Andy & Ari On3 - Colorado SURVIVES NDSU | Hand Travis Hunter the (Week 1) Heisman | Deion, Shedeur Sanders | UNC-Minn Finish

Episode Date: August 30, 2024

Colorado survived a scare from North Dakota State, tackling a receiver just short of the end zone on the final play to preserve a 31-26 win.  (0:00-22:54) Colorado-NDSU(22:54-28:34) Western Carolina-NC State Finish(28:35-33:59) Games We are excited for(34:00-36:24) Questions with the chat(36:25-40:22) LSU vs USC discussion(40:23-46:03) Closing out LIVE with UNC @ MinnesotaColorado receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter was spectacular, catching seven passes for 132 yards and three touchdowns while also playing most of the defensive snaps.   Shedeur Sanders completed 24 of 26 passes for 445 yards with four TDs and one of the weirdest INTs you’ll ever see. But he wound up in a duel with Cam Miller, who threw for 277 yards and a touchdown and ran for 81 yards and two touchdowns. Colorado only averaged 2.6 yards per rush but 13.1 yards per pass. They allowed 11.2 yards per attempt Host: Andy StaplesProducer: River Bailey

Welcome to your instant reaction. Andy Staples on three presented by Wendy's. Welcome back. College football week one began in earnest. And of course the game everybody could not rip their eyes away from. Boulder, Colorado, North Dakota State putting a scare into the Buffaloes. But Colorado making a tackle just short of the goal line as time expired in a game that reminded us of a couple things. Travis Hunter is unlike anybody we've ever seen unless we are really, really old. watched college football when everybody played both ways, then by all means, you can talk about all the guys you saw play in both ways the whole game and how great they were. What Travis Hunter is doing is freaking incredible. And I realize he did it all last season, but let's do it again.

Let's remember how incredible this is because we have not seen anything like this in a while. He caught seven passes for 132 yards, three touchdowns, and played most of the snaps at corner. The third touchdown, the body control was amazing, and it was on third down, and there's a good chance Colorado doesn't win the game if he doesn't catch that pass. So that's something we got to think about and talk about. Like, I don't care if Colorado goes four and eight again. If he does this every game,

give the man the Heisman. Now, will Colorado go four and eight again? I said, I think they're going to make a bowl game this year. I might have to revise that after what we saw tonight. Look, we all know North Dakota State's really good.

We know they're one of the best FCS programs, but they still have 63 scholarship players. They still don't have anywhere near the athletes that Colorado should have. And Colorado obviously has very premium athletes in Travis Hunter, in Shador Sanders and Jimmy Horn. But it still shouldn't be this close as good as North Dakota State is. Like North Dakota State covered in this game.

They covered the spread. Colorado's going to play a lot better athletes next week against Nebraska. Now, are they going to play a better quarterback? I don't know. Cam Miller was really good. Dylan Raiola might wind up being a great quarterback. He's starting his second game in that game. He'll be playing against UTEP on Saturday.

So that's the question. I see a lot of you in the chat saying rigged, rigged, rigged. I got it. I was yelling at the TV too when the ref is spotting the ball and the clock is running when it shouldn't be running. So North Dakota State did lose a few seconds there. Colorado gifted them some seconds. That's another thing with Colorado that we got to talk about because the play calling.

So we were wondering how Pat Shermer would do as Colorado's offensive coordinator. And we're, you know, jury's still going to be out. Obviously, they threw for a ton of yards. Shador Sanders, 24 of 26 passes completed for 445 yards and four TDs. North Dakota State could not cover Colorado's best receivers, just could not cover them. But when Colorado needed to run the ball, there was one nice Charlie Offord all run for first down. But for the most part, they couldn't run the ball when they needed to. There was a fourth and one play earlier in the game.

North Dakota State stuffed them. And you saw Dion turn to Pat Shurmur on the sideline. What was that? What was that? They got to get that figured out. Now, what they did do well was protect Shador Sanders. I believe it was one sack, maybe two, but as some of you are pointing out in the chat, Shador has taken a lot of hits late in the game. And so they were getting to him eventually. They were not getting to him in time to get him down.

