College Football Live - It's All Going Down In Texas

Episode Date: October 17, 2024

Victoria Arlen welcomes in Sam Acho and Trevor Matich to the studio for an electrifying showdown preview! The stakes are high as No. 5 Georgia takes on No. 1 Texas in Austin. Plus, don't miss the clash between No. 7 Alabama and No. 11 Tennessee, both with serious playoff implications on the line! Joe Fortenbaugh also joins the crew to break down the best bets for this action-packed Football and F1 weekend in Texas. And for all you tailgaters out there, we've got essential tips to ensure you and your loved ones stay ahead of the biggest storylines of the week. Get ready for an unforgettable episode of College Football Live! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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We'd love to talk, business. Welcome to college football live. Happy Thursday. I'm Victoria Arlen. Let's go out the tunnel. Texas has regained their spot at the top, but faced their biggest test in a Georgia team looking to prove that they are indeed a SEC powerhouse. Plus, Alabama hits the road to take on Tennessee and another SEC battle with major playoff implications.

And the crew is back again with more fun facts to help you boost your status and help you sound smarter at this weekend. against tailgate. All that and so much more coming up right here on college football live. College Football Live is presented by Dr. Pepper. Now you know it is going to be a great day, not a good day, a great day when Sam and Trevor are in studio with me. And guys, it is hard to believe that we are halfway through the regular season and with week eight here. We've got a lot to get to and quite the set of matchups coming your way. So let's get to it. Week 8 brings crucial matchup, so it's time to get our weekend lineup presented by Wendy's Saucy Knows.

Friday, second-ranked Oregon brings its perfect 6-0 record to West Lafayette, where Purdue has nine wins all-time versus AP top two teams when unranked in the AP poll, more than double of any other team. Also Friday, we've got 13th ranked BYU who looks to earn their first win against Oklahoma State in their fourth all-time meeting. The Cougars defense leads the Big 12 in yards allowed per play, while the Cowboys look to avoid their first O-N-4 conference start since 2005. Then on Saturday, Louisville hosts six-ranked Miami and the Hurricanes look for their first

7-0 start since 2017, while Cardinals Jeff Brum looks to a fifth AP top 10 win to add to his resume. And the third Saturday in October rivalry continues as 7th-ranked Alabama faces 11th ranked Tennessee. With both teams at 5 and 1, the winner keeps their playoff hopes alive, while the loser faced an uphill battle to say the least. And in prime time, fifth ranked Georgia visits top ranked Texas. Kirby Smart looks to earn his 100th career win on his first ever road trip against a number one team while Texas looks to defend its perfect 6 and 0 starts. Now week 8 brings crucial matchups that could shake up the college football playoff race. Now, according to the all

state playoff predictor. Alabama at Tennessee tops the list with a 21% impact, which is 9% more than any other matchup this weekend. While Georgia and Texas has just a 7% impact on both teams, and speaking of those two teams, we've got Georgia taking on Texas with the dogs being called the under dogs. Okay, that's the last time I'm going to say that, I promise. All right, it works. It really does work. But Trevor, where is Georgia most vulnerable? Well, in the secondary, They've got a bunch of busted coverages. They've got young players that are struggling to play the ball in the air, and Texas will seek to exploit both if the bulldogs don't fix it.

Now, a lot of the busted coverages have to do with miscommunication surrounding motion. Now, as this receiver comes across the formation, I want you to watch the defender's feet. They're parallel. He's not ready to carry this route deep. He's expecting help from the safety, but the safety has no intention of helping deep. I don't know which guy messed up here,

either way, it's a touchdown. Now that's one kind of motion. Here's another kind of motion where you just get close to the formation. The widest receiver goes inside, and he's replaced as the widest receiver by the running back. Now, what needs to happen here is one of two things between two different defenders. One of those things is that wide corner either needs to switch back outside to the widest receiver or that inside guy needs to carry man-to-man coverage out into the flat. depends on what they were told to do, but touchdown.

Now, this is the game winner for Alabama against Georgia, and this is where you've got young players not finding the ball, not playing the receiver. This ball comes in and the receiver, the defender doesn't know where it is. He puts his arms and legs every which way, trying to get lucky, but the ball's thrown inside. If he plays the ball, he can pick it off. If he plays the receiver, he can break it up. Either way, it becomes a huge highlight for Alabama. Now, Texas will be seeing this in their meeting rooms.

