[MUSIC PLAYING] This episode is brought to you by Honda. When you test drive the new Pro Log EV, there's a lot that can impress you about it. There's the class-leading passenger space, the clean, thoughtful design, and the intuitive technology. But out of everything, what you'll really love most is that it's a Honda. Visit Honda.com/ev to see offers. Everybody says, hey, you're going to the playoffs. You got an easy schedule. We all hear it. And I think we started to believe that. Hello and welcome in. It is a Monday edition of Always College Football. I'm your host, Greg McElroy. My two favorite toes of the week, it really shouldn't surprise you. I love Mondays, and I love Thursdays. Thursdays are our preview shows that should kind of-- that should speak for itself. Like we're talking about the games coming up this weekend. Like, that those are fun, right? Or you're diving into the matchups. But Monday's shows are also really fun, because we've had time now to digest and to think about what transpired this past weekend, and kind of spell it out in just a little bit deeper way of kind of looking at things, identifying trends, identifying problems, identifying great moments from this past weekend. So I love the Monday show, and we're happy to have you with us. Like, Sundays are great, too. And if you have not watched our Sunday show, go back and check it out. But it's a little bit more treetop. It's a little more emotional. Mondays is a little bit more-- all right, hey, the world is not coming to an end. Everything's going to be all right. Or maybe it is, in some cases. There are plenty of different programs that feel as though their season's over already here in week number two, even though I promise you it's not. Please like, rate, and subscribe to the show wherever you get your show. Those of us that are coming to us on the ESPN College of my YouTube channel, hit the thumbs up, and also subscribe to the channel. Appreciate you for doing that. So let's dive in, OK? The top 10 things we've learned from week two of the college football season. Number one, Texas joins Georgia. I know that we will slowly but surely start to put together lists and tiers on this show, just so you know, OK? But Texas has officially joined Georgia as one of the most complete teams in the sport. Let's take away number one. Now, they looked like a complete team, fast, physical, well-coached, excellent in situations that would kind of showcase just how well-coached they are, poised, physical, like-- I mean, you name it-- if there is a positive attribute to apply to a team from this past weekend, Texas should likely get it. How about third downs? All right, converted eight to 10 third downs in the first half. Unbelievable. Quinn Ears just calmly going about his business. He's now gone to Bryant Denny. He's gone to the big house in consecutive years. And in those two games, he's thrown for nearly 600 yards with five touchdowns and zero interceptions. That's impressive for a big game like this on the road in a quote, hostile environment. Quinn Ears answered the call. And one thing that I thought was interesting, too-- the weapons that they have. That's been a question mark for us, right? They lost a lot of great players from last year's team. The last year's weapons, their wide receivers, they had carved out an established roles. If we knew what Xavier Worthy was, we knew what Jordan Whittington was. He was your third-down specialist, but he didn't have a lot he'd run after catch. You knew the AD Mitchell was the target in the Red Zone. Like, you knew what the weapons were last year and what roles they played. This year's weapons are totally different. And it makes defending these weapons extremely challenging. So for instance, hey, you're playing against Michigan. We know Michigan has an elite corner on one side in Will Johnson. Well, it doesn't matter who Will Johnson covers, because we'll just take advantage of the other guy. And we trust that our receiver, our number two, or our number three, or our number four, or five or six, is going to get open and create plays against the other guy, the other guy that might be a liability in coverage. Having that versatility at wide receiver is amazing. And they did not have that last year. They had great players. Xavier Worthy was amazing. Whittington, solid to solid could be. AD Mitchell, I think he's going to be a great player in the NFL, and I loved him in college. But there, if this is a word, I don't know if it is, interchangeability, is that, maybe if it's not, let's coin it, call Webster's, put that one in. Their wide receivers have an interchangeability. They're interchangeable. This guy can catch and run. This guy can catch and run. This guy can catch and run. Oh, and by the way, you know, my tight end, Gunnar Helm, yeah, he's pretty good. Went for seven and 98 and it's up strong. And then on the other side, the defense, okay? They're really good. We've talked for a while now and I'll be adverse to admit, I was concerned about how they were going to be able to replace those quality defense tackles. I was concerned about it. I mean, those two guys took over games last year and they were amazing. Well, we're now two weeks into the season and they went 118 minutes without surrendering and touchdown. Let's say that's a pretty good starting point. They gave up against Colorado State, less than 200 yard total offense and route to a 52, nothing shut out. They gave up 284 this past weekend, but the funny thing is they rushed for about 80 yards and their longest run was about 12. And a lot of their yardage totals were really inflated in the fourth quarter. Texas put forth a complete performance and that was a terrible matchup for Michigan. No doubt about it. But if you think this Texas team can't win the whole thing, I think