# What We Learned From College Football Week 3: Ole Miss Gets Revenge, Kentucky Stuns Texas A&M & Our AP Top 25

An episode of [The Solid Verbal College Football Show](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/270037732), 20 Sep 2026, 1 h 20 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/21437ee1-47d9-4b16-8696-b30d011a2c26/f38e90b3-72c7-4c8f-a1ec-b4cb00621d2b/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=51c7e0eb-425c-4d93-b5a8-b30d011a2c46

College Football Week 3 delivered the kind of Saturday that forces you to reconsider a few things in a hurry. We start in Oxford, where Lane Kiffin returned with LSU for a game that had been circled for months, and Ole Miss had a chance to prove just how much of the program survived his departure. We get into what the night told us about Trinidad Chambliss, the Rebels, LSU’s still-developing offense and where both teams fit in the bigger SEC and College Football Playoff picture. Then comes the result almost nobody saw coming: Kentucky went into Kyle Field and beat Texas A&M without needing a fluky turnover fest or some bizarre special-teams swing. What does that say about Will Stein’s early progress at Kentucky, and how worried should A&M be about an offense that still seems to be searching for another gear? We also dig into Louisville’s big win over SMU, Texas Tech surviving Houston, Mississippi State’s comeback at South Carolina and the other Week 3 results that changed how we see the season. Later, we go through your Reverbs and “Today I Learned” responses, then turn to our AP Top 25 ballot. How far should Ole Miss rise? What do we do with Texas A&M after the upset? Where do Louisville, Mississippi State, Florida, Texas Tech and BYU belong now? We finish with Dude Alerts and some of our favorite individual performances from the weekend. Support the show at https://www.verballers.com/join. 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.
[0:03] Speaker 2: The Solid Verbal.
[0:04] Speaker 3: Come after me. I'm a man. I'm 40.
[0:08] Speaker 4: I've heard so many players say, well, I want to
[0:10] Speaker 4: be happy. You want to be happy for a day?
[0:12] Speaker 4: Eat a steak.
[0:13] Speaker 1: It's that woo woo. And now, Dan and Ty. Woo!
[0:18] Speaker 1: Dan Rubenstein, week three, just about in the books. I
[0:23] Speaker 1: suppose it depends when you are watching, when you are
[0:27] Speaker 1: listening to this. We do have a few games that
[0:29] Speaker 1: are still underway around the wide world of college football,
[0:31] Speaker 1: but by and large, most of the big action that
[0:34] Speaker 1: we talked about on the preview throughout the course of
[0:36] Speaker 1: this week, all that stuff is now officially official. We're
[0:40] Speaker 1: going to go through as much of it as we
[0:41] Speaker 1: can here tonight on our midnight live stream.
[0:45] Speaker 3: Hello. Welcome.
[0:46] Speaker 1: Good evening to everybody watching around the globe, whether that's
[0:49] Speaker 1: on YouTube, out on TikTok, out on X, the everything app,
[0:53] Speaker 1: wherever you may be. If you're listening after the fact
[0:56] Speaker 1: with your Sunday morning coffee, it is a pleasure to
[0:58] Speaker 1: be with you once more for Ballerhood and with you, Mr. Rubenstein.
[1:02] Speaker 1: How are you?
[1:03] Speaker 4: I'm great. Pleasure is all mine. Obviously, we got to
[1:06] Speaker 4: lead off with what everybody's going to be leading off
[1:09] Speaker 4: with today. Oregon 84, Portland State 0.
[1:13] Speaker 1: We're back, baby. Oh, it feels good to be so back.
[1:20] Speaker 1: No Dante Moore tipping things off with his legs or
[1:23] Speaker 1: the line tipping things off with their flinching. They've solved that.
[1:27] Speaker 4: All is fixed. I think I feel confident in saying
[1:32] Speaker 4: the train is back on the tracks. No, I have
[1:34] Speaker 4: no idea if Oregon is fixed, but there are more
[1:37] Speaker 4: important games to discuss.
[1:39] Speaker 1: There absolutely are. So for those of you who are
[1:41] Speaker 1: joining us live, thank you for staying up late. We're
[1:44] Speaker 1: going to be sending out several prompts to the Verballerhood
[1:46] Speaker 1: because we do want to hear from all y'all. We
[1:48] Speaker 1: posted a couple out on social media a little bit ago,
[1:52] Speaker 1: but we're interested if you are stopping by. Tell us
[1:55] Speaker 1: who you're a fan of. Tell us what you learned
[1:57] Speaker 1: today about your team.
[1:59] Speaker 5: That's all.
[2:00] Speaker 1: Doesn't need to be anything complicated, but I'm a fan
[2:02] Speaker 1: of blank. Today I learned blank. We're going to get
[2:06] Speaker 1: to that in a little bit. We're also going to
[2:08] Speaker 1: get to your reverbs. We had a bunch of great calls.
[2:10] Speaker 1: Shea did an excellent job putting our reverbs together today.
[2:14] Speaker 1: We're also going to get into our AP Top 25
[2:17] Speaker 1: ballot a little bit later on in the broadcast. We've
[2:20] Speaker 1: got some decisions to make, Dan Rubenstein. As I'm sure
[2:23] Speaker 1: you know, we talked about this before we hit go.
[2:25] Speaker 1: So some big decisions that are afoot. But why don't
[2:29] Speaker 1: we start with where I think everyone's going to start
[2:33] Speaker 1: the college football conversation as we look back on week three.
[2:36] Speaker 1: And that would be Ole Miss 32, LSU 24. Yeah,
[2:42] Speaker 1: that's probably the right move. There was a lot that
[2:45] Speaker 1: went into this one. This was brewing over by the
[2:49] Speaker 1: time kickoff finally arrived. Clearly from the moment Lane Kiffin
[2:53] Speaker 1: decided before the playoffs last year that he was going
[2:57] Speaker 1: to depart Oxford, Mississippi and instead go to Baton Rouge.
[3:02] Speaker 1: This had been building. This had been circled on the calendar.
[3:05] Speaker 1: So we finally got it. The game did not disappoint.
[3:07] Speaker 1: It looked as though initially Ole Miss was going to
[3:09] Speaker 1: run away with it. They were playing with a full
[3:11] Speaker 1: head of steam in that first half. But once LSU
[3:15] Speaker 1: got into desperation mode, we started to see the offense
[3:19] Speaker 1: come around. And that actually was my first question for you.
[3:22] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[3:23] Speaker 1: What do we think of LSU's offense when it's not
[3:25] Speaker 1: in desperation mode in a big game like this? Because
[3:28] Speaker 1: it felt like it needed that. in order to light
[3:31] Speaker 1: the fire and get themselves back on track and, you know,
[3:33] Speaker 1: eventually make a run at this thing.
[3:35] Speaker 4: Well, I mean, that question also requires a follow-up of
[3:39] Speaker 4: like with or without trade as green, right? Because that
[3:42] Speaker 4: is the weapon. And when he went down, you could
[3:44] Speaker 4: see the options becoming a little more limited in terms
[3:48] Speaker 4: of explosivity, in terms of Sam Levitt's confidence and going
[3:52] Speaker 4: anywhere down the field. I mean, this was not an
[3:54] Speaker 4: LSU offense that was responding in kind in the way
[3:57] Speaker 4: that Trinidad Chambliss was responding. fearless and rocketing the ball
[4:03] Speaker 4: down the field for better or for worse.
[4:05] Speaker 2: Right.
[4:05] Speaker 4: He was, he was missing dudes at times. He was
[4:08] Speaker 4: dirting a couple balls. He was launching it at like
[4:10] Speaker 4: 137 miles an hour at times. And it was being
[4:13] Speaker 4: caught and he, you know, he spread it around quite nicely.
[4:17] Speaker 4: I think it was, it was Ray who emerged tonight. Um,
[4:20] Speaker 4: but yeah, some of the throws were incredible and LSU.
[4:24] Speaker 4: I mean, look, this was going to be a game.
[4:26] Speaker 4: It seemed like even going in that these teams were
[4:28] Speaker 4: going to come out a little bit flat because how
[4:30] Speaker 4: do you match the energy of the anticipation going into
[4:33] Speaker 4: this game? And they came out a little bit flat
[4:35] Speaker 4: to be expected, but, uh, obviously Kiwan Lacey goes down
[4:39] Speaker 4: later on in the game, but this game was so
[4:43] Speaker 4: damn fun. This game was incredible. And, uh, The thing
[4:48] Speaker 4: that I took away from this game was one, I
[4:50] Speaker 4: think the resilience of Ole Miss. And then two, I
[4:54] Speaker 4: think we're watching such an incomplete version of LSU just
[4:59] Speaker 4: because everything had to come together so quickly. And I'm
[5:03] Speaker 4: not going to give them credit for losing, but you
[5:06] Speaker 4: watch this game and it does feel like this is
[5:08] Speaker 4: kind of a skeleton of what they're going to be
[5:10] Speaker 4: later on in the season, especially if Sam Levitt has
[5:13] Speaker 4: more confidence in the offense, in himself, in his receivers,
[5:16] Speaker 4: whatever in the system, to go downfield a little bit more. Obviously,
[5:19] Speaker 4: credit what Ole Miss was able to do on defense, but... No,
[5:23] Speaker 4: I came away so impressed with the back and forth
[5:25] Speaker 4: of this. Obviously, the huge... I don't want to call
[5:28] Speaker 4: it a goal line stand, but it was because it
[5:30] Speaker 4: was Ole Miss on offense with the ball and deciding
[5:33] Speaker 4: to go for two. But the goal line stand, obviously,
[5:37] Speaker 4: for Ole Miss when they were on defense and intercept
[5:39] Speaker 4: the tip pass to end the game. But the fortitude,
[5:43] Speaker 4: the cojones to decide to go for two. I was
[5:45] Speaker 4: like six minutes left. I... On one level, I kind
[5:49] Speaker 4: of understand it because there's so much time left that
[5:51] Speaker 4: you kind of know what you need. But on the
[5:55] Speaker 4: other hand, I'm like, well, first of all, if you
[5:56] Speaker 4: can draw them off sides a couple times, get yourself
[5:59] Speaker 4: closer over and over again, that makes it all the
[6:01] Speaker 4: much easier. And it falls under the category, and I
[6:04] Speaker 4: promise I'm going to let you speak in about 11
[6:06] Speaker 4: seconds here. Like, cool if it works.
[6:09] Speaker 3: And it did.
[6:10] Speaker 1: I had a group chat going with a bunch of friends, and...
[6:15] Speaker 1: As soon as it looked as though, as they lined
[6:18] Speaker 1: up as though they were going to go for two,
[6:20] Speaker 1: immediately the messages started flying. Bold move, bold move, bold move.
[6:25] Speaker 1: And then after the first flag and then the second flag,
[6:27] Speaker 1: the messages were like, well, not as bold as it
[6:30] Speaker 1: used to be. So whether or not that was the
[6:33] Speaker 1: intention to see if they could draw them off sides
[6:35] Speaker 1: or whether they had it in their minds to go
[6:37] Speaker 1: for it all along. I was stunned by that. I mean,
[6:39] Speaker 1: no one's down here with me watching these games. It's
[6:42] Speaker 1: late here. Everyone in the house is in bed, including
[6:44] Speaker 1: the dogs. And I'm like talking to myself. I couldn't
[6:48] Speaker 1: believe that they did it. So, yes, Cajones for sure
[6:51] Speaker 1: to decide in that moment that they want to go
[6:53] Speaker 1: for it. And I got to give Pete Golden credit.
[6:56] Speaker 1: You know, there was so much discussion around this Ole
[6:59] Speaker 1: Miss program when Lane Kiffin left. before the playoffs last year. Clearly,
[7:03] Speaker 1: they acquitted themselves quite well once they got into that tournament.
[7:06] Speaker 1: But there was a fair amount new coming into this season,
[7:10] Speaker 1: not the least of which was players and coaching staff
[7:13] Speaker 1: and you name it. But they retained Trinidad Chambliss, Kiwan Lacy, right?
[7:17] Speaker 1: They had that as their bedrock, namely Trinidad Chambliss in
[7:20] Speaker 1: this game, who just looked like unstoppable. I don't know
[7:23] Speaker 1: what the final number was. Is it 363 yards passing
[7:26] Speaker 1: something of that nature?
[7:27] Speaker 4: And he did have a pick late.
[7:29] Speaker 5: Yes.
[7:29] Speaker 1: I had to pick late. But I mean, just talk
[7:31] Speaker 1: about the guy that you want the ball in his
[7:34] Speaker 1: hands in crunch time. Trinidad Chambliss continues to be that
[7:38] Speaker 1: guy over and over again. He's never going to be
[7:40] Speaker 1: a thousand percent, but his ability to step up in
[7:44] Speaker 1: key moments, we saw it throughout the course of this game.
[7:47] Speaker 1: He is just an absolute pain in the ass back there.
[7:50] Speaker 1: Whether he is throwing at a thousand miles an hour,
[7:52] Speaker 1: as he did several times in this one, or just
[7:54] Speaker 1: finding a way to keep a play alive and extend. Truly.
[7:58] Speaker 1: He could make a case as the number one overall
[8:00] Speaker 1: pick in the NFL. I know he's undersized, but the
[8:03] Speaker 1: moxie that he shows when he's out there is damn impressive.
[8:06] Speaker 1: And it's obviously going to power this team. Pete Golding
[8:09] Speaker 1: has now proven, despite the fact that it was a
[8:12] Speaker 1: long offseason, despite the fact that there is so much new,
[8:15] Speaker 1: that this program at Ole Miss is more than Lane Kiffin.
[8:18] Speaker 1: It's more than Lane Kiffin. It's the talent that's on hand.
[8:22] Speaker 1: They have good leadership. And in a game like this
[8:25] Speaker 1: where I think it was you, and I've heard many
[8:26] Speaker 1: others say it as well, more pressure was on Ole Miss, truly,
[8:30] Speaker 1: than it was LSU because of the circumstances and wanting
[8:33] Speaker 1: to maybe get that revenge on Kiffin. They answered the bell.
