Could the SEC Expel LSU? + NCAA's New Clock Protocol

0:00it turns out the cold cup of gumbo is now in the other bowl and maybe it will be l.i.u. which is force fed one game one clock what a novel idea go ahead and have you with us on the college game day podcast restavers Pete Dammel and damn what's also Pete you and damn were busy yesterday doing those investigative reporter type things as the SEC amended its lawsuit against l.i.u.u. they added the state attorney general as a defendant or as a Matthew McConaughey said in many of the great aggression movies that defend that as we get ready to go to Texas they added kiffons quip about how bad l.i.u.u.u. would be beating Clemson if they indeed have pros and now they've scheduled a vote to see if they might just kick l.i.u.u. right out of the conference now with this is performative we know they don't

1:00want to kick l.i.u.u out of the SEC it's performative it's also instructive Pete it shows they're going to die on this hill they're going to do everything within their power to put l.i.u.u.u. in its place make sure that they follow the rules that they get with the program and it seems l.i.u.u.u.u.u.u. might have done a little bit of that yesterday with his roster decisions. Yeah so I think Greece that the lead here is and it was jarring to see it in a federal document right like the SEC presidents will meet on Thursday to decide whether or not to expel l.i.u.u.u.u.u like seeing that on my computer screen yesterday I like you know it definitely was like it was like it smacks you inside the face it was like a bucket of cold water pump on your head you're like wait a minute that looks very real so again as we said from our initial reporting the expectation is that the SEC will not do that but the fact that it has gotten this far we saw Greg Sankey testify for three hours in a state court in Louisiana. And again, LSU wasn't directly involved in that hearing, but LSU's actions

2:05certainly led to St. He's appearance there in attempting to recruit day, quenna right and saving hairs. And then now we have a federal court date. So we're taping this obviously on Wednesday morning, you know, in less than five hours, six hours, you know, the SEC will be asking for its legal right for, you know, it's a first amendment filing to enforce its own rules. And as part of that, the presence of chance was going to meet tomorrow. So the summation of this is they wanted this over and they wanted this over fast and they want some contrition from LSU. The first step obviously from LSU came with the addition of two fairly anonymous players on the roster, no offense to them. I believe both had been injured in the spring, closing that potential loophole. They, they, it felt like LSU was flouting. They could still do it by leaving the two roster spots open on, on on Friday. One thing we haven't dove in on on this guys and I know Dan can speak to this. I sorry, I want Dan to speak to the big pressure too. He was like, well, wait

3:05is a bigger factor in this than that, than I think has been made public because right in Harris have become the cause to live here. But I had an SEC administrator later to me this way yesterday. They feel like there's coach and Kiffin who was attempting to break the rules or be part and parcel to it. Although people at LSU would very quick to tell you they actually haven't broken the rules yet. Right. Like I mean, if we're going to be court and like getting into it, you know, into the into the deep league lease of these things. So we'll wait ties this all together and I'll let Dan follow here after after this explanation. So we'll wait was the coach LSU got fired years after, but in the wake of that strong ass offer story, I believe he missed two NCAA tournaments, right? I mean, they had coached two teams to the NCAA tournament and then coached in neither of them. One because he was suspended. I believe LSU made the sweet 16 and then one he was fired right on the right right on the cusp of it. So he leaves he disappears. He gets hired

4:06at McNeese by Wade Bruce, who is now the LSU president. Wade Bruce is very tight with governor Jeff Landry. So when the the the Brian telly affair happens and they run off Scott Woodward and they pay Brian telling Scott Woodward gobs and gobs of money to not work anymore. The president had also left in that in that period of time. So governor Jeff Landry brings his guy, Rousin from McNeese. He brings in Will Wade. That was not greeted generally well in the SEC. There was a rules were it could stop, but it was not greeted generally well. And and as much as Kiffin's roster being built on guys who have pro experience, got attention. Will Wade's like entire recruiting strategy has basically been like we need friendly judges to get his pros in. And their roster is still very, very much in flux right now. And behind the scenes that looms as something that is significant because look at SEC basketball doesn't get the attention of SEC football, but this is a known rule breaker. You bring back

5:07in to the same place he got fired from in infamy. And here he is right now trying to, you know, trying to flout the rules, which is wasn't was was largely removed because he didn't want any part of that. Correct. Will Wade. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Woodward was respectful of the league in the league office, right? Like the league office didn't ban will wait by by any means, but like they certainly weren't eager to have a back. So. And that's not unprecedented. Same thing happened with Hugh Freese too for a while after after his scandal. There there was a like a probationary period in which the SEC thought he would not be welcome back even and even as an assistant. Yes. Yeah. So anyway, Dan, I jumped all over the place and probably spent a little too much time on my basketball. Oh, it's true. Yeah. It's true. It's like when you're a parent and you know, you want the kid to do the dishes or do some chore and it's really the attitude. It's a it's a larger behavioral thing than finally they do the chore, you know, and

6:12they do it while rolling their eyes. You're not necessarily satisfied. The issue when I talk to people in the SEC and I talked to a lot of them yesterday was this is about who's running this athletic department and the the belief in in the SEC and a lot of quarters is this athletic department is being run by politicians, Governor Landry, the attorney general, Liz Merle, who got put into the lawsuit and who opened apparently her her arguments the other day in court with go tigers. But you know, there's a belief that the judges are are all doing this stuff and and this is not traditionally, I mean, look, there's a long and colorful history of breaking rules in the SEC and everywhere else. There are no there are glass houses in every single campus, but they're ready to throw rocks on this because they feel there is no collegiality, no commitment to being part of this league or the common sense shared values of college athletics coming out of LSU right now.

7:17There's nobody saying, hey, we shouldn't do this or we believe in these rules or anything. Instead, it's being run by politicians. Politicians are not an academic. They're not athletic director and even in this federal filing where the SEC is filing and saying we want basically a preemptive ruling that says we have the right to make to throw them out, to have this vote, to try to prevent a temporary restraining order. It's like they did the same thing, the big 12, the same thing with Texas Tech. We want to prove we have the right to sanction you. In this thing, it talks about the SEC Express, great concern that defendants Raus and Osbury, the president of the A.D. have no meaningful control over defendant Kiffin or the football program at LSU express great to concern that defendant Kiffin was working in concert with the council for the Piber and plaintiffs, which is right in Harris and some others, with the support and involvement of defendant Merle, the A.G. and Louisiana Governor. They talk about how defendant Raus

8:24had voted for the issuance of the SEC's policy statement, but then LSU had taken no action to comply with the professionalism rules and in fact, it was an active concert with the Piber and plaintiffs. They're looking and saying there's nobody in charge over there. There's nobody we can trust. There's nobody we can call and say, hey, look, president to president. These are our rules and we're going to at least try to try to follow them. Again, LSU will say we're going to break them, but you get the point. There's 15 campuses that want to do these rules and there's one that doesn't. Now, LSU has two arsonists as the football coach and the basketball coach. I happen to love them both. They're lovable arsonists in my opinion. Yeah, I have no problem. They're they are great at saying, look, I'm not doing anything. I'm not breaking the rules. You guys, you guys did this. You played Betty Acko and you cheated here and you did that and they're all right. The hypocrisies everywhere. But they have these two guys that are going to not just look at a rule and say, how do I push that

9:25rule? How do I exploit that rule? But they have politicians who say, how can I exploit that rule for popularity? Politics 101 is to say, I'm here defending your way of life against these outside interest that want to take everything away and our bunch of hypocrites. It is, you will see it in every commercial for the next whatever two months on your TV screen, right? And to the point where you're like, boy, that guy, you know, that guy seemed like a church deacon. See like a nice guy. Apparently, I support arsenic in my water supply. I am, you know, like it gets crazy. That seems like a weird policy position. But hey, right, the ads get crazy. But these are politicians and they know that if they can sit there to LSU fans and say, hey, look, we're we're defending your way of life. We're defending LSU against the big ol' mean outside interest, the Washington bureaucrats of the NCA and the SEC and everyone else is a hypocrite and everyone else hates us and

