Andy & Ari On3 - Oregon TAKES CARE of USC | LSU-Texas A&M, Alabama-South Caorlina | CFB Week 4 INSTANT REACTION

Episode Date: September 27, 2026

Join Andy & Ari here TONIGHT at 11:30 pm et/10:30 pm ct to recap a MASSIVE week four in college football. With plenty of wild results, Andy & Ari have you covered with everything you need to know from a jam packed week in college football.(0:00) On Tonight's Instant Reaction(1:09) Presenting Sponsor(2:13) Intro: USC vs Oregon(20:47) Other games throughout Saturday(23:09) Georgia 41, Oklahoma 13(35:42) Alabama 49, South Caeolina 18(41:13) Mississippi State 31, Missouri 24(47:50) SEC roundup: Florida 52, Ole Miss 28(48:57) Texas 20, Tennessee 17(51:24) Auburn 21, Vanderbilt 15(51:35) LSU 35, Texxas A&M 6(55:53) Wake Forest 30, Louisville 27(57:41) Miami 52, Central Michigan 3(58:39) Wisconsin 24, Penn State 20(1:04:56) Iowa 20, Michigan 19(1:10:19) Ohio State 42, Illinois 19(1:17:32) UCLA 54, Maryland 3(1:20:49) Nebraska 31, Michigan State 13(1:22:18) Notre Dame 49, Purdue 10(1:23:50) Virginia Tech 21, Boston College 14(1:25:47) Oklahoma State 41, West Virginia 24(1:28:19) Baylor 23, Colorado 13(1:29:33) Boise State 32, Western Michigan 7(1:30:46) Thanks for watching!Our show is presented by Polymarket!New User Offer: Deposit $10, get $50 upon sign uphttps://app.polymarket.us/S8ac/ON3Trade on College Football games every week on Polymarket. Download the Polymarket App with code ON3 for a $20 bonus upon sign up.18+ only. Restrictions and eligibility requirement apply. Not available in all jurisdictions. Trading is risky. 100% loss can occur.Join On3 today! https://www.on3.com/joinSubscribe to On3!  ⬇️ youtube.com/on3sports/?sub_confirmati...Welcome to On3 | The best of college football and recruiting https://www.on3.com/ Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River BaileyInterested 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 tonight's instant reaction, Andy and Orion 3 presented by Polly Market. We have a lot to talk about. Dante Moore goes down. But Oregon emerges victorious at USC. What does it mean for the Ducks and for the Trojans? Plus, Florida crushes Ole Miss. Wisconsin stuns Penn State. Iowa, stuns Michigan.

Alabama, clobbers, South Carolina. Is that it for Shane Beamer? A lot of hot seat talk. Georgia hammers Oklahoma in a just horrific game for John Mateer. Camaro Taylor leads Mississippi State to a win against Missouri and Starkville. There was so much going on today. It was one of those crazy days in college football. We're going to try to break it all down.

Probably try to keep the show under three hours if we can. but I make no promises. All on tonight's instant reaction edition of Andy and Ari on 3 presented by Polymarket. We are sponsored by Polymarket, the world's largest prediction market. Got something fun before you coming this week. Polymarket squads, our On3 squad will be debuting. You can get in our squad group chat, follow along with our picks. My picks will be there, Ari's, J.D. Pichels, the crane and cone guys.

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Welcome to an instant reaction edition of Andy and Ari on 3 presented by Polymarket. I have returned home from the swamp. Ari is still at the LA Coliseum. Are you just watched Oregon finish off USC in a bizarre game? Dante Moore's injury. is going to be the story of the night. It was horrific looking. It sounds like he had, you know, movement in his extremities.

That's what Dan Lannning told the broadcast. It sounds like it's not as bad as it could have been, but it looked pretty awful. And then Dylan Raola comes in and leads Oregon to a win. Yeah, so, you know, Dan Lannning and Lincoln Riley have yet to get to the podium here in Los Angeles. But, Andy, what do you think is the best punishment that Oregon could levy on USC after what they perceive or not perceive what they did to Dante Moore? I'll tell you what it is.

It's by winning the game, winning it by two scores in keeping the status quo in the Big Ten intact, winning with Dillard Rayola, and winning in a very familiar way. You know, USC tied the game with 12 minutes or so left in the fourth quarter. You thought, hey, this could be the change of the guard. this could be the moment that all these USC fans were waiting for. And what happened was they lost by double digits and were put in a position by Dylan Raola of all people to go for it on fourth and forthdown in their own territory with plenty of time left because they didn't want him to have the ball again. So, you know, a lot was made about this game, what it meant for Lincoln Riley, what it meant for USC,

the now or never, the ultimate judgment day. and with all the things that USC had at play in terms of an advantage, where the game was, the fact that Oregon came wounded into this game, wearing a loss to Oklahoma State, the fact that their quarterback that would have been taken in the top 10 of last year's NFL draft was no longer in the game. All of that stuff combined wasn't enough for USC to get over the hump and actually win this game. And whatever Dan Lannin says when he gets to the post game,

I'm sure it'll be fiery, I'm sure it'll make headlines. But there's nothing that can be more painful to the USC crowd, the faithful, the program, then looking in the mirror and kind of having to reconcile the fact that Oregon is still top dog on the West Coast in the Big Ten. Yes, and we said, don't let it be like last year, and for a while it didn't look like last year. It looked like a last team with the ball situation. It was 27 all after USC scored early in the fourth quarter.

Oregon then returns with a nine-play 75-yard drive to make it 34-27. Then Oregon gets two stops in a row. They get a turnover on downs. They score again and then an incompletion. Like for USC, it had to feel like Groundhog, Dave. Yeah. They stopped Oregon once in the second half. Oregon punted once in the second half.

That tells you everything. If I would have told you that USC would be facing fourth down in seven from its own 48, I believe it was, with like eight minutes left in the game down by seven and that they were afraid to punt the ball back to Oregon who had a quarterback named Dylan Rayola coming out onto the field. What would you have said? Same old Lincoln Riley defense.

That's what I was said. And it was the same old Lincoln Riley defense. And I know he's not a defensive coach. But it doesn't seem to matter what defensive coach he hires because Gary Patterson is an all-time great defensive coach. But guess what? They couldn't stop anybody tonight. Yeah.

So as you kind of unpack what happened here, you know, there was an opportunity for USC to actually get over the hump. And like I agree with you for a while there felt like this team could be a little bit different. We also still don't have a full context of what was ailing Oregon earlier in the year and why they looked so bad against Oklahoma State and Boise State. But they had a shot and Dylan Raola was too scary for the Trojans defense. Like, I mean, I just like, that is kind of the biggest takeaway when you say is it, is it all right. Last year, I'd like to know how it wasn't. Dylan Rayola finished 19 of 25 for 289 yards and two touchdowns in this game. And you and I clown him when he got interviewed and said, you know, it's nicer out here.

And I don't have, I have better teammates now, which he does have better teammates now. like that was made abundantly clear right after he got into the game so you know he gets in the game right before half right after they came out for the second half the diarrhea hill catch and run which by the way goes on dillon raola's passing stats like that's a that's like you he was never going to get that in Nebraska he didn't get catch and runs like that so yeah i i think I think he was surprisingly good tonight. And I don't know that U.S.C. I thought he was awesome.

Yeah. Right? He looked great. And better than he ever looked at Nebraska, which maybe he's right. Just better teammates. And he did have better teammates. Now, Nebraska's doing fine too.

They're undefeated right now. They beat Michigan State. But that's not what we're talking about right now. Oregon probably going to have Dylan Raola starting for the four season. We don't know exactly what's going on with Dante Moore. We don't know when he might be back. I just dealt with a pretty bad concussion with a football player in my own house, and it was a three-week process.

I would assume something like this, which was worse, is going to be a fairly long process. So Oregon's got to work with Dylan Riola who clearly clicks with these teammates. They work together very well. Andy, next four games before going on the road to Ohio State for a pivotal matchup is UCLA, Nebraska, Illinois, and Northwestern. I know that Northwestern is a much improved team. We saw them fight Indiana pretty good on Friday night. We know that UCLA is good.

... crap out of Maryland, which we'll get to, I believe, later in the show. But there isn't a single team in the next month that Oregon can't beat a Dylan Raola place. Ari. You just mentioned that there's a Dylan Raola versus Nebraska game potentially coming up. I'm sure there no one's going to want to watch that. The college football, um, college football is a gift that just keeps giving,

Andy and, uh, Nebraska just had to be on the schedule, didn't they? Uh, in the next month, uh, you know,

I don't know what Dante Moore status is and I'm not even going to pretend to take a stab at it, but, you know, based on what we saw here today in the Coliseum, I would be shocked if he played in two weeks. So, or three weeks,

I think there's a buy in there somewhere. Yeah, They're off this coming week. They're off this morning week. So there's three weeks of real, real time between that game and now. I still would be surprised if you played in it based on what we know now. Again, not a doctor. Don't know what the actual prognosis is going to be when it happens.

