FiredUp Network
Saturday, September 20: College GridIron Week 4
[MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome into a fired up network. We are stepping into week four of the college football season already. It's Wip It Along. College Grid Iron here on fired up network. Gerald Bentley joined by Alex Campbell. Alex, it was another eventful week in college football. Some surprising games, just to look back. And then we'll go ahead and look forward. The two that just shocked me the most. Notre Dame, just absolutely beating down the Purdue Boilermakers, a big 10 team after losing to the Northern Illinois Huskies. And for people who aren't really dialed in on it, Northern Illinois, Purdue, Notre Dame, they're all in that same Chicago land echo sphere. I mean, Chicago's Purdue points to Chicago, Northern Illinois. And, oh, it's 45 minutes outside. It's a far suburb. And Notre Dame may as well be in Chicago. So really big games. What did you think of the Irish just going out there and just stomping down the Boilermakers? Well, the first thing you pointed out is that I don't think a lot of America when they watch these games realizes quite how close in proximity that these teams are. Notre Dame basically played three straight home games. For all intents and purposes, that's what's going on. Because their fan base is going to travel, especially to games, Northern Illinois. And that's what made even that upset was so much more, in my opinion, dramatic than even like Appalachian State coming to Michigan in the big house. I felt like that upset was even more dramatic for that reason. Because let's face it, if Appalachian State was Western Michigan, do you know what I mean? Or they are Grand Valley State. It would have been bigger. Grand Valley State, especially with a lot of the coaches that Grand Valley State has had. You know what I mean? To come into the big house and win a game like that would be akin to what happened in South Bend. And then, for Notre Dame to make it in the story in both ways in two weeks, and boy, does that Purdue program look lost in this moment right now? Had high hopes under Jeff Brom for a few years, but in his absence and everything, that has just gone and collapsed. And Purdue looks like they're back to being the salary dweller of more loaded and more competitive big 10 than they faced when years past they already were the seller dweller. Yeah, and they're on, they're still on national TV this week. They are the prime time game on your new home of sports on over the air TV, the CW Network. The Oregon State Beavers, now a proud part of the Pac-6. They're taking on Purdue, and it's at Oregon State. I don't see that going well for the Boilermakers. No, they're just challenged in all the wrong spots. And yeah, that's not gonna be a good one either. Oregon State's actually a better team than a lot of people surmise it. And you can see that now in how DJ has played. DJU has played at Florida State, and how Oregon State has pretty much held their own in his absence. Yeah, it wasn't him. Yeah, it wasn't him. Now, they've got a major, they're in a year zero situation with their coaching staff too though. So, it's right now, it's more of a Willies and Joe's versus X's and O's kind of thing. That team still has a lot left in the cupboard from John Smith, but you know what I mean? Now he's at Michigan State. And speaking of Michigan State, look, it's been a bit of a struggle bus for child's in that offense. And you gotta imagine that as Big Ten plays starts here in the coming weeks, State is really going to struggle. Well, you know, I think we wanna be a little bit fair with the college programs, 'cause we've talked about it for the last few years in the NFL. That sent you a strip down the preseason. They've really watered down what you can do as a coach in training camp. The first couple weeks of NFL football usually look pretty rough. The offensive's are out of sync. The defenses don't have, they don't have a lot of the coverage schemes really dialed in. So you end up with blown coverage is, you get the ADR touchdowns, where the rest of the game, they can't get out of their own way. That's magnified even more college, because now college teams are playing more competitive games at the beginning. And you're going to it from not even having what the NFL has with preseason games. You don't even have spring games anymore, 'cause the vast majority of schools don't play a spring game. They do like some sort of controlled scrimmage and situational football drills. I mean, it doesn't get you ready. And then you play a chump school, like a Lindenwood or a, they are no offense to them, but Youngstown State, the Penguins. I mean, they're good division one double A school. They're not beat in a D one school. They're just not doing it. They're just not physically count. And then you go right into real competition. I mean, that's tough. - Yeah, no, it's tough. There's less of a run up now. And I think what exacerbates that too, is the constant churning of the recruiting cycle and the transfer portal itself. And what that effect has on the roster. I think what's most overlooked in all the transfers, is the upperclassmen that leave a program and not just their impact statistically on the field, but in the locker room. It never gets talked about, but I think it is a huge loss. And it's guys that you don't even hear about really, when an offensive tackle leaves a small school because he's had two great years and goes to a five star program, or you know what I mean, whatever. That is beyond just the impact on the field. That is a significant impact to how ready that team is come those first few weeks. Those veterans are as important as the assistant coaches, when it comes to being ready in those first couple weeks. Guys that have been there before on that field, against those opponents in the conference that have dealt with exactly those scenarios. How many times in the past did we see a team, that had a bunch of struggling underclassmen grow up and that same team that finished under 500 for one or maybe even two years, then went on, that almost exact same roster then went on to compete for conference titles and in some cases, big bowl games. And in some cases, national titles. - Well, here you've seen it historically for years, the teams would have their build up, just like they talk about baseball. Hey, we got a window. We got about a four year window to contend. Well, college teams would build up to having a couple of year window because hey, we got a really good recruiting class. They're in their junior year now. These guys are gonna be good. We got them for another year and then we got the class coming up behind them. Now, we may got a little bit of a hole after that because guys didn't wanna come and sit on the bench, but we got a three year window. We're gonna be really good. Now, that's been squeezed down to a year. And here, just to be fair, 'cause I haven't heard this anywhere, but I think this is true. And I know it's changed a lot, but it hasn't changed that much since I was going on college athletic road trips. There's something to be said, hey, okay, this is our schedule. This is where we go. This is how we go on the road. These guys, even though they're a bit of faith, they still have to marginally take classes. Here's where you meet with the academic athletic advisor. This is where we do the makeup work. And here's where we work out. I mean, that kind of stuff is reality and you're churning the rosters over in the case of a Colorado, 60% of the rosters knew each year. And we take a look at a lot of the major teams. Yeah, it's a new quarterback. Wisconsin's gonna break in another new quarterback because Tyler Van Dykes out for the year with a torn ACL, but he had just gotten there from Miami, Florida. And I think there's a culture shock going from Miami, Florida to Madison, Wisconsin, of course. And to add to that, let's say that he comes in and plays really well at Wisconsin. Guess what? He's probably gone next year. Well, he is gone. Yeah, he's a fan of the year. