College Football Live - Red River Rivalry Week!

Episode Date: October 10, 2024

Victoria Arlen, Sam Acho, Trevor Matich and Joe Fortenbaugh get you ready for week 7 of college football. Don't miss all sites and sounds going into Red River Rivalry as well as games between Ohio State and Oregon as well as LSU and Ole Miss. So much to get into right here on College Football Live! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Welcome to College Football Live. I'm Victoria Arlen. Let's go out the tunnel. Ohio State travels to Eugene for a Big Ten battle with Oregon. Our crew tells you what's on the line for the Buckeyes' first true test of the season. Plus, the 120th Red River rivalry hits the SEC, and it's been nearly a month. since the Longhorns had their starting QB, but he's back this weekend against Oklahoma, but here why there might be some concerns.

And it's Thursday, and our tailgate tips are back, and we're here to deliver more fun facts to help you sound smarter at this weekend's tailgate. College Football Live starts now. College Football Live is presented by Dr. Pepper. It's a week we've circled since, well, the schedule was released, and it's finally. finally here and you know who else is here, Sam and Trevor, in studio to break it all down for us. Now, for those of you who may not know why this is such a big weekend, well, let us show you. Let's get to our weekend lineup brought to you by Wendy's Sassy Nugs.

The 120th Red River Showdown is here. Texas enters as number one, but Oklahoma's no stranger to top-ranked foes. The Sooners have won seven times against number one teams, tied for the fourth most of any program, though. They have never beaten Texas when the Longhorns were number one. The Magnolia Bowl hits Death Valley for LSU's 100th year in Tiger Stadium. Ole Miss brings the nation's third best defense, but LSU's won seventh straight at home in this rivalry. It's a huge SEC matchup. But all eyes will be on a top three clash in Eugene. Ohio State's defense ranks first in all points allowed, while Oregon's scores scored 24 plus in 19 straight games.

playoffs are written all over these two teams. The first of its kind. No other big event really feels quite like this. You can feel a buzz in the air. You know something special is about to occur. Ezekiel Elliott gets a block. Elliott. Dodd's championship win.

It's national champions of the playoff here. We're finally there, right? We're going to play them now. It's a great team. Obviously, they do a lot of things. There's a reason they're one of the best teams in the country. so it's going to be a great challenge for us. It didn't take too long for us to set our focus on Oregon.

Our focus is when we leave the locker room today that we're already starting on Oregon. Every time you're playing one of these teams, you're fighting for an opportunity to go to Indianapolis. There's a reason you come to Ohio State. You come to a place like Oregon to play in big time games. One of the best programs in the country, and they play hard. It's a great opportunity for two great teams to get to play against each other.

I get a special team's touchdown of the game. Right side. One hit down. Throws, in zone. Yes. That's a great play. He goes flying out to the left, Bunchoff, one defender and takes it into the end zone for a score.

Well, I'm even more fired up for this one this season. I think like all the hairs were standing up on all of our arms here. Now, Trevor, with Oregon being, you know, Ohio State's first true test of the season, what are you watching out for? I'm watching for the Buckeyes defenders because they attack immediately. And I'm interested to see if Oregon deals with that like karate, where you meet force with force,

or like judo, where you use their aggression against them. But it's something you see commonly. In Oregon in their offensive meeting rooms, we'll see this happen a lot. This is a short pass. It's designed to get the ball completed and then have space for the receiver to make a move. But the safety hits it immediately after he catches the ball. There's no chance. That's aggressive.

Now, if you're Oregon, you're looking at this seeing it happen all the time. And you're thinking, okay, well, rather than just stand there and be target practice where when there's a short catch, there's an immediate tackle, let's run this back. How about if we do some judo? This is a bubble screen. We got a blocker here. They know the safety is going to be incredibly aggressive. What if they slip that blocker past that block and throw it down field?

And the thing is, Oregon has a lot of ways that they can do this. They haven't shown it much this year. But here's one. It's a bubble screen. He's going to hit it on the run. It's going to be a great play. And not a bubble screen. He slips the block.