But of course, Nebraska had to be one of the next three games, right? Of course they did because that's just how college football works. I'll say this right now. There isn't a team in the next month on their schedule that Oregon cannot beat. with Dylan Raola at quarterback if he played the way that he played down there about an hour ago. So, you know, we'll see. I'll go one better. They can beat all of the other teams on their schedule for plays like that.

I mean, it is Oregon we're talking about here. Yeah, they have incredible talent on that roster, and he showed that he can take advantage of it. So that's fantastic. I just had in the chat from Scott, a former two-year starter as a backup as an embarrassment of riches. you're exactly right Scott because I don't you know most teams if they got in that situation that Oregon was in tonight are putting in a player who probably has not played a lot of meaningful snaps meanwhile they get to put in a guy who was a two-year starter in the big tent yeah yeah and that's why you take them right I mean like listen from Oregon

standpoint you take a quarterback who has started two years who has shown signs of things might not have reached the ceiling or his potential as a five-star recruit, but still was a serviceable player at the very worst for two years. Put them in your system, let him learn from a first-round draft pick. And if something like this happens, you have a player with experience to come up the bench, and then you can reassess in the off-season. If you think he's good enough to take over, then you throw him in. If you don't, you go get another quarterback.

What is it working enough to lose by doing this? It's perfect. Perfect move. Exactly. Well, exactly. I mean, and they've shown, they understand how to use the portal. Like, they got money, and they're going to spend it. and they can afford luxury items.

And Dylan Ryola would be considered a luxury item, a former two-year starter in the Big Ten, who is willing to be your backup. Yeah. Lose side of the fact that Dylan Ryola can go through a pretty extensive makeover as a player and person by winning games at Oregon, too. So I think both sides, you know, to use Lane Kiffin's line here, both sides one.

And we'll see what it goes. But, Andy, before we go on, I know we have a long show and a lot to talk about. Well, no, we're going to talk about U.S. USC. We got to talk about USC because I said I was choosing to believe Lincoln Riley. And well, he let me down. Not as bad as he let you down when you had to buy me that big steak dinner. But he let me down and I'm done believing in him. Your window's not open. You don't have everything you need. and now USC has a pretty tough road ahead. They play Washington next week.

They go to Penn State. They go to Wisconsin, which beat Penn State. Then they have Ohio State Indiana. UCLA at the end of the season does not look like a pushover. This is... I don't know what this team is, but it's interesting because I was at the Florida game today. Florida looked like a playoff team today.

Did USC look like a playoff team today? staff team do you? No. Their defense did not, certainly. I think their offense has some pieces and they've got some good young players. But, you know, I got into it with some people on the UFC message board earlier in the week and I alluded to it during the show about how, you know, they were buying the stuff about how NIL was lagging behind and it took them a minute to get all the resources that he needed. And then you go look and you see like what John Summerall just did in what, six months? And it's just like, come on, guys. Like, you can't possibly buy that. It's just, it's not.

Lincoln Riley imported a Heisman trophy winner in your one. Yeah. It was a 14th playoff, but still. He also might be the best young quarterback in the NFL. So like it wasn't just the Heisman trophy winner. Like it's like a pro player. That's awesome. And they were a half away for making the 14th playoffs.

So let's not forget that. We were at the game. Yeah. But if you have any excuses and you're a USC fan, for what occurred out there or where the program is at in year five, then you're just enabling it. And I don't know what the future looks like for USC. I saw some stuff on ESPN, you know,

talking about how this could be the beginning of the hot seat. I know that we've had some internal discussions on three about his placement there, but is this the loss that begins to turn his seat hot? Yes. Yes. And the only way that changes is if he turns around and then beats Ohio State or any or somebody like that. But if you lose to Oregon and you lose to Ohio State and you lose to Indiana,

that's fine. You're nine and three, but you're still not getting what you need. And I bet if you lose to those three, that you will lose to somebody else. Whether that's Washington, Penn State, Wisconsin, or UCLA, you will lose to somebody else. So, and look, maybe they turn it around. Maybe they can go 10 and 2. But the defense they played tonight, they will not be able to go 10 and 2. they will be 8 and 4

they might be 9 and 3 they could be 7 and 5 if they're not careful and if you think that Andy is being harsh don't take his word for it take Lincoln Riley's word for it to put his defense back out on the field he opted to go forward on 4th and 7 from his own territory

with Dilleraola on the sideline he was scared to put his defense on the field because it could not stop Oregon right so you know you might think oh Andy he's being harsh he's full of shit well okay don't take it from him take it from Lincoln. He told you all you needed to know about that. And the thing is like, this is, this is him. He has told you this over and over again, whether he was at Oklahoma or whether,

whether it was at USC. He does not know how to create a program that has a good offense and a good defense. He has yet to figure that out. And I, I'm the one who said he's a young guy, he's smart, he will eventually figure it out. And maybe he will. But he has not figured. it out in time to get this USC team ready to be a playoff team. And USC's been paying him for five years now. Like at a certain point, you have to do the job you've been paid to do, and he hasn't done it yet. Yeah. And I'm just doing back of the napkin math here with my imaginary pen, but that's probably, what,

almost $60 million worth of income in totality in terms of what he's earned in the five years of his 10-year almost fully guaranteed $100 million deal. So not to mention that he gets a housing stipend that looks like a freaking resort on the Pacific Ocean. So like he's he's got a pretty good situation in life going. And it's just not where it needs to be. I thought that USC was better than what we saw out there tonight. I thought that they would play closer.

And, you know, you might say, well, it just got away from him at the end. But that's, it always gets away from them at the end when they're playing Oregon. That's the problem. Like that, you know, they had a chance. And Andy, another thing, and I don't know what you were doing or if you saw this play live, but when Dylan Rayola was stopped or what would have been a stop on a third and 15 around midfield, and they got roughing the pass or penalty called that extended the drive and that ultimately turned into the touchdown pass that gave Oregon the 3427 lead.

is that also not a hallmark of just bone-headed situations? Like, this is a program-defining game on your home turf. The other team's quarterback is out of the game. You need this game as much as anybody in college football needs a win. And you can't get off the field, even when you do get off the field because of the roughing the passer penalty. It's just like the hallmark of bad coaching. And I know that the call itself was kind of weak.

Like, I don't know what you think of it or if you have an opinion on whether it should be. It doesn't matter. You can't put yourself in a position to even do. give the other the ref and opportunity. Ari, would it have mattered? Would it have mattered? I think it might have handy. If they would have gotten the ball back in a tie game and gone down and scored,

I think it would have been different. They still wouldn't have stopped Oregon again. Yeah, I mean, maybe not. I still think that like they lost the game on that play. Now, maybe they would have lost the game on another play if it played out that way. I don't know. But it felt like I'm in the press box here. You can feel the stadium deflate of like, oh, not this shit again.

Like it just, you could feel the energy kind of escape the building. And, you know, I feel, you know, you're right. The USC couldn't stop them. Maybe they wouldn't have stopped them. They still ultimately would have lost. But could you imagine how rocking the place would have been? Had they gone up 34 to 27 instead of being the team gave away a touchdown? Like, you know, college football is a game of momentum.

Like, it might have been the difference. So, and then it turned into the fourth and seven in negative territory, which we've talked about already. So when you're scared to put your defense back out on the field, would you have been scared, I guess? So I don't know. Yeah. So I don't know. I don't know what the tenor of the situation is we'll think, and Riley, all I do know is that we're looking down at the barrel of a nine and three season again. And that's at best probably.

And if that's the case, then do you get another year with these awesome freshmen? Because they do have really good young players. They do. A second chance. But then guess what happens? Jaden Maiav is done. And then you've got to find a quarterback. And, you know, it's pretty remarkable. I mean, like, it also like Lincoln Riley is a quarterback whisper, but people don't talk enough about how much time he spent recruiting Malachi Nelson and Juju Lewis,

who was benched at Colorado today. So I don't know if like finding a Heisman caliber player to replace Jane Maiava is as a slam dunk as it might have used to be. So, you know, that's a well, right. And he also. Wednesday, but he also only took Caleb Williams after Brock Vandergriff flipped on him. So that might be a Tuesday, discussion if you want to do a sliding doors of Lincoln Riley quarterbacks but you know the window was open it's his words and they did not get they didn't they didn't take advantage of that window

so it is what it is do we lose a river uh we've got a little technical difficulties I think he's coming back in here I'm back he's back it's okay zero days since 80's last mic issue I'm the one at home that was a computer issue I don't know I did have a computer issue and I'm sorry about that Yeah, I'm on home. So I have a good question in the chat that I was waiting to ask Ari while he was filibustering. But now I'm sorry if I'm not giving you proper credit for your question. Kurt, I believe, was the person's name. And the question was, would Lincoln Riley be better off and would he be happier if he just stayed at Oklahoma?

And I think that is, that's such an interesting question. and I think it should bring us to discuss a game. We can answer it. And then we'll discuss a game that we haven't really gotten into today. I do want to point out to everybody listening to the show, watching the show. We made videos, and I believe we put them in the podcast feed as well, on Texas and Tennessee, on Iowa and Michigan, and on Florida and Ole Miss. So we've broken those down in depth already at this point.

