Andy & Ari On3 - Oregon BLASTS Oregon State | Arch Manning Era Begins at Texas | Iowa Escapes Nebraska

Episode Date: November 25, 2023

Oregon keeps its playoff hopes alive as the Ducks blow by the Beavers in the Civil War. Texas rolls by Texas Tech and freshman Arch Manning sees some action. Is he the backup to Quinn Ewers going forward?Iowa escapes Nebraska, as Kirk Ferentz and the Hawkeyes finish with 10 wins on the year. Plus, many more from Friday!Subscribe to On3! ⬇️ youtube.com/on3sports/?sub_confirmation=1Welcome 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/5AhQ4d2...Apple🍎: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...Follow Andy Staples on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Andy_StaplesFollow Andy Staples on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andy_staples/?hl=enFollow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/on3sportsFollow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/on3/?hl=enLike/Follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/On3Sports/

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. It is a post-game edition. I'm here at Ford Field. I just watched Penn State whoop up on Michigan State in a season that is blessedly over for the Spartans. It started with – well, it started Jesse Simonson with some guy on the Central Michigan sideline. I don't know who it is.

It looked like somebody else, but we don't know who it is. They can't find that credential, Andy. They still can't find it. Penn State found its offense, or maybe Penn State's defense helped. We've got to talk about what happened in Eugene. We've got to talk about what happened in Austin. This is a chalky day. Very chalky day, Jesse, but it sets up everything else. So the Pac-12 title game is now set. It is Oregon versus Washington. There will be

a rematch, and it will be spectacular. I think it's going to be great. I can't wait. This Oregon-Oregon State game, look, Oregon state played tough the first half, but you knew when Oregon marched down the field right before halftime, this was not going to be close. No, I mean, Brock cured, he called it. I mean, he basically said, you know, the way, or the way this game was unfolding, Oregon state had to have had to win the middle eight and Jonathan,

Jonathan Smith gets the team to go on this long, you know, clock-eating drive, 14-7. Looks like they're going to go into halftime with the ball to start the second half. You have a little momentum. Bo Nix takes them down in 30 seconds. He makes, you know, everyone was tweeting about it, his Heisman play where he throws back across, completely across the field.

Franklin breaks a tackle for, you know, what is essentially a 50-yard touchdown. Boom, the Ducks have all the momentum. And then really, Andy, this was the revenge game for the Ducks' front seven. And they were aided by, you know brother, Hounding, his big brother. They were aided by Jordan Birch, former five-star South Carolina transfer. He was just in the backfield constantly. They really bottled up Damian Martinez. You said it from the jump.

I can't wait for next Friday because that Pac-12 championship game is going to be bananas. It's going to be awesome. And, you know, I think the assumption is that Oregon wins. And if you look at the way they played common opponents, they would, but I just Washington style may be the toughest one for Oregon to face. Like Oregon's built, like Oregon was reconstructed to beat this Oregon state team. Like after what happened last year, Dan Lanning went back to the lab and reconstructed the Oregon ducks to not lose this game the way they lost it last year. And you saw exactly how that happened.

And I think no matter how this season ends for Oregon, Andy, a lot of folks, when they do kind of the autopsy on, on how the Ducks have gotten here so quickly under Dan Lanning, I think, to me, without doing this autopsy, I think you can just see the theme or the central answer to this question is, he watched what Kirby Smart's done at Georgia and said, we're going to build the most balanced, ruthlessly efficient team on both offense and defense. And I think that's what Oregon is compared to any other team in the country.

They are the closest to Georgia just in terms of being ruthlessly balanced on both sides of the ball. And Bo Nix, 33 of 40, 367 yards, two passing TDs and a rushing TD. So he will get another week, another game, where everybody's going to be watching him. Jaden Daniels does not get another game before the Heisman Trophy vote. I still think Jaden Daniels' numbers are going to make it tough if you do that blind resume thing.

