College Football Live - Tuscaloosa Turmoil!

Episode Date: September 27, 2024

Jen Lada, Desmond Howard, Steve Coughlin and Pete Thamel go live from Tuscaloosa, Alabama as they get you ready for Week 4 of college football. We go over injury updates ahead of Saturday's slate and also discuss the implications of Georgia's visit to Alabama to take on the tide. All that and more on CFB Live! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to College Football Live, presented by DirecTV. Shot of T-Town, Tuscaloosa, where I do believe there is a bit of a big game happening on Sabin Field tomorrow night. Alabama, hosting Georgia, huge SEC clash. Kalin-Divore's first SEC game. We've got you covered as College Football Live gets going right now. Welcome into College Football Live. It is a brisk and windy day here in Tuscaloosa, and that might also describe brisk and windy. The conditions for tomorrow's game haven't really checked the weather.

He's Desmond Howard, he's Stanford, Steve. This is Pete Thammel and I am Jen Lata. Let's begin with that big game, guys, because records and rivalries are on the line when number two, Georgia takes on number four Alabama on Saturday. Georgia bringing in a 42 game regular season win streak. And the Bulldogs defense has been a big part of that. Impressive this season going 16. straight quarters without allowing a touchdown. But Alabama's defense has been pretty stout as well, allowing only three plays of 20 plus

yards this season. That is third fewest in FBS. Kirby smart guys, one and five against Alabama. I imagine that's a number of this crowd enjoys his lone win coming in the 2022 National Championship game. And of course, it is Kalin DeBoer making his SEC debut for the Crimson Tide. Both coaches spoke about the significance of this. this game this week.

We got to have a great week of preparation. They got a tremendous team, nothing but respect for Kaelin Nabor and what he's done with that team and that staff. I think he's done a great job of putting them in a position to grow and get better. And they've gotten better with each game. So we need to do the same this week. Welcome, welcome to the SEC, right? But, you know, that's, again, that's, it's going to be,

it's going to happen throughout the season, right? There's going to be a lot of great teams. that we're gonna face. And so just being at your best, that's what's required to me. That's required of all of us. And that comes down to just going to work, rolling up your sleeves and enjoying all that that comes with these big challenges

that are in front of you each and every week. Well, Kailen DeBore has had a lot of success, but as everybody knows, it is a different animal when you get to the SEC. As for Georgia, the last time they faced Alabama, Des, it did not go well for them. It actually kicked them out of the college football playoff. What do they have to prove tomorrow when they take the field? Well, on my flight to Birmingham, I was sitting next to some Georgia fans. And I asked him, I said,

what are you guys looking for in this game from Kirby? They say, Desmond, he's lost to Nick Saban, but you can't keep losing to Alabama. Now, if you lose to Alabama that's not coached by Nick Saban, you're going to have some problems in Athens. He's going to have to get Carson Beck going, The Kentucky game, he didn't look sharp, like he was hesitant to make, to pour the trick on some throws. They got to get Carson back into a rhythm. He's going to have to throw the ball down the field. But first short and immediate rounds just to get him going. But the one thing I don't think he can do is lose to Kalin DeBoer.

You know, one thing to lose is Nick Saban, he'll please different ball game to lose to Kalin DeBoar. Yeah, when we're talking about what we need to see from Georgia, I think it's, you touched on the Kentucky game. Yeah. They have to be improved from that sense. You know, offensive linemen missing assignments, quarterback not playing well. Defense giving up, you know, losing a lead in the beginning of the game. Yeah. They have to be improved because when you look at that schedule, yeah.

This is the first of four. They got the toughest remaining schedule in the country. It's here. It's at Austin. It's at Oxford. And then they get the vials coming to them. Yeah. So this is a big step for them to show they've improved and be able to show what they have on this kind of stage.

Feels like a lot is at stake for Georgia. Is it similar for Kailin, and the tide or less pressure given it's his first foray into SEC play. I wouldn't say it's less pressure, but I think everything that Kalin DeBoer has done to this point, he's aced, right? The banquet tour, recruiting's going well, they hit the portal right. He has a great staff. And all of that will be reframed through the prism of the result of Saturday night, right? Everything Kalin DeBore has done has built to this moment, and this is when he will begin being judged. When foot hits ball on Saturday night, the Kalin-de-Bore era really kicks off.

