Andy & Ari On3 - Catching Up on a WILD Week 4 | Week 5 Opening Lines | Resume Rankings, New Years Six Predictions

Episode Date: September 25, 2023

Catching Up on a WILD Week 4 | Week 5 Opening Lines | Resume Rankings, New Years Six PredictionsToday'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/ANDYWant to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube and don't forget to subscribe! https://youtu.be/2UdxnYInG20As we catch up on a fantastic Week 4 in College Football, it’s also time to take a look ahead at what week 5 has in store for us.We kick off the show to check in on Marcus Freeman Notre Dame, as they must turn around quickly for a battle with the talented Blue Devils out of Duke. We also check in on Deion Sanders after his trip up to Oregon. (0:00-8:15)We then preview the opening lines for the Week 5 slate. Georgia is, as usual, big favorites over conference foe Auburn, Utah has a primetime matchup with Oregon State on Friday night, and the line out of Durham for the Notre Dame-Duke matchup is set (8:16-19:22)We then visit with J.D. Pickell from the Hard Count to share his experiences from Death Valley in Clemson and to recap a wild Week 4 in College Football (19:23-56:59)Now, it’s time for Week 5’s rendition of the resume rankings. Is your team on the rankings list - Who got snubbed? (57:00-1:08:53)As we are now almost a third of the way complete with the college football season, we have bowl projections! We project all the New Years Six Bowls for this season. (1:08:54-1:15:55)

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. I am still in South Bend because it takes a while to recover from something like that. That was an incredible game between Ohio State and Notre Dame. Still cannot believe how it went down, how it ended. I think probably Marcus Freeman at Notre Dame feels the same way. We didn't get to this last night because we were too busy talking about Ryan Day and how mad he was at Lou Holtz. But let's talk about Marcus Freeman. Let's talk about that situation because it was a chance for his first signature win as Notre Dame's head coach. And they were right there on the doorstep, but they couldn't quite get it done. And at the very end, the last play, Chip Tarrantum plunges in from one yard out. As we now know, Notre Dame only had 10 guys on the field on that play. Our guy

Tyler Horker from BlueAndGold.com asked Marcus Freeman about that after the game. Marcus, the film shows that on that last play, there were only 10 people on the field. Just curious what happened. Yeah, we were trying to get a fourth D lineman on the field, and I told him just stay off because we can't afford can't afford a penalty I didn't have any timeouts right so we couldn't afford a penalty there um you know and yeah it's on us it's got to be better before that when the game comes down to that last play like that what's the message to the team in the huddle just before they get out on the field? Freaking win the interval. That's all I said.

That's all I said. You know, it was really two plays. We caught a timeout on third down, right? And so there's two plays really to be prepared for in that situation. And so, you know, went and threw it in, complete pass, had three seconds left, and we couldn't get a timeout, right? We were out of timeouts. You can't really – the crowd was loud. You can't relay a message.

And so, you know, I told them we're probably going to run the same call twice, and that's what we ended up doing. That's a frustrated Marcus Freeman right there. Tough situation to be in because you have no timeouts. You can send the guy onto the field, and if he's not across the line of scrimmage and where he needs to be when that ball is snapped, there's a penalty. One, it's a free play for Ohio State.

And two, half the distance to the goal if it doesn't work for them. So it was pretty much a no-win situation at that point. Notre Dame's got to get that cleaned up. I think one of the things you saw at the end of that game was Ohio State handled the end-of-game scenario better than Notre Dame did from a coaching time management standpoint. And Kyle McCord at quarterback was just very poised in that situation. So that's something that Marcus Freeman as a young head coach will get better at. And he's going to have to get better

because they don't have much time to lick their wounds. Notre Dame is heading to Durham, North Carolina to play Duke. The line on that game, very interesting. We're going to talk about that in a few minutes. We'll talk about all the interesting week five lines, which are already out later. We'll talk to JD Piquel, who was on the sidelines at Florida State and Clemson and saw Keon Coleman run right past him in overtime. We'll talk about that and all the other games of note from Saturday with JD. And then we got the resume ranking. We do that every Sunday where we just rank the teams based on what they've done on the field this year. We pretend that the preseason hype doesn't exist and we just rank them where they are. Then we're going to flip that a little

bit. We'll give you your college football playoff and New Year's Six bowl predictions. Those do bring in the preseason hype again. So you will see the Georgia Bulldogs probably in that one. But we'll do that later in the show. Right now, before we move on to those lines, I want to talk about what happened in Eugene. We didn't get a chance to talk about that much in the instant reaction shows and it was such a an anticlimactic game I mean Oregon just battered Colorado but I thought what Dan Lanning said before the game was was very interesting

and he definitely had his guys pumped here's part of that speech right every moment the cinderella story is over man right they're fighting for clicks we're fighting for wins there's a difference right there's a difference right this game ain't gonna be played in hollywood it's gonna be played on the grass right it's gonna be played on the grass dan landing making very clear that he was he was painting the picture he was was writing the story, the narrative, that Oregon was the team of substance and Colorado was the team of flash, which is very interesting because if you think about the recent history of the Oregon Ducks,

they were always portrayed as the team of flash with no substance. This is the complete opposite. And it's really how this team's been built because it has been built from the inside out, going back to when Mario Cristobal took over as their head coach and then handed off to Dan Lanning after Cristobal went to Miami. And Lanning, obviously, who came from Georgia, is trying to build in that same way. And what you saw was a very substantial team at Oregon. And that game could have been a lot worse than it was. But I think if you were watching the show last week,

you knew Deion was expecting this. We showed you those clips. We showed you Deion talking about Dan Lanning last week, not saying it's personal, because he knew he couldn't kick that particular hornet's nest and have it turn out well. He knew what he was going into. And here's Deion after the game.

And I'll point out that at the beginning of Deion's press conference, he said straight up butt kicking, no excuses. But, you know, he can't help but say this. I don't say stuff just to say it for a click, you know, on contrary to what somebody say, but yeah, I keep your seats, but I'm serious. I analyze and I understand what we're up against and what we have and what we need.

One thing that I could say honestly and candidly, you better get me right now. This is the worst we're going to be. You better get me right now. Dion's not wrong about that. That is the worst they're going to be. You better get me right now. Dion's not wrong about that. That is the worst they're going to be. They're going to be considerably better next year because people will have seen what they did.

In those first three games, even if the rest of the season is very mediocre or even bad, that first three games, all that hype, all that attention, is going to entice people in the transfer portal to consider Colorado and entice class of 2024 recruits who see immediate playing time in their future to look at Colorado instead of maybe a more traditional power where they may have to sit for a little while. Dion's right. They're going to get better. Now, are they going to be better enough this week when USC comes into Boulder?

