Andy & Ari On3 - Notre Dame and USC FAIL to extend rivalry | When will Irish & Trojans play again? CFP Quarterfinals Picks

Episode Date: December 22, 2025

On Monday, news dropped that USC and Notre Dame will not be extending its historic rivalry between the two programs. Watch here as Andy reacts to the shocking news here as the storied college football matchup will not be played in 2026 and 2027. Should this game be played? Let us know your thoughts. (0:00) On Today's Episode(1:08) Presenting Sponsor(3:26) Intro: USC & Notre Dame fail to extend rivalry(14:20) Huel(15:59) Bobby Petrino joins Bill Belichick as UNC's OC(20:20) Picks: CFP Quarterfinals(22:08) Miami vs Ohio State: Cotton Bowl Picks(33:48 )Academy Sports + Outdoors(35:24) Texas Tech vs Oregon: Orange Bowl Picks(45:37) Gametime(47:15) Alabama vs Indiana: Rose Bowl Picks(59:14) PaniniAmerica.net(1:01:54) Ole Miss vs Georgia: Sugar Bowl Picks(1:11:25) Conclusion(1:13:21) Biff Poggi, Michigan additionAfter the Notre Dame news, Andy visits the news out of Chapel Hill that Bobby Petrino will be joining Bill Belichick's staff at North Carolina as the OC. What does this mean for the Tar Heels? Also, Producer River is on to something with his Haloween costumes. Later, Andy & Ari pick the College Football Playoff quarterfinal round. Plenty of exciting games around the New Year and the fellas pick them here: Miami vs Ohio State (-10, O/U: 42.5)Oregon vs Texas Tech (+1.5 O/U: 52.5)Alabama vs Indiana (-7. O/U: 48.5)Ole Miss ve Georgia (-6.5, O/U: 56.5) A jam packed show you don't wanna miss! Our show is presented by BetMGM! If you haven’t signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code CFB and you will get up to a $1500 First Bet Offer on your first wager with BetMGM! Here’s how it works: 1. Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code CFB.2. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game.3. You will receive up to $1500 in bonus bets if your bet loses! Just make sureyou use bonus code CFB when you sign up! Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary. See BetMGM.com for Terms. 21+ only. US promotional offers not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (Available in the US). Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY). Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only. Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 7 days. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. We’re also brought to you by Panini! Panini delivers the most collectible sports cards and memorabilia on the planet. Check out the new exclusive Arch Manning collection or the Panini Prizm Draft Picks College Football series. Visit PaniniAmerica.net to start your collection today.  Our show is sponsored by Academy Sports + Outdoors! https://www.academy.com/discount  Get Huel today with this exclusive offer for New Customers of 15% OFF with code STAPLES15 at https://huel.com/STAPLES15 (Minimum $75 purchase) Join On3 today and get one full year of access to The Athletic included! https://www.on3.com/subscribe/C   Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's edition of Andy and Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM, we're going to pick the quarterfinal games. But first, some big news in the world of scheduling and the world of scheduling around the college football playoff. Notre Dame and USC will not be continuing their series in 2006 and 2007. One of the most historic rivalries in college football is on pause. This is horrendous. awful, an affront to the game. These two teams need to be playing. They're not going to play. We'll explain why. And then we will pick the games of the quarterfinals of the college football playoff. Miami, Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl, Oregon, Texas Tech in the Orange Bowl,

Alabama, Indiana, the Rose Bowl, Ole Miss, Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. BetMGM has furnished us with lines for all of those games, and they are juicy. Ari and I will debate and pick the games later in the show. But first, we got to talk USC and Notre Dame today on Andy and Ari on 3, presented by BetMGM. We are proud to be sponsored by BetMGM. All the lines and totals we use on the show come from the folks at BetMGM. Here's how you get started. You download the bedmgm app. Sign up using the code CFB. That's CFB as in college football. And you'll get up to a $1,500 first bet offer on your first wager with Bet MGM. Here's how that works.

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Welcome to Annie and Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM. We will be using this BetMGM line for the quarter final games of the college football playoffs later in the show. But first we got to talk about some major, major scheduling news. Ross Delinger of Yahoo reporting that Notre Dame and USC have failed to come to an agreement on an extension of their historic rivalry. What would have been the 97th game in the series in 2006 is not going to

to get played. We've been talking about this for a while. We've known that they were at odds trying to figure out how to continue the rivalry. USC with its new Big Ten schedule does not necessarily want to keep playing Notre Dame on the dates that they've been playing Notre Dame. And so in the odd years when USC goes to South Bend, that would have been in October. In the even years when Notre Dame goes to USC, that was always the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the final game of the regular season. And USC did not want to do that. They wanted to play earlier in the season.

And they had talked this year about a week zero game in 2026. But according to Ross Dillinger, those negotiations have fallen apart. Notre Dame has added BYU to its schedule in 20206 and 2007 to make up for not playing USC. This rivalry, they've met 79 times consecutively excluding the COVID season. The only two things that have kept these two teams from playing for most of the past century, World War II and a worldwide pandemic. And now scheduling concerns, worries about competitiveness, worries about not making the college football playoff,

that is what is derailing the rivalry. It's ridiculous. It's absolutely ridiculous. These two teams need to play. it's incredibly soft that they're not going to play each other anymore. And Jen Cohen and Pete Pavok, the two athletic directors are supposed to get back together to try to resume the rivalry,

but it's not going to happen the next two years. And that is just all of the things that college football keeps losing, this is one of the worst ones. This is one of the most important rivalries in sport. This was kind of a big team from the East playing a big team from the West, playing a big team from the West. Why did it start? It started, well, you go back to the early 1900s where Fielding Yost, the coach of Michigan, was blackballing Notre Dame, basically had the

rest of the schools in the Proto Big Ten, the Western Conference, blackballing Notre Dame. And so Notre Dame had to go east to play Army in this. And that was one of the best teams in the country at the time. In the 20s, they started going west to play USC. And they ended up playing this national schedule become this huge powerhouse of a team. It raises the profile of the whole university. Meanwhile, USC gets exposed to the East Coast by playing Notre Dame every year. It's one of the coolest rivalries in college football. The history of it's amazing. The pageantry of it's amazing. The colors are amazing. The uniforms are amazing. The players who've played in this game. Think about that. Think about all of that. And it's just tossed to the side.

Now, I do think it's soft that USC doesn't want to play it, but I do understand where Jen Cohen is coming from. Let's look at USC's Big Ten schedule in 2026. At home, they get Maryland. Okay, no big deal. Then Ohio State, Oregon, and Washington. We don't know the dates of those games yet, but we do know they're getting Ohio State Oregon and Washington at home.

At least they get those at home. But I suspect Washington is going to be. better than they were this year, and we know what Ohio State and Oregon are going to be. They're going to be powerhouses. Meanwhile, on the road, Indiana, Penn State, Rutgers, Wisconsin, and UCLA. If Matt Campbell does what we think he's going to do at Penn State, they're going to be good immediately. We know what Indiana is now under Kurt Signetti.

So, yes, USC has a very difficult road, very difficult. And they're in a situation where they want to make the college football playoff. They have not made it under Lincoln Riley. They came very close to making the 14 playoff. year one, but lost in the Pac-12 championship game. This year, if they'd beaten Oregon, they probably would have made it, but they lost that game, and it wasn't particularly close. And so they feel pretty far away. And if you add a game with Notre Dame, well, that's probably another loss, given the way that Notre Dame's been recruiting and playing of late. So I get why they do

that. I get why they wanted to put that game earlier rather than later, because if you put that in the middle of Big Ten play and it's sandwiched between an Ohio state game and a Penn State game, well, that's a lot of body blow theory that your team's going to have to deal with. But it's just, it's so sad that it has to end this way. Notre Dame, meanwhile, it's crazy when you think about it. The Irish just opted out of the Pop-Tarts Bowl where they would have played BYU, and now they're scheduling BYU. So the BYU fans who said Notre Dame was ducking them, no, they were just.

throwing a fit over not being in the college football playoff and that's why they opted out of the bowl but they're going to go play b yu b yu i'm sure has some empathy for notre dame in this situation because b yu did play as a football independent until it joined the big 12 and scheduling's hard when you're independent scheduling games when you need to schedule them in october november as an independent when everybody else is playing in conference is very very difficult so that's the situation Notre Dame finds itself in. And actually, a big reason why Notre Dame was probably left out of the college football playoff this year.

So Notre Dame loses close games to Miami and Texas A&M in their first two games. So in week one and week three, they lose those games. They then win 10 in a row, but the 10 in a row were against teams that weren't particularly great. USC was the best team they played in that stretch, and that was a very good win. Pittsburgh was a very good win. Navy was a pretty good win. But the other games didn't really help them very much.

