College Football Live - CFP Chaos Continues

Episode Date: November 12, 2024

Victoria Arlen, Heather Dinich, Sam Acho, Desmond Howard and Pete Thamel react to a week of upsets across college football. How can Miami and Georgia bounce back and prove they belong in a 12-team playoff? Plus, the crew breaks down the state of the Big 12, and where Coach Prime and Colorado stand. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello everyone. Welcome to college football live. I'm Victoria Arlen. Let's go out the tunnel. With Ole Miss handing Georgia their worst loss since 2019, we discussed why the dogs are in the doghouse and how this could affect their playoff chances moving forward. Plus, some year-to-year deja vu as Georgia Tech defeated Miami for the second straight season. And Kuihain's King joins the show to discuss being the first signal caller to take down the hurricanes this season. And finally, It's Tuesday, so that means we get new rankings coming your way. And we've got Heather Dinnich here in studio on what we can expect ahead of tonight's rankings reveal here on College Football Live. Welcome to College Football Live, presented by Google Pixel.

We've got another rankings revealed tonight between the two champions classic basketball games on ESPN. But before we get to that, I am joined by Heather Dinnich with, in studio and Sam Ocho and Desmond Howard from afar. And Pete Thammell, of course, is here with the latest college football news in just a bit. But there has yet to be a weekend where we haven't been saying, oh, snap, and maybe a few other words that are not TV appropriate. So let's get to why some of you were screaming at your TVs this weekend, shall we? Because we had plenty of upsets in chaos in week 11, starting with an early upset in Atlanta as Georgia Tech knocked off fourth ranked Miami, 28 to 23.

Cam Ward threw for 348 yards and three touchdowns, but the Cains allowed 271 yards on the ground in their first loss of the season. And the SEC Alabama crews passed LSU 42 to 13 in Death Valley. Jalen Milro ran for a career high, 185 yards on the ground with four rushing touchdowns to keep the tides playoff hopes alive. And ninth ranked BYU escaped Utah with a 22 to 21 win. Jake Retzloff was sacked on the fourth down late in the fourth quarter, but defensive holding was called to extend the drive,

and the Cougars later made a 44-yard field goal for the win. And third-ranked Georgia was handed its worst loss since 2019, with a 28 to 10 defeat at Old Miss. The dog's offense netted just 246 yards of total offense, as Lane Kiffing picked up his first win against a top five team at Ole Miss. Kirby Smart had a lot of praise, though. I told our team coming in this week, I felt like they were probably the most talented team that we had played, counting both sides of the ball and special teams. A lot of credit goes to Lane and his staff.

Look, they really should be undefeated. I know people think that's not true, but they really controlled the game against the LSU the whole game and lost it. And they're playing good football. And they outplayed us tonight, outcoached us, and did a great job. Des, were you at all surprised by? the outcome of this game. No, I really wasn't. On game day, we get to pick the games.

And on game day, we were talking about, like, the Ole Miss and their chances of making the playoff. We did this thing about with this meter. And I said, well, you know, if they're able to win these remainder games after tonight's game, and guys said, what you mean tonight's game? You think Georgia's going to lose? I said, just wait. And then later in the picks, I say, yeah, Georgia will lose to Ole Miss.

I thought that Georgia's offensive line and the quarterback play of Carson Beck hasn't been great this season. And I understood, more importantly, I thought that Ole Misses Front Seven will control the line of scrimmage. And they did. Guys, I've looked at Carson Beck. We've seen him this season. And he just hasn't been sharp. And so that's why I thought that they would be able to take advantage of Carson Beck, his turnovers, the way he's been throwing the ball. and not only would Jackson Dart and the offense play well,

but I thought that Ole Miss's defense would be the story of the game, and they were handing Georgia their worst loss since 2019, beating them, Sam, 28 to 10. And as you're right, in that Georgia's offensive line and really, Ole Miss's defense was the story of this game, Ole Miss dominated up front. They looked like the more physical team, the more athletic team,

out the better team. And you saw a lot of shifts and a lot of stunts up front, but they confused and rattled Carson Beck along with stifling the running game from start to finish, even though Georgia got out to an early lead based off of interception when Jackson Dark got hurt. But outside of that, it was all Ole Miss all day. And so we have to give a lot of credit to this Ole Miss defense, though Carson Beck has struggled so far this season.

