Andy & Ari On3 - Dear Andy: Is Texas QB Quinn Ewers great? | Projected 12-team College Football Playoff

Episode Date: October 3, 2023

Dear Andy: Is Texas QB Quinn Ewers great? | Projected 12-team College Football PlayoffToday's show is sponsored by Gametime, the best place to buy last-minute tickets. Download the Gametime App and enter code: STAPLES for $20 off your first purchase, terms apply. Last Minute Tickets, Lowest Prices, Guaranteed.Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube and don't forget to subscribe!https://youtube.com/live/gaRiprJdS8QIt's a Dear Andy show, but first we take a look at this week's projected 12-team College Football Playoff. This would be a perfect year for a 12-team CFP, but alas, we have to wait until 2024. (0:00-12:30)Next, we visit with Senior Bowl director Jim Nagy, who highlights some excellent college receivers. Plus, Nagy discusses who Senior Bowl scouts will be watching in Oklahoma-Texas, Kentucky-Georgia and Alabama-Texas A&M. (12:31-35:16)Now it's time for your questions...Is Texas QB Quinn Ewers great or just very good? (35:16-42:36)Is Georgia giving off 2014 Florida State or 2015 Ohio State vibes? (42:37-49:45)Can Auburn build off the Georgia game? (49:46-54:04)Should Maryland be ranked? (54:05-57:11)Is Alabama-Texas A&M the SEC West championship game? (57:12-1:00:09)After Saturday's win at TCU, how much closer is Neal Brown to keeping the West Virginia job? (1:00:10-1:04:15)

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. It is a Dear Andy episode. Your questions answered. And boy, you guys have some great questions. We have a lot to break down though. A lot of big games. A lot to talk about with the Red River rivalry. Alabama, Texas A&M.

There's a question about that. Is it the real SEC West Championship? It's actually a pretty good question when you think about it. We got an Auburn question. We got a question about Georgia. You guys were on a roll. I got to tell you, on a roll.

We got a Quinn Ewers question. It's absolutely fascinating. So we'll talk about all that stuff. We're also going to talk to Jim Nagy from the Senior Bowl. He's going to break down the We're also going to talk to Jim Nagy from the Senior Bowl. He's going to break down the prospects he's going to be watching in the biggest games this weekend, plus some receivers that really caught his eye last weekend, including a Michigan receiver that we all saw made an incredible catch. And we'll get deep into that one with Jim.

But first, we got to do our 12-team projected playoff. We're going to do this every week on the show, every Monday, where because we wish the 12-team playoff started this year, we're going to imagine it is starting this year and see what the matchups would be like. What would it look like if it was happening now? And remember, you have George Klyavkov and Jim Phillips to thank for getting hoodwinked by the Big Ten and forming the Alliance to make sure that, well, they didn't

do anything but delay a 12-team playoff by a year. And well, let's see how that worked out for everybody. But there should be a 12-team playoff now. If there was, here is what it might look like. So I use the same basic projection that I did for the actual CFP and actual New Year's six bowls, but you can tweak some things because you don't have to deal with any contractual stuff with bowls and just, it creates a nice matchups. Now, I don't know if this is all going to hold because we've got some teams that have improved, but we've got some big games coming up that are going to probably shake this all up by next week. But right now, I've got Penn State seated number one.

I know that makes a lot of you mad because you think that Michigan or that Ohio State is going to win the Big Ten. That's perfectly fair. They're very good teams. I personally am picking Penn State right now. I've been picking them since before the season started. I think Drew Aller raises their ceiling. So I'm sticking with Penn State in that spot. And, you know, if they were to get through that, and I think they might have to beat them both to do it. And if they do beat them both, they'd have two of the best wins in the country.

They'd be the one seed, so they would get a bye. Number two, Texas. Now, Texas could lose this weekend. We know that. They also could play Oklahoma again in the Big 12 championship game, win or lose this weekend. So we don't know where Texas is going, but the way Texas is playing, especially taking care of business against Baylor and Kansas, beating Alabama on the road,

they certainly feel like a team that is bound for the playoff. And if there were a 12-team playoff, we'd feel very comfortable putting them in somewhere. I've got them as the two seed. Three seed, Florida State. Now, the Seminoles will have to deal with Miami later this season. They probably will have to deal with an ACC championship game against a pretty good opponent, but they're in very good shape right now. They probably, if you had to just figure out who's the best, most likely team to go undefeated

based on the rest of its schedule, Florida State probably is the likely team to go undefeated based on the rest of its schedule. Florida State probably is the easiest path to going undefeated, but I'm not sure going undefeated against Florida State's schedule would necessarily make Florida State a one seed. Now, if the Big Ten champ, if it's Penn State or Ohio State or Michigan, and they're undefeated, they're definitely the one seed. I think that probably goes without saying. If the Pac-12 team were to go undefeated, if it's Oregon or Washington going undefeated, I think there's a real good chance they're the one seed. But Florida State could be an undefeated two seed,

undefeated three seed, or could still get in with a loss. We'll see. But I got them at three. Number four, I have Alabama. And I realize this sounds incredibly silly if you, if you've listened to the show two weeks ago and I was like, what the hell is wrong with Alabama? Well, since they've made Jalen Milrow, the starter, the Crimson Tide have

improved dramatically. They look great against Ole Miss. They look great against Mississippi state. Now they go to Texas A&M. This is a losable game for Alabama. This absolutely is a losable game for Alabama. But if they keep winning, based on what we've seen from Georgia, are we sure that Georgia would just steamroll Alabama in the SEC championship game? I don't think so. I think that might be a pretty good game. So I'm putting them here. That doesn't mean, remember, this is the 12-team playoff, so it doesn't mean Georgia would be out. So got Alabama here. I've got Oregon at five and that's just an assumption that the Pac-12 cannibalizes itself. Again, in our real world, I think if a Pac-12 champ is undefeated or has one loss, they're getting into the real 14 playoff. But I've been hypothesizing that the league cannibalizes itself.

I'm sticking with that here. And so I've got Oregon at five, which means they get a home game. Then I got Michigan at six. I got Georgia at seven. Ohio State at eight. Washington at nine. Notre Dame at 10.

