Andy & Ari On3 - Tennessee LIGHTS the cigars and Alabama suddenly looks just like everyone else

Episode Date: October 20, 2024

Wendy’s New Saucy Nuggs take the Crispy and Spicy Nuggs you love and turn them up to 11.Choose between flavors like Buffalo. Honey BBQ. Garlic Parm. Or, if you’re a real heat seeker,try Spicy Ghost Pepper, only on Wendy’s signature Spicy Nuggs. Andy & Ari instantly react to a thrilling Third Saturday in October match that happened in Knoxville, Tennessee, between the Crimson Tide and the Volunteers. Watch on YouTube instead! https://youtube.com/live/Y-wCvBV2lVs Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River Bailey

Welcome to Annie and Ari on 3, presented by Wendy's, your instant reaction to Tennessee's 24-17 win against Alabama. The cigars are lit in Knoxville, Ari, and Knoxville is lit. Though, not the momentous occasion it was two years ago when Tennessee broke its losing streak against Alabama. This is their second consecutive win against the Tide in Knoxville, but this one probably means that Tennessee is definitely still alive in the college football playoff race. I don't know if Alabama is. Yeah.

So, Andy, the thing I was thinking about, and I guess we'll get more context after this Texas-Georgia game tonight. But, you know, we talked about for the last week about how much FOMO I had missing the Tennessee-Alabama game last time. And you opened up this video by saying that it doesn't feel as monumental as the last one. And you're right, it doesn't feel as monumental as the last one. And you're right, it doesn't. But the question that I have for you and the serious question, I might even write a column about this when we're done here, is, is this one even more important? Now, I know that the last one was a statement win

that showed that Tennessee could hang with the Alabama, the Nick Saban Alabamas, which was an important program statement. But from a season standpoint, does this one in the year that we're in, in the 12-team era, lift Tennessee to a place that even that one couldn't? Yes. This one is more important. That one was a, here's a mile post, here's a marker in the progress of the program. It is, Josh Heupel is the right coach. This is going to work. It's coming. What happened today was Tennessee meeting Alabama as equals

and winning the game and getting past issues that had cost Tennessee in their previous two games, because the offense looked exactly like it looked against Arkansas in the first half. The offense looked exactly like it looked against Florida in the first half, but in the second half, the offense looked different. Nico, I don't know if he calmed down. I don't know if him running the ball kind of grounded him a little bit, but suddenly he was more accurate. And yeah,

we're really talking about two throws here, but you only have to hit about half of those throws. Like if he'd hit half of the throws that were wide open in the first half, we're not even talking about a close game here. So he hits the one where he's rolling to his right, down the right sideline, sets up the one touchdown. And then the throw to Brazel in the end zone was just beautiful. And so if he can hit those,

Tennessee can beat just about anybody. Now, we're going to have the, is Alabama actually good conversation. Now, Alabama is good. Is Alabama really good? I don't know uh Tepper out with a really good question in the chat Ari and I think this is something we need to discuss right now also on the show tonight also on the show this week because I think the NIL era plus the transfer portal plus all of this other stuff has changed things. Are blue bloods over in college football? Or is Tennessee a blue blood now? Like that's the question.

And I don't know that we have a definitive answer to that. Blue blood, just a synonym for super team, right? Like that's what we're talking about. Yeah, I mean, the history of the term, well, the history of the term is that you have blue blood because you're a hemophiliac because there's inbreeding in your family because you're royalty. But it usually means there's some history of success. Obviously, Tennessee and Alabama both have a history of success. So, yeah, I think we're talking more about current super teams. Are there going to be these two teams at the top of the

sport that just lorded over everybody else, like Alabama did for a while, like Clemson did for a minute, like Georgia did a little bit? Yeah. Well, we don't have one, or we don't know if we have one this year, right? I mean, if Texas comes out and wins by a million tonight, then you might be like, well, that's the team this year, or if Like, I mean, if Texas comes out and wins by a million tonight, then you might be like, well, that's the team this year. Or, you know, if Oregon keeps rolling, maybe they're the team. But like from this standpoint, it's like, I do feel like we did watch a game that was rather boring and sloppy for two and a half quarters, right?

