Andy & Ari On3 - WOOO! Ric Flair & Jim Harbaugh Meet, Michigan Story Gets Wilder | Week 11 Picks Against the Spread

Episode Date: November 7, 2023

It's our Week 11 Picks Show, but before we get to the picks, we must provide an update on the never-ending Michigan Sign Stealing Scandal  (0:00-10:04) Intro - Michigan Sign Stealing Update(10:05-16:54) Hypothetical 12 Team Playoffs - Week 11(16:55-19:33) Intro Max Olson - Week 11 Picks(19:34-25:26) Texas-TCU(25:27-30:01) Alabama-Kentucky(30:02-35:54) Miami-Florida State(35:55-41:45) USC-Oregon(41:46-48:56)Ole Miss-Georgia(48:57-52:52) Florida-LSU(52:53-57:20) Arizona-Colorado(57:21-1:00:44) Utah-Washington(1:00:45-1:06:30) Rutgers-Iowa(1:06:31-1:09:55) Tennessee-Missouri(1:09:56-1:17:06) Michigan-Penn State(1:17:07-1:18:10) Conclusion, Wrapping UpToday’s picks are sponsored by Fanduel! Visit Fanduel.com/Staples and use the promo code Staples. Right now, new customers get $150 in Bonus Bets with any winning $5 moneyline bet! Thank you to FanDuel* for delivering the lines for this week's slate of games!Thank you to Gametime for also sponsoring today's show! Week 10 is days away, don't miss your chance to watch your favorite team. Download the Gametime App and enter code: STAPLES for $20 off your first purchase, terms apply. Last Minute Tickets, Lowest Prices, Guaranteed.Want to watch the show instead? Head on over to YouTube and don't forget to subscribe!https://youtu.be/taGjlG8UJ0oMichigan coach Jim Harbaugh received a visit from legendary pro wrestler Ric Flair on a day when the case involving accusations of signal-stealing took a few turns that would be right at home in a WWE show.The Athletic reported that the Big Ten has informed Michigan that it is considering handing down punishment based on what the NCAA has found in its investigation of the signal-stealing accusations. Michigan has until Wednesday to respond to the league. Meanwhile, The Associated Press reported that a former staffer from another Big Ten school has come forward to say he was assigned to steal MICHIGAN’S signals in 2022. How will all this affect Michigan as it prepares to face Penn State on Saturday? We have no idea.Next, Max Olson of The Athletic joins us to pick games against the spread. And of course we’re picking the Iowa total (plus a bonus total). Must be 21+ and present in select states. FanDuel is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas StarCasino, LLC. First online real money wager only. $5 pregame moneyline wager required. First online real money wager only. $10 firstdeposit required. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable bonus bets that expire 7 days after receipt. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com.Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania,Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 in Arizona, 1-888-789-7777 or visitccpg.org/chat in Connecticut, 1-800-9-WITH-IT in Indiana, 1-800-522-4700 or visit ksgamblinghelp.com in Kansas, 1-877-770-STOP inLouisiana, visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland, visit 1800gambler.net in West Virginia, or call 1-800-522-4700 in Wyoming. Hope ishere. Visit GamblingHelpLineMA.org or call [phone] for 24/7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8HOPE-NY or textHOPENY in New York

Welcome to Andy Staples on three. It is Monday night. That means it is a picks show. We pick the games you decide to follow or fade. It's a historic pick show because we have our first Iowa total that opened under 30. The Rutgers-Iowa total opened at 28 and a half. Epic. Epic. Plus, we got a bonus total. We got a team that's gone over every single week. We'll see if they can keep it up because their quarterback may or may not play. We'll tell you who that is when we get to the picks with our special guest picker, Max Olson of The Athletic.

But of course, it wouldn't be a Monday without an update into the Michigan situation. And it got some star power this week. A story that already sounded like it came from a professional wrestling writer's room, of course, added a professional wrestler on Monday. That's right, the Nature Boy, a story that already sounded like it came from a professional wrestling writer's room, of course, added a professional wrestler on Monday. That's right. The Nature Boy Ric Flair joining Jim Harbaugh in Ann Arbor paying a visit. Woo! Big game atmosphere in Shembeck

Hall. A ton of enthusiasm and excitement and my energy level was already sky high, but then I got a visit from the nature boy, Rick Flair, very close friend, and that just brought the enthusiasm to a new level. The enthusiasm, not for the story we've been talking about, Evolving Michigan, the enthusiasm, of course, because they are playing Penn State this weekend. This is the biggest challenge of Michigan's season so far. But all the other stuff still going on, the signal-stealing allegations, the Big Ten, the NCAA. There's so much going on right now with Michigan.

We'll sort through this. You've got the visit from Ric F flair which obviously had little to do with this uh jim harbaugh met rick flair when he was a chicago bear rick flair was was performing and brad muster the bears fullback said hey my buddy rick flair is going to be here you want to come jim and that is how he met rick flair now the nature boy, probably not going to help Jim Harbaugh with all this other stuff. This other stuff just gets more and more complicated. On Monday, we learn the NCAA now talking to Central Michigan about whoever that was on the Central Michigan sidelines against Michigan State, as Jim McElwain, the Central Michigan coach, put it, the sign-stealer guy.

It was supposed, allegedly, Connor Stallions. We'll find out. Still don't know. ESPN did enlist a facial recognition expert from Michigan State, that we'll point that out for the Michigan fans, who said with high confidence that that was Connor Stallions. But we will find out more. They'll get to the bottom of it probably in like a year.

Meanwhile, Pete Thamel from ESPN reporting that it would be up to 48 hours before the Big Ten renders any sort of decision regarding Jim Harbaugh. This is the situation to monitor most closely because we don't know what's going to happen, but we know that Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti is caught between two very conflicting agendas here.

You've got the other Big Ten schools, coaches and athletic directors who would like to see Michigan punished in some way. And I think probably the way they would like to see them punished is through Jim Harbaugh, a suspension for Jim Harbaugh specifically. Michigan, meanwhile, would like the normal due process that a school accused of wrongdoing is afforded in these situations. And so if Tony Petitti is going to take action, Michigan would like a chance to respond to any sort of action that could be taken and at least state its case.

So we'll see what happens there. But remember, the Big Ten bylaws allow the commissioner to suspend someone for up to two games. If they'd like to go beyond that, there's a joint executive committee that has to meet and decide that they will approve a longer suspension. So if Tony Petitti wants to act alone or just feels like he has to do something, the most he can do is a two-game suspension unless he wants to call in that

committee and feels like he would get the support of that committee, which has representatives from the Big Ten schools on it. This isn't going to go away this week or anytime soon. Remember, there's still an NCAA investigation going on. You saw the letter from Michigan president Santa Ono to Petitti last Friday that said, hey, we'd like some clarity on this. Could you tell us what's the investigation? What's the scope of this? We'll see how much of that Michigan has learned. Somebody's got to say something on the record soon. Michigan probably isn't going to be that entity, and neither is Jim Harbaugh. In fact, he got asked about it on Monday and didn't say much. Jim, there was a report in The Athletic that they surveyed 50 coaches,

and 94% of them thought you crossed the line with the signed scouting allegations. And then obviously there's also reports of the Big Ten coaches lobbying Tony Petitti for some kind of punishment. How does that make you feel? And do you care about respect within the coaching industry? Yeah. Again, I appreciate your question on that. Respect it and know that you have to ask that.

I've stated my position clearly and just not in a position to discuss it now. Remember, in NCAA investigations, the accused banned from speaking about the investigation while the investigation is going on by the NCAA. The Big Ten could do something on the record, could say something on the record, and that's really what everybody's waiting for. Remember the last thing we've heard on the record from the Big Ten was the day this story broke, acknowledging that there was an investigation and acknowledging that the other

schools on Michigan's schedule had been notified. That's about three weeks right now. And into that vacuum has poured a lot of leaks, a lot of suppositions, and a lot of speculation. Because nature abhors of action. The nature boy does not. The nature boy fills the vacuum. And thank you for that, for giving us a fun way to talk about the Michigan case, which just goes on and on and on and on. So now we wait and we find out when Michigan goes to State College on Saturday, if Jim Harbaugh is a styling, profiling, limousine riding, jet flying, kiss, stealing, wheeling and dealing son of a gun.