[8:36] Speaker 1: They came out hot. You know, LSU made a charge late,
[8:39] Speaker 1: but Ole Miss, at least early, was not showing signs
[8:42] Speaker 1: of pressure. They were showing signs of a team that
[8:44] Speaker 1: was focused and knew what it wanted to do. So
[8:47] Speaker 1: I'm glad for the purposes of our viewership, it tightened
[8:50] Speaker 1: up at the end and it gave us something to
[8:52] Speaker 1: watch for. Two weeks in a row now, a one-score
[8:55] Speaker 1: game on the Saturday night ABC game. But kudos to
[9:00] Speaker 1: Ole Miss for getting the job done here. We can
[9:03] Speaker 1: talk a little bit later on about what that means, perhaps,
[9:05] Speaker 1: with regard to our AP Top 25 ballot. How high
[9:08] Speaker 1: do we move Ole Miss? They have to go up now.
[9:10] Speaker 1: They've got two quality wins, to say the least, against
[9:14] Speaker 1: LSU and Louisville. But I just came away so damn
[9:18] Speaker 1: impressed by their ability to handle that pressure and show
[9:22] Speaker 1: on a stage like this that the program is bigger
[9:25] Speaker 1: than the guy that left that was on the other sidelines.
[9:28] Speaker 4: So my LSU takeaway that I had mentioned, I mean,
[9:31] Speaker 4: the defense, I think, is going to be pretty incredible
[9:33] Speaker 4: all year. This is going to be arguably the best
[9:35] Speaker 4: quarterback they're going to see all year. And so for
[9:38] Speaker 4: them to be within a couple of plays of tying
[9:40] Speaker 4: this game and sending it to overtime, given the infancy,
[9:43] Speaker 4: and look, I'm not sort of waving away LSU, you know,
[9:48] Speaker 4: losing this game and it's admirable because it's so young
[9:50] Speaker 4: and Lane Kiffin's tenure. They spent dozens of millions of
[9:53] Speaker 4: dollars on this roster. The expectation is that they win
[9:56] Speaker 4: a ton of games and they compete against the best
[9:58] Speaker 4: given who's on this roster. roster, who's coaching this team.
[10:02] Speaker 4: And Ole Miss was the better team. There's just no
[10:05] Speaker 4: doubt in my mind the ability to finish in that
[10:07] Speaker 4: kind of spot. is huge. So my takeaway from LSU
[10:11] Speaker 4: is just like, this is the skeleton of what we'll see.
[10:13] Speaker 4: Is there anything new from Ole Miss, right? We already
[10:15] Speaker 4: knew that Trinidad Chambliss was clutch and a leader of
[10:19] Speaker 4: men and a playmaker. Was there anything new that you
[10:22] Speaker 4: came away with, with regard to, you know, John David
[10:25] Speaker 4: Baker or Pete Golding or whatever, you know, the new
[10:28] Speaker 4: guys on defense or the new playmakers or the new
[10:30] Speaker 4: guys being counted on to be more of a playmaker,
[10:33] Speaker 4: you know, Traylon Ray, we mentioned was one of the
[10:35] Speaker 4: guys who stepped up today. As you look forward, is
[10:38] Speaker 4: Ole Miss's road spot in the swap next week?
[10:41] Speaker 1: Oh, my God.
[10:44] Speaker 4: The biggest, I think it's next week, right? Yeah, it
[10:46] Speaker 4: is next week. There's no bye between these two games.
[10:49] Speaker 4: The biggest potential letdown of the season, SEC or beyond, whatever.
[10:55] Speaker 4: Was there anything else about Ole Miss you're like, okay,
[10:57] Speaker 4: now that I've seen them both against Louisville and now LSU,
[11:01] Speaker 4: here is how I'm updating my software, my firmware on
[11:05] Speaker 4: Ole Miss.
[11:06] Speaker 1: After this game in particular, I came away feeling a
[11:10] Speaker 1: lot like I did last year. And that was new
[11:13] Speaker 1: in a sense because the game that we saw against
[11:16] Speaker 1: Louisville gave up a ton of big plays. They won, obviously,
[11:21] Speaker 1: by three points. But it was a really good game.
[11:25] Speaker 1: It was one of those deals where we, I think,
[11:27] Speaker 1: look back on it and say, okay, these teams have
[11:28] Speaker 1: probably grown since then, as the better teams do throughout
[11:32] Speaker 1: the course of a season. But the fact that I
[11:34] Speaker 1: came away from a game like this feeling like, A,
[11:38] Speaker 1: Ole Miss, at least on offense, even if they've got
[11:40] Speaker 1: some injuries, and Kiwan Lacy, as you said, went out
[11:43] Speaker 1: with the knee thing, it still felt to me like
[11:46] Speaker 1: with Trinidad-Chamberlain says that bedrock, they're fine, and it still
[11:49] Speaker 1: feels a lot like they did last year. What I
[11:52] Speaker 1: would add, though, to that is, defensively, they did step
[11:55] Speaker 1: up when they had to. I'm not going to confuse
[11:58] Speaker 1: this with like a shutdown.
[11:59] Speaker 4: Well, it had to happen when it did, because they
[12:01] Speaker 4: were knocking on the door, yeah.
[12:02] Speaker 1: I'm not going to confuse this with any kind of like,
[12:06] Speaker 1: brick wall of a defense. I think it's gettable, but
[12:09] Speaker 1: I think there is definitely something to be said for
[12:11] Speaker 1: having an offense this good and a defense that can
[12:14] Speaker 1: win some key moments. That's good enough to get you
[12:16] Speaker 1: into the playoffs and maybe make a run. We saw
[12:18] Speaker 1: it last year. So that to me, I think their
[12:21] Speaker 1: ability again to prove beyond any shadow of doubt that
[12:26] Speaker 1: the program is bigger than Kiffin is sort of my
[12:29] Speaker 1: lasting takeaway from what we saw in week three. Now,
[12:32] Speaker 1: who knows where it goes from here? As he said,
[12:34] Speaker 1: Challenges await, certainly in the SEC gauntlet. But for the moment, anyway,
[12:39] Speaker 1: I just come away damn impressed.
[12:41] Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, the only other thing I would add
[12:42] Speaker 4: before we have, obviously, a lot of games to discuss,
[12:45] Speaker 4: but this one has been circled on a lot of
[12:47] Speaker 4: people's calendars and dockets for quite some time, is the
[12:50] Speaker 4: Ole Miss defense kind of kept LSU's offense off schedule.
[12:57] Speaker 4: Not that LSU wasn't able to gain yardage and amass
[13:00] Speaker 4: first downs and points in the second half, But there
[13:02] Speaker 4: is something about the fact that like, oh, once trade
[13:05] Speaker 4: as green went down, it was short stuff and it
[13:08] Speaker 4: was Sam Levitt improvising, right? That it wasn't like a
[13:11] Speaker 4: rhythmic LSU experience in the second half. They made plays.
[13:15] Speaker 4: They absolutely made plays. But it was... Ole Miss blanketing
[13:19] Speaker 4: dudes in the secondary. It was Ole Miss, you know,
[13:22] Speaker 4: forcing Sam Levitt to make the crazy plays with his
[13:26] Speaker 4: legs that he was able to do to keep drives going, right?
[13:28] Speaker 4: That Ole Miss had to absorb the improvisation of LSU.
[13:33] Speaker 4: And so that ability with that much pressure, it speaks
[13:37] Speaker 4: volumes given, again, I mentioned the Florida thing next week.
[13:41] Speaker 4: Ole Miss does have old friend Austin Simmons in a
[13:44] Speaker 4: couple weeks. They have Arch Manning on the road. They'll
[13:47] Speaker 4: have Gunnar Stockton and Georgia at home. They'll have, I
[13:51] Speaker 4: guess it could be described as high-flying, the Oklahoma offense. No,
[13:56] Speaker 4: hold on. I'm being told. Grounded. Fully grounded, the offense,
[14:01] Speaker 4: but they'll have to throw into what should continue to
[14:04] Speaker 4: be a very good Oklahoma defense. So it's a tough
[14:07] Speaker 4: road ahead, but I think they answered a lot of
[14:08] Speaker 4: questions tonight.
[14:10] Speaker 1: 32-24 for Ballerhood right in. Let us know your thoughts.
[14:13] Speaker 1: Big game. This was the one that everyone had circled.
[14:15] Speaker 1: One that we did not have circled, though.
[14:18] Speaker 4: Please.
[14:19] Speaker 1: Kentucky went to Texas A & M and won. They
[14:24] Speaker 1: beat them outright.
[14:26] Speaker 4: Dude, they just beat them up.
[14:28] Speaker 1: They beat them outright, Dan.
[14:30] Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm putting the graphic on the screen now. I apologize.
[14:32] Speaker 4: Here you go. 31-21.
[14:34] Speaker 1: Woo! 31-21. How much of this game did you watch?
[14:38] Speaker 1: I watched the whole thing. How much did you personally
[14:41] Speaker 1: watch of this game? It was quad box.
[14:43] Speaker 4: When I saw the score starting to shift dramatically around
[14:46] Speaker 4: the middle eight, I watched more of it. And then
[14:49] Speaker 4: after the fact, I watched basically all of it.
[14:52] Speaker 1: So I made a video out on the YouTube channel
[14:54] Speaker 1: right after this one because the spirit moved me. I
[14:58] Speaker 1: was really taken by what I saw.
[15:00] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[15:01] Speaker 1: First and foremost, a ton of credit. That patron saint,
[15:05] Speaker 1: Will Stein, that moved you?
[15:06] Speaker 4: Well, it was.
[15:08] Speaker 1: Because you know what? If you're a Kentucky fan, if
[15:10] Speaker 1: you're a Kentucky fan, this is what you wanted when
[15:12] Speaker 1: you hired Will Stein from Oregon. This is exactly the
[15:16] Speaker 1: offense that you wanted. And I also give them credit.
[15:19] Speaker 1: So obviously go to Kyle Field to win. That's in
[15:23] Speaker 1: and of itself an accomplishment. Where I really give them
[15:26] Speaker 1: credit is what happened last week when Alabama came to town.
[15:31] Speaker 1: They were competitive for a half. Bama changed up the scheme.
[15:35] Speaker 1: They ran more. They went heavier sets. They basically ran
[15:38] Speaker 1: Kentucky off the field in the second half. I'm oversimplifying,
[15:42] Speaker 1: but that's in effect what happened. In this game, it
[15:46] Speaker 1: was almost the polar opposite. And it was on the
[15:48] Speaker 1: road in a hostile environment. The first half, 7-7. Going
[15:54] Speaker 1: in at halftime, after Kentucky comes out, third quarter, they
[15:58] Speaker 1: score 21 consecutive points. And from that point forward, they're
[16:02] Speaker 1: playing on the front foot. Texas A & M suddenly
[16:05] Speaker 1: has to throw like crazy. I think Marcel Reed finished
[16:08] Speaker 1: with 49 passing attempts, which no offense to Marcel Reed,
[16:12] Speaker 1: but if I look at a box score and I
[16:13] Speaker 1: see that he threw it 49 times, that's a pretty
[16:15] Speaker 1: good tell that something went wrong.
[16:17] Speaker 4: Yeah, agree.
[16:18] Speaker 1: This was not like a fluke win. It just wasn't
[16:22] Speaker 1: a fluke win. It was not a fluke win at all.
[16:24] Speaker 1: Kentucky was the better team for overwhelming stretches of this game,
[16:29] Speaker 1: and they made Texas A & M look ordinary, which
[16:33] Speaker 1: to me was the biggest takeaway of all. You can lose,
[16:36] Speaker 1: especially in the SEC. Upsets happen. We're going to see
[16:40] Speaker 1: a million more before the season is through. Clearly, you
[16:43] Speaker 1: don't want the upset, but they happen. You can rebound
[16:46] Speaker 1: from that. Texas A & M looked damn ordinary in
[16:51] Speaker 1: this game. They still got the defense. We know that part,
[16:54] Speaker 1: but offensively, offensively, they just did not have pop. And
[17:00] Speaker 1: I think they shown in this game here that when
[17:02] Speaker 1: you've got a game and you got to turn it
[17:04] Speaker 1: over to Marcel Reed in hopes that he can win
[17:06] Speaker 1: it for you, that might not be the best strategy.
[17:09] Speaker 1: It just didn't work in this one. I thought he
[17:12] Speaker 1: was ordinary. I thought the offense was ordinary. And I
[17:15] Speaker 1: came away just wondering like, when is, when are they
[17:17] Speaker 1: going to find this gear? When's that going to happen?
[17:20] Speaker 1: It never did. So I give Will Stein, I give
[17:23] Speaker 1: Kentucky a ton of credit because they won this game
[17:26] Speaker 1: fair and square. There were no hijinks here. It wasn't
[17:29] Speaker 1: like a weird penalty that tipped it in their favor
[17:31] Speaker 1: or a block punt or a bunch of turnovers or
[17:34] Speaker 1: any of that stuff. This is just they lined up
[17:37] Speaker 1: and they beat them and they came to play in
[17:39] Speaker 1: the second half much more so than Texas A &
[17:42] Speaker 1: M did. It was impressive.
[17:44] Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, look, you look at some of the
[17:45] Speaker 4: talent that's on the Kentucky offense. We didn't really know
[17:48] Speaker 4: what to expect from Kenny Minchie coming into the season
[17:51] Speaker 4: because we hadn't seen him play meaningful football against quality
[17:55] Speaker 4: opponents and getting Alabama and Texas A & M to
[17:57] Speaker 4: presumably like top 15 ish teams in his first three games.
[18:01] Speaker 4: Like we're going to learn pretty quickly what he is
[18:03] Speaker 4: or is not. He sliced and diced. I thought it
[18:06] Speaker 4: was a really well-called game from, was it Joe Sloan,
[18:09] Speaker 4: the offensive coordinator, spread the ball around. It was DJ
[18:12] Speaker 4: Miller with whom he was connecting, if that is closer
[18:15] Speaker 4: to English. They were able to run the ball really well.
[18:18] Speaker 4: They won the line of scrimmage. He had a bunch
[18:21] Speaker 4: of time. That was a surprising thing that he looked,
[18:25] Speaker 4: both to his credit and the offensive line's credit, he
[18:28] Speaker 4: had time to assess and step into a pocket and
[18:32] Speaker 4: complete throws. And I think maybe I expected more from
[18:37] Speaker 4: the Texas A & M pass rush. And I think
[18:39] Speaker 4: there's only so much a secondary can do when a
[18:41] Speaker 4: guy has that kind of comfort in the pocket. He
[18:44] Speaker 4: may play outside of the pocket. They dropped a pretty
[18:46] Speaker 4: easy touchdown, too. Kentucky did. Like a brutal, like you
[18:50] Speaker 4: watch it in slow motion. You're like, wait, was that
[18:51] Speaker 4: a catch and fumble? But then you watch it full speed.
