Andy & Ari On3 - Can Georgia BOUNCE BACK against Tennessee? | Picking week 12 | Florida State fires coordinators

Episode Date: November 11, 2024

You’ve had Wendy’s Nuggs dipped in sauce. But have you had them covered in sauce? Wendy’s New Saucy Nuggs take the Crispy and Spicy Nuggs you love and turn them up to 11.Choose between flavors like Buffalo. Honey BBQ. Garlic Parm. Or, if you’re a real heat seeker, try Spicy Ghost Pepper, only on Wendy’s signature Spicy Nuggs. I dare ya. That’s seven delicious ways to try the nuggs you already love. Pick a flavor, grab some extra napkins and prepare to nugg like you’ve never nugged before. For a whole new way to Nugg, It’s Gotta Be Wendy’s. This show is sponsored by PrizePicks, America’s most fun daily fantasy game. Use the code STAPLES to play $5 and get $50 instantly. https://prizepicks.onelink.me/ivHR/STAPLES This show is brought to you by Panini America, makers of the most collectible sports cards on the planet. The Luminance football card series features NIL autographed cards from players including Arch Manning, Quinn Ewers, Cam Ward, Jalen Milroe, Dylan Raiola, DJ Lagway, and Luther Burden. To start collecting, visit PaniniAmerica.net. Thank you to Gametime for sponsoring today's episode! Planning your college football travel for this season? Gametime has tickets to every game. (And every concert and comedy show.) Download the Gametime App and enter code: STAPLES for $20 off your first purchase, terms apply. Last Minute Tickets, Lowest Prices, Guaranteed.(0:00-0:36) Wendy's Saucy Nuggs(0:37-4:46) Intro; Week 12 is here!(4:47-20:13) Florida State fires its OC and DC(20:14-21:24) Download Gametime(21:25-29:16) Tennessee at Georgia(29:17-34:38) UCLA at Washington, Friday night(34:39-36:32) Texas at Arkansas(36:33-38:28) Clemson at Pitt(38:29-39:21) Download PrizePicks(39:22-51:17) Utah at Colorado(51:18-54:19) PaniniAmerica.net(54:20-58:15) LSU at Florida(58:16-1:03:25) Missouri at South Carolina(1:03:26-1:06:43) Virginia at Notre Dame(1:06:44-1:11:16) Nebraska at USC(1:11:17-1:13:46) Oregon at Wisconsin(1:13:47-1:17:10) Kansas at BYU(1:17:11-1:18:27) Conclusion Happy Monday! It’s time to pick the games of week 12, and there’s a monster in Athens between Tennessee and Georgia. But first, there’s news.Florida State fired both coordinators on Sunday, a move that likely will become familiar over the next few weeks. The Seminoles weren’t paying the $70 million or so it would cost to fire Mike Norvell, so they fired OC Alex Atkins and DC Adam Fuller. Expect this to happen a lot, because there are some prohibitive head coach buyouts and fans still want something to change. Next, it’s time to pick these games…  UCLA at Washington (-3.5) Total: 45.5 Texas at Arkansas (+16.5) Total: 56.5 Clemson at Pittsburgh (+9.5) Total: 55.5 Utah at Colorado (-10.5) Total: 47.5 LSU at Florida (+4.5) Total: 55.5 Missouri at South Carolina (-13.5) Total: 43.5 Virginia at Notre Dame (-22.5) Total: 50.5 Tennessee at Georgia (-8.5) Total: 48.5 Nebraska at USC (-8.5) Total: 50.5 Oregon at Wisconsin (+14.5) Total: 52.5 Kansas at BYU (-3.5) Total: 55.5 Watch us on Youtube instead! https://youtube.com/live/EHTMvOxP9BE Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey

You've had Wendy's Nugs dipped in sauce, but have you had them covered in sauce? Wendy's new saucy Nugs take the crispy and spicy Nugs you love and turn them up to 11. Choose between flavors like buffalo, honey, barbecue, garlic, Parmesan, or of course, the spicy variations of all of those lovely sauces. Or if you're a real heat seeker,

try the spicy ghost pepper, I dare ya. Seven delicious ways to try the nugs you already love. Pick a flavor, grab some napkins and prepare to nug like you have never nugged before. For a whole new way to nug, it's gotta be Wendy's at Participating US Wendy's. Welcome to Andy and Ariane 3. Happy Monday. It is a picks show. We have a packed list of games, of course, headlined by the potential

playoff elimination game in Athens between Georgia and Tennessee. But there's a lot of drama here. You've got USC in Nebraska fighting for bowl eligibility. You've got the battle for Columbia, which is the real SEC Columbia between Missouri and South Carolina. Or it's it's going to be a fun week. You know the one thought that I had and guess where I was Andy.

When I had to see no in the shower, I wish I was in the casino. Yeah, I think every man should work in a weekly bath in the wintertime. It's very soothing if you have a tub. That you know the positive sales pitch for the 12-team playoff, right? Obviously more teams are involved. There are more games at the end of the year that matter. So and so. So on and so on. Yes. But the crowd that does the expansion of the playoff pro argument, one of their arguments also

is that college football is about more than the college football playoff, right? Yes. Stick with me here. Yep. So just because there are more teams and more games at this point in the year that matter for playoff implication does not mean that we should lose track of the games that don't

have anything to do with the playoff. Correct. That are still interesting. So they are interesting for different reasons, as you just pointed out, but I'm happy you started the show off by saying that because yes, the Clemson pit game is more interesting now than it would have been a year ago, right? Because there is actor potential at the ACC championship game and all that stuff. But like what's going on in other areas of the country with coaching changes and bragging rights and rivalries and other things that we're going to get more pearls of knowledge from that could turn into coaching decisions and all these things are still very interesting. So as we have this big

mound of games this weekend that could be playoff elimination games and all those other things, I just wanted to make sure that the expansionist crowd didn't lose track of their number one or number two talking point in that, which is that college football is better than just makes a playoff. Well, remember the expansionist crowd is happy because more games matter for the playoff. Remember this time last year, hardly any of these games mattered for the playoff because it was only 14 playoffs.

So I want the expansionist crowd that's happy. We were only talking about the ones that mattered for the 14 playoff. So yes, we as college football sickos are gonna make sure we talk about all of them because they all matter in their own way. Like USC Nebraska, which we'll get to LSU Florida. No playoff invocations there could be a fascinating game

for both teams. Yeah, I just wanted to make sure that like we stayed on point and you did that which is like I think USC and Nebraska is like must watch. Oh yeah and I know I know that that has no bearing whatsoever on who wins the national title this year but that might be a sneaky game that like I'm most excited to watch this weekend and Andy I've been accused the most of anybody, I think, in the media about being, you know, slanted toward only big teams that can win the national title and stuff. But like, the truth is, is that I get a great amount of enjoyment watching games like USC Nebraska. So anyway, I'll let you get back to what you were going to say.

But I was just thinking like, yeah, more games, more teams, more playoff implications, but also the same amount of drama across the board that we can't lose track of well We're like fixated on Pitt and Clemson because there's still a quote-unquote chance that one of them could make the playoff Let's not forget about Nebraska and USC which could be a dumpster fire for whoever loses that game Well before the quarterback chicken. Yeah before we start picking games this week Ari We're gonna go as far away from the playoff as humanly possible. We're going to Tallahassee. Okay, big news out of Tallahassee on Sunday, Florida State fires offensive coordinator Alex Atkins, defensive coordinator Adam Fuller and wide receivers coach Ron Duggan.

So it is a, it's a bloodbath in Tallahassee. This is actually a sign of what is to come, what you should expect for the rest of this coaching carousel cycle. So Mike Norvell last year leads floor state to a 13 and O record ACC championship gets on Alabama shortlist in case Nick Saban retires. Nick Saban does retire Mike Norvell. We don't know if he got offered the Alabama job. We do know that he did an extension with Florida State. As Greg Byrne was trying to hire a coach to replace Nick Saban, Greg Byrne ultimately hires Kalen DeBoer. It's unclear whether DeBoer was offered it right off the get-go or was Norvell engaged?

