Andy & Ari On3 - Florida State CRUSHES LSU | More from Coach Prime after Colorado's big win | Florida's struggles | Alabama's QB quandary solved?

Episode Date: September 4, 2023

Tonight's show is sponsored by PrizePicks, where they make daily fantasy sports easy. Use the promo code ANDY to get a 100 percent instant deposit match up to $100. If you deposit $100, PrizePicks will give you $100. If youdeposit $50, PrizePicks will give you $50.Download the PrizePicks app or visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/ivHR/ANDYSubscribe to On3! ⬇️ youtube.com/on3sports/Welcome to On3 | The best of college football and recruiting https://www.on3.com/Follow Andy Staples on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Andy_StaplesFollow Andy Staples on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andy_staplesFollow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/on3sportsFollow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/on3/?hl=en Like/Follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/On3Sports/ Shop On3 https://shop.outsider.com/collections... Florida State dominated the second half and rolled to a 45-24 win against LSU on Monday at Camping World Stadium.Michigan State transfer Keon Coleman caught three touchdown passes, and South Carolina transfer Jaheim Bell caught a touchdown pass and rushed for a touchdown. QB Jordan Travis threw for 342 yards and four touchdowns.Meanwhile, LSU coach Brian Kelly will have to answer questions about how the Tigers used star defender Harold Perkins and about playcalling that left points on the field early.The debut of Deion Sanders at Colorado has sent shock waves through the realm of college football and we break it all down.North Carolina proved to be the superior team of the Carolinas, and we take a look at Mack Brown's tradition with his dance moves in the locker room.Big thank you to PrizePicks for sponsoring this episode, download PrizePicks today and use referral code: AndyWe check up with our good friend from GatorsOnline.com, Nick De La Torre. He has returned from Utah, and he breaks down the state of the Florida program and what needs to change for their season to get back on the right track.Next, Tim Watts from BamaOnline.com joins to give his thoughts on Alabama and their quarterback situation with Jalen Milroe at the helm. He also previews what should be an exciting matchup with the Texas Longhorns in week 2.Our Extra Point for tonight's show comes from Los Angeles with UCLA's Chip Kelly. Chip gives his thoughts on the new clock rules in the game.

Greetings from the LSU coaches box here at Camping World Stadium in Orlando. They've got snacks. They've got Pirate's Booty. They've got Trail Mix. This is probably the place where they made some of those calls on the one-yard line that didn't quite work out early in the game. What a night! 45-24 Florida State. I said I thought Florida State would win. I said I thought the game would go over 56 and a half.

I did not expect this. I did not expect this level of domination from Florida State. It was something that we haven't seen from Florida State really since 2013. I'll give you a game it felt like. And I'm not saying this team's going to win the national title. I'm not trying to compare these two teams. But in terms of it's been a while, but this feels like something. It feels like when they went up to Clemson in 2013 and just stomped them. Because you knew that was a good Clemson team, maybe not a great Clemson in 2013 and just stomped them because you knew that was a good

Clemson team, maybe not a great Clemson team, but you knew Florida state was in a very different place than it had been in previous years. And that is where they are right now. This is, this was an absolute domination in the second half. It was actually pretty back and forth in the first half. It was pretty interesting. And it's been a long time since we saw a Florida State team do this. And so this was what I was thinking. I went to Florida State's practice about a week and a half ago. You saw the interview with Jared Verse and the offensive lineman, Maury Smith, and Demetri Emanuel from that visit. And I remember watching and I thought, okay, Jared versus special, uh, the, their transfer defensive tackle from Western Michigan. He could be very good. He on Coleman, you could tell was going to be awesome. Uh, Jaheim bell,

you could tell they were going to be a lot of ways to use him, but you weren't sure generally how on the offensive and defensive lines lines they were going to hold up against LSU's athletes. LSU's got good athletes, but they held up and they also kept trying to run the ball, which is something that LSU kind of gave up on. LSU basically figured out we can't run the ball unless it's Jaden Daniels scrambling and we're probably going to get Jaden killed if we keep doing that with him. So they really kind of gave up on the run. Florida state kept trying, kept trying, kept trying. Uh, they, they ran a counter that Makai Wingo, the LSU defensive tackle was blowing up the counters in the, in the first half. And then LSU went to this two back counter

and Brian Kelly said it after, after the game, He said, we just couldn't fit it. We couldn't figure out how to fit it, and it was pretty amazing to see that it just kept kind of coming in waves and that LSU really couldn't do anything to stop it. So I'm not ready to predict that Florida State's a playoff team or that they're even going to beat Clemson in a few weeks.

But I was very impressed with the way this team was put together. Very impressed with the way it handled itself. Where things could have gone really off the rails. So, first series, LSU marches the ball down. They're on the one-yard line. Florida State commits a penalty, gives them four cracks from the one yard line, and they stuff them every single time. Then it felt like Florida State was just committing penalty after penalty. Now, some of those were probably cheapies. Some of those probably didn't need to be called,

but it felt like it could get away from them at any moment, but it didn't. Now, a lot of that was they stopped LSU again in the red zone, and LSU came away with no points. And I think that's where LSU's frustration started to mount. And really, in the second half, you started to see Florida State's pass rush get to Jaden Daniels more. In the first half, he was able to escape, get out, gain some yards, or keep plays alive and get the ball downfield. In the second half, they were getting him. who escape, get out, gain some yards, or keep plays alive and get the ball downfield.

In the second half, they were getting them. Let's listen to Mike Norvell talking about the Seminoles' performance. I'm proud of our team. There's been a lot of buildup and excitement about this game, this opportunity. Talked all the way through fall camp and even through the offseason, some of the workouts, just all of it. The mindset and the approach that these guys, what they bring to work every day. They've done a remarkable job in building relationships, just the way that they compete with each other.

I told them before the day that they're built for a time like this, this stage, just the two top ten teams in the country. I wasn't real pleased with some of the things that showed up in the first half. I thought we made some foolish mistakes at times, and that happens. You gotta play this game with emotion, and I want an emotional team. I want it to be controlled. I wanna make sure that we're disciplined and continuing to focus on the little things that I told you guys at halftime and

that both sides did a remarkable job and how they responded to that. But just that second half, that was a glimpse of what I think this team could do and where I think it could go, but there's a lot of things that we're gonna have to clean up after and I appreciate them. Obviously there's excitement in the locker room, but that was one game, that was our first step. That was a big step, right?

You get a chance to be on this stage, you wanna go play well. And I don't think we played our best game, but I thought that second half, we were able to really finish the way that we wanted to. And I'm just proud of them for the way that they continue to battle, the way they showed their resilience and just who they are. I'm very invested in that atmosphere, our crowd, our fans, unbelievable job. That was an electric atmosphere that we got to play in. It's great to be able to be here in our home state and see such a wonderful

turnout and just the energy in that game. It had a championship type feel to it. I thought it was just a great experience for our players and you all that are part of the program. So, Tyler Wright I don't want FSU to be top five yet Tyler I don't know how to break this to you they're going to be top five tomorrow morning they will be top five tomorrow morning don't worry about that that doesn't matter right now none of that really matters right now all all that matters is that they played a great game we don't need to to project anything. And by the same token, LSU people, it's not over yet.

This is not the end of your year, but you have a lot of reasons to be concerned. There was a lot tonight that you should be worried about. For me, the thing that I thought would be frustrating if I was an LSU fan, well, one is the secondary, but also Harold Perkins. The good Lord put Harold Perkins on this earth to go get the ball, to go get the quarterback. And they're not letting him do that. I thought when they said they're going to work him at linebacker, that it was going to be a case of making him a Wurzwaldo type player where offenses would have to figure

out where he was on every play. And that's terrifying if you're an offense. But Harold Perkins tonight was a spy. He was standing there seven yards from the line of scrimmage, staring at Jordan Travis, waiting for something to happen. If you watch the last half of LSU's 2022 season, Harold Perkins is not a guy that you just wait for something to happen with. You go have him make something happen. That part was especially frustrating. And Brian Kelly got asked about it after the game, and I don't think it was a real satisfying answer. He's learning how to play linebacker for the first time. We put him in a position last year where he was see ball, get ball.

Now he's in a position where he's gotta get over the top, he's gotta back out of the backfield. He's gotta be disciplined and can't lose his eyes on the quarterback match. Fourth down, there's a lot going on there, and he's trying to sort it out. You're catching a young player early on in his career, and he's going through some growing pains. We'll take one more from Coach back here.

