College Football Live - When the Lights Shine the Brightest, Who Will Show Up?

Episode Date: October 15, 2024

Phil Murphy is joined by Sam Acho, Desmond Howard, and Pete Thamel to break down a thrilling Week 7. The crew dives into the key storylines after witnessing who truly shined under the lights. Following 2 Ohio State's heartbreaking loss to 3 Oregon, hear from Dan Lanning about the "strategies" that led to one team's triumph and the other's downfall. Plus, 7 Alabama managed a shaky win—what's next for this "unbalanced" squad? We also saw FOUR overtime games last Saturday, tying for the most in a single night since 2003; find out which OT performance impressed the crew the most. Pete Thamel brings big news on player injury statuses and how they might impact the rest of their season. And with Quinn Ewers back on the field, hear Sam and Des's thoughts on his performance against Oklahoma. It’s college football time! 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 Phil Murphy. Let's go out the tunnel. Ohio State and Oregon went down to the very last play Saturday. Dan Landing breaks a silence on the duck's late 12-man penalty, a confession of sorts. And Alabama narrowly escaped from South Carolina.

In Tuscaloosa, we hear from Coach Kaelan to board to discuss if concern is rising for the tide. Plus, four ranked teams had to work overtime to win Saturday. Find out which finishes made us take notice. College Football Live kicks now. Welcome to College Football Live. Presented by Google Pixel. Starting the show with a touchback. You see that?

It's a Tuesday. It's October. We can exhale, kind of, digest the weekend. We are Sam Acho, the Heisman winner, Desmond Howard, Pete Thammell, and we might have all seen the biggest win of this maturing college football season. Saturday night in Eugene. Otson Stadium was rocking. Dylan Gabriel was rolling.

But the decisive moments came down to gamesmanship. Ohio State facing a third and 25 outside of field goal range. 10 seconds left. Oregon's flagged for too many men on the field. Trading four seconds for five yards. Then quarterback Will Howard ran. ran one too many seconds off the clock on the ensuing snap. Ryan Day and sensed at the call in the moment.

Here's Will Howard, just going one too many yards. Dan Laning, was that 12 men on the field penalty? Was that intentional? He wasn't one-on-one. We actually had a safety on top. So there was a, so it's called dog. It's when you play. But he wasn't an extremely tight coverage,

but he was in dog coverage where he had safety on top of him. And, yeah, there was a top of him. Yeah, there was a timeout before that. We spent an order amount of time on situations. There are some situations that don't show up very often in college football. But this is one that obviously was something that we have worked on. So you could see the result. A quack hack.

Sam, Dan Lennon, he was smiling through that, man. We see players, sometimes linebackers, you know, maybe take a tactful penalty in coverage as the lesser of two evils. What did you make of Lannings apparently premeditated decision? I thought it was brilliant. A brilliant move by Dan Lenny. Talked about the situations that you practice. What are those situations?

Well, how do we knock off some time on the clock because times are the most important? So I remember when I was in the NFL playing on punt team, we would actually have a purposeful false start in order to run time off the clock in order to try to help us win the game. Well, that's what this seemed like. A purposeful penalty, a purposeful 12 men on the field

in order to run off a few seconds, two, three, four, in order to have a situation like this arise. So I thought it was a brilliant move by Dan Lannin, who was afforded the opportunity based off the timeout called before by Ryan Day. Hey, guys, before we get to what Dan Lannning may or may not have done, how about Ryan Day in Ohio State? I think that they kind of have some clock management issues. When the Ducks had the ball with about two minutes and 14 seconds left in the fourth quarter,

Ryan Day could have called a timeout before the two-minute timeout. And that would have saved him five seconds. Instead, he called a timeout after a two-minute timeout, and that's five seconds off the clock he could have had in his back pocket. And then, don't forget, after the offensive pass interference by Jeremiah Smith, it appeared as though Ryan Day and Will Howard that they were confused that they thought the clock would stop until the next play. But it went from 22 to 16, costing them another six seconds.

So if you thought that the 12 men on the field cost them, four seconds, their own clock mismanagement cost them double an amount of time at the end of that game. Pete, I remember back in 2006, Brett Belema, when he was at Wisconsin, he exploited a kickoff timing loophole at the end of a half against Penn State intentionally going offside repeatedly to kill clock and get the halftime. This is more subtle by Oregon. What can be done if this were something the NCAA wanted to prevent in the future? Yeah, Phil. I think the, uh, I think the, uh, I talked to Terry McCauley today, long-time college and NFL official, and he was very blunt with me. He said this is a bad rule.