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. You're running a quarterback. Yeah, you're renting a quarterback. And so many teams are renting a quarterback, renting a left tackle, renting a half back, renting a wide receiver right now. You know what I mean? I don't think we know what the long-term impacts are. And I truly think that that feeds directly into the coaching turnover of the elite coaches in the game because they're looking at this next three-year outlook like exactly what we just talked about. I'm shooting for a one-year snapshot, basically. I think, you know, when you look at it, Harbaugh just pulled it off. And now you look at where Michigan is. And Orgeron pulled it off. And then LSU pretty much collapsed. Yeah. But you've seen as few teams do it. And then the master classes are the ones that, like what George is doing right now is unprecedented. People are saying it's the new Alabama. It's just the new, new. Because they're competing in a world that Saban didn't and still doing the same thing. Yeah. Well, Anne, I think they're doing it in a way that benefits them dramatically because they do have a core. There's a few transfers, obviously. But here, the straw that's stirring the drink on offense is a guy who's been there. It's Carson back. Right. And that helps them. They went against Clemson, had a tough game to begin with. Stomped Clemson, 34 to three. Take a breath. They play Tennessee Tech, 48 to three. And then last week, which the other shocking game that I wanted to talk about, University of Kentucky, who had just looked awful the week previously. I mean, just brutal. They lost a conference game to the South Carolina game. Cox 31 to six. Bandergrip only completed three passes in the second half. I was thinking, God, if South Carolina beats him by 25, George is going to beat him by 60. Yeah. And instead, night game on the road sold out Kroger Stadium. That is Lexington's. That's like Kentucky's, really. UK is Kentucky's protein period. And it is the protein for the whole state. And people even come up from Cincinnati. I mean, it's relatively close. They pack it in there. 13, 12, Georgia just barely wins. Carson Beck gets whacked on the last drive. He has a strained AC joint and his arm. Good thing is, George is off a week. But what did you make of that game? Because that was really a shocking game for me. I honestly thought they were going to just roll Kentucky. Yeah. No, I think everybody assumed that, right? I mean, all I heard was like, hammer the cover on Georgia, because they're going to-- Yeah, I did. That's like 30 bucks on it. Yeah, the number was like 24 or something like that. And it was like one of the most popular bets on Saturday. I thought they'd cover it themselves. Everyone did, right? Everyone did. If you even take the over, it was like a six and something. I did take the over. I thought Georgia was going to get the over all by themselves. Right. Like, Georgia can hit the over and cover, no problem, right? No, but you nailed it, though. Night game on the road in conference, those tend to be the toe stovers. If you look at a team's schedule at the beginning of the season and you say, well, they're going to win this one. They're going to win this one. They're going to win this one. All right, but then you look at a really good team that stubbed their toe at one point along the way. In a lot of cases, it is that exact scenario. It's that night game on the road because the fan base is ginned up. They're coming off and they're coming off a bad lot. There's a few indicators here. For one, Stoops has been there for almost a decade, right? Stoops is a, and he's a master motivator. That's his thing. And so he was going to have them ready to play at home and defend that house. And kudos to him. He did. And I mean, they look great, especially on defense. You know, it's one thing to sit there and watch it on TV. But just to comprehend how loaded that Georgia offensive line is, how good they are and how good those running backs are and how good Carson Beck is, it's just that offense in general. For Kentucky to be able to do what they did defensively was a complete just amazing performance. Yeah, I was truly stunned by it because Kentucky is not, they're not a doormat team, but they're not that good. Brock Vandergift, who was the other quarterback who competed with Carson Beck for that Georgia job a few years ago, now firmly entrenched as Kentucky starting quarterback. And look at this, look at this split because you watch him playing. This guy's terrible. Against conference teams, his QB rating is 111. His average completion percentage is 52.7. Against non-con teams, his quarterback rating is almost 190 with the 66.7% completion rating for four yards more per pass. So it's not that he's not good. It's that the SEC is that good. Right, right, right, exactly. And I think there's something to that too. You know, a lot of those night games on the road happen in the Midwest, and Kentucky, in many ways, Lexington is kind of on that line where, like you said, not that far from Cincinnati. Four minutes from Cincinnati. In years to come, I could see Kentucky could end up being a big 10 team. You know, as crazy as that sounds, I think it's totally legit because they would fit, in my opinion, better in the bottom of the big 10 than they do in the SEC. Yeah, they fit right in the big 10 or the big 12 actually. Right, either either one. And they'd be competitive in one side of it. In the big 10, for instance, they would be competitive in that four to seven range. You know what I mean? That would be their potential. And hey, with the playoff the way that is now four to seven in a major conference like that, might actually get you in the tail end of the 12th. Well, and Kentucky, they take the field this weekend. One of their glorified exhibition games taken on the OU Bobcats from the Mac. So, you know, I was throw at some, he will against them. Now watch, watch, let down game right here. Watch, this is it. This is the let down game right after the big win. Ohio's pretty good. They're one of the best teams in the Mac. I believe they finished second or third last year, returned most of their starters. They're one of the favorites, one of the favorites to win the Mac again this year. Two in one for a group of five school. At this point in the season is phenomenal because in most cases, that one was an automatic loss that they played somebody else. So, and now they're down in Kentucky, but. - There's Syracuse. - Well, Syracuse, well, it's a power five program. You know what I mean? - Yeah, Syracuse beat them 38-22. - So, and they move the ball really well. I remember that game. They move the ball really well against Syracuse. Their defense made Grayson McCall look like Joe Montana, but. - Then they played the University of South Alabama and the Morgan State Bears. So, not exactly a merchant curse, right? - South Alabama. - South Alabama. - It's a black one. - I think Kentucky wins this one. Kentucky's an 18 point favorite, the over under 42 and a half. But, hey, just to throw back to last week before we move forward, here's what Kirby Smart had to say at his weekly press conference about what does that game do for Georgia? Get into play Kentucky, get in that conference game under the bell currently. - I don't know, it's better than not having it under your bell, you know? - Certainly, we'd like to have a plate better, really the entire special teams, all kinds of defense, so that you gain more confidence from that on the road. But, hey, I'm glad we got a road game under our bell, because it's tough in the SEC to go on the road and have repeated that and I believe that. It's hard anytime to go play, especially when you got a team coming off of a couple of offs. So, I'm glad we got that done. But, how much confidence it shows is basically what you do this week and how will you prepare? - Fair, it's a bi-week this week for Georgia. They can get everybody healthy, no major injuries. It was a sprained AC joint for Carson Beck, but he did practice both days so far this week. They get ready for Alabama. - Yeah, I was gonna say. - A week, so it's gonna be a big game coming up for them, because Alabama, they were talking again, Jalen Monroe, maybe one of the Heisman contenders. - Yeah, maybe, a little early. Throws a real nice deep ball, I'll tell you that. That's a strong suit and so they're pro, they can make a lot