10:25they'll do these, you know, great quotes. I think, uh, is it Kennedy's one of their senators? He's talking like, there's rocks in my driveway smarter than SEC leaders and they're running a political campaign. Was it? Uh, we'll be on the SEC like a hobo to a sandwich. Yeah. Let me break it. Hey, he's, by the way, that guy, that guy could do a good standup and he's awesome. He's hilarious. I don't know who he's talking about. And I don't care. But he said, he's not the dumbest person in the world, but he hopes that guy doesn't die. Like, he just break quotes. Break quotes. Yeah. I'm, he's not a politician. This is a non-partisan, this is a non-partisan point. I'm trying to make I don't get right. I'm just saying the politicians come at it with a different point of view than presidents of a school and athletic directors who basically say, hey, we believe in college sports. We believe in these rules. Guard rails. We need guard rails. These guys are like, too, this is great. We're just going to use these rules to get everybody excited. I'm fighting

11:28for poor little old LSU and we're going against it. And because of that, Wade and Kiffin can run wild. That's why Kiffin's quote about what if I played the pros and his lack of remorse was in this in this lawsuit. So nobody in the SEC trusts LSU to operate like a normal athletic department. And I understand LSU fans and everyone else is going, we didn't break any rules. You did this. I agree. I'm just stating what the rest of the league has. They don't trust that LSU will operate the right way. That's why they're like, if we don't draw a line here and say, we might kick you out. Why are we in business with these people? Because this, okay, this one's over. There'll be another. And the SEC wants to test self-governance as a policy. Can we govern ourselves outside? It's a big thing. And if they're not willing to go to the wall and say, you're out, then we can't self-govern. It's like a country club where the guy's been a good member for a

12:29long time. He's got tons of money, but eventually hits on too many of the other members' wives and cheats too much of the member member tournament. And they superior cans around the course and they go, you're done, you're out. And he goes, look at all the other guys. We just don't like you anymore. And right now, nobody in the SEC, Fair or Not likes LSU. They don't trust them. And so this is a bigger issue, longer standing issue than just whether these two guys are going to be on a roster or not. It reminds me of the early 2000s when the SEC was embroiled in scandal after scandal, after scandal and Alabama side swiped the death penalty back then, which you thought they'd never use again after and a lot of it was member institutions turning in each other, setting up each other. It was mass, we overused the word chaos, but this actually was, there were no rules. It was the real

13:32while, while west. And they were, they would curry favor with this powerful figure. That one to get the other school and trouble and back and forth, it would go. And then Mike's life came in. And Mike's life came in and put the hammer down, got everybody in the room, he said, on his mistake, we'll fix that, we'll deal with that appropriately. You intentionally break the rules, you start snitching on each other, setting each other up, you're going to get fire. And he meant it. And he brought in somebody and hired him on his staff very early in his tenure, man called Greg Sanky. So Sanky is finding a little bit of history repeating itself in the new era of this. And I couldn't help but draw back on that time when the SEC was sort of, you know, out of control, Slyve brought control. And after that came great success. Was that coincidental? Maybe, maybe not, but it's easier to have success when you're not on probation. So, you know, he certainly,

14:35he brought a lot of that Sanky was a part of it. He understands it. And I think that is why, you know, there were a lot of questions about, you know, whether he won or lost in that Baton Rouge courtroom. He might have, he might have lost the fight, but it appears he's won or is winning the battle. Agreed. I just googled the name Albert Means because I couldn't remember it, but it wasn't a lot of, was it? Albert means for Memphis. Yeah. That was, uh, there were three, there were three boosters in Memphis, one for Alabama, uh, one for Tennessee and one for Georgia. And at one time they had been friends and then their turns into this rivalry and then they're setting each other. They're all sorts of malfeasance going on. And then Arkansas was sprinkled in there from time to time. I mean, I think a third of the league got in trouble. Yes. Yeah. Alfa Albert means there was a guy named Hartley Dykes back in Texas who once put like seven schools on probation. Yeah. It was like the all time record. Oklahoma State receivers, a page really good receiver. Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was, it was an epic war. But anyway, go ahead, Pete. Yes.

15:39Did you see Dan what Wade Roosh tweeted yesterday? I did not. Okay. So, you know, obviously the, my morning's pretty well occupied by the federal filings and it's fairly busy. And then, obviously I look up on Twitter two hours and I'm dancing. Yes. Yes. Yes. Look. He tweeted like him and his wife dancing. Um, I didn't, I don't remember what music was. I assume it was the, uh, Titanic theme song. They were dancing on the, the band kept playing. No, I don't know what it was. I think it was calling that. That's it. It was in my mind when I saw him spinning your, spinning around. Didn't Laney Wilson play that, uh, for us Reese on campaign. Yeah. Okay. She played, so it's your point of mashup of, of, of one of her hits in combat and Roosh. Yeah. So when, when Dan, uh, when Dan's kind of says, and I was just on, uh, I was just on get up before, uh, before I went on this podcast at, uh, Paul Feinbaum, I'm sure we'll see the clip because it will go viral called Wade Roosh the most incompetent president he's ever dealt with, uh, in all his years of covering SEC, which has been a long time. Um, but that, that is sort of the, when Dan talks about

16:41the lack of presidential collegiality, um, and really like a political maneuvering, right? Like that, tweeting a dancing clip an hour after, an hour after you're going to get called to a federal courtroom as an institution is a, you know, it's the equivalent of a middle finger. It's just like the modern social media way to, uh, to, to raise your middle finger. So, yeah, Wade Roosh has become a, a big part in this behind the scenes. And I think the other, the other 15 SEC presidents have quietly given him a vote of no conference. Now that doesn't mean anything, but they want, they want some accountability here and they want some contrition here. And I think it is an interesting question, Dan. What is enough for LSU to do to get back like on, on track here? Well, if they want to, first they have to want to. And I don't know that they would want to. If you're dealing with politicians and I'm, and it would be any party of politician or any politician, having a boogie man is the whole point. They don't really want to solve the problem. They want to

17:42be the victim that they're defending, they're defending the people as victims against something. So the first thing is you'd want LSU to say, Hey, look, we want to be on board with all this. We want to be a, a, a member in good standing here. We believe in all of this stuff. We're not going to, we're not going to push the envelope at all times. We're not going to, we're going to stop with this. Like, look, again, I find all this stuff amusing. Uh, I see the hypocrisy everywhere. I'm not outraged at all by any of it. But if you're trying to sit there and you're in another school going, these people are, are spending money. They may not have. Uh, there, every time I turn around, one of my coaches is saying LSU is doing this. LSU is doing that. Uh, we, we all sit in a board room and we talk about, Hey, this is going to be our policy on pros. Uh, and remember, at one point, LSU voted for it and then didn't, right? And we're, okay, we have a meeting. Everyone agrees good. Let's all get along and then you walk out the door and then boom, it's not. So, um, I would think they would need to just come with hat and hand, uh, and say, look, we want, we want in on this.

