Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Bama is Inevitable, Final CFP Rankings, and Coaching Carousel Madness

Episode Date: December 6, 2021

Geoff and Gabe share their takes with CFP Conference Championship week, starting with Alabama’s upset over Georgia. Gabe is fed up with college football as a whole for letting Bama win every single year, but Geoff just wants to know whether Mario Cristobal is going to Miami or not. Also, will the Cincy game be competitive? Or should the Bearcats just be happy they got in? Plus, Geoff breaks down the latest news in the CFB coaching carousel.If you enjoyed the episode, leave a rating to let us know! And be sure to comment for a chance to be featured in a mailbag segment at the end of the season.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

It is Monday, December 6th. I'm Jeff Schwartz alongside Gabe Goodwin. This is Jeff Schwartz. This morning we're powered by the Varsity Podcast Network. And guys, the College Bowl regular season, believe it or not, is over. We have a playoff set. We have a bowl game set. I'm a little punchy today. I was in New Orleans, New Orleans, Indianapolis for the Big Ten Championship game. It was a lot of fun. The juice in that stadium was great. A lot of Michigan fans there. 80-90% Michigan fans did a live show there. But more than anything else,

we're going to get to a lot of topics. The playoffs, Alabama, coaching search and how the landscape has changed over the last week. But I'm an Oregon Duck, okay? And right now, our coach, I think is the Miami coach, but not. And by the time you listen to this, he might be.

There have been some odd College of Ball Coaching searches. If you recall, like the Greg Sciano Tennessee thing, the one that kind of like Clay drove on social media. But this is the honest thing because Miami people are like, he's our coach, he's in. And everyone's like, well, actually, he hasn't signed anything yet. He hasn't actually said he's coming to miami they just hope he's showing up and they've been playing for three days now oregon played on friday friday morning this started it's we're recording this on sunday

night i am ready for it to be over like stay or go mario i like mario cristobal i hope he stays but like just do do something please because this Because he was recruiting for Oregon all weekend. They lost Friday. He spent two days recruiting. What are we doing? If you're taking the job, just go. Just go or stay. I don't want Gabe.

It's kind of frustrating. I'm just kind of over it. Hey, I can see that you're frustrated. You got some spice to you, Jeff. You're like some St. Elmo's shrimp cocktail sauce right now coming out of Indy got a little extra kick i didn't i i didn't go to saint elmo's um you didn't have time for that no just seeing football the whole time well because i got in i i friday night i did uh my radio show because we had the pack 12 uh championship game preview then i watched the game on my hotel room same same exact game as the first Utah Oregon game.

Yep. And then Saturday, you know, I'm not going to say almost for lunch. That would be kind of odd, I think. Yeah. So, no, and then we walked to the stadium. And like I said, it was really cool. I don't miss playing at all, really. But, like, being in a stadium for a game like that, it was like the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is a little different.

The Super Bowl is kind of the crowd is 50-50, but there's like this energy, right? This passion there. And you go to this college game, you get the band. Our set was in the concourse, basically between the lower-level students and the upper-level students, and the band was right below us. So we got full Michigan-like, and it was obviously a great game for Michigan. It was fun. So yeah, a lot of time in Indy. Well, in Indy no St. Elmo's unfortunately uh flew back and and now

we're here talking uh about the cultural playoff which is which is final it's set I can't wait to talk about it but I have a quick reaction I think you're Mario Cristobal angst what like what's he gonna do maybe this is like the new thing with college football coaches. Maybe he's just trying to get a South Florida accent going. Maybe he wants to make sure he's workshopping. He wants to sound like a local when he arrives in Miami. But he's from Miami. He's from Miami.

It's been a while. Maybe he's got an Oregon accent to kick. Coaches like to sound like the locals. Here's my general take on that. Again, by the time you listen to this, he might have already decided miami tweeted out someone in miami tweet out there's a noon deadline a noon deadline for monday he has to decide by noon eastern like is he taking the job or not like what is going on um my general sense is that he wants to go home he wants to coach in miami but organ gives him a better opportunity to win right now

the roster is better the infrastructure is better the staff is better the the money is probably about the same but Miami's promising more money for coaches uh which is what Oregon and Oregon he gets wherever he wants I think there's a hesitation to leave what he's built in Oregon to go rebuild in Miami and And there is not a rebuild, but he's going to have to retool that roster to get it to where he wants to be at. So I think that's kind of pulling at him a little bit. Again, he recruited all weekend.

You know, the Brian Kelly, Brian Kelly went to LSU. There was reports he was recruiting for Notre Dame. But as soon as that report broke, he stopped recruiting and took the LSU job. This report broke Friday before they played Utah. And the whole weekend he recruited. Again, we're doing this Sunday at like 11 a.m. Eastern. There was tweets, Mario's going to Miami.

Deal's done. It's Sunday night. No national reporters reported yet. Bruce Feldman, Pete Damel, no one has. Just the Miami side. And it's just odd. I've never seen a situation where it's like, well, he's going there and only one side can confirm it.

Like no one at Oregon has confirmed it. Oregon thinks he's going. I've been told they think he's going. I don't know. He's not gone yet. It's odd. I wouldn't take the job. I feel like the Oregon job is way better.

