Rippee Writes: Previewing Louisville

0:00What is up, I'm Brian Scott Rippy. Thanks for tuning into another edition of the Rippy Rites podcast today. We have on Michael McCammon from Cardinal Authority, the Louisville 247 site to preview the Louisville Cardinals. And then after that, we're going to get into what I did most Friday's last year of five things I'll be thinking about at kickoff. So buckle up this will get you ready for the Louisville game. I'm probably the only guy in America putting out these podcasts on a Saturday. So not all heroes wear capes. You're welcome. So one more one more podcast listed before Sunday nights game. So anyway, thank you. Enjoy it. Before we get to that, they'll want to take one quick break to remind you this podcast is also brought to you by Watson Turnipsy attorney attorney. Attorney law Watson turnipsy friend of the show, one of the smartest people I know. Have you been injured in a car accident work of the insurance companies did not your storm related claim right now, I storm or the insurance companies denying your I storm related claim.

1:00Get more than one call with North Mississippi's premier boutique law firm Watson turnipsy at law. Watson has offices in the Mississippi Delta and New Orleans and focuses on client based relationships to ensure the best outcome. Over the last four years, Watson has assisted clients and recovering millions of dollars related to anyone any personal injury or insurance claims. Get more than one call get Watson and beat them all. Visit Watson Turnipsy law. Com for more details or call 504 636 8217. Give them a call today's already helped our list. Some of our listeners out of you're doing with some ice storm related claims. They are having trouble with with the insurance companies Watson turnipsy is your man that is Watson turnipsy at law.com or call them at 504 636 8217. This podcast is brought to you by the cowboy country club. The cowboy country club was founded by two Ole Miss grads. It is a made up country club with over 30,000 members. It is a lifestyle brand that celebrates

2:00the both rugged and refined sides of life. Cowboy country club challenges the notion that exclusivity requires extravagance. Their collections are designed for those who move seamlessly from the country to the club. Cowboy country club doesn't have customers. They have members. And fortunately, they're still taking new members and their only initiation fee is making a purchase from the online pro shop cowboy country club.com. These are the best hats and shirts in the world. They are wearing a cowboy country club right hat right now. They're awesome. Go check them out today. All you have to become a member is again, make a purchase on the online pro shop. Find them on social media at cowboy country club or cowboy country club.com on the web. Go buy your hat. Go buy your shirt. Go check out all the awesome merch they have. It's an incredible golf and lifestyle brand. I love all my cowboy country club merch. And just releasing this podcast will give you a phrase that pays. Use the promo code Howdy, Howdy, 20 for a nice little discount. Again, just for listening to show. Happy to have cowboy country club on board this podcast, looking forward to the partnership. And I thank them greatly for the support of the podcast. Go boss and merch. You'll thank

3:00me later. It's awesome. Cowboy country club.com. Okay, here's Michael McKinman. All right, we now welcome on Michael McKinman, senior writer for Cardinal Authority on two four seven sports. As you record this on a Wednesday afternoon, a few days before what should be a really interesting football game in Nashville? How you doing, man? I appreciate you joining the chef. Oh, appreciate it. It should be a really exciting game. I appreciate the time, Brian, and really look forward to this match up. Obviously, one of the marquee matchups of the weekend. So it should be a lot of fun. So Jeff, Jeff, Rob, very good as an underdog. Ole Miss is a moderate favorite in this game. I think it's like hover around six or seven points. It's right as a sweet spot. He, in his career, has been really, really good in this zone. For Ole Miss, it's weird to call these week one, week two, non-conferenced games for SEC teams, must wins. But they kind of are because the league has gone to this non-game schedule without playoff expansion. And Ole Miss has very high expectations this year. And if they lose to Lulvo and week one, that path becomes, I mean, I guess not totally impossible, but for all intents and purposes,

4:03there it's kind of toast in one week. How important is this game to Lulvo by comparison for the expectations they have for this season? I think they're obviously quite large. I don't think it'll really dictate whether they get into the college football player for not. They'll have to do that in their ACC schedule, but it will certainly help. And especially for a bunch of teams at the end of the year, or kind of bunched in, I think they'd have a win over Ole Miss that could put them over the hump that would be huge. I like you mentioned, Jeff, Rob. He's a guy that, when this opportunity jumped, he's talked about it. They said, hey, let us adjust our schedule to get to, a lesser FCS opponent or something off of our schedule so we can work this out with Ole Miss, because it's a great opportunity, obviously, national television. It's a great opportunity for both programs to kind of measure where they are heading into such a season where both programs have such high expectations. So yeah, it's massive for Lulvo. There's a lot of, again, high expectations for the Cardinals. Jeff Brahm has said multiple times. This is now speaking of this team, saying, hey,