And the problem is, other than the ACC scheduling agreement, which is five ACC teams must play Notre Dame every year, they have no way of getting power conference competition in October, November, without the USC game. And so they're going to have to play ACC teams. And if those ACC teams aren't good, which was a lot of what they were dealing with this year, Miami and Pittsburgh were good, the rest of them were not, then they've got to deal with. that. And I think that's that's the biggest problem that Notre Dame faces now in this era trying to be an independent. And we've talked a lot on the show about how important Notre Dame's independence was, you know I am not a Notre Dame needs to join a conference person. I don't care if they ever join a conference. I just hope that they can cobble together a schedule that allows them to not have to win the first two games of the season if they want to make the playoff.

I don't want them to have to front load their whole schedule every year. I don't think that's fun. Whether it's fair or not is irrelevant because they are choosing independence. So it's their choice here. But I do think it would be better if they could play some good games down the stretch of the season. Now, let's look at their 2026 schedule. So they're going to put BYU in there where they were going to play USC. They open against Wisconsin.

If Luke Fickle doesn't make Wisconsin better, that's going to be a cakewalk for Notre Dame. They've got Michigan State on September 19th. If Pat Fitzgerald doesn't immediately make the Spartans better, that's going to be an easy win. They've got North Carolina on October 3rd. If Bill Belichick, who just hired Bobby Petrino as his offensive coordinator, we're going to talk about that. But if North Carolina's roster is not better than it was this year, that's going to be an easy one too. BYU is going to be one of their toughest games.

They've got Miami on November 7th. So they do have that one in a good spot this year. And so the ACC scheduling agreement helping them out in that particular case. So it's not as front loaded, though they kind of need some of the front to load up. Like they need Wisconsin to be good or they need Michigan State to be good. Or they could run into the same situation they ran into this year where they might not have enough quality. wins if they were to lose to Miami and BYU.

So it's either go 11 and 1 or 12 and 0 or hope these teams get better. But that's the problem is like USC I think is going to be pretty good next year. I don't know if they're going to wind up having the same or better record than they had this year because their schedules harder next year.

And that's kind of why they're doing this. That's kind of why this all fell apart. And so it's it's a tough situation, but I just think it sucks for the sport that this series is not being continued. Like, World War II is a good reason to not play the game. Global pandemic is an okay reason to not play the game. My schedule might be too hard is not an okay reason to not play this game. You should want to play this game. And I know Notre Dame wants to play this game, but let's be real here. USC's conference schedule is hard. Notre Dame's schedule is not

hard they need better games u sc doesn't but it still sucks i get the reasons doesn't make it suck any less jen kohen peep of aqua i'm assuming you'll still be in your roles in the next couple years fix this get this series back on the schedule fix it you don't want to be the people who were at fault for this series going away and if you don't fix it you will be it sucks i don't know what it's saying like all of these changes in the sport they rarely give us anything better and you think with all this tv money and tv networks basically pulling the puppet strings on everything that they'd make sure something like this which is a great tv product would happen but it's not happening so we will go in 26 and 27

with no USC Notre Dame game. Guys, fix it. This is not a good direction for the sport. It doesn't need to happen. Fix it. So I woke up this morning.

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Absolutely not. And especially when you're going out, you're not getting this level of nutrition. So, go to Huell.com, H-U-E-L.com, use the code Staples 20 for 20% off and grab that high-protein starter kit right now. In other news, Bill Belichick is. trying to fix his coaching staff at North Carolina. To that end, he has hired Bobby Petrino, most recently Arkansas offensive coordinator and interim coach, also former Arkansas head coach, former Louisville head coach, former Western Kentucky head coach, former Atlanta Falcons head coach.

Bobby Petrino's got a long history here. But one thing Bobby Petrino has always been is an excellent play caller. And I'm very interested to see how this relationship works because I'm not worried about Bobby Petrino coming in and trying to big foot Bill Belichick. Nobody's big footing Bill Belichick. But we also saw Bobby Petrino come in as the OC with Jimbo Fisher, Texas, A&M. That didn't work. Now, I suspect this is a very different dynamic.

In that situation in 2003, when Bobby Petrino was brought in to be the offensive coordinator and rescue Texas A&M's offense, Jimbo Fisher was the primary play caller, didn't really want to give it up, probably didn't really give it up. But we saw at Arkansas, Bob Vitrino calling plays can still be devastatingly effective. So Bill Belichick, defensive guy, tends to let his coordinators cook when they're good. I think he's going to let Bobby Vitrino cook. The question is, will they have a better roster than they had this year? Because that's what matters here.

You know, Michael Lombardi, their general manager, came in. They kept, they had all this talk about they were the 33rd NFL team. They were really the 15th Sunbelt team based on their roster. based on who they tried to go get in the portal where they're fighting against group of five teams in the portal and not realizing that that's a recipe for failure. I'm assuming they've learned a little since then. So we will see how they stock that roster.

But if you put together a kind of the average ACC team with Bobby Petrino calling the offense, and you keep the defensive staff the same because I would say North Carolina's defense as the season went on, got much better. Steve Belichick did fine. Average ACC team, roster-wise,

Bobby Petrino calling plays, get a decent quarterback in there. I can live with that. I think that would be a competitive team in the ACC. I think there's a really good chance you have a competitive team in the ACC doing that. And so I'm more intrigued by North Carolina than I would have been.

We knew they were making a chance. We knew they were moving on from Freddy Kitchens. I didn't know what that would result in. But this shows that Bill Belichick is saying, you know what? I need someone who understands how to run a college offense. And Bobby Petrino is one of the best at running a college offense and has been. You can say whatever you want about all of the other stuff with Bobby Petrino. He's really good at calling plays and always has been.

So that's going to make it interesting. Fun note about this, though. our producer river this is a world's collide his last two halloween costumes were bobby petrino and bill bellichick so now producer river's halloween costumes are colliding in chapel hill and we'll be on the same sideline and i don't river next year do you just do like split down the middle one bobby petrino one bill belichick i don't know i feel like i've manifested it at this point maybe steve bellichick next year i get like a wig or something Can you do the man bun? I don't have to grow some hair out for a long time.

Throwing it out now and you can do the man bun. All right. And then we'll complete the staff. Yes. I love it. So you have Belichick and both his coordinators, you know, at least until everybody's gone after December. Yeah, until everyone's out.

I mean, maybe not. Maybe this works. Maybe this is the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship in Chapel Hill. Because what could possibly go wrong? just look at the picture of the middle oh my goodness all right next up Ari and I pick the games of the college football

playoff quarterfinals and they're all fun and the lines are all very very interesting let's pick some games welcome to Andy and Ari on 3 presented by BetMGM and Ari it is time to pick the quarter finals and look I realize

we got a week and a half there's a lot going on. Christmas is coming up. People are buying their last minute gifts. People are trying to wrap everything. But we got lines and we got to pick these games. Yeah, I mean, I know there's 10 days between the games and when we're recording this. That means, but six of those days are like fake void days that are between Christmas and New Year's and no one knows what planet they're on. So I want to make sure what day it is. Those aren't real days. Well, that's what we were trying to plan out the shows and we're like, so is that a Tuesday or a money? And it doesn't matter. Yeah. What are we talking about? Like, has anybody on December 27th,

ever known it was December 27th? No, they've known it was December 27th, but they haven't known if it was Tuesday. Yeah, that's right. So, you know, I think we should get this out into the ether as soon as possible. Plus, it gives us more times for Mulligans. Yeah, and also who doesn't like picking games? Who doesn't like talking about games? And, you know, we are getting to the point now where even if you think that the first round of the CFP, which we discussed extensively on Saturday night was entertaining, we've gotten to the heart of it, which is eight really good teams and incredibly interesting matchups that are going to determine the national championship so it might have taken the long route but we got here and there's not a game i'm not

excited for now last year i wasn't particularly excited for penn state boise state and i wasn't particularly excited for texas and arizona state now i should have been excited for texas and arizona state because that game turned out to be maybe the the most fun game of the entire college football play i just got dilly dilly a pretty nice extension that's exactly right but yeah no you're right there are no games here that aren't appointment television yes this is everyone this is exactly what they envisioned and i think we're going to we had that argument about the quality of the games in the first round we're not going to have that argument in the second round there may be blowouts it you know we never know but every one of them looks interesting the highest spread is 10 points it is the first game we're

going to talk about it is the friday it's the new year's eve game it's not a friday it's not a friday it's a wednesday yeah would not know that yeah it's it's the new year's eve game so the cotton bowl you'll be there at jerry world Miami versus Ohio State, you and I were in college station to see Miami beat Texas A&M on Saturday. We had some praise for the defense. We had some praise for the run game and Mark Fletcher Jr. We had some criticisms for the rest of the offense and the passing game. It's going to have to be better.