So we may not hit them as hard on this show tonight, but don't worry, those shows are there. You can go listen to them or you can watch them on the YouTube channel and On Three Sports. So you've got that. We did not get into Oklahoma, Georgia. And I wonder if Lincoln Riley had stayed at Oklahoma, would he have gone to Athens, Georgia today? And instead of what happened to Brent Venable's team, he would have lost the same game. they played in the Rose Bowl when he played against Kirby Smart all those years ago with Baker Mayfield. Well, he would have had another Heisman winner, right?

Because Caleb presumably would have stayed. Right. Here's the thing that would have happened at Oklahoma that he did not have at USC is that he would have built up equity of a lot of success in playoff appearances that he doesn't have here. Like, he got credit, I think, in his contract. You know, what they offered him to. as a result of all that success, but USC fans don't prescribe that success to him. So I think it's possible.

And I don't think Oklahoma fans do any, I don't think Oklahoma fans do anymore either. I think they feel like Bob Stoop set him up in a good spot. And Lincoln Riley took that as far as it could. But if you would have said Oklahoma and had the same five-year run that he had at USC, although I don't know that it would have been ready to fire him at that point in Oklahoma. He might also be fired. So I don't know if he would have been happier.

Also, I don't know if you guys have seen the view from his backyard. That would make me pretty happy. But, yeah, we know you prefer Los Angeles to Norman. We've made that abundantly clear. That's why the whole thing is hate it out there, buddy. It's the best state in the union out there. Why don't you live there? Why do you live in Texas then?

Oh, yeah. And you have to pay a lot in taxes that you don't have to pay in Texas. Okay. So let us discuss. Lake and Riley did leave Oklahoma and Brent Middables got hired. And that brings us to Georgia 41, Oklahoma 13. Ari, I don't know if this is the worst game a quarterback has ever had, but it has to be close.

It has to be somewhere on the board. John Matier had one of the worst games. a quarterback has ever had. Like, they're not moving the ball, they're losing, I think they were down 14 to nothing when John Matier leads Oklahoma into the red zone. He then goes back to throw right next to the goal line.

He brings the ball back. The ball simply falls out of his hand where he's picked up by a Georgia defender who turns his 98 yards for a touchdown. That was one of the low lights. One of. Um, you saw the picture of Eddie Radasovic laying on the floor. I did.

I did. I did. I got shooting pictures. Um, okay. So do you know, uh, it's funny because I was actually reading George Stoya's, uh, recap from Sooner's scoop, one of the best team reporters that we have at NON3 Network. And I encourage you to go follow him. But he made a pretty good point because, you know, statistically speaking, uh, if you go look

at the box score, you would never know how truly dire, uh, the actual game was. Let me give you a crazy stat. Crazy stat. I want to hear it. Georgia led 28 to nothing at halftime. Do you know how many yards Georgia had out gained Oklahoma by at half time? No. Ten.

I knew it would be small because the way they scored a lot of those points was pretty freakish. Yes. But the thing that's interesting is that John Mateer is who he is as a player by now. He's in his fourth year. What is this, the third year with Ben Arbuckle, his offensive coordinator. If you are waiting for some sort of emergence of a great Johnny Mansell-like player, which was the Bill of Goods that we all bought when he went there, keep waiting because it's not coming.

This is who he is. And if that game wasn't enough to put him on the bench, that also means that Oklahoma doesn't have a better option. So as we, you know, traverse this schedule, it is dire as hell there. Oklahoma thought they had a chance at being a playoff team. They were last year. They returned a lot of players. They are ass.

It's gotten way worse. The defense is still good. That's the crazy part. The defense was actually decent today. It just had no chance. Yeah. Yeah. It was just, it cannot, it simply just cannot be worse.

You know, this is a pretty unbelievable stat line to 25 of 34 for 231 yards and two touchdown. So it wasn't like it was like some six for 23 game for 15 yards. But at the same time, if you watched the game, it felt like he didn't do anything. It was awful. So the bottom line is, you know, Oklahoma extended a coach that they thought, built a program that was built to compete in these games. Which, again, threw them around.

Why did you extend him? I said, we were on, we were recording a show with George Reister when that news came out that they extended him. And I immediately just went into the rant. And I had Oklahoma fans mad at me that day. They're not mad at me anymore. They're mad at the Oklahoma administration for doing this.

Like, who were you bidding against? Were you worried dabble was going to get, fired and Clemson was going to come after him. Well, why didn't you just wait till if Davo got fired, then give him more money? Like, who were you bidding against? Now, here's the other thing. I don't know if Ben Arbuckle survives the weekend, the, the offensive coordinator.

We'll see. They have an open date next week. So if you're going to do a firing, this is probably when you do it. they also play Texas after that. So I don't know what you do here. Kevin Wilson's on the staff, longtime great offensive coordinator at various places, including Oklahoma.

He was the guy calling the plays for San Bradford and Company. But why on a daylight today? Don't you have somebody you can try? Like they never took him out. just left him in there to suffer and because like at a certain point it's psychological right yeah and you you

pull the guy out to save his his mentals yeah I mean the second that he turned that ball over near the goal line rolling out was that early in the second quarter late first quarter like that was it he fumbled getting up from that yeah it was it was early in second quarter

he fumbled again in the second quarter but it was on fourth down and he recovered it, but they still turn it over on downs. Actually, I take that back. He fumbled twice more in the second quarter. Yeah. Like, at a certain point, you have to,

you have to pull him. Do they not have anybody they feel confident in? Well, it's an interesting question because we know what they did. Yeah. But it's an interesting discussion because then you start getting into the way that Oklahoma is formed because now you're in a personnel discussion. And the personnel decisions are not made by Brent Venables entirely. So, you know, who's the bus stop?

Yeah, our friend, our friend Jim Nagy is the general manager. And he's got to answer some hard questions too. Like, why does Oklahoma not feel like they can go turn to a different quarterback? We just watched Oregon, which didn't have to go get a two-year Big Ten starter as its backup, but did. And we're better off for it. When the unthinkable happened. Well, the unthinkable is also what happened to John Matier in the second quarter,

and it was self-inflicted, but it happened. You know, if you still had Michael Hawkins, who's playing at West Virginia now. You don't at least try him? Like, why didn't you even try somebody else? Andy is that, like, last year it wasn't this bad. It's the regression that makes you scratch your head. And I know that maybe there was bad play that we kind of dismissed because of the hand injury.

And it was easier to kind of feel like... What does Dr. Steven Shin think about this? I don't think that he needs a hand surgeon. I think he needs a therapist right now. This seems to be a mental thing. Because like some of those mistakes that he was making weren't... They're not just a lack of physical ability. I mean, that was like mental between the years, you know, bad things piling up.

And it's just, it was bizarre. And it's just, it was bizarre. So, uh, yeah, Whit, Witt Newbauer, by the way,

is the, is the backup. He's the Mercer transfer. So he, he's played. He's got experience. But. Yeah.

I don't know. I just, I mean, it doesn't matter, Randy. They could have thrown out Peyton Manning in the second quarter. They would have got their ass camp.

But why not try something else? Yeah. I mean, like Oklahoma is in like pure damage mode now where it's like, okay, this season shot. I mean, there's no coming.

back from this. So now you have to, you know, think more about what's happening behind the scenes, who's being fired, who's being retained, and what can be done to fix whatever went wrong next year. Like, I don't know if we're even in like what do they do now, like next. They play Texas next. They're going to get their ass kick probably. Yeah. Let's be honest. Like, who knows, it's a weird game. It's in Dallas. We know the history of it. But yeah, if they try to know, meanwhile, Georgia. Yeah. They're not going to win many games. Like, they will not. How many, throw the Oklahoma schedule up there, producer, River, if you can.

How many games do they win playing like this? Like Kentucky's no gimmy. Mississippi State's certainly not a gimmy. You might be South Carolina. Oh, you got to go to Gainesville. Gainesville, Ole Miss, A&M. A&M's been bad. I mean, I think that their defense can maybe keep the game with Texas close,

maybe. But your defense can only help you out so much if your quarterback's turning it over in boneheaded ways. It doesn't matter if you've, got the 2,000 Ravens out there. Like, you're going to lose. So, I'm not sure Shane Beamer's going to make it to Halloween as South Carolina's coach to play in this game. But Producer River has a great idea.

That Oklahoma, South Carolina game in Norman needs to be called the meaningless extension bowl. If it's Shane Bieber versus Brent Venables, it's like the, why did you extend this coach bowl? Do you think that Venables is safe? If put that schedule back up, if South Carolina, Carolina is the only team they can beat the rest of the way? No. If South Carolina and Texas A&M are the only teams they can be the rest of the way, no. Oklahoma does not tolerate mediocrity, and that's not even mediocrity. That's below mediocrity. Yeah. So, Yep. There it is. There's Eddie Radosovich, just lying there. He should at least use the

hedges as a pillow. That's what the hedges are, well, I don't think that's what the hedges are for, but you could use them for that. Speaking of the team that plays between the hedges, Georgia. Lincoln Riley. Oklahoma could. Yeah, I'm sure he might be available. Who knows?

