Andy & Ari On3 - Can Florida State keep winning without QB Jordan Travis? | What do Lincoln Riley and USC do now?

Episode Date: November 20, 2023

It's rivalry week, but it will have a different tone in Tallahassee as the Seminoles adjust to losing quarterback Jordan Travis to a gruesome leg injury. Jeff Cameron of Warchant.com joins to explain what happens now as the Seminoles prepare to play Florida without the unquestioned leader of their team.Today's show is brought to you by PrizePicks, the easiest way to play daily fantasy. All first time users that deposit and use the promo code ANDY will receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100. If you deposit $100, PrizePicks will give you $100. If you deposit $50, PrizePicks will give you $50.Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/ivHR/ANDY(0:00-8:54) News - Cam Rising, Dino Babers, Apple Cup(8:55-22:21) Week 13 Resume Rankings(22:22-38:24) Jeff Cameron from Warchant Joins(38:25-41:36) Big 12 Championship Scenarios(41:37-45:26) New Years 6 Bowl Projections(45:27-1:00:42) Erik McKinney from WeAreSC Joins(1:00:43-1:06:42) Week 13 Opening Lines(1:06:43-1:19:49) Clayton Sayfie from The Wolverine Joins(1:19:50-1:22:33) Conclusion, Scheduling UpdatesBut first, some news. Syracuse has fired Dino Babers, and Andy breaks down a few potential candidates. Plus, Andy gives his resume rankings, which feature a move from Washington after its win against Oregon State.After Andy and Jeff talk about the Seminoles, Andy gives his projected College Football Playoff and New Years Six games. With only one week of the regular season remaining, the identity of the four teams in the CFP feels quite uncertain.Next, Erik McKinney of WeAreSC.com joins to discuss what happens now at USC after the Trojans' season went splat Saturday with a loss to UCLA. Does Lincoln Riley understand how much work needs to be done? Who will he hire as the defensive coordinator? Is USC's 2024 QB1 currently on the roster?Next, Andy examines some rivalry week opening lines. Ohio State-Michigan has gotten tighter since the preliminary lines were released a few weeks ago.Clayton Sayfie of The Wolverine explains why that line has gotten tighter. He was in College Park, Md., for Michigan's 31-24 win that introduced some doubts about what might happen in The Game.Want to watch the show? Head on over to YouTube and don't forget to subscribe!https://youtube.com/live/fPO2vX-4KXQ

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. It is rivalry week. We're here. Oh yeah. The game hovers over all, but you've also got the iron bowl. You've got the civil war. You got the apple cup.

We got a little news about the apple cup. It's going to be a very fun week, but we actually start out with some news about next year because Utah quarterback Cam Rising is coming back. Rising, remember, he got hurt in the Rose Bowl last year, injured his knee. It was a very bad knee injury, and turns out it's going to cost him this entire season.

So he has a chance to come play another year. He's going to cost him this entire season. So he has a chance to come play another year. He's going to take it. So I guess that means the question is, is Cam rising the preseason big 12 player of the year? He very well might be. Remember Utah will be a big 12 team next year. So will Arizona and so will Colorado and so will Arizona State. So Cam Rising will be entering a very different conference than the one he left. It was a shame not to get to see him duel with these great quarterbacks in the Pac-12 this year, but I am glad we're going to get to see him for another year.

He'll get to play some teams that he's used to play. And remember, he was at Texas before he was at Utah. So this will be a lot of fun to get him back, hopefully completely healthy. And it's great for Utah because this is a program that seems to keep just reloading and reloading. Well, last week accepted. Everybody has a bad game, and the Utes had their really bad game against Arizona. But congratulations to Cam Rising. Can't wait to see you play in 2024.

Now, another question for 2024 is who will be coaching the Syracuse Orange? Because they fired Dino Babers on Sunday. And listen, Syracuse did a really tough job. Dino had a 10-win season in 2018. That's about as good as you're going to get there at this point in college football. And where they are in college football, Dino said in October that they're the type of roster that stays thin because now if you develop a good player, he gets bought off your roster.

Sounds like a little bit of sour grapes, but he's not wrong. It's a very difficult job at Syracuse. You're recruiting to Central New York. It's not the warmest place in the world. It's not surrounded by a bunch of four and five star talent. It's a hard job, but there will be some people who would want that job, who would be very excited to have that job. One of those guys, Jason Candle, the current Toledo coach. He's got them playing very well. They're going to play in the MAAC championship this year. He's one of those guys that you kind of heard him mentioned for jobs really ever since he took over

for Matt Campbell, who was a fellow Mount Union Purple Raider. Matt Campbell left Toledo to go to Iowa State. Jason Candle took over and has been one of the hot names kind of ever since, but he's been at Toledo a while now. Another potential name you might hear, Alex Atkins, the offensive coordinator at Florida State. We're going to talk a lot about Florida State in this show. Jeff Cameron from War Chant is going to join us. We're going to talk about what the Seminoles do after the loss of Jordan Travis. And that's what Alex Atkins is dealing with right now. They've got to start a backup quarterback, Tate Rodemaker, against Florida this week. That's his concern. But Alex Atkins is a future head coach, a future Power 5 head coach,

offensive line coach by trade, was a play-c coordinator at Charlotte at Florida State. Mike Norvell calls the plays, but Alex Atkins is ready to be a CEO. I think he's going to be very good at it. I don't know if this is the year he makes the move or we wait a little bit longer, but this could be a pretty good job. Bob Chesney, the Holy Cross coach knows the area. Very successful at the FCS level. Don't discount this. Being in the region and understanding the region is important for jobs like Syracuse, for Boston College, Temple.

These are places that you've got to understand the Northeast a little bit. You've got to understand how to find people and develop them. Like I said, you're not surrounded by four and five star talent. When the occasional Christian Wilkins comes along, everybody comes to snap him up. So having somebody who understands it is important.

Sean Lewis, that's one that he worked for Dino Babers. He was the offensive coordinator there. Springboarded that to become the head coach at Kent State. Thought he was going to get a head coaching job for Kent State, but that was a weird place where his old AD just loaded them up in the non-conference to get these paycheck games and they would get slaughtered and then be just beat up by the time they got to MAAC play. So his idea this year was let's go to Colorado, be the OC there, have a good year with Deion. Maybe I'm a head coach. That did not go as planned either. He got demoted. Now, if you've heard this show,

since that decision was made, we think it was a pretty bad decision. Don't understand it. Pat Shermer replaced him, former NFL coach. And really, Sean Lewis was doing the best he could with an offense that actually helped hide Colorado's blocking deficiencies. And really, Sean Lewis was doing the best he could with an offense that actually helped hide Colorado's blocking deficiencies. And then by demoting him, all they did was say, hey, look, now we're going to run an offense that makes it harder to run because we also still can't block. So we'll see what happens. I don't know if Sean Lewis can get a power five job right now. I don't know if he has the juice for it. He may have to go somewhere else as an OC and work his way back.

A couple of guys who've been in the NFL, Doug Marone's a former Syracuse head coach. I bet he gets a call. Now, if he doesn't want to do it, he probably says, hey, I don't want to do it, but my buddy Bill O'Brien does. Bill O'Brien, we all know him as the current New England Patriots offensive coordinator, former Houston Texans head coach, former Alabama offensive coordinator when they had Bryce Young. But one of the more instructive parts of his resume for this particular thing is,

remember, he was the head coach at Penn State for the two years immediately after the Jerry Sandusky scandal. And he did a very good job there. He made, I mean, got Matt McGloin drafted and kept that program afloat. He did a good job as a recruiter and his on-field coaching was very good. So it's not the worst idea to at least ask. I realize he is not very successful this year. They have been bad on offense in New England, but I don't think he's forgotten how to coach.

And the time we saw him as a CEO in college football, while brief, he did a pretty good job. So worth checking out. Other news, and this one is a story I'm glad that we're talking about, glad that it happened. Washington and Washington State, they are playing in the Apple Cup this week. It is not going to be the last one. Washington is headed to the Big Ten.