Woo! In a twist that I'm sure Ric Flair and every pro wrestling creative type would appreciate, there's more. There's somebody. There's, there's a, there's somebody running out of the tunnel. Larry lays of the associated press report on Monday afternoon that a former staffer at another big 10 school told the associated press that that person

was assigned by other schools to compile a list of Michigan signals. His job was to steal signs from Michigan and hand it over a spreadsheet that showed different Michigan signals and what they meant last year in 2022. Also on Monday, the Athletic, Nicole Auerbach and Austin Meek reported that the Big Ten on Saturday gave Michigan notice that it was intending to potentially levy punishment, that the NCAA had shared its findings with the Big Ten, and that they might be punishing Michigan in some way. Now, Adam Rittenberg from ESPN reported that Michigan has until Wednesday to respond to that. This new information, I don't know if that changes anything.

A person saying that they were supposed to steal Michigan signals. I don't know that it changes anything for Michigan in this case, but it does muddy the waters a bit. Do we know what's going to happen? Absolutely not. This is, again, a story that continues to evolve by the day. And yeah, get crazier by the day. So Ric Flair shows up. Somebody says they were assigned to steal Michigan signals. And the Big Ten says, hey, we may punish Michigan. What's going to happen? Don't know, but we do know the biggest game of

the Wolverine season so far is on Saturday at Penn State. Going to be a wild few days between now and then. Before we get to the picks, though, tomorrow night, you got the second college football playoff committee rankings. I think they'll look like my resume rankings.

I don't know how that's going to look at the end of the season. And I'm going to give you a little guess as to what I think they're going to look like. But in the form of the hypothetical 12-team playoff, we've been doing this every Monday night, we're retraining our brains so that we think in terms of a 12-team playoff so that we're ready when it comes next year.

So that we are prepared and we're not caught like, wait, what is that? Does that matter? Does this matter? Yes. Here's what matters. Number 11 and number 12 matter quite a bit. That's your cut line now. That's where your four and five is. Unless, unless you've got a highest ranked group of five champs is ranked above number 11, then number 12 does matter. But right now who's number 11 is in and who's number 12 is probably out based on who the highest ranked group of five champ is. But this has been a lot of fun because it tells you how cool the matchups could be. Bittersweet also, because it would be great this year. I'm looking down this list and I looked at

our friend Parker Flemings, how bad did we really get beat graphic on Monday and saw that Missouri actually had a better net success rate than Georgia in Georgia's win against Missouri. And I'm thinking, huh, that probably means Georgia is not as dominant as we are thinking, which means when they play potentially some of these other good teams, they could possibly be upset. So if you had an 8-9 game that fed into a game against a number one Georgia, I don't know that Georgia is a lock to win that game. And I think a lot of years that number one team would be a lock in that situation.

This year, I don't know if there's anybody you could put at number one that would be a lock in that situation. This year, I don't know if there's anybody you could put at number one that would be a lock in that situation. We'll find out. If Michigan just steamrolls Penn State and then Ohio State in a couple weeks, then yeah, maybe they would be that lock, but we just don't know right now. So let's go down the list. I've got Georgia number one. I do think if Georgia keeps winning these next few games

and then beats Alabama in the SEC championship, that they would be the number one seed. So I got Georgia number one as the SEC champ. I have Michigan number two as the Big Ten champ. This is an assumption that they go undefeated, that they beat Penn State, they beat Ohio State. Florida State number three is the ACC champ. Oregon number four as the Pac-12 champ.

I do realize they got to keep winning and then they would have to beat Washington again. But the way they're playing, it feels like that is certainly possible. Number five, Ohio State. Got them as an at-large. In this situation, this is a situation where they might make the four-teoff as currently constituted as the four seed in this one. They can't because you can't be in the top four seats unless you're a conference champ. So they'd be an at-large. I got Texas winning the big 12 at number six,

Washington as an at-large at seven, Alabama as an at-large at eight. Remember they'd be coming off a loss to Georgia in the sec championship game. In this scenario. Louisville, as an at-large at number nine, they would be coming off a loss to Florida State in the ACC championship game. Ole Miss at 10, Penn State at 11, Tulane at 12. We've had Air Force in this spot. Remember, Air Force lost to Army. Tulane survived East Carolina.

And last week, the committee had Tulane as their highest ranked group of five teams. So Tulane is in the spot for the time being. We will see if that continues. I think James Madison should get consideration for this spot, but unfortunately, the NCAA not relenting at this point on that transition period to FBS, it's not fair. The Dukes deserve a shot, but I digress. So what would this mean in terms of matchups in a 12-team playoff? Well, the Green Wave would get sent to Columbus to play the Buckeyes, and that's probably the biggest spread of any of these games.

Everything else is going to be pretty tight. The winner of that game would play Oregon in the Fiesta Bowl. Then you'd have number 11 Penn State at number six, Texas. That sound you hear is TV executives cheering for something like this. The winner would play Florida State in the Cotton Bowl. Number 10 Ole Miss at number seven, Washington. I think that would be a really fun game. A lot of very high scoring.

The total on that game would be through the roof. The winner would play Michigan in the Orange Bowl. And then number nine, Louisville at number eight, Alabama. Winner playing Georgia. Now you might get another Alabama-Georgia matchup that you had in the SEC championship game, but we've seen that in 2021. They played in the SEC championship game, played again in the national championship game. So it's going to happen. You're going to have situations like that, but it would be pretty fun. And it's interesting to see where these games are going to matter down there. Look, because you could have a weird upset down the stretch. You look at Louisville's schedule. I don't know. Ole Miss, I've got it. Number 10. If Ole Miss loses to Georgia badly

this weekend, they might drop out of this thing and then somebody else pops up. But the question is who? And then the question is, are you, are you considering three loss teams? Are you considering only two loss teams? You know, where, where does that cut line fall? And it's going to be different every year, but we're going to get our brains retrained for this because it's going to be fun. We're going to like it. All right. Now we got to pick some games, but before we do that, we're going to talk about FanDuel. FanDuel bringing you all these lines, all of these totals, America's number one sports book. If you go to FanDuel.com slash staples and you win a $5 money line bet, you get $150 in guaranteed bonus bets. So if your team wins, you win.

The easiest way to play FanDuel has all of the games in college football. They've also got the NFL, the NBA, they've got props, you name it. It's a lot of fun. They've got it all. They've got spreads. They've got player props. They've got totals. That's right.

The Iowa total just out there begging you to take the under. FanDuel.com slash staples. You win a $5 Moneyline bet. So if you say, I think this team shall win. You win that bet. You get $150 in guaranteed bonus bets. FanDuel.com slash Staples. On to the picks.

It is time to make some picks. And I am so happy to have this gentleman on board. Max Olson, my former coworker at The Athletic. He's still at The Athletic. I'm here at On3. The world moves on. But Max, I missed you, man. Max offers the most reasonable takes of any

human being I've ever met. He's trying to not be wrong, Andy. It's not a brand. It is a way of life, though. But the problem is we have to be wrong sometimes with these. Sometimes all wrong for me. The content's much

better when you're wrong. I got to tell you, Andy, as I was preparing to do a podcast with you, it's been a minute. It got me kind of in my champ kind feelings a little bit. I just miss you so damn much. Miss your scent. I miss your mustache. I think when this all gets sorted out, i think you and me should get an apartment together oh i'm in a glass case of emotion right now uh this this the the news team assemble

with our our little podcast various podcast crews would be spectacular absolutely spectacular because like i think you have the power to arrange an alley fight too you kind of know all the people out there i think you know instantly who to invite to that it would be pretty fun but i i feel like you guys are of the head or or hair or anything right you know well but i feel like below the neck you guys are ron burgundy like ari's ron burgundy and and your champ i don't know what we're gonna make david oven in this scenario but i i mean i'll be brick if i gotta be brick it's fine you know i'm just happy to be there i i may be vince vaughn or ben stiller i'm just not sure where we're at i can see i can see you doing the the vince vaughn yeah i can see that yeah he's a little taller than me but that that's okay so uh we have a lot to to pick here max this is

done bitches let's do this this is crazy this this is a uh this is quite a week because it's like coming off the titanic last week where every matchup seemed to be of critical importance. We have the one that just towers over the other one this week. And then we've got the big one in the SEC. But some of these other ones are just intriguing. So we're going to save a couple of the biggies. Okay. And we'll start.