5:05we've got some big aspirations. Let's stop talking about them and accomplishment them. And obviously, I think those goals are to get to the AC Championship and then the College Football Playoff for the first time in program history. And certainly if they can pick up a win over Ole Miss, it will grab a lot more of a national attention. The spotlight will shine on them a little bit brighter and will certainly be a nice resume builder. But to get into that College Football Playoff, that really begins in week three when it comes to the Elnett Stadium and they've got a really take care of a conference play. But certainly, it's a game that has been circled for a long time. Plenty of excitement from when the thing the program and certainly within the fan bases, you know, thousands are going to be making the trip down in Nashville. Something you said in there made me think of something I wrote down when prepping for this. When Brahm took the job, the Scott Satterfield thing was interesting me. I was never really a huge believer. Ole Miss played them in Atlanta in 2021. And I remember Lulvo had a really good quarterback. I forget that kid's name, but it was really shifty. But Lulvo wasn't a really good buddy. Lulvo cutting him. But Lulvo, like that team wasn't very good. They didn't have much of

6:11it. I didn't even. I just never was much of a Satterfield believer. Then he like leaves to go to Cincinnati and then Brahm comes in. Was that like a forced leave type thing? Because I can't imagine a bigger upgrade that off season than Lulvo, like somehow willingly ditching Satterfield without having to pay a bow out, at least I presume they didn't. And then adding Jeff Brahm. What went into that and how big of an upgrade was that? Yeah, there was no buyout for Scott Satterfield going to Cincinnati. That was kind of, that was a unique situation. That was one of those where you wake up because it happened overnight to put, you know, for when the public found out that you wake up early in the morning. It's like, wait, wait, Scott Satterfield left Lulvo to go to Cincinnati and fire him. He left. And it was one of those where the Cincinnati fans because they're, they're more or so on the hardwood, but they're kind of a long time rival with Lulvo and you know, for a minute or two, they were kind of boasting and sticking out their chest, but almost unanimous from the Lulvo fan base is like, hey, appreciate that. And obviously, you can really open the door for Jeff Brahm. I mean, I think

7:11Scott Satterfield was probably wanting a little bit more of a raise is what the, what the, what the way that it went and UofL clearly wasn't too interested because he was kind of, just above average doing just enough. So obviously, Jeff Brahm came in and his first year and took what Scott Satterfield has started and took the Cardinals to their first ACC championship game. But yeah, that's a, that's a fun and interesting story to look back on. I mean, it was an incredible upgrade. Quarterback wise, Brahm has been very successful with the guys he's gotten out of the portal since he's gotten to Lulvo. In Lincoln, Kinghold, it seems like a different guy in the sense that he's more mobile, but not really his proven. He hasn't really played as much football. What do you make of this addition and what are kind of the expectations for Kingholds at Quarterback this year? Yeah, as you mentioned, it's another transfer portal for Jeff Brahm. This is his fourth year. It's his fourth starting quarterback that he got out of the transfer portal. A little different, a couple differences with Lincoln versus all the others. One, he's not experienced all the other guys came in with, you know, plenty of experience, starting power for experience. He's coming in with, I think, 250 career passing yards on the

8:12college level after three years working as a backup competing at Ohio State, clearly highly rated coming out of high school in South Dakota. But another thing that's even more impressive that's really kind of jumped out to me off the page throughout spring practice and even more so in fall camp is how much of an athlete he is. He has shown the ability to throw the ball at all three levels. But it's what he can do with his legs and he's not just a guy that will dance around a little bit. Obviously, you guys are very familiar with it. Do a third quarterback as well. But that's not something that Louisville has had very often. We were talking to Brian Brahm, Jeff's younger brother, who's the offense coordinator, QB coach about it the other day. He's like, we've always had these, you know, quarterback run type of plays in our playbook, which is pretty thick. He goes, we've never really had a guy that was athletic like Lincoln to kind of put them in there as a regular part of our game plan. So really look afford to seeing, you know, what they do with him. They've actually one of the efforts they've been trying to do at fall campus to get him to stay in the pocket a little bit more because he's so good on the run. He could throw well on the run.