Washington State is part of the Pac-2 or the 2-PAC. But they're going to keep playing. Five more years through 2028. The game next year will be at Lumen Field in Seattle where the Seahawks play. And then it goes home and home for the, for the following four years. So very excited to see that happening. Oregon, Oregon state, you're on the clock. Sounds like that's going to get done too. They want to move some non-conference stuff around,

but it does look like that's going to get done. Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, you can do it. Just saying. Grownups can pull this off. You don't have to be mad at each other. You don't have to be bitter about it. You can just play. And this is the thing I said when these conference breakups happened, when Oregon and Washington decided to go to the big 10 and everybody's like, well, they can't keep playing that game. Well, yes, they can. And my example was Clemson and South Carolina, Florida and Florida state, Georgia and Georgia tech, Kentucky and Louisville. They somehow managed and like South Carolina used to be in Clemson's conference. They still play.

Georgia Tech used to be in Georgia's conference. They still play. It's not impossible as long as there are grownups in charge. And you saw it with the Washington administration and the Washington state administration. So congratulations, Troy Dannon and Pat Chun for getting that done. Troy's new to the whole thing. Troy was at Tulane not long ago, but they got it done. It is Sunday, so it is time to talk resume ranking. This is an interesting one this week because some stuff happened, even though none of the top teams lost,

some stuff happened that makes us ree-evaluate a little bit. Still got Georgia at number one. Still got Ohio State number two. The Ohio State and Michigan thing will obviously work itself out. They're going to play. I've got Michigan number three. Michigan left some room for doubt. We'll talk later in the show with Clayton Safey from the Wolverine about some of those issues that popped up during the Michigan-Maryland game. But yeah, I've got them at three. If they beat Ohio State, they'll move up. If they lose to Ohio State and it doesn't look pretty,

they move down. That's all there is to it. I moved Washington to four here. I had Florida State ahead of Washington, but Washington going into Corvallis and beating Oregon State on a night when the weather really favored Oregon State's style of play over Washington's,

I thought was really impressive. I am always more impressed by teams that can win games in multiple ways. And I think Washington showed us they can grind one out and was very impressed with the way they stuck it out, deed up at the end. They are now undefeated, heading into the Apple Cup. They got a win

against Washington State. They'll probably have to play Oregon again in the Pac-12 championship game. They will probably be the Vegas underdog. I might pick Washington in that rematch though, because that win, I felt like proved a lot more to me than what they had been doing recently. Now, Oregon has been just crushing people since they lost to Washington, but they did lose to Washington. So if they play again, it's possible they will lose again. So I got Washington here. I moved Florida State down to number five, not really because Jordan Travis got hurt. I was going to move them anyway, just because I felt like what Washington had done

deserved them moving up. They just, they feel like they have a better resume now. And that is probably due to the Pac-12 just being a deeper conference than the ACC. Florida State obviously still has that very good win against LSU to start the season. Unfortunately State obviously still has that very good win against LSU to start the season. Unfortunately, the team they play this week, Florida, has not held up its end of the bargain. They're five and six. This is a game usually where both of the teams are pretty

good. Unfortunately, Florida is not there right now. So Florida State, unfortunately, not really of its own doing here, but you got to go by who they played. And Washington has played what feels like a tougher schedule, has more impressive, like their best win is Oregon. It's a great best win. And so I got to give it to Washington right now. That doesn't mean this won't change. That doesn't mean a Florida State that's undefeated doesn't make the playoff.

Because the loser of Michigan, Ohio State could just drop completely out of the top four. If Washington and Florida State keep winning, they're just in. Now, the team I have at six doesn't want to hear that. That's Texas. Texas needs one of those two teams to lose. They do. They probably need Georgia to beat Alabama too, but that would help.

Because Alabama and Texas, Texas, I think should stay ahead of Alabama as long as they have the similar or close to the same record. Because Texas went to Tuscaloosa and won. And the games need to mean something. But I understand that people might say, Alabama's a different team.

Texas is a different team than when that game happened. I get it. But I do think the games need to matter. That said, Texas has got to win the next two. They've got to beat Texas Tech on Friday. I think they can do that. I'm not worried about them there. I was pretty worried about them going to Iowa State. They end up with a 10-point victory. I think they're going to be fine. I don't know about the Big 12 championship

game. And the thing is, we don't even know who they're going to play in the Big 12 championship game right now. They beat Texas Tech. They're definitely in. If they lose to Texas Tech, then all the tiebreakers come in. But let's say they beat Texas Tech. They're definitely in. If they lose to Texas Tech, then all the tiebreakers come in. But let's say they beat Texas Tech. They're definitely in. They're going to wind up playing Oklahoma State or Oklahoma or Kansas State. Now, they've played Oklahoma and lost. They have played Kansas State at home.

And if Kansas State makes a two-point conversion at the end of the game, they would have lost that one too. So this is not one of those games where Texas can mess around. That Iowa State game, there were some critical mistakes that Texas made. And I think against a K-State or an Oklahoma State or an Oklahoma, you're going to lose if you make those level mistakes. So Texas needs to clean things up. Number seven, I have Alabama. Here's the thing. If Alabama beats Georgia, Alabama's in the playoff. I don't think there's any question about that. They'll figure out a way to make it work, but Alabama will be in the playoff if Alabama beats Georgia. The Iron Bowl this week is a little interesting because Auburn just got

shelled by New Mexico State. And you know what that means in terms of the Iron Bowl? Absolutely nothing. Like Auburn could come out just hair on fire in the Iron Bowl. Remember, the first Brian Harsin team took Alabama to four overtimes. The week before Alabama pounded eventual national champion Georgia in the SEC championship game. Weird things happen at Jordan here. Weird things happen at Jordan here. Weird things happen at Jordan here. I don't feel like I can say that enough this week. And perhaps it will just be easy for Alabama. But 2021, 2009, we've seen it not be easy. 2017, at 2017, Auburn was really good.

Auburn had just beaten then number one Georgia at Jordan-Hare. So maybe that one, it doesn't count. But there are just times when that is a really tough stadium to play in, no matter who you are. Is Alabama better than Auburn? Absolutely. But weird things happen. And especially after something exceptionally weird just happened,

where New Mexico State went in and whomped Auburn at Jordan-Hare. Very weird. Number eight, I got Oregon. Why is Oregon behind Texas and Alabama? Because Texas and Alabama have better wins than Oregon. Can Oregon change that? Abso-freaking-lutely. Because they have a chance for a very good win this week against Oregon State and a really, really good win, even better win against Washington the following week. So no need to worry if the Ducks are here. I still think a 12-1 Pac-12 champ Oregon is probably getting in the playoff,

especially now that we don't know what's going to happen with Florida State. I think if Florida State's undefeated, they're in. But starting a backup QB makes beating Florida in Gainesville and then turning around and beating Louisville in the ACC championship, which is the one I worry about more.

That makes it harder. So we'll see. Speaking of the Cardinals, they had a very tough game against Miami, but Louisville emerged victorious, stamped its ticket for the ACC championship game. Jeff Brom becomes the answer to a trivia question. What is that trivia question?

Who is the first coach to lead two different programs to two different conference championship games in consecutive seasons in the FBS? And the answer is Jeff Braum. Then the power five, which I know is not even gonna be a thing in two weeks, but that's okay. We know what it means right now.

And that's a very impressive feat. And yes, Louisville playing as a Tate Rodemaker led Florida State, we'll see. We've not seen Tate Rodemaker have a week where he had the ones with him at practice. So perhaps he goes out and just torches Florida and there's nothing to worry about. But I am very curious to see what he looks like. Louisville, a lot of their players already know what he looks like. Because remember, he got thrown into that game last year

on a Friday night when Jordan Travis got dinged up and led Florida State to a win. Now that was Scott Satterfield, Louisville, and not Jeff Brom, Louisville. But I guarantee you there's some players that are like, let's take this dude seriously because we saw him play last year. Number 10, I have Oklahoma. Now you could have Missouri here if you'd like. You could have Ole Miss here if you'd like. You could have quite a few other options. You could have Penn State here if you'd like. Why do I have Oklahoma here? They have the best win of that bunch. They beat Texas. Nobody else in there has a win like that. And that's pretty much the only way to handle it, I think. Now, will they wind up here? Who knows? They got TCU on Friday, and then it will be up to tiebreakers to figure out if they're going to make the big 12 championship game, depending on what happens with Oklahoma state and depending on what happens with Kansas

state. But it is going to be a fascinating last couple of weeks in the big 12 before everything changes in a, in 2024 big 12 player of the year cam Rising joins the league. That sounds so weird to say. It really does. Well, now I know though that I will be able to pick a few Cam Rising squares when I'm using PrizePix. Now download that app. It is the most fun daily fantasy platform in America. You download the app, use the referral code Andy. They will match your first deposit up to a hundred bucks. So if you deposit a hundred, they'll match you a hundred. I got to tell you what happened this weekend with prize picks because I had the worst beat of all time. The worst. So I knew that Deacon Hill, the Iowa quarterback was going to have a good game by Deacon Hill standards. I knew that he was going to be able to throw the ball a little bit against

Illinois. So when they put the 128 and a half number on his passing yardage, I was like, all right, I got this. I'm going more than, and then I will pick the single safest other square I could pick. And what did I pick?

