College Football Live - Thriving into Week 5

Episode Date: September 24, 2024

Victoria Arlen, Sam Acho, Desmond Howard and Pete Thamel recap Week 4 and get you ready for Week 5! The crew discusses Michigan's big win against USC as well as Clemson's high level offense. Additionally, dive into Ohio State's hot start as they get ready to kickstart their Big 10 schedule. All that and more on CFB Live! 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. Coming back to Norman was never about me. It was not. But I appreciate you all having a little extra for me. I do. I love you guys, and I really mean that.

I know you go. I know. I'm proud of you. I'm proud of how we've grown. Damn, our best is still out in front of us. We got to jail. One day at a time to just keep getting better. You guys got me?

All right. I love it. Bow your heads. Grab two. Yo, yo, yeah, yeah. We did that. You coach at this game ball. We appreciate you, and we love having you here.

Welcome into college football live. I'm Victoria Arlen, alongside Sam Macho, Desmond Howard, and Pete Thammell. And we have a lot to get to you. It's Tuesday. You know we're talking about everything that went down over the weekend, starting with some big wins of week four. And we're going to kick things off with Utah, who took out 14th ranked Oklahoma State on the road

with a 22 to 19 victory. And Utah got its first conference win in the Big 12 and its highest ranked road win since beating number 14th Stanford in 2018. On to Michigan, who downed USC. 27 to 24 behind Kelle Mullen's career high 159 rush yards and two touchdowns, while Alex Orgy threw for 32 yards, the fewest in a game by Michigan since 1987. On to Illinois, who escaped Nebraska in overtime, and it's the fighting Illinois's third straight OT win, giving them their first four-no start since 2011.

BYU's defense stopped Kansas State in a 29-point win. The Cougar's 241 total yards was enough to give them their largest margin. a victory over an AP top 15 opponent in school history. And finally, Tennessee held off Oklahoma and Norman to start 4-0 for the fourth time since 2000. Tennessee's 25 to 15 wins snapped a 28-game losing streak versus AP top 15 opponents on the road. And OU, Coach Brett Venables, talked about his QB situation earlier today. Believe in Mike, and I made that announcement for a lot of

reasons. I certainly didn't want a decision like that to hang over anyone's head. And we've got to get better. And, you know, and sometimes, you know, maybe change is good. And as I expressed to Jackson, this is, this is a moment, you know, Jackson's going to have an amazing future and career. He's going to play this game a long time. And all of that will work itself out. More can you tell us about the QB situation in Oklahoma? Well, Victoria, the, The decision was made because of decision-making. Brent Venables made that very clear in his press conference today. And what Mike Hawkins brings to Oklahoma is a guy who can really sling the football.

He had 55 touchdown passes at Emerson High School as a senior. Earlier in his career at Allen High School, he played for Chad Morris, the former SMU and Arkansas head coach, who was a very successful coordinator at Clemson when Brent Venables was there. His dad, Mike Hawkins, played for Bob Stoops at OU. was drafted from the arena league to the Packers in 2005. He was in the same draft class as a gentleman by the name of Aaron Rogers, who I think is still banging around the NFL somewhere. So some exciting pedigree and skill set to the sooner.

I think Aaron Rogers is still around. Now, Des on the flip side, Tennessee, no doubt, has their star QB. What did we learn from Tennessee in this win? Well, one important thing that we learned from that game was that the Tennessee volunteers, and that young quarterback, Nico, Emileava, is a resilient team, and he's a guy who did not fall in the tank. We're talking about a young man.

First true road test. Don't forget, earlier in the season, the North Carolina State game was in Charlotte, neutral site. So this is on the opponents campus in their stadium. He had a couple of turnovers, but he did not go in the tank. He was resilient. I love the way that they kept fighting for a young quarterback and a team who's leaning on his shoulders,

his arm to get through this SEC schedule. I love what I saw. And I know Josh Hypo did too, Sam. Well, I was more impressed, Des to your point of how they took some of the pressure off of his arm. So I would think my thought was, man, Nico E.M. Liyava is going to be the reason why this team wins this season. But so far this season, it hasn't been Nico.