But you also have the people who feel like it's a best team award, even though it's an individual award. And so I think Bo Nix has a chance in that showcase game in Vegas on Friday night to really show out and so does Michael Penix Jr. from Washington yeah and Bo's gonna get aided I don't know if you saw this because you might have been coming out from some from some postgame stuff there at Penn State but uh Fox flashed a graphic that I think is gonna get flashed a bunch in the next week that could aid Bo Nix's Heisman candidacy,

which is he is now putting up better numbers than what Mariota did in his season, winning the Heisman. And so they kind of flashed that side-by-side comparison. He matched, actually, Mariota's touchdowns 43 tonight. And obviously he's going to have more games to play, another game to play. But I think that's going to be something that, you know, Oregon has not been shy about promoting Bo Nix and that Heisman candidacy. I think that's something they're going to continue to kind of send out

and push over the next, you know, six days to kind of make sure that that's known by the thousand of people that have a Heisman vote. Well, and as well, they should. And the thing is, Bo Nix is an interesting case study because Heisman votes, people always talk about them in terms of regionality. And Bo Nix plays for a West Coast team, but Bo Nix is from Alabama. Bo Nix played three years at Auburn. People in SEC country are very aware of Bo Nix and actually like Bo Nix quite a bit I think you know nobody blames Bo Nix for what happened at Auburn Bo Nix happened to play for some Auburn teams that had it's interesting Jesse when Bo Nix played at Auburn what were the

two worst position groups on the team offensive line and receiver look at what he has around him in Oregon. Well, not only that, but I mean, Bo Nix, you know, he had, the Bo Nix road woes became kind of a narrative, but that's because he had to go on the road and was having to play Georgia and Alabama. You know, it's a little bit different when you get to get offensive line. Exactly. Exactly. But also, you know, he's a case of, you're not a finished product. Growth isn't linear. He wasn't done, uh, you know, as a sophomore, he wasn't done as a

junior and he has clearly worked tirelessly to not only improve, but I don't think you, me, or anyone in the national media thought this time a year ago, even 18 months ago, that Bo Nix had a legitimate NFL future. And now he's a guy that could not only be, not only will absolutely have an NFL future as a backup at minimum, but he could be a first or fringe early second round pick. And that just shows remarkable growth. If you'd have told me that a year ago or a couple of years ago, that Bo Nix would probably get picked in the first three rounds of the draft, I'd been like, no, absolutely not. No, but I mean, look at the command he has.

And I get it. He's older. He is older. And that matters in the, in the draft, but so was Hendon Hooker and he got drafted high. Exactly. Exactly. And, and Bo Nix has the same kind of command that Hendon Hooker had last year in his offense. And it's been fun to watch. And it's just the vindication of Bo Nix has been awesome. Because I remember when he was a freshman and he came in with all his expectations. And he got kind of thrown to the wolves. And then you had the whole good Bo, bad Bo.

And then that first year with Harsin. And it was just, I mean, he never got put in a position to succeed until he got to Oregon. Well, there's a real irony that he beat Oregon in his first game as a freshman. Yes. And yet it's wearing a Ducks uniform, because then the hype exploded, you know, the bow nose and all that that in week one of his freshman career, and then the expectations became a little outlandish, whereas now, flash forward five seasons,

he's started more games than any other quarterback in college football history, and he looks like he is going to live up to that five-star, or has lived up to that five-star billing wearing a Ducks uniform. It's been one of many cool stories in college football this season. Well, and the balance on this team is crazy. This one, this time it was Tez Johnson, 11 catches for 137 yards. By the way, Bo Nix is basically adopted. That's his boy.

Yeah, that's his boy. I mean, so this is, it's such a great story and it's, it's so much fun. And that game in Vegas is going to be awesome. Because remember, the first Oregon-Washington game was awesome. It really comes down to how you feel about going for it on fourth down on those three occasions. And I kind of hope it comes down to that again.

And we get to see these you know you gotta gain if you can gain these three yards you win if you can't gain these three yards you lose like I would love the drama of that again yeah and I think you know that's going to be a game where you know Oregon's defensive line seems to be on the ascent, Andy, and Washington's offensive line has been banged up at times. They did return a couple starters last week. We'll see what happens, obviously, tomorrow against Washington State, but I think that's a matchup that the Ducks are going to say, hey, Birch is peaking at the right time.