And they'll be thinking if Georgia doesn't fix this and fix it fast, the Longhorn smiles will be as big as Texas. Oh, and that's pretty big. That's pretty big. All right. Well, Sam, on the other side, Texas has their first true test of the season, their defense facing Carson Beck. How do you see them stepping up?

Well, they have to not only step up, but step into the backfield. Carson Beck and this Georgia offense, they have a lot of big plays, 37 on the season of 20-plus yard plays. But he's not getting a lot of pressure. around him. He's sitting in the pocket safely and softly. You need to see guys like Anthony Hill. You need to see guys like Baron Sorrell, number 88, Hill's number zero. Guys like Ethan Burke, number 91, getting in the backfield and creating pressure. That allows guys on the back end, like number 23 Joday Barron, to make plays.

Make it a long day for Carson Beck. He's probably going to be one of the first quarterbacks taken, but he hasn't had pressure. So what's going to have to happen for Texas to win is, yes, they will be tested, but they must pass that test by living in the opponent's backfield, then their smiles will be as big as Texas. Right, but not tested is right. When you look at the passing attacks that Texas has faced, Michigan is last in passing in the Big Ten, Oklahoma is last in passing in the SEC.

Mississippi State can throw a little bit. So Texas's defensive stats are great, but this is the first time they'll face an NFL quarterback. All right, and this is hopefully where they'll be able to get their smiles as big as Texas. All right, we're going to keep things rolling in the SEC. We get another edition of the third Saturday in October this Saturday on ABC. number seven Alabama travels to Knoxville as they face number 11 Tennessee. The tide has dominated the series lately, winning 16 of the last 17.

But the balls look to make a change to that record this weekend. Here's Coach DeBoer on the rivalry. As a coach, they're all big, right, in different ways, and he'd take one at a time, but we certainly understand the significance of the rivalry and, you know, guys are going to be very motivated to go out and do their best. and prepare well and be great on Saturday. And this rivalry has been around a long time before Nick Saban was a part of it or I was a part of it. The magnitude of this rivalry is the historical nature and what it's meant inside of this league a lot.

Now Tennessee and Alabama are both coming off of close calls as of late, especially Alabama. So Sam, what's gone wrong for the Crimson Tide? Well, it's pretty simple. Alabama is beating themselves. It's not let other opponents beat them. They're doing it to themselves. Take a look at the tape. This is a play.

I want you to look at the time. There's two, there's less than two minutes left, second and eight. One of their star defensive players, Malacott Moore, number 13, is going to have an opportunity to get a sack, a fumble. He misses it barely. Now, no big deal. Quarterback just throws it away. We're not worried about it.

But remember, that time and the play. This is two plays later. Fourth and nine, what happens? Alabama gives up a big touchdown because of miscommunication on the back end. And missed opportunity leads to a big play. but it's not just offense. Defense, let's go to offense. Right here.

You're going to see a delayed rush. And so the right tackle is going to think that the defensive end is dropping. Well, he's not. He goes to rush, and that's going to be a safety, intentional grounding in the end zone safety. So now instead of 14-0, it's 14-9. Now later in that same quarter, still second quarter. Look at the time. 44 seconds left.

You're going to see a sack giving up on the inside. Beautiful spin move. I love it. Trevor loves it. We all love it. It's going to be a sack. But this isn't that to happen. What does that force?

A few seconds later. Look at the clock. Now there's 11 seconds. same quarter, going to be an interception by Jalen Murrow trying to force him. This interception will be returned inside the 20-yard line. That would lead to a field goal to make it 1412. And so all those plays are preventable. Alabama would go on to win this game by two points at the end of regulation,

but all those little plays they end up beating themselves. That's what's happening for this Alabama team. No, I don't love that sack by Tonka Hemingway at all as an offensive line. But he is the author of a farewell to pass protection. So there you go. Now, here's the thing. If Bamba keeps making those mistakes, the Tennessee offense has a chance to burn them.