of explosive plays on offense, especially in Dibor's offense. And if you remember, Pennics at Washington, you know, there's explosion in these, he's got all these zany routes to go all over the place and it's hard to cover for college defenses. - I'll say, you mentioned Friday night, 'cause we do have Friday night football in sports now. A top 25 game in the Big Ten. The fight in a line I partially off that win against KU. They're three and O and Nebraska corn hotskers coming off that beatdown win over Colorado. They're three and O two. This is the time when Matt rules getting that program in place, if you look back at his career, this is kind of what happened at Baylor too. I think Nebraska wins this one. They're favored by seven and a half. It's a 42 and a half point over under the game. It's at Nebraska in Lincoln. The whole city is gonna shut down on Friday and get pumped for this game. I think it's a really tough atmosphere for Illinois to go into and I don't think they can stay up with Nebraska. - Yeah, I think they lose in all the wrong areas, right? Like, all Myers is a nice quarterback. He's a nice quarterback. I take Rayola right now over, like right now I take Rayola. If I were starting a new college team and drafting all new players and those are my two quarterbacks, I would take Rayola over him right now. Coaching, sorry. I would take rule over Bilema. I don't put him on any teams. You know what I mean? So I look at those two things, quarterback coaching and then defense. Nebraska's defense is better, you know, arguably than Illinois. Illinois is nice. They play a real nice ball control game. It's a classic Brett Bilema team, real strong. I would say underratedly strong on the offensive line. They can really run the ball. Chase Brown left last year had a phenomenal season. I find it really confusing that Blake Corum was so magnified and Chase Brown wasn't when they're essentially the same player. If you put Chase Brown behind that Michigan O line, he runs for 1,000 yards too. He's not there anymore, but they still have multiple running backs. Alt-Mayer, like I said, is a good game managing, accurate passer. They've got really good tight ends. They're so, so wide receiver. And their defense is competitive. It's a bend, don't break, style, able to keep them in games. Very classic Brett Bilema team. But again, Nebraska, I think, is at a point right now, an inflection point where they have an opportunity in this new big West to return to prominence with the team that they have. And I think they believe in that roster and believe in that coaching staff. And you're right, this is where rules started to turn the corner at Baylor. I've long held the crazy hot take prophecy at Nebraska that rule is the get right guy. He's the get back to 10 wins the year guy, and there's a finisher coming in after that. I truly believe that. And as crazy as it is, if you hear the guy talk about it, I believe that man has urban Meyer. Give it to three years. - Well, the good thing is, I mean, if you can make it, you can get it working in Nebraska, just like I was saying with Kentucky, the whole state of Nebraska behind you, it's already there. It's not like Lincoln's in the middle of nowhere. It's, I don't know, an hour away from a major metro area in Omaha, it's not a bad of a place to be. - It's one of the best fan bases in the country too. They turn out for that team, rain or shine, wind or loss, they're honestly, they're one of the best fan bases in the country and college football. - Well, in here, let me ask you about this, because I think this is something that the head coach makes a huge difference. Dylan Riola looks like, okay, hey, this guy is the possibility. Besides the resemblance to Patrick Mahomes and all the people saying he's Mahomes Jr, he has that capability to be a guy who can take over a game, may be an explosive place. So far, as a freshman, 670 yards passing, five touchdowns against one interception. That's for Nebraska. So they're airing the ball out. You don't get guys with that kind of explosive talent if you are a Brett Vilma, a Kirk Ferrance. They're not gonna go to your team because they know I can't make it to the NFL if I play for you because your offense won't allow me to do it. - Yeah. (indistinct) - That stats would be his playing for Illinois. Let's say I'm a game manager, you can't fly. - Yeah, exactly. That's what I just said about Chase Brown. Like you take Chase Brown, you put him on another roster. Like dude is getting drafted. You know what I mean? And that's the difference. Like Alt Beyer is real nice. Like, but Alt Beyer, Wisconsin, they win 10, 11 games. I bet you he gets a look, for two seasons or something like that. And that's capable. Like you said, Belama, Illinois, you got a seller dweller and the big 10 in Illinois. And you know, it's funny because they have some tradition, some history, they're in a really good location as far as, you know, they always talk about markets. That's a really good market to be in. You know, they're pretty much in the epicenter of the big 10 right there. So, you know, we were just talking about it. They're right there with Notre Dame and, you know what I mean? And all the other teams that Illinois, Indiana area. - Mm hmm. Tough stretch for him because after this, they get Penn State at Penn State, a little break against Purdue, and then they go to Michigan, so. - Yeah, that's going to be tough. But Michigan is really good on defense, but they're not bringing anything to the table on offense. They're just not, and we can't expect them to, and any hope that that happens is probably, they don't have an answer at quarterback. They're playing against what, USC this week. Good luck. - Historic rival. - Yeah, historic rival, but met in a couple Rose Bowls over the years, and Pasadena. But, you know, they're just completely outmatched here. - Yeah. - Completely outmatched. They're good. It just reminds me of the old like 2015, 2016, 2017 era, Michigan teams that didn't have it all figured out on offense and had those older defensive coordinators that just love to man up in blitz. Well, Wink Martindale loves to man up in blitz. They don't have the answer at quarterback. They're pretty good at running back, and solid, but not great on the O line without many answers at wide receiver. So that's exactly where they are. You know what I mean? And they may or may not finish in the top 25. I wouldn't be surprised either way. - Yeah, well, it's getting more like the NFL where the quarterback is gonna make or break your team. - Correct. - A guy who's gonna make or break the team and not gonna be this week, but moving forward, the Ohio State University. They have one of their glorified exhibition games a little bit better than usual. They're taking on the thundering herd of Marshall. Marshall one at one, Ohio State two and oh, that is a early game on Fox. Ohio State, a 40 point favorite with an over under 51 and a half. (laughing) Ohio State's obviously gonna win and here. I mean, reality, Ohio State needs to light it up, so they better go for getting the over too. - Yeah, yeah, no, and that's the thing. I think not only do they need to light it up, they need to get on them early, right? 