And it traces back in college to 2020. This is not allowed in the NFL what Dan Lannin cleverly exploited the other night. In 2020, the NCAA rules changed. It's called a Team B substitution, and it was altered to a live ball foul. The expectation is that NCAA is going to address this. The question is whether they do something in the mid-season or they'd wait until after year on the traditional timeline. McCauley did tell me there are two counters if this situation does arise again and the rules

don't change. One is Ohio State could have simply called a time out. And if they had called a time out because it would have been a penalty on the other side, that time out would not have been burned. The other thing they could have done is let the play clock run down, run out, and with 12 men on the field, they would have gotten five yards. They would not have gotten the penalty for the clock winding down. Now, again, in Austin Stadium with 10 seconds remaining, knowing the deep, deep depths of the rulebook, McCauley said he doesn't expect anyone to know those.

But now, I think you're going to have a lot of people working on this in situational football come practices late this week. It was a really precise situation in which this even became an issue, but 496 yards allowed by the Buckeyes and that loss. That's the most yards by the program in a game since a 2022 CFB semi-final against number one Georgia. That day, the Buckeyes allowed 533 yards and a 42-41 loss to eventual national champion, Georgia, the Bulldogs. Stetson Bennett threw for 398 in that game. That stat dovetails beautifully to this question, Des. You talked about Ohio State's mismanagement of time. What did you learn about the Ohio State and 60 minutes of football overall Saturday night?

Well, that defensive graphic showed you just how dominant they were in the first five games. But the first five offenses that they went up against, not one of those offenses ranked in the top 80, the top 80, 8, 0, and total yards per game. And then they ran to that monster Saturday night, which is a very good offense. So it lets you know the level of competition they faced before Saturday night. And then when you talk about against top five opponents,

under Jim Nose, the defensive coordinator, they've really struggled against top five opponents. Michigan in 2022 and 23, Georgia in 22, and of course, the Duff Saturday night. And those four games, the opponent averaged 33 points and 470

yards per game. So those big games, the defense just hasn't been able to show up yet and especially get those big stops to help them get that W. You know, does I think there were two more finite things that were concerning in the Oregon game as

Ohio State pushes forward and chases the playoff. One is they allowed five yards of carry and their front seven generally didn't offer much resistance to Oregon. They finished with no sacks. They have this vaunted tandem on defensive end of Jack Sawyer and JT Tuimolo Alow and neither of them registered a sack. Tuomolo had a tackle for loss. The other thing was Denzel Burke. He gave up eight catches for 179 yards on eight targets. He had about as bad of a big game as a corner who's projected to be a top 50 pick in the NFL draft could have had. So problems were exposed on the field, and there'll be plenty for Ohio State to work on as they build up through the rest of the schedule. And there'll be a great

opportunity for Ohio State to potentially play this Oregon team again in the Big Ten Championship. And yes, Penn State still has an opportunity. But if these teams play again, I can expect two things. Number one, for some of those matchos, specifically Denzel Burke, to be attacked again and see how you respond. But number two, I go back to last year how Oregon played Washington twice and actually lost both of those games. And so let's see if it would be a situation that reverses Oregon, let's say they play Ohio State twice. And if they can win them both or if Ohio State will make those defensive adjustments to try and match the defensive, I would argue, dominance that Oregon showed. Margin's so small at the top. Still Big 10, 23, 4. Let's take a look at this week's

college football rankings brought you by Verbo. Ohio State drops just two spots after that loss in Eugene. Oregon, now number two in the rankings. The Ducks, their highest ranking since the end of 2014. And if you check the tail end of the top 25, the first time both Army and Navy are ranked in the same AP poll since October of 1960. Bama didn't move in the top 25, but for a hot second Saturday in Tuscaloosa, looks like they might slip a little further down. The tide who haven't lost back-to-back game since 2007 trailed the gamecocks through three quarters and needed a late two-point stop to prevent OT. Kalin DeBore, what happened here? If you can't execute it well in an SEC game, when things, are moving that fast and there's that many good players on the football field, you know,

that can backfire. That can hurt you. And so the key is, is, you know, making sure we do it, we do, apply our rules and everything that we have, whether it's offense, defense, special teams, and then be disciplined with it. And that's, you know, going to be the name in the game here, you know, this week, every week, moving forward. Sam, Acho, that was not far from consecutive losses for Bama. We are a far cry in the narrative after the Georgia win. We're about halfway through the schedule with the tide. Exactly halfway through the schedule, in fact. What's your concern level with them?