you're crazy. That was so impressive to see what we saw from them on the road on Saturday morning. Let's go next to takeaway number two. Michigan has some problems that will not get fixed overnight. Now, Sharon Moore has been dealt a very challenging hand to walk into a situation in which you are the program in the Big Ten, having won three straight Big Ten titles to have just won a national championship. The expectation level amongst those that followed Michigan was outrageous. And we tried to tell you in the preseason that this team is not anything like the team that we saw in the field last year. Doesn't mean they won't be good. Doesn't mean they won't still be a challenge to play against. Doesn't mean they won't be physical and have an identity and all these things. They might have all those things. But there's 13 guys that got drafted, a bunch of assistant coaches that are now gone and a head coach that won his NFL debut yesterday that are no longer in Ann Arbor. They are average at quarterback at best right now. Their running backs are just okay. And I think the wide receiver positions a position of concern. I love their tight end. I think Colston Lovelin's amazing. But when you now go 118 minutes into the season, and they took basically, I don't know, nearly two full games to record a play that went for more than 30 yards. And that was the touchdown from Davis Warren to Samaj Morgan with a Buck 54 remaining. Shows you there's not a lot of explosive capability. So they lack explosiveness offensively. Finding that overnight is likely not going to happen. Their defense is really good. I like their defense at times, but they couldn't get off the field on third down. They had zero sacks in the game. And when you look at just how this game was, but y'all at halftime, Texas had nearly 280 yards of offense. Michigan had 88. Two thirds of Michigan's passing yards came in the fourth quarter with Texas backups on the field. Every single meaningful snap in the game was for the most part won by Texas. So if you lack offensive explosiveness, you're going to have to be able to ground and pound, right? All right, hey, you know, we might not be able to hit 60, 75 yard touchdowns, but we can get those four, five, seven, three, 10 yard plays, right? We'll just have to grind out some wins. Well, I've watched the offensive line now for two games, and I have yet to be impressed. They just rushed for 80 yards. It's their fewest in a home game since 2020. And we all know what that season looked like for the Michigan Wolverines. I've already addressed the fact that I think Davis Warren is a solid player. I think he's fine, but he's got three interceptions in two games. And if you want to have him as your starter, he can't be a guy that's willing to take a lot of risks. He can't be a guy that's going to turn the ball over. The defense is just flat out, not good enough to be able to shut teams out when they get decent field position. Alex Orgy at this point is still proven to be a one dimensional player. They have really three touchdowns so far this year. So they have a lot less talent. And what I think is most concerning is that there were times on Saturday in which they were out of position on defense. There were times on Saturday in which they were undisciplined offensively. They lost a fumble, a couple of interceptions. And they gave a big place. When you think about what Michigan's been these last couple of years, man, they never gave up big plays. Everything you got against Michigan, you earned. And that was the case on Saturday. So I think that is something that is of significant concerns. When you have less talent, you better be able to execute at a higher level. And nothing that I've seen in the first two weeks would lead me to believe that this team is capable of executing at a higher level. So I think problems for Michigan are going to continue. And it doesn't get a whole lot easier. If you look at their schedule, it's a beast. So will they play another team that's as good as Texas until they play Ohio State? I don't know. We'll find out about SC, we'll find out about some of the other teams on their schedule, but it's concerning right now with what I saw from the Michigan Wolverines. Hopefully, Sean Moore, a company can get it fixed. Takeaway number three. Welcome back to the top of the sport, Tennessee. When we sat here after media days and throughout the summer, and we talked about Tennessee, much of the conversation has surrounded, improved play at quarterback. Nico Iamalayava is going to be awesome. He's going to be so much better than Joe Milton, all this other stuff. But we also at the same time said, even though it wasn't listened to quite as much, because it's just, let's just be honest, talking about defensive lines doesn't move the needle the same way talking about a quarterback does. Like if I put out right now on our YouTube page and you can go back and look back in the summer, we did our top 10 quarterbacks. It's got like a billion views. If I did the top 10 offensive line, it'd have 3,500, all right? People, if I did top 10 defensive lines, it'd have 4,200, all right? People love talking quarterback. Why moves the needle? But this defense guys was, every bit is good, if not better, than significant praise that we keep on them here in the off season. Here's the thing that's amazing. Like when you look at NC State, and sometimes right now, early in the year, it's always a little bit hard to tell, all right, is it the result of how bad the opposing offense is? Or is it the result of how good the defensive line is? And I think we battle that every week, really until like week five or six, when you have a little bit more of a sample size to assess who's good. But you look at NC State, guys, and NC State is not without talent. Like they have a three-time Sunbelt Player of the Year at Quarterback. You have an all-conference performer that transferred in from Duke and Jordan Waters at running back. You have a super dynamic, all ACC freshmen, all-American player from a year ago in KC Concepcion. You bring back four starters along the offensive line, and the one guy that didn't start was a transfer-in who was a starter at Notre Dame. This team is not void of talent, and yet they got destroyed, completely destroyed along the line of scrimmage. You realize that 57% of NC State's rushing attempts were dropped for zero or negative yards, 57%. 