I'm going to spin the wheel. Not even worry about time of game at this point. Oh, I know where we'll start i'm gonna spin the wheel not even worry about time of game at this point oh i know where we can start one near and dear to your heart former espn big 12 blogger texas at tcu texas at tcu um you know andy as you go through these the lines are so big this week at least these monday ones like is it kind of like Superdog Saturday? What are we setting up for here? I think so. And so there are a couple of big road favorites.

This one's not that bad. There's a lot of big ones this week. Well, it's a road favorite that's almost double digits. In a conference game, that is not normal. Now, TCU's been bad I admit that they they look better against Texas Tech last week they've had they had kind of the mini buy because they played on Thursday uh but the Texas thing's really interesting to me we had Bobby Burton on yesterday and he said that if Malik Murphy continues to turn the ball over the way he has like they may have to go to Arch Manning if Quinn Ewers can't play.

Steve Sarkeesian said Monday that Quinn's day-to-day, but I am very curious about that because I would want to make sure Quinn's ready for Iowa State if he can be. Right. But do you go to Arch if – because, I mean, what Malik did in the fourth quarter was dangerous if you didn't already have a pretty big lead correct and you know it was funny I remember there was a moment in the fourth quarter when Gus Johnson's like maybe it's time to put an arch and Joel Klatt was like whoa whoa whoa

chill out like this is not the time but to put in Arch Manning he's never played a snap in a college game but Texas was living a little dangerously I think Malik Murphy gave K-State a chance in that game. And honestly, Andy, the first thing that comes to mind for me with this game is 2021. You remember when Baylor was 7-1? They were number 12 in the rankings. They went to Fort Worth on a week that Gary Patterson had just been fired against a TCU team that was 4-4 and had nothing to lose.

The Chandler Morris game. Chandler Morris was amazing. They pulled off a stunner as a seven-point dog. Now, I don't know if TCU has the juice this week to do that. I mean, they've lost for their last five. They lost by 38 to K-State. Like it's going to take an amazing effort for four quarters. But that is the scary thing is like, will Malik Murphy give TCU a chance to like give some opportunities here that that maybe Josh Hoover and the frost can capitalize on. And then suddenly you're right back where you were a week ago.

Well, and the thing is the idea is to red shirt arch. And I know everybody is looking at arch Manning, like a typical five-star quarterback. Don't do that. They want to red shirt him. He wants to red shirt. That's important.

But if you think you can have Quinn back for Iowa State you could play Arch if you have to and then have hope that Quinn is upright through Iowa State and Texas Tech and then you could have Quinn for the rest of the seat you can use Quinn or I'm sorry to use Arch the rest of the way if you need to. And he still only plays four games. Now, last year, they let everybody who played the postseason have a mulligan for the postseason.

So if they were going to do that, you could just play him now and he'd be fine. Sure. But this is also like the time when you also need to like inject as much confidence into Malik Murphy as possible.

Yeah. So that he doesn't kind of slide from this moment forward because it's easy to kind of look at that game and just say like, oh no, maybe Malik Murphy's just not ready. And it's like, well, that's not really a position Texas is in to like, like he has to be ready. Like he just has to go. And I don't think it's, you know, we'll see it's early in the week, obviously like what is the actual status of Quinn Ewers? Can you do like an emergency thing there no idea but um certainly like Malik Murphy needs the practice reps he needs to like be going into this TCU game feeling like he's got a real handle of this offense but you're

right Andy I mean at some point in time Arch Manning has to get live bullets because even if you're saving those four games like dude we're in we're in november now like we're running out of time to use them yeah here's my other part of this texas would have beaten would have beaten kansas state like when texas is up 27-7 against kansas state if they'd never thrown the ball again i think they actually would have extended the lead and run out the clock like they would have won that game 34-7. And if they – No, Jonathan Brooks had a fumble too. Like the other people are responsible for that. It's not just on – and Will Howard did an amazing job

when you gave him the ball off takeaways. Awesome job of capitalizing. But that's what comes with it if you're Malik Murphy. You've got all these great players around you. And you've got to be just got to be good enough and you just can't throw it to the other guys. Yeah. And I think what TCU will do, what, what Joe Gillespie will do, he saw, I mean, the book's out now, basically as soon as K state took the extra guy out of the box and put him in coverage so they could mix up coverages,

it became a problem. Now, Texas could still run the ball. So if I'm Texas, I just run it down their damn throats. And I will say Texas covers running it down their damn throats. I'm going to, I think I'm going to take the, I'm taking the points on a much of these today, buddy. I just, I have to, I have to, it's just too, it's just too many. I certainly, I could see Texas kind of show up pissed off and, you know, really, uh, really put a big one together here. Um, TCU needs this one. They're in a tough spot. It's, it's interesting. That's a night game because a lot of times Texas has played that, that noon kick in Fort Worth and it's a very sleepy start. And then you're like, Oh, they are in trouble. Um, but I, I think Texas will win, but TCU is capable of keeping those clothes.

I also, I say this knowing that TCU shut down Bijan and Roshan last year that they did. I remember that. I I'm still confident. CJ Baxter, 407 baby Orlando. Let, let's go. Let us move into the SEC while we're on the subject of heavy road favorites. Alabama headed to Kentucky, plus 10.5. Now, the Wildcats, they got their best game out of Devin devon leary probably against tennessee in that loss you look good against mississippi state but almost everyone except arkansas look good against mississippi state meanwhile alabama feels like they are rounding into form as a team that might be able to actually challenge for the sec and national titles. But here's my question, Max. With Alabama, we've only, like, LSU, the LSU game is the best game we've seen Alabama play.

It's the most complete game we've seen Alabama play. Are we sure we're going to get that Alabama for four quarters, or is there going to be a half of what our friend Ari would call grab ass in this game? I mean, grab ass is possible. I honestly, Andy, I absolutely love what I saw from Jalen Milrow against LSU. I know it's easy to kind of say, oh boy, very up and down. He throws some balls, you know, way over guys and stuff like that.

You know, his misses aren't great, but like I think they were pretty much harmless in the LSU game. And honestly, like the way he ran with confidence and moved in open space and clearly enjoyed like setting guys up to burn them in the run game. I thought it was just so impressive. And I know LSU's defense has been miserable this year. And you could say, oh, that made it easy.

But like, I think he's turning into the guy we thought he could be. And I think the thing that's a little bit concerning if you're Kentucky, you look at just second half of SEC games this year, they're averaging nine and a half points a game. So can they run the ball well enough with Ray Davis that Devin Larry doesn't have to have a 400 year passing game? Like, can they do,

can they do enough to, to, and maybe get a little, little grab assy in the first half where it's low scoring close. And this thing is competitive going into the fourth because it could turn into a boat race if Bama gets moving well and that's the thing like can Dion Walker and JJ Weaver turn Jalen Milrow into what Jalen Milrow was earlier in the season where he was a threat to get sacked because I I'm a little worried for Alabama's opponents in the future that Jalen Milrow has kind of figured out how not to get sacked. I think we killed Caden Proctor, their left tackle. I think we were a little harsh on their offensive line. Cause I think some of that stuff was what Milrow was doing.