And I think that's what saved Colorado. But Shador can't keep taking that many hits. By the way, as we're talking about this Colorado game, North Carolina-Minnesota playing a tight one in Minneapolis. Minnesota's up one, and Max Johnson for North Carolina, Minnesota playing a tight one in Minneapolis. Minnesota's up one and Max Johnson for North Carolina is out. And oh, by the way, North Carolina just pinned the Gophers on their own one. So this one's going to be fun. We've had a lot of fun.

A lot of fun because the Colorado North Dakota State game was awesome. Western Carolina gave North Carolina State all they could handle for three and a half quarters. NC State finally came back in the fourth quarter and put it away. But Cole Gonzalez and the Catamounts were slinging it. But back to Colorado. So again, Travis Hunter, we have not seen this in most of our lifetimes. I'm just, like, my jaw was on the floor. Second touchdown catch and third touchdown catch.

And I know a lot of you are going to say that the second touchdown catch was a push-off, but it felt like mutual combat to me. And he just got the ball. Tony Yeo, how did Jordan Seaton look? Not bad. Not bad, but they didn't do much in the run game when they needed to. And that part, like the offensive line is to blame for that as well. But they did protect Shador Sanders fairly well.

And the thing is, what you saw, if they protect Shador Sanders, they have a chance. But that defense has got to be better too. Hurley Waples in the chat, Colorado has a lot of room for improvement. That's exactly right. They do. Defensively, they've got to be better. They gave up 11.2 yards per pass attempt.

Cam Miller, again, veteran quarterback, knew what he was doing. You saw him able to get out of trouble find open receivers but also get out of trouble and find open grass like he was able to if he could escape the pocket he was going to gain yards he gained 81 yards on the ground scored two touchdowns on the ground including a long long run, where basically all the Colorado DBs had just turned their backs and he took off. So that part, Colorado has got to get fixed because when they play competent offenses, they're going to have problems. Nebraska, again, we do not know if Nebraska is a competent offense.

We will find out a little more about Nebraska against UTEP on Saturday, but I don't know that we're going to find out that much. Corporate Duck asked the question, did Colorado look that much different from last year? Talk about the same problems we were last year. Yes, except for the protection again, because they got to Shador more last year. But again, that could be because this defensive line is not as athletic as the one they're going to see next week. You know, they're going to see the vanilla gorilla next week. They're going to see the polar bear next week, Ty Robinson and Nash Hutmacher, like Those guys from the middle, from the interior can get tons of pressure. So that's going to be a problem. Zach in the chat, good point. What are Gus and KJ and the

Knights going to do to them a few weeks in the September Florida heat? Not to mention Avery Johnson, Cam Rising, Ollie Gordon. Exactly. These are people who can run the ball really well, with the exception of Ollie Gordon, who is Oklahoma State's best running back. Those are all quarterbacks who can run. And by the way, speaking of Cam Rising, how great was it to see Cam Rising and Brant Keithy back playing for Utah on Thursday night? They just crushed Southern Utah, but great to see them back. But you're right. Unless Colorado can shore some things up. And a lot of times when you're playing man coverage, if you do lose the quarterback in the pocket, he can go for a long time. So the question is, are they comfortable enough playing zone or do they want to play man the whole time?

You're going to risk that unless you can get the quarterback on the ground. And that's something that Dion definitely was positive about the guys he brought in on the D line. And I thought when North Dakota State called run plays, not scrambling, you know, not Cam Miller scrambling escaping, but when North Dakota state ran design runs, I thought Colorado did a good job against those. I thought they, the defensive linemen were destroying blocks. They were by the way, block destruction. One of my favorite terms, our guy Roddy Jones used it a few times in the broadcast. Love that. So, but they were engaging in block destruction on those plays, moving the line of scrimmage back, making it very hard for North Dakota state to run when it wanted to.

Now, when North Dakota state didn't want to run, when they wanted to throw and they flushed Cam Miller out of the pocket, that's where Cam Miller did the damage. So I'm curious to see how do they improve from week one to week two? Because again, the thing about this Colorado team, especially on the two lines of scrimmage, this is their first time playing together in a game. So you are going to get some improvement for game one to game two with North Dakota state. A lot of those guys have played together for a long time with Nebraska next week. That defense

has played together for a while. The offense again, true freshman quarterback, by the way, we've got a review in the North Carolina,Minnesota game. Looks like the ball's out. Looks like North Carolina's got the ball in Minnesota territory. We're about to find out. We got Mike Pereira breaking it down. So this is going to be a fun season. But what we could see from Colorado is a lot of games like this. We could see a ton of shootouts.