Was it a possibility? Florida State made sure it wasn't a possibility, made sure he wasn't leaving with a massive contract, eight years, $84 million. Now, that makes it impossible to fire Mike Norvell if you are Florida State right now. I mean, I guess anything is possible. Texas A&M paid $76 million to fire Jimbo Fisher,

but to fire Mike Norvell would cost over $60 million. It would be incredibly expensive. It is not happening. $63 million buyout, he's not going anywhere. So they fired the two coordinators. Ari, Alex Atkins was interviewing for head coach jobs last off season. Yeah, Adam Fuller was getting offered other DC jobs that allowed him to get more money from Florida State.

Like this is a stunning fall for these guys. Yeah, Atkins was like one of the hottest assistance in the country 12 months ago. Yeah. So I have two thoughts on this one. I think I think is echoing what you said, which is, you know, somebody has to be held accountable when things don't go well, when coaches can't get fired, who's the next in line to get whacked? Okay. So I think that's a good thought and I'm excited to hear more of what you have to say about that because you're writing about that, right?

I filed a column on three. You'll be able to read it probably later this morning. The coordinator market is going to be a blaze this off season. The head coach market is going to be dead as a doornail. I'm putting the over under on power conference head coaches who are either fired or forced to retire at two for this off season. Yeah, that's a, that's a, that's stunningly low in comparison to what we've seen in the past. I mean, we'd have like four a day in the past.

Uh, the thing that I, so two things, one, I'll start with the Florida state and then we'll work out. Florida state doesn't have great players. So, and I know that's partially the responsibility of the coordinators to make sure that's not the case, but I'm very amused because I'm not necessarily sure that what we're seeing at Florida State is a scheme problem or a coaching problem.

Like we are looking at a, and maybe it is to a certain extent because it's gotten this bad, but Florida State just doesn't have good players and they lost their entire team from a year ago, and they were unable to replace them. And doing what they were able to do two years ago with multiple portal classes was a pretty remarkable thing

that was unsustainable. So from that aspect, I feel bad for assistants who have to pay the piper, because I don't know if you could have gotten Bill Belichick in his prime to get Florida State to score points this year. So that's one. And then two, is the bar for what it's going to take in the future, because we are seeing kind of a financial reform here, right? Is the bar to get an extension going to be raised to more than other people may want me? Like, do you have to do more to get an extension

before you've won anything at the place that you're at in the future to avoid situations where the program is trapped with you? Or do you think that that's just gonna- I would hope so. So I've talked to somebody about this who's really, actually comes from a different industry. And they, somebody who works

in Hollywood and they explained it to me in a really interesting way because they're a huge college football fan but they work in Hollywood so they're like it's sort of like the difference in the way you sign a deal now if you're making a movie or if you're making a tv show because before you'd make a movie or a tv show they would pay you a certain amount of money, but you would also know, like if you're the cast of Friends or if you're making a movie in the 90s, like there's gonna be more money that comes in based on HBO or TBS, like picking it up

to either syndicate the TV show or re-show the movie. And like every time it shows, you get more money is that they call it mailbox money. And those syndication deals, especially in television were really lucrative. So you didn't have to pay as much upfront. Now, if you're making a show for Netflix or you're making a show for Amazon Prime,

you have to like they're just gonna pay you upfront and they own it forever. There's no residuals on that. So what they've done is they've massively increase the upfront amount. And decrease the back end amount so with this person said and it's an interesting suggestion is increase the amount you pay per year. Lower the amount of years you give the coach. year, lower the amount of years you give the coach and thereby guarantee less money. So for example, I think when Billy Napier signed his Florida contract, I think it was probably, I want to say it was in the $50 million guaranteed range because I think it's a certain percentage of the amount left over when you fire him that is the buyout. And so he's coached three years,

so he's received three years of full salary. There's four years left on it. And so the buyout is that percentage of four years, I think 65% for him. So they ended up guaranteeing about, you know, in the $50 million range. Well, what if you had said, okay, instead of that, we're gonna pay you $13 million a year for three years, and that's your contract. They would have paid out $39 million, they would owe zero more dollars. Yeah. So it's cheaper, it sounds more expensive,

but it's actually cheaper. I think that may be the model they have to go to. Yeah, well, the thing that I just think is interesting is that like, there are coaches who are getting legacy money who have done nothing. Yes, like Greg Finnebles did not need to be extended last summer or last off season. He did not need to be extended.

No one was trying to hire him. You just increased your buyout to play yourself. And also too Andy, the coach I feel like is really important when you know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you have your guy, right? Kirby Smart, yeah. Kirby Smart, Nick Saban, that sort of thing. But like A&M fans, this is one that I think about a lot, were connected to Jimbo because he had won a national title at Florida State and they were paying him a lot of money and they had to be connected to him because he was the savior of the program.

Who do you think they're more happy with? Jimbo or Mike Elko. Who's making that a lot less? Mike Elko isn't a sexy hire. He didn't move the needle when they got him. And he's still in year one. It could go terrible for him too. But what I'm saying is, is I think that the, that we in college football, and I think the difference between this and Hollywood is, is that if Hollywood is making a show, they know beyond the shadow of a doubt when they're paying the person that they're hiring to act in it, if they're a star or not, or if that's gonna get people to watch. But they don't know if it's gonna be a bomb. Like sometimes stars make bombs.

Yeah, for sure. But you are paying for a proven entity when you're getting an actor and actress for the most part, right? Like if you go get Ryan Gosling and you're paying hand over fist for this guy, you know that you're gonna have a 16 actor. It's a much safer bet than the coach.

But what I'm saying is they have to find a way to stop giving out so much guaranteed money. And 80s are terrible at negotiating. So maybe the only way to do it is to offer more money upfront. Because the coach will take that. Let me go, 13 million here? Sure, give me that. But I also think to that like fan

bases can turn the page on a coach like this. Like that to me is because you want to know why because the actual like we should look this up. But how many coaches in the last four years Andy have been paid 10 million or in the 10 million range a year annually that have actually been hits. Like, I wonder what the hit rate on that is. I bet you it's less than 50 percent. Probably. I mean, Mel Tucker's in that group, right?

Yeah, I'm just thinking like or just like guys who got fat contracts at places that were supposed to be lock up this guy long term. It's like even James Franklin, like the guy hasn't won a big 10 championships since 2016 and he's making almost $10 million a year for a decade guaranteed. And it's like, do you think if Penn State can go back in time and renegotiate that deal that they would have done that? And I'm not saying that James Franklin's a bad coach. I think he's done a pretty good job with what they have there.

And they've been a top 12 team every year. And I think that's what Penn State is, but I'm just saying, like, how are we at a place where so many programs are being held hostage by an underperforming coach? And I think the answer to your question is that the agents that these coaches have are better negotiators than the people

on the other side of the table. And I think- It's not even close. I mean, it is national champion versus FCS team level matchups. And then once you get into this trap, because it's very easy to get excited, I mean, hell, we don't know what Lincoln Riley's contract is. I know, didn't somebody report it was $10 million a year and he got a big fat guaranteed deal because he wouldn't have done that if he didn't. Right. Yeah. I mean, USC probably would owe Lincoln Riley something to the tune of $70 million. And then USC thought they were hiring Ryan Gosling for their

movie. Like that's the thing. So even when you think you're hiring the no doubt about it guy, I thought that was a slam dunk. You know how I felt about it. I owe you money. Yeah, I felt about it. The thing that we need to get to realize is that most of the time, the people who are having the most success are often the ones that come with the least amount of fanfare during the hiring process.

And that's the funniest part about this whole thing. Remember like Tennessee fans were like, oh, wait, we just hired UCF's AD and now he's gonna hire UCF's coach. Did you even talk about Lance Leipold when he got hired at Kansas? A little bit, but only because it was such a strange time because it's the middle of the spring. I know too that like Kansas doesn't necessarily move the needle the same way that USC would in terms of a pure eyeball number, but like I'm just trying to think of like who are the top, we got to do this in the off season. By the way, Bruce and Stu, we're coming for you.

We're going to do our coaches. Coming for you next. Yeah, because I've been wanting to do this and now we can. So you want to know why? Because we don't work with you anymore. Miss you guys. But like the thing is, I just don't know what it would take. Like what lever do you have to pull in order to get out of the trap?

Because once coaches have, you know, it's the same thing with salaries and extent with NFL players, right? Once somebody gets something that becomes the expectation. How do you go back to making like Elkos contract the norm? Everybody has to simultaneously put their foot down. And if you want somebody or you're excited about it, you're probably not willing to do that because you want to go get the person that you're Yeah. 80s have to stop being so emotional about it.