Well, my concern is not halfway through the schedule, but halfway through that Georgia game from a few weeks ago. The second half of Georgia, we saw that Alabama's defense, for lack of better terms, collapsed in that second half. Then against Vanderbilt, they didn't play great. Now, South Carolina, you're seeing a consistent theme. The defense needs to improve significantly if they want to compete in the SEC for an SEC title. The reason why is that those margins at the top, we heard it,

but they're extremely small, specifically in the SEC. There are many one-lost teams. When I was talking to Eli Drinkwitz, the head coach of Missouri a few days ago, and he mentioned how with the 12th team playoff, most people think that there's a bigger margin of error, but he said he feels like the margin of error is smaller. There's so much competition in the SEC. So sometimes these close wins or sometimes close losses

can end up biting you as the season progresses when the Slection Committee is looking at the film. Yeah, Sam, and I was looking at the deal. Defense. I was really surprised at Lenora Sellers, the young quarterback for South Carolina, who hasn't had a lot of success throwing the ball through for over 300 yards against the Alabama's defense

and three touchdowns. So that really caught me off guard. Now, he's a dual threat quarterback, so I knew he was going to make some plays with legs. But normally, Sam, when you watch this Alabama defense, they're buttoned up, their discipline, and they're very, very tough.

And up front, it seems like they wasn't getting the normal amount of push that we will see from the defensive front, Alabama's defensive front seven. And then on the back end, the coverage skills, they don't have like a shutdown corner out there that I've seen so far,

especially last week against South Carolina. So it may be scheme, it may be guys getting comfortable. Moving forward, I'm going to keep an eye on that defense, though. Tough test coming up for Alabama on the road this weekend. 3.30 p.m. Eastern Neeland Stadium at Tennessee is going to be rocking.

Hey, coming up, Penn State had to get a tough road win, barely able to at last new Big Tenfo, USC and OT. Should we be concerned about the Nittney Lions moving forward? Plus, Pete gives us an injury update on some of the biggest names in the game, all when we come back on College Football Live. College Football Live is presented by Google Pixel. And in part by Elka Seltzer Plus, bounce back fast with Fast Fizzy Relief from Elka Seltu Plus.

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is left behind. Donate today at Cam H. dot CA slash giving Tuesday. Big weekend in Austin's circuit of the Americas isn't the only place where it'll be a spectacle. Georgia comes to town number five, bulldogs, number one longhorns. Game day kicks off at 9 a.m. on ESPN. Hey, overtime was a trend this past weekend. Penn State, for their part, rallied from a 14-point halftime deficit to beat USC in OT 33 to 30.

This was a Nittie Lions first win after trailing by 14 or more at the half since 2016 against Wisconsin. There was a wild finish in Champaign. Illinois almost blew a 24 point third quarter lead surviving a Purdue comeback. The Illini stopped a would-be game-winning two-point conversion in OT. 49 points, the most Dave allowed in a win in the AP poll era. Hey, Tennessee did just enough to beat Florida 2317 in OT. The Valls now have the most overtime games in the FBS, 24 since OT was instituted in 1996. It's back-to-back home wins over Florida for the first time and more than 3.

30 years. And LSU held off Ole Miss to win 29, 26. The Tiger's first lead was on that game-winning OT touchdown. It's the first time that LSU won without leading until the final whistle since 2011 against then number two,

Alabama. Desmond Howard, by my math, that's four different games involving AP top 25 teams that needed bonus football, went to OT. That's tied for the most ever on a single day. Which performance stood out to you? I would have to say the Penn State

win over. USC. I mean, we've seen these teams have to travel all of these miles to go across country. A lot of teams came up short. You know, Michigan did last two weeks ago against Washington. Obviously, Ohio State against Oregon. But Penn State traveled to L.A. and beat USC. And they were in a dogfight down two scores a halftime. I tell you what, they're tight in. Tyler Warren. This guy leaves the team yards per game with 85 and averages 13 yards per catch, has four touchdowns on the season. And at times, it just seemed like he was unstoppable that coach Lynn, the defensive

coordinator for Southern Cal, could not come up with the way to stop him. So Tyler Warren was the weapon that the Nittany Lions used to beat USC. Well, I was really impressed by Penn State before a different reason. I was impressed by their resilience. They were down by 14 points earlier in the third quarter. We talked about that. They came back. Then they were down again by a touchdown, five minutes left.

in the fourth quarter and they still were able to come back. To me, that talks about confidence, belief, resilience, but also I think about play calling and just that confidence that a play caller can instill in a quarterback, Andy Kotonicki and Drew Aller to know that even if we're down by two scores, three scores, four scores or four points, we always have a chance. It's a lot of fun to watch them march up the field, you know, with, we saw Tyler Warren take a snap on a touchdown pass. And my question more rhetorically as Penn State moves forward is they were doing that well between the 20s. When you get down first, and goal from the two. We'll go with a creamery analogy. You can sell cinnamon basil and blueberry

ricotta cheesecake. Can you sell chocolate or vanilla? Can we simplify things? Go 12 personnel, hand the ball off to Nick Singleton or Catron Allen. Those guys combined 26 carries, 82 yards. I would say as Penn State moves forward and they have Ohio State in a couple weeks, those are the type of questions they'll have to answer if they're going to be able to remain in the top three once we get to college football playoff rankings time. But with that, it's time now for our rewarding performance brought to you by Capital One. And Des mentioned him.