Colorado averaged 13.1 yards per pass attempt. That is insane. Now, they're going to play defenses that have better athletes on the back end than North Dakota State. That said, I'm not sure who's going to cover Travis Hunter. Who's going to be able to stop Travis Hunter. And I think, you know, we kept asking all these questions. Mark Jones on the broadcast asked Roddy Jones this, and they had tried to quiz the NFL scouts who were in attendance at the game to say, Hey, what's this guy's position in the NFL? I'm saying receiver. I'm just saying it right now. Like heard him talking after the game, Travis Hunter, about going to the coaches and saying, hey, on this big play, get it to me.

Trust me. That's your guy. I want him at receiver. We've seen games last year where there were receivers who could go against Travis Hunter, the cornerback, and have success. But I don't know. If Travis Hunter in the NFL is just playing receiver, then I like his odds against most people. Now, it'll be interesting. Like, what if Bill Belichick gets a job next year? Like, remember Troy Brown? He'd play Troy Brown both ways.

Like, if Bill Belichick got Travis Hunter, he'd play him both ways, too. A lot of you in the chat saying Colorado looks like the same team as last season. Halfway rich. I, I don't know if, if it's exactly the same, but maybe, because again, it's hard to tell like North Dakota state is an FCS opponent, but a very different brand of FCS opponent, a much better brand of FCS opponent. So I look at this as basically playing against a good group of five team that happens to have 63 scholarships. Elevation says, I don't think Colorado lacks the talent. It was Colorado getting out coached on the defensive side, too much confusion in the Colorado defense. I think I'd agree with that. Although I would also

say that there were a lot of coverage busts on the North Dakota state side. Now they were, they had to play a lot of zone because they're not covering those guys one on one. When Colorado gets to the teams that can play them more man and Nebraska is probably one of those. What does that change?

How much does that change? I can't wait for that Colorado Nebraska game. Cause if, if Shador Sanders is chucking it deep and Dylan, now I don't think they just completely unleashed Dylan Riella, but we'll see. I mean, we'll see him play against UTEP and we'll have a better idea of what we

think Matt rules going to be willing to do. But I would imagine they stay conservative because that defense is so good. By the way, we thought we might have another fumble in Nebraska, Minnesota. We did not. Excuse me, in North Carolina, Minnesota. I'll get it out eventually. The Tar Heels retained possession, kick a field goal. They now have a 16-14 lead. So this was going down to the wire. Big quiz about Nebraska. They lost to Colorado a year ago. Yeah, we know. We watched it. I don't know how to break this to you. New quarterback. Who dis?

Very different situation, probably. Like, I don't know. This is, as we watch a Minnesota game on a Thursday night, week one, it reminds me of Nebraska-Minnesota last year, where Nebraska has a lead in the fourth quarter and just mystifyingly starts giving the ball back to Minnesota. And Minnesota winds up winning that game at the last second. The way Colorado blew open the Nebraska game last year was Nebraska turning the ball over a bunch of times near the end of the first half. This will be better.

Zach in the chat, North Dakota State is better than UTEP. That's true. That's true. But I think Nebraska might be better than North Dakota State is better than UTEP. That's true. That's true. But I think Nebraska might be better than North Dakota State. Don't know. We'll see. We'll see. Hurley again. Colorado is a pass to run team. The interior line is not up to par. I think they're a pass to pass team. I'm not going to lie. I don't know that I would trust them to run the ball at all. And that's the problem you saw at the end of the game. And I tweeted this out because

they, they were actually, they actually threw the ball a couple of times as they're trying to bleed the clock, but it was very short kind of high confidence, essentially aerial handoffs, but they didn't get anything on those. And so they wound up in a third and long situation and they throw deep and they get a PI, which isn't a bad idea when you have that big of an athletic advantage between your receivers and their DBs. So they got the PI. And when they do, I'm going,

they just need to throw it deep every time. And so they do throw it deep on first down, and it's incomplete. And I'm like, wait, this is why no one would hire me as a coach. Because if they kept throwing it deep, how much time would NDSU have? Like NDSU ended up having, well, they should have had more time because the refs did screw that up. As many of you keep pointing out in the chat. What about the home cooking with the clock and the missed targeting call?