I picked Bo Nix more than seven and a half rushing yards. In the third quarter of the Arizona State game, Bo Nix had 15 rushing yards. They were up by a ton. I'm like, please take Bo Nix out of the game. Please do not leave Bo Nix in the game any longer. Bo Nix took a sack, lost eight yards. I needed seven and a half. He finished with seven. And of course, they took him out of the game right after that. There's still like a quarter to play. But Oregon was up big. They wanted to get Ty Thompson some reps. I don't blame them one bit. I was just devastated though, because I knew I had the Deacon Hill one. And of course, of course, Bo Nix was going to gain 15 yards of that. I just needed like two scrambles.

Did not account for that sack. Totally my fault. But that's okay. Because I had another play. I went with a three pick power play. Treshawn Ward, the K-State running back. I said he's going to run for more than 52.5 yards against Kansas. C.J. Baxter, the Texas running back. Remember, ascending to the starting job after Jonathan Brooks' injury. More than 82.5 rushing yards against Iowa State, so he's got that. The one I wasn't sure about, Haynes King, Georgia Tech quarterback, more than one half rushing or receiving touchdowns. Haynes King is a really good runner. So I'm banking on Haynes King getting a rushing touchdown. And obviously Treshawn Ward did what he needed to do. CJ Baxter did what he needed to do. Fourth quarter of Syracuse, Georgia Tech,

I'm like, uh-oh, I'll have that Haynes King touchdown. I don't know what I'm going to do, but Syracuse kept it close. Maybe they're fighting for Dino Baber's job. And so Georgia Tech needed to put one more score on the board. And guess what it was? A 19-yard Haynes King touchdown that turned a hundred bucks into 500 bucks. And that's prize picks for you, baby. So download the app. Referral code Andy. They will match your first deposit up to 100 bucks. It was thrilling.

Absolutely thrilling. Now, I mentioned Florida State earlier. This is a team that is having a historic year. They are back. They are 11-0. They're headed to Gainesville to play Florida in a rivalry game. They're headed to the ACC Championship to play Louisville, but they were going to have to do it without Jordan Travis. This is a quarterback who really is one of the people most responsible for the Florida State Renaissance, but unfortunately, gruesome leg injury on Saturday night against North Alabama. He's not going to be playing the rest of the season, and it's up to Tate

Rodemaker, the backup quarterback. We talked to Jeff Cameron from War Chant about what that means for the Seminoles. Welcome Jeff Cameron from War Chant and sad day in Tallahassee because Jordan Travis was the heart and soul of the Florida State program. Gruesome injury on Saturday night. Obviously he's not going to be back this season. Where's everybody at in Tallahassee this morning, Jeff? I think their heart aches for Jordan Travis. Obviously, this is a good kid who's worked really hard and transformed his game, really transformed the position for Florida State. This was a program struggling at the time that Jordan Travis came here, to say the least, and he bought into Mike Norvell right from the jump, and even if Mike wasn't sure about him early on, you saw Jordan

kind of weather the storm, for lack of a better term. He was a kid who got some starts, then he was benched. Then he got back out there as a starter. Fan base wasn't real sure what kind of quarterback he was. They knew he was a great athlete, obviously, but they needed to see him throw the ball from the pocket consistently. And, man, did he really work hard on that aspect of his game, Andy. So everybody saw it happen. It played out in real time over the last two years. Obviously, Florida State's won a lot of football games in large part because of Jordan Travis.

And to see him go down on senior night like that, on a night that was supposed to be celebratory a night where we were honoring the seniors but significantly jordan travis who is a guy that i think embodies what florida state uh became uh obviously these last two years and so a lot of fans obviously were devastated it was hard to it was hard to feel good after a win last night for four state fans because all that was on their mind was the injury to jordan travis well and you think about this guy. So here's a guy who transferred from Louisville when Willie Taggart was still the coach. Yeah. And when the Mike Norvell staff gets there, Jordan Travis is like, hey, I'll change positions if you want me to. The idea of this, of him being the guy who would lead them back

to real national contention, just seems so foreign back then. And the idea of them gettingention just seems so foreign back then and the idea of them getting back here seems so foreign so i just i can't imagine what that team is going through trying to process this because they've come so far with him they have and and he is beloved by his teammates when you you know mike runs an open practice so that we in the press are lucky enough to be at every practice. And he's fine with that. Obviously there's certain rules, but you get to see relationships form. You get to watch how people respond to each other. This team to a man across the board responds to Jordan Travis's leadership. And he's a quiet leader. He does it mainly just by practicing hard every day

being consistent being there and jordan's a guy that i think again uh represents four states turnaround and they've rode that wave of emotion and later on to victory uh these last two years with him so to see him go down you could see it on the players' faces last night, Andy. That was a group that you had kids that were in tears. I saw Trey Benson was nearly inconsolable. There are a lot of guys that respect what Jordan Travis has done for this program, for them, and then also for himself, turning his career into something that every Florida State fan will remember forever. Andy, he's in the record books across the board for Florida State and the ACC.

If you look at those numbers, they're mind-boggling. It is amazing that that's where he winds up, but it just sucks that he can't finish it out. There's no way to put it. I mean, it really sucks. Now, Tate Rodemaker comes in, plays well, leads them to it. They were down 13 to nothing when Tate got in the game, which I thought you kind of forget because of the injury.

Played well, led them to a win. Played well last year when he was thrown into that situation at Louisville on a Friday night. But Tate's been a career backup, and now he's got to lead them to a win against Florida and a win against Louisville if they want to make the college football playoff. Yeah, you wonder what the committee will do. It's a fair thing to assess, right?

I mean, if a team loses their starting quarterback, who also happens to be a Heisman candidate, he's an All-American type player, how can you not look at that team differently? Florida State fans are probably very nervous that even if they went out, that they may get overlooked because of Jordan Travis not being able to play at the most important position on the field. And he's been electrifying. He's the reason Florida State is undefeated. He's one of the reasons, but he is the key reason. And so you do wonder how they're going to view Florida State. There's no doubt Florida State has to win these next two games to get in. They have to be undefeated because the ACC strength is not where it should be and

obviously doesn't compare to, say, a Pac-12 with Washington or, you know, maybe Oregon even with their one loss if they avenge Washington. You wonder if they would jump Florida State. Probably not if Florida State's undefeated, but first things first, you got to go win a football game against a rival who's fighting for bowl eligibility, and you got to go do it on the road in a hostile place at night with a brand new quarterback. Now Tate's played and he's been in situations as you alluded to, but he's not had to start a game like this. And Florida, we know Florida is going to fight like hell to try to get bowl eligible and have at least a 500 season. So you're going to get the best version of Florida and we'll see how Tate responds to that. Well, and now Florida also will be playing with a backup quarterback.

So Max Brown had to come in and replace Graham Mertz on Saturday night. So we don't know what either offense is going to look like, though. I would say the Johnny Wilson, Keon Coleman, Jaheim Bell trio. Yeah. Coleman Jaheim Bell Trio yeah probably Trump's the the Ricky Pearsall and and Trey Wilson and uh well the the two-headed monster of Montreal Johnson and Trevor et in the backfield but I do think we might see a shootout in the swamp I woke up this morning thinking that I really did I feel like Florida State's defense is is good but it's not great they've gotten by against some bad teams and and they've done enough. They've done more than enough. If you look at the numbers, it's kind of deceiving. You would think Florida State has a dominant defense. I don't think it's

dominant. I think it's okay. It's pretty good. But I do think Florida's going to score, and I do think Florida State will score because everybody has on Florida, and there are a lot of weapons for Florida State. Listen, I think you simplify this thing, and you probably still move the ball pretty well because you got a lot of weapons for Florida State in Ford. Listen, I think you simplify this thing and you probably still move the ball pretty well because you got a lot of guys that make plays. And I will say this, Tate is not a statue. They can get him out and run him. He's a good athlete.

