College Football Live - Mustang Madness

Episode Date: November 6, 2024

Victoria Arlen, Tom Luginbill and Sam Acho are back with another Wednesday edition of College Football Live! The crew welcomes SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee to the show to discuss SMU's undefeated start in ACC play and Loogs is once again back with his Freshmen of the week. All that and more right here on CFB LIVE! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When you're flying Emirates business class, enjoying a good night's rest in your lie flat seat, you'll see that your vacation isn't really over until your flight is over. Fly Emirates, fly better. Welcome into College Football Live. I'm Victoria Arlen. Let's go out the tunnel. Yesterday, the votes were casted, the results are in, and the CFP rankings are officially out. Our crew goes over who they think is too high, too low, and what surprised them the most.

Plus, it's time to pony up with our special guest for today's show. SMU's head coach Rhett Lashley joins us live. And this Saturday, we have a big matchup between number three Georgia and number 16 Ole Miss. And cue the alarms because we'll tell you why the Bulldogs are on upset alert. This is college football live. Let's go. Welcome to College Football Live. Presented by Google Pixel.

No. Now, no alarms going off here just yet, but there might have been a few set off when the first college football playoff rankings were revealed last night. But I've got the best of the best with me, Sam Macho in studio. We've got Tom Lugan Bill with us from afar with Pete Famill joining us in just a bit. But let's kick things off with one of the hottest newcomers in the ACC, the SMU Mustangs. The Mustangs are coming in at number 13 in the first college football playoff rankings, ranking in the top 20 for the first time. Its previous high was number 24 in the final poll of last

season. They're 8 and 1 on the season and hold a 5-0 record in ACC play. SMU is coming off a win against previously number 20 hit at home, and it was the first time SMU won a ranked versus ranked home game since 1949. And here are a few other fun facts. The Mustangs who have reeled off six straight wins since losing the BYU on September 6 have won by an average of 18 and a half points per game during the win streak, and they currently have an 88% chance to reach the ACC championship. And we have got the leader of the Mustangs here with us. Let's welcome in head coach Rhett Lashley, and the rankings coach were just revealed, and your team came in at number 13. What was your message to your team after the rankings came out?

Well, hey, good to be with y'all. Yeah, I mean, it was exciting to see our name on the, you know, the first page in terms of the top 14 teams and just to be in contention. And our message are guys, they deserve to be able to appreciate what they've accomplished and what they've done at the same time. You know, if we want to stick around, we're going to have to continue to approach these next three or four weeks the same way we have the first 10 that got us to this point. So we've got a mature team and hopefully we'll handle it well. And coach, I'm curious.

You guys have done such a good job to this point of preaching the one game at a time. mentality. I know it's easy to do. It's easy to say it's very difficult to do. Now you've got a buy week and all of a sudden there's these expectations that didn't exist just two to three weeks ago. How do you continue to get that message across to your football team? That's a great question, Tom. I mean, we needed the buy week. Just, you know, got some guys banged up late in the year. So it gives us a chance to try to heal up for these last three weeks of the regular season. But also, you know, we're going to hear about, hey, you're ranked 13th. How you control your own destiny, hey, you guys are good, you're this, you're that. And look, we're human. Everybody's human.

And it gives you an opportunity to relax or, you know, maybe get distracted and start thinking maybe a little bit further down the road than you should. And so just try to be honest with our guys. You know, we don't play a lot of games. We had our meeting on Monday and we celebrated our win. And typically we do our scouting report for the next opponent. But since we're off this week, you know, I threw about 15 of our press clippings up there. That's our opponent for the week and just talked about, hey, you guys have earned this. You guys have done a great job to get to this point. So there's nothing wrong with feeling good about what we've accomplished so far. But, you know, this is our challenge this week and really next week leading up to

our game with Boston colleges. Can we block all that out? Can we understand that the process and chasing our standard as a football team that got us to eight and one and five and oh is going to have to carry us down the stretch? Coach, you talked about the opponent being the newspaper newspaper clippings, how specifically do you go about beating that opponent when you're coaching 18 to 22 year olds? It's a great question. I mean, the reason I addressed it on Monday is because I'm not going to talk about it again. You know, we talked about our goal like every other team in the ACC back in August when the season started was to put ourselves in contention in November to compete to get to Charlotte and ultimately get to Charlotte. We hadn't said a word about it since. And that's the same way we'll handle this. You know, we talked about. it on Monday. We acknowledged it. And now we're going to focus on us and focus on what we have to do

to chase our standard of football that we've already set for this team this year. We played good football this year. So we know what it is. We got to chase it if we want to try to win next week against Boston College. So we addressed it. And now we're going to go day to day and do what we need to do to try to be at our best next Saturday. Coach, you not only have one quarterback, but you have two quarterbacks. You came out of last spring with Preston Stone and Kevin Jennings. you hadn't named a starter. Neither one of them goes into the transfer portal. Fast forward to the fall, both of them get voted as captains. What does that say about your football team? And ultimately, what led to you going with Kevin Jennings to be the full-time guy? Yeah, it's a unique situation that we were in. I think it says a lot about those two young men about Preston and Kevin.

