Andy & Ari On3 - PICKING College Football Week One: Clemson at LSU, Ole Miss vs Louisville, SMU at Florida State

Episode Date: August 31, 2026

With week zero in the rearview mirror, college football’s week one slate is now front and center. With many intriguing matchups ahead this weekend, Andy & Ari pick the biggest games this upcoming weekend. Who has the best picks for this week? Let us know in the comments! (0:00) On Today’s Episode (0:37) Presenting Sponsor (1:43) Intro: Week One Slate (4:46) Colorado at Georgia Tech (10:53) Overall Picks Record (13:17) Gametime (14:39) LSU vs SEC update (25:05) Miami at Stanford (31:05) Baylor vs Auburn in Atlanta (41:25) Rhoback: Clemson at LSU (42:52) Clemson at LSU picks (52:42) UCLA at Cal (56:07) Washington State at Washington (59:05) Notre Dame vs Wisconsin in Green Bay (1:06:51) Louisville vs Ole Miss in Nashville (1:13:04) SMU at Florida State (1:23:42) Conclusion: Thanks for watching! Before Andy & Ari dive into the rest of their picks for this week, there’s an update out of the SEC regarding former NFL players being eligible to play this upcoming college football season. What’s the latest? Will these players be eligible immediately? Andy & Ari dive in. Watch here as Andy & Ari pick the rest of the Week One slate! Thanks for watching! Send your questions to: [e-mail] [e-mail] Our show is presented by Polymarket! New User Offer: Deposit $10, get $50 upon sign up https://app.polymarket.us/S8ac/ON3 Trade 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. We are sponsored by Gametime! Take the guesswork out of buying tickets to every type of event with Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code STAPLES for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Gametime.co We are also sponsored by Rhoback! Use the code “ANDYARI20 “ on Rhoback.com for 20% off for all new customers through the end of this week. Rhoback.com -  20% off all Performance Polos, Shorts and more with code: ANDYARI20   Watch our show on YouTube! https://youtu.be/haQLZXbYO3c   Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari Wasserman Producer: River Bailey Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today is Andy and Ari on 3 presented by Polly Market. It's a pick show. That's right. We are picking some games from Colorado, Georgia Tech on Thursday, Miami, Stanford on Friday. Then we get to Saturday with Baylor Auburn, Clemson, LSU, Sunday, Wisconsin, Notre Dame, Louisville, Ole Miss. We'll even go to Labor Day. SMU and Florida State. We're picking them all.

Plus, an update on LSU, the SEC, and a very important court date on Thursday. All on today is Andy Narian 3 presented by Polymarket. We are sponsored by Polymarket. That's right, the world's largest prediction market. All the point spreads and the totals come from Polymarket where you can stake out a position on your team. If you've got a belief that they're going to win, well, you just say yes to that position.

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Welcome to Andy and Ari on 3 presented by Polymarket and Ari. It is time for my favorite days of the year. That's right. Pick shows. Yeah, I'm fired up. And, you know, the season I think, you know, might not have the marquee matchups. that we're used to at this time, but there's a lot of really sneaky,

interesting matchups. Like, you know, I don't want to scoop ourselves, but like UCLA Cal, like two very exciting first time coaches in the state of California with cool quarterbacks. Like, you know, DJ Lagway.

I mean, like, I, we've talked about this things all summer, but like, this might not be like playoff or boom type games across the board, but I do think that, like, we have a chance to find out some pretty cool stuff

about some programs on Saturday, don't you? I don't know if we're to find anything out Because I don't know if one result's going to tell us a whole lot, but I think as we learned on Saturday, conventional wisdom might be wrong in a lot of cases. Let's go to the records before we look at the picks. We made three picks last week.

We picked North Carolina TCU. We picked Memphis and UNLV, and we picked NC State, Virginia. I was two and one. Ari was 0 in 3. We're back. Thank you, Virginia, and Memphis. We're back.

Yeah, no, it feels good to be. back to the same exact place that we were last year. But, you know, I didn't know anything about those games on Saturday. And I'm like, I admitted it beforehand and I'll admit it now. You would just think that like the law of averages would just like bounce my way on accident. Virginia just clobbered NC State. That was that was the only, that might have been the most surprising result of week zero. Just how badly Virginia beat NC State.

We're going to have Tony Elliott on the show tomorrow to talk about this. So I'm interested to hear from him how they're, you know, adjusting this. I mean, it's not like success is new to them. They made the ACC championship game last year. So they were awesome. Like USC, we made fun of the crowd. Like, okay, nobody showed up, but the team looked good. So I'm not worried about.

I don't care who shows up if the team's good. All right. Before we go into the picks, though, I wanted to ask you this because I, you know, we were watching it and texting it about it while watching it together. And I guess we are talking about Florida State later in the show. So we're going to save it. Yeah. Like, did you think it was bad?

Did you think it was really? I'm going to tease to the, so when we make the pick, the Florida State SMU pick, because, look, I know War Chant was down pretty bad at the New Mexico State game. I think there were some things. Well, we'll talk about it in a bit. There were some things you should be happy with and some things you should be very, very worried about. So we'll talk about that. but you know Memphis UNLV was a fun game who knew Jackson Arnold will take two sacks in a row in a critical moment I guess every Oklahoma and Auburn fan maybe but these things happen.

Ari let's get to some picks now Thursday night Colorado at Georgia Tech Georgia Tech a six and a half point favorite on Polly Market and this is this is this is is a very interesting game. This was a fun game last year, because remember Georgia Tech came out, committed a bunch of turnovers, and then spent the rest of the game clawing its way back and ended up winning this game. I don't see anybody giving Colorado a chance. The Dion Sanders discussion has shriveled to almost nothing. Like, I don't think he is the draw that he used to be if the team isn't winning. But you know what this feels an awful lot like to me? Are you?

What? TCU, North Carolina. I can see the parallels there. Now, lots of new coordinators. In fact, new coordinators on both sides of the ball for both teams. So you don't know exactly what these teams are going to look like. We know, okay, Georgia Tech's going to run the ball. Justice Haynes comes from Michigan.

Alberto Mendoza takes over at quarterback. Georgia Tech is. is going to probably spend a lot of time on the ground. I think they would love if their run-pass split look like Virginia's against Sinti State on Saturday. I don't know that Colorado is going to be that willing on defense to let them do that. You know, I read recently that 22 of the 24 players and the two deep on Colorado's defense are different from last year. Yes.

So, you know, that's a really hard thing to handicap when you haven't seen them play together. Yeah, totally new defense, totally new offense. Chris Marv, the new defense coordinator at Colorado. Brennan Marion, the new offensive coordinator at Colorado. He was the head coach at Sacramento State last year, was the OC at UNLV under Barry Odom. So we've seen that offense before, and we've seen it do fairly well. I mean, it was designed in the FCS to work without a lot of talent. And I think he's definitely got more talent than he's ever had to work with.

Juju Lewis, we saw a little bit last year. He played in four games. This is such a weird situation, Ari, because, you know, last year the redshirt rule still existed. So all of these schools were trying to make sure they didn't burn anybody's redshirt. We would have seen more of Juju Lewis, if not for that. Like, they held him out of a game at the end, even though he was clearly the best quarterback.

He has a got a redshirt. Actually, a fun story that I didn't really think about until recently. It's just how many players would we have seen so much more of last year if the rule was this now? Like, there are a lot of players that didn't play a lot that. they probably could have used playing time. So here's the thing that I think is the difference in this game, Andy, and I don't know if you agree with me. Georgia Tech, given what we know about Brent Key and the way that they like to play,

operate personality-wise is a tough, hard-nosed run-the-ball type team. With me so far, Colorado has spent the entire off-season getting ridiculed for the size of their team. Now, a lot of those videos have been of specialists, and I don't know if it was necessarily a true evaluation of the size of Colorado's roster, but the question remains because this happened last year too. Are they tough enough in the trenches, especially on the defensive line, to stop getting the ball ran down their throat?