Oklahoma at 11. I didn't have them them in here last week but putting Oklahoma in there this week they've been very good now I think probably they need to in this situation if it were this year they would probably have to split with Texas somehow like win this one lose the big 12 championship game. They probably have another loss along the way and still get into the 12 team playoff. But I think there's a, there's a chance they could, if this thing existed, they could sneak in number 12, Fresno state. That would be your highest ranked group of five champ. Now, the way we're doing it this year is not the way it

will be done next year because the conference affiliation will be completely different. Obviously, Oregon and Washington will be in the Big Ten next year. So what we're doing is the six highest ranked conference champs, which may or may not happen next year, and six at-larges. It may very well be five highest ranked conference champs get automatic bids and then seven at-larges when we get to the real thing in 2024. So it remains to be seen how all that's going to shake out. But here are the matchups for that first round. And this is where it gets really exciting. This is why we're doing this, because we're whetting your appetite for what is coming next year, which I know there are people who don't want to see the playoff expand, but I guarantee they still want

to see these types of matchups. So let's run them down. Number 12, Fresno State, number five, Oregon. So Fresno State's got to play somebody. So they would play number five, Oregon. The winner would play Alabama in the Fiesta Bowl. Why is Alabama in the Fiesta Bowl? Well, they would be the fourth seeded by. They wouldn't get a choice. They would get what was left. Number 11, Oklahoma at number six, Michigan. Oklahoma visits the big house in December for a playoff game. Come on. Come on. Tell me you don't want to see that. Tell me you're not mad right now at the members of the Alliance for needlessly blocking a 12-team playoff this year. Come on. You could have this right now. Number 10, Notre Dame at number seven, Georgia. we actually saw this matchup a few years ago it was a fun game early in the season more fun now that Notre

Dame is better and Georgia is still really good and it's in Athens between the hedges with the winner going to play Texas in the Sugar Bowl. It's going to be incredible. So I have Notre Dame here. I think Notre Dame, again, is in an advantageous situation. Jack Swarbrick as a member of the committee or the group that handles the college football playoff. Remember, he was one of the four, along with Greg Sankey, Craig Thompson, and Bob Bullsby, who designed the framework of the 12-team playoff. And

it really did guarantee that Notre Dame can stay independent for as long as it wants. Because in this scenario, especially if they add another at-large spot, which it sounds like they will, Notre Dame just has to go 10-2. They're going to make the playoff every year they're 10-2. So in this season's situation, they could drop another game and still feel comfortable that they'd get into the playoff. So this would be a very fun matchup, obviously. This next one, I don't know. This might be the most intriguing. I hope we get to see this.

We might actually get to see this as a 14 playoff game this year. And if it happens, I'll be happier than anybody. Number nine, Washington at number eight, Ohio State. That offense with Washington, Michael Penix Jr. returns to Big Ten country. Now, I know he did go to East Lansing and beat Michigan State this year. But those Ohio State receivers and those Washington receivers, you'd be hard-pressed to find a game in the history of college football that would have that much receiving talent on the field at one time. So that would be a lot of fun. The winner of that would play Penn State in the Peach Bowl.

Yeah, Ohio State, Penn State would be a rematch. Get over it. It's going to happen. Good teams are going toatch. Get over it. It's going to happen. Good teams are going to play each other multiple times. It's going to happen. But I just, I love it. We're going to do this every Monday. It gets exciting every time you think about how this might play out. Now, it's going to be this year, just because it feels like there's so many teams that are legitimate contenders for the 14 playoff. And it's possible you could have a 14 playoff where all four teams really do have a chance to national title. But it also would be

possible if you had a 12 team playoff this year that you might have nine or 10 teams capable of winning a national title because there doesn't seem to be that super dominant force. Perhaps that changes as the season goes on, but there doesn't seem to be that right now. We will address that in Dear Andy because there's a great question about that. But right now, I got to tell you about game time. That's right. Game time is the best place to get last minute tickets. It is stress-free shopping, allows you to get the tickets that you never thought you could get. Like for example, if you wanted to go to the Cotton Bowl and you wanted to take in the Red River Shootout, Red River Rival rivalry, whatever you want to call it, 319 bucks. You could get in there. It's a big game. Yeah, there's some price to it,

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and you get $20 off your first purchase. The promo code is STAPLES for $20 off your first purchase at GameTime. So what are you waiting for? That game you want to go to, that concert you want to go to, you can get tickets. Just use game time. So before we get to the gym now, you've got some questions in the chat.

We got one person asking, where's LSU in that projected playoff? Not in it. Did you watch the Ole Miss game? Are you confident that LSU will even beat Missouri this weekend? Are you confident that LSU will beat Alabama? LSU's already got two losses. Number three seems to be possible within the next month or so,

or possibly this weekend. So that's why they're not in there. And they've got to clean some stuff up, get that defense figured out. If they ran the table, yeah, there's still a great chance for LSU. I mean, if LSU were to run the table, because remember one of their losses is to Florida State,

then yeah, they could still play for the SEC title. But given what we've seen so far, it does not look good for LSU going forward. But two weeks ago, I would have said the same thing about Alabama. So it's a wild college football season. Everything can change on a dime. Also, people's fortunes can rise or fall when it comes to the NFL draft. Some of the guys that might be in next year's draft, they are vying for slots in the senior bowl. If they go there, they can raise their stock even more. Jim Nagy is the

executive director of the senior bowl. He's going to help us contextualize who's playing really well, who's earning more money with their play in college. He saw some great wide receivers this weekend, and he helps get us ready for some of the biggest games next weekend. Here's Jim. We welcome our friend Jim Nagy from the Senior Bowl, the executive director, the guy who helps decide who will get to showcase their skills in Mobile and maybe raise their stock in the nfl draft but

jim you had a fun weekend watching college football it sounds like you uh very much enjoyed watching the receivers this weekend yeah it's a good week for all these guys andy good to be back on man yeah a lot of a lot of receivers jumped out i was at the uh auburn georgia game so i saw the brock bauer show so that in person, that was fun. That was as good a tight end game as I've seen in a long, long time. I've been going all the way back. I was at a Vernon Davis game years ago where he went off for Maryland, but it was a good one. So yeah, another good week of college football. I can't believe here we are headed into week six. So technically we're at the midway point of this thing.'s it's crazy it's going by so fast it is wild and and

you know it feels like we don't still don't really know these teams yet i we've we've been covering colorado and coach prime and and all that and i always looked at this point of the season for colorado is like where they get into the games that they probably can win in the pack 12 so you know how we judge them but they just just got to play in USC. I know there was a guy you liked on USC in that game who is weird. This is one of those transfer portal specials. Former Colorado player now plays for USC playing against Colorado and his father, who's pretty famous, is a nfl teammate of deon sanders yeah brennan rice uh the receiver from usc he was a guy that we we almost gave us our stock up recognition to a week ago um and we

went with marshawn lloyd they're running back and that you couldn't really go wrong um and and actually rice is going to be this year's this week's guy uh we do a stock up stock up feature every week at the Senior Bowl. But, yeah, I was telling a couple GMs on the field at Auburn the other day, they're asking me kind of who I've seen and who's standing out. And I said, this is going to sound like a huge cop-out, right? It's Jerry Rice's son. So to say he's like a natural sounds like a cop-out, but he really is.