But Miami is a 10-point underdog. This is opened at 9.5 and it has now moved to Ohio State minus 10. I feel like that's a little high, though, given the talent level. of both of these teams. Yeah. So I want to take this opportunity that before we get into the game to talk about Notre Dame.

I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I believed you for like two seconds. Sorry, I couldn't help myself. You think it's high. Explain. I do think it's high because I think Miami has

the level of elite talent that Ohio State really hasn't had to play this season. I guess Texas maybe they had to play some of that, but I think Miami has more of it than Texas right now. I mean, look, Rubin Bain, potential first rounder, Akeem Messador is going to be a high-round draft pick. Mark Fletcher Jr. is an excellent running back.

Malachi, Tony's only a freshman, but he's going to be off the charts. One of the stars of the sport. Bryce Fitzgerald, the safety, who had two interceptions against Texas and him, he's going to be one of the stars of the sport. Freshman. This is kind of what we used to say with Ohio. state teams when they'd have these young guys and they'd be mixed with some really good going to the NFL potential first round talent.

And I also think that there's a step past the first round thing. It's the players who are also producing at a first round level. Well, right, they've also got, but they've got guys that are going to be third rounders and fourth round. Like this is, this is a team of future NFL players. And Ohio State doesn't, they're usually the only team of a bunch of future NFL players on the And you're playing, there are a lot of players in the NFL who turn out to be very good in the league because they have traits and ability, but they didn't produce a ton in college.

Right. I mean, you know, the one that always pops out to me is like, I'm on Ross St. Brown. Like, he's one of the best receivers in the NFL and he was pretty good in college, but he wasn't like an electrifying, like, no doubt about a player. Miami's players are producing at a high level consistently. And I think that that's the most important distinction. It's not just guys who have traits. It's guys who are really good at college football.

They have the traits, yeah, and they're getting it done. Now, can they do it against Ohio State is the other question? Like, can they run the ball up the middle the way they did against Texas A&M? Because, look, Texas A&M has a pretty stout defensive front, though. Texas ran on them pretty well, too. Yeah. And I think that's probably what Miami saw and realized, hey, we can take advantage of that. I don't know that you can run on Ohio State like that.

Yeah, it is interesting because Mark Fletcher, against A&M ran for 176 yards. And at the game, it didn't really feel like he had a 56 yarder on the last drive. And I think he had a 35 yarder on another. So like half of his yards came on two plays. But they have a very effective running back to compliment a player that they're going to go out of their way to get the ball.

And we joked about Shannon Dawson's creative play, you know. Can you imagine if Ohio State did for Jeremiah Smith, what Miami was doing for Malachi Tony. Just in terms of getting the ball in his hands, you know, very different players, but yes, I think that, like, it's always important to try your best to get your most electric players the ball with some space to make something happen. But, you know, I think that more than anything, and we can break down Miami's offense all we want, is Miami's defense going to be able to stop Ohio State from running it effectively? Are they going to be able to pressure the quarterback with four people? Right. And are they going to be able to rattle Julian

Sane. And it's crazy to say, but it is a fact. Julian Sane did not face a fourth quarter deficit one time until the Indiana game all year. Yeah. So it hasn't had to deal with that. And also Miami just had to deal with Marcel Reed, who's a lot more dangerous in terms of escapeability. Like, they were scared to death of what happens if Marcel Reed gets out of the pocket. They're not worried about Julian Sane getting out of the pocket. Yeah. So it's a different game plan defense. So like there is like this rabbit hole where you could go down where it's like, well, in Miami can do exactly what Indiana did and try to duplicate that. The trick of it is

is you still have to cover Jeremiah Smith and Carnell Tate, which Indiana did. Yeah. So can Miami do that? Because Miami has really good athletes in the secondary. Well, the other trick of it is, too, is it's just like, are we going to fool ourselves into like thinking that Ohio State is not a juggernaut now? Right, right. Are we going to say Ohio State? Oh,

they showed some flaws against Indiana and think, okay, Miami's going to pull the upset here. And then Ohio State just wins it by 17. Yeah, which might happen. Yeah. And I mean, the spread. is large for a reason. So, but yeah, call up the stats here.

What were you going to report? So I'm looking at the Ohio State and Indiana game because that was my curiosity is what did Ohio State do defensively against Indiana's run game, which their best backs average about five and a half yards of carry. They average three and a half yards of carry against Ohio State's defense. So you're probably not going to get what you're used to in the run game against Ohio State. But the other side of that box score is really interesting, too. Indiana held Ohio State to 2.2 yards of carry.

Yeah, yeah. Miami's defensive front is every bit as good as Indiana's. Yeah, and I have like a hard time breaking down the actual Big Ten title game because on one hand, Ohio State score two really long time-consuming drives where they move the ball down the field and then just wound up with no points at the end, a missed-chip shot field goal and a failed fourth in one attempt from inside the five-yard line. that could have been points. So it's not like they were, it wasn't,

it didn't look like Alabama in the first half of the Oklahoma game. Like they were moving the ball consistently the entire game. But there is a difference between moving the ball, um, and scoring and converting. Like moving the ball is only 80% of the battle. Getting it into the, getting the pill into the,

into the buckets, the other part. So, and in the other thing I thought that I found very interesting, Miami's open field tackling was spectacular in the Texas A&M game. And in Texas A&M game. And in Texas A&M, had feasted all year on getting the ball out to Casey Concepciona Mario Craver,

and they break one tackle and they're gone. And Miami never let that happen. Yeah. It's a lot harder to do that to Jeremiah Smith. And Ohio State's offense isn't really predicated on that. Right. Now, they do smaller, shorter routes to Jeremiah, like screens, tunnel screens, bubble screens, things like that to try to get the ball in his hands.

But like Jeremiah's real superpower is one-on-one coverage when he's able to exploit that and jumping over a defensive back 27 yards on the field. which he can still do against Miami like that that isn't changing yeah like Jeremiah Smith is going to get his I mean it's funny because he had 144 yards in the game where they scored 10 points yeah and actually he did catch that like 50 yard bomb as time expired that you know that you know so basically 100 yards but it's a different type of offense to stop they're going to be a hard-nosed running team that's going to try to to move the ball through gritty yardage with bow Jackson but they're going to take their shots downfield and Miami wasn't

really taking shots downfield right I mean, sorry, A&M wasn't, yeah, against Miami wasn't either. Miami wasn't taking shots downfield. And that's the other thing is Carson Beck is going to have to give Miami more than he gave in that Texas A&M game. I think he had 103 yards passing 5.2 yards for attempt, which is awful. He gets credit for the Malachi Tony 11-yard touchdown, which was essentially an end around, but it's a little pop pass where you push it forward. So he gets credit for that.

So really he had less than 100 yards. passing in that game. Yeah. If you think about it. Yeah. And Ohio State's defense is excellent. So now the time has come to pick it. I'll go first. I know who I'm picking. Okay, go. Homer, I'm not overthinking this. I've overthought all year. And I think that, you know, there is a wormhole out there where Miami wins. Like, I really do. Like, I think that's a tough matchup and Ohio State probably would rather play a few other teams in the second round than the one that they got. Any other team, really. Yeah. I mean, I don't know about Georgia or Indiana, but it's not an easy second-round matchup,

but I'm not going to over-correct my opinion of Ohio State's team as a result of the Indiana game and the Big Ten Championship. I think that there are, you know, for lack of better word, excuses that you could make for why they didn't perform at their highest level in that game. Brian Hartland left. It was a week after beating Michigan. You know, Jeremiah Smith and Carnale Tate were not fully healthy. I think people forget that.

They have a whole month to prepare, basically, or three weeks to prepare for this game. I think that they're going to be in pretty peak, like, blood-on-fangs mode. And I think winning by 10 shouldn't be too much for them. I'm going to lay the points here. And I think like a 31-20-ish-type game, 31-14-type game is kind of what I'm in. So you're looking for a wormhole where Miami wins. I don't need Miami to win if I pick Miami. I need Miami to not lose by double digits.

And I think that's possible. I think with the level of talent that Miami has, a level of elite talent that Miami has, they can hang in this game and they can make it very interesting. I don't know if they have enough to win it. I think they would need to get Carson Beck's best game for that to happen. But I do think they can keep it within single digits. And so I feel like I'm on Shark Tank. For that reason, I'm going to take Miami to cover the 10.

And I'm going to watch this line too because you never know. You might, I might be able to get more. And we would, what are we doing our mulligans, are you? We want to do mulligans next Tuesday. At some point in the void. Yeah, Monday. Yeah, again, we're just going to go by date numbers now because we don't know what days of the week. Because the days between, like, starting this week and New Year's Day is statistically proven that people are the least online during this the next 10 days and they are of any other point in this.

