Andy & Ari On3 - Oklahoma STUNNED by Kansas | Oregon CRUSHES Utah | Georgia SMASHES Florida

Episode Date: October 29, 2023

Subscribe to On3! ⬇️ youtube.com/on3sports/Welcome to On3 | The best of college football and recruiting https://www.on3.com/Listen to Andy Staples On3 on podcast! Spotify 🎧 : https://open.spotify.com/show/5AhQ4d2m5TQu5Q2vkwtxjt?si=uLK1rMW7QOmLHcZK9URbOwApple🍎: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/andy-staples-on3/id1695325427Follow 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/Saturday was mostly chalk with the exception of a massive upset in Lawrence that made the Big 12 the first Power 5 conference this season where every team has a loss. Kansas beating Oklahoma could have major College Football Playoff consequences depending on what happens the rest of the way.Meanwhile...Tennessee beat Kentucky despite a great night from Wildcats QB Devin Leary.Oregon hammered Utah in Salt Lake City.Georgia dominated Florida in Jacksonville.Ohio State let Wisconsin hang around but pulled away late.USC won a thriller against Cal that shouldn't have been so thrilling.Washington survived Stanford.

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. Happy Saturday night. It has been quite a day in college football. A lot of chalk, but one incredibly shocking result that on the verge of the first college football playoff ranking really kind of makes things interesting because, you know, Jesse Simonson, we get all these questions about what if all these leagues finish with an undefeated champ?

Well, they're not going to because the Big 12 is going to have a champion that has at least one loss because all the teams in the Big 12 now have at least one loss thanks to Oklahoma's loss at Kansas. Yeah, there was a lot of consternation and content created, I think, specifically in the last two weeks about this supposed chaos scenario. The five undefeated champs, who would get left out? Who would get snubbed? No, Andy, we're looking at a chaos Big 12. Yes, yes. That'sy we're looking at a chaos big 12 yes yes that's what we're looking at potentially more chaotic as you go because you've got bedlam next week which could be the last

bedlam for a long long time state doesn't want to play anymore mark yep you got kansas state texas if kansas state wins they it puts them in the driver's seat for the Big 12 championship game, sort of, because they have a loss to Oklahoma State, which is still controlling. In the mix. In the mix. They've got one conference loss. Iowa State

is not there. They're taking care of business. It's just out there. And then Kansas. It's you know, again, ourselves included, we've talked a lot about the carnage in the Pac-12 and these teams cannibalizing each other in November. I think we're setting up for the exact same thing in the Big 12. I mean, you were right.

Today did go chalk, but I think we also – as chalky as it was, I think we also confirmed either some things or learned some things. I think a lot of folks thought that the Sooners were maybe a little bit of a paper tiger. They had the awesome win against Texas, but then you have kind of that game against Cincinnati where you go, uh. And then last weekend against UCF really kind of popped up the antennas. The run defense is not very good. They were super sloppy today, had over 100 yards of penalties, several turnovers. I thought they were going to get got at Oklahoma State next weekend.

That was the one that I had circled. But now that this loss happened, it's just the dominoes. Who knows? I mean, Texas, they took care of business today against BYU. Malik Murphy was just okay. They're in for it next weekend because Kansas State is just annihilating things. They have not allowed a touchdown, Andy, in nine quarters. And they did it differently today.

Today, it was not Avery Johnson and Will Howard. It was Will Howard had the hot hand, so they stuck with him. Avery Johnson did not play as well. So you don't know what you're going to get if you're Texas next week. And Oklahoma State messed around with Cincinnati for two and a half quarters and then blew them out in the third quarter. Yeah, I mean, this is a very – it has become an extremely competitive and interesting league.

I don't think the way it looks right now, I'm not sure there's a college football playoff contender here because I don't think Oklahoma is one, even if they do win out, because I just don't think that they've been overly impressive writ large. But we'll see. Texas win over Alabama helps, but Texas has to keep winning. It does. Exactly. And if Texas can take care of business again against the Kansas State team that in the last three weeks has just blown the doors off people. Like you said, Will Howard was fantastic today. He had one incompletion in the first half, 150 some odd yards, two scores.

You know, they got that two headed tailback. They got the ward kid from Florida State Gibbons. You know, they are a solid football team. And Chris Kleiman, he likes that they have this, you know, kind of lunch pail will show up anytime, anywhere. Let's find out next week. It's gonna be a big game. Yeah, that is going to be a fun one, but let's talk about this Oklahoma Kansas game a little bit because, oh, by the way, North Carolina, Georgia tech still happening. North Carolina just fumbled. Georgia Tech takes over up four with 254 to go. So we'll talk about that one when it ends. But so this game, I did an instant reaction video,

and the Oklahoma fans were all over Jeff Levy for being very conservative. Remember, Oklahoma intercepts a screen pass with basically like two minutes to go, or well, with about three and a half, four minutes to go. And second turn, second pick in the fourth quarter. Yes. And they don't do anything with it. They go negative two yards and three plays three and out.