But Georgia is a wagon. I realize Oklahoma handed some things to them, but Georgia's really freaking good. They are very good. You can't hand that anything. That's not a hand a team, a free touchdown type of scenario. And like the thing that is so funny is that Oklahoma fans were looking at the schedule and they're like, oh, God, where are we going next?

And then it just got even worse than you could have ever imagined. So, I mean, was Oklahoma doing scoop and score drills on the sideline in the middle of the second quarter? I don't know. They got plenty of work in that. So. Yeah. And Gunter Stockton didn't have the best day. Like I said, Oklahoma's defense is still really good.

like this is not on the Oklahoma defense. George ends up with 300 total yards, but a lot of that was kind of after the game was out of hand. Well, like I said, no, it was about half and half. They got in the second half about what they got in the first half. But, no, it was. I mean, it also doesn't matter. It's not a real defensive analysis.

If your team has completely crumbled on offense, it's not a pure analysis of how good a defense is. a defense thrives on complimentary football. Yeah, exactly. So, like Georgia, I hate to say it, still hasn't been tested. Maybe that comes eventually as the schedule goes. I mean, part of that too is Georgia stuffed them into a locker because of the mistakes. Good teams capitalize on those things.

I don't want to dismiss what we saw from Georgia as just playing another bad team. They did. They played another bad team, but they accentuated that. that dysfunction because they're very good. So, yeah. Well, Georgia has Vandy next week. Vandy is not shown us much yet. They got lucky to beat NC State.

They did not beat Auburn. Auburn got its first SEC win today. Congratulations to Alex Gulles on his first SEC win. But yeah, Vandy's got to play Georgia next week. Then Georgia goes to Tuscaloosa on October 10th. So that's going to be a tough one. Speaking of Alabama, speaking of wagons, the tire or a wagon, tighter wagon. South Carolina goes into Tuscaloosa.

Remember, South Carolina had played the two previous Kalin-de-Bore Alabama teams very close. Had a chance to win the game in Tuscaloosa two years ago. It came out of the final possession of Williams-Rice last year. There was no doubt here. This game was never close. it was never a day you know Alabama was never in danger and it was just a cakewalk for the crimson tide which I'm sure they were you know their fans were thrilled they've been waiting for a game like this for a while South Carolina fans I'm sorry I don't know what to tell you

it's it's not working headline here keelan Russell holy shit puppy Camaro Taylor puppy these are very young players did you see that pass that touchdown pass that keeling through in the second quarter, I believe. Yeah. It was just like an absolute frozen rope that traveled like 40 or 50 yards in the air. And it's just like he had four touchdowns in the first half. And I think that South Carolina, and maybe it's just something with teams who are maroon between Texas A&M, Oklahoma and South Carolina was a long day. But, man, 365 passing yards, 35 rushing yards and five touchdowns, one of which was on the

ground. So, like, it's just a remarkable day. And like, I remember the off season, we spent so time talking about Austin Mac versus Keel and Russell. Do you go with experience? The guy that came from Washington, the guy that followed Caitlin DeBoer to a new job, or do you go with the sensational, unbelievable talent that can elevate a team? They went with the sensational young talent that could elevate a team, and what the hell's he doing? He's elevating that team in a way that makes them scary.

And I know that Alabama has been hovering around the 13 to number eight rankings mark right now, and it's not the Nick Sabin era anymore. I wouldn't want to play this freaking team right now. They're scary as hell with this guy. They are, and the defense is good. It was 35, 10, and half time. So I don't know. I mean, Lenora Sellers is not coming back around.

The 2024 version of Loras Sellers is not showing up again. I don't know why. Like last year, we wrote it off as they had a terrible offensive line. They hired Mike Shul as their offensive coordinator. Those were both bad decisions. Have a bad offensive line. to not do anything about it, and then to hire Mike Schull as your offensive coordinator, didn't work out.

But they change offensive coordinators. They spend in the portal to upgrade the offensive line. He's not getting any better. He's not. Yeah. He's still going to be somebody I think that gets taken in the top four rounds and, you know, has a bright future because his measurables are insane, but he's not getting better. None of the freaks on the team have gotten better.

None of the aliens have become aliens and produce the way they, like an alien like Colin Simmons to produce, which is something we talked about in a video earlier today. Yeah, Dylan Stewart has a bad back. And he has played like that at times at South Carolina. So, but they, yeah, they're just not.

But it's just, it's not coming together is the point. Yeah. Just not coming together. So, Alabama is a wagon. Yeah. Not going to be an easy game.

Yeah. And then they go to Gainesville. And you and I'll be there. We will be there. We've got a great event with Jack and Coke. It's going to be a lot of fun. Andy, it might not be a fun for the GameCocks.

Yeah, when we had that event for Jack and Coke pop up on our schedules in the offseason, and we didn't know that we might be going in to see a top five team in Gainesville, but that seems to be on the menu right now. We also didn't know there might be an interim coach on the other team. And I don't know if that's going to happen, but it's not looking good for Shane Beaver right now. It doesn't feel like it is getting any better anytime soon. And, you know, the Kentucky game, maybe that's the one you peg it on because there,

Will Stein's new, you know, Beamer had this kind of rivalry with Mark Stoops. Mark Stoops would make fun of Beamer and the Beamer would come beat Mark Stoops. But right now, I don't know. It's not the same thing. And if Kentucky is now better than South Carolina under Will Stein in year one, because that's the one, you know, you've got kind of your peer group and you want to be at least the best of your peer group, I would put Kentucky in South Carolina kind of in that bucket. And I don't know, Will in the chat, 2 and 11 in the last 13 against the power four for Shane

Beamer and Will says, what more do you need to see? So that one is one you got to worry about. if we're talking hot seat like lincoln riley would have to lose more games and it would have to lose a significant amount of games Shane beamer might already be there but we'll find out we'll find out because i don't think you do it now if they lose to kentucky you might do it i'm with you all right let's talk about the team that plays Alabama next week. Mississippi State. We talked a lot about Camario Taylor this week.

We led the show with a segment on, hey, guys, we don't think Camario Taylor is going anywhere. We don't think somebody's going to buy him off Mississippi State's roster. And that's honestly, that's a discussion that we can have again in January if he enters the portal or doesn't. But I don't think he is. He's on Mississippi State this year. He always won.

wanted to play for Mississippi State. He felt like when he committed to them that he could change the trajectory of the program. I will argue that he already has, Ari. They're now 4-0 after beating Missouri 3124. This was an interesting game because Mississippi State goes up 14-0. Missouri comes back, is leading 24-17 pretty late in the game. And Camaro Taylor and our guy Fluff Bothwell just bring the Bulldogs back. I mean, there was a lot of cowbell clanging there at the end of that game.

It was pretty spectacular. Yeah. God has throwing motion. I know we've talked about it a lot. But, I mean, we're talking about a team here, Andy, that wasn't winning any SEC games, you know, wasn't winning any at all. And now they're 1-0 in SEC play. They have a win against Minnesota. They are looking like a legitimately good team.

And I think that we're still maybe. kind of waiting to see how good. But every single week that passes, it has more context. That's more context. Oh, okay, it's still happening. He's one of the most sensational players in the entire country. Yeah, and Alabama comes to Starville next week, and that is going to be a lot of fun. You mentioned that Mississippi State dominated Minnesota in Minneapolis.

That Minnesota team, as we speak, is in the late in the second quarter at Washington. They're winning 21-7. So that was not a bad Minnesota team that Mississippi State dominated. That was a pretty good Minnesota team. And Camaro Taylor, I think, just has raised the level of play so much that I don't, we're not going to play guess the spread now. We'll have plenty of time to do that tomorrow. But I'm sure they're probably not going to be favored against Alabama.

Did anybody have Mississippi State, Alabama, most sensational quarterback matchup of the 2026 season circled on their bingo card in July? No. Did anybody have Mississippi State, Alabama being the best game in the SEC in week five? No. Because it is. Andy, sometimes I feel like we should just stop doing shows in July, but then at the same time,

I feel like it's amazing to go back and look and see how much we don't know. Oh, I know. It's going to be a really good time. And I don't know who I would take right now, honestly. Like, and it's funny to say, like, if you had to build your team around one player in college football and you could only choose Keel and Russell or Camario Taylor, who's your guy. I guess you can answer that question a week from right now. You're feeling really good about either one. You're feeling like you're going to win a lot of games either way.

But I'm excited to see how Camario Taylor looked against the team. That's a great Sophie's choice right there. You know, they've passed all their tests. Missouri is always a very good team, a nine win caliber team, a team that's tough in the SEC. see, I'm excited to see Camario Taylor operate against a team that has elite players. And that'll be a appointment television type scenario next weekend for sure. It certainly will now. Do you remember the last time Mississippi State beat Alabama?

Oh, God, no. Was I in my diapers? You were not. It was 2007. It was Nick Saban's first year. And I remember going to Alabama in 2008 in the off season between 07 and 08. to interview some people and interview Nick Saban. And they took me through the locker room.