So we'll find a time during the void, but we know the Miami fan base is extremely online. So if I flipped my pick away from Miami, they get really mad at me. But I'm not probably not going to do that. even if this line moved any i'm probably not going to do probably not flipping it i i like miami i like the way miami's constructed i i love a team that has a big physical offensive line that can just mall people yeah and i don't think ohio state has to play teams like that very often yeah i'm with you i'm with you and i can see your point of view yeah because michigan's not that this year michigan has been that in the in the past few years they were not that this

year so i'm not sure that that ohio state's seen something to that level yet i think Indiana is close, but that part of it is the most interesting. I'm not saying I think Miami's better than Indiana because I don't, but I do think Miami has enough really interesting parts of its team that match up well with what Ohio State isn't perfect in. And I think that makes this game really fun. So I am going to take Miami to cover. Ari, you got Ohio State to cover.

You will be at the game. It's going to be so much fun. Yeah, I can't wait. Can't wait to get after it. Before we move on to the game that I will be at in Miami Gardens, Florida, let me tell you about Academy Sports and Outdoors. And hey, if you are still looking for those last Christmas gifts, Academy Sports and Outdoors is the place for you.

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So he's getting a buck. He's in a punching bag. And so Academy Sports and Outdoors, that's the place to go. I got ski pants there a few days ago. Oh, and you're ready to shush down the mountain? Shush. I don't know if that's going to be. Shush.

Yeah, I mean, I'll shred some gnar out there. yeah yeah i i just it's it's funny because are he much better athlete than me yeah he can ski i just fall down the mountain i roll so that's that's all yeah i mean like your idea of like staying inside and drinking bourbon while looking at a fireplace sounds far better that is what i do when my family goes skiing i find a place with a fireplace and bourbon yeah so so what you should find though is academy sports and outdoors because they have those last minute christmas gifts that you need. So hit up Academy and get what you need,

and you will make those people on your list happy. They don't have to know you bought it two days before Christmas. They don't have to know that. All right, all right. Let us head to South Florida. Two teams you wouldn't expect to see in South Florida. None of this fits the traditional mold of the Orange Bowl, because the Orange Bowl usually has the ACC champ in it.

But it is Oregon and Texas Tech. I am so excited for this game. Oregon is a one and a half point Frave. Vegas basically thinks this is a pickum. We saw Oregon play against James Madison. The ducks did not seem real happy with their performance.

One of their players said it felt almost like a loss, even though they did win by a bunch, but they gave up a ton of yards, a ton of points. A bunch is a relative term. Not by enough. Not by enough if certain people might have had the point spread.

I'm not going to name names here. James Madison went on a 99 yard drive with like less than three minutes left in the game to score a touchdown at the end to cover to cover I don't know if that's the key that's the key thing here yeah look this is this is the pick show presented by bed MGMR you can talk about you can say what you mean you can say what you feel so I feel bad so you're real bad Texas tech this is the this is also kind of the biggest narrative game of of the whole quarter finals because Texas tech went out they they bought a team are like that's a bad thing it's a good thing yeah Oregon's been buying teams for years just yeah yeah Oregon's really good at all Texas Tech did was try to do what Oregon's been doing since the beginning of the NIL era college football isn't about games it's about who can deploy their assets the best correct Texas Tech did a really good job they did they had a lot of money but they spent it well yes and that's the thing there's a lot of programs that have money that you know made

big purchases in the transfer portal that it didn't work out. This one did. Yeah. This is, and Joey McGuire, we talked to him about it at the beginning of the season. We said, do you feel pressure? He said, I absolutely feel pressure. But he also said he felt comfortable with how the new pieces fit into the puzzle because he felt like they'd done a good job with the players.

They had, Jacob Rodriguez is a prime example of this. Like, you build around that guy. And guess what? When you build around that guy with David Bailey and Romello Hyatt and Lee Hunter, you're doing all right they've been really good at personnel staff I mean James Blanchard and those guys do a really good job of identifying talent early

and how they fit into their scheme and stuff so when you have the capital to go out and get guys that your really good evaluation staff is able to identify that's the difference I mean Texas Tech for so many years would do a good job of evaluating players and they would lose when Texas or Ohio State or somebody came in late and took those players

now they can get them and keep them so yeah but I think that you know for me I like the, you know, drama of who will win and who will continue to fight for the right to go back to Miami later. That's always good. But I also am a big feelings guy and a narratives guy. And I like to watch games that help give us some insight on roster philosophy and all these things. And I think that this game illustrates that. And even though they're more similar than different in that regard, I do think that I'm interested to see how much can you accomplish in a single season or a single off season.

How much can you add to your roster? or how much can you spend? Can you narrow the gap between a traditional team that has been signing top 10 classes for the last 10 years in one single off season in 2025 and going into 2026? Yeah, and I think that's the big question. Now, if I'm interesting that the folks in the desert seem to leave the answer is yes here.

I thought this spread would be a little bit higher toward Oregon. I thought Texas Tech might be a four or five point underdog in this game. So to see it as a one and a half point spread was surprising to me. Yeah. And how much do you take from, you know, all jokes aside about backdoor covers that have me not feeling so great? Yeah. How do you take the Oregon performance in which I think JMU had north of 400 yards of offense in that? I think you, you especially look at the way JMU's scripted drive early went, and they did march down the field and they couldn't get it in the end zone. But, and then they pop a trick play on Oregon on that second possession.

So there's definitely vulnerability in Oregon's defense. Oregon's defense is probably the part you're worried about the most. And that's interesting to me because we're not talking much about Texas Tech's offense. We're talking about their defense specifically. We feel like their defense will shut anybody down and then can their offense fill in? Can Baron Morton throw all over a team? I don't know he's going to throw all over Oregon, but I think I would feel more confident that Texas Tech's going to be able to move the ball,

going to be able to score some points consistently, and that the Texas Tech's defense will keep Oregon's offense from looking like it does against James Madison. And we know that Oregon's good. We know that they're talented. But how good are they? I still think there's some question with that. Well, right.

Is Cameron Dickey going to be able to gain his average this season is five and a half yards of care? he's got 14 touchdowns on the ground like he's a he's a when you're in the red zone with cameron dick you're feeling pretty good about your your chances of landing in the end zone so can organ stop that and and i don't know that i don't know that organ is this stout up the middle i think organ getting after the passer yeah they're good at that i don't know if they're as stout up the middle as they need to be texas tech may be able to run the ball here and if they can control tempo because it's the other thing you want to do is keep dante more out of them. And you can do that by hitting him or you can do that by keeping him off the field. We've got some players on our team that can hit him. Yeah. So, you know, I think that this is a really interesting matchup. And I'm really excited to see if Oregon is ascending at the right time or if Oregon is the beneficiary of not playing in the Big Ten championship game and not really, you know, facing anybody, all that elite. I mean, the real, what's the number one piece of

proof that we have that Oregon is a team that can win a national championship outside of roster construction? Right. We have a game, right? And the USC game doesn't tell us much because the USC was good, but not that good. Right. Because we saw Notre Dame handle them. We saw Illinois beat them. We don't know with Oregon yet. Now, the other thing we don't know, what will Oregon's offense look like when it

appears they will have their full complement of receivers, which they've not had all season. Evan Stewart was their best returning receiver. He got hurt in the spring. There's a chance we see him in this game. So we would see him and Decorian Moore. and, you know, the entire menu, Kenyon Sadiq, like all, and I know Sadiq's a tight end, but Sadiq's the freakyest player on the field in this game. So he's the freakyest athlete on the field.

They have so many weapons. And I think that's the thing. Even as good as Texas sex defense is, will Oregon potentially be able to overwhelm them with the sheer number of athletes they can throw at you? I'm very torn in how to pick this. I know. So what are you thinking? I'm thinking it's a low-scoring game.

I think, and look, I think Oregon can win both ways. I think Oregon's capable of winning a shootout or a low-scoring game. So I'm not really worried about that. Like, if Texas Tech drags them into a low-scoring, lower number of possession-type game, I don't think that eliminates the chance for Oregon to win it. I think they can play that way, too, which is why I think Oregon's kind of, of my Dark Horse national title team. So I think I think you probably know where I'm going with this.

I think Oregon's going to win it, which it's essentially a pick-em, so yeah, I'll take Oregon to cover. Yeah. Don't feel good about either side, honestly. But I am an animal with stripes, and I can't change my stripes. Is this a Stars Matter pick?

Yeah. Really? Because I'm not sure Stars Matters the delineator in this game, I think Texas Tech bought enough stars. I think that you're right. And I don't think this is Oregon, JMU. I think Oregon has a lot of top-tier NFL players at positions that are going to be hard. Like just getting Evan Stewart back into Corian Moore being healthy. Like it just, I think they might have just one or two players too much to keep to win the game.