Maybe just let him see ball get ball. He's really good at that. I don't know that you're helping him because in the NFL, edge rushers make more than off-ball linebackers. So who's that helping? I don't understand that. I just don't. Now, as far as the secondary goes for LSU, that's a personnel issue. It's a shocking personnel issue because we're just not used to seeing that from LSU. We're used to seeing them having a stock cupboard where there's always some stud who's about to go to the NFL after year three. And there's always some freshman who's

going to come in and start, and he's going to go to the NFL after year three. And there's like two more of those guys that are on the way, but that is not where they're at right now. That is not where LSU secondary is. And Brian Kelly got asked about what they could have done differently with Florida State's receivers, and his answer was quite telling. It means everything as to what our mindset is. How do we handle this? Is this who we want to be? Oh, that is not the receiver's answer. I'm sorry. That is the

mindset answer. I will get you that receiver's answer. Well, I don't really need to get it for you. It was basically, he said a couple things about the receivers and the matchups, and then he basically said, no, there was nothing more we could do. And he's right. There's nothing you can do with Keon Coleman, who, by the way, from Louisiana, went to Michigan State first, hit the transfer portal, was going to go to Florida State or Ole Miss.

And I saw a lot of Ole Miss people like, oh my God, we could have had him too. He was incredible. Three touchdown catches, two incredibly contested, and then one where he snaked his way through the LSU secondary. Just a great night for Keon Coleman.

And then also Jaheim Bell, who transferred from South Carolina, had a great night. He scored two touchdowns. He had a catch, and then they gave him kind of an end around at the end of the game that he ran in. And remember, he played some tailback for South Carolina at the end of last season. There's a lot of versatility there, a lot of things they can do with him.

So LSU added to those weapons because they already had Trey Benson, who is going to be more successful against a lot of those ACC teams. You're going to see him be able to break runs against a lot of those ACC teams. LSU's front was pretty preached out. He had a lot to deal with tonight. But you've got him, Johnny Wilson, obviously Johnny had a couple of pretty bad drops in the first half, but shook it off and really came back strong in the second half, had a, had a great game. So I just think they've got so many

different options. And then, you know, you look at them defensively, they can get after you, you know, they can get after you. It's more than just Jared Verse on that D-line. When they were rotating in their second group, they were still getting pressure. And that's the thing I wasn't really sure they were going to be able to do. And if you can do that, you can play with just about anybody. So for Florida State, here's how this shakes out. They're good enough to beat everybody in the ACC.

They need to beat Clemsonon and they need to beat them. It's interesting because they won tonight. If you want to make the playoff, you don't actually have to beat Clemson twice. You just have to beat them the second time. You don't have to beat them the first time. You got to beat them the second time. I think they want to beat them both times if they end up playing them twice. But this I'm much more confident now in that matchup because I was worried about Florida

State's offensive line against a group of just, you know, in a bunch of NFL defensive linemen, which is what LSU has, which is what Clemson has. They're not going to see that really anywhere else. You know, Florida's got some okay defensive linemen, but the other teams they're going to play are not going to be the level of LSU, and they're not going to be the level of Clemson on the line of scrimmage. And what we saw is that they can handle themselves

on the line of scrimmage just fine. So I think that should give you confidence going forward. Now it's interesting because Mike Norvell has to go and figure out how to make sure that they understand hey guys you got to start over this week you can't let this carry over you can't let the celebration carry over I do think though the leadership on this team has been through so much. Remember guys like Jordan Travis went through some really tough times at Florida state. So they know how bad it can be. Like they were there when they lost to Jacksonville state, they understand. And so I think that part of it will help. You'll have

those guys in the locker room who can say, guys, we we've seen when everybody thought we were worthless. So don't believe what everybody says. We're the best because they can turn on you in a week. And absolutely, as as one of the people who will turn on you, we can turn on you in a week. So I think Florida State probably has the kind of leadership that will make sure that that doesn't happen. But probably the bigger question is how does LSU respond to this? And I was playing this quote before when it was in the wrong place, but this is the time when I want to play this Brian Kelly quote, because it is very interesting.

It means everything as to what our mindset is. How do we handle this? Is this who we wanna be? Or do we look at this and say, this isn't the kind of football team we wanna be? So, when you have these kinds of losses, they're disappointing, in some instances, they're devastating losses. But it's how you respond to them.

And they have a chance to respond to this very disappointing performance in the second half. And so the choices they'll have to make will be ones that start tomorrow. How they handle themselves 24-7 is really what I'll be interested in seeing. Brian Kelly was really critical of himself and his coaching staff after the game. He called it an abject failure of coaching. I think there's probably a lot of LSU fans who would agree. There's probably of LSU fans who would agree. I think, you know, there's probably some LSU fans calling into the radio shows right now

that are probably just irate. This is, this is not how they play that, you know, Florida LSU is not the type of program that just gets whooped. And this has happened actually a couple of times since Brian Kelly got there. And I think that's it's interesting because they overachieved last season for sure. They should, you know, you did not expect them to beat Alabama, did not expect them to win the SEC West. So you've got to give them credit for that. You've got to give the staff credit for bouncing back from that FSU loss at the beginning of the season and then winning those games. They did get destroyed by Tennessee at home. They were not competitive in the SEC

championship game against Georgia. That also happened. So if you're LSU, where the standard is winning national championships, and your last three head coaches have all won national championships, and you brought in Brian Kelly to win more national championships, That is what has to be done. That is where you got to go. You cannot ever have nights like this because like you don't see Alabama get beat like this. You don't see Georgia get beat like this. It doesn't happen. And those are the teams that consistently compete for national titles. I think Brian Kelly was trying to manage our expectations for most of the summer, though. You know, if you look back at SEC media days, he was saying over and over again, we're a few recruiting classes away. Not sure we're deep

enough yet. Well, I think that showed that showed in the second half when they were just getting pulverized up front, which is not something you expect to see from LSU. They never matched up with Florida State's receivers. And again, not being good at the secondary is crazy to think about. With LSU, LSU always has players in the secondary. It's like Arrested Development. There's always money in the banana stand. There's always corners at LSU, except now there's not.

So they've got to get that all worked out. Let's hear a at LSU, except now there's not. So they've got to get that all worked out. Let's hear a little more from Brian Kelly. Yeah, I'm quite aware of the score and I didn't like the way we came out. I sensed it.

I felt it. I've got to take accountability and responsibility for the way that we came out in the second half. It's disappointing recognize that, you know, you've got to play this game four quarters with the mentality. And we just did not, for some reason, we thought we were somebody else. We thought we were the two-time national champion Georgia Bulldogs or something. I don't know what we thought, but we were mistaken. You are not the two-time national champion Georgia Bulldogs for sure, and neither is Florida State yet. We're not going to get ahead of ourselves.

We're not going to be the people who in week one watch one game and overreact to one result. Okay, we were those people with Colorado, but we're not going to do it again twice in the same weekend. Okay. Florida State, really good. I thought Mike Norvell put it very well earlier. You saw a glimpse of what they can be. They got to keep doing it, but you saw a glimpse. LSU, there is a lot of work to be done. There's a lot to fix. There's a lot of talent, though.

So it doesn't mean that this season's over for them either. They can get much better as the season goes on, but they got to do some things. When you're on the goal line, you got a 6'5 quarterback. Maybe you sneak it. Maybe put two giant guys behind him and push him in the way the Eagles do with Jalen Hurts. Maybe try that.

Maybe with Harold Perkins, you let him go do the thing he was born to do. Maybe you do that. There are other ways. There are ways to fix it. I don't know how many of these snacks these LSU coaches ate tonight. Maybe not enough, but, you know,

hopefully they had a little trail mix to soothe their pain, because I'm sure it was a rough night in this booth where the LSU coaches were probably screaming and ranting and watching Florida State players run up and down the field on them. But it can get better. And for Florida

State, it also can get better, which should be very, very encouraging. Guys, fantastic first weekend. We got one more game. Clemson and Duke will be playing Monday night. So we got a little Monday night college football. Exciting game because we want to see Clemson. Now we've seen Florida State. We've seen North Carolina. Both have whooped up on SEC teams. We get to see Clemson in a conference game against Duke. Mike Elko won nine games in his first year at Duke. That qualifies as a miracle. I believe he can be named a Saint now. So that should be fun. Also, tomorrow

night is a Dear Andy show. So you know how to find me. Andy underscore Staples on Erks or Andy Staples on three at gmail.com. You can email your question in words. You can email your question as a video. We take them all ways. We just like good questions. So we're going to answer those questions on the show. We've also got Jim Nagy from the Senior Bowl talking about all the prospects that we saw this weekend and who really shined.

