Andy & Ari On3 - The Associated Press poll is WRONG! | Preseason camp intel from Alabama and Nebraska

Episode Date: August 13, 2024

The Associated Press poll is out, and of course it will not accurately predict the final rankings for the season — or the final College Football Playoff rankings. But if it did, we’d be getting Penn State at Alabama in round one and Michigan at Texas three months after Texas played at Michigan.Yeah, we’d take that.(0:00-0:28) Intro(0:28-21:11) College Football Playoff based on AP Poll's History(21:12-43:26) Tim Watts from Bama Online joins to provide the latest on the Crimson Tide(43:27-46:46) Furthering the CFP Discussion(46:47-1:11:26) Sean Callahan joins to dive deeper into the Nebraska Cornhuskers(1:11:27-1:13:40) Conclusion; QB Draft Tomorrow, Dear Andy Thursday!Next, Tim Watts of On3’s Bama Online joins Andy to discuss what a Kalen DeBoer offense built around Jalen Milroe might look like. Tim and Andy also talk about how sneaky difficult Alabama’s schedule is and why Tim thinks the Crimson Tide will lose two regular-season games.Later, Sean Callahan of On3’s HuskerOnline joins the show to talk about how Matt Rhule is handling the likelihood of freshman Dylan Raiola starting at QB. Sean provides an update on Nebraska’s banged-up offensive line as camp progresses, and he explains why the Cornhuskers’ defense should remain salty.Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube and join us LIVE, M-F at 8 am et: https://youtube.com/live/NaNG-myfmHAHost: Andy StaplesGuests: Tim Watts, Sean CallahanProducer: River Bailey

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. The Associated Press poll is out and it is wrong. Well, I mean, the preseason poll is always going to be wrong because 18 to 22 year olds tend to be a fairly unpredictable lot. And when you're trying to predict how that many of them will finish in order, it's pretty much a fool's errand. So, yeah, it's going to be wrong. But we're still going to imagine what it's going to look like if they got it right, if they were predicting the college football playoff final ranking, because it's just fun to put the teams in a bracket.

So we threw them in a bracket. Look at this. You got Penn State going to Tuscaloosa in round one. You have Michigan going to Austin to play Texas. Now, this is a weird one. This is interesting because this is something that could happen. Remember, Texas plays at Michigan in week two this year. In the AP poll, Texas is ranked sixth, Michigan's ranked 11th. The way it would shake out, well, I'm sorry, Texas is ranked fourth,

Michigan is ranked ninth. They would wind up being the number six and the number 11 seeds in the playoff because of the way the playoff rules work. And so they'd end up playing each other, but in Austin this time, that'd be fun. You have a rematch of the Byron Hout, LeGarrette Blunt Bowl in the 12-5 game, Boise State going to Eugene. Now, the original LeGarrette Blount-Byron Hout game took place on the blue in Boise. It was Chip Kelly's first game as Oregon's head coach and Boise State won it. But a little fascinating piece of history there, if that's how it wound up shaking out. And that's the most interesting thing about all this is, what does this mean in terms of the playoff? What does it mean at the end of the season? And my friend Ralph Russo of the Associ who tries to contextualize it for us. And that's, you know, with the AP poll, it is sort of a living document that basically week to week documents the history

of college football. So here's what he came up with. Ralph went back to when the playoffs started, the 14 playoffs started in 2014, and looked at the preseason AP polls versus the final CFP ranking on each of those teams. And here's what he found. So on average, nine of the teams that would have made the CFP in a 12 team format, using the same rules that this season will use, nine teams that were ranked in the preseason top 25 would have made the playoff, which means three on average unranked teams in the preseason top 25 would have made the playoff, which means three on average unranked teams in the preseason poll would make the playoff. So that's where like we're scouring the also receiving votes section. Like who are these teams? Who's it going to be? Last year, only one would have. It was Missouri. But there were years where I believe 2022, five would have.

So keep an eye out for that. And it's a good reminder, especially after nine months of just talking over the same talking points again and again and again and again and again, that the season will surprise you. And the season is definitely going to surprise us. So according to Ralph's research, the preseason number one team would have made the CFP every season. Seven of those would have earned a buy, which is interesting because it also means that three of them wouldn't have. Number two in the preseason poll would have made the playoff eight times.

So two times they did not. Ralph broke this down in a very interesting way. He basically figured out, here's how, based on what we've seen for 10 years of data, if you want to try to make a more realistic projection of what it's going to look like at the end of this season, here's how you do it. Four of the top five teams. So you take four of the teams in the current AP top 25. Four of the top five.

So Georgia's one, Ohio State's two, Oregon's three, Texas is four, Alabama's five. You've got to throw one of those out and say, I think these four are going to make it. Which I think is kind of tough. Because I look at those and I'm like, I don't know which one of those gets thrown out. I have no clue. I think all of those are going to make it. You know, if you look at my post-spring top 25, I had all of them in. I had them all. I didn't have them all in that order, but that might be my top five if I recall correctly. If it's not, there's only one slight difference. So that's the part

that makes this tough. You've got to pick one of those, and we spent all offseason saying all five of those are definitely in. You've got to pick one of those to throw out. Two teams ranked between six and ten, so you can only take two of those five. Well, in the AP poll, that's Ole Miss, Notre Dame, Penn State, Michigan, and Florida State. Well, I go back to my post-spring top 25. The only one of those I don't have in the playoff is Penn State, and they were one spot out. I have no idea who to throw out here either. And it's a good challenge to our groupthink,

our collective groupthink. Collective groupthink is a little bit redundant, but I digress. But it's a good challenge to our groupthink in the offseason where we just assume these teams are the good teams and these teams are the ones that aren't going to make it. So you got to pick two teams that are ranked between 6 and 10. Two teams that are ranked between 11 and 20.

Now I go back to my post-spring top 25. I've got one of those teams in the playoff already in my version of it. I had Tennessee making it because I had them ranked in the top 10. I think I had them in number 10 in my post-spring top 25. But I don't know who the other one would be in this situation so now one team ranked between 21 and 25 which also very interesting now in this particular iteration with the playoff working this way, if you look at that, you probably say,

okay, here's where you can pick your Big 12 champ, or you could pick your Big 12 champ in the next one because the Big 12 feels so even that it could be one of the five ranked Big 12 teams in the preseason poll, or it could be an unranked Big 12 team. So we're going to do this exercise in a second, but there's one more category that Ralph gave us. You have to pick three unranked teams. Now, there are no group of five teams ranked in the AP Top 25 preseason poll. So that's one of them. One of them will be the group of five representative, whoever that is. The highest also receiving votes from the group of five in the AP poll right now is Boise State. So for them, they have Boise State in there. Let's try this.

Let's try this little exercise. We will start with four of the top five. So we're going to take one team out of the top five. So we're going to take one team out of the top five. I'm taking out Texas. I don't really have a reason for that. I like all five of these. I think all five of these teams are going to make the playoff. The exercise says you got to take one out.

So I'm going to take Texas out and say, if we had to come up with a reason, we'll say they, we, we, they lost more than we realized. They had to try, you know, replace a lot of skill position guys in the transfer portal. Maybe they had injury issues. Remember CJ Baxter's already out with a preseason injury. So let's, let's just take that. We'll take them out and we'll say Georgia, Ohio State, Oregon, and Alabama made it. And I guess we'll have to put them in that order. I've got Producer River trying to make a graphic on the fly here.