They said, I have to stop. Like when your six and six coach comes to you and says, I I'm going to leave. If you don't give me an extension, you, you tell them peace out. He's out. Yeah. Nice knowing you. Yeah. Tell it, tell his agent to go pound sand.

Now the second part of this too. Is an important piece to it because when you're hiring a coach you're not just hiring. I mean you are hiring somebody to win games but there's another piece to the equation on this and I it almost is like the Dion Sanders effect to a certain extent where it's like Colorado would have made its money back on Dion even if they were a below 500 team right now, because the enthusiasm, the merchandise, ticket sales, all that. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So I think that like making a splash in terms of recouping your investment is probably somewhat important as a result to fan enthusiasm, because fan enthusiasm means more spending. But you know what makes fan enthusiasm more than the cool,

sexy headline and the person we're talking about on the show? Sustained success and winning at a high level. Like, I mean, do we even talk? I mean, I guess Kurt Signelli didn't get a lot of attention, but again, he didn't go to a high profile place, so probably not as much attention as it would had we, you know, spent on Sharon Moore, for instance. So, you know, I think that, like, we're backwards on this. And the people who are going to pay the brunt of it now are coordinators and coordinators are now making $2 million a year in some places. So it's still a lot of money, just not at the same scale.

Berserk. So watch those group of five head coaches, by the way, who may be getting their salaries double to become power conference coordinators, because there aren't going to be the head coaching jobs open that they want. So this market's going to be very different than what you're used to. Your team may change because it changes coordinators, and there's a lot of potential coordinator changes out there. You can read that story at on three right now. It's up on the front page. We talked about this in the up on the front page.

We talked about this in the car on the way back from the game on Saturday night, but like the forced patience thing, I wonder if we have a less dramatic coaching carousel than we've had in the past, what that'll mean for sustained success across the board at places. Because, you know, a lot of times in college football, you have 10 programs that are awesome, and then you have the 10 that are just dumpster fires. I wonder if the dumpster fire awesome ratio is gonna beat somewhere in the middle, and you're just gonna have a bunch of pretty solid places.

It's possible. It's possible. And it's gonna be a little while, because everybody's getting ready for revenue sharing. They can't handle the upfront costs of changing coaches, changing head coaches this year. So like Florida, you would owe Billy Napier half his buyout upfront because of the way it's structured. So that's 13 million upfront. You have to pay to buy the new coach out of his old contract. You have to pay to buy out Napier's assistance, you have to pay to buy

the new coordinators out of their contracts. Like it is a massive upfront cost. In a year where everybody's gotta find $22 million that they're gonna be given to somebody else they weren't given to them last year. So it'll be, it's gonna be this one, they'll get that figured out and then next year back to business as usual, firing coaches. So expect next year's head coach and carousel

to be pretty wild. Alright, we gotta talk about these games. Force. Let's talk about how you get to these games. Do you want to go to Athens to watch Tennessee play Georgia in what could be a college football playoff elimination game? Get your butt to Game Time. Download the app. You can get tickets to that game. You can get tickets to Colorado, Utah.

Got a brunch game with potential college football playoff implications because Colorado controls its destiny in the Big 12 race. You go to that Game Time app. You hit the GT Picks feature, and it will tell you what the best prices are relative to the market. So there'll be a bunch of seats that are available. This will tell you which ones are actually the best deals.

I used that myself a few weeks ago. My wife woke up, said, I'm taking my daughter, I'm taking our daughter to the Taylor Swift concert in Miami tonight. I said, you're doing what? She said, we're doing this. Get to game time and get us some tickets. And I did, and I use GT picks and got amazing tickets where basically Taylor Swift could sweat on them. And

my daughter got to meet Taylor Swift's mom. So there you go. Download the game time app, redeem the code staples and get $20 off your first purchase terms apply. That's code staples for $20 off your first purchase at game time. All, alright, let us go to Athens. Let's do it. A lot of times we make everybody wait for the big one. We're not doing that today. We are going to this one. This line continues to hop.

So it opened Georgia minus 10 and a half. It hopped up to Georgia minus 11 and a half. This morning it was Georgia minus 8 and a half half and then in between when we got set up for the show and when we actually started the show, it went back to Georgia minus nine and a half. This thing is hopping all over the place. So this is like a difficult game, I think because like on the surface, it seems like way too many points and I have actually already played it because it was over

Ten at one point and I thought that was a lot of points for a team that in Tennessee. I the thing is is we saw Georgia in person on Saturday and They got their butts kicked and I think they got their butts kicked because they just did not match up well with Ole Miss and Ole Miss has a very good pass rush. They've got a really good passing game. A lot better, I think, even than Tennessee's. So, you know, maybe they would, Ole Miss was more equipped to attack Georgia's defense. But Tennessee is going to be able to get after Georgia on offense the same exact way Ole Miss did. And outside of a turnover on the first possession that set up a Georgia touchdown, like Georgia didn't do anything offensively for four quarters in Oxford.

Yeah, that was an interception of a Jackson Art pass that set up that touchdown. But to your point, Tennessee's defense and Ole Miss's defense, not the same scheme, of course, but personnel-wise, kind of similar. Like great on the defensive line, very athletic in the secondary. It is going to be a tough day for Carson Beck probably. The difference between Ole Miss and Tennessee, which is interesting because they run basically the same offense, is that Ole Miss's offense is much more explosive. Tennessee, we'll see about Nico. Nico took

a big hit in the Mississippi State game, missed the second half. Josh Hypple says he expects him to play. But look, Nico has failed to connect with his receivers on deep balls with regularity this year if they were accurate. With the deep ball and sometimes is Nico overthrowing sometimes it's been receivers dropping it. But if they connected more often I would be very confident in Tennessee winning this game very confident, but I am not because I think this could be very similar to the Tennessee Florida game in the Tennessee Alabama game where it is just a slog and both offenses are

struggling. Yeah. The thing that is difficult is is that on paper, I think Tennessee is the absolute play here. I'm gonna take Tennessee right because of everything that we just said. I think Tennessee has a chance to win this game out right. In fact, I put Tennessee in the playoff and Georgia in the. We lost Ari's microphone. Like the technology is that just doesn't want to already talk but I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna pick up where my back was

your back. Go ahead. Hey, I don't know this frickin cord. I'm gonna I'll rectify this today. Sorry about that. Andy. What if just Death Star Georgia shows up? Like are we still on alert from that happening? Like what if they just, the team that played Texas just shows up

and just mulls Tennessee and just like beats the crap out. Hey Ari, have you looked at George's offensive stats from the Texas game? The only Death Star that showed up was the defense. George's offense was awful in that game. Yeah, I think all their scoring drives are like 40 yards or less, right? Well, they had an 85 yard drive at the end of the game that was pretty good, but Carson Beck averaged, I think 4.3 yards

per attempt in that game like their defense. Their offense was not good in that game. Would you say their defense is excellent? This is a personnel issue. This is exactly and that's my concern. Like I don't feel comfortable with the point spread pick in this game, even though I think it's too many points. So I'm gonna take Tennessee because I think it's too many points, but I don't feel comfortable with that pick.

I feel extremely comfortable with under 48 and a half. Extremely comfortable with that. You know, it's November 11th. with under 48 and a half. Extremely comfortable with that. You know, it's November 11th. You know, I'm starting to get my legs on the show. We're back together, you know, friends, me and friends. Taking Tennessee Moneyline. Oh, there you go. Look at that.

I'm also gonna spread on the spread too. Maybe half unit Moneyline, but like on the show graphic, I think Tennessee is gonna win the game. Yeah,, I think Tennessee is going to win the game. Yeah, I mean, so I go has to show up though. I mean, we need some plays. Exactly. We need the receivers to keep getting open. But from the aerial view in Oxford, Andy, Ole Miss's receivers were running around wide open the entire game.

Like if Tennessee can get Nico easy targets like that and he can stay on the money and then their defensive line and James Pierce eats. Like I think there's a real path here for Tennessee to win the football game. And I already think that that can happen. Also, Dylan Sampson is better than all of Ole Miss's backs. And everyone's healthy, right? Everyone's healthy?