Oh, it was four quarters. Those penalties. Oh, I mean, we'll talk about the Alabama side with the penalties and the weird play calling and all that, but from a physicality standpoint, I don't know. Is the response to this game

that everyone has, those are just two, eight and four teams, it wasn't good? I didn't take that away. I don't know that I think that Alabama is a national championship contender or a favorite to win the national championship, but I do think that if you look at the way that Tennessee played and the fact that they overcame a pretty talented roster,

having had their quarterback overthrown seven receivers who were open behind the defense and come out, win the game by pounding the ball on the ground and playing good defense, that to me is an equation for a team with this schedule. I mean, the only team that they cannot beat or that they aren't expected to beat, I should say, for the rest of their schedule here, Tennessee this is, is Georgia. And if they finish 10-2 this year with a win over Alabama,

that's probably a recipe for getting in. And then at that point, do they win a game with Nico? Yeah. That's what we said at the beginning of the season. Split Alabama and Georgia. You can lose one more and you're in the playoff. And that's, that's where they're at. Joshua thinks he's a, thinks he's slick,

but actually doesn't understand how things work. Y'all ready for a 12 team CFP with army Navy in and Georgia Bama out. Well, Joshua army and Navy are going to play each other in the American Championship game if both of them have a chance to get in, and only one of them is going to get in. So that's not going to happen. But nice try. Good job, good effort.

At least you tried. I do think that we have to start really talking about Navy and Army, though. I mean, these teams are just like mauling people. That's another video. Navy plays Notre Dame next week we're going to talk about them a lot so don't worry about them a lot this week um okay so I think so I know what I'm going to write about Tennessee when we're done here do you want to talk about Alabama no we need to talk about Alabama because this is the team that was the the most fearsome specter in the sport as of three years ago they were still

considered the best of the best they won the sec last year they made the playoff and they don't look like that anymore they look like a team that can go out and lose pretty much any week and the loss to vanderbilt was not fly. They were actually very lucky to beat South Carolina. And as they didn't pull away in the first half, as possessions kept going by and they kept giving the ball back to Tennessee, I kept saying Tennessee's going to win this. Because if they couldn't beat Tennessee when Tennessee was playing like that, yeah, you have a text for me right before the half, right? It was a great text.

I'm happy I got it. Yeah. you have a text for me right before the half, right? It was a great text. I'm happy I got it. Worked out well for everyone. If they kept... I think there might have been some in-game action there. I will say, Andy, that Tennessee was a 4-1 dog at halftime down by only a score on their home field in a game like that. That was insane, but go ahead. Yeah. And that's what I didn't understand. Like they had wide open receivers that their quarterback was just missing. And yes, you have to assume that Nico will hit them at some point if you're going to take that leap of faith, but I didn't think that was that big of a stretch.

Yeah. So here's the thing that I took away, Andy, watching Alabama. And I don't know if this is something that was a revelation as Maryland just beat USC, but something that I don't remember feeling very often about Alabama in the recent past, which is Alabama has a lot of really good players, right? Yes. Like Jeremy Bernards and the Jam Millers and Justice Haynes. And, you know, the list goes on and on of really good players. But they don't have truly elite, elite, elite,

oozing off the screen players outside of maybe Ryan Williams. Correct. And like, that's not something that we're used to. Like Alabama, the one that won national titles and was in the picture every single year under Nick Saban had five or six players on both sides of the ball that would do something outlandish or freaky or impossible and turn games because they simply can do things physically that the teams that they're playing cannot do. And like, they do not have that this year.

Um, and I don't know if that's a result of Saban leaving and all the portal players going out. They did bring some players in. I don't know. Who would they have had, had Saban stayed? They would have other than what they have now.

They have Caleb. They would have Caleb downs. So that's one more. Yeah. And tell me if I'm wrong. It was, I Isaiah bond one. He was leaving leaving anyway he was going anyway so okay but so so what's the reason that we're in this position if you're now in the transfer portal and unlimited transfers that's why that's the reason that happened to alabama but that's not the case everywhere else. It's not the case for Ohio State.