So River, let's say those teams are going to be in that order, but we'll just bump Alabama up to number four, which means that Oregon will be the number five seed. Alabama will be your number six seed in the playoffs. So we'll have Georgia and Ohio State getting buys as the SEC champ and Big Ten champ, number one and number two. So we still have to figure out an ACC champ and a Big 12 champ. Those two will be the three and the four seeds, depending on the order we decide they're in. Next, two teams between six and 10. Ole Miss, Notre Dame, Penn State, Michigan, Florida State. I actually feel like I can come up with some legitimate reasons why the three I can pull out of here didn't make it. But I'm going to tell you right now, I'm picking Florida state here. One, because I think Florida state is going to be really good.

And I do think Florida state is going to win the ACC, but I got to have an ACC champ in this thing somewhere. So that's one of the reasons why I'm picking Florida State. I'm also going to pick Ole Miss. And I'll tell you why on that one too. SEC media days, Nick Saban in his first major role as an ESPN commentator, one of the first things he said was he believes Ole Miss has bolstered itself

on the line of scrimmage enough this offseason to be competitive with the top teams in the SEC. And that was kind of my big question. Did they get to that level? I trust his opinion more than I trust most people's opinion on that. So I'm going to take Ole Miss. Notre Dame, we talked about, I think they would have to go 11-1 against this particular schedule to get an at-large. Maybe they don't. Maybe they lose to Texas A&M.

Maybe they lose to Florida State. If I've got Florida State in here, they don't have to have beaten Notre Dame to get in. They just need to win the ACC. But we can say they did. Penn State, we can say the offense didn't turn around as much as they think. Michigan, we can say, well, they just lost so much from that national title team and just came up short.

Willie T, he says, bolstered? What does that word mean? It means improved. It means improved, Willie. It means improved, Willie. It means improved, Coach Prime, who still has not answered the question about the offensive line. Loves his D-line, not answering questions about the O-line. All right, so we have now six playoff teams.

We've now filled half the bracket. River, that means we've got Ole Miss as the number six team and the number, they would be the number eight seed. No, they'd be the number seven seed. Sorry, they'd be, yeah, we'd have them just at five because we took one out of the top five. So we'll have Ole Miss as the number seven seed. We'll have Florida State as the number three seed because they're the ACC champ.

So we filled through seven, except we've got a hole at four, which will be the big 12 champ. And then we've got to figure out who else gets in. So one from 11 through 16. I can take the easy way out and say number 12 Utah is your Big 12 champ, but that might not actually be the easy way out because I still got to get three unranked teams in this list. So who's that going to be? I'm going to save my Big 12 champ spot for an unranked team. I'm going to save them. And who knows? Maybe I'll throw an at-large team in from one of these.

So I get two from 11 through 20. Let's see if I can pull this off. So 11 through 20 is Missouri, Utah, LSU, Clemson, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas State, Miami, and Texas A&M. Now, I would probably in real life pick my Big 12 champ from this list. Between Utah, Kansas State, Oklahoma State. They got Arizona down at 21. So I'd probably be picking my Big 12 champ from this list, but I've got to pick two from this group.

I'm going to pick Tennessee because I had them in my, in my post-spring top 25, actually making the playoff one more. So do I pick the big 12 champ or do I pick another at large? Do I pick Miami as an at-large here? Do I dare? Chicken 1515 says Boomer Sooner. Let's do that one. Because if Oklahoma goes 10-2 against their schedule, they're making the playoff.

Let's pick Oklahoma and Tennessee here, who, by the way, play each other. All right. So that would make Tennessee the eight seed, Oklahoma the nine seed in the playoff. I'm not even worried about where they're ranked in the playoff rankings anymore because I'm just going to get confused. River is texting me the running tab to make sure we got this right. So I'm picking Tennessee and Oklahoma as my teams from 11 through 20. Now I get one from 21 through 25. So that's Arizona, Kansas, USC, NC State, and Iowa.

If I'm doing it this way, then I'm to do nc state as an at-large coming out of the acc a second at-large but i don't think i'm going to do that i've said i think iowa could be a sneaky potential at-large team because of its schedule now again we don't know what their quarterback situation is going to be but that one lends itself to the kind of record you're going to need to get in the defense is still going to be really good. So I'm going to put Iowa in that next spot. So that makes Iowa the 10 seed. So I've got three more spots to fill. This is going to be very, very tricky.

I've got to pick a Big 12 champ. And I said I was going to use an unranked Big 12 team as your Big 12 champ. So I'm going to go with UC team as your Big 12 champ. So I'm going to go with UCF as the Big 12 champ. And then I've got to pick another, I've got to pick a group of five team. I don't know who in the world to pick for the group of five team. I am going to go with Appalachian State. Let's say Appalachian State wins the Sun Belt. Maybe they even beat Clemson.

Because remember, I didn't pick Clemson as one of my playoff teams. The AP has them ranked pretty high. Let's say they took a tumble. So I'm going to pick Appalachian State. So your 12 seed is going to be Appalachian State. Your four seed is going to be Appalachian State. Your four seed is going to be UCF. Now I've got to put

one more team into the playoff. Oh boy. Who's it going to be? Who's it going to be? Because I would love to have Penn State or Michigan, but that's against the rules of this exercise. So do I pick another Big Ten team?

Because right now, I've got three Big Ten teams in there. I've got Ohio State, Oregon, and I've got Iowa. So is there another Big Ten team that could make it? Or does the second Big 12 team make it? Does the second ACC team make it? The two ACC teams that I could see being at-large teams, Miami and NC State, they're in the preseason poll. I can't pick them based on this exercise.

You know what? Remember we had Ari Timpkin on the show, and he said, watch out for this team. I'm going to say, watch out for this team. I'm going to say, West Virginia makes it as an at-large, gets that final at-large spot. Because if I don't have Penn State making it, maybe West Virginia beat them week one.

Maybe that's the non-conference win that's anchoring that schedule. And maybe West Virginia and UCF played a classic Big 12 championship game, and they were both very good teams in the Big 12. Maybe they were one-loss teams going to the Big 12 championship game, and UCF won and West Virginia lost. I mean, can you even imagine? Can you even imagine? Super Producer River is now putting this graphic together

of what this thing would look like. I can't wait to see it because now I'm trying to go over my head. What the matchups are. Oh, we got it. We got it. Okay, here we go. Very interesting. Remember how the AP poll is correct.

We'll get the rematch at a different stadium of Michigan and Texas. Same thing here. So in this one, you have Oklahoma going to Neyland Stadium. Remember, Tennessee goes to Norman. In September. I believe that game is September 28th. Appalachian State going to Eugene to play Oregon. West Virginia, Alabama, and Tuscaloosa.

The bars in Tuscaloosa will be dry. Iowa at Ole Miss would be a heck of a lot of fun as well. Your potential Alabama or West Virginia, Florida State semi. Your potential Ole Miss or Iowa at Ohio State semi. Tennessee or Oklahoma playing against Georgia. And again, we talk about the five seed being advantageous. The five seed going to play UCF. Now, let's figure out where the quarterfinals would be.

Remember, the old bowl associations do matter still for the next two years. So Georgia has to go to the sugar bowl. Ohio state has to go to the Rose bowl. Florida state would be going to the orange bowl, but the orange bowl is a semi. So Florida state would be in the peach bowl. That UCF Oregon game would be in the Fiesta bowl. That would be very,

very interesting, but that's, that, very interesting. But that may look weird. So that 12 might look really weird, but based on history, we're going to get something like that. There's going to be surprises. And I'm glad because, again, this is a good reminder because we spend nine, ten months talking about all this stuff, about what it's going to look like.