And then they punt and everybody's killing Jeff Levy for being conservative on that series. How about kill your defense for letting Kansas go 80 yards in 61 seconds? That's why you lost. It's not because they went conservative offensively. You lost because you let Kansas go through you like a hot knife through butter. Yeah. I mean, I thought it was just kind of a complete team meltdown

because the offense did not play particularly well early. And then the defense could not, again, they could not stop the run at all for the entire game. And, and, you know, credit to the backup quarterback, you know, he made two big mistakes in the fourth quarter, but he led them down the field. He had that touchdown drive where it looked like he was Usain Bolt running down the sideline there in the early, in the second half. I mean, you know, the fact that you beat Oklahoma for the first time in 19 years without Jalen

Daniels is rather remarkable. I think you said it on your live show. I wrote it and kind of some takeaways from what this game meant. You know, the check for Lance Leopold just went up, you know, the price just went up. I mean, his, his agent, uh, is going to be fielding calls from Michigan state and others. And Kansas fans don't want to hear that after their biggest program win and, you know, several decades, but kudos to him and what he's done with that team and that school. It's remarkable.

And I don't think we can call Jason being the backup quarterback anymore. I think we got to call him the starting quarterback because Jalen Daniels has been out for a while. You kind of wonder, Jalen Daniels only played in three games. Cam Rising 2.0? Yeah. He could redshirt. He could be somewhere else next year or back at Kansas next year,

depending on how things go. And I think that's the thing you got to think about. And then still he's there if he wants to take part in the rest of the season, if he feels healthy enough, he can do that too. So I, the job that Leipold's done there is absolutely remarkable because you got to remember he got it the day of the spring game in 2021. They fired Les Miles in the spring because it was all that stuff was coming out about what happened at LSU when Les Miles was the coach. So they fire Les Miles and Jeff Long, the AD at Kansas at the same time. And it just I mean, I cannot believe how quickly Lance Leipold turned them into a winner.

It's not like they're this cute little story. Like, they straight up beat Oklahoma today. And they straight up beat Oklahoma, and they're going to back-to-back bowl games for the second – back-to-back seasons for the second time ever. And this is off a program that he inherited that went 0-9 off that tire fire from Les Miles and then to take over after the spring, to beat Texas in year one, to get college game day

and get them ranked last season to where they're 6-2 now. You use the word, and it's not hyperbolic. It is legitimately remarkable what he has done with perhaps i think when he inherited it the most moribund program in the country at that time yeah and they had you know serious scholarship deficit all of the stuff that they had to deal with and i mean they're they're not just plucky. Like, they are legit good. And, you know, last year they started off with this. And they run fun stuff.

Yes, they're fun to watch. I mean, they run like the quarterback. They run like a quarterback reverse pitch, you know, to the Wildcat quarterback. And he's throwing it. I mean, they're fun. Yeah. By the way, Tez Walker was the player on that North Carolina play. He's still down. And Mac Brown's out there. And it's been a while. So we'll let you know as that goes on too. But this is just one of those things. The Big 12 is going to maybe eat itself. The Pac-12 might eat itself. I don't know. This was another, you know, we,

we can get to Washington and Stanford because Washington barely survived. Stanford got lucky that they dropped a pass on a fourth down play where they could have probably done it. Tez Walker is up there. They're helping him off off the field i'm sure he's done for the night i hope hope he's all right but let's talk about the the premier game in the pack 12 on saturday and that was oregon utah and it was never close oregon just smashed utah they rolled down the field on the first series, Andy, and you could just tell this was going to be a long, long afternoon for the youths. They'd won 29 to 30 at Rice Eccles. That place is a house of horrors.

And yet, you know, the Bo Nix road woes or whatever you want to call them, you know, that whole theme died today because he was brilliant in the first half, three total touchdowns, I think. And Oregon's defensive line just controlled the line of scrimmage. I mean, Utah could not do anything on the ground. Bryson Barnes, the pig farmer was a fun story for a week,

but he got put back in the pen today because he just got hounded by the Ducks, you know, all afternoon. Well, and you kept wondering how long Utah was going to be able to put it together and string this offense together. You can only duck it so long. Right. And I thought after they lost to Oregon State that everybody kind of had the blueprint, but it didn't work out that way. They wound up reeling off some wins. But Oregon just flat out better. And Oregon does seem to be on a mission

to get back to playing against Washington. I kind of think Oregon and the Beavers, like the Beavers may be the thing standing in the way. They may be the only thing standing in the way. Yeah, well, I mean, I don't know. How do you feel on this? To me, Oregon, they have the loss to Washington heads up. I think they're the best team in the PAC 12. I think there's a good chance of that. We get, we need to see them beat Washington because Washington won that game fair and square. But I absolutely do think if we see

that again, that there's a really good chance that Oregon wins that game, especially it'll be in Vegas. It wouldn't be in, in Seattle. So I'm excited about the way the pack 12 is going to finish up the, there's not much else to say about the Oregon Utah game. Bo Nix was awesome. Efficient again, 248 yards passing on 24 and 31, two touchdowns. Bucky Irving, 83 yards on 14 carries. They carried 27 times for 142 yards, three TDs. They were super efficient today. Defensively, they played great.

That's really all you need to say. They whipped Utah. Elsewhere in the Pac-12, and this is a team that has to play Washington and Oregon, and we thought was going to be a contender. USC survives Cal in a game that started off delayed by a

protest, as one would expect in Berkeley. Jesse, do you remember why the protest was happening? I actually did not see what this protest was about. Oh, this is a good one. Okay. So there was a professor suspended for allegedly stalking another professor.

