane, and Illinois, each of which in
[15:28] Speaker 2: like pseudo embarrassing fashion, all things considered context of their opponents,
[15:32] Speaker 2: and in the absolute driver's seat to go to the
[15:34] Speaker 2: a SEC championship game.
[15:35] Speaker 1: I believe able.
[15:37] Speaker 2: It's just we should honor that they've They've had kind
[15:40] Speaker 2: of a horrendous defense this year, kind of horrendous turnover
[15:44] Speaker 2: situations in some of those non conference games. And Darien
[15:47] Speaker 2: Mensa against ACC teams is one of the best quarterbacks.
[15:51] Speaker 1: In the country.
[15:52] Speaker 3: Yeah, I checked earlier today for whatever you make of
[15:54] Speaker 3: PFF grades. I know it's yeah, kind of a controversial thing,
[15:57] Speaker 3: but behind Julian saying Mensa is number two nationally.
[16:03] Speaker 1: And here's a PFF per PFF in her past grade.
[16:05] Speaker 3: Yeah, based on like you know, some version of how
[16:10] Speaker 3: many dropbacks you have. I sort of filtered it down
[16:12] Speaker 3: so you don't have the backups in there. But yeah, he's.
[16:16] Speaker 1: Having a good year. He's having a good year. He's
[16:18] Speaker 1: a playmaker.
[16:19] Speaker 3: I guess they're getting their money's worth, and certainly if
[16:21] Speaker 3: they go on to win the ACC and go to
[16:22] Speaker 3: the playoff, it will all have been worth it. But
[16:24] Speaker 3: it's definitely been a bit of a lumpy season for
[16:27] Speaker 3: the Duke Blue Devils. I'm giggling, by the way, like
[16:29] Speaker 3: a like a schoolboy over here at these things that
[16:32] Speaker 3: you're bringing up.
[16:32] Speaker 1: How can you not love college football? I do not
[16:35] Speaker 1: love this. This is all just pure insanity.
[16:38] Speaker 3: This is why we do this is why we're still
[16:40] Speaker 3: doing this show because of this, Because of stuff like this.
[16:43] Speaker 2: Duke has arguably one of the worst pass defenses of
[16:48] Speaker 2: any Power for conference team, and yet could get I think,
[16:53] Speaker 2: I don't know what like the likeliest I don't know
[16:55] Speaker 2: the projections or anything like that, but are in at
[16:57] Speaker 2: least a decent enough position to get a rematch with
[17:00] Speaker 2: Georgia Tech as a current if I'm rating this correctly,
[17:04] Speaker 2: four lost team to go to the college football Playoff
[17:08] Speaker 2: and potentially have a I don't know, a Power four
[17:11] Speaker 2: conference team not get a bye. They've got a big
[17:13] Speaker 2: game this week.
[17:14] Speaker 3: Which we're not going to preview on this episode, but
[17:16] Speaker 3: we will on Thursday against Virginia who lost their quarterback
[17:20] Speaker 3: last week. Who lost its quarterback last week.
[17:21] Speaker 1: That's right.
[17:22] Speaker 3: That game is at home. They've also got their rivalry
[17:25] Speaker 3: game against North Carolina.
[17:28] Speaker 1: YEP, who did beat Stanford in Week.
[17:30] Speaker 3: Thirteen, and then they close out the year at home
[17:32] Speaker 3: against a very pesky wake Forest.
[17:35] Speaker 1: If they were to go.
[17:36] Speaker 3: Through and win all three of those games, based on
[17:40] Speaker 3: tiebreaker scenarios, I believe they would have a leg up
[17:44] Speaker 3: on SMU and they would end up playing Georgia Tech
[17:47] Speaker 3: in the ACC title game. As you said, obviously, if
[17:50] Speaker 3: they lose this week, things change. Clearly, there are other
[17:53] Speaker 3: scenarios around college football, around the ACC that could alter
[17:57] Speaker 3: what this landscape looks like a little bit. But if
[18:00] Speaker 3: you are a Duke fan, if you are looking at
[18:03] Speaker 3: your remaining schedule this week, next week, the week after,
[18:07] Speaker 3: those look like to me three winnable games, and if
[18:10] Speaker 3: you can get the job done, there's a pretty good
[18:12] Speaker 3: shot you're playing for that ACC title.
[18:14] Speaker 2: And taking out a ten and two playoff deserving team
[18:19] Speaker 2: in the process, an at large ten and two team.
[18:22] Speaker 1: I think.
[18:22] Speaker 3: I think that's how the maps, that's how this would work.
[18:25] Speaker 3: And right now, by the way, regardless of who wins.
[18:28] Speaker 2: The agly an ACC team right that's going to eliminate
[18:31] Speaker 2: in a there's a good chance it's eliminating an at
[18:34] Speaker 2: large berth for a NACC team, there's I would say.
[18:37] Speaker 3: A very likely chance that, like last year when we
[18:40] Speaker 3: saw it with Clemson, the ACC victor is going to
[18:45] Speaker 3: end up knocking out one of those top twelve teams
[18:47] Speaker 3: in the final CF people.
[18:49] Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean they still the ACC last year, obviously
[18:52] Speaker 2: still got two teams in with SMU, But yes, that
[18:56] Speaker 2: does throw that wrinkle. Clemson was outside of the top
[18:59] Speaker 2: twelve the ACC.
[19:01] Speaker 3: So and by the way, it's probably going to be
[19:04] Speaker 3: two teams that get the boot because remember Boise State
[19:07] Speaker 3: was rank pretty high last year.
[19:09] Speaker 1: That's true, Boise State was the.
[19:11] Speaker 3: Three seed they got a first round by But as
[19:14] Speaker 3: it stands right now, whoever emerges on the G six level,
[19:19] Speaker 3: you know, maybe you're a USF guy, maybe you're a
[19:21] Speaker 3: North Texas guy. Maybe you got somebody else, maybe you're
[19:24] Speaker 3: a James Madison guy. I don't know, whatever flavor of
[19:26] Speaker 3: G six you're into, that team I would say, almost
[19:31] Speaker 3: definitively at this point is going to knock somebody else out.
[19:34] Speaker 3: So if you are looking at these rankings when they
[19:37] Speaker 3: come out every Tuesday night, I would definitely start thinking
[19:40] Speaker 3: of it in terms of if my team is up there.
[19:43] Speaker 3: If my team is ranked in the top ten, that's good.
[19:47] Speaker 3: If I'm number eleven. If I'm number twelve, that is
[19:50] Speaker 3: not good at all. Change if I'm number eleven, If
[19:52] Speaker 3: I'm number twelve, I need teams in front of me
[19:54] Speaker 3: to lose, or I need to find a way to
[19:55] Speaker 3: win my conference. Otherwise, you're sort of on a knife's edge,
[19:59] Speaker 3: and I think there's a pretty strong possibility, possibility, possibility, probability, whatever,
[20:05] Speaker 3: that you're gonna get knocked out by one of these
[20:07] Speaker 3: lower rank conference champions.
[20:09] Speaker 2: By the way, the possibility is uh prause. Of course,
[20:13] Speaker 2: from the Fuji's doing his own projections on the college
[20:17] Speaker 2: football playoff, here's my other This is an easy transition
[20:20] Speaker 2: for you. I don't remember the exact year it was,
[20:24] Speaker 2: but wasn't There was a post season conversation where Pitt
[20:28] Speaker 2: was squarely the affecting team, like Pitt had played like
[20:32] Speaker 2: four or five different teams, and how they fared against
[20:35] Speaker 2: Pitt was an actual thing that people were using for
[20:38] Speaker 2: or against a cause. I don't know if it was
[20:39] Speaker 2: the year that Pitt beat you know, I remember it
[20:42] Speaker 2: just like the Jason Kirk put Pitt in I was
[20:44] Speaker 2: twenty fifteen or sixteen when James Connor ran all over Clemson,
[20:47] Speaker 2: whatever it was that Pitt was affecting the race. Pitt
[20:52] Speaker 2: has an opportunity this season and this is easy transition
[20:55] Speaker 2: to rankings or preview talk whatever. There's like this weird
[20:59] Speaker 2: ongoing Miami I mean Notre Dame conversation where Miami fans
[21:03] Speaker 2: are like, I'm sorry, we have the same number of
[21:05] Speaker 2: losses and we beat this team, why are we ranked
[21:07] Speaker 2: behind them? And obviously who Miami has lost too has
[21:10] Speaker 2: affected their ranking. But Pitt now has the opportunity finishing
[21:14] Speaker 2: their season against both of these teams to be a
[21:17] Speaker 2: measuring stick in a potential at large conversation that involves
[21:21] Speaker 2: both Miami and Notre Dame. And I'm happy for the
[21:24] Speaker 2: retro vibes of Pitt affecting this playoff playoff race in
[21:28] Speaker 2: a very serious way.
[21:29] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[21:29] Speaker 3: The other thing that I should add while we're talking
[21:32] Speaker 3: through ACC possibilities, Okay, and this is why I don't
[21:36] Speaker 3: want to commit to anything in the ACC because it's
[21:38] Speaker 3: not ironclad, by the way that if Duke wins out,
[21:40] Speaker 3: they're gonna find their way into this title thing. It's
[21:44] Speaker 3: there's a lot that could still happen, okay, and Pitt
[21:46] Speaker 3: is one of those. So Pitt has Georgia Tech next week.
[21:50] Speaker 3: Pitt has Miami to close out its season. The Georgia
[21:54] Speaker 3: Tech game is on the road, the Miami game is
[21:57] Speaker 3: at home. If Pitt were to knock off both of
[21:59] Speaker 3: those teams, Pitt would find its way into the ACC
[22:03] Speaker 3: title game.
[22:04] Speaker 1: Oh yeah, the pro is a really nice play.
[22:06] Speaker 3: The preseason prophecy from yours truly would come true and
[22:10] Speaker 3: Pitt would find its way into that game, though not
[22:12] Speaker 3: against Clemson as I thought initially. There's still a lot
[22:15] Speaker 3: that could go on in the ACC. I don't mean
[22:18] Speaker 3: to give the impression that it's ironclad Duke winning out
[22:20] Speaker 3: They're going to be in this thing, but I would
[22:23] Speaker 3: say right now Pitt is likely the underdog in those games,
[22:28] Speaker 3: both against Georgia Tech and Miami, which is why I'm
[22:30] Speaker 3: not quite taking.
[22:30] Speaker 1: That to the bank.
[22:31] Speaker 3: But just bear in mind, there's a lot that could
[22:33] Speaker 3: still go on here that could put a bunch of
[22:35] Speaker 3: teams into that ACC title game.
[22:38] Speaker 2: Good for us with our like preseason ACC crushes mine
[22:41] Speaker 2: with Duke and yours with Pitt. Thus far, we couldn't
[22:44] Speaker 2: anticipate exactly that this was going to be a Mason.
[22:46] Speaker 2: Heinschel Year and Duke loses an embarrassing fashion to Tulane
[22:50] Speaker 2: and Illinois and Yukon, but is still very much alive
[22:53] Speaker 2: in the couple weeks before Thanksgiving. Quick fact check here,
[22:57] Speaker 2: because when I make a pop culture reference without knowing
[22:59] Speaker 2: anything about out this person in pop culture, obviously.
[23:04] Speaker 1: I'm a big fujis person. Obviously.
[23:07] Speaker 2: Praz was recently found guilty of ten criminal counts in
[23:10] Speaker 2: the US District Court for the District of Columbia. He's
[23:13] Speaker 2: facing up to twenty years in prison, but is currently
[23:15] Speaker 2: free on bond pending appeals. And this is all involving
[23:18] Speaker 2: the one Malaysia Development burhads scandal in trying to back
[23:23] Speaker 2: channel extradition of Chinese nationals.
[23:25] Speaker 1: Okay, so I do.
[23:27] Speaker 2: See the full picture of Praz via a very cursory
[23:30] Speaker 2: search on Wikipedia. I just want people to know that
[23:34] Speaker 2: I'm not blindly going into it. Now, Okay, that's all.
[23:37] Speaker 2: Where are were going from here?
[23:38] Speaker 3: Well, we're now extortion adjacent or whatever on this show,
[23:41] Speaker 3: Welcome back one and all.
[23:43] Speaker 1: Let's reveal the.
[23:46] Speaker 3: Response is let's reveal the results. That's the word I'm
[23:50] Speaker 3: looking for of the Verballer top twelve. It doesn't look
[23:55] Speaker 3: all that different from the latest AP and coaches polls
[23:59] Speaker 3: that are out there. We're recording this midday Monday, before
[24:02] Speaker 3: the CFP rankings. This is part of why we're not
[24:05] Speaker 3: going to talk through, at least to the same extent,
[24:08] Speaker 3: the polls the way we would normally. We'll save a
[24:12] Speaker 3: little bit of that for the Thursday episode when we
[24:13] Speaker 3: have brackets to respond to and we have actual committee
[24:17] Speaker 3: result committee rankings and results to respond to.
[24:21] Speaker 1: But here's what it looks like in our world.
[24:23] Speaker 3: Ohio State, Indiana still won two, Texas A and M,
[24:26] Speaker 3: and Alabama is still three to four. We've got Georgia
[24:30] Speaker 3: at five, we got Texas Tech moving up to number six.
[24:33] Speaker 3: We've got Ole Miss at seven, Oregon at eight, Notre
[24:37] Speaker 3: Dame at nine, and then to round out the top twelve,
[24:40] Speaker 3: we've got Texas, Georgia Tech, and Oklahoma BYU fell pretty far.
[24:44] Speaker 3: They're down at thirteen, Vanderbilt knocking on the door at fourteen,
[24:48] Speaker 3: and then we've got Utah at fifteen, and USC at
[24:52] Speaker 3: number sixteen. In case you're interested in the first four out, Dan, yes,
[24:57] Speaker 3: we don't need to respond. I think for like fifteen
[25:01] Speaker 3: minutes about this. But I think we should give at
[25:04] Speaker 3: least some initial reaction to what the verballer hood is
[25:07] Speaker 3: telling us.
[25:07] Speaker 1: Here.
[25:07] Speaker 3: What I am getting from this, people felt pretty good
[25:10] Speaker 3: about what they saw from Texas Tech.
[25:12] Speaker 1: Yeah, all they have to see, think so, I think
[25:14] Speaker 1: deservedly so.
[25:15] Speaker 2: Yeah, they beat a three hundred and fifty five pound
[25:18] Speaker 2: quarterback into submission.
[25:20] Speaker 3: Yeah, he's getting bigger by the second, like Tommy Castellanos
[25:23] Speaker 3: did last year.
[25:23] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, crazy, Yeah, he's like a kid from Willy
[25:26] Speaker 2: Wonka getting blown up.
[25:28] Speaker 1: Violet bouregard. Is that who got big? I don't know. Okay,
[25:32] Speaker 1: come on time, I don't know. Isn't she turning violet
[25:36] Speaker 1: and huge? Yeah? Continue?
[25:38] Speaker 3: Notre Dame all the way up to nine now in
[25:40] Speaker 3: this poll, just a slow and steady creep. I know
[25:43] Speaker 3: you've got a question about schedules. Well, I don't want
[25:46] Speaker 3: to give away the game too much.
[25:47] Speaker 1: We'll talk. No, that's fine in a little bit. But
[25:49] Speaker 1: Notre Dame up at nine.