Probably not. I'm guessing USC can name its score offensively. Now, if you watch USC against Arizona State, you're thinking, hmm, Colorado may be able to score some points on these guys. I don't know if it's going to be enough to keep up, but it might be a more interesting game than the Oregon game was. But I still think USC will be heavily favored and probably we'll be able to go in there and win comfortably. But Dion's right. They're going to get better. We're probably not going to hear as much about them after this USC game. We'll hear

some this week because you've got the reigning Heisman trophy winner going in there. You've got Lincoln Riley, his first big game this season as USC's head coach we've got some questions about USC's defense after the Arizona State game so they're going to play against Jadur Sanders then offense how do they handle that it is going to be probably the last week we hear a lot from Dion for a little while The attention probably is headed elsewhere for the rest of the season because we're going to be worried about teams that are competing for their conference titles,

competing for college football playoff berths, competing for big bowl games. But keep an eye on the Buffaloes. Just out of the corner of your eye, watch them. If they're bowl eligible this year, watch out for them next year in the Big 12. Just watch out because Deion is not wrong. This is the worst they're going to be,

and I bet they're significantly better this time next year. We got to move from last week to this week. The lines are out. Fandles already released a bunch of lines for this week, and there's some really intriguing ones. So we watched Oregon State come back, but not all the way back at Washington State. Great win for the Cougars. The Beavers licking their wounds, trying to get better. They get a chance to redeem themselves very quickly because

Utah is headed to Corvallis on Friday night. Utah is only a one and a half point favorite. Now, we did not see Cam rising against UCLA. I don't know when we're going to see Cam rising, but Utah's offense is not as dynamic without him. Their defense is fantastic. This one could be a complete slobber knocker. You could see Utah and Oregon State just pounding one another at the line of scrimmage in a very low scoring affair on a Friday night in Corvallis. That one and a half point line, that's a pretty telling stat right there. And that's how the Pac-12 is going to get. We're going to get into the meat grinder portion of the Pac-12 schedule where Utah, Oregon, Washington, USC, Washington State, Oregon State, they're going to start beating on one another. And we'll see what happens. I mean, Utah, they had the 14-7 win against UCLA. Pick six, kick things off. And then the defense pretty much did the rest from there.

That one could be a fun one. In the SEC, Kentucky opens as a three-point favorite against Florida in Lexington. This is a very intriguing matchup because Florida beat Tennessee a couple weeks ago. Huge win for the Gators. Huge win for Billy Napier. Now they go to Lexington, and it is crazy to say this. Kentucky is trying to win its third in a row against Florida after a losing streak that lasted for most of everyone's lives. This is a big game in Lexington. First really big opponent of the year. They're going to be pumped. It's going to be wild there. Billy Napier and company need this one because they need to be able to build on the momentum from beating Tennessee. But Mark Stoops and company need this one as well. They want to show, hey, we can be

the second best team in the SEC East and be ready to play against Georgia with big things on the line. This one's going to be a fun one, guys. This is going to be a great atmosphere in Lexington. If you think it's just a basketball school, if you think they don't care about football, well, I know our friends from Kentucky Sports Radio, all the folks who regularly listen and watch their stuff, who watch this stuff too, we know. They know. Kentucky's a football school too. They love football. It's just that for decades, they got kicked in the stomach every single time. Now, they've got a team that is playing very well, but can it take that next step? That's a really interesting line.

Three-point favorite for Kentucky. We'll see if that moves during the week. Texas is a 17 point favorite against Kansas. Kansas coming in undefeated. The Jayhawks look great this season. Remember, they beat Texas the last time they played in Austin. But this is a very different situation. And last year, Texas beat Kansas 55 to 14. This is another one where Texas can say, Hey, look, we are different. Now you saw that Baylor game. That Baylor game was, was a game in the past where Texas messes around and it's close and, and, and way more dramatic than it needs to be. It was not dramatic at all. Texas just handled business against Baylor. They're going to try to do that again against Kansas, but then you've got the extra added layer of intrigue

with Oklahoma sitting out there a week later. So if Kansas is indeed as good as they've been playing, they could give Texas a little bit of a run, but we'll see because Texas is the more talented team and they are definitely playing like it. I think you're going to be very happy, Texas fans, when we get to the resume ranking later in the show. Georgia, 17-point favorite against Auburn.

You saw Auburn against Texas A&M. That offense is not ready for primetime. It's not going to be one of those ones that can shock a pretty good defense, and this is a very good defense with Georgia. Carson Beck, Georgia quarterback, looks more and more comfortable every week. This will be a pretty good test for him, though. Auburn's defense is pretty salty. The problem for Auburn's defense is the offense keeps putting it in pretty tough situations, keeps handing the ball back to the other team. So I don't think Georgia really gets challenged here, but 17 points is a

lot. Elsewhere in the SEC though, if you want a little thinner margin, LSU is only a one and a half point favorite against Ole Miss and LSU is just, it's become a complete mystery to me. They look like they might struggle in Mississippi State. They destroy Mississippi State. Arkansas comes in and you think, okay, they can take advantage of Arkansas just as well as they did Mississippi State. Not really. That was back and forth. That thing was a fun game to watch, but way too close by LSU standards.

They should have been able to beat Arkansas by quite a bit more. Ole Miss coming off that loss in Tuscaloosa, how beat up are they? This would be a huge win if Ole Miss can pull this off. And Lane Kiffin needs a win like this. And we talked about, can he get that signature win? Doesn't have it yet, really, at Ole Miss. This would be another chance for that. Then we get to Notre Dame.

Only a five and a half point favorite at Duke. Now, granted, it's on the road, but that is a massive sign of respect for Mike Elko's team. The Blue Devils have been excellent this year. Riley Leonard, probably the, you know, if you ask NFL scouts, he's the better quarterback on the field

between him and Sam Hartman. Sam Hartman, obviously the more accomplished college quarterback, but Riley Leonard, maybe the higher ceiling college quarterback. That game is going to be a lot of fun. Notre Dame is coming off an absolutely devastating loss to Ohio State, and you can respond to that one of two ways. You can go into the shell, let it beat you twice, or you can say, we are not letting it happen to us again

and go out and come out guns blazing against Duke. But we don't know what team's going to show up for Notre Dame. And this is going to be a big, big test for the Fighting Irish in a huge environment at Duke. College game day is going to be at Duke, folks. Duke! It's going to be amazing. J.D. Piquel, our guy from the hard count, he was in ACC country on Saturday. He was at Clemson to watch Florida State survive in overtime, a game that the Seminoles did not lead until they

took the lead in overtime. It was fantastic. We talked to JD about that and all the other games right after this word from PrizePix. Let's talk about PrizePix. I was very confident Friday night when I put my picks in, and I feel like I was just a hair short in a couple places. I did get a win on a flex play that won me some of my money back. I did five quarterbacks. I chose five quarterbacks, all more than their projected total.

And you know how I do it. I like to go more than. I don't like to root against people. I like to root for people. But I had Peyton Thorne, Jaden Daniels, DJ Uyungle, Spencer Rattler, and Caleb Williams. And I was very confident in Spencer Rattler against Mississippi State and Caleb Williams against Arizona State. Got them both. Jaden Daniels, I was confident again against Arkansas. Got that one too. The question was, would Peyton Thorne or DJU come through? And when the score started getting out of hand in the

Washington state Oregon state game, I thought, Oh, I've certainly got this. I'm certainly going to get a four or five flex play. But unfortunately DJ you, even though Oregon state did come back in that game, made it very close 38, 35. He just didn't throw for as many yards as I thought he would. Peyton Thorne, that was a bit of a flyer there. That was me saying, well, Tyler Van Dyke threw for a lot against Texas A&M's defense. Perhaps it's the A&M defense and not the Miami offense. I don't think that's the case. I think Miami's offense might be pretty good and Texas A&M's defense did shut down Auburn's offense. So I don't think it would have mattered at that point. But it was worth a shot.

Another play that I thought I had very high hopes for, Rasheen Ali from Marshall against Virginia Tech. More than 102.5 rushing yards. And guess what? Not a problem. He had 165 rushing yards. He was outstanding in that game. Virginia Tech just not that great at stopping the run.