And then the first week just blows it all up. So bring on the blowing it all up. Bring it on. I'm ready for it. I'm ready for the weirdness of whatever that playoff is. Cannot wait. Next up, we're going to talk about one of those teams that expects to make this playoff that we had in those brackets. Tim Watts from Bama Online joins us to talk Alabama

as Kalen DeBoer takes over. We welcome the great Tim Watts of Bama Online and lots of questions for Tim as Alabama goes through the first training camp under Kalen DeBoer because, Tim, 2007 was a long time ago. I guess 2006 would have been the last time a non-Nick Saban coach held a preseason camp, and that would have been the great Mike Shula. This is so different. Yeah, it takes a

minute to get used to it. I mean, you knew it would be different. I mean, you had a coach that had been doing it forever, completely old school guy, doing all those little things you expect a guy from that era to do, and then you come in with a coach that's 20 something years younger, 20 years younger, a younger mentality. You know, the kids are actually younger social media. They're smarter. They're making money. So, you know, it'd be different. And it is, it's completely different than what you saw with Nick Saban from the, you know, practice music. I mean,

that was one thing to the accessibility to people, you know, the coaches, we're not used to seeing assistant coaches. I mean, that was one thing to the accessibility to people, you know, the coaches, we're not used to seeing assistant coaches. I mean, we went a decade without hearing from anyone, but Kirby smart and the offensive coordinator, it's felt like, so now you've got everyone talking, you know, you get to see them all and you get to see their personalities and to be honest, I think it's a good thing. I think these guys sell their program. I think it's a recruiting tool. Jamarcus Shepard has been fantastic.

Moe Lindquist, all those guys getting to see their personality, sell their program. I think it's a recruiting tool. Jamarcus Shepard's been fantastic. Moe Lindquist, all those guys getting to see their personality, I think helps the Alabama fans know what they're dealing with. So I think my biggest question is with the offense and obviously this is a different situation than Kaelin DeBoer even had at Washington last year because he's got a different coordinator. Nick Sheridan's the coordinator now he was the tight ends coach at washington last year but different quarterback in jaylen milrow a different skill set than michael pennix obviously but you know coming into the year that jaylen milrow is the guy and i was thinking about this the other day, Tim, you know, last year, a quarter of the season went by before Alabama said Jalen Milrow's our guy. And I would say that it was even longer before Tommy Reese, who was the OC at the time, decided I'm going to call plays that suit Jalen Milrow's skill sets.

You're talking about like a third of the season going by before that happened. Is this going to look like a little bit more built for Jalen Milrow offense off the bat yeah I think so I think I think he's your quarterback one I haven't heard anything else about that I mean you know you bring up a great point it's like the Tyler Buckner start at South Florida didn't happen nobody talks about it I mean nobody discussed it I mean Jalen Milrow didn't even play in that game so to work from there to where he is now, I think this coaching staff has confidence in Milrow. A lot of the reports we get back are he is confident, he's relaxed,

he's learning. Hey, you watch the offense that these guys run. I mean, anybody that watches the breakdown of Kalen DeBoer and what they do, there's a lot of options, long, deep, short, you know, checkdowns, all that stuff to help him have a chance to be successful. And also he's got another year under his belt. I mean, Jalen Monroe is battle tested at this stage, having played in the biggest stages. I mean, he played George on a neutral field.

He played at Auburn. He played Michigan in the national championship game. So there's some confidence that goes from being in those games and getting that experience. Well, it's going to be interesting to see. And, you know, we talked to Joe Cook from Inside Texas the other day. We were talking about Isaiah Bond and Amari and I Black in their new spots. You know, who steps in as the guys that Jalen Milrow is going to be throwing to? You know, I like Jeremy Bernard. I don't think he got enough attention. I mean, he played behind three guys, won first, second, and third round picks at Washington.

You know, stood out in the spring game, obviously. He's the first guy I think you look at, along with some of the experienced guys like Kobe Prentice. And you absolutely have to talk about Ryan Williams, right? I mean, this is a guy that's still supposed to be playing high school football. They had a practice play escape the field the other day, one great one-handed catch. And we know everything that guy's built. You know, some guys are just built different, whether they're 16 or 26. Some of them are just built different.

I think Ryan's one of those. It's going to be hard to keep them off the field. And as good as I think the wide receiver core can be with Jalen, I also think a big benefit for Kalen DeBoer, Nick Sharon in Alabama that they didn't necessarily have at Washington is the running game. I mean, you got Jamarian Miller over here hearing great things about him. You got Justice Haynes.

You got Richard. You got a lot of guys talented in that backfield. And you have a superior interior offensive line. When you add Parker Brills, for coming back with Booker and, you know, and He-Man out there, you got all SEC-type out there you got the you got a all SEC type middle offensive uh line to work behind yeah and and then the Caden Proctor thing I I think the most interesting part of the Caden Proctor story and it got kind of overshadowed

by him going to Iowa and coming back was how much he improved last season over the course of the year. I mean, you look at that SEC championship game. He was awesome in that game. You look at the Arkansas game in the middle of the season, you're like, oh man, this guy's a freshman. But the Caden Proctor we're going to see this year, I'm guessing he's going to be very similar to that guy we saw in the SEC championship game. I think he'll get there eventually. I'm curious, You know, this guy hasn't played since last year, the season. So he missed spring. He didn't go through spring.

So he's still going through some growing pains, I would expect. Playing with a different body, he's lighter than he was before. But like you said, talent is talent. There's still three weeks to the season. He's getting those reps. And don't forget, he's getting reps against a really good defensive line. They're not like a bunch of big-name guys like you've seen at Georgia, but the minute Kane Womack got to Alabama and Kalen DeBoer,

one of the first groups they were talking about, perhaps the one they've talked about the most, is the defensive line. So the offensive linemen are getting tested. The left tackle, the right tackle, all of them are getting that work they need to get. Well, and that D-line is not something we've talked about a lot. We've talked about what's happened and what's changed in the secondary with Caleb Downs leaving, obviously Terry and Arnold and Kool-Aid McKinstry getting drafted.

But I thought when I was there in the spring that the D-line looked very deep, especially up the middle. Like we talked about Tim Keenan, Jaheim Otis, Tim Smith. Jaheim Otis wasn't even practicing at the time, but you knew he was coming back. They've got a bunch of guys who've played. It feels like that's a group that they can feel pretty confident in. There's a lot of experience.

There's a lot of growth. These guys are moving on up in their age. I mean, they've got, again, Overton's a guy we don't even really talk about that much yet, but heard he had a great spring game this weekend. So there's guys that have depth. You got guys with experience. You got talented guys like James Smith who's sitting back there waiting for his turn. So the one thing about that group I think that you have to like

is they're pushing each other because there's not a guaranteed lock. Like you said, when you get depth, that goes to that whole iron sharpens iron situation, and I think Alabama's got that now again it's not a bunch of guys they're mentioning in the top 10 picks in the draft but I think everybody's pretty excited about that group as a whole and I think they've got a chance to be a difference maker now let's talk about the secondary because it is going to look very different this is a case where they needed to go out and get a you know Keon Saab from Michigan uh you got Damani Jackson from USC and they lost some really good players but I also remember when I was visiting the spring seeing Kane Womack and

and he's talking about the freshman they brought in I wouldn't be shocked if we see some freshman corners playing too no I think that's that's going to be on the table I mean you lose three first round draft picks I think you project Caleb Downs there in the future. Terry and Arnold, unbelievable football player. Kool-Aid had been a staple for a couple of years. So you're using a lot of experience and talent, but you're bringing in a very talented group of guys. We hear a lot about Zavian Brown's not your normal freshman. He makes a lot of plays. Heard him matched up with Ryan Williams several times this year. You also bring in Zay Mincy, who might have the biggest upside of all the cornerbacks when all said and done.