Like this kid, you see it on scramble stuff and we all know Caleb Williams loves to do that like he just loves to run around and let defenses break down and then just throw some crazy Mahomes-ish throw um and Brennan Rice you can see how confident he is um you know and just his football instincts and finding space um and just how quickly he does things and how fast he goes and the you know his ability to like change gears to to find space for himself so he's he's a he's an instinctive player kind of burst on the seed last year in the bowl game and and now he's picked up where he left off and I think the difference between he and his dad, and again, I'm getting up there in scouting years, going on like year 25,

but I was not old enough to scout Jerry Rice when he was coming out at Mississippi Valley State. But you always heard the knock on Jerry was that it was a speed thing, right? Although we never saw him get caught. We never saw him get caught on the field, but he didn't run a great 40 time coming out. I don't think that's going to be a problem for Brennan. This guy, when he pushes vertical or when he has to hit a gear, you can see it. So man, he's a fun player to watch. They've got a bunch of receivers there at USC that are draftable level players, but really Rice is the guy we're excited about. Another guy I want to ask you about is the guy who made the catch that everybody saw this weekend,

Roman Wilson from Michigan. He makes that touchdown catch against Nebraska. It reminded me a lot of the Tyrone Prothrow catch against Southern Miss when Prothrow was at Alabama in 2005, where the other guy is in the way and he reaches over and grabs it. It was, this one was wild because he kind of pinned it against the Nebraska defender's helmet.

And, but I mean, that's the thing. this one was wild because he kind of pinned it against the Nebraska defender's helmet. Yeah. But, I mean, that's the thing. Like, J.J. McCarthy's got some targets this year. He does. Cornelius Johnson's another guy. But Roman, we would love to give Roman, like, our stock-up player of the week. But Roman was one of our top grader receivers off junior tape.

We really like this player. Again, because I went to school there, I'm kind of more in tune sometimes with the younger guys coming up through the pipeline. So I've known about Roman for a while. We know he can really, really run. He's super explosive. They play him in the slot. So he's different. I think a lot of safeties in college nickels, like they're used to playing quicker than fast guys inside, whereas Roman just comes off and he's on you fast. I mean, this dude is super fast. And so he's a different speed matchup on the inside. And I think he's

leading the country in touchdown catches. I believe, I don't want to misspeak, but I think he's got eight or nine touchdowns already. So he's up there. He's up there. And, you know, last year they had Ronnie Bell, who is down here in the senior bowl and is doing good things for the 49ers right now. I mean, with Ronnie being being gone it's kind of Roman's deal this year and he's taking over as JJ's go-to guy and when JJ does get flushed and run around you can see it Roman's the guy he's looking for. So you know for a smaller guy who's only 5'10 and a half his ability to go up and make plays like he made on the ball against Nebraska the other day, that's a comfort for a quarterback when they know they can just kind of put it up to a guy. Usually quarterbacks just put it up to bigger guys, but Roman's a unique smaller guy,

kind of like Tyler Lockett is for the Seattle Seahawks, a smaller guy that can go get it. Well, yeah, just physical at the catch point, and that's hard. You don't teach that. Some guys just have that give me the ball, it's mine mentality. And he has the substance. That's the thing, like being around Locke when I was in Seattle,

like Tyler was a smaller guy in stature, but he was really physical, like a thicker, like physical guy. And Roman, we used to call that like functional strength. Like Roman's got some functional football strength that he doesn't get muscled off the ball in those situations. So there's a lot of cool things about Roman Wilson,

the speed, the catch skills. He is a cool prospect. So another guy that you saw in person and speaking of a little bit smaller guys, this is a guy who's been dinged up this year. And this was our first extended look at Ladd McConkie from Georgia. He's a huge part of the national title run last year but uh what did you see from him in person against auburn first

it was just good to see him back out there andy i mean kirby smart made comments during the week that he was going to play and you just never know so when he came out during pregame i was like okay this is going to happen this is great um and I'd never like really like set my eyeballs on Ladd before, you know, when I'd go to games in the past, he wasn't a senior, so wasn't paying as much attention. And you're right. He's 5'11". He's 185. So he's not like the biggest guy in the world, but he was an easy guy to like off junior tape. He was our second graded receiver off junior tape behind Roma Dunzi from Washington. And really what you like about him is that he makes levels. He makes plays at all three levels. He can take short stuff and make big gains. He's tough enough to work intermediate and not afraid to work across the middle. And then he can

go deep on you. Really, the one knock last year was there was a couple of deep balls he didn't convert on that you would have liked to have seen. But other than that, like any criticisms we would have had off last year would have been really nitpicky. And, you know, we do a scout school here at the Senior Bowl in the summertime, and it's just open for former NFL players. So Ladd's one of the guys we watched. And man, he won the room over really quickly. And there were some former NFL DBs in that room. And then I was asking questions of them, like, what do you see in this guy? What do you like about this guy? He's really got a cool, really versatile wide receiver skillset. I think he can play inside, he can play outside because he's quick and fast. I think he's going to run high four threes.

So yeah, just a really fun player to watch on tape and it's good to see him back out there. Yeah. It was a big boost for Georgia's offense, which needed it at the time because they fell behind pretty quick. But got some big games this weekend, Jim, with a bunch of guys that I'm sure that you're watching. And I'm excited to get your take on, you know, Texas, Oklahoma, huge stakes, probably the biggest stakes in a long time. It's the first time they've been undefeated playing against each other since 2011. I think I feel like Texas has a bunch of guys that kind of fit your profile, especially along that defensive line. They do. They've got a number of guys and I've never been to a Red River game, man. That's a bucket list that an Army, Navy I've never been to. I feel like I've been to about all the other games over the time in scouting. I

really got to get to one of these games. But Texas has a bunch of guys. They got the 2G tackles up front, Tavondre Sweat and Alfred Collins. They're different players, very different. So if you're a guard or a center preparing for those two guys, I mean, it's a different challenge. Sweat's all power. He's just going to come right down the middle in bull rush you, and Collins gives you a little bit more. He's longer, too. And then you've got a playmaking, you know, Jalen Ford, a playmaking middle linebacker in the middle.

You've got, you know, Jedi Baron at nickel. You've got a bunch of guys at safety. I mean, they've got NFL guys all over that defense. So it's going to be a good matchup. And we can talk if you want about Dylan Gabriel. I kind of feel like he's kind of the overlooked quarterback in this class right now. You're hearing nothing about him. And then we can get into it.