18:44We're, this is over. We're going to rain in Kiffin in whatever way you guys think is important. Will Wade, we're going to wait it. We're going to follow all these things. We're going to be quiet for a little while. We're going to, it would be the same thing if you discipline a teenager. Just because they finally do the dishes, but they do it while rolling their eyes, that ain't going to help. So, uh, that would be it because to me, but I don't see how that happens when you hear the rhetoric coming from the politicians who are appointing these positions, who answer to the public, uh, whether it's the governor, the turn general or the local courts, uh, you know, that it would take a serious attitude adjustment for LSU. Otherwise, they are still very wary. Are they getting kicked out of this league? No, they are not. I, I, there's almost no chance. But I will say this had a kept escalating. I'm not, the votes are there to do it, whether it actually pull that trigger. And people go, you can't lose LSU. They're so valuable. They are valuable. But it's not like the big 10 with like Ohio State or Michigan or Penn State, where they're more valuable than the rest of the

19:47league. They are valuable, but they're replaceable. North Carolina could be valuable. That's first state plans in Miami. There's a whole bunch of schools that would be like, hey, we're over here and you know, we're, we didn't join this league in 1932 and it would be a disaster. I mean, SEC needs LSU. LSU is great. One of the greatest athletic departments, not just football, but in every, almost every sport, it'd be ridiculous. But you could do it. It's not like the big 10, you know, going, all right, we're going to kick Michigan or Ohio State out. You're not, because then there's not a league because the other one would probably go with you. So, um, I just think that there is unbelievable distrust because they don't believe the president of the school runs the school. They think the governor runs the school and in no other state, do we sit there and go, oh, what's the governor think? I mean, it's crazy as it is in all these other places. You don't go, what is the governor? What is the governor of Ohio think? What's the governor of Texas think? What's the governor of Alabama? What's what's their comment after the game?

20:47Um, and, and, and Louisiana, it's the governor. Dan, you look, I've got to apply some ballots to your point here. I, I think you must not have seen governor Jeff Landry statement yesterday. He said, can we just play football? I mean, you know, there you go. I mean, he's got, hey, I'm British falling a quarter order. That's all. Little us. Please, we're trying to do. Just play with some football. And we'll talk a little football. You know, when we look at all of the things going on with LSU, I mean, and, you know, the big 10 schools might be snickering, but what about our friends, Dan's neighbors at Michigan? I mean, what over the last five years or so, they've had sign stealing, computer hacking, alleged affairs with staffers, alleged stalking former head coach, winding up briefly in jail, another assistant facing jail, head coaches suspended for games during a championship season. And, you know, and now they're running

21:55their own clock. No, that, I, that I'm being facetious. Before Michigan fans freak out, I'm being facetious. Dan and I were talking before we started the podcast for all of those things that I just listed off and all of them are true. They've all verified facts. This one is not Michigan's fault. The whole caught thing with with Western Michigan that the NCAA issued some guidance on yesterday, which makes all the sense in the world. The official time for college football games will be the time displayed on the in stadium clock. When a replay review requires time to be restored, a replay official decision will be based on the embedded game clock contained within the program fee. So, and then it goes on basically to say the clock that everybody's seeing is the clock we're going to use, which makes all the sense in the world. Now, Western Michigan appealed and there's no basis for this appeal to have the Mac appealed. I'm sorry, correct. Right. The Mac appealed to have

22:56the result of the game change. I'll use this word for the second time in the podcast only the probably the second time ever performative again. They're not changing the result of the game and you know what? Nor should they. Was it a bad decision to implement replay the way they did? Yes. Was it a raw deal for Western Michigan? Yes. You can't change the result of the game. The official declared it final. They made the mistake. It's just like a blown holding call or miss pass interference. Okay, a little bit worse than those, but still you can't change the result of the game, but at least we get caught clarity out of this. And who would have thought after all of this, we would need clock clarity. If Michigan plays the way it did against Western Michigan against Oklahoma, they might want to play running clock sort of like a couple of the schools did over the weekend and those blowouts and played short and fourth quarters or something. I suspect Michigan will play better, but we've got caught clarity now, Pete. So that's a good thing. I guess it's a step in

23:59the right direction. It is. So talk to some scouts and stuff because there's a clock aspect to this which we can dive into. No, Maxion will take place by the way. That was again, I understand why Western did it and why the Mac did it on their behalf, but of course that felt a little performative. You know what I mean? That was like, but it's okay. They should have. They need a solution to it. They should have. But then theory could help them at the end. You know, I mean, yes, yes. Western Michigan has a better chance to make the playoff than Michigan. Yeah. Yeah. There's my hot take for the day. Michigan isn't very good. Spoke to some scouts after who had kind of gone through there this summer. They have no top 100 NFL draft prospects on their offense. They have some good young players in the offensive line who make it drafted someday. They have a elite freshman tail back and they have a problem at quarterback right now. But they don't have high end skill on the outside. The answer doesn't appear to be at the quarterback position and their definitive strength under Jim Harbaugh when they won the national title was they bullied you around and Blake Korm ran it down your throat. And if they

25:02didn't bully Western Michigan, they sure as heck aren't going to bully Michigan state Ohio state. You know, every, you know, and all the other big logos on their on their schedule. They are okay on defense, but I once got to tell me they probably don't have a first or second round pick in this upcoming draft on either side of the ball. They have the edge daily from Utah's good players coming off an injury. So like he's probably, you know, in that top 50 conversation if he shows he's healthy again, but it just shows you I'm, you know, they had what reason after the after they won the title. They had a dozen guys drafted, right? Yeah. Like I mean, it was a, it was a, it was a exact number, but it was a big number. It was a double did 12 13 14 something like that. Exactly. So we always say, you know, on this podcast, if you have double digit draft fix, you're probably going to be a final fourish type team, right? Doesn't guarantee it, but that's sort of that is a, not a necessity prerequisite, but that's a nice tell that you could that you could end up there. And they just simply have half that maybe less. So, um, anyway, that's the the football,

26:05uh, the football side of it. Uh, I do think, uh, and Dan, I don't know how much you've, you've, you've dove in. I do think having one clock is a pretty reasonable like outcome for all this. Well, the clock thing still is confusing. Even this, I was buried in, uh, the NCAA football rulebook yesterday reading, rule 12 dash three, dash one, C. And then that conflicted with three, or whatever, one, a, you know, it's like, well, it, what we come down to here and I get it, because it's a lot easier to just say, Hey, if four million people are watching the game and they see one clock, that should be the clock, which is on NBC. And if five people are seeing the other clock, trying to, trying to go, well, we got to go with the clock that five people saw leads you to this, right? Everybody all fired up and upset. But what's amazing is the max, um, uh, filing of protest. And I, I appreciate the Mac given it a try here. Uh, and again, this is the Mac doing it on behalf of Western Michigan. It's the big 10 speaking on the fast of Michigan, Michigan,

27:08saying we didn't do anything. That's, this is why the LSU thinks different. We have not heard from Governor Whitmer in Michigan on this, right? Or any candidate for, uh, yet, who knows, right? Like that's the, the difference is like, don't tell them Dan. Don't tell them who knows. I mean, might as well argue this. I mean, that's probably, yeah, this would be a great debate question. Who won the Michigan Western Michigan? Well, if she's got any of my friends in the Michigan media, running a debate with any of these candidates, ask who won the game. That's, I'm interested to hear what they got to say. But I got to go Michigan because there are more Michigan fans and Michigan state fans. And I would say everybody rallying against Michigan. And so you got the West and everyone, even a lot of Michigan fans like we lost the game. But in truth, they won the game. If you, if I watched, then I was watching these sort of fruited films or how you say that thing, like, you know, and they got the stopwatch. Like it took eight point three seconds for that first Hail Mary to go down. There was nine seconds left in the clock. Like so it was something like 8.3 to 8.4. Like there was time. So the big 10 clock, whatever the heck that was was actually correct.