So that is, we're not picking what you're saying is, is if this were next year and Texas Tech's been. doing this for a couple of years. I think that Texas Tech is certainly capable of winning the game, but I'm still going to go with the team that's been doing this for four years over the team that's been doing it once, or one year. And it might turn out to be that that's wrong. I don't think either of us is predicting, like we're obviously both picking Oregon here. I don't think either of us predicting a blow on here. I mean, the spread's one and a half. If you were giving me seven points, Texas Tech. Yeah, I think there's high probability we're both wrong here. And that's, it's really going to come down to who deploys their, you said, it's all about deployment of assets.

Who deploys their really good players better in this game? And this actually may come down to coaching. Texas Tech has yet to stray off the path of Big 12. They haven't played a team. Right. They didn't play a tough non-commerce schedule. And I think that may come back to bite them in the ass. I think they may wish they had.

Say what you want about Oregon losing to Indiana. They played a four-quarter game with the best team in the sport right now. And you can say Oregon didn't play anybody good at the non-conference either, and they didn't. But they also know that they're going to play Indiana. They also know that if they win enough, they play Ohio State or Indiana in the Big Ten Championship game, which they didn't make it to this year. But they know they're going to get games like that. And Texas Tech doesn't get those games.

Now, it happened to be that BYU was really good this year and that Utah was really good this year. So they did get some of that. but those BYU and Utah are not on Oregon's level in terms of talent. So I'm going to take the ducks, but at the same time, know with an open heart that I can be wrong. Yeah, I can't wait for this. This is going to be so much fun. All right, before we move on to the Rose Bowl,

I got to tell you about game time. Do you want to go to any of these games? You could be with Ari. Well, he's going to be in the press box, but you could be at the Cotton Bowl with a better seat than Ari. If you get it on game time, plenty of good seats available. You can get in in the low hundreds to the Cotton Bowl for Miami, Ohio State.

You want really good seats. You're maybe in the 300s, but lots of good seats available. Everything's on game time. You can also get Orange Bowl ticket, see Texas Tech, play the ducks. I'm sure the folks from Lubbock are going to be descending in mass upon South Florida, and it's going to be so much fun because I want to see tortillas flying. I want to see tortillas flying. I want to see these guys.

you know, because they've got the great Mexican food where they're from. I want to see them eating some Cuban food in Miami and get their take on that because you know how I feel like the Cuban food. I love it. Also, the Rose Bowl, Alabama, Indiana. I know the Hoosiers are headed out to Pasadena, but there are still lots of good tickets available on GameTime. So download the GameTime app.

Use the code Staples. You get $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply, of course. But every game, the tickets are there. you can get, you know, budget tickets. If you got a little more to spend, you can get right there, 50 yard line, few rows up. You get exactly what you need. You see exactly where you'd be sitting on the Game Time app.

And the price you see is the price you pay, no hidden fees. So use that code staples, get $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Go to Game Time. Swipe, tap, ticket, go at game time. Now let us go to Pasadena. The Rose Bowl, Alabama, against Indiana. This line opened at Indiana minus six and a half.

It has now moved up to Indiana minus seven. So the folks saw that and said, you know what? I think Indiana is actually better than Alabama, even more. So then Vegas originally thought. And I've said it a bunch of times. I said it when this line came out. It's still my brain doesn't process it right. When I see those logos and I see Indiana with the minus next to its name,

it's still very tough to process. Yeah. You strip the paint off of these teams. Take the logos away. And you just watch all their games. And the line makes perfect sense. In fact, you wonder why it's not higher. And there you go.

You said it. You put it out there. I don't think Alabama's very good. I'm just going to put it out there. I think they're solid. I don't think that's a hot take. I think that's a pretty. reasonable statement given what we've seen the last few games.

You know, we were at the game on Friday night in Norman. While impressive to go on the road and win against the team that's got a very good defense, I thought Oklahoma handed them that game on a silver platter. I don't buy into the thought that Alabama went out and took something. Now, they kept the lead. They won by 10. You made that point. That's a good point.

But they were very close to just getting blown out. A testament to that is the... There's a dropped pass that would have made it 31.7. Yeah. And you had a... I don't know if you deleted it, but you have a 550 word file on your computer that shows that you were on the same page as me.

And I feel like there is an overcorrection and how we are going to view this because of the paint on the helmets. And when I say we, I mean everybody. I always do that a lot. But it's... You got to get past it.

Indiana hasn't given you a reason to think that they are going to not win this game by 10. Yeah, I just don't know what, what explain to me what it looks like. Alabama just plays their- Alabama suddenly finds a running game. And I just, how do you find that?

You don't find it against this defense. That's the thing. We just watched Indiana hold Ohio State to 2.2 yards of carry. Like, they're not going to suddenly forget how to defend the run because they see some team with numbers on their helmet. Yeah, and she's not going to happen. Yeah, we're in the AC in Waco, Texas recording this,

and we are looking out onto the beautiful town of Waco. There's a duffel bag filled with a billion dollars by that dumpster over there. I'm going to go find it. I'm a billionaire now. That's not how it works, okay? Yeah. It just, I don't see it. And I don't know if that is just.

The only way that Alabama wins this thing is they, they force some turnovers, get some short fields. I mean, this is a classic how. a massive underdog wins a game recipe. Like, that's it. Because Alabama, nothing we've seen says they're going to be able to run the ball consistently against Indiana. And because they probably won't be able to run the ball consistently,

their passing game is not going to be very good. You saw the S&C championship game against Georgia. They couldn't really do anything offensively. Early in the game against Oklahoma, very discombobulated in the past game because they couldn't do anything on the ground. They started to run the ball better as the game went on. and it got easier to throw. And you also, Ty Simpson, I believe he's more healthy.

He certainly looked more mobile in the Oklahoma game. So I do think as good as Indiana's defense is, probably not as good at getting after the quarterback as Oklahoma's because there aren't many who are. So maybe Ty Simpson has a little more time to throw. But again, unless Ryan Williams suddenly reverts to Ryan Williams of the first half of his freshman year, for him. I don't know who he's throwing two other than Jeremy Bernard. And

Jeremy Bernard's great, but you've got to have more than that. Yeah. I'm just not going to overcomplicate this. I'm going to pick the better team to cover the spread. The better team is Indiana. I don't care about history today. I don't care about what you were for 10 years. I care about the tape that you put on. Well, and the thing is, Indiana is more similar to a Nick Saban, an Alabama team than Kaylon DeBore's Alabama team is. And if you, if you, again, Indiana

strip the uniforms. When Indiana plays a team that's overmatched, Indiana kicks the crap out of it. Indiana doesn't, doesn't not show up for games. They, you know, when they play a team that's inferior,

they crush that team. And I'm not saying that Alabama is that inferior to Indiana because Alabama is one of the more talented teams that Indiana is going to play all season. But Indiana just got done beating a much more talented team than Alabama in Ohio State. Held Ohio State to 10 points on a neutral field.

So it's not like Alabama's going to scare Indiana. It's not like Alabama's talent is going to scare Indiana. They've played Ohio State. They've gone to Oregon and won. Oregon's just as talented as Alabama, if not more talented. So they're not going to be afraid of any of this. None of it's going to intimidate them. So all of the narrative stuff that we're going to talk about around the game,

and Ari and I are going to be really guilty of that between now and the game, too. Feelings. Yeah. Kurt Signetti is not going to be dealing with any of that. Fernando Mendoza is not going to be dealing in any of that. They're going to be watching the film, and they're going to watch the film and go, we're better than this team. So you're with me?

I am with you. And seven, you know, again, it's hard to process. But it's hard to process. When you take the logos off, it's not as hard. Yeah. If you just watch these teams play. And the one thing that can scare you would have no problem picking Indiana to cover this game. The problem is, is that I think in this era of the sport, it's going to be really hard to go 16 and 0 or 17 and 0.

Teams just get beat sometimes. And Indiana hasn't lost yet. Exactly. So maybe there's a little of that of, you know, is it their time to struggle? Is it their time to? Yeah, they haven't played a bad game yet. But I just got through saying they don't really play bad games. Yeah.

What's their worst game is Penn State? Iowa was a bad game. But Iowa made everybody play that way. Yeah. I mean, but Iowa making you play that way is a bad game for a team that we're talking about. Yeah. Iowa or Penn State would be the two.

Like they should not have been in that tight of a game with Penn State. They should not have needed that incredible throw from Fernando Mendoza and that crazy catch by Omar Cooper. They shouldn't have needed that. And I'm just resentful as we're on that MGM show right now of the 45-yard safety in the end of the Iowa game. That's what it is. I forgot about that. How do you forget about that? Because I didn't bet it.

I wasn't able to be intimate with my wife for two months after that. You can cut that if you want. Please don't cut that. Now, he's dead serious. And now I remember how mad you were. Why did they take a safety? Why would they? And I explained him the football reasons for taking the safety.