Nico's not healthy and Dylan got banged up a little bit in the Mississippi State game, but he was okay. So no, everyone's not healthy. No, but no, everyone's gonna play. Everyone's gonna play. Yes. Yep. But I Yeah, Beck. Interestingly enough, I felt like Beck did okay, in terms of not throwing into coverage, like, we just showed the interception from the end of the game. But that's a fourth and 10 play, where he has to make something happen at the end

of the game. Nobody's open. Like there was nothing you could do about that. Like that, that one I'm not as worried about. He didn't, he didn't put the ball in danger as much in that game as he did the previous two games. So I thought that was good, but, but I felt like he held the ball more. Which allowed Ole Miss to tee off on him, and if you hold the ball against Tennessee, then they're also going to tee off on you. Yep, yeah, so it's possible to that like on Saturday night.

I'll just have a bunch of Georgia fans in my mentions like making fun of me and you know, rightfully so, but right, there's there is always a possibility, especially the way that Nicos played this year. The Tennessee's defense is lights out that they force a bunch of turnovers. The offense gets short fields and Tennessee wins this game. All right, I was gonna Georgia wins the game. Like there is a distinct possibility that happens,

but that is Ari. That's the only path I see to Georgia winning this game. Yeah, because we know that's an overpower them on the ground. Yeah, it's I just do you think that the spreads this big just because of the the logos on the helmets here? Like I'm just trying to figure it out. Well, you know, since Hypal's been there, they've really struggled against Georgia. They've struggled to move the ball at all against Georgia. And so I think there's that's part of it. I think Georgia kind of being able to shut down that offense in the past.

But again, we just saw Georgia against that offense last week. It was not shutting it down. There were receivers open all over the field. Yeah, yeah. I feel comfortable. Tennessee Moneyline, Tennessee plus nine and a half. I don't know if it'll get to 10 or not, but if it does, hammer time.

We'll see, it could pop back up because remember it went down to eight and a half then back up to nine and a half. So yeah, I'll take Tennessee to cover. Ari will take the Tennessee Moneyline. I will take under 48 and a half circled, highlighted, bolded under 48 and a half. Let's go to Friday night, Ari. A team we enjoyed watching this past Friday night. And I again, I'm fascinated by this team. You talk about games that are outside the playoff picture. I find this one really interesting.

UCLA is going to Washington. Washington's a three and a half point favorite. UCLA has won three in a row after starting season one and five. So the Bruins have Washington USC and Fresno State left on the schedule. Ari, this team can get ball eligible. It's possible they can win two of these three.

It's actually possible they can win them all. Yeah, maybe at the end of the show we'll be like, who is more likely to get ball eligible? UCLA or Nebraska? That would have been a good question. Yeah. Who would have thought, you know, at the beginning of the month that we'd be having that conversation. But no, I watched the UCLA game on Friday night when we were in Mississippi and I was very impressed, not just with the way that they played and the way they were coached,

but they beat the crap out of Iowa in the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. Like they controlled the game physically, which I think is a really interesting thing because you wouldn't necessarily believe UCLA would be capable of doing that with the way they started their schedule. But I've said it a hundred times, UCLA's schedule to begin the year was pretty brutal. They were susceptible to piling up some losses

because that's what happens when you play Indiana, LSU, Oregon, Penn State, Minnesota all in a row. I still think that they could have won that Minnesota game. Yeah. They lost by four, but beating Rutgers, Nebraska and Iowa three in a row. Like, I don't think that that happens by accident either. I don't think either any of those teams are necessarily world beaters, but I think beating all of them in a row says something about your team now going up to you, Washington is not an easy trip.

It's really, really far. I think I read somewhere that... It's not far from LA. I think, didn't I read somewhere, and you, because I'm a bad a geography person, that UCLA to Lincoln is almost, I mean, Washington to Seattle, Seattle to LA is almost as far as, as Lincoln is to LA. Seattle to LA is almost as far as, as Lincoln is to LA. Yeah. I mean, the West coast is spread out, but you're on a plane for less than three hours. Who cares? Like it's not, I don't know how far the flight is.

All I'm saying is, is that going on the road distance wise to Washington is about the same guy who drives the semi, I guess, but he can stop at that place in Oregon on I five with the really good cinnamon rolls. Like, yeah, that's true. I'm just saying it's far. But he can stop at that place in Oregon on I-5 with the really good cinnamon rolls like Yeah, that's true I'm just saying it's far. Can I just say it's far you might you can you're like they're both on the West Coast So it must be close. It's not a very no I know the West Coast is more spread out, but I'm not worried about that part of it What I am curious about is did UCLA discover an identity in these past few weeks and especially

against Iowa because they averaged five and a half yards of care or five five point four yards carry in Iowa they'd really struggled to run the ball all season UCLA had not been able to move the ball on the ground like that all year but did they discover an identity because if they did Washington's defense has allowed opponents to average at least 4.7 yards of carry in five of its past six games. They don't stop the run really well. The game where they did stop the run the best is actually Indiana. That's the one of the five of that past six where they didn't allow more than 4.7 yards

of carry. I think if UCLA's figured out what they are, if Deshaun Foster and, and the OCR at the enemy have figured out this is how it works best and Ethan Garbers takes care of the ball. Because remember in that Iowa game, UCLA would have blown out Iowa if Garbers hadn't thrown a couple of picks early. For sure. Um, also Ethan and is going to run a

little bit and I think he had like 25 rushing yards against Iowa and the thing too is like we've said over and over again that Iowa's defense isn't as good as it was last year but doesn't mean that it stinks and UCLA made it look like it stinks. So, I like UCLA here. I like this spot for them. I think that they're feeling really good about themselves and maybe we're not only going to be on the verge of seeing UCLA discover its offensive

identity, but maybe it found its coach too. Maybe I'm excited to watch the Sean Foster because I was there at Big Ten media days when he froze up. I felt so bad for him. And we had him on the show a few minutes after that. Like we you know, we recorded a segment with him a few minutes after that. And I just remember thinking that this, okay, everybody's gonna make fun of this guy because of what just happened.

But then you hear him talk about what his plan is for UCLA. He has a real plan. And by the way, the satin jacket on the sideline is fire. That is the ultimate coaching attire this year. Like that's the new twist that we didn't see coming this year. But if really they discovered an identity offensively. And they make this team bowl eligible to win two of these last three or three of these last three.

Holy cow. Imagine, imagine UCLA beats USC. Well, I think that that's they might be favored in that game, depending on how things go with James. Yeah, we'll see how it goes this week. Yeah, I also will take USC, excuse me, UCLA to cover in this game. Fascinating, fascinating. All right, let's move on to Saturday.

Texas is heading to Arkansas. Texas is a 16 and a half point favorite on the road. And Ari, three weeks ago, I would have said, this is free money. Take Arkansas to cover, count your winnings. Texas will win the game, but Arkansas is going to make it fun. Not based on what we've seen from Arkansas the last few weeks. Like I, I very little faith in Arkansas to cover this. Yeah. Arkansas went from like pesky, tough team that isn't getting enough credit in the

sec to a team that gave up 34 points to LSU and then gave up 63 to Ole miss the last time they played and like the entire thought shift of what Arkansas is has occurred in my brain. I don't know about you. Also, uh, I know that Florida isn't necessarily a world beater when DJ lagways not playing, but Texas did a really good job offensively against the Gators on Saturday too. And Quinn, you were, has had a bunch of touchdown passes.

Like, you know, I still think that Texas is a really, really good team. I haven't lost faith in their ability to contend for a national championship this year because of what happened against Georgia. So this is a do not play under any circumstance game for me in real life, but because you're making me pick it on the show, I'm probably gonna lay the points here. I think Texas is gonna go on the road

and continue playing really well. Cause the last thing that this team needs is to be playing so-so football heading into that date with Texas A&M here coming up in a few weeks. Yeah, I feel like Texas had its pallet cleanser game against Florida that the offense kind of had a chance to really work well again. And look, we just saw Ole Miss decimate Arkansas's defense.