'Cause you need to see that kind of, if it's one of these rolling, like the way Georgia beat Clemson, I'm not gonna be as impressed. If you want me to believe in a Will Howard, you want me to believe in that Ohio State offense, I think you gotta get up like three scores early, because you're capable. And there's been a lot of slow starts. You can go all the way back to McCall. It's between McCall and Howard, it's been slow start city. And that is the one area that it just has not looked like those really good Ohio State teams, those really good Ohio State teams, they take your soul in the first quarter. - Yeah. - You know what I mean? Like they're going up against Toledo. Toledo doesn't feel like they've got a prayer after about 10 minutes, you know what I mean? - Justin Fields, CJ Stroud, scoring touchdowns. - Even JT Barrett. - You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Go all the way back to Troy Smith. I mean, like those teams, you know what I mean? We're just reapers. I mean, they were the Alabama of the North. - Yeah. - And I don't feel like, and I don't think even the fans right now of Ohio State feel like Ryan Day's got that kind of a situation. - No, I mean, I think here, would you feel a lot better at Ohio State if instead of Dylan Ryola being the quarterback in Nebraska, he was the quarterback at the Ohio State University and you had him for the next three years before he goes to the NFL? - Yeah, one go. - One billion percent, right? - Right, yeah. - 'Cause I mean, you got a guy that you're paying millions to who wasn't even gonna be the full-time starter at Kansas State. He's the savior of the Ohio State University. That's not a good situation to be in. - They're obviously gonna win, but I don't think it's gonna add well for the quarterback. - They're putting a lot of faith in the rest of that roster. Same thing that the Notre Dame's doing with Riley Leonard. You're putting a lot of faith in the rest of that roster. - Well, Notre Dame's faith was already not rewarded with the horrible performance Riley Leonard put in against Northern Illinois. I mean, the quarterback gradient of like 32, a bright young level quarterback performance. It's terrible. Speaking of some terrible performances, Clemson, they take the field, take an on-conference foe, NCU State, NCU State two and one, but it really, really soft two and one. They played one real game. It was against Tennessee. They got rolled, Kate Clubnick off of a good game. Do you think Clemson's gonna start picking it up here? They go to two and one? - Yeah, yeah. Clemson's gonna win this game. NCU State's not a good football team. Not this year. They're just too young. They gave up, I mean, they only won against LaTeX by 10. What are the Western Carolina, which is a decent FCS school, but an FCS school nonetheless, 21-38. So they've consistently given up at least 20 to programs. They had no business given, even given up 10-2 as a power five from the ACC. And Clemson is just gonna roll them. I mean, Clemson is a different class than NCU State. NCU State's been competitive and is capable of being competitive, but the roster's just not there right now. - Big 12 game, Iowa State coming off of a big win against in-state rival Iowa. They take on a surprisingly good Arkansas State. Iowa State two and our Arkansas State two and one, Iowa State, I think this is a big line for a school that doesn't score a whole lot. Iowa State's a 22-point favorite against an Arkansas State team that and granted, they struggled against Central Arkansas, 34-31. They beat Tulsa team, that's not bad, 28-24 and hung within 10 to Michigan, 28-18. I don't see Iowa State beating up by 28. I think I'd take the cover. - Yeah. - They come up on state covers. - Yeah, I would take the cover as well. I think Iowa State's going to win, but if they're going to win, they're not going to try to do it in dramatic runaway fashion. That's just not their game. - Not their style now. - It just won't be, right? I mean, if they're going to win, it's going to be with ball control. But they'd honestly rather win by seven than 21, because they played within their means. They played within their style if they did. So yeah, and Arkansas State is good, but I think also that, again, just returning to Michigan, the offense is so bad, it makes the defense worse. Even though the defense is really good, trust me, that is exactly what's happening. The offense is so bad that it makes the defense worse. You know what I mean? For instance, that 18, I think 11 of that 18 came in the fourth quarter. The last touchdown came really late in the game in the fourth quarter. So, and Michigan was well ahead. You know what I mean? They just didn't put a lot of points on the board. So yeah, but Iowa State is not significantly better on offense than Michigan. So, so there is that big win against Iowa, but also may I point out, not notice an offensive dynamo. No, no, a game that not surprisingly is only on the big 10 network. Number 10 Penn State, the Knitney Lions, are scheduled to go to three and oh, they take on quite possibly the worst team in division one football, the Penn State Golden Flashes, a team with a history of losing, a team that's mostly remembered for the school being included in the Crosby stills and Nash song or dead in Ohio. It's not going to go well. Penn State's a 48 and a half point favorite against the Golden Flashes with an over under of 55.5. So that means the odds keepers think, Penn State gets score 50 and Penn State's going to get like a field goal. - And I agree, I agree. I think Penn State's going to absolutely crush Penn State here. - Do you want to go to the game? Because to show you the intensity that's being ratcheted up for this match up in University Park and Happy Valley, you can get into Beaver Stadium for a big $8 right now on-- - Yeah. - Eight bucks gets you in the house. - You know what's awesome? - And it kind of shows you the intensity. - Michigan State comes to Boston and plays BC in a couple of weeks and my son got tickets super cheap before BC was any good. - And now they're crazy expensive. - Yeah, there you go. But yeah. Penn State fans. - $8 and a half point in a while. Eight bucks, you get in. (laughs) USC Michigan, we talked about that game is 230. That's on national TV. That's going to be on CBS. ABC gets a historic SEC Big Ten matchup LSU against UCLA. A diminished UCLA. Their head coach is gone. He's the offensive coordinator at the Ohio State now. It's in Louisiana. LSU a 24 point favorite. They win and there's going to have to be some rebuilding going on at UCLA. - Yeah. Yeah. I agree. Like, LSU is going to win. I'm not sure they're going to come. Something doesn't feel right with LSU. I think they're good, but like if you watch that USC game, it wasn't all just USC being great. Like something, I don't know. We'll see is the kind of the get into SEC play. They win this one and win by at least two scores because they're just well better than UCLA. UCLA let their, they had one good piece left after Chip Kelly left and it was their defensive coordinator and they let him walk across town and go to USC. I mean, you don't like, okay, you can lose a decordinator if he's really good. Any coordinator if they're really good. You don't let them go to the team in the same town. That's a thing. Like you don't trade all star in your division, right? I mean, like it's the same thing. That's just now you got to play USC every year and that defensive coordinator. Good luck. - True. As we keep rolling through, just kind of looking at the top 25 Notre Dame, I'm going to take on my Ami of Ohio surprisingly and because Notre Dame has their own network TV contract. This one is on national TV NBC at 230 Eastern. Notre Dame two and one, they are a 28 point favorite against Miami of Ohio. They got a crush these guys. I mean, they lost to a school in the same conference in NIU. Miami of Ohio, not even a good school in the Mac, but not horrible. They've played a couple of major division one opponents so far this year. They lost a close game to Northwestern, 13 to six, lost a relatively close game to the big 12 Cincinnati, 27, 16 Notre Dame wins, but I don't think they cover because I mean, what does Notre Dame show that they're that much better than Northwestern or Cincinnati? - Yeah, exactly. You know, I just think with the huge win last week against Purdue, that was kind of, you know, we're going to prove something here. How much prove do you have left? Because you're going to need some to cover that number. Miami of Ohio is a mid to top third kind of Mac school, but they are pretty good. So there, like you said, they've been competitive. They were competitive with Cincinnati. This is another game kind of in that same Midwest region like we've been talking about as is Cincinnati, I would point out. And, you know, I expect a pretty strong, you know, it's tough to be, it's tough to be the big dog and tough to be targeted, especially as in the transfer portal era when these schools can really build up. Miami of Ohio has got some good players. I just, I think Notre Dame wins, but I don't, I don't, I agree with you. I don't think they cover. - That's a big line. A Louisville, number 19 in Louisville, taking on Georgia Tech, two and O against three