So I wouldn't be surprised if you see some of that to kind of get him into the flow of the game early on. Well, and you just saw Florida having to deal with a special receiver and some pretty good, some pretty good complimentary parts because Luther Burden probably is your, your key on Coleman equivalent. And what, what did Luther Burden do? He caught a pass on fourth and 17 that saved the game for Missouri. So I do think he on Coleman probably can, can put up some numbers against this defense. And then we see what Johnny Wilson and everybody else can do too. But yeah, it's interesting because I wonder what the stadium is even going to look like.

Because I know the game sold out last week, but my suspicion was it was going to be a lot of Florida State fans. Really? But I mean, look, it's interesting because I sensed more criticism from Florida fans of Billy Napier and his staff after the Missouri loss than after the LSU loss, which kind of surprised me because they actually played really well against Missouri until the last 45 seconds. Yeah, they were in position to win the game. Yeah. And not many people thought that was going to be possible. I mean, I know going into that game, just look at the number, look at the spread. I mean, most people thought Mizzou would run roughshod over Florida, and that didn't happen. Well, and that's what I think is interesting about this.

Like Florida State, in terms of makeup and fight, you don't have to worry about it. You already know what they are because they've proven it three years in a row. Like even when they had a really rough start in 2021, they just kept fighting when they had that losing streak in the middle of the season last year, they kept, so you know what this team is made up of Florida. It's so young. You don't know that yet. I actually thought it was a really encouraging sign from Florida that they didn't quit after the LSU game, went to Missouri, really good team, played hard, should have won the game. The question will be, after getting gut punched like that, can they get off the mat? We know Florida State can.

We don't know if Florida can. I think it's fair to say, and my guess in this situation, Andy, is that, and I don't know, I'm not in Florida's locker room. I don't get to see their practices. So it's hard for me to know how they'll respond to another close loss. But I do know what you just said is accurate regarding Florida State. They are tough. They're very tough. And I think this will galvanize them. I have a suspicion that they'll rally around Tate.

There are a lot of good players on that football team who've been through a lot. And they don't want it to end this way. I think they will play hard. They'll rally around Tate. There are a lot of good players on that football team who've been through a lot, and they don't want it to end this way. I think they will play hard. They'll play well. We'll see if that's enough to get a win, but I suspect that toughness will show itself on Saturday down in the swamp. They'll come out ready to play,

and Mike is a good play caller. He's really good at kind of catering to people's strengths. He knows what Tate, he's had Tate here for a long time. He knows what he can and can't do. I think he'll have a game plan ready. They'll score. It's just a matter of whether or not they can get some stops. Well, and also at this point, Florida State trying to flip some guys from Florida in that 2024 recruiting class. One game doesn't decide those things and everybody thinks it does but it certainly doesn't hurt if you can win that game yeah and this is a an opportunity I think Mike has to take advantage

of you know you said it at the outset when we were talking it seems like these two teams can't be good at the same time and it's frustrating because you really want to see those games of yesteryear in the 90s right those those great matchups just hasn't happened when Florida State's been down Florida was up and when Florida went down Just hasn't happened. When Florida State's been down, Florida was up. And when Florida went down, Florida State came up. And it's been interesting. But when you have a program like Florida in transition and a coach trying to find his way,

and he's struggling right now, obviously, and the verdict is still out there, we don't know what's going to happen with Nate Pierre. That's a brutal schedule next year, right? You have to, if you're Mike Norvell and the staff sees the opportunity to win the recruiting wars in the state this is this is how you you know this is how you step on somebody when they're down and it's what urban meyer did to florida state when he was in gainesville and it's what jimbo did at the end of the urban meyer era yeah that's right it's it's we've seen this play

out you and i've covered these teams for a long time, and we're very familiar with this rivalry. This is when you have an opportunity to do real damage off the field by winning recruits over, flipping guys at the last second, getting them on your sideline, adding to the misery of your rival. And it will be miserable for whoever loses this game because Florida needs this to be bowl eligible. And obviously Florida state loses. It's devastating because it probably ends the national title chances ends the CFP chances just because I think everybody's looking for excuses to knock the ACC out of there. And, and you gotta have, you gotta have the undefeated champ like Louisville. I don't even think if they win,

they would need massive chaos everywhere else because they have the undefeated champ. Like Louisville, I don't even think if they win, they would need massive chaos everywhere else because they have the worst loss of any of the contenders. But yeah, it would be devastating and will be devastating to whoever loses this game. I'm curious, Jeff. So Tate's the starter now for Florida State. If something were to happen to him, who comes in? It's a good question, question Andy I think Brock Glenn is

the answer to that question Brock was really on an upwardly mobile trajectory at the start of camp I mean this kid came in and right away showcased a strong arm and an understanding of the offense rather quickly I think that may be one of his greatest strengths is that he came in here and learned Mike's offense pretty fast. And I think that probably moved him past Duffy. If we look at the quarterback depth chart. Now, the problem with Brock is that he got hurt in his first game that he ever played in. And he's he was not really in a position to be able to help this team at all for a number of weeks. Basically uh they had to surgically repair his hand and uh and so he's okay now he got in the game and played well and you know you've seen him he's an athlete he's a big strong kid looks like he's fully recovered from that injury but i wonder

how much he was set back by not being able to participate for about six weeks yeah it's it's such a strange situation and i'm thinking about in the playoff era we have not seen except for the first year of the playoff a quarterback go down and somebody have to come in very famously that first year yeah you had jt barrett who himself had started camp as the back as a backup quarterback but he goes down in the michigan game and then hardell jones comes in and leads ohio state to a national title but you know in in the next nine seasons we don't really see anything like that yeah and it's surprising it doesn't happen more often football's a brutal game as we all know people get hurt happens all the time and you know we've been really lucky as fans to

get the best version of most of these teams with their starting quarterbacks in there as you alluded to i this is uh it is interesting to point that out, that Ohio State situation, because this is a team that does have a lot of weapons, and Tate has been around the program forever. He could come in and play really well. I don't think Florida State people would be stunned if Tate Rodemaker comes in and plays well. They've seen him do that. They've seen him do that.

Now, again, he's not Jordan Travis. Very few people are but he can he operate the offense I think so yes I think he can operate the offense in some ways he operates the passing offense the the drop back passing offense a little bit better at times he spreads the ball out a little bit more so it'd be interesting to see who his favorite targets are he He's got plenty to choose from though, as you pointed to. Well, we've never seen him with a full week with the ones either. And this is, so the, the, the background on Tate Rodemaker is when Mike Norvell got the job, Tate Rodemaker's from Valdosta, Georgia.

He's somebody that Norvell had liked as Memphis's head coach, but had not really been able to get any kind of traction with because it was Memphis and he gets the Florida State job. And all of a sudden, you know, here's this school that it's a little bit down, but it's a one-time powerhouse that's an hour from your house. And Tate jumped on it. Yeah, Mike likes him a lot. Mike coaches kids hard.

And if you're at these practices, he lets loose. Now, not abusively, but if he believes in you, he coaches you hard. And he tells you, I'm going to get the best out of you. We're going to get the best out of you and you're going to work. Why do I bring that up? Well, Tate's been on the other end of a number of lectures, to put it kindly. You've heard one of them, I know. So, you know, Tate's been through the fire. He's heard a lot from Mike Norvell, but the point would be Mike would not do that if he didn't think he could play, if he didn't like him. He would have just moved on by now. He never has moved on. He's quick to correct people when they ask questions about Brock Glenn and how well Brock

has played, and there's the intimation that maybe Brock is now the backup. And you'll hear Mike when he answers questions. He says, Brock's doing a great job. Luckily, we have a real experienced player like Tate Rodemaker as our backup. He will always point that out because he likes Tate. So, you know, Tate's been through a lot and he's handled it really well. I think he'll respond. It'll be a wild game in Gainesville. Not what

we were expecting at all. And good luck to Jordan Travis as he gets better. But this is going to be very, very interesting these next couple of weeks for Florida State. Jeff, thank you so much. My pleasure, Andy. Good to talk to you, buddy. That's Jeff Cameron from War Chant on three's great Florida State site, one of the OG team sites. They've been doing it for a long, long time in Tallahassee. While we're talking to Jeff, the Big 12 released scenarios. So I think after last week where the Big 12 essentially changed his tiebreaker rules in the middle of November, they felt like they had to

be a little more transparent. So now the Big 12 has released all of the scenarios that could lead to certain teams making the Big 12 championship game. And I do appreciate them putting it in handy, you know, if then form. So are we ready? Hold on. let me catch my breath. Okay, here we go. The easiest way this happens is if Texas beats Texas Tech and Oklahoma State beats BYU, then Texas and Oklahoma State are in the Big 12 championship game. Now it gets complicated. If Texas beats Texas Tech and Oklahoma beats TCU, and that is followed by an Oklahoma State loss to BYU, the Sooners clinch a berth in the championship game. If Kansas State beats Iowa State on Saturday following a Texas win and a loss by Oklahoma and a loss by Oklahoma State. Then the Wildcats would play Texas in the Big 12 championship game.