We got that defensive tackle. Mateo's coming on. Their defensive tackle, 55, I forget the guy's name, was in the backfield a bunch tonight. So they have to feel like, hey, yeah, they have to feel like, hey, we can make some plays. Now their secondary is apt to committing some penalties, but at the same time, Tashem Johnson and Dante Manning, you know, is apt to committing some penalties, but at the same time, Tashem Johnson and Dante Manning, you know,

and Kyrie Jackson, they'll get their hands on the balls too. So they'll say, hey, maybe we may tackle Roma Dunze for, you know, a couple PIs instead of giving up home run plays, but we may come up with a couple interceptions as well. So fantastic, fantastic matchup with all the capital S stakes. Now let's talk about another team that showed out on Friday night that is in the hunt for a playoff berth, the Texas Longhorns. Finally, Texas just torches an inferior opponent, shows off all that talent.

Now, I got a little worried for a second, Jesse, because it felt like every time I looked up, there was an important offensive player limping off the field. Like JT Sanders, CJ Baxter, Xavier Worthy at one point limped off. None of them looked particularly serious, but they were kind of coming off the field. And then at the end of the game, and I realized that this has nothing to do with the playoff picture probably,

but everybody wants to talk about it. Arch Manning takes the field. Makes his debut. I mean, he got more cheers for a five-yard run than a lot of quarterbacks get for throwing game-winning touchdowns. I'll tell you who had a rough night in Austin tonight, Andy. I really hope, Brett, you are marked. Either got to go to Terry Blacks or Franklins or something

because that was a trip that he already could not have been looking forward to. Then Texas completely splatters Texas Tech after he makes the wishes. You see highlights on the Jumbotron. Only showing us his art. And then at the end of the game, in the last 30 seconds, they literally put up his interview with Joey Maguire at the fan club just to troll him more. And the Longhorns crowd goes berserk again. So, again, I hope he got some good BBQ in Austin today because otherwise that is a rough one. They could have scored 75 points in this game, Andy,

if they had a red zone offense. That is literally – that's their bugaboo. They're 127th entering this game in five drives in the first half, they had to either settle for four field goals or Quinn through an interception. They could have put up easy 75 points in this game. Yeah. I was getting a little bit frustrated at first watching that. Cause I thought, okay, when are they ever going to just get off the shot? And then they did. And I think it was the long blue touchdown run was one of the ones that – Kick six off the foot. Yeah, and then returning the kickoff.

So, like, it was what you wanted to see because here's the thing. If we're going to talk player for player, Texas can play with anyone in the country, but they've had some things they need to clean up. They seem to be allergic to blowouts, but this was what they needed to do. This is what you needed to see from Texas right now. I mean, Sweat and Murphy inside are ridiculous.

Those guys. I love Sweat and Murphy inside are ridiculous. Those guys – I love Sweat so much. You talk about opposing guards, you know, having nightmares when they have to see who's coming up. Oh, my God. That dude, he's got some like – he's got some Jordan Davis in him just in terms of raw power of the way he just punches and gets into the backfield i mean

it's and moves incredibly he's 362 pounds like when he came on this show i i was like what are you weighing right now 362 and damn proud of it like that dude can move for it's just it's incredible how light he is on his feet for that weight who do you want them to play next week who did it like in terms of in terms of like we just thought you want them to play okay because i was gonna we just broke down the pack 12 game i want them to play oklahoma too yeah now here's the thing it has been all chalk this week. We got solid chalk on Friday. If it's all chalk, they're going to be playing Oklahoma State. And who knows?

Maybe Mike Gundy pulls off some magic. But it would take BYU beating Oklahoma State. Actually, let's talk about that. This is the scenario. BYU, Oklahoma State. If Oklahoma State wins, they are in. If Oklahoma State loses, Oklahoma is in. K-State is out at this point. Oklahoma with the score, Gami, today,

turning a one-score game into a 69-45 back-and-forth shootout. I mean, TCU, the vibes are terrible. I'll tell you this. Yeah, they were clobbering on TCU, and then TCU scored some. Yeah, that's why I said 28 straight points in the second quarter turned a one-score game just into a rout. Man, the vibes. It doesn't normally happen, Andy, that you go to the national title game,

and then a year later everyone's talking about how terrible things are behind the scenes at a program. But that seems to be where things are with the Horned Frogs right now. Meanwhile, Oklahoma has to feel pretty good. Brent Venable's 10-2 bounce back season. Whether you play in the title game or not, this is certainly, I think, the rebound that they needed to see after last year's tough year one.