They want to be in Dallas. They're from Dallas. They love the school. They love their teammates. Their teammates love them. Look, Preston was our starter a year ago, and we won a conference championship and won 11 games. He got hurt the last regular season game of the year, and Kevin steps in and wins the conference championship for us. So those guys both had a lot to do with our success last year. But coming into this year, you know, Preston didn't do anything to lose his job. And we just don't believe in that. That's not right. And at the same time, Kevin did a lot to earn an opportunity to play.

And so we were just going to let those guys play it out. Nobody, they both performed well in fall camp. Nobody really won the job outright. And so we were going to let them play it out. And they did. And, you know, ultimately, after our third. game against BYU. If you just looked at it, there was a couple things going on. One, we needed clarity for our team. We needed stability for everybody. We needed an offensive identity to form.

And Kevin just gave us the best chance to make a defense defend the whole field and to play the way we want to play, which is we love throwing it down the field. We love getting the bottom on the perimeter. We love balance and we love playing fast. And he's helped us in both the pass and run game. And then ultimately, we just feel like he's a young player that's just, you're going to see him get better and better and better with every start. And for the most parts, you've seen that this year. Well, speaking of getting better and better, your team has done just that. But you've also had so many changes with your team this season, a new conference, new players, and a lot of noise and so much more. Some might define that as adversity. You guys have not shown that at all. What has been

the key to your success this season? You know, I think we got a veteran team. Like I said, we got a lot of guys back from a team that won 11 games. We've just taken everything as a great opportunity. You know, we, um, we get an opportunity to play in the ACC with, it's the level of, a ball. We feel like we belong in and we want to be in. And I think our guys were really excited about the opportunity to play really good opponents every week, um, this year. And so I think we have a winning culture. Uh, we've kind of created that this habit of these guys like they almost expect to win and kind of really, I don't know, hate losing almost more than they like winning. And, uh, but in a good way, they have fun together. They're happy here. And so, uh, uh,

like I said, nobody really told them they weren't supposed to come in and play well. And so we try not to put too much pressure on. Just, hey, we're going to go compete. We're going to be physical. We're going to play SMU football. And let's just see where we stand. And so far through the midway of November, they've competed at a really good level for us. Coach, I'm a 17-year-old high school kid from Dallas, Texas.

And I'm getting pitched by Ret Lashley and SMU. What is the recruiting pitch to me? I appreciate that. Sam, that's a good softball for me. No. Look, I mean, first of all, the best thing you can do for recruiting is win. And so winning is good. And, you know, we've had a chance to win at home against TCU, Florida State, and Pitt.

And our last three games, they've been sold out. The place has been full. It's been a great atmosphere. Most kids, Dallas is the best city in the country. And year and year out, most of the time has the most Division I athletes signed scholarships come from the Dallas Metroplex. and a lot of Dallas kids want to stay in Dallas and play. And SMU is the only Division I school within a 30-mile radius of Dallas.

So we're the best option, but until this year, we didn't play big-time football. Now that we're on this big-time stage, they can see the first time the college football rankings were ever released with 12 teams. SMU's names on that first page. They see us winning. They see the stadium full. They know they can get a great degree and stay home and play in Dallas where a lot of them want to. So look, we've found. felt like the conference piece was the last thing we needed to be able to play on the biggest

stage weekend, week out. And now guys know they can stay home and do that, get a great education, go to the NFL. And right now, win a lot of ball games. Coach, you referenced the conference affiliation. You move up from the group of five to the power four. And once you realize that was coming on the horizon, from a roster management perspective, what was the number one priority that you felt was most important to prepare your team for this job? Yeah, there's a couple of them. that are important, you know, but the one we chose to focus on the most was the O line and D line. You know, you got to be great in space and we need maybe upgrading speed and size and all this

stuff. But like year one, we had, you know, about six months to get ready. We just felt like we needed depth in the trenches because, you know, yeah, we felt like we'd have four D linemen we could run out there that were good enough to compete with anybody in our league. But hey, when we roll the twos out there or if we have some injuries, what's it going to look like? We can't have that big drop off. Same thing on the O line. When you get injuries or whatnot that happened just in a course of a season, is that six, seventh, eighth guy we're bringing in as he still starter caliber quality in the ACC. I think our staff did a great job. We brought in 13 of our 20 transfers, we're O&D lineman. And now we challenged him after that is, hey, we're going into a different level of football, the week in, week out, physicality. You know, we love to throw it and play fast, and we love to rush the pastor, but we've got to run the football and stop the run. And I think our defense leads the league. and run defense and we're towards the top and rush offense. And I just think what our staff did from the roster standpoint,