Guys, it's going to be a fun week. We got Alabama, Texas on the horizon. Colorado, Nebraska. It's all happening now. Welcome to Andy Staples on three. Happy Sunday night. This football weekend's not over yet. No, this is the first college football weekend. The NFL has yet to come in and crowd it out on Sundays and Mondays. So still got Florida State and LSU to go. Now, if you're listening in podcast form, you're going to hear this a little differently.

But we also still have Clemson and Duke on Monday night. So here's how the Seminoles and the Tigers will work. If you are listening to the podcast version of this on Monday morning, you're going to hear me talking about what happened in the LSU-Florida State game first because I'm going to be at that game in person. But since this show airs before that game kicks off, we're going to talk about all the other stuff that happens Saturday, and you'll get to hear about that in audio form and also on video. If you want to come, those of you watching now, if you want to come after the

game and chat with me, I'll be in Orlando. We'll figure out how to get it set up. Usually I hijack one of the announcer booths. That's the best way to do it. They always have great internet in there and they always have good lighting. And so that's the best place to go is you find either the TV booth, if you can get in there, but usually they're, they're still creating up a bunch of their equipment, but those radio guys for the various teams, they're gone. Like they are gone within 15 minutes of the game ending. So I will be hijacking a radio booth and I will be talking LSU Florida State after that game. Because, of course, we got to talk about the best matchup of the weekend, or at least so we think.

The game of the weekend so far, though, remains Colorado 45, TCU 42. I still can't believe it happened. And look, you know, Deion says he's got the receipts. I got the receipts, too. I did not say ever that Deion wasn't going to work in Colorado. I thought it was going to work eventually. I thought he'd be able to flip the roster in a similar fashion to the way he did at Jackson State, where he was going to have some of the top talent in his league after a couple of

years, because I figured it would take longer at that level. It didn't take longer. And I know what you're saying. Well, TCU wasn't that good. No, TCU is probably going to win more than it loses this year. I don't know how good TCU wasn't that good. No, TCU is probably going to win more than it loses this year. I don't know how good TCU will be in the Big 12, but I feel comfortable saying TCU will not finish below 500. So that's a pretty good team that they went out and beat on the road in game one. Now you can say, oh, they had the element of surprise. That I will take because there was not a lot of tape on them you had to watch

Kent State for their offensive scheme you had to watch Alabama and old Florida State for their defensive scheme you had to watch Jackson State for personnel you had to watch a bunch of different schools for personnel so I get that part but I also think it's pretty phenomenal what they did, given the roster they took over and given that it's very hard. And this is this was my problem all along or my issue all along. What I thought would take longer is it's really hard to get good big people out of the portal, hard to get good offensive linemen, hard to get good defensive linemen. I would say they schemed around the offensive line. We don't know how good that offensive line is yet. And we may not find out because Sean Lewis, the offensive coordinator, who was the head coach at Kent State last year,

he worked very hard to make sure that Shador Sanders caught the ball and got it out very quickly. And they've got some good, fast, elusive players in space. And they did a really good job with that. Now we'll see when they play Nebraska this week, how does Tony White, the Nebraska defensive coordinator adjust to all that? They played an incredible game against Minnesota's offense. They stuffed Minnesota's offense. Didn't really give up much until the very end that one they lost, but it was more on Nebraska's offense than Nebraska's defense. So that's a matchup I'm really excited to see. But as far as the Dion of it all, I don't mind him just saying, I told you so over and over and

over again, because he did tell us and we didn't believe him. There were people who were, oh, he's going to lose every game. I don't know. I didn't think he was going to lose every game. I just thought they were going to be better, but not that much better. If they can beat TCU, they can beat quite a few teams on their schedule.

Now, it's still a very hard schedule. It is not going to be easy. They're going to play Oregon in a few weeks. They're going to play USC, but they're also going to play Arizona State. They're going to play Oregon in a few weeks. They're going to play USC, but they're also going to play Arizona State. They're going to play Stanford. Those are teams they can beat. So bowl game, certainly not out of the realm of possibility right now. Still not sure if we're talking about a team that can compete in the Pac-12, because again, this is as deep as the Pac-12

has been in a long time but my expectations of them changed after watching them it was it was very impressive they were a very well coached team they were disciplined they had fewer penalties than TCU did there were issues and Dion mentioned that there were issues, and Deion mentioned that, there were issues. Let's hear Deion talk about it right now. It was, I'm not going to say it was fun. It was satisfying in the end. You got to understand, time of the second ticks off the clock. I'm ready for the next.

Like I'm thinking, okay, we got to fix this, fix that, fix that, because we got to be much more dominant next week in all phases, not just one phase, but offensively, defensively, special teams. Offensively, we did it. Defense, we got to fix some things. Special teams were horrendous. We got a kick block as well as Dernier gave up a touchdown. That was horrendous. All right, I'll go ahead.

So one thing is we keep focusing on Deion and what he says and the showmanship of it, but they're coaching those guys very well. They hired a staff that knows what they're doing. And I think we were probably discounting that a little bit. Sean Lewis, when he was at Kent State, was one of those guys that was on a short list almost every year for a bigger job. And to be perfectly honest, I mean, having conversations with people around him, he left for this job because it gives him a better chance of becoming a Power 5 head coach faster than being a head coach at Kent State. This year is not exactly representative, but last year was.

Kent State, their old AD had a history of just loading them up with these horrific non-conference games. So they were so beat up by the time they got to mac play it really affected the whole season last year they had to play at washington at oklahoma and at georgia and so he kind of got fed up with that and so now he's at colorado running that offense jador sanders 510 yards passing that first game. It is, it's not like Dion just hired a bunch of guys he knew. The other thing about Dion that I find very interesting, and I think people discount this, it's not just Dion, Trent Dilfer falls into this category too. Trent Dilfer, by the way, won his first game at UAB, a little bit different level of competition for their first game than Deion's first game. But being in the NFL for as long as they were is a version of experience that the people who didn't do that don't have.

And so they get knocked for not going through the traditional coaching route, that they weren't a GA and they weren't a position coach at a lower level. But the experience that somebody like Deion has is so different and so much more valuable, and it helps him when he's recruiting, and it also helps him in terms of managing players like Travis Hunter, who is very much like Deion was. Deion was a two-way player in the freaking NFL. So he's probably going to be more imaginative

about how he uses a guy like Travis Hunter, who is incredibly talented. But, you know, Deion, just, I think he's going to annoy a lot of people this week, even more so than he was already with the I told you so's. But I don't know of a person who's earned the I told you so's as much, because again, this isn't like the Kirby smart, fake, everybody thought you'd go seven and five. This is, he really had people saying, you're going to fail, you're gonna fall on your face.

We are rooting for you to fall on your face. Here's Deion talking about all that stuff. What do you say to people that question the transport court, get rid of all the kids, can you do it? Turn on the film. I tell them to turn on the film. We don't,

we're going to continuously be questioned because we do things that have never been done. That's the way our life has presented themselves. We do things that have never been done and that makes people uncomfortable. When you see a confident black man sitting up there talking his talk, walking his walk, coaching 75% African Americans in the locker room, that's kind of threatening. Oh, they don't like that. But guess what? We're going to consistently do what we do because I'm here and it ain't going nowhere. and i'm about to get comfortable in a minute i think he's already comfortable i don't i don't think he's been uncomfortable at any point during this time

and that that's what should worry people because that was proof of concept if they can go beat nebraska if they can play with you i see i don don't, I still, even after what I saw, I'm not sure they can beat Oregon or USC, but if they can play with Oregon and USC, that just provides further proof of concept that helps him recruit in high school. version of what Mike Norvell has done at Florida State. Mike Norvell took over a horrific situation at Florida State. The transfer rules hadn't quite changed when he got there, but as soon as they changed, he started using them to improve that roster. Now that the roster has improved and they've gotten better, look at how his high school recruiting has improved. Well, for Deion Sanders, he already got a five-star, number one prospect in the entire country to come sign for him and play at Jackson state. And that's Travis Hunter. Who's now with him at Colorado. If recruits see this, they're going to want to go play in Colorado, the high school guys,

the blue chip guys, they're going to want to go play in Colorado. It's going to accelerate. So like the Florida state thing, it took three years for Mike Norvell to get them to the point where they're playing well. And now they have that proof of concept that they can show the high school players. And you're seeing those high school players commit to Florida State now. Dion might be able to do that in a couple of months. And that should scare a lot of people because he's going to be trying to flip guys. One person he flipped in the last class was Dylan Edwards. Now he had a prior relationship with him, has known him since he was four years old,

but Dylan Edwards was going to Notre Dame. You saw on Saturday what Dylan Edwards can be. I mean, imagine him on Notre Dame's roster. Imagine him with Sam Hartman handing him the ball and throwing in the ball. But Dylan Edwards had five catches for 135 yards, and he was just unstoppable. Well, Dylan Edwards is phenomenal. I've been seeing that since he was four years old,

and we see that in practice all the time. Don't let the size fool you. Dylan looks in the mirror like shallow hell. When he looks in the mirror, he's a 215-pound man that's probably about 6'4". That's the way Dylan addresses life. And I think he had a little injury of his ankle early on, and he thought it popped. I'm like, no, no, God wouldn't have brought you this far for that.