Now, if Texas Tech wins against Texas on Friday, then it gets really messy. If Texas Tech wins, Texas can still clinch a bird to the championship if two of the three two-loss teams, either Kansas State, Oklahoma, or Oklahoma State, lose on Friday and or Saturday. Texas and the remaining winning team of those three would play for the championship. If Texas loses on Friday and two of the three two-loss teams win, so that's Kansas State, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State,

if two of those teams win, there will be three or four teams tied for both championship berths. Multiple scenarios exist in this circumstance contingent upon which teams remain in a tiebreaker pool. They can't even tell it. The sheet would be too long. This is the Big 12. You knew Texas and Oklahoma weren't getting out of the Big 12 without that last one happening. You know, it can't just be Texas beats Texas Tech

and Oklahoma State beats BYU, and that's it. No, it can't just be that. No, it's going to have to be a complicated one. So we'll just have to wait until Friday and Saturday to see how this winds up. Who plays in the Big 12 championship game also will help determine who plays in the college football playoff. Maybe, depending on who it is. If Texas were to lose, then no. But if Texas is to win against Texas Tech, then yes, that game could potentially determine

who plays in the college football playoff. And of course, the champion of the Big 12 will be in the New Year's Six Bowl, regardless of whether they make the playoff, but at least in the New Year's Six Bowl. So let's get to the projections for the playoff and New Year's Six. Right now, here's your college football playoff. I've got number one Georgia versus number four Texas. So I realize I just said it can't be that easy, but I do think Texas is going to beat Texas Tech. And then they just got to beat the team that winds up in the championship game opposite them. I think they're going to be better than that team,

but will they beat that team is an entirely different question. But we'll see. I've got Georgia, Texas here. Rose Bowl, number two Michigan, number three Washington. I'm putting Washington here. I've been saying Oregon the whole time. I was saying Oregon's going to come back and beat them a second time. Washington showed me something in Corvallis in the pouring rain. So I'm going to have a little faith in the Huskies.

I could be completely wrong. Vegas thinks I am, but I'm going to have some faith in the Huskies. Orange bowl. I've got Louisville versus Ohio state. So that would be the ACC. I'm saying Louisville wins the ACC championship here. I know Florida state people,

you're going to be mad about that. I think it will be difficult to beat Louisville with a backup quarterback. Perhaps I'm saying Louisville wins the ACC championship here. I know Florida State people, you're going to be mad about that. I think it will be difficult to beat Louisville with a backup quarterback. Perhaps I'm wrong, and Tate Rodemaker's already beaten them once. So maybe I'm completely off on this. But I've got Louisville there playing Ohio State, which would be the highest-ranked Big Ten or SEC team remaining that didn't make the playoff. Peach Bowl, Tulane versus Oklahoma.

Now, be careful with Tulane here. They are the highest ranked group of five team at the moment. They are the only ones in the CFP committee top 25. They play UTSA this weekend. UTSA is undefeated in American play. This one could be interesting. So don't hand it to Tulane just yet, but I've got them against Oklahoma. Again, Oklahoma's got that win against Texas. If they beat TCU, they'd be 10

and two. Probably not going to the Big 12 championship game, but maybe they do. We'll see. Fiesta Bowl. I've got Oregon versus Penn State. You could put Missouri either in the Cotton Bowl or Fiesta Bowl instead of Penn State. I would understand that. I think that's just going to be a judgment call by the committee there at the end. So we'll see what they end up doing. Cotton Bowl, Alabama versus Florida State. We'll see. I don't like predicting this for Florida State because this is not right. What happened to Jordan Travis just sucks. And talking about it with Jeff Cameron, just thinking about that we have not seen this in the college football playoffs since the first year of the playoff with JT Barrett and Cardell Jones, it's amazing. It just amazes me it hasn't

happened more often. but I just feel so bad for Jordan Travis. We'll see if the Seminoles can bounce back. Again, like we were saying with Jeff, if any team can come off the mat, it's them. They've done it before, USC is down bad. USC got annihilated by UCLA, and that was the end of USC's regular season. Caleb Williams is done. We don't expect him to play in whatever third-tier bowl game they're going to.

He's going to go be the NFL's first pick overall, I think, probably. And then USC's got to figure some stuff out. They need a new defensive coordinator. Do they need another quarterback? Is next year's quarterback on the roster? How do they figure out how to be tough? They're going to the Big Ten.

The schedule gets tougher. We talked to Eric McKinney of WeAreSC.com, and I asked him all of those questions. Joined now by Eric McKinney, the publisher of WeAreSC.com. That is on 3's USC site. He is not four or five plays away. He's right there. But Lincoln Riley keeps telling us this team is four or five plays away.

Eric, that's my main question. Like every time I've seen him talk toward the end of the season, he keeps saying that. Do you think that's something he's just saying or does he not actually realize how far away this program is from being successful where they've got to go? I think that he, what he's been consistent in is he's been consistent in sort of manifesting positivity ever since the very first day he got to USC. He talked about kind of the long game goal, where this program can get to, how good it can be, all of that kind of stuff. I think he understands.

He got rid of Alex Grinch before the end of the season. I think he understands how big the hill is to climb, I think, at this point. But what he projects is positivity to his team. I know part of me can sort of wrap my head around the idea that he thinks this program is is right there is inches away. I think that he knows at this point that the kind of offseason that they need now going forward because it was that the end of this season was just a train wreck. He's not wrong that in a few of those games, you're a play or two or three away. The flip side is you're a player two or three away

from losing some of those by 20 plus. I mean, it really was that kind of season for them. And I think you have to really take ownership of the fact that you didn't make any of those plays. And the fact that maybe you can put yourself in a position to do it and then not do it, that is a bad thing. That is a bad habit to have as a program, and it's one that you clearly have right now. So as you mentioned, they fired Alex Grinch midseason. They need a new defensive coordinator.

But I think one of the things that showed up on Saturday was how bad they are on both lines of scrimmage. That's somewhere UCLA just bullied them on both sides of the ball. What do they do about the offensive line the off so so it started this past class they brought in five true freshman offensive linemen in the 2023 class they have a handful of pretty talented it looks like guys in the 2024 class so you're're starting to recruit that. If you go back and look at the 18, 19, 20, 21, those offensive line classes, they're just littered with misses.

And guys, you thought, okay, well, he's maybe a developmental guy, but you've got maybe one guy in each of those classes that have stuck and done it. They had to rely on three transfer portal additions this offseason, and you felt like they would get more out of them than they did. And so against UCLA, they lost Gino Quinonez early in the year. They weren't playing with Jarrett Kingston, who came down from Washington State. So that was a line without two guys that you thought were starters this season. But that was varsity JV, that game. The way UCLA's defensive line, just like you said,

kind of manhandled the USC offensive line. That's something where you need really quick development from that 23 class. I think you go back into the portal and try again with an offensive lineman. Emmanuel Pregnon came in from Wyoming. He's a younger guy, so you can develop him a little bit. That 2022 team that Lincoln Riley took over had holes everywhere, but the offensive line was pretty good. Those were veteran players who had played a lot of football, and that was a group that kind of held everything together. Obviously, Caleb Williams was Caleb Williams all last year and has been throughout his USC career.