But it's the reason why everybody else can compete with Alabama suddenly. And why Alabama and Ohio State and Michigan and everybody else. Play the Oregon game. Just take Ohio State out of the game. Oregon got better. Texas got better. There were teams that got better because of it. But you can name.

Right now, the group they have is better than the group alabama has but i'm saying how does alabama have none like that's weird to me like they don't have none they have ryan williams they have kate rocker who's a really good player freshman who came in that's a true freshman who came out of high school i'm saying like if you go down texas's list their list is twice as long as alabama and it's a weird place to be but t Tennessee has some now James Pierce jr. Is one of those, you know, Dylan Sampson is one of those,

like the teams that used to have none now have some, and the teams that used to have all of them now have some. And so when you get two teams that have some together, you get a competitive game, which is what we had here. Yeah. So anyway, so what you have here then is a very good or pretty good Alabama team that has some weaknesses that other teams can exploit, and they have the ability physically to match up with them. So, like, I don't know if this is like an overarching Kalen DeBoer is just not the guy conversation because you see a lot about that.

It's the very first year, first half of the season in his first attempt to try to replace the greatest coach of all time. But I did not love the game management at the end of that game, Andy. I don't know what you think, but like, do you like going forward on fourth and 22 with three timeouts in your pocket? You liked it when Mark Stoops did it against Ole Miss. Fourth and 22 is not the same thing, right? It's exactly the same thing Mark Stoops did against Ole Miss. It's exactly the same thing. I didn't even see it happening.

I was celebrating it after it happened. But fourth and 22. So you liked the call there? No. No, I would have punted. Because they had three timeouts. Tennessee's offense had been better in the second half, but it was not lighting the world on fire at that point. So there was a chance you could have gotten some stops.

You would have gotten the ball back. Instead, you put you put yourself in a pretty terrible position, allowed them to kick a field goal that made it a seven point game, which making a four point game, a seven point game. That's fine, because, again, you give yourself overtime at that point but no i i don't think i would have gone for it on fourth and 22 it it worked for mark stoops but it doesn't usually work yeah and like i think i understand the thought process there of like we're only down four if we don't get the first down and we hold them to three it's still only a one possession game and we have time to go down the field but then also to like throwing the ball 15 yards in air behind the sticks like right after catching the snap was kind of a bizarre

move and i don't know if that was the that was the play that was the screen so uh the kendrick law penalty uh oh yeah i will i will tell the alabama fans who saw that as someone who covered the 2004 florida at tennessee game where dallas baker was essentially flagged for the same thing he was the one retaliating after the tennessee player did something and he's the only one who got flagged like that's gonna happen when your guy retaliates that's gonna happen it's it's bad luck it sucks but yeah it's not the first time that's going to happen when your guy retaliates that's going to happen it's it's bad luck it sucks but yeah it's not the first time that's happened to that stadium to a visiting team yeah um but yeah so i i think that i feel so like i my tennessee emotions andy have been a

roller coaster this year right like at the beginning of the year i was like i'm not sure about this team then i watched them play for a month and then I'm at Oklahoma and watching that game and Hypo's returned. I'm like, well, this team actually could win a national championship because they've got all these pieces. And then you watch them play. Now you have a better idea of what Oklahoma is.

Yeah. Yeah. But then we watched in the last few weeks and you have a better idea of what Oklahoma is and you're kind of down on them. And then they come home and they don't play the sexiest game in the world. But like, I think that there are a lot of positive things to take from this one your freshman quarterback who was missing everybody in the first half and portions of the second half i

think seemed to get better as the game went on i think that he made the perfect touchdown pass that ended up winning them the game i think physically they hung in there dylan samson is going to be something that you can count on in any type of game. I think that a lot of the things that made me feel like they could win a national championship kind of came back. Now, I don't know if I'm all the way back to thinking they can win the national title this year, but I definitely think that Tennessee is in a very advantageous position from a path standpoint to make the playoff and maybe get hot at the end. Let me ask you this one, Ari, because I think this is how we need to frame that question is there one team or two teams that you think if tennessee plays them they have no chance of winning no okay so georgia's on their schedule so we think they can play with

georgia no chance i'm talking about texas oregon ohio state like any of those that you think tennessee just can't beat so when i think of no chance i think of how i felt when tcu was playing georgia two years ago like i would not talk i would not feel zero teams okay that's kind of what makes this all really interesting this year as we go down the stretch yeah because i'm at this point we don't even know if t's going to make it. Like, we think they are. We think they're going to get through this either 11-1 by beating Georgia or 10-2 by losing to Georgia and not losing to anyone else.