And in every locker, they had posted the score of that Mississippi State game. Like, hey, you can't let this happen again. You cannot do it. And this was the offseason. This was the middle of the off season. So it's been easy since. And I was at the game when Mississippi State was the year Mississippi State rose to number one in the college, well first college ball playoff ranking and then they they go to tuscaloosa and it was a five point

game on the scoreboard at the end but mississippi state really did get dominated by alabama in that game that was a you know really good mississippi state team led by dac prescott but it it wasn't even close the the closest they've come is 2017 when tootung of iloa had or excuse me when jalen Hertz hit Devante Smith right at the end for a touchdown, thus giving Devante a little valuable buzzer-beating game-winning touchdown experience that he would certainly use later that season. I wasn't able to legally purchase a beverage when that happened last. In 2007?

Yeah. I was barely. I was barely. But hey, back then, everybody got crooned every once in a while. Yeah. Happens the best of them. Missouri suffers their first loss. This was a tough, and they did play well in a tough environment against a really good quarterback. They get the pleasure of hosting the Florida Gators next week.

That is going to be tough. I guess Mississippi State broke the world record for most cowboys being rung at the same place at the same time. They break it every game. But this one is apparently the most. Well, apparently the Guinness people showed up this time because I would argue they've broken that record every game since they started ringing cowbells. Well, I also don't understand like what the litmus test would be for like records. It's like everything's a record. A person who opened the most doors in the in one minute.

Like there's an endless amount of records to be broken. The person who folded as many chairs in one minute like it's right. There's no limit to that. But congratulations, Mississippi State for setting a record, but I think the most important record to them right now is 4 and 1-0 and 1-0 in SEC play. It is a beautiful thing. All right. We'll stay in the SEC and then move on to it.

We'll just finish up the SEC here. Again, we went in-depth on Texas beating Tennessee earlier. We went in-depth on Florida beating Ole Miss. We can say it again, though. We did use, R used the B-word with Florida. He says they're back fully. I haven't quite gone that far. But I did use the C word and the P word,

which would be contender for the playoff. They look like a playoff team today. Yeah. I'm more than comfortable saying a team is back when they drop a 50 burger on a top five team who has maybe the most sensational player in the country. So I know they didn't have T1 Lacey and they were coming off of a pretty emotional weekend.

So maybe part of that 50 Burger was that, but they showed up and just beat the crap out of them in their house. The swamp was rocking. It was really cool to see. And John Summerall basically promising the entire fan base that it's still not where they wanted to be and it's coming. And I thought that that was like a powerful. You know, that guy is just rocks, man. Like you just know he has it.

And it's just cool to see happen. And, you know, I guess to put a bow on the other game, too, you can take away our big takeaways here of Texas, Tennessee, which is Texas has one of the best defensive players in the country in Colin Simmons. I do wonder if their offense will be good enough in January when the time comes to sustain things. You know, Steve Sarkesian, and I want to talk to you about this on Monday. But no offensive coordinator has won, or no head coach who calls offensive plays has won a national championships. That Jimbo Fisher did it in 2013. And I'm wondering if there's too much on his plate.

We'll talk about that this week. I think it's a good segment. But Texas did also go on the road in a tough environment against a team that was undefeated and was amped up. and their defense played well. They did a few fake hog reveals, you know, in that game, which we can dissect later in the week, too. But Texas is a very good team with a great defense and I'm very curious to see if their offense going to unlock something

because we didn't see that. I believe the official reason for the penalty was for pretending to use the bathroom. Yes, no, simulating usage of the bathroom, I think. Simulating usage of the bathroom, yes. Yeah. I don't know if you saw Relique Brown's celebration, later in the game. But he pretended to

say it money. No, go ahead to say it, Ari, go say what he did. You've opened that can't literally pretended to sniff his own

ball sack and then faint sniff his junk and then he passed out. Yep. I don't know how you come up. What is that? Yeah. I don't know.

You think they were sitting around the locker room talking about it? it like yeah how many different creative ways can we get our balls involved in celebration well that's what i i said i tweeted out that that sark needs to hire a group of texas drama majors and they'll just be the committee that evaluates your potential celebration and so 5 p.m. Monday every game week you you get on stage and perform it for the committee and they'll tell you we think you're going to get the flag for that or go ahead i don't think either one of those would have passed through the committee. I'll tell you this, Andy, and we'll put a bow on it, we'll keep moving.

If anybody has earned the right to hang dong in the country, it's Colin Simmons. So five sacks today. Yeah, I think that was definitely. With 11 minutes left in the game and he almost got number six on the last drive. Fremendous. Congratulations to Auburn on your first SEC win. We mentioned that earlier, but 2115 over Vanderbilt. The LSU Tigers. Remember how I said this is going to be so exciting because either one of you, LSU or Texas A&M, the loser's going to freak out. It's going to feel like the season's over.

Well, it does feel like the season's over for Texas A&M because they've now lost to Kentucky and then lost 356 to LSU. I think the Aggies are due for a, I mean, the rude awakening has already happened. But this was a playoff team last year. The expectation was, you know, in college station, but they'd be a playoff team again. That's not happening. Yeah. Marcel Reed is just not playing well this year.

And I know that there was some questions about. Also, if your offensive line, if your big offensive line transfer pickups are guys who played for other SEC schools last year. And those schools were like, nah, you can go. That's probably not going to create a good offensive line in the SEC. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, it's kind of a tough scene. I believe in Elko still. I think he's a good coach, but this might just be a long year in Agiland.

So also LSU, I think, with a big bounce back, you know, I'm very curious. Like, and I struggle with this, Andy, when I was doing the top 10 that I do on Saturday nights, but there's a lot of SEC flavor, and it's like, where do you rank Ole Miss in relation to LSU, right? Like, you still have to put Ole Miss ahead, but LSU just beat the team 35 to 6, but they lost the Ole Miss last. week, but Ole Miss lost by 100 of Florida. There's a lot of musical chairs in the SEC results, and I still feel like we're kind of in a position where we're not

quite sure who the truly elite teams are. Like, is Florida the truly elite team of the SEC? Is Alabama? Is LSU or Ole Miss? Like, I don't know, like, Georgia, obviously. It's Georgia. The answer's Georgia. Or Texas. Maybe. Texas beat Ohio

State. Like, you're still going to have Texas is the number one. No, I really don't. I actually, I probably, more confident in Georgia than I am the rest of them. But again, like I said, when we were talking about Georgia, they haven't really been tested yet. But yeah, LSU. Yeah, Georgia seems like they're the most inevitable.

But, like, I do think that there's like, like, if any of those teams won the national championship this year, it wouldn't be crazy, but it would be crazy to deem them the favorite to do so right now. Like, I just don't know if we have enough context. There's a lot of exciting teams in the SEC, but which ones are actually going to level up and become the actual, like in November. it's hard to predict, and that's what makes this time of the season so fun.

But the SEC is super entertaining and a lot of good teams. Absolutely. So Winnie Wittkins with 107 receiving yards for LSU, Jackson Harris, with 163 on six catches. It has to be mentioned that Whitweaks, the outstanding linebacker got injured and was like using crutches at the end of the game. I don't know what his status is. That is also a problem.

But he's a big loss of their defense if that is a long-term injury. Yeah. And then LSU, we mentioned, and part of the reason why we trumpets. up this game as something that was going to be a big deal because the losing team was going to be behind the eight ball. LSU has McNeese State next week, so they're going to win that one. Then it's at Kentucky.

And then it's funny because all these teams that have to play Mississippi State, we were all like, oh, don't worry about that. Now, be very worried. Be very worried that you have to play Mississippi State. Yeah. Their schedule is really interesting, and I feel like, you know, and I don't know if we're looking at this, Andy, and sorry if I'm breaking up. I don't know if my internet's, can you hear me okay? Yeah, you're good. Yeah. Okay, perfect. But are we looking down at the barrel of a vintage Alabama LSU matchup here in the next few weeks? Because that, that seems like something that we can be getting here right around the corner. It's in November, but yeah, yeah, we definitely, definitely might be looking at that. And or we might be looking at it, it kind of, depends on what happens with Alabama. Like we could be looking at it as a,

I don't think it'll be a playoff elimination game, but Alabama will play Georgia by then. There's a chance. It's a one-loss team against a one-loss team or a one-loss against a two-loss. It could be very spicy, very, very spicy. So it's going to be fun. All right, let's move to another conference.

We've exhausted the SEC at this point. Let's move to the ACC quickly. One very significant result in the ACC today. Louisville beat SMU last week and we're like, uh-oh, Louisville schedule is not very rough. In fact, the hardest game they have left might be Wake Forest.

Well, guess what? Wake Forest beat Louisville 30 to 27. This was a back and forth, like one would score, the other would score, one would score the other would score. But Jake Dickard and company beat Louisville. They have now gone on the road twice and won.

They had the double overtime win against Purdue earlier. They lost to Miami. That's their only loss. And we went live after that game and said, hey, Miami went up big and then Wake Forest came back. We're not sure Miami entirely took its foot off the gas. It may be that Wake Forest is better than we think. Ari, I think Wake Forest is better than we thought. Yeah, I think that these results kind of crystallized a lot of things, too, because, you know,

we did bang up Miami a little bit. First of all, congratulations to Wake Forest. I've already saw, and I don't know if we need to do a Tuesday segment this week about Jake Dickard and he's already being hired somewhere else. You know, like the same type of deal with. The place everybody was thinking he'd get hired, which is also the place everybody thought Jason Eck would get hired. That team, that team won today.