But that's not something that they had along the offensive line this year. You had all five guys playing new positions and nobody playing next to someone that they had played with before. So that's a big lift this offseason is figuring out that offensive line and who's going to be first your frontline starters and then also the depth because they had one injury early in the year. And you could tell it just decimated that line. So you mentioned Caleb Williams. What do you think Caleb Williams' legacy at USC will be? Because it's such an unusual situation where he actually

spends freshman year at Oklahoma. He comes in, he wins the Heisman Trophy, and then this season, and that's pretty much it. It's weird. It feels unfinished unfinished it feels almost like uh drake london i think was kind of in the same sort of category that that covid year where you're kind of cut short and then when there's an an injury too uh obviously you know not not full health against utah in the championship game last year it just feels unfinished like you said it really does feel unfinished matt leinert got to hold up a national championship trophy carson palmer these are the previous two heisman winners at quarterback uh carson palmer got to finish in the orange bowl and you just

felt this ascension of the program and and here they go and these guys were huge parts of it. And Caleb Williams to, again, throw for almost 400 yards against UCLA when your running game is like actively working against you and your offensive linemen are kind of waving guys through. Not the best situation to end it. He chose not to speak to the media afterward. And so, yeah, it just it kind of ends with this, you know, poof, and then he's gone. But as it goes on, if USC and Lincoln Riley can build this program, the Heisman Trophy is what it is. People do not blame Caleb Williams.

They look at kind of him succeeding despite what he did. And the guys around him not playing up to his level. So USC fans, there's some stuff that maybe you wanted him to run a little bit more, take a little bit more control, fix some of that stuff where he's capable of just playing one-man football. But if he goes back to the Coliseum, he's going of just playing kind of one-man football but if he goes back to the coliseum he's he's going to get ovations i mean he's going to be remembered uh as one of the great usc players one of the great usc quarterbacks so we're assuming he's not back i know what his dad has said but let's be real here he's the number one pick in the draft miller moss and malachi nelson still on the roster. Malachi Nelson

was a big-time recruit. He was a freshman this year. It doesn't sound like they feel like he's the heir apparent necessarily. So do they try to develop somebody they have? Do they try to go into the portal? I think, so Lincoln Rally was asked specifically about that. You typically take a quarterback every year. There isn't one in this class. They've got a big time guy committed down the line a little bit. So he was asked about the portal and he was kind of noncommittal about it. Still a long way to go. We, you know, not going to say we won't, not going to say we will. Lincoln Riley coaches Heisman Trophy winning number one overall picks at quarterback. If he doesn't believe he has that in one of those two guys, he will absolutely, I feel, go get somebody out of the portal that he feels really good about.

USC fans, and for us watching Miller Moss, fully competent. I mean, he's been in the system now. He's a really smart player, team guy. He can run a little bit. He's got a little bit of athleticism. He throws it well. I don't think there's any sense of this offense is going to crater if you go with Miller Moss. Malachi Nelson's got a, there's some know weight room stuff and that was stuff that you knew from him as a high school player but he can he can throw it he missed this past spring with an injury and so you know how much work did he get during the season and and that's really where the past two years of USC not being able to put enough kind of blowouts and separate you thought that those two

guys or at least Miller Moss would just get more time more time on the field to kind of show yeah I can operate in this offense and and when they couldn't do that and Caleb Williams had to take games all the way to the end you lost that chance to see if they really could operate in the offense. Right now, if I had to guess and it's a yes or no, I think that they absolutely look into the portal to see what's in there. But you can target a lot of guys and then it becomes this sort of bidding war of, you know, can that team keep them and do they actually jump in and all of that? You know how it is with quarterbacks. So we'll, we'll see how that plays out.

I have to think that they'll definitely take an eye to it because again, Lincoln Riley coaches slam dunk quarterbacks. So those are the guys that play for Lincoln Riley. Well, and to your point, he said three highs and winners, all of them were transfers. Now, Caleb Williams never played for anybody but Lincoln Riley but he did transfer you know Baker Mayfield transferred Kyler Murray transferred and Jalen Hurts who was a Heisman finalist transferred so yeah it he'll go get

somebody if he needs to let's talk about the defensive side of the ball who are you hearing in terms of potential defensive coordinators you know they they've been it's been really quiet from from usc's side we had a a report earlier uh on the site with pete kwiatkowski at texas you know potentially being a name zach arnett is a guy whose name kind of popped up before uh he got fired at mississippi state and now that he's kind of out there you know that that's kind of a name i think that makes a lot of sense that the look you don't want a defensive guy from the mike leach coaching tree but that's not where he comes from he comes from you know defensive stock where he learned it. And then he got to operate a little bit across from that offense,

which I think it's important to have that kind of idea of how to run a defense opposite. And Lincoln Riley's offense is not Mike Leach's offense, but there's roots and familiarity. If USC fans could pick, Jim Leonard would be the guy, the former Wisconsin defensive coach, an analyst at Illinois now. Certainly there's enough from what we've heard kind of money floating around, maybe not inside USC, but outside with people that are like, hey, that's a guy that we can talk to. Everything you hear about him is not Los Angeles, neither coast.

That's certainly the NFL, you assume, is going to have an eye on him. Maybe, and I don't know if he's a wild card, because he's affiliated with USC Athletic Director Jen Cohen from their time at Washington. Jimmy Lake is with the Rams right now, so it's not a big jump for him to just come across to USC, but he's a guy who, again, off-field, on-field questions, background check, all of that kind of stuff would need to clear,

but he's a guy who's run a defense, run a team, and could recruit incredibly well for USC in Los Angeles. And so he's kind of an intriguing name for me at this point. But like I said, USC kept the Lincoln Riley search silent. And these are different people running this one now, but there's been a pretty concerted effort to keep this one now but there's been there's been a pretty concerted effort to keep this one quiet as well and that's not that has not been a strength of usc uh throughout its history yeah it's interesting so pete kukowski at texas also was at washington so he he and jen cohen would be familiar and the the arnett thing you're exactly right he's a rocky long guy who

happened to work with mike leach so that that even more southern california bona fides there but it does sound like they have some choices uh as far as this next couple weeks goes because they got to close out this recruiting class is there anybody that that you feel like they have a chance to to flip that we're going to go wow, or is there anybody that they're worried might get flipped? So with NIL now, and the way teams can just come in at the last second, you stop, you stop kind of talking about, oh, this coach recruited this guy really well, and they got in and

developed a relationship and all that. I mean, it could be the last 20 minutes, and you get a phone call and it's hey, oh, this coach recruited this guy really well, and they got in and developed a relationship and all that. I mean, it could be the last 20 minutes, and you get a phone call and it's a good cut this much money available for you. Now, do you want to come in? So I've sort of stopped looking at Oh, who are they developing relationships with? And what's this kid saying and all that stuff, because you hear you hear kids say I'm 10 000 percent locked in and then they take an unofficial visit 24 hours before signing day

and it's well see you later um Cameron Fountain I think is a defensive lineman who has looked around and right the farther you go away from Los Angeles in terms of committed guys right now, maybe the tougher it is to keep them in this class. As far as bringing somebody in, Alex Grinch was really difficult to recruit against. What that defense had done under him, the problems they'd had, if they bring a guy in, I think they could develop some interest pretty quickly. There's a lot of guys in that Texas A&M class. If that starts to fall apart a little bit, Draylon Miller to Anthony Smith, those are guys that came, took visits. Gabriel Rutherford is in there too. So they've shown a lot of interest in there.

It'll be interesting to see kind of if that class holds together through the coaching change or what USC can do there. Eric McKinney, you're going to be very, very busy these next couple of weeks. Thank you so much. All right. Thank you. So many questions to be answered about usc and i just never thought they'd be here two years into lincoln riley's tenure i don't think lincoln riley thought that but they have got to figure quite a bit of stuff out uh one team that's got some things to figure out the michigan wolverines we're going to talk about them with anthony safie i'm sorry with

clayton safie anthony broom is the other writer at the wolverine but but clayton safie is going the Michigan Wolverines. We're going to talk about them with Anthony Safey. I'm sorry, with Clayton Safey. Anthony Broom is the other writer at the Wolverine, but Clayton Safey is going to join us. We are also going to talk on Tuesday with Spencer Holbrook of Letterman Rogue at the Ohio State side of things. This game is just bananas. The stakes of this Michigan-Ohio State game,

I know it was like this last year as well, but it is crazy to think about the winner-take-all aspect The stakes of this Michigan-Ohio State game, I know it was like this last year as well, but it is crazy to think about the winner-take-all aspect of it. And Vegas has been putting lines out about this game. They've had a line out for about the last three or four weeks, a preliminary one. And we've seen it go from Michigan by know, Michigan by six and a half, Michigan by five and a half. So on Sunday, I checked on FanDuel and the Ohio State at Michigan opening line going into the week is now Michigan minus three and a half. So the Buckeyes have been kind of closing that gap each of the last few weeks. And it closed a little bit more after Ohio State throttled Minnesota

and after Michigan struggled a little bit with Maryland. So we will see how that moves throughout the week. We've got the pick show on Monday. Going to be a lot of fun trying to figure out what happens in this game because you've got all the stuff with Michigan going on, but then you've got Ohio State. Then you've got the fact that this game will determine potentially a college football playoff participant, and it doesn't feel like the loser gets a chance, like the loser got a chance last year. Maybe that changes. Maybe chaos reigns, but very interesting. Elsewhere in the Big Ten, you know we do the Iowa total every week. You know I pick the over.