[18:54] Speaker 4: You got to secure the package there. But I don't.
[18:58] Speaker 4: Kentucky was ready for the moment. I mean, that's an
[19:01] Speaker 4: intimidating place to play, and we'll see what kind of
[19:08] Speaker 4: depth they'll have if it's tested over the course of
[19:10] Speaker 4: the season. But it made me think Kentucky's ahead of schedule,
[19:16] Speaker 4: and I'm much more excited. I think Kenny Minshew went
[19:19] Speaker 4: for like 13, 14 yards per attempt.
[19:21] Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
[19:23] Speaker 4: He got what he wanted starting late in the first half.
[19:26] Speaker 1: The stat that I mentioned in the Now, aforementioned video
[19:30] Speaker 1: that I cut together real quick. At some point deep
[19:34] Speaker 1: into the fourth quarter, Kentucky was like nine yards per play.
[19:39] Speaker 1: And they were getting the explosives. They were getting the
[19:42] Speaker 1: things that you need to win a game like this
[19:44] Speaker 1: on the road in a hostile environment. Things that can
[19:46] Speaker 1: break momentum for the home team. right it doesn't take
[19:50] Speaker 1: much in a setting like Kyle Field to build some
[19:53] Speaker 1: momentum and before you know it it snowballs we see
[19:55] Speaker 1: that happen all the time but their ability Kentucky's ability
[19:59] Speaker 1: to get some of those explosive plays and just really
[20:01] Speaker 1: take the air out of the balloon is was, you know,
[20:05] Speaker 1: I will remember this for sure when we look back
[20:09] Speaker 1: on the season because it was truly one that we
[20:12] Speaker 1: didn't see coming. You know, it was a 17.5 point spread.
[20:14] Speaker 1: It did not appear, especially after what we saw last
[20:17] Speaker 1: week against Alabama, like Kentucky was going to be all
[20:20] Speaker 1: that competitive with A & M, but they came to play.
[20:22] Speaker 1: They really did. Kudos to them.
[20:24] Speaker 4: You know, in sports video games, when you're attempting to
[20:26] Speaker 4: kick a field goal or hit like a pressure free throw,
[20:29] Speaker 4: there's generally like moving bars and power and aiming and exactly.
[20:35] Speaker 4: And then there's, there's more pressure and it moves faster
[20:38] Speaker 4: and it starts to blur and everything like that. I
[20:41] Speaker 4: feel like that's what's going on in Marcel Reed's head.
[20:43] Speaker 4: He never knows exactly how hard or where the, like
[20:48] Speaker 4: sometimes he's going to make an amazing play. Sometimes it's
[20:51] Speaker 4: going to spray off to nowhere. Sometimes he's going to
[20:54] Speaker 4: run for 61 yards on a broken play that there
[20:57] Speaker 4: is a variability to the Marcel Reed experience that, uh,
[21:02] Speaker 4: I don't know if that can evolve over the course
[21:04] Speaker 4: of the season. I hope for his sake and Texas
[21:06] Speaker 4: A & M' s sake it does. But, yeah, he's launching.
[21:11] Speaker 4: When in doubt, he's launching. And I really like the
[21:14] Speaker 4: receiving group. And, you know, they're down Terry Bussey. I
[21:16] Speaker 4: don't know if I've seen anything official on that. He
[21:18] Speaker 4: went down early in the game.
[21:19] Speaker 1: Right away.
[21:19] Speaker 4: Hopefully it's better than it looks.
[21:20] Speaker 1: He went down early on the kickoff, yeah.
[21:22] Speaker 6: Right.
[21:24] Speaker 4: But it's hard to know exactly what to expect out
[21:26] Speaker 4: of Texas A & M this season when, you know,
[21:29] Speaker 4: drive to drive, series to series... The passing attack seems
[21:33] Speaker 4: to be all over the place. The offensive line did
[21:34] Speaker 4: a little bit better on the ground with the ability
[21:37] Speaker 4: to run. But no, sorry here was Kentucky.
[21:40] Speaker 1: I can tell you what our friends out on CFB
[21:42] Speaker 1: Reddit had to say about Marcel Reed. And it wasn't pretty.
[21:46] Speaker 1: It was a lot of, hey, is this guy worse
[21:48] Speaker 1: this year? Like, what's going on here with this offense? So, yeah,
[21:52] Speaker 1: for his sake.
[21:53] Speaker 4: There's time.
[21:54] Speaker 1: For his sake, I hope he can evolve. And for sure.
[21:57] Speaker 1: given the new format here, I guess as of two
[22:00] Speaker 1: years ago now, like you can rebound from this, you
[22:03] Speaker 1: can come back from it and you can still find
[22:05] Speaker 1: your way back into a serious conversation. But there haven't
[22:09] Speaker 1: been positive signs of real growth on that offense. And
[22:14] Speaker 1: I think that would probably be the most concerning bit
[22:16] Speaker 1: if you're holding out hope for an A & M run.
[22:19] Speaker 1: So we'll talk about A & M a little bit
[22:21] Speaker 1: later when we get to the ballot. Let's talk about Louisville, Dan.
[22:25] Speaker 4: Louisville.
[22:25] Speaker 1: 41-31. This was a fun game. We expected a lot
[22:29] Speaker 1: of points in this matchup. We got a lot of points.
[22:33] Speaker 1: It was back and forth for a good chunk of
[22:35] Speaker 1: the action. Louisville wins at home. 41-31. This was a
[22:40] Speaker 1: very big deal for them. It's a very advantageous schedule
[22:43] Speaker 1: this year. SMU was the game they had to have
[22:46] Speaker 1: if they wanted this thing to take flight and maybe
[22:49] Speaker 1: be a part of that ACC conversation. And certainly with
[22:52] Speaker 1: regard to the national conversation, you need to win a
[22:55] Speaker 1: game like this. You need to get that big top
[22:56] Speaker 1: 25 win. So with SMU coming to town, this was,
[23:00] Speaker 1: I think, a prime opportunity for it. And I give
[23:03] Speaker 1: Louisville a lot of credit here, man. I really do.
[23:06] Speaker 1: This is a game that could have gone off the
[23:08] Speaker 1: skids just because you had two high-powered offenses. There wasn't
[23:12] Speaker 1: much margin for error. For on the SMU side, they
[23:16] Speaker 1: were the ones that turned the ball over more. I
[23:19] Speaker 1: think it was a 3-0.
[23:19] Speaker 4: Yeah, there's the error. Yeah.
[23:21] Speaker 1: The 3-0 turnover margin. And sometimes that's just enough to
[23:24] Speaker 1: give an extra possession or two to the opposing team
[23:27] Speaker 1: and for them to get the dub.
[23:30] Speaker 6: Yeah.
[23:30] Speaker 4: I thought Lincoln Keenholz appeared to be more seasoned than
[23:35] Speaker 4: his experience would explain. Um, I just, it's unfortunately a,
[23:41] Speaker 4: a familiar story with Kevin Jennings and the turnovers, especially
[23:45] Speaker 4: brutal with the fact that Kendrick Raphael, the Cal transfer
[23:50] Speaker 4: got so much exercise running through the Louisville defense and,
[23:55] Speaker 4: And it's Kiwan Brown for, or not Kiwan Brown.
[23:59] Speaker 1: Kiwan Brown, yeah.
[24:00] Speaker 4: Oh, okay, that's right. Was able to get that, a
[24:04] Speaker 4: similar amount of exercise for Louisville through the SMU defense.
[24:06] Speaker 4: The difference was Lincoln Keenholz was able to find receivers downfield,
[24:12] Speaker 4: played fearlessly. And I don't think Jeff Brom has beaten
[24:17] Speaker 4: SMU since arriving at Louisville, but... Yeah, it was a
[24:23] Speaker 4: faster start for Louisville than I think I expected, and
[24:29] Speaker 4: I don't know, it felt like a very thorough win,
[24:32] Speaker 4: given the circumstances.
[24:34] Speaker 1: You know I'm a bro for Braum.
[24:37] Speaker 4: Yeah, I know.
[24:37] Speaker 1: I'm all in on Jeff Braum. When you hear of
[24:42] Speaker 1: a Jeff Braum offense, I think you picture a quarterback
[24:47] Speaker 1: throwing like crazy. I think you tend to think.
[24:50] Speaker 4: Shorter stuff, shorter stuff, right?
[24:52] Speaker 1: I think you tend to think of it more based
[24:55] Speaker 1: around quarterback play, but what makes Louisville a tough out
[24:59] Speaker 1: right now is the running game might be the thing
[25:04] Speaker 1: for as good as I think link Lincoln keen holds
[25:06] Speaker 1: can be. And for sure, we've seen some growth there.
[25:08] Speaker 1: Their ability to run the ball was something we called
[25:10] Speaker 1: out at the beginning of the year, something we called
[25:12] Speaker 1: out at the end of last year, provided they could
[25:14] Speaker 1: retain the services of, you know, Isaac Brown and company. Um,
[25:19] Speaker 1: there was a real question as to, you know, how
[25:22] Speaker 1: good can this rushing attack be? And we didn't necessarily
[25:25] Speaker 1: see it right away, but Kewon Brown, 163 on 10 carries.
[25:30] Speaker 1: He had touchdown runs of 58 and 53. Isaac Brown
[25:36] Speaker 1: had 67 yards and also a 27 yard touchdown, a
[25:40] Speaker 1: big touchdown in the fourth quarter. It's not like SMU
[25:44] Speaker 1: was just in this position where they're in the trenches
[25:48] Speaker 1: and they're slowly wearing down, Louisville just kept dropping anvils
[25:51] Speaker 1: on them. You know what I mean?
[25:53] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[25:53] Speaker 1: And that ultimately is what I think proved to be
[25:55] Speaker 1: the difference here. The other thing that I would point out,
[26:01] Speaker 1: and kind of on the heels of that, because the
[26:04] Speaker 1: running game can be really good, that's a really good
[26:08] Speaker 1: situation for a developing quarterback like Lincoln Keenholds. Now, there
[26:13] Speaker 1: will inevitably be a game this year where he's got
[26:15] Speaker 1: to throw it more than they want. But I would
[26:17] Speaker 1: say just as a baseline, don't expect him to go
[26:20] Speaker 1: out there and sling it 40 times a game. He
[26:22] Speaker 1: doesn't need to be the hero. He just needs to
[26:24] Speaker 1: be stable enough that defenses aren't selling out against everything
[26:29] Speaker 1: else to force him to pass. And I think right
[26:31] Speaker 1: now they're finding that balance. This is the type of
[26:34] Speaker 1: game that it could have gone in that direction if
[26:37] Speaker 1: they weren't efficient, if they were turning the ball over,
[26:39] Speaker 1: if they're making a ton of mistakes. We just did
[26:40] Speaker 1: not see that. In this game, they won the efficiency battle.
[26:44] Speaker 1: And even though, you know, some of the stats favored SMU,
[26:49] Speaker 1: the one that matters the most is the final score.
[26:52] Speaker 1: And they got it.
[26:54] Speaker 4: There was just, yeah, there seemed to be more of
[26:56] Speaker 4: a rhythm with what Louisville was doing on offense. You
[26:59] Speaker 4: know how many third and fourth down attempts at conversions
[27:03] Speaker 4: they made in this game? I don't expect you to
[27:06] Speaker 4: have Louisville in your head. Louisville had 10 total attempts.
[27:10] Speaker 4: They weren't especially efficient, but that's because they were gaining
[27:13] Speaker 4: yardage on first and second downs and getting more first downs.
[27:17] Speaker 4: I think SMU had 19 attempts. So almost twice as
[27:21] Speaker 4: many attempts for higher leverage moments just underscores what Louisville
[27:26] Speaker 4: was able to do in terms of efficiency, as you mentioned.
[27:28] Speaker 4: So really nice from Louisville. And as you mentioned on
[27:30] Speaker 4: the preview show, kind of a thin schedule moving forward
[27:35] Speaker 4: for Louisville.
[27:36] Speaker 1: I mean, look.
[27:37] Speaker 4: If they can stay healthy and stay out of their
[27:39] Speaker 4: own way. They were pretty heavily penalized against SMU. They
[27:42] Speaker 4: do have some stuff to clean up, but they're going
[27:45] Speaker 4: to win a grip of games this year, man.
[27:47] Speaker 1: It is not a perfect team. I don't think anyone
[27:49] Speaker 1: on Louisville would tell you it's a perfect team.
[27:52] Speaker 4: Some more run fits, perhaps.
[27:53] Speaker 1: More run fits would be nice, but a three-point loss
[27:56] Speaker 1: in week one on a neutral site against Ole Miss,
[27:59] Speaker 1: an Ole Miss team that we talked about a moment
[28:02] Speaker 1: ago because they figured it would be pretty good and
[28:04] Speaker 1: be part of the bigger conversation. They had this one
[28:08] Speaker 1: the rest of the way. Wake Forest on the road
[28:12] Speaker 1: at NC State. NC State finds ways to lose, Dan.
[28:15] Speaker 1: We'll give them that. Florida State.
[28:18] Speaker 4: New and novel, yeah.
[28:19] Speaker 1: Syracuse, Stanford, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Pitt, and they close
[28:23] Speaker 1: out on the road at Kentucky. Obviously a non-conference game.
[28:27] Speaker 4: But, buddy, that's going to be, as of today, huge game.
[28:30] Speaker 4: Huge game.
[28:31] Speaker 1: Can't wait. But in terms of ACC getting into the
[28:35] Speaker 1: conference championship game, Right now, Louisville, I think, has a
[28:38] Speaker 1: leg up. No doubt about it.
[28:40] Speaker 4: Especially you look at Virginia Saturday, which we will eventually. Look,
[28:45] Speaker 4: one week, one game does not define your season. But
[28:49] Speaker 4: the data points are streaming in pretty quickly.
[28:53] Speaker 1: Let's travel back in time, then, and talk about one
[28:55] Speaker 1: more big game.
[28:57] Speaker 4: Please.
[28:57] Speaker 1: This one went down on Friday night. Texas Tech, 28. Houston, 26.
[29:04] Speaker 4: Man, fun at times, kind of ugly to watch at times.
[29:09] Speaker 4: Perhaps those are the reviews that are in for this
[29:11] Speaker 4: very show. I don't know, but good for Texas Tech.
[29:15] Speaker 4: What'd you think?
[29:20] Speaker 1: Houston, okay. We did not have Houston ranked in our
[29:24] Speaker 1: top 25, even though we liked Houston a great deal.