and one, ACC conference match up. It's in Louisville. The Cardinals favored by 10. - Yeah, I don't love, I don't love the number there either. - I think Louisville's gonna win. Georgia Tech's really good though. They're in us, they're really good fundamentally and fundamental teams often can slim those margins down even when they lose. They do normally, right? I would argue that Bill Belichick made a career out of it in the NFL, basically. - And he's staying close against the win at the end, absolutely. - You know what I mean? And that's exactly what Georgia Tech is. They're very good fundamentally. They tackle very well. I really like Haynes King at quarterback. He has, you know, he has the ability to kind of take over a game. This is a game Louisville could lose. So I really don't think that they cover. - Yeah, Haynes King, junior quarterback, nearing a thousand yards passing already this season. Getting a good job, 962 yards passing, six touchdowns, one interception so far. - How many yards does he have rushing? He's a runner too, he's pretty good. - Yeah, I don't have that stat on the screen. They're in a good position. I mean, I think it's definitely anybody's ball game there. - Yeah, they think, I think they finally figured out at head coach in the absence of Paul Johnson. It's just been so long. And now they finally have Kea head coach and he's a former, you know, offensive lineman on the team. He's a Georgia Tech guy. And they've looked as a team that looks like they're coached by a lineman right now. - Mm-hmm. Well, and that makes a big difference too because you can kind of get everything in place and have your discipline schedule where you want it to be. - Yeah. - And one other game I wanted to talk to and kind of focus in on, your, my home state here and recording this in Kansas City and Missouri Tigers, they get a close win against your Boston College Eagles. - Yeah. - Wasn't kind of the game that they anticipated. Missouri didn't cover, they had opportunities to, made a few mistakes, had a few discipline errors, he drank a wits, talked about it at his press conference and what do you take away from that game? - Really looking into it. Just want to say how impressed I was with Coach O'Brien and his football team, Boston College Eagles. That was a really good football team, a quality football team that was fundamentally sound in all three phases. I think he's done a tremendous job getting those guys to believe into their plan and really impressed with the way they played and the way they stayed in the fight for all four quarters. They were certainly a worthy opponent. You know, but for us offensively, there's a lot of things to correct. Starting with a slow start, you know, lack of execution in the red zone, having to kick two field goals and a punt in the first quarter. Field goal, punt, field goal, you know, penalties. You know, I've never seen second and 59 again and what I hoped to never see it again, that was, that was incredible. We did have some positives, really good swing eight, 10, 10, nothing right there that ultimately was the difference in the game. But our inability to put away the opponent in the third quarter to stretch that out to a 17 point lead is something that we have to do better. Obviously, the execution on the last two third downs of the game was critical in order for us to win, but missed opportunities throughout the game to be better. So that's the focus for us. - Mm-hmm, so good focus, right? Let's be better. They get Vanderbilt, the Gomadors come to town. And if it was a game comparing test scores, Vandy probably wins, but it's a game on the football field. Missouri three and oh, they're ranked number seven by ESPN, taking on Vanderbilt, coming in at two and one. Missouri, a 20 point favorite, 53 and a half over under. It's gonna be a sellout at Columbia tickets, bottom price ticket you can get in at is $71. This should be a fairly solid win for Missouri. - Yeah, I think it will be a solid win for Missouri. Vanderbilt barely got by Vatak earlier in the year. They had to go to overtime in that game. Vatak not, in a super strong point right now, either. I'd say Vanderbilt's typically about where they have been over the last 10 years right now. They're kind of just like, you know what I mean? They've been better, but like, they're not gonna finish anywhere in the SEC. I'd be interested to see where, like Vanderbilt, exactly, they're never going to. I'd be interested to see where Vandy, what happens with Vanderbilt and all this conference realignment, they're one of these academic schools that I could see, you know, kind of shuffling around. - Yeah, at some point, whenever you get to it, and it's gonna be years out because you need these current TV contracts to run out, whenever you get to the 64 team super league, there's gonna be a few, when the musical chairs stops, there's gonna be a few schools that don't have a chair. - Yeah. - You have to think Vanderbilt, Stanford, Northwestern. - Throw rice in there. - Yeah, I mean, they just don't really fit at that level. The big time, high level academic schools. I mean, you just don't. - Right, I have this challenge. - They're not historically, they're not even really historically competitive in most cases, you know what I mean? And that's the thing is to like, like, take Northwestern, you're not even historically, that you had won a crazy season in the mid '90s. That was it, you know what I mean? Like, that was it. - Well, it's a lot harder in football 'cause you need a lot more players. Basketball, you get a couple of guys who can play, you can make a run. - Right. - Football, you need 20 plus high-end players. And in this era of, let's say, watered down academic standards, not exist in academic standards. Take a couple classes and take off the semester of the season. At a high-end academic school, that's not an option. So your recruiting pool gets really, really, really small. - Right. - But let's go back to Missouri 'cause they actually have it set up pretty well to have quite possibly the best run they've had in the SEC since that Gary Pink will chase Daniel's team. Get Vanderbilt, take on a Texas A&M, that's in the top 25, but obviously a beatable team as we saw with Notre Dame beat him. Another step back, basically a not an exhibition game a close, they take on UMass, a weak Auburn team this year, and then Alabama, Oklahoma. So Missouri could roll into that at 4-0, 5-0, 6-0. Beat Auburn, you're 7-0 going against Alabama. It could be a top five match up easily, just a little bit ahead of the calendar. - Yeah, I agree. And I still think Missouri, Missouri was being a little undersold here nationally because I think if you look at, if you look at how they finished last season, they come in what, within eight or nine points of Georgia at one point, they just trowed Arkansas, who looks like a pretty strong program at this point, you know what I mean? And so, yeah, I think, and you look at their schedule, like you just ran through, I think it sets up pretty well, and especially in this new 12 team playoff format, where I think if you really look at Missouri's schedule, they're almost, they're almost one of those teams. It kind of feels destined for one of those top 12 spots. - They're gonna be right there 'cause they're probably a two, maybe three loss team this year if things don't go right. - Which I think is-- - If things go right, one or two losses. - As a sidebar, and I was thinking about this, which I think is actually absolutely perfect, right? Because of how the 12 team playoff is aligned, I think it's even better to be that second or third team in a conference that makes it than to be the conference champion if you're from one of those power four conferences, because you're really in the catbird seat. Look, you're inevitably are going to get to play in round one, a G5 opponent, if you're in that five, six-seat range, potentially. And even if not, you're probably going to play an ACC or a big 12 opponent that is likely a more than 10-point underdog to you in round one. You know what I mean? And I think that is a huge asset. And then who knows what happens in the other games? They could actually roll into round two and avoid the top four again. And so whoever gets