Let's actually, let's talk about that right now. Before you go, Andy, I just want to say, because this is important, we banged up Miami last week on Friday night for taking their foot off the gas. I think Wake Forest is a team that we have a lot of respect for and we knew would be maybe as even a sneaky contender in the AC. so congratulations to them, but it also brought into perspective, too, of like, I don't know if you're paying attention to Darry and Mensis

numbers. I think he went 19 for 23 today. His completion percentage is completely out of this world. Malachi Tony had a one-handed touchdown poster type reception called back on some bullshit offensive pass interference, but like Miami is freaking

legit. And if you bang them up last week for doing it, you have to acknowledge when the results, you know, indicate something completely different. And I think the results indicate that Miami, you know, is still very good. So very, very promising team in Coral Gables. And, you know, we can move on to Wisconsin now, but I wanted to acknowledge Miami and Malachi, Tony and Darien-Menson.

I don't know who the Heisman candidate is there, because if you complete 97% of your passes, you're probably going to New York. But he is just absolutely crushing it, both of them. Yeah, it will be very fun to watch them play, although I'm not sure how challenged they're going to be. Well, you're Miami-Climson next week. So that's just. be fun.

I know Miami's going to win. I know. It's okay. All right, Ari. We talked about Jake Dicker, Wisconsin native. So his name would get thrown out if Luke Fickle got fired.

Ari, I got to say, middle of the second quarter, things were not looking good for Luke Fickle. It was 17-0-0 Penn State. They'd gotten a pick six. Josiahs had picked off Wisconsin and taking it all back, picked off Colton Joseph, and run it back for 51 yards for touchdown.

Rocco had a three-yard run to make it 17-0. And it's like, uh-oh, this is slipping away from Wisconsin very quickly here. But Colton Joseph scores before the half, and Wisconsin just keeps grinding, keeps grinding. And then you get a 72-yard, Jacob Harris pass from Colton Joseph with a minute 13 to go. to win the game. Ari, this is the biggest win of the Luke Fickle era at Wisconsin. We look at their loss to Notre Dame. We said at the time that it's not that bad,

that they actually played really tough against Notre Dame for a half, and not many teams can do that. Where are we at with Wisconsin in the Big Ten? They're now 1 in Oh in Big Ten play, but I said before the season, Luke Fickle will be one of the people who coaches themselves off the hot seat this year, that he will not get fired. I feel very confident in that still,

but do you think they can keep this up? Here's what I think. I think that Wisconsin has been down on the dumps. They were down in the dumps at the end of last year, and they were down in the dumps in the first half against Penn State, and say whatever you want about Luke Fickle, the football coach. He doesn't lose his team. His team fights for him,

and his team cares about winning and are very bought into the idea of continuing to be competitive in big-time games, big-time moments, even when it feels like everything's at a loss. It did feel like in the first half of this game that, oh, boy, here we go again. Wisconsin's already lost in Notre Dame. They got blown off the field in the second half. You know, things start to feel worse in retrospect when something else terrible is happening. and then you come back and win on the road against Penn State in the most significant game of your tenure there, then all of a sudden the Notre Dame loss becomes more palable. All of a sudden, you start to recognize that this team continues to fight for him.

The same way that different players continue to fight for him at the end of last year when they picked up some big wins after it seemed like he might be on his way out. So I don't know if I'm going to sit here and pretend like I think that Wisconsin's going to go compete for the Big Ten championship game. I don't know how things will play out. it is a weird sport, but what I do know beyond the shadow of a doubt is that Luke Fickles players care about Wisconsin football and Luke Fickles players care about him and they're all pouring in a lot into the program. And I think that that is the most important thing when it comes to evaluating the way

that a coach is doing, how it's doing, how he's doing, sorry. Yeah. But then I see the resilience, UCLA, USC, Iowa, like they've got a pretty rough go of it here in the next month. So, you know, we'll see how it. how it turns out. But this is a huge, huge win. And, you know, frankly speaking on the other side of it, too, this is one of the games

that Penn State could not lose if it wanted to be a playoff contender and they did. Mm-hmm. Let me answer your question, Ari. And look, Matt Campbell had nothing to do with the Penn State schedule. He's new. If they challenged themselves

even a little bit in the non-conference, would they have been better prepared to stave off a Wisconsin comeback attempt today? I think that that is a fair question, and I think it's something that you should ask everybody. I think if you ask Ohio State last year, a team that lost in the playoffs and the Big Ten championship game and two consecutive games, if they wished they played somebody with

a pulse earlier on. They probably would have told you yes. I played Texas earlier on, Ari. Yeah. No, I know. Their schedule was complete ass last year. Except for when they played Texas that one time. Yeah. They played it in the opener, and then they played some terrible brand of football.

They slowed the clock down. Yeah. That's not the team on. They at least tried. They couldn't control their Big Ten schedule last year. Penn State can control its non-conference schedule. Maybe it's a terrible example. I just need the sharpening of iron, like, it is important.

I do think, and it's also possible to that Penn State would have just lost earlier if they did, you know. Maybe. But playing teams like this or in games like this is certainly easier to win when you've already played in a close game, of which Penn State has not done so yet. So I buy that. I buy every team that gets challenged who has faced very few challenges in the recent past as a detriment.

And I think that this is the poster boy for why teams should always schedule harder. Yeah. Now, you mentioned that they probably had to win this game. They'll have USC, they'll go to Michigan. That's the hard part of their schedule. But hey, Friday night, they opened the new Ryan Field at Northwestern.

I don't know if they're going to win that game. No. I don't either. Northwestern was awesome on Friday night. They didn't win, but that was a tough team. They gave any of the absolute hell. I don't know what the record is for teams debuting new stadiums, but I'm sure

it's probably pretty good. It'll be fun to see, because that's a beautiful stadium. But, yeah, Penn State is going to need to bounce back. And this is not going to be a cake walk by any stretch of the imagination. So I had Penn State in the projected playoff last week. Needless to say, it won't be in it this week. Maybe they can play the right for you back in.

It's quite possible that your projected playoff will look quite differently this week. Hey, let me show you something that might be new about it. Exactly. You know what that is. I believe my alma mater will be in the projected playoff. Now, here's one I don't know if I'm putting it in there or not, but I'm thinking about it. Do I put Iowa in the projected playoff? We have an in-depth video on Iowa's miracle comeback against Michigan.

And by miracle, I mean, they marched the ball 75 yards in a minute 46, which nothing about Iowa this year has suggested they could do that. But they did it. Yeah, big game next week, huh? So are we going to start to, like, bring game day to Iowa City next week? I think you have to. I mean, they've been in the, and I realize they don't broadcast any big 10 games at ESPN. but you got to at least hit Big Ten country once or twice

to show you care and to show you're interested and to show you're covering the sport as a whole. The other option I think is Starkville for Alabama and Mississippi State, but I think you go to Iowa. I think you go to Iowa City. Starkville would be awesome too.

I mean, you can't lose in either of them. Yeah, but I think Iowa has shown that they've earned it. And also beating Michigan, we talk about this. what Thursday show. You said it's great that Iowa drags these teams into hell and plays these close games against these good teams,

but they have to win one eventually. Today they won one. Yeah. And they won one in a typical way. Yeah. You know, I mean, 85% of the game was, yeah, well, 85% of it was typical. And then the last minute or so was atypical

and how they move the ball down the field. But, you know, I think that part of the thing that I've had a hard time with with Iowa over the years is their fans are very conditioned to the way that they play the game. They're also very conditioned to weird football decisions like the one that they made on Saturday, which was to attempt a fuel goal on fourth and seven in Michigan territory down five with three minutes left in the game. Like that stuff like makes me want to pull my hair out. It worked. You know, at the end of the day, it didn't work. First of all, they missed the fuel goal and it wasn't part of the plan. They ended up winning in spite of that dump.

that terrible decision. It didn't work. But the thing that is interesting to me is, yeah, that you know I was dealing in the pits of hell of people are like, well, they won the game, idiot, like you're dumb for a question. It's like the plan didn't work. It was a terrible call.

No, but they play this way. And then they have to live in this world where they play tough teams very closely. And then they don't win because that style of play doesn't translate against elite level teams. and I don't know if Michigan's an elite team this year, but actually playing that way and getting the benefit of going 4 and 0 and 1 and the Big 10 and beating Michigan in Ann Arbor,

when you would have circled that game on the beginning of the season and just counted that as a loss is a huge step forward. Now, you know, the answer that we're going to get next week, and, you know, I've got a hunch of, if I know the answer already, but they're hosting Ohio State. This is a team that they have beaten in Iowa City in the recent past. Was it 2017 or 18, they beat the crap out of them out there. I'm very curious if this team,

has enough of a pulse to play the game in a way that they actually could beat Ohio State too. So maybe that's insane. Maybe it's not going to happen. But as we alluded to earlier in the video that we posted about this game after it happened, Iowa has a pretty forgiving schedule after Ohio State. If they can play the game close, keep it close, keep it respectable on their home field, well, which team can they not beat? Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Purdue, Indiana, Indiana. I mean, sorry, Illinois and Nebraska. They can beat them all.