I think part of the reason. And he just couldn't accept it. I think part of the reason why playing the games has been so frowned. upon in our industry for such a long time is because it does, there is a circuit in your brain. Yeah, that like fries and then you can't process like. Right, because I was laying out very legitimate football reasons for why Indiana had to take that safety at the end of that game and he just would not listen

to me. So, but think, listen to ourselves. Listen to this. That was also a seven point spread, by the way. So no safeties in the, in the Rose Bowl. We're talking about Indiana's worst games and can Alabama beat Indiana when it's playing its worst game. Like that's what we're talking. We're not even talking about the possibility.

Indiana plays its best game. We're not giving Alabama a chance. Yeah. We're on the same side of it. But what if Alabama plays this before we go, before we move on to the Sugar Bowl, what if Alabama plays its best game? I just don't know what that is. That's like from the four games. What does that look like?

It has to be. So it's either the Tennessee game or the win at Georgia. Maybe it's the Vandy game. I mean, listen, it's a seven-point spread, which means it should be a competitive game. You know, I just, the point that I want to make, and I keep remembering this,

and I'm probably going to write about this tonight. I've got some columns cooking. And I workshoped them with you because you helped me. And I mean that. I appreciate your help. I appreciate that. I was in the post-game room with you during Kailen-Dabor and Ty Simpson's news conference.

and Ty Simpson said or somebody asked them what does it mean to shout up all the doubters by the way it makes my skin crawl when people ask Alabama what it's like shut up the doubt just shut up the haters yeah just shut up they're Alabama okay no one's doubting you know yeah Vegas is doubting them right now I know what I'm just saying like you're not some plucky underdog that's never had anything nice in their lives right but anyway Ty Simpson by the way kind of swagged out in that news conference I think that like the mentality yes he goes what

did Kobe say? What did Kobe say? Oh, we're not done yet. And Kobe said it's the job finished. They were asking him after a game one or game two win in the NBA finals, how he feels. And he goes, is the job, job finished. He kind of kind of mimicked that. I just want to leave you with this. Alabama, you are not Kobe in Shaq this year. That's it. You're not Kobe and Shaq. You know who is? Indiana. Yeah. Fernando and Siggs.

Yeah, which one is Shack? I think SIGs is Shack. SIGs is definitely Shack. Fernando is Kobe and Fernando won the high side. Because I can see SIGs staying how my ass tastes. Yeah. I can't see Fernando ever saying that. Ever.

I guess it should be our goal as podcasters to get Sigs to say that on their show one day. He might. If they win the national title, that guy's going to go nuts. Oh, I see. Can you imagine? He's going to be. he's going to be unfiltered. He'll say exactly what's on his mind.

It will be incredible. Yeah, like my brain fantasizes about things. It's like, what will Shannon Dawson come up with in 10 days of thought process? That's going to be fun. Yeah. Miami's offensive coordinator. What kind of contraption can he drop on a piece of paper?

For Malachi, I tell you. And I imagine that there are mushrooms involved when you're doing those. What kind of things can Kurt Signetti say when you win the national title? Could you imagine, like the things that he says when they don't? By the way, there's Alabama fans watching this video now going, you already just said, we ain't going to be Indiana.

And now you're just giving them a national title. Yeah. Yeah. Look, that impression that you just did was better than the Rose Bowl one. Well, my, Ari, that was a different show.

Oh, yeah. Do your Rose Bowl impressions. I didn't see it. My Keith Jackson impression, no, we're not doing it. My Keith Jackson impression sucks.

So if you want to see my terrible Keith Jackson impression, I did a Rose Bowl preview video with Ari that came out on Sunday and, I do a terrible Keith Jackson impression, and I'm sorry. It's disrespectful to the memory of the greatest college football announcer at all time. And I'm sorry, and I'll never do it again. He is the soundtrack of college football to me in my head. Yes.

Yeah. Yes. So it probably frustrates Alabama people to hear this. But I read their message boards. They know. Deep in their hearts, they understand. Yeah. This is a flawed team.

Like, they are going to need to play perfectly. Did you read their message board in the second quarter of the Oklahoma game? Sure as hell did. We're not saying anything you haven't said yourselves. So they're going to need to play really well to win this game, but that's why Ari and I are picking Indiana to cover. Both of us. All right, before we head to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl,

let's talk about our friends at Panini. Visit panini, America.net to start your collection of the greatest college and NFL stars. And Ari, you were around an absolute nuke of a card the other night at the Alabama Oklahoma game. I'm not around it. It's in my backpack over there. collecting is a lifestyle and I had a few friends do you remember when I left the press box for 25 minutes this is before the game and I'm like two hours before the game yep yep and my buddy brought me a few packs of Panini's latest release which is the 2025 Panini prism draft picks which is the players in their college uniforms which is in our wheelhouse oh yeah and I ripped this pack in the concourse of the stadium and I pooled one of the best cards you could possibly pull, which is an Arch Manning autograph on card.

Now, Arch Manning hasn't necessarily been what we thought or I thought. I think there's a good chance he could still want to be a very very good valuable card. But collecting is about, you know, enjoying it and ripping a pack in the concourse of a college football playoff game and hitting the card of the arch rival of the stadium we're in was quite the treat. But, you know, Cole Kublich from ESPN is so into the lifestyle too that when I showed him that I had that card, he had top loaders and sleeves on him to give me so I can protect the card

adequately. It is a great product. I love that Cole travels everywhere with top loaders. Yeah, it's like, you know, it's the married version of just always being prepared and having, you know, like Tylenol and stuff, right? Like, but Andy, the point is, is I think when you get back to your house, you're going to have a few boxes of this gym waiting for you. I have a few. I'm excited to get home. We're going to rip some packs on the air. Andy, you can pull an archmanning autograph out of this product. Right.

And it's right there for you. Awesome. Yeah, it was fun. And thank you to my buddy, Fred, for bringing that to me. Visit pinini America.net to start your collection today. And that's like for all the people, too, who accused pinini of sending us juiced boxes. That wasn't a pinini box. No, that was a natural box.

So you can hit nukes in that thing. And if you like college uniforms, that's the best. Oh, I love that, too. I love to see them in the college uniforms. I like the old one when they go with the classic NFL players in their college uniforms. And you have it in that product? And you know who else you have in that product? Jeremiah Smith.

Caleb Downs is in that product. Yeah, they're pretty damn good. You know, you have a few other big time. Shador Sanders is signing in that product. Travis Hunter is in that product. And there's still rookie cards for the class last year. Check it out. All right.

So now we move to New Orleans. We saw a rematch involving Ole Miss already this past weekend. The Ole Miss Tulane game was a game. rematch and it played out exactly like the first Ole Miss Tulane game did. Now Ole Miss plays Georgia in New Orleans. Now, this is a different venue

than the first game. The first game was in Athens. Ole Miss would rather this game not play out the way it did the first time. I think if it is somewhat similar to the first game, we're all going to be highly entertained because this game was wild the first game. Georgia ends up

winning, but nobody's stopping anybody for the first three quarters, Georgia finally gets two stops in the fourth quarter and ends up beating Ole Miss, but Ole Miss was winning by two scores going into the fourth quarter. This was a shootout to end all shootouts. Georgia comes into this as a six and a half point favorite, which is basically what you'd expect after watching them play the first time. And that's kind of a last team that has the ball wins by a touchdown kind of game.

That's what it feels like, Ari. Yeah. I'm super excited for this because this is a good vibes game. You know, you got the visors with the wig. Have you seen that the Pete Golden? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Pete Golding. That's what I said.

You said Pete Golding. Stuffed up, man. They've got the visors with the hair. Yep. The game was very exciting the first time. Is a Disney movie that's not as inspiring as the plucky underdog winning. I said this underdog is not. that plucky. This is this underdog is really talented. Disney movie being written about the underdog

coach who stood by his guys and wanted to be there when the other hot shot coach who didn't. I mean, he got an SEC head coaching job out of it. Let's not, Pete Golding did not do this out of the complete kindness of his heart. He now gets to be an SEC head coach. But this movie or what I'm describing is like a sequel to the notebook. It's just two people who love each other finding them. Ryan Gosseling as Ryan McAdams. Ryan,

I mean, Rachel McAdams was an absolute smoke show. So it worked out for him. Yeah. But doesn't mean that it wasn't a wonderful love story. So Ole Miss is the smoke show in this scenario. And this,

and Pete Golding's going to try to red shirt Miss America's there. Pete Golding's going to try to like rebuild a house, which is Ole Miss a stadium. But like this is, Ole Miss felt betrayed though. And on a serious note, they felt betrayed two weeks ago. Yes.

And they have a person that is in their program that wants to be there, is acting like he's been there already. in this position for two years. They came out and showed on tape that they're not going to be a weaker version of itself. It looked identical to the way that it did before. And they played this team already down to the wire, I think. So like, do you think that Georgia is just playing at a high enough level where they're kind of separating and ascending at the right time?