143 total yards, 2.9 yards for play, 28 carries for 39 yards. Their longest run given up was 15 yards. The Vols had three sacks, 13 tackles for loss, four's three turnovers, and those three turnovers led to 17 points. Their defense will win them a bunch of games this year, a bunch. Now, can we get the offense to go alongside that defense? And Nico, let's be real. In three-quarters, the numbers rather pedestrian, 16 and 23, to 12, a couple touchdowns, also added something with his legs, which has been a really nice part of his arsenal of weaponry in his first three starts. He tore up Iowa on the ground in his first start in the bowl game. He had some really nice moments, I think running the football in this game in particular, had a couple picks, including the pick six. There was a hit when he threw, but still, he described the performance as, quote, okay. I thought he was a little bit better than okay. I mean, this is a guy that's making his third career start. - Okay, and I think there were situations where, and there were moments in the game too that could have made the stat sheet maybe look a little better. How about the 61-yard touchdown to Miles Kitzelman that was called back because of a penalty? Had a couple of really close throws that were nearly caught. I thought he was better than okay. It was far from perfection, and I hope that's what he's striving for, because I think his skill set will allow for perfection to become a possibility. But for a young quarterback, it's almost exactly what I'd like to see happen. If he starts out too strong, for example, Iowa, weak one against Tennessee chat, NC State, and all of a sudden his first three games, he's just absolutely lighting up the world, then maybe he rests on his laurels a little bit. You know, I hope that's not the case, but I think it's human nature. Like, man, I'm the man, like I'm good. I got this whole college football thing figured out. I think having a game in which you have some humbling moments is actually better for the long-term prospects. And to note too, that the game was really never in doubt with how his defense was playing. So those turnovers and the mistakes and a couple misthrows, like those are gonna make him better. Like three or four months from now, when we revisit where Nico is, we're gonna think, man, he was better because of the adversity he faced against NC State. At least I hope that's the case. So if I'm Tennessee, you got a super dynamic running back, you got really good weapons, your defense is off the charts good, and now the offense can just continue to pick up the slack just a little bit as they move along and the strength and the schedule strengthens, I feel great about where they're at right now. Really, really excited for Tennessee fans, they should be pumped. Takeaway number four. Notre Dame, and I've seen this circulating, Notre Dame does not have a complacency problem. They have a problem on offense, and it's really a little bit deeper than what people would like to probably acknowledge. I mean, we're talking about a situation in which Northern Illinois was able to out-gain them by 100 yards. They held on to the ball nine minutes longer, and they were able to kind of run the clock down and kick the game winner, and there was a lot of things, and you really kind of look at it, like the call, and we don't need to talk about that, or we're not like spotted the ball or whatever. Like that's hindsight, what happened to happen is what it is. But now this is multiple times in which we've seen teams go in there with an adequate defense, that have completely stymied up what Notre Dame is offensively, whether it was Marshall or Stanford or NIU, all those big massive underdogs that have now gone in there, people are focusing on that. People are focusing on the fact that, well, Notre Dame got complacent after their win against Texas A&M. I don't agree with that. I think the problem for Notre Dame is that this is now 29 games that Marcus Freeman has coached, and this is the seventh time in which they scored 21 or fewer points. 21 are fewer guys, okay? Their record in those games in which they scored 21 or fewer is one in six. So I'd like for you just for a moment, and for you Notre Dame fans, just for a moment, and we were all super pumped about the higher from Mike Denmark, right? But it's players over plays always. Like you can have the greatest, the greatest offensive XO game plan playbook in the world. And it doesn't matter if you don't have players that can execute at an insanely high level. So let's just for a second, acknowledge that Mike Denmark is a great, great offensive mind and a great, great offensive coordinator. But at some point, they're gonna have to adjust offensively, might be in their recruiting, and might be the type of guys they target in the portal, their priorities in the portal, like they're gonna have to adjust, and if they wanna win championships, you need to look at their offensive personnel. Let's look at the teams that currently occupy the top 10. Ohio State. How do Notre Dame's weapons compare to Ohio State? I'll just save you the time before you look it up. It's not a favorable comparison for the Irish. What about