And Ali having a great year for Marshall. I had Ray Davis for Kentucky more than 97 and a half yards. He had 78 yards on 17 carries and two touchdowns. That game started to get out of hand fairly early. I thought, okay, they're not going to feed him the ball as much as I was hoping they were going to. And they didn't. And he'd have broken a couple more tackles. I might've had that one. That was just a two square play, but I felt very confident in that one. I still, I don't regret that one one bit. Cause again, if that game's a little bit closer, if he breaks a couple more tackles, I'm going to win that one. So I am humbled, but I am ready for next week

because prize picks, their folks are going to be putting out a bunch of new squares for next week. There's going to be so much to play with. You got Oregon State again Friday night against Utah. That's going to be a fun one. And then the basketball schools coming in. Jalen, how we feel about Jalen Daniels against Texas, against that Texas defense?

How we feel about Quinn Ewers against that Kansas defense? And then the quarterback matchup as Notre Dame heads to Durham to play Duke. You got Riley Leonard against Sam Hartman. There's a whole lot to play with. Prize picks will have many, many options, many ways to play. And by the way, you don't have to just play college football. Any sport you want that is competing right now, you can play with PrizePix. So you sign up for PrizePix now, you download the app, use the referral code, Andy, they will match your first deposit up to $100.

So if you deposit $100, they'll match you $100. If you deposit $50, they'll match you $50. The referral code on that is Andy, A-N-D-Y. So download that PrizePix app. Referral code Andy. Make that first deposit. Get matched and get playing. We are joined now by J.D. Piquel, who is smarter than me.

Because, as we all know, if you're going to go to a game that ends with a thrilling finish, where you get to be on the sideline and soak it all in, it's best to do it when it starts at noon Eastern time, not when it starts in primetime. I had the night game. J.. I had the night game. JD had the day game. So you were at Clemson standing there as Keon Coleman crossed the goal line in overtime. What was that scene like? Well, first of all, I appreciate that's extremely high praise. Yeah, we actually knew without a shadow of a doubt was going to be overtime.

That's why we chose that game. But no, I mean it was on unbelievable I mean to look at the box score too and see that Florida State ran for 22 yards like Andy if you told me going into that game they were going to rush for 22 yards I'd say well how much did they lose by so I mean Keon Coleman being a portal addition against a team that pretty much religiously doesn't use the portal like it was just it was so poetic in every sense. And to see him elevate there and to be silent and see him make that catch over the defender one-on-one, it was one of those plays where you're kind of like,

all right, Clemson gets the ball next, but if this is what they're doing in their first series, even if it goes to another overtime, I think it's going to be tough to stop that. So it was a phenomenal atmosphere by Clemson to show up for a noon kick the way they did but all things considered man for Florida State to slay the dragon uh it was it was pretty pretty wild afterwards to see all the Florida State faithful on the field I realize it's not it's not appropriate YouTuber slash podcaster slash sports talker to come away impressed with both teams but

I was like I thought Clemson was kind of done after the Duke game I didn't know that they'd be able to hang with a team like Florida State they certainly did I don't feel like they're dead at this point Florida State however they they could have folded at any point I I thought when Jordan Travis scored that that touchdown right before halftime that's when I was like okay Florida State's definitely winning this game but Clemson punched right back so I don't know I mean did you get the sense that Clemson is is better than we thought after that Duke game yeah 100 and that was kind of the funny thing doing the the post-game reaction because going into it you're like okay if Clemson loses

this football game like that's nailing the coffin Dabo's got to figure something else out like there's a death to the way that Clemson's done things and you left that game like hey man if buddy from Charleston who was on the beach last week ends up hitting that field goal the pressure goes on Florida State to have to answer and maybe maybe this game, we talk about it a little bit differently this morning. So I think the storyline is kind of still the same in the sense that Clemson now probably has to reevaluate in order to not get passed by other teams in the ACC, because that's kind of the way it feels as Clemson's taken maybe a step to two steps back and Florida State's taken like four steps forward. But yeah, I mean, I think the way that we talk about Clemson going forward they

could still very much so be a team that rattles off 10 wins and maybe we find a way to see this matchup yet again for the ACC title I know some things kind of have to happen for Clemson to get there but yeah I don't think that we can just totally write off Clemson for the rest of the college football season as it pertains to what they could still get done the team that we saw in Durham North Carolina definitely wasn't their best showing I think they would tell you they shot themselves in the foot more times they would would like to have done in that game but still a lot on this roster to make them competitive against most teams in the country well and the thing about Clemson is I'm thinking not just this season,

but going forward, if they tweak some things, if they do, they don't even have to fully embrace the transfer portal the way Florida State did. They just need to say these key positions where we're not as good as we should be, let's fill those with guys who want to come play with a bunch of future NFL players because I think if you look at if you look at yesterday who killed them a transfer you know Keon Coleman was the the latest addition to this Florida State team it wasn't it wasn't even you know

before the spring it was this was after spring practice, late edition, huge difference. Like, they don't win if Keon Coleman does not transfer there. So imagine if Clemson had been open for business when Keon Coleman transferred. How good would Clemson be right now if he played for them? I was about to say, imagine he switches jerseys at halftime. Does Clemson end up winning that football game? Absolutely. It's a wild scenario to unpack, but I think it's fair.

Yeah, absolutely. And that's the thing. I'm not talking about a full revamp of how they operate and changing their – they don't have to change their – if you're committed here, you can't take visits. However Dabo wants to keep doing that, it's fine. They're still getting talent. But when you have open scholarships, if there's somebody out there who can help you who can make a difference because clemson would immediately shoot to the top of guys lists in the portal if clemson had spots

yeah it's not like they're just you know i mean there's a lot to sell if you're clemson like i know there's kind of this narrative around what they do or don't do in the NIL space but I think the development factor in itself like probably should hold some weight I mean a lot of these kids at the high school level and you know as well as anybody one of their top priorities is development and so if you're not getting developed at a certain school with the collegiate ranks and you want to have a chance to one get more exposure and to get better development like Clemson would check that box for a lot of these guys in the portal so I'm 100% with you doesn't have to be an overhaul you don't have to do the coach prime or the Lincoln Riley and just you know switch out rosters but if you go get one or two weapons I think you can see that make a

difference in the in the win-loss column for them. Yeah, it was just very interesting to think about that as I'm watching Keon Coleman tumble into the end zone. And it's like, oh my God, if they'd have just gotten him, just that one person, if it's that different, you win that game. Yeah, it was wild. And I mean, credit Clemson too. There was no like sleepwalking into that game

or take their eye off the ball in that game there was no I mean everybody talks so much about Death Valley at night which I've never experienced but I would have to imagine that the the noon kick atmosphere we had in that game I don't know if it's on par but it had to be close because I mean it was it was deafening like there was a ton of engagement from the entire stadium and they drew up a great game plan. And I mean, Andy, if that strip sack touchdown doesn't end up happening, Clemson goes up by two scores and they put Jordan Travis and company on the

ropes. They haven't run the football, like just a couple of plays here and there don't go Clemson's way. And, you know, maybe we have a different conversation this morning. So I think Clemson is definitely still in it. But I think you're right. It has to be a little bit of a tweak to the way they do things. And I'm just curious to see if Dabo Sweeney does that. Yeah. And now Mike Norvell is in a good spot because they're basically in control in the ACC.

I think this is a game they don't win last year. I go back to that NC State game last year that this was the type of game they would have lost last year. And I think it says a lot about this team. You look at Jordan Travis. He comes into the game with a banged-up shoulder. So his left shoulder was banged up. He gets his right hand banged up in the first half and still guts it out.