and then our guys buying into that physicality and that mindset of what we have to do to try to control a football game has been the thing that's allowed us to compete early. Coach, we have thoroughly enjoyed talking with you. Thank you so much and good luck the rest of the season. Appreciate y'all. Thanks for having me on. Thank you. All right, Ducks fans, fire up your motorcycles because Unbeaten Oregon is the number one

team in the first rankings released by the college football playoff selection committee and Ducks coach Dan Lening has Oregon nine and no for the first time since 2012 and Oregon is the ninth different program to be ranked number one in the college football playoff rankings. So let's take a look at the rest of the rankings brought to you by all state. So Ohio State and Georgia take number two and three respectively while Indiana and BYU are ranked in the top 10 for the first time. and the one difference in the collection of teams between the AP poll and the college football rankings is Missouri replacing Vanderbilt at 24. Now, Missouri notably beat Vandy at home in double OT on September 21st.

All right, we got college football insider Pete Fammell joining us now. Now, Pete, what's been the reaction around college football after the first rankings release? Well, Victoria, from texting around with sources in different league offices, and obviously, saying different campuses yesterday, I would generally say the reaction was pretty muted. There weren't any shocker jaw droppers in this. And most of the folks I talked to have been through this before, right? If you remember the first college football playoff ranking release back in 2014, Mississippi State and Dak Prescott were the number one team. It just serves as a reminder that a lot can change as these rankings go on. So I think there

were some breadcrumbs that this committee left that can hint at what this 12 team playoff could look like and then left some clues. But I don't think anyone was convicted or irate at anything. There were some, you know, run-of-the-mill grumblings, which you're going to have anytime you rank teams. But I don't feel like there was anybody who was totally bent out of shape from what happened. Yeah, and I wouldn't bent out of shape. I think more than anything, I was excited, Pete, just seeing where Boise State was ranked, ranked at number 12. There's been so much conversation about the five highest ranked conference champions being in the playoff. And depending on where some of the group of five teams are ranked,

may be able to bump into that 12 spot. Well, Boise, regardless of what group or conference they're in, they're already at number 12. To me, that shows a sign of respect. It's not only to the team, but to Ashton Genti, but to their defense is one of the best in sacking the quarterback. And also to their schedule. They played Oregon early in the season, lost by three points.

That was a tight game. Gentry ran for almost 200. So the amount of respect for Boise State is what stood out to me the most. That's a great one. That's not your normal group of five team, by the way, Sam. I know you know that. I was really impressed with where they slot at Indiana because I really think that the eye test for Indiana trumped the strength of record, strength of schedule.

They're going to get to the Michigan game. They're going to get to the Ohio State game. But it's how Indiana has won. It is how Indiana has played. it is where the strengths of their football team lie from the inside out in the offensive front, the defensive front, and at the quarterback position. And when you win all your games by an average margin of 33 points, I think you've got to give that a lot of credence. In fact, I would be surprised if they had a different logo on their helmet, if they wouldn't have been in the top five.

All right. Well, we'll get more on this later on Champ Drive. Let's get to a team that is ranked fourth. Miami faces off against Georgia Tech this week. But who can forget what happened at the end of the game last year. Miami should have taken a knee to end the game. Instead, they took a disastrous loss. Haynes King threw a 44-yard touchdown pass to Christian Leary with one second remaining.

And Georgia Tech stunned the 17th ranked hurricanes 23 to 20. Now, Miami is in a similar situation as last year. But Sam, what needs to be the key for Miami this year? It's to not necessarily have a short-term memory, have no memory. Like have no memory of what happened last year. And the reason why is it's a totally different team. At least there's a totally different quarterback in Cam Ward. Miami right now is the number one offense in all of college football,

averaging over 47 points per game. They've had five 50 plus point games this season. Last year they had zero. They're averaging over 15 more points this year than last year. And so you can go back and watch last year's film as you prepare. But I would refrain from doing that and focus on this being a new team with a new quarterback with brand new opportunities. But Lugge, how can Georgia Tech pull off the upset again, Lugues?