[25:51] Speaker 3: Texas now creeping into the top ten in advance of
[25:54] Speaker 3: their big game this week, which we will talk about
[25:57] Speaker 3: momentarily with Georgio mentioned earlier that there's a pretty strong
[26:02] Speaker 3: likelihood that the ACC champion will not be ranked in
[26:04] Speaker 3: the top twelve, not according to the ball or top
[26:06] Speaker 3: twelve pole though, because right now Georgia Tech is at eleven,
[26:11] Speaker 3: Oklahoma at twelve is a choice. One thing that I
[26:14] Speaker 3: saw echoed throughout the college football ether, especially if you
[26:19] Speaker 3: are as online as you and I are, seems like
[26:24] Speaker 3: it's hard to rank the top twelve. Seems like it's
[26:28] Speaker 3: hard once you get outside that top like eight, it
[26:33] Speaker 3: gets real difficult. And I think it was maybe Stu
[26:36] Speaker 3: Mandel maybe, so I don't know who it was, but
[26:38] Speaker 3: somebody was online talking about how, you know, amid this
[26:41] Speaker 3: world that we live in now, where there's this constant
[26:43] Speaker 3: threat of the Big ten or the SEC or whoever
[26:46] Speaker 3: trying to expand the playoff up to twenty teams, it
[26:49] Speaker 3: would be a real question of who you would even rank,
[26:52] Speaker 3: who'd even want to put in a twenty team field.
[26:55] Speaker 3: Given where we're at this year, it feels like we've
[26:57] Speaker 3: got a very clear stratification and like top A, and
[27:01] Speaker 3: then beyond that, it's sort of anyone's guess as to
[27:03] Speaker 3: who you're putting where agree?
[27:06] Speaker 1: Can I can I ask you a question about numbers two?
[27:08] Speaker 1: And three. Yeah, so you're talking about Indiana and Texas
[27:11] Speaker 1: A and M.
[27:12] Speaker 2: Is there not a like kind of a not easy case,
[27:15] Speaker 2: but a clean case to put Texas A and M
[27:17] Speaker 2: over Indiana after this past weekend. If we believe in
[27:21] Speaker 2: limber poles, so A and M has a stronger they
[27:25] Speaker 2: schedule stronger than non conference Indiana has. Nobody there. I
[27:31] Speaker 2: A and M has been taking care of business in
[27:33] Speaker 2: a way similar. All they do is get coaches fired
[27:36] Speaker 2: or play teams with fired coaches. I guess sure Texas
[27:38] Speaker 2: A and M they played Miszoo without their starting quarterback
[27:42] Speaker 2: or as we talked about, without their two top quarterbacks.
[27:45] Speaker 1: But everybody's played Miszoo without Sam Horn this year.
[27:49] Speaker 2: And Indiana needs every second and every inch of regulation
[27:54] Speaker 2: to beat a big ten winless Penn State. Now there's
[27:59] Speaker 2: context why Penn State is when lists who also is
[28:01] Speaker 2: playing without their quarterback. But you kind of are what
[28:04] Speaker 2: your record is at a certain point in Penn State.
[28:06] Speaker 2: It's a team that couldn't quite get over Northwestern and UCLA.
[28:09] Speaker 1: Right, So.
[28:12] Speaker 2: I wouldn't hate having and rewarding the scheduling of Notre
[28:16] Speaker 2: Dame and beating Notre Dame on the road, and now
[28:19] Speaker 2: Indiana has arguably a better win beating Oregon on the road.
[28:21] Speaker 2: Of course, nobody's arguing against Indiana's excellence, but if we
[28:26] Speaker 2: are advocates for a limberpole here, I wouldn't hate A
[28:30] Speaker 2: and M.
[28:30] Speaker 1: A two, would you? I put A and M at
[28:32] Speaker 1: two in my ballot? Okay, I did have A and
[28:35] Speaker 1: M at two, and I struggled with that.
[28:39] Speaker 3: In part because I was doing it at three thirty
[28:41] Speaker 3: am Eastern time after we did our show, certainly, but
[28:44] Speaker 3: I wanted to try and vote while the reactions were
[28:47] Speaker 3: still fresh.
[28:48] Speaker 1: I just feel like A and M.
[28:52] Speaker 3: What they have done in the sec these last couple
[28:55] Speaker 3: of weeks has been damn impressive. I mean they have
[28:57] Speaker 3: gone on the road, they mopped up on LSU. LSU
[29:01] Speaker 3: might not be what we thought preseason. That's a tough
[29:04] Speaker 3: place to go and win at night Tiger Stadium. They
[29:07] Speaker 3: got Brian Kelly fired right Missoo. Yes, it was with
[29:10] Speaker 3: the backup quarterback, but Miszoo is still a pretty good
[29:12] Speaker 3: team with a good defense. They put up thirty eight.
[29:15] Speaker 1: They can run and defend, yeah, effortlessly against the Missoo Tigers.
[29:19] Speaker 3: Even that win back in Week three against Notre Dame,
[29:22] Speaker 3: and they'll say what you want about Week three Notre Dame.
[29:25] Speaker 1: But Texas.
[29:26] Speaker 3: A and M needed to win that one and a shootout,
[29:29] Speaker 3: and they did. They put up forty one points, they
[29:31] Speaker 3: win by one. That's a good win. That's looking like
[29:33] Speaker 3: a top ten win. Now we will see what A
[29:36] Speaker 3: and M has the rest of the way. They've got
[29:39] Speaker 3: a big one lingering week fourteen against Texas. But I
[29:44] Speaker 3: think Bio Largest is a team to me that feels
[29:46] Speaker 3: like they've gotten better. And this is not to say
[29:48] Speaker 3: that Indiana hasn't because the win that they got on
[29:51] Speaker 3: the road this week against Penn State. Look, we can
[29:54] Speaker 3: say whatever we want about Penn State. They now lost
[29:56] Speaker 3: six straight. Clearly they're in a different spot than we
[29:59] Speaker 3: thought prec as well.
[30:01] Speaker 1: Arguably the best winless Power Conference team. But Dan, Yeah, to.
[30:07] Speaker 3: Come from behind in the manna that they did a
[30:09] Speaker 3: minute in fifteen seconds driving the field eighty yards, that
[30:11] Speaker 3: incredible touchdown. You know, some of it in sports is
[30:15] Speaker 3: always luck, but that wasn't luck like that.
[30:18] Speaker 2: But they needed it that they needed it against a
[30:20] Speaker 2: big ten winless team.
[30:21] Speaker 3: That was a little bit of luck but a lot
[30:24] Speaker 3: of skill to win in the Manna that they did
[30:27] Speaker 3: still setting, so I don't want to take anything away
[30:29] Speaker 3: from Indiana and certainly go into Oregon and get Getting
[30:32] Speaker 3: that win on the road is impressive. But I think
[30:35] Speaker 3: if you put me in a situation where I had
[30:38] Speaker 3: to pick one over the other, I would favor And
[30:40] Speaker 3: this is how.
[30:40] Speaker 1: I typically do the polls. So I'll just go do
[30:43] Speaker 1: I think A bat C?
[30:45] Speaker 3: Do I think CEA beats D that type of thing.
[30:47] Speaker 3: I right now would favor Texas A and M or
[30:50] Speaker 3: Indiana on a neutral field if it were me.
[30:52] Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I don't know if I would, I'd
[30:53] Speaker 2: have to think about it and dive in. I just
[30:55] Speaker 2: haven't given it as much thought. But I'm just Also,
[30:57] Speaker 2: Texas A and M hasn't played at Kyle Field in
[30:59] Speaker 2: a month. I don't know if that you noticed that
[31:01] Speaker 2: as some weird scheduling quirk in this moment. They had
[31:03] Speaker 2: a bye week in there, so they were able to
[31:05] Speaker 2: sort of recuperate and practice and everything. But that's that's
[31:08] Speaker 2: damn impressive too, playing three straight weeks. I mean, it's
[31:11] Speaker 2: Arkansas lame doc LSU caused a lame duck situation and
[31:17] Speaker 2: Missou without their starting quarterback.
[31:18] Speaker 1: But I don't know.
[31:19] Speaker 2: I just right now, if you're just gonna say who's
[31:21] Speaker 2: number two, who's number three, not necessarily, who's like definitively better,
[31:24] Speaker 2: and who you'd wager a thousand dollars on, there's a
[31:27] Speaker 2: clean case for A and M at that number two.
[31:29] Speaker 1: I mean, let's put this way.
[31:30] Speaker 3: If it were Texas A and M against Indiana and
[31:33] Speaker 3: you told me I had to wager one thousand dollars
[31:34] Speaker 3: on one team or another, I would opt not to
[31:37] Speaker 3: wager a thousand dollars because.
[31:39] Speaker 2: What an unbelievable coaching matchup too, though, Oh yeah, you Knowlko.
[31:42] Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I just I have a.
[31:44] Speaker 3: Lot of respect for what both these teams have done
[31:46] Speaker 3: so far this season, and so I'm just this is
[31:49] Speaker 3: not me saying it's a clear cut choice.
[31:52] Speaker 1: It was more spur the moment.
[31:53] Speaker 3: I was really impressed by what I saw from both
[31:55] Speaker 3: teams this past week. I might give it to A
[31:58] Speaker 3: and M by a nose, but I reserve the right
[32:00] Speaker 3: to change my opinion because these are two really good teams. Really,
[32:03] Speaker 3: the top four are loaded, and I've got a question
[32:06] Speaker 3: for you about that. Yeah, in about ten minutes, okay, okay,
[32:10] Speaker 3: maybe five minutes, two minutes. Yeah, if you're ready to
[32:13] Speaker 3: move on from this, we can start it right now. Yeah.
[32:16] Speaker 2: I mean, is there anything a pe pole that you
[32:17] Speaker 2: wanted to discuss? We discussed for baller pole. The only
[32:20] Speaker 2: thing I had with the a peopole, which I don't
[32:22] Speaker 2: know if it's reflective in the verballer pole as well.
[32:24] Speaker 2: Just in terms of change from last week to this week,
[32:27] Speaker 2: I'm an unbiased narrator here. Oregon went and beat a
[32:30] Speaker 2: top five defense on the road in a monsoon and
[32:34] Speaker 2: fell a spot. And ole Miss beat not a citadel,
[32:38] Speaker 2: the city citadel, Yeah, at home, and they flipped rankings.
[32:41] Speaker 2: Oregon dropped a spot after beating a top twenty in
[32:44] Speaker 2: the playoff pole team in Iowa, and Ole Miss went
[32:49] Speaker 2: up a spot. And I know this is the ape
[32:51] Speaker 2: pole and not the playoff pole. The playoff pole comes
[32:53] Speaker 2: out Tuesday night, Wednesday Nighty.
[32:56] Speaker 3: That was a little weird, that's a little flimsy. No, Well,
[33:00] Speaker 3: we saw the same thing go down in the for
[33:02] Speaker 3: baller pool because last week they were flipped. Last week,
[33:05] Speaker 3: Oregon was a spot above Old Miss, and this week
[33:08] Speaker 3: Old Miss, yeah is a spot above Oregon.
[33:12] Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I understand, like Okay, if Oregon's a
[33:15] Speaker 2: top ten team, they should beat Iowa by more than
[33:17] Speaker 2: two points. That's fine, that's a reasonable Like they had
[33:20] Speaker 2: opportunities to make it a more comfortable win and weren't
[33:22] Speaker 2: able to capital I.
[33:22] Speaker 1: Mean, Indiana was close. Indiana could have lost to Iowa.
[33:25] Speaker 2: Indiana could have lost. I was a tough team. They're
[33:27] Speaker 2: not a complete team, certainly, but they're a tough team,
[33:30] Speaker 2: especially at home in inclement weather. But looking at ole
[33:34] Speaker 2: Miss taking care of business against the Citadel, I'm thinking,
[33:37] Speaker 2: all right.
[33:38] Speaker 1: We've seen enough.
[33:40] Speaker 2: All of our questions about ole Miss against the Citadel
[33:43] Speaker 2: have been very cleanly answered. Gotta put them above. I
[33:47] Speaker 2: don't know, again, I'm an unbiased narrator.
[33:49] Speaker 1: Well, for what it's.
[33:49] Speaker 3: Worth, if you look at the pole points in THEAP
[33:54] Speaker 3: top twenty five.
[33:55] Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a hair.
[33:56] Speaker 3: It was twelve forty eight for old Miss at six
[34:00] Speaker 3: and twelve forty five for Oregon. So it was quite
[34:04] Speaker 3: literally one person who opted to put ole Miss ahead
[34:08] Speaker 3: of Oregon. And yeah, I don't know, somebody else can
[34:11] Speaker 3: figure that out.
[34:12] Speaker 1: Yeah, but that's where we stand.
[34:14] Speaker 3: Okay, Okay, So look kind of on the heels of
[34:18] Speaker 3: all that, Congratulations skippy, you've got mail.
[34:22] Speaker 1: You've got mail on the solid ruble.
[34:26] Speaker 3: So I'm lying a bit when I play that sound,
[34:28] Speaker 3: But that's typically what we use for the Q and
[34:30] Speaker 3: A segments that we do here on the show. We
[34:33] Speaker 3: did not plan accordingly full disclosure to get questions from
[34:39] Speaker 3: the verballerhood. We will do that at some point very soon.
[34:42] Speaker 3: We owe the people a nice Q and A episode, okay,
[34:46] Speaker 3: But instead what we have in the Q and A
[34:48] Speaker 3: realm is questions for one another. Three questions from me
[34:54] Speaker 3: to you, three questions from you to me. We are
[34:59] Speaker 3: trying to real scrape the bottom of the barrel here.
[35:01] Speaker 3: We are trying to get all of the crevasses here
[35:04] Speaker 3: in this twenty twenty five college football season that maybe
[35:07] Speaker 3: we don't otherwise cover. And yeah, as you know, when
[35:10] Speaker 3: we're writing questions, sometimes these tend to tickle the realm
[35:14] Speaker 3: of the hypothetical. Okay, agree, I teased this a moment ago,
[35:20] Speaker 3: But here's my first question for you.
[35:22] Speaker 1: The stipulation is this. You cannot pick Ohio State or Indiana.
[35:28] Speaker 1: You cannot pick Texas A and M or Alabama. You have,
[35:34] Speaker 1: at last count one hundred and thirty two remaining teams
[35:38] Speaker 1: that you should consider your championship pool. Right, of those
[35:42] Speaker 1: remaining teams, who would you pick to emerge and be
[35:47] Speaker 1: the national champion? Who is the best of the rest.
[35:50] Speaker 2: The best of the non Ohio State, Indiana, nor A
[35:54] Speaker 2: and M or Alabama? Correct, I think it's the team
[36:02] Speaker 2: ranked right at number five. I think it's probably Georgia.
[36:06] Speaker 1: You're going Georgia. I think that the defense.
[36:08] Speaker 2: Okay, so if you do defense, quarterback Gunderstockton has grown,
[36:12] Speaker 2: I think exponentially throughout this season. I'm still I'm still
[36:16] Speaker 2: like crazy in love with their receiving corps in terms
[36:20] Speaker 2: of like, is there a winter wonder who could get
[36:23] Speaker 2: over the top on Ohio State or Indiana or you
[36:25] Speaker 2: know they obviously they've played Alabama and it didn't go
[36:28] Speaker 2: super well. But of those teams, and then if you
[36:32] Speaker 2: lump in coach as well, right, I think it's Georgia.
[36:38] Speaker 2: There is something about how much they've been tested, not
[36:41] Speaker 2: just this season, but over the course of these past
[36:44] Speaker 2: three or four seasons. There's a lot to like about
[36:47] Speaker 2: where Oregon is defensively right now. They're playing really well
[36:51] Speaker 2: in that secondary. I think they have winter runners there.
[36:53] Speaker 2: Other than a couple lapses against Iowa. But I think
[36:55] Speaker 2: the front is very good. I think the best of
[36:57] Speaker 2: Dante More and these running backs, they're excellent. We'll see
[37:00] Speaker 2: how healthy they get at receiver. I think they're like
[37:02] Speaker 2: one A with Georgia and I I'm not there with
[37:06] Speaker 2: Texas Tech because of Baron Morton just in terms of
[37:10] Speaker 2: like that level, that that peak of a mountain. I'm
[37:14] Speaker 2: not there with Texas Tech. I'm not there with Notre
[37:16] Speaker 2: Dame just because I haven't seen anything since those first
[37:19] Speaker 2: couple weeks of the season in terms of being tested
[37:22] Speaker 2: against either top flight defense or I guess USC is
[37:25] Speaker 2: a is A and can be a top flight offense.
