Andy & Ari On3 - Texas conquers Alabama in Tuscaloosa | Miami surges past Texas A&M | Coach Prime and Colorado keep rolling against Nebraska

Episode Date: September 10, 2023

Subscribe to On3! ⬇️ youtube.com/on3sports/Welcome to On3 | The best of college football and recruiting https://www.on3.com/Listen to Andy Staples On3 on podcast! Spotify 🎧 : https://open.spotify.com/show/5AhQ4d2m5TQu5Q2vkwtxjt?si=uLK1rMW7QOmLHcZK9URbOwApple🍎: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/andy-staples-on3/id1695325427Follow Andy Staples on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Andy_StaplesFollow Andy Staples on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andy_staplesFollow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/on3sportsFollow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/on3/ Like/Follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/On3Sports/ Shop On3 https://shop.outsider.com/Texas bullied Alabama up front and left Tuscaloosa with a 34-24 win. Andy and Jesse Simonton debate what this means for the Longhorns and for the Crimson Tide.Is Jalen Milroe the wrong guy at QB for Alabama? Can Texas use this as the catapult to a College Football Playoff run?Meanwhile, Oregon won a wild one at Texas Tech (and gamblers who had Texas Tech +6.5 got crushed).Arizona and Mississippi State went to overtime in Starkville, and the Bulldogs hung on to win.Washington State won a primetime showcase against Wisconsin.The U is -- well, we're not going to go THAT far. But Andy and Jesse discuss a Miami that looked dramatically improved in a win against Texas A&M that was played at a much higher level than the teams' meeting in College Station last year.Jimbo Fisher is going to take heat for this one, but this time it was the defense and not the offense. So it's a different brand of heat.Meanwhile, Notre Dame came back from a lightning delay and hammered N.C. State. The Fighting Irish ran the ball well, they threw the ball well and they forced timely turnovers. This was Notre Dame's first big test, and the Irish passed easily.Ole Miss outlasted a Tulane team playing without star QB Michael Pratt.Iowa beat Iowa State 20-13, meaning Hawkeyes offensive coordinator is six points off the pace to keep his job at the end of the season.Colorado struggled to crack Nebraska's defense early, but the Buffaloes capitalized on three first-half turnovers by Nebraska QB Jeff Sims to take a lead. In the second half, Colorado just broke the Cornhuskers and rolled to a win.Meanwhile, Baylor controlled the game against Utah for three and a half quarters, but the Utes intercepted Sawyer Robertson late in the fourth quarter. A few plays later, they cashed it in for a game-winning TD.

Hey, it's Andy, and thank you for joining us on a Sunday morning after a wild, wild day of college football. The big headline, of course, that game in Tuscaloosa. So that's where we're going to start. Last week, we went kind of chronologically through Saturday. This week, we're going backward. We're going to start with the late games. And of course, we're going to talk an awful lot about Texas beating Alabama and Tuscaloosa. Here's me and Jesse Simonton breaking down the big win for the Longhorns at Bryant-Denny Stadium.

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. Yes, it happened. Texas went into Tuscaloosa. And Jesse Simonton, the Longhorns look like the more physically dominant team. They look like they had the better quarterback. And they came out of there with a 10-point win. 34-24 Texas. We want to start with the Longhorns or we start with the Crimson Tide?

Because this is a big one. Big one. Let's be fair. Let's start with Texas.son tie because this is a big one big one let i let's be fair let's start let's start with texas i mean all right they earned it that they you know the the jokes were there when sark went for that fourth down they don't get it and alabama immediately marches down and scores the touchdown the joke the jokes jokes were right. The writing was on the wall. Texas is itself imploding again. This is Steve Sarkeesian, what he's done at Washington,

what he's done at USC, now at Texas. He can't win these close games. And yet his team was the team that was more battle-tested, it seemed. They showed more metal. And damn, Andy, I think we walk away from this this that was a doozy of a game it became a haymaker with both teams just throwing fists at each other but i think we walk away with this for me for with two truisms texas is a legitimate college football playoff contender in 2023 yep And Alabama still has real uncertainty at quarterback.

But let's talk the Longhorns. Let us talk the Longhorns because you mentioned the getting stopped on fourth down, Alabama scoring, taking the lead 16-13 on that 49-yard pass from Mill Roader Jermaine Burton. And it was a great play design. They got it matched up against the safety. It beautiful it felt like everything was turning ad mitchell was in the end zone three plays later yeah one minute and nine seconds later like it was unbelievable how quickly texas answered and when you looked at it on the whole,

especially those two touchdown drives and what happened between there, there was a lot of, you know what, Texas has the better roster here, or at least it feels that way. You're leading me to my point. You know what, your former co-host Ari Wasserman loves to tout stars matter. This was Texas's statement that stars matter because their stars played better than Alabama's stars. They had their five stars, their five-star freshman on defense,

giving Alabama's five-star freshman offensive tackle on offense, you know, hell on wheels. They had their five-star quarterback, Quinn Ewers, responding to kind of a sluggish, you know hell on wheels they had their five-star quarterback Quinn Ewers responding to kind of a sluggish you know first half and then just throwing bombs in the second half I think Chris Fowler noted they had five plays over 30 yards alone against Nick Saban you know in this tied defense uh and and I thought frankly and where i believe i was most wrong andy about this game i thought at its baseline even though i really like texas's offensive line i like kelvin banks i like the fact that they returned five guys uh you know five returning starters that group so

thoroughly outplayed alabama's offensive line alabama got punked up front milroy was running for his life. And other than that one drive when they ran the ball like seven straight times, they really couldn't run the football. Right. And so, I mean, yeah, you just kind of shrugging your shoulders. Like they were the less physical team. Ethan Burke, Tavondre Sweat, Byron Murphy, Alfred Collins.

Those guys were all over the place. And then Anthony Hill, the freshman, they were playing him similar to the way LSU played Harold Perkins last year, where the little see ball, get ball kind of thing, line him up, line him up on the edge, let him see what he can. By the way, he beat both of Alabama's offensive tackles for quarterback hits. I can't remember if he got sacks off of both of them, but he definitely got a sack off one of them and hit the quarterback after

beating both of them. It is, it was crazy up front. Burke had a great night. Caden Proctor, there was the one play where he was holding Burke and basically held him into the sack. And the ref threw a flag and picked it up,

and it was like, oh, that was bad enough as it was, and they just picked up the flag. But, yeah, it was – Now, part of the Alabama blocking thing, I do wonder if some of that is Milrow, though. There were some plays where Milrow is moving around in what could have been a clean pocket and walking into guys that are trying to sack him. And he was always, you know, rarely did he catch the ball and just throw.

He was almost always moving around, sometimes before he needed to. And, I mean, crippling interceptions, two of those. I don't know what they do there because it's weird how the quarterback situation with Alabama went for me on Saturday because at one point, Jesse, I was going to come on here. If Alabama won the game or if the game continued in the way it was going kind of through the first half,

I was going to read each starting quarterback stats and ask you to guess which one was quinn ewers and which one was jaylen milrow because there was a point when they were tracking very similarly um but later i was gonna ask you is jaylen milrow a slightly better jeff sim? Because that's what it felt like, the Nebraska quarterback who kept turning the ball over and giving Colorado points earlier today. Well, you know, we touched on this very, very briefly because it was a blowout and yada, yada, yada. But, like, the Kyle McCord-Devin Brown deal at Ohio State,

that clearly wasn't really a competition. Kyle McCord's gotten the lion's share of reps there. I don't know about you, but it sure seems like the whole narrative that this was a three-way deal and they really wanted Ty Simpson to be the guy and you bring in Tyler Buckner. The fact that Saban never even went to one of those guys when Milrow did throw a pair of those crippling interceptions was bailing from the pocket.