Well, there also was a potential missed targeting call on North Dakota state there at the end too, with one of the D linemen hitting Shador. So we don't know like that one. I'm willing to kind of call't know, like that one, I'm willing to kind of call a wash. The other one, the clock thing was bad.

But the only reason North Dakota State had any time at all was because Colorado threw in that first down. Because subliminally, Pat Shermer listened to Coach Andy sitting at home. Never do that, by the way. Never listen to me. Whatever my instinct is is probably wrong. But it's going to be fun to watch this. Those Colorado games are going to be interesting.

But I do think it's something to consider as you look at their Big 12 schedule, because you saw Cam Miller, who is a good running quarterback, a veteran quarterback, but KJ Jefferson is a better running quarterback. Avery Johnson might be the best running quarterback noafafita can move around but he's got t-mac who's an absolute freak who will be a problem for colorado's dbs to cover one-on-one because he's a problem for every db to cover one-on-one trent with a really interesting idea. I like this. Why not create a Percy Harvin type package with Travis Hunter? I would rather try that in short yards. I'm kind of with you, Trent. So I covered the Percy Harvin teams at Florida. I was a beat writer for the

Tampa paper at the time. And I remember sort of the frustration early in Percy's freshman year from Urban Meyer and Dan Mullen about, okay, how do we get him the ball more? And then they just decided, you know what, we'll line him up at running back and just hand it to him because he's the best player on the field. So let's let him be the best player on the field. And it worked. It worked. If you go back to that, the end of that season, there's a play of the SEC championship game where Percy lines up at running back. They hand off to him. He just one cut and he's gone. Touchdown against Arkansas. That really was one of the things that turned also helped turn the tide. But like the idea of you have this incredibly special once in a generation type athlete, why not just force feed him? That's a legitimate, great idea, Trent. Like don't listen to Andy. Coach Andy doesn't know what he's doing. Coach Trent. Heck yeah.

Corporate duck again. CU has to figure out the run game. Seemingly gave up on it halfway through. I agree. Again, they had the one Charlie Offredall run late in the game on a like a third and one to convert but they just didn't have confidence and you saw it you saw it at the end of the game when they do have to run clock they still didn't hand off at first they were throwing those short short passes that they felt like were pretty easy completions which they were but then they still ended up having to throw deep and then after they throw deep and throw incomplete on that first down, then they try to run the ball. And it just, it went nowhere. Absolutely nowhere. You green says the Dylan Ryola Heisman campaign starts next week.

He's going to have to compete with Travis Hunter. Like everybody who wants to win the Heisman is going to have to compete with Travis Hunter. I don wants to win the Heisman is going to have to compete with Travis Hunter. I don't care if it's a Paul Horning thing. Paul Horning won the Heisman when Notre Dame just got awful. I don't care how many games Colorado wins if Travis Hunter is doing this. He needs to be a Heisman finalist and probably a Heisman winner if he does this game after game after game after game. If he can keep this up, that would be just amazing. IMZG, all the CU haters pointing out

everything they did bad when they still won, but not to mention North Dakota state also had many mistakes but north dakota state won no one be speaking about their mistakes no because they're an fcs team colorado has 22 more scholarships than they do like there would have been no excuse yes north dakota state. Yes, you probably shouldn't schedule that game. 22 more scholarships. So yeah, there's a reason everybody would have done that. Bad quality. Andy, we got to fix refs in these games. Five games in a row, teams playing Tennessee didn't get one live ball penalty last year.

It's sad that the refs will change outcomes of these games. I don't think they changed the outcome of this game. Did North Dakota State get screwed out of a few seconds? Yes. Would North Dakota State have scored a touchdown? We don't know. They got tackled short of the line, short of the end zone. If they had one more play, we'll see. But they also would not have been running the Hail Mary at that point if they had a few more seconds. They would have tried to get a little closer. Gamer D, NDSU is 6-1 versus FBS teams. What are you talking about?