Last year they lost this game despite the fact that Georgia Tech committed three turnovers in the first half, and part of the reason for that is because Georgia Tech rushed for more than 300 yards. It was bully ball the entire game. Like, can they put a stop to that? And I think that that's what's really going to be the difference. maker. Now, here's the thing. Georgia Tech had a really good year last year. I don't know where we're at. Alberto Mendoza has a familiar last name. I don't know if that guarantees he's a great quarterback

just because his brother won the Heisman last year. They have some question marks too, but like Justice Haynes, Georgia Tech offensive line can Colorado from a physical standpoint, are they like equipped to stop them from running the ball efficiently? Yeah, I think that's going to be, that's going to be what decides this game. Is Georgia Tech is averaging five and a half, six yards of carry? It's over. It's going to go, it's going to go quickly. The clock will run fast and the game will be over very quickly. But if this reminds you of the North Carolina game, you think that there's maybe something more on the tank for Dion and maybe something

there with that. Maybe they're under a value or sorry, underappreciated coming in. Yeah. I'm going to have to just go against conventional wisdom, I think on about half my picks this week. And I don't know if there's a ton of rhyme or reason to it. In this particular case,

I do like what Brennan Marion does offensively. It's a lot of two-back stuff. Actually, Brent Keith probably would like it because they do a ton of two-back stuff. And I do think it is designed. Well, I know it's designed to be effective, even if you don't have the greatest offensive line. So I think it's going to maybe give them a chance, especially Georgia Tech not having seen it. You know, they've seen it on tape of Sacramento State, on tape of UNLV from two years ago,

but they haven't seen it with these guys. Yeah. I'm kind of just like hoping you pick first. I'll just tail all your picks this week just so I can't embarrass myself anymore. But we're going to get up. Give me the buffs to cover. Give me the buffs. And I'll take my six and a half, please. Yeah, I think I saw somewhere before we started the show that this line was hovering around seven, seven and a half. And I think if it were above a touchdown, I'd be on that side with you. But I'm going to go with the traditional run the ball. I think that's going to travel. That's your favorite thing to say. Offensive line travels, right?

Yeah. They're going to go very far. And their center travel to Gainesville to start for Florida. So do their quarterback. I think that Brent Key's team is going to be more physical. I think that they'll win the game. I think you're probably right about that. I just don't know if that's going to change the outcome.

Do you think that Justice Haynes is going to have 150 yards rushing? I don't know. I think he is. Okay. Well, we shall see. So you're taking Georgia Tech. I'm taking Colorado. What are the records, producer ever?

Can we flash those on the screen? Okay, thank you. Look at that. You know. Do we have last year's records by any chance? I don't know if we had, oh, we don't have a lower third one. Why don't you just verbally say them? And it doesn't even, you don't have to say.

I don't know them. I just know I had a lot better one. Over 500 to very bad. I think that message. By the way, I'm going to milk this for all it's worth because I know the turn is coming and I'm going to be like 60 games below 500 this year. So I mean, I was actually, I was actually, well I can.

I was amused this morning when. River sent them records because I was I forgot what we picked when we were watching the games on Saturday and it is funny because a lot of the picks that we did last week we all both acknowledged we don't know what's going to happen the only one that I felt pretty confident about was TCU and then if you can show text even before the game like this line movement this is yeah you were no before the game you were like TCU is definitely going to lose I'm just like this isn't like this isn't the way every single person on earth thought TCU was going to win the game but I am on me.

used by the fact that even on the coin flip ones, like the coin just doesn't bounce my way. And I lost a few plays on Polly Market over the weekend because of last minute bull crap too. So we're not off to the best start in the world, but I do feel like, you know, I'm streaky. I think I think I'm going to beat you. The records last year, I have them right here. All of a sudden, Johnny on the spot. Well, you ask and he will receive all. Yeah, okay, great.

And Andy's record last year was 68, 59, and 3. Which is actually objectively a very good record, like, in general. It's against the spread. Yeah, like, it's pretty good, yeah. And then Ari's was 52, 76, and 2. Yeah, I had a few really, really bad weekends. I think I went two and 10 a few times. But you've never gone 0 and 8 in one graphic.

I still get to claim that honor. So Andy, what was the game that you played in real life again on Saturday that you said if you lose you're finished? That was TCU, North Carolina. So I'm done. No, no, you're not done. Dude, eight above. You go a whole season, eight above, dude, you're you're him. I don't think, I think that you should. We'll see what happens. But I listen, I am going to milk this for all it's worth until I am well below 500. So maybe that doesn't happen. But yeah, I don't know. We'll be back to the picks. first we're going to have an update on LSU, the SEC, and a big, big meeting in court on Thursday. But before that, we got to talk about game time.

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Terms apply. So download the GameTime app, pick your game. Redeem Code Staples. 20 bucks off your first purchase terms apply. All right, before we get back to the picks, let's update everybody on what's going on with the SEC and LSU. and players who were in the NFL. It's not just LSU, by the way.

This affects everybody, but LSU is the team that is considering doing this the soonest. So you've got a couple of things going on. Ross Dellinger from Yahoo reporting on Monday that the SEC executives are considering, quote, unquote, extreme measures to punish LSU. Let me, let's explain briefly what's going on. Because you had a couple of things that happened, and I've seen a lot of confusion.

Like late last week, you had some of the attorneys for the plaintiffs in these cases saying, the SEC has been in communication with us and they said they're not going to violate any court orders. And people are like, what do you mean? They're planning all these punishments. They're not going to violate any court orders. Currently, there's a temporary restraining order in this case involving multiple players in Louisiana that says the SEC cannot enforce its rule about former pros coming back and playing. That TRO will expire eventually.

It will expire soon because there is a hearing on Thursday for an injunction in this case. And if the judge grants the injunction, then LSU will be allowed to play people like Dayquan Wright, who

played at Ole Miss last year, who currently trying to play for LSU, was in the Browns camp, not Jack Piperin though are he he got claimed he got claimed Jack Jack Pipern who was with the bucks

got waived he was the NFL's sack leader in the preseason was going to go back to LSU if he didn't get claimed he's claimed by the chief so he's a Kansas City chief now so he's not not involved

but okay he's probably happy right if you're him like you're probably happy about this aren't I don't know when you're closer to NFL free agency if you think you're going to get it done yeah but you also might

take a pay cut in this given year. In this given year, but this would have been your last year in college football, we think. But, okay, so here's what happens. This game is on Saturday. LSU and Clemson play Saturday. We're going to pick the game in a little bit. I don't know if we'll have a ruling from the judge or if the TRO will still be in place.

My guess is the judge intends to rule before the game so that everybody knows at least what's going on. And so remember, the SEC and. Commissioner Greg Sanky were added as defendants in this case last week. Again, the TRO, the temporary restraining order, prohibits the SEC from penalizing LSU or any coach or any player. And I think a lot of people saw that LSU played a couple of soccer players who were plaintiffs in this case in their soccer game against Arizona over the weekend. And they're like, well, see, they're going to break the rule.

Okay. One of those soccer players didn't play in the pro, didn't do a pro contract, so she could play anyway. The other one, Jasmine Ferguson, did agree to terms with the pro team. She's on a pro team's roster right now, but, but, but the TRO is in place. So they're okay playing her. They're okay having her on the roster while the TRO is in place because the SEC has said they will follow all court orders. So what matters now is what happens on Thursday.

If this judge says that I'm going to grant the injunction for these players, and I'm going to say not only the NCAA, but also the SEC, cannot punish them or their school or their coaches if they play, then the SEC is going to have to make a decision. Because at that point, again, they're going to follow the court order. They're going to let them play. what they're probably also going to do is sue in federal court. And the question is who they sue.

Because I don't know that they're necessarily going to sue the players. It doesn't sound to me that LSU is going to do anything that would even put themselves in jeopardy to be penalized with these harsh extreme measures. I don't think they are either. I think they're going to hope that they have legal cover to do it. And if they don't do it if they have legal cover to do it. And if they don't, then, I mean, these play, it's not like it's, we're talking about. Sam Levin here. Right.

I think it would be interesting to see what they would do if this was a player that makes you much, much, much, much better. I would argue we've already seen what a school would do. Yeah. We saw a Texas Tech and Brendan Sorosby and they appeared ready to go to the wall and then the Big 12 files a federal lawsuit and

within a day it was over. Yeah. I agreed that Brendan Sorbsby wouldn't be playing for that. Yeah. So, I mean, I actually just kind of feel like we'll, we're in a position Andy here to see like what the courts do. But, you know, if you're one of these people that's like sitting around waiting for the SEC to hammer LSU with some huge harsh penalty.