Tommy Reese dials up that perfect wheel route play call, and Milrow overthrows it by three or five yards. It's just surprising that they never went to another guy because Saban has done that historically other times in the past, and this was a historical loss. This is the first time Alabama loses a non-conference game during the regular season under Saban since his year one. Here's another question.

You can just laugh when I ask you because there's no real debate over it. Who are you taking in terms of skill position weapons, Texas or Alabama? Like, it's not even close. It's Texas. JT Sanders, Xavier Worthy, A.D. Mitchell. I mean, they were – Whittington had a really nice catch tonight in a key moment. Like, they were so much better than their Alabama counterparts.

Well, that and I'm also like you you and this is just I'm just looking at the box score now what Justice Haynes can't get on the field for Alabama you can't run the ball and you're not playing your five-star running back I I will I will raise my hand and hazard a guess they wanted to be able to pick up pass pro stuff. Like that's what, that's what kept Dalvin cook off the field for, for five games before he blew up as a freshman. Well, when you're averaging three yards of carry, I'm going to tell you,

Andy, you know, I maybe throw somebody else out there that can at least tote the rock a little bit because that, that, I mean, because to your point, they don't have the receivers on the perimeter,

you know, and, and the running back uh you know and and the running back group the rest of the running back group just wasn't there so this was this was a statement i mean the fact that that texas was tested time and again in this game and they always had a response when that was the bugaboo for steve sarkisian and this team especially especially a year ago. And for them to waltz out of here and say, hey, you know, we went not only toe-to-toe with the Tide, but we bullied the Tide in the second half. We took down, you know, the big bad bully that is Nick Saban.

And, yeah, we're here for it. Texas is, you know, this may be – we're going to have a fight off between Texas' back and the return of the U this week. That's going to be like the two fan bases that are going to say, you know, raise the flag of which is back more. I think Texas, as impressive as Miami was, Texas looks like they're one of the best, you know, one, two, three, four teams in the country. So you have to predict what the AP poll voters will do.

This is not your rankings. This is you trying to guess what the voters will do. What are we thinking for Texas? Three, four, right behind Georgia, Michigan, and who else? So I'm slotting, you know, teaser for tomorrow's column on three. Go check that out. I am slotting them at four. AP voters, you were once an AP voter.

I have been a different voter, but not in the AP. I know that, you know, they tend to really like A, flashy quarterbacks and blue blood brands. And when a flashy quarterback has a huge game and a blue blood brand makes a huge upset win, that equals a top four ranking to me. So I have them right behind Georgia, Michigan, and Florida State, number four. That's probably where the voters will slot them.

When I voted, I was one of those, once the season starts, I'm ranking based on what we've seen this season. So I might have Texas one at this point. Because Michigan hasn't had a chance to show us where they should be. Neither has Georgia. But at this point, you might put Texas one, Florida State two, based on those wins and how impressive we thought they were. Duke would be up there too, by the way.

So it's just two different ways to do it. You're going to arrive at the same place anyway. But I do think that the ones who vote conventionally are going to put Texas in the top four. Cole Satterfield, geez, I can't believe we're saying Texas in the top four. Why can't you believe that? There's been two, we have two data points and they probably have the best win,

if not the second best win after Florida state on the entire season. Again, you go into Alabama as a seven point. Hold on. Our guy, Matt has a comment. What if, and listen to me here,

neither Bama or Texas are actually great. It looked like a couple of nine and three or 10 and two teams. I've just been sloppy. That's Matt believes the only good team is Georgia. So Matt's a Georgia fan. And it's okay. He can say that now. Like right now, they've got scoreboard over everybody, so he can say that.

But trust me, there are other good teams besides Georgia. They might not be as good as Georgia, but there are other good teams. I promise. Andy, red alert. SEC. Is the SEC meh? Between LSU, Florida State, South Carolina, North Carolina, Utah, Florida, this performance to date in two weeks now,

the SEC has one marquee non-conference win, and that's Ole Miss beating a backup quarterback against a ranked two-lane team. That is also the only ranked win that the entire conference has the entire season. So far that Danny Cannell, Danny Cannell right now is just, just going crazy. He's just rolling it. He's like a pig in slop. So somebody on Twitter pointed this out to me and, and I think it's maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but not a complete exaggeration. And Matt, by the way, in the chat just said, that's not true.

Georgia's got problems, too. And yes, I know all the Georgia fans were really mad in the first quarter when they weren't scoring on Ball State. But this was pointed out to me on Twitter, and I found it very interesting. It is an exaggeration, but not a complete one. We're talking about the playoff expanding to 12 teams maybe that would help parity but perhaps nil and the transfer portal have hasted parity even more and i don't i don't mean everybody's equal and that suddenly arizona state's as good as texas what i mean I mean is Alabama cannot have a huge prohibitive talent advantage that it used to have.

Now a team like Texas can have similar talent, and in this case maybe better talent than Alabama. Georgia, they're the ones with the most talent right now, but could say a Texas go toe-to-toe with georgia what we saw tonight suggests they could well this you know andy and that's it's it's a great i think shooting off point too i will find out by the end of the year i think of of how nil and and everything has kind of maybe even the playing field so to speak. But I think this also speaks to the fact of there is a little bit of a flaw into the, if you just explicitly lean on the stars matter

or like the blue chip ratio or those sorts of metrics, because they don't technically, they can't, because you can't regrade all these transfers and then you have to regrade all these transfers and then you have to regrade all these transfers over and over and so it doesn't take into account a florida state getting a keon coleman who's better than his high school recruiting ranking right or a jordan coleman might be better than every receiver in the country right or jordan or a jordan verse who was a you know a standout at albany as FBS, you know, no name, whatever star.

And now it looks like a five star. Well, Texas, it doesn't take into account that, Oh, you just get to slide in AD Mitchell. Yo, this is, this is just, Oh, he's suddenly, you know, if he's not wide receiver one, he's wide receiver one B and he toasted, you know, a couple ofabama dbs tonight including including kool-aid mckinstry and boom like that that is part of the difference in this margin that you see well and also texas develops better than texas did before texas was not developing players for a long time that the the tail end of the mac brown era, the Charlie Strong era, the Tom Herman era,

they were not producing NFL players. They were not producing players the NFL wanted. They absolutely are doing that now. You saw it with Bijan last year as a first-round pick. You're going to see a lot of these Texas players drafted. Maybe not all, you know, not like super high first-rounders, but you're going to see like second, third, all, you know, not like super high first rounders, but you're going to see like second, third, fourth round guys. And it's going to be a situation where they have, you know,

close to they'll have double digit type guys, maybe not double digit guys drafted, but a significant number of guys drafted and more young guys that will be drafted that we know will be drafted. That has not been the case. So the talent out piece of it is you have to add that to the stars matter part of it. And that's where Texas is different because Texas always brought in highly ranked recruits. They're actually doing something with them now. And that matters because Alabama does something

with its highly ranked recruits. Georgia develops its highly ranked and it's less highly ranked. You know, your Jordan Davises and your Ladd McConkeys, they develop them better than anyone. So that's the part that matters too. I think Michigan right now has closed the gap on Ohio State because Ohio State still brings in better upfront talent.