Not right now. Watch the impact you're going to have in this game. And he had tremendous impact. Dylan is a dog, man. But you're going to consistently see what he does on a weekly basis because this is how he practices this is how travis practiced this is how chador practiced this is how those receivers i've been talking about and talking about that you didn't believe this is how they really go to work the defensive front i mean this is how they went to work as well. We got to clean up some things, but those guys, I think they played a pretty good game. So expect more of that because now he can go to recruits and say,

look at what Dylan did. Look at how Dylan believed. Dylan bought that I was selling that you could play early and have an impact early, and that's what you can do. That is absolutely what he can tell recruits now. And look, it's one game, but this game tells you that they're going to be decent. I don't know how good they're going to be, but they can certainly beat Nebraska this week. That is not outside the realm of possibility. You saw the line move considerably based on what happened yesterday. So they are potentially a team that might make a ball game. And I can't believe I'm saying this, but that is a well-coached TCU team. It's not the same team

that went to the national title game last year, but it is a very good team that actually did some great work in the transfer portal to replace a lot of the talent they lost. I think they're going to be a pretty good Big 12 team. And Deion and Colorado beat them. And probably the most amazing part of that performance was Travis Hunter. I don't think we can talk enough about what Travis Hunter did in that game. He played 80 snaps on defense, guys. 80 snaps. That is incredible. But then he also caught a bunch of passes, was probably their most important receiver.

11 catches for 119 yards. Now, last year at Jackson State, he played in eight games. He was hurt for a few. He had 18 catches for 188 yards and four touchdowns. He's already more than halfway to his total from last year. Now, Deion's going to have to make sure he manages the usage of Travis Hunter, but it is pretty incredible what we're talking about with a two-way player. We have not seen anything like this in a long time in college football. You know, that's a leather helmet kind of thing. That's a Chuck Bednarik kind of thing. Let's talk about some of the more recent two-way guy. And I say recent.

We're going back pretty far in time. In one case, almost 30 years to talk about quote-unquote recent. So probably the most recent two-way guy we've seen that was really impressive was Miles Jack at UCLA his freshman year. Remember, he comes on the scene. He's a great linebacker right off the bat. And then they got in a situation where they were really thin at running back. And they said, hey, can you play running back? And against Arizona, he carried six times for 120 yards, including a 66

yard touchdown. But that year he had 38 carries for 267 yards and seven touchdowns. So he was very much once once their running backs got healthy again he was not their primary back and of course he was their best defensive player at the time so you had kind of a two-way full-time but not really because as soon as they had healthy running backs again miles jack's role on the offense diminished. Champ Bailey is a really good example. When he was at Georgia, so in 1998, he was second on Georgia's team in receiving 47 catches for 744 yards. He had 300-yard receiving games, and obviously he was one of the best corners in the country.

So that's a more accurate one. Charles Woodson was one I looked up because I was interested. I remember it in 97. Obviously, he wins the Heisman based on that Ohio State game where he had the return for a touchdown. He had played incredibly at corner, and he had a very important catch that set up a Michigan touchdown. But that year, he won the Heisman in 1997 1997 he had 11 catches for 231 yards and two touchdowns so Travis Hunter had the same number of catches yesterday that Charles Woodson had his entire Heisman season so if we're talking about that comparison the most accurate comparison is

probably Chris Gamble playing for that Ohio State national title team in 2002. He was Ohio state's first two way starter in 40 years. He was their second leading receiver. He led the team in interceptions and he was their primary punt returner. He played 119 snaps in the national title game, played 95 snaps against Illinois. He was very important on both sides of the ball to that team. 119 in the national title game, including some of the most important that team 119 in the national title game including some of

the most important plays he was directly involved in so chris gamble is probably the the most accurate comparison we can make to travis hunter we have not seen anything like this and it's it's exciting it's exciting to see somebody do that and i wonder if this will change the way coaches look at this and look it's one game. Travis Hunter obviously missed four games with an injury last season. So we'll see how he holds up throughout the season. But if this works, if he's effective on both sides of the ball, I wonder if it will inspire some other coaches when they have.

And I think it works best with the corner receiver combination, you know, maybe linebacker running back like Miles Jack can work. But when you have somebody who's uber talented, let them play on both sides of the ball. We've actually seen it on the line of scrimmage as well. I remember in 2007, Florida was really thin at defensive line. Mike Pouncey had not won a starting job on the offensive line yet Marquise his twin brother already had but Mike hadn't won a starting job he's a backup so they played him at D-tackle he was a rotation guy at D-tackle but they didn't play him both ways and so I do wonder

if you're a team that is not a Georgia an Ohio an Alabama, and you have somebody who is so special as an athlete, would you be more apt to play him on both sides of the ball? That was a question we talked about on the show Saturday night. If Travis Hunter had gone to Florida State, would Florida State have played him on both sides of the ball? I don't know about that. I don't know. I doubt that we would have seen him beyond more than just being kind of a occasional guy at receiver you know we we see that still

but not a two-way starter like the chris gamble situation that just doesn't happen anymore at the top level so i i can't wait to see it here's's Deion on Travis Hunter. Travis Hunter. Yes. Playing both ways. Can he keep that high pace? Can he? I try to tell you, but you ain't want to believe me because I'm just a, you know, I'm just a lofty old young coach.

I don't know nothing about football. You know, I just played in the NFL for 14, played at a high level in college before, you know, and been coaching youth all the way up for a long time. How do you think we got Dylan Edwards? I coached him when he was four to seven years old. That's why we got Dylan Edwards. Travis

is him, like the young folks say. Travis is it. I really think I always promote all my kids. I really think we got a couple guys that should be front runners for the Heisman right now. I really, that's how I feel. And I want to promote my kids at all costs.

We got a couple of them that, who did that? Who did what they did today? Well, if you were voting today, yes, Travis Hunter would be very high on the Heisman list. If he keeps doing this, it may not matter what record Colorado has. And I realize the Heisman has become an award generally for a quarterback on a playoff contender.

But I mean, if he keeps doing this, if they're six and six, seven and5, I don't think it'll matter. Because we just have not seen this in a long time. Now, there's a lot of ways to go and a lot of really good teams to play. So we'll see if it still happens. But if you're concerned about Travis Hunter's conditioning, don't worry about it. Here's Travis dancing in the locker room after the game. This man has some moves.

This is an athlete. This is smooth. It was beautiful. Now, let's compare it to Mack Brown after North Carolina beat South Carolina. Because when North Carolina wins, Mack Brown dances. That tradition was started a few years ago after North Carolina beat South Carolina in Charlotte in the season opener.

I believe it was Sam Howell's freshman year. Well, it's continued and they made sure to memorialize it after the Tar Heels beat the Gamecocks this time. Mac Brown, clearly a fan of Lean Back by the Terror Squad or Doing the Rock Away or Side to Side by Three Six Mafia. Those are all songs about what you do in the club when you don't actually want to dance, how you kind of just shuffle back and forth. But it doesn't matter.

When you win, you can dance any way you want to. And Mack Brown's team got after Spencer Rattler, sacked him nine times. It was very, very impressive. We'll see what North Carolina does going forward. But the fact that they had that level of aggression on defense, big difference from last year. So it was fun to watch. Before we move on, I want to talk to you about prize picks what a weekend on prize picks the the picks all got loaded in right before the weekend's very exciting seeing all the the different squares

come in and all the different options you had i had had a fun weekend because I decided I was going to take Michael Penix Jr. from Washington for more than 310 and a half passing yards and Xavier Worthy from Texas for more than 63 and a half receiving yards. Both of them went over. Xavier Worthy had 90 receiving yards and Michael Penix Jr. had 346 passing yards. He was lights out. I was very confident. Worthy had already done what he needed to do, and I was very confident watching Michael Penix throw that he was going to get there.