And I just, I mean, I'm very impressed with the older leadership on this Florida State team because I feel like they just wouldn't let them lose. Just so gritty. So gritty. I think you said it perfectly. This was the game, if you're Florida State, that you've had circled since you finished last season. Because LSU, they beat LSU last year. I know it looked different this year. It was more of a statement kind of game. But if you want to snatch the crown, you want to be the king of the conference like you got to beat the king and so for them to do it in the in the spot they did

noon kick on the road crazy atmosphere they don't run the football well like the response mechanism of this team i was really impressed with and that was something i was concerned about with them all off season long was okay yes you you know finish the season strong yes you, you got a lot of guys coming back, number one in returning production, but how do you handle being talked about all offseason long like a college football playoff contender when, quite frankly, you weren't last year? And now then you beat LSU and the hype grows. And so for them to kind of keep their eye on the ball

and play the way they did, like you said, Jordan Travis, to have the performance he did where he's clearly banged up and still he's throwing his body around in there to try and get first downs for his football team. I think the internal temperature and the culture, which is a cliche word, we're going to use it here. I think the culture at Florida State is extremely, extremely sound and it doesn't seem to be impacted by the transfer portal. Well, right.

And what is culture if not your chemistry? Can your team play well together? Do your players get along? Do they make each other better? I think the answer to that's pretty clear with Florida state. We've seen them get better and better as the years have gone on. And what's interesting with them is yes, they are adding lots of pieces out of the portal, but it doesn't seem to take away from the whole. It doesn't seem to keep them from playing well or looking like they've played together for a while. I think that's the that's the part that probably if if we gave Dabo Sweeney truth serum that's what he's fearing I would imagine with the transfer portal but somehow Florida State has managed to continue to build through the portal yet not affect how well the

team plays together and I think that would be my question is how strong is your culture really if adding a couple transfers is going to just tear the whole thing down? Like do we really have a strong foundation here of leadership and standards that adding two or three players that are going to help us win football games, that just tears the whole thing down? We think one bad apple is going to spoil everything? I think actually good culture as a whole should bring guys up to your standard like you talk about the returning production that florida stay had i think that was probably a reason why they felt so

comfortable taking the transfers they did because they know hey once we get these guys into our team if they don't do things our way like they're not gonna they're not gonna fit here it's not gonna work so you got to do your vetting obviously a fair amount when you're recruiting these guys through the portal but like going back to what we said at the top of this thing if your culture can't sustain a couple of portal additions how strong is the culture as a whole exactly exactly and I think they could handle that at Clemson pretty easily they're pretty they're pretty entrenched there so I I'm very curious to see what this means going forward for them. But let's talk about that game I was at.

Because Notre Dame Stadium was rocking, and then it wasn't. It was probably the biggest gut punch I've ever seen. I was not at the Michigan-Michigan State game, the trouble with the snap game. This was the entire place is going bonkers. And then all you hear is one corner because that's where the Ohio state fans were. And it, it probably would have been cleaner and more poetic if you didn't have the

review afterward and they didn't have to do the PAT and they could have just walked it off. But it was, it was something it, it, it was something. And you knew as it got down to the wire that they were going to have one play because they had a couple chances, and you're like, okay, they're going to throw it first down, they're going to throw it second down,

they'll have one play, and then the whole playbook's open. And you had to bet they were going to run the ball. You had to. And they did to run the ball you had to and they did chip terranum gets in notre dame has 10 players on the field it was it was amazing but so nerve-wracking at the same time it was unbelievable i mean as as poetic as a finish as there could be to an Ohio State football game, we went into this game, on our end at least, Andy, talking a lot about, hey, this is a new Notre Dame team.

They're going to be able to score with Ohio State. You got Sam Hartman. And in reality, in this game, we saw a new version of what Ohio State is under Ryan Day and with Kyle McCord playing quarterback. They seemed very content to lean more on the run game, and Travion Henderson popped a big one one and they averaged five yards of carry and then ultimately end up running the football to win the game and andy i don't know if you got a chance to watch back ryan day's post-game interview on the field but like it just felt like this is a more edgy ohio state team and so my question is

big picture like how does that play when they play the michigans in the penn states those teams that are a little bit more line of scrimmage based so it was uh it was eye-opening in a lot of ways for what ohio state's going to be in 23 it feels like that's the question is are they edgier and so you mentioned that ryan day interview with katherine tappan he was just as hot when he got into the press conference with all of us a few minutes later. Here's the beginning of that. First question he took. Yeah, it was. And it was, it was grueling for a couple of days. You know, again, I said it earlier, I'll say it again. A lot of people took a lot of shots at this team over the last 48 hours and it really hit home to me. And, you know, the way that our team played, you know, not only did we physically get after these guys last year, we did it again here at the end of the game.

I think it says a lot about this team. I'm really upset and disrespected by what Lou Holtz said publicly about our team at Ohio State and Buckeye Nation. We're not going to stand for that because that's not even close to true. We had one bad half a couple years ago up in Ann Arbor. We did in the second half. Every game we play, we're physical. We are.

I don't know where that narrative comes from, but that ends tonight. This team right here showed toughness. They showed grit. They didn't give up, and they found a way to get that last yard. And I'm sick of those short yardages that we didn't finish,

but that's the game. And the last matchup game we were in, we were one play short. This play, we finished it the right way, and I'm really proud of it, too. Bill Rabin. So he's still pissed. He's very mad.

And so Lou Holtz is an 86-year-old former Notre Dame coach who was playing to a very Notre Dame crowd. If you don't know the circumstances of that interview, it was on the Pat McAfee show. One of the members of the Toxic Table, I forget, I think it's Tone Diggs does the Lou Holtoltz impression and he did the interview as Lou Holtz so he interviewed Lou Holtz as Lou Holtz and so Lou Holtz is playing along he's playing to the crowd I don't know that Lou Holtz is the problem but Ryan Day sort of fixated on that that reputation goes far beyond what Lou Holtz said

that reputation goes back to the Michigan game two years ago goes back to the Michigan game last year I don't think the Georgia game applies because that was them giving up chunk plays through the air more than it was stuff on the ground but that that reputation exists and Ryan Day clearly is bothered by it. And I like that he's pushing back on it because he needs to do that for his team. But I will say the way they gave up that last touchdown drive to Notre Dame looked an awful lot like Michigan two years ago and the second half of Michigan last year.

Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest thing for me Andy coming away from that is like if you're in that locker room for Ohio State and your coach is out there just publicly defending you I'm like okay we're we're in the foxhole with you coach like I'm ready to run through a brick wall and do whatever if you're out there you know talking that cash to Lou Holtz and it's like it doesn't matter who it was it's just the fact that he made a statement for everybody and made it so fired up. And we haven't really seen that from Ryan Day. We've seen him kind of be reserved

and sort of be a little bit more mild-mannered. And to see him just unhinge a little bit, I personally loved it. I think that's kind of exactly what Ohio State needs from him going forward. But to your point, that reputation to a degree was earned, and I think it was probably perpetuated by the way they finished last year against Michigan.

And some of that, too, was just honestly bad fits on the back end. I mean, that defensive line has good personnel on it, but the snapshots that live in our mind are the games against Michigan where they're busting off big touchdown runs in the shoe to send Ohio State, you know, packing essentially. So overall, though, I loved it. If I'm a player for Ohio State, I'm like, all right, this is the temperature we're setting going forward. I'm with coach. And I think that's what, that's all that was. That's exactly what it is. This is managing his

own locker room, his own players, you know, because I see, I wrote a column about it and the fans are like, you know, he's, it's, this just proves they're soft. He's going after an 86 year old coach. No, no, no. He is telling his players. I have your back. That's what he's doing. That's the whole point of this, because you're right. This is not what Ryan day has done historically as a matter of policy. This is not how he operates. He's doing this to send a message to the team, not necessarily to anybody else. And if that's what we're going to get the rest of it, and maybe it works. You know, I think if you look at last night, what happened with the last drive, that was a great call. They did get the yard they needed.

