College Football Live - Midwest Woes

Episode Date: September 10, 2024

Host Victoria Arlen is joined by Sam Acho, Desmond Howard, and Pete Thamel to discuss Notre Dame's shocking loss at home to NIU and Texas's complete dismantling of Michigan. Plus, with 3 other ranked teams losing this weekend, find out which teams may surprise us later this season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When you're flying Emirates business class, sipping your favorite cocktail at our onboard lounge, you'll see that your vacation isn't really over until your flight is over. Fly Emirates, fly better. They did it indeed after the shocking upset you just saw. NIAU head coach Thomas Hammock is joining us in just minutes here on college football live. And what did that loss mean for Notre Dame in their college football playoff hopes? Our analysts discuss what's next for the Irish. Plus, there are plenty of other surprises in week two.

Coming up, we react to the biggest games of the weekend and share who impressed us the most. College Football Live starts now. Now it's a week where some teams are waking up with smiles on their faces that they were not expecting like NIU and others are still in shock like Notre Dame. Welcome to College Football Live, everyone. Samacho, Desmond Howard, and Pete Famil joining me in a minute. But first, let's get to that game we are all still talking about. It was a stunner and the first time ever that the Northern Illinois Huskies, beat at top 10 opponent when they took down Notre Dame 16 to 14.

The fighting Irish were the heavy favorites going into Saturday. 28 and a half point favorites actually, according to ESPN bet, but there was no luck needed, according to NIU head coach Thomas Hammack. What you can do with the power of belief and working together and just stand through it through dick and thin. That's what we are. That's a team. That's a family.

That's guys that wanted. I told you all week. We can not leave off. We did not leave off. This was also the first win by mid-American conference team against an AP top five team. The MAC was previously 0-151 against such opponents. Now, a man I want to run through a brick wall for, welcome to the show. Coach Thomas Hammack, Coach, it was absolutely incredible watching you and your Huskies get the win

and that postgame sound and see the excitement and emotion that followed. Can you even try to describe to me what that moment was like right after that, win? You know, it was surreal in the moment. You know, when you plan in the game, you're trying to think of the next situation. You're trying to think of different things that may come up in the course of a game. And so I couldn't really enjoy it. It came down to the end. I told my staff and the staff meeting that that morning, I had a dream that was going to come down to a field goal. I don't know what happened because I woke up. I'm glad it went in our favor. Absolutely. And how has that response been after the wind? We're glad you woke up. And I understand that your phone

was also just absolutely going crazy. No, it's been, it's been unbelievable. And a lot of people reaching out in support of our program, which hopefully increases awareness of us so we can move forward in this new landscape of college football. We have tremendous kids in our program. We have tremendous coaches. Now if we can increase our resources, we can certainly move forward, as we show on Saturday night. Coach, this is Sam Acho. I love watching you guys play. What does this program mean to you?

It means everything. You know, I was developed here under Coach Novak, have a tremendous amount of pride in this program. I met my wife here, met her at Douglas Hall. I named my son, Thomas Douglas. So obviously, I believe Cardinal and Black. And so for me to have an impact on the young men in our program, like the coaches had an impact on me, it means everything. And this is why I left the National Football League to come make a difference

and make an impact on young people. Coach, this is Desmond Howard. You just mentioned that you left the National Football League. I was actually watching your game with my daughter, Sidney, who was with the Baltimore Ravens at the same time you were. She reminded me that you can. coached Justin Fawcett in 2014. He was a journeyman at that time, but he landed in Baltimore.

You coached him, and he had such a great year. He went to the Pro Bowl. Tell me, what is it about your coaching style that allows you to extract the potential out of all of your players? You know, I'm a stickler for the details. And the details, as you know, is every day. You can't wait to the game to perform. I need to know what it looks like in practice,

and that gives me confidence and trust in you as a player. And so as the head coach, my job is to get that message to our assistant coaches, and I make it a strong message, and then they get the message to the players. And so they have to show us what is going to look like in practice. And so that's why I had great confidence last week in our football team. I explained to him, we don't need luck. We need you to play your best and execute, and we'll be right where we need to be. Now, Coach, you have this ability to make people believe.

You've done it in the National Football League. We do it here in the college football. And how do you get that message out there? What is that message to other programs out there who want to be just like you? Well, I think you have to be consistent in your approach. You know, when you're the head coach, everybody in an organization is looking to you for leadership and direction. And you can't ride the wave of emotions and the roller coaster of a seat. season from year to year.

And you have to be consistent in your approach and what you expect, the standards and expectations. And I think if you can create that consistency in the building, it allows the players to be consistent. Coach, in 2002, you're running back at NIU, week one, you rushed for over 100 yards. You beat Wake Forest and overtime. Fast forward, now you're coaching in IU. You have another win.