Yeah, this is exactly what they wanted. The offense is clicking on all cylinders at the right time. But they were the ones who let the control slip out of their hands. They're the ones who lost to Kansas. They're the ones who lost in Bedlam. So they just have to watch. And they may not get another crack at it. And it's interesting, Jesse, because I was looking at the S&P Plus

and the fpi and all that oklahoma is actually ahead of i believe they're ahead of old miss and penn state i'm not sure if they're ahead of missouri in those but i think they're they're they're kind of right with them and so if oklahoma doesn't get to play in the past in the big 12 championship game they probably should be in line for a new year six Six Bowl, but they might not get it. Because if you look at the rankings, they're below all those teams. And I was here with Penn State tonight, James Franklin talking about playing in a New Year's Six game.

Missouri certainly feels like they're in. Ole Miss? I don't know if they're in or not. You're leading me down the path. I think of all the games we've seen so far the last day plus the Egg Bowl, these are all teams that are now in a log jam for only X amount of spots in these New Year's Six games. You just said it.

Ole Miss, Missouri, Penn State, obviously Oklahoma wants to see if they can crack that field. There's only so many spots. So Tulane, they won today to kind of stay in contention for the top G5 spot. And they ironically lost the Ole Miss. I think Tulane's got it if Tulane wins next week, they've got it. They beat UTSA. Now, SMU will determine who plays against Tulane. If SMU wins tomorrow, it's SMU.

If SMU loses, it's UTSA again. And maybe UTSA won't commit so many turnovers. Yeah, that was a – I think you tweeted out the Acme gift. I mean, that was some Yosemite Sam or whatever you want to call it. You know, roadrunner jumping off the Wally Coyote, blowing themselves up, shooting themselves in the foot. I mean, what, they had four turnovers

in the first half. You throw an interception on a fake punt. They outgained Tulane today, but Tulane got it. You know, you come up with the five turnovers. You get a couple stops on fourth down and you stay undefeated in AAC play. Yeah, this is – it was a day when there was just not a lot of drama.

The real drama came in Lincoln, in a game that didn't have any playoff implications, didn't even have any conference implications because Iowa had already wrapped up the Big Ten West, but Nebraska was trying to get bowl eligible. That game was back and forth. The dueling interceptions at the end, I tweet it's the dumbest game in the history of the sport.

Like, because you had Deacon Hill throwing a pick and then Chubba Purdy almost immediately after throws a pick. And somebody tweets at me, and I tend to agree, like Deacon Hill threw the interception on purpose to put Iowa in good field position to intercept a pass and set up a game-winning field goal by a kicker who hadn't kicked yet. I mean, you talk about just how much stupid was in this game. Chupacurri just fumbling the ball when he's just running

as if, like, you know, a Ghostbuster came and just punched it out from him. The Matt Rule clock management, Iowa having two short field goals blocked, just unbelievably stupid. And it was who could out-dumb, you know, or the next. And we got dumb and dumber and dumb and dumber too. And in the end, you know, Nebraska did what Nebraska does, which is lose close games. I think there are three in their last 18 Andy and one score games.