[29:27] Speaker 1: I have them winning the Big 12. I'm not getting
[29:30] Speaker 1: off that, yeah. Which I think is still possible, by
[29:32] Speaker 1: the way. Who knows with this conference? They're certainly in
[29:36] Speaker 1: that grouping of, I would say, four teams at the
[29:39] Speaker 1: top of the Big 12. 12 through a couple weeks. But,
[29:42] Speaker 1: you know, even us almost like reflexively sort of waiting
[29:48] Speaker 1: for reasons to dismiss Houston. And it required a game
[29:53] Speaker 1: like this. We needed to see what Houston could do.
[29:55] Speaker 1: It's like, yeah, well, they beat Oregon State. They ran
[29:56] Speaker 1: all over them. They ran all over the team they
[29:58] Speaker 1: played next. But against real competition, let's see how far
[30:02] Speaker 1: along this project is that Willie Fritz is building here.
[30:06] Speaker 1: They led at halftime. They ran for a fair amount
[30:10] Speaker 1: of yards against a tech defense that was supposed to
[30:12] Speaker 1: be better against the run. I thought, by and large, Houston,
[30:20] Speaker 1: just as a proof of concept, acquitted itself quite well. Also,
[30:24] Speaker 1: this game came down to a two-point conversion. And Conor
[30:28] Speaker 1: Wakeman may have crossed the line. I don't know. There
[30:32] Speaker 1: wasn't enough in the replay to say that he got
[30:34] Speaker 1: across the line for the two-point conversion.
[30:36] Speaker 4: Right.
[30:37] Speaker 1: But this was a very, very even matchup. So it
[30:40] Speaker 1: hurts to lose on the Houston side. But I think
[30:44] Speaker 1: the bigger takeaway is Willie Fritz knows how to build.
[30:48] Speaker 1: And Willie Fritz has gotten to the point, at least
[30:50] Speaker 1: this season, where they're kind of neck and neck with
[30:53] Speaker 1: Texas Tech, who was the presumed favorite.
[30:56] Speaker 4: They played him even in Lubbock. Right?
[31:00] Speaker 1: They played him even.
[31:02] Speaker 4: Who played Texas Tech even last year? I guess just ASU?
[31:07] Speaker 4: Who beat them? And that was not a Barron Morton game. So, okay.
[31:12] Speaker 4: I came away, first of all, mortified that Texas Tech
[31:16] Speaker 4: opened up this game on offense with a Thomas Castellanos
[31:20] Speaker 4: throwaway interception. I think immediately turned into a touchdown, right?
[31:26] Speaker 4: Not returned for a touchdown.
[31:27] Speaker 1: But I think Houston was able to drive and score.
[31:32] Speaker 4: Texas Tech is still figuring itself out.
[31:34] Speaker 5: It's okay.
[31:34] Speaker 4: It's game three, but they're figuring out their offense with a,
[31:38] Speaker 4: I think a pretty good Will Hammond, but they're not
[31:41] Speaker 4: exactly sure what to expect from their own offensive line,
[31:43] Speaker 4: from the rushing attack. You know, they obviously have health
[31:47] Speaker 4: questions with the pass catchers, but it was the return
[31:50] Speaker 4: of a Terrence Carter, the tight end in this one.
[31:53] Speaker 4: for Texas tech, obviously going to be a help for, uh,
[31:56] Speaker 4: for the red Raiders. He only had a couple of catches, but, um,
[32:01] Speaker 4: they were so very clearly led last year by a
[32:04] Speaker 4: pretty good offense, but a dominant defense. They're not going
[32:08] Speaker 4: to have a dominant defense in that way. The personnel
[32:11] Speaker 4: isn't there. I don't think the depth is going to
[32:13] Speaker 4: be there this year. They're going to win a ton
[32:15] Speaker 4: of games. They are rightfully considered to be one of
[32:18] Speaker 4: the favorites of the big 12. Um, Bit of a
[32:22] Speaker 4: clunker at home. They won their clunker. I think it
[32:25] Speaker 4: speaks to some of the resolve that they have as
[32:27] Speaker 4: a winning program. As we've said, winning is a skill.
[32:30] Speaker 4: But I also came away pretty impressed with the balance
[32:33] Speaker 4: of Houston, especially up front on defense, their ability to
[32:37] Speaker 4: force Texas Tech into longer third downs and more arduous attempts. So, like,
[32:44] Speaker 4: I'm into both of these teams as competitors in the
[32:46] Speaker 4: Big 12.
[32:46] Speaker 5: And.
[32:48] Speaker 4: I'm sure Texas Tech people are breathing a sigh of relief,
[32:51] Speaker 4: but a fun watch.
[32:54] Speaker 5: It was.
[32:54] Speaker 1: And I mean, I think just given the questions we
[32:57] Speaker 1: had about Texas Tech, I mean, we were really questioning
[33:00] Speaker 1: the line going into this game.
[33:02] Speaker 5: Yeah.
[33:02] Speaker 1: Really on both sides.
[33:03] Speaker 4: Line of scrimmage on both sides.
[33:04] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[33:04] Speaker 1: You know, and I thought the pass rush was fine. Obviously,
[33:07] Speaker 1: they were able to run fairly consistently. And Will Hammond,
[33:11] Speaker 1: though he does have moments... By and large, Will Hammond,
[33:16] Speaker 1: as I said on the preview, has not been a liability.
[33:19] Speaker 4: No.
[33:20] Speaker 1: Will Hammond's been pretty good, and he had some awesome
[33:22] Speaker 1: throws in this football game. So, Texas Tech winning a
[33:28] Speaker 1: game like this, this season was so much new, again,
[33:34] Speaker 1: I think is an interesting data point. I am not
[33:38] Speaker 1: fully convinced that they're the best team in the Big
[33:40] Speaker 1: 12 at this point.
[33:42] Speaker 2: Oh, they.
[33:43] Speaker 4: They don't look like a team that can win a
[33:45] Speaker 4: playoff game against a power four team right now.
[33:48] Speaker 1: Because though I think this was an impressive win against
[33:52] Speaker 1: a good team. When I watched it live, when I
[33:58] Speaker 1: went back and watched it this morning, my thought was
[34:02] Speaker 1: that's like the number 13 team in the country.
[34:06] Speaker 5: Sure.
[34:06] Speaker 1: You know, that did not scream to me top eight teams.
[34:10] Speaker 1: top 17 in college football. Could they get there?
[34:13] Speaker 5: Sure.
[34:14] Speaker 1: You know, they've got a lot of talent on that roster.
[34:16] Speaker 1: So can they get there? Yeah, absolutely. But at time
[34:19] Speaker 1: of recording, my main takeaway was like, oh, that was
[34:22] Speaker 1: a great win against a good team. They got, they
[34:27] Speaker 1: got some growing to do before I'm willing to take
[34:29] Speaker 1: that next step with them.
[34:31] Speaker 5: Agreed.
[34:33] Speaker 4: Same page.
[34:34] Speaker 1: All right. So look, write in, let us know who
[34:38] Speaker 1: you're rooting for, what you learned, this weekend of college football.
[34:42] Speaker 1: We'd love to hear from you. We're going to talk
[34:43] Speaker 1: about that next. Before we get there, though, we are
[34:47] Speaker 1: going to play your reverbs. The reverbs are voice messages
[34:50] Speaker 1: that are left on our voicemail line at 855-VERBAL-3. That's 855-837-2253.
[34:56] Speaker 1: We open up that line throughout the course of a
[34:58] Speaker 1: college football Saturday. It is open season. We got people
[35:02] Speaker 1: who call multiple times. We got some people who just
[35:04] Speaker 1: call one time. We got some people who call, they
[35:06] Speaker 1: say a sentence and they hang up and they never
[35:07] Speaker 1: call again. We get all kinds who dial in The
[35:11] Speaker 1: Verbalerhood never disappoints. Let's see if this week can match
[35:15] Speaker 1: up with last. Last week was generational. Shay said this
[35:19] Speaker 1: is a good one as well. Here are your week
[35:20] Speaker 1: three reverbs. Hey, it's Alex in London.
[35:22] Speaker 6: I only hear a big new kickoff to Boo, Urban Meyer. Boo!
[35:29] Speaker 5: Dan and Ty, this is Eric from Falls.
[35:31] Speaker 1: Church, Virginia. This is Brian checking in from Carver Hill Orchard.
[35:37] Speaker 2: Dan, Ty, it's Adam from Pittsburgh. Nothing like sitting out
[35:40] Speaker 2: on your deck on a beautiful Saturday morning, getting ready
[35:43] Speaker 2: for college football and knowing that you have no stress
[35:47] Speaker 2: while you're enjoying your freshly squeezed orange. Hail the pit.
[35:51] Speaker 1: Oh my God. Vandy with the greatest cover ever.
[35:56] Speaker 3: Do you think Dave Doran just liked Nashville so much
[36:00] Speaker 3: that he didn't want.
[36:02] Speaker 2: To be allowed back on the plane to Raleigh?
[36:06] Speaker 6: Jerry Curtis, just when I think no one could possibly
[36:10] Speaker 6: do something more backbreaking and ignominious. to have an end-of-game
[36:15] Speaker 6: turnover like you did, where EJ Bailey had to do
[36:18] Speaker 6: something even more disreputable, and Jared Curtis totally routines himself.
[36:24] Speaker 4: Hey, it's 11 o'clock. Why can't I find the Purdue game?
[36:28] Speaker 4: What do you mean it's on at 11 p.m.? You.
[36:31] Speaker 1: Mean I get to stay up till 3 o'clock in
[36:33] Speaker 1: the morning just to watch Purdue lose?
[36:36] Speaker 6: Thanks, Tony Petitti.
[36:37] Speaker 5: Well, well, well.
[36:38] Speaker 1: After all the slander, looks like Kentucky won the Mike
[36:42] Speaker 1: Elko-Jay Bateman breakup. Go Cats. The Steinesty is here. Penn
[36:48] Speaker 1: State has a passing game?
[36:50] Speaker 4: Oh, the wily vet Rocco Beck got that Penn State.
[36:55] Speaker 1: Offer and it's looking good.
[36:58] Speaker 5: Ethan Grunkemeier.
[36:59] Speaker 1: Iowa State. Had two kicks returned for touchdowns today.
[37:06] Speaker 4: That's almost as many returns as this.
[37:08] Speaker 6: Roster had from last year.
[37:10] Speaker 2: 85 new players. Jimmy Rogers has got them boys 2-1
[37:14] Speaker 2: and feeling spicy.
[37:15] Speaker 5: To everybody that's new to A & M football from
[37:19] Speaker 5: a long time Aggie, welcome. This is it. This is
[37:24] Speaker 5: what your life's like. This is your destiny. Accept it.
[37:29] Speaker 5: Spend some good Saturdays, spend some bad Saturdays. Try not
[37:33] Speaker 5: to lose a bad game. You know, have a full
[37:38] Speaker 5: life outside of this. Just know that the pain stays.
[37:43] Speaker 5: It never leaves.
[37:45] Speaker 3: E.J.
[37:45] Speaker 2: Durkin is the fifth highest paid defensive coordinator in the country.
[37:48] Speaker 1: He makes $ 2.
[37:49] Speaker 5: 7 million a year.
[37:52] Speaker 2: It is the fourth quarter with eight minutes and 45
[37:55] Speaker 2: seconds to go, and he has allowed 41 points to Florida.
[37:58] Speaker 2: They have punted one time.
[38:01] Speaker 1: Husky fan. I guess we looked better against the directional
[38:07] Speaker 1: Washington team. I'm feeling like it's going to be a
[38:10] Speaker 1: long season.
[38:11] Speaker 5: My dad and I just finished watching Rich Rod's Mountaineers
[38:14] Speaker 5: dominate their opponent behind an electric QB and running back duo.
[38:17] Speaker 5: I really had to check the date.
[38:18] Speaker 2: On my phone to make sure it wasn't 2004, and
[38:21] Speaker 2: I didn't have an algebra test on Monday.
[38:23] Speaker 1: It's pretty remarkable how fast OU has gone.
[38:26] Speaker 2: From QBU to QB.
[38:28] Speaker 1: Ugh.
[38:29] Speaker 4: F * * * you.
[38:30] Speaker 3: Remember when the networks would let you know about close games,
[38:34] Speaker 3: even if not on their network, and then would keep
[38:37] Speaker 3: close games over their scheduled time and not move them
[38:40] Speaker 3: to subscription channels? Cupbridge Farm remembers, and so do I,
[38:46] Speaker 3: because I am old.
[38:49] Speaker 1: Man, I feel bad for that A & M fan.
[38:52] Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean.
[38:54] Speaker 1: What pain?
[38:55] Speaker 4: I mean, that's college football nihilism, Ty. Nothing matters. This
[39:00] Speaker 4: is what it is. I get it. I appreciate the
[39:05] Speaker 4: fans saying, you know what? Grab some hobbies, right? Learn something.
[39:09] Speaker 4: Learn a useful skill. because you might need it to
[39:12] Speaker 4: cope with the Texas A & M experience. Yeah, I'm
[39:16] Speaker 4: okay with that.
[39:17] Speaker 1: The Reverb Line, closed until next Saturday. Again, put it
[39:20] Speaker 1: in your speed dial, 855-837-2253.
[39:21] Speaker 5: 855-837-VERBAL3.
[39:22] Speaker 1: Shout out to Shea, our Chief Reverb Coordinator. slash engineer
[39:32] Speaker 1: slash maestro who did a wonderful job with this week
[39:35] Speaker 1: as well. Okay.
[39:36] Speaker 4: I like that a Penn State fan called in. I
[39:39] Speaker 4: enjoy that. As you're wearing your Happy Valley shirt, because
[39:42] Speaker 4: you're talking about Marshall Temple and Buffalo?
[39:45] Speaker 1: Yep. All three to start the year? Well, Wisconsin next
[39:50] Speaker 1: week should be a different test. So we'll see how
[39:52] Speaker 1: that goes.
[39:52] Speaker 4: Yeah, at Colton Joseph. Nice little day.
[39:55] Speaker 1: So we asked people at the start of this episode
[39:58] Speaker 1: and really throughout the day to tell us who you're
[40:00] Speaker 1: a fan of and what you learned. I've got some
[40:03] Speaker 1: stuff that I jotted down, but I wanted to give
[40:06] Speaker 1: a shout out to the Verbalerhood first.