Georgia? Weapons, quarterback, who has the advantage? Georgia by a mile, right? Let's keep going down the list, Ole Miss, Alabama, Missouri. You're gonna say, "Well, Brady Cook, Riley Leonard." Fair enough. I think Brady Cook's actually a highly efficient passer and look at the weapons that they have on the perimeter. Okay, Oregon. I know they're struggling a little bit too, but Dylan Gabriel. Weapons. Miami. Cam Ward, weapons. Penn State, they're in the top 10. Drew Aller was a super highly regarded prospect, and it appears. Another defense had a terrible first half last week, but it appears like they have weapons. If you want to win a national championship, guys, you have to have super elite weapons. You have to. There's a reason. There's a reason why right now, and this has changed. This did not used to be the case, okay? This was not that wave seven, eight, 10, 12 years ago. There's a reason why in the NFL right now, wide receivers are making 30 plus million dollars a year. There's a reason why that is, and it's because that position has gone from being a really, really nice thing to have to an absolute necessity if you want to be an elite team with a dynamic offense. I'll take you back just a little bit further. Joe Burrow was drafted the first overall pick in 2020, right? Played in 2020, tore up his knee, offensive line for Cincinnati was atrocious. This is, I don't know if people follow this, but like they were awful. They had one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL. And then, sure enough, we fast forward to 2021. The NFL draft in 2021. Joe Burrow has firmly entrenched the starter for the Cincinnati Bengals. And Cincinnati's sitting there on the clock, and they can draft Pennaysool or Jamar Chase. Remember, their quarterback's coming off a season-ending knee injury and had the worst offensive line in the sport. And yet they're sitting there on the clock with the top wide receiver and the top tackle available. What did they take? The top wide receiver. Why? Because receiver might be more valuable to the offense nowadays than having a game-changing offensive line. It sounds crazy, but it's the reality. And if you look at Notre Dame, their weapons when compared to the other teams that are championship contenders, they currently don't compare. Takeaway number five. Notre Dame does not need to pull the plug on Riley Leonard just yet. Now, Riley Leonard has become the scapegoat, but where have we heard that before? I'm pretty sure Sam Hartman was the scapegoat. When we talked about their inadequacies last year. And before that, it was Drew Pine. Well, we can't do it with Drew Pine. And before that, it was Tyler Buckner. Can't do it with him. And before that, it was Jack Cone. How many quarterbacks do we need to go back at Notre Dame before we start to think, "Well, hang on a second." Like maybe the quarterback isn't exclusively the problem. I remember this, like Jack Cone, he's not the answer, put in Buckner. Oh, Buckner can't play, put in Drew Pine. Oh, Drew Pine can't do it, they got to go to the portal. Oh, they go to the portal, they get Sam Hartman. Oh, well, he was that Wake Forest for a reason. He's clearly not the answer. Oh, go to the portal again. Okay, we got, I mean, it's like, I mean, I'm amazed at like, how quick they're willing to pull the plug on the quarterback spot. But what I think we need to acknowledge is that, I think we need to acknowledge is that, well, if you want to have an offense that is about a game manager, an offense that is about playing complimentary football, you want to run the football, then Riley Leonard might not be that guy. He might be a guy that is better off on the move, where you really utilize his skill set as a runner. Utilize his skill set out on the perimeter. Like that's kind of where he was. And while he's had moments on the underneath passing attack, the intermediate accuracy, the deep ball accuracy has never been there. For Riley, that's never been who he was. Maybe it's in there, it just hasn't been on the field. Just yet, but so far he's got happy feet, he's missing open receivers. He's made some really bad throws. He under through some guys, I mean, the second interception against Northern Illinois, not a good throw. He hasn't had that kind of veteran presence, or at least didn't this past weekend. But I can't tell you without a shadow of a doubt that Steve Angeli, or CJ Carr, is going to all of a sudden step right in. And then, man, this offense is going to take off now, because we've heard that for years from Notre Dame. We've heard it for years. I do want to pull up one quote, though, from Marcus Freeman. And this is what he told Zora Stevenson of NBC. He said, quote, "I just want Riley Leonard to play within the offense. We don't need anything spectacular. Do exactly what your coaches tell you, play within the game plan, and the rest will take care of itself. If we start trying to make plays and throw the ball down the field, then all of a sudden, we're playing out of character. Just do exactly what we want you to do, and the rest will take care of itself." If that's what you're wanting from the quarterback spot, then why was it Riley Leonard that was the priority for the staff to become the starter? Riley Leonard doesn't excel as a game manager, situationally aware player. Really smart, good kid, but he's a really good runner. Use him in the run game. Continue to use him in the run game. He's really good on the move. I think he's really good on the underneath stuff. I think he is a guy that needs to be unleashed, if you will. I don't care if you've got to run 15, 20 times. If that's what you've got to do, that's what you've got to do. Because I think that's when he's at his best, is when the ball is in his hands, and he's out on the perimeter, and the reads are simplified, and