But if we look at what they're pushing out at the end of this year, I don't think they look that different. No, they don't. And I would say my lasting thoughts on this game, Andy, would be, I think there's two major points that I would also walk away with from, from the Texas point of view. One is that what always was doesn't have to always be,

which is that the narrative that they're going to continue to jump on the rake and hit themselves and fall on their face in these post-games. Yeah, exactly. The idea that just because they haven't that they can't isn't true. They blew up

that narrative tonight. And the other narrative I think that is something that I think will become a bigger deal moving forward, uh, is that this is the proof of concept that Steve Sarkeesian has been preaching in Austin that has now maybe come to its fruition. That is that what he learned from Alabama. And then you take those lessons and you say, all right, I'm going to add that with a Bo Davis. I'm going to add that with a Jeff Banks. And I'm going to- Guys who used to work at Alabama. Guys who used to work at Alabama. And I'm going to recruit and to what you said,

develop this talent and turn this into an SEC type program, even before Texas had joined the SEC. Tonight was a culmination of, of I think that coming true. Yeah, it certainly was. Before we leave this game, one more question. If you're Nick Saban,

you're going to play USF in Tampa next week. Then the SEC starts. You're going to, you're going to look USF in Tampa next week. Then the SEC starts. You're going to look at the quarterback situation? You're going to throw the competition open? You're going to just try somebody else as a starter? I mean, I don't know how you don't, but I think what I would say from this game is that they clearly don't seem to have a lot of faith or trust

in the guys behind Jalen Milrow. Or else you would have thought one of them would have gotten a shot. No. And, and you look at the middle Tennessee state game that they were not 42 to zip before Buckner. Right. It was not an open competition. It was, this is the guy and we're going to get our backup, some reps at the, at the end of it. So they got to figure out, is that your guy? Just it, it really it's the same question that we were asking after Nebraska Colorado yeah for about Jeff Sims is that your

guy are you sure that's your guy because you got to figure that out and and you're gonna you're gonna either make a change you're gonna ride with him and you know we'll see what happens but let's talk about some of these other games oregon texas tech was a banger it was back and forth crazy and i feel so bad for everybody who had texas tech plus six and a half because when oregon kicks that field goal you are assuming you have cashed your ticket oh j, Jesse, I'm sorry. Bad beat alert here. Bad beat alert. I had a very good day today overall.

I had rice. Shout out to the owls. That's right. Taking that down. I had that on the money line and with the points. So that was a JT Daniels came home for me with that one. But the back-breaking touchdown that Tyler threw in the Oregon game, that was – Tyler Shook, former Duck, throwing a touchdown to a current Duck.

That was the problem. Texas Tech trying to come back, and there's a pick six at the end of the game. But this was – Bo Nix very calmly got them down the field to kick, which, you know, should have been the game winning field goal. And then, of course, they had the pick six to to really put the nail in there. But, yeah, I thought Texas Tech played really well coming off of that loss at Wyoming. They showed, you know, that they the hype surrounding them was not lost.

Like it wasn't completely wrong. I still think they could be good in the big 12. I'm not giving up on them yet. I thought they played a very good game against Oregon tonight. It's just Oregon's better. Well, they were also down 18, 13 in this game and then stormed,

you know, back 20. I think they're up 27, 18. Then Oregon comes back. There was a little bit, it was a tough call either way. Bo Nix threw what looked like was going to be a horrible interception in the end zone that was ended up ruled.

The Texas Tech defender couldn't get his foot inbound. So Oregon was able to kick a field goal that like put them up that allowed them to kind of basically kind of keep Texas or Texas Tech at arm's length there, you know, a little bit, but fun game, big win for the Ducks to kind of remain undefeated. You know, this was, they had this one kind of circled as a trap affair, so to speak, because they have a gauntlet of a Pac-12 schedule coming up. And that game in two weeks, we teased it earlier,

but that game in two weeks against Colorado is going to be insane, especially when you frame it around the comments that Dan Lanning made about Colorado. That seemed like nothing at the time. A couple weeks ago he's out there throwing all sorts of shade on the Buffs, and lo and behold, two weeks later, you may be rolling in with two top 15-ish teams on the slate. Cannot wait. Mississippi State and Arizona, the Pac-12 has lost a game.

The first loss of the year for the Pac-12 was an overtime loss in Starkville by Arizona. They actually went down two touchdowns, came back, had a chance to win this game. Jayden DeLore gets stopped a couple inches shy of the 15-yard line on fourth and long, and that was the end of that. But that was a fun one too. I mean, because it looked like Mississippi State was going to roll because there were some early turnovers by Arizona that they capitalized on.

But then Arizona fought back in a great game. So unfortunately for the Pac-12, they lose that one. But Arizona is not actually a Pac-12 school. That's a big 12 school in waiting. There is. Well, there are two Pac-12 schools that are real Pac-12 schools. And one of them is Washington State. And they played Wisconsin on ABC. And one of them is Washington State. And they played Wisconsin on ABC

and they beat them 31 to 22 and the fans stormed the field. And Jake Dickert talked about how, how do you not love this? How do you not have us in your league? Jesse, my favorite thing that happened this week off the field was Wisconsin and Oregon State going to court to get a restraining order so that they can run the Pac-12.

And by the way, so I've talked to some people about this and you've seen it written about a little bit. They theoretically could have a two-team conference if they wanted to where their their game would be the championship game if they do that they have to call it the two-pack right and and and and then play with like on a hologram field one can only hope one can like they should have their the game against one another in vegas The Washington State-Oregon State game should be in Vegas. All eyes on me. With the Pac-12 championships, logos, and everything. With just all eyes on me playing the intro music.

Oh, and hit them up. My favorite moment from this game was the end when Mark Jones, the ESPN announcer, was like, I don't know how a network won't want this team. Your network doesn't want this team. Your network doesn't want that team. I mean, it was just incredible. But it was a heck of a win. And this was my upset special of the week.

In my Friday pick six column, i rode with the the coogs and and they downed a the wisconsin just was super you know clunky offensively they could you know uh they couldn't run the ball as well as obviously they did in week one mortica was getting sold out to stop the run wisconsin is not quite ready to win the game through the air yet they They were given the air if they wanted it, and they started to take it in the second half, but it took them a while. Yeah, Mordecai was getting pressured a bunch. I mean, Washington State came up with some huge sacks. I know they had one big, what was that, like a sack fumble

or maybe a sack that turned into a very short touchdown. Wisconsin certainly crawled back in this game and made it quite interesting. And then Washington responded and scored a late touchdown and put it away. Huge win for Jake Dickert, you know, year two. I mean, they had an emphatic win in week one. Cam Ward looks so much better, you know, in his second, you know, season playing FBS competition. Still only averaging, I think like six, six yards per throw tonight, but I think he scored like four total touchdowns and he's an exciting player because he runs around

back there like a little jackrabbit and just tries to throw uh either a deep ball or scamper for for you know a first down so fun upset and it kind of that was going on while obviously alabama and oregon were playing their doozies but it was still a fun third screen experience well and another game that that was on the third screen for most of the night but but moved its way up at the very end. Appalachian State, North Carolina. North Carolina survives. Now, that last play, like we said in some other games, it might have been pass interference, but the refs kept the flags in the pocket on the final play of double overtime, and North Carolina survives.

Well, the NL game was all about the – you know, a year ago, Drake May went crazy in that 63-61 thriller against App State. And he was kind of bottled up tonight. It was their sophomore running back who rushed for 230-something yards and three touchdowns just carrying the Tar Heels, especially in that second half. And then May did run, actually not throw, but run for the 13-yard score. Yeah, ran for a touchdown.

For a touchdown to give them the game winner. Yeah. Mack Brown said, I'm glad we don't have to play them. That's the end of a two-for-one, two games in Chapel Hill, one game in Boone arrangement. Omari and Hampton, by the way, here's the stat line for Omari and Hampton. 26 carries, 234 yards, and three touchdowns. Wow.

Just sick. So that was another thriller. There were so many good games. How about Biff, Poji, and Charlotte going up 14-0 on Maryland So that was another thriller. There were so many good games. How about Biff, Poji, and Charlotte going up 14-0 on Maryland before the Terps finally woke up? Now, Maryland did wind up cruising to victory, but it was a very nerve-wracking first half, and Biff Poji's on NB freaking C.