He probably had a little bit longer learning curve than Zaybian did, but I think he's just as talented. So you bring those guys in because yeah, the safeties I think you feel okay with. I mean, you got Malachi came back, you got Keon Saad, he's a good football player. But out on the corners, you got right now, Damani Jackson. And, you know, the big thing for Damani for me is this is a money year for him. It's almost like that free agent year. I mean, this is a chance, you know, you know, didn't probably get as much out of his first two years as he wanted.

But now he's getting that chance. He's going to be that chance to be that boundary corner and, you know have an impact yeah and that's that's the thing they look like maybe they're not as uber talented back there as they were last year because we lose caleb downs that is a that is a big big loss but i'm not that worried about their defense i i just i don't see i don't see the issues there well you know know what makes a secondary go from good to great is a good pass rush. So if you're getting – you get those guys off the edge, they look a whole lot better, you know, if you get guys coming off that edge, collapsing that pocket in the middle, which is going to be the plan. I mean, we know that Kane Walman is going to be extremely aggressive,

that defense. He's got linebackers with a lot of experience. He's got edge guys, a ton of talent to try to put pressure on there. That'll certainly help a young secondary because, you know, you know, defending for three seconds is a heck of a lot better than trying to run with the guy for five seconds. Exactly. Exactly. All right. So I'm going to ask you the same thing I've asked all the other folks we've talked to. And because I think this is a fun thought starter preseason so I'm looking at Alabama schedule right now when you look at this schedule how what's the game where your Bama online subscribers are like this is definitely a win we got this that you look at it and go wait a second this is not a gimme here

yeah I mean for me I'm always kind of the eternal pessimist when it comes to things. One game I'm kind of looking at is the Missouri game. I'm glad. I think it's good that that game's at home because you sandwich in, you know, going to Tennessee, Missouri's at home, and then you go to LSU. There's a lot that can happen there. Missouri's going to have some talented guys that are a scrappy bunch. I don't think Missouri's being talked enough about overall. I still think Alabama's obviously in a good position to win that game, but it's a game I think you have to circle and watch. And also Oklahoma's one I personally watch. Now the fans, they seem to be worried the most about Wisconsin. Maybe that's the great unknown. I don't know as much about

Wisconsin as I do the other teams, but very interesting schedule because there's a lot of teams you don't really associate with the Bama schedule. You go down this, I do the other teams, but very interesting schedule because there's a lot of teams you don't really associate with the Bama schedule. You go down this, I mean, you, you know, South Florida's coming back. You know, there's another game that you didn't really think a whole lot about, but you got Oklahoma. You're not used to saying them. Georgia is a regular season game. So it's quite the schedule. I think it's a great schedule for Alabama,

especially from a recruiting standpoint where they're going to have a lot of big games at home to have visitors there yeah and this is a hard schedule like yeah you know it's because we talk about Florida and we talk about Oklahoma as getting the the kind of really rough schedules in the SEC Mississippi State did too but I don't think up the playoff contenders Alabama's is up thereorgia's got the three really hard games on the road but alabama like at oklahoma yeah missouri at home they're kind of i think they're lucky they got south carolina at home like you don't want to go to south carolina as alabama because that's that's one they circle it's their you know highlight of their season situation

i did this is a rough schedule yeah I think it's a two-loss schedule. You're still in the playoffs when all's said and done. I mean, I think if you skate through here, I mean, there's some good teams on there. Now, a lot of this will change. There'll be teams we think that are good that aren't very good, but I think the teams we're looking like, I don't know a whole lot about Oklahoma. I don't know what to expect with them. I know what Georgia is. I know what Tennessee is, LSU, those schools, but there's some uncertainty with this schedule. This could be the toughest schedule in the nations when all said and done, or it could look a little less depending on how teams like Oklahoma do. It's a big year for them. Wisconsin, teams like that, that could change how we perceive this overall.

I do feel like they get the kind of warm, it warms up nicely heading into Georgia because you got Western Kentucky, TJ Finley, old friend, TJ Finley, who played at LSU and Auburn and then Texas state. And then there's USF challenge, challenge them last year. And Byron Brown's one of the better quarterbacks in the group of five.

And then, yeah, a trip to Wisconsin where you don't really know what the Badgers are going to be in year two under Luke Fickle. Yeah. I think the one thing you don't know what a lot of the schedule is, but a lot of people don't know what this Alabama team is yet. I mean, this is a skill set, very good team, obviously went to the college football playoffs, they're competitive every year, and now you've got kind of a creator

calling the plays. It's going to be a little bit more aggressive, a lot more emotion, you know, again, an experienced Jalen Milrow, a very good middle of the offensive line. There's still questions on this team, but I think you're most excited if you're an Alabama's fan to see what Kalen DeBoer can do with this kind of talent. And you're most curious to see what happens on defense. I mean, there's a lot of people trying to figure out the swarm and how that's going

to work and the aggression, but I do think they're going to like it because, you know, the one thing that bothered me, I think, as great as Bama defenses were, the biggest complaint I always heard was them sitting back on third and 14, third and 13, and giving up big plays. That always bothered the fans the most. I don't think we're going to see that as much as we did in the past. Well, that always is a double-edged sword because it can swing back. Why are they blitzing on third and 14?

How come they just don't take it easy and keep it all in front of them? Yeah, that's the best play called after the play is over. That's when to tell us what we should have done. You know, should have did this. But you know what we all learned, Tim? This is a lesson I think every single person who watches college football learned last year. When you're defending fourth and goal from the 31, rush more than two. Yeah, that's still – I don't think I've ever seen that play.

Or the kick six where I understood how it happened. I don't understand how either happened. That's why I love sports, though. I don't know how it could have possibly never should have happened and it happened and in that scenario with those two teams is just a the bama auburn absurdity in some of these plays or is what makes it legendary so let me explain how i watched fourth and goal from the 31 last year tim so i covered michigan ohio state last year and i get done uh film what i need to film write my story so that because that was the a noon eastern game and obviously the iron bowl was a 230 central game and so i'm in the pf changs in ann arbor because the traffic is so bad

that you cannot get back to the interstate so i'm'm like, well, I've got to go find somewhere to sit so I can watch the end of the second window games. And they had the Apple Cup on the TV, the one TV in the P.F. Chang's because that's the only place you could get into. So I have the Iron Bowl on my iPad, and it's me and these two Michigan fans that are sitting next to me at the bar watching the Iron Bowl on my iPad. Nobody else in the room is seeing any of this. And we just jump out of our seats on the fourth and goal from the 31.