But man, he's playing really efficient football right now. Well, and I'm curious what you see in Dylan Gabriel, because I was talking to George Stoya, who works for our Oklahoma site yesterday. And we were talking about how Dylan Gabriel's kind of playbook has been opened up because they were so scared to run him last year. They lost him to a concussion after the TCU game. That's why he couldn't play against Texas. It feels like they're much more comfortable running him

because they've got Jackson Arnold behind him now. And having his entire toolkit available feels like it really opens up what he can do for you. Yeah. I mean, if you're going to, if you're going to put the shackles on him and not let him use his mobility, that takes away a big part of his game. Cause that's what he does. He can move and he can throw on the move. He can throw accurately on the move. I know I haven't looked at the numbers from the past weekend, but going into the weekend, he was like 78%, 12 touchdowns, one pick. I mean, playing really good football.

And, you know, it sounds like a cop-out a little bit, you know, because I know he's been compared to Tua since their days, you know, growing up in Hawaii. In high school, left-handed, yeah. Yeah, lefty, Hawaiian kid, broke all Tua's records. But really, when you watch him, him i mean there are some similarities there and just going back to my time scouting for the seattle seahawks we tried forever to try to find a guy that kind of mirrored russell wilson's skill set and we never could really find that guy they're hard um you know if for no other reason i mean a team that really makes sense i know it's a long way out now uh but the miami dolphins have to be interested in this guy because

um i mean if because the worry is like when when i was in seattle when if ross ever went down and thank god he never did we had tavaris jackson and and t jack was a great player you know really good but they were not the same at all yeah we would have had to change um and so to me like if i'm the dolphins i'm really dialed into this game and how Dylan Gabriel's playing. Because if he were on the roster and Tua, God forbid, went down, I mean, you could plug a guy in and just keep on. Because what he does, what Dylan Gabriel does, get the ball out fast, get it out accurately, can move around a little bit. So similar guys.

So this should be a really fun matchup. Yeah, I misspoke earlier. Not same high school as Tua. He broke all Tua's records, like you said. Same high school as Tua. He broke all Tua's records, like you said, same high school as McKenzie Milton. That was why Gabriel ended up getting recruited to UCF, because McKenzie Milton was selling him to Josh Heupel back in the day. But I had not even thought about that. But you're right.

I mean, he is the ideal backup for Tua Tungvaluwa. It's crazy. And that's what he projects us right now. If you forget grading scale, like every NFL team's on a different grading scale. the fly low like right crazy and that's that's what he projects us right now he you know if you're forget grading scale like every nfl team's on a different grading scale people in the media have different grading scales like we in the office here at senior bowl we we like to talk about like what are they going to be at the next level like let's forget about what round he's going in um he you know right now dylan gabriel projects as a backup level player and where, what, what better fit than in Miami?

Well, that would be incredible. So a couple other big games that I wanted to get your take on. One is you saw Georgia last week, they're playing against Kentucky and Ray Davis was the, obviously the name that everybody was talking about coming out of the weekend, the Vanderbilt transfer, he had 280 yards Florida but I mean they got JJ Weaver they've got quite a few guys that that I would imagine you guys have have had on your radar for a little while yeah Ray Davis is our senior bowl offensive player of the week as soon as we jump off here I'm going upstairs to watch the tape some other guys on the staff have already seen it but you go for 280 in the SEC, that's a big number, especially against a Florida defense with Cam Jackson and Prinsley up front. I mean, they did a great job shutting down Tennessee the week before, so I did not think Ray Davis was going to go off and have this kind of game.

He'd had a lot of success those first four weeks against, you know, kind of a softer non-conference schedule. I didn't know if it would carry over to Saturday, and it sure did. I mean, 280 in the SEC. And then he was running away from people. I mean, he had a, what, a 75-yard touchdown run. So I'm excited to go upstairs and watch the tape of that game. But they've got some good people.

I mean, they've got Eli Cox, Marcus Cox. I mean, they've got some dudes up front on that offensive line, some real NFL prospects. So that should be a fun one. I mean, two undefeated teams. I know that college game day is going to the Red River game, but man, that's going to be a good one in Athens. Oh yeah. Well, and you've seen that Georgia defensive front and cause I was curious cause Kentucky did all that against Florida without Kenneth Horsey playing one of their better offensive linemen. And how do you think they're going to match up up front

against, against Georgia's D line? Cause I know you've, you've gotten a good look at Georgia's offensive lineman and how do you think they're going to match up up front against against george's d-line because i know you've gotten a good look at george's d-line yeah i saw them this week no this is no knock i mean we're talking about one of the great defensive fronts in the 25 years they're not the same they're not they don't have jordan davis right they don't have davante wyatt they don't but you know the guys they do have Nazir Stackhouse uh uh Brinson um so there's there's good there's good players up front it's just a little bit you know a notch below where they've been but those guys are good players um you know the the Brinson kid is is huge when you get up on them on the field I mean that's a good looking sucker now and yeah and so these

guys are all NFL draft picks that they're going to be trying to go up against this week, but just maybe not quite to the level of, again, a bunch of first round draft picks they've had there the past couple of years. So Alabama heading to Texas A&M, that's another one where it feels like in the trenches, it's going to be a very important matchup, but who will you be looking at in this game? I know you've seen the Crimson Tide up close already. Yeah, we've seen Alabama a couple times. I think as a staff, we've seen them four times already. They're right here in our backyard.

I was up there for the Texas game. But on the A&M side, McKinley Jackson, the nose tackle for Texas A&M, he can be a game wrecker when he's on his game. And he's on his game all the time. That kid plays really hard for a defensive lineman. But Fidel Diggs, Edgerin Cooper, the linebacker, you know, has put back-to-back games where he's filled the stat sheet. So we're going to be looking at that front seven for Texas A&M and kind of how they stack up against Alabama's O-line. Alabama's O-line the last couple of weeks looks like they're getting it together, playing better the last couple weeks.

They're running it. Jalen Milrow's running it. Jason McClellan's running it well. So it's going to be – this is going to be big boy football. You know, Jimbo's seat, you know, just listening to the media, might have been getting a little hot after that Miami game to, you know, come out of the year. These last couple weeks, they've played really, really well.