And the protest was... We got a Lifetime Original breaking out here. Yeah, the protest was in support of the professor who was accused of stalking this professor professor by the way according to i guess the investigative reports did admit to some light stalking or possibly some heavy stalking and so i will repeat the protest was in favor of the professor doing the stalking, not the one getting stalked. So there you go. Higher education.

But game starts. Cal races out to a lead. They were up, I think, 28-13 in the second quarter and had a lead toward the end. They end up getting within one, could have kicked the extra point and gone to overtime, but decide to go for two and toward the end. They end up getting within one, could have kicked the extra point and gone to overtime, but decide to go for two and win the game, and they don't get the two and they lose.

But USC is not what they were supposed to be. It's just another embarrassing performance by their defense. Washington is going to destroy that defense. Well, I know you were in. I think Ari Wasserman, your former podcast buddy. We were in the same press box. In the same press box today in Jacksonville. I think his favorite word for these sorts of games is grab ass.

This game was the grab ass game. I mean, I don't know. USC gave up 550 yards again. They actually had four takeaways, but they needed 21 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to beat a legitimately terrible Cal team. We should also note that Wilcox went for two, correctly so, because you don't have anything to lose. The ESPN, Galloway, and Matt Berry were saying kick the extra point. No. Go for the win.

He had nothing to lose. You've been getting hammered in the fourth quarter. Yeah, so do that. They could have tied the game and gone to overtime, but he goes for the win, and the Trojans finally get a key stop. What's the most annoying thing about these things, Andy, isn't that it's just the same performance each week. It's that each week Lincoln Riley then goes in his post-game press conference

and says these bizarre statements like, we're right there, we're close. Yeah, no, you're not close. And you play Washington and Oregon back-to-back. I mean, it's just, dude, read the room, man. Say less. Well, at some point he has to explain why he's kept Alex Grinch around. And I mean, like people close to him have told him, for your sake and for Alex Grinch's sake,

this was last offseason, you need to get rid of him. Because the longer he's here and under this microscope, it gets worse for him when he goes to try to find another job. This was pre-400, 500-yard game showing. Jenna says USC needs to recruit a defensive line. Riley is an offensive line. No, he's not. They don't have a is an offensive line. No, he's not. They don't have a good offensive line either.

No, they don't. And they finally at least gave Marshawn Lloyd double-digit carries tonight. He had like a buck 15 on 16 carries. I mean, they're unserious. And they technically are alive in the Pac-12 because they have just the one Pac-12 loss. But, yeah, unserious. How much is Michael Pinnock going to throw for against them next week?

Yeah, probably 400. And Bo Nix and Bucky Irving and company will rack up 600 yards on them too. Yeah. Oh, it's going to be ugly. It is going to be so ugly. They will score. I will say this. They will score on the Huskies because the Huskies have warts defensively.

Kalen DeBoer was concerned coming into the season that they had a lack of depth, and they've suffered a few injuries, haven't been significant ones, but you start losing some numbers numbers and suddenly you see these performances in back-to-back weeks where it's like, what's going on, fellas? Well, let's talk Washington. They beat Stanford 42-33. It was much closer than that score indicates. Stanford had a fourth down play with about three minutes to go ran a trick play basically the ball

was dropped and that's what happened oh Georgia Tech is going to beat North Carolina by the way they've run for about 250 yards in the fourth quarter the LHF yeah yeah well we'll talk about that in a second but Washington survived Stanford the second week in a row Washington has gotten very close to losing to a team it had no business losing to. It was Arizona State last week. This week it's Stanford. This one can't be blamed on a hangover following the Oregon win. Legitimate concerns for the Huskies right now.

Yeah, I mean, you gave up, up I think you talk about how many yards uh Michael Penix is going to throw I mean Caleb Williams again I think he's going to match whatever Penix does because the Huskies gave up I think almost 370 or something to Daniels tonight at Stanford and he's some, you're ranking all the awesome quarterbacks in the Pac-12. You're naming 10 or 12 names before you get to Ashton Daniels in that conference. And so the fact that you have that performance, he can run the ball really well. He's a guy that can really hammer teams with his legs, but he is not known for being a prolific passer. And for him to put up that kind of performance on Washington's secondary, again, you know what their trap game is going to be in a couple weeks is,

you know, they're going to still have to go bang heads with Utah. Yeah, exactly. And Utah's going to be able to score on them, unlike Oregon. Right, right. And so that's going to be an interesting – we could see much like the Pac-12, the carnage could continue here. Yeah. And as we speak, you know, Arizona's kicking off to Oregon State in the second quarter and Arizona's up 10-7. That's a game that bears watching as well. There's a lot to talk about, a lot going on. Let's talk about the ACC because we just saw North Carolina go down to Georgia Tech.