Jet sweep on fourth and one earlier near the goal line. They didn't get it and and I guarantee you everybody in Ohio State's fan base was going why didn't you run the play that you ran for chip on that play if you if you fully believe that we're tough enough to just push them out of the way then do it so I think that's the that's's the, the, the balance there. That's, that's where it'll be interesting when you're playing Penn state, when you're playing Michigan, do you do that? Is that what you go to? Do you try to just mash them out of the way? Because Ohio state theoretically should have the athletes to do that.

But I think you'll find that Michigan and Penn State's defensive fronts are going to be better than Notre Dame's. So can you do that when you're playing them? And I'm concerned a little bit too is do they have to do that? Because Kyle McCord, I understand it was like his first time, top 10 matchup. It's his second game really being thrown the keys to the offense as as the owner not just kind of driving the rental car with him and Devin Brown going back and forth he's actually owning the Ferrari offense now are they able to kind of get back to what we've seen them be historically where they're averaging 40 points a game because I do think for them to play the

football games they want to to play the meaningful football games they want to where you know Michigan Ohio State at the end of the year is for ultimately the Big Ten title or a shot at the Big Ten title. We kind of assume it'll be for the Big Ten title as it's been in the past. You got to be able to unlock those weapons. Marvin Harrison Jr. has to get his every game. Emeka Igbuka has to get his every game. So I'm great with us winning this way in this game but with Kyle McCord now it's like okay when we get to October we get to early November like are we are we driving this thing down the highway at like 80 miles per hour or are we still kind of cruising around here and we have to rely on the run game to get it done I'm fine with both but I think you'd rather be in you know the first part of that where you're able to throw the ball around the yard and then run the football

on top of that one thing that I thought Ryan Day made a really good point about was the toughness of Marvin Harrison Jr. because that sprained ankle, he could have been done for the night. And if he had been done for the night, I don't know that that 23-yard gain on third and 19 to Ibuka happens, the one that got them down to the one, because every time Harrison was on the field, he got an outsized level of attention from Notre Dame's defense and so that day they said maybe Ibuka's not open because if Marvin's not on the field they're doing that to Ibuka because he's the next most dangerous person and so I thought that was an interesting point and very just very impressed with the way those guys operated and I was impressed with Kyle

McCord because they had I believe I'm doing this from memory but I believe they had a third and 10 a fourth and 7 and a third and 19 that they converted on that last drive on a 15 play drive that took a minute 25 seconds I mean it was it was a very impressive drive by Kyle McCord in a very hostile environment. So we can be critical of Ohio State because they were in a tight game, but we also need to give them their due because there aren't a lot of teams in the country that could have pulled off that final drive. Yeah, without question, there's a lot to be said about just finding multiple ways to win. And for Kyle McCord in that spot, when it was time to win, I mean, Reggie Miller talks about

time to play and a time to win. When it was winning time for Kyle McCord, he came up big and you saw the emotion from him afterwards. And so both him and Ryan Day kind of having that edge to him, I really like it. So I'm with you. I think Kyle McCord deserves a ton of credit. I'm just curious to see how he progresses when it comes to those other games a little bit later in their schedule but no without question enormous win for ohio state and andy i don't know about you i know this isn't the conversation we're having right now but as of like right now with the win like that i put him in my top four to that i i would too and and i gotta figure out i gotta do the resume ranking for this show and we'll see you

you may already know where they are depending on how we arrange the show but you may already know where I've put them at that point but yeah I I think they're they're definitely in that spot I still think Penn State is going to be a problem for them and we saw Penn State against Iowa last night that that is that is another conversation to have I I do want to talk about Notre Dame a little bit before we come off of this game. Because if I'm Notre Dame, I'm sick over what happened. There was a dropped interception on the last drive that would have won them the game. Obviously, they gave up a third and 19. They should have been able to close that game out.

They didn't. They had 10 men on the field on the last play. No excuses for that. But if you were Notre Dame and you probably didn't immediately go and watch USC Arizona State, but you might have caught some highlights. If you're Notre Dame and you saw USC and Arizona State, you're looking at that and going, we can beat them. We can play with them. And I think if Notre Dame can beat USC the playoffs not out of reach and you're rooting for Clemson hard the rest of the way you're rooting for Clemson you're you're thanking everyone that you know that you have Notre Dame as a ranked opponent so there's there's definitely still some runway here for them i'm with you and i mean even just like internally for marcus freeman and company it like you said it just like it sucks there's

no way it doesn't there's no way it doesn't hurt today watching the film on sunday but you have to feel like man if that's a college football playoff contender pretty much every year and we're having 10 men on the field on the final drive we're dropping interceptions and we're having 10 men on the field on the final drive, and we're dropping interceptions, and we're shooting ourselves in the foot. We're drawing up a screen pass on third down, which, you know, time ties 20-20. Second, 40 seconds that you could have run off the clock. Sorry. The whole thing.

No, I'm with you. I mean, the whole thing, you're like, okay, we have all these self-inflicted wounds, and we lose to three points against Ohio. You know, we're that close. We're that close. Like, we're on the right track here. So you don't take moral victories, but I'm with you. I don't think there's any way, shape, or form we

should just count out Notre Dame when it comes to this playoff race. Yeah, no, I don't think they're done. And I think their schedule is hard enough, especially like you said, if Clemson continues to play well, if they are the Clemson that we saw against Florida State yesterday, then there's a really good chance that we see a Notre Dame Clemson game. That means something like that. But obviously they're still going to have to beat USC. They're going to have to be Duke this week. Yeah.

That's the game day game. Like it's the game of the week. It's crazy. But yes, that's going to be a very tough game, especially bouncing back from what happened to them this week. They, they cannot let this linger they can't

let it beat them twice and they got to be ready when they go to Durham because Mike Elko and company will beat them if they're not careful oh yeah they just gotta they just gotta watch that Clemson tape and they'll they'll hopefully get kind of an awakening of like oh okay so that's kind of what's going on now at Duke that's kind of the brand of football they're playing also a really good quarterback in Riley Leonard I mean a guy who in a lot of people's opinions is like a top five quarterback when it comes to NFL draft circle so no I'm 100% with you and it almost advantage Notre Dame that you don't have time to lick your wounds it's like hey another big time matchup you were on game day last week well guess what we're going to a place where game day is this week so let's lock in, boys.

Yeah, yeah, they've got to keep going. But the thing is, if Duke stays good, if Clemson stays good, and if they can beat USC, there's a chance. And if you watched USC against Arizona State, USC can name their score against most teams, but that defense, some of the same bugaboos that we saw last year popped up again. And I just don't know what they're going to look like when they play a more competent offense. I really enjoyed hearing the name Cameron Scadabo. Scadabo just sounds, it makes you happy to say it.

So he had an unbelievable night for Arizona State. Caleb Williams was awesome, as usual, for USC. But again, I think Sam Hartman and company will have more success against USC's defense than they had against Ohio State's. And with Ohio State, that's also a positive because they've got to go play Penn State on October 21st. That game in Columbus, but it doesn't seem to matter where they play.