It's been the running game. And they've actually leaned on the running game, leaned on their defense to find ways to win. And what that tells me is that even if your young quarterback is having a great day or horrible. day defense, special teams, running game, we'll be able to carry this team through. Think about it. The reason Jackson Arnold got benched, I think there were three first half turnovers. Maybe one of them was in the third quarter by Jackson Arnold. And a lot of those were forced, right, pull outs or punch

out by the Tennessee Volunteers defense. And so I get excited about this volunteers team because Nico doesn't have to be an excellent or a superstar for them to have high success against a really good OU defense. And of course, Tennessee broke their streak of 28 straight, lose losses of against AP ranked teams on the road. So that was also something to be excited about as well. Now, Pete, we got to get to your notebook. We got to talk about, now we talked about Oklahoma. They're, of course, facing Auburn.

So what can you tell us about their QB situation? Well, their QB situation, unlike Oklahoma's, is now in flux. There'll be a battle this week in practice between Hank Brown and Peyton Thorne, the veteran. Auburn, Coach Hugh Freeze, wants to see which one of those quarterbacks. best handles the complex looks that Oklahoma is going to give them. Auburn has the second most interceptions of any program in the country. Oklahoma is in the top five in turnover margin. That's not a great matchup for Auburn.

As for Texas, I was told today that Quinn Ewers is 50-50 to play against Mississippi State on Saturday. Yours is obviously dealing at that oblique injury and missed the start against Louisiana Monroe. The decision for Texas is simple. Do you play him against what's perhaps the worst team in the SEC or wait until after your by and play him against Oklahoma and Red River? And then we have UNLV, which suddenly finds itself at the center of the realignment world.

UNLV of the Mountain West was ready to commit to the Mountain West last night. It sent in a memorandum of understanding. But Utah State's backdoor commitment to the PAC 12 has put the whole future of the Mountain West in flux. In the upcoming days, we'll find out whether UNLV wants to stay at the Mountain West and keep that league together with some financial sweetener. They'd be the flagship schools along with Air Force, or did they go to the Pact 12, which could spell long-term trouble for the Mountain West? The Pact 12 has already issued a preemptive strike.

They filed the federal lawsuit today about some of the poaching fees they owe the Mountain West. That realignment saga continues. We'll keep a close time on that. Thank you, Pete. So much more coming up on college football live, including Colorado's huge overtime win against Baylor. We'll hear from Coach Prime coming up next. Plus, Clemson was ruled out by many after a week one loss to Georgia, but did somebody say a comeback? Find out how Dabo has slowly been turning the tigers around.

That's next. College Football Live is brought to you by Verbo Private Vacation Rentals. relax you booked a verbal back to college football live it's Tuesday and we're talking and you know who else likes to talk colorado it took a 43 yard hail mary from chador sanders with no time remaining in regulation and Travis hunter forcing a fumble at the one yard line in overtime for colorado to rally for an unthinkable 38 to 31 win over baylor on a rainy saturday night here's coach prime on the game and he spoke earlier today. You got to win.

We don't want to go down there and think it's just a road trip, it's a field trip. We want to go down there and win. So we're practicing our butt off trying to make sure we dot eyes and cross T's and we give it

a valued effort. It starts in practice. Everything starts in practice. I tell the kids this morning, it's like a vending machine. Whatever you put in, you're going to get out unless you want to go to Vegas

and put a little bit in, you expect to get a lot out, but that's called gambling, where I'm from. We're not gambling here, but this is an up and down Colorado team, Des. What are your thoughts on what you've seen from the buff so far? I tell you what, earlier in the season, obviously,

that road trip against Nebraska, they didn't look good. And I think a lot of people just kind of, you know, wrote them off. Like, Colorado's going to be terrible. But I think they found something after that when they went to Colorado State, played an in-state rival and handled them convincingly. And then a week ago, the game against Baylor, the team was resilient, just kept fighting. in Kemp fighting.

They have tremendous leadership. I think Shadour Sanders is just one of the greatest players right now in college football, not just quarterbacks, just players because of his leadership, his leadership style, the way he approaches the game,

extremely poised. I think they found something in that Colorado State game that they can ride, and I love what I'm seeing right now coming out of Boulder. And Hunter is a human highlight reel, too. All right, let's shift over to Ohio State

who had a dominant 49 to 14 wins, over Marshall on Saturday. The Buckeyes remain unbeaten and number three in the AP poll behind Georgia and Texas. It was quite literally a highlight reel for all involved, but you don't need to hear it from me. Here's head coach Ryan Day. It's always about us, so we always say that the opponent doesn't matter. But all that being said, yeah, going on the road and a conference opponent is a big deal. So yeah, everything's got to ramp up. You know, and now we're into game four and we've got to keep upgrading each week. Yeah, everything needs to ramp up. I know it'll be probably the best front that we've seen so far.