Or is there an everybody love everybody? The thing that Golding said to me that struck me recently was, everybody here is trying to improve value. Did you see this quote? If you're a coach, you're trying to improve value. It's the next statement. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you're a player who's going to the NFL, you want to improve your draft doc.

If you're a player who's an underclassman, you want to improve your NIL value. Everybody is trying to improve that together. They remained enough together to continue to play at a high level. Ole Miss absolutely could be Georgia. Yes. Absolutely. Yes. And you saw, I mean, they went to Athens and they had them on the ropes.

and if Ole Miss doesn't go three and out twice in the fourth quarter, they probably do beat Georgia. So it's entirely possible that Ole Miss turns around and wins this game. It's also possible that in that game, Georgia got unlocked because I feel like since that game, Georgia has been much better than it was the first part of the season. They have been one of the best teams in the country at the end of the season. And the only game that's a little bit of an outlier is that Georgia Tech game where, again, they lost their center right in the middle of the game and their offense kind of bogged down.

But their offenses looked really sharp in every other game since that Ole Miss game, whether there's Mississippi State, Texas, the Alabama game, the SEC Championship. And I think Gunner Stockton's been kind of underappreciated. Gunner Stockton has improved dramatically as the season's gone on. Underappreciated nationally, I think. Yeah. Did he finish in the top 10 of the Heisman voting? I think he did, right? he did yes yeah but you know i you know he hasn't really taken as much uh air time as some other

players in his position and i think he's played dramatically better than well i think i think because he can do a lot of things like you're comfortable with him just sitting in the pocket and and trying to pick a team apart but also if he gets flushed he can go he can go run for a first down very very he can keep a play alive behind the line of scrimmage and hit somebody downfield like he's he's a dangerous quarterback he's made big throws and big moments yeah this year so um so what when you look at this game like what moves you like what do you how do you feel like georgia's going into death star mode here does that's not not death star mode i their defense is still not as and it's never going to be as dominant as like the 21 georgia defenses you just don't they don't

have the personnel to do that but their defense is significantly better and i look at the way they're they played defensively against texas and against alabama at the end of the season and i think they're going to be better defensively than they were the first time around against Ole Miss. The other thing I'm worried about with Ole Miss is Kiwan Lacey's shoulder because he went out late in the two lane game with Pete Golding called it a bruised shoulder. I worry about that with a running back because if there's severe intense pain when you're getting hit, that's not a recipe for success when you're having to play Georgia. Now, it might be there's enough time that he fully recovers and that if that's the case, that's great. But I will be concerned about that until I see him running in his usual violent

fashion against the bulldogs because he can he can make drives continue by himself because he's so good at breaking tackles because he's so he just doesn't go down on the first hit and i think if he can do that if omis avoids the three and outs that killed them in the first game i think this could be another shootout i i do think we are in line for another really high scoring game where both offenses are playing at a really high level so I think we're going to get a game similar to the first one. The question I have for you, Ari, is the result the same? I don't know.

I like Ole Miss here. I'm taking the points. There you go. Because I think it's interesting because Georgia covered would have covered this in the first game. Because they got, to use a tennis term, they got up a break basically in the fourth quarter. But I don't know that if they played it again, that I'd be. confident that Georgia win by a touchdown. Yeah. And I do buy into the fact that, you know, people can be similarly motivated.

And, you know, I made this joke with Casey Smith on the show last week, but it's like, is Ole Miss, like in the gym getting their revenge body right now? Like, I buy into that sort of thing. But the thing is that you can want that and you can try as hard as you can, but if you don't have the players for that, like, I'm not sure Ole Miss has the players defensively. They did last year. Yeah. But I don't know that they have the personnel defensively to just throw up a dominant,

dominant performance against an offense as goes Georgia's. Yeah, and I agree with you, but I think that they can score a lot. And if you're giving me basically a touchdown in a game that was decided by less the first time, the war was the game. It was in Georgia, too. It was in Athens. So on a neutral site, you know, I just kind of like that this is going to be a highly competitive good game.

So I'll take the cushion here. I'm going to take Georgia to cover here because I do think if they win, it probably is a situation where, like, it's a tie game and they score a touchdown. Yeah. And I'm not, I might think differently if it was seven. I don't think they're going to win by by 20, but I can see them winning by seven. Yeah, of course. Yeah.

But these are highly competitive, good, interesting games. And every single time you and I are on opposite sides of this stuff, like I actually feel like, oh, you could be right. Like, I don't feel. Yeah, none of these picks feels crazy at all. Yeah. And like, we both picked Indiana to cover against Alabama, but if either one of us had picked Alabama. I don't think the other one would have been like, what's wrong with you?

And I also think that, you know, we've spent a lot of time talking about how this isn't the basketball tournament and that like there wasn't going to be Cinderella's like JMU who go to the finals because it's just a different sport. That doesn't mean that unexpected things can't happen. Right. Like, and I think that like eventually, like, I mean, unexpected things do happen. Yeah. And I don't know that I have really spent much time on this show or even in my bracket that on three released the day that it came out, spent. a lot of time considering, well, what are the unexpected things? Like, Ole Miss being in the final four and it being a Pete Golding Bonanza is like something

I can clearly see in my brain. I think Alabama making the final four would be the unexpected right now. So, and Texas Tech making the final four, given the line on that game, it wouldn't, it wouldn't be shocking, but it would be massively helpful for the Big 12, massively helpful for Texas Tech going forward, and it would, would validate what they, what they did in the offseason. Yeah. I'm happy to be on different sides of you and it means that this is going to be a good playoff.

This is going to be so much fun that I cannot wait. We're going to talk about these games. We're going to do some bowl pick them later this week because we've got the other bowls to talk about too. And look, we don't know who's going to win in these games. We hardly even know who's playing in these games because of all the opt-outs. But you know, Ari, there's sprinkles on the BYU and Georgia Tech helmets. Did you see the mock-up of the Notre Dame sprinkle helmet?

I did. I did. And yet another reason why the Irish were like, I'm going to go glad we're not that game. That's funny. But, you know, it's going to be a wonderful New Year's, and we're going to be continuing to give you guys content throughout this void of time. Yeah, well, so normal schedule this week, well, normal in-season schedule.

We'll do Monday through Thursday. We will not have a show on Saturday unless something wild and crazy happens. And let's be honest, there's probably going to be an emergency show at some point. Like, let's say Michigan hired a coach. We'll probably have an emergency show. But we'll have shows Monday through Thursday. Yes, even a show on Christmas Day. You don't have to listen on Christmas Day.

I realize that you might be a little busy. But I also realize you're probably going to be traveling a little bit. Maybe we give you something to listen to on the day after Christmas when you're making all your returns. Or if you're in the bathroom hiding from your family. That's true. Also, Marshall, the Texas A&M fan, email us back and tell us what the hell happened in that game. We'll talk about it on the mailbag show on Thursday. If you give us an update.

but people were dying to know. Yeah, what did you do? And hopefully Marshall's okay. Yeah, he's an A&M fan, and it was a rough, I cannot believe they scored only three points at home in a playoff game. Yeah, Marshall may have been inconsolable, and the in-law, the future in-laws may have been, like, get out of our house. We'll find out.

I hope he didn't lose his girlfriend and his favorite team in the same day. I don't know. Marshall, please emails. We're dying to know. And if you don't, we're going to fabricate it. Exactly. So hang with us all week. Well, let's do a little bowl pick-em on Tuesday, Ari.

That sounds great. Bowl pick-up coming up tomorrow. We'll talk to you then. So we finished recording Monday show, and then there was a hell of a press conference from Michigan interim head coach, Biff Poji, talking about his desire to not be the interim head coach, the desire to be the permanent head coach.

In it, he called Michigan football a quote-unquote malfunctioning organization. I felt like we needed to address that on today's show. So I recorded another YouTube video and we're tacking this discussion on to the end of the podcast here. So podcast's not over yet. Let's talk a little Michigan football and hear some very unfiltered takes from interim who hopes to not be interim coach Biff Pogie. Michigan interim coach Biff Pogie minced no word. on Monday discussing the Michigan football organization,

which he called a malfunctioning organization. Biff Pogh wants the job permanently. He has interviewed for the job, and the Michigan coaching search, as we know, continues to go on. The thought was they were going to try to get Alabama head coach Kalin DeBore. Kalin DeBore's team won in Oklahoma on Friday in the first round of the college football playoff.

DeBore had already said he wasn't leaving Alabama. he's definitely not leaving Alabama now. Michigan, still looking for a coach. Biff Pogh is the interim. He wants to be the permanent head coach. So you've got other candidates. You've got your Jeff Broms and your Clark Lees, maybe Jed Fish. But Pogie has interviewed for the job, and right now he's running the program.