First of all, how does NBC pay all this money and have to wind up with a Charlotte, Maryland game in primetime opposite Alabama, Texas? But yeah, Maryland, they did wake up and ended up winning 38-20. But Biff was there in all his glory. I have faith that the 49ers are going to turn things around. Well, speaking of another close call or fun thriller by the end, we teased it earlier, but James Madison did end up coming back

and beating Virginia. Yes. So that was a very painful loss for the Hoos there. And Jeff Halfley avoided maybe, maybe becoming Scott Frost in 2023 by not losing to Holy Cross. So Bob Chesney, who all the Boston college fans would like to be coaching Boston college. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

If they could do kind of a bait and switch there for the head coach that I think they would like that. So also congratulations to Northwestern, their first win on U.S. soil since October 16, 2021, when they beat Rutgers. They beat UTEP. UTEP went up 7-0, and then Northwestern rolled to a 38-7 win. And also, congratulations to fellow Lake Mary Ram Colton Boomer, UCF's kicker. He had a 40-yard walk-off to beat Boise State on the blue. Well, okay. I did not get any eyes on that game tonight.

That's interesting. I think Boise was a favorite in that game, weren't they? It was not a high-scoring affair. Yeah, it was a very tense defensive struggle, and it took that kick at the very end to uh to lift the knights but it's it's not probably not the game they plan to play ever they want 18 16 but it's one of those i i you know i always say if a team can win games in several different ways that's the mark of a good team so maybe u UCF can do that. And here's the result.

Here's a here's a result, Andy, that I think I did not. And I will go back. I spend Sunday kind of going back and catching up on some of these, you know, lesser lesser games that we don't get eyes on. You see Cincinnati beat Pat Narduzzi. Yes. Yes, they did. And the Pitt Panthers. Emory Jones is playing really well for the Bearcats. Scott Satterfield's doing a good job with them.

Because, you know, we looked at that as Fickle leaves. Satterfield had to get the hell out of Louisville because things were going bad. They were still mad at him for interviewing South Carolina. He's doing a good job, even though, you know, a lot of Cincinnati's better players went and followed Fickle. But Emory Jones, the guy who was waiting his turn behind Kyle Trask at Florida for Dan Mullen and then went to Arizona State and is now at Cincinnati, that's one of those, he's still in college, guys, but he's doing very well. Well, the other guy for Cincinnati that I'm seeing that did really well tonight is Corey Kiner, That's one of those, he's still in college, guys, but he's doing very well.

Well, the other guy for Cincinnati that I'm seeing that did really well tonight is Corey Kiner, the former LSU running back. He had a buck 50 and a tutty. But going into Pitt, I mean, Pat Narduzzi doesn't typically lose those games. And they were up, Cincinnati held on for dear life. They were up 27-7 and then pitt scored 14 points in the fourth quarter but certainly a notable result i mean that's again that's kind of a lesser game in all this but you mentioned this earlier but let's let's give it a second or two rice beats houston in double overtime now that game was actually rice hanging on for dear life to win.

They, they built a pretty big lead and then hung on Dana Holgerson was the, the popular name on all the hot seat lists before the season, along with, you know, trying to think who, who are the other round would be the other big one, Jeff Halfley and,

and Holgerson is, is probably the one in the Big 12 that everyone's assuming, other than Neil Brown, will get fired. But I thought after they beat UTSA last week, I'm like, well, maybe not. Maybe they're going to be better than we thought, and he's going to be able to turn things around. The reason we're saying this, by the way, isn't so much that we think he's done a bad job at houston doesn't play around like remember they fired tony levine after he won eight games well that man started running chick-fil-a's he didn't even go back to college

football what was it there was it their ad or was it the rockets owner uh their big booster it was like it's tillman for tita tillman for t who was like, we fire coaches if they don't win nine games. Yeah. Yep. And Tillman feels the same way. And he feels like he's invested a lot and it cost them a lot to get to the Big 12 and they want to win in the Big 12. So they're going to have to turn around really quickly or he may do

something impulsive again. So, but that, that that one that was one of those scores that kept coming across there's so many huge things going on it's hard to to watch all of it but you kept looking at it going what what what and then finally i got a chance to watch the overtime the the two overtimes but yeah yeah, right. Losing a rice is, is not a good look at this point. Never want to play with your food. It only gets harder for Houston in the first year in the big 12. So we'll see how that goes. You know, I, we don't, we don't need to do too deep a hot seat discussion here after week two, but you know how things are going.

They go faster and faster these days. So it might, we might only be a few weeks away from our first firing, depending on how things go in very various places. But Jesse, it's been a pleasure. What a day. It delivered.

That's right. Texas is, I'm not going to say it. Fowler wouldn't either. Texas is, I'm not going to say it. Fowler wouldn't either. Texas is playing very well and could continue to play very well. How's that? And looks like a college football playoff team if they continue to play very well. That's right.

That's right. We need to see it against the teams that you're supposed to beat, not just the big games against Alabama that everybody's watching. But you play like that, you're going to beat the teams you're supposed to beat. As if this show hasn't already been painful enough for Texas A&M fans, we now move to a discussion of Miami's win against the Aggies in Miami Gardens. This was a, is the the you back kind of game? We're not saying Texas is back.

We're not saying the use back. But Miami certainly looks vastly improved. And Texas A&M, while the problems weren't on offense, the result was still the same. It was a loss. It was the opposite of last year's game, which made your eyes bleed because the offense was so bad. Both offenses played pretty well, but Texas A&M couldn't get it done defensively. And this is a bad, bad time for Jimbo Fisher

because we said going into the game that the coach who lost would be under a tremendous amount of stress. The fan base would be unhappy. But the fact of the matter is Jimbo Fisher's been at Texas A&M a lot longer than Mario Cristobal's been at Miami. It was a lot more important for Fisher to win this game than it was for Cristobal. But Cristobal, his makeover of Miami seems to be going pretty well.

Shannon Dawson, the new offensive coordinator, great job there. So they now look like a team that can compete in the ACC. Texas A&M, now you start to wonder, where do they fall in the SEC? Now, if they're watching Alabama, maybe they still compete with a lot of the teams in the SEC. Maybe the SEC's a little down. But that is not what the Aggies fans wanted. What Notre Dame did in Raleigh, though, is exactly what Notre Dame fans have been praying for.

Sam Hartman is the quarterback that they've been seeking, and that game turned into a route after a very long lightning delay. It was kind of back and forth, but then Notre Dame really took over and that's a team that looks Capable of playing with anybody I guess we'll find out probably in about two weeks when they Play Ohio State whether that's true we're a little out of we're a little discombobulated Jesse Simonton because the Notre Dame game was supposed to be something we were talking about That early window we're talking about that now Texas A&M Miami just ended let's talk about that first though I I'm not going to say that you is back I'm not not ready for that but I am comfortable saying that you is much better much much better I and you this was one of your preseason predictions you were riding riding that Miami in year two under Crystal Ball.

Brand new staff. He brings in, you know, two new coordinators. You saw the Sheldon Dawson offense. Shannon Dawson offense. Excuse me. I mean, that looked like the Tyler Van Dyke that we saw in 2021. Yeah. And, you know, he was out there throwing darts.

I think, to me, watching this game, Andy, and we're certainly going to get into the Jimbo Fisher anxiety bowl aspect of it all. But I think what was most impressive was that Miami, you know, it wasn't as if they played some flawless game. You have a blocked punt. You have a muffed punt. And yet you overcome the adversity. And by the end of the game, they looked like the team that was more prepared better well coached uh and frankly I thought it was kind of alarming you know looking

watching Texas A&M at times on defense in Miami this team that everyone is like you know they don't have playmakers they don't have team speed just running up and down the field on them. Yeah, it looked like what Mario Cristobal envisioned, I think, when he took this job and what he said, this is what we want this to be. And where I got bullish on them was him being bullish on them up front, on the offensive line at ACC Media Days, because he's typically pretty critical of his offensive line. And the fact that he was pretty effusive in his praise of the line suggests to me that, okay, maybe they are significantly better here.