Penn State plays them tough. JD, we saw Penn State win 31 to nothing against Iowa. There were some throws Drew Aller made where you're like, oh, he is that dude. Like they're playing in a driving rain and he's just throwing laser beams into the end zone. Yeah, it was convincing. And it was kind of how you would hope Penn State

would look in that spot because I was dinged up no no Luke Lachey they're kind of dinged up across the board is Iowa and so it kind of felt like hey Penn State if you're going to be who we think you're going to be if you're going to be that team that does eventually take over the Big Ten Conference from Ohio State and Michigan like this is that spot where you kind of have to pedal to the metal a little bit so no i mean it it continues to trend in the way where drew aller as as funny as it is it's kind of been plug and play and lived up to expectations as lofty as they are and uh white out conditions at penn state last night for them to get that win over iowa and i think it was like

31-0 like they just uh remember the Titans special they left no doubt all right so let's talk about the drive for 325 which we've had a lot of fun with this offseason a lot of fun with this early season I think it's now a move from funny to sad so they are now 15 points behind the pace on the drive for 325 which for those who who don't know and you probably have to have been living under a rock in terms of this show if you don't know what this means. But Brian Ferencz, the offensive coordinator at Iowa, son of Kirk Ferencz, signed a reworked contract

that basically says you have to average 25 points a game and Iowa has to win seven games or your contract will terminate next spring. So they're trying, you know, they were, they scored 41 against Western Michigan. They were ahead of the pace. Finally, JD, they got four first downs and they gained 76 yards against Penn state. That's pathetic. I don't care how many people are hurt that's embarrassing at what point does Kirk Ferentz go all right we've tried I've done everything I can I don't want to fire my son but this is this can't can't continue how it looks has to matter some too right like hey we get to 326 but we have a couple of

showings against opponents that really matter opponents that we need to like keep pace with like a Penn State and like other members in the Big Ten we get four first downs like we we have to look competent against teams that we need to look competent against to a degree so I'm curious uh I'm curious what else is baked into that contract if it's just hard and fast at 325, or if it's a thing where it's like, hey, we got to get double-digit first downs against some of these other opponents. I have been thinking all along that if they win the Big Ten West,

and I still think there's a very good chance they win the Big Ten West, that it won't matter. Whether they average the 25 or not, they'll be like, no, look, we've won the Big Ten West. It's fine. Remember, Gary Barter, the the old ad did that contract beth gets is is running the department now i don't know that that they would even enforce it if they had to or the flip side of that does kirk just go well i'm not firing him the contract says he's he's fired there's nothing i washed my hands of it there's nothing I can do about it.

I don't know. I mean, because I had been talking to people and they'll ask you, would Kirk Ferentz just retire rather than fire Brian? I don't know. I just I know this can't go on indefinitely. And it's embarrassing, especially when you have the Phil Parker defense that continues to be great. And that offense probably did more damage to the defense on Saturday, or as much damage as Penn State's offense did. Where do you draw the line with good parenting, Andy? At what point is Thanksgiving dinner just

going to be so awkward to where it's like, hey, son, I know you're at like 270 right now. We really could use a nice little 40 point game this upcoming weekend to keep us on pace. Like at what point are you just like, hey, buddy, sit down. Let's let's have a conversation. This isn't this isn't good. You know, like I mean, I don't have children, Andy. So I'd be curious to hear your thoughts there when it comes to just what the good overall parenting techniques are in this situation. I do think at some point you have to sit your kids down and give them realistic expectations for everything going forward.

And so I'm trying to think of something, you know, something my kid has tried or either one of my kids have tried that clearly was not for them I'll go probably we'll go with my son when he was was playing basketball in elementary school clearly that was not going to be his sport you know he's he's gone he's found football lacrosse loves those but clearly basketball was not going to be his sport I didn't have to sit him down he realized pretty pretty quickly. He's like, you know what? I may not be in the NBA going forward. I may not have a scholarship waiting for me in basketball.

This is probably not my jam here. And so he had the self-awareness to do that. With Brian Ferentz, I know it's hard because you don't want to look like you're quitting. And we've heard him say that in interviews where he's like, I'm not going to quit. And so you have the characteristic Ferentz stubbornness, which is a good quality to have. It's a good quality to not want to quit. But it's also at a certain point, somebody has to step in who's in charge and say, this be better than it is we're paying a lot for this this is pitiful at what point do you just make a call to a buddy and say hey can you hire you hire my kid like hey it's not working out of my company can you get an internship at your company

kind of thing you know what i mean like at what point do you just say, hey, nobody had to get fired. We just made a move here. Brian Ferentz is a really good offensive line coach. He could go be a really good offensive line coach. Yeah, I mean, let's make something like that happen. There has to be, you know, a workaround here to where we don't have to have the awkward storyline of Kirk Ferentz fires son for not reaching 25 points a game like that just

it can't it can't storyline is is just too sad I just I I can't bring myself to view that as reality or real possibility at this point but here we are my friend Scott Dockerman at the Athletic who's covered Iowa for a long long time and does it really well after the Western Michigan game wrote a column saying this whole drive for 325 thing is a joke it has made Iowa a punch line and at the time I was like what are you talking about it's made Iowa must see TV but this is why Scott is smarter than me because he read the tea leaves and a week ahead of time wrote how I would be feeling now and he's right he's right. He's right. This is just sad now. I can't even get off drive for 325 jokes anymore. Now it's just, I mean, four first downs.

Four. I mean, can you imagine how he feels walking around Des Moines, Iowa? Like that just has to be like every coffee shop he goes to, every pizza he orders. There's gotta be just like some unspoken tension that like, Hey, we're going to score five, you know, 25 this week. Well now we're behind pace. We're going to score 35 this week. Like, Hey, where are we? It just has to be, it has to be just so uncomfortable.

Everything he does knowing clear as day, what the expectation is for him before he gets fired like like usually for us andy thank goodness like it happens behind closed doors if we don't reach expectations for him it is out there for everyone to see and kind of wild in itself this is even a reality we're talking about this as a headline but it's crazy so i'm with hamburg hamburg in number two in iowa city one of the one of amer America's great breakfast spots. They'll put gravy on anything if you ask for it. You've got all the candidates swarming ahead of the primaries next year.

I imagine there's quite a bit of dissension among the patrons of Hamburg in number two about which candidate they prefer and who they're going to vote for and what primary or in the caucuses probably universally united when it comes to their opinion of Brian Ferencz though and that's hard to do that's hard to do think about that that's something else that's hard to do JD let's let's imagine it's three, four years ago, and I come to you, and I say, J.D., at some point in 2023, there will be a weekend, and this is not week two. This will be week five, where undefeated Duke and undefeated Kansas are playing in two of the biggest games in the country. What would you have said to me? I think first I would have said,

well, who's the head coach? Two, what happened to all the other teams? And three, did we just take all our money from basketball and put it into football? There would be a fair amount of questions. Those would be probably some of the first also, how long has Daniel Jones been the OC? I mean, I guess Daniel Jones four years ago, I probably,

he's probably still the quarterback at Duke. So I would ask you how long was he able to extend his eligibility? What loophole did we find to where he can be the quarterback for like almost double digit years at Duke? It is, it is amazing to me. Kansas is going to Austin, Texas and Notre Dame is going to Durham, North Carolina. And those are massive, massive games. Think about, think about the last time Kansas went to Austin. So that was Sark's first year. They win in double overtime, huge loss for Texas. Texas people are like, Sark may not be the guy.