What would you tell that 18, 19-year-old self right now? Well, you know, I never wanted to be a coach. I never wanted to deal with players like myself. I was a knucklehead back then. But when I had to stop playing, I realized how much the game of football means to me and the impact of being on a team and the camaraderie. And so I jumped into coaching, not knowing what to expect and been hooked ever since. Coach, thank you so much for your motivation, your inspiration.

And we look forward to watching you the rest of the season. Thank you. Thank you and go huskies. For the Irish, though, on the other side, it was their third home loss to an unranked opponent in Marcus Freeman's tenure in South Bend. The Irish lost by the same count to Stanford two years ago after dropping a five-point decision to Marshall that same season.

Here's more from Coach Freeman. You know, this is the first time in my three years as a head coach that we have won the big game early in the season, right? Two losses to Ohio State. And then all of a sudden we win. and everybody says, hey, you're going to the playoffs, you got an easy schedule. We all hear it. And I think we started to believe that.

And there is a physical approach to prepare for a game. And I think physically we prepared the right way. But there's also a mental approach and a mindset that you have to have every single week. And I think that's where we fail. All right. Pete Thamwell, joining us into. to you. Des, I'm going to start with you. Where did it go wrong for Notre Dame?

Well, I think that Coach Freeman hit it on the head when he said the mental approach. I believe the average fan looks at football players as like these modern day gladiators, and you think about the physicality. But it's way more mental than it is physical. And he had to guard against something that all coaches guard against week in and week out. That's when you have a big game, especially on the road. road and then you win the let down the next week

especially if the opponent isn't like a ranked opponent or someone who's in the power for and that's exactly what they went through. They read all of their press clippings about how great they were. They went on the road. They beat Texas A&M, a hostile environment, came back home,

didn't take NIU as seriously as they should have or like they did Texas A&M and that's why they had a major let down last week in South Bend for their home opener. But they also, to your point, they also got beat in the trenches.

They got beat mentally during the week. They also got beat physically during the game. This NIU football team out physicaled Notre Dame. They had more rushing yards in Notre Dame. They had more passing yards in Notre Dame. They average more yards per play than Notre Dame. The reason Coach Hammock said that this was no fluke is that if you turn on the film, he says, man, I like my offensive line.

I like my rushing attack. Everywhere that Coach Tom McCambick has been, he's had success specifically rushing the football. So they got a chance to run the ball. And oh, by the way, in the passing game, they distributed the ball to I believe it was nine different receivers. No one receiver had more than two catches. Eight had one, and one receiver had two. And so the game plan was executed to perfection, but it was based off a film review saying,

hey, I think we're a more physical team in the trenches than Notre Dame. And also, too, on the Notre Dame side, Riley Leonard hasn't thrown a touchdown yet. Notre Dame has only kicked field goals and run it into the end zone. And they're one of five programs nationally yet to throw a touchdown past this season. And now we're hearing on three reporting that Riley Leonard has an injury to his non-throwing shoulder. So Pete, what does that mean for his status Saturday at Purdue? Well, Victoria, I can confirm that Riley Leonard does have an issue with his left non-throwing shoulder. I've been told he is going to play on Saturday.

He has practiced this week and is expected to continue to practice this week. And if nothing drastically changes, he'll be out there at Purdue. It will be fascinating to see how Notre Dame uses Riley Leonard, knowing there is this shoulder injury. He was obviously very effective in the quarterback run game, especially in the second half at Texas A&M. He had a dozen carries for over 60 yards. So it will be interesting to see pushing forward how much Notre Dame in that 114th ranked passing offense. They'll have to rely on going with Riley Leonard on Saturday. And that was the issue. Even if you go back and watch the game, there were some questions where saying, okay, is Riley Leonard dealing with some sort of injury? I'm not sure when this injury happened, but some of the throws you saw, you started to wonder if there is an injury that may have taken place. This offense, at least from a passing perspective, has been inept. And Notre Dame was expecting to have some sort of passing offense with Riley Leonard. But if you're dealing with an injury, obviously it's not going to be as effective as you wanted to be. But was more surprising to me than anything was the fact that Notre Dame's defense wasn't able to stop the run. Yes, the past.