Like that day is probably never going to come, right? The SEC doesn't want to do that. Of course not. And LSU doesn't want to be in danger of that. But I feel like there's a large segment of people who are like expecting something like that to happen. It's like that's not at all what's going to happen. Yeah, that's just not how it works.

Yeah. Like neither of these parties want to reach that point. But LSU's attitude on this and Lane Kiffin's attitude on this, and I think he expanded on his press conference on Monday, is that if the court says you can do this, it means any team can do this if they want, and why shouldn't we try to make our team better? Sound reasoning to me.

Now, being somebody who likes to be in the middle of controversy and the court happening, the case happening in Louisiana and the players being LSU related, I think, you know, there's some smoke there. Maybe a thought process that, you know, I stupidly didn't think more about when I thought about this last week. And I do think that there is some sort of reason to be upset or mad at Lane Kiffin for engaging in this.

But in terms of whether he's going to do something that endangers LSU, like that would be counterproductive to what he's trying to do here. So, you know, And Lane Kiffin told ESPN on Monday that we're going to follow the SEC's rules. So I really think you should believe. Everybody here. When Lane Kiffin says we're going to follow the SEC rules in parentheses unless the court says we don't have to. And the SEC says we're going to abide by any court order.

Believe them. Believe them. The SEC believes it has a good argument to give in court on Thursday. This is the first chance the SEC's attorneys will have had to argue on this matter. They feel like they've got a good argument. So let's say the judge buys the argument and then issues a T or excuse me, issues an injunction against the NCAA,

but not against the SEC, then those guys can probably go play in leagues that haven't made this rule. LSU aside, are you at least, and I think from a college football standpoint, it is kind of cool to see that they're like, at least very passionate about making sure this doesn't happen. Like doing everything that they can to stop any sort of trend

from starting where NFL players can come back to college, I think is a net positive for. Yeah, I don't think they want to see the cap unsealed on it. But I will remind everyone, we have already seen this in the SEC. Everybody says we're piling on LSU. Let's talk about Alabama. Alabama played Charles Betiaco for five games during the basketball season under a TRO that he had to stop playing because the judge did not grant him the injunction. Very similar to this situation.

now where you had the TRO, then they had a hearing. The judge had to decide whether to grant the injunction or not. The judge declined to grant the injunction. He had to stop playing. So if everybody wants a roadmap to how this might work, that's how it works. Like the SEC abided by the court order, but Alabama did not violate the rule because once the TRO expired and the judge did not give them the injunction, he stopped playing. No more court shielding there.

Yeah. Yeah. So that is all we are waiting for. That is all we are watching for on Thursday. Now, if the judge issues the injunction, says these guys can play, says the SEC specifically. Because I think the NCAA could, the injunction could be filed against the NCAA.

But if the SEC's included in that, then you're going to have to see what the SEC does. because then the SEC is going to have to figure out what to do next, and they might go nuclear. They may file a federal lawsuit against somebody, against the players, against LSU. We'll find out. But I guarantee you they have another play here.

They're not going into this hearing thinking, well, if we lose this hearing, I guess they're just going to play. Right. And I think that everybody's rooting for that to be successful. You know, they're probably rooting for the court order to go away on Thursday, but people don't want this. I don't want this.

I don't think you want this. I think we're all in agreement here. Well, it becomes a lot more dramatic if the court grants the injunction against the SEC and then the SEC has to do something else. Yeah. Because I believe the SEC will do something else. But to understand this week

and why everything's happening to what's happening, just believe people when they say something out loud like this. We're following all the SEC's rules, or if they're saying we the SEC will abide by all court orders. Believe them. That's what they're going to do. And then we'll see what the court says. Back to the picks.

All right, Ari, let's move to Friday night. Miami at Stanford. Weird scheduling quirk for the Canes. They're not playing on a Saturday until week four. I don't think we talked enough about that this offseason because the Keynes, when grab ass comes out, tends to happen on weeknights, no? Didn't they lose their first or second game?

The Louisville losses Friday night. The S&D was Saturday last year. So here's where I'm at with this. I think that Miami is going to have perhaps the best offense in college football. I think they did a tremendous job backfilling a lot of the spots where they lost talent in the portal. They've done a good job recruiting. They have one of the single. greatest offensive weapons in the entire country on their team.

They have a proven quarterback who's going to be selected high in the draft. I think that this is a team that is built to not only make the playoff, but to do something similar to what they did last year. That said, this game is on Friday night. There's a lot of new pieces. Stanford is coming off a huge win. Huge win. Look at all those people in the stands for Stanford's winning in Hawaii.

That's wild, dude. They're on the quarter system. there are no students there at all. I know, I know. And it's Stanford. They have many more important investments to worry about. Yeah, I guess we'll talk about California attendance later on in the show, maybe, because I know USC got ragged on that pretty good.

We're not even picking the USC Fresno State game because, I mean, USC should win that game by a lot. But again, we know you have better things to do. But you're right. This will make for a weird environment. Presumably there'll be more people because it's a better opponent. in Hawaii, but it could be, it's going to be quiet by everybody's standards. Miami last played in the national championship game where it was pretty loud. So you're going to be pretty quiet.

It's going to be Friday night. It's going to be body clock time for the canes pretty late. Kickross at 9 Eastern, 6 local. Miami's a 24.5 point favorite. This is the part I hate about this week's schedule is that, To have enough games for a pick show, we were having to pick some with three touchdown plus spreads. And I don't like that. I mean, they're hard.

They're hard. Can I just like go on the record and say that I think that Miami's at least four or five touchdowns better as a team than Stanford, but I don't know if the circumstances make me want to lay all those points right now. Like that's the thing that I think that I keep coming back to with this. It's, you know, Stanford did almost lose to Hawaii. I don't know how much of that game you watched on Saturday. It got really interesting in the fourth quarter because Stanford was winning and it looked like they were going to be fine. And then all of a sudden, Hawaii storms back, takes the lead.

Stanford scores and then Hawaii, they fumble. Stanford returns for a touchdown. So it was a nice little cover by Stanford. Yeah, a little. It's not a pretty game by any stretch. Stanford got back doored on Saturday and then burst right back through the front door again. Right. Because they were winning 24 to 6, I believe, Andy.

Yeah. And then they were in a position where they were almost going to lose the game. And then they ended up winning by 10. But, you know, this isn't any illusion of Stanford's ability or, you know, talent to stack up with Miami. I'm just trying to, you know, at the end of the week or next week when you are mocking me for my picks in losing. It doesn't matter who's better. It matters whether they won by that, like that half a point there. Well, and that's why I'm really uncomfortable picking this game because 24 and a half is so many points.

And you can go up. I mean, shoot Stanford is a great example. You can go up by a bunch. And then you can take your foot off the gas and things can. I mean, that's what happened with the USC game on Saturday. Yes. Go up by a bunch. Yeah, USC wasn't bad on like, I know people are like, oh, I can't believe USC go out of all those points of San Jose State.

No, they put their backups in. Like anybody who's saying that didn't watch the game. The starters beat crap out of them. Yeah. You know, and there was a really bad turnover from a backup quarterback at the end that turned into another touchdown, which may or may not have impacted the total. I don't know why I would know that. But the thing here is it's just how much do you think Miami is going to be clicking on all cylinders right out of the gate? And is there going to be a time zone body clock issue, a weeknight issue, a layover or a long layoff from what was a big run in the CFP? like are they going to come out and win 51 to nothing or is this going to be like a weird 38 to 14 type game? Because I think that that's on the table.

And I'm actually going to take the points here. And I'm going to say it's going to take Miami a few weeks before it starts getting to where it needs to be. But I still think Miami's going to be in the playoff. I think Dary and Mensa, you know, who quarterback Duke to the ACC championship last year, now joining the Canes. I think he comes out smoking.

So give me the Cains to, cover. Okay. Well, we're on both, we're on opposite ends. Rivers taking notes with this big legal pad there. But, you know, I think this might be nervous. It makes you now when I go opposite to you. It doesn't make me nervous.