But Heather, how is the committee going to view this one tonight? Well, there's a lot of two-loss SEC teams to sort through now. And I think Alabama is still their highest-ranked two-loss team, period, because of the head-to-head win against Georgia. I think they're above Georgia. This is where Ole Miss fans are blowing up my Twitter account saying, why would you not put Ole Miss ahead of Georgia after we just beat them? Well, here's why, because Georgia has a better resume. They beat Texas, and they have a win against the top 25 CFP team in Clemson as well. So when you look at the strength of schedule,

Ole Miss is 33rd. Georgia is first. And this is why, hold on to your seat now, this is why I think it's possible that if Georgia loses to Tennessee and finishes as a three-loss SEC team, I wouldn't necessarily eliminate them. Oh, Heather, I hear where you're coming from

and I might need to get on your Twitter as well because I'll sit here saying, hold on, hold on. Georgia just played Ole Miss, and you're telling me there's a potential that Ole Miss might be behind. behind Georgia. Part of me understands you're coming from from the rankings, but the other part of me says, man, what about that head-to-head

match-up? So if I'm an Ole Miss fan, I'm sitting here like, dude, we just beat them and it wasn't close. How could we be below? And so I wouldn't be surprised if, for whatever reason, Ole Miss might be slightly ahead of Georgia, but I definitely see where you're coming from with the strength of schedule. Well, it's crazy to you because

Ole Miss knocked off Georgia, which many said was going to be the toughest team on their schedule, but it was their highest rank, highest ranked home win since 2014. But let's get from one surprising SEC win to another because number 11, Alabama, dominated number 15, LSU 42 to 13 in Death Valley at night, something we haven't seen in the Brian Kelly era.

So what did this game show you, Sam? Well, show me that Alabama not only can be a contender, but they can be a contender when Jalen Morrow embraces all of who he is. Yes, Jalen Morrow came out of high school as not a dual. threat quarterback, but a pocket passer, one of the top-rated pocket passers. But what makes him extremely elite is his ability to run the ball as well. It's his superpower. And so I think one thing that's great about this game is that it showed that Jalen Muro

can do it in multiple ways. He can beat you with his legs single-handedly. And if you decide to take that away, right, instead of four rushing touchdowns, he could be you with four passing touchdown. So there's a special sauce that Jailen Mero has that he was able to show in this last game. but he's not just an elite runner. He has that passing game as well. He started to embrace it all.

But, Des, how did LSU let this game get so out of hand? Your guess is as good as mine. Because going into this game, everyone understood you cannot let Jalen Milrow run. You are not going to let him beat you with delays. We saw what happened the previous week when LSU played Texas A&M and Marcel Reed came in the game in the second half. and LSU's defense acting like they didn't even know that a quarterback can run, like they didn't know that was legal in the game.

And so we figured, okay, the next week, we know that's Jalen's superpower. That's his strength. You can't let him beat you with his legs. If he's going to win this game, it has to be from the pocket with his arm. And I tell you what, Jalen Milro, he just took over the game. Once he had that first long run, a guy like Mill Road, he settles in, and then everything starts to slow down for him and then he becomes equally dangerous.

So I was really surprised that they could not stop, not the run, but the quarterback run. Now, Heather, entering week 11, you had the tide as one of your last two teams in as an 11 seed. Where do you think the committee will place them in now? Victoria, I bumped them up to number nine this week. I'm wondering if the committee puts them even higher because even though they have two losses,

they have two of the best wins in the country against LSU and Georgia. Remember how we talked about the SEC and Big Ten owning the top 12, right? And now this is just coming to fruition in terms of teams that they're beating. However, they have two losses, which is why I still have them behind Notre Dame.

But their wins are better than anything Notre Dame has on their schedule. So I think that's at least an interesting debate, but for now I have them at number nine. I mean, it's well deserved, I'd say. I mean, after that game. All right, we've got a lot of SEC action coming your way this weekend. Take a look at our SEC on ABC College Football lineup we have for you on Saturday, Texas takes on Arkansas at noon.

Then it's off to the swamp for LSU in Florida, and we cap the night between the hedges in Athens with Georgia hosting Tennessee. What a football lineup on ABC and ESPN Plus. All right, coming up, Georgia Tech. QB Haynes King joins the show to discuss the yellow jackets marquee win over the Miami Hurricanes. And speaking of the hurricanes, where is the concern level for them now after that loss and find out why Des thinks Cam Ward needs to kick it into another mode? College Football Live is presented by Google Pixel. The hedges this week against Tennessee, the Bulldogs still have the third best resume in the country

and catch game day there at 9 a.m. on ESPN. Our Capital One rewarding performance goes to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jack Yellow Jack, to knocked off number four Miami after a stripped sack of Miami QB Cam Ward. This was Georgia Tech's second win against a team that was 9-0 or better in the AP poll era. And speaking of Georgia Tech, let's welcome in the first signal caller to take down the hurricanes this season, Haynes King. Now, Haynes, I've got to start with asking you about the final two minutes of that crazy game. What was going through your head? You know, going through the head is just execution.