My only concern was that they were going to run away from Boise State too fast and put Dylan Morris into the game earlier, but they didn't. They kept it going. So if you want to have some fun, there are lots of entries right now available for the Florida state LSU game for the Clemson Duke game. You got Cade Klubnick for Clemson, more than 266 and a half passing yards or less than 266 and a half passing yards.

If you're, if you're that kind of person, I, I like to go more than I like to root for people. I don't like to root against people. Riley Leonard for Duke 167 or 187 and a half passing yards. It's going to be a fun one. Now, Jordan Travis for Florida State is 249 and a half passing yards is that projection I also mean to be watching how many touchdown passes he throws because I have him in a season-long play where he needs to throw more than 23 and a half touchdowns along with Braylon Allen needing to run for more than 1,075 and a half yards by the way Wisconsin's Braylon Allen yeah I'm feeling pretty good there feeling pretty good because he he and Chez Malusi at the at first because Chez Malusi started out running for more as the Badgers just kind of blew that game open in the second half

I was a little worried I was like oh they're, they're going to feature Chaz here. Oh, no, no, no. This is going to be a two-headed monster. And Braylon Allen, I believe, finished with 141 rushing yards. I will take that. As on-pace guy, I'm good with that. Bo Nix, 23 and a half. Bo had a real good day against Portland State. Obviously, didn't get to play for the second half. That's okay. I am not worried about Bo Nix and his on-paceness. He's already on pace. And then Brock Bowers ran for a touchdown and did not catch a touchdown.

I need him to catch more than seven and a half touchdowns. That's okay. We'll get there. Brock Bowers will probably score in a multitude of ways. And Georgia will find many, many, many, many, many ways to terrorize defenses with Brock Bauer. So if you're looking for fun, Sunday night and Monday night, you got it with prize picks. Download that prize picks app, use the referral code, Andy, they will match your first deposit up to a hundred bucks. So if you, if you deposit a hundred bucks, they'll match you a hundred bucks. If you deposit 50

bucks, they'll match you 50 bucks. It's a lot of fun. It's daily fantasy. You can play it in 31 States, including Florida, including Texas, including California. It's a lot of fun. Prize picks, download that app. Referral code Andy. And they'll match you up to $100 in that first deposit. Good luck. Happy playing. When we come back, Nick Delatore from Gators Online will join me to sift through the wreckage of Florida's loss to Utah.

We'll try to figure out exactly how many players the Gators had on that field goal block in the fourth quarter. Spoiler alert. It wasn't 11. We'll be right back. We're joined now by Nick Delatore of Gators Online. Nick was in Salt Lake City for Florida's loss to Utah, and the hand-wringing has not stopped. Nick, did we ever figure out exactly how many players were on the field for the field goal block in the fourth quarter? The end zone shot shows eight. The side shot before they flipped to the end zone shot shows 10, but you can see one of the assistants, I believe Billy Gonzalez waving off Ricky Pearsall, so he comes off.

So it's at most nine and at least eight. Let's not split hairs. Let's say it wasn't 11. You're allowed 11. I think that's good. You're allowed 11 just to be competitive. And they chose not to be competitive on that field goal attempt. Special teams have been,

they call them game changers here in Gainesville um and they certainly are changing the game just probably not the way Florida would like them to yeah yeah it is it is interesting and the game they have a game changer coordinator in fact who is an analyst not an on-field assistant so that that's one thing and it obviously people are going well you didn't complain about this last year and this was the same situation last year there were other issues last year one thing I do want to kind of silver lining this a little bit before we get into the nitty-gritty the defense did seem considerably better than it was last year other than the first play with the massive coverage bust.

I think only three missed tackles. And that was a big thing for me. Like you, they don't practice anymore. Like you had to Andy in high school, there's no two days. There's no three days. You're not hitting. You're not taking guys to the ground.

You can roll those foam donuts around the field for 12 hours a day. That's not like tackling a real person. So I was really encouraged that Florida looked good tackling. I think the scheme is good, and they rotated a lot of guys. That's a big thing for Florida. Last year you had Gervon Dexter play nearly 700 snaps at 305 pounds. So you just didn't have the depth. I think that's going to help Florida on defense all season long,

especially when you get into fourth quarter of games and late in the season where you don't have guys, you know, gasping for air playing their 90th snap of the game. Yeah, it's that part was was the thing that it's needed to be fixed for probably three years now at Florida. And it feels like they've made some progress there, but it feels like they've regressed a little bit offensively. How much of how they were limited offensively was because Kingsley, Egocon, the center, was not playing? I don't know that Kingsley, I think he's a good player. I don't know that he makes this offensive line appreciably better.

Florida, I thought one through five would be good. Very confusing to me why you had a left guard, right guard flip-flop on game week with Mike and Mazzucca and Richie Leonard. I don't know that Kingsley makes them that much better. And I know everyone's talking about play calling, but the offensive line not being able to pass block or run block affects the play calling. Florida threw 12 or 13 screens. It reminded me of Tom Brady back at the Patriots.

Hey, we can't run the ball, so we have to screen to use that as our running game. I don't know that Kingsley makes him that much better. He is a great player. He played in 26 straight games before this. So as an offensive line, you need to play together as a unit. And that unit that Florida put out there on Thursday night had never played together for a single game. So where do they go from here?

We've talked about what they need to clean up. They play McNeese State this week. They've got them, and then they've got Tennessee. What do you want to see Florida do against McNeese state that they couldn't do against Utah? To me, it was, it was scary. The most concerning thing to me was you looked Thursday night in a season opener, prime time. Um, you looked like it was the first week of spring practice, false starts, uh, illegal formations, just procedural things that when you have a staff of 1,827,000, shouldn't be an issue. So to me, that was really concerning. Clean that up. I'd like to see you

get back to running the ball. I think this team needs to be a running team first. If Graham Mertz is throwing 44 passes, the game's not going well, in my opinion, that's not Fuller's identity. So I want to see you run the ball, get the offensive line, some confidence. And it's, it's a huge game the following week. Don't do a, an old floor FAU or UL from years back where we're,

we're talking, still talking about football in the fourth quarter. Yes. No. What was the, what was the game? The one before Dan Mullen got fired who was it that that hung 50 on him oh my goodness i i can't remember then i can't live stream dancing

but yeah you can't have that are you surprised because this is this is the part that shocks me is basically what everybody at Florida has said during the Billy Napier era is he's very fastidious. The attention to detail is incredible. That's the part that felt most disappointing the other night was the attention to detail didn't seem to be there like you go watch I mean a guy we've talked about a bunch of this episode already Deion Sanders they look pretty smooth operationally they didn't have they had I think four or five penalties total in the whole game so that's a first year staff that had players that didn't play for them last year like Like they got, they flipped the whole roster. So it's not impossible with players you've had to look like they've been practicing. Yeah. And listen, it's you know, the, I forget the president,

but the buck stops here. Everything will fall on Billy Eisenhower desk. Eisenhower, everything will fall on Billy Napier's desk, but I'm also a big proponent of you hire smart people and then let them do their job. So I don't know that it's Billy Napier's fault per se, that you have two guys wearing the same Jersey number on a punt. But Billy Napier is the guy that hired the analyst who is getting the guys ready to go on the field. So everything will fall on his shoulders.

What do you do to fix it this week? Because the stuff that happened on Thursday night is inexcusable. Um, especially going into your 14th game. Uh, this is stuff that all off season, we heard the operation is better. It's the year two for the players, but for the coaches as well, it looked like game two, not year two on Thursday, Harry Truman, by the way, not Eisenhower. Give him hell, Harry. Sorry. My apologies. Life's a check. So how would you assess Graham Mertz? Because you mentioned if he's thrown 44 times, the game plan has probably gone awry. How did he handle that situation where he was under pressure significantly for a lot of the night? He's a tough son of a gun, Andy. There was that one first down he ran.

He got clobbered, kind of had to peel himself up. There were some lookout blocks from his offensive tackles throughout the game. And I think he wouldn't throw his offensive line under the bus. He said, I could have gotten better protection. I could have gotten the checks and I could have done this. And I was like, you don't need to throw your offensive line or the bus. You're going to watch film tomorrow. And that will be, that will do it for you. I was impressed with Graham. And I think I've, as he's gone, I was very underwhelmed in the spring as he got more comfortable with the playbook. I think he

knows who he is. He's not afraid to throw a check down where Anthony Richardson might've tried to run 90 miles an hour or throw a ball 90 miles an hour into a tight window. So I was impressed with Graham. I think he is a leader. I think the team kind of looks to him, and that's credit to him for doing that in such a short period of time. I don't think he's going to lose you many games. I also don't know if he's going to win you games

by throwing the ball 40, 35 times a game. So I think Graham Mertz is a game manager. That shouldn't be a dirty word when we're talking about quarterbacks anymore. And he can win Florida games, but he's going to need help from the guys around him. You mentioned that they rotated a bunch of guys in on defense. Who really impressed you out of that bunch? I really think Jordan Castell is going to be a player for Florida. Comes in as a freshman, gets a start right away.