Texas A&M has a really good athletic defensive front. We've seen those players against good SEC competition, and they've held up. They were – I mean, Miami's O-line was great today. It was great. They could run the ball. They could protect Van Dyke. I mean, it looked completely different from what we saw last year.

And this is the problem for Texas A&M, I think, though, is that the talent hasn't always equated to the play on the field. There's at times they have held up against some better, you know, SEC offensive lines, and yet they ranked last in the league a year ago and stopped in the run. And today, you know, outside of one, you know, Shamar Stewart sack, they really did not get a hand on Van Dyke. And so those freshmen, you know, the freshman offensive tackle

from Miami did well. They brought in the new center from UCF. They brought in the guard from Alabama. And it's a new-looking group. And in two weeks, you're able to almost, you know, hang 50 on at least a solid Aggies defense. But, you know, the way that game ended was sour with the scary – Yeah, that was just a scary injury there. So you feel bad for Miami fans who were celebrating.

But I think, I mean, this is – well, I don't know. Let me ask you, what was your favorite sequence in the third quarter that I think kind of summed up the Jimbo Fisher era in Texas A&M? Was it the timeout on fourth and one? Was it the false start, you know, right coming out of that timeout? The false start was not – Yeah, and the timeout is, you know, right coming out of that timeout? The false start was not. Yeah, and the timeout is, you know, it's interesting because that is a head coach decision. How you handle fourth down, head coach decision.

That's where, even if Bobby Petrino is calling plays, which he obviously is, that's still Jimbo Fisher's decision there. So they're going to have loggerheads there. And the sequence that I thought was the toughest for A&M is they score to make it a one-possession game and then immediately give up the long touchdown in the fourth quarter. When they scored that touchdown, I thought, okay, here's their chance. They're going to get a stop.

This is going to be a very competitive game down to the wire. And then it took, what, three plays, and it was over. And it was over. And by the end of the day, you look up and Van Dyke's thrown for five touchdowns. He's averaging close to 13 yards an attempt. This is an A&M secondary that came in with a lot of expectations and was considered to be one of the maybe not top five units in the country,

but certainly top five units in the SEC. And they just got torched by a group of receivers that frankly probably isn't going to be among the five or six best that they'll face the rest of the season. Well, I don't know, though. I mean, how good are these receivers? I mean, Restrepo, we knew Restrepo was pretty good. He's not like NFL ideal, but he's always been a productive college receiver. Colby Young was fantastic. he's not like NFL ideal, but he's always been a productive college receiver.

Colby young was, was fantastic. Jacoby George had a great game. So, you know, they did, but I'm saying, but I'm saying I would take LSU receivers over this group. I would take Tennessee's receivers over this group,

you know? Oh, in terms of what A&M is going to see. Yeah. I mean, yeah. They're going to see the rest of the season. Yeah. It's strange.

Let's let's talk about the Jimbo Fisher aspect of this, because we all said going into this game, whichever coach loses this game, the fan base is going to be out. They're going to be ready to ready to riot with this one because the offense played well. And that was not the thing everybody was worried about how do the a and m fans feel about this i think they're probably still furious because they gave up 48 points but is it different because the offense worked so you're going hmm okay maybe we can finally put these two things together down the stretch and we're going to have something? But, I mean, how many times can Lucy rip away the football, Andy?

You know, I mean, this is – you go to Miami in a half-empty stadium where they're selling BOGO tickets and you just don't show up and you're a four-and-a-half point favorite. I mean, at the end, I don't think it matters which side of the ball is failing Jimbo Fisher. He is responsible for delivering wins and losses, and far too often they are taking the L in these games. And this is another national spotlight game where clearly Texas A&M

does have talent. Everyone watching can see individual players pop off the screen. The Evan Stewart's, the Aniyah Smith's, Noah Thomas caught a touchdown, but the culmination of all those pieces, for whatever reason, there's something in the water that it just seems like it's soured and it's not working yeah the the key question i think you asked it right a second ago when we didn't we didn't really get into it but where does miami rank among the remaining teams on texas a&m schedule for example For example, is Miami like LSU? Is Miami like Alabama? I'm not sure they're like Alabama.

Are they like Mississippi State, Ole Miss? Where do they slot in with those? They look pretty good. I mean, it's hard, but again, it's limited data points. So I think that's the question is how scared are you if you're a Texas A&M fan of the rest of this season based on what happened? Because we don't really know what Auburn's going to be. We've seen LSU against Florida State.

We think Florida State's really good. Tennessee, they got to go to Knoxville this year. The first half against Austin Peay notwithstanding, Tennessee can be pretty scary. So that's the part where you get, you start to wonder, okay, where is this team going to be? Because I think an eight win season or a nine win season keeps everybody happy. Eight win season probably keeps everybody happy eight win season probably keeps everybody happy but beyond that below that that's where you that's where you get problems and that's where you get people maybe thinking about trying to raise the money like that and that's what and that's why you know i tweeted what i did uh at the end of the game which is i think we're officially on you know uh let me

know watch what the price of oil is you you know, come Thanksgiving for Jimbo. I think that's where we're at with this deal because you just said it, eight, nine wins. Yeah, that's probably palpable, you know. They can handle that. I think they still would like to have a 10-win season that hasn't happened. But they just lost a bunch of their margin for error. They beat Miami a year ago and went five and seven.

Yep, that's exactly right. their margin for error they beat miami a year ago and went five and seven yep you just you just lost you just lost as a favorite in a game where i think people coming out of week one and you spoke to this you know earlier in the pod that just what we see in week one doesn't necessarily you know translate immediately to week two where everyone was like, well, A&M, the offense looked fantastic. Connor Wegman, it did look pretty good today. It wasn't over. It had a sluggish start, finished with some nice yards, and yet you still lose the football game because this is a complimentary deal and one side of the unit just didn't show up.

Yeah. I hope for Miami's sake, this is a continuation. And like that Florida State game last year was embarrassing. Here's a note from William, FSU fan here. Congrats, Canes. I hope you continue to climb until you meet us. I'd much rather have an epic showdown with a school from my home state and hometown than with some Clemson yokels.

That's a great point. That's a great point, though. The other side of this is now if Miami really is this. Where do they stack up in the ACC? Yeah. Right. And, you know, we saw with North Carolina against South Carolina now. North Carolina is sweating it out against Appalachian State right now.

They're going back and forth in the fourth quarter. Transitive property alert, Andy. Transitive property alert. Zero sacks against App State in this game. At least they had had zero sacks. I don't know where they are now. Wondering what that says about South Carolina? Oh, boy.

Yes. Yes. Oh, boy. That's the transitive property red alert of this window. Well, we'll put a pin in that Miami discussion. We're going to have a while to talk about how good Miami can be in the ACC over the next few weeks. Let's go to Notre Dame because this is a game, as Frank Walsh says, as a Notre Dame fan,

that was definitely the longest I've sweated out a 21 point win because there was a two hour and 40 minute lightning delay. This game didn't end until what? Five o'clock in the afternoon. It started at noon, but this was a dominant performance for Notre Dame. It started right after the lightning delays, kind of when it started,

you have the 80 yard on trick estimate touchdown run. And then they controlled the rest of the game. You know, NC state scored a couple of times, but then really anytime NC state looked like they were about to get close Notre Dame forced a turnover and Sam Hartman shut the game. NC State scored a couple times, but then really any time NC State looked like they were about to get close, Notre Dame forced a turnover and Sam Hartman shut the door. The man may be missing a rib, but he certainly provided Notre Dame with all sorts of balance and just kind of harmony offensively.

We got so accustomed the last couple years, I think, of just seeing this Irish team. They always had these dominant offensive lines. They could move the ball on the ground. But it was where's the skill talent on the perimeter, and do they kind of have the trigger man at quarterback? And he has certainly answered those questions, Andy. I mean, he is a gunslinger out there. He throws for four scores.