[40:08] Speaker 4: Please. We have people piping in, what, Twitter or X
[40:12] Speaker 4: the Everything app, TikTok? X the Everything app.
[40:14] Speaker 1: We got YouTube. We got TikTok. Yeah, we're going to,
[40:17] Speaker 1: everybody here. I'm trying to like keep track. It's like
[40:19] Speaker 1: trying to read the matrix over here, but yeah.
[40:21] Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[40:23] Speaker 1: I believe I have to turn my head upside down
[40:25] Speaker 1: to read this. I don't know how people do this
[40:27] Speaker 1: on X the Everything app. His name's upside down. I
[40:31] Speaker 1: believe it's Austin Smith who says, I'm an Iowa State fan.
[40:34] Speaker 1: Today I learned special plays, special players, special teams. Good
[40:39] Speaker 1: on Iowa State, man. Good on Iowa State. David says,
[40:43] Speaker 1: I'm a Miami fan. Yesterday I learned that Mario Ball
[40:46] Speaker 1: still exists and he will always go conservative.
[40:50] Speaker 4: Yeah, they started out with the flash fry and then
[40:53] Speaker 4: it was the slow cook.
[40:55] Speaker 1: Right.
[40:55] Speaker 4: At the end, I guess. Or they just took it
[40:57] Speaker 4: off the heat and just let it cool down.
[40:59] Speaker 1: They dominated for 35 minutes and then they, yeah, then
[41:03] Speaker 1: they took it off the heat for like the last 25. Right.
[41:08] Speaker 1: Skew says, I'm a Texas fan. I learned we still
[41:11] Speaker 1: have work to do. Okay. Matthew says, I'm a Tennessee fan.
[41:15] Speaker 1: Today I learned I still don't know how good this
[41:17] Speaker 1: team is. That makes three of us, to be honest
[41:19] Speaker 1: with you. Out on TikTok, we've got Coach Curb who says,
[41:24] Speaker 1: I'm a Sooner fan. I learned we've got a struggling offense,
[41:27] Speaker 1: and the offensive line is just not good. I don't
[41:32] Speaker 1: know if we have much to say to argue that point.
[41:34] Speaker 4: They're pretty beat up, though, the Oklahoma offensive line. Yeah,
[41:37] Speaker 4: but look, you can say that. New Mexico did not
[41:40] Speaker 4: have and has not have and will not have their
[41:42] Speaker 4: starting quarterback this season. And so if that game is, what,
[41:45] Speaker 4: Final 14-6?
[41:45] Speaker 1: Right.
[41:46] Speaker 4: I think that's a pretty big difference maker.
[41:51] Speaker 1: Here are some that I jotted down, okay?
[41:53] Speaker 4: I'm here.
[41:53] Speaker 1: Tell you what I learned. Today I learned that Mississippi
[41:57] Speaker 1: State is for real, Dan.
[42:00] Speaker 4: Okay. I totally agree. It was a slow start, but
[42:04] Speaker 4: to Kamario Taylor, Fluff, like there were dudes just grabbing grass.
[42:10] Speaker 4: They were wide open again.
[42:12] Speaker 1: Not just that. They went down 16 to zip on
[42:15] Speaker 1: the road in South Carolina, which is a very difficult
[42:18] Speaker 1: place to play. And it looked like they were about
[42:20] Speaker 1: to get run out of the stadium. And then they
[42:22] Speaker 1: just sort of calmly turned the game into theirs. You
[42:26] Speaker 1: know what I mean? Super Camario, my guy, threw for 251,
[42:31] Speaker 1: had four touchdowns. Fluff Bothwell, the greatest name perhaps in
[42:36] Speaker 1: the history of college football, ran for $ 1. 15. South Carolina
[42:42] Speaker 1: had four straight scoring drives to open the game, but
[42:45] Speaker 1: then Mississippi State answered with a 41-15 run. I would
[42:47] Speaker 1: say more broadly... especially as we now start to think
[42:54] Speaker 1: of them within the context of the SEC and really
[42:57] Speaker 1: probably the national discussion, since I know we're going to
[42:59] Speaker 1: have them ranked this week. It's not just that they're 3-0.
[43:04] Speaker 1: This game clearly did not go according to their plan.
[43:09] Speaker 1: And there's something to be said for being a good
[43:11] Speaker 1: team or good enough team. And when things stay according
[43:14] Speaker 1: to the script, you can be serviceable and you can win.
[43:18] Speaker 1: But there's, I think, a completely different thing to be
[43:21] Speaker 1: said about a team that The script gets thrown to
[43:26] Speaker 1: the trash, blown to smithereens right from the jump, and
[43:29] Speaker 1: then you've got to improvise and make it work on
[43:30] Speaker 1: the fly. They did that here. They did that in
[43:34] Speaker 1: this game on the road, no less, in a really
[43:36] Speaker 1: tough place to play, winning 41-34. So I came away
[43:40] Speaker 1: damn impressed with Mississippi State. And my only conclusion is
[43:43] Speaker 1: that even if they're not like 10-2, 9-3, for real
[43:48] Speaker 1: can mean a whole spectrum of things. If this is
[43:51] Speaker 1: an 8-4 team, a 7-5 team, whatever their final record
[43:55] Speaker 1: ends up being, they're going to be a tough out
[43:56] Speaker 1: no matter who they're playing. And I think that makes
[43:59] Speaker 1: it fun. So I think we can confirm that today,
[44:02] Speaker 1: and we're definitely going to have them ranked in our
[44:03] Speaker 1: top 25.
[44:05] Speaker 4: They have an extraordinarily meaty middle portion of their schedule.
[44:10] Speaker 4: There are some, well, I mean, we'll see what Vandy is.
[44:12] Speaker 4: We kind of have a better picture of Auburn in
[44:14] Speaker 4: this moment. We'll see what Mizzou is coming up next. Um,
[44:18] Speaker 4: a sort of down day for them, not really able
[44:20] Speaker 4: to move the ball through the air. Maybe it was
[44:21] Speaker 4: a letdown spot for Austin Simmons in the passing attack, but,
[44:25] Speaker 4: and I need to watch more of that game. They
[44:27] Speaker 4: almost got goosed, right? Goose Crowder and Troy, Jared Parker,
[44:30] Speaker 4: Gerard Parker. Um, But, yeah, Mississippi State. And the other thing,
[44:35] Speaker 4: the other part of it, too, is they just got
[44:36] Speaker 4: off the field on defense in the second half. I
[44:39] Speaker 4: think they shut out South Carolina in the third quarter,
[44:43] Speaker 4: and South Carolina really didn't score until garbage time. They
[44:45] Speaker 4: were comfortably up in that game. And so they are
[44:48] Speaker 4: certainly looking more complete. They are definitely better than I
[44:51] Speaker 4: thought they would be, obviously, on the back of Camario
[44:54] Speaker 4: in that backfield and, you know, the fireworks of this offense.
[44:57] Speaker 4: But Zach Garnett seems to have... I mean, the rejoining
[45:02] Speaker 4: of the program seems to have reinvigorated this defense, and
[45:05] Speaker 4: understandably so, given his track record. So, a terrific story.
[45:10] Speaker 1: I also learned that CJ Carr can throw to somebody
[45:13] Speaker 1: not named Jordan Faison.
[45:15] Speaker 5: Mmm.
[45:16] Speaker 1: Micah Gilbert had a hell of a day in a
[45:19] Speaker 1: win for Notre Dame. Eight catches, 170, had a long
[45:22] Speaker 1: of 61. I'm still not convinced Notre Dame can run
[45:28] Speaker 1: in crunch time.
[45:29] Speaker 4: Slow start for Notre Dame.
[45:30] Speaker 1: Still not convinced that the ground game is going to
[45:32] Speaker 1: be there in crunch time. But as we saw in
[45:36] Speaker 1: their first game, as we have seen so far this season,
[45:40] Speaker 1: the deeper they get into games, either because they're wearing
[45:43] Speaker 1: teams down or because they're out in front and they're
[45:47] Speaker 1: going to put a little bit more emphasis on the run.
[45:50] Speaker 1: I don't know why, but I think we've seen these
[45:53] Speaker 1: last couple weeks now, it seems like the ground game
[45:55] Speaker 1: gets better. the deeper you get into a game, but
[45:58] Speaker 1: it's not something in my opinion that you can rely
[46:00] Speaker 1: on yet. We'll see how it evolves. Nolan James Jr.
[46:03] Speaker 1: Got the line share of the carries in this one
[46:06] Speaker 1: and did get like a buck 21 and a touchdown.
[46:08] Speaker 1: So he had a nice game by the time all
[46:10] Speaker 1: was said and done. It was a slow start though.
[46:12] Speaker 1: And it was a rainy, soggy day. CJ look really good.
[46:16] Speaker 1: It's helpful to know that there's somebody else out wide.
[46:18] Speaker 1: He can throw to still have concerns about the ground,
[46:21] Speaker 1: but the defense, as long as the defense is playing
[46:23] Speaker 1: as well as it did in this game, that, sets
[46:26] Speaker 1: a pretty high floor.
[46:27] Speaker 4: It was like a 30-point spread, right? It was 17-10
[46:31] Speaker 4: halfway through. I mean, they did take care of business.
[46:34] Speaker 4: The defense really did suffocate Michigan State in the second half,
[46:37] Speaker 4: from what I could tell. But, yeah, survive in advance
[46:41] Speaker 4: to eventually BYU and Miami.
[46:45] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[46:46] Speaker 4: SMU does not loom as large in the distance.
[46:50] Speaker 1: I think this defense is going to annihilate Kevin Jennings. Yeah.
[46:54] Speaker 1: I think this defense will force several turnovers from Kevin Jennings,
[46:57] Speaker 1: but I don't want to put the cart before the
[46:59] Speaker 1: horse here. I also learned that West Virginia will always
[47:03] Speaker 1: be a pain in the ass under Rich Rodriguez.
[47:06] Speaker 5: Agree.
[47:07] Speaker 1: 38-27, they won a neutral site game against Virginia. Virginia
[47:12] Speaker 1: was ranked.
[47:13] Speaker 4: Didn't have this.
[47:15] Speaker 1: This game felt aggressively Rich Rod. Did it not? Aggressively
[47:19] Speaker 1: Rich Rod. Annoying, physical... uncomfortable, way more dangerous than the
[47:28] Speaker 1: West Virginia roster would suggest. They went into a neutral
[47:31] Speaker 1: site game against a ranked team. They made Virginia play
[47:37] Speaker 1: their style of football. And he just keeps doing this.
[47:45] Speaker 1: That's what I find most amazing about Rich Rodriguez. Even
[47:48] Speaker 1: in these situations, we saw it last year too, right?
[47:50] Speaker 1: even in these situations where you look at the roster
[47:52] Speaker 1: and everybody kind of does the preseason thing, West Virginia,
[47:57] Speaker 1: we expected maybe some improvement, right? Added some new pieces.
[48:02] Speaker 1: But the fact that it almost doesn't matter who's on
[48:04] Speaker 1: the roster, Rich Rod is going to get the guys
[48:06] Speaker 1: to play, that in and of itself is something worth noting.
[48:09] Speaker 1: That's why I had the points in this game. I
[48:11] Speaker 1: didn't expect them to win, but Rich Rod always has
[48:16] Speaker 1: a knack for turning games into like four quarters of
[48:20] Speaker 1: inconvenience that somebody else has to account for.
[48:24] Speaker 4: Is that like the Nolan Richardson 40 minutes?
[48:27] Speaker 1: Kind of.
[48:28] Speaker 4: Hell, like, okay, four quarters of hell. We'll see. Michael Hawkins,
[48:34] Speaker 4: the stat line looks good. I have not watched this
[48:36] Speaker 4: game in detail. I'm quite excited to. Seemed like a
[48:39] Speaker 4: typical Rich Rod offense performance. I mean, he both ran
[48:42] Speaker 4: and threw seemingly very efficiently. So, Awesome start for West
[48:47] Speaker 4: Virginia to the power conference portion of their schedule because
[48:50] Speaker 4: it was a rocky start against Coastal Carolina, who, by
[48:54] Speaker 4: the way, had the chicken fight this week against Delaware, right?
[48:56] Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah.
[48:57] Speaker 4: Chanticleers against the Blue Hens. Yeah. Yeah, really, really strong
[49:02] Speaker 4: effort from West Virginia, it seems.
[49:05] Speaker 1: Today we learned that the combination of a look-ahead spot
[49:08] Speaker 1: with a cross-country flight is a hell of a downer.
[49:14] Speaker 4: It's tough.
[49:15] Speaker 1: And I'm talking about USC versus Rutgers. What happened in
[49:20] Speaker 1: USC versus Rutgers, Dan?
[49:24] Speaker 4: They looked out of sync on offense. Obviously, no Trent
[49:27] Speaker 4: Mosley is a difference maker for what this team has
[49:29] Speaker 4: leaned on early on in their schedule. The freshman has
[49:33] Speaker 4: been sensational, at least against the teams that they've played. um,
[49:36] Speaker 4: which are not huge measuring stick matchups, but, uh, no
[49:41] Speaker 4: Trent Mosley. The defense was not inspired at all to
[49:46] Speaker 4: play the run against Rutgers. Uh, Rutgers was able to
[49:49] Speaker 4: run on them. Uh, the score, the final score was what?
[49:53] Speaker 2: 40, 42, 28.
[49:54] Speaker 4: Right. USC Rutgers.
[49:57] Speaker 5: 42, 35.
[49:57] Speaker 3: Sorry.
[49:57] Speaker 4: They closed it to a touchdown, uh, at the end. Uh,
[50:05] Speaker 4: Until we see proof against a Big Ten team with
[50:11] Speaker 4: a little more might, I don't think we can confidently
[50:16] Speaker 4: say this defense has been fixed. Can we?
[50:20] Speaker 1: No. No. We got a comment here from somebody on
[50:25] Speaker 1: TikTok saying, I learned my Trojans defense might well have
[50:30] Speaker 1: or should still have or could still have Alex Grinch.
[50:32] Speaker 5: Yeah.
[50:34] Speaker 1: That might be a bit aggressive, but I understand the
[50:37] Speaker 1: underlying sentiment.
[50:39] Speaker 4: Look, they probably flew to New Jersey thinking, let's just
[50:43] Speaker 4: do enough to take care of business. We'll get some
[50:46] Speaker 4: explosive plays. Maybe the final score won't look pretty. But
[50:50] Speaker 4: we're USC. They're Rutgers with losses to UMass and Boston College.