9:16He's very well, very elusive. He's got some nice speed, which we'll see on Sunday. But they want him to make sure you look at all your options before you take off. So we'll be interesting to see how much he has matured as far as a pocket quarterback and can control his legs on win, win two, and win not to run. Got one of the better running backs in the country. Probably one of the more unharrowed running backs in the country and Isaac Brown. Does this I love him run through him? Yeah, yeah, totally. And it's more than just Isaac. I mean, there's two browns there. Isaac Brown and Kiwan Brown, both of them ranked I think Isaac with 90 or more carries was tops in the country, less with 8.8 yards per carry. That's in Kiwan. And was I think just third, I think at about 7.3 yards per carry. So two of the top more effective running backs, you know, per carry are back for the Cardinals. Those bolts see plenty of action on Sunday. And one thing that running back coach Jeff Rahm have always done, running back coach Chris Barclayn had coach Jeff Rahm have always done is kind of utilize what they have in the running back room. And they've been stung by injuries over the years. And they've kind of protected Isaac throughout fall

10:20camp. He's now totally fresh, totally ready to go. It was like a slow progress. Like day one, it was more with the trainers than with his teammates. And that steadily increased throughout camp, because Mr. Number of games last year with an injury. Kiwan Brown, Mr. Couple of games last year with an injury. So, you know, they've got some other guys on that depth chart that they like as well. But certainly Isaac will be running back one and Kiwan Brown is I would call him running back, you know, 1B, because he's that good and that much part of the game plan. Seems like offensive lawnmowers they'll be pretty good on the interior, but like similar to Ole Miss Ole Miss has serious questions at the tackle spots. They feel good about one of them, but the guy the kid hasn't played much football at least not for Ole Miss. Is that similar for Louisville? Is that an accurate description of the offensive on? Yeah, I'm still not certain what to expect from Louisville's offensive line. Not that they've looked bad in camp or anything. Obviously, they've got, they've brought in five transfers, all experienced guys through the portal with the expectation that they would help strengthen. It wouldn't be much of a drop off or even improve over last year's offensive line. Lance Robinson, the veteran who's back, it was pegged to be center. He's moved

11:25out to tackle because I'm an injury to Ann War O'Neill who's going to be a starter on offensive line. So they've moved Evan Wiberley to the center spot transfer from Kentucky who's really projected just kind of be more of a backup to spell Lance at center. So they've had to do some makeshift for game one. Don't have everybody exactly where they are, which certainly, you know, have a little concern because it's not there one a squad and they probably won't see that until game three or four when O'Neill comes back. But I have been oppressed. I really like what Lance Robinson has been done. He's a very versatile guy that's played all over the place. You know, but there are some concerns that it is a concern for me. I'm curious to see how well they do. And they're obviously going against Ole Miss. They're going to get a huge test right out of the gate. But again, it's not a group. It's really disappointed. They're just kind of thin talking to coach Braw on Monday. I mean, this is a group they are hoping to have a seven eight guy rotation. It's kind of down to six because of the guys who are dinged up. So it's certainly a concern going into game one.

12:26Receivers wise. I mean, that's a huge plus for a quarterback. If you have an experienced receiver room, if it hasn't played a ton of football, what are they looking like receivers wise? Yeah, the veteran they have back Trace Sean. He actually thought about for a few minutes to hop in the transfer portal. He obviously decided to come back. But even he is their most experienced running wide receiver comeback. Didn't have too many receptions. I think it was like 14 catches last year or something around that neighborhood. But they brought in Trace Richardson, who was a huge get out of Vanderbilt from the transfer portal. He's a guy that just has that type of speed. It just leaves you shaking your head. Instant burst at the line of scrimmage. If you blink, he's going to be gone. Similar to Isaac Brown when he's carrying the ball. Just the type of speed that you don't see too often. It's just a special talent. So he's obviously a series threat at all three levels. They can catch a deep threat pretty quickly. He's a guy that you'll certainly want to keep in front of the defense as well. But it's a little bit low-way in McCoy. A