He caught that. And the rest of P.F. Chang's turns and stares at us. I had people texting me that I hadn't talked to in years they weren't even in my phone it was unbelievable it's like i threw it or caught it they were just like asking me questions i had no idea how to answer it i mean the the uh the way it happened and the to me it was the ease of it to me it was the him sitting back there watching the route getting open in the end zone shedding catching touchdown that was the i mean this wasn't some Hail Mary tip pass and a bunch of mistakes it was actually a fourth and 31 play but again your point's valid you don't want to leave a

quarterback sitting back there forever throwing darts which is what Jalen did one of the one of the best passes of his life unbelievable all. All right, let's talk about this season, this schedule. We talked about the sneaky one. I want to talk to you about something I talked to Jake Rowe about on yesterday's show, because we were talking about Georgia's schedule and the three monster road games where they go to Bama, they go to Texas, they go to Ole Miss. And he said, for the Georgia people, in the building and the fan base, it's still the Alabama game.

It's going to Tuscaloosa. It's Alabama is their boogeyman because as good as they've been. They still have not been able to beat Alabama consistently. That's you know, they beat him in that national championship game, but they lose to the lose to them in the SEC championship game last year. That's still the game for them. I'm curious from your perspective, is Alabama still the game for most of the teams on its schedule, or has Georgia or Texas taken that spot? I mean, Georgia and Texas get and deserve a lot of respect. I mean, top five programs, big name coaches, a lot of talent, everything they've got going on.

But I don't know of anybody. I judge this. I know there's teams that don't even play Alabama, celebrate Alabama's almost losses. So when Bama almost lost, they're all over social media, celebrating they almost lost. So I still think Alabama is the biggest game for most people. Now, I think it could depend.

I mean, for Oklahoma, it might be Texas or something along those lines. But I don't think you want to necessarily – I don't think you're just saying, hey, babe, they're playing Alabama this week. I don't think we'll go by any means. I mean, Georgia, again, Georgia gets and deserves all the respect they should. Texas is the same way. But when Alabama, again, no matter what happens in the Alabama game, everybody has an opinion.

And I mean, from the left coast to the right coast, northeast, south, they all have an opinion. You can see it on social media, on any of the on three message boards. It's people talking about how lucky Bama was or how Bama gets away with penalties. So Bama's still a big deal. I don't know if you know, if you heard, but Bama never gets called for holding.

They never, it's amazing. I mean, 10 of the year, Tennessee beat them. I was talking with friends of mine and they were, I was literally, they had 20, whatever, 1920 penalties. And they acted like, well, they didn't get the good penalty. So I've never, I've never under, I never understood. I mean, I do know Alabama fans would disagree. They all, they talk is all the penalties. So going back to Neyland for the first time since that game, I think that's going to be a fun one too.

And this, again, kind of underscores how difficult this schedule is because that Missouri game is right up against that Tennessee game. You know, you've got the Georgia game a few weeks before that. It's not going to be easy, but especially going back to Neyland, where that place was electric, and this should be a much better Tennessee team than the one that came to Tuscaloosa last year. Yeah, it should be. I don't know if they can be a better, more talented, a smarter offense. The team that beat Alabama literally found the two or three plays that worked

and just ran them into the ground. Offense was, you know, Bama couldn't stop them. I mean, Tennessee did all the right things, pressed all the right buttons, had the breaks they needed, followed their way in that game. Still one of the craziest games I've ever seen from the – all the way through the ending to the wild fumbles, the turnovers, the penalties and stuff. I think Tennessee's always going to be a tough place to play.

They're going to have Nico, an exciting quarterback. He's going to bring a different dimension than the other quarterbacks we've seen in the past. But there's an uncertainty there. How good is their defense going to be? We know what Josh Heupel's going to do on offense. We know how good Nico has the potential to be, and they've been waiting to see it. But that crowd, I don't think you can sleep on that crowd. I'd say that for several SEC games.

LSU, Alabama, Auburn, you know, that's all that's all those teams are great and tough to play on the road. The funniest part about this, the craziest part about this, we, we, you just brought up LSU for the first time. Like Alabama plays in Baton Rouge this year. You just brought up LSU for the, because that's, that's where they're at with Georgia coming, with them having to go to Tennessee, with Missouri being good again.

That Alabama-LSU game could be just as important as any of these other ones. Well, you put that in there. Yeah, a lot of these games, when I was looking through the SEC schedule, a lot of them have these two or three games in a row. Auburn has a tough three-game stretch on the road. Alabama, if you look at that, I mean, there's at Tennessee, very emotional game. Come back Missouri at home. Who is it? It's going to be a competitive football team. And then you go back to LSU. Now, you got a lot of young guys that might, Alabama's did very well in Baton Rouge, but you got a lot of young guys who will be excited. It might not mean as much.

I'll tell you the one thing, when you're going to Oklahoma, when you're going to Norman, Baton Rouge, and LSU, the one thing you really want is an experienced quarterback. And, again, that goes back to Jalen having a lot of experience. I mean, hey, playing Georgia in the SEC championship game in Atlanta, that's a road game. That's a loud crowd, heavily Georgia favor. Just did a great job there.

Was very poised in that game and, you know, big part of them finishing it off. So he's got that experience, but you definitely don't want to be flying in there with a freshman quarterback or a guy that hadn't been in that situation. So that's one benefit to Alabama. Plus again, the experienced offensive lineman in the middle. Look at that.

Tim is a pro bringing it full circle that's where we started Jalen Milrow taking snaps from Parker Brailsford yeah offense built around them look different than anything we've seen cannot wait Tim thank you so much hey man anything anything for you I appreciate you and uh love the shows. You do a great job, Andy. That is Tim Watts from Bama Online. By the way, if you'd like to subscribe to Bama Online, if you're a Bama fan, want to cruise the message boards, want to post, use the code ANDY1 for $1 for your first month as a new subscriber. It doesn't just have to be Bama Online.

It could be VolQuest if you're a Tennessee fan. It could be WarChant if you're a Florida State fan. Letterman Rowe if you love Ohio State. The Wolverine if you love Michigan. The Wolfpacker if you love NC State. Inside Texas for Texas. Sooner Scoop for Oklahoma. You name it, we got it.

Hear it on three. So come join the family. $1 for your first month. Use that code. Hear it on three. So come join the family. One dollar for your first month. Use that code Andy1 at checkout. Another guy you'd want to talk to is Sean Callahan, Husker Online. We are going to talk Nebraska with him, but I want to get into this mock playoff bracket we made using Ralph Russo's research. So Super Producer River and I have been going back and forth about

how did this happen? Because we had West Virginia as our last at-large. So what happened in the schedule that made that happen? And here's how we figured it out. We figured one of the reasons Penn State didn't make it is they lost to West Virginia in week one. That win for West Virginia would be the kind of thing that would really help you make your case. We had West Virginia beating UCF, which remember we have UCF as the Big 12 champ.

We have West Virginia beating UCF when they meet in Morgantown late in the season, and then UCF gets revenge in the Big 12 championship game. I think we had UCF losing to Florida, but then losing to Florida and West Virginia and then beating West Virginia for the Big 12 championship. West Virginia, meanwhile, would have the wins against Penn State and Big 12 champ UCF, which would look great, but they'd also have another loss on the

schedule. I would say at Stillwater, at Oklahoma State, October 5th, or possibly at Arizona in Tucson on October 26th. So you can plot the course. You can make a path for this. And like I said, this makes me more excited because this research goes back 10 years. Like we are going to see unranked teams make this playoff. It could be one. It could be three. It could be five. But we're going to be surprised. And that's the fun part.