12 and 2 against top 25 teams at Washington. He's 107 and 12 overall. He is an unbelievable football coach. But for his Alabama tenure to get off on the right foot, it starts on Saturday. Oh, go ahead. You go. I saw Kailen DeBore be interviewed by Marty Smith. And Marty asked him the same question.

Like, you know, what does this game mean to you? He said, listen, this game sets the direction for our team for the rest of the season. So they'll know where they are because Georgia is the measuring stick by which you are measuring. He understands the pressure, but he understands the significance of this game tomorrow night. And you talked about he aced to test. That was everything he could do, right? He got his team ready. They started out the season undefeated.

But now you get judged based on what your team does. 100%. So, you know, he's been incredible. You ran through the record to get your teams prepared. He's been great on this kind of stage, playing ranked teams. So everything's out there. But the difference is now he gets judged based on what happens in between the sidelines. Our fantastic researcher, Marissa, gave me this one.

guys. Kirby Smart has blown at least a seven point lead in all five losses to Alabama. His record in similar situations against all other opponents, 89 and 4. He's got more of those losses to Alabama than anyone else combined. That is incredible. Marissa had to dig deep for that one. Marissa absolutely crushes it every single week, guys. Let's take a look at today's road test presented by Goodyear. We are seeing a repeat of what we have seen in recent years with a wild start.

6 FBS teams are still perfect. This weekend is going to thin that herd with some big conference matchups. Let's start, Steve, with which undefeated team, and you're seeing a lot of them right there on that graphic. You are most interested to watch play this weekend. It's Ole Miss, and nobody's going to want us to talk about this from the Georgia side, but I was really impressed with Kentucky's defense watching the tape against Georgia. But now you get Ole Miss, hasn't played a great schedule.

Kentucky is going to come to Oxford and punch your offensive line in the face. how are you going to react to that? That's what I'm dying to see Ole Miss. It's their first chance to really play a conference game against good competition. How do they react? That's what I want to see from Ole Miss and that offense tomorrow.

UNLV's program got famous for all the wrong reasons this week. But UNLV is 3 and O. They are ranked in the coaches bowl for the first time in school history. They have Fresno Saturday. The following Friday, they have Syracuse at home. Those are arguably two of the biggest games in school. history. They have Hajmolique Williams coming in for Matthew Sluca, the quarterback who famously walked out because of an alleged unpaid verbal promise of $100,000.

Hajmalik Williams is going to be looking for Ricky White. This is an amazing stat, Steve. Since 2010, UNLV has had zero players drafted. That's hard to do in big time college football. Ricky White will be the first one. He's a receiver. He's had limited production. Matthew Sluca, not a thrower. He's a runner. I look for Ricky White to really get things rolling for UNLV if they're going to keep continuing this week. Ted, how about you? I think, well, you talked about Marissa, right? So during the week, I was doing my prep. And so I say, hey,

Marissa, I need you to look something up. I say, I'm looking at the top 25 teams, the top 25 ranked teams in college football. And I'm looking at Ohio State. Are they the only team that in four weeks has not played a power four team?

And she said, yes, Desmond, you're right. So pretty much, Ohio State took the whole month off, the whole first month off. And now they're playing Michigan State, you know what I mean? So finally they're playing a power 14. Yeah. Going on the road playing this Michigan State team that

defensively, they lead the conference and sacks and tackles for loss. I mean, the trenches, watch that battle in the trenches. I'm not sure. I'm going to have to ask Pete later on because Michigan State has lost at least three wide receivers earlier in the season. I don't know who's coming back. Pete's

going to give me that information a little later on. But Ohio State finally welcome to the 2024 of college football season up in East Lansing against party. Just dripping with sarcasm there. He mentioned, they had played anybody. You're right. We're five,

and they have not played a power for a team. That's crazy. He said, welcome, so I said, okay. I think that was the first thing you looked at this week for prep. I was just doing my proud state.