[37:27] Speaker 1: It was a beat up USC team that week.
[37:32] Speaker 2: And I don't think they're like I think ole Miss
[37:34] Speaker 2: is really good, but I'm not there with ole Miss
[37:38] Speaker 2: for whatever reason. I just have a block with ole
[37:40] Speaker 2: Miss at this point. So I'd say Georgia and then
[37:44] Speaker 2: Oregon without really a wild card in there, because I
[37:49] Speaker 2: don't have that like combination quarterback and defense. Like there
[37:52] Speaker 2: is something folk hero ish about guys like Diego Pavia
[37:54] Speaker 2: and Haines King, but I don't think either one of
[37:56] Speaker 2: those guys has the defense to back them up. I
[37:59] Speaker 2: don't trust Art Manning. I think Texas has a championship defense.
[38:02] Speaker 2: I don't trust Arch Manning in this offensive line to
[38:04] Speaker 2: include them in this conversation. So I guess I'm going
[38:08] Speaker 2: Georgia one A Oregon.
[38:10] Speaker 3: I think what makes this season really interesting, especially now
[38:13] Speaker 3: as we kind of wind it down and get into
[38:15] Speaker 3: the playoff chase and all that stuff. Yeah, you know,
[38:18] Speaker 3: like before we had the twelve team, or we had
[38:21] Speaker 3: a four teamer, and you can make a pretty strong
[38:23] Speaker 3: case that this would be a really good year for
[38:25] Speaker 3: a four team, or maybe just as you could make
[38:27] Speaker 3: the case last year.
[38:28] Speaker 1: I don't know, But.
[38:31] Speaker 3: Now that we do have twelve, I'm very curious to
[38:33] Speaker 3: see which of those teams outside of the top four,
[38:38] Speaker 3: either throughout the month of November or through the first
[38:41] Speaker 3: round or two of the playoff emerge as the quote
[38:44] Speaker 3: unquote wildcard, because it feels to me that, like, regardless
[38:48] Speaker 3: of whatever these teams are seeded, when they get into
[38:50] Speaker 3: the final twelve team field, there is going to be
[38:54] Speaker 3: ample opportunity for one of these teams to emerge in
[38:58] Speaker 3: a really significant way and take on that role as wildcard.
[39:01] Speaker 3: And I don't know who it's going to be right now,
[39:04] Speaker 3: Like we could talk about Georgia. I don't know if
[39:06] Speaker 3: Georgia in any context right now in the year of
[39:08] Speaker 3: Our Lord twenty twenty five could be considered a wild card,
[39:10] Speaker 3: right maybe in terms of this question, but George is
[39:13] Speaker 3: kind of a no quantity under Kirby Smart, you know,
[39:16] Speaker 3: but certainly Old Miss getting into a playoff would be
[39:18] Speaker 3: a new thing Oregon if they were to go on
[39:21] Speaker 3: any kind of run with this team with you know,
[39:25] Speaker 3: not Dylan Gabriel, you know, with a greener quarterback.
[39:28] Speaker 1: Bill Gabriel's really good.
[39:29] Speaker 2: But like, one of the things that I think we
[39:31] Speaker 2: should mention is when you say wild card, it's not
[39:34] Speaker 2: just a wild card like they're getting hot at the
[39:36] Speaker 2: right time. It could be a wild card like what
[39:38] Speaker 2: Penn State got in terms of playoff seating last season,
[39:41] Speaker 2: right that Oregon could get all due respect Oregon or
[39:46] Speaker 2: George or whoever could get USF and Georgia Tech in
[39:49] Speaker 2: the first two rounds of the playoffs.
[39:51] Speaker 1: That's right.
[39:51] Speaker 3: You could absolutely go on a bit of a run
[39:53] Speaker 3: based on your path, as Penn State did right a
[39:56] Speaker 3: year ago.
[39:56] Speaker 2: Now, so then you avoid Bama, or you avoid Indie,
[40:00] Speaker 2: or you avoid Texas A and M because they lost
[40:02] Speaker 2: to somebody in a previous round.
[40:03] Speaker 1: That's right.
[40:04] Speaker 3: I think that Penn State scenario was far less likely
[40:08] Speaker 3: this year, just because we're not going to have a
[40:10] Speaker 3: Boise Party crasher situation, right. But even still, well, there
[40:14] Speaker 3: is going to be a G six team. There will
[40:16] Speaker 3: be a G S.
[40:17] Speaker 1: There's this in the first round at home.
[40:18] Speaker 3: Yeah, they're gonna be the number twelve seed in all probability,
[40:23] Speaker 3: and in this case it would be against Georgia. But
[40:26] Speaker 3: this is all just to say that somebody will emerge
[40:29] Speaker 3: and I don't know who, but I'm excited to see
[40:31] Speaker 3: who that might be. It could even be the G
[40:33] Speaker 3: six team.
[40:34] Speaker 1: Who knows. Maybe you're a Byron Brown fan like me.
[40:36] Speaker 2: You know you could get You could get USF and
[40:40] Speaker 2: their secondary that you get to throw on and you
[40:42] Speaker 2: have to tackle Byron Brown, which is like one of
[40:44] Speaker 2: the seven most difficult things you could ask a team
[40:46] Speaker 2: to do this season.
[40:48] Speaker 1: And you could, Yeah, you could get an ACC team.
[40:51] Speaker 2: You could get an at large team that just sort
[40:53] Speaker 2: of happened to be there and got in. But yeah,
[40:57] Speaker 2: I would take what's going on and how Georgia seems
[41:01] Speaker 2: to be improving and taking care of business. And look,
[41:04] Speaker 2: they're a winning as a skilled team too when you
[41:06] Speaker 2: look at some of their performances against Florida or against
[41:08] Speaker 2: Auburn where it wasn't pretty for stretches, but they were
[41:11] Speaker 2: able to, you know, make fewer mistakes down the stretch
[41:14] Speaker 2: and come out with a w. I yeah, I would
[41:19] Speaker 2: just have I think, more confidence in a team like
[41:21] Speaker 2: that than like, I think Notre Dame has a really
[41:25] Speaker 2: interesting ceiling because there is an argument to be made
[41:27] Speaker 2: that their defense, I mean, it's not an argument their
[41:30] Speaker 2: defense has gotten better of the course of this season,
[41:32] Speaker 2: but other than the USC offense, who have they proven
[41:35] Speaker 2: that against.
[41:35] Speaker 1: It's totally fair, totally fair. And yeah, CJ.
[41:38] Speaker 2: Carr has answered a ton of questions as the season
[41:40] Speaker 2: has gone on that he looks like he's one of
[41:42] Speaker 2: the best dozen or so quarterbacks in the country. So
[41:45] Speaker 2: I'm I'm great with Notre Dame as an answer. I
[41:47] Speaker 2: just have less to go on in terms of what
[41:49] Speaker 2: we have in the bank.
[41:51] Speaker 3: Next question, Dan, pretend for a moment that you are
[41:54] Speaker 3: James Franklin. Okay, right now, your options are Virginia Tech,
[42:02] Speaker 3: maybe Arkansas, maybe UCLA, could be others that emerge who knows,
[42:09] Speaker 3: m H. Which school are you choosing and why?
[42:13] Speaker 2: Oh, I would choose Virginia Tech of those three. Of
[42:17] Speaker 2: those three, I'd choose Virginia Tech. Are you saying any
[42:19] Speaker 2: open job?
[42:21] Speaker 3: I'm saying of those three in particular, But if you
[42:24] Speaker 3: want to extend it out to all the jobs, yeah,
[42:29] Speaker 3: where does Virginia What I'm getting at here is where
[42:31] Speaker 3: does Virginia Tech rank on the totem pool?
[42:34] Speaker 1: I think they're a top that three team er.
[42:37] Speaker 2: UCLA doesn't fully know what stadium they're going to be
[42:40] Speaker 2: playing in for the foreseeable future.
[42:42] Speaker 3: Did I see that they might pay like eighty million
[42:44] Speaker 3: dollars to break the Rose Bull?
[42:46] Speaker 1: Lease?
[42:46] Speaker 2: They're just they're over the Rose Bowl, and I can't
[42:48] Speaker 2: blame them. It's far enough away, you know. It's the
[42:51] Speaker 2: Rose Bowl is a great venue for a huge game.
[42:53] Speaker 2: UCLA just happens to not play in huge games basically ever,
[42:57] Speaker 2: so it's sort of lost on ruin football at the moment.
[43:01] Speaker 2: They don't have a coach, obviously, there's just a lot
[43:03] Speaker 2: of uncertainty. James Franklin would be that coach in this scenario,
[43:07] Speaker 2: but I don't know that they're pouring the resources into
[43:11] Speaker 2: nil and portal stuff in a way that they would
[43:14] Speaker 2: need to win the Big Ten to make serious noise,
[43:17] Speaker 2: and Arkansas just seems like the path is too difficult.
[43:22] Speaker 2: That you can figure out how to get that one
[43:24] Speaker 2: special season at Arkansas, but in terms of building something
[43:29] Speaker 2: where you can consistently hope to win ten nine and
[43:32] Speaker 2: a half games ten games, I think the ACC path
[43:34] Speaker 2: is better. I think the experience James Franklin has in
[43:36] Speaker 2: recruiting there, I think the investment in Blacksburg is significant enough,
[43:42] Speaker 2: and I think what's ahead of you in the ACC
[43:45] Speaker 2: at the moment is not insurmountable. So I think the
[43:49] Speaker 2: answer is Virginia Tech. And if you win eight nine
[43:52] Speaker 2: games a season at Virginia Tech, you got a job
[43:54] Speaker 2: for as long as you want.
[43:56] Speaker 3: Now, the wrinkle that I would add to this like
[44:00] Speaker 3: I'm not privy to anything. I saw our friend Josh
[44:02] Speaker 3: Pate was talking through a little bit of a rumor
[44:05] Speaker 3: about Lincoln Riley's had keep your eye on Lincoln Rally.
[44:08] Speaker 2: Now, I don't know what I saw that have heard
[44:10] Speaker 2: like very unsubstantiated murmurs about Lincoln Riley's past and future.
[44:16] Speaker 3: There's been some stuff out there, for sure, James Franklin
[44:22] Speaker 3: would hop on one leg out to LA to take
[44:24] Speaker 3: that job. Okay, if they were interested in him. I
[44:27] Speaker 3: know he was interested in them at least twice before
[44:30] Speaker 3: to see what he could do if he could get
[44:31] Speaker 3: out there.
[44:33] Speaker 1: It didn't work out previously.
[44:35] Speaker 3: If that is something that ends up coming to fruition
[44:37] Speaker 3: and again we know nothing, I would keep my own
[44:40] Speaker 3: James franklud for that, trying to get his name in
[44:42] Speaker 3: the running there.
[44:43] Speaker 2: James Franklin would work a weekly shift at Chaano's, like
[44:46] Speaker 2: the taco shack right by USC. I think it's still
[44:49] Speaker 2: open to get that job. He would he would walk
[44:53] Speaker 2: to LA to take that job. Yeah, the only way
[44:55] Speaker 2: I think if Lincoln Riley just I don't think it's
[44:58] Speaker 2: a USC thing Lincoln Riley in his future from what
[45:01] Speaker 2: I know. If he's happy in La, if his family's
[45:04] Speaker 2: happy in LA, if he gets along with the administration
[45:07] Speaker 2: at USC, he's got a very strong, too excellent recruiting
[45:11] Speaker 2: class coming in, it would I think it would be
[45:14] Speaker 2: an unhappiness question with Lincoln Riley and slash his family
[45:19] Speaker 2: in that situation more than a like seeing grasp being
[45:24] Speaker 2: greener elsewhere in terms of a path to a playoff.
[45:28] Speaker 1: Find a question.
[45:29] Speaker 3: Okay, Dan Rubiste, what is the solution for what feels
[45:34] Speaker 3: like the worst run of officiating that we have seen
[45:38] Speaker 3: in maybe the entire span of time we've been doing
[45:41] Speaker 3: the show since two thousand and eight.
[45:42] Speaker 1: Right, it feels like it is.
[45:47] Speaker 3: Horrible this season to an extent that I I've never
[45:51] Speaker 3: really been wanting to complain about the officials, and everybody
[45:54] Speaker 3: tends to get the short end of the stick. If
[45:57] Speaker 3: you play a full twelve game slate, right, you are
[45:59] Speaker 3: You're a big problem. You're note name one was was
[46:00] Speaker 3: it an NC State call that you were like? What
[46:02] Speaker 3: is even happening? I mean, don't even listen to me.
[46:04] Speaker 3: Listen to Terry McCauley. He went off on his Twitter
[46:06] Speaker 3: account about it, and he loves classic seventies rock and
[46:10] Speaker 3: hates the bike short and hates the bike short thing
[46:12] Speaker 3: that we got going on.
[46:13] Speaker 1: That's a separate conversation altogether.
[46:16] Speaker 3: But officiating has been real bad, feels like it's getting worse,
[46:20] Speaker 3: and so I'm just asking you as a former official,
[46:22] Speaker 3: of course, yeah, of course, what is there a solve
[46:26] Speaker 3: for this? Is there any way to make this better?
[46:28] Speaker 3: Or are we just sort of trapped in refereepurgatory.
[46:32] Speaker 1: And by the way, the sidebar, Harry, you were you
[46:34] Speaker 1: not an umpire? Did I make that up? I was
[46:36] Speaker 1: an umpire back in the day.
[46:38] Speaker 3: Okay, not on you understand the baseball field, but just
[46:41] Speaker 3: do you understand that.
[46:42] Speaker 1: Community in a way that not many do? Right as
[46:47] Speaker 1: a twelve year old? Yeah?
[46:49] Speaker 3: No, definitely umpiring for twelve year olds. I did have
[46:52] Speaker 3: a situation.
[46:53] Speaker 1: Okay, uh huh.
[46:55] Speaker 3: Where I called somebody out at home plate and I
[47:01] Speaker 3: was definitely taking like proverbial arrows from a coach that
[47:05] Speaker 3: I knew whose team had lost on the call, and
[47:10] Speaker 3: it was widely seen as the wrong call.
[47:12] Speaker 1: Okay, and I stand by it. I don't stand by
[47:15] Speaker 1: it at all.
[47:16] Speaker 3: I think I may have admitted in the moment, hey,
[47:19] Speaker 3: I made a mistake, like right after it happened, which
[47:23] Speaker 3: was definitely not what it took to make the coach
[47:25] Speaker 3: feel better about things, right, But I found that I
[47:28] Speaker 3: was far too indecisive to be a good umpire.
[47:32] Speaker 2: You were Eastern PA's God. Who is the World Series?
[47:37] Speaker 2: I'm who gave the terrible levant? Was it Levon Hernandez
[47:40] Speaker 2: who got like crazy on hell on hell Hernandez?
[47:44] Speaker 1: Yeah? I mean Levon Hernandez was a pitcher.
[47:46] Speaker 2: No, I know that he was, but he was in
[47:48] Speaker 2: that World Series. Didn't he get crazy strikes called? I
[47:51] Speaker 2: don't remember, like way out of the zone.
[47:53] Speaker 3: Well, I remember the Eric Greg game if that's what
[47:55] Speaker 3: you're talking about, Oh, Eric Greg, excuse me? Yeah, I
[47:57] Speaker 3: mean those pitches were like four feet outside and he
[47:59] Speaker 3: was calling right just to get through the game.