28:14The NBC clock was wrong. The Mac is arguing we should use the wrong clock because using the wrong clock is the right protocol, then using the wrong protocol to get the right clock. And the NCAA basically came out and say, yes, we agree. Like, okay, I, I thought, I think stoppage time or all that extra time and soccer is stupid because you never know. But it maybe it makes sense. Maybe the Europeans got that thing right. Anyway, everyone's cracking on Bryce Underwood. And that's deserving. He played a terrible game on Saturday other than, and you can see there's the problem with Bryce Underwood. You could see his ability in the first drive and on that last row. Yes. And that's what's tantalizing because he was flat-footed leaning back and he hooked at 60 yards in a perfect spiral right to the front of the end zone, right? But the play before he threw it out of the end zone. He's getting cracked on, deserved it. He's, you know, he's not good enough. But that offense align is the problem. We talked about this like three weeks ago. I thought Michigan would be a great running team. They should have a very good offense align. They

29:16always have good linemen. Kyle Winning-Hams, an offensive line guy. They got very good running backs. Underwood could run. They should be able to run the ball. If they could not run the ball against Western and they could not, those those running backs didn't stand a chance. Uncle Homo might have the best defense in the country. And this speaks to the failures in recruiting at the very end of the Harbaugh year and in the two seasons of Sharon Moore. And you can start a quarterback. Dante Moore, Detroit King High School, pretty good player. Be a nice quarterback in Mason Blue. CJ Carr, St. Leigh in High School, be a pretty good player in Mason Blue. They're at Oregon and Notre Dame. And you don't have them. And those are two local great quarterbacks that they didn't get. And so it starts right there. That would solve your quarterback problem. But the O line is inexcusable for Michigan to have this bad of an offensive line, particularly when the last coach was an offensive line coach and an offensive lineman. And this coach is Kyle Winning-Hams. And until they solve that, I don't know how they what they do against an Oklahoma team that has athletes

30:19that are way the heck better than what Western Michigan did. Dan, I understand what you're saying, but I don't think it's unreasonable if you think about it at the time. Getting Bryce Underwood was a really big deal. Got him his foot away from LSU. I watched yesterday our buddy David Pollock, who has great podcasts and do a great job breaking down tape. And they were looking at Bryce Underwood. And most of it seems to be the proverbial footwork of a quarterback being rushed, not being convicted and what he needs to do. And then getting in a hurry to do whatever it is. He's decided to do leaving the pocket when he doesn't need to. Things like that that are contributing to some of his problems. Now, I've said, when I watch him throw the ball, and all I'm talking about is the throwing motion and the way it comes out. There are times that he

31:20looks like John L. Way to me who might be in my lifetime the greatest pro-war of the football this sport has ever seen. Now, he is in no way shaped former fashion in John L. Way's stratosphere as a quarterback at the moment. But the tantalizing talent that Dan's talking about is because he can do those things that that hail Mary. There aren't many people on the planet who can do that. And I understand what Wittingham's doing, you know, to not say he's our guy sitting stone. Also true, a tepid endorsement like that going into the Oklahoma game is probably not motivational like you would say, you know, sometimes coaches say things publicly to get the attention of their players. You'd have to be in that building every day to know whether Bryce Underwood needs to have his attention gained by something like that, but I suspect that's not the issue.

32:21So now you wonder if it just heaps a little more anxiety on him as they go into this game against the guy. Now, Bryce Underwood has played Vendables before. He faced him last year. But Vendables is notorious for twisting quarterbacks, especially inexperienced ones or uncertain ones into a variety of knots. And I'm not sure the, you know, tepid endorsement of he's are starting quarterback, but it's not infinite. You know, while true, while reasonable, don't know if it was helpful in the moment. It'll be interesting to see how he how he plays and whether since they didn't get CJ car, whether they might go to Tommy car, if things start, start going poorly against the Sooners on Saturday. True freshman though. True freshman. Yeah, the other quarterback there, who I kind of forgot and ended up there, played really well at Colorado State. He actually might

33:24have started reached the game day when we were in when we were in Boulder, Braden Fowler, Nicosi. I mean, he's played a bunch of ball, a lot of football, throw a lot of touchdown passes. He's also thrown a lot of interceptions 22 TD 16 interceptions in 23. And then in 24, he had 14 and nine. And it looks like he redshirted last year via only attempt at 80 82 passes. So, again, if the Tommy car is the backup, they made that clear. He's number two. It's clearly he's He's staked for the future. Now he's a pure dropback guy, right? So the thought on Underwood was that he would run more and more effectively. And look, that's what they did. Jason Beck did at Mexico and at Utah the last two seasons. And it was a devastating offensive attack at both at both places, especially was an awakening at Utah, which had had poor offenses. Do you see any similarity at all? I mean, I know Price Underwood can run. But to me, he's a passer who can run. Correct.

34:31Devon Dempere, the quarterback that he that Jason Beck had both at New Mexico and Utah is a runner. Yeah. I mean, he can he can't throw a little bit. It's big. Yeah. He's big and fast, but he's not elusive. Yeah. I think it's what you're saying. And I kind of agree with that. Yeah. Yeah. Did you see that bird Ficklin highlight, by the way? The one that looked like AI. I have you send it to me. Okay. I clicked on it. Yeah. I'm sorry. I heard Ficklin's fun, man. He's the Utah's backup. Anyway, that was just that is a complete hijack of the conversation. Let me go back to the clock quickly here. And I'm going to be a little scattered. Remember Reese, what are you? What are the, what are your favorite rants of all time? Was the Kenny Dillingham? When they tried to kill the clock with like pitchy-pitchy-woo, running around. It wasn't pitchy-pitchy-woo, but it was it was it was the metaphorical equivalent of that. Do you remember this? Yes. A couple years ago. Yes. Yes. I don't remember who Arizona State was playing. Was it BYU? Yeah, it was BYU. It was blue the game. Now, that was blue the game because

35:32he couldn't run out the clock. Yeah. One of the things that came out of that because remember, it was a big thing and they put time back on the clock or whatever was that there were no tenths of a second on the clock. So part of the reason why time was put back on the clock was because there's no tenths of a second. And that that has come up obviously in this too, Dan, right? Like that they don't, you know, in the NBA, it caused basketball. There's really, you don't have these moments. It's a lot. It's very clear. They solved it and the black the backboard lights up. Yes. So it's one camera sees everything. Yeah. Yes. And so I just wonder if like not you ever say, oh, use one clock. I said, I think all these clocks need tenths of a second. Because look, there's billions of dollars at stake here, right? In this whole thing. And if these games are going to come down to it, it's like in the NFL, remember, they didn't have the endzone like camera. And it's like, well, if those points are going to like be the bell weather for trillion dollar industry in the NFL, a close trillion dollar industry, I guess I should say, like you better get it right. And so I wonder if the tenths of a second thing becomes real. And

36:36then Alex Farmer Tino had had an interesting post on how these things work. Clock synchronization TV. He's one of our ESPN executives. And you know, do we light up the goalposts when the, you know, like game over like lit. I don't know. It sounds a little crazy, right? I imagine New Mexico state and having to like buy light up goalposts because it's part of the, you know, part of the part of our everything, you know, it goes. Goals are weirdly expensive, by the way. But yeah, anyway, like I thought the tenths of a second thing was like, oh, wow, like that. I said, this, this was kind of comical and funny. And it was a wild moment. It's not if it's happening on January 1st. And it's a quarter final. Well, correct. Yeah. Yeah. Or imagine if this happened to be a match, although it was the NFL rule of thumb on this is that it's clock light horn. You know, if you have, if you're disputing at the end, it's that clock still, it's like rock paper scissors. At least my understanding has always been, you know, if there's this millimeter,

37:39that the light and the horn are signaling devices to indicate that the clock has hit zero for so it's still clock at the end of the day is still got to be clock. You know, you want to go down this rabbit hole Reese and I, because you should have seen some of these, these, these people, very smart people putting out position papers on who won the game. And it was like, if NBC used this type of fiber in their, in their wiring, slow it down a hundred of us. I mean, it's like you're, and you're like, okay, that's possible. But like, how do we solve just, I don't know, man, go Broncos. Great. Go Broncos. Go over. This is why I think at some point soccer kind of is, it's terrible system except we decided they won. You know, like, does deal with it. I don't know. Can I give one, one small ran on it and then we'll hit one more thing and then let's talk some games because that's what we really like to do anyway. This sort of, this sort of reminds me of a situation that you see