I was like, gee whiz, what's odd here? What's odd? I mean, it is what it is. I didn't make this schedule. You're valid point.

They did the same thing. The two previous years. No, no. Why are you going to put Misholins, bro? All right, all right. Are you a buck-eyed? I don't know Michigan's first four games. They didn't play a powerful thing.

We will have a very interesting in-depth conversation about UNLV tomorrow on college game day. Very early on. I do want you to tune into that. What is that? When we come back, Oklahoma heads to Auburn, both teams still looking to hit their stride on offense. We'll give you the. the latest on the quarterback situation for both of those teams. Plus, we're not done with this big game yet.

How could we be? We'll discuss keys to the game for both Georgia and Alabama in this primetime matchup as College Football Live rolls on. College Football Live is presented by DirecTV. All your entertainment, nothing on your roof. Stream DirecTV, satellite free. You and your crew to the big shows with Go Transit. Go connects to all the main concert venues like TD Coliseum in Hamilton and Scotia Bank Arena in Toronto.

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Black Friday. IKEA. Bring home to life. The place where legends are made. This is a huge game. To the end of touchdown. kicking contests. You had tons of tape breakdown, and we have a fantastic guest picker in Miss Terry.

Come and hang out with us from 9 to noon Eastern on ESPN. Let's look at the Allstate AFCA GoodWorks team, recognizing athletes for their charitable work off the gridiron. To see all 23 players on the Good Works team, just log on ESPN.com forward slash Allstate. Time now to whip around the college football landscape. We ask our friend Pete Thammell, what are you keeping your eye on this weekend, Pete?

Well, some breaking news this afternoon, Jen. Thomas Castellanos, the Boston College quarterback, will be out against Western Kentucky on Saturday. He suffered injury in that Michigan State game. Grayson James will start for BC. He's a transfer from FIU. He had 11 starts while at FIU. He has not started any games for B.C. since he went there.

I was told that B.C. practice this summer that he was one of the most improved players on the roster. So there's optimism. He'll come in. Tileak Williams, Ohio State Star defensive tackle, who missed the last game will return and be available against Michigan State on Saturday night. For Michigan State, they returned Geron Glover, their star receiver. Nick Marsh, who's been one of the breakout freshmen this season after he torched Maryland,

is going to be a game time decision for the Spartans. A lot of eyes on the field to see if Nick Marsh is going to be able to go against Michigan State. And then finally, Cam Rising, old friend Cam Rising. He will be a game time decision against Arizona on Saturday night. Same situation as last week. He's been limited, although he's practiced some this week for the youths. Isaac Wilson has got a bunch of starts. He will warm up before the game.

They will see how the ball looks coming out of his hand. If the ball is fluttering and there isn't that zip and velocity on it because the injury to his fingers, his middle finger and his ring finger, they will play Isaac Wilson. If rising is good to go, he will play against the Wildcats on Saturday. Poor snake bit, Cam Rising. Just setting a record for the most mentions on college football life. headed into a game weekend.

All right, guys. An SEC clash this weekend as Auburn and Oklahoma are both desperate to solve their quarterback issues as well. Peyton Thorne and Michael Hawkins, Jr., have not found their footing yet. Neither quarterback is completing 60% of their passes. Will this be the weekend gang that they solved their quarterback conundrums? Pete, what is the latest here on the quarterback situation? Yeah, so just within the last hour, we broke that Peyton Thorne will start the game for Auburn.

This isn't a huge surprise. he played well against Arkansas with two touchdown passes in the second half. Hugh Freeze said this week he really prioritized he needed a vet. He needed someone who could read Oklahoma's defense. Oklahoma has a stout defense. They give you a ton of different looks as Brent Venables is known to do. So he and Hank Brown split reps in practice this week. I was told both played well, but Peyton Thorne will get the go for the Tigers.