that five-seat, that is, in my opinion, better than the four spot. - Well, and to reference back to something you talked about a bit earlier about building up a program, you lay drink with, it's took a little bit of heat two years ago for the team not being as good as people thought they should be. But you look at them now, they don't just have a homegrown quarterback, they have a homegrown offense, which makes a huge difference. They do have a couple of transfers, but they're offensive linemen. Guys from Missouri that came back to Missouri to go to school. You got Brady Cook, who grew up dreaming about being the Missouri quarterback. He's got 720 yards so far on what's been basically kind of a ball control team to begin with, but you also have a NFL level of running back in Nate Noelle. You have a pair of NFL level wide receivers, including Luther Burden III, who is basically a walk to be a first round draft pick and Theo Wies. Those two guys have combined for 34 receptions so far this year. There's not a lot of teams that are gonna be able to match up with that because you have some chemistry with all of these guys having played together for a few years. That's a huge difference versus getting a quarterback from some school across the country, throwing them in and saying, okay, let's go time, time to win. - Yeah, yeah, exactly. Burden is a phenomenal athlete, just one of those guys, you know, he reminds me of in a way, is like a Tyree kill almost, where he, you know, you can look at his 40 time, he's like what, you have four, three, eight kind of guy, like it's pretty fast, but not that elite corner kind of fast that some receivers are now. You know, you guys coming to the league, but he's gonna get drafted first, he's got great hands and he's got that like, he's got that like, I can kick it into higher gear with the pads on speed. You know what I mean? That a lot of guys don't have. - And he has here, McCall Hardman, who's a player for the Kansas City Chiefs, McCall Hardman had Olympic levels. And he has, he's still extremely fast. He has Olympic level speed. The only problem is it's straight line speed. He doesn't move laterally well. - Right, right. - Luthera Burden has the ability to move laterally and not lose speed. - Yeah, he's that huge skill to have. - Quick twitch type athlete, you know, so many analysts talk about, you know, where he's able to cut really, and that's why I kind of look at, you know, Tyree kill a guy who's just a lot of speed, but like so much more than that, you know what I mean? But that athleticism is so powerful that it's what bleeds through when you watch. But under that surface, it's really just so much more than that. - Yeah, that game three 15 on the SEC network, Missouri against Vanderbilt. Then we get to the prime time game, Saturday night, prime time. Miami, Florida, Mario, Cristobal, looking to go 4-0 and they're gonna get there. Cam Ward, we've been talking about quarterback stats so far. Their transfer quarterback, well, he stepped in just fine. He's already got 1,035 yards passing, 11 touchdowns to one interception. That's pretty good rich, you know, they're taking on South Florida Bulls at two and one. Miami's gonna go to 4-0, I'm sure they're six and a half point favorite. Games in Tampa, you can get in for 47 bucks. I think there's gonna be a lot of hurricane fans there too. - Yeah, they're at South Florida. I mean, exactly, it's gonna be flooded with hurricane fans. Even some fans that are fans of South Florida also like Miami, they're that far separated. It's not even close to a true rivalry. So yeah, Miami's an all likelihood gonna roll 'em. Although Night Game on the road, it's not a conference game though, and they're not a team that's anywhere close to competitive physically. Even though I like USF a lot, Miami's in a different stratosphere right now. This isn't Miami from the last few years. Miami's at a point, I would compare Miami this year to Michigan last year because there's so, it's to that level of talent on the roster, especially on the offensive side. The offensive line, look, there are four guys that are gonna play on Sunday there, minimum, and they've got the receiver, the speed demon, receiver, the Olympic speed guy, Restrepo, they've got Damian Martinez, a guy who's capable of running for a 1,200 yards this year, a running back, and behind him, CJ2K Jr. And who's apparently very fast, just like his father, and of course, an experienced senior quarterback in Cam Ward that has been battle tested in a way, especially at his last stop where, I mean, Washington State, especially in the early days of Cam Ward, was mostly underdogs in those games, and he really took a bit of a beating and played pretty well. - Yeah, and I think that's been the best example of that free agency, the transfer portal, so far in college football. Miami of Florida was missing one piece, they traded out Tyler Van Dyke to Wisconsin, to get Cam Ward, and that's made a night and day difference, because Margaret Chris Paul was on the hot seat, he was one of the coaches being talked about, along with the other two Florida coaches, Norvala Napier, is being on the way out, on he riding the chip with one transaction. - He's a big offensive line guy, and it takes a long time for those o-linemen to mature, you know what I mean, that he recruited, and they're there, and I think that's the difference, is that he's just done so well on the o-lin, it's made all the difference. - Yeah, been a big impact. Some of the other prime-time games, and we'll focus back, we'll circle back to the big one. Texas A&M, they're number 25 in the country, two and one, they have a glorified exhibition game that's taken on the Bowling Green Falcons, Bowling Green, one and one, the only thing of note, their quarterback is the former Missouri starting quarterback, Connor Baselach, and Connor Baselach not getting it done there, either 422 yards, two TDs, two interceptions. Texas A&M is gonna win it, if you are a baggy fan, you can watch that on your streaming app on ESPN Plus. Ole Miss, taking on Georgia Southern. That's the SEC Network at 6.45, I don't know how that game got a prime-time slot. Texas, 3-0, they're gonna be quarterback by Arch Manning coming off his five touchdowns and displaying the speed his grandfather had, taken on University of Louisiana Monroe, that's gonna be an absolute romp, 44 and a half point favorites for Texas. 52 and a half is the over-under, so that means the analyst think Texas is gonna score 45, and Louisiana Monroe is gonna get a touchdown. And then some real games. How about the late game on Saturday night is the big 12 after-dark K-State number 13, 3-0, but it's been a challenging 3-0. They travel the BYU to take on the Cougars, the Cougars are 3-0, travel into Lavelle, Edward Stadium, where BYU has won 75% of their games since the stadium was built. K-State, 6 and a half point favorite. I mean, this conference game, I think it would be a huge win for K-State if they get it. - Fits the mantra in my opinion, it's almost perfect conference game on the road. Teams that historic rivals it away at that. Teams that have a familiarity with each other, schools that have a familiarity, I mean, this is gonna be a great one. BYU's been a bit of a surprise. I, you know, what I was shocked by is the tug of war they played against SMU and won. SMU is a very good team. I fully expected SMU to beat BYU. I like their quarterback a lot. They got two running backs. I like a lot, SMU, I, wow. And now they get this game at home at Lavelle, Edwards. I, yeah, I kind of like BYU in this spot, specifically because K-State has struggled at some points in every single game. - Just barely beat Tulane. - Exactly. So I think if they get on the struggle bus here, they're heading for a loss. And it's hard for me to imagine they don't because they've struggled in every game. - Yeah, I mean, they ended up hammering Arizona, but it was mostly in the second half. Got to pull the way it was a real close game at the half, but Avery Johnson, the young quarterback for Kansas State, get in his arm and his feet under him as he is a dual threat quarterback. Only thrown for 490 yards so far, but they seem to be opening it up a little bit. The ESPN analytics