So I think that, you know, I fundamentally disagree with the notion that 10 and 2 might be good enough. I think it's possible that it is, but I wouldn't say that they had 10 and 2 when they're in. But 11 and 1 they're in. And that's that's Indiana schedule two years ago. Is it not? It's the same exact thing. It is almost exactly the same thing. And look, I just, I threw this out there in the other video, but I want to make this suggestion.

And Kirk Farrance, hey, maybe every once in a while, just go up tempo a little bit. It's amazing what happens when you do that. And even a good defense like Michigan doesn't quite know how to handle it. So every once in a while, maybe to try it. Michigan has always been, or at least the last few years when their offense has been limited, like the more talented version of Iowa. But, yeah, I don't think that when they paid to bring Bryce Underwood to Ann Arbor, that they had a vision of trying to out Iowa, Iowa.

And the lesson they learned today is that you can't out Iowa, Iowa all the time. Last year, Iowa had Oregon on the ropes. I believe they had Indiana on the ropes, too. They did a safety game, right? They did. And they did a tough game against USC. So, you know, maybe it's time to start taking this team a little bit more seriously than we have in the past. And good for them for going on the road and getting a win that, you know, frankly, they deserved.

So nice win and maybe a little ball don't lie situation there, too, for Michigan and how they won their opener. That's right. There were no extra seconds out of the clock here. You didn't out Iowa, Iowa. Iowa, Ohio State, Michigan, I think is what happened. Now, Iowa has to play Ohio State.

Let's talk about Ohio State Indiana because this is an interesting game in that it is a 4219 win for Ohio State. Illinois. I'm sorry. I made the same mistake a minute ago. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, did I say Iowa?

No, I don't think they're going to win 4219 against Iowa. So, but they beat Illinois 4219. There were some moments where you thought Illinois was going to make this a game. There were some defensive bus for Ohio State that seemed fairly uncharacteristic. Where, you know, you have a situation where the secondary is rotated and running back squirts through, and there's literally nobody on the second or third level of that side. and he just run for a touchdown. I thought Kaden Houser missed a few that could have been touchdowns today.

So it could have been closer. But the thing that jumped out to me and the thing that obviously jumps off the stat sheet in this game is that Arthur Smith, the offensive coordinator, Ryan Day, have decided they're just going to spam the Jeremiah Smith button, which we've been saying just do that since the guy got on campus. and he's already Ohio State's leading receiver. He broke that record three games into his junior season. But Jeremiah Smith, 12 catches for 217 yards, four touchdowns. I think you can do this every game with him if you want to. Yeah, I would think so. When I feel like I'm watching Ohio State, Andy,

I get upset if it's a run play because I have to wait another play at least before they throw the ball back to Jeremiah Smith. And I'll say this. He's clearly, in my opinion, the best player in college football. football and you know he the man hasn't even won a bulletinikoff yet i know he has a national championship trophy so maybe that's all that matters but you know every single game that ohio state has left with him which is what now maybe 10 more at the most or 11 more like you don't want to waste even a second of this guy's talent when he's on your team and i don't know this about ohio

state i don't know it as closely as i used to when i was covering the team but i get the sense that this team might not be as good as they were the last two years from top to bottom, which sounds like an insult, but also it's just hard to be the best team in the country or one of the best teams in the country in this new era every single year. So they might need to use Jeremiah Smith in a way that masks some of those defensive busts that you were referencing, that masks some of their line play that got pushed around a little bit at times by Illinois early in that game. Because if you have a player that is one-on-one or if the ball is,

in the air and the defensive back can do nothing to stop it. It wasn't just that he scored four touchdowns. Did you see how he scored them? You know, one was making a safety look ridiculous with his back to him. The other one was getting his left foot in when he was being carried out of bounds, despite the fact that his right foot landed one millisecond leader out of bounds. Like, you have to squeeze every last ounce of greatness out of this guy if you want to do it. You don't want to end this season feeling like,

I wish we would have thrown it to the best player in program history more. So, you know, it is an interesting discussion. I broached it with Ohio State fans in the middle of the game. Is he the greatest player that's ever played at Ohio State? And I don't take that question lightly when you think about the talent that's walked through the Ohio Stadium doors. You know, and the only other player that I think that you could ever say is even better than this guy at this point. Ohio State history is Orlando Pace. And even that's a debate.

So, you know, get him the ball, feed him, overfeed him, and rely on him to mask some of the blemishes that might exist on your roster elsewhere. Now, okay, can you do this? Can you do what they did today against Iowa? Iowa's got a better defense in Illinois. Iowa's got, Iowa always has good corners. Iowa's corners almost, like, Iowa's corners usually go to the NFL. They usually make NFL rosters.

If you started Iowa, there's a very good chance you're making an NFL roster. Can you do that to them? can you just throw to Jeremiah Smith and make him the focal point of the offense, or do you have to diversify a little bit? I mean, I think that the anecdote to Iowa football is by not playing Iowa football. And what's the antidote? Throwing it as much as you can and opening it up to your athletes outside so that you're not being boxed to death. I mean, the magic of Iowa football is they do nothing for four quarters of football,

and then you look up at the scoreboard and you're losing. Like, you can't allow yourself to be in a position where you get. at Iowa. And I know that it's harder to do on the road, especially in their environment. But if I'm Ohio State, and it reminds me a lot of the times that they played like Northwesterns and Iwas and teams like that in Big Ten play and even in Big Ten

championship games, the Wisconsin's of the world. Wisconsin had some really good teams in the 2000 teens that Ohio State ended up playing. And what was the difference in those games, Andy, you remember? It was their athletes on the outside. They didn't have any athleticism on the outside to keep up with the freaks that Ohio State was throwing at them. So yes, I think that, like,

I mean, obviously in football, being able to block and stop the run and run the ball are always going to be cornerstones of victorious football. There's no question about it, but how do you get Iowa out of its element by throwing an alien the ball 17 times in a game that they can't cover? So, you know, that to me is kind of the key here. And, you know, frankly speaking, their secondary, I mean, their secondary options in the offensive in the receiver room are the worst that they've been in the last few years. And that's not an insult, but go look who's in the NFL right now. Our number two receiver last year was like the leading receiver for the Bucks as a rookie last year. So, you know, and their number two receiver last year was the number of the first receiver off the board in the NFL draft. In the NFL draft, Colonel Tate.

And it's like you get these comments like this, like the media will always ride the nuts of the Ohio statewide receivers. It's like, okay, because they're good. What the hell are you think they're doing in the NFL right now? It's not fake. Yeah. You see Jackson Smith and Jigwe had like 220 yards receiving less. He's the best receiver in the NFL maybe. What do you want?

They're awesome. We compliment good players, newsflash. Yeah. And Jeremiah Smith is maybe the best of them ever. So let's, I hope they use them as much as they can because I kind of think they're going to need to as this schedule goes. I mean, it's not just going Iowa City next week. They've got Indiana, SC, and Oregon coming up on the schedule. This is not going to be easy.

I don't know if you saw this, but he is now the odds favorite, I believe, on Polly Market to win the Heisman effort today. Interesting. Keep your eyes out on that. Yeah, I'm very interested in that because I think we're going to see potentially a run from Camaro Taylor, and obviously that you've got the guys at Miami that all look awesome. Malachi Tony and Darien Menta. All right.

Let's clean up the rest of the big 10. UCLA went and dump truck Maryland in college park today. 54 to 3. Bob Chesney at UCLA has been fantastic. They've been awesome. They opened with that win against Cal. This is their Big Ten opener. Just steam roll, Maryland.

This may be it for Mike Locksley. I don't know how much longer he's got. He entered the year on the hot seat. they seemed lifeless and UCLA seemed a lot better coached and I think to add insult to injury if you'd fired Mike Loxley last year I think there's a good chance

you could have gotten Bob Chesney who has worked pretty much exclusively on the East Coast he's been a northeast guy now Maryland is more mid-Atlantic region but it's still in his recruiting wheelhouse and I don't know

that he would have gone to UCLA if he could have stayed closer to home and been in the Big Ten, that wasn't an option. Now, he's making UCLA really good. Yeah, I think that the thing that's so interesting about what you look at with college football and the way things go these days, Andy, is that like old timelines and how we perceived coaching tenures has shifted so dramatically because of how quickly some people are turning it around. Like when you look at Mike Loxley and when he was hired, what's it been a decade now, like he was a DMV guy who was recruiting good players. Remember he had all those five-star wins over the years in recruiting from players in the area. And it's like, it's also kind of like the same

thing that goes for Greg Shiano at Rutgers. It's like if you're at Rutgers, who are you going to hire? That's not Greg Shiano to do this. If it's not Greg Shiano, it's nobody. And like now you're seeing this new era with coaches who are coming in with no ties at all to the place or that geographic region and turning it around in a six-month period when this guy's been the head coach there for a decade. And it's like it's hard to swallow that if you're a Maryland supporter. Like why are we dealing with the fact that we have a, I mean, because there is an emotional title, Oxley. He's a Maryland guy. He's got an extensive history there.