He would step to the side instead of up in the pocket. Uh, he didn't run confidently. He didn't decide to talk confidently. And now he definitely seemed to be tucking confidently. And LSU was spying him. It's just that the spy is going to get lost sometimes or get stuck on the wrong side of the play. And Milrow is so fast that if that happens, it's a first down at the very least. Well, and I know that they don't get as much credit maybe as they should

because they're not as stacked a group as Alabama is used to. But like Andy, I thought the Bama running backs played really well against LSU too. And look, again, I get it. LSU fans, you're fed up with this defense. Like I'm sure that contributed to it. But I thought that the confidence that Jason McClellan and Roy Williams ran with in some big spots in that game, I thought was really encouraging too. And I agree. I think we were kind of just kind of seeing this Alabama team grow up and they were fortunate that you know they didn't get burned uh early in the year against some of these ranked teams when they were still figuring it out um and now here we are uh they are they are scary looking again

yeah yeah and they're likable like it's weird to see a likable Alabama team like this. It's that's fair. Yeah, they, they, they act like a plucky team, but they're like a death star team. Now my mind is having a hard time wrapping around those five star rascals, you know, you just big, big hearts and big star ratings over there.

For sure. Listen, the Terry on Arnold interview that we had was probably my favorite segment we've done on the show all year. So I like I don't know. Soft spot at this point. But yeah, I'm going to take Alabama to cover in this one. I just I feel like they are rounding into form, which any other year you'd be like, oh, God, them again.

But these guys, they're likable. I think that's I think that's fair. I think that's fair. I think that's fair. And that's the likable Alabama team. Also, like, I don't know, Andy. We'll see if they can get to Atlanta. Like, could be. Oh, it's, yeah.

Could be pretty, those spunky underdogs might have something cooking. This trend continues. Yes, I think we might see that. All right. Speaking of underdogs and giant spreads, conference games, rivalry games, Miami at Florida State. Florida State's a 14 and a half point favorite in this game. You know, if you had told me this a month ago that this would be the spread, I'd be like, you're nuts.

There's no way Miami is going to come in there. They're going to be Florida State's biggest challenge. Now my only question is whether this winds up being a bigger blowout than last year's Florida-Miami game, or Florida State-Miami game, which was embarrassing for everyone involved except Florida State. Yeah, I agree. That's 100% right. Like a month ago, you would have said, man, Miami is talented enough. If they can take care of their business, you'd 14 and a half points that's that's too many this this

team is too talented to uh get pushed around by florida state maybe i can put them in the danger zone finally somebody somebody in the acc can but man don't don't love the uh disconcerting signals from miami lately wouldn't you say um yeah and i saw on monday mario cristobal not commenting on whether it's going to be tyler van dyke as qb1 this week he's he's thrown 10 picks in his last four games i'm guessing canes fans want to see emory williams in this game um not not a good week to uh to to be a little shaky at qb1 and andy guess who has snuck up into the uh the top 10 of the stop rate standings this week, that Florida State defense. Man.

Jared Verse and company, Braden Fisk. You know, and you can say, oh, well, look at the schedule. You know, the bottom half of the ACC is not great or whatever, but, like, these guys are, like, getting the hang of, like, figuring out how to shut down games and have put some good performances together. So this would be a big one for Florida State. You know, obviously you want to know if Keanu Coleman and Johnny Wilson are playing in this game. is that number i don't know and is

that number a little too big without them i don't i'm not sure it is given what we see now the emory williams thing is interesting he did okay in his his first action when he had to replace van dyke when van dyke was hurt but this would be a weird it was like emory williams panhandle kid like going up to tallahassee as a true freshman to start that'd be that'd be a scary prospect um but think about jordan travis throwing for 360 yards without keon coleman or johnny wilson that's the other part of this is they have so many other options that they can they they can go to a Kyle Morlock had a big game, the transfer from shorter college, the tight end.

And they, you know, Jaheim bell didn't even, didn't even do a whole lot against Pittsburgh, but they have so many different weapons that they can use that even if one of Keon Coleman and Johnny Wilson is back, I think it's enough. I'm with you.

Did, by the way, I don't know if you touched on this on the show already. I apologize if you did. Did you see this TikTok clip of Keon Coleman talking about his pregame meal? No, no. Oh, my man. I should have said to you the second I saw it. Keon Coleman said, especially if he's playing like an afternoon or night game, the pregame meal for McDonald's is two hot and spicy McChickens with cheese, extra mayo, extra mayo for you, Andy. Oh boy. Plus a 10 piece nugget, a medium fry and an Oreo McFlurry. I respect the volume. I absolutely respect the volume. The spicy McChicken with extra mayo.

I don't know about, but it reminds me a little bit of my, school wrestling hit the Wendy's between school and the meet and the weigh in. Because so my senior year, I had to wrestle heavyweight and the max weight for heavyweights, 275. And I only weighed like 240. So all of my teammates are just sweating stuff off. They're not eating. Well, this is the days of the 99 cent double stack stuff off. They're not eating. Well, this is the days of the 99 cent double stack at Wendy's. There you go.

Four double stacks, Biggie fry, Biggie frosty. That's it. You eat that at four. The wrestling meet doesn't start until seven 30. You're all digested. You're not thrown up on the mat,

but I'm walking into the field house, the football field house. field house because we got to use our football lockers for wrestling and i'm like plopping down with this bag of food and these poor people who haven't eaten in like three days are looking like they're gonna kill me but they all weigh like 120 pounds so i don't really care you know when when a college football program especially like power five program when they signed like a 260 pound offensive lineman, and then that guy's like 300 a year later, if you ever asked those guys, like, how did they do it?

Like, I know that these schools have training tables and free meals and sports science on that stuff, but like, no, it was, it was, it was McDonald's or Whataburger.

That's how they did it. Joe Cohen, who was a starting defensive tackle on Florida's 2006 national title team. He came to Florida as a running back. He left as a defensive tackle. The reason was the checkers on University Avenue. I'll tell you right now. I'm sure Florida State has had some dudes that came at 250,

and thanks to Guthrie's and the fine chicken fingers at Guthrie's in Tallahassee, they are, you know, 315 pounds, but that's just high level talent development. That's just, that's just how it works. Absolutely.

I don't think Alex Atkins would appreciate me giving, you know, endorsing Guthrie's to his offensive lineman that they're trying to keep those guys, you know, slender and spelt and lean and mean. I promise you, they already know about it. Annie,

I think they do. Tallahassee, also home of Mike's Beer Barn, which is a drive-thru store where they will just drop a keg in your trunk. Love a drive-thru. Mike also owns a pawn shop. Mike's Pawn Shop. Mike is not one to be trifled with.

Yeah. That guy's moving units. He's a big deal. I say all this to say it's going to be a fun night in Tallahassee, I think. I think Florida State covers. I do too. Yeah, I do. All right.

We will move on. I feel like I want to go from the big spreads to the little spreads. So we'll stay on the big spread usc at oregon the first grinchless game for the trojans i mean it's a it's a big number i'm gonna go with with Oregon covering just purely based on the extreme disparity in vibes here, Andy. You could not have more opposite vibes. Since losing to Washington, Oregon has just smashed everyone in its path. USC, well, they've lived dangerously.

They've lost. They fired Alex Grinch. Now, I do wonder, will USC be more effective on defense with the guy with Nua and Odom? I don't know what they're going to do. I suspect they will not call a defense the way Alex Grinch calls a defense. I suspect they will go, you know what? We're going to stay in base a little bit because we got pretty good athletes. Now, the problem is, unlike most of the teams they play, Oregon probably has better athletes. Yeah.