match up. They played the game a thousand times. K-State wins at 69.9% of the time. I'll go K-State because I think that Arizona win was a little surprise. I thought they were going to struggle mightily in that one. BYU, they've played that one tight game against SMU, a quality opponent. There are other two games so far. The Southern Illinois Salookis, the Pride of Carbondale, Illinois, a home of one of the biggest granite, one of the biggest granite refineries in the country. - Yeah. - If you've ever been to Carbondale. - I've not. - Yeah, if you ever watched the Flintstones and you see the rock pits where Fred Flintstone works. - Yeah. - There's a rock pit just like that, just next to the University of Carbondale. - That's awesome. - Just right off the highways, you're heading up to Carbondale. But yeah, it's the Salookis. So that was a rough game. And then they took on Wyoming. So I think K-State's had a little better competition. I'll go with K-State, but I wouldn't be surprised if BYU wins it. - Yeah, yeah. BYU, they just, they trounced Wyoming. And Wyoming's not a good program, but that's a mountain west opponent. You know what I mean? And they just trounced him. I don't know. BYU's pretty good. So yeah. We'll see how it shakes out. - I wanted to take a look at a big 12 game too, just because I got into the background. I was there. I saw K-U take on UNLV. It did not end up well for K-U. The offense is really struggling, mightily. I don't think Jalen Daniels is healthy. He throws a couple of interceptions that really broke the game open. Got to ask Jalen after the game, "Hey, what happened on those interceptions?" Here's his answer. Give me your take on it. But yeah, the first interception was a cover three. The high safety made a play on the scene. The scene was open much earlier than I thought it would be. I was going through my progression and as I got to number three, which was Q-scan, the safety read my eyes the whole entire time and just made a play as I tried to fit the ball in there. The second interception was, they played good defense all the way around. Looking back at it, the only thing that I had with my check down to the boundary I covered every single row. That was supposed to be a part of that play and I just had thoughts on the defense when I can play on that. - It gave me feels, this is a guy who was a Heisman Trophy, talked about as a Heisman Trophy contender coming into the season. He missed almost all of last year with the back injury, missed a large chunk of the previous year with the back injury. That sounded like Justin Fields last year after Bears loss is describing their bad offensive game. Under the handiwork of Luke Getsy, getting him utterly confused. That didn't sound like a confident quarterback. - Well, no, I mean it's kind of answering the question. Hey, give him credit man, who's super polite, he answered every question, but it just doesn't seem right, does it? - Yeah, I mean, it's not the kind of attitude you want your quarterback to have necessarily. It's not a bad one. Like you said, he was respectful and everything, but that said, I mean, I felt like he broke the plate, the first plate that he broke down really well, I felt. You know what I mean? It's the second one that he kind of got lost on. But the first one, where he talks about how it was covered three and the safety role of the size, but the thing I also heard on there is you're not moving the safety with your eyes. You're a Heisman candidate. You know what I mean? And I'm not saying you, I'm not saying you. And what, you play your football, bro. And if that, look, if you weren't doing that when you got to that level, so be it. But perhaps, if that's the case, perhaps, it was a lot of your athleticism made up for your inability to do things like move the safety with your eyes. - Mm-hmm, yeah. And now they take on a big 12 team. They're taking on West Virginia, very tough place to play. You fly into Pittsburgh and take a charter bus to WU. It's about a, man, it's like a two and a half hour bus ride. - Yeah, it's a lot. - It's a difficult place to go. It's the school that fits the least in the big 12. I mean, it just makes no sense of there. It's hard for anybody to get to West Virginia, but. - Morgantown, the big 12, it makes absolutely no sense that they're in the conference, but they are. - No, you're exactly right. Morgant, and that's why West Virginia, by the way, just to speak about, you know, geographically, Morgantown, West Virginia, and where that college is. You're right, they're kind of a more natural fit in the big 10 as well, but really, same problem. The only access to that city is the interstate. That's it. - Yeah. - There's no-- - Yeah, it's literally in the mountains. The only area that's flat is because they got a massive donation from a company that makes dynamite, and they blasted the mountaintops off to build the football stadium. The rest of Morgantown is like this. They actually have, if you go to the campus, they have the moving walkways outside with handles. So you can get on the moving walkway, hold the handles, and it'll take it up the hill to get to the campus buildings. It's exactly that hill-y. I mean, it's everything's like this, driving the mountains, it's utterly insane. It's literally on the mountaintop. - That's a cool country. - It's a small country right there. - Beautiful campus. - Yeah, yeah. - Yeah, yeah. - Really, really nice. - Marshall's not far. - I think in the atmosphere. - Marshall's not far away. Similar thing with Marshall, can't really fly in there. Can't, you know what I mean, it's just the interstate. - Yeah, there's not enough space for him. - You can fly a little, basketball can fly in there, 'cause just the little planes can fly in there. - Yeah. - Can't fly a commercial plane in there. You gotta fly into Pittsburgh. So that gives you an idea where it's at geographically. It's not really by Virginia, it's right around Pennsylvania. - It's not even really by, it's still a two and a half hour drive from Pittsburgh. - It's a half hour drive. - You know what I mean? - Because you're driving, you know, 40 miles an hour up and down. - It's a tough place to get to, man. - Yeah, hill country of Pennsylvania, then into West Virginia. It's gonna be a tough game. - I don't see KU winning it the way they play, because, man, if UNLV would've connected on a couple plays, they could've won that game. It's like, I asked Jalen, hey, how do you step it up? How do you get ready for the big 12? - For all of you guys, going into the big 12 season now, so really kind of get a reset. What's the key this week to going out there and playing the J-Hog football, you're looking to play? - We got a reset all over again. I mean, you know, at the end of the day, we still have the standard that we go by every single day, and we believe that, you know, by the end of our standards, you know, day in, day out, no matter, you know, no matter what happens, is, you know, it will allow us to be able to get to the outcome that we want, you know, we're always gonna be focused on, you know, the route, which is the process of everything rather than the fruit, which is the outcome. So, you know, no matter what happened negatively and positively, we're gonna keep on going about everything that we do on a day to day basis. - And I like that focused on the route, not to hurt. - Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. - I'll give them that one, that was pretty good. - That's a good one. - How do you feel for this game? You got the J-Hogs taking on the Mountaineers, both disappointing one and two starts. Both sides, Mountaineers have been pretty rough, but they're favored by two and a half in this game, over under 56 and a half points. - Yeah. - West Virginia. - Exactly. - They lost a close game to pitch and thumped the University of Albany. - You know, I look at this one kind of like that, Illinois, Nebraska one. You know, those two schools are kind of on the come up and playing really well. These two are struggling to open the year, but when I see, you know, two schools that I don't, I can't be positive, I just try to break it down by a few things, quarterback and coach. And in both cases, I like West Virginia. So, that's why I go West