13:28transfer from Florida. Stay one, I include him too. He's probably wide receiver number two. He had a really impressive spring game. Those are probably your top three. I'm not sure what to expect below that because you have a little bit more inexperience and guys trying to take that next step in their career and start to prove themselves. But if those guys three perform as they should and stay healthy, I think the wide receiver room going at least for game one as long as they stay healthy. Looks great for the Cardinals. Seems like defensively for Brawm, like winning doubt, just be aggressive. And they had one of the best past rushes in the league last year. It seems like it should be pretty good again. And then they were one of the best past defenses too. And it looks like the lawnbacker and should be pretty sad. I guess from a point in saying that this defense should be pretty nasty. It's a weird way to ask it. Is there a weak point in this defense? It seems like they're pretty sturdy in all three phases. Yeah. For me, I don't know if I want to call it a weakness. It could be because we haven't really seen too much of it. And that's that middle of the defensive front. I think they've got the stable of edge and past rush guys that are impressive. Leclerc Lubin is the guy that you were referring to that led the K was one of the

14:32nation's leaders in just creating havoc in the backfield last year. They've got another guy, AJ Green. That's going to come out coming off the edge of transfer and Tyler Thompson, who's another guy that lives, loves to live in the backfield. But the defensive tackle spots, I just am a little concerned about it. It's a very inexperienced group. You have Domingo Kennedy, who's an experienced guy there, but outside of him, it's a really inexperienced group that, Jeff Romney didn't seem overly confident about. So it's certainly a spot. The DT spot is certainly one to watch for the Cardinals. If you're looking for a weakness, and it's certainly an area of strength, I think for Ole Miss as well, certainly for what their offense can do. But yeah, everywhere else, I mean, the linebackers will love what they've done back there. The second year, I think they're even stronger and deeper than they were a year ago. They do have a new play collar on defense and co-defence of coordinator Mark Ivy. So that's certainly something to watch out for. He's a guy that loves to be aggressive. He's plenty of experience coaching Louisville's defensive line. Spent the last couple of years with the linebackers and both groups excelled

15:37under his leadership. How he is, helping to lead and be the play collar for this defense is something to certainly watch for on Sunday as well, because his first ever game, that's a new experience. You never know what a guy's going to go through. Something to watch for Louisville and Ole Miss fans is a game unfolds. Brahms won 28 games in three years. It's pretty damn good. I have to imagine his approval rating is pretty high. I'd actually forgotten how close they were to potentially making, I guess that would have been a 14 playoff in 2023, but winning the ACC, they were going to let 10 and 11 and then end up losing three and road toward the end. And then last year, it seems like in the last couple of years, they've had a skid in the middle somewhere. What is the next step? Is it to win the ACC? What is the next rung or ring or rung on the ladder for Jeff Brown at Louisville? Yeah, obviously they went to the ACC championship game in the first year lost in that game to Florida State, but since then, it's been so close. One game away, and a lot of it's because they've dropped games they shouldn't lose to at Stanford last year.

16:41They had three games last year that they lost. They were all scored. I think the total was seven by total of seven points. Come in at home as well. They've had a lot of 19 of his games in his career at Louisville have been once score games or not. Most of those have come out as victories, but you certainly want to be able to put a little bit more gap between you. But to get over that hop is you can't lose to a Stanford when you're a double digit favorite. You can't lose games at home when you're a big favorite. Those type of moments are ones that certainly separate teams that get to their league championships and in the college football playoff. And once they don't, those are the games that have kept Louisville from being more of an elite program the last couple years. And so Louis got to take care of the games they're supposed to. And as you mentioned earlier, as we've gone, Jeff Brahms really good in games like this. Obviously going down to number two Miami last year and beating their hurricanes and hard rock stadium. To me, it's to get over that hump. It's more of those games. You need to win that you're supposed to win. You know, you can't get upset in games of your double digit favorite.