It's okay. It's good for the show. But I also think that it's possible that we'll know, maybe this isn't true because there could be like the 14 points scored in the fourth quarter when their threes are in. But I think we're going to know in the second quarter if Miami is going to score a bunch points. Yeah, yes. I would agree with that. And I don't, I'm not discounting that it can be weird, that you're playing a team that's already played a game and you might be rusty and they're not,

all of that. But I just think Keynes are going to be good enough here. Let's go to Saturday, Ari. We're going to go to Atlanta. This game is supposed to be in Auburn, but they moved it to Atlanta so they can pay Auburn players more. Welcome to 2020. Baylor versus Auburn. Auburn is a six and a half point favorite. This dropped a point overnight and a very key drop because it was seven and a half and now it's six and a half,

which, you know, you're going to look at this completely differently now. Can I say that this might be the game I'm most looking forward to seeing this weekend? Oh, yeah. You know, it kind of feels like, and I know that I'm Mr. jumped to conclusions, Matt guy,

but like the referendums that is going to be on either team whichever one loses you know you've been a lot of reason to be excited there's been a lot of reason to be excited my daughter's home with the flu today uh and I have the flu

I think too so we're trying our best here I had to push her out of the screen but the she's cute though she's cuter than you so I'm she's welcome to be on screen anytime she wants Auburn, Andy, is a team that a lot of people have been excited about. Byron Broms coming in.

Alex Golish is in. I think all they want is a competent football team that can impose their will on teams like Baylor. Baylor really wants to see something from their coach, too, right? And their coach made a huge gamble with Florida quarterback transfer DJ Lagway. So I don't know which way you're leaning on this one, but I feel like someone's going to be really mad after this game no matter what. Yes, yes, because if let's say Auburn dominates. And remember, Auburn's defense is going to look pretty similar to last year.

They retained DJ Dork and their defensive coordinator. They retain a lot of the defensive starters from last year. They will look much more like USF on offense because lots of players came from USF, Byron Brown, a couple offensive linemen, multiple receivers, one of the running backs. They are going to look different. But yes, if Auburn comes out and just dominates Baylor, the Baylor fans are like, we're done here. They're going to be off the Dave

and ran to train completely. But conversely, if Baylor beats Auburn, the Auburn fans are going to be a very touch and go for a couple of weeks until they play Florida because it's going to be, oh, wait, we thought we were going to get John Somerall. He ends up going to Florida.

What are we going to do? What are we going to do? Now, neither of this will actually mean that because it could just be one game. And what if it's like a one-point game that's decided on a weird bounce? Like, I'm not sure it's going to tell us anything definitive about either one of these teams.

But you're absolutely right that the fan base of the losing team is going to jump to so many conclusions. So let's go back to a year ago. I believe they played up Thursday night, Andy, when they played last year. It was Friday. It was Friday and Auburn grounded out on the ground to win the game. So I have some stats for you from last year's game. Sawyer Robertson, Baylor's quarterback last year, through for 419 yards.

Auburn's quarterback, Jackson Arnold, threw for 108. Auburn won the game by 14 points. And controlled it pretty much. And if you were to look at the box score, you wouldn't think that. And I think part of the reason for that was the reason why Auburn the last few years has been the best bad team in college football.

They have really good play on the lines or solid play on the lines. They're physical. And they outmanned Baylor last year. So I know that we want to make this game. all about DJ Lagway and whether his mental break and his reset is going to manifest in him being a great quarterback. And I don't know that that's the difference in this game. I mean, Sawyer Robinson last year was one of the most productive players in the entire sport. And they were in a two touchdown deficit at the end of the game, despite the fact that he threw 400 yards.

I, you know, so like my biggest question I think here is, can Baylor physically withstand Auburn? is Auburn as physical as they were last year with a lot of new players under a new coach. And I think that the story, although DJ Lagway is in the center, might not be about DJ Lagway at the end of the day. Well, I think the Byron Brown, Alice Golish piece of this is going to be really important too

because the question is, how does Byron Brown handle a move up in competition? And remember, he did beat Florida at USF last year. So it's not like he's never played against one of these teams. He's played against Alabama before. So he's played against power conference teams. But the question is, how will he succeed as a power conference quarterback where this is the game in, game out routine?

And I think he's going to be all right. The other thing I think is that Alex Kowlish intends to run the ball. Just judging, by the way he worked in the portal, I'd say he'd like to run the ball 60% of the time. Okay. I think Auburn's going to try to really kill you on the ground. I think that's their goal here. And then their hope, if they're doing that, is by the time they get into SEC play,

that you are so afraid of what they're going to do on the ground, you're going to have some one-on-one matchups, they're going to hit you vertically. That is probably the hope. So I would expect Auburn to come out really trying to establish the run game. And it might look somewhat similar to last year's game. if that's working. I'm amused by the questions about whether Brown's game is transferable to the next level,

but I think that that's more of a, will he be able to throw efficiently in the SEC? I think that his physical makeup as a person and an athlete, and the way that he runs the ball and how powerful and big he is, is more than transferable to the next level. Like, I have zero doubt in my mind that he'll be able to run the ball and be a big, gritty first down getter in the SEC. So, like, from that standpoint, if it does look like last year, you know, I think that he'll have better stats than Jackson Arnold.

He'll be, I mean, Jackson. I don't worry about having better stats than Jackson Arnold. Yeah. Like, because Alex Golish is at this point a much more competent offensive coach than he frees. Well, Jackson Arnold had 137 yards rushing. remember correctly in that game he had a really long touchdown run oh you're talking about in in the bayland yeah yeah yeah like in this specific game like i think that he'll be like like like the auburn

quarterback who accounted for 245 yards of total offense with 137 of it on the ground like byron brown i feel like it's like a almost certainty that he's going to have 300 yards of total offense in the game um so like i'm leaning pretty heavily on auburn here just because of what i saw last year and what I expect from them. Okay. Let's go to the guy who we were way wrong about last year. Let's talk about DJ Lagway because we saw, like, I was at the two games for Florida when he was a freshman,

when he beats LSU and Ole Miss in consecutive weeks, and he's basically playing on one leg against LSU. And you're like, oh, my God, this guy is going to be amazing. He's going to be special. And then the next offseason, he barely takes, you know, any snaps during the off season because he's got arm issues. He was bad. Last year, there's really no way to, other way to say it.

He was bad as for starting quarterback last year. When John Summerall and company got there, they basically were like, okay, you can go. Don't worry about it. We've already got somebody coming. And so he has a chance to redeem himself. And I don't think he has to be as good as we were hyping him up to be. That's a pretty high bar. Can he be a competent starting college quarterback?

Yeah, I think he can. he's still got a better skill set than most quarterbacks in America. I agree. And I've been very forthright and humbled by our predictions last year. But I don't think I'm 100% out on the idea that a fresh start back to his home state in a more level-headed environment could be good for him. And everything that I've read and said or seen said and talk to them at Media Day and Dave Miranda we got to visit with,

like all those things I can buy into. But even if DJ Lagway is 70% what we thought he could be in this game. I think 70% of what we thought he could be would just be like Sawyer Robertson, like what they already had. I still don't know if this game is going to come down to whether DJ Lagway is electric or not.

Now it'll certainly help. I think he's going to have to be if they're going to win. If they win the game, it's going to have to be that way. I agree with you. but it's the other things that come into play that came into play last year. And again, different teams, you know, new players. It's not always, if I learned any lesson from the North Carolina game, it's that things can change quite a bit in a year.

But I also, because of the moves that Golish made in the portal, and because of the way that I know that he likes to run his offense, like I would assume that Auburn is going to be bigger and stronger, faster, and more athletic up front. they want to move the ball on the ground. That's what they want to do. So I'm going to pick Auburn here. I'm going to lay the points.

Maybe we would have had a second thought if we're seven and a half like it was earlier. But I'm going to go with the SEC team here. And I'm totally in on the big 12 meeting to make a statement too. And I'm excited to see if they can. I'm going to take Auburn too. I just think they're going to grind this amount. I think that that probably may not look the way we imagine it with goal issues to be Tennessee's offensive coordinator. If you're thinking it's going to look like

2002, Tennessee, which they may have games like that, but I don't know if they're going to need to do that in this game. I think they may be able to grind it out. So I also will take Auburn to cover. And Ari, let us venture down to Baton Rouge. We've already talked about Lane Kiffin and LSU

as it relates to court and the SEC. But now let's talk about them as it relates to hoodies. This is our this is our hoodie game. Let's say this is a hoodie game. It's a hoodie and polo game. So Roeback has been nice enough to send us all kinds of great gear.

This is the LSU-Hazy hoodie right here. If LSU wins, I will be wearing this on the pick show next week. If Clemson wins, Ari. Will the court be willing to grant me a short 13-second break? Speaking of courts, yes. I will vamp. But look at this thing. Look how beautiful.