So three and 18 meter, the central Michigan kicker who had not kicked a field goal yet comes in because again, they'd had some blocks. So they wanted to try a different kicker comes in, kicks the game winner gets carried off. And he's the one carrying the heroes trophy around the field. How amazing was that? 10 and two in Nebraska, 10 and two in the regular season play in Nebraska,

didn't score over 22 points in Nebraska, 10-2 in the regular season play, and Nebraska didn't score over 22 points except for Michigan State in a single Big Ten game all season. This was a horrific, capital H horrific loss for Nebraska, though. Matt Rule, 5-3, and you lose four straight games, three by a field goal each, and then one in overtime to end the regular season that is brutal brutal stuff it is and this is a program that needed those extra practices now we watch the aprs we watch everything else because remember there might not be enough

six and six teams so perhaps because you like you got to take it if if that gets offered to you i know mississippi state's another one that could get the five and seven bowl because of the APR. Like they're the ones cheering that James Madison didn't get the waiver. Yeah. Yeah. You got to take that if you get a chance. So but yeah, Nebraska's got to get that figured out. I think Chubba of the quarterbacks they have probably ultimately gives them the best chance to win, but we'll see. Cause I think he's probably going to wind up in a competition with somebody else. I don't know if it'll be Jeff Sims and Heinrich Harburg again, or if it's going to

be other people, but they got to get that, that position figured out because like their defense was awesome this year. Their offense had a ton of injuries, but it was also inept at pretty much all times. So they have to get quarterback straight. In a weekend where we've been just grubbing out on awesome Thanksgiving food, I think calling Chubba the best of Jeff Sims in that quarterback room is certainly apropos to being the skin know, the skinniest kid, you know, that attended heavyweights camp because it is, it's, it's not, it's not a pretty bunch. I mean, that,

that obviously is an area that Matt rule absolutely has to hit the portal again and look for an upgrade this off season. Well, well, Rogers is available. Mississippi state quarterback, Pete, and on three reported that on Friday day after the Egg Bowl, Will Rogers plans to enter the portal. We're going to get a lot of these, Jesse. You know, if your coach gets fired, the portal opens immediately. If your coach does not get fired, it opens a week from Monday. There are going to be a lot of people in the portal. We're not going to speculate on guys

who aren't in the portal yet because we saw one other company do that and get shredded for it uh so we're not going to do that but i certainly have my thoughts on uh on some folks and there'll be some quarterbacks that are available yeah yeah and you know i this is something that i'm going to do teaser hopefully folks don't steal this idea. But kind of – It's late at night. Nobody's watching. It's lapping out. I've been mapping out, Andy, some of these transfer quarterbacks,

this past cycle and their successes. And, you know, spoiler, it really comes down to unless you are a Bo Nix that gets to stay somewhere for more than one season you are the outlier because if you are a plug and play one and done guy the likelihood is uh you are not going to really raise you know the championship ceiling or even the you know the bowl ceiling of your team that the the results thus far sample size is small, but the results thus far are not there. Whereas you and I both know every fan base on December 4th is going to be like, we won the day because we're rumored to get X transfer quarter.

Everyone thinks they're getting Russell Wilson. Everybody thinks they're going to rent Russell Wilson for a year, win the conference, and everything's going to be amazing. There's a reason that's only happened a couple times where there's been that one transfer who just – now, look, I will say, even if it had ended last year, if they'd both gone to the NFL after last year, Michael Penix Jr. and Bo Nix both really improved their team's fortunes

in that first year. But you saw this year what it meant in the second year. Yeah, same thing for Joe Burrow uh you know who he what won eight or nine games with LSU in year one and then comes back year two and and sets the world on fire and they win a national championship so it'll be interesting Will Rogers will certainly be the first of many many quarterbacks that are going to toss their name into the portal in less than a week here. Now, we said we wouldn't speculate. Tony in the chat wants to speculate. He says Malik Murphy should transfer.

I'm not going to talk about whether Malik Murphy should transfer, but I am going to say Arch Manning played. Jesse. He threw a couple seeds, too. That was a message, by the way. He got a full quarter. Here's the thing. Arch Manning's supposed to redshirt this year.

Arch Manning's going to redshirt this year. You know why? Because Texas can only play three more games. This was by design, Jesse. He's the backup going forward. Yeah, and what was also, I think, interesting about it, Andy, is that the reports came out earlier this week. Again, we're not going to speculate.