Early in the season, they were fantastic at connecting with deep passes. The last three games, those have dried up because Nico Iamaleava, the Tennessee quarterback, hasn't been as accurate. But if they're able to snap back into form, if they're able to connect with some of those deep passes against Bama, they will find places to throw the ball in the Bama secondary. Well, I will say this, yeah, Nico E. Maliava hasn't been as accurate. But you could say, well, this is the defense he's going to get it going against, or you could also say this defense has. has an opportunity to get their mojo back by going against the quarterback who has open receivers, but he's just missing them, right? In a similar way of Carson Beck, there's open space in the pocket, but he's missing the open

receivers. How dare you show me that spin move against that offense? Oh, I knew you would love it. Well, it was crazy. To highlight them too, make a big. Well, it was crazy. You saw that graphic. It went from 43 to 18, and it's a pretty drastic change halfway through.

All right. We are going to take a look at the analytics because they need a win. Alabama needs to win bad because Alabama. Alabama's playoff chances would go up significantly to 80% while Tennessee would see their playoff chances rise to just 20%. Now ESPN Analytics gives the tide a 54% chance to win this week by no more than one point. So it's going to be a close one. So get ready for a show fellas. But don't forget, you can catch both of these games on ABC and ESPN Plus Saturday, starting with the Tennessee Bama game at 3.30 p.m. Now, the NCAA on Wednesday issued a new rules interpretation on how to handle a penalty for 12 players on the field in the final two minutes of the half after Oregon coach Dan Lenning said the Ducks intentionally used 12 men on defense to help run out the final seconds of their 32 to 31 win Saturday over Ohio State. Now, according to the new interpretation, if the defense has 12 players on the field during a play, the offense can choose to take a five-yard penalty.

and reset the game clock. But keep in mind, if one of those extra players was just trying to get off the field and didn't actively affect the play, there won't be any clock change. It's a little nuance that can make a big difference in the game. Now coming up, Miami has done just enough to sit atop the ACC so far,

but does a road test against Louisville change that path for the canes? Find out next. And get your applause and notebooks ready, folks. Joe Fortinbaugh is here to break down all the big action and dance moves down in Texas and beyond this weekend. You don't want to miss what Joe's picks are next. College Football Live is presented by ice cold Dr. Pepper. College football.

It's a pepper thing. Black Friday is here at IKEA, and the clock is ticking on savings you won't want to miss. Join IKEA family for free today and unlock deals on everything from holiday must-haves to cozy at-home essential. all the little and big things you need to make this season shine. But don't wait. Like leftovers at midnight, our Black Friday offers won't last.

Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca.com. Bring home to life. When you fly in Emirates business class and you're picked up by your private, luxury, chauffeur-driven car, you'll see that your vacation isn't really over until your flight is over. Fly, Emirates. Fly better. This is college football live presented by Dr. Pepper. Welcome to the shootout in Texas. Cue the applause. Can we hear it? Can we hear it? Because...

Oh, I'm not. I'm not one for that. Thanks, everyone. It is that time of the week. Our favorite betting analyst, he's not shy at all, folks. A dear friend of the show is here. Joe Fortinbaugh. Now, Joe, besides the giant applause that you get here every week, they say everything is bigger in Texas. And this weekend, we've got not only F1 going down in Austin, but we've got this massive Georgia, Texas matchup, all going down this weekend. So let's hear your parley for the weekend. We created a little lottery ticket for the people.

We're going to take George on the money line here. If you believe there's a little bit of an upset, we're going to take two upsets together. We're going to give you Georgia plus 175. And then there's Oscar Piastri of McLaren. He's their. number two driver behind Lando Norris. Norris is the favorite to win this race. McLaren has come off the summer break. They have been sensational. Four races, they've won three of them.

In that four race stretch, Piostri won one of those races, finished second and the other, has a very good chance here. So put those two together. We get played plus 1550. I got to be the first F1 analyst in college football live history, right? I love this. That's why we do the applause every week. I do have a question, though.