Okay. All right. I'm back. Polo I'm wearing also a robot. Look at that beautiful Clemson polo. This is what I'll be wearing if Clemson wins. So I don't know. Orange is a nice color for me.

But it's so soft that it's not the same fabric as the Hezzy hoodie, but it's still, it just makes you just like, you know what I mean. So we've got our gear. And is this like a preview of how we're going? to, uh, I think I spoiled it, but that's okay. Roeback doesn't mind. That's RHOBAC. Code Andy Ari for 20% off your first purchase, Roback.com. All right, let us talk about this game, because there's been so much talk about Lane Kiffin about everything off the field, about his departure from Ole Miss, him coming to LSU, him building this roster, all of the stuff in the last few weeks involving the temporary restraining order and the guys trying to come back to the NFL.

This will still come down to a football game. Like there will be a game played. And oh, by the way, the other team will have its own set of drama. Yeah, I'm just exhausted. I'm exhausted and I just want to, I want to talk about Lane Kiffin's football team. But you can. We're going to talk about Sam Levitt. We're going to talk about, about George.

Jordan Seton blocking for Sam Levitt. We're going to talk about all of these guys that they brought in, the guys that they inherited like Trayette as Green. You know, we've been talking about a tight end who at this point is not even on the roster. But why not Tradez Green who's on the roster? Who's an incredible Red Zone threat? We'll talk about DJ Pickett playing corner and not what number he's wearing. I do miss that discussion, though.

That was fun. That's the one that I'm not sick of because that's more feelings than court. Well, if LSU was favored by five and not 10 and a half, then we would be making a James joke right now. Did you imagine? Right now we'd be making one. Okay, so I asked you guys this question on text thread before the game started. And like, I'm not sure I agree with your guys' assessments here. You're probably right, but I think we should talk about it.

Which coach is facing more pressure in this game? Lane Kiffin. Yeah. And neither one are facing that much pressure. because Lane Kiffin is coaching game one. He's got a basically fully guaranteed contract. But that's why I don't think he's facing much pressure. Like I feel like.

But Dabo's not either. Dabo may be facing pressure this season. He's not facing pressure this game. He's a double digit underdog. And by the way, this is where he thrives. This is where Dabo can talk about the rest of y'all and the guts and who's on the bus and all that. Like this is his dream scenario. They are going into Tiger Stadium as.

a double-digit underdog. Nobody thinks they can win. He's going to play that to the Hilt. Yeah, I think the reason that he is on the hot seat-ish is because of the spread of this game. That's like, that's what's amusing to me. Are we at the point in the Davosweeney era where his team is such a big underdog that he's not facing pressure to win big games anymore? Like, he has to win the, they're mad because he can't compete in these games. That's why they're mad. They're not mad because they were terrible last year. That's part of the reason they're mad, but they're not mad at him in his existence at Clemson because they had a bad season.

They're mad because the program has slipped and become a second-class citizen to the teams that we perceive to be real playoff contenders. And if they come out there and go to Baton Rouge and get their ass kicked, man, like I know he has the rest of the season to go. And I know the things, you know, could get better that he's had a tendency to do quite well in the ACC and win conference championships. But the way I view it, Dabo isn't, is he going to win 10 games and beat up on Wake Forest. That's not what I'm analyzing.

I'm analyzing whether he built a team that is able to stand on the same field as a team that might have spent 40 million on their roster. Because that's what he's judged by. So, you know, pressure might have been the wrong way to frame it because neither of them is getting fired on Sunday no matter what happens. But in terms of how you frame a coach, like, I think that Davos-Sweeney is far closer to the finish line of his final evaluation as Clemson's coach than game one lane is. So that being said, I do think that LSU is going to be a really good team this year. And I don't know if I can say the same right now about Clemson. I think there's a chance. There's always a chance when Davo is on your sideline.

But I don't know in terms of safety. I mean, LSU is a safer team to at least win this game and do something good this season. Points. Don't get me started on the points. we know that Lane Kiffin is a mastermind of putting a bunch of foreign pieces together and making them into one cohesive unit. He did a very good job of doing that quite a bit at Ole Miss and is the reason why LSU hired him and went through the circus, to be honest. Do you anticipate that LSU is going to look awesome in their home opener at night against Clemson on Saturday? I do. I do. I want to take you back to 2020. That was, Lane.

Kiffin's first year at LSU. And they had barely practiced. I mean, barely practiced when they started playing. And because remember, it was the COVID year. Everything was strange. They didn't start the season until the very late September. And that offense in that first game, which was a 5135 loss to Florida. That was the Florida team that won.

a lot of games that, you know, lost Alabama and the SEC championship game. I, that offense looked like it had been together for a long time. It was moving very smoothly, you know, they end up beating Kentucky 42, 41 and OT the next week. Like, they score 48 against Alabama the week after that, the eventual national champs. So, yeah, I think he's going to have that offense humming right off the bat. I don't think there's going to be a lot of hiccups. I don't think it's going to be a slow adjustment to figure out what they're doing. He's just historically been able to put new pieces together.

And he did that throughout his time and he'll miss. Put new pieces together and they look like they've been playing together for a long time. Yeah. If you think that's the case, then lay the points. And that's what I'm doing. Yeah. I'll take LSU to cover this thing. I just think they're better.

And I think there doesn't, like I said, does not need to be that big adjustment period. for them to be able to play cohesively. Yeah, LSU has struggled traditionally, at least in the recent past, in the openers that they've had to play. I don't know if that has any calculus. They won the game last year on the road, so maybe it's over with new coach, new team.

Maybe it doesn't matter at all. Yeah, I don't think the first game LSU thing means anything. I mean, they also, unlike a lot of teams, just lost a good teams. Yeah. Playing good teams every season, right out of the shoot. Like, some of that's not necessarily them being bad at season openers.

It's them scheduling hard season openers. Before I make my pick, can I just ask you a blunt question? Do you think Clemson's going to be pretty good? Yes. You're like pretty good, not great, but pretty good. I don't, I don't even know if they're going to compete in the ACC, but I think they're going to be pretty good. I'll take the points.

Okay. It's a lot of points. I don't blame you. You know, I think that LSU is going to advance in the playoff this year. And like, well, that implies they're going to make the playoffs. So that's, look, I think LSU fans, I think, if I'm speaking out of school, LSU fans, you feel free to correct me. I assume you would be happy with them making the playoff this year.

I don't know that a deep run is necessarily required to make you happy, but I'm sure it would make you happy. But I think they should, they do. reasonably expect, like it's a reasonable expectation. We hired Lane Kiffin. We're paying him all this money. We gave him all this money for a roster. I think the playoff is a reasonable expectation.

Do LSU fans, do you think they enjoyed the circus or do you think that it was annoying for them? I think they enjoyed it to a point. Because they were on the wind side of it. I don't think they like being the punchline of everything. Like, this happens to the schools that employ Lane Kiffin. Like, yeah.

They're like, wait, why you're always talking about us? Because we always talk about Lane Kiffin, because when we talk about Lane Kiffin, people watch. And it gets annoying after a while when you are the subject of conversation every single time, even when it's kind of only tangentially about you. Like this, now at least it's definitely about them. We're talking about their game. But there's so much stuff that has been kind of tangentially about LSU that we always find a way to make it about Lane Kiffin. Because again, when we mention Lane Kiffin's name, when we show his videos,

when we show his well he's not posting on social media at the moment but his posts on social media the man has a burn you watch question right listen he doesn't have a burner right he's got to have multiple burners yeah still looking at it there's no way you just is not he's not looking at it um i just i wonder like what um going through the circus whether it was an enjoyable uh ride where you paid to go see the elephant stand on the egg or if it's something that you're tired of, what the circus does to a person's psyche who roots for the team

in terms of what they demand as a result of the circus. It's LSU. They demand national championships. That's never changing. Yeah. For sure. But game one, like in game one, is your governor for what you're willing to accept credit of the game. Governor might be the wrong choice of words to use your talk about it. What if it was the perfect

word? Maybe, maybe. All right, that is the game day game, that is the ABC primetime game. You're going to be inundated, deluged with images from Baton Rouge on Saturday. Cannot wait. Cannot wait. I'm taking LSU minus 10 and a half. Ari is taking Clemson and enjoying his points. Ari, let's go to Berkeley. This game, primetime on the West Coast. ACC after dark, ACC big 12 after dark for, for everybody else. Pack 12 after arc, you know, for the real ones. UCLA at Cal, UCLA, a one and a half point favorite on the road.