[50:54] Speaker 4: We should be fine. And they nearly weren't. They needed
[50:58] Speaker 4: a basically 100-yard pick-six. I want to say two, like,
[51:02] Speaker 4: 25-yard touchdown drives to win this game. They did not
[51:07] Speaker 4: dominate this game. And Jade Maiava looked kind of arrhythmic
[51:12] Speaker 4: at times. Look, everybody, you win your clunkers, and they
[51:16] Speaker 4: won their clunker, and it's fine, and we might not
[51:18] Speaker 4: think about this game in two weeks if they blast
[51:20] Speaker 4: Oregon in a week, which they very well may. It's
[51:22] Speaker 4: at home, and they're certainly better there under Lincoln Riley.
[51:26] Speaker 1: The last thing I... The last thing I have down
[51:28] Speaker 1: on my list, Dan, and I think this overlaps with
[51:30] Speaker 1: something on yours as well.
[51:31] Speaker 4: Sorry, sorry, sorry. Continue.
[51:34] Speaker 1: Today we learned about the duality of being an Alabama
[51:37] Speaker 1: fan in 2026. Okay. And I know that you've got
[51:42] Speaker 1: something down here about Keelan Russell, and I think that
[51:45] Speaker 1: plays into my exact point.
[51:47] Speaker 5: Oh, buddy.
[51:48] Speaker 1: On one hand, you've got Keelan Russell, who is going
[51:51] Speaker 1: to be a superstar in college football. On the other,
[51:57] Speaker 1: you've got A game like this that turned into a
[52:00] Speaker 1: track meet against a team it probably shouldn't have. And
[52:04] Speaker 1: I suspect if you are a Bama fan, there will
[52:06] Speaker 1: be many other games like this this year where you
[52:09] Speaker 1: are just constantly on pins and needles waiting to see,
[52:11] Speaker 1: is defense going to hold now? Can the offense come through?
[52:14] Speaker 1: Who's going to win this track meet? It's definitely not
[52:17] Speaker 1: your grandfather's Alabama squad at this point. It is a
[52:21] Speaker 1: different version of Alabama. I still have faith in the defense.
[52:26] Speaker 1: I think I have more faith in Keelan Russell to
[52:29] Speaker 1: find a way, some way, to pull Alabama out of
[52:33] Speaker 1: a close game. But it's going to be a very
[52:37] Speaker 1: interesting year if you're a Bama fan. You will really
[52:39] Speaker 1: have both sides of the coin at your disposal in
[52:43] Speaker 1: every big game that you play. The excitement mixed with
[52:46] Speaker 1: the disappointment.
[52:48] Speaker 4: The slow starts are not ideal these past couple weeks
[52:51] Speaker 4: for Alabama. Now they got the delay and they were
[52:53] Speaker 4: able to regroup and Keelan Russell is just eye-popping. That's
[52:57] Speaker 4: something I didn't necessarily learn because we've seen it these
[53:01] Speaker 4: first couple weeks, what his ceiling might be. I mean,
[53:04] Speaker 4: the opponent level has been varied, but man, his arm,
[53:10] Speaker 4: his confidence, and then the athleticism and speed on the ground,
[53:14] Speaker 4: this dude's something else and cannot wait to see what
[53:18] Speaker 4: he's able to do with these receivers, with a running
[53:20] Speaker 4: game that seems to be falling into place. It's going
[53:24] Speaker 4: to be a very entertaining year for Alabama.
[53:28] Speaker 1: What did you learn?
[53:28] Speaker 4: Uh, I have down here. I learned via Hank Brown,
[53:33] Speaker 4: Darian Mensah, and even Dylan Raiola. Perfection might be real tie.
[53:38] Speaker 4: I don't think Hank Brown, Hank, I don't believe Hank
[53:42] Speaker 4: Brown against, was it Northern Iowa today for Iowa? I
[53:45] Speaker 4: don't believe he had an incomplete pass.
[53:47] Speaker 1: Okay.
[53:48] Speaker 4: And I also believe that his leading receiver had 37 yards.
[53:50] Speaker 5: Yeah.
[53:53] Speaker 4: Um but he was he was very efficient he was
[53:55] Speaker 4: good he spread the ball around i think they had
[53:57] Speaker 4: two or three guys go over 100 yards so darian
[54:00] Speaker 4: mensah started out at least like 20 of 20 against
[54:03] Speaker 4: wake forest and so he was hyper efficient i think
[54:06] Speaker 4: dylan raiola obviously garbage time against a not good fcs
[54:09] Speaker 4: team but he was like 11 of 11 guys were
[54:11] Speaker 4: sharp okay um i have down here i i mean
[54:16] Speaker 4: i said this earlier this is just going to be
[54:17] Speaker 4: the marcel reed experience yeah um I have down here,
[54:21] Speaker 4: today I learned the Big Ten runs through Evanston, Illinois.
[54:27] Speaker 1: Woo!
[54:29] Speaker 4: I mean, somebody did just get murdered, and that somebody
[54:31] Speaker 4: rhymes with the Schmolorado Schmuffalos.
[54:34] Speaker 5: Man.
[54:35] Speaker 4: Aiden Childs lit them up.
[54:37] Speaker 1: They went woodshed on Colorado. In the rain! They went woodshed, man.
[54:43] Speaker 4: They truly did. I don't think I have anything that
[54:47] Speaker 4: I've learned about Boise State or UCLA other than the
[54:50] Speaker 4: fact that they are knotted up late. Boise State and
[54:54] Speaker 4: South Dakota are tied at 24. UCLA is up three
[54:57] Speaker 4: at halftime over Purdue. Obviously, by the time anybody listens
[55:02] Speaker 4: to this show and doesn't just watch the stream, you'll
[55:04] Speaker 4: know that UCLA was upset or UCLA pulled it out
[55:09] Speaker 4: as I cover my hand from my face for no reason. Um,
[55:13] Speaker 4: so we got tight games late. Um, what else did
[55:16] Speaker 4: we learn here? Not, I mean, did you see the, um,
[55:19] Speaker 4: the Gus Johnson call of, I think the first Ohio
[55:22] Speaker 4: state touchdown against, I think it was the, the mighty
[55:25] Speaker 4: flashes of Kent state.
[55:26] Speaker 5: Yeah.
[55:26] Speaker 4: Did you see that?
[55:27] Speaker 1: Little flat.
[55:29] Speaker 4: He was like, and he's in there for a touchdown.
[55:30] Speaker 5: Yeah.
[55:31] Speaker 1: A little, little flat from the first touchdown. Little flat.
[55:34] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[55:35] Speaker 1: Normally I'd expect a little bit more energy, uh, We
[55:38] Speaker 1: were joking around on that one on the group chat
[55:40] Speaker 1: as well, that it was like he was throwing 88
[55:43] Speaker 1: down the middle. Like he just didn't even bother trying
[55:46] Speaker 1: to paint the corners in a game between Ohio State
[55:48] Speaker 1: and Kent State or, you know, whatever.
[55:51] Speaker 4: I learned that, say what you will, but Michigan has
[55:54] Speaker 4: to be considered a favorite in the Mountain West after today.
[55:57] Speaker 4: That with what they were able to do in the
[56:00] Speaker 4: second half only against UTEP. No, Michigan... did what a
[56:06] Speaker 4: hopefully good team would do against UTEP after deciding to
[56:11] Speaker 4: play or just run straight into the UTEP defensive front.
[56:15] Speaker 4: And they, you know, made mistakes obviously. And UTEP was
[56:18] Speaker 4: able to turn that into points in the first half,
[56:21] Speaker 4: but aired it out. Andrew Marsh got his, it was,
[56:24] Speaker 4: it was nice to see Michigan score points in a
[56:26] Speaker 4: game that they should have scored points in.
[56:28] Speaker 1: There was a really interesting discussion out on the old
[56:31] Speaker 1: Reddit threads about Bryce Underwood and his developments. And there's
[56:36] Speaker 1: a little bit of a chicken and egg thing going
[56:38] Speaker 1: on right now. Because in the first half of this game,
[56:42] Speaker 1: obviously Michigan and UTEP was pretty close. It was a
[56:45] Speaker 1: game that we were monitoring actively because of the score.
[56:49] Speaker 1: In the first half, they were very committed to the run.
[56:51] Speaker 1: Didn't seem as though they took the gloves off of
[56:53] Speaker 1: Bryce Underwood at all. Game was close. Second half, they
[56:57] Speaker 1: let him air it out. Second half, he looked a
[56:59] Speaker 1: lot better. He was going through his reprogressions. He actually
[57:01] Speaker 1: looked like he knew what he was doing out there.
[57:03] Speaker 1: And so the conversation was such that are they purposely
[57:09] Speaker 1: or maybe not purposely, but inadvertently stunting his development by
[57:14] Speaker 1: leaning a little bit too much on the ground game,
[57:17] Speaker 1: by not opening up the offense earlier, by not letting
[57:21] Speaker 1: him take his lumps as a passer in games like this.
[57:25] Speaker 4: Learn from mistakes. Yeah, right.
[57:27] Speaker 1: It's an interesting conversation and the schedule is going to
[57:30] Speaker 1: get harder.
[57:31] Speaker 4: He's throwing into the Iowa defense next week.
[57:33] Speaker 1: So the schedule's going to get harder. We'll see how
[57:36] Speaker 1: far he's come. Clearly, that's going to be a game
[57:39] Speaker 1: between two offenses that at least are going to try
[57:41] Speaker 1: to start running the football. And we'll see how it
[57:44] Speaker 1: evolves from there. But that over-under might be like 31.5 points.
[57:50] Speaker 1: I don't see that being a high-scoring game at all.
[57:52] Speaker 1: I don't expect there's going to be a whole lot
[57:54] Speaker 1: going on through the air.
[57:56] Speaker 4: I expect... Today I learned to expect... Literally anything from
[58:01] Speaker 4: any drive involving Arizona State's offense or defense. Man, what
[58:06] Speaker 4: was that? So they win the game.
[58:09] Speaker 5: Right.
[58:10] Speaker 4: They're out gained. Kansas, I think, both ran and threw
[58:13] Speaker 4: the ball more efficiently than ASU. ASU, and again, this
[58:17] Speaker 4: is what a good team does. You find ways to
[58:20] Speaker 4: score points and win games. That's what... I don't know
[58:22] Speaker 4: if ASU is a good team. I'm pretty sure they are.
[58:25] Speaker 4: But they... they have a score last week that does
[58:29] Speaker 4: not indicate like a Texas A & M dominant offensive performance.
[58:33] Speaker 4: And then they have a score this week that does
[58:35] Speaker 4: not indicate a, an efficient at all ASU offensive performance
[58:39] Speaker 4: overseas against Kansas. But you know, it's a hundred yard
[58:43] Speaker 4: kickoff return and a turning a turnover into a two
[58:46] Speaker 4: yard touchdown drive. Um, win your clunkers, win however you can.
[58:50] Speaker 4: Winning is a skill. Winning is better than losing, but yeah,
[58:54] Speaker 4: Week to week, I don't know, these tackles on offense
[58:57] Speaker 4: are being abused. Cutter bully is confusing all the time.
[59:01] Speaker 4: So another entertaining prospect for the 2026 season, your ASU
[59:07] Speaker 4: Sun Devils.
[59:08] Speaker 1: Your ASU Sun Devils. You can always write in solidverbal
[59:12] Speaker 1: at gmail.com. Let us know your thoughts on all things
[59:16] Speaker 1: college football, what you learned, things that we did not discuss.
[59:20] Speaker 1: We'd love to hear from you.
[59:22] Speaker 4: I learned I don't really want to watch much Clemson
[59:24] Speaker 4: football if this is what it's going to look like
[59:25] Speaker 4: every week. It was a kind of a bear slate early,
[59:31] Speaker 4: so I watched a good chunk of this game, at
[59:33] Speaker 4: least until the delay, and then after the delay, I
[59:35] Speaker 4: caught up on it. It's not good TV, Ty. The Clemson,
[59:40] Speaker 4: especially the Clemson-North Carolina game today. It was the Tate-Reynolds-Billy
[59:45] Speaker 4: Edwards back and forth. Not landing a ton of jabs
[59:49] Speaker 4: and crosses. So, I did learn that.
[59:53] Speaker 1: Tate Reynolds gives them more juice than Christopher Vizina. He does.
[59:57] Speaker 1: But he's a freshman.
[59:58] Speaker 4: I agree. But he's a freshman.
[1:00:00] Speaker 1: And he looks the part. He looks young.
[1:00:03] Speaker 4: I have another side of that coin, though. I want
[1:00:06] Speaker 4: to watch anything that the Florida Gators are putting on
[1:00:09] Speaker 4: in 1080p this season.
[1:00:11] Speaker 5: Oh, man.
[1:00:13] Speaker 4: I learned I want to watch. And they have Ole Miss.
[1:00:17] Speaker 1: They have Ole Miss.
[1:00:18] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[1:00:18] Speaker 4: Coming next week.
[1:00:20] Speaker 1: In a letdown spot.
[1:00:21] Speaker 4: I think I'm into that 100%. I'm trying to think
[1:00:24] Speaker 4: if there's anything else. Is there anything else you learned?
[1:00:26] Speaker 4: I mean, Virginia Tech was able to pull it out.
[1:00:29] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[1:00:29] Speaker 4: Against Maryland. Did you see that Maryland put up on
[1:00:34] Speaker 4: the big screen? Hi, Michael. Hi, Michael. Hi, Michael.
[1:00:38] Speaker 5: Good.
[1:00:39] Speaker 4: Not the video. They wrote out, Hi, Michael, a thousand
[1:00:42] Speaker 4: times on the video board. I didn't watch any of
[1:00:44] Speaker 4: this game. I don't know how much of this game
[1:00:46] Speaker 4: you watch, but that's on my catch-up list.
[1:00:47] Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm going to have to catch up on that one.
[1:00:50] Speaker 4: I learned Pitt was ready for this Angeli.
[1:00:54] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[1:00:55] Speaker 4: And they benched Steve Angeli. And we'll see if Amari Odom,
[1:00:58] Speaker 4: the Kennesaw State transfer, is any better. He seemed to
[1:01:00] Speaker 4: be in limited opportunity, but kind of in garbage time.
[1:01:05] Speaker 4: Pitt took care of business. I feel bad for the
[1:01:07] Speaker 4: Syracuse defense, who seemed... Look, they were bad on the ground.