I realized Arkansas has had an open date in between then, but Texas has as many or more weapons that will miss like they should be able to cover this spread, so I will take Texas to cover as well. Alright, let us move on to Pittsburgh, Clemson at Pittsburgh. Now this game doesn't necessarily have playoff implications because Clemson needs help as we discussed on Saturday show. Clemson's lost to Louisville is a big problem because Clemson needs help. As we discussed on Saturday's show,

Clemson's loss to Louisville is a big problem for Clemson because it allows Miami to hold a tiebreaker over Clemson in the race for the ACC title game. SMU's still undefeated, but even if SMU were to lose one, they have a win against Louisville that would allow them to hold the tiebreaker over Clemson as well. So Clemson needs help here. They also need to beat Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh meanwhile needs to win something lest we think that 7-0 start was a bit of a mirage. Yeah, Pittsburgh did not look good at all in their loss to Virginia on Saturday and now they've lost two in a row and I don't know if seven and oh start can be a mirage because winning seven games in a row is really really hard I just don't think that they're nearly as good as there was a chance we thought

they could be at one point look at the end of that schedule Ari look who they got next they're at Louisville at Boston College which had a nice win the other day too. So, yeah, um, I am pretty down on Clemson, but I'm much more down on pit right now, Andy. Yeah, I am too. Uh, Clemson, it was not the prettiest win in Blacksburg, but it was a win. And so I, you know, this is a, this is a big spread. This is a lot of points, but I still think Clemson covers here. Yeah, I'm with you.

Clemson's going to probably cover. It might be an ugly game, but I still think that Clemson has enough to get the 10 and two this year. Yeah. And I think they'll win this game comfortably. Well, I'll be curious to see what K Clubnik's prize picks numbers are this week.

The folks at prize picks, they haven't populated the college football board yet, but you can definitely play it tonight. Monday night football, dolphins against the Rams. So if you're not playing prize picks, it is the best, most fun daily fantasy game in America. Download the app, use the code staples, play $5, get $50 instantly, you're picking squares. Basically what you have is a player with a stat category attached.

So like tonight, Matthew Stafford playing as the Dolphins, 257 and a half passing yards. Do you think he'll throw for more or less than that? Hookah Nakua, 70 and a half receiving yards, more or less. Tyree Kill into a Tonga Bailoa, same deal. They've got their own numbers and you decide. Will they have more or less than that? It's a lot of fun. That's quite a bit of intrigue to

a Monday night football game. So download that prize picks app. Use the code staples play $5. Get $50 instantly Ari. We now move to brunch football. You ready for brunch? I love brunch. So they're not playing. I love brunch. Colorado wants that big noon kickoff spot. So they're like, sure, we'll play a game at 10 a.m. local. Let's roll. Utah goes to Colorado. Colorado is a 10 and a half point favorite. The rare double digit spread in the new Big 12, which is, I think, a testament to how well Colorado has played the last three games.

Is it too big of a spread? So, I'm a very reactionary person, and I'm working on it. And I just put Colorado in the playoff field in my bubble watch. Yes. I think you gave some thought to doing it as well, right? I did. I did. I left BYU there, and we'll talk about BYU Kansas, but you notice we're not taking out our big 12 coin for this game, and we will be for BYU Kansas which I think is very telling.

This is so many points for a Utah team that I think played really good physical football and I'm having a hard time deciphering whether or not Utah's game on Saturday night late was just a product of being at night at Utah in an arrival home game stadium record crowd. Okay, so that's your argument for it. Just being those circumstances. Here's your argument against it being just being those circumstances. They change quarterbacks. Brandon Rose ran the offense much more effectively than

what we've seen so far this season since Cam Rising got hurt. Now remember Mike Mike B Mike Majakin, the former Northwestern coordinator, is calling plays for Utah now that Andy Ludwig stepped down. So perhaps the Brandon Rose-Mike Majakin combo is really good. That said, and look, Utah has NFL players. Utah has more NFL players than most Big 12 teams. But Colorado has high draft picks that Utah may not have. Like Brant Keithey we think is an NFL player for Utah. We saw him like

going off the field at the end of the game with an injury. So Colorado has Shador Sanders who's gonna be a first round draft pick. Travis Hunter is gonna be a first round draft pick. They've got defensive ends that are NFL draft picks. Like Colorado is probably the more talented team. They're definitely the more top end talented team in this game. I'm picking whether I think Colorado is going to win. I'm wondering whether or not that hook there on the 10 is going to be a difference maker. Or the fact that it's a two touchdown situation now. Can I? Would you like to know what Colorado has won by the last three games?

I know it's more than 10 and 1.5. It's an average of 17.3. Yeah. Do you want to take 30 seconds to talk about what Utah's athletic director set up for the game on Saturday? Or should we? Yeah, let's do that.

We haven't had a moment. Let's do that. I'll read the quote, because I pulled it up while you were talking. Utah athletic director Mark Harlan was fined $40,000 for saying this, by the way. After the game against BYU, and if you weren't up watching BYU, I don't know what you were doing with yourself on Saturday.

Defensive holding penalty that saved BYU. I don't know what you were doing with yourself on Saturday. Yeah, defensive holding penalty that saved BYU. Utah sacked Jake Retzlaff like at the goal line on fourth down to basically win the game. Everybody thought the game was over. Then there was a late flag for defensive holding. I haven't gone back and looked to see if there actually was holding. I didn't think it was a bad call. It's a terrible camera angle. They showed this all 20. They kept showing this all 22 angle. They didn't have a close up of it. The announcers like Brock Osweiler was the analyst on that game and he's like obvious.

Like Osweiler was on it during the play. Okay. Like as soon as the play ended, he's like, there's going to be a flag. It's going to be defensive hole. Why are people upset about the call? If it was a hole, like I just don't understand. There was no, there was no camera angle that showed it close up. It was a big far away angle and you couldn't you

couldn't see that there was like you could see the two guys kind of like close together in their blue jersey in their red jersey but you couldn't see it well enough to say oh that was great cause was calling out that there was a hold during the play, right? And then they called holding? As soon as the play ended, like even before, maybe before the flag came out. So we have to assume that there was a hold and then they were called for holding. So I don't really understand why everybody got upset because if you hold somebody, that's

a penalty. But anyway, Harlan said, this game was absolutely stolen from us. We were excited about being in the big 12, but tonight I am not. We won this game. Someone else stole it from us. Very disappointed. I will talk to the commissioner.

This was not fair to our team. I'm disgusted by the professionalism of the officiating crew tonight. Well, you don't really see comments that stern. Yeah, I'd find him for that too. Especially like, he, it's one of those things like show me the film of the play, like show me your close up of the play that says that it wasn't a hold. Yeah. I'm guessing you can't.

Because if there was no hold, I understand that. But if you're upset with the timing of it because you thought you won and then you didn't, I get that sucks. It's a real kick in the knackers. But if it happened, it happened. So like, and also too, you gotta let them go all the way down. We got a comment from Beasy World

who apparently hasn't been listening to the last five minutes of the show. Andy, are you ever gonna give Prime credit for how he recruited or are you going to cover Kurt Sig, the praise for the transfer recruiting that Prime did first. Uh, didn't I just say Colorado has more top end talent in this game? Did I just say the Colorado has two first round draft picks? Did I just say that? I mean, I get you've probably skipped the last four weeks of shows where we've talked about this constantly, but I just said it. You guys got to stop being so butthurt.

You really do. They're good. We've said they're good. We will continue to say they're good. We've said they're good. We will continue to say they're good. Yeah. I just don't know what to do here. Like part of me can see Colorado rolling, but also too is the Big 12 stop with its wonderful bag of surprises. Oh no, I'm taking Colorado to cover. I think Colorado is the most like three and a half, plus minus three and a half proof team in the big 12 right now.

Colorado can score a lot. Exactly. And that's the other the other teams either can score a lot and can't stop anybody. So you get these crazy like I think that's where Kansas lands right now. Like Kansas has gotten to the point where it can really score a ton. But like you saw them take this big lead on Iowa state and Iowa state came back. Colorado, because of those edge rushers that they've got. And that's, that's where our guy is right.

Like what Dion did in the portal with the edge rushers with BJ green, with day on Hayesze with with Ozil, uh, Okanola, like that's where they did their best work in the transfer portal this year. Those guys get after the quarterback and make things happen. Plus you've got Travis Hunter locking down a side on the other side. Oh, busy still paying for for comments here. Andy, Pete Thamel said Prime is copying IU. Am I Pete Thamel? Go yell at Pete Thamel!