You know, if we executed on offense, got a couple first downs, ran the clock out, you know, we would win. You know, actually one of the third downs almost thought I screwed us, you know, kind of had a bad read on that. But, you know, as a team, we overcame it, got another turnover and executed, got a first down, run the clock out. Now, this was not the first time your team has knocked off a top 10 team in the final moments of a game. You kicked off the season knocking off Florida State over in Dublin. How did that have an impact on your team's mentality and ability to know you could do it in this game? Like you just said, it just instills kind of like that confidence with the whole team, knowing that, you know, we've already been in this situation before.

And to be able to do it again, it just shows like all the hard work that we've done throughout the season and off season. and just leading up to this game, it finally pays off. Yeah, Haynes, this is Sam Macho. You talked earlier about that third down where you felt like you had the bad read. What were you feeling during that time immediately after that play? You know, it was a pull read, pulled it. Just kind of was seeing a little ghost here and there. Just thought the corner was falling off on one of the sliders

and, you know, decided to try to keep it and get the first down myself instead of just, you know, trusting what I see and throw it out there. And you'd miss the last two games that you came back, game time decision. What was going through your mind when it was that time to try and suit up to try to play? You know, going through the week, talking with coach, having conversations with the training staff and Coach Key. You know, I kind of knew what my role was this year. And, I mean, this week going into the game. and, you know, I took ownership in that role and just tried to rally the team behind me

and just find ways to win the ballgame. Score, keep scoring, keep Cam Ward and that explosive offense off the field. And when you did, it was great to see you back out there. And thank you so much for joining the show and good luck the rest of the season, Haynes. Thank you. Now, if this result seems familiar, it should. Georgia Tech won its sixth outright win as an underdog of a lot of. at least nine points under Brent Key,

the most of any FBS team since 2022. Meanwhile, Miami lost as a nine point favorite or more for the fourth time over that same span, tied for the second most in the FBS. Now, Des, where did it go wrong for Miami? Yeah, well, it's easy to, I guess, point at what went wrong, and it was with Cam Ward. He only plays in one mode.

And by that means, there are three modes you should play in as an offensive player. It's a regular game time mode. That's just when the game is either zero to zero. It's a lot of time on the clock, and you're just going from 20 to 20. Then there's a four-minute mode. The four-minute mode happens late in the fourth quarter, but it's still a lot of time on the clock,

and you're trying to milk the clock because you have a lead. And then there's the two-minute mode. Two-minute offense means little urgency. We're behind. We need to get in either field goal position or to score a touchdown, and Cam was in regular game mode. He didn't have any urgency. He's back there looking around, looking around.

Two-minute mode, the ball needs to come out now. First read, second read, it has to come out. Either you run the ball or you throw it out of bounds, you go to the next down. He spent too much time under those circumstances moving around, trying to find guys, going to his left, going to his right. That's not the mode he needed to be.

he should have been in two-minute mode and then he wouldn't have got stripped from behind. Either he's going to throw the ball on time or he would run or throw it out of bounds and live to see another down. But the way that he's played all season, Das, has actually made him to what he is. This Hiseman candidate,

this conversation of an undefeated Miami. And so it's, I don't, you know, we talk about changing modes. Like, we've seen Cam Ward at critical times, be cool under pressure, be collected, make people miss and pitch the ball out to potentially have one of these Hizman moments. So I understand where you're coming from.

but that that 20 to 20 mode is how he's actually been extremely effective all season. Now that loss knocks the once undefeated Miami off the top of the ACC standings and opens the door for other conference teams to challenge. But guys, that wasn't the only Florida roughness going on. What a rough weekend for Florida football all around. Now, Des, your Miami Dolphins were the only football team in Florida that managed to find a win this week. The rest of the teams went 0 for 11, including six FBS teams, highlighted by the huge Miami upset and a six straight loss by Florida State.

All right. We are going to bring in Pete Thammell for our top stories around college football. So Pete, let's start with FSU and some big changes on both sides of the ball. Well, Victoria, the reckoning has begun for Florida State's one and nine season. They are in 17th place in the ACC right now, and changes are here. They fired offensive coordinator and O-Line coach Alec Atkins. They fired defensive coordinator Adam Fuller. They also fired wide receiver coach Ron Dugans.