Give it to Jimbo and that staff. They've really pulled it together and played well the last few weeks yeah that's what i keep telling myself is maybe miami's just good maybe maybe they had a good game against texas a m because their offensive line is is pretty good but that that texas a m front seven has looked great against auburn and against arkansas yeah those are two good tests um uh you know auburn and against Arkansas. Yeah, those are two good tests. Auburn and Arkansas both, those are big boy teams. I mean, good players. And they've responded. I think that DJ Durkin probably wishes he could do a couple things differently

against Miami. They kind of sat back and let Tyler Van Dyke pick them apart. I've noticed they've been a little more aggressive the last couple weeks with some blitz stuff. They've gotten Cooper really involved in the rush game from his linebacker spot. So yeah, it should be a good one. Another really good matchup. I want to give you a chance to brag on your game, by the way. And I know you guys get to do that every once in a while, but this one feels especially on the nose. What's it like watching Puka Nakua do what he's been doing over the first few weeks

of the NFL season? When you had him in your game, he's coming off of an injury-riddled time at BYU where maybe people didn't get to see all that he could be, but teams got a chance to give a really good look at him in your game. Yeah, it's really cool. We try not to brag, but part of our bragging is recruiting, Andy. Unfortunately, these schools recruit, and so you don't really see them brag to the players. All our stuff is done over social media, so everyone sees it. We just need to let all these college guys know who played in our game.

That's all it is. Yeah. It's great seeing Pook out there, man. I got to spend a good amount of time with him when he was here in Mobile. I'll say this. When you watch his you uh is his byu stuff last year like the one word that that kept coming back was like crafty like this guy's he's crafty setting guys up you know as a route runner he's crafty after the catch setting guys up he just has he has a lot of feel so usually as a scout when you when you describe a guy's instinctive or crafty, like that stuff usually means they're going to translate pretty quickly to the NFL.

Now, who would have seen this? I mean, it's got nobody. Yeah, I mean, he's put together a four game stretch here that no other receiver in NFL history has done. So what a buck sixty something with a walk off touchdown the other day. And really the cool part is to see like how quickly he's gotten on the same page with Matt Stafford. I mean, there's not many veteran quarterbacks that even want to play with rookies, let alone have them be their go-to guy. So, again, that speaks to Puka and the work that he put in in the playbook

and the trust factor that he got with Matt Stafford. And the other guy that had a breakout game yesterday is Michael Wilson. You brought up the injury thing with Puka. It just reminded me of Michael Wilson at Stanford. It was a guy that was banged up a lot, a couple of broken collarbones and came here to Mobile last year and balled out, went in the third round and had a two touchdown game yesterday for the Arizona Cardinals. And that's not easy to do for a rookie receiver to have a two touchdown game. So this year's receiver class, and we've got like Tank Dell, Michael Wilson, Puka Nakua, Jaden Reed up in Green Bay. I mean, we've had, class and we've got like tank Dell Michael Wilson puka takua

um Jaden Reed up in Green Bay I mean we've had I think we've had eight of our eight of our receivers already scored touchdowns uh so it was a good it was a really good class last year and uh bringing it back to puka man yeah really happy for him is is that something you can tell like that first day out of practice hey this this person's gonna fit at the next level I I remember being at Aaron Donald's first day of senior bowl practice and it was like oh my god this is a minimum you know man amongst boys but like a guy like puka who didn't he didn't go until the fifth round so it wasn't like he was blowing everybody away like that but could you see you know oh I see where this guy might be pretty good at the next level yeah again for puka you know, oh, I see where this guy might be pretty good at the next level.

Yeah. Again, for Puka, you know, some of his stuff, his best stuff is like seven on seven, 11 on 11, right? Because he's not going to blow you away with the physical stuff. He fell to the fifth round because he didn't run a great 40 time. You know, that just happens with these receivers. They run somewhere in the four fives and every team wants to see a four, number or lower on that card you know when they're when they're staring at that draft board the whole month of April so that's what hurt him um but yeah going back to Aaron Donald I remember that senior bowl I I was way before my time here but the good thing for Aaron is that like he went up in one-on-ones I like I felt like he and Zach Martin went against each other in every single rep so it was like first first ballot hall of Famer against first ballot Hall of Famer.

So, like, neither of them got to embarrass the rest of those position groups the rest of the week. Because if Aaron Donald were taking reps against about anyone except Zach Martin or vice versa, Zach Martin against any of the D linemen, there probably would have been some ugly stuff coming out of Senior Bowl week. But those two guys just lined up against each other all week and had some ridiculous battles. That was like some of the best Senior Bowl stuff ever, those two guys.

Oh, yeah, and now you get to see that every year and get to help set it up. So that's got to be fun. It's fun. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. Well, Jim, thank you so much. Enjoy the games this weekend, and I cannot wait to talk to you again. All right, Andy, have another good, another good college football. We'll be back in a couple of weeks.

We'll be in a week eight, man. It's going too fast. We got to slow it down. Slow it down. Have a good week, man. I do not want to think about the fact that this is week six and the season is flying by because it doesn't feel like we know that much yet it

feels like we got to see a few more games of good on good and it's just it always does this but it's amazing right now though we got to answer your questions it is time for dear andy you guys had some incredible questions this week big games that we got to talk about. And we will start with a question from Carter. Hi, Andy, love the show and how lucky we are to get such a great college football season. I'm a sooner living in Austin,

obviously a big week. My question is how good is Quinn Ewers? More importantly, what's the gap at the most important position between the Sooners and the Longhorns? Obviously Quinn was electric against Alabama, but his numbers are good, not great. 12th in QBR, high 20s rating,

and he isn't getting as much hype as a draft prospect. Certainly not how he was hailed as a recruit. Can I hope Oklahoma keeps this a low scoring affair or is Texas hanging 45 and Dylan has to find a way to keep up? P.S. I went to my first UT game this past weekend. I have to admit it's a cool stadium. So grudging respect coming from a Sooner living in Austin

for the actual Longhorns. This is a great question though, because Quinn Ewers was very inconsistent last year. The world saw him against Alabama before he got hurt in that game in Austin and he looked amazing. But the Quinn Ewers who came back from that injury wasn't quite that good and was very up and down.

And so you look at some of the advanced stats coming into the season, he didn't look that great compared to a lot of other quarterbacks. But if you look at what he's done this year, it's pretty darn good by any metric. Now, we'll go with some of the more common metrics. Completion percentage is up from 58% to 66%. His yards per attempt has gone up from 7.4 to 9.2.

It doesn't feel like Texas is calling for shorter, more high-confidence type passes. He's still throwing the ball down the field quite a bit. He's just completing more of those. And it's more explosive. Now, one stat I like is expected points added. Last year, according to the ESPN EPA, when they do their QBR, Ewers added 19 points for Texas.