And it's interesting because he worked with Jim Harbaugh there. He then came back and worked with Sharon Moore after a period as Charlotte's head coach. His son, Henry, played for the team at Michigan. So he's got a lot of experience with it. And for those who don't know, Bif Poggi was a hedge fund manager in Baltimore, who then created a high school football powerhouse at St. Francis in Baltimore. And then Jim Harbaugh hired him to be kind of a consigliary at Michigan. And so Poggi's been around this program quite a bit.

He was 2-0 as the acting head coach this year in Sharon Moore was suspended, and he was put in charge when Sharon Moore was fired. Now he's telling it as he sees it when it comes to the mission organization. I'm guessing if he says this in public, Lord knows what he said in his interview. Everything that happens in this building has to be re-evaluated, quite frankly, because it is not up the standard. The staff has to be re-evaluated. And I mean the coaches, I mean the, you know,

The analyst, I mean, everybody in the building, except Dave, but has to be evaluated, our strength and conditioning, our nutrition, our medical, everything. Because obviously, it has been five years of, you know, let's just call what it is, a malfunctioning organization where there's something every year. And I know that I know what the athletic director has made very clear, he doesn't want any more of that. And so if I am named the coach, which again, I don't know if I am, but there will be a massive self-examination of what happens in this building. And you can expect a lot of changes. Very interesting way of putting it. So Bif Pogie mentioning that it's been something every year, and it has. You've got Matt Weiss, the offensive coordinator, who was arrested and charged with computer crimes and cyberstalking, essentially.

You've got the Conner Stallion stuff. You've got what happened with Sharon Moore. Now, I will point out, Bif Pogie was around for some of that. It was around for a lot of. that. So he can say I was an observer of this, or I didn't know, but he also was there. The other interesting part of him saying it the way he did is he said the athletic director Ward Manual wants it to stop. Now, there's a faction at Michigan that believes Ward Manual is part of the problem as well. So one of the questions that needs to be answered is who's

running Michigan's athletic department long term? Will Ward Manual stay in the job? There's an investigation going on now about all of this stuff and how it was allowed to continue happening, which I think if it goes the wrong way for Ward Manual, he will be out and someone else will be in. So I'm not sure if this is Biff kind of positioning himself as the candidate for Ward Manual and the one who wants to keep Ward Manual around. But that's an interesting way of him threading that needle. Now, again, Pogi, very interesting guy, successful hedge fund manager, started coaching in high school football at the Gilman School in Baltimore and was really successful there, took over at St. Francis, which was one of

those impoverished schools in Baltimore or a school in one of the most impoverished areas in Baltimore, built that into a national power that was constantly sending players to really good schools, gets in the Jim Harbaugh, gets the Charlotte head coaching job. Now, he didn't do very well at Charlotte. He was fired at the end of the 2024 season after going six and 16 over two seasons. That said, his successor at Charlotte, Tim Albin, didn't really do any better. He was 111 this season, and Mike Hill, their athletic director, got fired. So I don't know that his tenure at Charlotte, that Biftoge's tenure at Charlotte necessarily

disqualifies him from being considered for the Michigan job. He does understand a lot about what's going on here. He's involved with everybody. It's interesting that he talks about the reevaluation of everything. Clearly, he has some thoughts about what the staff should look like. And I would imagine that it's going to change if he were head coach. And obviously, if they hire another permanent head coach, it's going to get blown up and change too. The questions I think a lot of people have are, you know, what happens next for some of these Michigan players?

You know, if Biff stays, does that mean that Bryce Underwood would stay the quarterback? He was the number one recruit in the country, started as a true freshman this year. Biff got asked about Bryce Underwood today. A lot of fans kind of wondering what Bryce's status is. Do you expect him to be here next season? Bryce Underwood. Bryce? Yeah.

Well, certainly hope so. I would hope so. Yeah. I mean, you want to ask that question. You should probably ask him or his dad, or dad or mom, but he's not. I mean, we're focused on Texas right now. He's focused on Texas. Have you seen any film on Texas? No? Have you seen any? They got a bunch of monsters on their football team. So the answer to that is probably I don't know what's going to happen to Bryce Underwood. I mean, Biff's saying he doesn't know. And we don't know. But I think that is probably the key question is if you hire Biff, is it to keep the roster together, does it keep the roster together? If you're hiring Biff, is it for a long term or is it as a stopgap? Would you be hiring him because you felt like the other candidates didn't really meet what you wanted? And so you're going to let Biff do this for a year and then maybe look for someone else. I don't think Pogie is looking at it that way.

I think Biff Pogie is looking at it as if you hire me, you're hiring me to be the head coach. Michigan for a long time. And to be clear, he has interviewed for this job, and he made that very clear on Monday. I'm being considered. I've had multiple interviews, multiple conversations. And, you know, nobody knows what's going to happen. I don't know what's going to happen. I just appreciate being considered and we'll see what happens.

Biff has come a long way from his first appearance on this show and we had him on first year of Charlotte's head coach and it was one of the more fun interviews I've ever done.

Good question. I want to keep my sugar on it. No, no problem. This is one of college football is more interesting and more colorful characters. I don't know if he's going to be seriously considered for this job.

I'm not sure where that falls. I'm not, we're really not sure where the search is right now. Again, you have some names like Louisville's Jeff Brom, took Purdue to the Big Ten title game, took Louisville to the ACC title game in his first year back at his alma mater. He's obviously at his alma mater, but this is the Michigan job. Clark Lee at Vanderbilt, also a guy at his alma mater,

led Vanderbilt to a 10 and 2 season this year, did things that you never thought would be possible at Vanderbilt. This is the type of job that you might leave your alma mater for just like Jeff Brom might. So they have more traditional candidates. I have a column coming out on three where I mentioned even more candidates if they want to widen than that. New Mexico's Jason Eck, I think, is somebody who should get a look because I think Jason Eck is going to wind up being a head coach in the Big Ten. And it's one of those situations where you might want to get him before he gets you.

because what he did at New Mexico was one of the best coaching jobs you will ever see this season. He also was excellent in the FCS at Idaho before going to New Mexico. So I think he's won. Michigan probably should have been looking at him all along. If they want to widen the net, that's somebody

to look at. I also mentioned Tony Elliott, Virginia, and Mani Diaz at Duke. They play each other in the ACC championship game. I think both those guys have proven to be excellent head coaches. Manny got fired at Miami. I think He learned a lot as Penn State's defensive coordinator, has learned a lot as Duke's head coach and his second stint as a head coach.

Steve Spurrier, one of the only other guys who have won the ACC at Duke, he did okay after Duke. So, man, he might be one to consider too. Kyle Whittingham, who just stepped down at Utah, I think would be another one because Utah, that's a weird situation. They had Morgan Scally as the coach in waiting. It seemed like they're ready to move on from Whittingham. think Whittingham's lost a step. His team went 10 and 2 this year. They did have two bad seasons prior to that, but I think a lot of that was the Cam Rising injury. He was their quarterback. He got hurt in that Rose Bowl. And they kept thinking he was going to come back healthy and it never

quite worked out. But you look at the two years before that, they won the Pact 12 both of those years. So they've been pretty dominant. And Kyle Wittingham, who replaced Urban Meyer, by the way, as Utah's coach. That's how long he was coaching in Utah. He, his first season was 2005. He did nothing but win. And I don't think he's done. He's 66 years old, but I don't think he's done. And that's the other thing about this. And Bif Pogie sort of falls into this category too. It may not be for the longest time. You may not be hiring somebody to be there 20 years. I think at this point, if you can get a coach who can give you five good years, that's a good hire. The question is, can Biff Pogie do that? So Biff gets his chance to make his case

publicly. Whoever else is a candidate isn't going to be able to make their case publicly because they're in another job right now. They will make their case privately to the Michigan administration. But it is fascinating to hear somebody who is making the case. So we kind of have an idea of what Biff's saying behind the scenes. I'd imagine it's even stronger than what he's saying into an open microphone, but it's sort of hard to imagine it being any stronger than what he said. closes press conference on Monday with the question someone asked what makes you the best candidate for this job. Here's what they've said. Because I know what the hell I'm doing.

I have a long 10-year history of knowledge of this place. This place is really important. I mean, my wife and I had someone, one of our boys played here, Henry. And we have two daughters that most of you don't know about that. graduated from here, or are graduating, and this place has been great to them. One's a doctor, one's going to be a doctor, and Henry, talk about the power of Michigan. You all remember Henry. He's now an investment banker. This place is magical. And the program means a lot to me. And, you know, it's one of the things I want to fix before I

go smoke myself to death with cigars it's one of the things i want to fix i want to fix this program will biff pogey get the chance to fix the michigan program we'll find out