you always give him that run pass option. So they don't need to pull the plug on Riley Leonard just yet. They just don't. But I do think adjusting some things within their offensive scheme would be super beneficial to Riley Leonard feeling more comfortable as he moves forward at the starter at Notre Dame. This season on Fansville by Dr. Pepper, college football enters into the great unknown. Will the 12 team playoffs bear a new champion? Will conference realignment spark new rivalries? And will Dr. Pepper continue to have a one-of-a-kind taste with the unique blend of 23 authentic flavors? Okay, well, we actually know the answer to the last one, and it's yes. Most definitely yes. So prepare yourself for more drama, more angry comment sections, and more ice cold Dr. Pepper. Because this season, everything is about to change. Stop by your local retailer today to score some ice cold Dr. Pepper. College football, it's Pepper thing. Are you feeling stuck in your job? Does your career need to enter the transfer portal? The University of Alabama offers online degree and certificate programs that can really transform your career path. Our flexible programs are taught by the same instructors who teach on campus. Land your dream job, get the raise you deserve, or become a leader in your field. Invest in yourself with the University of Alabama online and unlock your full potential. Get started today at online.ua.edu/football. The University of Alabama online, where legends log in. Speaking of quarterback conundrums, it takes us to take away number six. Auburn and Hugh Freeze continue their roller coaster. I'd say a roller coaster is appropriate to describe how Auburn has played at times early in the Hugh Freeze tenure. This past weekend was no different five turnovers. Four picks by Peyton Thorne. Not great. Cow out gained Auburn, 332 to 286. It's not really a fluke. But here's the thing about Auburn that has been somewhat fascinating the last couple years. You can go and play Georgia as well as they played Georgia last year. And Georgia needing some big plays down the stretch to ultimately win the game. Brock Bowers basically took that game over. But for a while there, it was extremely uncomfortable for Georgia. You can have Bama needing a fourth and 31 conversion to win the game. And then you can fall completely flat against New Mexico State. You can look completely lifeless at times against some other opponents. You can go as like a slight dog and win by five touchdowns. And you can also go and lose by three touchdowns to a team that was barely bowl eligible. I guess I just don't understand. Would it all surprise you guys? Would it all surprise you guys if Auburn beats Missouri or maybe beats Oklahoma, gives Alabama a scare, gives Georgia a scare, and yet loses to Cal, loses to Vandy, like loses games that they just have no business losing. I guess I just don't understand. I don't understand why this team can be so effective at times and then so subpar at times. And while we need to give a tremendous amount of credit to Cal, Cal went into Auburn, forced turnovers, played more poise. Their quarterback outplayed them pretty much all game long. I mean, they were much more efficient on third down, especially in the first half. They were four for four on third down to start the game. Seven for 10, I believe in the first half. So like there was a lot of things that Cal did really well in the game that led to them ultimately winning, but I'm just still continuously puzzled by the highs and the lows in performance and execution that we've gotten from Auburn in the first 14 or 15 games of the Hugh Freeze era. Some of the great, great moments, so a lot of moral victories. And then a lot of moments where you're just left kind of wondering what the heck was that? So a lot of people clamoring saying it's Peyton Thorns fault. It's Peyton Thorns fault. He's the one. He's they should have gone out and spent money in the portal. All these other things. Well, here's where I disagree. One, if you want to go out and spend big money in the portal in a game in which you can say, hey, well, we have X amount of resources, we're going to spend X amount on a quarterback. Well, that's going to deplete your roster in other areas. And the only way I would be willing to take that approach, like, hey, we're a quarterback away from winning big. Well, what does winning big look like? Because unless you can go out and get Kim Newton Jr, who is the only quarterback I've ever seen on a roster that elevated the players around him to the extent in which everyone, there's on a single other, by the way, on that 2010 quarantine, there's not a single other guy that ever recorded an NFL carry or an NFL reception. Not a single one. Kim Newton was the whole team, the entire team. So when you think about that prospects for a second, you're not a quarterback away from contending, you're not, you are a bunch of pieces away from contending. And I think going with a guy like Peyton Thorne and surrounding him with potentially elite playmakers is going to be more beneficial because next year, when you now go after the quarterback, you're going to have a lot of financial resources to go out and get maybe the top guy that enters the portal. So that's all I'm saying. I think that Peyton Thorne played really poorly on Saturday. But I thought his offensive line was really bad. I thought his wide receivers were inconsistent. And there were things about that whole plan offensively that just didn't seem to work. So Auburn's got a lot of things to figure out. And what I'd like for them to figure out is why we can't get consistent performance from them on a week to week basis. It's like they rise and fall to the level of the competition. And that's not good for the long term prospects of what they want to