38:45all the time when we start splitting hairs about the end of the game and I get it that the last minute there are different timing rules and a variety of sports when you get to the end of games, the ends of games. But you ever think about like in the middle of the second quarter, the guy gets tackled on the 32 and the official comes in and goes, yeah, it looks about right. He spots the ball there and then we play the next down. Maybe he was two feet off. Maybe he was eight inches off. Just happened in this game with 10 seconds left. Believe me, I'm way, way over. This was a very deep time. Yeah. Underwood spiked the ball with like 10 seconds, I think I got the rewatch. Does someone's going to be like, he got it wrong. It was not in or whatever. But it was like with 10 and then they let it run to nine. Actually ran it. And so there was actually like if everything is precise, that's your point is the entire game is in precise. In precise. And so, we'll get down to it. Do we have to be precise? Yeah, the last second and the spots like all of the

39:46sudden on the fourth down the fourth quarter, they're looking at replay and they decide that it's three inches ahead. Well, maybe they got that three inches before and you miss spotting the ball on first down or second down in the drive. And look, I know this is a little bit disjointed. But at some point, you have to trust what's reasonable and obvious on the field. And if the official sort of, you know, if he misses a spot by an inch, you can't tell in a video replay. If it, I mean, unless it's like ridiculous, like knee wasn't down goes another yard. Of course, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about when they're saying they get into this mass pile of humanity. And they and they moved on. The most of time they say ruling on the field stands. And you can't say, do it. And it's the same thing with the clock. If we had this play midway through the third quarter, let's say, for instance, yeah, let's, let's say there'd been, there'd been somebody running

40:49a corner route back at the end zone, defender steps out of bounds, jumps up, you know, deflects the ball away. We're letting the play come to its natural conclusion is it pertains to the clock. And maybe another second comes off because nobody says, Oh, the instance of balls dead right there, we've got to make the clock 738 remaining in the quarter instead of 737. It reminds me of the NFL. I was in consistency. The NFL is trying to find what a catch was. And it was like the guy, like, no, Calvin Johnson caught the ball, Des caught the ball. And then they're like, yeah, but four seconds later, he didn't throw the ball with control with with control. The or it was like, what do you talk about? I saw this. And people like, this was the biggest, the worst screw job in the history of sports, right? It's like, dude, Colorado got five downs. You want to talk about a screw off? Oh, yeah. It's an extra down like, relax, relax. It's, we're moving on. Let's, you know, have a mind. I Michigan one, but Western Michigan can always say they won and Michigan fan will never

41:50be able to, you know, if you're arguing about it 20 years from now in a bar, it's not the Michigan fan could do. Let's hit Pete. What do you got quickly on some coaching turmoil in the ACC? Obviously, there's Mike Novel situation. Getting booed. They still had a chance to win. You know, dabbo, dabbo got salty at the podium a little bit after starting his answer in a reasonable fashion. What have you, what have you got there? So it would cost $57 million to fire dabbo. So that remain, and he's one of two coaches in all of college football that had won national titles, right? Yeah. So again, that is a high in probability of happening, but I do think the, the tenor of that game was yet another reminder that dabbo's strengths might not be tailored to this era, right? Like his strengths or culture, you know, bringing players along, you know, getting a group ready to

42:56play like he's a very good football coach. But you have to be an elite roster manager, and you actually have to be a little more transactional, maybe than dabbo is like a custom to be and comfortable to be. So you wonder if as as they push forward here, there is some, you know, there is some sort of help brought in to dabbo for that piece of it. Now they have a front office. It's not like he's doing it all himself, but they are not operating in this era near the level they operated in the last era, and that's becoming more and more apparent every year. Now they took nine transfers on defense this year. I want to say I've taught my head. And I think one or two on offense. So like they are not none on the offensive line that played. Oh boy, they were bad on the offensive line. Yeah, but you know what, Reese, when they were great, they worked great on the offensive line. Right. No, they were great on the defensive line though. All boy were they damn. Oh boy. The whole thing like the question that was asked of dabbo, about whether he had any regrets.

44:00There's no reason to answer that after the first game. dabbo was correct in his answer there. But then when he kind of showed the sensitive side a little bit later on, that probably wasn't a great look when you got beat 5 billion to 10 or whatever the score was outgain five or six to one, basically. They've got to have better performance. Not only out of the players, but out of their coaches. They pay their offensive line coach a bunch of money. And he's a good one, but he didn't get the result. So you either got to improve the coaching or improve the players. They've got to get better play at quarterback to help them out. And the defense was in the spend cycle. That happens a lot against Lane Kiffin and Charlie Wise Jr. So I mean, can wait and see dabbo's right. They could go 11 and one, but I didn't see anything on that field Saturday night. The indicated they're going to be any better than six and six. And maybe there'll be a little better than that, but I didn't see much to indicate it. Yeah, I thought, I mean, he was fair for him to say, look, let's give this roster time.

45:05It's one game. We got smoked by Georgia a couple years ago. Everyone said it's over. We end up in the playoff. We end up winning the ACC. That's fine. But it was a perfectly reasonable question. It's what everybody is actually asking for him to be like, well, you know, do you know anything about football and you can't judge it anything on what? Look, if he had beaten LSU on Saturday, what do you want? Everyone to walk in the press conference and go, hey, why don't we wait to see the end of the year if you're any good or really want to wait nice things about Clemson? Yeah. I mean, if you played football, have you been around football? Because this is how we do it every week. We overreact. This is the whole sport. There's not enough games. It's not an update point. So when you win, you get lots of praise when you lose and you lose like that, you're going to get questions. That's just how that works. And I thought that was not a a good answer. He had an appropriate maybe overarching message, but I was a very poor answer for a very experienced coach who should know better on how to and is paid to not make Clemson a topic

46:10again. And that's what that thing became is how Clemson stinks and Davos fighting with the local media who's saying, hey, man, like is roster got did not look like a, it was, it's they are no longer competitive with SEC teams, at least the good ones. And that if you're a Clemson fan and you're a Clemson booster who's paying NIL money and all these different things, you have the reason that won't expect somebody to say, hey, what's up? They're, they're four and eight now in their last 12 SEC games. You think that's not so bad. Three of the wins South Carolina and Kentucky, which, you know, not the top, not where Clemson, not the rarefied air that Clemson was once in. Now, I want to be fair on both sides of this. There's no way on earth that even though I agree the question was fair, maybe, maybe you could have framed that question in a different way because if you, if you break that down, there's no way he can answer it because the answer is that he throws

47:11his is staff and is roster right under the bus. So there's no way he could answer it, but I agree with you Dan, he's experienced enough to have left it alone after the after the, we got to get to the end of the season. We didn't play well enough, we didn't coach well enough. I believe in these guys are going to get better. That's how you leave it. Let's, let's talk some games, including the huge one and make some picks since we've spent a little time on the topics of the day this morning. Texas and Ohio State in Austin, college game day will be there. You've got star power like crazy. You've got archman and you've got Julian Sainte, you've got Jeremiah Smith, you've got Cam Kolben, you've got Wingo, you've got stars all over the place, there'll be stars all over the place on college game day two, T's, T's, people joining us for a variety of segments. Who do you like in the game and why Pete? I like Ohio State. I'm going to, I mean, what's the, the line is, uh, is what Texas is favored. It lasts at last check. Um, and in fact, I think like

48:19it's been a handful of times. If the line holds, um, meaning if the line holds with Texas being favored over an AP number one team, it'll just be the 14th time since the FBS FCS split in 78 that the number one team has been an underdog and a regular season game in those situations. Number one eight and five, uh, previously. It's a same scenario last year, but reversed, you know, when Texas was number one, Ohio State was favored heavily. Yeah, I think this will be a much more aesthetically appealing game than the one that kind of slot was slogged through last year in Columbus. It was a great game, right? There was a bunch of fourth down gambles, big defensive plays, Arvel Reese barnstormed into our lives in a, in a significant way. It was not like a, you know, a big 12, uh, kind of just, you know, back and forth kind of fun watch, I guess you could, uh, you could say, although the defensive people would say it's fun. I feel like Ohio State's offensive line is going to be their strength and I feel like they win a game like this game 2421. Uh, I feel like they, they control the