[48:01] Speaker 1: Right.
[48:02] Speaker 2: So yeah, we have some Eric Greg situations in the
[48:04] Speaker 2: college football landscape in twenty twenty five.
[48:07] Speaker 1: I do, okay? Is it a fixable thing? One?
[48:10] Speaker 2: We got to get our guy, Jean's sterritor on the show.
[48:13] Speaker 2: Did they ever get back to you? Did CBS ever
[48:15] Speaker 2: get back to you back? When I say our guy,
[48:16] Speaker 2: I don't know Gene at all, but we just love Gene.
[48:20] Speaker 2: Is it a fixable thing? Is is it something you
[48:22] Speaker 2: can wade through to a mend? The only thing I
[48:26] Speaker 2: would say is it's a difficult job. It's bang bang.
[48:30] Speaker 2: I would say. The older you get, potentially, the more
[48:34] Speaker 2: difficult it is. You'd like to have sharp eyes, but
[48:36] Speaker 2: you'd also like to have experience. Dies you got to
[48:37] Speaker 2: find the happy medium there. I think the big thing
[48:42] Speaker 2: is in these games and It applies to every sport, right,
[48:46] Speaker 2: it applies to referees running up and down a basketball
[48:48] Speaker 2: court or calling a baseball game. You just you got
[48:52] Speaker 2: to have like an even showing, like if you're gonna
[48:56] Speaker 2: say we're gonna let corners get away with a lot,
[49:00] Speaker 2: let it go both ways, like this is the tenor
[49:03] Speaker 2: of this game, We're going to let the corners play.
[49:05] Speaker 2: Or if you're going to say, like we're gonna be
[49:08] Speaker 2: like we're going to be very lax with holds, great,
[49:11] Speaker 2: be lax with holds both ways. I think that needs
[49:13] Speaker 2: to be stressed. I think there has to be an agreement,
[49:16] Speaker 2: a tacit agreement and unspoked whatever between a crew that says, Okay,
[49:22] Speaker 2: this is the tenor of this game. Here's how we're
[49:25] Speaker 2: going to let them play.
[49:26] Speaker 1: Go.
[49:27] Speaker 2: My problem is when you're inconsistent quarter to quarter, drive
[49:31] Speaker 2: to drive, and you're calling pitches on the corner, then
[49:35] Speaker 2: you're not calling pitches on the corner, right that There
[49:38] Speaker 2: is something about a refereeing crew that is all over
[49:41] Speaker 2: the place in terms of how they're calling a game
[49:44] Speaker 2: that is infuriating. So I think everybody needs to get
[49:46] Speaker 2: on the same page in terms of like what the
[49:48] Speaker 2: rhythm of this game should be. From a refereeing perspective,
[49:52] Speaker 2: I kind of think that part of the solve is
[49:54] Speaker 2: to simplify the rule book. You know, okay, I just
[49:58] Speaker 2: just did our lifetime. I'll use as an example what
[50:02] Speaker 2: constitutes a catch or what is a fumble in twenty
[50:08] Speaker 2: twenty five?
[50:09] Speaker 1: You know, did the ground cause the fumble?
[50:11] Speaker 3: I have this conversation with Uncle Joe all the time,
[50:15] Speaker 3: who calls me up and complains to no end about
[50:18] Speaker 3: back in the day, if you fumbled it, you fumbled it, right,
[50:21] Speaker 3: didn't matter if the ground cause it, didn't matter if
[50:23] Speaker 3: a guy ripped it out of your hands when he
[50:24] Speaker 3: was down on the ground.
[50:25] Speaker 1: A fumble was a fumble.
[50:27] Speaker 2: And then your uncle Joe is Joe West, retired legendary
[50:31] Speaker 2: Major League Baseball umpip. Of course, of course, yeah, yeah.
[50:34] Speaker 3: And though I don't fully agree with that sentiment, I
[50:36] Speaker 3: do think there is a grain of truth there in
[50:38] Speaker 3: that the rule book has gotten so complicated and there
[50:41] Speaker 3: are so many like permutations of roughing the quarterback. There
[50:46] Speaker 3: are so many different variables that need to be considered
[50:48] Speaker 3: on every plane. No wonder, it's such a hard job,
[50:51] Speaker 3: right If the officiating feels like it's getting worse. It's
[50:53] Speaker 3: probably because the rules are getting more sophisticated and it's
[50:56] Speaker 3: getting harder to kind of govern the game as it's
[50:59] Speaker 3: going on. And yeah, we have replays, and replays has
[51:02] Speaker 3: limits as well. The thought that I have had multiple
[51:07] Speaker 3: times throughout the course of this year is, I wonder
[51:10] Speaker 3: if you try to streamline this, if you try to
[51:12] Speaker 3: take some of these gray areas out, or just make
[51:16] Speaker 3: a judgment call one way or the other, if that
[51:18] Speaker 3: wouldn't make the job a little bit easier in the
[51:20] Speaker 3: officiating feel like it's a little bit better across the board.
[51:22] Speaker 3: Right again, I umpired twelve year olds playing little league baseball.
[51:27] Speaker 3: I have never umpired anything out there on the field
[51:30] Speaker 3: of play in the football game.
[51:31] Speaker 2: And you've since been banned. Yeah, after that horrible call.
[51:36] Speaker 3: Even if I'm making this up, but yeah, I'll go
[51:38] Speaker 3: with that, it'll give me a hard edge either way.
[51:40] Speaker 1: Look, it's a hard job. I just wonder if.
[51:43] Speaker 3: There is some simplification in order to you know, let
[51:46] Speaker 3: some of the stuff slide, or as you said, the
[51:48] Speaker 3: TACIT agreement beforehand, to allow some penalties to go uncalled.
[51:54] Speaker 3: You know, if you watch the NFL, Like I watched
[51:56] Speaker 3: the Giants game yesterday.
[51:57] Speaker 1: Unfortunately. I mean, it's just flag after flag, flag of
[52:00] Speaker 1: the flag of the play, right some of them.
[52:01] Speaker 3: That's some of this stuff is just it's very clear
[52:05] Speaker 3: that you could just not call it and it'd be fine,
[52:07] Speaker 3: and I don't think anybody would have too much uproar.
[52:10] Speaker 3: But it's as long as it goes both ways, right,
[52:13] Speaker 3: song as it goes both ways? Yeah, as long as
[52:15] Speaker 3: there is a targeting call that goes one way and
[52:18] Speaker 3: then somebody gets hit, you know, an egregious crown of
[52:21] Speaker 3: the helmet hit and it doesn't get called, You're just like, well,
[52:24] Speaker 3: what type of game are we looking for here? Because
[52:27] Speaker 3: nobody wants a game featuring one team committing fourteen penalties
[52:31] Speaker 3: and another team committing twelve penalties.
[52:33] Speaker 1: Right, you don't.
[52:33] Speaker 2: Nobody wants an a rhythmic game with constant stoppages. I
[52:36] Speaker 2: don't think people want games in which penalties are constantly
[52:39] Speaker 2: being reviewed by you know, the league office, the command
[52:42] Speaker 2: center in real time all the time. Nobody wants that.
[52:45] Speaker 2: So then you're juggling, Okay, what are we calling? What
[52:49] Speaker 2: are the rules that are important here? What are the
[52:51] Speaker 2: rules that like are affecting the game. Like, how many
[52:54] Speaker 2: times have we seen a play get called back because
[52:57] Speaker 2: a left guard was two and a half feet past
[53:01] Speaker 2: the allotted you know, distance beyond the line of scrimmage
[53:05] Speaker 2: that right, that happens. No, that has no effect on
[53:09] Speaker 2: the play whatsoever? Right that it Like it's a quarterback
[53:12] Speaker 2: scrambling out. The guy doesn't even go downfield, you know,
[53:15] Speaker 2: until after the ball is thrown, or like right before
[53:18] Speaker 2: the ball is thrown, and that giant play, that game
[53:20] Speaker 2: change and play is brought back because an illegal man downfield.
[53:23] Speaker 2: It wasn't like a guy getting super far upfield to
[53:26] Speaker 2: really sell an RPO that's affecting defensive keys. It's just
[53:29] Speaker 2: a guy not knowing that the ball was thrown and
[53:31] Speaker 2: started running down to help block and it's called back. Like,
[53:34] Speaker 2: is that the spirit of a flag that we want
[53:37] Speaker 2: in this sport? I would say, no, it's a judgment call,
[53:40] Speaker 2: and you want to take out judgment calls as much
[53:41] Speaker 2: as you can. But like, does it affect the spirit
[53:44] Speaker 2: of this play? Is a defensive end being held as
[53:47] Speaker 2: he's going in for a game changing sac call the hold, right,
[53:51] Speaker 2: But in the situation like that where it has no
[53:54] Speaker 2: bearing on.
[53:55] Speaker 1: The outcome of a play. He's just like, it's fine,
[53:57] Speaker 1: let it go. I don't know, man.
[53:59] Speaker 3: We could probably do a whole podcast series on the
[54:02] Speaker 3: evolution of and current public support for targeting, but we
[54:07] Speaker 3: won't do that here.
[54:08] Speaker 2: By the way, you're never going to convince anybody that
[54:11] Speaker 2: a game was well refereed because during a game, everybody
[54:15] Speaker 2: watching the game is just all like testosterone and just
[54:22] Speaker 2: nothing but like guts and id and emotions, and you
[54:26] Speaker 2: can't appreciate the nuances of a no call or a
[54:29] Speaker 2: great call or whatever, and it's it's sort of a
[54:34] Speaker 2: thankless situation. These these refs are put in, but yeah,
[54:39] Speaker 2: you'd like to see more spirit and more things going
[54:41] Speaker 2: both ways and not having a discussion about them at all.
[54:46] Speaker 3: So look, we have two games to preview. We have
[54:48] Speaker 3: some under the radar games that we need to get to.
[54:51] Speaker 3: You did write three questions for me. If if you
[54:53] Speaker 3: want to, we can.
[54:54] Speaker 1: Let's go through this. I'll go through them quickly. Yeah,
[54:56] Speaker 1: go ahead, all right, First question, ty, I wrote it
[55:00] Speaker 1: down and I'm searching for it. Okay. First question, Ashanti
[55:03] Speaker 1: test So this is a you thing.
[55:07] Speaker 2: Continue of the quarterbacks in the top twelve, who do
[55:09] Speaker 2: you trust the most the least, and who has the
[55:11] Speaker 2: biggest opportunity to catapult themselves these last few weeks. And
[55:16] Speaker 2: by catapult I mean like become a household national name
[55:20] Speaker 2: that isn't necessarily yet.
[55:22] Speaker 1: All right, So I based this on the AP Top
[55:24] Speaker 1: twenty five.
[55:25] Speaker 3: Yes, no disrespect to our forballer hood, but it's you know,
[55:28] Speaker 3: it's close enough.
[55:31] Speaker 1: I probably trust Ty Simpson the most right now.
[55:36] Speaker 3: Okay, you could definitely make a case for Julian saying,
[55:41] Speaker 3: you could probably make a case for Fernando Mendoz after
[55:43] Speaker 3: what we saw this past week. Marcel Reid has been
[55:46] Speaker 3: great this year. There are a lot of really good quarterbacks.
[55:49] Speaker 3: That's why these teams are in the top twelve to
[55:50] Speaker 3: begin with. But I think every time I watched an
[55:55] Speaker 3: Alabama game, it feels to me like Ty Simpson is
[55:58] Speaker 3: putting the ball where it needs to be accurately, on time,
[56:02] Speaker 3: and more often than not, in the face of a
[56:05] Speaker 3: pretty vicious pass rush, pass rush yep. So for me,
[56:09] Speaker 3: he feels like the guy above all in this field.
[56:13] Speaker 3: Right now, just you know, I could change my mind.
[56:16] Speaker 3: He feels like the guy that scares me the most,
[56:17] Speaker 3: So I would probably go Tie Simpson. Okay, the one
[56:21] Speaker 3: that I would trust least right now will be bear
[56:23] Speaker 3: Bachmeyer up to four hundred pounds. Now, we've been recording
[56:27] Speaker 3: for about an hour, so he keeps putting on the weight.
[56:30] Speaker 3: I like bear Bachmeyer. I think he's a really talented player.
[56:35] Speaker 3: I think the way that he almost fits what Byu
[56:38] Speaker 3: does offensively to a t because he can.
[56:41] Speaker 1: Do so many different things.
[56:43] Speaker 3: Yeah, but right now, in terms of you know who
[56:47] Speaker 3: I trust relative to the field here I he's going
[56:50] Speaker 3: to be the last one, okay, where I think you
[56:53] Speaker 3: agree with that? You disagree with that? Yes, who would
[56:57] Speaker 3: you trust less than bear Bachmeyer?
[56:58] Speaker 2: I think I would trust both Baron Morton and arch
[57:01] Speaker 2: Manning less at this moment, and I'm willing to even
[57:05] Speaker 2: maybe trust Trinidad Shambliss less.
[57:08] Speaker 3: I have arch Manning as the guy who could catapult
[57:10] Speaker 3: himself the most over these next few weeks. Again, it
[57:13] Speaker 3: could be the same person, It could be the same person.
[57:16] Speaker 3: Arch Manning has a road tilt this week against Georgia,
[57:18] Speaker 3: which we're going to talk about momentarily. If he plays
[57:21] Speaker 3: well in that game, clearly that's going to catapult his
[57:23] Speaker 3: trust stock.
[57:24] Speaker 1: If nothing more, he.
[57:26] Speaker 3: Closes out the year against what appears to be what
[57:29] Speaker 3: should still be a top three Texas A and M
[57:31] Speaker 3: team rivalry spot in Austin to close out the season.
[57:36] Speaker 3: If arch Manning goes on a really nice run here
[57:39] Speaker 3: these final three weeks, he, above all else, I think,
[57:43] Speaker 3: has more opportunity to catapult his stock and make himself
[57:47] Speaker 3: more trustworthy than any other name on this list. Arch Manning,
[57:52] Speaker 3: by the way, it feels to me like arch Manning
[57:54] Speaker 3: since their bye week has gotten better. It feels like
[57:58] Speaker 3: they have improved their passing attack a little bit more
[58:00] Speaker 3: and it just seems like emperiend's clicking and I say
[58:02] Speaker 3: bye week, But what I really mean is the concussion. Okay,
[58:05] Speaker 3: oh yes, you know, and he even joked about that.
[58:08] Speaker 3: But since that moment, it feels as if he's playing
[58:11] Speaker 3: a little bit more loose, a little bit more accurate,
[58:14] Speaker 3: a little bit freer, maybe not looking at the line
[58:16] Speaker 3: as much when he's dropping back. I think, given the
[58:19] Speaker 3: games that he's got in front of him, the answer
[58:21] Speaker 3: are there is obvious. It's arch You can catapult himself
[58:23] Speaker 3: the most.
[58:24] Speaker 2: So the reason why I would say that I trust
[58:27] Speaker 2: bear Bachmeyer a little bit more than say Baron Morton
[58:31] Speaker 2: say arch Manning. In arch Manning's case, I just don't
[58:35] Speaker 2: trust the line in front of him in these huge
[58:37] Speaker 2: games for him to have enough time to grow and shine,
[58:42] Speaker 2: with an addendum being yes, the running game has shown
[58:45] Speaker 2: up a little bit more recently, but it's not a
[58:48] Speaker 2: huge weapon. I don't know if, like I really like
[58:51] Speaker 2: Ryan wingout outside for arch and for Texas, but it
[58:55] Speaker 2: doesn't feel like they have that room in the way
[58:58] Speaker 2: that they did last season led by I guess Matthew Golden,
[59:01] Speaker 2: and so with the experienced offensive line last season, there
[59:04] Speaker 2: was a lot more to trust about Texas on offense.