You know I was so close. If Caleb Johnson does not convert that third down at the end, Iowa has to kick a field goal, which would have made it 31 total points, which would have made the over hit. But he gets a first down. They run out the clock and win 15-13 against Illinois. Get ready for this one. Iowa and Nebraska.

Nebraska needs this one to get bowl eligible. Nebraska is favored by a point and a half. And what is the total? 27 and a half. The opening total is 27 and a half, which means it might go lower this week. Unbelievable. I'm back on the under train. I'm sorry that I went over. I'm sorry I was wrong. I'm back with the unders. I don't know what I'm going to do about the line. I don't know who I'm going to pick in terms of the spread. That one's wild.

Another one I found interesting, Oregon State at Oregon. Now, I thought Oregon State had a very good chance to beat Washington. I thought if they didn't abandon their offense at the end and had just run their offense and tried to run it down Washington's throat at the end, there's a very good chance they could have set themselves up for a potential game-winning field goal or maybe scored a touchdown. But they decided they were Washington for some reason and started throwing all these deep sideline routes, and that didn't work. So I figured that this edition of the Civil War, which I don't think is going to be the

last, and I think these guys are going to figure something out, But I figured the spread would be a little bit closer to this, but Vegas loves Oregon. They've got Oregon favored by 13 and a half in this game. And I know it's at Autzen, but man, that feels like a big old number. Big one. Go to Gainesville, Florida State at Florida. We talked to Jeff Cameron earlier. Florida State's still a six and a half point favorite going into this game. The one thing that you can count on here, I think more than anything else,

because we don't know how the two quarterbacks are going to play. Remember, it's Tate Rodemaker will be the quarterback for Florida State. Max Brown will be the quarterback for Florida. But we don't know much else. But we do know Florida's defense is going to give up a lot of points. We've seen that over and over and over again. And I don't know that they've played, I guess with Georgia, they played receivers this talented. They, Brock Bowers wasn't playing in

that game, but Ladna Conkey and, and Rah Rah Thomas and Dominic Lovett and pretty good crew of receivers but i don't know that they've seen a duo as good as keon coleman and johnny wilson i'm not sure how they cover them so i understand why florida state is is favored by this much on the road with a backup quarterback so this one though again i i want to see what happens because it feels like there's so much unknown and you've got two backup quarterbacks, but that spread feels about right. Another spread that they threw out, we've got an early SEC championship game line. Alabama-Georgia, Georgia only favored by four and a half in that game. You watch Georgia play right now and they are in full killing machine mode,

but Alabama has gotten better and better every week. So I wonder, does that line come down as we get closer to the game? When we're sitting here next week, is that going to be a two and a half point line? It's going to be very, very interesting. Let's go back to that three and a half point Ohio State Michigan line, which may or may not change this week. The Wolverines, little shaky at times against Maryland. We talked to Clayton Safey from the Wolverine about what was going on with them, what changes this week going into the Ohio State game. We're joined by Clayton Safey, the Wolverine. He is back from

College Park, Maryland, where Michigan cut it a little close on Saturday. We talked last week about that sandwich spot game. We've seen Ohio State go into College Park the week before the Michigan game and struggle. We saw Michigan struggle with Illinois last year in that spot. Is it just a function of the calendar or are there some things that you left that Michigan should be worried about? Well, you took a couple of my points. I was going to bring up that Maryland game for Ohio State in 2018. I was going to bring up Illinois last year. That's the first point I guess I will say is that a lot of people on the outside, including myself, obviously us covering

it, going into this week every year, I feel like sometimes people get fixated at least early in the week on this team's coming off of this and this team's coming off of this and whatever. And last year is a little more valid. Blake Corum's status was in doubt and everything. And last year was a little more valid. You know, Blake Corum's status was, you know, in doubt and everything. And obviously he wasn't able to go much. But when you're internal and when you talk to these guys internally in the programs early on in the week, I mean, they've moved on. I mean, they moved on on the flight home. You know, Blake Corum was talking about the film he's going to watch

on the flight home, all that sort of stuff. So I guess I will say that, for one, is this is a completely different week. It's basically its own season in and of itself uh secondly you know i do think one you know you got to be concerned maybe a little bit about a couple injuries in particular i'm not too concerned based on what we've heard so far about roman wilson who left the game after taking a shot to the head sounds like he should be uh good to go that was more precautionary than anything else but jj mccarthy a little bit banged up there as well. Didn't run much, didn't scramble much. And something with the knee there, I think was from the Penn State game the week before. So you want all your horses,

basically, and you're already not going to have all your horses because Jim Harbaugh is not going to be on the sideline. So it was a little bit of a lack of execution. I thought the secondary got burned a few times. You looked at, there was some grumbling. Certainly, there always is on the message boards and everything, but some of the play calling, they go for two to try to make it 13, I believe it was. There were just a few things here and there that I think people are a little bit concerned about, but usually in this game, big picture wise, I feel like teams play true to form rather than, you know, whatever happened the week before you kind of throw it out. But this is a unique circumstance, certainly for Michigan without its head coach. Well, and also the McCarthy thing, he's obviously much better when he can move around. That makes

him a lot more dangerous to a defense. If he's not as mobile as he needs to be, what can Michigan do about that? Yeah. I mean, first, it does hurt a little bit, not only with the plays he makes. I mean, we all saw, especially early on in the year, when I think a lot of people were watching McCarthy a little bit more and seeing how big of a jump that he took from a year ago. But a lot of his plays, and I was tracking this on Sports Info Solutions early on in the year, but he was leading the country and right up there

with Kayla Williams and a lot of the stats on broken plays you know plays when it's not the route that was designed it's Roman Wilson you know going deep on a on a short route and J.J. McCarthy you know motioning him to to go one way mid play that sort of thing or Colston Loveland we've seen some big touchdowns on plays like that so it it's, it's that, but it's also the run game. I think you got to respect JJ McCarthy in the run game. They haven't run blocked as well as you would like this year. Just not quite the push is a year ago, or even the year before that, not getting to the second level as much. And one thing you can do to, you know, kind of help that out is make sure that one defender is always keying in on JJ McCarthy. And then also he's just dangerous when he does run it, not even just as a decoy. So those are

where Michigan could be hurt there. At the same time, I think some of his struggles in this game, he went 12 for 23. I don't think it was all because of his lack of mobility. There were just a few things where the offense was out of sync. And i think you know he can certainly be the health that he's at maybe even with a week more of rest um you know and still play a pretty good game so i i think that's kind of where we're at on on that front but you would like a healthy jj mccarthy because like you said some of the things he does best are when he's on the move making those wild plays so we know jim harbaugh won't be there. Unlike this time last week, when there was a hearing planned, there was a thought at Michigan that he'd be back. Now they know what situation they're in. I was talking about this with Jesse Simonson on Saturday night, because we were

wondering, you know, how much did what happened at the end of last week affect Michigan. Is it possible that them not having anything like piano dropped on them this week could make it a little bit easier? Well, I think so. And I think, you know, I mean, these guys have done a great job all year going back to the beginning of handling distractions and just kind of, as Jim Harbaugh says, you wake up, you take care of business, whatever that is, you know, on that day, sometimes it includes an interview from the NCAA, as we heard was going on a week ago, or even during Penn State week. And then you go to bed, you wake up, you take care of business again the next day. They've done a really good job of that, but it's hard. It's impossible for that not to get to you a little bit. And maybe what we saw,

it's obviously impossible to prove one way or the other, but maybe what we saw a little bit with the struggles that Maryland had to do with that is our Chris Ballas wrote after the game in his post-game column though if you can with the NCAA breathing on your necks a little bit this is the week to tell them hey give us a week back the hell off for a second here stop interviewing our players midweek on Tuesday night after practice or whatever it is because we need our full focus and i think that's probably fair to ask now who can ask that maybe jim harbaugh i don't know he's got to cooperate um but if you're you know the leadership at michigan i think that is something to consider if that's allowed or whatever i'm not an ncaa expert i would also think that with the big ten basically saying we've closed our investigation right which that their investigation

was the NCAA's investigation and a sharing of of material yeah I would think that back some people off and I will just go with the if you've ever worked in an office scenario it's the week of Thanksgiving people got to pick up their kids early from school on wednesday like there's a lot of stuff that goes on there where they may get a reprieve from all of this stuff and then it picks back up later in the year because or early next year because if the big 10 doesn't need to do anymore if they're not under pressure to do something else, I don't know that they have to do anything right now. That the NCAA has to do anything right now. I agree.