So two losses in a row for North Carolina. Remember, Jesse, do you remember, I don't know, eight days ago when we thought North Carolina and Florida State would both be undefeated in the ACC championship game? Eight days ago, I think it was North Carolina, Florida State, Duke, and Louisville all had zero acc losses and now and now duke's lost twice uh two more times you got how'd louis to pit i realized that you i realized it was right after they beat notre dame

but you saw pit go to Notre Dame and get annihilated. That you want to talk about like witnessing a murder. I know that's not the ACC. That's the ACC film. That was the ACC, you know, ACC adjacent, ACC stepsister, what the Irish did today. That's like not suitable for work type stuff. I mean, it was a body, But to this game, North Carolina, it has been a house of horrors for them going to Georgia Tech. This is now back-to-back losses also to Brent Key and the Yellow Jackets. Their defensive improvements, you know, RIP.

Gene Chizik was getting a lot of acclaim two weeks ago for some of the strides that group has made. And now Virginia last week drops 30 something on them. You get hammered for 250 alone in the fourth quarter on the ground. Yikes, Tar Heels. Yikes. Yeah. And I hope, hope Tez Walker's going to be okay. It was a kind of a scary scene there at the end. It looked like he was out. And so hopefully he'll be all right. But that, I mean, they're, what's the ACC? Okay, well, one thing. Florida State hadn't beaten Wake Forest since 2018.

Came out and blew the doors off the Demon Deacons on Saturday. They look great. Florida State seems to look better and better every week so we can assume even if florida state were to slip up to miami we should probably assume florida state's in the in the acc championship but who's opposite them is it louisville i think it probably is louisville don't you think because they they just played. Shut out, Duke. Duke did not run a play in the Louisville red zone. Yeah, and I think that might – I don't remember exactly the rest of Louisville's schedule,

but I think because I know they avoid North Carolina. Right, because they avoid North Carolina, Florida State, it doesn't matter with Clemson, whatever. We can talk about them. The existential crisis they're about to go through or are going through currently. I think I would at least lean towards Louisville. Miami, though, still is in the mix because they survived a massive scare today.

They play. Miami survived Virginia. Louisville and Miami play on November 18th. So you do get to see that game which you know may have something to do with with all of this which wouldn't it be wild if if it's two Florida State Miami games but I don't think that's going to happen because I think Louisville's not Louisville might not lose another one it's hard to trust the canes i mean like what would you know they put the way they played last weekend and then you see them today and you know they were losing for

the majority of that game to virginia uh the acc is wild i mean clemson another loss just a horrible loss they have four conference losses you know it's October still how's this possible how much do you think DJU's dad and DJU are just smiling about all those stories last season and then they came out this offseason and they they they put their name in front of it and they were like what Dabo and that offense is doing was limiting me it was limiting our team and that's why i decided to leave dabbo clearly picked k club nick over dj at the end of last season which also obviously prompted the transfer but club nick ain't it that offense it doesn't garrett riley it it looks exactly the same as what they were doing a year ago.

Yeah, I'm not sure they're letting Garrett Riley call his own offense. They probably said, you call this offense, which it's ugly. And Dabo said it on his radio show the other night a couple weeks ago. You got to lose a couple to get the bandwagon people to jump off the bandwagon they're off don't worry they're off now you got the true believers with you now i think that bandwagon is leaking oil fast yeah yeah uh so jd the guitarist in the chat says clemson loss makes lsu or at least makes FSU look worse. Yeah, but FSU is killing people and they did beat LSU as well. So that helps. Yeah. I think the fact that the ACC seems even more watered down two weeks later than it was when they were also talking about, you know,

potential tiebreak scenarios atop the ACC, if all these teams finished undefeated. I just think if Florida state wants to make the playoff, they do need to go unscathed. Yes. Because this conference now has kind of – it's sinking more towards the middle from where it was a couple weeks ago. Right. And like the most respectable team left on their schedule

that you could lose to I think is Miami. Because by the time Florida gets to them, that record's not going to look real good. Right. Yeah, so I don't think there's anything they can do but go undefeated. Which, again, the playoff picture ahead of the first ranking on Tuesday night feels like it is sorting itself out already. Let's talk about the team that you watched live today let's shout let's do that so i was at

i was at the florida georgia game in jacksonville florida roars down the field great opening script scores a touchdown holds georgia to a field goal in its first possession and then georgia just demolishes the caters from that point forward. It was, Florida goes forward on a fourth down on the next possession. Fourth and inches instead of tush push, they run, they snap it between Graham Mertz's legs to Trevor Etienne who could have run or thrown and instead got tackled.

And then Georgia just turns the afterburners on and that's it. Now, it was a legitimately stupid play, but it was a legitimately cool play. It was a great idea. You got to go for it on fourth down there in that situation because you're not as good as them. They are more talented. You have to take chances. But you have a 6'5", 200-something pound quarterback.

Like, you can push him. And Zion Logue, the Georgia defensive tackle, was like, we were sure they were going to do the Eagles thing. That's interesting. I didn't see that after. But here's a stat for you. After, so they also ran that double reverse that got blown up a couple plays earlier on that very drive. So they dialed up two trick plays on that drive.