[59:06] Speaker 2: So I don't trust Arts just because I don't think
[59:08] Speaker 2: he's going to be given the opportunity to prove himself
[59:12] Speaker 2: to be more trustworthy. It's also kind of like I
[59:13] Speaker 2: don't trust John Mattier, like I don't love I mean,
[59:17] Speaker 2: the Oklahoma line has gotten better, but I don't love
[59:19] Speaker 2: this offense week to week in big games. This week
[59:21] Speaker 2: will go a long way, right Oklahoma has Bama, yep,
[59:25] Speaker 2: this week will go along. I just I don't have
[59:27] Speaker 2: a lot of trust in that passing offense. So maybe
[59:29] Speaker 2: it's passing offense instead of quarterback name in terms of catapulting.
[59:34] Speaker 2: I actually think Marcel Reid I don't think in terms
[59:38] Speaker 2: of his name recognition that he is there with a
[59:42] Speaker 2: lot of the quarterbacks in this top ten, twelve, fifteen,
[59:45] Speaker 2: even though he's earned it.
[59:46] Speaker 1: He's been really good this year.
[59:48] Speaker 2: I think if he is able to go to Austin
[59:52] Speaker 2: and show out against the Texas defense, that's when you're
[59:55] Speaker 2: talking about a true national catapult with Marcel Reid. All right,
[59:58] Speaker 2: give me question number two. Question number two, Tyler, I
[1:00:03] Speaker 2: went to the wrong window for my question. Does schedule
[1:00:05] Speaker 2: matter to you in terms of December slash January preparedness?
[1:00:10] Speaker 2: And I will add what Ohio State was able to
[1:00:13] Speaker 2: glean from both the Oregon loss and the Michigan loss
[1:00:17] Speaker 2: last year. And this is a small sample size of
[1:00:18] Speaker 2: one team one year, but in this current era, what
[1:00:21] Speaker 2: Ohio State was able to do in terms of growing
[1:00:24] Speaker 2: for the playoff because of their test during the regular season.
[1:00:28] Speaker 2: Does the fact that Ohio State doesn't have that this season. Indiana,
[1:00:33] Speaker 2: I think, is going to finish the season against the
[1:00:36] Speaker 2: Big twelve with a grouping of teams that are like
[1:00:39] Speaker 2: two to twenty nine in the conference like something. Again,
[1:00:42] Speaker 2: not their fault. But do you feel a little bit
[1:00:46] Speaker 2: skittish pushing all your chips to the middle of the
[1:00:49] Speaker 2: table when we have some of these teams being seemingly
[1:00:53] Speaker 2: as untested as they look right now. I know that's
[1:00:56] Speaker 2: a very loaded like.
[1:00:58] Speaker 3: No, well, there's almost two questions in there. Yeah, I
[1:01:01] Speaker 3: mean the first thing that comes to mind is and
[1:01:06] Speaker 3: I mean, you know, because I've said this forever, a
[1:01:08] Speaker 3: team is not its schedule.
[1:01:11] Speaker 1: Agree.
[1:01:12] Speaker 3: You know, I've referred to this over the years as
[1:01:14] Speaker 3: the Boise State test, where you can be the best
[1:01:19] Speaker 3: team in the country and have terrible strength of schedule mhm.
[1:01:22] Speaker 3: And we have a tendency to connect the two that
[1:01:24] Speaker 3: if you have a good schedule, therefore you must be
[1:01:26] Speaker 3: a good team, or vice versa. I tend to think
[1:01:28] Speaker 3: that those things are a little bit more mutually exclusive
[1:01:31] Speaker 3: than they would appear if you read some of the
[1:01:34] Speaker 3: public commentary. There's value in having a good schedule, and
[1:01:38] Speaker 3: I think that's what you're getting to. But in terms
[1:01:41] Speaker 3: of you know, this team has a crap schedule, therefore
[1:01:44] Speaker 3: they must be crap or therefore they're completely overrated. I
[1:01:46] Speaker 3: just I don't always see it that way. I think
[1:01:49] Speaker 3: that's kind of an unfair approach, Do.
[1:01:51] Speaker 1: You prefer teams that you have confidence in?
[1:01:54] Speaker 3: No, of course, of course I prefer those teams. And
[1:01:58] Speaker 3: this is where I would say that as schedule is
[1:02:00] Speaker 3: basically a series.
[1:02:01] Speaker 1: Of experiments week in and week out. Great way of phrasing.
[1:02:04] Speaker 3: It, you know, and if you are doing an experiment correctly,
[1:02:07] Speaker 3: you are learning something from it. So yeah, playing better defenses,
[1:02:12] Speaker 3: playing tough games on the road, close game situations, having
[1:02:18] Speaker 3: some familiarity with that type of thing absolutely builds confidence
[1:02:23] Speaker 3: and should make you a better team. So in terms
[1:02:26] Speaker 3: of ranking, in terms of ranking teams, if I am
[1:02:29] Speaker 3: looking purely at strength of schedule, I don't think that
[1:02:33] Speaker 3: tells the full picture of how good a team is
[1:02:35] Speaker 3: or isn't. But when it comes to picking teams in
[1:02:38] Speaker 3: the playoffs, that's when I tend to look a little
[1:02:40] Speaker 3: bit more at who's battle tested and who isn't. Right,
[1:02:43] Speaker 3: But that's where I tend to look at all, Right,
[1:02:44] Speaker 3: who has this team played? What types of situations have
[1:02:46] Speaker 3: they been in through the course of the season. Did
[1:02:49] Speaker 3: it appears if they grew from that? I mean, we
[1:02:52] Speaker 3: could use Notre Dame as an example, because you brought
[1:02:54] Speaker 3: them up earlier but Notre Dame got shelled on defense
[1:02:59] Speaker 3: for the first couple week of the year. They have
[1:03:01] Speaker 3: gotten better now. The competition probably need to grade this
[1:03:05] Speaker 3: on a bit of a curve because it's not playing
[1:03:07] Speaker 3: Texas A and m in Miami every week. But even still,
[1:03:10] Speaker 3: it feels as if there's been real growth there. They've
[1:03:12] Speaker 3: definitely gotten better at quarterback. They've gotten better on offense.
[1:03:15] Speaker 3: They are a lot more explosive than they were at
[1:03:16] Speaker 3: the start of the year as they have figured this
[1:03:19] Speaker 3: thing out. So teams are allowed to grow, teams are
[1:03:23] Speaker 3: allowed to adapt and adjust, and absolutely being in those
[1:03:26] Speaker 3: situations is something that I think has real value. But again,
[1:03:30] Speaker 3: a team is not as schedule, so keep things I
[1:03:34] Speaker 3: think within limits.
[1:03:36] Speaker 2: Yeah, the only thing I would add is reinforcing like
[1:03:39] Speaker 2: it's not a team isn't their schedule, But a team
[1:03:41] Speaker 2: gives itself every advantage when they play those measuring stick games,
[1:03:44] Speaker 2: when they're able to course correct certain aspects of their
[1:03:48] Speaker 2: team based on performances against playoff or playoff ish or
[1:03:52] Speaker 2: playoff adjacent type teams. Even a team like Ole Miss
[1:03:55] Speaker 2: All Miss. I believe this season right, no Texas, no
[1:03:59] Speaker 2: Texas A and m Obama, no Vanderbilts, and it's impossible
[1:04:02] Speaker 2: for any of these teams, Like, not everybody can play
[1:04:04] Speaker 2: a murderous schedule in these giant conferences. So that's obviously
[1:04:08] Speaker 2: you know, it should be noted. But yeah, I and
[1:04:13] Speaker 2: part of it is, I mean, sorry to say it's
[1:04:15] Speaker 2: Penn State's fault now that Penn State isn't a good
[1:04:18] Speaker 2: team for Ohio State and Indiana to measure themselves against.
[1:04:22] Speaker 2: Like you're just gonna have those situations. It's happened in
[1:04:24] Speaker 2: the ACC with teams like Clemson and Florida State not
[1:04:27] Speaker 2: providing some of the better teams that conference with measuring
[1:04:31] Speaker 2: stick opportunities. And then you know LSU and Florida and
[1:04:34] Speaker 2: some of the Auburn some of the more disappointing teams
[1:04:36] Speaker 2: in the SEC. Not everybody can be a top fifteen
[1:04:39] Speaker 2: team again, these giant conferences. But these teams that have
[1:04:42] Speaker 2: fallen off either unexpectedly or dramatically, are affecting schedules and
[1:04:47] Speaker 2: are affecting We talked about this earlier, our ability to
[1:04:50] Speaker 2: look forward to a top fifteen matchup. It just feels
[1:04:54] Speaker 2: like there are less measuring stick games this year. Again,
[1:04:56] Speaker 2: it's your alma mater's fault in Penn State.
[1:04:59] Speaker 3: I just I care a lot more about does it
[1:05:01] Speaker 3: feel as if a team is getting better totally? And
[1:05:05] Speaker 3: you can quantify that however you want. For some it's
[1:05:08] Speaker 3: the eye test. For others, there are analytics that you
[1:05:10] Speaker 3: can look at EPA per play efficiency, success rates. I mean,
[1:05:14] Speaker 3: the list goes on and on in numbers that you
[1:05:16] Speaker 3: can look at and maybe in some cases that you
[1:05:18] Speaker 3: prefer one over the other. But that's that's the thing
[1:05:20] Speaker 3: that I tend to care a little bit more about
[1:05:23] Speaker 3: versus you.
[1:05:24] Speaker 1: Know, what's your strength of schedule? Final the games? Yeah,
[1:05:27] Speaker 1: final question.
[1:05:28] Speaker 2: So I mean this is an easy transition. What's the
[1:05:30] Speaker 2: best remaining game of the regular season, not including conference
[1:05:33] Speaker 2: championship weekend. This is just you personally where you're just like,
[1:05:39] Speaker 2: this is the game where I want to order a
[1:05:41] Speaker 2: special sandwich. Clear my schedule, Like, make sure I've got
[1:05:45] Speaker 2: my special blankie on the couch.
[1:05:48] Speaker 3: I do have a blanky, by the way, I don't
[1:05:49] Speaker 3: know exactly right you have a blanky. I call it
[1:05:52] Speaker 3: a blankie, but it's got a nice little fleece lining
[1:05:54] Speaker 3: to it.
[1:05:54] Speaker 1: I like it.
[1:05:55] Speaker 2: So I just bought a new premium one for Jody
[1:05:58] Speaker 2: with and I her birthday just passed, and so that
[1:06:01] Speaker 2: was one of the gifts that I gave.
[1:06:03] Speaker 1: Have you tried the weighted blanket thing yet?
[1:06:06] Speaker 2: No, but I understand that people really like it. It's
[1:06:08] Speaker 2: like extremely comfortable and calming, right, Yeah, but I'm open
[1:06:12] Speaker 2: to suggestions, blanket suggestions.
[1:06:13] Speaker 3: So what is the what is the ultimate schedule carve
[1:06:16] Speaker 3: out for you? So, I mean, I'm pretty excited about
[1:06:19] Speaker 3: Texas George which we're going to talk about here in
[1:06:20] Speaker 3: a few minutes. For me, the answer is Texas Texas
[1:06:24] Speaker 3: A and.
[1:06:24] Speaker 2: M Okay in Austin. I think the Friday right after Thanksgiving.
[1:06:28] Speaker 3: Yeah, man, I am so pumped for that game. I
[1:06:33] Speaker 3: am thrilled for that. I mean, I'm thrilled for three
[1:06:35] Speaker 3: games that weekend, Texas Texas A and M Georgia. Georgia
[1:06:38] Speaker 3: Tech should be fun, and obviously Ohio State Michigan. That
[1:06:42] Speaker 3: goes without saying. Those three games are just incredible. And
[1:06:46] Speaker 3: there are plenty of other incredible games in week fourteen,
[1:06:50] Speaker 3: But the Texas Texas A and M thing, the rivalry
[1:06:53] Speaker 3: coming back to Austin. I don't know what state this
[1:06:57] Speaker 3: game will find Texas in, you know, like one of
[1:06:59] Speaker 3: the things we'll talk about what this Georgia affair this
[1:07:03] Speaker 3: weekend is. The range of possibilities for Texas is vast
[1:07:08] Speaker 3: at this point. If they win against Georgia, a lot
[1:07:11] Speaker 3: is still left to play for. If they lose, a
[1:07:14] Speaker 3: lot of the postseason stuff goes up in smoke. But
[1:07:16] Speaker 3: this could be an opportunity to introduce a little bit
[1:07:19] Speaker 3: of chaos, let's say, into the SEC race, into the
[1:07:23] Speaker 3: playoff field. Okay, So there's a lot that I think
[1:07:26] Speaker 3: could go on just based on the outcome of this
[1:07:29] Speaker 3: Texas Texas A and M game, and a lot of
[1:07:31] Speaker 3: it is dependent on where Texas is at.
[1:07:34] Speaker 1: For me, that's the easy answer.
[1:07:36] Speaker 3: Georgia Georgia Tech was fun as hell a year ago,
[1:07:38] Speaker 3: and I don't really have a reason to think that
[1:07:40] Speaker 3: it won't be fun again Georgia Tech. You know, on defense.
[1:07:45] Speaker 3: Maybe that's a separate conversation. Ohio State Michigan clearly is
[1:07:49] Speaker 3: like its own subcategory what we talk about big regular
[1:07:53] Speaker 3: season affairs. But for me, it's Texas, Texas A and M.
[1:07:56] Speaker 2: Okay, I was between this week's Georgia Texas because it's
[1:08:03] Speaker 2: such a terrific measuring stick and it's at the top
[1:08:06] Speaker 2: and it's gonna have all sorts of implications.
[1:08:08] Speaker 1: I was between that.
[1:08:08] Speaker 2: I obviously considered Texas Texas A and m Ohio State
[1:08:11] Speaker 2: Michigan those types of games. But I'm gonna give you
[1:08:14] Speaker 2: a wild card, and it's purely for potential electricity, potential
[1:08:21] Speaker 2: driving at least one fan base completely out of their minds,
[1:08:25] Speaker 2: having still conference championship implications, and it just looks like
[1:08:30] Speaker 2: it's going to be such an entertaining game. I might
[1:08:32] Speaker 2: get a weighted blanket just to watch Miami pit Pit.
[1:08:35] Speaker 2: Miami man at Pitt, It's at Pittyeah. Both of these
[1:08:43] Speaker 2: teams have very clear weaknesses, I mean not clear weakness.
[1:08:47] Speaker 1: In terms of Miami.
[1:08:48] Speaker 2: Miami can be very good, they haven't been generating huge
[1:08:50] Speaker 2: plays as much as they probably should be, considering some
[1:08:53] Speaker 2: of the talent on this offense and Carson Beck's experience.
[1:08:58] Speaker 2: Pitt is sort of like an all or nothing team.
[1:09:01] Speaker 2: Both of these schools have, you know, big emotional coaches.
[1:09:07] Speaker 2: I just there is something about this matchup that in
[1:09:10] Speaker 2: a year that we've lost some of these huge matchups
[1:09:12] Speaker 2: and this is not a huge matchup, but there is
[1:09:14] Speaker 2: something about this specific game where I was just like, Man,
[1:09:17] Speaker 2: this feels like entertainment in a way, like, oh, it'll
[1:09:19] Speaker 2: be an entertaining game. It's there's not like the seriousness
[1:09:24] Speaker 2: of a game with Miami and Pitt. But it's just like,
[1:09:27] Speaker 2: I think I'm gonna pay more attention to Miami Pitt
[1:09:29] Speaker 2: this year than I am some like top fifteen top
[1:09:31] Speaker 2: twenty matchups. If it's not a top fifteen top twenty matchup,
[1:09:35] Speaker 2: I can't wait.