be. Takeaway number seven, Nebraska fans deserve a winner and they just might have one. Now Nebraska last started the season two and oh with a victory over a major conference opponent the last time they did that. That was in 2007 that's 17 years, 17 years since they've beaten a major conference opponent and started the season two and oh in their first two weeks. I think that is amazing. That's amazing. Now this was always going to be a bigger moment for Nebraska than it was even for Colorado. This was a must win for them. It was an absolute 100% must win. And look, they'd lost to Colorado in 18, 19, 23. Like this used to be a big rivalry. One that they didn't like each other and one acknowledged whatever beside the point. This was one they absolutely had to have. They had to have it. And I think was most impressive about this performance was that they were so complimentary on offense. I'm really impressed by what I've seen from the ground attack in Dante Dattle. Really impressed so far with what I've seen from Dylan Ryola. And there were definitely a player too here or there where he would like to have had those plays back. But we talked a little earlier about Nico Iamaleava's performance. And there are a handful of plays that you'd like to have back for him as well. Like you're a young quarterback. There's going to be some moments where it's like, oh yeah, you know, I really wish I wouldn't have tried that. Or man, I wish I would have had that playback. I would have done something differently. Or man, I can't believe I missed that guy. Whatever the circumstances may be. But what was most impressive about Ryola, he never looked phased. Right? Now that you look and you think about the shoes and the expectations that he had taking over at the quarterback spot. And what was expected of him? He never looked phased at any moment. Either the highs or the lows, you're just steady yeti. Which is a tremendous spot to be in for a freshman. I also thought that there were some things that were laid out for him that were really nice. I mean, he finished 23 of 30, 185 touchdown, did not commit a turnover. That's the second second of week in which he did not commit a turnover. And the first half was super efficient. I think he throws a really catchable ball, which is really encouraging. Like it makes it easy on the wide receivers. He showcased a little bit of athleticism at the third and 10 on the opening drive. He scrambled, got 12 yards, kept the drive alive. So that was super encouraging. Then on the other side of the ball, the defense, man, they wrecked havoc. It was very impressed with what I saw from the front. Now, this is going to continue to be a theme. I don't know if that was as much about Colorado or if it was as much about Nebraska. Nebraska last year after all had eight sacks against Colorado this week. They had six or whatnot. But it seems like the defense, as we look at the numbers here, things are trending in the right direction for that side of the ball. But it hasn't been a question. The defense has been solid. But to think so far this year, and granted, small sample size, 46% of their opponents carries have gone for zero or negative yards. But second best in the FPS. So it seems like defensively for Nebraska, they're taking the strides necessary to be a huge problem for every single team they'll face in the big 10 moving forward. So very, very happy for their fans, excited about what I've seen. Now it's about building on that performance and building. I would like to see the second half look just like the first half, but that's beside the point. Either way, it's about building from this point forward. Man, the foundation has been laid for sure by Matt Rule and his staff. Takeaway number eight. The big 12 actually might be better situated to get two teams in the playoff than the ACC, which is not something I would have said four weeks ago. But if you look at the ACC and how things have kind of unfolded, okay, Georgia Tech lost this past week in Syracuse, Syracuse, by the way, looked great. Tom McCord looked amazing. The best he's probably ever looked in his career, and he does so against a ranked opponent for the first time as a member of the Syracuse Orange. Georgia Tech now has a loss. Florida State's got two. Clemson's got a loss. NC State just got blown out. I think Miami's really well positioned to make a run and make the playoff. But beyond Miami right now, Virginia Tech's got a loss. Like all the teams that we thought were going to be in position to be that second ACC team to potentially punch their ticket, they've already suffered a loss coming out of the gates. Now, I know that there's a couple of teams that haven't. I get that. But based on what we've seen from North Carolina, like are you super optimistic that North Carolina is going to run the table? Personally, at this point, not. Louisville, to me, is a huge question mark. I think they're going to be really good. Wouldn't be surprised if they're sitting there at the end. But are they going to have enough, you think, to potentially be in position to get an at-large bid into the playoff? I don't know the answer to that. But you look at the big 12. Long story short, I think there's chaos coming in the ACC, right? And when there's a lot of chaos and you've got a bunch of teams with two and three losses, that means you're probably going to have just one team in the playoff, and that's going to be your conference champ. And as of this moment, it's feeling like that's going to be Miami. Let's look at the big 12 though. Utah. K-State, Arizona, Iowa State, Oklahoma State, they're all 2-0. So is TCU. So is UCF. Heck, even Arizona State is 2-0 at this point with a win over an SEC team. Iowa State, by the way, how often have you seen Iowa with a 13-0 halftime lead only to see them actually