Yeah, that was on the first down that kind of stalled it out. Right. After that blown up fourth down, Andy, Florida had 16 plays over their next four drives. And this is just when it became game over. 16 plays over their next four drives. They netted a minus 24, negative 24 yards. They went punt, another turnover on downs, sack fumble, safety. I mean, Georgia looked for the first time all season

like the unquestioned best team in America. This is like what Michigan has been doing to lesser Big Ten opponents, just straight bludgeoning them. I mean, what was it, 36 unanswered points to really just put the game away. Carson Beck with a great big-time homecoming back in Jacksonville. You're worried about no Brock Bowers away. Carson Beck with a great, you know, big time back in Jacksonville. Yeah. You're worried about no Brock Bowers, but Carson Beck looked great. They spread the ball around the lad. McConkie was fantastic. He was basically whenever they needed lad McConkie to make a big catch. He did.

Yeah. And his, and his, that, that first touchdown he had where he, you know, somehow saw the field peeled back back left, and then just raced. I mean, that was a great play. Rah-Rah Thomas, or excuse me, Dominic Lovett. Yeah, Dominic Lovett had a nice. Big catches. Yep. And, you know, Kendall Milton and Dajon Edwards just kind of.

Georgia's offensive line. They have done this the last couple of seasons. And this is, again, what did we learn or what was confirmed? The last couple of seasons. And this is, again, what did we learn or what was confirmed? The last couple of years, Andy, as someone that we've watched this Georgia team so closely, they have turned up this gear coming out of the bye week. Yeah. It kind of started with this Florida game,

and then it kind of propels the rest of it. Now, we'll find out if it's sustainable, but what they did today is similar to what happened the last couple of seasons. Oh, there's consternation or worried that the pass rush isn't there. They come out today and they have five sacks and they hound Graham Mertz. That was the first, by the way, first fumble recovery they've gotten all season. Right. And I, and Kirby kind of talked about that afterwards about, you know, they'd been a little bit snake bit there, but they come up with that. The offensive line finally just started pushing.

And Florida's got a good front seven. Florida has a shaky secondary, but their front seven with those two transfers inside Cam Jackson, Shamar, you know, at linebacker, I know he's kind of, you know, banged up before the game, but he played most of the game. Yeah, thanks to the turf, apparently. Thanks to the turf, yeah. But, I mean, it was an impressive performance

and one that I think Georgia needed to show. So before the game, I guess Dan Mullen on one of the halftime shows picked Florida to beat Georgia. Dan Mullen, former Florida coach, hasn't said a lot of nice things about the Gators this year in his role at ESPN. But he picks him to beat Georgia. And somebody asked Kirby Smart about that after the game. And, oh, boy.

And I don't see it or hear it, but I know it's out there. Somebody texted me before the game. It's like all these people predicting that we're not going to win today. And I'm just like, golly, where's that coming from? It's supposed to be my friend. He didn't like to recruit though, so it gets him. Talk about witnessing a murder. 1-8-7. Good Lord. Remember, it was there two years ago that kirby smart gives the you can't out scheme talent speech in that press conference and then poor david waters the following monday tries to lob a softball to dan mullen about recruiting to get dan mullen to say yeah we're

still recruiting too and dan mullen pulls the we'll talk about recruiting when get Dan Mullen to say, yeah, we're still recruiting too. And Dan Mullen pulls the, we'll talk about recruiting when it's recruiting time. When it's recruiting season. And then throws a hissy fit. And so everybody knew it was over at that point. It was done. Not great, not great. But that's what Florida's up against. They are trying to reach that level of talent.

They have to recruit to it. Their youngest players probably are their best players right now. The best players seem to be the ones that Billy Napier has brought into the program for the past two years. The question is, will they be patient enough with him for as long as it takes to get enough recruiting classes so that that game is more even because they're the the talent gap is is the grand canyon right now well yeah and the other question is and i like billy a lot but the other question that you have to kind of pose when you're talking about this, Andy, is the plan makes sense. We're going to recruit and play and build our program in the image of Georgia. But can you do that?

Can you do that while Georgia isn't? It's being Georgia. You can't press pause on what's happening in athens and press fast forward on what's happening in gainesville it doesn't work that way and so that that's kind of the big existential crisis that florida fans and the florida people are having to deal with is billy's point billy's accumulating talent he's going to sign a top five class this year georgia has the number one class yep but i But I mean, that's what Alabama was. How do you make it? Alabama was still signing number one classes and Georgia was signing top two or three

classes and Georgia surpassed them. So if you, if you do it right and you evaluate right, then you, you can do it. It's, it's been done, but it takes, it will take more time because the situation Kirby inherited at Georgia, there was a lot more talent there. Mark Rick left a lot more talent behind. The canyon, I think we're talking about two different canyons. You're talking about the Grand Canyon right now between Georgia and Florida and like a tiny little, you know, the difference.

That's almost apples to oranges to me. Oh, yeah, yeah. Because Mark Rick left Kirby Smart a ton of NFL talent. you know the difference with it i i think that's almost apples to oranges to me oh yeah yeah because mark rick left kirby smart a ton of nfl talent like that that's one smith yeah nick chubb sony michelle exactly renzo carter i mean yeah yeah but the sec is going to get interesting george's schedule that looked so easy at the beginning of the year the next three games don't look easy at all they've got missouri ole miss now both of those are at home and then they're at tennessee i would worry about them in this stretch like if they can get through this undefeated they'll be fine like they're going to go into the playoff and they probably

get a three-peat but this this will be a tough stretch for them. They need to be tested. They were able to kind of skate by. Now we'll see. Ole Miss took care of business today against Vanderbilt. Quinshawn Judkins, back-to-back precise 124-yard two-touchdown performances. He's kind of found his groove after a really slow start. Tennessee, today was, you know, I did not expect a shootout against Kentucky. That was the best Joe Milton's looked.