The classic game hasn't been there, but at least last few weeks, you can rely on the defense and even the last season. It wasn't there this week versus NIU. Well, now the Fighting Irish's chance to reach the playoff dropped by 48% after losing to Northern Illinois. The biggest drop of any team in week two, according to ESPN analytics. All right, we're going to take a break coming up. Texas walked into the big house and dominated the defending champs. Here why our analysts say they weren't surprised by the Longhorn's performance. Plus, we turn the corner to week three and take a look at some of college footballs,

biggest storylines. Pete Famill returns to provide some expert insight. Welcome back to college football live for the first time since 2020, Michigan lost a home football game. The Longhorns came into the big house and thoroughly dominated the Wolverines 31 to 12. Texas broke the reigning national champs 23 home game win streak on Saturday and held them to only one touchdown. So let's take a look at this week's college football rankings brought to you by Goodyear. Texas, one of six SEC. schools in the top seven in the AP poll. There have been over 1,200 polls released and before this week, no conference even had five of the top seven teams. Notre Dame falls from fifth to 18th and

the largest drop in this week's AP poll. Here's Coach Sark, providing a stern warning to this team to avoid the hype. I think one is we try to hold ourselves to our standard. You know, we have a saying around here, the standard is a standard. And a jersey, a helmet, a stadium doesn't dictate how we prepare. You know, we dictate how we prepare. I think that's the first part. But the second part is human nature is human nature. And so what did I do this morning? I walked him through the Notre Dame scenario of them going into College Station a week ago and winning that game and being anointed top five team and in the college football playoff and a week later losing to Northern Illinois. And so I showed that clip of the field goal and I showed the clip of Northern Illinois

storm in the field this morning as a good reminder that nothing, we are in tight. We are in to nothing, you know, we're capable of anything. We've got a really good team, but we're entitled to nothing. And we're going to earn everything we get. We're going to have to earn the victory here Saturday night. You got to earn it, especially with the 12-team playoff. Pete, what did we learn from this game? Victoria, I think my biggest takeaway was that Quinn Ewers made a statement that he's one of the top quarterbacks in all of college football. Remember last year at Alabama, he really declared himself as one of the better quarterbacks in college football when Texas went in. to Tuscaloosan came out with that authoritative victory. Well, this year, I really think we saw some step forwards in Quinn Ewers' game.

He looked calm in the pocket. He stepped up on that first touchdown past in Gunner Helm. And he really, Victoria, to me, looked like a guy who's in the conversation for QB1 in the NFL draft and also for the Heisman trophy. Now, Sam, where will the Longhorn's biggest test be? Texas's biggest test is going to be the last game of the season when they go to Kyle Field. and play A&M, a game in which they haven't played in over a decade. Why do I say that?

You're saying, man, they play Oklahoma. They play Georgia. Texas is going to be ready for Oklahoma. That's a rivalry game. Both teams are going to get up for that game. Georgia, there's no questions about that game. But if A&M ends up having not as great of a season as you would expect, and all of a sudden, Texas does towards the end of the season,

start reading those newspaper clippings, you may go into Kyle Field to get a result that you don't expect. See, that's another rivalry game that, just like the Texas OU game, that exists. And so it's a game where both teams are going to step up and be ready. So I think the biggest test for Texas is going to be end of the season when they play Texas A&M. I think that's a far stretch. You know, I look at the rosters, and that's why we talk about the Michigan game. And, you know, if you didn't know the names of the teams, you just put up this roster versus that roster. You would pick Texas roster every time.

And I even knowing it was a Texas team just because of everybody, they had every time. returning versus everyone that Michigan lost. Now, you're talking about the Aggies. The Aggies is a team that lost at home to a team who we just saw lose at home to a Mac team. And you think that's going to be Texas's toughest game when they have to play Georgia, the number one team in the country? I mean, listen, Sam, you present very compelling arguments. You're very articulate, but brother.

At the end of the day, they got to get on that grid arm, man, and they got to go against them dogs. And them dogs gonna be barking. They got a bigger bark. They bark loud. A bigger bite than the Aggies. So their toughest game is going to be against the Georgia Bulldogs.

There's no doubt about that. And after that, to be honest with you, when you look at their schedule, we just had it up there a few minutes ago, it's a very manageable schedule. So I know they're in the SEC, but they have a schedule there. I think that every,

every game, maybe not the Georgia game, but every other game, they'll be picked as favorites to win those games. And that's why Sam and Desmond have mentioned them reading their press clippings. Guys, they at least are reading Instagram comments and not press clippings anymore. You can't avoid it. Like, we've got to be modern here. I would say that Texas's biggest opponent is going to be Texas. That is a program that has struggled with success. If you look at the launches and then failures to launch under Charlie Strong,

launches and failures to launch under Tom Herman, Texas has been Texas' own worst enemy. And that's why Sark had the Notre Dame comment. And Pete and Des to your point, Texas's biggest test, yes, is Texas. But the reason I say that A&M game is this, you're going to get ready for Georgia and Oklahoma. The thing is A&M is a robbery that's been brewing for a long time. It hasn't been played for over a decade.