17:43You know, I was going to ask you like whether it's your subscribers or fan-based wise, like it is the expectation or do they think this team has a shot to make the playoff. It's something you said at the beginning of this is like what they're path to making the playoff will be determined by what they do in league play. I think for like Ole Miss in the SEC, it's a little bit different because you've seen in two years now with this 12 team playoff, there's been a log jam of teams like 10 and 2 or 9 and 3. And like winning the SEC is hard, particularly at the top end. And it's like can you get into the playoff. But you mentioned like that that'll be more determined at ACC play. If Louisville makes the playoff like fan-based wise, is it through the lens of win the ACC rather than trying to figure out how to get an out large bid? Like, does that question make any sense? Is that how they view it more so? Yeah, I think that's fair. I think part of that's because of the perception that the ACC has right now is, you know, let me want to ask one of the questions right there as the college football season's going. If can the ACC get two teams in the playoff will just be their champion. And I do think that's a legitimate concern. It's obviously that can be dictated, but what we see is the season progresses.

18:44But I think right now, yeah, if you're at ACC program, I think your focus needs to be if we want to get into the college football playoff, we better get to the ACC championship and win it. Because I think if you're that loser in the league, you're going to need a little help. Obviously with the playoff expanding, that helps. But you certainly want to be able to, you know, take care of your own destiny. But if Louisville is one of those teams, and even in the ACC, because the way the schedule unfolds, you've got teams at the top like Louisville's not playing Miami this year. Louisville's not playing Clemson in the regular season this year. And you've got those kind of weird schedules all over the place for those teams projected at the top of the league. So, if you're a one or two league two lost team in the ACC list this year, that could be sketchy on getting into the league championship game. One one loss could probably get you there to probably won't and they'll probably keep you out of the playoff. Which like adds color to your answer at the beginning of like if Louisville were to beat all miss, it would just be I think the biggest advantage they would have with that is if Louisville were a ten and two team at the end of the year that didn't win the ACC. That's a hell of a feather to

19:44have in their cap or not on their belt. Whatever metaphor you want to use is that kind of the lens through which they've either. Yeah, I think you know, let's say Louisville Miami, meet an ACC Champions game. It's a great game. But the Cardinals come on the losing side. If they've beaten Ole Miss and game one and Ole Miss has gone on to have a great season as they're expecting, then yeah, that's something on the resume that could certainly, you know, love them back into the college football playoff. So certainly it's a huge game without question. And I think, you know, I think that's the emphasis that Jeff Brahman and his team have on this is like, hey, this is a game where we could show who we are. We could show the nation that were capable of being one of those teams that are playing, you know, past the league championship games. Last topic for I'll let you go is honestly more from my own personal curiosity. My grandfather was actually a Louisville alum and was a big Louisville fan. And like when I was a kid, it was a lot of basketball, but Louisville always pretty much had a good football program. And I remember like, I think it was comfort USA, then to like Big East. And I remember watching like different versions of Big Louisville football games with him. But it's different to me than

20:45Kentucky. To where I can, Kentucky is a big basketball school too. Everyone knows that's a huge robbery. But it's almost like it takes convincing for them to buy into the football program. And like stooped in that for a while. I've never felt that as much with Louisville. And maybe I'm totally off based with that. But I guess like my question is like, what is like the dichotomy of Louisville basketball versus football? Because it does seem like they're a little bit more bought into both than other schools that you were perceived to be basketball schools. If that makes sense. No, I totally agree with you. And I've kind of grown up when Louisville was, I would say typically just a basketball school at a football team playing in Howard Shnumberg, where he was playing in a pretty beat up old baseball stadium. So even then it was kind of secondary to the basketball program, which kind of financed the football program for years. But you fast forward today, not, obviously, they got an elite stadium. And I would say you could describe the almost where they got their own identity. It's certainly not a basketball school anymore. And I'll think it's a football school. I think it's a program where they put both sports on equal level, not

21:49just the fan bases, but from the administration down. Obviously, if you get that message from the school, hey, we view Jeff Brahman, this football program exactly the same as we view Pat Kelsey in the men's basketball program, then that's going to relate to the to the football fan base. And I think you, I think you nailed it on the head. It's not something to just do until basketball season. This is something that people live and breathe a little football. You go out and if you come to a game in LN State and you'll see it's quite an experience, this for sure. And then last thing that kind of ties into it, if Brahman Louisville were to win the ACC this year, what would that do to the notoriety of the football program? Well, we could say when they do, right? Let's speak it into an existence. I think it, you know, like one of the things that Jeff Brahman's message has been, ever since he came here being a little bit native, former quarterback, former assistant coaches, you know, to get the program to the next level. And I think with him here, I believe with him here, he has, I don't want to say convinced, but has the the belief of the fan base that hey, we can