You just skip past the Georgia at Texas. So you think Georgia is going to beat Texas. So the thing with that is that's just implied. so I didn't feel I needed to break that down. But tell us why. I mean, why? Because they're being labeled the underdogs. They're being labeled the underdogs. Are you in agreement? Yeah, based on everything we've seen from Texas and the stumble from Georgia earlier,

plus the fact that Georgia's defense hasn't been what we traditionally see under Kirby Smart, I can understand them as a dog. Money has been on Texas as well. This opened three and a half, it went up to five. We saw that Texas money hit the market last night. What I'd like to know from you to, I think it's going to be a higher scoring game. It's sitting around 56. Texas is ranked number one and several key defensive metrics.

Haven't played anybody, though, right? That's the thing. As we creep up to about 56 and a half now in the market, two of the quarterbacks that they faced have already been benched. And the last two quarterbacks they faced were both making their first career start. So I think maybe a little overvalue. Well, I think there's some truth to that. I look at Ohio State last week.

And Ohio State was the number one defense, giving up less than seven points a game last week. But they hadn't played anybody. All of a sudden they play Oregon, a top-ranked team. And they all of a sudden give up a whole. a whole lot more points. So I think there is some value to that. Trevor, what do you say? I think Georgia is going to keep getting better and better because a lot of their problems on both sides of the ball are because of either youth or injury in every game that they play, those young guys or those young replacements get a little better. I will say this, though. Georgia, it's almost like

feast or famine. You'll see them play good on defense at some points. Then other points to them give up big plays. You'll see them have silly interceptions on offense. And so it's almost as if we've seen an inconsistent form or version of the Georgia office. offense and really the whole Georgia team. We're so used to. Go ahead. Go ahead. No, no, we're used to. I was going to say we're so used to Georgia being ranked number one, three or five in every defensive metric.

And now this year they're right around the 20s, it's a little bit of a slide for them. Still good, but not great. I was just going to say for Sam's benefit that bulldogs are bred to grab bulls by the nose and drag that nose down onto the ground so bad things can happen on the other end. You know that, right? I did not know that.

But what I do know is that Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers is back and he's healthy and he's going to try to expose that Georgia bulldog defense without being grabbed by the horns. Is that what you say? No, the nose. No, the nose. I don't know if there's another. There is.

There is. That things happen. All right. Well, why don't we get to this Miami Louisville game before we get anywhere else? All right. So the wins of fortune are swirling for the Miami Hurricanes. A win could boost their ACC championship game chances to 80 percent and their playoff odds to 88 percent.

But a loss would significantly dampen their postseason hopes and it is a pivotal weekend for the you. Now, Trevor, how does Louisville pull off the. upset. With deep passes, with big plays. If Miami has an Achilles heel to set the defense, the last few weeks has given up a ton of big plays. They mounted a furious comeback against Virginia Tech, but they had to because early in the game, they gave up six plays of 20 plus yards. I mean, Virginia Tech was scoring touchdowns from deep down the field. They had a furious miracle comeback at the end against Cal because they gave up seven plays of 20 plus yards, including

four of 50 plus yards to Cal. Louisville has a lot of. the kind of offense that can strike deep. And if Miami doesn't clean that up, they could be an attract meet. But it's not just striking deep in the passing game. Louisville's offense, they can actually do it in the running game as well. They haven't been asked statistically strong this year, but they're running game. You see a lot of big plays in the running game. My concern for Louisville is their defense.

Their defense last year was a lot better than they're playing this year. So that could be an area that that you see oftentimes are out of their gaps, right? Out of position on zone replay. You see two guys going inside and the quarterback running outside. So if they don't get that solved, Cam Ward and Miami is going to run the exact same play. and going to get on the edges and score big, big plays. I'm not sure a by week has ever been better position than when Miami's getting it coming off last week. All right?

They blow out their first four opponents and then they survive against Virginia Tech. And then they have to come all the way back to beat Cal. That was a team that was on edge. You could feel that something was going to go south. Exactly. Exactly. And then they get their by week. They're six to know.

They can take a deep breath. They can reboot. Now you go to Louisville. Game opens three, gets bet up to five. So we've seen Miami money. The fact that this game is at noon. I think is a big factor. The fan base, they can't get properly lubricated for a game like that, right?

You get an 8 p.m. game at Louisville. It's going to be a lot more hostile than a noon game. Well, in fairness, they just remain lubricated from the night before. It just rolls in from Friday evening. I do have a question. You talk about the bye week for Miami. I wonder if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Great question, right?