And every time, every single time, Brendan Armstrong and kind of NC State, I thought would make a play. Hartman and that Notre Dame offense just responded immediately. And it was like, okay, we got you. They feel very complete and everybody's very excited about Notre Dame and Ohio State from South Bend in a couple of weeks. I mean, that's looking like one of the games of the year. So I'm excited because it feels like they can compete with Ohio state's athletes. It's not, will they have a good enough game plan to maybe out scheme them and

force some turnovers and maybe they'll get lucky. They look like they can compete in this game. And that's really exciting if you're a Notre Dame fan. So I can't wait to see that. I have a quiz question for you. Okay, go for it. When's the last time you think ESPN College Game Day was like, oh, we have a top five Ohio State and a top ten Notre Dame,

but we're going to go out to Eugene, Oregon, because we've got Colorado and the Ducks? I mean, they're going to go out to Eugene, Oregon, because we've got Colorado and the Ducks. I mean, they're going to turn down Ohio State and Notre Dame to go to Eugene in two weeks. Yeah, you're right. No, they're going to Boulder because they want in on the Deion experience. So they're going to Boulder for the Colorado State game. But you're right.

If Colorado wins and Oregon's still undefeated, they're going there. The Deion stress cannot be denied. You want the power of Deion right there? You're talking two of the biggest blue blood programs in college football, in the Buckeyes, in the Irish, in ESPN, and their TV rides are going to be like no we got to get we got to go catch prime they're going to be like that's an NBC game in South Bend we

ain't got to worry about that one so no it all right Jesse let me ask you this or it's probably premature yet does Notre Dame look like a playoff team to you because the schedule's there they can go 11 and 1 against the schedule I think and maybe make the playoff depending on who the loss is against oh I yeah I think I think I think they answered a big question today they were very you know popular uh or the wolf pack I would should say were a very popular uh you know pick to cover that seven a ton of sharps were on that side you know the the line never moved, you know, even after people continued to kind of say, oh,

we like Notre Dame coming off the 2-0 start. For them to answer that resoundingly, you win by three touchdowns. Like you said, the schedule sets up there now because you get two of the – if they win two of the three, that being Clemson USC and Ohio state. You get two of those at home, you get Clemson on the road who you beat the heck out of a year ago. And, and, you know, who knows, you know, what the titles would be by the end of come November.

I think the Irish absolutely will be a playoff contender all fall. Now let's go from a team that is uh having an offensive renaissance to one that is uh kind of where they where we left them last year let's head to aims the iowa hawkeyes won the cyhawk trophy on saturday the final score 20 to 13 so you know what that means let's do some math everybody now remember phil parker and his defense contributed seven of these points. Doesn't matter. Still counts. So Brian Ferentz is now six points off the pace to keep his job.

And this contract is looking more and more ingenious to me because we have to pay attention to every second of every Iowa game like I had that on one of my screens at all times to see the drive for 325 which again is six points off the pace right now and it's you know what we discussed it earlier it's like it doesn't matter what the name on the back of the jersey is playing quarterback for Nebraska they They all look the same and make the same mistakes. The same is, is, is, is whatever name is on the back of the, you know, quarterback for Iowa. I mean, Kate McNamara was just just did not have it today.

I mean, he was, I think he completed like half of his passes through an interception, no touchdowns. It was just – it was disgusting to watch offensively. And, you know, people were joking a week ago that Phil Parker let Brian Ferentz down because the defense didn't score a touchdown. Today they do, and it's the difference between one of these. But it's the difference between one of these wins. The other part of the 325 is they also have to win seven games.

Yeah. So Phil Parker helped him actually win the game today. I they're going to win seven, Jesse. Oh, Oh, I had him winning the big 10 West. Yeah.

They're going to win seven. I just don't know if they're going to get the three 25. That's the, that's the crazy part. So this is, it's just wild. And so one other game of note in that window, Ole Miss survives Tulane,

but Tulane playing without Michael Pratt. So the no Michael Pratt part of it, they really had to sweat this one out. Now they ran away at the end there a little bit, but that was more just Tulane trying to get back in the game. But this was tight for a long time. So we'll see what Ole Miss winds up being in the SEC. If this is the score with Pratt starting,

I'm a lot more impressed than what we saw today. Yeah, you know, Ole Miss really struggled to run the ball for a while in this game. Quintin Judkins just could not get going. Lane there, you know, was kind of a fourth-down riverboat gambler twice. His decision to keep the ball in Jackson Dart's hands, Dart delivers like a fourth and five, fourth and four maybe, you know, evades the pocket,

throws a nice long touchdown pass to Michael Trigg. That put him up two scores. And then Tulane responded, immediately goes and scores a touchdown and when Ole Miss gets the ball again uh Kiffin you know believes in his field goal kicker who just bangs a 50-something yarder you know to put her back to two scores so like you said final result here not indicative of of how kind of back and forth this game was. I was disappointed not to see Michael Pratt. I thought this was going to be a huge opportunity for him,

not only in a big statement game against a top 25 team, but to put on for NFL scouts. I mean, this is still an SEC program. They had Perkins and some other guys on that defense that will be Sunday players eventually. So disappointed that he didn't get that chance. Don't think that we've forgotten about coach prime. We talked an awful lot about him after Colorado beat Nebraska. In fact, we were planning to talk about quite a few more games, but weather delays push those into the afternoon window. But coach primes win against Nebraska was further proof that Colorado is going to be very competitive this year. Remember when I was saying that if they can win three, four,

five games, then that's a great improvement over last season. They can do better than that. They've shown that. Now they have a tough schedule coming up. They play Colorado State this week, but then they've got to play Oregon and they've got to play USC. a tough schedule coming up they play colorado state this week but then they've got to play oregon and they've got to play usc that won't be easy but the way they played in the second half against nebraska they can probably beat anybody meanwhile utah went to waco and a baylor team that lost to texas tech last week and and it wasn't really a fluky loss to Texas State. Texas State just straight up beat Baylor. Well, Baylor was controlling that game. And then Utah finally took it over toward the end and eked out a win.

So we talk about that as well. But, yeah, we mostly talk about Coach Prime because we know whether you believe it or not in your heart, whether you say it or not in your heart whether you say it or not we see the numbers you love hearing about coach prime that was uh not the game we thought we were watching in the first half that was that was colorado was was struggling they capitalized on some jeff sims turnovers to take a lead and then all of a sudden they blow the damn open in the second half. Yeah, certainly a tale of two halves there. I mean, it was a clunker, sloppy, sluggish start.

They looked like a team, I think, Andy, that maybe had been reading their press clippings a little bit. And Deion told them to, and maybe they heeded that advice, and perhaps it was not the right message. And yet, by the end, I think, and we're going to discuss this, I think you can make the case that that was arguably a more impressive win than week one because there was this hype. There was the pressure.

The buffs were the favorites. And you come out and you do what you know solid two good teams do which is you beat the hell out of a bad team and I think Nebraska is a bad football team I just they've got to do something different offensively as as well as they play defensively they that couldn't keep up because they had to score some they couldn't be in that position all the time they couldn't have all those empty possessions where they're just handing the ball back or handing it to them in scoring position, basically. And I don't know if that means they've got to go.

We said this last week, by the way. We said this after the Thursday night games last week, after they lost to Minnesota. Do they need to look at doing something else at quarterback? I think they need to look at doing something else at quarterback. Yeah, I mean, Jeff Sims Colorado they ended up with 36 they got their first 13 when they really weren't moving the ball at all um and Nebraska was sacking Shador Sanders you know pretty much every other drive but they got 13 points all off Jeff Sims mistakes the fumble the interception then he runs out of bound Joel Klatt

calls it immediately is like Gus Johnson's like oh good move and then Joel's like no they know he's just handed three points yeah he's like he you are going you are giving Colorado more points sure enough they march right down the field and kick another field goal uh and like you said I mean you know they just Nebraska was eventually going to wilt defensively. Tony White, I thought, had a great game plan in the first half. That 3-3-5 defense that Shador was able to shred a week ago with Gillespie and TCU, he was getting pressured. He, you know, wasn't reading the field as well when they were dropping eight.