22:52accomplish something great in the football program, especially with his first year getting into the ACC championship game. If he's able to do that and then get the program beyond that to somewhere they've never been before, it'd be like, you know, going to the BCS games for the first time and elevating to the program, you know, to another level of expectation to where you could start saying that Louisville is the college football playoff, you know, contender year and year and year at it. I believe that's the goal. And if they're able to do that this year, that strengthens their ability to say those type of arguments. Michael McCam and Cardinal authority 247 sports. This was awesome. And it should be a really interesting game. But thank you for taking some time out of it. I joined the show. That's going to be fun when I look forward to it. And travel safe. Everybody from both directions can be a fun environment there at Nissan Stadium. All right. Thanks to Michael for his time. I really appreciate that. Hope you learned a little bit more about Louisville. I know I sure did. We're going to get to five things to watch here in just a second. But before we do want to take one more quick break to remind you, this podcast is brought

23:54to you by Astock. What is Astock? Astock bulk buys products from a variety of retailers and then takes them and sells them in one of two ways, either on their online bidding platform or at one of their many stores across Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky. Astock's mission is to enable you, the customer to name your price. Here's how it works. The items that Astock buys from these major retailers are often overstocked returned or closed out products from there. They list them either on their online bidding platform or sell them at one of their store, a bin store locations. You can purchase discounted items from Astock in two different ways on the online platform, a stock.com or the a stock bidding app. All items started just one dollar. Each sale has a specific in date and time. So you know exactly when the bidding closes, you can go online and place your bids on the items you want. There's no shipping or transfers available. All items must be picked up at the specified location. Then their in store sales, they get fresh inventory weekly.

24:55Everything in a bin starts at $7 on Saturdays with increasing price reductions, culminating in 50 cents per item on Wednesdays or a fill-a-bag option for $10 on Wednesdays. How about that? This is such a great idea and a great concept. The owners are all misalums. I'm looking at their website right now. They have everything from sports apparel, jewelry, kitchen appliances, luggage, mobile electronics, just every item you can think of under the sun and you get on there and get to bid and name your price. Go to astock.com or use the bidding app or visit one of their many locations in two-plow Memphis, Nashville, East Tennessee and Kentucky. Check them out astock.com. This podcast is brought to you by C-Spire. I want the perfect gift for Mother's Day right now at C-Spire. You can get her the latest 5G phone and watch for free with C-Spire's new family plans. Let mom choose from the best new phones including iPhone 17 or Samsung Galaxy S26 Plus, both on us. Packed with features, she'll love like smarter cameras, better battery life and easier controls.

25:55There's more to see visit C-Spire.com or stop by your local C-Spire store today. C-Spire, customer inspired. This podcast is also brought to you by LB's University Avenue there in Oxford. If you're a rippy right subscriber, you listen to this podcast. You get discounted meats right now. It is right now. If you tell them you're a rippy right subscriber or listener, you get three six ounce bacon rat fillets for just $25. About a $35 evaluation there. You're getting for just $25. Just stop by. Show proof of subscription or tell them you listen. He'll get you set up. Then go find your own favorites. It's the best butcher shop in the world. All kinds of delicious cuts of meat. Sausages. Go find your own favorites at LB's University Avenue there in Oxford. All right. Just as we did last year here, five things that'll probably be on my mind is Ole Miss kicks the football off with Louisville on Sunday evening in Nashville. The first one is the Ole Miss running game against Louisville's front seven. Louis got a pretty good front seven. They're probably a little weak at the defensive tackle spots. But a hell of an edge russier and cleavloob and they feel pretty good about their linebacker room. Louisville was a pretty good defense last

26:57year largely because they were very good past defense. They were good issue against the run. But I'm very curious to see how much success Ole Miss has running the football for a couple of reasons. Last year Kiwan Lacey carried the football more than any other running back in division one football. 306 carries both gold and John David Baker said they don't want to do that again. They add Macchi Frazier from Michigan State out of the portal. You get Shikai Mills night coming back. They add the kid die from Utah. Haven't really heard much about those latter two. I imagine this is probably going to be a lot of Kiwan Lacey and Macchi Frazier. But what does that carry split look like? I don't think it'd be smart for Ole Miss to give Kiwan Lacey the workload they did last year. But he's also the best running back not only on the team, but one of the best running backs in the country. And how much success does Ole Miss have running the football against Louisville? That was Lane Kiffin Charlie Weiss's calling card. They had good rush running offence is really every year of the Kiffin era, even with Levy. It predated Weiss. But it was largely because and I would read this all the time. I'm not really a schematics expert, but like the diversity of Ole