Does not change 63 scholarships. Like, if you have 85, you have no excuse. Minnesota just fumbled to itself and they're in the red zone. Down to five minutes to go. Do I keep vamping till we get to the end of this game too? Maybe, maybe. This was a fun night. We can talk about some of the other games too,

because I watched a lot of Western Carolina, NC State. That was a close game, much closer to NC State, wanted it to be. Grayson McCall, a guy who didn't throw a ton of interceptions in his career when he was at Coastal Carolina had a pretty costly one early in that game that it was it was almost a pick six that led to a score for Western Carolina again Cole Gonzalez did a great job so uh Cole Gonzalez by the way that the son of uh University of Florida's receivers coach Billy Gonzalez so he's at Western Carolina playing for Kerwin Bell a former Florida quarterback a lot a lot of Florida flavor but the the Western Carolina thing I kind of figured they were going to be able to hang for a bit because Cole is the preseason Southern Conference player of the year

he was amazing last year so Cade Bell was their offensive coordinator Western Carolina last year he did so well that Pittsburgh hired him as its's OC. And then he took their running back with him too. So I had a feeling that, that Kerwin Bell, who was Cade's dad, who has won a D2 national title at Valdosta state that he'd be able to call a pretty good game and that, you know, just losing Cade bell was not going to be the end of that offense being good. And so I imagine in the FCS, they're going to be a pretty effective offense, but.

Grace him to call toward the end of the game. You saw him get quite a bit better. And then NC state finally gets the run game going, forces the ball into the end zone to take that 31, 21 lead. And then NC State finally gets the run game going, forces the ball into the end zone to take that 31-21 lead. And then they start to feel comfortable. But it's going to be interesting. Dion in the chat, back to the Colorado thing, says Colorado's D-line is terrible.

I do not think they're terrible. I don't think they're terrible. I thought they played the run very well. I don't think they're terrible. I thought they played the run very well. I don't think they contained Cam Miller very well. I think you got to get that guy on the ground. Now, granted, North Dakota State didn't get Shador Sanders on the ground. That was how teams beat them last year. So we will find out if they can get them on the ground. Elevation, Colorado's D line is pretty good. No. So some, it's between what Dion said and what elevation said. It's kind of just there right now. Got to get a better pass rush, got to contain the quarterback. can't let him slip free but very good against the design run so if you're

not playing a dynamic quarterback then you're in pretty good shape like if you're playing a team that relies on handing off that d-line is probably going to be very good for you but if you're playing a quarterback who can move in the pocket, and again, we've gone through the schedule. We've mentioned guys who can't. We don't know what Dylan Raiola will be next week. We do know Daquan Finn can move for Baylor. We definitely know KJ Jefferson can run for UCF.

We definitely know Avery Johnson can run for Kansas State. We definitely know Cam Rising can move around really well for Utah. We definitely know Jalen Daniels can move around really well for Kansas. So if they get the QB1 that all of these teams are planning to have, that part has got to get fixed or they're going to have huge problems because I don't, I don't think it's going to be as easy to throw the ball on most of these teams as it was on North Dakota state. They, they had such a mismatch athletically with Travis Hunter, with Jimmy Horn that they just, you know, they were going to have coverage bus or they were going to have a situation where guys just could not keep up. And you saw like two of Travis Hunter's three touchdowns were, I'm just a better athlete than you.

Bad quality asked me, what's the biggest thing you take from NC State's game to carry into the Tennessee game? Probably that they got to take care of the ball and they got to protect Grayson McCall because obviously Western Carolina is not going to get after him the way that Tennessee is. James Pierce Jr. is one of the best pass rushers in the country. And if they can force, because you saw some situations where you had a little bit of a miscommunication, like the interception that I'm talking about early in the game was a miscommunication between Grayson McCall and Casey Concepcion, who is their best player, by the way. He's fun to watch. Fun to watch him drag tacklers and just do all kinds of crazy stuff.

But in that particular situation, we weren't in the meeting, so we don't know who was at fault. But somebody wasn't on the same page as somebody else. And that's, that's what happened. By the way, Minnesota has now taken a one point lead with a field goal. Omari and Hampton, the great North Carolina running back, trying to get the Tar Heels back in a position to get this lead back so they can win this game. So we got games coming down to the wire. This has been a slobber knocker. Now, North Carolina, they wouldn't tell us who they were going to start at quarterback. Finally, it's Max Johnson.