He goes up field. And I'm interested to see, therefore, if Oregon is just going to stand there and take the kids and try to beat them with force or if they say you come on as hard as you can and we'll allay you. Well, that's where experience I would say comes in because to your point, meet force with force. All of a sudden, you overreact and you go right behind them. But think about the DB for Ohio State, Lathen Ransom, an experienced offensive back. Who's going to be able to be next to Caleb Downs, the younger player and say, hey, we've shown this on tape. Still read your keys, but don't get fooled by a double move. Well, I'll tell you why, it's going to be

interesting to see that chess match. Because now we're into the point that they're going to think this, but they might think this about what we think about that, but then we'll think this about what they think about what we just thought, and I can't wait to see it. Very thoughtful. I'm also watching out for the fact that Ohio State has allowed an FBS low 6.8s, 6.8 points per game this season, and only one team has reached double digits against the Buckeyes. So it's going to get very interesting. All right, we're going to shift over from the Big Ten to the SEC.

The Red River rivalry writes its 120th chapter this Saturday down in Dallas, although Texas leads the all-time series. Oklahoma has had the upper hand as of late winning 11th. of the last 15 matchups. Now, this is their 44th ranked matchup, the second most all time. Now, Texas hasn't had their starting QB and nearly a month.

And Quine Ewers has been out, but it has been confirmed as of today. He will be back starting this weekend against Oklahoma. Is there a level of concern, Sam? Well, I should let Trevor. Trevor, we're going to start with you. Is there a level of concern, Trevor?

Because he is not concerned about Texas at all, right? No, I was looking at Sam because Sam was like, Is there a level of concern? I would be if I were a fan because Quinn Ewers has got to be a little rusty and this is a very difficult defense to be rusty against. Oklahoma one of the best defenses in

the country, very disruptive. They get after quarterbacks and they cause havoc for quarterbacks in the backfield. And so if Ewers is not completely on his game, then he's going to be compressed in terms of the time that he has to identify, to

physically operate. And it's kind of tough when you're just coming back and don't have that game speed from the week before and the week before that. And I love the point you made about not only identifying, but physically operating and the part about being physical because that's what Oklahoma and that's what Billy Bowman does. They are extremely physical. If we turn it on the table, see why Texas may need to be a little bit worried about this Oklahoma defense. Check out the game from last year. This is going to be Oklahoma defender, Billy Bowman, four-star recruit, once committed to Texas, World meet Billy Bowman. Billie Bowman, meet World, but he's not the only one that needs to meet Billy Bowman.

And you know that linebacker, or excuse me, tight end now in the NFL? He needed to meet Billy Bowman. That's a seven point swing, right? Watch this hit, right? You think it's a catch, should be a touchdown. No, but a physicality of a safety makes that play. That's an NFL tight end right now. He plays for the Panthers right now, but Billy Bowman doesn't care.

So now, all of a sudden, this defense, they earn the opportunity not for a first down, second down, third down, but three straight stops to earn the opportunity for a fourth and goal stop. This is the same game, different series. See three big stops. but I want you to go to fourth down. What's going to happen? It's going to be fourth and goal. Could be another seven point swing.

Who's that? That's Billy Bowman. Who's that? That's Xavier Worthy. First round fifth for Kansas City. She's got the touchdowns from Patrick Mahomes. Who doesn't care? Billy Bowman doesn't care.

That's another seven points swing. He took seven points off the board by stress, by strain, by fighting, by pulling. He doesn't care who it is. World meet Billy. Bowman. That's 14 points off the board. And you thought, okay, it's just a robbery game. It's Texas.

No, he does it everywhere. This is this year. Their last game, versus Auburn. Okay, let's see. It's fourth in goal. Somebody makes a stop. Oklahoma makes a big time stop. Who is that? I'm trying to see. Somebody's making a big play for Oklahoma this year. Oh,

that's right. That's number two. That's Billy Bowman, the leader of this defense. So no matter what it is, whether it's a big, biggest robbery, Oklahoma, whether it's last week, whether it's last season, this defense is very physical. They're going to try to be physical versus Quinn Ures and the Texas offense. So you're picking Oklahoma? I am

studying the film. Okay. All right, all right. Very diplomatic. Oh, oh. Well, another note, too, is that Michael Hawkins will become the first Oklahoma true freshman quarterback to start against the Longhorns in the 120th game history of the rivalry. That's another thing to keep an eye, but you're just studying the tape. You're just studying the tape. All right. This just in more injury news, though, for Oklahoma, our Pete Thammell tweeting out moments ago that they are expected to be without star wide receiver Dionne Burks. He was originally listed as questionable. And this means that Oklahoma will play without the program's five best wide receivers with Nick Anderson, Jalillel. Farouk, Andre Anthony, and Jaden Gibson, all listed as out on SEC injury report.