But we don't know. Like, we sure as hell didn't know they were going to lose to Arkansas. So, you know what's hitting me right now, though? Because that's an interesting question. And we're just kind of off the seat of our pants here, guys. I'm having a good time. I don't know that the answer to that question is anybody if you ask me about Alabama either. Correct. Like Tennessee, I thought proved something. I mean, I think that like there will be a lot of people who will say Tennessee played a bad Alabama team because that's what everybody does anytime anybody does anything good.

And we know that this Alabama team isn't the one from 2020 that had Devontae Smith and was putting up 60 points a game. We understand that that's not the score here. But beating Alabama at home means something, and I'm not going to ever be a person that doesn't act like that means something. And to me in this conference where it seems like going into this evening, which could be put into a pretzel by the time you and I get back together in a few hours, that Texas is kind of standing alone as the class of the conference right now. And you have four or five teams that are right beneath it that, that could play with Texas, but we're not quite sure exactly who they are. Now,

Georgia could end the night as the clear number one program in the country and in the conference again tonight with the type of game that I think they're playing. With a loss to Alabama, by the way. Right. So it's just kind of like I look at Tennessee's schedule, and if they are susceptible to losing the game that they lost, then they're probably susceptible to losing another one.

But Tennessee has a very good path. I mean, the next two games are Kentucky and Mississippi State. Those both should be wins. Then, of course, they go on the road to Georgia, and then they have UTEP and Vandy. Like, is this not 10-2? Are we looking 10-2 right in the face right now? You're looking at Tennessee, Vanderbilt, and Diego Pavia

standing in the way of electric of Tennessee, making the playoff. If they lose to Georgia, they're on a buy next week, then they play Kentucky. And then, yeah,

this is going to be fascinating. All right. Ben with a really interesting question in the chat. And he sort of took the question I asked you, and now he's taking it a step further. And I think it's a really interesting way to look at it, but do we know there is zero chance Tennessee can beat three similar teams in a row? and now he's taking it a step further, and I think it's a really interesting way to look at it. But do we know there is zero chance Tennessee can beat three similar teams in a row?

No. I don't think there's anybody that I would say can definitely beat three of these teams in a row, and I think that is what also makes this interesting. Like the playoff, there is going to be luck involved there is going to be uh how how healthy are you all of this is going to be a big you know just mosh pit of stuff where somebody's going to emerge the champ it's not going to be probably one team's just you're putting much better than everybody else. You're putting Tennessee in bracketology, right? This is a great question. So I'm definitely putting Indiana in after what we saw today.

I should be putting Tennessee in. I got a question in the chat. I'm trying to find it. And it's what if Tennessee, Texas A&M, and Texas all go 11-1? Who makes the playoff? Oh, Tyler asked that. They all make the playoff. Tyler has 12 spots.

If Tennessee, Texas A&M, and Texas are all 11-1, they're all in the playoff. Yeah. So, I just, this is amazing to me to think about because it is, I kept saying all along when they said the playoffs would move to 12, that this is what was going to happen. But now that it's actually happening, it's kind of breaking my brain because I'm still used to there being a couple of three, four teams, two, three teams that are just so much better than everybody else. I just don't think there are. And I don't think it's because of the 12-team playoff. I think it's because of the other stuff. Yeah, well, I never really understood the people

who thought that the 12-team playoff alone was going to be the thing that flattens the disparity. No, it's the NIL and the unlimited transfers. So the fact that people can leave with impunity and you can pay people to come to your... I mean, listen. Yeah. Nico didn't have a great game,

but Nico delivered and was scary, I thought, at times. I mean, I do think that Tennessee had receivers that got behind Alabama's secondary, and this game could have even been even more lopsided had he been a little bit more accurate. Now, the question... Well, that's the thing. What if the accurate version or the second half version of Nikko...