These two teams are fascinating. Both have new coaches, both have big expectations for those new coaches. Bob Chesney takes over at UCLA coming from James Madison. Tosh Lepoy was Oregon's defensive coordinator. He is now Cal's coach. He's, of course, a former Cal player, helped stock some of those really good Cal teams under Jeff Tedford. Ari, I'm so,

excited for this one. Very similar situations, right? California schools that don't have or have issues getting people to come to the games, hiring coaches who have been a part of winning pedigrees at different levels. You know, Bob Chesney, more head coaching experience, Tosh LaPoy, more experience at big time programs who are in the national championship discussion. Both teams have semi-proven to proven assets at quarterback and Nico Iamaliava and J.K.S. I'm going to work

this season, Andy, to get as good at pronouncing his name as you are. Jaron Kiabe Sangapolitelli. Jaron Kiabe Siangapolitelli. Songapolitelli. Sangapolitelli. Yeah. There you go. But they are kind of similar, right? And the reason why the spread is one and a half is that they're similar. And it kind of feels

like when you're picking this game, you're picking which coach makes you feel things harder right now. And like I think both make them feel something. Like, I don't know. Like they both were tremendous hires. They both have breathed a lot of life into their new programs, right? But you think that Cal and they are moving differently.

These are better, these are better teams than last year. So it's, this is a really, this I would say is probably the hardest game of the week to pick because it feels more coin flipish because I actually think that both places did really well with their hires and they've done really well with their coin flip spread.

It is. Yeah. No, I don't. So that's my way of saying, I don't know who's going to win. I'm going to pick UCLA because, uh,

Bob Chesney has a little bit of whether it's fair or not. Kurt Signetti adjacent sprinkled on him a little bit, just having gone to the same path. And they also are in the Big Ten, so maybe that means something, but I don't know, man. I'll go UCLA. Do you have any additional thoughts that I didn't cover

in terms of how to analyze this? I'm going to take Cal, I think JKS is making a jump this year. I think JKS goes for being an intriguing, talented showing Flash's freshman quarterback to one of the better quarterbacks in the country and I am excited to see what he does with the talent that Tosh Lepoy's brought in around him so yeah give me Cal and you're giving me points at home which I will happily take I can't believe River's going to sit there and let you do

that Nico Slander he's going to sit there and take it River says they're going to lose by 10 so yeah River's like the Rivers of all for life, guys. If you're new to the show, Rivers of All for Life, he hasn't forgotten. Yeah. Okay, River. That's fine. Let's move to Sunday.

Oh, River Bowling. Apple Cup. Washington State at Washington. Washington is a 21.5 point favorite in this game. Now, look. Conference realignment unkind to the Coogs. Unkind. Kirby Moore comes in to take over.

They're on their third coach in three seasons. It's been tough. Jimmy Rogers now at Iowa State. Jake Dickert now at Wake Forest. Jed Fish kept him on Williams. We think that Washington could be a sneaky contender in the Big Ten. If they are, they should cover this spread. Oh, for sure.

You're the college football historian with the Almond. in your brain. Is this the first time they've ever played this game in week one? I don't think so. I think they've done it since realignment. I think they've done it once. But okay. I'm now going to look it up. So yeah, look it up.

Okay. So, yeah, you know, I wonder if Washington is the team or one of the teams in the handful of we didn't talk about them enough and we're going to find out that we didn't talk about them enough come the fall. You know, I think that they obviously were fortunate. enough to, you know, keep DeMond Williams in the fold after the circus that, you know, that whole thing was with the potential, you know, LSU flirtation with the portal, you know, at the end of the last season. But when Jed Fish came on the show, the thing that I think stood out

to me more than anything was that their offensive line was in complete shambles when he took over, didn't even have enough bodies to get through spring practice, you know, and they've kind of built in the trenches the last few years and are in a much better place in that standpoint. Now, I don't know what they're going to do in replacing Jonah Coleman, who was. was a very good player. But from top to bottom, Jed Fish has already proven over the course of the past, you know,

few stops in his career that not only can he flip a place, but he can, you know, marginally improve once a place arrives year over year. So, you know, my expectation for Washington is that they're probably a 9-10 win team in that range at some,

you know, Andy. And if they're a 10-win team in the Big 10, they should be covering the spread without question. So I'm going to pick Washington. By the way, both games since the Pac-12, dissolved have been in September, but this is the first time we've won. So, and remember in 2024, the first one after Washington moved, the Big 12, Washington State did win the game.

Yeah. That was that was Jake Dickert's team that beat them. But, yeah, if Washington is what we think they are, they're going to cover this. So I will take the Huskies to cover 21 and a half. Yeah, we're on the same side on this one. also Sunday let's go to Green Bay Rory

who Notre Dame Wisconsin in a game that probably looked a lot sexier when it was scheduled but that said

Notre Dame is a 20 and a half point favorite and I said last week in my bold prediction Luke Fickle's going to save his job this year at Wisconsin

one way to supercharge that would be beat Notre Dame. Now, I don't think they have to beat Notre Dame to be good enough to save his job. But they probably should be fairly competitive against Notre Dame if they're going to be the kind of team that can save Luke Fickle's job. Yeah. So what do you think would be a success for Wisconsin on Sunday, sorry? Be in the game in the fourth quarter. Like, you know, seven to ten points down in the fourth quarter? Yeah. Yeah. Be competitive into the fourth quarter. I think that would be a

successful game. Now look, I realize they expect more. They went out and got Colton Joseph from Old Dominion. He's a very fast quarterback. He's a great runner. He has, you know, if you look at his stats last year, like his yards per attempt are really good. They were among the best in the country because teams are very afraid of what he can do on the ground. This is a guy who broke off too long touchdown runs against Indiana last year. They were the only team, I think, that, uh, that rushed for more than their season average against Indiana's defense. And it was because of two Colton Joseph runs. that they did. So that's interesting. Now, you're hoping that the Wisconsin transfer quarterback curse does not continue. I hate to even bring it up, but unfortunately that's been the circumstances

the last couple of years. Tyler Van Dyke went down in game three against Alabama two years ago. And then Billy Edwards, who you saw playing really well for North Carolina on Saturday, went down in game one last year. So hopefully Colton Joseph is fine. We saw Wisconsin look a lot better at the end of last season. We saw the defense especially look a lot better. They were playing a couple of young guys at linebacker, a couple freshmen at the time that I think are going to wind up being really good, but, you know, looked really good as freshmen.

So I'm interested to see how that works. So that, yeah, that was Cooper Catalano Mason, Mason Posa, who I think their first start together was against Oregon, which Wisconsin actually played well on defense. defense that game too, but then they beat Washington and a couple weeks ago they beat Illinois. So, yeah, this is a team that I think is going to be better. That said, they're going to be playing against one of the best teams in the country, one of the best rosters in the country, unbelievable talent up front for Notre Dame on both sides

of the ball, incredible quarterback at CJ Carr. I have no doubt they've found good running backs. I think Ennis Williams is waited his turn. Like, he's probably going to be the breakout on Sunday. it's going to be very hard. Andy, what about the anger factor? The anger factor for Notre Dame. Well, I got to imagine that Marcus Freeman has like bolted into their heads all offseason.

Leave no doubt. Leave no doubt. Right. No more allow people in a conference room to dictate our future. No more messing up early in the season. Like I can't imagine there is an angrier. or more frustrated or more passionate team coming out of the gate in week one, the Notre Dame.

Obviously, they didn't play in their bowl game. There was a huge deal about that last year. And part of the reason in my understanding is that Notre Dame wanted to turn the page from last year is because it wanted to start this year faster. They wanted to turn the page to get to this game faster. And I know that, you know, Wisconsin should be a very good team. I think I even saw Tom Fornelly at CBS saying that they're going to be one of the surprise teams of the year.