One team that may have a say in that, or who knows? Maybe they're actually vying for a playoff berth late in the season, but I had Iowa in the at-larges here. I had Iowa getting one of the at-large spots. A way Iowa could not get an at-large spot is if they lost to Nebraska on Black Friday. Nebraska may have a say in this. Or, who knows?

Like I said, maybe Nebraska's competing for this. We shall see. I've said all offseason, baby steps, just get bowl eligible, we'll worry about the other stuff later, but they're pretty excited in Lincoln. Let's talk to Sean Callahan from Husker Online. How about Sean Callahan of Husker Online and Dylan Raiola Watch continues because everybody's very excited about the freshman QB at Nebraska. But Sean, I'm going to start on the more established side of the ball on defense. How has Nebraska's defense looked through the first few weeks of practice? Well, I think it's a pretty good unit.

You know, the one question was linebackers, they lost two veterans in Nick Henrich and Luke Reimer, and I feel like they've actually got a chance to be just as good or better with what they have in there. But their defensive line is strong. It's deep. They have all the veterans back, and then they have very good young talent, but Nash Hutmacher, Ty Robinson, Jamari Butler, you know,

are all veteran fifth, six year type players in this program. And then on the back end of the defense and the three, three, five, and that secondary they have a really good group of seven or eight defensive backs that can play those five positions. So I think it's a unit, you know, and it just depends on how some of these games go. But they can be easily a top 15 level national defense statistically, especially with Tony White back. And I think John Butler coming in from the Buffalo Bills, as tough as that timing was, lose Evan Cooper. He's been a great addition being the secondary coach

for the number one ranked defense in the nfl a year ago well and the butler edition is a really interesting one because obviously the cooper firing happened at a very inopportune time but butler's in a strange situation he left the bills because he got passed over for the dc job he wants to be a play calling defensive coordinator and basically drop down a level because I would assume the idea is if he does well here and Tony White gets a head coaching job, he's probably calling plays for Nebraska, and then he can prove himself as a play-caller. Yeah, there's no question.

I think that path was laid out. Anybody knows that? There's really not an internal candidate on Matt Rule's staff before John Butler got here that's a slam dunk to replace Tony White. Evan Cooper was always a name that you heard mentioned, possibly as he grew as a coach. But Tony White, when you look at it now, he was very close to becoming UCLA's head coach.

After watching Big Ten media days, I mean, I think he would have been just fine on that podium and would have given a little bit better of an opening address than Foster, but he was a candidate for the San Diego State head job. He was a candidate obviously for UCLA. Lincoln Riley knocked on his door to be his defensive coordinator

at USC, and if he puts together another good year in Lincoln, there's no doubt his name is going to fall again on some of these head coaching lists. So let's, let's transition to the offense because the defense feels like it is in very good hands. Reading through what you guys wrote off the scrimmage on Saturday, it seems like the O-line is definitely not as deep as they'd hoped it would be. What has been going on there? Well, they've had, I mean, they came into camp with seven linemen that have started Power Five or Power Four or Nebraska games. That's a good number. I mean,

yeah, hard press to find any programs that have more. You'll take it. And after that, they lost one of those guys, Teddy Prochaska. He got out for the year. So they're down to six. Then one of the lower guys of that group, Henry Lutoski, got hurt. He's out two or three weeks. They're down to five. Turner Corcoran, who missed last year for part of last season with an injury, he's back, but they're kind of limiting in his work. So they're playing with four of those best seven right now.

And then I would say there's a fairly big drop-off when you start to get to that next group because they're younger players that have not played Big Ten football, particularly at the tackle position. Gunnar Gatula and Grant Segrin, two redshirt freshmen, have been getting live reps with left tackle, and they're going against a veteran defensive line of players in practice. So I do think that is the concern. But if Turner Corcoran gets back, he's started over 30 games in his career

as a left tackle, they'll be fine. The right tackle, Bryce Benhart, has started over 40 games in his career. They brought in Micah Mazuka, a 30-some game starter, and he's going to be a guard. Ben Scott is a 30-40 game starter at center. They have a very good group. And then Justin Jenkins will be the other guard, and he played a 30-40 game starter at center. They have a very good group, and then Justin Jenkins will be the other guard, and he played a lot and

started some games last year. Then Loposki will be back. So as long as Corcoran can just give them a serviceable presence, I'm not saying they need this guy to be all world. They're going to be fine, but he's a big part of this discussion because I do think it's a significant drop-off

if Turner Corcoran is at all limited this year well and so we went over the show yesterday we were going over deon sanders press conference which is you know a lot of it was just weird but like if you read between the lines of that you could tell he loves the defensive line especially the edge rushers they have and so when i was reading through your practice reports i was like that could be a pretty interesting matchup because like bj green day on hayes samuel local lola very good group at colorado if they can pick on somebody inexperienced at nebraska but like you said if turner's back then that's probably not that big of a deal. But that's a matchup to watch because my read on that press conference was,

this is a guy who loves his D-line and does not seem particularly confident in his O-line. We just talked about Nebraska's D-line. That could be a game where both quarterbacks are running around quite a bit. Their tight ends are really good at nebraska so you know they can be creative and use those tight ends because they have three really good blocking tight ends and they have three running backs that have played a lot of football that are very good in pass protection so um i'm sure you can scheme it up um if there's an issue there and you know colorado is going to load up a left side or a right side and go after your tackle play, Nebraska is going to figure it out.

And Dylan Raiola, one thing he's good at doing, I've heard, is checking out a place, throwing it away. He's not going to force much. For a freshman, it's rare to have the maturity and the poise that he's already shown thus far in his career and practices. Well, and after the Jeff Sims experience to open the season last year, I'm sure Nebraska fans are just, they don't want to think about a quarterback throwing it willy nilly.

They need to know somebody is going to put it in the dirt if there's no, nobody open. Yeah. Just throwing it up to Tyler Nubbin, who was Minnesota's best player in the opener. I mean, you think about some of the games they lost, I mean, they had complete control. They forced PJ Fleck to throw it 35 times in the second half. That's the most by far he's ever done in his career because they could not run the ball. That's how well Nebraska's defense was

playing in Minneapolis against a very run first offense that P.J. Fleck operates with. But they still figured out a way to blow it with interceptions and a late fumble by Anthony Grant. And that the season kind of turned. I mean, even at Colorado, they had control of that game in the midway port of the second quarter. And then the turnovers came like. And the wheels just fell off at the end of the second quarter. And it looked like a completely different game after that.

Yeah, the defense was playing physical. They sacked Shador Sanders eight or nine times. I mean, they had the right recipe going in there, making Colorado play a Big Ten style of a football game. But when you turn it over two or three times quickly, like Nebraska did, you know, Shador Sanders and Travis Hunter and those guys, they were just too good. You can't give them that many free opportunities. So who gets the bulk of the carries for Nebraska this year it's going to be a mix I mean I think Emmett Johnson and Ramir Johnson

it could be like 55 45 with Gabe Irvin Jr. could still come in there as a pounder they need Gabe Irvin Jr. to prove he's healthy and durable he's had multiple injuries he is a true kind of bell cow 230 pound 225-pound type back. Ramir Johnson's a six-year senior that's played a lot of football. And then Emma Johnson kind of assumed the job last year, and both those guys got hurt. So I think it's going to be a combination of those three where there might be 40-some carries on a good game

where those guys will split those carries. Well, and that's my question because you mentioned that Dylan Raiola seems to be pretty judicious with the ball how much will the play calling affect that even more do you think they're going to try to run it as much as they can get him comfortable get in a situation where he's throwing you know into a situation where there's a heavier box and and more one-on-one matchups or do they are there going to be times where they have to just kind of let him let it rip a little bit everything I mean they'll still run RPO I think but he'll just get rid of the ball and throw it or or do the handoff but I don't think you'll see him just take off and run it a ton because they don't want him doing

that I mean he can do it but it's just not smart when you look at him and what he's able to do as a thrower. His ability to see the field, though, and throw over the top of coverage. I mean, I've heard stories from the defensive coaches are like they're in the exact right call and he's been able to throw the ball still over the top and make a perfect throw. So he's got arm talent we've probably not seen at Nebraska in a long, long time. It's a matter of can they protect him. And, you know, I think the schedule helps, too. UTEP being in the over.