But then, you know, the defense can just, I think you made the joke, you know, is it like the Spider-Man meme with Iowa? Like you can't, it's like Iowa's defense a year ago. You're just looking at it and it's like, what are we supposed to do? Well, and how frustrating must it be for the defense, which is doing everything it's supposed to do. And then the offense can't do anything and it's at what point does that boil over and yeah I was shocked that that never boiled

over at Iowa so uh but it's the Colorado thing's interesting because Nebraska was playing really well on defense Nebraska I think has a defense. Colorado just annihilated them in the second half. That was not – like, remember after Jeff Sims scrambles to score – well, it wasn't a scramble. It was a QB draw. Scores the touchdown on the QB draw. And then Colorado just answers with like an 80-yard drive. And that's the one where Shadur really never got pressured.

He had a great throw for the touchdown where he rolls left and just fires it right there. That's when I was like, oh, I think they've broken them. And they did because they kept coming back. Yeah, I mean, it was kind of reminiscent of kind of how, you know, Florida State just sucked the soul out of LSU in the second half. Yes, very similar. I mean, I think, you know, and this is kind of to deviate to a different point here because I agree the story is still Colorado and Deion and what they've done.

But I guess one of my lasting thoughts for Nebraska is, I mean, that fan base has got – they must have a record number of bald fans because of folks wanting to pull their hair out with what we've seen from the quarterback play. I mean, God bless. I like Adrian Martinez and his family. I got to know them when I was covering Tennessee, and he was a commit there. He's a good kid.

I really like his – but, I mean, you know, he was a guy that would constantly have these face-melting turnovers. You see it from Jeff Sims. I mean, I joked on Twitter, you might as well replace their helmet logo with Elmer Fudd at this point. I mean, they just shoot themselves in the foot more than any offense I can remember in recent memory. And it's been not even just the same guy.

It's like insert whoever is that quarterback there and something terrible is happening. So Sam with an interesting thought says, I'm a bit skeptical still on Colorado. Pac-12 teams are going to have teams that good on offense and maybe good enough on defense. Well, I think we're going to find out next week. They go to Austin Stadium.

They got to play Oregon. Oh, yes, two weeks. I'm sorry, two weeks. So two weeks they're going to Austin Stadium, and then the week after that they're playing USC. Now, USC obviously has a much better offense than anybody they're going to see, but Oregon has a very capable offense and a very athletic defense. So you're going to get tested,

but if they play the way they did in the second half, they can play with Oregon and they could probably play with USC. Well, and let's not discount the fact that, I mean, you know, I thought Colorado defensively, obviously we're talking about how awful Nebraska is offensively, but what Colorado did defensively was stout today too. I mean, they did force a couple of those turnovers. Unlike a week ago, they had, you know, zero tackles for loss and 88 plays against TCU. They made some pressure. They had

a couple sacks. I think they had six or seven TFLs. It wasn't like, you know, I think one of the narratives coming into this weekend, he was that, well, Nebraska is just going to shorten the game because they're going to run the ball down Colorado's throat. They tried to in the first half, but that really wasn't successful. Let's give everybody an example of why people like people just want to hate Colorado. And I don't understand that. Like backyard engineer. If people are talking about Shador Sanders as a Heisman candidate after that performance, that's a disgrace. 31 of 42 for 393 yards and two touchdowns now the only way you were going to knock Shador Sanders as a Heisman candidate after that game and after their first game is because Travis Hunter is the real Heisman candidate because no one has done what he's done in 20 years and yet you you look at

what he did today Andy and it's like again I think that's why it almost speaks to how more impressive this win maybe was even in TCU Hunter wasn't transcendent today it was still incredible that he played a hundred something snaps you know on both sides of the ball but he had 70 yards receiving uh and Xavier Lieber was the was the hot target today right and because Nebraska couldn't throw the ball you know, they weren't really going to target him. Yeah. And then, uh, Colorado got the run game going in the second half too.

They were barely moving the ball at all on the ground in the first half and they got it going. It, it is going to be fun watching them play the best in the pack 12. And, and look, I will eat all the crow you want. I was the one who said, they're not going to be deep enough when they play Oregon and USC, they're going to get exposed. I'm not saying that now. I am not saying that anymore because Nebraska is not a good team because clearly they're not competent on one side of the ball, but that's a pretty good defense. I suspect TCU is going to wind up being an okay team. Like they're going to be able to

play with, with these teams in the PAC 12. Maybe they're not going to win the PAC 12, but if you can take what they took over and obviously they flipped the whole roster, but then you can play with those teams in the PAC 12 year one, what the hell are year two and year three going to look like? You know what, what, what it, hopefully it'll look like. Cause I think I would really like to see some more cohesiveness too, just because Dion, the coaching hires that he's done, Sean Lewis, the OC, you know, bringing that can, obviously this is only going to continue to, to ratchet his name up the coaching ranks. He made, I think, the deft move to leave a MAC head coaching job for a Power 5 OC job because I think it's going to present him the greatest path to becoming a P5 head coach.

Then you get Charles Kelly on defense. I mean, the one-two punch brain trust that Coach Prime has put together there, again, that speaks to his ability as a CEO. What are the two most important things right now, Andy? It's ability to get talent, which we were seeing, you know, in real time, and its ability to kind of build that staff around you. You don't have to be the X's and O's guru that Lincoln Riley is on offense or Kirby Smart on defense. That's an extra, you know, feather in your cap if you have it. But if you can do what Dion's doing, that's a path to be successful anywhere. Oh, absolutely. I mean, Urban Meyer never called a play and he won three national titles. Like you don't have to be the play

calling genius if you're good at hiring coaches and good at motivating people and good at recruiting people and clearly Deion's good at recruiting people I mean this is the guy who got the number one recruiting country to sign with him at Jackson State and so the this week the news came out that Bryce Underwood who's one of the top quarterback prospects the class of 2025 he's going to Folsom Field for the USC game in a few weeks. Like, yes, they're trying to recruit blue chips out of high school. They don't want to do this every year. They want to get a foundation laid. And so that's the scary part is what they're doing now is with spare parts, for the most part, they got out of the transfer portal, and some transcendent recruits,

one of whom is Deion's son, who would have been a Power 5 player had he not gone to Jackson State with his dad, one of whom is Travis Hunter, who went to Jackson State because of Deion, one of whom is Dylan Edwards, who played peewee football for Deion and flipped to Colorado from Notre Dame.

But Xavier Weaver was at USF. Jimmy Horn, USF. Yeah. They're doing this with guys that other places couldn't get as much out of. Well, and that's the other thing is that how many ADs after this game, you know, now Dion's 2-0. Again, the wildest roster reckoning we've ever seen there's gonna be other ADs right now being like well we gotta go find our Deion and that's gonna

be there's not another Deion there's not another Deion there's only like this now he I do think he could have done this at Georgia Tech and at Arizona State and at Louisville and at South Florida. There's a lot of, you know, I think ADs that may be having some, you know, some second thoughts of why didn't we go down this path when Colorado did. But the idea that this is, you know, instantly reputable again at just another program, it's not. This is a unique character uh he has a one of one for a reason yeah yeah exactly right so frank in the chat are you presuming sanders

does not know x's nose laugh out loud what a joke no we're not presuming that we're saying he doesn't come from a play calling background right he's he's he's just like urban just like dabbo now dabbo's having his own issues right now but he won a couple titles uh what's the score of that game actually it was 21 17 right before the half i don't know if clemson put put any more points on the board at half i but clemson was only up four on charleston southern with three three minutes to go in the first half. And at one point was down 14-7. If you were just watching Colorado Nebraska wondering why we're not talking about the Notre Dame-NC State game, it's halftime. They just started the second half. And those other games in the ACC that are in that neck of the woods are delayed as well.