lose the game? I mean, they're down 19-7, and Rocco Beck, they hit Jalen Noel 75-yard touchdown. Then the final minute connects with Noel in the 30-yard game to set up the game-winning 54-yard field goal. And now they walk off the field with the Cyhawk trophy, and Campbell has beaten Kirk Ferrets two of the past three after losing his first five Cyhawk games. So Iowa State, man, that was a massive win for them. And how confident is Rocco Beck feeling right now? And how confident is Jalen Noel feeling? We know they're going to be a team that can run the football too. So Iowa State really well positioned this week. Oklahoma State, they beat an SEC team. It didn't look good. They were outgame by nearly 300 yards, but as the game went along, they made the timely plays, forced a couple mistakes, and somehow survived, but it showed just how mature that group is, and that they'll weather the storm, even if they don't have their best stuff. Kansas State went on the road, beat a good two-lane team. Yeah, I know two lanes not great by any stretch. Kansas State, I didn't think they looked very good for most of the game. The secondary had a really tough day, and every Johnson had some moments, which made you feel like he was a first-year starter. The Arizona State ran for 360 on the ground and gets an SEC team. So that's pretty impressive. Utah beat Baylor in a non-conference game, which is funny to me, even though they're in the same conference. But this Utah defense, they look like they've been in complete control in the first couple of weeks. And while there was an injury to cameraizing, it doesn't sound like that's going to be anything that's long-term. So if you look at it, man, the top of the big 12, and where they currently stand with so many teams that are currently undefeated, and with wins against other Power Five opponents, the big 12 might be in a pretty good spot to actually get two teams in the playoff, maybe even a better spot than the ACC, which is not something that I anticipated at all coming into the season. Takeaway number nine, elite teams still win or lose along the lines of scrimmage. Now, let's think back since the start of the college football playoff era. Okay, since the start of the college football playoff era, every team that has won the national championship, for the most part, has had an elite defensive line. Whether it was Ohio State back in 2014 with Joey Bosa and the amount of game records they had along the front to all the Alabama teams that went on to win it, I mean, 15, 17, 20. Think about the defensive lines that Alabama's had. How about Clemson's defensive lines in '16 and '18 with Christian Wilkins, I mean, Cleveland Fair. Like they had guys along the front that could take up Dexter Lawrence, take over games Georgia in '21 and '22. How many guys could take over games first round picks along the defensive line? LSU, when they won at '19, sure, it was a little bit more about their offense, but LSU's defense still excellent. Michigan's defense last year, like national championship winning teams have super elite defensive lines, more often than not. Well, you're looking at some teams this year. Who are the teams that are checking that box among the elite defensive lines? Tennessee, perhaps, Nebraska, perhaps, maybe Texas, based on how we saw them kind of wreck the game against the likes of Michigan. And while it's still to be determined on how all these things kind of play out, it's pretty good early indicator of where things are going. Okay, how about South Carolina, by the way? Like South Carolina made mincemeat of Kentucky's offensive line. They had five sacks Saturday. That's now 10 sacks on the year for South Carolina. That's their most through two games to start a season in the last 20 years. They recorded a pressure on 13 out of 23 of Kentucky's dropbacks. That's one of the highest pressure rates they've ever had. So, I mean, South Carolina is going to be a handful for a lot of teams. But I'm also looking at it in other places. An offensive line play in general is kind of an epidemic. It really is. Like offensive line play across the board is just not good. It's just not good right now. And if you want to kind of go back through the list, all right, you want to know that right now, the national average, the national average in college football last year was 2.81 seconds before first pressure. So, on average, what that means is the quarterback, until a defensive lineman arrives, he has 2.81 seconds. It might be a blitz or two. So, like, defensive lineman, linebacker, corner, whatever. The national average last year was 2.81 seconds before first pressure. Just so you know right now, okay? Here are some teams with notable time before first pressure numbers. Notre Dame, 1.97 seconds before first pressure. Michigan, 1.97 seconds before first pressure. Auburn, 2.14 seconds before first pressure. A&M, 2.24, LSU, 2.26. Now, you're going to sit there and look, well, well, hang on a second. Those teams, they've all played good defensive lines. Notre Dame played A&M, Michigan played Texas, Auburn played Cal, I guess, if they're a great defensive line. I don't know. A&M played Notre Dame, LSU played SC, maybe SC is good on the line. I don't know, maybe they have good pressure practice. I don't know. Either way, to think that you're expecting your quarterback to make a good decision and to be accurate in the pocket, when I have less than 2 seconds to throw the football, that's an impossible ask. It's an impossible ask. So, the old line play is a problem. How about last year, like I said, 2.81 seconds? And you got multiple teams, both Michigan and Notre Dame that are below 2. That's hard. That's really, really hard. So, if you want to win national championships, win them all. Like, I'm talking win the whole thing. Your