Colorado, we know it's going to be electric. But Northern Iowa, they've got a really good runway to kind of build this thing up with Colorado coming into maybe one of the toughest atmospheres. Memorial Stadium is going to present in a long time. So the limited sample size we saw of Dylan Rayl in the spring game, the thing that I was intrigued by most, I think, are the different arm slots that he seems very natural throwing from. And I realize that that's something that young quarterbacks are just doing more and more now, but it seemed pretty natural for him and how did how did he develop

that because like we know with patrick mahomes that's the the guy who everybody's trying to emulate he learned it playing baseball and that's where it came from but for dylan raiola was it just trying to develop these because he's watching pro quarterbacks do it yeah it's a little well just like mahomes dylan raiola was an elite baseball player okay all right he could have been a division one baseball player he was a catcher um and when he first came to nebraska as a recruit um as a freshman he was still playing high level prospect baseball and and that was like the sport that he grew up playing and then he evolved into a quarterback like he like he is now. But that was down in Texas.

But he trains, interestingly enough, with both of Mahomes' trainers. Bobby Strope in Kansas City, he's gone down there and worked with him a number of times. And then Jeff Christensen, the quarterback guru in Fort Worth, Texas, he's gone down there and he does a couple, two, three workouts a year down there with Jeff Christensen. He actually flew Nebraska's receivers down to Fort Worth to work out with him and Jeff Christensen for that deal and that's the world of nil now where you're starting quarterbacks making that kind of money that they can flip the bill for not just dinner anymore they

can do trips or whatever it takes to build it hey. Hey, Minnesota's quarterback did it. We talked to him. He's the transfer from New Hampshire, and he's like, yeah, I brought all my receivers down, and they hung out with my parents at the lake in Georgia. I was like, oh, I guess we can just do that now. Yeah, it's a different world when you hear, I mean, just the cars, the clothes. I mean, these guys have a way different college experience than obviously even five or eight years ago, I mean, let even five or eight years ago i mean let alone 20 30 years ago well it's funny you mentioned the dylan rattle a catcher thing

uh i'm sure there are some some eagle-eared viewers listeners who are like i know of a quarterback who is a catcher that'd be tom brady very famously a catcher in high school matthew stafford oh that's right yeah i i hadn't heard i did that was there a famous pitcher who That'd be Tom Brady. Very famously a catcher in high school. Matthew Stafford. Oh, that's right. Yeah, I hadn't heard. Was there a famous pitcher who played with him? Well, and guess who was Matthew Stafford's center in Detroit? Dominic Raiola.

There you go. This is such a small sporting world. But it is, I mean, this is a ton of hype for a freshman. And we're not even talking about like is he going to start or anything like that it just feels like it's it's sort of decided right yeah rule has not said it but it's very obvious to anybody that's around the program the way he carries himself look Heiner Carberg was last year's starter he took over and he won all five of Nebraska's games for them.

And that's a good backup, a guy to have in there. He's athletic enough to do other things too. If they wanted Heinrich Harburg to be a wildcat or take on some other roles, he has that ability to do those things too. So they've got a good situation in that quarterback room, and it's very hard to have that in the transfer portal era of college football to have two or three quarterbacks on your roster that you feel good about right now. So, Sean, I'm going to ask you the same question I've asked some of the folks that we've talked to from the other team sites and probably a little bit different answers from Ohio State and Georgia and Alabama. I think you have a little more to choose from here. But of the games on Nebraska's schedule, what's the one that most of your Huster Online subscribers would say

this is a gimme-win, sure thing that you're looking at and going, hmm, I'm not so sure? And let's take out the UTEP and Northern Colorado game. That's just too easy to go with those. Right, we're not doing that. I'll say Rutgers. It's a home game. It's homecoming easy to go with those. Right, we're not doing that. I'll say Rutgers. It's a home game. It's homecoming.

Nebraska has never lost to Rutgers since they've joined the Big Ten. That's the only Big Ten team they still have an undefeated record against in the 14 years now that they've been in the conference. But Rutgers with Greg Sciano, they have a great schedule. They have the leading rusher in the Big Ten returning. They will be physical. They will get after Dylan Raiola. They have the chance to try to make that an ugly game and win in Lincoln.

I think that's a game of Nebraska's first seven games, Andy. Rutgers is the only opponent Nebraska plays in the first seven that was in a bowl game a year ago. Think about that. Yep. Well, and one thing to watch because you'll get a good taste of rutgers they go to lane stadium play virginia tech on september 21st britain's gonna be pretty good team like if rutgers can go in there and beat

virginia tech that's where worry worry about that game especially but i i think that's a matchup of two very experienced defenses, and it'll be a good test for Nebraska's offense. Yeah, and look at Rutgers' overall Big Ten schedule. They don't play Michigan. They don't play Ohio State. They don't play Oregon. They don't play Penn State, and they don't play Iowa.

They are the only team in the conference that does not play any of the top five preseason teams. So there's some tiebreakers out there where Rutgers could put themselves in the discussion because they don't play anybody. And we actually don't, as far as I know, Andy, we don't know the tiebreakers yet, other than head-to-head for the Big Ten Conference and are the SEC. And I believe the two leagues are working together to kind of develop a uniform tiebreaker system because that will be a very big deal to win your conference now going forward very much so

and if the playoff happens to expand to 14 like it's been suggested it will in a couple of years those tiebreakers may have the effect on who gets the buys or who has a chance to get the buys in the playoff the only buys in the playoff so yeah i i would expect them to to work together but you're right they have not told us that the one thing that that we've been told is uh mark womack from the sec has said that it would not be college football playoff ranking related because that doesn't come out till tuesday and the league needs to know Sunday which teams are playing its championship game which is interesting because like there's a scenario where Rutgers could easily go 10 and 2 and they could be in a position where they're tied with some other teams I mean

Iowa too I think Iowa has a schedule that could that's that's the one Sean I'm I'm curious about because I think that the-Nebraska game at the end of the year for Iowa, because they do get Ohio State, but they don't get any of those other teams you talked about. For Iowa, that could mean a playoff berth. It could mean a potential Big Ten championship game. We'll see how the offense looks. We don't even know who's going to play quarterback at this point.

Other than Ohio State, you tell me a game on there where Iowa's an underdog. They're favoring all of them, except maybe Nebraska at the end of the season, depending on how Nebraska plays. And that game in Iowa City is going to be a night game on NBC. So it should really be some appointment viewing for a lot of fans to watch that game on Black Friday on NBC at night. It's got a chance to be a really great stage. It's usually been an 11 a.m.