Accurate is probably still a bit of a stretch, but the second half version of Nikko plays against Oregon or Ohio State. Tennessee scores on those teams too. Oh, sure. So when Nick Roush came on our show this week and had his volleyball player comment, was making fun of Nikko calling the $8 million volleyball player who can't hit a goalball. I had some Tennessee fans, you know, we were discussing it on Twitter.

And I was telling one of the Tennessee fans, the reason I'm not just throwing Nico out with the bathwater and saying, oh, he's just another Joe Milton is he's young. He's a first year starter. Like we saw Joe Milton do that for four years. There's a chance that Nico improves as he grows. Well, I think we saw it tonight. We saw him improve as the game went on. And the version of Nico we saw in the second half is really good. I don't know how you feel, but like I left the game.

In the middle of the game, I thought, oh my God, what the hell's wrong with this guy? And I left the game feeling pretty encouraged by it. I don't know about you, but I feel like I could buy into his continued growth. I think that he has the physical assets to be an extremely exciting and very effective player in college football. And I think that had he made one or two more throws in the first half of this game, this wouldn't have been as close.

And I also think that he might make them next time. Now, I don't know if you'll have to get a quarterback coach or a quarterback guru to come on the show because that's not me. But when it comes to constantly overthrowing your receivers, is that a mental thing? Or is that just like you get your head a little bit i don't know it seems like something that i would imagine yeah we need to we need to bring on greg mcelroy or jordan rogers one of those guys who you know

played the position and studies it and and can explain it but i think they would tell you a lot of it is mental because nico clearly has the physical tools but one thing i thought was interesting is the more nico ran and and a lot of it it's hard to tell how much he's being told to run and how much is this is the the correct decision on the read option where he keeps it but it felt like the more he ran the ball in the second half the better their offense was the better everything worked or or while he was on the run yes or while he was throwing on there and and really i was thinking back it reminded me a lot of hendon hooker like that is how hendon hooker operated hendon hooker was now hendon hooker probably didn't have as good

of an offensive line as as nico has right now so i think hendon had to be on the move a little bit more for survival's sake but but I think that helped him. I think his game worked better that way, and it may be that Nico's works better that way. Yeah, no, I'm with you. The comfortability of being able to escape pressure and to maintain composure, that's supposed to be harder than missing receivers in clean pockets, right? We're in a position right now where I think that he um comes out of this game probably feeling confident excited but also understanding he has stuff to work on and i think that might have been like the anecdote for whatever mentally is going on with the overthrow problem like i i think that tennessee is in a very very good spot right

now yeah i and look first half tennessee shows up again. They can lose to Kentucky. Yeah. Second half Tennessee shows up. They're beating Kentucky. Second half Tennessee's beating Vanderbilt. Second half Tennessee. Second half Tennessee from this game. And I guess from the last little bit of the Florida game, that team can play with Georgia. Question is, can it play for a whole game? Because if it wants to play with Georgia. Question is, can it play for a whole game? Because if it wants to play with Georgia or if they want to win a game, if they make the playoff,

once they get in the playoff, that offense has to show up for more than two quarters. It just does. Yeah. And apparently the Georgia defense, as we speak, is looking like old Georgia. That's what people are saying. So I'm excited to figure out exactly what kind of defense.

Well, Texas had a little nifty flea flicker thing and the guy just dropped it like so this is going to be a fantastic show tonight 11 30 p.m eastern time saturday it'll be after the the georgia texas game we have a lot to talk about because ari indiana looked like a freaking wagon destroying Nebraska. Auburn had the Missouri game in hand, and then Brady Cook comes back from injury and just rips it away. And now Auburn is still winless in the SEC. Lincoln Riley and USC were in control in College Park for most of the game, and they gagged it away in the fourth quarter, and USC is staring down the barrel of a very, very bad first year in the Big Ten.

Illinois beats Michigan. There is so much to talk about. South Carolina crushes Oklahoma. We thought we were going to need a running clock in Norman in the first quarter. There's so much to talk about. I cannot wait to see you again at 1130. Pat show. We may be here all night, guys.

Thanks so much. We'll talk to you then.