Now, he did miss some games because of injury, but that was across the entire season. It ranked him number 87 in the country. This year, he's added 31.6 points already, and he's number 13 in the country. Now, here's where it's interesting with regard to Carter's question. Where's the gap between him and Dylan Gabriel? Well, that expected points added stat,

Dylan Gabriel was number 28 last year with 53.5. He currently has 40.9 after five games as number two in the country. So Dylan Gabriel also playing really well. This is gonna be a great quarterback matchup. You're hoping JT Sanders is healthy for Texas because he, I think he's their most dynamic weapon on offense. And he's just a very good tight end who can just create a mismatch just about anywhere he goes.

But Xavier Worthy, A.D. Mitchell, those are guys who can absolutely fly down the field for Texas too. But you look at Gabriel and you look at the way that Oklahoma has opened its playbook for him because they can't. Think about this game last year. Gabriel couldn't play. He was hurt. He had a concussion that was suffered against TCU. And Oklahoma could not do anything. They didn't have backup quarterback ready. I think now the Oklahoma coaching staff would tell you they're confident putting Jackson Arnold into a game like this and, and running basically the whole offense. What that means for Gabriel is they're comfortable letting him do everything. He's not shackled at this point. You saw it in the Iowa state game where he's running people over. And all that does is give the defense one more thing to worry about, really force one more guy

into the box and allow Dylan Gabriel to load up and throw and allow Gabriel to move around inside the pocket. They can call some more things that move him around and allow him to use that mobility in service of the passing game. So this is going to be a great game because both these teams are so much better than they were this time last year. And obviously Oklahoma can't be much worse than it was against Texas last year, but this is a better version of Texas too. And it feels like a throwback to when this game was massive every single year,

when it really did determine who was going to win the Big 12. I cannot wait. And Quinn Ewers has gotten better and better. And I do think you'll see Quinn Ewers improve as a draft prospect because of what he's doing now. Because all of his stats, be they conventional or advanced, are better than they were. He's a much more consistent quarterback. And he hasn't made those mistakes that he made at some points last year where it did cripple Texas. He's been a value add every single time. And I think that is a big difference for Texas.

And I really, I can't wait to see it. Now, again, both of these guys are going to be challenged because Oklahoma's defense considerably better than it was last year. Their open field tackling is much, much better. I think if you go back to the Cincinnati game, it's a really good example of it where Cincinnati had some plays where if they'd been playing as last year's Oklahoma defense, it's a short pass,

receiver breaks a tackle, and he's gone. And that would have been a very different game, and Oklahoma would have lost that game. But now you see them getting guys down when they catch the ball, which I think makes a big difference. And you're not seeing as many coverage busts. You're not seeing as many guys where somebody's just running wide open. TCU game last year was a great example of that. Texas, meanwhile, so good up front. You heard

Jim Nagy talking about it. They have monsters up front. They have a playmaker in the middle in Jalen Ford. They are going to test Oklahoma's offensive line and how well they can protect Dylan Gabriel. Because when Dylan Gabriel and Oklahoma played against Cincinnati, again, Dante Corleone, one of the best defensive tackles in the country, they held him 20 points. They didn't look as explosive on offense. So this is going to be one of the most fun games of the year just because everybody's so much better. And Quinn Ewers, chief among those players who are better.

I think this one's going to be a great, great quarterback matchup because I don't know if the gap between Quinn Ewers and Dylan Gabriel is that big or even if there's a gap at all. I think it might be that Quinn Ewers has a better supporting cast around him than Dylan Gabriel. But both these guys can sling it. This question comes from Trevor. Am I wrong, or am I getting 2015 Ohio State

or maybe 2014 Florida State vibes from this Georgia team? I know they aren't dealing with QB shuffling like that Ohio State team, but something seems amiss. Thanks, Trevor. So I don't think it's 2015 Ohio State. I don't. Because that was a weird situation where that was probably the most talented team in the country. And if Ohio State had made the playoff that year, like if there'd been a 12 team playoff, I think there's a very good chance. Ohio state would have won the national title because that was a great team. You know, you think about the

two teams that played for the national title, Alabama and Clemson. That was, I don't know if that was Nick Saban's. It's so hard to say worse when you're talking about a national champ, but was that, was that the least talented of his national title teams? It was a pretty talented team. But Jake Coker's the starting quarterback. They don't have a ton of receivers that were really dynamic. But you did have Derrick Henry, obviously, and you had a defense that was loaded.

That Clemson team that pushed Alabama in the national title game was very good with Deshaun Watson. But that Ohio State team had a lot going on. It wasn't just the quarterback situation, which played out for about the first half of the season. Remember, Cardell Jones gets named the starter about five seconds before they go on the field at Virginia Tech to open the season. And then JT Barrett becomes the red zone quarterback.

And then ultimately JT Barrett's the full-time starting quarterback. You also had weird play calling stuff going on. They couldn't get plays in, in a, in a timely fashion. They didn't run their offense at Chris manner like they had the year before. Remember Tom Herman had been the OC in 2014 when they won the national title. He went to go become the head coach of Houston and they had, you know, a different play calling that Ed Warner was the OC. The play calling was not as smooth and it didn't get smooth until after Ezekiel Elliott went off following the Michigan state game. And for the Michigan game, they made

significant changes and Oh oh look at that the offense is fine so it was it was a strange year but the other part of Trevor's question are they like 2014 Florida State is this Georgia team like 2014 Florida State that feels a little more accurate because I don't know that people understood how important some of the guys, the Florida state lost after the, off of the 2013 team where, because James Winston was still there. You had a young Jalen Ramsey in the secondary, you know, they still had stars on that team, but I'll give you a couple of guys on each side of the ball that they lost that were massive leaders on that national title team who were critically important, who were the

type of people that everybody was going to. So they lost Telvin Smith and LaMarcus Joyner off the defense. They lost Brian Stork, the center, and Devontae Freeman, the running back off the offense. Those were bell cow type people that everybody else followed. And they didn't have that kind of leadership on the 2014 team. They still had Winston. They had a freshman Dalvin cook who didn't really come on until halfway through the season. It was one of those deals. I think Jimbo Fisher was a little bit nervous about playing down and cook more because of the past protection piece of it.

Once he got comfortable with him, Dalvin Cook was saving their bacon in the second half of the season. There's a Thursday night game at Louisville that if they don't have Dalvin Cook on the field, they lose. But they just were never the same. And think about what Georgia lost last year. I'll run it down. On offense, Stetson Bennett, Broderick Jones, Darnell Washington, Warren McClendon, Kenny

McIntosh. On defense, Jalen Carter, Nolan Smith, Chris Smith, Keely Ringo, Robert Beal. That's a lot. And I think the reason we assumed that Georgia would just replace that is because they actually probably lost more between 2021 and 2022 than they did between 2022 and 2023. It was just amazing that they could reload the way they did last year. You don't see that. I mean, think about it. They lost three first round defensive linemen, three off the 2021 team, Trevon Walker, Devontae Wyatt, Jordan Davis.