Kind of a Thanksgiving hangover. The big 10 networks kind of signature game. The last. Few years like that. They would, it would be on BTN on black Friday in the afternoon. And that would be the big one for BTN for the entire year. And now we get Wisconsin and Minnesota on Black Friday

as well as Iowa and Nebraska. So it's a pretty good slate. They're going to have two Black Friday Big Ten games every year, which I think will help the viewership of the Big Ten games that weekend because Minnesota-Wisconsin buried on the Saturday with Ohio State Michigan it was always kind of tough to get that in the schedule well and that's been a fun one the last couple of years like when Minnesota a few years ago finally broke that streak against Wisconsin it it got buried by other games that are going on in that giant rivalry Saturday so

that that is a really good spot to put that game in uh but yeah the and and I'm glad that – I think, was it Sean Eichhorst who was going to try to move that game off of Black Friday? I'm glad that Nebraska fans rose up and made sure that didn't happen. I mean, that was a – he pretty – that was one of the things that pushed him out the door, that decision to do that. And if not for COVID in 2020, when – because they were supposed to play Minnesota on Black Friday in 2020. That had been arranged.

But then because of the schedule changes that happened in 2020, they were able to kind of alter it to allow Nebraska and Iowa to play Black Friday in an empty stadium in Iowa City that I was at for that game. So, yeah, it's a big deal. I mean, Nebraska and Iowa, this will be the 14th year in a row they've played on Black Friday. And Nebraska has a history of playing on Black Friday and Thanksgiving that goes all the way back to Oklahoma. Yeah, I can't wait for any of

this. I just the the newness of it all and seeing these different matchups. The idea that Nebraska plays USC in a conference game this year in the Coliseum in November is wild to me. I personally love the time of year they drew this game because usually you're playing in Madison on that day for Nebraska. So what does that mean? Maybe Dylan Raiola can actually run his full arsenal of passing plays for four quarters versus we've seen games that time of year in this conference where half the game the wind is so bad you can't throw.

Yep. Well, and Nebraska does not have to go to the new makeshift stadium at Northwestern, which speaking of the wind, that one, like God bless any quarterback who has to play a game in that stadium. It is like Lake Michigan is 25 yards away. They're going to like let kids fish during the game or something. It's going to be awesome. Like Wisconsin Northwestern is at that stadium.

I would love to see Nebraska play there just to see how their fans would take over this thing. Oh my God. It would be incredible. Cause I think it would be like 15,000 seats, 20,000 seats. Yeah. It's a,

and it's at least two seasons are going to be playing in this thing. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then like if it, if Nebraska were coming, they put it at Wrigley

because they like the Illinois game the Ohio State game or Wrigley Field this year but yeah that well here's a here's a hypothetical for you and and you know we've heard Lincoln Riley give a bunch of excuses this preseason that sounds to me like managing expectations like if that doesn't go very well how many like what will the percentage of fans be in the coliseum in that game like what percentage nebraska fans will the coliseum be oh i mean if the last time nebraska played there which was bill callahan in 2006 there was 25 000 plus nebraska fans and usc was awesome then that was that was pete carroll you know a young dominican sioux playing for nebraska and marlon lucky and that that was one of my favorite

games i've ever been to just the amount of people that traveled but anytime nebraska's played in one of these new pack 12 teams that have come in they generally take 20 to 25 000 fans on those trips because there are so many husker fans that are on the west coast and this is their one game they would generally go to well i that i'm fascinated to see where that because that could be if usc's defense is better then you could have a usc that is competing for a college football playoff berth that is is riding high where the atmosphere for that game will be off the charts or if it goes badly it could be all Nebraska fans and that will be just as weird yeah I I'm interested in their quarterback situation because I do think the kid they brought from UNLV is a good quarterback, and it would not surprise me if he ended up at some point

taking that job over there. Well, I think that's why he came, because, yeah, Maiava was very good for UNLV last year, and Miller Moss looked awesome in the bowl game. He looked in command, looked like he had the respect of his teammates, all that stuff, but that's one game, and we don't know where Louisville was at in that game. So we kind of

need to see it they're playing lsu they'll play michigan early so we'll have a pretty good idea early where usc is on all this but but yeah that that is interesting because myaba remember was committed to georgia for a minute and then flipped over to usc even though that job didn't seem open so that tells you maybe there's a possibility and i i there's some coaches i know in the mountain west they said maiva was the best player in their league in terms of like upside and long term so it's no mistake that usc and georgia were the two teams and i think miami um kicked the tires on him as well and i mean he um played their bowl game though which was kind of a surprise because it looked like he was going to leave before their bowl and played the bowl, then went in the portal.

Yeah, I am very interested to see how some of these QB situations shake out because they seem clear now, but after a couple games, they might get muddy. Meanwhile, Nebraska, do you expect Rule to name Raiola the starter, or do you expect it to just be he comes out in the UTEP game? So I think they'll name – they'll put a depth chart out as my guess, but they'll have one more week of training camp this week, and it wouldn't surprise me after this week if they kind of define things a little bit clearer.

You know, you don't have to worry now about players transferring in August. I can remember when Scott Frost really batt battled do i name tristan do i name martinez the starter over tristan jebbia what do i do it well he did it at the absolute latest you could the the sunday or whatever before the game against akron well jebbia was in the portal the next day and there was't enough time for him to get to Oregon State and leave. You can't do that anymore, so that is one advantage that coaches have, because you used to have to kind of worry about, there was time for guys to go in the portal and land somewhere and preserve their eligibility, especially if a school was in

the quarter system. Tristan Jebbia, by the way, whose college career ended last year at Ohio State. He's older than us. I mean, that guy, I mean, he literally was at Nebraska back in the Mike Riley era. He's got to be a doctor by now. That's all I know. It's incredible. Sean Callahan, thank you so much.

Hey, thank you so much hey thank you Andy Rocky Top Tom in the chat of Nebraska's other QB is still the guy who turned it over four times per game last year I'm betting on Ryola to be the starter ha Jeff Simmons is at Arizona State sir uh believe he'll be with will be the backup to Sam Levavitt at Arizona State. So yeah, I think Raiola feel pretty safe in that one. That was the great Sean Callahan. Again, if you'd like to subscribe to Husker Online or any

of our other great team sites, use the code ANDY1 at checkout for a dollar off, sorry, a dollar for your first month. A dollar off your first month, maybe not the greatest deal in the world. A dollar for your first month is a hell of a deal. So use that code. Anyone to check out to sign up for on three, one dollar for your first month. All right. Here's the plan. Tomorrow, Wednesday, quarterback draft, quarterback fantasy draft, me against Jesse Simonson. We did this exercise last year.

I got lucky, got Jaden Daniels, got Jaden Daniels in round five, got Dylan Gabriel in round nine as we take 10 quarterbacks, and I wound up wiping the floor with Jesse. What's going to happen this year? We shall see, but it's our fantasy quarterback draft and no obvious number one pick in this one it's going to be tricky also thursday dear andy so we'll have the dear andy column for those of you trying to goof off at work but can't make a sound and then we'll have of course the dear andy show for those of you who are goofing off for work and have headphones. We need your questions, though.

We love when you drive the show. So, Andy underscore Staples on Twitter. Andy underscore Staples on Instagram. Andy Staples on three at gmail.com for your epic questions that are too long for social media. Or if you want to send a video question, we do love those. So send those questions in. Thursday is your Dear Andy show. Tomorrow, QB Fantasy Draft.

We'll talk to you tomorrow.