[1:09:36] Speaker 3: Well, Look, as I said before, Miami's probably out of
[1:09:39] Speaker 3: the running for both the ACC and the playoff.
[1:09:42] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[1:09:43] Speaker 3: Probably m hm. They've got games against NC State, against
[1:09:48] Speaker 3: Virginia Tech, and then they close out the year against Pitt.
[1:09:51] Speaker 1: M HM.
[1:09:53] Speaker 3: I don't know what state of Miami is going to
[1:09:54] Speaker 3: be in no at that point, Like, if they have
[1:09:59] Speaker 3: some of the these brain farts, could they lose NC State?
[1:10:03] Speaker 3: Could they lose a Virginia Tech on the road, Like
[1:10:05] Speaker 3: if that happens and they take another loss before they
[1:10:08] Speaker 3: get to Pitt, are they gonna care about Pitt?
[1:10:11] Speaker 1: M h.
[1:10:13] Speaker 3: I'm crazy excited for that game too, and I probably
[1:10:16] Speaker 3: have a bit of a rooting interest because you know,
[1:10:18] Speaker 3: I was high on Pit at the start of the year.
[1:10:19] Speaker 3: It didn't look as if it was going to go
[1:10:21] Speaker 3: in that direction, but you know, it's kind of boomerang
[1:10:24] Speaker 3: back around now with the new quarterback.
[1:10:25] Speaker 1: So we will talk about that one to do course.
[1:10:29] Speaker 3: But let us know your answer to this question or
[1:10:32] Speaker 3: any of these questions Solidverbo at gmail dot com or
[1:10:35] Speaker 3: hit us up on social media.
[1:10:36] Speaker 2: The second third tier end of the like last three
[1:10:40] Speaker 2: or four weeks of the season, matchups that we could have,
[1:10:43] Speaker 2: like in terms of like here's I'll give you another one.
[1:10:46] Speaker 1: I know the show's going on. I apologize, that's okay,
[1:10:48] Speaker 1: it's our show.
[1:10:49] Speaker 2: Tennessee Vanderbilt. Yeah, is there any chance that that's not
[1:10:52] Speaker 2: a forty eight to forty five game? No, none, that's
[1:10:55] Speaker 2: gonna be a perfect football experience unless you run a
[1:10:59] Speaker 2: camp for linebackers or something.
[1:11:01] Speaker 1: That's gonna be perfect. I can't wait for that game.
[1:11:04] Speaker 1: It's gonna be amazing.
[1:11:05] Speaker 2: So like, yes, some disappointing teams have ruined our ability
[1:11:09] Speaker 2: to have top ten matchups every week, and that's fine,
[1:11:12] Speaker 2: but there's a lot of meat on this November bone.
[1:11:15] Speaker 2: Excuse me, the Govember colin. It's Diego's time bone. It's
[1:11:21] Speaker 2: gonna be great.
[1:11:22] Speaker 3: Well, even a game like the Egg Bowl, you know
[1:11:26] Speaker 3: old Misssissippi State.
[1:11:28] Speaker 1: I mean, I hope so, but I'm not positive it
[1:11:29] Speaker 1: will be.
[1:11:30] Speaker 3: I mean, I'm curious just because I think Misissippi State's
[1:11:33] Speaker 3: gonna have a lot to play for. They want to
[1:11:34] Speaker 3: play spoiler. There's a chance they could play spoiler in
[1:11:37] Speaker 3: that game. We didn't even mention the Iron Bowl. You know,
[1:11:40] Speaker 3: Alabama is in a good spot, but that game tends
[1:11:44] Speaker 3: to be weird.
[1:11:45] Speaker 1: Mm hmm.
[1:11:46] Speaker 3: Not necessarily gonna take that one to the bank as
[1:11:48] Speaker 3: being a close affair. But yeah, there are a bunch
[1:11:50] Speaker 3: of games. These rivalries that I think we're gonna happen
[1:11:52] Speaker 3: upon in week fourteen are incredible.
[1:11:55] Speaker 1: They look amazing.
[1:11:56] Speaker 2: Oh man, I have I have so many deep cut
[1:11:59] Speaker 2: wishes and hopes for the last like three four weeks
[1:12:02] Speaker 2: of the season. Like New Mexico's not out of it.
[1:12:06] Speaker 2: For the Mountain West, they need some help and they
[1:12:08] Speaker 2: get San Diego State the last week of the season.
[1:12:11] Speaker 2: It's time for Jason Eck and the boys to get
[1:12:13] Speaker 2: it done. Oh, there's so many a lot great under
[1:12:17] Speaker 2: the radar possibilities.
[1:12:18] Speaker 1: It's great, all right, Dan, let's previous some games. Fucky
[1:12:22] Speaker 1: Bird Special.
[1:12:23] Speaker 3: We have two games that we're going to look at here.
[1:12:26] Speaker 3: As you said, maybe the show's run a little bit long,
[1:12:28] Speaker 3: but whatever, Okay, do whatever we want here the first
[1:12:31] Speaker 3: one we're going to talk about. It's at a high noon,
[1:12:33] Speaker 3: It's on ABC. It is number ten Notre Dame. They
[1:12:36] Speaker 3: are now an eleven and a half point favorite on
[1:12:40] Speaker 3: the road at the number twenty four Pit Panthers. I
[1:12:45] Speaker 3: will add, just as a important personal note, m this
[1:12:51] Speaker 3: game freaks the hell out of me every year. Sure,
[1:12:55] Speaker 3: it freaks the hell out of me every year. I
[1:12:57] Speaker 3: have a vivid memory of watching this game from Kate's parents' house.
[1:13:04] Speaker 1: This is shortly after.
[1:13:05] Speaker 3: We like officially became a couple, and shortly after I
[1:13:08] Speaker 3: met the parents and did that ooh eleven back when
[1:13:12] Speaker 3: we were young and full of life. Yeah, that was
[1:13:16] Speaker 3: the fifteen to twelve game that Notre Dame one at
[1:13:19] Speaker 3: pitt tell me rescaming through like three hundred yards. But
[1:13:23] Speaker 3: I just remember being in this very weird mental place
[1:13:27] Speaker 3: where on one hand, I am ready to jump out
[1:13:29] Speaker 3: of my skin. On the other, I am self aware
[1:13:34] Speaker 3: enough to realize that I in this moment, if I
[1:13:37] Speaker 3: want this to go well, I cannot act like a psycho.
[1:13:42] Speaker 3: That was a very interesting push pull for me and
[1:13:44] Speaker 3: I still have scar tissue because of it. Notre Dame
[1:13:47] Speaker 3: one that game, but they have lost in the past
[1:13:50] Speaker 3: to Pit. I see ten and a half on the
[1:13:54] Speaker 3: road at Pitt. That scares me a lot, a lot.
[1:14:00] Speaker 3: I'm probably not the most objective voice in this conversation,
[1:14:04] Speaker 3: So why don't you lead us off here? How do
[1:14:05] Speaker 3: you feel about this game?
[1:14:09] Speaker 2: Pitt coming off of bye I like that against the
[1:14:13] Speaker 2: you know, the biggest opponent on their schedule, and you know,
[1:14:16] Speaker 2: start up a very difficult stretch for Pitt with also
[1:14:18] Speaker 2: with Georgia Tech and Miami to finish out the season.
[1:14:21] Speaker 2: So I like that Pitt has rest. I like that
[1:14:23] Speaker 2: there is was the phrase you're looking for, like vim
[1:14:25] Speaker 2: and vigor when you know that's when you were young
[1:14:28] Speaker 2: and spirited in twenty eleven. I think Pitt has some
[1:14:32] Speaker 2: of that with a freshman quarterback. There's a lot inconsistent
[1:14:35] Speaker 2: about Pitt. There's a lot that they could do better,
[1:14:38] Speaker 2: but it's the acc you can win games lacking in
[1:14:40] Speaker 2: some areas of your of your roster. Sure, it's a
[1:14:45] Speaker 2: lot of points. I think I like Notre Dame here.
[1:14:48] Speaker 2: I think Notre Dame is good enough to take advantage
[1:14:50] Speaker 2: of flaws, and they've taken care of business in a
[1:14:53] Speaker 2: way that like. I appreciate when teams are boring strong,
[1:14:58] Speaker 2: and Notre Dame has been boring strong, like the Boston
[1:15:01] Speaker 2: College game. I guess aside that was not boring strong.
[1:15:04] Speaker 2: That was otherwise plunker. Yeah, that was a clunker. The
[1:15:08] Speaker 2: weather should be fine in Pittsburgh. I looked up my
[1:15:12] Speaker 2: my low pressure systems and they're fine. I don't love
[1:15:18] Speaker 2: I like even pitt playing in a big game at home.
[1:15:21] Speaker 2: I don't love that they don't have a home field advantage.
[1:15:24] Speaker 2: I don't love that even though you know they'll get
[1:15:27] Speaker 2: people out for this game, there will be excitement there.
[1:15:29] Speaker 2: It's just not the same if Notre Dame were playing
[1:15:31] Speaker 2: Penn State or Michigan or Ohio State or any you know,
[1:15:35] Speaker 2: it's just a different environment for a game like this.
[1:15:38] Speaker 2: And so I like Notre Dame here to win this
[1:15:41] Speaker 2: game by a couple touchdowns. My thought was something like
[1:15:44] Speaker 2: thirty three to twenty thirty five, twenty one. I think
[1:15:48] Speaker 2: it will be competitive back and forth. I think Mason
[1:15:50] Speaker 2: Hinsch will make a couple plays that will have tie
[1:15:53] Speaker 2: questioning whether or not Notre Dame's defense is truly fixed.
[1:15:58] Speaker 1: But that happens weekly.
[1:15:59] Speaker 2: By the way, the problem with Notre Dame is there's
[1:16:03] Speaker 2: enough talent and aggression on this defense to complement a
[1:16:07] Speaker 2: backfield where you can just have Jeremiah Love rush for
[1:16:10] Speaker 2: eighty eight yards at the drop of a hat, or
[1:16:12] Speaker 2: Jeddarium Price just you know, rip off a thirty seven
[1:16:15] Speaker 2: yard run where he just has a small lane and
[1:16:17] Speaker 2: he's gone that that has opened things up enough for CJ. Carr,
[1:16:22] Speaker 2: who again I think is one of the best dozen
[1:16:24] Speaker 2: quarterbacks or so in the country. I don't know if
[1:16:26] Speaker 2: Notre Dame has winter Wonders to compete at the very
[1:16:29] Speaker 2: top of the sport at receiver yet in the way
[1:16:31] Speaker 2: that they still I think need. But they have good receivers.
[1:16:35] Speaker 2: I just don't think they have killers there yet. But
[1:16:38] Speaker 2: I think those good receivers are good enough to get
[1:16:41] Speaker 2: enough against this pit defense if they can protect Cjcar enough,
[1:16:45] Speaker 2: which I'm sure you'll talk about with Pitt's pass rush.
[1:16:50] Speaker 2: I just I think the fire of Notre Dame on
[1:16:53] Speaker 2: both sides of the ball over four quarters will be
[1:16:56] Speaker 2: too much on the road in good weather thirty five
[1:16:59] Speaker 2: to one.
[1:17:01] Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, look, you bring up Mason Heinschel and
[1:17:04] Speaker 3: the move to Mason Hinschell has been the type of
[1:17:07] Speaker 3: thing that has prompted a bunch of emails into solid
[1:17:10] Speaker 3: verbal at gmail dot com. Of course, you know, anytime
[1:17:13] Speaker 3: you make a move to a freshman, you never know
[1:17:14] Speaker 3: what you're going to get. But this is a guy
[1:17:16] Speaker 3: who was hand picked from Kate Bell, their offensive coordinator.
[1:17:19] Speaker 1: I went through his recruitment. He got offered us from
[1:17:22] Speaker 1: five MAX schools, Liberty and Coastal Carolina. He ended up
[1:17:26] Speaker 1: going to Pitt, So Pitt making the move to him
[1:17:31] Speaker 1: was very much I think a sign of confidence in
[1:17:35] Speaker 1: kid Bell as much as it was a vote of
[1:17:37] Speaker 1: no confidence in e Y Holstein. They have now won
[1:17:40] Speaker 1: their last five games. As you said, they are off
[1:17:44] Speaker 1: or they were off a week ago, so they're coming
[1:17:46] Speaker 1: off arrest advantage here. This is going to be a
[1:17:48] Speaker 1: test though for Mason Heinschel, unlike any I think he
[1:17:51] Speaker 1: has seen so far the season, because this defense is
[1:17:53] Speaker 1: just dramatically better than the others that he's played against.
[1:17:57] Speaker 1: He's going to see a lot of man coverage, about
[1:17:59] Speaker 1: twenty percent more than average. I am very curious to
[1:18:03] Speaker 1: see what kind of scheme Chris Ash decides to draw
[1:18:07] Speaker 1: up for this one. Because I went through the numbers.
[1:18:11] Speaker 1: Heinschel is way better on the intermediate throws beyond ten
[1:18:15] Speaker 1: yards and the deeper throws beyond twenty, way better at
[1:18:18] Speaker 1: those than he is at the short stuff. And my theory,
[1:18:21] Speaker 1: and again this is groundbreaking stuff. You can write this
[1:18:24] Speaker 1: down if you want to, Dan yep. But my theory
[1:18:27] Speaker 1: is that when he has time to throw downfield, is
[1:18:29] Speaker 1: really good. But the pit line is giving up a
[1:18:32] Speaker 1: lot of pressure and so I think some of those
[1:18:34] Speaker 1: shorter throws that don't grade out as well are coming
[1:18:37] Speaker 1: under duress. And that's where I think this Notre Dame
[1:18:40] Speaker 1: pass rush is going to play. I think a leading
[1:18:42] Speaker 1: role probably the biggest key to this game. Pitt is
[1:18:46] Speaker 1: mostly a one dimensional offense. They are not running the
[1:18:48] Speaker 1: ball as well as I thought they might when I
[1:18:50] Speaker 1: did my preseason preview. They're just not They're a one
[1:18:53] Speaker 1: dimensional passing team. They are not going to win unless
[1:18:56] Speaker 1: they can get some success through the air. And I
[1:18:58] Speaker 1: think Chris Ash and Notre Dame knows it. So how
[1:19:01] Speaker 1: they scheme that up? What that looks like? Do they
[1:19:03] Speaker 1: try to blitz? So they try to drop back and
[1:19:05] Speaker 1: just make them to throw, make them throw short. I
[1:19:09] Speaker 1: don't know what that scheme looks like, but it feels
[1:19:12] Speaker 1: to me like if you look at the numbers, if
[1:19:14] Speaker 1: you watch a Pitt all this season, it's fairly well
[1:19:16] Speaker 1: telegraphed the type of stuff they're going to do great,
[1:19:19] Speaker 1: So I think that's advantage Notre Dame, and the flip
[1:19:22] Speaker 1: side is equally as interesting.