Tyler Warren, Penn State's tight end, caught 17 passes on 20 targets for 224 yards in a touchdown. That ties for the most receptions by a tight end in FBF history most in 42 years. He also completed a nine-yard pass. And as I mentioned, snapped the ball on his touchdown grab. He was an eligible center in that formation. Pete, unfortunately, it's a time of year. We're starting to see some big names go down with injury.

that was the case this weekend. Can you give us an update on several of them, starting with Notre Dame corner Benjamin Morrison? Yeah, it's really hard to overstate what a big loss Benjamin Morrison is for Notre Dame. He's out for the rest of the season with a hip injury. Simply put, he's the best player on a defense that's number eight in the country in scoring defense. He's the type of lockdown corner that any elite defense needs. When you look at Morrison, he was a projected top 20 pick in the upcoming NFL draft.

He was in the conversation for CB1. So really, Notre Dame's going to have a hard time replacing him as he's the kind of guy you could leave out on an island. Some better news out of Boulder this week. Travis Hunter, the do-it-all player is one of the Heisman Trophy favorites, was not seriously injured when he left that case state game with a shoulder injury. I was told it's not a structural issue. And Coach Prime just said a few minutes ago in his press conference

that Travis Hunter will be back for the game at Arizona this week. Jimmy Horn, the receiver, will also be back to, which is key for Colorado. Then there's Cam Rising for the second straight year. Things just didn't work out for Cam Rising physically. He spogged through that game on Friday night at Arizona State, and he's now out for the season.

His hand obviously bothered him early in the year. He did not look comfortable moving around with his lower body in that ASU game. The potential for Cam Rising, who would be an eighth year senior, to return does exist. No one has addressed whether he will or not yet, but he would get a medical red shirt

as he's only played three games. Pete, we also had an injury on the sidelines. OK state coach Mike Gundy suffered an injury this week. Source him. His weekly press conference had to be held without video. And he explains why. Well, I had a little run in with my cattle over the weekend. I guess they've been watching this play.

and got head budded. So I've got a bad eye that I didn't think would be particularly enjoyable for people when they were looking at my pretty face in a live interview. More importantly, it's full of blood and I get dizzy. So it's not easy to be upright and being a normal function. But other than that, I'm doing great. Other than that, Pete, this team's got a big game Friday night in person. Provo against BYU.

Are you able to give us any confirmation? Is the mullet okay? The mullet is okay, and I just have empathy for him. I got assaulted by a cartoon duck in Eugene Saturday morning. I got covered with silly string. The only onus is on our dry cleaner here in Boston, not on my physical health for this weekend. So best wishes for Mike Gundy and Provo and getting everything back together.

And Pete, I can confirm your hair is fully recovered from the green silly string as well. Hey, coming up, Texas got a big return to their lineup. Quarterback Quinn Ewer's return from injury back under center Saturday for the Longhorns. We'll discuss his Red River rivalry performance when we return. You're watching College Football Live, presented by Google Pixel. Snap up ancestry DNA's lowest price ever in our incredible cyber sale. With 50% off ancestry DNA kits, it's the perfect time to help a loved one unwrap the past. and with their latest update,

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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. College Football Live is presented by Google Pixel. Welcome to the shootout in Texas. You could argue the Texas takeover started Saturday at the Texas State Fair. Quinn Ewer's first start since week three.

He goes for 199 through the air passing touchdown, five-yard rushing TD to cap. A 31 point win over OU. Ewers was sacked on the first play, threw a pick on his first pass attempt. Said post-game, rough start, but overall, I think we did a good job of overcoming some adversity early. UT now 6-0 for the first time since 2019. Sam Acho, U-T alumnus. Golden Hat is back in Austin. what did you think of yours on his return?

Well, he started off slow and started off rusty. To be expected, he had missed four weeks of football, hadn't played a real game in 28 days. But then what impressed me the most is that he started to gain confidence as the game progressed. For a younger player, a player with less experience, you could start to get rattled and shook by this Oklahoma defense. But he wasn't. Players made plays for him, guys like Gunner Helm,

who stepped up big at the last Texas OU game as well. And so the confidence, the leadership, the poise, all showed up for Quinn Ewers. I was very impressed by that. Now, the biggest test is next week versus Georgia, but great job for Quinn Ewers coming back after a month off. Yeah, that's the only caveat for Texas. They only get to enjoy this so much before number five.

Georgia comes to town, part of a Texas takeover, and part of an ABC triple header on Saturday. We have Alabama at Neeland Stadium. So much of that to discuss throughout the rest of the week. But good news for you. I'm going to sub out. Victoria Arlen back in this chair tomorrow for a fresh show. 2 p.m. Eastern on ESPN 2 for Des Sam and Pete. I'm Phil. Thanks for watching.