Two big questions, I think, loom over this offseason. First of all, Mike Norville's contract is through 2031. He's safe. Will he keep play calling and who will the quarterback be for next season? As for Nebraska, they have an OC change of their own. Dylan Rayola will now cut plays from Dana Holgerson, who's the new OC. He came as a consultant.

He'll call plays when they play. USC this weekend looking for bowl eligibility. And in other USC news that looms over college football, a giant in the college football industry, John Robinson passed away earlier this week at the age of 89. John Robinson won five league titles. He won four Rose Bulls. He's the rare head coach to have a Hall of Fame college career and also be a very good NFL coach.

He did time with the Rams. He's also the UNLV coach later in his career, Victoria, truly a giant, and also former Notre Dame coach Jerry Faust passed away this week. He dueled with Robinson in that rivalry early in the 80s. Of course, our thoughts and prayers are with both of those families during this difficult time. Thank you so much, Pete. All right, coming up next, a new rankings drop is on the way tonight. And could we see not one but two teams make the cut in the Big 12?

Well, we'll find out next here on College Football Live. You're watching College Football Live. by Google Pixel. College Football Live is presented by Google Pixel. All right, let's get to the Big 12, where number nine, BYU remained perfect with an improbable last gas drive to Stun, Utah. They're now one of just four remaining unbeaten. While number 20, Colorado also remained in the wind column,

defeating Texas Tech 41 to 27. Shador Sanders had himself a game throwing for 291 yards, and three touchdowns. Now, BYU and Colorado hold down the top two spots in the Big 12. Now, ESPN Analytics currently projects those two as the most likely Big 12 title game matchup. Behind them, it's a four-way tie for third place. And remember, in the new 12-team, C-FP format, the five highest-ranked conference champions

receive an automatic bid. So, Sam, who's got the edge in this Big 12 race? I think Colorado has the edge in the Big 12 race, based off the momentum they've been playing with and the style change that we've seen. We've seen Colorado become not necessarily a running team, but more willing to run the football. There are critical third and three plays written that decided to run the ball. Second and 10, they decided to run the ball.

And oh, by the way, even if they don't run the ball, once they wake up on offense, they can hit you in a hurry. Last week versus Texas Tech, they were down 13-0, halfway through the second quarter. Then all of a sudden, they rallied off point after point after point. Touchdown after touchdown after touchdown. And it wasn't just Travis Hunter, guys like Lejonte Wester as well. And so for me, the Colorado. Buffaloes have a huge opportunity because they can turn their offense on quickly.

Yeah, Sam, the reason they can turn their offense on is because they made some adjustments to their offensive line. Don't forget, coming to the season, that was the big question mark. And then week two, they got their, they got manhandled by Nebraska's defensive front. I spoke to the offensive coordinator, Pat Shermer. He said that they moved right tackle Tyler Brown to the guard position and brought in Philip Houston and put him at the tackle position. in the Colorado State game, and they've been great ever since. I'll tell you what. He said, after that, then you can just see Shadour take off.

He's an elite quarterback with great skills. He says very precise in his reads, and not only is he accurate, but he has great ball placement, too. I can't disagree with that. Now, Heather, what are the chances that the Big 12 of the Big 12 having multiple teams in the playoff? Victoria, the best chance for that to happen would be to have BYU run the table and then finish

as a runner-up in the conference as a one-lossed team. Now, remember, Colorado, two-lost team, winning the Big 12, they're in. It doesn't matter how many losses you have. You win your league, you're in if you're one of the five highest-ranked conference champions. But if BYU is sitting out there as a one-loss runner-up, what does the committee do with them? They could put them in, but the other thing that helps them is, does Notre Dame lose? Do they lose to Army? Is there another three-loss SEC team?

Where's the window for them to get in there? Now, reminder, you can catch the rankings reveal tonight between the Michigan State, Kansas, and Duke, Kentucky games tonight on ESPN. Now, we've got one for the road. Now, after defeating Texas Tech, 41 to 27, the trash inducing tortillas came raining down Saturday at Texas Tech. Now, as Coach Prime said, after, they were throwing everything but my mama at me. And Shador Sanders even autographed a tortilla. And as they say, if you can't beat them, join them. But if you're Colorado also beat them.

And so we decided to also join Colorado and sign ourselves. Who needs a tortilla? Yeah, you need a tortilla. Yeah, do you sign me? Yeah, do you need one day? All right, first, Cubs football live. She's Heather. He's dead.

He's Sam. All right, thanks for watching.