I think it's probably an unfortunate scenario for them to be standing on the train tracks in this specific game. Now, the game is somewhat close to where they, you know, play their home games. And Notre Dame is going to have to travel a little bit further. But I just think that Notre Dame is going to come out and play with a, with the word vengeance that I think is going to just make a big difference. I don't know if they'll be able to sustain that all year. but I think Notre Dame wants to start this season with a statement, and I think they're going to be successful. I also think Notre Dame has to be that on edge pretty much every week

because their schedule is not great. Like USC ducked out of that game. So they're not playing USC. They replace them with BYU, which helps. But they've got the game against Miami. They've got the game against SMU on paper. The schedule does not look particularly challenging. So it's one of those where like ask Vandy.

they were 10 and 2 last year and they didn't get in because their wins weren't considered good enough. Yeah. They don't want to be in that situation where they're sitting there at 10 and 2 having played this schedule. So they have to come out with that level of edge every single week. Right. They have to. Which is scare me if I was Wisconsin. Yeah, I just, I think that it's possible that everything that you think about Wisconsin is true,

but they're just in the wrong place the wrong time. Like, oh, and that's the thing. like Wisconsin could be a team that wins five games in the big 10 this year. And they could still get beat by 30 points in this game. Yeah. And the point that you made too about, you know, last year and how it went, like the leave no doubt thing, but like they're not going to have a lot of opportunities in general, Notre Dame to impress the committee.

So if you're playing a team like Wisconsin that has a chance to maybe win seven to nine games if things go well, you want to, you want to flex when you can because scoring 60 points against overmatch opponents doesn't move. the needle at all. It doesn't matter. Yeah, if you slap these guys around, the initial response is going to be, oh, well, they stink again.

But if the Nadee 1st meets in November, and if Wisconsin's sitting there with five wins at that point, and they're like they're five and two or five and three or whatever, whatever the record would be, the committee's going to go, oh, oh, that's a pretty damn impressive win. What people take away from this game

on Monday? is of no consequence to Notre Dame. Right. What the committee takes away from it in November is what matters. And I'm assuming that Marcus Freeman, who, you know, my understanding is is a very blunt but very open and honest guy, good leader of men, understands how the CFP committee works. Obviously, they were on the wrong end of a decision last year that didn't sit well.

You have to acknowledge to your team, right, that this is an important game for our postseason hopes. So when you think about all the things involved from a talent perspective, there's a lot to like about Notre Dame's team. But when you get into the feelings realm, which is my specialty, like they've got to be foaming at the freaking mouth here, Andy. I'm taking Notre Dame to, I'm laying 20 and a half points. I think that they're going to win by a lot. And that's not because I think North Wisconsin stinks.

I think that Notre Dame is one of the five best teams in college football. And I think that it's their goal on this plan at the flex in week one. Yeah, I think you're right on this. I think their whole leave, no doubt strategy, that's going to show week one. They're going to show that off and they're going to look like the team we think they're going to be. But that doesn't mean Wisconsin is not going to potentially have a good season. So I'm excited to see whatever it looks like. I'm excited to see it.

So I will take Notre Dame to cover as well. Let us move to the other night. game on Sunday night. Louisville Ole Miss in Nashville. And all the talk about Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss has been one of the more interesting teams in the offseason as well, the team he left, because Pete Golding won two playoff games, had them in the semifinals. They kept Trinidad Shambliss. Trinidad Shamblis won his injunction so he gets to play this year. They have the most exciting quarterback in the country, potentially. They're a lot of fun.

A lot of fun. And could be a playoff team again. Louisville is a dark horse in the ACC. Lincoln Keenholz is going to potentially be very good. Yep. Isaac Brown, quote unquote, ready to go. Ready to go, according to Pete Nekos. Yep.

A lot to like about Louisville. This is a pretty tough season opening matchup for Ole Miss, I'd say. Yeah. Yeah, this is this is how you challenge yourself in week one. If you're a if you're a team that fancies itself a playoff contender, this is a way to challenge yourself in week one because and by the way, I say that I'm applying it to both these teams because I think Louisville feels the same way that they feel like they're there are a potential playoff team as well. So great coaching matchup, Jeff Brom, the quarterback whisper against Pete Golding who you know, sample size is small, but pretty high leverage. games and he's looked pretty good so far. Yeah. So what are your thoughts on Ole Miss stuff?

Like, do you think that they're a legitimate, like really, really, really good top tier SEC team? I know they've got two of the best players in the entire country. Everyone knows who Trinidad Chambliss and Kiwan Lacey are. From top to bottom, do you think that they're made up in a way that, you know, is built for a postseason run? I think it's really going to depend on how well Golding stock the defense. And a lot of that was through the transfer portal.

Obviously, that made a lot of news this off-season. Yeah. Luke Forelli, the middle linebacker, was a Cal transfer, but he was going to go to Clemson. Clemson has accused Ole Miss of tampering to get him, but they had to replace a lot on defense through the transfer portal. Perkins is probably the one guy that you really remember from last year, the edge rusher,

but that's going to be a fairly radically revamped defense. Now, look, Golding's done that. before at Ole Miss. Golding has done a lot in the portal the last two years and produced pretty good defenses at Ole Miss. So I think I think that probably continues. But again, we're going to have to see it against a team. Like for example, when Louisville's offense and Ole Miss's defenses are on the field, it is not going to be a lot of guys that played at their schools last year. Yeah. Because Louisville's offense is basically Isaac Brown in 10 transfers. Do you think that it's hard, But, you know, because I feel like Ole Miss probably is a little bit in the angry side of things because of what happened with them.

Do you think it's hard for angry to carry over when you have a lot of new players that didn't experience it, what happened live? Probably. I don't, I don't necessarily think Ole Miss is, it's not like Notre Dame. Because Notre Dame, if you look at that roster, it's almost entirely guys. Entirely. Yeah, right. So, Ole Miss, different situation. They have had a lot of turnover.

I'm sure there are guys that are still mad about what happened, but they also, after the Kiffin thing, went on and won two playoff games. Yeah. And we're very competitive against Miami with a chance to go to the national championship game. I wonder even how much they even thought about it in the offseason. Like, I can guarantee you Notre Dame thought about missing the playoff every day

this off season. I don't know how much Ole Miss was thinking about Lane Kiffin. Right. Right. Because they went and did probably what they would have done with Lane Kiffin. Yeah. Like if Lane Kiffin had been coaching Ole Miss last year in the playoff, and they had made the semifinals and lost in the semifinals.

You'd have been like, that sounds pretty good. That's about right. Yeah. So I think what we're getting here is just a good old fashioned ball game between two teams. So like, how do you handicap it? That's the hard part is, again, when Louisville's offense is on the field, all this defense is on the field, it's a lot of new. It's a whole lot of new.

Like I trust Jeff Brom with quarterbacks if he thinks Lincoln Key, Holtz is the guy, then he's probably the guy. But yeah. Can I say something out loud? Yeah. Jeff Brom took Purdue to the Big Ten championship game. He sure did, Ari. He sure did.

And that's not something we should forget. And he took Louisville to the ACC championship his first year there. I think he's an underappreciated coach. So, you know, I think he's currently very appreciated because he got that extension this offseason because I just be national. Remember, all the teams with openings knew, knew about him. Yeah, that's true. I'm on the fence on this one, man.

Can you go first? Oh, boy. This is a tough one. This is a very tough one. I am going to go, okay, I'll do it first. I'll go Ole Miss and I'll let you fade me. I'm just, my thought process.

Good, because I was going to take Louisville. I was going to take those points. I bet you were, buddy. I'll take Ole Miss. If you were an Ole Miss fan who was in my mentions, and there were a lot of you, and I didn't put Trinidad Chambliss as a top 10 player in the country during my offseason rankings in June.

You didn't know if he's going to be allowed to play. No, no, I, this was after he was back, I think. Oh, well, then that's your fault. Prove it, baby. All right, no more Twitter tweets about how amazing everything is. No, we're going to the Natty discussions and all the things and the message board threads. just go do it.

I'm putting my faith in you, Ole Miss, to cover this game. Go do it for me. I can't wait. This is going to be a fun one. Big, big Sunday night slate for us. Okay, let's go to Monday. Yeah, you pick Louisville.

SMU at FSU, Monday night. Florida State is a two and a half point underdog at home. I'm a little surprised at this number, Ari. I thought this number was going to be bigger. Sweetheart, come here. This is part of the show, Andy. Don't freak out. Okay, all right, all right.

All right. All right. Libby, hurry. I'm alive. Come here. It's this great pod right here. Sweetheart, do you want to go to college one day? No.