28:00Miss is running game. The amount of ways they try to run the football was that one of the reasons they always had success. In one year, they didn't really have success running the football. Guess what? 2024. We all know how that turned out. I'm curious to see how Ole Miss fares against what should be a pretty stout front seven for Louisville because Ole Miss can run the football that takes a lot of pressure. Obviously, off of Trinidad Shameless, who's throwing to a fairly new receiving core. And I'm just very curious to see Ken John David Baker manufacture just a pretty awesome running game. You know, game in and game out, I guess for year one, but year like year in and year out, like they had like Ole Miss had in the Kiffin era. So I'm very fascinated with that matchup. The second one is going to be Ole Miss's defensive line against Louisville's offensive line, on a shocking line matchups in a football game, really, really groundbreaking analysis. But I do think this is the single biggest Ole Miss advantage Ole Miss has in this game. Louisville retooled basically its entire offensive line on the portal with the exception of the center position. We've seen in the past firsthand with Ole Miss how difficult that can be to build an entire

29:01offensive line in the portal. I know that's more and more the way of like where college football is going, right? Everyone complains about offensive line depth now. Well, guess what? Nobody has it because you just if you got a good offensive line, and he's probably going to go somewhere he can play. But it's very difficult to find cohesion when you don't have guys returning like Ole Miss at least returns three guys there on the interior. That's going to help a lot with the cohesion of their offensive line. Louisville doesn't have that. And we know what at least we think we know what Ole Miss has on the defensive line. I think that's the single biggest advantage Ole Miss has in this game. Can they get after Louisville transfer or Ohio State transfer quarterback Lincoln Keenholz? He's a guy that's played almost no football has throwing to a basically new receiving core. And he is also more of a dual threat guy than Jeff Brahms has had. Jeff Brahms been there three years had three pretty damn good transfer quarterbacks. None of them are dual threat guys. So there is more mobility with Keenholz than any other Louisville quarter quarter back in the Brahms era. But if Ole Miss can get after him and make him uncomfortable, this is a guy that's not played very much football. Really the only game experience he's had that wasn't mop up time was

30:05the 2023 cotton bowl. If you remember, that was when Missouri beat Ohio State. At that point, since Ohio State lost him, Michigan and missed the playoff, they'd already run off starting quarter back. Kyle McCord in it up at Syracuse. Devin Brown was the starter for that game. He gets knocked out early in and Keenholz comes in. He went like six of 17 for 80 yards, not saying that's the kind of quarterback he has. My point is he hasn't played very much football. So if you make him uncomfortable behind what appears to be a little bit of a shaky or questionable offensive line for Louisville, I like Ole Miss's chances in this game. The third one, ties into the offensive line for Ole Miss, but also really just the defense as a whole. The best player Louisville has is running back Isaac Brown. One of the best running backs in the ACC, probably one of the more underrated running backs in the country. Average almost non yards of touch last year. Had like 104 carries for 884 yards. Miss three games last year with the hamstring injury, but speedy, shifty guy with home run speed. He's going to be the best player Louisville has an offense.

31:06I imagine the offense runs through him. If Ole Miss can neutralize him or at least not let him beat them, I kind of like their chances because if Louisville doesn't have a very successful running game and now they're depending on a quarterback, again, it hasn't played much behind a fairly shaky offensive line and a bunch of new receivers he's not used to throwing to. That's not going to be good news for the Cardinals, but this kid is good enough to beat Ole Miss. He's really, really good and if Louisville can control the tempo and is getting 678 yards of rush, then that's not going to be great news. Not only for this game for Ole Miss, but I think going to change what we thought about the Ole Miss defense. Not to overreact after one game, but I just, if Isaac Brown carved them up and Ole Miss loses this game, then everything we heard or thought about this defense has got to change in some sense. Anyway, I'm very curious about that. Four-thing, Shameless versus Louisville's secondary. I know kind of another generic one, but Louisville had the best past defense in the ACC last year. They returned a pretty good bit from that group