We'll see. But the reports came out that Quinn Ewers was 90% or something to that effect to come back to Texas this next season. And there was a lot of, well, what does this mean for Arch Manning? And I think, you know, this was maybe an indication of Steve Sarkeesian saying, Hey, we do see you as the future, not necessarily Malik. And we want to give you some burn when we can. And if Quinn does come back, maybe we'll still find ways to get you into the game where, where you're, you know, sophomore season or redshirt year two is not a complete sit on the bench type deal. Yeah. And, and I don't think they're looking at it as a, he must start or else, because

usually he must start or else people don't care if they redshirt, like clearly this was a plan. This was planned all along and there was a I remember talking to Bobby Burton after the Kansas State game because they were worried if Quinn couldn't come back for TCU Malik Murphy was turning the ball over at an alarming rate in the K-State game like they were worried they might need to play Arch then clearly they were trying to get within that four-game window so now he's played one they make the playoff, they could conceivably play three more. They're definitely going to play two more. So it's a question of if you need him, do you go to him or do you go to Malik?

Yeah, and we shall find out depending on how Texas plays a week from now and how the rest of the playoff field unfolds. How much, how much Jonathan Smith talk was, it was in the press box up there with you at Michigan. So much. And I put up DJ's DJ's comment in the chat. Jonathan Smith is a great coach. He wins with no NIL, terrible recruiting location and no history of winning. He would do great at Michigan state. He would do great anywhere guys,

but Michigan State seems to be the best job where he is in the mix for right now I think if UCLA were to open that would be one he's from Pasadena but I also wonder Jesse remember when the UCLA talk started after they lost to Arizona State and then it quieted down after they beat USC. I was kind of wondering if that was maybe, you know, because that's when everybody really was into Jed Fish. And perhaps that was a, okay, we're going to make a preemptive run at Jed Fish maybe before his alma mater, Florida, can try to get him after next year if they have to make a change.

But with Jonathan Smith, I don't know if UCLA is going to open. I think Chip Kelly may be safe. And if Michigan State wants you and you're Jonathan Smith and you're sitting there in conference limbo at Oregon State, even though it's your alma mater, take Michigan State. They have tons of money. You can get good players there. They have NIL resources.

It's a place you can win. And if you can win. And if you can win in this Pac-12 at Oregon State, you can win in that Big Ten at Michigan State. Well, and I think the biggest, the reason why it's kind of a puzzle piece, I think, that fits together nicely is that Jonathan Smith's going to bring stability and he's going to bring structure. And this is clearly a program that needs that from the fallout of Mel Tucker. And they're going to give him rope to do that, to build that. And the flip side of that, Andy, I think this is just, and it's not

unforeseen. You and I have been hearing this smoke and this has been behind the scenes. I think a lot of folks thought that whether it was Michigan State or somewhere else, that Jonathan Smith was probably not long for his alma mater. He's done a great job in Corvallis, but this is extremely destabilizing for that program, which now is entering a new phase in this sport that really, you feel gutted for those fans because halfway to end the season, and then now you're going to lose your beloved head coach. Tough. Is there some veteran coaches who are experienced in that part of the

country who seem to want to get back in right now? And like, maybe that's Bronco Mendenhall's job. If Jonathan Smith leaves, you know, like I, I actually think they're going to have some options that maybe you wouldn't think they would.

But if you're Jonathan Smith and a Big Ten school, you've got to take it. Gary Patterson would love that job. Yeah, he has his hand raised. I don't know if he'll get it, but he has his hand raised. Yeah, I mean, if I can get Bronco in that job, if he wants it, I would love to hire him for that job. I'm not Scott Barnes, so I don't get a choice. I don't get a choice. I don't get a vote. But I do think that Smith, wherever he lands would be good.

If he lands in the Big Ten, if it's Michigan State, the style of play he prefers would work in the league. Yeah, and this, I think, you know, it creates a – it's just another – if and when this goes down, it's just going to start to create, you know, some dominoes in the coaching carousel. And that's what I think is, is just going to happen with some of these jobs. It's, it's not necessarily who's getting fired so much this cycle, Andy, it's going to be who gets plucked and then who gets, you know, placed,

you know, into these openings. Yeah. And, and this stuff's going to come fast and furious now, Jesse. We could see jobs being filled as early as tomorrow. And well, it's tomorrow already on the East Coast. It's 1215 Eastern Time. So it's already Saturday. We could see jobs filled today. We're going to see jobs filled tomorrow. And then the ones that don't get filled today or tomorrow, assume that the person they're hiring is in a conference championship game.