Now, Lance Leipold has Kansas rolling. And obviously, I'm probably going to pick Texas in this game. We'll see what the spread winds up being. But I am so impressed with the job that Lance Leipold has done because it's not like they're not winning in any kind of formulaic way they're just good and Jalen Daniels deserves a ton of credit for that and I mean for him to be in position to succeed and to be in a system where he's able to utilize his abilities like you point right back to Lance Leipold so no I'm with you there's nothing gimmicky about it there's nothing where they're just kind of squeaking by like Kansas is just boat racing

people and it's hilarious and it's fun. And I'm here for it. I'm all about the fact that Kansas is now a football school. Same with Duke. I've been, I've been saying it for a minute here, Kansas, Duke, Kentucky, March madness. We'll talk about it when it gets here, but those are football schools on my mind. Now at at this point I'm glad you brought up that other basketball blue blood in Lexington Kentucky because they this week are going to attempt to win a third game in a row against the Florida Gators that was a 31 game losing streak at one point and now they're trying to win three in a row you're right the the world has gone topsy-turvy jd the basketball schools are football schools cats and dogs are living together it's what what a time to be alive jd piquel thank you so much appreciate it andy thanks so much man

always a good time talking to jd When we return, the resume rankings. That's right. We rank the teams as if preseason hype never existed. What have they done on the field? What have you done for me lately rankings? Be right back. All right. It is time to rank based only on what we have seen so far on the field.

We started this a couple weeks ago with an excellent mailbag question asking us to do a top five. We expanded it to a top ten. And I tell you what, it's going to keep moving around. And I had a tough choice in these, and we'll talk about it in a minute when I get to that point. But right now, we'll start at number 10. Number 10, the North Carolina Tar Heels. They're 4-0. That win against Minnesota kind of lost a little bit of its luster

with Minnesota's loss to Northwestern. But North Carolina, 41-24 win at Pittsburgh, taking care of business. The Tar Heels, with the exception of an Appalachian State game, keep taking care of business. Drake May keeps making things look easy. So I'm happy to have them there for a little while. They're off this week. They got Syracuse after that, then the Miami game. Coincidentally, who's at number nine? The Miami Hurricanes. The Texas A&M win looks a little bit better because of what Texas A&M did to Auburn. That defense looked much improved, and that was what you're kind of wondering. Was it that Miami scored so much on A&M because Texas A&M's defense was bad,

or because Miami's offense is now pretty good? I think, based on what we've seen so far, Shannon Dawson, new offensive coordinator at the Hurricanes, getting it done. Tyler Van Dyke, getting it done. Miami Crews to a 41-7 win against Temple. Their big game, big test, will be North Carolina on October 14th. They've got to play Georgia Tech before that. Georgia Tech, by the way, just beat Wake Forest. So the ACC getting very interesting, getting very deep.

I don't know if we're going to go that far yet. But it definitely feels more competitive in the ACC this year than it has in the past. Number eight, Oregon. The Ducks sent a message. You heard Dan Lanning earlier in the show. The game wasn't played in Hollywood. He said it was played on the grass. It wasn't actually played on grass.

It was played on artificial turf. But the Ducks absolutely showed how good they can be. They got Stanford this week. That's a game they should win. And then open date. And then Washington. That Oregon-Washington game. I don't know if it's going to be the best game of the Pac-12 all year because that league's loaded, but that's going to be a whole lot of

fun because Oregon's defense looks like it might be able to slow down Washington a little bit, and Oregon's offense can certainly score on Washington. That could be one of the more entertaining. I don't know if it's going to be a shootout. Does it reach shootout levels? Are the defenses good enough to keep it from reaching shootout levels? We've got to wait. But number seven, I've got Washington. They jumped on Cal, cruised to a 59-32 win. Especially Michigan State, they lost against Maryland. That win for Washington doesn't exactly look as good. But here's the thing about Washington. Every win has been dominant.

They have just steamrolled everybody they've played. How you win also matters. And it's not about running up the score, style points, that sort of thing. It's do you make things look easy? Do you have an offense that just scores points without fits and starts? And that's Washington's. Washington's offense just rolls right now. Michael Penix Jr. and those receivers,

it doesn't look like anybody's capable of slowing them down. Number six, Duke. You saw the way Clemson played against Florida State. Duke beat that team 28-7. Duke went and hammered UConn. They destroyed the Northwestern team that beat Minnesota. This is a good team. And so here's my issue. I wasn't sure if I should keep Notre Dame in this top 10 because they were essentially one yard worse than Ohio State. And so if I'm

going to have Ohio State higher, which I am, shouldn't Notre Dame be right near them, and the answer is yes. The question is, do I need to put them there now? I don't know that I do because I got Duke in here now. If Notre Dame goes to Durham and beats Duke, I'll just put Notre Dame in here, and I'll have probably a little better idea of where I should put them with that extra data point. So it's a tricky one because I've always been of the belief that if a team's ranked higher than you and you lose that team, we shouldn't drop out of a ranking or you shouldn't plummet into nothingness because you were supposed to lose to that team. If we're going by the actual poll rankings that take into account the preseason hype,

Ohio State was supposed to beat Notre Dame. So should Notre Dame move? Probably not. There was one yard difference between these teams. But the good news is they'll play some more games and we'll have an idea of where to slot them. I've got Penn State at number five. They absolutely demolished Iowa. Held Iowa to 76 them. I've got Penn State at number five. They absolutely demolished Iowa, held Iowa to 76 yards, only four first downs. And the passing numbers aren't statistically

pretty for Drew Aller, but he threw four touchdown passes in a driving rainstorm against one of the best defenses in the country. I'm telling you right now, get excited Penn State fans because you got a quarterback who can do special things. You've got a defense that has some very special players. This is a team that can go win the Big Ten. This is a team that can beat Michigan. This is a team that can beat Ohio State. Whether they do that or not is another question, but they are going to be capable of it.

They actually have to pull it off on game day. But Drew Aller makes this team look and feel very different. Number four, Utah. You heard me talking about that Utah-Oregon State line. Vegas is saying this may be the end of the road for the Utes' run. And really, with us not knowing when Cam Rising is coming back or what they'll look like with Cam Rising, it's hard to judge Utah. But we can judge them now based on the wins they've already secured. The win against Florida and the win against UCLA were very impressive.

So we're going to say Utah's very good right now. I don't doubt their defense is great. I don't doubt their defense. Their defense is great. I'm worried about their offense. Nate Johnson has filled in admirably. Bryson Barnes, when he has been asked to, has filled in admirably. But I want to see Cam rising. And obviously he's coming off a torn ACL suffered in the Rose Bowl. So that's a long rehab.

And they're not going to play him until he's ready. Because you've seen the way Cam Rising plays is a, it's a style that is very damn the torpedoes. And so you gotta be a hundred percent if you're going to play that style, but I can't wait to see him because I think that changes what Utah is and Utah's already really good. Number three, the Ohio State Buckeyes. They went to Notre Dame. They were up against the ropes. They had a minute 26 to go 65 yards, and they did it. That last drive was so impressive. Were there some vulnerabilities that may have been exposed that you would think Penn State or Michigan could take advantage of? Yeah. Yeah, I think there were. But I also think that Ohio State's past defense is significantly better

than it was last year. And so this is a team that obviously, if all falls right, can compete for the national title. That we know. But they are going to be challenged again. They're not prohibitively better than Penn State or Michigan. They're not prohibitively more talented. They are going to have to keep fighting for this. Number two, the Texas Longhorns.

Texas against Baylor was what it should have been, but what in recent years it wouldn't have been. This is not what Texas normally does. Texas went to Waco and beat Baylor 38-6. It was never close. It never felt in doubt. That's a big step forward for Texas. If they could do the same thing to Kansas this week, I think that is going to be a very, very telling thing and probably means that Texas can handle Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl, but they got to do it again. This is about the best Kansas team they're going to see for a long, long time. Well, it may never see Kansas again. They're not going to be the same conference anymore, but Kansas is looking great under Lance Leipold and Jalen Daniels is going to challenge any

defense, but this Texas defense, I just, I really liked their front seven. I think they've got a bunch of dudes up front that make it very tough to do anything in the run game and make teams one dimensional. I like Texas a lot. They might be able to jump to number one, if not this week after next week. Number one, though, the Florida State Seminoles. Now that win against LSU is what's really buoying them. But the way they played against Clemson, very impressive. Clemson clearly doesn't want to be done yet as a contender

in the ACC for national titles. They've got some work that they've got to do in the offseason, but they're not done in the ACC. If they were to win the rest of their ACC games, there's a legitimate chance they see Florida State again in the ACC championship game. But again, the ACC has North Carolina. It has Miami.