Yeah. And that's the thing. Like, do you, does firing Alex Grinch after Washington? Like, yeah, it makes sense based on how that game went and how the season has gone and

how, how their tenure together has gone. But like, does that actually give USC a better chance in this game? Or does it kind of just kind of make that big distraction go away? I think it makes the distraction go away. But the problem is... I understand if they need a new voice in the room,

but what is that voice actually going to do for them this week against Oregon? The Grinch ethos remains. You're still undersized. Because I don't know if he just thought he was still at Washington State with Hercules Mata'afa at 225 playing D-tackle, but you can recruit players that are the correct size for their positions. It's okay. And they're not up front. And meanwhile, Oregon is really big up front and really athletic up front.

Yeah, and it's interesting too, Andy, when you look at some of these teams, I was thinking about this with Whiteout too. I was talking to some people about this the other day. You look at Whiteout and how many difference makers there were in the portal that have been picked up that are playing on teams that are in the top 10, top 15 right now. Despite USC's best efforts for the last two years any I'm not sure that USC has like really picked up one of these real number one playmakers at receiver with

this group but and actually Oregon is the group that loaded up going into this year um and found a stud in in a guy that Bo Nix knew pretty well and Tess Johnson's He's a documented brother, yes. I actually think Oregon probably out-portaled USC offense and defense this year. Oh, 100%. Just the Tess Johnson and... No, that's not a term, but out-portaled, they did. Yeah, just the Tess Johnson and Jordan Burch alone. But USC...

Yeah, for sure. Oregon's defense significantly improved through the port yes their offense improved somewhat but they also had a very good homegrown offensive line well ajay cornelius joined the offensive line from rhode island so and and probably was the best tackle in in this whole portal cycle ultimately. Right. Good, good email by everybody there. USC could have gotten him and didn't. Mm-hmm. Well, Josh Connerly.

USC took quite a few and, yeah, didn't. I'm not saying USC whiffed on everything, but it's like I think that they were certainly betting on on both sides of the ball. They were betting on all these, these hall, you know, this big portal hall we had when we were really, really hot and everybody wanted a USC offer, wanted to come here, really betting that that was going to be kind of a multiplier that took this thing to the next level. And I'm not saying they busted on all these, but, you know, you look at the way the defense has played, not really been a huge difference making impact there.

Yeah. And Josh Connelly is a good example. He's Oregon's left tackle. That was the first major recruiting win for Dan Lanning over Lincoln Riley. And it's a big one. Like, if Josh Connolly played for USC right now, it would be very helpful for Caleb Williams. There's no question. Honestly, Andy, I firmly believe Oregon's one of the four best teams in the country, and I expect him to play like it against USC.

Like, I don't really think there's much of anything USC can do here in the next few days with code DCs to really kind of cover up its deficiencies. I guess maybe you're chasing ghosts a little bit if you're the Oregon staff in terms of, okay, what are they going to do different? But like, this would be, and honestly, Oregon winning by any margin would probably be impressive just because we know USC has got the firepower. Obviously, Washington can vouch for like, that team is not a pushover, but like, I, I think this is a big statement one for Oregon and man, maybe that's dumb to bet against Lincoln

Riley and Caleb Williams in this spot, but you couldn't be playing this game at a worse time. I think Oregon's defense can limit USC's offense a little better than Washington's did it. Washington does have some good edge rushers, but, but Oregon feels like they's offense a little better than Washington's did it Washington does have some good edge rushers but but Oregon feels like they can get a little more consistent pressure force Caleb Williams to try to do too much I mean that that's really where the where the Washington game broke open is they get that fumble from Williams and then cashing that that that's what allowed them to to kind of get one one break ahead to use a tennis term. And I think Oregon is going to get a couple more of those breaks,

either through turnovers or stops. And I think, yeah, I think Oregon covers this one. Also, Bucky might go big in this one. If we saw Johnson ran for 260 yards, unreal,

unreal. Yeah. The, the, the Oregon offense, those guys are licking their lips this week. I think Oregon's going to cover. Yeah.

All right, we stay with the big spreads. Let's go to Athens. Ole Miss headed to Georgia. You know, if Ole Miss had continued on the path that was on in the second quarter of that A&M game, where it looked like they were just going to run A&M out of the building, I might be sitting here expecting an Ole Miss cover. I am not at this point, because I think Georgia's offense is going to be, they're going to look sharper than they

did against that Missouri defense, which is very, very good. Yeah, you know, I was looking up the history on this one. Georgia's won 10 in a row. If you don't count vacated wins, the last game that they played was 16. Ole Miss won that one. Ole Miss took a 45-0 lead. That was first loss to the head coach. Do you think that he has ever forgotten that one, Andy? No, no, but he didn't really take it out on Hugh Freeze when they played at Auburn this year.

Not this year not this year yeah um I I do think that uh that Oregon I mean that Ole Miss has the offensive firepower to make this very interesting and I do think it's ultimately going to come down to um can Jackson Dart be the best version of himself can he take care of the football and be very mature in this spot and and not be like dangerous in the bad way and I it's a little bit tempting to say Oregon can, I think Georgia will win, but I'm a little tempted to say Ole Miss can cover this number. I think they might be able to.

I mean, we saw Missouri do it. Missouri did it with Cody Schrader kind of running that wide zone type stuff, bouncing outside. That doesn't seem to be Ole Miss's MO in the run game. When you get the best of Quinchon Judkins, it is straight up the gut, and it's usually after a big gain through the air.

They love to do that where they hit you with a big gain through the air and then go straight through you. Jackson Dart moves well enough, though, to give Kirby Smart some headaches, I think. I think so. It's going to take a perfect game by the Rebels, though. There's no question about that. Oh, to win? Absolutely.

Very clean game. Yeah, scale of 1 to 10, how surprised would you be if Ole Miss figured out a way to win this game? 10. 10? Because I do think that that offense has struggled against these defenses, and the Tennessee fans got mad at me the other week because I said, oh, that offense is never beaten a Saban or a Kirby defense and which I was very

wrong about because Tennessee beat Saban last year but they're one in 13 like the the Bryles offense is one in 13 right now against the Saban smart defenses. And now you can say it's just because they have better players, but that, that actually is why, like the, the way you stop the Bryles offense is your front four controls without a lot of help and can stop you in the run game, which allows you to mix up coverages. Because if you have to bring another person into the box or you have to to not have another person out in the in the pattern then they just know what you're going to do like their decisions are very easy at that point so if you have average athletes on your defense it makes it really easy for them because your safeties have to declare are we helping in the

run game are we helping in the past game because we helping the passing because the splits are so wide yeah it's it's a good point and i think that um you know that i tell you what though on 11 and a half though and like missouri ultimately uh that was that looked on paper like i bet the farm on georgia last week in missouri was able to cover it right i think that at least ole miss has the weapons to can they get like that late in the fourth quarter score so that they cover, but they don't win. That would be the one that would scare me a little bit if I was betting. The backdoor.

Yeah, that, that would be, you know what? I'm going to take Ole Miss to cover in this one. And I hope that Georgia chops this up and puts it in a video afterward about, you know, you saying,

or Ole Miss puts it in that you said a 10 out of 10 can't happen. You know, can't wait. Well, Lane, Lane loves that. Lane loves any a 10 out of 10 can't happen. Can't wait. Well, Lane loves that. Lane loves any sort of disrespect he can throw out there. Now, I'll take Ole Miss to cover, and it might be a backdoor cover. It may be that they are down 18, they score, they lose by 11, something like that.

But I need to see this offense be successful against this defense more consistently than what we've seen so far. And Georgia is not what they were defensively, 21 and 22. They're still really good. They still have very good players. Yeah, and how will they respond without one of their best players at linebacker missing like that will be interesting. But, you know, next year up, it's Georgia. The next guy will probably be a five star. Well, they're all five stars, but it is. You know, that that's not.

That's not fun to be missing really important players. And, um, you know, I, I think Carson Beck and, and, you know, speaking of missing players,

like losing Brock Bowers, I think has actually helped him kind of open things up a little bit offensively. If they can get Brock Bowers back, what they will have learned will help. And the Juman Dumas Johnson thing, you're probably right. It probably is an X man up,

but this is, this is not what you wanted to see with one of your most, one of your most consistent defensive players. So we'll see a Marius Mims probably coming back this week at right tackle for Georgia. So I think that helps too, but that will be a fun one. We'll be right back with more picks.