Virginia is trying to hold off James Madison, which honestly would be an awesome win for Elliott. Virginia winning that game would be an upset. They started as freshmen. They look much better on offense right now. And they were a touchdown dog to James Madison. And first home game since the tragedy a year ago, that would be a really really big win

for Elliott there yeah and then we'll we'll talk all about Notre Dame and NC State when it's over uh obviously that lightning delay the Notre Dame O-line and Audrick Estime did some did some work because it popped an 80-yard touchdown right out of it but the other game that finished that we need to talk about is Baylor Utah Baylor lost to Texas State last week and not in fluky fashion like Texas State just pounded them and so Utah comes in there Baylor is running it down their throat the heat index is like 110 degrees and you're thinking Baylor's gonna win this game and then just a crippling interception with about two minutes to go from Sawyer Robertson and Utah scores a touchdown.

Baylor then almost gets it back down the field. And Jesse, I don't know about you. It felt to me like the officials had had a flight to catch because it looked like pass interference on the last play of the game. And they just sort of let it go. It wouldn't have tied the game for Baylor, but they would have had one more crack at it. I think, as you know, the sideline reporter Chris Budden was joking

that, you know, folks' shoes were melting. I think the ref said their feet got a little too crispy and that they were ready to roll. That was a terrible non-call. Terrible non-call. Yeah. But I think, yeah, go ahead. Utah needed that. It's a skin of your teeth win.

And remember, Utah is still playing with backup quarterbacks. We'll see when Cam Rising is going to be ready. But Jaquinda Jackson was really good at the end of that game. The line was good at the end of that game. And, you know, the defense stepped up big because they got – it was the pressure on Soria Robertson that caused that interception. He just sort of threw it up there. I don't understand why Kyle Whittingham, a week after kind of relying on Nate Johnson,

was so reluctant to go to Utah's, I guess, third or fourth-string quarterback, depending on how you want to call it. But Barnes was terrible. He finally pulls Barnes late in the fourth quarter. Johnson leads those two scoring drives. When, you know, you and I were texting, I think the transitive property college football fan, Florida fan watching this game has got to be freaking out a little bit

because Utah was struggling so much against Baylor. And to see what they, you know know did to Florida kind of physically especially in that first half before the Gators defense bowed up not great now the Florida beat the hell out of McNeese State tonight but not great well let's not assume anything because that's that's the way that's the thing in week two when we have the week one data point we assume that's what the team is and that's what they're going to be. Utah, this could have been a terrible game for them. This could have been Baylor bouncing back and playing how they should have been playing as Texas State.

We don't really know that. We're going to need more. But by the way, if you like this show, because we've got a lot of people watching right now, if you like this show, we do this every day,ay through thursday 8 p.m eastern time on the youtube channel for on three sports uh we we talk about college football we have coaches on players on we have all the big newsmakers and this is this is all we do is college football and Jesse it's been it's crazy because it doesn't feel like it's been that long since Clemson was playing Duke and the Duke students were storming the field I mean it's

really only been five days but I just it it's amazing how many assumptions we make after week one that's the thing with Colorado is that week one game could have been a total fluke and we would have never known but now I don't think we need to be thinking that way I think given the way they played in that second half of that game we can feel safe that they are for real and capable of being competitive with anybody on their schedule which means also yes Oregon and USC and as someone tweeted at me just recently does that also make Colorado State this week a trap game I guess so but I think you know you're gonna get you're gonna get that game at home again I you know you said it well when we started this show.

I never doubted Coach Prime Deion Sanders in terms of the long-term vision there. I just was skeptical. You were skeptical of how everything would come together to start. So it's fair to say, hey, we were wrong, but now, you know, I think the expectations or, or, uh, what we're, what, what we could think about this team is recalibrated, you know? Yeah. They can't, they can, uh, you know, go toe to toe. We'll see. Can they go toe to toe with Oregon USC? We'll see. But I absolutely think this is a team based on uh what we've now seen through two games that is going to be competitive in a competitive Pac-12 with that offense with

Shador Sanders at quarterback um and and with a team that just frankly I think isn't quite as bereft of of talent on the offensive and defensive lines as we thought so what's what's a realistic projection now because i i was saying before the season started four or five wins would be like build d on a statue if he wins four or five games of this team they're gonna make a bowl game this team i'm saying that right now this team's gonna make a bowl game at the very least and now we're talking are they competitive for the pac-12 title and i think we'll just have to wait and see what happens in the oregon game in the usc game and we'll know immediately after those two games where they're at yeah and i i think that's very fair and that's

not moving the goalposts on this that's saying hey this is they are better than we thought you know they six wins. They're going to get to six wins. What's their ceiling after that? I don't know. Deion said we're coming. No, Colorado's here. You know, that's what Joel Klatt said, you know, kind of signing off.

He's right. They're here. They are a solid football team. You know, I have to do these AP poll projections, you know, on Saturday. I'll be up on three on Sunday morning. You know, you voted in the poll for a long time. That middle 15 to like 35 teams, you know. The same.

Maybe 18. They're the same, yeah. And I think Colorado is squarely right there. What we've seen through two weeks, I think they're squarely right right there what we've seen through two weeks i think they're squarely right there all right we we got a couple other couple other scores ohio state clobbered youngstown state 35 to 7 great day for marvin harrison jr com accord they keep saying play both but com acc McCord's the guy. Yeah. Because they're not pulling him for Devin Brown when things really matter,

it doesn't seem like. No, and that's, you know, that was going to be something that, because he only played the one series a week ago, it was like, all right, it's Youngstown State. If it's going to be more 50-50, perhaps this thing's open. And we thought not the case. You know, Georgia got off to a bit of a slow start and then ran away 31 points in the second quarter against Ball State.

So the big boys took care of business. Penn State, I think, had a big blowout win as well. Yeah, they beat Delaware. So yeah, we've got a lot more to talk about jesse hopefully uh you you got the schedule cleared because all those games that got rain lightning delayed we got to talk about them we got to talk about texas a&m and miami we got to talk about the cyhawk trophy game we got you know you know what i want to see i want to see where's where's lugan bill at this week Maybe there'll be another field storming.

So we can see if he can run in those cowboy boots. That was the old miss the anecdote that he told on your, on the show. I guess that was that Thursday. Maybe that was fantastic that he, he's out here running around in cowboy boots. That's right. So he's at the Duke Clemson game. And it was, it's funny.

Cause if you watch the video, the Duke students are being incredibly well-behaved. The people are like, just don't get on the field till the game's over. And so I'll stand there very politely, but yes, there's Tom in his cowboy boots and he sprints out, takes a horrible angle,

but gets to Mike Elko anyway. And yes, he is at Tulane Ole Miss, which is going on right now. And if Tulane wins that game at home, I think we could definitely see another field story. But right now, Jesse, there is only one universal truth in college football, and it's this.

I don't think I stumbled or stuttered when I told you we were coming. Not at all. We're coming. That's it. They're here. Colorado is here. That's it for our Instant Reaction podcast.

Thank you so much for listening. We do this again every Saturday, but Sunday through Thursday, 8 p.m. Eastern time on the On3Sports YouTube channel, we debut a new show. You're listening in podcast form maybe that's your jam that's fine all those shows go to all the podcast platforms every day so subscribe leave a review hopefully it's a good one and you will have us in your phone every single day talking college football. And man,

if it keeps doing what it did this past Saturday, it's going to be a wild, wild season. So we'll have a lot to talk about. We certainly have a lot to chew on this week. A lot of questions about Alabama. A lot of wondering about what Texas can be, what the potential is. Ditto for Notre Dame. A lot of questions about Texas A&M. Shows sort of write themselves. Cannot wait, and we'll talk again soon.