There's a lot left to play through. So Clemson is no guarantee to beat a team like Miami. We don't know that yet, but I thought Clemson played really well against Florida state, but Florida state found a way to win. And I think that's really important because that's part of this building process that might, whenever I was been doing with that program,

they maybe last year could not have won that game or would not have figured out how to do it. They did it this time. So right now, Florida State, your number one team in the resume ranking, I know what you're saying, where's Georgia? Not there yet. They will have opportunities to get there. And I think, you know, the game against South Carolina was a red flag. They beat UAB very soundly. If they beat Auburn very soundly if they you know if they're just beating up on sec teams going forward they're going to come into this ranking and and there will be people who say oh i still hadn't played anybody but yeah how you win matters too it's like

washington's a prime example the teams they've beaten not necessarily that great but the way they've beaten them is incredibly impressive. So that's where you say, oh, well, you know, does Georgia even have the schedule to get up into the top four? Yeah, they do. They have plenty of schedule to get into the top four if they win those games impressively. And so I go back to that video we saw that was released by the SEC network from the South Carolina halftime. That Georgia team, that one that's super calm even though they're down 14-3 at half, that comes out and steamrolls them in the second half,

that team can still compete for the national title. So just because they're not here right now does not mean they won't be here later in the season. That's the thing about ranking teams this way. By the time you get to November, it starts to look like the AP poll or the coaches poll or the college football playoff selection committee rankings, because once all the data comes in, it all sort of works itself out.

And plus the teams that had a lot of preseason hype and didn't live up to it. They drop out as well. When we come back though, let's flip it. Let's add the preseason hype back. We're going to project the college football playoff and the New Year's Six Bowls. We'll be right back. Okay, new Sunday night segment. Projecting the college football playoff and the New Year's Six Bowls. As the weeks go on, we might add some of the other bowls in there, too. I don't know if we ever get down to the gasparilla bowl but we'll see this is interesting because i did the resume ranking that is hype free no pre-season projections included this one

we will include pre-season projections because we are projecting at this point we're trying to say what we think is going to happen i've got one in here that I think a lot of people are going to go, really? You think so? But everything else I think probably people will feel pretty comfortable with. We'll start in the Sugar Bowl. Number one, Georgia versus number four, Florida State. And this is one where I just, I think Georgia's got that other gear. I just mentioned that halftime video from the South Carolina game. A team that can do that, that can just turn it on like that, you've got to have a lot of confidence in.

And I think Georgia, you've got so many players who've been there before. You saw how calm they were. Nobody was panicking. I just don't know that there's a situation that's on their schedule that's going to keep them from going undefeated. I could be wrong. Maybe there's a team down the road that really shocks them. But right now, Georgia looks like they can handle anything

that gets thrown their way. So I'm leaving Georgia up there where the hype left, you know, put them in the first place and have them play in the Seminoles. And the Seminoles are now in the driver's seat in the ACC. That does not mean they stay here. This is a tough, tough league. Florida State has Duke and Miami still on the schedule. North Carolina is still to be heard from in the ACC. There's a lot left there, and that conference is going to be very exciting the rest of this season. Let us move to the other semifinal in the Rose Bowl.

Penn State and Texas. That's right. I am saying Penn State comes out of the Big Ten. Now, I actually think if somebody gets two in this year, it'll be the Big Ten. But I'm not sure anybody's going to get two in because the Pac-12 is loaded. Now, it could cannibalize itself. But also, if Texas or Oklahoma comes undefeated out of the Big 12, which is a possibility,

it might keep the Big Ten or anybody else from threatening to get to it. So Penn state, we talked about earlier in the resume ranking. I think drew aller just changes the ceiling for this team. They still have to go to Columbus and win or beat Michigan in Ann Arbor. I think they got to win one of those two and then hope the Michigan, Ohio state game falls their way, or they could just win them both.

And then they've got room for error or I don't know that they'd be the two seed in that case they might be the one seed in that case if they did that number three I have Texas I I think the Longhorns are talented enough to do this I know I keep saying I need to see it first but they keep showing it you know the win against Alabama looks better based on what we saw from Alabama against Ole Miss and the way Texas beat Baylor was what you want to see from Texas. What we keep saying, we need to see them dominate. The teams are supposed to dominate. They did that. So I'm putting them there. Orange bowl, North Carolina and Michigan. Yeah. I don't really know how to handicap the big 10

other than pick the team I think gets out of there. And I said, that's Penn state. And then we'll see where the other ones fall. But the way the orange bowl selection works is they've got to pick an ACC team. I'm projecting North Carolina as the team that is second best in the ACC or maybe loses to Florida State in the ACC title game. And then Michigan, I'm saying they fall short. Maybe they fall short in state college and then maybe they beat Ohio State, but we'll have to see what happens down the road. That would be a fun game though. North Carolina, Michigan in the orange bowl, Fiesta bowl, USC Fresno state, that USC defense against Arizona state. I got to admit that scared me a better USC defense. I think USC could get out of the pack 12. I think USC could get out of the pack 12 as a playoff team. I think Oregon could potentially get out of the pack 12 as a

playoff team. Washington might be able to get out of the pack 12 as a playoff team. Washington might be able to get out of the Pac-12 as a playoff team. We'll see about Utah. But USC playing the defense it played against Arizona State will not make it out of the Pac-12 as a 13-0 or 12-1 conference champ. They will get beat once, maybe twice. They might lose to Notre Dame, which doesn't hurt them in the conference, but does hurt them for playoff consideration. So they've got to get better on that side of the ball.

They cannot have games like that. I watched Notre Dame against Ohio State. Notre Dame's offense was stymied by the Buckeyes. That offense will score on USC's defense if it's playing like it was in Tempe. That's all there is to it. So USC's got to tighten that up. Fresno State right now, by the way, this is sort

of the reason why the USC defense scares you. Fresno state shut out Arizona state last week. USC gave up 28 points. So that's the concern, but Fresno state playing like potentially the best team in the group of five. So I know USC, the fans don't want to see this because they lost a New Year's Six Bowl to a group of five team last year, but they have to play better defensively or they're going to be stuck in something like this. Peach Bowl, Ohio State, Alabama. You finally get a rematch of that 2014 Sugar Bowl. I guess you got that in the national championship game. I don't know if we're counting the COVID season, but this would be a fun game. Alabama felt like it had some work to do, but the thing is Alabama's only got one loss. It's to Texas. They're a very good team. Alabama still undefeated

in sec play. So nothing's over yet for the Crimson tide. And then Ohio state, again, this is me picking Penn state to be the one that comes out of the big 10. It could be Ohio state. It could be Michigan, but if it falls this way, that Ohio State-Alabama game would be a very, very fun night in Atlanta. Those are your projections for now. We got a Dear Andy show coming up on Monday. So get those questions in. Andy underscore Staples on X.

Or you can email them to me, andystapleson3 at gmail.com. Shoot yourself on video asking the question. That seems to push you to the top of the list. Also, the folks who do the questions on video, they ask some great questions. Like Nathan in Jerusalem, always, always great questions. So whatever you think I might be able to answer for you, ask away. And we'll talk to you tomorrow night.