Yeah. And, and this is all, a lot of this is, is the behind the scenes machinations where it's predicated on this transfer portal window that opens up December 4th. And you have to have your ducks in a row and you have to have an idea of not only who who's going to jump in the portal, who's going to leave your program from the portal and who are you trying to identify? So you need to have at least a head coach who has some ideas of what's going to be in place there. Less of kind of an emphasis, I think, on the early signing period for a lot of these transition programs because of the portal, but that's still at least a factor. So there's going to be, you know, I think some movement could happen fairly quickly at A&M, obviously Mississippi State. Those programs are looking, you know, to make some moves. And I think if the way those likely go down,

you're going to see movement then within other schools because they're likely to poach a sitting head coach. Yeah, we're going to see dominoes this time. It's not going to be a lot of coordinator ascensions. And there actually aren't a ton of hot coordinators out there right now. So we're definitely going to see some dominoes when the sitting head coaches get hired. It will be a fun one. Oh, we've got Dan Mullen.

Met with Syracuse AD John Wildhack on Wednesday. Yeah, I don't know why he would take that job. Now, Dan Mullen, Syracuse was a place he worked early in his career. He's from New Hampshire. So, obviously, that makes sense. But you've got some other names to replace Dino Babers. That was Seattle Ice Central's Tommy Sladek reporting that, by the way. If I'm Dan Mullen and I'm leaving the TV game,

I'm taking a better job i'm getting i'm leaving the tv game i'm i'm taking a better job than that i'm sorry he can get i mean that he can get a bit that's one of the that's one of the five hardest jobs in the power five he might as well go back and get it get another cat get another uh check for mississippi state over that one yeah i well and i don't i don't know that he's up for mississippi state and yeah i don't either. But I think you're probably talking about a sitting head coach somewhere in the FBS for Mississippi State. And we'll see. Again, like, that's one of those.

Let's say SMU wins the American. Like, if Mississippi State, well, actually, because I think Barry Odom might be up for that job too. UNLV might be in the Mountain West Championship. We didn't mention Boise State winning on Friday. Boise State's in the Mountain West Championship game. If UNLV wins, they're in too. That'll be a fun Mountain West Championship game.

But you've got an interim staff at Boise State coaching that. Like, those guys are going to be fired. Right. And it sounds like they like that guy who they promoted as their Head coach because they've now ripped off several straight wins I'm blanking on his name But that to your point about that you made earlier you're not going to see a lot of coordinators Plucked that's good news for a program that we also saw win today Andy like Missouri Which Eli Drinkwitz has done a great job hiring a staff with Blake Baker uh and Kirby

the problem is like Kirby Moore could be Kirby Moore the OC at Missouri where did he go to school right he could be Boise State's head coach uh but I do think that there are some other you know uh guys that they maybe have with head coaching experience So if Eli is able to keep this staff together, you win 10 games, you just completely splatter Arkansas tonight. Cody Schrader with his fifth straight 100-yard game. He continues his remarkable story. That would be the type of momentum that this Tigers program needs entering 2024 when you're losing a veteran offensive line,

Schrader's going to be off to the NFL. But if you are able to have that staff continuity, that staff retention, that would be huge. Spencer Danielson, your interim at Boise State, and he's actually gotten four guys to commit since becoming the interim coach after Avalos got fired. It's an interesting situation. It really is. There's a lot of that. It's an interesting situation. It really is.

There's a lot of that. Like, there's a lot of fascinating conference championship games. Whatever the Mountain West ends up being is going to be fun to watch. The American is going to be interesting, whether it's a Tulane-UTSA rematch or Tulane-SMU, which, by the way, Tulane SMU could be two potential Mississippi State head coaches, Willie Fritz and Rhett Lashley. So there's a lot of drama.

Jesse, I know there might be some people listening to this in podcast form on Saturday morning driving to games. Can you believe that we are only hours away from the kickoff of Ohio State, Michigan, and possibly the most contentious version of Ohio State, Michigan we have ever seen. I can't wait. Plus three and a half for the Buckeyes.