What? Well, guess what? I'm thinking about putting your college fund on SMU. Andy, can you give me a reason now that my beautiful daughter walked away? She says she doesn't want to go to college. She does. Why I should invest a, large chunk of change in SMU winning this game by three or more points.

Because I watched the Florida State game. We teased at the beginning of the show. I think we know we both believe that SMU was going to be very good. Two and a half. Explain to me in old English. Like what the calculus. If you're like maybe I'll see. The old 18 to 23 year olds tend to be highly erratic in their performances.

That's the explanation. That's why. Why? What's this? What are the rules? What are the rules for like liquidating a 529 plan? I mean, like, come on. Oh, God. Texting you this morning.

Like, what are we doing here? I hope your wife doesn't watch this. She's aware of, I mean, she's aware that I joke about this stuff. I would, of course, never jeopardize my daughter's future. But I am, this is the one that really set off alarm bells for me.

As we were talking about these before we got on the show, I was even texting you like, SMU, I think is going to be a really, really good team this year. I know that Florida State, let's just back up. What did you think of Florida State's game on Saturday? I thought there were some things that really scared me. Like, I liked the run game. I thought Cromo was good. I thought there was a lot, like Singleton is very versatile because you can catch it out of the backfield and run. But I didn't like

Florida State's protection at times. I did not like their lack of pressure. on New Mexico State's passing game. I didn't necessarily like Florida State's secondary in that game. It was, there were a lot of red flags. A lot of red flags. And I think this is not, none of this is news

to Florida State fans. Like if you went on War Chant after the game, it was, oh, oh, this is a problem. This is not looking good. So that said, it's also New Mexico State. Now, unlike at USC, where the, you know, stands were empty. They were mostly full for New Mexico State.

Like, the crowd was into it. But I don't know how into it Florida State's team was. So Florida State. Labor Day against SMU. I think Florida State has become an easy place to pile on for people. And I actually thought for the first half of the New Mexico State game that people were making fun of them too much. Like, I didn't, like, it wasn't like.

If that dude had caught that halfback pass in the third quarter. Like, I felt like they were piling on them. That would have been, that would have been pretty bad. It was been like 17, 14, and it was going to be gloom and doom for sure. But I also think we have to acknowledge the fact that you said after our live show, or at the end of our live show on Saturday that we had no reason to come back, which was a terrible thing to do to Florida State, Andy. I know you went to Florida, just an awful thing to do to those people.

But I don't think they looked awful. here's where I'm having a hard time. My expectation is that SMU is actually going to be very good. So it's not just that Florida State had some iffy moments against New Mexico State that makes me think this. There have been plenty of instances in the past where a team has played an overmatched opponent week one, looked kind of shaky, and come back and been great week two. My thing is that last Saturday night when Florida State played New Mexico State, it was supposed to be kind of a reveal of like,

what is this team supposed to be? Because we were honest about it. We didn't know Florida State and what they were going to be beyond the shadow of a doubt coming into this season. It was kind of a mystery. And I think the takeaway here was that they're going to be solid or fine, but not great. And now they're playing a team that I think has a chance to be very good.

So again, not complete reaction of Florida State and meddling around with New Mexico State. If this game were week one and I didn't see Florida State at all, maybe I wouldn't be as confused by it. But even if Florida State played a little bit better, I still think this is a low spread. So maybe this is a bear trap. Maybe I want to stick my fat foot into it.

But I will invest into SMU. Maybe not that little girls college fund. But SMU seems to be the clear play here. And if you are to pick Florida State, I'd be very curious as to why outside of 18 to 22-year-olds are unpredictable. the ball. That's the reason. And it would be, remember last year going into the Alabama game, we thought there's no way they can compete with Alabama. And the thing is, if you imagine, imagine if we've seen, if somebody had given us a glimpse into the future and said,

okay, here's Florida State's games two through 12. Now tell us what the final score of the Alabama game is going to be. And you'd be like, Alabama's going to win this game by three touchdowns at least possibly four. In college football, every weekend. Every weekend is kind of its own living, breathing organism. Yeah. And a lot of times there's carryover, but sometimes there's not. I understand your point.

But like if I haven't heard your pick yet, but maybe you just pick FSU because it doesn't make sense. But I would be very curious, like who you're going to take here. I know I said I'm going against conventional wisdom multiple times. And I don't know that I have. I guess I kind of did. I did with Louisville. But I think so.

I think people are picking Louisville. So this one's hard for me because I do feel like I've gotten a little bit of a cheat sheet with Florida State that I didn't have before the Alabama game last year. Though again, the Alabama game did not prepare me for the rest of the Florida State season because it made me think that they were one thing and they were not. So that's what I struggle with here. That's what I struggle with because we think SMU should be one of the better teams in the ACC, and if they are, they would beat that team that we saw in Tallahassee on Saturday

and against New Mexico State by what, 15 to 20 points? I agree. Yeah. But we don't know what they are yet. Big question mark for me for SMU, because it's mostly transfers, is the defensive line. Like, we don't know, like, and they didn't go, they didn't get the highest price defensive lineman in the portal. They went and got guys that they thought could play and they thought would fit what they do really

well. But they're all, and remember, they're also replacing a defensive coordinator. This is all stuff that matters. So now, they, they hired from within. So they're running basically the same defense. So it's not a huge schematic difference. But these are all things that you have to factor in. But that said, that spread looks awfully weird to me too. Okay. But before you make your pick, I will sweeten it up for you a little bit. okay if you pick Florida State and you are right I will go outside and try to run a mile

and I'll time it oh I'll do it real time that's 10 what if they just cover what if they what if they lose by one if you if you're right in picking Florida State okay

so as long as they cover because I I may I've been trying to run I mean, not trying to run. I've been meaning to run. Meaning to. I've been meaning to and trying to. Two different things.

All right. But I'll give you. Ari, is this your version of the dog crap? Yeah. I think it's like something that sounds awful, especially because it's been like very hot here. But I don't be a USC fan. Don't blame the heat.

No. This is maybe a way to forcefully do something that I've been meaning to do. But I did. Indeed index was 99 when I went running today. It was fine. I know. Like me and you are not the same. You know, like we're not the same people.

You can do it. There's a lot of people who can do a lot of things. I was going to pick SMU, but give me the freaking Noles. Let's go. Yeah. I want to see Ari Chug. Guys, Noles, do you know how funny this is going to be? Because I want some video proof of this.

Like maybe have Liv run alongside you because I'm sure she's a mile. I mean, I'll have to figure out how to do video because my plan is to do it in the morning before the sun comes up. Andy, I'm not a liar. I will run and I will time. Oh no, I will believe you. I just want video of it because, you know, social media, we're running a show here. Yeah, but what's, but what's a bad time? Like, what's a time that I would be ridiculed for?

Okay. You want me to be Jim Boy Hardo or do you want me to be like normal human being? I want you to be Jim Boy Hardo on Twitter because that's all you get on Twitter. You don't get normal rationing. Okay. Is you only running one mile? you need to probably run it under nine. Okay, I probably won't do that.

So, you know, we'll see, we'll see how it goes. But normal human being, if you can run a mile without stopping to walk, God bless you. You're doing great. Okay. Okay. I don't know if I can do that either. You know, but I want to try to get to that point. I don't think that Florida State's going to be covering this game.

And you know what? It's one of those rare instances. Well, now I'm praying they do, and I'm going to be there in Tallahassee to see it. Or we can do it together when we're together. I don't know when we're going to be together, but we can do it then. too and it can be like a preamble to the archmaning heisman bet that is five miles right five miles yes all right so i yeah i'm going i'm going to tallahassee for this game and now i have a lot to think about while i'm in the press box so yeah uh you know what you know what you got to do noles

you know what you got to do hey that was fun we're picking games we're talking games we had a little brief talk about court but mostly games i know people are like all also amped up to andy to be like If you don't love the matchups, there's no room for that. It's okay to be critical of the matchups. If you don't like the matchups this week, then, you know, Andy and I have been outspoken about the East. We think they stink. But we're also happy they're playing.

So very excited to watch. I think there's some very sneaky, interesting games. Let's rank them really quick. I'm most excited to watch LSU Clemson because obviously Lane Kiffin's involved and that's interesting. But Auburn, Baylor, Cal, UCLA, State, SMU and Ole Miss Little. Louisville are pretty good games.

Better, I think all those games are better than anything we got on Saturday. Let's go. Let's go. We'll talk to you, Mark. Yeah.