But, you know, I think we go against the best front in the country every single day. And I think that, you know, helps our offensive line. And I think it helps all of us to, you know, just be ready for anything. I mean, Sam, what are your thoughts on what you've seen from Ohio State so far? Because they need to ramp up, apparently. Well, what I've seen from Ohio State is they're playing for each other. I call this one another football. No matter who gets a touchdown, somebody else's ball.

blocking. I think on this play, number 17, Carnell Tate, that was actually Mecca Buka, number 12, blocking downfield. It might be this play when Quinshan Junkett stores a big touchdown. You'll see all of his teammates run and chasing to the right. As the play goes on, you should see 17 Carnell Tate with him right at the end of your screen, right?

So you see so much of these guys on this team, they're not just celebrating for themselves individually. They're playing for another. Offensive linemen are cheering, screaming, yelling, because they're blocking for their teammates. I love watching it. We love watching them as well. All right, let's shift here to the ACC. where it was a series of first on Saturday between Florida State and ACC newcomers Cal,

who played against one another for the first time, and FSU finally got their first win of the season. Here's head coach Mike Norvell, who spoke earlier today. We have to be explosive. I think there's no question, like I said, Monday. I mean, I'm looking at all things, evaluating all things, that what we're doing and making sure that, you know, our objectives to go out there and put ourselves in the best position to win games. and we've got to score points. So, you know, that's, I guess it needs to be a major part of it.

Pete, what's been the latest that you're hearing on FSU after getting their first W of the season? Well, in order to be explosive, Victoria, as Mike Norvell wants to be, you need to have a strong ground game. And FSU has really struggled. They have one of the three worst rush offenses in the entire country, and they got more bad news about that this week. Transfer, tailback, Roydell,

who came over from Alabama is expected to miss an extended period of time. Mike Norvell said earlier in this week. He was a surprise a surprise scratch from the Cal game. And if FSU wants to get things going on the ground, they need to get healthier up front. They were missing two tackles from the game last week. And the lack of continuity up front, along with the three-game suspension to Alex Atkins,

the O-Line coach, which just ended, has really hurt FSU in trying to get some synchronization on offense. It's a very drastic change from a team that was undefeated last year to a team that's just one in three now. All right, it's time for our rewarding performance brought to you by Capital One. The Clemson Tigers have shown some major improvements since their week one blowout loss to Georgia. Clemson's 125 points in the last two games are in its second most in a two game span in the pole era. Clemson head coach Davos Sweeney spoke earlier today. We don't get to carry any touchdowns over.

so we got to start over every week. And so it's just really more just creating consistency in our performance. You're not going to score 50 points every day. You know, it's, but it's a more consistent execution, you know, consistency in not doing the things that feature yourself. Sam, how would you describe Clemson as a competitive team? They're playing free. They're playing with nothing to lose.

Clemson has already been written off, especially after that game one, week one game. versus Georgia where they lost by a large margin. Everyone wrote off Dabo Sweeney because of the transfer portal, Rodolf Clay Clubnick because of his struggles. And all of a sudden, K. Clubnick and quarterback is playing free, playing with joy. You saw a big touchdown runs, touchdown passes. The defense is hunting.

This team is playing like a team that can compete not only in the playoffs but for a national championship. Why do I say that? The defense that bond to defense, they've only gotten better since week one. The quarterback questions, the offensive concerns have all improved and they've been answered, quote, unquote. But whether they get answered or not, I got a chance to talk to that. A guy was really close with Cade,

and he was saying that after that loss versus Georgia, everybody in that locker room had Cade Clubnix back. He made a speech in the halftime, or excuse me, in the locker room, and they all came together. They rallied together. So it's almost as if no matter what's said on the outside, this team believes on the inside, and that's what we're seeing portray on the football field.

Des, why are you laughing? I tell you what, because I think that, you know, when you talk about this team coming together and playing like a championship team, like they had that opportunity against Georgia. They're playing better now because the competition is not as high as it was when week won against Georgia. That's what's going on. Now, I don't think they're as bad as they looked against Georgia,

but I definitely don't think there's great as they're looking against App State and North Carolina State. They're somewhere in the middle. Most of these teams, I can point to three games on their schedule about any of these top teams. I let you know that they have a three game schedule. For Clemson, it was Georgia. That it was going to be Florida State. Louisville. Now, I'm not sure of Florida State still in the mix, but

probably the Louisville game. That's where you find out where you are. Everybody else, your roster is better than the other team's roster. So at that point, you're going to be favorite in those games. So I love the fact that, of course, they're playing with a lot of confidence now. K.K.