Now, this is the weekend. Many of you have been waiting for. Take a look at this SEC on ABC college football lineup we have for you on Saturday with the epic 120th year strong Red River rivalry right smack dab in the middle. You don't want to miss it. Now, it is a big weekend for the Big Ten as Ohio State and Penn State head west for the conference showdowns. We'll talk about how these matchups could impact who plays for the conference title. That is coming up. College Football Live is presented by ice cold Dr. Pepper. College football.

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College Football Live presented by Dr. Pepper. ESPN. We are gearing up for a pivotal week in the Big Ten. ESPN analytics spotlights the front runners for the championship game through week seven. Ohio State. the pack with a 76% chance, followed by Oregon at 42%. And things will certainly get shaken up when the two face off this weekend in Eugene. All right, it was a long week without you. So we are going to give a big welcome to ESPN betting analyst Joe Fortinball. Good to be back.

Yes, of course. Yes, yes, yes, yes. All right, Joe. That's nice. That's a big confidence building. We had to give you like a big applause. I think those people were paid to be here. Yeah, we did.

That's not a voluntary thing. No, no, no. All right. Well, speaking of a big applause, the big ten. All right, take center stage this weekend. So when you're studying these games, what has caught your attention, Joe? Two big games, Penn State at USC and Oregon at Ohio State at Oregon. I'm going to be very selfish here.

Before I give the picks out, I want to pick your brains. That's what I love about working here. My own selfish handicapping purposes, I can access some of the best minds. Teams in the Big Ten traveling across two time zones so far this year, right? We saw it with USC going to Minnesota, things like that. One and eight. One and eight with the extra travel. How much do I weigh into that this weekend?

For these two teams, I don't weigh too much into it. I think that Ohio State from a talent perspective, we would always say when you're traveling, we would say pack the defense. That's what my coach would say, but I can use suitcase, pack the defense. That's what Ohio State has, the best defense in college football. Penn State's playing great defense as well. So when it comes to traveling across time zones, I think both teams are packing the D. Well, it depends on who you're playing. Michigan State played at Oregon.

UCLA played at Penn State. But my thought is, you know what, you're going to be sitting and reading something, whether you're on a plane or whether you're at home. If you think traveling a couple of time zones is tough as a football play, you're in the wrong sport. Okay, so let's take those notes. Let's get rid of them. Absolutely nothing. Picks will be Ohio State minus the three. I think Ohio State's defensive line versus Oregon's offensive line is going to be the key there. Dylan Gabriel, a little shaky so far this year. I'll go with the Buckeyes. I like the over in the Penn State game. USC's offense has performed much better at home where they're comfortable. Penn State's

defense wall good. I haven't seen them against the elite competition yet. I think they're going to give some points up here. I'd go over the 50 and a half. Okay, well, travel is always going to be a topic of conversation, at least in my eyes. All right, well, let's dive into the SEC. We've got Ole Miss at LSU. What are you looking out for here? Well, huge mistake because I threw my notes over my shoulder and I got nothing. So what we're going to go with in that game is, interestingly enough, the old miss game, under 63 and a half points, okay? It was 63 and a half. That's the key. 63 is a very key number with totals betting. It got bet by the pros yesterday. It's down to 61 and a half under money. Shockingly, because we've seen the history between these two teams,

they've had some real shootout affairs. But the wide receiver, star wide receiver, from Ole Miss a bit dinged up coming in this game. Ole Miss has played six straight weeks as well. A lot of teams have had bye weeks. So far, they haven't. I wonder what that looks like. I'm leaning to a lower scoring game there. One of the reasons that might be a really good call is because both of these teams excel at

sacking the quarterback. LSU was third in the SEC, even though Harold Perkins doesn't have a sack and he's hurt now. And the Ole Miss defense leads the nation with 24 sacks. So I think both passers are going to have a whole big faceful of opposing pass rushers. But these are also two of the most. prolific passing offenses as well, whether it's Jackson Dart or Miller Moss. And so I think that I understand the feel of the other because of being banged up receivers,

but also feel like, man, these offenses are so prolific. It might be high scoring game. It's a dangerous bet either way. It's not going to be a comfortable one. Well, let's talk about a really high profile offense. We've got Texas and we've got their starting quarterback Quinn. You were being confirmed back. He's starting against Oklahoma this weekend.