[1:19:25] Speaker 3: How does Pitt try to cover their bases against this
[1:19:28] Speaker 3: Notre Dame offense? Their defense so far the season has
[1:19:32] Speaker 3: gotten a lot of pressure, presumably because they blitz forty
[1:19:36] Speaker 3: percent of the time and opponent drops back, but otherwise
[1:19:40] Speaker 3: it's a very zone heavy scheme. It is the most
[1:19:44] Speaker 3: zone heavy defense in all of college football. Eighty five
[1:19:47] Speaker 3: percent of the time they are dropping into some kind
[1:19:48] Speaker 3: of zone, very stout against the run, which should benefit
[1:19:53] Speaker 3: them well in a game like this, but I think
[1:19:55] Speaker 3: in order to win it is some combination of HEV blitzing,
[1:20:02] Speaker 3: disguising your coverage and confusing CJ. Carr maybe to force
[1:20:05] Speaker 3: some kind of mistake, and you know, keying on the
[1:20:09] Speaker 3: run to not be gashed by Jeremiah Love and or
[1:20:12] Speaker 3: Jadarian Price. I think they good enough to do one
[1:20:15] Speaker 3: of those things. I don't think they're good enough to
[1:20:17] Speaker 3: do all of them right. And that's sort of where
[1:20:19] Speaker 3: I come down on the Notre Dame side, or why
[1:20:21] Speaker 3: I'm coming down on the Notre Dame side. To me,
[1:20:24] Speaker 3: this looks like a recipe for a big game from
[1:20:27] Speaker 3: Notre Dame's tight end Eli Reridan. I think Jeremiah Love
[1:20:30] Speaker 3: catching passes out of the backfield is very dangerous. I
[1:20:35] Speaker 3: mean it's dangerous in general, but it's going to be
[1:20:37] Speaker 3: even more dangerous for Pitt in this game, given the
[1:20:39] Speaker 3: way that they play. I think those are the types
[1:20:42] Speaker 3: of things that end up having a really big impact here.
[1:20:44] Speaker 3: Notre Dame's gonna win this game. I'm not laying eleven
[1:20:47] Speaker 3: and a half points though on the road. I just
[1:20:49] Speaker 3: have far too much scar tissue for that. Something like
[1:20:52] Speaker 3: thirty one to twenty four feels about right to me.
[1:20:55] Speaker 3: I don't think the Notre Dame defense is going to
[1:20:57] Speaker 3: hold him down completely. I think Mason Einchell and Pitt
[1:21:00] Speaker 3: will score, and I think maybe maybe it's a late touchdown.
[1:21:04] Speaker 3: I don't know if it feels thirty one twenty four
[1:21:07] Speaker 3: the full way through, but.
[1:21:09] Speaker 1: I have pit covering this game. I think it's a
[1:21:12] Speaker 1: bad move, man.
[1:21:12] Speaker 2: The more I even think about and hearing you talk
[1:21:14] Speaker 2: about it, Notre Dame schedule as such where they need
[1:21:17] Speaker 2: to put everything they have into this game, right, So
[1:21:21] Speaker 2: Notre Dame. It's coming off of Navy, which they you know,
[1:21:25] Speaker 2: just absolutely shocked and odd. I think there's a chance
[1:21:29] Speaker 2: Notre Dame wins this game fifty two to thirteen.
[1:21:31] Speaker 1: It's entirely possible.
[1:21:32] Speaker 3: And you know, I think I was texting with our
[1:21:34] Speaker 3: friend Tim Murray from Visen. I think they'll them apart
[1:21:37] Speaker 3: before we hit go. And I think Tim feels similarly,
[1:21:39] Speaker 3: but he's always telling me, like follow the points spread,
[1:21:42] Speaker 3: like the points spread actually does tell a story, whether
[1:21:44] Speaker 3: you better or not right, And I hear you, But
[1:21:47] Speaker 3: there is also the emotional side.
[1:21:48] Speaker 1: Of me as a fan. I hear you. You know,
[1:21:50] Speaker 1: we love this sport.
[1:21:52] Speaker 3: We kind of live, breathe and eat this sport this
[1:21:55] Speaker 3: time of year, the whole year throughout, and I cannot
[1:21:59] Speaker 3: put my emotions on the bench here.
[1:22:02] Speaker 2: I know it, man, I know it. There is there
[1:22:04] Speaker 2: is something about like pittscripting an amazing first drive and
[1:22:07] Speaker 2: they're playing with tempo and they go up seven to
[1:22:09] Speaker 2: nothing on a great first drive.
[1:22:11] Speaker 1: Oh you can count on that happening.
[1:22:13] Speaker 2: You losing your mind? Yeah, Notre Dame being patient, and like,
[1:22:18] Speaker 2: I think Pitt's good, but Pitt has played the the
[1:22:22] Speaker 2: dregs of the ACC to sort of turn this season around.
[1:22:25] Speaker 2: With Mason Heiitschel, they made the move, but it's Boston College,
[1:22:28] Speaker 2: a Poorlyague coached Florida State team obviously an underwhelming one.
[1:22:31] Speaker 2: Syracuse with Ricky Collins. NC State has like a horrendous
[1:22:35] Speaker 2: defense this year in Stanford, and so I'm holding nothing
[1:22:39] Speaker 2: against Pitt, but I just think who they've beaten to
[1:22:43] Speaker 2: get to this point does not necessarily represent what they
[1:22:47] Speaker 2: are or are not other than better than those teams.
[1:22:51] Speaker 3: Seven point thirty on ABC, number eleven, Texas on the
[1:22:55] Speaker 3: road at number five Georgia, Georgia favored by six points.
[1:23:00] Speaker 3: You may recall these teams met twice last year. George
[1:23:03] Speaker 3: got him twice, beat him once in Austin, and then
[1:23:06] Speaker 3: beat him another time in Atlanta for the SEC Championship.
[1:23:11] Speaker 3: I mentioned this earlier as well, but the range of
[1:23:13] Speaker 3: outcomes here for Texas, just in terms of its season,
[1:23:16] Speaker 3: not this game, but the season for Texas could go
[1:23:19] Speaker 3: a variety of different ways. If they run the table,
[1:23:22] Speaker 3: they're going to end up beating two top five teams.
[1:23:26] Speaker 3: They're probably playing for the SEC going to the playoff.
[1:23:30] Speaker 3: If they lose, it's lost number three playoff hopes probably
[1:23:36] Speaker 3: go up and smoke. Who knows what happens the rest
[1:23:39] Speaker 3: of the way. This one is complicated I think by
[1:23:42] Speaker 3: the fact that it's a road game, and when I
[1:23:45] Speaker 3: was trying to go through and.
[1:23:47] Speaker 1: Or made easier or made easier, I don't know.
[1:23:50] Speaker 3: Yeah, but emotionally as I was trying to sort my
[1:23:54] Speaker 3: way through this game, Texas has had some difficulty.
[1:23:59] Speaker 1: On the road. You know.
[1:24:00] Speaker 3: They had a game out selling Yeah, the game of
[1:24:03] Speaker 3: Ohio State, which I don't really hold against them, but.
[1:24:06] Speaker 2: I mean they did not look good on offense, investing
[1:24:09] Speaker 2: a ton in this offense and having blue chips exclusively
[1:24:13] Speaker 2: on this offense and scored one touchdown. It's a week one,
[1:24:17] Speaker 2: this week one. But then they lose to Florida on
[1:24:19] Speaker 2: the road. Florida since fired its coach.
[1:24:23] Speaker 3: The Kentucky game was close, that was losible, the Mississippi
[1:24:25] Speaker 3: State game that was yeah. You know, those are all
[1:24:29] Speaker 3: one score games, So I am I am just curious
[1:24:33] Speaker 3: as we talk about this, how much it factors in
[1:24:36] Speaker 3: for you that this is another road spot for Texas.
[1:24:39] Speaker 3: They haven't been wonderful on the road in some cases
[1:24:42] Speaker 3: against teams that they should have we would expect beat
[1:24:44] Speaker 3: a lot more easily.
[1:24:46] Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, look, this offense arch Manning, whatever you
[1:24:49] Speaker 2: want to say, has improved over the past few weeks,
[1:24:52] Speaker 2: but it also doesn't shine the brightest when the lights
[1:24:55] Speaker 2: are brightest, and that has been on the road, that
[1:24:58] Speaker 2: has been in the sec that has been against the
[1:25:01] Speaker 2: best teams and the best defenses that they've placed. It's
[1:25:04] Speaker 2: just has not been an offense that has held up
[1:25:07] Speaker 2: its end of the bargain in these cases. And so
[1:25:11] Speaker 2: to go and play Georgia, a Georgia team who has
[1:25:13] Speaker 2: you know, a big spot. A couple weeks ago in
[1:25:16] Speaker 2: against Florida, they finished that one out. The offense hasn't
[1:25:18] Speaker 2: looked great in world beating all season long, but it
[1:25:21] Speaker 2: kind of feels like they're peaking right now, which you'd like.
[1:25:24] Speaker 2: Against the defense as strong as Texas is. The game
[1:25:27] Speaker 2: is in Athens. Texas has not been able to play
[1:25:30] Speaker 2: its best football in the road at all, which might
[1:25:33] Speaker 2: be even under selling the situation.
[1:25:35] Speaker 1: And I just.
[1:25:38] Speaker 2: I haven't seen anything from this passing game against good teams,
[1:25:42] Speaker 2: especially on the road. Like I think Vanderbilt's defense is
[1:25:44] Speaker 2: kind of falling apart, and Texas, for whatever reason, their
[1:25:48] Speaker 2: defensive game plan of that game was real screw in
[1:25:50] Speaker 2: the second half, letting Vandy back in it. I just
[1:25:54] Speaker 2: I don't think there's a lot to trust about Texas
[1:25:55] Speaker 2: in a big game in this moment, is there? I
[1:26:01] Speaker 2: like Georgia here. What's the number again?
[1:26:03] Speaker 1: I got it at six right now? Yeah?
[1:26:06] Speaker 2: I see the thing is picking against the Texas defense
[1:26:11] Speaker 2: and getting that many points is very attractive because the
[1:26:15] Speaker 2: Texas defense can be excellent, but it just hasn't seemed
[1:26:20] Speaker 2: like enough too often this season. So I think Georgia
[1:26:24] Speaker 2: wins this game by seven to nine points. So I'm
[1:26:26] Speaker 2: gonna give those points. Wow, twenty three to fourteen, twenty
[1:26:31] Speaker 2: one to fourteen.
[1:26:32] Speaker 1: Okay, like a lower score.
[1:26:33] Speaker 2: I don't think I think it's lower scoring. I don't
[1:26:35] Speaker 2: think Georgia gets to twenty eight. I don't think any
[1:26:37] Speaker 2: winner gets to twenty eight. But yeah, lower scoring here,
[1:26:42] Speaker 2: twenty four sixteen, But I think Georgia covers.
[1:26:46] Speaker 3: Well, let me put it to you this way, Okay, Okay,
[1:26:49] Speaker 3: I am not going to do my locks on this
[1:26:52] Speaker 3: episode because we're already like an hour thirty okay, and
[1:26:56] Speaker 3: I am still receiving applications from the verballer hood for
[1:26:59] Speaker 3: my little reverse thing, okay, of course. But with that
[1:27:03] Speaker 3: being said, this is a game under consideration, and I
[1:27:08] Speaker 3: would say, what's really cool about this one just from
[1:27:10] Speaker 3: a narrative perspective. If Texas wins, it's because Arch banning
[1:27:15] Speaker 3: is a really good day through the year, because that's
[1:27:17] Speaker 3: where you get Georgia.
[1:27:18] Speaker 1: I think it's the only way.
[1:27:19] Speaker 3: I think it's the only way. And Arch winning this
[1:27:21] Speaker 3: game on the road would be like a week of
[1:27:23] Speaker 3: content for us. Right to further the point that I
[1:27:26] Speaker 3: mentioned earlier about catapaulting one's trustworthiness, If Arch goes to
[1:27:30] Speaker 3: Athens and wins, that helps arches stock.
[1:27:32] Speaker 1: Yeah, I think agree, it helps anybody stock, any boy stock.
[1:27:36] Speaker 3: If we zoom in a little bit more though, what's
[1:27:38] Speaker 3: really interesting is the battle that I think emerges here
[1:27:42] Speaker 3: in the trenches between what I would describe as the
[1:27:45] Speaker 3: movable object and the stoppable force. Okay, Texas is one
[1:27:49] Speaker 3: hundred and twenty second in pressure rate allowed, Georgia is
[1:27:51] Speaker 3: ninety nine.
[1:27:52] Speaker 1: That creating pressure.
[1:27:54] Speaker 3: Whoever wins that is going to win this game, right,
[1:27:57] Speaker 3: Whoever wins that side of it is what this comes
[1:28:01] Speaker 3: down to, because if they're able to get pressure on Arch,
[1:28:04] Speaker 3: if Arch isn't able to be successful through the air, Frankly,
[1:28:08] Speaker 3: Texas has not been that successful on the ground at
[1:28:11] Speaker 3: all this season, let alone the fact that they're going
[1:28:13] Speaker 3: up against the Georgia defense. It's pretty good against the run,
[1:28:15] Speaker 3: so they have to throw it here. And if Georgia
[1:28:18] Speaker 3: can force the issues, beat him up and prevent him
[1:28:20] Speaker 3: from having time back there to pick him apart, then
[1:28:23] Speaker 3: I think that's the game.
[1:28:24] Speaker 1: I agree.
[1:28:24] Speaker 2: I mean, look to be fair though, to Georgia, even
[1:28:27] Speaker 2: at their best, this was not a huge like send
[1:28:30] Speaker 2: pressure off the edge defense. It's much more read and
[1:28:33] Speaker 2: react and disguise and just your guys against our guys,
[1:28:37] Speaker 2: and we think we have more talent and we have
[1:28:39] Speaker 2: more playmakers like this has not been like no, no, no,
[1:28:42] Speaker 2: a ferocious blitzing team. They picked their spots, they picked
[1:28:46] Speaker 2: the think this is not the intention of their defense necessarily.
[1:28:49] Speaker 1: Yeah, fiftieth or something fifty fourth.
[1:28:52] Speaker 3: I just looked at the number before nationally in terms
[1:28:54] Speaker 3: of how often they're blitzing per drop back. So it's
[1:28:56] Speaker 3: a they're not a pit right right. Pitt does it
[1:29:01] Speaker 3: like a lot forty percent of the time. George is
[1:29:03] Speaker 3: more like thirty percent of the time something like that.
[1:29:06] Speaker 1: It's a lot.
[1:29:06] Speaker 2: I think that a lot of that is protecting youth too, right,
[1:29:08] Speaker 2: not leaving a ton of dudes on islands or with
[1:29:10] Speaker 2: a ton of space.
[1:29:11] Speaker 3: Yeah, and I guess if we're talking of it in
[1:29:14] Speaker 3: these terms, the Georgia line, if you flip the script
[1:29:17] Speaker 3: a little bit, the Georgia line's way better in pass protection.
[1:29:20] Speaker 3: I also think the Texas defense is gettible through the
[1:29:22] Speaker 3: air that should benefit Gunner stocked In.
[1:29:25] Speaker 2: Ultimately, that might be too strong a word, gettible. It
[1:29:28] Speaker 2: is good Texas defense. Beat up the Texas defense, but yeah.
[1:29:32] Speaker 3: But it is gettable through the air. Like if you're
[1:29:34] Speaker 3: going to attack this defense, that's how you attack them.
[1:29:37] Speaker 1: Okay. In my opinion, I have a lot more faith
[1:29:41] Speaker 1: in Georgia and Gunner stocked In than I do Texas.
[1:29:44] Speaker 3: And so I've got this one somewhere around like thirty
[1:29:47] Speaker 3: to twenty three.
[1:29:49] Speaker 1: My other wild card is Mike Bobo. Is that how
[1:29:53] Speaker 1: we're saying it now Bbo. Mike Bobo.
[1:29:57] Speaker 2: Yeah, Mike Bobo in a big game against a top
[1:29:59] Speaker 2: D defense, good, Mike Bolbo. Sure is fun. But I
[1:30:05] Speaker 2: don't know.
[1:30:05] Speaker 1: You listen to enough Georgia fans who've been through those wars.
[1:30:12] Speaker 1: I don't know.
[1:30:13] Speaker 2: It's a concern point with me that we could get
[1:30:16] Speaker 2: to the middle of the third quarter and you look
[1:30:18] Speaker 2: at you look internally at your college football brain, You're.
[1:30:22] Speaker 1: Like, what is he even trying to do right now?