49:23ball, push them around. Texas has a lot more weapons and it's hard to pick against those weapons. They have a both on offense and, uh, and both on defense and I'm going to leave this pick. Uh, I'm going to channel my inner Mac right now. I am lodging a complaint against Adrian. She claims that I did not pick the Auburn Baylor game and I want to go back to the tape because I only went six and one because I did not lodge an official pick according to our email here and I just want to know I am protesting. I want Dan's nose back in the rule book. I want, I want official, please know. I just not say anything like I don't understand. How did I not pick the game? You don't, you're like a dodgy politician. You know, and it's the question. I'm like, you're like, you're like, damn, oh, you're like, damn pretty sure you picked Baylor. I don't think I've ever picked Baylor. I was never a picked Baylor. Ask me. DJ like me, the SEC and interceptions. I'm not gonna pick them against an SEC. He played really well on one leg. Yes. No, no, no, no, back. Back. Back. That doesn't mean I would have picked him. No, back. Back. That's the last thing. So let it be known. I'm lodging a logical formal complaint. We need to, we need to wash the tape and see if maybe I've had to say Auburn that like the

50:26tenor of my, uh, conversation indicated an Auburn pick. So I want John Steinbrecker on my back. We need to look at that clock. We need tens of the seconds added. I'm not gonna have a, like a, I'm not gonna abstain like LSU and an SEC meeting on a pick. All right. It's just not gonna have. So my, my, I have my rule of thumb is never pick against Ohio State, right? So, uh, because that usually pants out. This is pretty good strategy. Um, and I'm very excited about this game. And it's, to your point, Reese, it speaks to how crazy this week has been in college athletics that the game that we spent the last nine months talking about as the biggest game of the year kind of got overshadowed, which is this is the, some people will call this chaos and the wild, wild, wild, I call it a lot of fun that, you know, there's all this other crap going on. But, um, so I'm gonna take Ohio State on that. But I'm gonna do it with trepidation only in this in that

51:27it's gonna be like a hundred degrees. It's gonna be really hot Texas at home. They're, they played a very hot game last week. Like how much does that heat, uh, matter? Because that is the one thing that you cannot ever really duplicate in training is heat or cold. Uh, you can do it. You can maybe they, maybe they turned their, uh, you know, one of the whatever that big practice thing they got there at the, uh, at the Woody Hay Center into a sauna for these guys. But it is gonna be very, very hot. But in terms of this game, so I will take Ohio State, um, I think Matt Patricia, uh, Matt Patricia against archmaning is gonna be a really fascinating, uh, duel here between these two. And I'm looking forward to that, uh, the defensive coordinator at Ohio State. Um, what I love about this game is it's a throwback old school game where we have two quarterbacks uh, and a lot of players that have been on the team. And, and you said last year's game was, was a bit of a struggle in part because it was basically, it wasn't the first start for, for manning,

52:29uh, may have been for saying, but it was like new, new quarterbacks. How good are these guys? What do we got? And you're gonna have those week one jitters and, and it was week one and week one, you know, can be very, um, it's not always predictive of how good things go the rest of the season as Michigan fans certainly hope. But, um, now we've got these two established guys, potentially either one could be the number one pick in the draft, potentially either one could win the national title, either one can be the Heisman candidate. It could be the start of a very long rivalry between these two guys that extends into the NFL, um, just a great quarterback duel, big brands, the whole thing could not be more excited for this game, but it feels like an old school game where we already know a lot of the players on both teams and a lot of those players have already been on those teams. And so it's a little bit of like, uh, uh, uh, thing when you really had a program, but I'm gonna take Ohio State because I never picking against Ohio State, but, uh, beware of the hundred degree temperature in Austin. I have a Ohio State ranked ahead of Texas, which means

53:34I believe big picture overall, they're slightly better at the moment, but only slightly. Despite the fact that arch put up big numbers in the first game against Texas State, 20 to 27, 300, five yards for touchdowns, there were a couple of big plays that he left on the table that he didn't pull the trigger on when he could have. Not that he made mistakes, he's just chunked plays, touchdown type plays. You better let it rip against Ohio State, because you're going to have a harder time, you know, consistently being productive against the Matt Patricia defense. You need those chunk plays. I think Texas gets them. I'm going to go with Texas, uh, to beat Ohio State and what ought to be a great game. I think both quarterbacks will play well and I'll go with Texas at home in the heat and arch and his two receivers Hollywood, some others making just enough explosive plays to get it done. Dan home game for you,

54:37Oklahoma and Michigan, uh, Matier was solid for Oklahoma and their first walk over game. Now they come back, cost all kind of negative plays last year, which Nick Sabin's going to break down in a film room on Saturday on college game day when they met last year. Um, Michigan, Michigan didn't look good against Western Michigan. Will we see a better version of the Wolverines, uh, and a chance to win at home against the Suners and will you go, Dan? I know I will not go. I thought it was local. Mike go to way too lazy to drive out to Ann Arbor for that. Okay. No, it'll be a great game. I want to watch. I like watching a lot of the games. Sure. So no, I'll be there. Um, okay. Michigan started this game as the favorite in Vegas and then that is flipped. And I understand you can only flip so much, but there's certain spreads that you sit there and go, what is Vegas doing? This is a five and a half Oklahoma by five and a half, maybe six and a half.

55:39If you watch these two, Oklahoma look great in the first game. You just went through it. Reese, uh, as an experienced team, playoff team coming back. I have them winning the SEC. This defense, potentially the best defense in the country. They've got playmakers and they got guys everywhere and look like it. And Michigan could not block Western Michigan. How the heck is this thing? Five and a half to six and a half, but then you always go, well, man, Vegas, you know, sometimes they know things. And so is there this jump that's going to happen? Who's going to win the game outright? Absolutely going to be Oklahoma, I think. And I think Oklahoma will cover the spread. But Vegas is scaring me on this and in, in, in why this spread isn't like 10. I don't know. I mean, like this is a, it's a big deal. Uh, new and at the big house, I don't know how much the fan enthusiasm will be there. They'll sell it out for sure. It'll be a great scene. Two great brands. It's, it's, it's an awesome deal. Um, uh, boomer sooner in town, all of that stuff, but, uh, you know, there's a, there is just so much angst around the Michigan program. Aside from the clock,

56:45which everyone is focused on, if you're a hardcore Michigan fan, you're sitting there going, what kind of season are we about to have here? If we, if we, you know, nearly lost or did lose to Western Michigan, so I'll take Oklahoma. Uh, but it's a, it's a big game for, for Kyle Wittingham to, it was not a, not a good, he bombed on opening night. That program bombed on opening night is a long time to go. He's not going anywhere, but man, you wouldn't want to have a second home game that doesn't go very well either. I, uh, well, Dan is the most bullish on Oklahoma from our SEC preview pod, if you remember, right? Dan picked him to win the lead. Correct. Yeah. Bold call. Um, you know, good, good start. Obviously a referendum on that comes Saturday. I picked Oklahoma at the playoff, and I've been very bullish on them, and that starts with their defense. Um, do you guys see those stats of Clemson's record underdabbo with it without rent, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Bread, Ventables is a really elite elite defensive play call. I believe he's coached defense in eight national championship games. That means the guys coached a season of almost a season of,

57:48a conference season of national championship. Like, dude knows what he's doing. Um, it, it credit Oklahoma, they rejiggered the program, brought in Jim naggy from the NFL, run the senior bull in a long time scout. They kind of have, they, they were struggling amid the modern world, and they've kind of figured it out now. All four Oklahoma, D Lyman will be drafted. Isaiah Satanga, I've been told, boys to have a breakout, you know, type season where he could really end up in the, in the top echelon in the receiver conversation, you know, below the, the, the, the camp golden Jeremiah Smith, but right on the cusp there, um, he's got a, uh, he's got a huge opportunity here this weekend to, uh, to showcase what he can do with John Matier. So I'm not saying that Oklahoma's gonna blow him out, and look, we all sat there and I was like, man, why is that Samuel only favored by two and a half at Florida State? And it's like, uh, like Dan said, those guys those guys in Vegas, they tend to, they tend to know what they're doing. Um, but I do think Oklahoma can control this game, dominate Michigan's offense, which is pedestrian and, uh, in, in,