He's your guy. He gets hurt. He's out of the game. Connor Harrell, who had competed with him just he comes in and we just saw connor harrell on an rpo kind of pop pass thing where he just escaped pressure and found a guy wide open down the left sideline uh they fake he faked a handoff to hampton he's rolling to his left there's a guy in face, and he gets it down the left sideline, and North Carolina's in business, everybody.

We're going to hang. We're going to hang until North Carolina finishes this game. So while we're here, while we're waiting to see what happens in this next two minutes and 30 seconds of football time, remember, we do have a two-minute timeout. Don't you dare call it the two-minute warning. It's the two-minute timeout. Don't you dare call it the two-minute warning. It's the two-minute timeout. And I noticed when they hit a two-minute timeout in the Colorado-North Dakota State game, it was a three-minute and 20-second TV media timeout.

So we may be here longer than two minutes, but North Carolina is running this thing down to the two minute timeout, not the two minute warning. And both teams have three timeouts, but so let's talk, let's talk chat. We got games Friday. We got games Saturday. You tell me what games you want to talk about Matt in the chat,

Andy, it's a two minute warning. I know, I know it is. I'm going it's a two-minute warning. I know. I know it is. I'm going to call it a two-minute warning too. I just thought it was funny. Like I was talking to John McDade, the supervisors or officials in the SEC. He's like, two-minute timeout.

Two-minute timeout. No, it's a two-minute warning. It's been the two-minute warning forever. Matt, the Friday games are awful. Well, yeah, okay. I don't expect Oklahoma Temple to be close. Maybe TCU Stanford. TCU Stanford's intriguing.

It's late. Can everybody on the East Coast stay up for that? Bad quality in the chat. If Miami beats Florida, do you change your Georgia Tech pick to win the ACC? I think there are a couple of things that can change that pick. Georgia Clemson, like if Clemson were to beat Georgia, that also might make me change my mind. Miami beating Florida handily might make me change my mind. Miami looking competent, like just, just competent, maybe not, but if Miami looks really good, yeah, I might think about it.

Matt, why did Georgia Clemson get the noon slot? That seems insane to me as a biased Georgia fan. Well, because I think they feel like Miami, Florida and Notre Dame, Texas A&M are going to be more competitive games. It's not an insult to Georgia, Matt. It's actually a compliment to Georgia. I think they're insulting Clemson here. I think they're saying they don't think Clemson is going to be able to hang with Georgia.

And I think that's... Now, whether that's true or not, we're going to find out. I've said this multiple times if you read the written version of dear andy this week i got a question about this and i do think like if clemson gets its doors blown off in this game then everything we've said about dabbo and the transfer portal comes home to roost because georgia and Clemson were recruiting at fairly similar levels before Georgia's run of national titles started, before the rules changed. I think Georgia was probably recruiting a little bit better. Clemson's run of great quarterbacks had ended, but they were close. But then the rules changed and kirby smart decided to take part in this

era of college football and dabbo sweeney didn't so if kirby smart had any sort of deficiency on his roster or even like a perceived deficiency on his roster he went and got somebody. Dabo thus far has not done that. So what we would expect to see, again, I don't know if this is what we will see, but what we would expect to see is a much more complete Georgia roster, a deeper Georgia roster. So if Clemson has somebody that maybe isn't quite ready for prime time, Georgia is going to pick on it. This is what NFL teams do. They find the one guy and they just pick on him over and over and over again. And if it's one or two guys at Clemson, well, that makes all the difference. Georgia tried to replace those one or two guys in the transfer portal. Bad quality. Says, let's not overthink this. Georgia has a QB and Clemson doesn't.

At least Klubnick hasn't shown it yet. And I think that's fair. I mean, Kate Klubnick was a second-year player last year. He didn't start until the very end of his freshman season. So I don't know that we've completely given up on him yet. But yeah, the idea of him playing against Georgia's defense while Carson Beck plays against Clemson's defense, you feel a little more confident in Carson Beck,

even though Clemson has a very good defense. Michael in the chat on Colorado. One sack against an FCS team. Come on, y'all win by five points sec teams beat all their fcs teams by 50 plus points get humbled that's not entirely true there have been some times there was a citadel south carolina game there was a georgia southern florida game there was a game florida won and dan mullins last year where Samford hung 50 on him at home.