That's the best Joe Milton and the best Devin Leary have looked. Yes, Devin Leary helped him out by QB score there, or QB draft score. And Jaden Daniels is off this week, so I'm screwed. He finally gave me a nice game after throwing up some stinkers. Yeah, Tennessee's defense was bad today. Josh Heifel needs to quit bitching about the officials. I mean, that's just, you know, he did another.

He's just not going to endear himself with that group when he continues to kind of show them up in the postgame press conferences. And there were some misholds again. do you what do you complain about you yeah exactly he won but Milton I thought was impressive he took care of the ball he only had a couple incompletions Tennessee's always going to be able to run the ball um you know they Dylan Sampson and and Jalen Wright well just two heads tandem lost their left guard and left tackle during the game tonight still ran 47 times for 253 yards and two touchdowns that was impressive that was very good and and they salted the game away with the run when they needed to formatted offense won the game and right they didn't that's not a team i would expect to be able to do that and they did which was very impressive yeah I agree what what that's uh and you know they host they're still in the mix you know they

do have two losses so they're gonna need a lot of help but they could at least play spoiler and they host Georgia in a couple weeks on Rocky Top. Well, and that's the thing. They've just got to hope that Missouri or Ole Miss comes through and can beat Georgia. I don't like – the problem is we've yet to see that old Art Bryles offense beat a Nick Saban or Kirby Smart coached defense. We haven't seen it yet. So I'm sure it'll happen eventually,

but it seems like a bad stylistic matchup. And there's also, there's also kind of, you know, notions out there, Andy, that the more of these sec teams see this defense, the more they've kind of caught on. And that's kind of been some of Tennessee's, you know, offensive struggles this year, particularly in the passing game, that folks have started to adjust a little bit to the tempo. They understand some of the wide hashes. It's not, you know, it's not, oh, we haven't ever seen this before, like the triple option.

You know, you face it a couple times and you suddenly have some, you're able to read your keys a little easier and get some beats on stuff. So they also have to play Missouri too. You know, there's. Exactly. That's another tricky one. And that one's in Columbia. Yeah.

These teams could all beat up on each other. So. It'll be, it'll be fun to watch down the stretch. Again, if Georgia, I gotta tell you, Jesse, if Georgia plays the way they did on Saturday, they're gonna win these next three and they're gonna go to the SEC championship game. Oh, I agree.

And they'll be able to beat whoever they see in that game too, if they're playing like this. But we've seen variability with Georgia, whereas the previous two years, we didn't see any variability. I agree, I agree. But today, today they looked as impressive as any team, the way they just kind of, yeah, okay, you give up an opening script drive and then to just completely stuff Florida into a locker for the next three quarters was, was a strong showing.

It was great. Let's move to the Big Ten. Ohio State, Wisconsin. Ohio State lets them hang around. Then you have a very special Marvin Harrison Jr. catch for a touchdown. Like, once again, we have him and you don't. You have no chance as long as we have him and you don't. And I think that applies to everybody they play until they play Michigan. Yeah, I mean, they struggle to score 20 points again, Andy. That's,

and I know Wisconsin's defense is feisty, but they're not, they're not, I wouldn't call them good. Right. This is, this is, Ohio state is, is kind of they're, you know who they are. They're ill and they're, they're Iowa of the last couple years only with the best player with the elite offensive talent yes well specifically what like with specifically the best offensive player in america who happens to be a cheat code yeah uh and so you know i don't think it's going to definitely be enough to beat Michigan, but they're winning by.

I mean, they're winning ugly. They're winning these grind-out games. I really don't understand. Luke Fickle, I thought he had some plays today, punting there in the second half. I thought he should have gone. They got kind of screwed at the end of the first half with the overturned touchdown, and he still settles for a field goal.

You know, I don't know. You don't have anything to lose. You're almost, you know, a 15-point underdog. You know, I kind of like – The Big Ten West is a mess anyway, so. I like Braden Locke. I feel like he's gotten comfortable since he took over from Mordecai. Like, it was very ugly in the Iowa game when he took over from Mordecai,

but it feels like he's more comfortable now. I think he's better than Tanner Mordecai, like it was very ugly in the Iowa game when he took over from Mordecai, but it feels like he's, he's more comfortable now. And I think he's better than Tanner Mordecai. He could be. And so the, the big 10 West can be very interesting because Wisconsin will have its say, but guess who's not out of this thing yet.

The corn Huskers of Nebraska, they be Purdue 31, 14. They look better and better every week, Jesse. Yet, the Cornhuskers of Nebraska, they beat Purdue 31-14. They look better and better every week, Jesse. And they're on a nice little winning streak. They are one win away from bowl eligibility. And look, bowl eligibility for Nebraska is a fine goal. Be happy with that.