[1:01:12] Speaker 4: But they seemed to harass enough of Pitt to make
[1:01:17] Speaker 4: it seem like they're moving in the right direction. That
[1:01:19] Speaker 4: was real tough from Syracuse through the air. Once again,
[1:01:25] Speaker 4: he throws two picks, and they're just all over the place.
[1:01:27] Speaker 4: And good for Pitt. Moved to 3-0. First win in
[1:01:29] Speaker 4: the ACC.
[1:01:32] Speaker 1: Dan, why don't we close this thing out by talking
[1:01:34] Speaker 1: about our AP ballot, by doing some dude alerts, and
[1:01:38] Speaker 1: by letting the fine people go.
[1:01:40] Speaker 4: Can't wait.
[1:01:41] Speaker 1: So look, last week we tried to talk through all
[1:01:45] Speaker 1: 25 teams, and... My sense is that it got a
[1:01:49] Speaker 1: little long in the tooth. So this time around, we're
[1:01:52] Speaker 1: going to compare some teams straight up. We'd love to
[1:01:55] Speaker 1: hear from the Verbalerhood. Let us know who should be higher,
[1:01:57] Speaker 1: who should be lower. But we're going to play a
[1:01:59] Speaker 1: little game of high-low here, okay?
[1:02:00] Speaker 4: Let's do it.
[1:02:01] Speaker 1: You've got a list in front of us here. Handful
[1:02:04] Speaker 1: of teams. Let's discuss who should be higher. Texas Tech
[1:02:10] Speaker 1: or BYU, Dan? So BYU has looked more impressive... I
[1:02:17] Speaker 1: think Houston is better than Arizona, which is BYU's best win.
[1:02:21] Speaker 1: They beat Utah Tech to start out the season. I'm going,
[1:02:26] Speaker 1: just because of the win on Friday night, I'm going
[1:02:29] Speaker 1: to say by a scoach tie, I'm going to have
[1:02:32] Speaker 1: Texas Tech ahead of BYU. But I think there's a
[1:02:35] Speaker 1: plausible case for BYU, like I test, being ahead of
[1:02:38] Speaker 1: Texas Tech in this moment. I feel like if they
[1:02:41] Speaker 1: played tomorrow, BYU would win. I feel like BYU is
[1:02:44] Speaker 1: the better team.
[1:02:46] Speaker 5: But.
[1:02:47] Speaker 1: I tend to agree because of the win. Texas Tech
[1:02:51] Speaker 1: deserves to go up.
[1:02:52] Speaker 4: Now, we don't know what Arizona is. We don't know
[1:02:54] Speaker 4: what Houston is. There is something about BYU now that
[1:02:58] Speaker 4: they seem to be closer to their final form already
[1:03:01] Speaker 4: right now.
[1:03:02] Speaker 1: I think that's right. I don't want anyone to be
[1:03:05] Speaker 1: too put off by the fact that we're going to
[1:03:07] Speaker 1: have Texas Tech ahead of BYU by one spot in
[1:03:10] Speaker 1: this week's poll. But it was a good win, and
[1:03:12] Speaker 1: they should be rewarded as such.
[1:03:14] Speaker 3: Yep.
[1:03:15] Speaker 1: I'm curious to see how they grow. We've got one
[1:03:18] Speaker 1: here that I think is definitely going to be somewhat controversial,
[1:03:22] Speaker 1: if only because it was a bit controversial last week. OK,
[1:03:26] Speaker 1: who should be ranked higher and should either of these
[1:03:29] Speaker 1: teams actually be ranked Washington versus SMU?
[1:03:36] Speaker 4: I'm kind of okay with leaving them out. The problem
[1:03:39] Speaker 4: is when you get into the twenties in our AP
[1:03:42] Speaker 4: ranking in anybody's AP ranking, you're like, there's a bunch
[1:03:45] Speaker 4: of flawed teams that I don't love in this moment.
[1:03:48] Speaker 4: Washington struggled basically for four quarters against Utah state last week.
[1:03:53] Speaker 4: It was a slow start today, but they pulled it
[1:03:54] Speaker 4: out against Eastern Washington more comfortably. And they're, you know,
[1:03:57] Speaker 4: everybody's beat up to whatever extent, but the Washington offense,
[1:04:00] Speaker 4: especially in the backfield is pretty beat up. Um, SMU
[1:04:04] Speaker 4: had a very losable performance against both Florida State, which
[1:04:07] Speaker 4: they pulled out, and then today against Louisville. I'm going
[1:04:11] Speaker 4: to need to see something from SMU this year. So
[1:04:14] Speaker 4: I'm kind of okay leaving both of these teams out
[1:04:16] Speaker 4: at the moment.
[1:04:18] Speaker 1: At the moment, we only have Washington out. But I
[1:04:21] Speaker 1: could be talked into leaving SMU out as well. And
[1:04:25] Speaker 1: I was really high on SMU, and so there's part
[1:04:27] Speaker 1: of me that really feels that deep into the cockles
[1:04:31] Speaker 1: of my heart.
[1:04:32] Speaker 4: But.
[1:04:33] Speaker 1: I understand the argument. And certainly on the Washington side,
[1:04:37] Speaker 1: like we ranked Washington a week ago and we post
[1:04:41] Speaker 1: the ballot, had some people chime in. Washington fans actually
[1:04:45] Speaker 1: chime in and say, why are we ranked? Why are
[1:04:47] Speaker 1: you ranking us? So thought about that. I think we
[1:04:51] Speaker 1: talked about that on one of our episodes this past
[1:04:53] Speaker 1: week as well. And I was looking for, I guess,
[1:04:58] Speaker 1: anything other than a slow start.
[1:05:01] Speaker 4: I think I would, I would, I would still have
[1:05:03] Speaker 4: SMU ahead of Washington, even with their loss and their
[1:05:05] Speaker 4: losable game. I don't know if they're ranked in the
[1:05:07] Speaker 4: top 25, but I think at a certain point we
[1:05:10] Speaker 4: have to say like good on SMU for playing these
[1:05:12] Speaker 4: games early. Obviously we know that these are conference games
[1:05:16] Speaker 4: that they are, they just schedule worked out this way,
[1:05:19] Speaker 4: but we just know more about them and Washington struggling
[1:05:23] Speaker 4: like they have. And then, you know, it's Wazoo, which,
[1:05:27] Speaker 4: you know, it's a different kind of situation with Wazoo.
[1:05:29] Speaker 4: And I, I don't know. I'm more into SMU in
[1:05:33] Speaker 4: this moment.
[1:05:33] Speaker 1: Yeah, I think SMU over Washington definitely. And even though
[1:05:37] Speaker 1: Washington did beat Eastern Washington, I think if we wanted,
[1:05:41] Speaker 1: we could take this opportunity to move them out because
[1:05:43] Speaker 1: I know we didn't feel overwhelmingly confident about it last week.
[1:05:46] Speaker 5: Okay.
[1:05:48] Speaker 1: Florida or Mississippi State? Who should be ranked higher?
[1:05:55] Speaker 4: So Mississippi State, whatever the Minnesota data point means to you.
[1:05:59] Speaker 4: It doesn't mean a ton in this moment to me,
[1:06:01] Speaker 4: but it's certainly ahead of clearly lesser teams. I think
[1:06:04] Speaker 4: Minnesota is probably going to be a bowl team this year.
[1:06:08] Speaker 4: Going to South Carolina like they did and Florida going
[1:06:11] Speaker 4: to Auburn like they did, they both track. I'm going
[1:06:16] Speaker 4: to give the slight edge right now to Mississippi State.
[1:06:21] Speaker 4: And it's just because... They're more entertaining to me.
[1:06:24] Speaker 3: I don't know.
[1:06:25] Speaker 4: To me, the idea of Florida going to Auburn, which
[1:06:28] Speaker 4: is a tough place to play, and winning and showing
[1:06:32] Speaker 4: the kind of improvement on offense that they've been able
[1:06:34] Speaker 4: to show under Buster Faulkner running that offense, Aaron Filo,
[1:06:37] Speaker 4: and the receivers showing out. Jaden Baugh has obviously been
[1:06:39] Speaker 4: a monster. I love both of these teams. Both of
[1:06:42] Speaker 4: these teams should be ranked, right? They're 100% both looking
[1:06:46] Speaker 4: like top 25, if not top 18 teams right now.
[1:06:49] Speaker 6: Yep.
[1:06:49] Speaker 4: I'm going to have Mississippi State slightly ahead. The two
[1:06:51] Speaker 4: consecutive road games thing, very impressive.
[1:06:56] Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sort of on the fence about this one.
[1:07:00] Speaker 1: I really like Florida. I really like Florida. And so
[1:07:05] Speaker 1: my senses still give the nod to Florida, but they're
[1:07:08] Speaker 1: right next to each other.
[1:07:10] Speaker 4: And we might come to find out that Auburn's a
[1:07:12] Speaker 4: mess in the next two or three weeks.
[1:07:13] Speaker 5: We might.
[1:07:14] Speaker 1: I mean, I think just because we've had Florida ranked
[1:07:17] Speaker 1: in the poll... These last couple weeks, we bumped them
[1:07:21] Speaker 1: up a few slots. I think we bring Mississippi State,
[1:07:26] Speaker 1: obviously got to bring Mississippi State into that top 25,
[1:07:28] Speaker 1: and I think they're right next to each other. You
[1:07:30] Speaker 1: and I can debate how we want that to be situated,
[1:07:33] Speaker 1: but they're both in for sure.
[1:07:36] Speaker 4: We have commenters talking about it's like too early. Here,
[1:07:39] Speaker 4: I can tell you exactly who. It said it's... C-R-T-R-G. Kerturg.
[1:07:46] Speaker 4: SEC Homer, but it's probably too early to rank either
[1:07:49] Speaker 4: one of them. That's fine.
[1:07:50] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[1:07:51] Speaker 4: But then you look at the other teams in the
[1:07:53] Speaker 4: conversation and you're like, the Oklahoma offense is such a
[1:07:57] Speaker 4: mess right now. Oregon looks completely out of sorts against
[1:08:01] Speaker 4: Oklahoma State just last week. Missouri looked out of sorts,
[1:08:04] Speaker 4: you know, right floating around that 20 range. We'll get
[1:08:06] Speaker 4: there in a second. uh against uh troy today and
[1:08:09] Speaker 4: then like the others receiving votes is like south carolina
[1:08:12] Speaker 4: lost tulsa has a maybe big win we think but
[1:08:15] Speaker 4: that was week one and then you're just like is
[1:08:17] Speaker 4: it too early to rank virginia tech what does the
[1:08:19] Speaker 4: maryland win mean ucla at the moment is knotted up
[1:08:22] Speaker 4: or very close against purdue like there aren't great options
[1:08:26] Speaker 4: yeah in the like 21 to 25 18 to 25
[1:08:28] Speaker 4: range in terms of teams who have proven something against
[1:08:34] Speaker 4: an opponent. So I'm okay with these teams as ranked teams.
[1:08:37] Speaker 1: Texas A & M or Michigan?
[1:08:42] Speaker 5: Woof.
[1:08:44] Speaker 1: You wrote it down. I didn't even write this one down.
[1:08:46] Speaker 1: I know.
[1:08:46] Speaker 4: It's a difficult question.
[1:08:49] Speaker 1: Okay. Should A & M still be ranked after their
[1:08:52] Speaker 1: loss at home against Kentucky this week?
[1:08:57] Speaker 4: So our guess was them as like a top 10 team.
[1:09:03] Speaker 4: I don't know what we had them, but somewhere around
[1:09:05] Speaker 4: the top 10.
[1:09:05] Speaker 5: Sure. Right? Yep.
[1:09:08] Speaker 4: I think the Arizona State win is fine. I'm not
[1:09:13] Speaker 4: positive Kentucky is going to be excellent this year. I
[1:09:16] Speaker 4: think they're going to be feisty. I'm fine with keeping
[1:09:20] Speaker 4: them ranked. But again, it's in that hazy, like, 20s zone.
[1:09:24] Speaker 4: I would drop them down dramatically after today. Would you
[1:09:27] Speaker 4: drop them lower than Michigan, though? I think Michigan beating
[1:09:33] Speaker 4: Oklahoma has to count for something.
[1:09:36] Speaker 6: Right.
[1:09:38] Speaker 4: So I would have Michigan ahead of Texas A &
[1:09:40] Speaker 4: M in this moment.
[1:09:41] Speaker 1: Right now, we've got Michigan one rung above Texas A &
[1:09:44] Speaker 1: M in our revised ballot.
[1:09:46] Speaker 4: And I am of the mind... that Michigan is one
[1:09:51] Speaker 4: of the best teams in their own state in this moment.
[1:09:54] Speaker 4: I'm not crazy high on what they've accomplished this year.
[1:09:57] Speaker 1: Right.
[1:09:59] Speaker 4: I'm not going around my neighborhood and saying, remember when
[1:10:02] Speaker 4: Michigan beat Western Michigan? A definite thing that we all
[1:10:04] Speaker 4: agree happened legitimately. So I would still have them one
[1:10:10] Speaker 4: slot ahead. I would have them a hair ahead.
[1:10:14] Speaker 1: I've got a question here about Ole Miss.
[1:10:17] Speaker 4: Okay. Okay.
[1:10:18] Speaker 1: You jotted down Ole Miss or Indiana.
[1:10:21] Speaker 4: Okay.
[1:10:21] Speaker 1: But let's just broaden it to this conversation about Ole
[1:10:24] Speaker 1: Miss versus LSU. So last week, we had LSU up
[1:10:30] Speaker 1: at seven. We had Ole Miss at nine. Given the
[1:10:33] Speaker 1: way that things shook out this week with the loss,
[1:10:37] Speaker 1: we flipped them. Because it was a close game. I
[1:10:41] Speaker 1: think both teams are obviously top 10 caliber. But at
[1:10:45] Speaker 1: the moment, and we can change this. At the moment,
[1:10:48] Speaker 1: we bumped Ole Miss up to number seven. We've got
[1:10:51] Speaker 1: Alabama at eight. We have LSU at nine ahead of USC,
[1:10:55] Speaker 1: which is at 10. Does that compute for you? And
[1:11:00] Speaker 1: should Ole Miss be higher in light of this win?
[1:11:02] Speaker 1: Because above them, we've got the likes of Miami at six,
[1:11:06] Speaker 1: Indiana still at five. and then obviously some others above them.
[1:11:11] Speaker 2: Right.