I didn't say that! Are we sure Pete Thamel said that? Because I don't think he would say that either. I have no idea if Pete Thamel said that. Why would he say that? Okay, yeah. Because it's not, how is that possible? Like, how could he have... I love,, yeah, I don't, because it's not, how is that possible? Like,

how could he have? I love, I love, I'm mad at you because of somebody who doesn't work, you know, because of something someone who doesn't even work with you said. But that doesn't even make any sense. It doesn't make any sense because nobody was talking about Kurt Signetti in terms of his transfer prowess until after they got really good and Pryan flipped his roster two times in a row before even half the people in this video even knew who Kurt Signetti was So like why would Pete Famile even say that? If he said that it's just wrong. And Pryan did it last year and it didn't work And he did it this year and it is working Because he got better players this time around and I'm telling you which especially which position group Because he got better players this time around and I'm telling you which especially which position group

He got really better players and that's edge rusher like those guys are the difference In their defense this year and it's fun to watch The thing that I i'm going to be interested too is like I think if colorado were to play like Texas they would have a really hard time staying in the game. But I don't know. I don't think so. I have it open. I think that would be a great game. So, so that's, I'm happy you said that because I'm having a hard time opening up the part of my brain that actually is willing to ponder how far Colorado could actually go, not just make it, but like

advance in the playoff. And I am laughing in my head. And I hope I'm wrong on this. But I was super amused at the beginning of the year about how much action Vegas casinos took on Colorado to win the national title at crazy long odds, like 200, 300 to one. But if Colorado makes the playoff and then Colorado advances to the semifinals. Vegas is going to be shitting its pants because they are exposed to a lot of money here. And I don't think that they need to be scared yet. Like, I don't think I don't I don't see that they need to be scared yet. Like I don't think Colorado is going to win the national title. Three games in a row against that level of competition. But I thought it was just taking in a bunch of cash. I was like, Hey, if you want to,

if you want, I said this, I tweeted this at the beginning of the year. I said, if you want to take Colorado to win the national title at two 50 to one, I will be the house. Give me your money. And I'll take, I'll give you 500 to one. Cause like I thought it was a joke. Like I was like, people are just betting on this for no reason because they like prime and that's it. And it's just like, like how I'd love to know.

I should probably, I want to call. I got to figure out who to call, but I'm going to try to call them this week. I'm going to try to call, but I'm gonna try to call him this week. I'm gonna try to call a person in Vegas that would know how dangerous Colorado winning the national championship would be for the books. Those guys are actually very forthcoming with information. It's fun, because they're happy to tell you this stuff

because they're fascinated by it too. So I think Colorado is covering this spread, Ari. I know you think it's a little high, but I think Colorado is covering this spread. I think the high machine really cranks up after this week. Yeah. I don't love it, but I'll take Colorado. Oh, to cover.

Yeah. Wow. I think it's gonna be one of those games where we know whether we're right or wrong very quickly. Yeah II think we're I think we're going to be right. II just have a feeling about this one. I don't know now when Colorado plays Kansas, that's that's the one I'm I'm waiting for to be the the fun one. The the crazy like when you play a team that score on every possession too exactly and when you play a team that can score on every possession too. Exactly. And because Colorado is a team that can score on every possession. And I think that's

what makes them different than most of the teams in the big 12. So I'll take Colorado to cover. You will take Colorado to cover Ari. We're going to talk Panini, the most collectible sports cards on the planet. The Luminance series. You got your NIL cards in here. There's some DJ Lagway action. There's an Arch Manning NIL deal with Panini. Visit PaniniAmerica.net to collect your favorite college and NFL stars. We're going to rip a Luminance pack right now. We're going to take a look and see what we get.

So you got to break the pack last time. It's my turn this time. Oh, a great Oklahoma Sooner, Mark Andrews is our first one. Chris Jones, a Mississippi State Bulldog. Jerry Judy, Alabama Crimson Tide. Jerry Judy Alabama Crimson Tide We got an unforgettable Jamar chase and he is pretty unforgettable

We have a numbered Joey Bosa right here Numbered Ohio State Buckeye Joe, but numbered Troy Franklin in his Oregon uniform in the egg shells. He was so good. Oh yeah. Oh, Troy Flanker Franklin autograph. Can I have that numbered? That's what we're going to do every single time Andy hits an auto.

Can I have that? No, you can't. You cannot have it. We got a Brock Bowers base card. We got Kamari Lasseter, another George Bulldog. And Ray Davis played at Vanderbilt and Kentucky. Currently getting it done for the Buffalo Bills, but hey, yeah, we got an auto.

Look at that. We're still hoping to- This is so much fun. We're still hoping to hit a big NIL card there, because there's some pretty big NIL guys on the Luminance checklist. But as you're opening up the cards, there's no better feeling.

We got more packs to rip this week. You've got more packs. And honestly, I don't know how you just have those in your house without just ripping them. It's like having a large pizza in the fridge. It's just not, I can't stop thinking about it until it's gone. But I had a two hour conversation with Cole Kublick

on the phone while I was driving to Oxford this weekend and he's a big card person as well. Andy, I want you to get in on it. There's nothing better, more fun than ripping packs. I've got the cards here that, you know, I had been ripping earlier in the day. And you know, I got this one here. I got to get into a top load of those Brian Robinson out of Panini Elite,

not Brian Robinson, Brian Thomas Jr. It's a number to 249. That's a rookie card out of Panini Donnerus Elite. I love this stuff and I'm happy that you're getting into it too. There's nothing better than hitting a big card and seeing what it does in terms of the value. It appreciates, depreciates the investing aspects of the whole thing. We can rip some of those packs too, Ari. Yeah, there's some big ones in there.

We've got a box of 20 dollars elite right here. There's some big ones in there. The cool color blast color cards are really cool. So yeah, we should do that. Alright, Ari. So Producer River warns us, we have picked the same team in every game so far. Oh, man. Which is proof that we don't rig this thing. Producer River warns us we have picked the same team in every game so far. Which is proof that we don't, we don't rig this thing.

We don't discuss this beforehand. Fade fade both of us. All right. Well, maybe, maybe perhaps our opinions change. Let's go to Gainesville. LSU is coming to play Florida in the Swamp. Florida is a four and a half point underdog. LSU four and a half point road favorite. This line says it thinks DJ Lague is going to play. That's what this line says. I suspect he might.

Andy, can I just give you my pick first so you can pick second this time? Yes. I think Florida is the play here. I think at home after what? Really? Are you serious? Oh yeah. Well, because LSU, what does LSU have to play for right now?

And Lagway is coming back, which changes the fortunes for Florida. Napier does kind of need to win one of these. Like I don't think what happens to Florida State matters unless you lose. But like they got drilled by Texas. I realized they said Billy Napier's coming back, but everybody around here keeps going. Are you sure?

What are you talking about? What does he care? He's back, baby. He doesn't need to win anything now. Look, you get drilled the way you got beat by Texas the next three games, but that game, the next two games, like, I don't know if everything is as hunky dory as they say, but if you win one of these, then there's no, there's no discussion anymore.

Nobody's even talking about it. He's coming back. The thing about this game, like DJ Lagway, a five star prospect because he's elusive and has a big arm. But DJ lagway in my thought process of what he was as a recruit wasn't a five star because he's a run first type of player. Like, he is no, it's because he throws the ball.

Yeah. But against Kentucky lagway ran the ball nine times for 46 yards, and I think a few of those were scrambles, and one of them was a 25-yard run. But, and the injury kind of scares me a little bit, as it pertains to like putting him in a position where he gets hit a lot. But can Florida design an offensive strategy for this game, where they just murder LSU with the quarterback run like everybody else has been doing the last few weeks. I don't know if you do that with a guy who's coming off a hamstring injury. If you were completely healthy, I would say that's what's going to happen. But I'm not entirely sure. Yeah. So I mean, that's the reason why I like Florida. I also don't know with a hamstring injury, as you know, it's very easy to aggravate.

And if he's out running a lot, like I just hope he stays in the game. If he does play for the entire four quarters, that's the only thing that would give me pause here. But Florida has been playing tough outside of last week. If they have a functional offense back that can hit some plays. And I just don't know LSU going on the road feeling pretty down on itself. Like this is a small spread for a reason. I think Florida has a chance to not only you know lose by less than four and a half but potentially win the game.