Don't worry if you get that, great. But they're going to get that. Like, they play Michigan State next week. They should win that game. They play Maryland after that. Maryland just lost to Northwestern. Then they've got Wisconsin and Iowa. They could win all of these games. They could go to the Big Ten Championship game and play Michigan again. I don't want to do that. Folks will poo-poo the whole bowl eligibility thing. They haven't made a bowl since 2016. This would be a big deal in Lincoln.

This would be a big deal. And it would show a proof of concept in year one for Matt Rule. He's already recruiting better. Yeah, I doubt they went out andy but i wouldn't be surprised if they win three or four i mean maryland's going in all the wrong direction yeah iowa iowa can't cough and get well i was i would regress to the mean with that loss to minnesota because they kept you, you look at it like success rates. They kept having a lower net success rate every game and winning.

That's not sustainable. Eventually that comes back around and evens out. So that's what's going on with Iowa. And Nebraska is just, it's, think about if they beat Minnesota. Think about if they don't turn the ball over as they're salting the game away against Minnesota. They're in the driver's seat in the West if that happened. Well, that's the difference. I mean, Jeff Sims had four or five picks in like 30 attempts.

Yeah, I mean, they were going to lose to Colorado, but yeah. Right, but I'm just saying like in that Nebraska game or in the Minnesota game and then Colorado, turns the ball over a million times, you lose those games, suddenly you stop just handing your opponent free possessions and you're in these ballgames. That 3-3-5 defense, the Big Ten hadn't seen a whole lot of that, and it seems to be working fairly well for the Coin Hustlers right now. Yeah, they've done a very good job. So I, I I'm really impressed with, with this and, you know, it,

look, it's not perfect. Are they, are they any in any danger of going back to what the being, what they were in the nineties? No, not right now, but this is a, this is so much better than what they have been, where they were just losing all these one possession games that they shouldn't be losing and they should be happy with this right now and and if they can get bowl eligible get the 15 extra practices it's a big deal it is a very big deal one more game in the big 10 that i wanted to talk about is indiana penn state because penn state looked bad bad bad for most of this game. Then you get the end of the game where Indiana goes conservative. And then Penn State finally throws deep.

It's like the end of Zoolander. I turned left. I mean, James Franklin almost let Ryan Day beat him twice. That's what this was. I mean, this team almost let Ryan Day beat him twice. That's what this was. I mean, this team completely no-showed. Drew Allard was struggling. The defense was allowing an Indiana team that ranked last, last Andy in the Big Ten in scoring to kind of roll up and down the field.

And in the sequence that you're talking about, they get Drew Allard throws his first career interception, just a chuck and duck. Indiana gets the ball basically inside the 20-yard line. Very similar to the Oklahoma-Kansas situation. It was. It was. It was very similar. And they didn't go backwards, but for a guy that's coaching for his job,

Tom Allen and the offense, I mean, they just completely turtled. They ran the ball on second and eight and third and eight, kick a game-tying field goal. Allard comes out three plays later. He throws a 57-yard strike to Lambert, and then it's a sack fumble for a safety and the game's over. So this score looks 33 to 24. It was 24, 24 inside of like a minute and a half or two minutes. Let me, let me throw a scenario at you that just happened. Oregon state,

Arizona is going on as we speak. It's 10, 10. It's the final play of the half. Oregon state is lined up for a 34 yard field goal attempt. They fake it and get tackled. Do not score. Like, you have to score a touchdown because the clock is going to run out.

Why do you fake there to take the points? What you doing, Jonathan? I did not see that. Yeah, Jonathan Smith and Jed Fish, like, pointing to the locker room. Everybody get in the locker room because we're not going to get any luckier than that. Than them faking a field goal as time is running out in the half. So we'll see what happens in that game. But one other result I would like to point out, Jesse,

we've talked about several undefeated teams. I want to mention an undefeated team that is not going to make the college football playoff, despite the fact that I think they're going to go undefeated. The Falcons? It's Madison Dukes. Oh, the Dukes. I thought you were talking about Air Force.

Okay. Well, the Falcons, listen, I think the Falcons are going to make, if they keep going, they're going to be the group of five representative in the New Year's Six. And if there were a 12-team playoff, they'd be making it. They're going to be in an arm wrestling match with Tulane, I think. Yeah, but the Falcons are going to be undefeated.

If they lose, then I think Tulane probably jumps them. But the Falcons went to snowy Colorado State, snowy Fort Collins. Got pelted. Yeah. Did you see that? They threw flags on the Colorado State fans for throwing snowballs at the Air Force players. They went on the PA system multiple times and warned the fans to stop throwing snowballs at Air Force players. And then it got so bad, they had to literally throw an unsportsmanlike

flag penalty uh in the third quarter unbelievable in football equipment i don't think a snowball does a lot of damage unless somebody no you're a battery inside it but i i don't think it's it's that bad of a deal but it was a beautiful backdrop and air force again just keeps going. So we'll see if they can keep rolling. But I want to talk about JMU. This is the closest anybody's been to them. Old Minion gave them a fight, but JMU wins 30-27. They are now 8-0, 5-0 in the Sun Belt. They're not allowed to play in a bowl game.