Okay, so that is not a great endorsement though. I need somebody out there who can read the defense. What needs to change? Is the quarterback issue or a culture? issue plaguing Auburn right now. I believe the mistake was made after the Cal loss when they made the decision to go to Hank Brown, the freshman to play against New Mexico. When you look at New Mexico, they were one of the worst, they still are one of the worst defenses in the country. And when you have a guy like Peyton Thorne who just needs more reps with all those freshman receivers,

that was a game to get your confidence back. And then you flip the script and put a freshman in the start his first game. And you saw how they looked with Hank Brown last week against Arkansas. So that's where I think it's back. They're back to where they started from, but they lost the foundation of two weeks where they could have got improvement. This is a monumental game. Auburn has not played a road game yet, and they're staring at two and three in five home games to start the season. That's not what you wanted when you saw it out from the beginning of the season. Pete, let's go back to you on the Oklahoma quarterback situation. What is the latest there? So Michael Hawkins is going to get his first career start. He's a freshman from Dallas.

His dad, Mike Hopkins was an NFL corner. He was actually drafted in Aaron Rogers's draft class. He may have overlapped with Dez and the Packers. Did you overlap with Hawkins? No? Who? Mike Hawkins? What did you leave the Packers? After the Super Bowl. That was earlier. Who won the MVP in that Super Bowl? Anyway, so Michael Hawkins had 55 touchdown passes in three interceptions as a senior. He can sling it and that's what Oklahoma wants. They need this

offense opened up. It was ground to a halt with Jackson Arnold there. Yeah, I think what Hawkins, what you're going to get is a guy who's young. He's out there having fun, doesn't have really a care in the world. You see this with these young backup quarterbacks because they're like, I ain't got nothing to lose. I can go out there and let it hang. So I think that it's probably a pretty good move. And see how to offense responds to his leadership

and what he brings to the table. Well, and you mentioned kind of the issues that they're having. Dionne Burke's ruled out on Thursday. That means that Hawkins will be without the team's top five wideouts. Feels like that might make the job kind of difficult. A little bit. A little bit. A little bit. He's going to be a runner.

Let's go to Steve. One dimensional offense and whatnot. Steve, some of the other games of note this weekend that you want to hit on from a betting perspective. Give us your gambling guy. They're not games of people's notes. They're just games that I'm looking at. Let's be honest, we've been doing all right. One trend that we found is Kent State is not a good football team this year.

So we are going to take Eastern Michigan minus 14 points. When you look at Ken State, they've really struggled. They've played big time teams. And now they're probably down to their third quarterback, which is not a good sign knowing what they put on the field so far for the first month of the season. Eastern Michigan minus the points there. Then the other game, big game in the Big 12. Oklahoma State lost last week.

Kansas State went to BYU and got smacked. Now, there was a lot of unforced errors in that game by Kansas. Get them to come home, rebound, play well, not turn the football over, and take care of Oklahoma State, who also got caught in flux and making a quarterback change in the middle of the game last week. We'll see what happens there with the quarterback situation. but we like Kansas State as a favorite at home. And then this one hurts a little bit,

but I got to do it. Stanford's going back to the East Coast for a second straight week. They got a huge win against Syracuse, but this is a totally different level. Now you're going to Death Valley for a night game. It's a conference game. Clemson's coming off their best performance in the year. I worry about Stanford in the trenches against Clemson.

Clemson's got some grown men, NFL draft picks, especially on the defensive line. I think Clemson should roll tomorrow. As the season goes on, we're going to get more data points on how that travel starts to affect teams as well. The going back and forth from West Coast to East Coast, I imagine we'll have good research on that after this inaugural season of that. Coming up on College Football Live, we will break down the keys to the game for this massive SEC showdown happening right here in Tuscaloosa. Tomorrow night, don't go anywhere. You're watching College Football Live, presented by DirecTV.

When you're flying Emirates business class, relaxing in an exclusive airport lounge, you'll see that your vacation isn't really over until your flight is over. Fly Emirates, fly better. College Football Live is presented by DirecTV. All your entertainment, nothing on your roof. Stream DirecTV, satellite free. Tonight on ESPN and the app number seven Miami hosts Virginia Tech in the ACC opener for bolted hard rock stadium. Coverage begins with college football countdown at 7 Eastern. Then our ABC Saturday night matchup is the game of the week, number two, Georgia, squaring off against number four Alabama, right here in T-Town.