What are you looking out for there? How do you not love Oklahoma, right? I know. It's got to be a huge. I'm just kidding. What's that color so beautiful? Y'all got the top of fun. It's amazing.

I, um, look, you're talking about laying more than two touchdowns here at 14 and a half in a rivalry game where you know Oklahoma is going to get up. It's, it's tough. History points to the dog when it's this big in this rivalry. I can't get behind Oklahoma here. The offense has been anemic all year. They're banged up at wide receiver coming into this game. I would lean towards Texas.

They started very slow last year. They looked overwhelmed in that game early, and they were never able to get back on the right footing. I think that's going to be the point of emphasis. Start fast and then Oklahoma's not going to be able to catch up. I agree with that. Last year, Oklahoma beat Texas. They had Dylan Gabriel at quarterback. Entering that game, Gabriel had 1,437 pass attempts. The freshman Michael Hawkins, who will start a quarterback for Oklahoma in this one, has 37 pass attempts to his career. And so I think that's going to be hard to overcome. Yeah, but there also is this piece of rivalries. You never know. These games have huge swings. That's the thing.

And sometimes special teams is the difference maker. I think about just whether it's last year's game. There was a block punt. Years before there's big time special teams touchdown returns. So you almost never know how games like these are going to end because of the robbery that's involved. Well, there's been 120 years of that rivalry. But Sam, why don't we get to your top moments of the Red River rivalry, shall we? Well, absolutely.

The first one is one that I actually was a part of. It's Jordan Shipley's touchdown. Texas is down 14 to 3 back in 08, maybe it was 09. Texas is down. And Jordan Shipley, I might have been on the field on this play. I don't recall. But at least he remember. Yeah, that's me.

That's 81. I'm there. Let's go. I was so happy because you almost got him. I was supposed to be balking for him. But we scored and then Texas ended up winning that game. Such a huge moment. But the second biggest moment that I was most excited about was 2021 when Caleb Williams stepped on

the scene. I don't remember that game where Texas was up big 28 to 3, I believe it was in the first play in the second half. Caleb Williams gets in the game the first time he touches it, 66-yard touchdown. I'm thinking, who is this kid? Where is he coming from? And all of a sudden, yeah, 28 to 7, all of a sudden, Caleb Williams takes over Spencer Rattler's spot and scores touchdown after touchdown.

Oklahoma ends up winning this game. Caleb Williams ended up obviously winning the husband and being first overall picking out and starts for the bear. So I was the second huge moment in this robbery. I was a little bit not as happy as a guy watching because I went to Texas. That's a huge moment. But the number one moment for me, it wasn't necessarily in my time playing there, even in the recent time.

Let's go back to 2001, Roy Williams being Superman on this play. He's going against Chris Sims. jumps over the line of scrimmage, essentially ends the game. Oh, retro. And it's like, okay, that's a cool play, Troy Palma, whatever you want to say. Yeah. But that's to seal the game in one of the biggest robberies in sports. And so for me, I get excited about that history of this robbery.

We need more cowboy collars. I saw the cowboy. Bring back the cowboy collar. Sam, what was it like your first moment you stepped on the field in this rivalry? It was surreal. And the reason I say that is that. I remember being my roommate, Keena Robinson. He was on the phone with his friend.

We were at the hotel in Dallas because we played at a neutral site. And I remember him being on the phone with someone. And his comment was, well, of course I start. And I'm like, well, we're freshmen. Are we starting? Because we were, you know, the both freshmen that are all varsity, if you will. And I hang up in my, hey, what's the news? Are you starting?