Shamar James is a guy that we thought would take a leap, led the team in tackles. Really impressed with those two guys. I love Devin Moore at cornerback. And I think Florida's got a bunch of young players. Jakeem Jackson's another guy at cornerback that's going to be good. There's a bunch of young players. Jakeem Jackson's another guy at cornerback. That's going to be good. There's a bunch of young talent. I think the best players on this team are the guys from the two recruiting

classes Billy's had. And some of the guys from the transfer portal, like Ricky Pearsall. And that that's the part more silver lining if you want it. Cause I mean, we've been doom and gloom pretty much since Thursday talking about Florida, but it does seem like the younger players are the best. Pro football focus clipped a rep from,

from Kelby Collins where he just, you know, smashes an offensive tackle and knocks him on his butt. And so it does seem like that's happening, but if there are more games like Thursday, can they keep the 24 recruiting class intact? Or do the buzzards come in at that point? Well, if we're on the message boards, the buzzards are already there.

But it's like I said, I think it's kind of like the scales of justice. If you go six and six, you have to keep that top three recruiting class or people will start losing their minds. If you can get to seven and five, hey, maybe they drop to four. DJ Lagway is the key, though. If we're looking at Swamp Kings, I think Paul Feinbaum said he had to get Tim Tebow. If Urban Meyer never got Tim Tebow, we're not watching Swamp Kings. DJ Lagway, in my opinion, is one of the best quarterbacks in a guy that you build a franchise around. So that's really the key piece.

And then can having that kind of quarterback, keep the class together, even if the play on the field or the record isn't inspiring to them. Yeah. And DJ Lagway is the type who can recruit for you and kind of be that bell cow guy. But going back to the Tebow situation, you're right, because if they don't get Tebow, they probably don't get Spikes. They probably don't get Percy Harvin. But that team was eight and three in an 11 game season the year before. There was a lot more kind of to hang your hat on so that's what this particular florida team has to has to be competent going forward do you think this could have been because i go back to last year with with utah coming into gainesville where they had a ton of procedural stuff they had a bunch of false starts because the environment was electric they lose that game they still go on to win the

Pac-12 title you know is it possible that we are putting too much emphasis on this one particular result in a very difficult environment well that's college football every week every week every week that's how that's how we judge things. It was tough. The environment's okay. It's a smaller stadium. Princely, when Miellon got trolled. Lilla. Lilla Stadium. Got trolled.

That's tough. Tough scene for Princely. But when Billy Napier gives it credit, which I think, okay, that's fine. Do that. But you were in Neyland last year. You're going to go to Death Valley in November. Kroger Field next month. Oh, it's going to be, yeah.

Kroger Field is happy right now. They're loud. That's a better environment. So, like, if you take Billy at his word that that environment was too tough and led to procedural issues, then should we even make the trip to Baton Rouge in November? It's double the size. Literally double the size of the stadium.

So that's concerning to me. But we do. It's week one. It's a knee-jerk reaction. Utah, I don't think we gave Utah on defense, their front seven, enough credit. That's a really good defensive front seven for Utah they're an older team more experienced um I I think they have probably be them in USC maybe the way Michael Penix Penix looked yesterday for Washington maybe Washington

can make some noise out there as well um in the Pac-12 that's a really good football team Utah's and that's probably better that probably better. That wasn't, and that wasn't all of Utah. Yeah. Oh, their full strength version is, is quite a bit better. Kim rising is probably a top 10 quarterback in the,

in the country when he's healthy and he can run and he can do all those things. Grant Keithy, Florida fans found out about him last year. He didn't play. You're missing starters on defense. I just think Utah as a program is probably better, and on paper right now, better than Florida is.

The better team won on Thursday. Oh, yeah. Yeah, no, as a program, they're absolutely better. It's not even close. And that's Billy Napier's mandate is, you know, I think he'd probably like to do what Kyle Whittingham has done. I think he'd like to play a style similar to the one kyle whittingham plays so not throwing the ball 44 times uh no no i think they'd rather not do that so um how did that that defensive front stack up against what what you see

in the sec you know not not necessarily georgia which is a bunch of aliens but like what you see from Tennessee and Kentucky yeah I think Tennessee was was better um defensively if they look a little deeper kind of like similar to Florida um I think it's certainly better than South Carolina's defense um it I think it may be comparable to Kentucky just when you kind of look at size and and I think Stoops is looking at Florida's game film and looking at what that offensive line did and just salivating. That's going to be a really tough trip to Lexington. I think it's very comparable. Utah last year, I kind of went with the southern thought process

of what Pac-12 football is and their finesse and their fancy, and they won't be able to stack up with the SEC. I think I found out in one or two drives last year, oh, that's not – none of those things. Utah has dudes on the line of scrimmage, and they always do. Salt Lake City, if you look, is one of those pockets of places where tons of offensive and defensive linemen come out of there. Per capita, it may be the best D line O line town in America. So, I mean, that's,

that's the part that the people kind of miss with Utah is they will punch you in the mouth up front, probably more so than, than the other teams out there. But man, it was, it was still a little shocking to see Florida as disorganized as they were. So McNeese State this week, Tennessee next week. And then, okay, I was hesitant to do this, but you've been on the message boards all weekend, Nick. You've been waiting in.

What's it look like if Florida loses to Tennessee? Tough, tough. Um, I, I don't know if I want to live in that world right now, uh, on the message boards.

Um, you have to get a win over a rival. And when I look at Florida schedule, I said, you have to stack wins early. You play Georgia, Arkansas. We're talking about big physical defenses lines.

Arkansas. Then you have to play at LSU. A weird trip in a game that Florida, since I've been here, loves losing, which will be probably an 11 a.m. kick in Columbia, Missouri, that you have to bring your own juice to, and then you end with Florida State. You have to stack wins early. I think if you lose to Utah, beat McNeese State, and then lose to Tennessee, it's still having to beat a rival.

Now you're one and two, going to Lexington in a game that Florida won't be favored. And then you still have that back end of the schedule. Florida has to stack wins and they have to get a win over a Tennessee, South Carolina, Florida State. They're not going to beat Georgia. You're probably not going to beat Georgia. You're probably not going to beat LSU. Tennessee might be your best chance to beat a rival. And if it doesn't happen and you sink to one and two, fans, at what point can you stop selling hope then for this season? Yeah, that's the issue. I keep looking at the buyout is $31.7 million. I can never imagine

Florida paying that in a million years. So i wonder how you how you keep selling i guess the sell the sales job is still the recruiting class but are you ron zook when when does bill and apier start getting compared to ron zook for being a great recruiter but you can't get it done on game day yeah that that is a good question i will silver lining it for for you again because I feel like we've been overly negative. I was very positive about Graham Mertz. He had a very good game. That's true. Threw the ball well.

If they can get things turned around and they can beat Tennessee, how much does that change the perception of this season? I think it will in a bubble because then you still have to go to Lexington. If you lose to Kentucky three straight years, I think the last time that happened might've been in the seventies. Oh, I was going to say when Harry Truman was president, but yeah. Well, if Florida goes, if Florida has a losing season this year, it will be the first time they've had three consecutive losing seasons since

world war two, when able-bodied men were not playing college football, they were fighting a war. So there's, if you beat Tennessee, it helps, but then also there's so many other things and so many other pitfalls that, you know, can burst that beating Tennessee bubble shortly after, within weeks of that high that beating Tennessee would be for Florida fans. Welcome to the SEC. That's the problem. You can have that great week and all of a sudden it just comes crashing down again on

you. So no pressure for Billy Napier and company. Nick Del Torre, thank you so much. Thanks for having me andy we'll be right back with tim watts from bama online talking about jaylen milrose performance against middle tennessee and also starting to get you ready for alabama texas the game of the week of the year of the century of the millennium yes big. We'll talk about it when we come back. Joined now by the great Tim Watts of Bama Online.