58:50in win by 10 points. I think they cover also, and it will largely be because they will create enough negative plays, but I think Michigan will play much better. I think it'll be that first, the second game thing. They're probably a little embarrassed about what happened against Western, but I'll take Oklahoma to win on the road and cover. If you're looking for an upset, I think the most likely one among highly ranked teams is Alabama going on the road to Kentucky. Alabama was fairly young last year and they're even younger in many spots this year. Uh, Keel and Russell making his second start Kentucky meanwhile. Um, they're really good job in the portal. Uh, Kenny Menchie certainly knew quarterback, but coming in from Notre Dame, where he almost beat out CJ car and then a lot of very familiar names, both on the offensive line and in the back field and, and it receiver for the wild cats. Uh, what do you think about that one, Pete? So Kentucky started corners didn't play against Youngstown. Um, so for, for those who maybe, uh, investing in this game, I would, I would watch their status as the, uh, as, as, as the week goes on.

59:55Also, Javante Barnes, the tail back who came over from Oklahoma, uh, didn't play in the open or his statuses in flux. So we will see, uh, you know, personnel wise, uh, personnel wise about that. Um, yeah. So the one thing Kentucky did, which I was really smart, Reese, was they invested heavily in the offensive line, right? Um, it's hard to microwave an offensive line. We've said that for, for years on this podcast, it's just hard to get that. It takes a while for those group to play together and synchronize. So much of line play is how the unit works, but they, they have brought in great pieces. And I feel like Kentucky is going to drag this game into the mud because they will be able to control the ball. Um, Ketty mentioned, she can run the ball, CJ Baxter can run the ball. Um, obviously, Barnes plays, it's going to, uh, it's, it's going to help. So, um, but I just think Kim and Russell and, and Alabama figure out a way here. Um, especially because Alabama's defensive line is, I've been told one of the best ones they've had there, um, you know, since Nick, since Nick

1:00:56was coaching. Um, so I think it's a low score game. I think Kentucky could, could figure out a control the ball, move a little bit, but Alabama just has a little too much fire. Um, so I'll say that's the tide by, uh, the tide by 10. Yeah, I'm gonna, this is a, this is a big game. Well, Stein is pointed to this. He's come in and not accepted as a new coach, Kentucky, and, you know, said, hey, we're going to be good right away. This whole bit, we're going to be good because of me, all these things, uh, love the attitude. There's no need to, to, to go in and to get Alabama. This early, there'll be great and there'll be a great scene down in Lexington. It should be a great scene. Um, Kentucky has to find a way to win the line of scrimmage offensively or at least do pretty well. Alabama's defensive front, the East Carolina rush for two yards, not to per play. Two yards. Uh, that's it. They got two yards. And so that to me is the key to this game is at, can it is Alabama's defensive front that good. Kentucky needs sustained drives to keep Russell off the field. And this pretty explosive Alabama

1:02:00offense, uh, and all that. Can they do that? If they can, if they can run the ball, they've got a chance, to, to do well in this game, but I'm going to take Alabama to win, uh, and I would take them to cover also. I'm going to take Alabama to win, but not cover. Um, I think, Kentucky will make the game, uh, fought with peril. I think Alabama's defense will end up carrying the day. And I think that I think Alabama's offensive line maybe didn't play quite as badly as some feared. Um, you know, they had like a 70 or 80 yard touchdown run call back because of a bit of a phantom holding call. You've also got the dynamic that Kentucky social media, you know, has put out some stuff this way, this week, TikTok style dances, if you're going to beat VAMMA. So, you know, I think there will be some, um, I think there will, there will be everybody will have each other's full attention. I think Kentucky will have a shot at this game, but I like you guys. I think Alabama pulls it out, but I think it'll be a bit more of a nail

1:03:03fighter than a lot of people believe. Uh, let's, let's talk Arizona and BYU. Uh, this is a little bit of a trickier game, a little bit off the radar, veteran quarterback for Arizona, Noah Fafita against bear bot Mayer and the Cougars. What do you think, Dan? Yeah. So early season, massive game in the big 12, because, uh, both of these teams could end up challenging Texas. We're waiting to see who's going to challenge Texas Tech. It's like the presuming Texas Tech is the best team in the league. BYU certainly believes, uh, that they are that second team and can, and can give them a run for the money. But like you said, Noah Fafita is, uh, gets overlooked. Uh, he's had a couple great years out of Arizona, has never left, and is one of the best quarterbacks in the country and he can go out there and prove it. I would say though, they have to keep a balance to tap. They have to be able to run the ball against this BYU front. Um, and they got to at the same time. I'm going to keep repeating myself

1:04:07about the trenches, but, um, make, Bach Mayer make a lot of long passes, make them, make them throw the ball more. Uh, and you've got to handle the environment up in, up in, uh, up in the mountains, as always, a great scene there in, uh, in Provo. Um, I'm going to take BYU to win this one tight, um, but this should be a great game. And I'm really interested with what these two teams have. It's a real ladder game defining game on what kind of season each will go with. I'll take BYU, but, uh, you know, not with a ton of confidence points. So one of my favorite, uh, offseason, uh, stories was recent when we went to Arizona for, uh, college game day basketball this year, and I sat down with, uh, with, with Noah Fafita, you know, he turned down untold millions to stay at Arizona. Uh, and he had a great quote. He said, I didn't come back for 10 win season. I came back for it all, which I just thought was awesome. Right. He's not, he had braggado. She's not talking. He's like, Hey man, I want to bring Arizona. I don't believe Arizona has ever won a conference title in football, um, maybe like another conference sometime in like the 30, but the board conference.

1:05:10What was that? The old border conference. Yeah. Something, something like that. It was, it not, not recent, uh, and, anyway, so, um, yeah, I don't even think they won like the pack eight. So, um, a huge moment for Arizona here in this, in this time of place with, uh, with Fafita, with Fafita there. I do think there'll be a close game. I think I'll add seven and a half. I, uh, I'm going to take BYU, but I'm going to take Arizona to cover, and I'm just going to point out that legend glassger had, a quiet three touchdowns in his debut for BYU, the freshman wide receiver who, uh, we had talked about there. So bear has a new, uh, target. We will see if Danigan's us in the Arizona defense can make bear the target, uh, this, uh, this week, but that, that game will be relicking fun, uh, midday on Saturday. Yeah. Border and whack titles in their history, but nothing since moving, uh, since they in Arizona state turned the pack eight into the pack 10 and nothing since then, um, um, I, I think Arizona has a puncture's chance, but I'm really high on BYU. I've, I've picked BYU

1:06:15to go to the playoff. Um, I believe in them veteran guys, Pete's new crush, having to move off of Mastamaaker maybe after week one. I'm not off Mastamaaker. All right. Like I'm not off Mastamaaker. Oh, Mastamaaker. 2028 draft. We just, we just need to recalibrate our expectations. Okay. I'll take, I'll take BYU, I'll take BYU to go here. Uh, Arizona's arch rival Arizona state is going to Kyle Field. There's an interesting little nugget about Arizona state and the way they played under Kenny Dillingham since the start of the 2024 season against ranked opponents. They're six in one among, among teams who have played at least five games. A guest ranked opponents. Nobody's got a better record. Cutter Bowley. I know it was Morgan state, but Kentucky transfer throws for 387 six touchdowns. What do you think? Sun Devils go in there. They're not going to be bothered by the Texas heat. They've got plenty of heat of their