Coverage of this one begins at 7.30 Eastern 430 Pacific. Let's take a look at a player to watch, brought you by today's military. Jalen Milrow has recorded. multiple passing and rushing touchdowns in all three games this season, tying Johnny Mansell and Tim Tebow for the longest streak by an SEC player since 1992. Very excited to see what Jalen Milro does on the field tomorrow night facing Georgia. Steve, what does Alabama have to do to get this win? They got to be more consistent on offense.

Too many times against inferior competition this year, they have relied on the splash plays, the explosive plays. They have to be able to stay ahead of the change. Georgia's defense is going to be back as healthy as they've been with a bunch of their defensive line guys coming back. That's the matchup I'm watching. Alabama's offensive line against that Georgia defensive line. But consistency, they have to be better. Alabama has played the Breyer's defense, full vanilla and a steady diet of it.

They blitz four times so far this season, four times. Expect that to change. Credit them for being patient, right? They were in a few of those games and they slogged along. So looking for Alabama to be a little bit exotic, a little bit more complex. and I'm looking for L.T. Overton, the Texas A&M transfer to have a big game. He had six tackles against Wisconsin.

He looks to be coming into his own. He was a Bally Hood recruit at A&M. And now that's starting to turn into production here at Alabama. Six tackles, a sack of force fumble at Wisconsin. Overton could be a guy who really flashes on Saturday night. You better be getting some NIL money for that mention, Des. Kellen DeBore told Marty Smith that what's going to determine the outcome of this game is turnovers and field position.

You have to win a turnover battle. want to give Georgia a small field or a short field to work with consistently. He said, we got to protect the ball. If we do that and play like we can play, we should be okay. Let's go to the other team that will be in action tomorrow night, Georgia. What's the key to them winning tonight or tomorrow? Saturday, Pete. So Mike Helt Williams, the Star Edge Rusher is going to be questionable for this game.

He's been limited in practice this week, Jen, this week, Jen. They need him to stop Jalen Milrow. Georgia's defense has to travel. Yeah. You know, they pulled it out against Kentucky. They have to do it here again. against if the offense sputters a little bit to start the game. Get Carson Beck, the quarterback, in the rhythm early, so he can start to spread the ball all over the field.

Let's go to our Friday game picks. Teams in action tonight, guys, let's begin with Virginia Tech at Miami. Pete, what are we watching for? Ali Jennings, the star receiver from Virginia Tech, missed last week's game against Rutgers. He's been beset by injury since he transferred there. Will he or will he not return is something I'm looking for? Byshal Tutin came back last week against Rutgers. Their star tailback, he had 122 yards.

Virginia Tech's going to win, they need to grind out that clock and keep Cam Ward on the sidelines. Give me a pick, does. I'm going with the team who I picked to win the ACC. That would be the Miami Hurricanes. Cam Ward is going to have a hell of a game tonight. Big spot Friday night. A lot of lights on the canes. Watch out.

Absolutely. Washington at Rutgers. Go Pete. Steve Belichick, former Bill Belichick, long snapper, has an interesting defensive challenge. He's a Rutgers guy. He played the cross there. Rutgers got a one-two combo. Sam Brown and Kyle Mononon.

guy. They need to stop them to stop Rutgers. Who do you like, does? Top rushing office. One of the top in the country is Rutgers. I'm going with the fighting Greg Shianos. I like Rutgers. I like how they match up against Washington. Washington has taken steps against that depleted roster. I think this is a big challenge. I like Rutgers at home. Should be a jazzed up atmosphere. Look at us rolling into the two-minute offense.

There we go. Up-tempo, making a house. Quarterback. Wonderful quarterback. We've got college game day coming your way tomorrow morning, nine to noon, Eastern, going to be a fantastic show. Looks like the weather may hold off for us. You guys excited for tomorrow night's game. Wow. That's commitment homes. Blame. That's dedication.