[1:11:12] Speaker 4: So you can't really, you kind of like have to
[1:11:16] Speaker 4: half fault Miami right now because they do have Notre Dame,
[1:11:20] Speaker 4: but that's part of the ACC deal. Miami's beaten Stanford
[1:11:25] Speaker 4: conference game, Wake Forest conference game, Florida A & M.
[1:11:29] Speaker 4: They have Central Michigan coming up. They did not schedule
[1:11:31] Speaker 4: particularly up this season.
[1:11:34] Speaker 1: Right?
[1:11:35] Speaker 2: Right.
[1:11:35] Speaker 1: Miami. Right.
[1:11:38] Speaker 4: Ole Miss scheduled Louisville on a neutral site. It's a
[1:11:41] Speaker 4: quality win, to say the least, after what we saw
[1:11:43] Speaker 4: out of Louisville today, we believe. I mean, we could
[1:11:47] Speaker 4: have the conversation about Indiana as well.
[1:11:49] Speaker 5: Sure.
[1:11:50] Speaker 4: Like, obviously, Indiana didn't create this schedule thinking that they
[1:11:53] Speaker 4: were going to be, like, building a championship resume.
[1:11:55] Speaker 2: Right.
[1:11:56] Speaker 1: And by the way, on the sheet here, you actually
[1:11:58] Speaker 1: jotted down Ole Miss versus Indiana. So to the point.
[1:12:01] Speaker 4: Ole Miss-Indiana.
[1:12:01] Speaker 5: Right.
[1:12:02] Speaker 1: You could have that conversation.
[1:12:04] Speaker 4: So if we have Indiana right in, like, the five
[1:12:06] Speaker 4: or six zone right now. I'm fine with Ole Miss
[1:12:11] Speaker 4: being like ahead of both of these teams right now.
[1:12:16] Speaker 4: There's time for this to change.
[1:12:18] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[1:12:19] Speaker 4: If you want to keep them at seven, that's fine.
[1:12:22] Speaker 4: But I'm not exactly sure what Indiana has proven this year.
[1:12:26] Speaker 4: They've proven that they're still very good is what they've proven.
[1:12:30] Speaker 4: They've performed like an excellent national championship contender should perform
[1:12:36] Speaker 4: against their schedule.
[1:12:37] Speaker 5: Right.
[1:12:38] Speaker 4: But should we reward a team like Ole Miss for
[1:12:41] Speaker 4: beating and scheduling Louisville on a neutral site and looking
[1:12:46] Speaker 4: like they did with arguably the most pressure that any
[1:12:50] Speaker 4: team has had this season in terms of dramatic off-field
[1:12:54] Speaker 4: pressures and energy? I think we reward that kind of performance.
[1:12:59] Speaker 1: I think we have to reward it.
[1:13:01] Speaker 4: People are so scared to say anything even remotely negative
[1:13:05] Speaker 4: about Indiana and be like, oh, proved you wrong again.
[1:13:08] Speaker 4: It's a different year, different team. We all agree that
[1:13:10] Speaker 4: Indiana is likely excellent once again.
[1:13:12] Speaker 5: Yeah.
[1:13:14] Speaker 4: But, like, if this is a poll about where we are,
[1:13:18] Speaker 4: I'm great with Ole Miss there.
[1:13:19] Speaker 1: All right. You want to bump them up to five?
[1:13:21] Speaker 5: Yes.
[1:13:22] Speaker 1: All right.
[1:13:23] Speaker 5: We'll do it.
[1:13:24] Speaker 1: We'll do it live on the air here. We've got
[1:13:26] Speaker 1: to figure out the rest of this. What we're going
[1:13:28] Speaker 1: to do this time around, we will make sure that
[1:13:30] Speaker 1: we post it out on our social feeds. And maybe
[1:13:33] Speaker 1: I'll cut a video early in the morning and we'll,
[1:13:35] Speaker 1: we'll talk through.
[1:13:36] Speaker 4: Are you okay with that?
[1:13:37] Speaker 1: I'm okay with that. I think it's, I think given
[1:13:41] Speaker 1: the nature of the win and given the fact that
[1:13:45] Speaker 1: in retrospect, this isn't really going to matter. And we
[1:13:49] Speaker 1: can change things as we see fit. I do think
[1:13:52] Speaker 1: you want to reward big wins. You want to reward
[1:13:55] Speaker 1: big wins. You want to reward to some extent scheduling,
[1:13:57] Speaker 1: even though scheduling is done years in advance, but, But.
[1:14:00] Speaker 4: They have two of them.
[1:14:01] Speaker 1: Ole Miss has two of them, right? They have two
[1:14:03] Speaker 1: of them. Louisville, we're going to bump Louisville way up,
[1:14:07] Speaker 1: given what we saw this week from them. And beating
[1:14:11] Speaker 1: a team like an LSU, a top 10 team, do
[1:14:13] Speaker 1: we agree that LSU should still remain in the top 10,
[1:14:15] Speaker 1: or is that too much for you?
[1:14:19] Speaker 4: Yeah, well, because if you're comparing what LSU looked like
[1:14:22] Speaker 4: against Ole Miss, and we're saying Ole Miss is like
[1:14:24] Speaker 4: right around number five, and we're comparing LSU to what
[1:14:27] Speaker 4: USC looked like today when they played their first conference game,
[1:14:32] Speaker 4: the uneven nature of Texas Tech's season with how they
[1:14:35] Speaker 4: struggled against Oregon State. I think we like BYU and Louisville,
[1:14:38] Speaker 4: but I think we believe LSU to be a better team.
[1:14:42] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[1:14:42] Speaker 4: So I'm going to keep LSU right around 10, 11
[1:14:45] Speaker 4: ahead of those teams.
[1:14:47] Speaker 2: Okay.
[1:14:49] Speaker 1: We will post this on our social feeds, I promise you, tomorrow.
[1:14:53] Speaker 1: And like I said, maybe I'll make a video or
[1:14:54] Speaker 1: something talking through the exact process of casting the ballot.
[1:14:57] Speaker 1: You and I got to work out after we hit
[1:14:58] Speaker 1: stop here exactly what the ordering is going to be.
[1:15:01] Speaker 1: But we're going to change it up. And I think
[1:15:03] Speaker 1: we're willing to change it up each and every week
[1:15:05] Speaker 1: depending on who gets the big wins and who we
[1:15:08] Speaker 1: think deserves it. So we'll never get it all right.
[1:15:10] Speaker 1: And I'm sure there'll be people who disagree. But if
[1:15:13] Speaker 1: you do, please write in. Let us know your thoughts.
[1:15:15] Speaker 1: We'll hear you out. You know, argue with us. That's cool.
[1:15:19] Speaker 1: This is all fun and games anyway. So it's allverbal.gmail.com
[1:15:23] Speaker 1: is the email. You know how to find us across
[1:15:25] Speaker 1: all of our social feeds. Comment down below on any
[1:15:28] Speaker 1: of these videos. We'd love to hear your thoughts on
[1:15:30] Speaker 1: how you would rank the teams.
[1:15:34] Speaker 4: Definitely.
[1:15:34] Speaker 1: Shall we play some Doodle Alerts, Dan?
[1:15:36] Speaker 4: Let's do it.
[1:15:40] Speaker 1: Doodle Alerts, we give it out to the best individual
[1:15:43] Speaker 1: performances or at least our favorites. individual performances in the
[1:15:47] Speaker 1: span of a college football weekend. Were there any that
[1:15:50] Speaker 1: jumped out to you, Dan Rubenstein?
[1:15:52] Speaker 4: We didn't mention this game, but I had a good
[1:15:55] Speaker 4: amount of fun watching and was entertained by Avery Johnson, a.k.a.
[1:15:58] Speaker 4: Avery Johnson, who was an all-purpose effort for Kansas State,
[1:16:02] Speaker 4: a slow start for K-State against Tulane, but they pull
[1:16:06] Speaker 4: out that win. I have Trinidad Chambliss, who we might
[1:16:08] Speaker 4: as well retire as a dude at this point, Kendrick Raphael,
[1:16:11] Speaker 4: the combination of Brad Jackson and Torrence Burgess.
[1:16:15] Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.
[1:16:15] Speaker 4: For Texas State in a shootout win. Obviously, your guy
[1:16:19] Speaker 4: Raven Taven Jackson in a losing effort for the Mean Green.
[1:16:22] Speaker 4: That was a super entertaining game. Fraught with some drama.
[1:16:26] Speaker 4: Andrew on X the Everything app mentioned Amari Williams for
[1:16:29] Speaker 4: Mississippi State. Ten tackles, two tackles for a loss and
[1:16:33] Speaker 4: a sack and was sort of spying Lenora Sellers the
[1:16:36] Speaker 4: entire time. So he was terrific. Sean Wilson of Delaware,
[1:16:41] Speaker 4: nine catches for 185 yards and two touchdowns in the cockfight.
[1:16:44] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[1:16:45] Speaker 4: That's Coastal Carolina and Delaware. Keelan Russell, obviously, that goes
[1:16:51] Speaker 4: without saying. We got a lot of Virginia Tech love.
[1:16:54] Speaker 4: Luke Reynolds.
[1:16:55] Speaker 1: Luke Reynolds had a game. Yeah, Luke Reynolds had a game.
[1:16:57] Speaker 1: We got a bunch for Iowa State and Aiden Flora.
[1:17:00] Speaker 4: Yes.
[1:17:02] Speaker 1: The running back who went for a buck 94 and
[1:17:04] Speaker 1: two touchdowns in the game against Bowling Green. Iowa State,
[1:17:07] Speaker 1: two and one. won 55-7 over Bowling Green. Obviously played
[1:17:13] Speaker 1: Iowa pretty tight in the Cy Hawk game a week ago.
[1:17:16] Speaker 1: So maybe they're a little bit further along than we
[1:17:18] Speaker 1: gave them credit for at the start of the year.
[1:17:20] Speaker 1: Who knows?
[1:17:21] Speaker 4: Yes, absolutely. I mentioned Colton Joseph earlier, but he goes
[1:17:24] Speaker 4: for 362 and was also, I believe, Wisconsin's leading rusher.
[1:17:29] Speaker 4: Once again, we don't have to retire him three weeks
[1:17:31] Speaker 4: into the season. Nate Shepard's running for like 160 yards
[1:17:35] Speaker 4: a game. He's scoring a bajillion touchdowns. They're 3-0. They
[1:17:40] Speaker 4: beat up on Stanford. Ho-hum. Nate Shepard and Duke keep
[1:17:44] Speaker 4: on winning. Mentioned Kiwan Brown for Louisville, of course. And
[1:17:48] Speaker 4: kind of below the radar. And it was a win
[1:17:49] Speaker 4: against Arkansas State, so I don't take a ton away
[1:17:51] Speaker 4: from it. But Ed Small is the kind of go-to
[1:17:53] Speaker 4: receiver for TCU. He and Jaden Craig have a nice connection.
[1:17:57] Speaker 4: So there's that.
[1:17:58] Speaker 1: Wonderful. Well, we ask for your dude alerts across all
[1:18:01] Speaker 1: of our social accounts around 1130, I'd say, every Saturday night.
[1:18:07] Speaker 1: Right before we hit go here to make sure that
[1:18:09] Speaker 1: we're trying to be as inclusive as possible. If you've
[1:18:12] Speaker 1: got any thoughts, again, let us know in the comments.
[1:18:14] Speaker 1: Your favorite individual performance from this week. I think that
[1:18:19] Speaker 1: does it. Look, anything we didn't get to today, any
[1:18:23] Speaker 1: of the bigger picture storyline type stuff that we could
[1:18:26] Speaker 1: not discuss on this evening's episode, please make sure you
[1:18:30] Speaker 1: hit follow or subscribe so that you don't miss the
[1:18:32] Speaker 1: Monday episodes, that you don't miss the Wednesday episode. because
[1:18:35] Speaker 1: we will do our part to try and make sure
[1:18:37] Speaker 1: we cover all of that stuff in one of those
[1:18:39] Speaker 1: next two shows. This, of course, is the Midnight Livestream.
[1:18:43] Speaker 1: We'd love to get your thoughts. Please comment. Please rate.
[1:18:46] Speaker 1: Please review. Please hit follow. Please hit subscribe so that
[1:18:49] Speaker 1: you can be part of the for baller hood for
[1:18:51] Speaker 1: ballers.com is our patreon if you want to support what
[1:18:55] Speaker 1: dan and i do that goes a long way towards
[1:18:57] Speaker 1: helping us keep the lights on keeping the boat afloat
[1:19:00] Speaker 1: all the normal cliches apply it's.
[1:19:03] Speaker 4: All i got by the way that's all i have
[1:19:05] Speaker 4: week four is pretty great Week four is, there's a
[1:19:10] Speaker 4: lot of like, okay, we're not really sure what this
[1:19:13] Speaker 4: team is. Oh, they have a team this week. Okay, finally.
[1:19:18] Speaker 4: There's a lot of that across the sport.
[1:19:20] Speaker 1: The Big 12 is going to need to ship some
[1:19:21] Speaker 1: of that monster energy this way because, yeah, either that
[1:19:24] Speaker 1: or a B12 shot, man, because week four is looking
[1:19:27] Speaker 1: like there's going to be a lot to talk about.
[1:19:31] Speaker 4: I cannot wait. It's looking kind of wall to wall.
[1:19:36] Speaker 4: It looks like big noon is Illinois, Ohio state. So
[1:19:38] Speaker 4: we got Kate and Hauser throwing into that like Texas, Tennessee, USC, Oregon, Oklahoma, Georgia,
[1:19:44] Speaker 4: Ole Miss, Florida. We've mentioned a couple of times.
[1:19:45] Speaker 1: There's a lot, there's a lot going on. I'm excited.
[1:19:48] Speaker 1: It's a pleasure to be here with you as well
[1:19:51] Speaker 1: for baller hood. Thank you for staying up late with us.
[1:19:53] Speaker 1: I hope you appreciated the show. I hope you enjoyed it.
[1:19:55] Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed this week of college football. We'll
[1:19:58] Speaker 1: be back at it again all throughout the course of
[1:20:01] Speaker 1: this week. If nothing more, stop back here next Saturday
[1:20:04] Speaker 1: night at midnight Eastern. We'll catch you then. In the meantime,
[1:20:06] Speaker 1: for that guy over there, Dan, for myself over here, Ty,
[1:20:09] Speaker 1: know the drill. Stay solid.
[1:20:11] Speaker 4: Peace.

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