I mean, yeah, it's also a short week for these guys. They won't have class a couple days, so that will help in terms of their football preparation. But yeah, I mean, it's a big week in many different ways. And you're right. So the Big Ten basically has said, you know, I've seen a couple conflicting reports on it. But basically that, you know, they have kind of backed off, like you said, because they got their guy. They got Jim Harbaugh sidelined. The court hearing's done.

You know, they kind of reached that quote-unquote settlement. So that would, I think, be big for Michigan. Lack of distractions in a week that, you know, you got to be locked in. You got to be dial for Michigan. Lack of distractions in a week that you've got to be locked in. You've got to be dialed in. It feels like these guys will be from what you have seen the last couple years. They now know and they have that proof to themselves that they can go out and do this. They're favored this time.

It didn't mean anything for Ohio State the last two years, so you've got to remember that if you're a Michigan fan. You've still got to go out and earn this win, but I feel like a fully focused team would be a big help this week after what they've been through the last couple. So where can Ohio State attack Michigan differently than they could, say, a year ago? Yeah, I mean, I think, for one, I felt like this all year, and I said it, that this secondary and even the pass rush unit, I thought they did a better job in the interior last week than you would have even hoped for,

and they made some big plays there with the pressures. But kind of the pass defense, I think, has been a little untested. When you look at the quarterbacks they've played, they haven't played many good ones. You look at Hudson Card from Purdue. That was probably the best guy until they played against Tolia Tagovailoa this past weekend, and he had some success. So I think there's an opportunity there.

Michigan's pretty thin at cornerback. I think they understand that. You have Will Johnson and Josh Wallace, the UMass transfer, who's – you know, he almost got burned again. He keeps getting bailed out by guys either overthrowing or dropping passes against him, but there's an opportunity there. I think Michigan's going to do their best to try to take away Marvin Harrison Jr., but I would say it's a pass game, and Kyle McCord has played better as of late for Ohio State. He's still not C.J. Stroud or anything

like that, but I think that's an opportunity for him to get the ball in Marvin Harrison's hands. I think pass rush as well, JTT, some of those guys coming off the edge against Michigan tackles, specifically Carson Barnhart, who has really struggled this year, gave up five pressures and three quarterback hits just in this last game. He had to move from one tackle to the other, but Penn State, that was a big reason why they had to stop going away from the throw game there. So was him allowing three early pressures? So I think it's probably the pass game on either side. But again, if Michigan can establish the line of scrimmage like they have in this game the last couple of years too,

I think that's going to go a long way. And Ohio State's going to have to play their most physical opponent of the season. Maybe Michigan will too, but that's going to come, you know, that's going to play a huge part. Let's talk about that offensive line because Ladarius Henderson, the left left tackle couldn't play against maryland and so miles hinton started for him and then he he went out with an injury and that caused the the barnhart

move what do you think that starting five looks like against ohio state yeah so sharone moore said after the game and so did drake nugent that Ladarius Henderson should be back for Ohio State and basically Nugent was a little bit more adamant about it on his radio interview that I listened to so I would expect him to be at left tackle Carson Barnhart back at right and that was kind of the tea leaves I was reading too coming into this game because usually Carson Barnhart will move over to the left side if he needs to. But they started out with him on the right, Miles Hinton on the left, which kind of told me, hey, this is a short-term move. We're not going to move Carson, you know, for one game or whatever. So that's huge.

You know, and like I said on some of the other injuries, Roman Wilson, expect him back. Michael Barrett, linebacker, was massive that he came back in the game after hurting his shoulder. So they dodged a couple bullets, it felt like, last week. It feels like every year in that penultimate regular season game, they lose a couple guys. But I think they dodged a couple bullets. Well, it will be an epic game. Another one that – this is only the third time in the series history

that they're meeting undefeated championship on the line and we saw it in 2006 we saw it last year and here's another one this is this is about as big as it gets it is it doesn't get any bigger um the whole college football world will be watching pressure on both sides i know you could argue you know one way or the other i think you know we talked about it last week where now it's char Moore that could potentially beat Ryan Day. And if Ryan Day wins, he will have beaten Sharon Moore and not Jim Harbaugh. So there's pressure there. But I mean, when the stakes are this high just for a season in general, there's pressure. There's also pressure on the Michigan side. People are questioning their accomplishments as well.

And Ohio State fans are certainly among that group. And you want to get bragging rights over them and not just bragging rights but you know feels like in Ohio State fans eyes you got to win this game and then that will help you validate the last couple years too so every which way you look at it it's massive um and the winner plays a fantastic Iowa defense the next week as you say Iowa defense not a fantastic Iowa offense by the way Iowa an underdog early underdog against Nebraska on Friday um they're clinched and they're eight and two yeah it's it's incredible but I will say you know it doesn't feel like the loser's gonna get a mulligan in this year's Michigan Ohio State no we feel because of how many other good teams there are around the country this feels do or die well you you said it the other good teams there are in the country, this feels do or die.

Well, you said it, the other good teams. Last year, it was do or die too. And leaving that stadium in Columbus, no one in there thought that Ohio State was going to get in the playoff, but they got a couple nice breaks there at the end. And certainly, Ohio State hung right there with Georgia. I think they were one of the top four teams, but it's just kind of the way it breaks so I agree with you this year it would have been the most ideal year for a 12 team playoff but we got a four so I think the loser goes home especially with the schedule Ohio State played Notre Dame had a tougher schedule obviously than Michigan but I would not expect the loser to get in so it's it's do or die like you said in that way as well cannot wait i will

see you on saturday clayton you'll be there okay there we go let's go let's go indeed yes double dipping this weekend we got michigan state penn state at ford field on friday night we got michigan ohio state in the big house on sat. It is going to be a spectacular environment. Cannot wait. Huge stakes for this game. Huge stakes all weekend, everywhere across the sport. Starts with the Egg Bowl on Thanksgiving. Well, there's some action on Tuesday night.

Let's not give that short shrift. But you got the Egg Bowl on Thursday night. You have a full day of football on Black Friday, and then another full day of football on Saturday. It's going to be amazing. A great set of shows for you this week. Remember, Monday is the Picks show, but we also have a special guest before the Picks. Our guest picker tomorrow, Jake Crane from Crane & Company. But a special guest before the picks, Joel Klatt. You'll hear him calling the Michigan-Ohio State game on Fox.

He's the guy I think should be the commissioner of college football. And we'll see what the commission thinks about everything that's been going on for the past month or so. Also, scheduling update. Thanksgiving is Thursday. We love you. We know you're going to be with your families. You're going to be hanging out. Probably don't want to hear my nasally drone.

I understand. So we will have no show on Thursday night. We will instead give you a bonus show on Friday after the games because those Black Friday games are going to be a lot of fun. We got to talk about what happened with Nebraska and Iowa. And who knows? Maybe something crazy happened with Texas and Texas Tech or Oklahoma and TCU. Who knows? But we will talk about all of that, break it all down on Friday night.

So you'll get the usual number of shows just in a slightly different order this week. So everybody get ready. I did some practice Thanksgiving cooking. My son wanted to figure out a recipe that he could make for Thanksgiving dinner because I'm bringing the mac and cheese. My mother-in-law makes the turkey. Sometimes I make a secondary turkey, but we're bringing ham this time. But my son wanted to try something. And he said,

I want to try this jalapeno cornbread recipe that I found. I said, all right, we'll give it a shot. We tested it out. Oh, it's spectacular. The kid, the kid's onto something. So have fun, prepare to be with your families and have a great Thanksgiving holiday, but we will get you ready for all of this football. We'll talk again tomorrow night.