And yet they still had a dominant defensive line. And Jalen Carter was probably still the best defensive lineman in the country. So it's really probably they are a victim of them having two great teams in a row, but also of them having a reload unlike any we've ever seen. Teams just don't reload like that. So I think we're holding them to a standard that's incredibly high. You should not expect them to reload the way they did between 21 and 22. That doesn't mean Georgia's bad. It doesn't mean Georgia can't win the national title this year. Georgia still may be the best team in the country. I just don't know

if they're as good as the 2022 team. And that's okay. Because here's the good news. They don't have to play the 2022 Georgia team. That team's gone. So is there anybody out there that looks like that, that can play like that? We don't know. But that is a great question from Trevor. And yes, that 2014 Florida State seems to be a good comparison. Now, what happened to 2014 Florida State? They went undefeated through the season, were not the number one seed in the playoff. And I think that was when you realized, oh, the playoff selection committee is not going to work like the AP poll.

It's not going to be if you're at number one. You don't lose. You just won't move. Like Florida State wasn't number one. They were undefeated. Didn't matter. So it is a little bit different. But you knew eventually they were going to run into somebody who they weren't going to be able

to slide by. There wasn't going to be that moment where Dalvin Cook saved them. And that was the Oregon team that they played in the Rose Bowl. They made a few mistakes and it just avalanched on them. And all of a sudden it was an Oregon blowout. So this Georgia team, we've seen them play with fire. Look at the rest of their schedule. This Kentucky game this weekend might be the toughest game they have left. It still might be the Tennessee game at Neyland Stadium. It might be when Ole Miss comes. It might be that they're undefeated going to the SEC championship game

and they have to play in Alabama or they have to play at Texas A&M or they have to play somebody else, and that team gets them. But I think we're holding them to an unfair standard if we're holding them to the standard of the 2022 team. They don't have to be as good as that team. They just have to be the best team this year. They haven't played like it yet, but that doesn't mean they won't. They just haven't done it yet. Next question comes from Will. A lot of the discourse from the Georgia-Auburn game is centered around Georgia and their position as the dominant force in college football this season.

But can Auburn use last weekend to build momentum for the rest of the season and into next season? I know there's no such thing as a quality loss, and the forward pass still seems like a necessary tool to win football games, but this was the first Auburn game that had me hopeful since the 2021 Iron Bowl. What does their future look like in a jumbled SEC West? Can Hugh Freeze accelerate the rebuild a step or two, the thin, but maybe sort of talented roster? So Hugh Freeze has pointed toward year three as the one where he feels like he'll have had enough time to recruit to really have them competitive in the SEC.

That feels realistic. That feels very realistic with the transfer portal. I do think between this year and next, they'll figure out the quarterback thing and they'll get some receivers because Hugh Freeze is rarely without a quarterback that he really has faith in. He can find somebody.

They've also got a quarterback committed out of Arkansas who he really likes. So they will have that part, I think, taken care of. We'll see if they get the receiving core, because that's actually been a problem at Auburn for multiple years through multiple coaches where they haven't really been able to build a deep receiving core. But Freeze usually can find guys who can play. And in the portal era, I think you can probably do that pretty quickly. So I think

they're going to get that roster worked out. But if you look at this year, I do think there's a chance that Auburn could come on as, as the season goes on, you know, perhaps that offense gets better or they just get used to calling that offense. You saw Peyton Thorne rip off a 61-yard run against Georgia. His speed may be something they could take advantage of. We know what they can do with Robbie Ashford when they bring him into the game, but it feels like they have some room to grow on that side of the ball. And defensively, I think they're pretty good. And Eugene Asante, he's incredible. He's absolutely incredible. But on the offensive side of the ball, Brian Batty, the USF transfer, they seem to have kind of discovered what they can do with him and how to get him rolling. These next few weeks, they're off this week. Next week they play LSU. After that they play Ole Miss. If they

can split that, if they can find a way to win one of those games, and look, Auburn has been bad at throwing a ball, but guess who's been terrible at covering the pass? LSU and Ole Miss. So if Auburn can run a little bit, perhaps they can get loosened up and Auburn can throw a little bit on them. If they can split that, you're feeling pretty good about Auburn because they'd have four wins going into a stretch where they play Mississippi State at Vanderbilt, at Arkansas and New Mexico State. The four games prior to the Iron Bowl, Auburn might be favored in all of them. They'll definitely be favored in three of them. At Arkansas is the only one where we're not entirely sure, but they certainly could win those games. You could have an eight and three Auburn

going into the Iron Bowl if they could split one of these games that are coming up. And again, you look at the way LSU and Ole Miss, when they played each other, you look at how they defended the pass. Yes, even Auburn may be able to throw on those teams. So yeah, I can't wait. I think that'll be a lot of fun to see going forward because Auburn definitely should be confident after the way they played against Georgia. Now, are they going to play that way every week? Probably not. You're at home. You're playing the defending national champs. You're trying to shock the world. You're going to give a little bit more, but it would also shock the world probably to beat LSU or to beat Ole Miss, though those are a lot more possible than beating Georgia.

So let's see what happens with Auburn. I told you when Hugh Freeze got hired, they're going to find a way to win, and they're probably going to win something they're not supposed to win year one. One of these two games would be that game, would be that one they're not supposed to win. We got one from the sublimely named Hell in a Shell from Twitter. Regardless of how the Ohio State game goes this weekend, did Maryland get screwed not getting ranked? They're the only undefeated Power 5 team not ranked,

and people will point to their strength of schedule, but there are teams ranked ahead of them with a bad strength of schedule too. Fresno State, Louisville, Kentucky, et cetera. Hell in a shell. I understand that this is a little bit different because Maryland is not usually in the mix for this sort of thing, but you don't need to get mad about not getting ranked number 25. It's kind of loser thinking. Maryland's been very good this year. All they have to do is play well down the stretch and they will wind up this season ranked. Whether they were ranked number 25 or 24 or 23 at some point in the middle of the season is utterly meaningless. That does not matter. They need to play consistently and earn a ranking as they go forward. Now, here's the thing.

I think they can scare Ohio State. I don't know if they're going to beat them, but given the way Maryland's offense is played, they should be able to score on Ohio State. If they can't score on Ohio State, then we probably need to reevaluate what we think of Ohio State's defense. It looks like it's significantly better, but I watched the way Duke played against Notre Dame defensively, and it looked very similar to the way Ohio State did. And we were thinking, what Ohio State did against Notre Dame is proof positive Ohio State's defense is improved from last year. I'm not sure about that. It may be that Notre Dame is not that explosive.