K. Klubnick is playing well. But they're going to have to up their game when they play against a team like a Louisville. I'm not sure about Florida State yet because, you they've been struggling so far this season. But I'm not about to jump on the bandwagon type of. That's right.

Clemson's back now. They're ready to take on these top teams. Not so fast. Well, we don't know if Tyler from Spartanburg called in to Davos radio show, but maybe he just slid into his DMs because there's a looser to the way Clemsen has played that belied the way they started earlier in this season. But I'm going to push back on Des a little bit here because, look, we're in a 12-team playoff. era. Certainly the competition isn't what it once was, but I think there's a clear path

for Clemson if it keeps up some of this momentum and confidence, especially Kate Klubnick, who quite frankly in his career has never looked anything like he has the last two games. They have, Des called it a three-game schedule. I look at it this way. They will not be an underdog in my estimation in any of their remaining games. Home Louisville, home South Carolina, at Florida State's a different story. So look for Clemson to be hanging around come Selection Sunday. I also want to add that Clemson scored 50. He makes my point. He makes my point.

They're going to be favored in all those games, exactly. But also, too. The numbers don't lie, Desi. Clemson scored 50 points in consecutive games. So the first time in a streak of four straight games back in 2019, they were just one point away from scoring 60 points in back-to-back games for the first time ever. So they're playing good ball. Whether that adds up in the playoffs, we shall see all we're asking is whether or not they're competitive.

So, so far, so good. But all right, we're going to take a break because coming up, Desmond's Wolverines pulled off a huge win versus new conference foe USC this weekend. And we're wondering, has Michigan found the rhythm or will the QB position be their downfall? The place where legends are made. This is a huge game to the end of touchdown. Black Friday is here at IKEA and the clock is ticking 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. Bring home to life. These college football rankings brought to you by Prudential. Now there's no change in the top four teams this week. Missouri drops four spots to number 11. The tigers are back. to where they opened the season in the preseason poll. Michigan climbed six spots to number 12, the biggest jump by any school in this week's poll.

But, Des, you had some strong words for your team. Who you got, Des? Yeah, with Colston kind of questionable and the quarterback change, I think there's just too much going on right now in Ann Arbor. I think the Trojans walk away with a victory over Michigan. Oh, wow. We okay? Can you tell us why?

Some people call it reverse psychology. Nick Saban calls it reverse rat poison. So about a few weeks ago, I was in Ann Arbor to interview Sharon Moore. And I ran to Donovan Edwards, and I was with my sons. And we talked and then Donovan said, and my son's like dad, what was he talking about? I said, he's referred to my pick before the season started with Oregon being the Big Ten champs.

I said, son, that tells me two things. They listen, but not only that, they care. So fast forward to last week, I looked at the schedule and realized that Michigan was playing that three years. I said, hmm, 330. If I pick USC, they will definitely hear this, and this will motivate them to go out there and prove me wrong. So my game is always mental, baby.

I love it when the plan comes together. Oh, we love you, Des. We love it. You're just so diabolical over there. All right. Well, it worked out. It was gritty, but it worked out. All right, Pete, on a little bit more of a serious note,

you have an update on a tight end Colston Loveland. Can you give that to us? Yeah, Colson Loveland missed the USC game after injuring his shoulder the prior week. He's still going to be questionable for Minnesota. They're testing the range of motion in that shoulder, Victoria, and they'll see it'll be closer to a game time decision of whether he'll be able to go on Saturday. The good news for Des in Michigan, Will Johnson left the game, went to the locker room. He's fine.

He's expected back. That's a deep exhale. He has two pick sixes. year and is the best corner in college football. All right. Well, that will be a big one too. Now, Sam, real quickly, this is a gritty style of winning for Michigan. They're really straight from the bottom of the barrel. How do you think they can keep this up?

Oh, they can keep it up because of their defense. Josiah Stewart, four quarterback hurries, three tackles for loss, two sacks and a win. Talk about Will Johnson's pick six. This defense in the running game can actually propel this team to victories. Now, they do play Oregon, which would be a big test. So that'll be the real game I'm looking forward to it. couple weeks. Well, I think between that and then also Dez's diabolical plan, they're in a, they're in a good position. So we shall see what he's got up his sleeve. All right, between

Sam and Dez, I'm Victoria. Thanks to watching. We'll see you tomorrow.