[1:30:24] Speaker 1: What is he? What is the point of that.
[1:30:26] Speaker 3: I've been reading our discord messages. I think you're not
[1:30:28] Speaker 3: alone in that one.
[1:30:29] Speaker 2: Right, So that that worries me, even at home, even
[1:30:33] Speaker 2: with what has been a growing defense, even with what
[1:30:36] Speaker 2: has been like, you know, the running game has been
[1:30:37] Speaker 2: sort of hit and miss, but the emergence of Chauncey
[1:30:39] Speaker 2: Bowen's obviously, Nate Fraser had a good week last week.
[1:30:41] Speaker 2: There's a lot to really really like about this Georgia team.
[1:30:45] Speaker 2: But there is one headset in the booth that still
[1:30:50] Speaker 2: makes me think twice about Georgia in a big game.
[1:30:52] Speaker 2: I don't know, but I'm doing it anyway. Yeah, twenty
[1:30:55] Speaker 2: four to sixteen, Georgia, why.
[1:30:57] Speaker 3: Don't we close out on this front, Dan, Okay, So
[1:31:03] Speaker 3: normally we do this on a Thursday. I wanted to
[1:31:05] Speaker 3: do it this week on a Tuesday, just to make
[1:31:07] Speaker 3: sure that everybody knew what they were in for.
[1:31:10] Speaker 1: Okay, in week twelve seven, under the Radar Games.
[1:31:14] Speaker 3: I'm not doing picks. I am not doing a preview.
[1:31:16] Speaker 3: I am simply telling you why they are under the
[1:31:18] Speaker 3: radar on why you should give a damn Yeah.
[1:31:21] Speaker 2: And if you have a cable or television provider live
[1:31:25] Speaker 2: television provider that allows you to do a quadbox with
[1:31:28] Speaker 2: the ESPN family of networks. First of all, congratulations Fubo subscribers.
[1:31:33] Speaker 2: I've heard of you for a day and a half.
[1:31:35] Speaker 1: Yeah. And second of all, how how long are we
[1:31:41] Speaker 1: going to have to wait for YouTube TV? I mean,
[1:31:42] Speaker 1: it's just ridiculous, It's so stupid. Come on, ESPN. This
[1:31:45] Speaker 1: is so if you do subscribe to YouTube TV.
[1:31:48] Speaker 3: I don't know if you got the note about this,
[1:31:50] Speaker 3: but they're not giving you the free twenty dollars credit.
[1:31:53] Speaker 3: They're not I got an email about this, Yeah, but
[1:31:55] Speaker 3: you gotta go claim it. Oh okay, So they're they're
[1:31:59] Speaker 3: leaving the burden to their customers to go out there
[1:32:03] Speaker 3: and click on the I did it earlier.
[1:32:04] Speaker 1: You just have to click a button and go through it.
[1:32:06] Speaker 3: But they're obviously banking on people not collecting their twenty
[1:32:11] Speaker 3: dollars credits, so I'm advising all my clients make sure
[1:32:14] Speaker 3: you check your email claim it. Yeah, click on the
[1:32:16] Speaker 3: link and then click to claim the credit to get
[1:32:18] Speaker 3: your free twenty bucks. They got to figure this out, man,
[1:32:20] Speaker 3: I'm tired.
[1:32:20] Speaker 1: It's crap. You can also text Tie for illegal links
[1:32:23] Speaker 1: to these games, right six to one, L continue the number.
[1:32:27] Speaker 3: I have found many an illegal link and I will
[1:32:29] Speaker 3: start tweeting those out.
[1:32:30] Speaker 1: I don't really care. You need them sometimes. Yeah, I'm
[1:32:33] Speaker 1: not being paid by any of these guys, all.
[1:32:34] Speaker 3: Right, High noon, FS one Arizona at Cincinnati.
[1:32:38] Speaker 1: Cincinnati is favored by six.
[1:32:40] Speaker 3: This is interesting to me because if Cincinnati wins out,
[1:32:44] Speaker 3: they more than likely play for the Big twelve title.
[1:32:46] Speaker 3: But there is a possible look ahead here with BYU
[1:32:50] Speaker 3: on deck. So just keep this one back corner of
[1:32:53] Speaker 3: your mind.
[1:32:54] Speaker 1: Okay.
[1:32:54] Speaker 3: Also high nud on Fox number twenty one. Michigan a
[1:32:58] Speaker 3: ten point favorite on the road at north Western. I
[1:33:01] Speaker 3: think Michigan is better. I think Michigan will win going
[1:33:03] Speaker 3: away but under the radar and kind of cool because
[1:33:06] Speaker 3: they're playing this one at Rayley Field.
[1:33:08] Speaker 2: Okay, Planet at riglic Go get pizza at zazaz Zaza.
[1:33:11] Speaker 2: How do you spell that za zas they make what
[1:33:15] Speaker 2: I have found to be the only good New York
[1:33:16] Speaker 2: style pizza in Chicago.
[1:33:17] Speaker 1: Wow, other than you're on my own, other than your own,
[1:33:19] Speaker 1: my own.
[1:33:20] Speaker 3: Yeah, twelve forty five sec Network Arkansas on the road
[1:33:24] Speaker 3: at LSU. I have this one at six and a half.
[1:33:27] Speaker 3: I don't know if that changed. I have absolutely no
[1:33:29] Speaker 3: idea what's going to happen in this game.
[1:33:32] Speaker 2: I'll tell you what's going to happen. Do you want
[1:33:33] Speaker 2: me to tell you? Historically speaking, LSU either wins this
[1:33:36] Speaker 2: game by thirty five or three. So if you like LSU,
[1:33:40] Speaker 2: they're going to cover it easily. If you're not sure,
[1:33:42] Speaker 2: if you like LSU, you know, making the quarterback switch
[1:33:45] Speaker 2: last week, you're you know, I'm sure of a lame
[1:33:46] Speaker 2: duck program taking on another lame duck program. It's gonna
[1:33:50] Speaker 2: be a three point game either way.
[1:33:51] Speaker 1: I just think it could be really entertaining. Yeah, which
[1:33:53] Speaker 1: is why I put it on the list. Here four
[1:33:54] Speaker 1: o'clock EESP and you watch it however you can.
[1:33:58] Speaker 3: I'll see if I can find an illegal stream. Okay,
[1:34:01] Speaker 3: Memphis at ECU. Ooh, I like this quiet ECU successful year,
[1:34:06] Speaker 3: very successful year. ECU is favored by two and a
[1:34:10] Speaker 3: half points. Interestingly, Yeah, So the first question is how
[1:34:14] Speaker 3: does Memphis respond after losing last week to two lane.
[1:34:18] Speaker 3: The second question is, and it's not more of a question,
[1:34:21] Speaker 3: but it's just more something to put on your radar.
[1:34:24] Speaker 1: It's currently flying under.
[1:34:25] Speaker 3: Many There is a possible scenario that would put ECU
[1:34:30] Speaker 3: in the American title game if they went out and
[1:34:32] Speaker 3: if they finished seven to one in conference. And I
[1:34:35] Speaker 3: say possible because there are still a whole range of possibilities.
[1:34:39] Speaker 1: In the American I don't want to commit to that.
[1:34:42] Speaker 3: But if ECU wins out, if they finished seven to
[1:34:44] Speaker 3: one in conference, there's a whole series of other tiebreakers
[1:34:47] Speaker 3: and computer rankings that could give them the No, I
[1:34:50] Speaker 3: don't have access to those computers. I don't know what
[1:34:52] Speaker 3: that looks like. But U having the pirates having a
[1:34:55] Speaker 3: really good year, having a really good year, and they
[1:34:57] Speaker 3: have a shot to get a top standings.
[1:35:00] Speaker 1: So let's just leap this.
[1:35:02] Speaker 2: This game also could affect how many times you send
[1:35:05] Speaker 2: me a fake story about Ryan Silverfield taking the job
[1:35:09] Speaker 2: from a user name like d's Jugs for forty seven
[1:35:13] Speaker 2: but has Ross Dellinger's picture as his picture.
[1:35:16] Speaker 3: That was so good and it was definitely a tandem
[1:35:19] Speaker 3: that worked on that.
[1:35:20] Speaker 1: Yeah, of course because it was Ross Dellinger.
[1:35:23] Speaker 3: And then there was another fake account that looked real
[1:35:25] Speaker 3: that retweeted it, and so they got like double the boost.
[1:35:29] Speaker 3: They were gaming the algorithm. Everybody fell for it for
[1:35:31] Speaker 3: like ten minutes, and then it was like, oh.
[1:35:34] Speaker 1: Crap, didn't look at the username.
[1:35:36] Speaker 2: It literally it wasn't d's Jugs for forty seven, but
[1:35:39] Speaker 2: it was well, it wasn't even They didn't even like
[1:35:42] Speaker 2: try to do like Capital Eyes as the L's and Dellinger.
[1:35:46] Speaker 2: It wasn't even that situation.
[1:35:47] Speaker 3: Now, I was up at Mama H's we were eating dinner,
[1:35:50] Speaker 3: and I'm like, man, this is going to break my
[1:35:51] Speaker 3: coaching game.
[1:35:53] Speaker 1: Yeah, this is going to break the game. What do
[1:35:54] Speaker 1: I do. I'm just I guess I'll just leave it go.
[1:35:56] Speaker 3: I don't know fake account anyway that game. But by
[1:36:00] Speaker 3: the way, get to the three games. If there happened
[1:36:03] Speaker 3: to be like an incredible newsbreaker, anonymously named D's Jugs
[1:36:07] Speaker 3: four forty seven.
[1:36:08] Speaker 1: I would be here for it.
[1:36:09] Speaker 3: Continue seven pm, ESPN two if you could watch it.
[1:36:13] Speaker 3: Number thirteen Utah nine point favorite on the road at Baylor.
[1:36:16] Speaker 3: Utah is still in the hunt for the Big twelve.
[1:36:19] Speaker 3: They do need some help. Also, this is a spot
[1:36:22] Speaker 3: they could overlook. I don't think any likely, but it's
[1:36:27] Speaker 3: an offense second score. Maybe Utah is a bit stuck
[1:36:30] Speaker 3: in the mud. Maybe it doesn't all fire on all cylinders,
[1:36:33] Speaker 3: and Baylor finds a way to get a big lead.
[1:36:34] Speaker 1: Who knows. I'm just saying keep that one in the
[1:36:36] Speaker 1: back of your mud.
[1:36:37] Speaker 2: And this is an actual Big twelve matchup instead of
[1:36:40] Speaker 2: the fake Big twelve mess up. Yeah, correct, Okay, Continue
[1:36:42] Speaker 2: seven thirty ACC Network if you could watch it.
[1:36:46] Speaker 3: Virginia Tech on the road at Florida State, Florida stay
[1:36:48] Speaker 3: favorite by twelve and a half points. FSU two wins
[1:36:52] Speaker 3: away from getting Bowl eligible. This is the most winnable
[1:36:55] Speaker 3: game left. I would also add, if you lose a.
[1:36:57] Speaker 1: Virginia Tech, then perhaps the Mike Norvel conversation gets kicked
[1:37:00] Speaker 1: up a little bit louder.
[1:37:01] Speaker 3: They have said they're going to do their end of
[1:37:03] Speaker 3: season evaluation for Nervel. So I don't expect any kind
[1:37:06] Speaker 3: of I Meaneason firing, but you lose the tech here
[1:37:09] Speaker 3: that could definitely seal a fad or two.
[1:37:12] Speaker 2: I think they're evaluating the stock portfolios of their biggest donors,
[1:37:16] Speaker 2: not necessarily evaluating the job he's done these past couple seasons.
[1:37:19] Speaker 3: And last but not least seven to forty five sec
[1:37:22] Speaker 3: network if he can watch. Yes, Mississippi State on the
[1:37:25] Speaker 3: road at number twenty two Missouri.
[1:37:29] Speaker 1: Missouri a six and a half point favorite.
[1:37:31] Speaker 3: We got two teams here who got smoked last week.
[1:37:35] Speaker 3: A question for me is could Mississippi State steal one?
[1:37:38] Speaker 3: If so, they would get to six wins, which would
[1:37:40] Speaker 3: be a nice story.
[1:37:41] Speaker 2: Yeah, Blake shape and hurt last week. Obviously that changes
[1:37:46] Speaker 2: his or their season's calculus. It was what Camaro Taylor
[1:37:48] Speaker 2: who came in yes from Mississippi State. Yeah, this one
[1:37:53] Speaker 2: just feels like entertainment to me, Like I might not
[1:37:56] Speaker 2: watch the first half and then I see the score
[1:37:58] Speaker 2: and they're like, well, this is going up one of.
[1:38:00] Speaker 1: The TVs because this is gonna get weird.
[1:38:02] Speaker 3: I don't know why I said number twenty two Missouri.
[1:38:04] Speaker 3: They fell out of the top twenty five. I guess
[1:38:05] Speaker 3: my document was wrong, but nonetheless none a lot of
[1:38:08] Speaker 3: it's like an interesting Yes, Missoo's running back room is
[1:38:14] Speaker 3: going to need so much oxygen after what they're going
[1:38:17] Speaker 3: to do on the ground, win or lose to Mississippi State.
[1:38:21] Speaker 1: Why don't we leave it there? Dan a longer than
[1:38:23] Speaker 1: usual episode, but we had a lot to unpack. I
[1:38:25] Speaker 1: had a lot of fun.
[1:38:27] Speaker 3: Learn to be here with you as always again, hit follow,
[1:38:30] Speaker 3: hit subscribe. If you made it this far, yeah, what
[1:38:32] Speaker 3: the hell I mean? Just click the button. It's one
[1:38:35] Speaker 3: button click to make sure that you don't miss any episodes.
[1:38:37] Speaker 1: Most of them aren't this long. Yeah, but again, we
[1:38:40] Speaker 1: had a lot to discuss, and it's a pleasure to
[1:38:41] Speaker 1: be here with you.
[1:38:42] Speaker 2: And then for ball Now, people are traveling, people are commuting,
[1:38:45] Speaker 2: people are shoveling their walks as it's snowing in early November.
[1:38:51] Speaker 3: It's the good stuff, man, take the kids out for
[1:38:52] Speaker 3: a sleigh ride. Make some snowballs. Can you make a snowman?
[1:38:56] Speaker 2: Yet, it did come down a good amount five six
[1:39:00] Speaker 2: inches last night, So there's you.
[1:39:02] Speaker 1: Got five inches of snow last night. It was a lot. Yeah,
[1:39:05] Speaker 1: I'll send you some pictures Jesus. Yeah.
[1:39:09] Speaker 3: Well, on that pleasant note, thank you for Ballers, for
[1:39:12] Speaker 3: sticking with us. Ballers dot com is where you can
[1:39:14] Speaker 3: go to further support what we do.
[1:39:17] Speaker 1: We'll be back on Thursday. We're gonna previews some more games.
[1:39:20] Speaker 3: We're gonna talk about the college Football Playoff, the official
[1:39:22] Speaker 3: College Football Playoff rankings.
[1:39:24] Speaker 1: And brackets once they are available.
[1:39:27] Speaker 3: Again, tell your friends, follow us on social media, going
[1:39:32] Speaker 3: out to the website sOliver Reble dot com to find
[1:39:34] Speaker 3: all we have to offer, or just to learn a
[1:39:36] Speaker 3: little bit more about us. Yes, I agree for that
[1:39:39] Speaker 3: guy over there, my good friend Dan Rubinstein, form myself,
[1:39:41] Speaker 3: Tie Hildon Brandt. Thank you as always for downloading, for listening,
[1:39:45] Speaker 3: for supporting what we do. We will talk to you
[1:39:47] Speaker 3: all again on Thursday.
[1:39:48] Speaker 1: In the meantime, you know, real estates Peace,

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