Well does LSU come out fired up or do they come out in the dumps? That's the other question because you know they could just want to prove everybody wrong after last week. after they embarrassed themselves last week. And they got their ass kicked. So I don't know, like, I mean, it's not very good. So, um, how much more fired up can you be than the Alabama? Look, if we find out later in the week, DJ, DJ Lagway is not playing. That changes the math on this, but this line says it thinks

that DJ Lagway is playing. Yeah. changes the math on this, but this line says it thinks that DJ Lagway is playing. Yeah. Give me Florida plus four and a half under the assumption that he's playing. Ditto for me. Ari, we got to disagree sometime. I don't know if we're going to disagree on this one though. The battle for Columbia, Missouri at South Carolina.

South Carolina is a 13 and a half point favorite against a team that is still mathematically alive for the SEC title game and the college football playoff. But Ari, which of these teams would you rather actually see in the college football playoff? South Carolina. Yes, I would love to see South Carolina. Like Carolina Texas I think would be such a fun game. Right now, it's not going to happen because South Carolina has got three losses, but they are playing like a top 10 team. Missouri, we, we don't know if Brady cooks coming back.

This line suggests he's not. I got South Carolina. Even with this giant spread. I gave a lot of thought to putting South Carolina somewhere on the Bubble Watch graphic. Yeah. Because they've won three in a row, they've beaten Oklahoma, what they did to A&M was incredible.

I think what they did to Vanderpilt was really good. I also think they're going to beat Clemson at the end of the year. So like, yeah, I think we're both high on South Carolina, but that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about whether or not they're going to win by two touchdowns. So, and like Mizzou, you heard what Drake said

on the way off the field after they after they beat Oklahoma on Saturday, right? You know, I'm happy that we won because we stayed alive for the playoff. Yes, I said it, the playoff. And I don't know if there's anything that Mizzou can do to make the playoff at this point because there's too many teams with the same record in their own conference and they haven't really beaten anybody. And their losses are really, really ugly. Um, but. You know, Mizzou has played tough in every game outside of their two losses. So I don't know what that says. If you're not playing Alabama or A and M, but like South Carolina, what, what

do all those other opponents have in common Ari? Uh, I don't know. What do you think? They're not very good. Well, South don't know. What do you think? They're not very good. Well, South Carolina might be right now playing like the third best team in the SEC right now, right? Correct. I'm not nuts, right? Yes. Okay. Yeah. South Carolina is going to beat the crap out of them, right? That's what I'm thinking.

That's what I'm thinking. We've got to disagree on something eventually. Andy. This is not a bit, I swear. South Carolina. There needs to be some chaos in the SEC because I would love to see South Carolina like play Georgia or something right now. I'd like to see South Carolina play Alabama again. Or South Carolina, Texas. It's a shame that they don't play anybody, but I think Clemson's gonna get destroyed

when they play them. It's in Columbia, right? I believe so. No, no, it's in Clemson, sorry. It's in Clemson. Oh, okay, it's in Clemson, okay. So maybe that changes the math on that a little bit. But South Carolina won in Clemson two years ago,

so it's not out of the question. The thing about South Carolina though is that they have also. Had some weird spots where like they played Ole Miss and lost 27 to three. Right. So. But like I'm looking back at the schedule and the LSU loss sucks because they lost Lenora sellers, but that was as shocking as that felt in the moment. It makes perfect sense with what we know South Carolina is right now.

The Ole Miss game is the only game on the schedule where they probably never had a chance to win. Right. And even then. And they should have beaten Alabama. That would have been OK because of what we know about Ole Miss right now. Like Alabama and South Carolina. Playing again, especially if it is at South Carolina instead of at Alabama this time, like is probably a less than field goal spread, like they're really good right now.

And I feel bad because they just haven't gotten to a point where they can make good on that because of the blunders that they've had. Don't you just hate it when a team is playing really, really well, but it's just out of it? Yeah. I'm teeing you up for the playoff thing. I'm just antagonizing you. Look, maybe there will be chaos. Maybe South Carolina will be 9-3. Is there a path? It would take so many weird things happening. But it'd be fine. A&M would have to keep winning because that's their best win. But beating Mizzou and Clemson would be three potential quality wins at the end of the year

if Missouri can figure out a way to hang on into the top 25 of the playoff, though I don't know that they would after losing that game. I'm just trying to do the math here, and I'm just not saying it would take so many crazy things. I don't think it would happen, but. They are fun to watch. They're finishing like Clemson, South Carolina finishes conference play this week, so they'll be done. But. Yeah, I'll take South Carolina to cover. You'll take South Carolina to cover. You'll take South Carolina to cover.

Let's try another one. Let's see if we can finally disagree. Virginia heading to Notre Dame. Notre Dame is a 22 and a half point favorite. The Cavaliers just beat Pittsburgh. They need one more win to get bowl eligible, but their last three are Notre Dame, SMU, and Virginia Tech. So the one to get bowl eligible is going to have to be an upset. Notre Dame is playing really well, Ari, really well. This is a lot of points, but I am comfortable taking Notre Dame in the points just because they, they seem to have unlocked Riley Leonard. Yeah. So,

so you're at the point now where just like Notre Dame's in God mode and they're just going to go win the rest of their games and make the playoff. Like, you don't think there's any more grab ass left on this? Maybe Army. Maybe Army. Or me. Well, we'll see Jade Myava. We're going to talk about USC in a second, but we'll see Jade Myava with USC. And perhaps that's different. Perhaps we feel differently when they play.

I don't think we will, but maybe. I don't think that Notre Dame is going to lose. I don't think we're through the grab ass portion of Notre Dame schedule. Oh, thank God. We're going to disagree on one. I. What are we looking at, Barry? Oh, I'm not looking up anything. I have a microphone zero days since I last mic'd you. Oh, I'm so glad producer River made that sign.

Yeah, he's muted. I'm not muted. Oh, there you are. Yeah, I'm back. I'm happy that I messed up because now you can use your sign and make fun of me for something else. I'm going to take care of this. I'm going to Best Buy today and I'm gonna buy a $900 microphone

just to make sure we never have to go through this again. And I'm tired of holding it, by the way. I gotta look stuff up. You know you can buy a stand. Yeah, I'm not, I'm also not assembling that. Andy, we have gotten pretty far into Notre Dame schedule without very much grab ass and like Other than the northern Illinois loss. Yeah. No, I'm saying since then everything's been hunky-dory, right? Like, okay

When when when when most of them buy big amounts? Virginia's feeling really really good and I'm just like, this isn't a personnel breakdown or a coaching breakdown. I'm just going to pick a spot. I'm picking a spot for Virginia who's feeling really good after beating Pitt this past week to go into Notre Dame, Notre Dame maybe taking for granted a little bit, letting that NIU situation get a little back in their heads where they take their foot off the gas and Notre Dame not winning by 22.5. Notre Dame might win 34-17, something like that, which puts you right on the 50.5 number. I'm not calling for a 24 plus blowout in this game. I think it's possible that Virginia is giving them a game in the third quarter because

nothing goes this easy for Notre Dame for this long. Like eventually it goes off the track a little bit. I'm sitting on a plus four fifty. Notre Dame makes the playoff ticket too and it can't be this easy. So I'm anticipating that happening at some point. I think Virginia is probably the play here in terms of how many points they're getting. All right. We finally disagree. I will take Notre Dame to cover. Ari will take Virginia to cover. Let us move to one of the most intriguing games of the week. We go to Los Angeles. The Nebraska Cornhuskers headed to USC.

The last time we saw Nebraska, they were shockingly losing to UCLA at home. The last time we saw USC, they were getting stuffed by Washington on the goal line. Something has to give. Nebraska has bought it run and Dana Holgers is an offensive consultant. USC has changed quarterbacks. Jade Myaba will take over from Marilyn Moss.

Ari, what the hell is gonna happen? I don't know why USC is laying nine points against anybody at this point. Especially not teams that are Minnesota-y. Right? Like I know that they're at home and I guess maybe there's a chance that there's like a resurgence of amazing quarterback play that unlocks USC's defense, but I have enough respect for Lincoln Riley at the quarterback position to think that if that is on the table that he would have recognized it either before the year or earlier in the year once it wasn't all lost. it either before the year or earlier in the year once it wasn't all lost. I think Nebraska is going to play a tough game. I'm not 100% out on their ability, obviously, to make a

bowl game. I think that these are still bigger games for Nebraska than they are for USC, right? Like USC is already kind of wallowing in no man's land of this is a wasted season while Nebraska is still playing for something. It might sound trite to you, but they care. They don't want to miss a bowl game right now. Can you imagine? Give me Nebraska plus eight and a half. All right, here we go. We're finally disagreeing here.