1:07:18own. What do you think about Sun Devils and the Aggies? Pete. So I, uh, I think the Sun Devils put up, uh, put up some spark, if you will. Um, I don't think they can go and, uh, Texas and I was too much depth and they're, they're too good defensively. But I do think that this will be a, this will be a game and, you know, Bowley obviously, Bowley was pretty good at Kentucky last year. Like he started a bunch of games. It was, was certainly adequate. It broke a bunch of Tim couches, Kentucky freshmen records. Um, and I really like the Arizona state receiving core. I think they have a chance to flash, but I, I think in the end, uh, you know, I'll take a game and buy a touchdown. Yeah, I could, I could see Arizona state covering. I think it's, it's over 14, 14 and a half right now. Um, but this is a tough game. You're going to have to try to, you know, get some long, I don't know the Texas A&M defense is going to be susceptible to long drives and things like that. I think the, the thing I'm looking forward to seeing in this game is how Marcel read plays. Uh, this is the best opponent, uh, so far this year, obviously, and he,

1:08:23you know, last year ended poorly for him. He had a, had this dream season. He did not play well against Texas. He did not play well in the playoff game against Miami. Arizona state is not Texas or Miami, but this is a chance for him to show, uh, what he can do has how much he is developed in offseason. And I think that's going to go a long way into dictating how good of a season A&M is, are they a legit top 10 team and an SEC contender? Or are they going to fall back into the middle of the pack? Um, and I think what we see out of read this weekend will tell us a lot about this season. So, I'll take Texas A&M to win. Uh, I could see Arizona covering because it's a big, big number. Uh, and you're right, Reese, funny. He, you can duplicate that heat in Arizona state. I'm with A&M also, but I'm not quite as bullish on A&M as some. Now I think that the, the offensive line will be fine, but it's a little bit rebuilt. I need to see Marcel Reed execute, particularly against a top level opponents in the red zone. The turnovers really hurt against Texas and against

1:09:24Miami in the CFP a year ago, but Pete likes to tease me for saying there's no rule against improvement. I expect Marcel Reable shows some improvement, but I'm kind of on board with you guys. I think, I think Arizona state states close, but I think that, um, that ultimately the Aggies went at home. So, Gigham, be a big, big week in the state of Texas. Before we go deep, cut one more game that's a little bit interesting. Tennessee and Georgia Tech, uh, Brent Key set up on hearing at his news conference that Josh Hyple said it would be a physical game. And Brent asked the assemble media, did he say this before or after watching our game against Colorado? And they said, well, he said it after he said, well, then he's just being nice. So clearly, Key is not pleased with the yellow jackets initial showing against Colorado. Dan, will they rebound or does the big orange and uh, phase on Brandon who every time I say his name, it clicks in my head, I must have said

1:10:29that backwards, but I think we're all going to know his name for sure because this is a talented dude. Who, uh, who do you, who do you like? Well, yeah, if, if the shocker was Michigan, couldn't run against Western Michigan. The second shocker was that Georgia Tech in both lines was pushed around by Colorado. And that's a testament to a Colorado has built as much as anything, but only 51 yards, Georgia Tech running the ball against Colorado. Um, we're going to presume that Tennessee's defensive line is, and certainly is on paper and what we've seen is even better than Colorado. So that is a, is a huge problem for Georgia Tech because that is the identity of this program is toughness on both lines, the ability to run the ball, the ability to grind a clock and um, you know, they, they've, they've gutted out and gridded out a lot of wins the last couple of seasons. So if, if they don't find that, they don't really stand a chance up there, uh, phase on Brandon, I agree.

1:11:30So it's, it feels, it feels strange. It won't, uh, it won't soon because uh, this kid is super hyped. Uh, you don't get to be the day one starter, Tennessee by accident. Uh, and so what he does in this game, it's a chance for him to showcase and for the country to see it, but uh, I got Tennessee one in this game and cover. So as Tennessee faced, uh, off season quarterback competition again, all right. I think it's five for five in Josh Hyples years there. Um, he had like a casualness to him when we were talking about it at SEC media days and the basic gist, he didn't say this. I'm paraphrasing. The basic gist was like, we'll be fine because we move the ball. And if you look historically at Tennessee and at UCF, they tend to move the ball and uh, and score. I think the challenge here for phase on Brandon is going to be, I think it's going to be an electric atmosphere there at Georgia Tech. Now, obviously some of the Jews get diffused with the way they play Colorado night game SEC opponent, uh, you know, Atlanta will be, you know, this will be as excited as Atlanta's benefit for Georgia Tech game, uh, non-Georgia division in in a long time. I think

1:12:35it's, it's a moment in an event. And phase on brand one, 35 and one is a starting quarterback in high school. And you know, like it looked pretty unflappable last weeks, but I do think the environment will test him some. Uh, Justice Haynes 19 carries for 64 yards, uh, really expected him to have a chance to go against Colorado credit, uh, credit Chris Marvin, the defense for, uh, for Colorado for, for bottling him up. But I do think that Brent Key uses his press conferences to message his team. He learned it from Nick Sator, right? So he basically with the, with the little anecdotry, said he basically called them songs. So we will see if they bring more of an edge, I think the line here is, uh, somewhere around two touchdowns. And I think tech, uh, drags this game into the mud a little bit and, uh, and covers. No, sir. Atlanta will be covered up in orange. Mm hmm. Tennessee will, will control the atmosphere. They'll control the game. And they win big.

1:13:37Oh, as a Tennessee scores a bunch of points, they win big. They beat Kennesaw State and they set up a showdown in two weeks with the other UT in the SEC when Texas and Tennessee play in Knoxville on the 26th of September. So that one's there. Okay. Let's hit a quick, deep cut game that could have big group of six implications. Damn, what do you think about Boise State and Memphis, Boise coming off a really, uh, stout performance, uh, in Austin, stadium against the ducks on the opening Saturday. Ah, this is what we're going with as the deep cut. Man, it's not that deep. It's only moderately deep group of six implications. Group huge group of six implications. Uh, and so I already picked against, uh, Coach Huff and Memphis when I made my ill-fated UNLV prediction. And they went out there and got that done. Uh, the beat Arkansas State last week. Um, I had not put too much thought. I'm going to go with, I'm going to go with Memphis.

1:14:40Tent Boise State acquitted itself quite well against Oregon, but that is a physical and emotional game. And I think I'll give, uh, I'll give Memphis the, uh, the benefit here. But obviously, whoever wins this Boise State lost their game against Oregon, but that is something they can point to when this debate comes down on which group of six teams should get there. So, whoever wins this game, again, gets, uh, gets kind of a leg up on what they need to do. I'm really high on Charles Huff. What he can accomplish at Memphis, potentially down the road, not trying to get him moved after one year again, but as a coaching candidate down the road, really impressed with his ability to put together teams quickly. This game for Boise State is probably not definitively, but probably make or break forgetting into the playoffs. And here's why I say if they can, they will be in theory, then behind the American teams and the rankings one would think because it's not conference

1:15:42champions, it's not highest ranked conference champion anymore. Just highest ranked team out of the group of six. I feel like Boise State needs this. They're at home. They're celebrating new blue turf, also which we will talk about on college game day on Saturday. I'm going to go with the Broncos. I say, I'll say that Boise State and one of, and what will be one of the more entertaining games of the weekend back and forth, think there'll be plenty of scoring there. We saw how wild Memphis could play against UNLV. I'm going to go with Boise State to win the game, close one. Think they're favored by a little over touchdown right now and maybe a two point conversion. I'll say we'll be right around, right around that margin of victory for the Broncos. So Adrian, let's do this as we come to the end of our time together. Pete has been called away to cover something, but as executive executives of the podcast, Dan and I shall dictate that we will put Pete on the honor system and let him pick the Memphis Boise State game and that shall be

1:16:47entered into evidence and that way we don't have to convene any type of vote to kick Pete off the P.R.O on this thing. Yeah, we'll get T.R.O on it. Thanks for listening to the college game day podcast or watching. We encourage you to subscribe to Never Miss a Single episode or download wherever you prefer to get your podcast.