And I know he's been a very good recruiter, has done some good things. But you don't have to swallow bad results for a decade anymore. If you want to be good, you are one higher away. And we're learning that over and over and over again. We're learning that with UCLA today. We're learning that with Florida. You know, we learned that with Signetti. Like all these aty typical places and some typical places too that make good hires,

turn it around so freaking fast that there's no reason at all to stick with somebody, regardless of how extensive their ties are to your university or geographical region. So I don't know what's going to happen with Loxley, but Maryland is a team that, you know, has ties to Underarbor. They're in a natural footprint for high school football talent. They've got cool uniforms. It's not a hopeless place. And no place is hopeless.

UCLA seemed like a hopeless place. Look how quick that changed. Like, there's no reason you can't do it. You just have to make the right hire. Now, a place that made what it thought was right hire three years ago and hadn't quite gotten there yet. But maybe they're getting there now. Nebraska beats Michigan State.

31, 13. So Matt rules 4-0. The path does get harder as it goes, but Nebraska just looks more competent than it has been. They get Maryland next week, and then there's Indiana, and then we're going to learn a lot about them. But Nebraska could be 5-0 going into that game. I think I read that it was the first time in Matt Rule's tenure at Nebraska.

They used 4-0. So, I mean, that's a step. It is a step. They didn't really play anybody in the non-conference. So this is the first time they've had to go on the road, first time they've had to play a power conference team. So they've definitely eased into the shallow end of the pool. Maryland is certainly helping that next week too.

So again, I'm going to hold judgment on Nebraska. It looks promising, Anthony Calandria, that the Anthony Calandria area looks interesting. But I will not say much because they have. haven't played anybody yet. I don't think Michigan State's that good. They've got to gear up with that big reunion with Dylan Rayola coming in three weeks too. Don't forget

about that. Exactly. Well, they got Indiana before that. So, uh, the yeah, they will not be overlooking the Hoosiers for sure. So got a few more games to talk about before we go. There was a big 10 team that played Notre Dame, Purdue played Notre Dame. And Notre Dame looked awesome today.

So the running game has been a concern for Notre Dame. They came into this game averaging 3.6 yards of carry, they did not have a problem running a ball against Purdue. They were moving the ball up and down the field, running and throwing. But CJ Carr really hasn't been the issue. He's been awesome all season. But they average 5.5 yards of carry, two TDs on the ground, 32 carries for 177 yards. We need to see more of that out of Notre Dame because that's how they're going to win in the

playoff, is if they can run the ball. Because if they allow these defenses to make them one-dimensional, which they have so far. You can do that against bad teams. You cannot do that against the best teams. Yeah. Played with a little bit of aggression today that we were kind of waiting to see too.

So, you know, you just wanted to watch them vote race a team. And, you know, they spent the entire offseason, you know, leave no doubt all those things. They don't have a lot of opportunity on their schedule to make statements nationally in the same way that Oregon did today and Florida did it today and some of the other teams. So you want to see them really, you know, take advantage of those spots and run up a score, and they did that.

So, you know, good on Notre Dame. And, you know, I think that you and I are both patiently waiting for November 7th, which is a long way away. But Notre Dame has a tough game against BYU on the road in Provo on October 17th. So looking forward to that as well. We are one game that was more interesting than it probably should have been. Virginia Tech and Boston College played in the middle of a North Easter. And it looked pretty bleak for the old Hokies.

and James Franklin at a certain point. So BC scores to go up 14-6 early in the fourth quarter. Mason McKenzie, he's the Saginaw Valley State Transfer. He looked really good at this point. And Virginia Tech just could not do anything. It was a driving rainstorm. I'm not kidding. It was it.

They played in a Nor' Easter. So, like, everybody was soaked. but Ethan Gruncomeyer gets him up off the mat throws a touchdown pass to Marlon Jackson to tie the game at 14 well they had to get the two-point conversion then they tie the game at 14 and then Jeffrey Overton who's been really good this season

76 yard TD run 458 to go to ice it big win for James Franklin because the conditions the way they were you could have been the better team and ended up losing it could be pretty fluky. So that's a big one for my life, by the way. A nor Easter? Never heard of a North Reaster.

Good Lord. 39 years old. But you don't believe weather's a thing. Because you grew up in Scottsdale or weather never changes. I've just never heard the word North Easter before. I'm going to have to Google that when we're done. It's a hell of a storm. It's a hell of a storm.

Yeah, I put that together. You're not going to believe what region of the country, nor Easter tend to hit. the East Coast. The Northeast. They're called Norrisers. Andy, can we get to a really interesting game that we talked about a little bit earlier in the week? And I want to acknowledge, and people in the chat are trying to remind us.

Oklahoma State, West Virginia, absolutely. Yes, yes, Oklahoma State, West Virginia. Drew Mestemaker was out there throwing dimes. I think he had 300 and, what was, 389 yards, 3.89 yards, 3,000. touchdowns. Obviously, as this season progresses, if what we saw out of Oregon is an indication of what the ducks are going to be moving forward, that game and that win is going to age, like fine wine. But frankly speaking, West Virginia was looking pretty good this year. Yes. Well, West Virginia was looking pretty good tonight. So Oklahoma State wins this game,

41 to 24. West Virginia went up 2113 with 11.06 to go in the third quarter. Yeah. This was almost all the second half for Oklahoma State. And it kind of reminded me of the Oregon. It felt like that West Virginia got cut up in a northeaster there, like just a storm of Oh, how about that? Doesn't really go down that far? No.

They can get to Morgantown, I suppose. It's not, Morgantown's not that far south. It's like 30 minutes south of Pittsburgh, our south of Pittsburgh. So, yeah, we mentioned Drew Mestemaker. Wyatt Young had a big night, big night for the Polks. Eight catches 192 yards in a touchdown. Caleb Hawkins, 31 carries 180 yards. So, like, West Virginia were the only team that could run the ball in this situation.

But West Virginia did run 66 times for 335 yards, but you saw, I mean, once Oklahoma State got rolling, they were scoring pretty much at will. So, big win for the Pokes. Can I ask you a question? BYU didn't play tonight, so we didn't get to see them. Texas Tech looked pretty awful against Sam Houston State. Now, they did have, I believe they had two pick sixes in this game. But Oklahoma State.

On back to back plates by the same guy, by the way. Is that crazy? It is some kind of record. Oklahoma State lost to Tulsa, which was bad. But then they beat Oregon and they went on the road to Morgan Town and beat West Virginia. Is it possible Oklahoma? State could win the Big 12. It is.

I'm also on high alert for what Houston can do. I haven't given up hope on them. Utah also advanced to 4-0 with a pretty destroyed Iowa State. Yes. And the score was 31-17, but I don't think that that score shows it justice. Baylor is 1-0 in the Big 12. I don't know how much you want to buy into that, but it was an interesting game because they played Colorado and they bench

Ju-Joo-Lewis at halftime, which is a pretty important. I mean, like the most recognizable name and player on the roster got benched. They got a lot better afterward, too. So I don't know where- Isaac Wilson, the former Utah quarterback, by the way, is the person who came in. Zach Wilson's younger brother, if I'm not mistaken. That's correct. He is Zach Wilson's younger brother.

So, you know, maybe he's the guy the rest of the way for the Buffalo. And maybe they're a better team because of it because he certainly looked better when he came in. but I think the big 12 is pretty open. I still think that Texas Tech should be viewed as the favorite. But Texas Tech through four games, yes, they're four and O. They beat Houston narrowly by two points. I don't know that this is a runaway train the way that the preseason win total indicated that it might be. So Texas Tech, Colorado, you've got one half of Isaac Wilson.

I might circle that one. I might circle that one. I am, I'm intrigued. I'm very intrigued now. Ari, we've been going for 90 minutes. We still didn't cover it all, but again, we went in depth on Texas, Tennessee, Iowa, Michigan, and Florida Ole Miss earlier in the day. So those videos are on the On 3 YouTube channel.

They're also in your podcast feed. But we are going to have a real, really fun week coming up. We got to do Sunday. We'll be doing some game previews, early game previews. We'll definitely be doing Mississippi State, Alabama. We'll definitely be doing Ohio State, Iowa. Not sure what we're going to do with the other ones,

but again, the Texas Tech-Colorado game now feels intriguing to me. Oh, one more. One more game tonight. Kevin reminds me in the chat. Boise State proved that they are, the best Broncos. Went to Western Michigan and won. Messer of course, the defending Mac champs. They probably beat Michigan in week one, but don't get credit for it. But Boise State wins that game. Boise State looking like the best team in the group of so far. So they'll

have to keep it up. They'll have to win the Pac-12. But I think they're certainly equipped to do that. Ari, this has been a lot of fun. We are going to have a thrilling week next week. Can't wait. I got to get back off this night. I went five and five against the spread. My first 500 week, I'd been over 500 every week. It's time to get better. It's time to get better next week.

Ari's gone. He just froze. Yeah, I think he froze. Oh, no, he's back. Oh, he's back. He just didn't want me to mention his record. You're freezing. You're freezing.

I'm not freezing. You're freezing. We'll talk to you Sunday.