Virginia. - Well, I would say coach I'd give to Leopold, but definitely quarterback I would give to Garrett Green over anything that the J-Hogs can throw out there. And I don't believe that Daniels is the, is the starter going forward. I don't think they can start him, you know, really. You tell me, you probably know, you think they're trying to? - Yeah, I think they're trying to play him into health. I think he's hurt. - And it's your response. - It's not there yet, because I had a broken back myself playing sports, playing basketball, but still the same thing. It takes a long time to get that ability to twist. And the only throws I saw him complete well, complete where he hit guys in stride were planned bootlegs, one man route, and he was able to throw his whole body into the throw and had momentum going into it. Every other pass where he threw it out of the drawback, he either skipped it in or he sailed it. He was not hitting guys in stride. And I think that's a matter of rotation. He just doesn't look fluid throwing the ball. And that's nothing that you would have ever said about Jalen Daniels previously. And it'll come because, I mean, hey, there's no substitute for playing. I mean, there just isn't. - And maybe that's the theory. And if you look at their quarterback depth chart, there isn't much there. You've got what two inexperienced redshirt, freshmen vying for the backup role. - They have Cole Ballard who played last year. - And Isaiah, what's his name? I'm Marshall, Isaiah Marshall, I believe? - Yeah. - Yeah, so they were competing for the backup role going into the season, you know-- - You're gonna win. You're gonna win with Jalen Daniels. - Or you're gonna lose, if you're gonna lose, you're gonna lose with them. Or you're gonna lose with the kids anyway. So you might as well just, I'm of the mindset, you should probably play the kids. But that's just me. I think you see what you got in the future, first of all, secondly, you let him rest more. You know, 'cause football is a rough sport. You know, that's how he broke his back in the first place. (laughing) - Well, and then here. - Not to be telling about it, but-- - Yeah, yeah. But I mean, there is no substitute for playing, you know? - Sure. - Talked with a lot of wrestling coaches. You can't practice wrestling, the way you wrestle is your wrestle. Yeah, it's kind of like Lance Leibold said it, you know? Hey, there's no live action for the quarterbacks in spring football. They're not facing hits. So the way you get ready for it is to do it. And if they're gonna win, they need to win with him. They have TCU following this game, then they're at Arizona State, and then they get Houston. So if they can win, they can make a run and they can still have a pretty good season. They play Kansas State, late, and Iowa State. So, I mean, it's not exactly a murderer's row schedule. They can get it moving in the right direction and hopefully be in okay shape as they continue to go through. - But it's all about Daniel. So where he goes is where the team will go. Whatever direction he takes is the direction the team will. - Absolutely, 100%. Yeah, it's jail and Daniel's are boss. There is no alternative there. And then the final game, which I think is the game of the week, the University of Tennessee, it's the Josh Hypel revenge ball, the Oklahoma Sooners Tennessee number six, Oklahoma number 15. It's in Norman Conference football game. Now that Oklahoma is in the SEC, it's gotta be an awfully motivated Josh Hypel. And I think they've been building this program for a little while. I think Tennessee wins it, but this is gonna be a really close game. It's gonna be one of those foundational games that will probably actually even have playoff consequences. - Yeah, but Hypel and Venables, they both really need this one. They both, it just feels like they both, like both coaches just need it in this moment for some different reasons. Venables needs to prove that he's viable long-term. Hypel needs to get to the next level. He needs to prove that he can beat teams like this that are really good teams, but maybe not favorites to win at all type teams. You know what I mean? This is a stepping stone kind of a game. And especially for his young quarterback on the road, and that's where I kind of see Tennessee maybe struggling a little bit. I still like them to win the game, but I think you're right. It's a close one. I don't know what the number is on it, but I think it's a close one. - Seven point spread. - Yeah, exactly. So I would put it seven or under, maybe a field goal type game. I just think at the end of the day, Tennessee's a better team, and I think they're better coached. I like Venables more as a coordinator. I think everybody does. - Well, and you're getting a matchup of an offensive coach against a defensive coach, and the question's kind of hung on Brett Venables ever since he's been a head coach. Hey, is he able to make it? Can't he coach the offense? Is he able to get enough done? - Well, I don't know. I feel better with hypo. - I do too. And to just offer some commentary on the Oklahoma coach thing, I felt like when Stoops came back in the interim role, like he should have either gone full, hole hog or never have done that, because the problem is is what are you going to get that compares? That's the problem is that you're always, there's such a high standard at Oklahoma that like once you had Stoops there in that role, even for five minutes, you were going to have to get something of that ilk in order to satisfy that fan base, especially the mood of the SEC and everything. And Venables felt like he could be that guy, but so far has not been. And so I think that's the kind of pregnant pause in the air in Norman right now. - Well, Venables kind of faces that age old challenge of being the guy who followed the guy, you know. I think if he had come in after a down period of Oklahoma, people would love him, but right now he's being compared to Stoops and that's a tough comparison. It's the same thing Kayla Dvor is going to face in Alabama. - Ryan Day at Ohio State, you know, it's tough to follow the legend. Sharon Moore at Michigan, it is tough to follow the legend. It just is. But, you know, that's where your, your made or broken is right, is right then and there. So do it or don't. - Well, and we'll wrap it up here on a college grid iron. Go with the champion of the week with our friends wrestling spotlight presented. - Hey, what's up guys? This is Tyve Alkula with Alokta and you are watching wrestling spotlight. - Well, Alex, who's your champion of the week? - Champion of last week. - Sure. - Yeah, okay. So definitely the Kentucky front seven specifically on defense. In that game in Lexington, they were just 100% lights out. They're my, that group is my champion of the week. - I'm going to go with the head coach of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, running Rebels, Barry Odom. He came back to standing on the doorstep of Missouri. I wonder, actually, if UNLV following tradition, stayed at a hotel in Missouri instead of and KCK. They played the game at Children's Mercy Park sporting Kansas City Stadium, which is two highway exits into KCK. Could have easily stayed at a hotel by the Kansas City airport in Missouri, but he gets his win on the doorstep of Missouri and UNLV is probably going to be sitting in a pretty good position because I think they are holding out for the money to move into the pack. It would be the pack seven. They need to get eight schools to be a legitimate conference and Oregon State has 250 million reasons to join the newly formed pack 12 and they'll get there. It's going to be a reverse merger with the Mountain West. So Barry Odom, champion of the week. Thanks for watching us here on College Gridiron. Download that True TV Plus tab so you can get everything from the fired up network. And we'll be back next week to take a look back at College Football and take a look forward. Alex, thanks for stepping in here. Where can people follow you throughout the week to get started? - Yeah, so I'm at, fired up. I always set all the platforms on X, on Insta, and that's pretty much anything I post on. - Awesome. And we'll see you back here next week on the fired up network.