But first I want to tell you about game time, the easiest way to get last minute tickets for sporting events, concerts, comedy shows, theater, you name it. Do you want to go to that USC Oregon game at Autzen Stadium this week? You can get in for under $100. Just type Oregon Ducks football into the search box. Click the USC game. Decide what ticket you want.

Game time shows you exactly what your vantage point would be in the stadium. It's that easy. A couple more taps. That ticket is yours. You want to go to Michigan Penn State? You can get in for under $ bucks right now on game time. It's that easy. Search for it.

Click it. Find the seat you want and know it's the seat you want. Couple more taps and it's yours. And you can easily text tickets to friends on game day. Game time makes everything seamless for you. It's the easiest stress-free way to get last minute tickets. Go to game time, download the app, use the code staples and get $20 off your first purchase.

So that's code staples for 20 bucks off your first purchase. Go to game time and get yourself a ticket, get a seat and start cheering let us oh you know what we should do we'll take a little break from the spreads let's go to a total let's go to a total okay we'll stay in the sec florida and lSU. LSU is a 13.5 point favorite in this game, which not knowing whether Jaden Daniels is going to play or not, I don't really know what to do with that.

It's a 63.5 point total. LSU, now I believe there's no total on the Grambling game. LSU is 8-0 on overs this season. Interesting. 8-0 on overs this season. Interesting.

8-0. So 6-3.5. I was going to say, I'm tempted to go under until we know more. Until we know more about J.N. Nails. Now, can I interest you in the fact that both of these defenses are very bad? Go on. Yeah. Florida's defense made South Carolina look like a world beater

florida's defense against the arkansas team that scored three against mississippi state allowed 36 so i don't know my question to you andy would be you know better than i do like okay let's say let's just let's just say theoretically jayden daniels does not play in this game yeah you look at this final stretch for florida and it is so rough you've got lsu missouri florida state like does florida have to steal this game if if jayden daniels is not playing and that's not knocking nussmeyer at all nussmeyer is a player he will he will he will move the ball on florida there's no question but does that turn into like a man you need to steal this one if you're florida oh 100 because i don't think they get

bullsable any other way i think that at missouri is going to be really rough especially at night potentially cold right like no i i think they they've got to steal this one and because i i know a lot of people have said oh you know florida state they're just playing the acc competition there no no florida state at that point is probably going to be trying to make sure it's in the national title picture still 100 like you don't want to deal with that trying to get bowl eligible so this would be your shot now as nick delatore from Gators Online pointed out yesterday, the psychological damage of losing to Doug Nussmeyer's kid, Doug Nussmeyer was the OC at Florida under Jim McElwain. Now, I actually think Doug Nussmeyer was a pretty good OC. His career took some weird turns. He had to go to Michigan when Brady Hoke was on the way down because of

the whole Alabama thing. Uh, he'd interviewed for a job and that didn't work out. It was just, it was all, all messy, but that's one where I think the Florida fans would be like, come on,

but Garrett Nussmeyer is a good quarterback. Like most sec teams would love to have Garrett Nussmeyer as their starter. Yeah. So I just think, I'm sure several of them have his name circled on their portal board that they've started building in November. And then you look at Florida, you look at how well

Eugene Wilson's playing. They call him Trey. He's Eugene Wilson III. He's been great. Ricky Pearsall's a very good receiver. Arlo Sportingham, their tight end, has become a more reliable target. Definitely. Against this Lsu secondary like could we could conceivably see a 40 something to 20 something game we could see a 30 something to

30 something game that's fine you got me on the over we'll do the over i'm i'm taking the over hell yeah and honestly no i'm taking the over. Regardless, honestly, who throws a shoe? It's been three years. And that Marco Wilson thrown shoe continues to curse the Florida Gators. I mean, we can't laugh about it. What are we doing? I laughed that night. I just didn't realize that the effects would last so long. But it's never-ending.

Never-ending. All right, back to the spreads. Back to the spreads. We're going down in spread total, but not by much. Coach Prime. Coach Prime changed offensive coordinators last week. And through three quarters, they gained 76 yards. Shockingly, when they went up-tempo,

they scored a couple touchdowns, but still lost to Oregon State. Arizona coming in, and the Wildcats now have won three in a row. They were knock, knock, knocking at the door. It felt like they were close every game. Couldn't get over the hump. And then they just started blowing people out.

They look awesome. Like, like, I'm trying to think of who else would be in the car. Literally the hottest team in the country? Probably, yeah. Like, I mean, who else is up there? Oklahoma State? I mean, there's some that are, yeah. It's Oklahoma State or Arizona.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like, literally, like like they look like they could beat anyone, anyone in the, in the pack. And, uh, you know, I think they finally, they finally playing better defense there, but, but certainly the headliner is, uh, they've got a dude in Noah Fafita and you already knew they had the wide outs, um, to really be able to move the ball on people. Um, but finally just like really playing complete football,

love what they've done in year three under Jed fish already bowl eligible. And, you know, this is one of those games, Andy, that especially in September when everyone was kind of doing the, the little kind of let's print out that Colorado schedule and circle the wins. And here's how they get to a bowl game. This is all the, one of the ones you circled is like, well like well yeah they'll definitely win this one and now uh i don't know dude no i i don't feel good about the buffaloes here yeah again again extreme difference in vibes at the moment on these yes and we'll see like is it still going to be pat strimmer did they go back

do they do they go back to sean lewis do they they keep? Because here's the deal. They keep saying, well, we got to establish the run, but you can't block. So you're not going to be able to. The one thing you can do is operate fast, snap the ball to your really good quarterback, Shadur Sanders, and have him throw it very quickly. That is the only thing you can do.

It's not enough to win most games, but it's the only thing you can do it's not enough to win most games but it's the only thing you can do man and we feel I feel like we're so far removed now from when they open with TCU and it's like okay well we don't have a run game but we can dump it out to Dylan Edwards and he can make people miss on the outside and that was the run game right and you're like okay well he's pretty small like he's not a three down back, but like he's pretty freaky. Right. And so I feel like you just haven't, I don't know if it's just, they've, they've really been damaged by kind of the miss on,

on all McCaskill just not being ready to play this year or just maybe mis-evaluating a little bit on the running back takes there, but you don't have the pieces. And even if you did have the running backs for it, do you have the line to really push people around? You don't. And so as much as that says, okay, yeah, look at the stat book and say, I wish we were better at this. Like you got what you got. And I think certainly we're already, they already accepted that a couple of weeks ago, I think. Yeah. I'm very, we've got Jed Fish booked on the show later in the week and I'm interested

to talk to him about this. I'm sure he's not going to say much about coach prime, but Jed fish is a person who took over a roster that was in as bad a shape as Colorado's before. Yeah. Yeah. Or maybe worse and through the portal and some very good recruiting out of high school and very good evaluations, they've become, like you said, they look like they could beat any team in the Pac-12 right now

except maybe Oregon. I don't think there's a team in the Pac they're afraid of playing right now. You know what I mean? And that's just what this run of – and look, I know like, okay, yeah, we beat these teams, so then they fall out of the top 25 and stuff. But no, these were all huge. These three wins in a row against ranked teams. It's a huge deal for a program

that just has not really had these little streaks and runs of momentum to really point to, to be like, hey, we've got it figured out finally here. And so love what you've seen from them. They've been kind of the late night team of the year a little bit in terms of like, oh, they're on the 930. Okay, I'm tuning in for that. And fortunately for Coach Prime,

doesn't have to play another one of those. He's not going to miss those in the Pac-12. But man, Arizona could not be in better shape rolling into this one. Yeah, I'm interested to see where they go from here because I think Jed Fish is just doing a remarkable job. I will take them to cover here. We shall stay in the Pac-12

with a game that i find very intriguing the pig farmer bryson barnes leads the utes up to seattle where they are a nine and a half point underdog this number feels really big max i mean i i if you're gonna give me nine and a half i'm gonna i'm gonna take utah plus nine and a half, right? I mean, that's, what are we doing here, Andy? Well, we're thinking that Washington shuts them down the way Oregon shut them down. That's what Vegas is thinking.