Just like Oklahoma, that's going to be their biggest game of the season. So let's say you beat Georgia, you beat Oklahoma. Let's say you pass those tests. That's a team you can sleep on, even if they're eight and four, eight and three or whatever they are, and that can surprise you towards the end. That's why I think Des, that's a huge test. Well, since you got that Longhorn's helmet behind you, I'm going to defer to you.

But I do want to add, okay, I want to end on one positive note for the Longhorns, okay? One positive thing, because the last time Texas be the top 10 big 10 team on the road in its second. game of the season. They went on to win a national title back in 2005. Mic drop. That's all I'm going to say. All right. We're bringing in Pete. Des and Sam, take a break. Have a have a sip of water. All right. Pete, it is time to open up your notebook. We didn't see Graham Mertz last week at Florida against Florida A&M due to a concussion. What can you tell us about his current status? Well, there's one more step, Victoria, for Graham Mertz to clear concussion protocol. I've been told

that's trending well. And Billy Napier has already spoken openly about him splitting snaps with DJ Lagway, the five-star freshman this weekend. Lagway obviously got to start against Sanford, played well. It's all the classic trappings of a quarterback controversy there in Gainesville. Just in a little bit earlier today, Shiloh Sanders, Dionne Sanders' son, the starting and star safety for Colorado is going to be out at least two to three weeks. He had a broken forearm.

He had surgery on it yesterday. Dion said that Shiloh's a fast healer, as he's shown with a prior injury. Two to three weeks sounds a little light for a broken forearm. I'm not a doctor. Of more import is that Colorado State torched them for 367 yards passing last year. They're going to need help in that Buffalo secondary. We have a quarterback change at SMU. Kevin Jennings, the backup who played in the AAC title game and delivered that victory for SMU,

has taken over for Preston Stone as the starter for SSU. this weekend. Jennings gives a dual threat and is a really talented young player and SMU's had a little bit trouble launching this year. We'll see if Jennings can get him going. Now before I let you go, Pete, for SMU to bench Preston Stone, what do you make of that decision?

Well, it's really interesting because Preston Stone was one of the most highly regarded recruits in modern history, pre-camarros, if you will. I will say there were some signs that this could happen. They bought the SMU brought both

Preston Stone and Kevin Jennings to Media Day. It's really hard to keep backup quarterbacks and modern college football engaged. So there were some trappings that this could happen. I don't think anyone thought it would happen this soon, Victoria. No, not this soon indeed. All right. Thank you so much, Pete. We always appreciate you. All right, we are not finished yet. When we return, Cal McCourt and Syracuse State undefeated this weekend, are the Orange a threat to contend in the ACC? Black Friday is here at IKEA, and the clock is taking on savings that 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 essentials, 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 slash Black Friday. IKEA, bring home to life. What a wild week, too, it was. Illinois rallied in the fourth to take down 19th ranked Kansas, 23 to 17. It was Illinois's first win versus an AP ranked opponent since 2021 at Penn State. And Iowa State came back from 13 to nothing to beat in-state rival Iowa, 20 to 19, and win the Seahawks Trophy. The go-ahead 54-yard field goal in the closing seconds tied the Cyclone's longest fourth quarter field goal in the last 20 seconds. Syracuse held off a late rally from 23rd ranked Georgia Tech to win 31 to 28.

Kyle McCord threw for 381 yards and four touchdown, the first Syracuse QB with multiple games of 350 past yards. Orange you glad you didn't say anything bad about the team, huh? Coach Brown? This game was very personal. And then you know that I coached with Kirby Smart and MustChance. So why would we not be a tough physical football team? That's just what they do. And that's what I'll be about and that's where I was at.

And I did take that very personal. And I'm going to make sure everyone understands that when you play us, just be quiet. So then that way we're just going to worry about us throughout the week. don't give no ammo to me. You give ammo to me. I'm coming at you, fall to. Wow, Syracuse making noise in their first season under Brown. Des, how are we feeling about this noise?

You know, I like what I hear coming out of Syracuse. Fran Brown said that he felt that he needed to send Ohio State's head coach Ryan Day a bottle of champagne for the gift he got in his quarterback, Kyle McCourt. Kyle McCourt's completed 70% of his passes, eight touchdowns, only one I and T in two games. So now they're playing with a lot of confidence. I like what I'm seeing out of Syracuse right now a lot. We like the noise. We'll let them pop the champagne. We'll just keep.

We're going to keep making noises because we'll be back tomorrow for Des Sam Pete. I'm Victoria College Football Live. We'll be back tomorrow. Thanks for hanging with us.