And Tim, we talked a lot about the quarterback competition. We thought it was going to be an audition, but Jalen Milrow was in there until they were very much in control of the Middle Tennessee game. And it certainly looks like he's the starter, and they're trying to find a backup. Yeah, I don't think there's any question after that game I mean that offensive play call was built around him again played later than a lot of us probably thought I think you know that that was a pretty big lead where you expected them to to pull Milrow out of there I think the auditions really for the second spot you know and we were talking about this before the show and I've talked

with other people I don't remember the third team guy in that quick behind the second spot, you know, and we were talking about this before the show and I've talked with other people. I don't remember the third team guy in that quick behind the second, not that it's 13, but the third quarterback behind the second, as fast as last night. Um, I thought Buckner did a good job for the snaps he got. And I thought Simpson did a good job for the snaps he got. Well, and that's the thing. The question I think now is more about Milrow and his readiness to go play Texas because obviously that is the biggest game of the year so far. The focus of the entire nation is going to be on Tuscaloosa this weekend. How do you think Milrow performed in that first start? Well, I guess it's not his first start.

First start of this season. Yeah, I think kind of in a way it's his first start because he took all the first team snaps. I mean, he started other games, but this program's kind of built for him now instead of somebody else and just scheming for a game. I mean, this game's going to be huge for Jalen. As far as how he did this week, I'd give him an A. I think he made good decisions. He kind of floated a ball. I mean, you can kind of tell how well he did because the critics are picking. He floated a ball to the right sideline, you know, one thing. But I mean, he threw some money shots.

I thought the one they called pass interference on was going to be his best throw of the game. That was a deep pass that was going to be a score. Beautiful ball as a dime. And of course, his first touchdown, I was impressed because he was staring into a massive hit, stood in the pocket and took it. And also the fumbled snap. I mean, he did so staring into a massive hit, stood in the pocket and took it. And also the fumbled snap. I mean, he did so many things. I mean, everybody's going to say it's Middle Tennessee State. The naysayers will.

But, I mean, you saw the athleticism. You saw he does have a good arm. Texas will be a different animal. And I imagine it's going to be pretty emotional for him, right? Remember, he was committed to Texas when he flipped to Alabama. So there's a lot of little things happening in this game, and obviously just a huge gain from two of the traditional blue bloods. So how do we assess Alabama's offensive line? Because that was the question going into the season, is how will this group block? Can they control games on the ground? And obviously, again, it's Middle Tennessee, but what'd you see good, bad, and different from that group?

Yeah, I wanted to see the offensive line get more of a push, just man-to-man, sumo wrestling, chest-to-chest, moving people. I do think middle crowded that line. I think there was a lot of, we're not going to let them beat us on the ground. That also opened up a lot of those deep passes for Milrow in that game. But I think the offensive line did okay. Not as well as I think they probably wanted to do because we've heard, you know, make them quit and all that kind of stuff. Still work in progress, but you can see the talent out there. Proctor had a good game. He's only going to get better down the road. Again, though, if you want to establish the run, you're going to have to be a little bit more physical. I know Wolf, that's exactly what he's recruiting for and he's coaching

for. And Texas has a good defensive line. Well, and that's the thing. Do you think they're going to see loaded boxes until Milrow just shows, hey, I can beat you with my arm. Yeah, you know, even loading the box, I mean, he can beat you with his legs. He gets outside of that containment. I mean, we saw that on the snap. It's game over. I wouldn't want to be a normal human defensive back with Milrow streaking down a sideline, dropping my shoulder in on that dude's thighs, you know. So he can beat you in a number of ways.

But I think if I got to pick my poison, that's probably what I do until proven otherwise. We're going to take away the run, see if he can beat him, you know, beat us with his arm. We saw that with Jalen Hurts a lot. But I do think that yesterday was a good sign of how comfortable he is. You saw a lot of the team behind him. When you saw the reaction, when he scored, you saw the sideline,

you saw the defense, you saw his teammates. So he's got the support behind him. When you saw the reaction, when he scored, you saw the sideline, you saw the defense, you saw his teammates. So he's got the support of them. And you saw what a leader he is because he was really happy when Buckner got in the end zone, really happy when Simpson scored, you saw him celebrating with them. How much of him winning that job was him kind of owning the locker room as well? Yeah, I don't know. I know the people like him. I didn't get the same vibe. I think we've heard nothing negative. Let me be clear. And it's kind of normal for Alabama not to hear the quarterback owning the locker room per se, except with a guy say Mack Jones. A lot of times the Alabama quarterback's a little bit

closer to Nick than he is his teammates. As far as who he communicates with. You can see him standing on the sideline. Miller was very popular with the guys. He's popular as a person. I know they want to win after last season, so I think it was easy to get behind him. I haven't heard anything negative, but I haven't heard the same vibe I got from a Mac Jones, who's the main one during Saban's tenure that we heard was so active. Well, Mac won the team over by trash talking Saban as the scout team quarterback. He had ample time and he got to work with all the guys who became, he worked with all the defensive

starters and then all the guys who ultimately became stars on offense. So everybody loved him by the time he was the starting QB. No, it was true. Mack was so popular that my kids, I have social media duty to make sure there's none in those DMs that shouldn't be in them. That's not for the faint of heart, by the way. But I would often see the kids follow the Alabama players. And after the game, when I saw Henry Ruggs celebrate and Jerry Judy, all those guys, those savages, the write-outs, they were with Mack. They weren't with Tua. They were celebrating. He was dancing, smoking cigars after the Tennessee game.

Now, Tua probably was with Saban or probably with the media, so not to say anything against Tua, but a lot of times you hear the guys, the quarterbacks are more with Saban than with their teammates. You hear more from what Saban has to say than the teammates. Mack was an exception, but Jalen did get that group together and go travel and throw some passes and do that stuff. Everyone says Jalen's a great person off the field. So I was at the Alabama-Penn State game when Penn State came down. That's the last time there's been this level of non-conference game

at Bryant-Denny Stadium. What's the buzz like in Tuscaloosa about Texas coming to town? I mean, it's amazing because you got to look at last year's home schedule wasn't nearly as good as the road schedule. I mean, most of their games, best games were on the road. And now you've got a huge home game. You've got a huge home crowd. You've got a new quarterback. You've got new coordinators. Texas obviously is coming in the SEC. You add Stark, Bo Davis, Jeff Banks, Kyle Flood, all were in Alabama. So there's so many connections, and I think it's going to be overwhelming. It's been a while.

I think the last – and I'm not sure visitors have changed, but you remember back in the day Alabama played, hosted the game, maybe LSU or somebody, and everybody in the country was there. People were – you know, people, stars were visiting. Every recruit was there. I think this is going to have a similar vibe, which is hard to do now, especially with recruits because everybody fights so hard to get them on campus. But no one really talked about Middle Tennessee State.

They all talked about Texas leading up to this. And Texas will go into the fail room. That's my favorite name for a visitor's locker room ever. They had a donor whose last name was fail and they put his name on the visitor's locker room. It's just an ultimate troll. Was that Mal Moore's idea? I don't know. Whoever it was, it's genius because they've got an actual excuse why they call it that. But, you know, obviously so many guys familiar with Alabama that are on that Texas staff. Texas is a good football team. I watched them.

Kind of similar to Alabama. I didn't think their offensive line was probably as dominant as they wanted it to be. I thought Quinn Ewers did some nice things. They got a, you know, they got a savage wide receiver and Xavier Worthy. Got some good running backs. So they got a lot of receiver in Xavier Worthy. Got some good running backs. So they got a lot of good things going for them.

Defense was just as aggressive as Alabama's. So, I mean, you're going to get two extremely hype games. Last year was a great game, if you like close ball games. But, again, that heat, everything that went on in that game, very hot from Quinn Ewers. And, you know, Quinn Ewers and Dallas Turner end up hitting in midair like they're in a Marvel cartoon trailer. You know what I mean?

Two guys tapping on each other in midair. Quinn never looked like that again after he came back from that injury. He never looked like that. He looked like an NFL quarterback for three quarters, and then he got hurt. Yeah, I think with Quinn, I think he's a talented guy. He's still figuring it out.

When you have that much hype, you know, kind of moving around, going to Ohio State, coming to Texas, he's definitely a talented guy. He's got a lot of arm talent. But with all quarterbacks, they've got to figure out more than just being able to make the throw. So it's a pretty good matchup when you look at it. I would still lean Bama, especially that home field advantage. I think Brian Denny's going to be off the chain.