Well, listen, they can't allow this game to turn into a track meet. Georgia Tech's not built that way right now, at least not without Haynes King. Haynes King is the engine that makes this offense go. I did see some bright spots from Aaron Philo, the freshman, when he came in and played on the road against Virginia Tech. And he gives him a chance in the passing game. The problem with Tech is they're based upon running. the football, maintaining

possession of the ball, having a quarterback that's dynamic, and without Haynes King, if the ball starts going up and down the field offensively for Miami, that's a bad recipe for Georgia Tech. Now, Haynes King has been out with an injury. So Pete, what is the latest on Haynes King's

status for this weekend? Well, Brent Key said yesterday, Victoria, that Haynes King is like a lot of us. He's day to day. Brent Key is hopeful Haynes King will be back for this game against Miami, but there's nothing certain. He called him a game time decision. Remember this. Haines King was the maestro of that upset in Dublin against Florida State. There were only 14 total possessions in that game. It was the

least amount of possessions since 2020 in any game. Miami itself had 14 possessions against Duke. So you can see if Haines King is there, grinding the clock and getting first downs. It could be a huge aid to Georgia Tech pulling another upset. They need Haines King to say the least. All right. We are going to take a quick break. Coming up, Luz is here to share his top freshman of the week and reveal which freshmen stands out among the rest. That is much more coming up next. College Football Live is presented by Google Pixel.

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, your donation will be doubled. That means every dollar goes twice as far

to help build a future where no one's seeking help is left behind. Donate today at camh.ca.ca. Slash giving Tuesday. Simons's s'cube to your look of the fete. And bluice, in a guarderob prepared to celebrate the season.

Velour luxurious, satin chattoyant, Coupe elegant and details sentient. Chic or decontracted, our tenue pre-a-fetched, you will beware, no matter the code vestimentaire of the showery. Responded simply, yes,

to invitations, and let's the style you ported to the new year with Simons. To College Football Live, presented by Google Pixel.

What an SEC on ABC College Football lineup we have for you. Saturday. We got Texas, Florida. We have Georgia Ole Miss and then we have LSU and Alabama, a crazy college football lineup on ABC and ESPN Plus. All right. It's an SEC showdown. Now, what are we like what are we even going here with this Georgia Ole Miss?

Like what's standing out for you here? Well, somewhat standing out is some of the Carson Beck struggles. Yeah. I mean, we've talked a little about some of the interceptions early and Ole Miss is getting hot right now. And so Carson Beck has struggled. Ole Miss is hot. This could be a recipe for disaster if you're Georgia. Now, we all know what we saw with Georgia and Carson Beck due to Florida last weekend.

And we all know what Ole Miss has been doing as of late. So, Lugues, how can Ole Miss capitalize on the current Georgia flaws? Well, if they give you some freebies, you have to capitalize on them and score points. You can't get turnovers and then come away with nothing. And I think the other thing you've got to do is you've got to really push the ball downfield. If Ole Miss plays fast and they continue to get the explosive plays that they have garnered over, the last couple of weeks. They haven't run the football very well, but they are a team that can vertically push the ball down field, create explosive plays and score quickly. But if Carson Beck

continues to turn the ball over, you can't come away with no points or field goals and expect to beat Georgia. And something else that's crazy to look at here is Beck is coming off of his second straight three interception game. Well, Jackson Dart on the old miss side has had three interceptions total this season, which is wild. All right. Luz, let's get to your top freshman of the week. All right. Well, let's kick it off with South Carolina's Dylan Stewart, who's become a menace in the

Southeastern Conference. The true freshman had nine pressures, nine. All right. So it's not just about sacks. It's about affecting the quarterback. You better figure out where number five is all the time along that defensive front. He did have a sack as well against Texas A&M. I think at the running back position, excuse me, number six, not number five for Dylan Stewart,

Isaac Brown, the running back, the freshman from Louisville, was the talk of fall camp because of his overall top end speed. People don't just line up and rush for 151 yards against that Clemson defensive front. Credit the offensive line. But when this guy gets in the open field, he is going to win foot races. He is explosive and he is fast and he has become the bell cow for that offense. How about C.J. Bailey at NC State, 18 of 20. And he's starting to really settle in as the foundational piece for Dave Doran to be able to build this offense around him. He's got poised. He's composed. Nothing seems to phase him.

He's had some ups and downs, but his last three outings have been very, very strong. For a true freshman, he doesn't show a lot of warts. Now, same. Is there any freshmen that stand out to you? Well, Isaac Brown, he stands out to me the most. Just because of what you were showing, lugs, even in that tape, the acceleration, the speed, the quickness at running back. But to do it against the Clemson defense that has been one of the best defenses in college football. So his speed and his acceleration jumps out on tape and he's just a freshman. Imagine how much more that'll get better as he puts on weight, gets stronger and quicker.

And you're so young. You're so young playing in front of so many people. the pressure. It's just, it blows my mind. I still can't wrap my head around it. I don't think I'll ever wrap my head around it. All right. Now for Sam Pete and Lugues, I'm Victoria, thanks for watching college football live, but don't go anywhere because there's more of us. We're still coming your way on Champ Drive. And look, while the rankings have been released, the first version of the bracket is out. But join us next as we break down the first CFP rankings on Champ Drive. And Heather Dinnich is here to help us understand it all. So champ drive coming up next.

College Football Live is presented by Google Pixel.