I just don't know if I believe that. I don't know if that works out in a Stiles make fights capacity. It's tough for me to bet against Morgan Scali in this spot, despite what the ducks did to them. Certainly that, that it's worth pointing out. They, they got gotten that one,

but you know, when you look at Washington, the remaining regular season schedule is Utah, Oregon state, Washington state. So if Washington is going to get got Andy, who's going to pull that off of those three I think Utah you can say none of them you can say none of them if you believe they're rolling the 12-0 but

Utah or Oregon state will do it that's who I think it is it's one of those two but not both and that's I I it's certainly possible that the Washington could run away with this one uh but I don't know man like Like you could say that Caleb Williams and USC would do that to anybody. So there's no shame in it. And ultimately Washington got the stops they needed in the second half. But how do you, do you look at Washington's defense

with maybe like a little tiny bit of suspicion? Because we certainly know Utah can move the ball on great teams in this league. Yeah, and that's the thing. I look at Washington as, you know, I rank them above Oregon because they played and they won. But if they played again, I'd pick Oregon. I don't think Washington's defense is as salty as Oregon's defense.

No. And that's why I do think, I said the same thing thing about USC I said USC will be able to move the ball on Washington in a way that I don't think they'll be able to move the ball on Oregon by the same token Utah couldn't move it against Oregon but I think they'll they'll have some success against Washington I don't know if they're going to win this game at nine and a half is so many points so many I'm taking I'm taking the use to cover agreed yeah it's it's that's gonna be and that could end up being one of the best games of the weekend i mean oh yeah there's no doubt there's that that we we could certainly like be flipping to this one in the third quarter being like this put this on the main screen yeah washington has been one of

the most fun teams to watch because if you think about it like even that arizona game now they were kind of two scores ahead and Arizona would get it within one. But since then, because they played Oregon after that, they've been in an interesting game pretty much every week. Mm-hmm.

I mean, hey, Stanford made it interesting with Washington. Did they not? Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Wouldn't put it past Utah to make this a nail-biter. Yeah, dropped fourth down play. Right.

I mean, and Stanford might still be going. So before we get to the big, big, big one, we got a couple more games. We have one very tight spread and one total. Let's do the total. Let's do the total. Let's do the total. Let's do the epic total. Rutgers and Iowa.

Iowa's a one and a half point favorite in this game. The Hawkeyes celebrate. Well, they didn't celebrate. They commiserated over Brian Ferentz's dismissal at the hands of interim AD Beth Goetz. Made very clear it wasn't Kirk's decision. Very clear. They commiserated by beating Northwestern

in a game that made everyone's eyes bleed and caused Vegas to finally release a total under 30. They responded by dropping their season scoring average. Yes. Yes. Yes. I believe if I'm in the drive for three 25s over it's null and void now, but if they did want to average 25 points a game, I think they'd have to average 51 a game for the rest of the way.

I'm not doing the math anymore, but that, that seems right. You know, that's right. Um, I think I just made that up. I got it.

I got a fun one for you here, Andy. Okay. Who has more passing yards this season, Iowa or Army? Army. Army. Yeah. Iowa is at 997 through nine games. I did a stat when Ferentz got let go,

so this doesn't include last week's numbers, but basically Malik Nab's performance against Mississippi state was the entirety of the wide receiving course performance for Iowa up to that point in the whole season. Oh my gosh. It was just, it's incredible. If you don't.

So I had to look this up just out of morbid curiosity. If you don't count the COVID year, because obviously there were some PAC 12 schools that only played like four games that year right if you look at full seasons iowa is heading for the fewest passing yards by a power five offense in a season since 2018 do you want to guess who that was andy 2018 2018 who had a just god-awful passing game? You're going to love this. Oh, wait. Was Paul Johnson still at Georgia Tech?

The last year of Paul Johnson at Georgia Tech. Oh, man. Great poll, man. Great poll. Georgia Tech averaged 83 passing yards a game that year, finished with less than 1,100 in 2018, the last year of Paul Johnson. That is, we are at Paul Johnson levels of passing pariah with the season i mean at this point running the option would be

a better way to move the ball i mean you know you you why why not try i mean that wouldn't that be amazing if you're praying parents you're just like screw the brass we're gonna come with a new offense this week let's just do it yeah why not oh why not i mean okay yeah you could play for playing in the big title game you're in first place i get it i get the why not but like uh you know screw it do it and be a hero be a legend well here's the thing you probably still make the big 10 title game like it wouldn't be worse than what you already do everybody else is gonna lay down and let you walk to indie so you may as well now what i i will say like from an offensive line standpoint like if you don't live that option life it's not something you can put in in a couple weeks i know everybody's it's just

two plays one need the direction and you have three things you can do off it yeah it's not that easy it's it's a lot of lifestyle choices on the offensive line. Speaking of complicated lifestyle choices, I know a lot of people laughed about Rutgers four signalers wearing purple, black, orange, and yellow hoodies. I say add four more. Let's go to eight. Make them the entire fluorescent crayon box.

Just change your guy who's live every drive you know just just do it that way double down on this i think it's good for the brand um if i were a big 10 coach and you've got all this impotent rage about the michigan situation i would just lean into like i'm gonna have as many signalers as possible and let's just make a total straight of this in the final year potentially before we we go to all in fluorescent hoodies all with another guy holding a bed sheet on two sticks behind them like give your equipment guy the best week of his life on the job by asking him to go fetch 12 different colored hoodies can you can you imagine got them all you can do it oh yeah can you imagine the call to nike like um he's like you can't i don't know

if we can put your logo on this can we you you want fuchsia aqua and chartreuse doesn't matter what size we'll take them just rush it you know oh my god please please do this. Iowa, entertain us. That's what I ask, is entertain us. It's fun to watch for the under, but just do something fun. Like, what you're doing is terrible. It can't get any worse. Try something else. Try something else. This is a strange sentence, but I'm going to say it, Andy.

Is the Rutgers offense too good for this to go under? No. No? No. We're going under? I just can't imagine. I just don't know. Because I watched Rutgers against Ohio State, which is a very good defense.

Sure. And they couldn't do anything but kick field goals. And I think that's where we're at. We're going to have a lot of field goals in this game. And if we get a touchdown, it probably will be because of a defensive or special team score. Okay. All right.

I love the under. Let's keep dropping. I mean, when they play Nebraska, that number has got to be an all-timer. So, yeah, let's keep drop. I mean, when they play Nebraska, that, that number has got to be an old timer. So, um, yeah, I let's go under. I I'm good with it.

All right. We move on to one more game before we get to the big one. This is a, this is a very tight line. Yeah. Tennessee at Missouri opened with Missouri, a one and a half point favorite on Sunday, flipped to Tennessee being a one and a half point favorite. On Sunday, flipped to Tennessee being a one and a half point favorite.

And this is the winner. We'll still have two losses. We'll still be in position to maybe make a New Year's Six Bowl. The loser goes to Orlando or Tampa, basically. That's how this works. You hang the banner for the last second-place finish in SEC East history, right? That's exactly right. Where's the sign going to end up, you think?

I mean, it's just Monday. What do you think is actually going to happen here? It feels like pick-em, to be perfectly honest. I don't have a good feel for this because missouri's coming off i mean they put a lot of energy and emotion they had the open week before georgia like they poured a lot into that and they played well but just not well enough to win i think they're good enough to beat tennessee but you know tennessee had the nice tune-up against UConn. They looked really good against Kentucky offensively.