Like a by week after you're reeling, I get it. But it's like you're also undefeated. You're 60-0. You're the number one team and a lot of people's rankings as far as ACCC teams go. And so we've seen that bite some teams in the butt. Correct. That's my fear when it comes to this Miami team. Will they fix some of their issues?

Or is, hey, we're back, we're Miami, and all of a sudden you get surprised by a team. Yeah, and I'm just thinking that a longhorn is a steer. Bivo's a steer. What's the difference between a steer and a bull? I'm going to Google that and find that out. That's good. Hard hitting stuff.

And I think we've seen it all play out. Nothing is left unhinged and untouched here at this season. I love the longhorns. I'm just going to get to. You are Dr. Pepper Championship Drive game of the week preview featuring number eight LSU taking on at the SEC foe. Arkansas on Saturday night after their six-sacquembrance last week against LSU. The Tigers defense is up to 21 sacks this season, tying them with Virginia Tech for the fifth most in the FBS. We shall see what happens.

All right, coming up, if you need to sound smarter at your tailgate this weekend, we got your back. Stay tuned for a new set of fun facts to impress your friends and friends. family with after the break. This Giving Tuesday, Cam H is counting on your support. Together, we can forge a better path for mental health by creating a future where Canadians can get the help they need, when they need it, no matter who or where they are. From November 25th to December 2nd,

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College football, it's a pepper thing. Everything's bigger in Texas, and you will find the whole gang live from Austin this Saturday at 9 a.m. Eastern. Have you ever gone to a tailgate and realized you don't have anything to contribute to the discussion? Well, we here on College Football Live have something for you, and we call it, tailgate tips, where we give you some necessary tips of knowledge to sound smarter and impress your friends every Saturday. You can thank us later. It is that time for tailgate tips, and Amy decided to make it look like I was somewhat coordinated. All right, tailgate tip time. Trevor, you go first. There is hope for the Michigan passing game. Jack Tuttle came back from

injury against Washington, struggled a little bit with the speed of the game in that game, but he is extraordinarily talented. When he was at Indiana, though, he was playing behind the first round. draft choice and Michael Pennix Jr. A quarterback when at Michigan, he's playing behind J.J. McCarthy. McCarthy. He became a first-trial draft choice. And now he's finally getting his chance.

He is the best passer on the Michigan offense and he might be able to bring up the passing game from the depths of despair. We love a good sign of hope. All right, my tailgate tip is what is the group of five? A lot of folks have been asking and we talked a lot about them

lately, especially with Boise State's Ashen Gentie. going on an absolute tear. Now the group of five, let me break it down for you. It refers to the five FBS college football conferences, which are not considered part of the power four leagues. The AAC conference, USA, the MAC, the Mountain West, and the Sunbelt are all in the group of five, while the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, and SEC are part of the Power Four.

And I love that. And I love that because one of the group of five champions, the highest rate is going to be in the cost football playoff. Yes. Now my tailgate is correct. My tailgate tip is this. Anyone going to Austin for the college football game, you know, Texas and Georgia? Bring your checkbook because the hotels are expensive.

Why? Not just because the football game at DKR, but also there's an F1 Formula Racing. Formula One. Racing. Racing opportunity there. So anyways, I was looking online. Race. Bebo's fast.

It was like $700 for a hotel. So get your checkbooks. If you know what that is, those still exist. Who owns a checkbook? I got one. You got a checkbook? I read about that on the internet once. I got my pageer.

I got my checkbook. I'm good. We've all got checkbooks here, but we were definitely doing kind of a general consensus of who does a checkbook. Who doesn't do a checkbook? It's definitely, see, look at that. I have got a checkbook.

It was a look of terror on your face. I do have a checkbook. You see what I'm saying? I know a checkbook. Look, you're not the only one. I don't have any money. It is definitely, yeah. Okay.

Look, we hope you enjoy your games. We hope you have a checkbook or know how to use a checkbook. For Trevor, Sam, I'm Victoria. It's going to be a jam-packed weekend. We hope you have a fun and safe time. And we'll see you next weekend.