It's the stupidest thing ever. They need to let them play in a bowl game. Don't you don't you uh i i concur i i rubber stamp that that uh sentiment i would also add if the ncaa doesn't relent and they won't allow them to play i think they ought to schedule a game with jacks jacksonville state that would be awesome awesome. Yes. Go play in Hawaii. Yeah, what are they going to do to them if they just schedule a game and go play? Like, how are they going to stop them?

They should have two middle fingers up at them. Because if you're not going to let them play, I understand the sentiment behind the rule, because they don't want teams just taking money to jump up and into the FBS. But when you clearly have been one of the best, or if not the best team in your conference, the last two years, let the boys play. Right. And the Suns, that's a good league. Let the boys play. They're not running through a league that is you know no a bunch of you know fcs teams they are running through a good fbs league i don't know you're right it let them do

it let them play it's it's crazy that they don't because one of the other things you're trying to avoid is you don't want like a an fcs team that has like a senior heavy roster to jump up, play in a bowl game, jump back down. They're not jumping back down. They clearly have the resources in place. They are a dominant program in a good league. Yeah. The rule exists for teams like Sam Houston state that, you know,

can't get a win right now keep coughing up potential wins but there should be some sort of exemption for programs like James Madison that dominated FCS and then come up and they just keep kicking the tails off these teams even in FBS so all right Jesse we we've covered this week pretty thoroughly. Let's turn the page to next week because it's a huge week on the field. Huge week on the field. Alabama LSU could determine the SEC West. You've got Missouri going to Georgia. You've got USC Washington. Kansas State Texas.

Kansas State Texas. Bedlam. Bedlam. Maybelam. Bedlam. Maybe the last Bedlam for a long, long time. It's going to be a huge week on the field. Michigan plays Purdue. Michigan's back on the field for the first time since all of this broke. All of the Connor Stallions and all of of it that is going to be wild jim harbaugh has to

come get in front of a microphone on monday on monday that is going to be wild what will he say pray tell oh he's gonna say i didn't know anything and i can't comment on an ncaa investigation you're covered there but the other question is what's going on behind the scenes what are the other big 10 teams saying to big 10 commissioner tony patiti who is really the only person who can do anything now but would you do anything now because i don't think you'd want to hurt one of your own teams that could potentially win the national title for you. Yeah, I'm there with you. I'm very skeptical that any punishment could be doled out by the Big Ten because they have zero impetus to do so. They want Michigan and that brand playing.

I'm sure Ohio State and Penn State and Nebraska and everybody else is furious. But it's, yeah. God, this is going to be. Well, does the faucet of information keep dripping too? Right. It got turned off because the games this weekend. But I think there's going to be some of these insiders that have been breaking this stuff. Does that faucet get turned back on? You know, that story that the Washington Post dumped

was extremely enlightening. And if they have that sort of information, here's a reporter's hunch that they're going to get more because you're talking to some insiders, if you're talking to folks that somehow have access to what it has been seen on michigan's computers exactly and i think at this point there's so much stuff out there that is you would have thought was unbelievable that has been proven already like when that organ guy posts the random screenshot, the Oregon fan posts a screenshot on ScoopDuck, doesn't even realize what he's posting. Because he's like, oh, this must happen everywhere.

Last year we were at the Oregon-Washington game and this guy was in front of us filming the Oregon sideline. And it turns out he was in a seat by my car stallions. Like the guy had no clue. Some Tennessee fan posted a ball quest. A Tennessee ball quest? Yeah. Like the guy had no clue. Some Tennessee fan. Tennessee Volquist. Yeah. That somebody had basically outlined the whole thing to them in December.

And they posted it. And everybody's like, yeah, that sounds like hooey. But no, 100% true. Golly. It is. Spicy. That story's wild it's gotten to the point where you you almost believe anything that comes out because it's been so bizarre so i yeah there is more to come with that more stuff's going to happen between now and then and then you've got you know the the pack two like oregon state washington

state gonna move forward is the pack two that's incredible well also on michigan one last thing i mean you also have at the same time dueling scandals with the fbi in town right with all the matt weiss stuff right and that's just an ad and that's just an added like distraction, fall, you know, and are we sure they're not really? I know that the University of Michigan police said one's not related to the other. Are we positive of that yet? I don't think we are. I don't know. It's it's it's a it's a it's a It's a web of something out there. Yeah, it will be a very interesting week in a lot of places. And yes, then we get to Saturday, the games are going to be bonkers. Because Alabama LSU is going to be crazy. We don't know what Alabama is going to show up. We know LSU can score like crazy. We also know LSU gives up points like crazy.

USC Washington. Washington has struggled these past two weeks to win, and USC, the defense, has to play against those receivers and Michael Penix Jr. That game is going to be wild. The Texas-Kansas State game, Texas still playing with a backup quarterback. Kansas State is crushing people right now. Then you even have – I mean, we didn't talk about this one, but it's whatever. They were supposed to win.

They were 17-point favorites. Texas A&M beat South Carolina. Oh, yeah. You took care of business. Now you've got to play Ole Miss. Now you've got to play Ole Miss. Yeah, so what happens if Lane runs it up there in Oxford on Jimbo? Again, there's storylines galore, Andy.

Storylines galore. Andy storylines galore, Jesse. I cannot wait. Can't wait guys. We'll talk to you Sunday night.