You're laying eight and a half points? I think the QB change is gonna work. I think the QB change is gonna change things up. They've got no film on this guy. Now perhaps in coming weeks when there is film on him, it's a little bit different. The offense is gonna look different with Maiava running it, with Moss running it.

Now look, do I think it's gonna be like when Caleb Williams took over for Spencer Rattler? No, because I think Lincoln Riley would have done it earlier in the season if he thought that was actually gonna happen. But it's going to be different USC is not that far off They've lost a bunch of one possession games something needs to go right for them. I think it goes right today

USC covers Against Nebraska, but still has to win. Covers against Nebraska but still has to win one more get poll eligible and we'll see if they can do that against you today. I'm looking at this right now. Nebraska has four losses

this year and they got boat race by Indiana right on the road in Indiana. I think it's legitimate top 16 right now. Every other loss including a road trip to Ohio State was a one possession game and they be beat Colorado, which is a really good way. Every single time Nebraska is in a game, for the most part, that you think they're going to lose, it is going to

be by one possession. And you're lying too right now with a new quarterback. And the other thing I'm trying to say right now is if Lincoln Riley found something in Jade Maiava and USC beats the crap out of Nebraska and they have some high flying offense, I am not paying you a thousand dollars. Oh, I am. Cause I, I'm gonna be sad because it's like, what are we doing? Why did, why would, why would we do this now? Why are we doing this now? Give me Nebraska to cover. I was sorry. USC to cover. Aria is taking Nebraska to cover. I swear this is not a, Aria is taking Nebraska to cover, I swear this is not a bit.

It is a bit. Just to disagree. You're picking USC though, you're like rubbing it in my face with this shit, I know you are. I mean, that might have a little bit. You're enjoying this a little bit too much. The fact that you're just taking USC now

that the game's over is just a sad, sad state of affairs. It's a little itty bitty bit, maybe. No, it's more, I just think everything's gone wrong for USC this year and they need a week where something goes right. The universe doesn't tend to work that way where everything just goes wrong forever. Eventually it comes back around on you.

Ask Nebraska about that. I know, I know, I know, I know, I know. I'm taking USC to cover. So you still think that nothing could go wrong forever except now you're gonna continue to put Nebraska in this prison of none able to qualify a bowl for another week? What's wrong with you?

Hey, I'm just trying to ratchet up the intensity. Nothing could go wrong, Andy. Andy quotes, nothing could go wrong forever, except if you're Nebraska. OK, got it. All right. That's a bumper sticker. I can't wait to see that driving between Omaha and Lincoln. All right.

Let's stay in the Big 10. Oregon at Wisconsin, the number one ducks. We actually, I feel like we don't talk about Oregon that much on these pick shows because they're usually favored by so many points and once again they're favored by more than two touchdowns on the road. This is one of those at the beginning of the year we look at the schedule like this is a really tricky spot. I do not think it's a tricky spot anymore. No, unless you buy into the flight distance, but you've already gotten mad at me about airplane travel time already once on the show.

And I actually don't even think it matters. I think that the time zone thing might, but I don't think the air travel does. Wisconsin is just not equipped to stay in this game. And I liked Oregon last week against Maryland too, and they were on the cusp of covering the 24 and they didn't. They only won by 21. But Oregon is just in machine mode right now. I think that the interesting game for Oregon will be Washington because it's just a rivalry and it's a game that they're accustomed to playing close. And Oregon's lost the last three meetings.

So like maybe there's some weird juju there there but I like Oregon to win this game and to win it fairly comfortably by more than 14 and a half. Yeah, I think I think some changes are coming at Wisconsin. We talked at the beginning of the show about coordinators and how you know nobody's getting rid of head coaches but coordinators may change. I think that that may be the case coming up in Wisconsin. Meanwhile, Oregon's got Will Stein. Like, hey, part of the good news of this head coaching carousel not being real active is, is Oregon's going to keep Will Stein for another year, probably. Because that guy's next move is his head coach. And he's done a fabulous job with them. Look, he'll have to break it another quarterback next year because Dylan Gabriel's out of eligibility. But maybe that's Dante more. But Oregon has just looked like a wagon really since after the Boise State game. I mean, what once they got

through that, and they got their offensive line combination straight and decided that that was the group they wanted to roll with. It feels like everything's, it's not an easy, obviously the Ohio State game is very hard, but they have the best, most consistent team in the country. Yep. Yeah. It does seem like a small number and I don't know why, but it does seem small. It does. That's why I'm okay to take that. I'll take organ to cover. know why, but it does seem small. It does. That's why I'm OK to take that.

I'll take organ to cover. Now, let us pull out our specially minted big 12 coin plus 3 and 1 half on one side, minus 3 and 1 half on another. This line actually started it at Kansas plus 2 and 1 half on the road at BYU. It got bet up to 3 and 1 half today, which is appropriate because it is a big 12 game. And that's a that's a significant move.

It might only be a point, but you cross a score there. Right. You know, yeah. So. They've Devon Neal and and Jalen Daniels now getting stuff done for Kansas, like Kansas, Kansas, Kansas, Kansas, Kansas. They're going to win. I gave you the Kansas Moneyline against Iowa State. I'm not that confident this week.

You are. Are you going to go Kansas Moneyline this week? Yeah. Okay. I do. I think BYU, I think it ends here too. They've been living very dangerously, very dangerously. And Kansas had a bunch of one score losses,

and the record was terrible, but they just kept plugging away, and the offense kept getting better, and now those losses are turning to wins. Now I think BYU's gonna score on them, but this could be a fun, fun shootout. This by the way will be going on as we do our show. Yeah. On Saturday night. So it's basically going to be, we're going to be talking about some other game and it's like, whoa, did you see that? Whoa, did you see that? That's what that game is going to be. I've

already got the iPad on the charger, but I'm ready for it. Um, the. When against Iowa state was really impressive. And I know we were busy on Saturday. I don't know how much of it you got to see. I went back and watched a lot of this. It was really, really impressive, not fluky stuff. I think that they took a massive lead. Iowa state had a little bit of a comeback, but it has been control the whole time.

Yeah. And going at home and putting up 45 on Iowa state, I think is a good accomplishment, I think going on the road to BYU and playing in what I assume is going to be freezing cold weather late at night, um, against a team that has found ways to win games repeatedly, uh, even when people don't think they should have it's a tough spot. But like what's Kansas's biggest win of the year so far? They don't have any exciting win.

Iowa State. Any Iowa State, right? But even then, Iowa State was trending down when that happened. This seems like a very appropriate Lance Leipold moment, doesn't it? It does. Where we all remember, wait, he's a really, really good coach. Yeah. Yeah. It's just really hard to go undefeated. BYU has come close to losing multiple times. Kansas is playing really well. They've got a very good coach.

She's going to come in with a plan. Um, their offensive skill on Kansas might be the best that BYU has faced since. Who are we? Who am I? SMU? SMU. Um, and yeah, and even then that was, you know, three months ago or two months ago. SMU hadn't figured things out yet at that point. Kansas State they played too. Kansas

State probably too. And T-Mac on Arizona. Yeah, BYU did house Kansas State. They put them in a blender. So, you know, we might be wrong on this, but I think that the magic's running out this weekend. Yeah. All right. So I'll take Kansas to cover. You will take the Kansas Moneyline. Ari, this is going to be such a fun week. We're going to have tons to talk about the rest of the week. We'll expand that conversation we were having about coordinators on tomorrow's show because I think there's a lot more meat on that bone.

Coaches are going to be saying a lot of stuff on Monday that we're going to be reacting to. We got the college football playoff rankings reveal on Tuesday night. We'll be going live for that. We will just you can watch with us as we discover what the college football playoff rankings are going to be on Tuesday night. So keep it locked in subscribe to the on three sports YouTube channel subscribe to this show wherever you get your podcasts, throw us a like, throw us a good review.

It helps, it helps us stay employed. We like that, we like staying employed. And Ari, this week's gonna be wild. I'm just telling you, the results this week, there's gonna be some. And I'm just telling you the results this week. There's gonna be some and I'm gonna go do right now. I'm gonna go through the list of teams that are still technically alive to win the national title and see if anybody's not in the picture anymore. Uh I know at least one team isn't alright. I

want I want you to report back on tomorrow's show with that number. Yeah, we'll talk to you tomorrow.