Ohio State is going to need to be able to stop explosive offenses if it is to make the college football playoff because it's going to have to play one, whether that's Texas or Florida State or Georgia or you name it, Washington, Oregon, one of those teams. They are going to have to be able to stop an explosive offense. This will be a challenge for them because Maryland runs an explosive offense. Tali Tongvaloa has been very good this year. And so I, should they

be ranked? I guess, you know, them Louisville doesn't feel all that different. Louisville hasn't played the best schedule yet either yet. They happen to be five and oh, they play Notre Dame this week. How about this? How about you beat Ohio State and Louisville beats Notre Dame, and then we can argue about how high you should be ranked and not whether you should be ranked. All you got to do is win these games, and that's not an easy ask,

but you also don't have to win just this one. You know, there are other games down the stretch. If Maryland is respectable against Ohio State, Michigan, and Penn State, Maryland can win all the other games. So you could be looking at a 9-3 Maryland. That team will be ranked. So relax, hell in a shell. It's all going to be good.

This could still be a pretty special season, especially if Maryland knocks off somebody they're not supposed to. Next question comes from Ian. Does the 180-degree turn the Texas A&M defense has made make this week's Texas A&M Alabama game the SEC West championship game? You know, I feel like that's a pretty strong way to put it, given that we were burying Alabama two weeks ago, but also maybe not wrong. Also possibly the hardest game left on Alabama schedule. They did lose two years ago in college

station. Texas A&M is incredibly talented. Texas A&M has absolutely turned the defense around since that Miami game. So Texas A&M gave up 8.4 yards per play against Miami. Against Auburn and Arkansas, they gave up an average of 3.1 yards per play. Now Auburn and Arkansas's offenses are not as dynamic as Alabama's, but Alabama's isn't as dynamic as it usually is either. Alabama has become a more explosive passing team since Jalen Milrow was named the starting quarterback in the two games since. Alabama's averaged 11.4 yards per pass attempt.

Now, that doesn't mean too much because of who they've played. Mississippi State and Ole Miss, not exactly the greatest at defending the pass. So it may be that it's a function of who they played, just as Texas A&M's defensive improvement may be a function of who they've played. But I like Texas A&M's chances in this game. I like Texas A&M's chances against just about everybody else on the schedule. Max Johnson's done a good job replacing Connor Wigman at quarterback.

They can be a little more consistent offensively. That would help them, but the defense has been able to tackle and has been able to get pressure. And if the defense can get pressure on Jalen Milrow this week, Texas A&M can win this game. And remember the loss to Miami as embarrassing as it was, was to an ACC team. It does not count in the SEC standings. Texas A&M's goals would remain in front of the Aggies. And I think, I feel like, even though it's only been a couple of weeks, we can move off the Jimbo Fisher hot seat talk.

This feels like a team that will show the requisite amount of improvement. He's not going to be fired after this season. The question is, how good can they be? And the answer is, we're going to find out this weekend because if they can beat Alabama, they can make it to Atlanta. And that is something that after the Miami game, we probably would not have predicted, but the way they've played the last two weeks, they absolutely could do that. So this will be a very, very important week. I still think

Alabama LSU is going to factor into that. Texas A&M Ole Miss could factor into that. The West doesn't feel as closed off as it usually does, where it's just two teams. But the winner of this game certainly feels like they are in the driver's seat in the SEC West. And again, a couple weeks ago, could not have imagined saying that. So that's how topsy-turvy a good college football season can be.

We move to the Big 12 for our final question, and it comes from Joe. How far did Neil Brown go toward making himself safe from being fired at the end of the season on Saturday? Talking, of course, about the win at TCU on the legs of Garrett Green and C.J. Donaldson with some block kicks. West Virginia's 4-1, guys, 4-1. The only loss is at Penn State, and just about everybody's going to lose at Penn State. They beat Pitt.

Rivalry game. Pitt's not very good. But they beat Texas Tech. They beat TCU. Want to hear the next few games in their schedule? At Houston on October 12th, they get Oklahoma State and Morgantown on October 21st. They're at UCF on October 28th,

and they're at BYU November 4th. They play at Oklahoma on November 11th. So four games before they go to Oklahoma, they're four and one right now. There is a legitimate chance West Virginia could be eight and one heading into the Oklahoma game. We had Neil Brown fired. I will be the first to admit that. We said it all off season. I called him Yolo Neil Brown. I said, run every trick play, go for every fourth down because what are they going to do? Fire you. And they were going to fire him. He's got a chance to save this thing, which is something I never would have thought possible

at the beginning of the season. And it's a credit to Neil Brown and his coaching staff. Neil Brown said, I'm calling plays this year. He'd given it up. He said, nope, I'm coming back to play calling. This is what got me here. This is what makes me special as a coach. I'm going to do it. And so far they've been good. They've won with multiple quarterbacks with Garrett Green and Nico Marchio. It's been pretty incredible to watch. And it's been fun. Their defense was salty against TCU. Is West Virginia a Big 12 title contender right now? No.

But Neil Brown has been a good coach the whole time. He was a good coach at Troy. West Virginia, hard place to win. It always felt like they were kind of unlucky or they get rated in the transfer portal. This feels like vindication for Neil Brown. Now, it could all go south. They could also not win these four games. They could lose a couple of them. They could lose all of them because their margin of victories have been pretty slim. But if they win these games, and Neil Brown said on Monday, he feels like their best football is ahead of them.

If they can win these games, eight and one going into the Oklahoma game, you're feeling pretty darn good. And look, I just appreciate it because Neil Brown handled all the hot seat talk with grace and with class. And if he winds up signing that extension, he can tell all of us to shove it where the sun don't shine. Cause he would have earned it. That's it for dear Andy.

Thank you so much. Big show tomorrow. Big show. We got Louisville coach, Jeff Brom. His team is playing Notre Dame, undefeated Louisville against Notre Dame on a Saturday night in the Ville. Also in the state of Kentucky, Deion Walker, the most versatile big man in America, maybe. He's a six foot five, 335 defensive tackle. He is, well, I say defensive tackle. He can also play out on the edge.

And at one point against Florida, they had him covered in a receiver because he's that good. Deanna Walker's got to play against Georgia this week. You're going to hear from him. Another big show will help get you ready for some of the biggest games in the country. This weekend is going to be an absolute banger.

Cannot wait to help prep for it. We'll talk to you tomorrow.