Let's go. That's what I got. So, all right, we got all chalk on Friday. Well, actually, it wasn't chalk because Iowa was the underdog, at least when the line opened. It stayed there.

It stayed at two and a half, remarkably. So, other than Iowa beating Nebraska, which I don't consider that really an underdog winning, it was all chalk. What will get weird Saturday? Ohio State, Michigan's two closest. It's basically a pick-em. That's not necessarily, we think that'll get weird for other reasons. But as far as who wins, it's not weird if either one of them wins, but like,

would it be Florida, Florida state? Would it be BYU, Oklahoma state? Where's the potential for complete weirdness? I think you got, I think I'm going to stay in the sunshine state. I think that because we're talking to backup quarterbacks, I think the swamp's going to be charged. We, we don't know what we're going to get from Max Brown, but I think I would be surprised if we did not get a spirited Florida performance coming off. I know what was a really shitty loss at the end of Missouri there, but I think if you bounce back and kind of show you're facing a top rival,

top five team, if you win, Billy Napier will get so much goodwill getting this team to a bowl game, the 15 practices for the youngest team, the continued recruiting momentum. Huge. Huge for them. So I think this game – I'm not saying Florida's going to win, but I think this game could get weird. So I think that might go the other way. We don't know much about Tate Rodemaker other than what we saw when he had to go in against Louisville last year.

And then what we saw last week, that was North Alabama. We've never seen him when he's had a week to practice with the ones. He's got a lot of weapons that I'm not sure that Florida defense can cover because we've watched that Florida defense play all year. That one, I don't know. That might not get weird. Like that might be Florida state saying, you know what? We're still here. We're still going to make the playoff. We're going to go 13 and oh, that if, if Oklahoma state BYU were in in Provo I'd be a little more confident in the weirdness that game is still water I I think we may see Mike Gundy and company

against Texas and and in the Big 12 championship game you got you got me Iron Bowl you know uh Jordan Haravudu I can't go there I cannot get myself there i can't either i can't either yeah i i think that i think that i think that's got demolition derby written all over it and and i'd say i'd say this means one of them's going to be just bananas but i keep saying that it keeps not happening but what but what's interesting jesse is is if we don't get bananas, if we get chalk, we're going to have a very controversial, confusing, contested four-team college football playoff picture going into championship week. Which is how they set up the field to begin with, Andy. When you have a four-team playoff in a five-power, five-structured college football league.

That's kind of how they set it up from the beginning there. So we'll see if that plays out. Obviously, historically, this has all kind of settled itself. That doesn't mean we're not in store for kind of a bananas outlier year. So I can't wait. It kicks off at noon. I think you could see other craziness that maybe wouldn't necessarily impact the playoff picture.

But, you know, does Louisville continue? You know, because I think they need to win really for Florida State's sake as much as anybody. Because Florida State absolutely wants that to be a top 10 top seven-ish win in two weeks if Louisville lays an egg against Kentucky suddenly that you know could be something that does ding they do all the win and go in go into that game at 11 and 1 also okay for Texas and I realize we're looking ahead, does Texas need Oregon to win against Washington to get another 13-0 team off the board? Yeah, I guess.

I think so. You know, some were saying that Texas wants Alabama to beat Georgia, but I actually think you could make the argument that actually they should want Georgia to win. That way Alabama is just a one-loss team off the board. Then you don't even have to make that comparison. Yeah, like if you're Florida State, if you're Texas, even if you're 12-1 Oregon, depending on how things go,

if you end up winning that championship game, you want Georgia to beat Alabama because that means there's no's no chance of two because the problem of Alabama beating Georgia for all these other teams is you will then be compared not to Alabama but to Georgia and guess what the committee's gonna say if you played we think Georgia would win Georgia's ahead of you yeah so we're we're in we're in lockstep there yep jesse this is gonna be so much fun i i i've going i'm i'm going to bed i don't know if i'm going to sleep but i'll be in ann arbor in a few hours i cannot wait this is gonna be so much fun guys thank you for watching thank you thank you for listening we will talk to you after the games tomorrow night