So got some things working for him. So Steve Sarkeesian, Kyle Flood, Jeff Banks, Bo Davis, all guys you mentioned that worked at Alabama. How much does that familiarity with how Nick Saban operates and runs his program and call, you know, has his, his coordinators call games. How much does that help them as they come in? Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I think it helps as far as the comfort factor,

but Steve Carr is Sarkis, and he's got to know Kevin Steele. He's been around a long time. They've certainly probably faced each other as offensive, defensive coordinators, so there's that familiarity. But you also got to think that's got to help Kevin still a little bit because he knows what he's going against. I think it's probably not a huge deal. I think the comfort factor is the biggest deal.

There was no bad blood when Sark left. I think that helps. So there's not like – you're not expecting Nick Saban not to shake his hand or Sark not to speak to him before the game or anything like that. So there's been – there's going to be – Bo Davis has been one of Nick Saban not to shake his hand or Sark not to speak to him before the game or anything like that. So there's been, you know, there's going to be, you know, Bo Davis has been one of Nick Saban's guys forever. So I think you're going to see a lot of, you know, just, I think there's not going to be a lot of bad blood. You saw it last year, a close game. You didn't hear a lot of trash talking before, after, or during the game. So I think you'll see a good, clean, hard fought game.

So you mentioned Kevin Steele and yesterday was Alabama's debut for two coordinators. Obviously, Kevin Steele has worked with Nick Saban before, has worked in the SEC before. But what did you think of that defense in terms of how he called it and how he arranged everybody? I thought they were aggressive. You know, the one thing about the team, the defense especially, I thought they looked calmer.

Does that make sense? They looked calmer. You didn't see a lot of – you know, a lot thing about the team, the defense especially, I thought they looked calmer. You know, does that make sense? They looked calmer. You didn't see a lot of – you know, a lot of times you'd see Alabama looking around and four or five guys screaming at other guys to get in the right position. You didn't really see that last night. It looked calmer. We didn't see nearly the penalties and some of the bonehead stuff

that we'd seen in the past. That goes for the offense too. I thought they were more disciplined. I think Steele's a different kind of, you know, influence than a Pete Golding was. And I think you saw that last night because he was aggressive. Now, they could have came. They went very basic a lot of that game. And I know the fans go crazy.

Why aren't we blitzing more? I mean, you don't really want to blitz, show your whole pack. You don't want to show Texas something, you know, to work on for what's coming. I'm really not sure they expected to go deep as much, but when they kept all those guys in the box, five or six yards off the line of scrimmage, they're like, if you're going to give it to us, we're going to take it. And there was guys running open all last night. So they adjusted well. You saw Deontay Lawson. He is who we thought he was. Turning into that guy out of high school, it just took him a little bit of time and opportunity, but a lot of good things went on on defense last night.

And then offensively, Tommy Reese comes in, and we've talked about this a bunch of times, that when you take the OC job at Alabama, you learn the Alabama offense, and then you call your version of it. You mentioned that they've clearly built this offense around Jalen Milrow. Is it as aggressive, as run-heavy as you thought it would be? You know, I think the biggest thing I took out of it was the looks that Amari Nyblak got last night.

You know, 84 is running around there looking like a thick, wide receiver. So that was kind of the thing that jumped out to me. CJ got a look early in the game. I think he dropped one, and the thing that jumped out to me. CJ got a look early in the game. I think he dropped one and that was what stood out to me. I didn't see them try to really ground the ball, grind the ball. I saw the run game. It was kind of basic. Also, I thought I was getting blown up a little bit. One thing I think Alabama definitely has to work on are their running backs picking up that bandit. There's a couple of times that they just got simply overpowered by somebody coming on the blitz. But I think it's about what we expected. Again, I think they were up that bandit. There's a couple of times that they just got simply overpowered by, you know,

somebody coming on the blitz. But I think it's about what we expected. Again, I think they were just trying to get through that game and kind of learn and get Milrow's feet underneath them. And I mean, I'm sure they plan to take a few shots down the field, but I don't think they wanted to show their repertoire. But if it was there, you know, certainly Mill Road goes into this game with some confidence now, in my opinion. Well, Amari Nyblok, you think you look at what Tommy Reese did at Notre Dame and with Michael Mayer and with the tight ends he had there. Certainly they're going to use him to the fullest advantage. So that's that's probably a position as long as Tommy Reese is there, they'll be able to recruit fairly well, I would imagine. Yeah, they've done well this year.

They've got a couple of guys already. They flipped Jay Limsey from Mississippi State, kind of that in-line guy. He plays small ball, but he's deceptively athletic. I think people hold it against him. When I say in-line, I think they think of a six-blocker like Michael Williams was for Alabama. But, no, this guy can catch the ball. He's athletic, plays multiple sports.

They also got Caleb Odom, who I think is one of the best players in the country, and he's more of that Nye Black mold where he's almost like a big wide receiver, that flex tight end is what I call him. And with Nye Black, again, he was a guy that we absolutely loved coming out. He's a freaky type guy. So getting him out there, you saw what he could do. He's got some hands. He's a big boy.

He can run. He's going to create some mismatches. I think that's what we saw in a vanilla-type game. I think we're going to see a lot more of it this coming week. All right. Maybe they pull out the stops against Texas. Can't wait. The town's going to be buzzing. Archibalds

might run out of ribs. We'll see. Tim, thank you so much. You got it, ribs. We'll see. Tim, thank you so much. You got it, man. Anytime, Andy. We're going to let Chip Kelly of UCLA make today's extra point. I think he did it pretty effectively in his post-game interview after the Bruins beat Coastal Carolina on Saturday night. But this new rule is crazy.

We had four drives in the first half. This game goes fast. Hope you guys are selling a lot of commercials thanks coach yep chip kelly getting that getting that dig in because yeah okay the the clock rules i don't think most of us have noticed much difference in the games other than when you have primarily running teams you do see the game move pretty fast. But I think a lot of that is because most of us also watch the NFL. So it's not that different. Our brains watch football like this, that is timed like this pretty frequently.

So it's not weird looking. It doesn't feel weird, but it definitely feels weird to the coaches who are calling the plays. And yeah, that's the thing. Don't take plays out of the plays and yeah that's the thing don't don't take plays out of the game and just replace them with commercials that was the fear when they talked about changing the clock rules don't do it we'll have to wait to see aggregate data i'm not going to go with one weekend of of data before we decide if they actually did that or not but

we'll see what what the aggregate data is when the season ends and if they really did it. But Chip is Chip's going to hammer away on it in his press conference. He wasn't done talking about it because one of the reporters asked him, did you not have a chance to get Colin Schley in the game? That was the quarterback who transferred from Penn. That was a quarterback who transferred from Kent State. And so. Ethan Garber started. Dante Moore, the five-star freshman from Michigan, came in. Dante Moore had an incredible touchdown pass that probably sealed the win for them.

I would imagine Dante Moore is their starter going forward, but we'll find out. It was a pretty impressive first performance. He had a late interception that Chip Kelly said was Chip's fault from a play calling standpoint. But it looked like Dante Moore is very dynamic. So I would imagine we're going to see more of him going forward. But we didn't see any calling,

and Chip Kelly said that was probably because of the clock rules. Was it just the situation of the game and everything that prevented you from getting Colin in there? Yeah, it was. And it's also us learning the new clock rule. I mean, we only ran 60 plays today. And I think, you know, there are other coaches around the country that talked about it. I understand the intent of the rule.

You know, they wanted to shorten the games. But I don't know if the games are short. I think the games are the same length. It just seems like there's a lot more TV commercials, so I hope someone made some cash tonight because they didn't watch football, but I guess maybe they're out buying a Chevy or a Burger King or a McDonald's or something.

So we spent a lot of time on the sideline during TV timeouts today, so we may try to get something going. I'm going to talk with the marketing people here and see if we can do some things during TV timeouts because we have a ton of time. Maybe we can make it a little bit more eventful. We can go into the crowd and talk to people for a while

and then come back and start playing again. We'll work through it. Just something we've got to learn as a group. Chip is really having some fun with this. Now my imagination is running wild. I'm imagining Chip Kelly with a t-shirt cannon during a TV timeout. Why bother meeting with the offense? You've already had enough time to do that.

So just grab that t-shirt cannon, head into the Rose Bowl stands and start firing away. Love it. That is what we need as our in-game entertainment. That, you know, might increase attendance at the Rose Bowl. Who knows? It's been a great show, great first weekend of college football, but it is not over yet.

As you finish watching this, I'm about to watch LSU and Florida State live and in person in Orlando, and I will be back after that game to talk more about it. So come visit with us on the On3Sports YouTube channel. If you're listening in podcast form, you're going to hear all of that stuff mashed together into one wonderful package.

Thank you so much for listening. We love you. Talk to you again soon.