line cannot be a liability. All right. You want to look at some other numbers here. Here's the amount of pressures. All right. This is a percentage of dropbacks that have been under pressure this year. The national average last year was 32 percent. So, about 5 dropbacks 30 times in the game, I'm going to be under pressure on about 10 of those 30 dropbacks, okay? Just so you know, 10 to 30, it's about right. National average 32 percent. Well, here we go. Florida State, 45 percent of their dropbacks have been under pressure. Michigan, 44 percent, A&M, 42 percent, Kentucky, 41 percent. Notre Dame, 38 percent. South Carolina, 45 percent. I mean, that's an alarming number. Like I said, national average 32. Well, now when you're dropping back 25 times and your quarterback's running for his life, 12 or 13, that's a huge issue. And if you look kind of across the board, Oklahoma's offensive line is struggling, Oregon's offensive line is struggling, Kentucky's offensive line is struggling, Auburn's offensive line is struggling. Tell me about NC State's offensive line. Michigan, Michigan's won two of the last three Joe Moore awards. And yet they right now are among the least productive offensive lines in the sport based on quarterback pressures and time before first path, first pressure. So offensive lines of problem, defensive line play can win you games without question, but that's just something to monitor moving forward. And then take away number 10. Upsets are going to happen more frequently in the portal era and in the 12 team playoff era. Okay. Now, everyone's looking at Marcus Freeman right now. Okay. This was his third loss as a favorite of more than two touchdowns all at home, Marshall, Stanford, and now Northern Illinois. Um, yes, it's significant to lose as a 28 point favorite. Okay, but they're not the only ones. How about SMU? SMU, their offense long been touted as one of the best, most difficult offenses to stop. Rhett Lashley is an offensive guru. All that stuff might be true, but they kicked five field goals and lost to BYU on Friday night. And their defense line, BYU is awesome, by the way. Oregon, they squeaked out a second straight win against Boise State. Penn State trailed Bowling Green at half and was up by just a field goal, entering the fourth quarter. Oregon couldn't slow down Ashton Gente who had 192 yards rushing in three touchdowns. All right. Oklahoma needed a safety to help stave off Houston. Oklahoma State had to come back from a 14-0 deficit. Kansas State was down 20 to 10 and ended up having to come back against two lane. Bama did the first three quarters, did not look good whatsoever. Was a one-point lead entering the fourth quarter. Now played well in the fourth quarter, but that was it. So I think upsets are going to happen more frequently in the portal era because the buy-in and the amount of equity that you have in the program is smaller in large part because some guys that are now playing pivotal roles on your team got there three months ago because they came in in the spring, some portal era. They came in back in December. So they're still learning the processes that that organization likes to employ. I think there's less collective buy-in and now let's be real. I think the 12-team playoff era is going to lead to more players exhaling a sigh of relief after a big win and now you can still make the playoff if you have one or two, three losses. It's still out there. It's still available for you. So when you know you don't have to be perfect in the 14 playoff era in the BCS era, you had to be perfect. You had to be in a perfect spot healthy. You could be perfect and not be helped and still not get in. You had to be perfect in the BCS and the 14 playoff era. Now you can lose a few and still be in good shape. That subconscious acknowledgement of not having to be perfect is going to lead to more subpar performances from teams at the top and likely more upsets. Not saying it's guaranteed but just knowing what it was like to be an 18 to 22-year-old player playing college football, you're going to see the more teams stoop to the level of the competition and ultimately get got when they start reading the press topics. College football fans, what's the best part of being at a game live? The color. There's nothing more exciting than seeing an entire stadium completely decked out in your team's colors. 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All right, great, great, great stuff there. Love going through the 10 takeaways. The 10 things we've learned this past week will continue to evaluate these things too. Like these things might become a trend or they might be proven wrong and we'll readdress them next week in the event in which one of our takeaways was completely wrong, right? We love that and we appreciate the accountability that you guys show us. Continue to like, rate and subscribe to the show if you haven't subscribed to the podcast but encourage you to do so now. If you're commuting to and from work, if you want to listen maybe in the background while you're at the network, if you want to put your headphones in when you're traveling, if you're running, if you're working out, listen to the podcast, man. It's always available to you wherever you get your podcast and if you're here with us via the College Football YouTube channel here at ESPN, like, rate and subscribe to that as well. So for all of us here at Always College Football, we appreciate you and we look forward to being back with you on Wednesday. From Mark, Jake, Jack, the other Jack, I'm Greg. We hope you have an amazing day. And remember, it's Always College Football. Hey guys, it's Greg McEnroy. Thanks for watching Always College Football. Make sure you like, rate and subscribe to ESPN's YouTube channel and wherever you listen to your podcast.