Florida did win, but Samford hung 50 on him. So let's not generalize with all the FCS on FBS games. North Carolina facing a third and five. Connor Harrell goes down. It's going to be time to kick. Remember, Minnesota had all three timeouts going into this, so they got the clock stopped by calling their second timeout. North Carolina is going to try to kick field goal to take the lead.

This is great. This is what we were signing up for. This is what we wanted. We wanted close games. I was hoping maybe Western Carolina, NC State would go down to the wire. It did not, but it was a game in the fourth quarter. Colorado, North Dakota State was a very fun game, very competitive, came down to the very end. And North Carolina, Minnesota is not disappointing. Can we make Minnesota like an official Thursday night week one team forever? Like this is two bangers in a row for these guys. I like that.

I like that. Let's keep Minnesota in this spot. Now we got to find out if they're going to win, though. And North Carolina has made its field goal. Now they lead 19-17 with a minute 44 to go. All right. Oh, our friend Carter. Power Hour LSU with Carter the Power.

I've done his show before. He says, Andy, my man, you coming to Vegas for that LSU-USA game? I wish. I wish, Carter. I wish I was coming to Vegas for that LSU-USC game? I wish. I wish, Carter. I wish I was coming to Vegas. I'm so excited about that game. While we sit through yet another timeout and figure out if North Carolina is going to be able to beat Minnesota here, that game, LSU and USC, is fascinating to me. Think about this. Lincoln Riley leaves Oklahoma to go to USC. Brian Kelly leaves Notre Dame to go to LSU on the same day.

On the same day. They both have very good first years. Like Caleb Williams won the Heisman at USC. If he doesn't tweak his, I believe it was a knee or was it an ankle, in the Pac-12 championship game against Utah, they might have been going to the playoff. I don't know. I don't know if they would have been able to tackle anybody from Utah in the second half still.

But that team was pretty good. LSU won the SEC West in Brian Kelly's first year. It felt like they both took steps back last year. Kelly, not as big of a step back because he had Jaden Daniels winning the Heisman, and that made up for one of the worst defenses LSU's ever had. Caleb Williams wasn't as good last year because I don't think the talent around him was as good. I think losing Jordan Addison hurt a lot, but that USC defense was still bad. So in both of these cases, you've got revamped defensive staffs. Both of them have hired

new defensive coordinators. It's Blake Baker from Missouri for LSU. It's DeAnton Lynn from UCLA for USC. DeAnton Lynn probably got more players out of the, well, not probably, did get more players out of the portal. So personnel wise, he out of the portal so personnel wise he went and got a few more guys to kind of do what he wants lsu kind of standing a little more pat now we had the the brian kelly saying we don't buy players when they were asking about why they didn't take any defensive linemen out of the transfer portal in the spring it's not they don't buy players they do but they didn't like the asking price of those not, they don't buy players. They do, but they didn't like the asking price of those particular players. They didn't feel like what they wanted to make in NIL dollars

was worth paying them for what they might get out of them. So you've got Blake Baker and TJ says, Blake Baker is a massive upgrade at defensive coordinator. But the question is, does Blake Baker moving the pieces around the board differently than Matt House? Does that instantly make them better? We're going to find out. We're going to find out. And Dantolin, same thing. Like he's brought in new players, but I keep saying with these Lincoln-Riley teams, is it a cultural thing?

Do they not practice defense the way you should practice defense? Because a lot of the Air Raid coaches don't. The coaches from the Air Raid tree don't always practice defense the way Georgia practices defense or Michigan practices defense or Alabama practices defense. And it shows. It shows at the end of games, it shows as seasons go on and teams become poorer tacklers because they are not working on it all the time. The truth says LSU survives USC. At least I hope I, I think LSU should win this game.