That was not the Tennessee defense's best game. This could be kind of similar to Tennessee-Kentucky in terms of shootout-y. Now, the thing is, can Tennessee, like, will Joe Milton be as consistent as he's been? Will Tennessee run the ball as consistently as they have against this defense? I don't know. I'm leaning toward Missouri here. Interesting. Yeah, I was kind of leaning balls, and man, this would be so impressive. I don't know how much you're buying body blows on this one with Missouri, but I was just really impressed by like the legitimacy of that team playing with Georgia

the way that they did. And I'm not saying that playing Georgia makes you like you're just wrecked now and you can't show up for this game against Tennessee, but that would be quite a statement if they turned around and, uh, and, and figured out a way to best this Tennessee team that, you know, is not quite what we hoped it could be, but is still going to give Missouri a serious battle. And I'm leaning Vols here, but I'm with you. I'm not sure. I mean, Missouri, I'm guessing,

will be the home favorite ultimately, right? I don't know. I don't think so. I mean, if it immediately flipped to Tennessee beingessee being the favorite so yeah i mean that's that's the tricky part because like if tennessee's running the ball the way it has been for the the better part of the the late half of the season they can they can jump jump on you pretty quick yeah and and then they do have a good pass rush uh brady cook has been really good all season, but is he going to be able to handle James Pierce and company?

I'm going to take Missouri to win, especially if you're going to give me a point and a half at home. But I will point out I've been pretty much wrong on every Tennessee pick this year. Yeah, I mean, I'll go Vols, but it's a, it's a toss up for sure. And I mean, honestly, a testament to both that, you know, these are, these are legitimately really good teams and probably going to play a really close game. So now we move to state college. Michigan is a five and a half point favorite on the road. Your colleagues at the

athletic Austin Meek and Nicole Auerbach have reported on Monday that on Saturday, Michigan received a formal notification letter from the big 10 of potential disciplinary action in response to the sinus ceiling scandal, which we knew that was on the table. We know that Tony Petitti is allowed to impose up to a two-game suspension. There's a committee that can approve further discipline beyond that. We don't know what's going to happen as we record this on Monday night. But I'm just going right now with the assumption that Harbaugh's coaching this game. I also don't know that it

matters if he does that that's at the top of my list here I was going to ask you how much does this line actually move if he doesn't because I mean we are in the very I mean just the extremely unique circumstance here Andy of like we have already seen this Michigan team played three games without Jim Harbaugh this season due to an unrelated suspension so I like I would think even if he can't coach in this game and I don't look it's Monday I who knows what kind of injunctions or whatever come come into play with that stuff but like how much does the line move Jim Harbaughugh's not in State College? A point? Maybe. Maybe it goes down to four and a half.

Does anybody think that Penn State can score on these guys based on what we saw in the Penn State-Ohio State game? That's my question. How does Penn State generate points in this game? Only two drives against Ohio State where they went 50-plus yards. One of them was at the end of the game, obviously. They got 18 for 74 from their running drives against Ohio State where they went 50 plus yards. One of them was at the end of the game, obviously. They got 18 for 74 from their running backs against Ohio State. You got to be better than that in this one somehow, but Michigan's defense is so good. It's a group that just flat out will not allow explosives run or pass. And so, man, it's, and as we sit here today too, we don't know. I mean, if Chop Robinson's back for Penn State,

that's absolutely huge for this matchup, but we just don't know today. Here's the other part we don't know. We don't know what Michigan's offense will look like against an elite defense. Penn State's defense is very good, especially as you mentioned, if they get Chop Robinson back. So we could be looking at an Iowa game for all we know.

Well, I mean, that would be lovely. Wouldn't it? What TV network wouldn't want that? No, I'm with you, though. I think we're all pretty intrigued to see, like, can J.J. McCarthy go superhero mode in a game against one of the best defenses in the country? I'm sure that all the NFL scouts are very interested to see that.

He had a career-high 37 pass attempts against Purdue. They've kept him clean on 71% of his attempts this year, according to PFF. Zero picks in Big Ten play. This might be the game where we get a real statement from J.J. McCarthy of, yes, I am that dude. I can be one of the best in the country in the biggest games. When they've needed that from him, he's provided it.

Sure. You go back to Ohio State last year. They had not asked J.J. McCarthy to do much. They'd asked him to hand off. They've been so consistent with the run game up to that point, but they needed him to make huge plays in the passing game to beat Ohio State, and he did. And I look at him this year.

It feels like they've prepared him better for this moment by allowing him to do more because I think it's smart because you don't want to put him in the situation where he hasn't been asked to do it, and then all of a sudden he's thrust into this very hostile environment against a really good defense, and he hasn't had to really carry the offense at any point in the season also it's funny because i was watching jim harbaugh's press conference a lot of the

questions were kind of critical questions about michigan's run game which it's been good it just hasn't been as good as last year's right if you told me that going into november that donald edwards would have less than 300 rushing yards this year, I would say that's that's weird. What's going on there? But certainly they can still run the ball on anybody. And I think we'll probably see more of him in this one. Like, I think it's it's an interesting matchup for this Michigan offense, but I still feel like it's a cover for Michigan. I mean, I and look, it's a long week ahead, obviously very long week ahead

in Ann Arbor, but there's, I'm not quite convinced yet that this stuff is like actually getting into this locker room and rattling this team at all. I don't think it matters at all. I heard Zach Zenner say that he's, if they want to make them the villains, they're happy to be the villains. And I don't think the players are affected by this whatsoever. And again, whether Jim Harbaugh is there or not, I don't think it's going to matter. I really don't. I think he's kind of set it in motion,

and this team can function without him. But man, what a wild situation. Let's walk down this road, though, though real quick if Jim Harbaugh can't coach in this game for whatever reason and Penn State were to win doesn't that kind of solve the Michigan problem a little bit for the committee like how do you how do you see you know what I mean like I know that that's you can talk asterisks and stuff I'm sure Michigan people would in that scenario, but like, yeah, it's impossible to leave out the undefeated Michigan,

but let's also remember Penn state wins this game. That makes things a lot more interesting because Michigan could still beat Ohio state. And you're talking three-way tie. Correct. Yeah. And you're talking best West record out of that bunch. And.

I can't even calculate this in my head. State played Iowa. That is true. That is true. So there's, but that also might like, you know, I know it's easy for Booker and everyone to be like,

well, this is not our problem. That's an NCAA problem, but a one last Michigan. Even, even as a Big Ten champ, I feel like the committee would then have the license to say like, yeah, we want to maybe just stay out of this. Well, you could also say- There's other teams we could put it over.

They didn't play a good non-conference. Right. You could do that at that point. I don't think they would. I think they'd still put them in as a one loss, big 10 champ, but it would, it would definitely eliminate. Like if they didn't win the big 10 and they were 11 and one,

it would eliminate. Yeah, sure. So, but I don't think it's going to happen. Cause I think Michigan is going to win this game and, and cover this spread. And I,

I'm just fascinated by the whole thing because this these next few weeks are going to be wild max olson it's a absolutely legendary michigan ohio state game we're setting it's so good in every in every conceivable way on the day that rick flair visited jim harbaugh it sounds like something that came out of the wwe room. It's a work that turned into a shoot. It's, I mean, if it's a two game suspension, you got to do the,

just the most incredible entrance music for that. Oh my God. Cause that, that's, that's the beautiful thing. Like everybody's like, well, Fox would never,

Fox would never go for this. Can you imagine if, if he had to miss the Penn State game and the Maryland game? And then, yes, you do the Vince McMahon entrance out of the tunnel at Michigan Stadium for the Ohio State game. The only thing that could boost those ratings even higher is if Deion showed up. That would be about it. Deion might show up.

I'm done with you all. You can coach yourselves for this last game. Maybe so. Man, it's going to be incredible. We shall find out very soon. Max Olson, thank you so much. Great to see you, bud. Thanks for having me. We'll see you next time.