32:08last year. Made some additions on the periphery that I think are pretty good. The Holloway kid is their best returning corner. Seems like a really good player. Trinidad Shameless didn't put the ball in harm's way a lot with the exception of Miami game. He had three interceptions last year. Probably could have doubled that total. The Miami players could catch, but nobody likes talking about Ole Miss interceptions. We've had several famous cases of that in the state of Mississippi, the last couple of years. My point being is Shameless is throwing to a relatively new receiving goal, not only a real returner of any real experience, it's due to Alexander. So it's going to be a lot of new guys. How does Ole Miss match up there? Louisville's got a pretty good secondary. It's the first game of the John David Baker era, John David Baker system. How easily or not easily can Ole Miss throw the football against what is a pretty tough secondary test out of the gate for the Rebels. I'll just be fascinated to see particularly early on in the game how much success or lack thereof Ole Miss is having throwing the football against Louisville. The last one, not only a thought about like the game itself, but I'll definitely be thinking

33:10about it a kickoff. This is a fascinating matchup of coaches. You got a very offensive minded coach in Brown who I think is one of the most underrated coaches in the country. Look what he did at Louisville and what I just mean at Purdue and what Purdue has been sent. So Brown goes 36 and 34 Louisville. I know maybe off the surface that's not a ton to write home about because 26 and 25 in Big Ten play. That's not a whole lot of stretches in Purdue's history where they've gone over 500 in Big Ten play. Purdue, one of the tougher jobs in the Big Ten. Produced since he's left, is 7 and 30 overall, 3 and 24 in Big Ten play and has currently lost 18 straight Big Ten games. Brown won nine or more games all three years he's been at Louisville. The man can coach. Guys also very good as an underdog. He's won six of the last nine outright when he's been a, I think a six touch sound or more underdog. That stat may not be right because there were definitely games at Purdue where he was much bigger than that. But anyway, point being sorry, six out of his last on as an underdog outright. Got to coach football. On the other side, you've got Pete Golding,

34:13defensive minded head coach. That chess match of the Louisville offense versus Ole Miss defense is going to be fascinating. But he got Golding who has a whopping two in one record as a head coach, very unproven, a year of validation for Ole Miss as I read about earlier this week. It'd be validating for Golding if Ole Miss has success or it also validates what people doubt about Golding if Ole Miss doesn't have success. This is a much more important game for Ole Miss than it is Louisville. If Ole Miss loses this game, there's almost no path to the college football playoff. I know people might not necessarily want to hear that, but it's just reality. You have a non-game SEC slate and you're going to go O and one out of the gate against a non-conference opponent. Yeah, good luck. Ole Miss has to have this game. Louisville really doesn't. The ACC is not getting a bunch of teams in the playoff. I'd be shocked if the ACC got more than two. Maybe they'd only get one. I don't know. We'll have to see how the season plays out. I mean, a seven and five team won the ACC last year in Duke. We all forgot about that. But point being Louisville's path to making the playoff, or their most sure fire path is to win the ACC or get in the ACC championship game

35:17obviously and win it. If Louis was 10 and two at the end of the year and didn't win the ACC, sure, a win over Ole Miss, assuming Ole Miss went on to have a pretty good year, obviously a pretty good notch in their belt as far as making a case to get an at-large bid. But still, this is just a hypothetical. I don't know the exact scenario behind this, but I'd have to imagine in that scenario, it's still probably a long shot Louisville is getting an at-large bid. So their path is what they're going to do in conference play, where it's almost has to have this game. It'll help Louisville give it some Louisville room to not have to win the ACC to make the playoff, but there is no path to the playoff for Ole Miss without winning this game. I don't think I'm breaking any or shattering news with that one and I'm just fascinated. It's an experience head coach who's really good as an underdog against a coach with basically no experience, not really an aqua-golding. You don't have experience until you have it and I'm just fascinated about the offense and defensive philosophies and that chess match and just where these two guys sit in their careers. It's going to be a fascinating match up on Sunday.

36:20And those are the five things I'll be thinking about at kickoff. Thanks for reading. Thanks for listening as always as I was referencing my newsletter that I wrote. That's back. So be sure to sign up for that for that rippyrightsetsubstack.com. What an eye would back on Monday. I'll be on the Postgame Show on Sunday. Have a great, safe, happy, Labor Day weekend. We'll talk to you on Monday.