He's like, I'm starting on kickoff, kickoff return, punt return, on special teams are starting. Well, I was starting on special teams. And so for me, just to be on the field when a guy like Jordan Shipley scored a touchdown, right? As a young player, you're seeing Jamal Charles, Coke McCoy, Jermichael Finley. On the other side, you got guys like Adrian Peterson. You got guys like Brett Beaumar, guys like Sam Bradford, Trent Williams, like those are the players who were involved in this robbery. And so as a young player, even just touching the field is an honor.

It's pretty special too. And there's a reason there's something so special about that history and that rivalry. And Joe, we always think it's so special having you on the show. Thank you so much. We always appreciate you. All those highlights, I realized I lost a lot of money on this rivalry in the past. Yeah. Yeah.

All right. We're going to take a look at our Dr. Pepper Championship Drive game of the week preview. We have a big match. up in the Big 12. K State takes on Colorado with title game chances on the line when they face off in Boulder this weekend. ESPN analytics show that a win for Colorado would skyrocket their chances at a Big 12 title birth. All right. When we come back, if you need to sound smarter at your tailgate this weekend, we got your back. New fun facts for your friends and fam coming up on college football live. College Football Live is presented by Ice Cold Dr. Pepper.

college football. It's a pepper thing. 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. Definitely not impressing you with my football catching skills, but that's why I have these professionals. here. All right. Tailgate tips is back. Trevor, what are your tailgate tips?

If Tennessee isn't getting big plays, they're not scoring touchdowns. At least early in the season, they ripped off lots of big plays, lots of scores, but last week they lost to Arkansas, only scored two touchdowns. One of those had a 53-yard run that set up the touchdown. The other one had no big plays, but it did have two 15-yard penalties against Arkansas. Other than that, Tennessee didn't score at all. So that's what your tailgate did. is Tennessee's offense. What happened to them? They're not getting big plays. We need to score. You got to score to win. Yeah. What about you, Sam? Yeah, and then just see your point real quick. at the last two weeks, no more than 200 yards from Nikolian Malabas. So that's another piece, too, not the big plays down the field.

My tailgate tip, Texas, Oklahoma, or depending on where you're friend of you're calling Oklahoma, Texas. The game's going to start not at 11 a.m. Central. It's going to start at 2.30. For the third time in the last 14 years, not an 11 a.m. Local kick. So this is going to be a big deal. Why? Because it's going to be hot. It's going to be 92 degrees. It's going to be humid. The game's going to be a little bit longer. And obviously, it's the Texas State Fair. Make sure to get your fried Oreos, your fried ice cream. Oh, yeah, you're not electrolytes.

I'm about the candy. But you've got to hydrate. Got to hydrate, then get your candy. You got to hydrate. You got to make sure you drink a lot of water per whatever's non-drink you're drinking as well. What's disgusting fried thing you've eaten at the State Fair? So I actually haven't gone to the State Fair. That's my tailgate tip.

I've gone to play in the game, but I haven't experienced the lights afterwards. Pride food doesn't like me. So that's my tailk tip. All right, mine is true. Transfer Portal Disruptors. Out of the six unranked teams that beat ranked teams last week, five of them were led by transfer QBs. Minnesota, Arkansas, Vandy, Washington, and Syracuse were all led by transfer quarterbacks.

So who do you think might disrupt this weekend? Sam, I'm going to start with you. So I'm not going to go transfer a quarterback. I'll go transfer coach, if you will. Andy Cohnelnicki. I mean, it was an open-ended question. Andy Cohn-Nic, Offensive Coordinator for Penn State. He was at Kansas.

And why is Kansas struggling? Well, the reference coordinator is now helping Drew Aller. Penn State is doing awesome offensively. I think that's going to be a big time game this week. Diego Pavia transferred to Vanderbilt from New Mexico State, led Vandy to a win over Bama. Last week, they are two touchdown underdogs against Kentucky. He should be able to do to Kentucky what he did to Bama, right?

And he got a pep talk from Johnny Mansell yesterday. So look, those are your tailgate tips. We hope you enjoyed the games this weekend. We enjoyed hanging with you. Thanks for Roger College, Live. That's Trevor, Sam, Victoria. We'll see you next week. You know,