I think LSU is offensive line should be the difference in this game. They should be able to control the ball on the ground. They should be able to protect Garrett Nussmeyer. Now I know Chris Hilton is hurt. He's got a bone bruise. So they say you're going to try to play, but they're not sure if he's going to play. And then you've got Kyra and Lacey. You got CJ Daniels, the transfer from Liberty, who should be

able to catch the ball. But will they be replacements for Malik neighbors and Brian Thomas Jr.? I don't know. I mean, those were first round receivers. I don't know that they have two first round receivers now, but Nussmeyer definitely seems to be better. Zach, DeBoer is the only CFB air raid coach I've seen respect defense. Well, that's because he's not an air raid coach. It's because he doesn't run the air raid. So that would be your reason right there. Meanwhile, we've got Minnesota trying to drive the ball. It looked like they had a big play. It was called back for a hold. But they're feeling pretty confident, feeling like they're in some field goal range.

But they're going to try to get it a little bit closer, a little bit closer and try to set up a walk-off. That'd be a big win for P.J. Fleck and company. With North Carolina, I'm not sure how we're supposed to feel about North Carolina this year. The defense has certainly looked better, but they're playing as a Minnesota team is playing without Darius Taylor, who was as a freshman averaged 133 rushing yards a game. Bad quality asks if Mike Elko wins in commanding fashion how does that change your perception

and if nico carries ut to the semis does he win a heisman well the heisman will already be handed out before the semi so whether whether they win that first round game or if they have a buy uh and win the quarterfinal it doesn't matter because the heisman will have already been given out so that doesn't really change much. In terms of my perception of Texas A&M, I think they're going to be pretty decent. Vegas loves them. Vegas has Texas A&M's win total eight and a half. They've favored Texas A&M in this North Carolina game since the line opened. So I think there's a good chance that Mike Elko has them winning

quite a few games this year. All right, Minnesota has centered the ball. Four seconds to go. Third down, we got a college kickers man situation. North Carolina has all three timeouts. So I think we can assume that there's going to be some icing going on here. Now, Minnesota has stoinked one of these. I do love a kicker wearing 99. I always feel like it's in honor of Rick Wild Thing Vaughn. But what do we, so Minnesota uses his final timeout. Now, North Carolina, can North Carolina, I need to ask an official this,

because they did add the same timeout rule that the NFL has, the no double timeouts, it's a delay of game. But I think you can't call your own timeout rule that the NFL has the double double timeouts delay of game but I think you can't call your own timeout two in a row I don't know that I think you can call a timeout coming off another team's timeout bad quality points out this is the last this time last year Matt Brown grabbed Shane Beamer by the throat. Yeah, North Carolina just went crazy on South Carolina. Sacked them like crazy. Dragan Kesich, the lefty, is lining up for this field goal. It's a 47-yard attempt to win the ball game. Ladies and gentlemen, this is what we wanted. We wanted it to come down to one play and it comes down to one play. Timeout, North Carolina. Called that one.

Called that one. But this is everything we want. This is everything we want in our Thursday night appetizer. When I was in want in our Thursday night appetizer. When I was in college, Thursday night was party night. I always felt like we did more on Thursday night than we did on Friday nights because the bar beer prices were a lot more on Friday nights. So I just loved a good Thursday night football game. Oh, bad quality pointing out that... No, he literally grabbed Shane Bieber by the throat postgame in the middle of the field. Oh.

I don't, don't I remember that? See, the only thing I remember from that, that's the stadium in Charlotte, is when coaches get dunked with mayo at the end of the game. So like Neil Brown last year, Shane Beamer the year before. I just assume when you win a game in that stadium, you get dumped with mayo.

All right. Dragan is back. His left foot is ready to connect. 47 yard attempt. What's going to no good no good if you were a golfer the second that came off the club head you'd be like oh but something felt a little and then he'd be like oh no and then you're in the lake and that's where minnesota is right now. Minnesota is in the water hazard. 1917, North Carolina. We got a walk-off win, but North Carolina is the one walking off. College kickers.

College kickers. We're back, everybody. It is officially college football season. TJ, not a good swing thought heading into the weekend. Nope. Nope. I would suggest do not watch the replay of that kick if you have a tee time in the next. Nope. Nope. I would suggest do not watch the replay of that kick. If you have a tea time in the next two days, just don't. Welcome back, everybody. Enjoy the weekend. We'll talk to you Saturday.