I don't know another job where, you know, Phil Knight takes personal meetings with your top players, where you have the best facilities in the world, where you have a straight shot to the championship game in your fairly well-respected conference every year. Yeah. I just, I don't see how these two programs compare, but we'll see. Well, look, I mean, if you think about Oregon, since 2005, we've had four coaches win 10 games. Mike Belotti, Chip Kelly, Helfrich, and Mario. The last two seasons, the last two full seasons, 19 and 21, Mario's won 10 games. Like, whoever takes the job, we're going to win football games still.

We probably won't recruit the same level that Mario has recruited at. You've had three coaches go to Rose Bowls. Like, we're going to be fine. Miami's had one 10-win season to join the ACC in 2004. There's a lot of work for them to get back to where they want to be. But Mario, again, from Miami. His family is there. His mom is ailing right now.

I think his brother is like a lieutenant in the police force there. His offensive line coach at Oregon, Alex Marabal, they're high school buddies. I get the allure of going home. And there's no... He could go home against them in a couple years, too. It's not like this is the only time he could go coach Miami. But there's an allure

to going back home. I'm not as nostalgic for home as he won a national championship at Miami. I get why he wants to go home. But I think Oregon right now is the better job. The recruiting, obviously, is tougher to get guys to Eugene. There's more bodies in Florida. But Oregon will be fine the better job. The recruiting obviously is tougher to get guys to Eugene. There's more bodies in Florida. But Oregon will be fine in the end. I mean, we'll be okay.

It's hard to screw up Oregon, man. We have a lot of things going well for us. Well, let's talk about some teams who have even more going for them right now because we just spent a few minutes on losers and coach talk. And maybe we'll come back to some coach talk at the end. I want to talk about the winners. So the field is set. You mentioned mentioned it we're looking at our rankings uh i would love to pick apart some of those rankings as we go but what was your first reaction when you saw one through four come out how do you like these matchups what's your take on the playoff yeah so

the playoff is alabama michigan georgia cincinnati i think Notre Dame is five, and I think Ohio State finished six, correct? In the way it went. So once Alabama beat Georgia, we'll get to that game in a second, they were both going to be in the playoff, and they were both not going to play each other in the first round. So to me, it didn't matter where they ranked Michigan. They could have ranked Michigan one and Georgia four. They could have ranked Michigan two and Georgia 4. They could have ranked Michigan 2 and Georgia 3 as they did.

They could have ranked Bama 2 and Michigan 3. That wouldn't make sense. Any variation was going to end up with Michigan playing Georgia. Sucks for them because they were probably going to play, if Alabama had lost, they'd play Cincinnati in the first round and they would probably end up playing in the title game. Now they get Georgia, who obviously did not look like the team we thought they were going to be all season long so I'm good with it I mean I think that the real question would have been

had Bama lost though is the fourth team a Baylor team who has three top 15 wins this season yeah and I can't in a conference championship game um over another name team who's won one loss but really who'd they beat no one so i do wonder that would have been fun to debate um obviously we didn't we didn't get there because alabama uh but i think there's a debate too like is georgia more deserving than the notre dame is georgia more deserving than baylor who won their conference? I don't know, but I'm fine with these. These are four best teams, and I'm good with it.

Okay, well, I don't know why you and everyone I follow just immediately agreed that, obviously, they were going to put Bama and Georgia on other sides of the draw to set up what we assume is a rematch. I'm not convinced that people want to see that rematch, or it's the most fair way to handle this. And I think, just to dive right in, I think it would have been a hell of a lot more fun and potentially better business overall

to throw Michigan that one seed or drop Georgia down to the four, let the Bama-Georgia rematch happen in the first round. Yeah, there's an argument for that. It definitely would make the championship game less regionalized, right? Because then you would be guaranteed to have a Midwest team play a team in the South. And now you're not guaranteed that.

You might have a Georgia-Alabama championship game, which is, they're both favorites. Georgia's favored by seven or eight, and Alabama's favored by, I think Alabama's going to win that game by a lot, by the way. I don't see why not. Michigan, Michigan's got a chance to beat Georgia. But their downfield passing game, I don't think it's good enough to beat georgia uh which we saw alabama was really able to take advantage of some of those downfield throws so um yeah it would have been more exciting for the but i but i think that you know you want the two best teams right and the two best teams in this instance are going to be Alabama and Georgia.

But, I don't know. This is an upset. Look, we entered this past weekend. I think it was at the last 24 Power 5 Conference Championship games. We had one upset. That was Oregon over Utah. As far as an underdog winning. This weekend we had a bunch of underdogs winning, right?

Bama, Baylor. It was a different weekend that we had in the past. And that's okay. So maybe the playoff will be that way too because this has been a weird cultural ball season. So maybe the playoff will be different. No, can I crush your dreams on everyone else's? Yeah, it's going to be Bama, Georgia. Yeah, sure.

Yeah, so here's the thing, man. I said this before the season started. I've said this to you a few times since we've been working together, and I definitely said it after Alabama lost this year. It doesn't matter, okay? They're going to storm their way to the finish line no matter what. All right, this system is broken. Keep this in mind neutral site but in

georgia's backyard they lost a quarterback a running back two receivers and two linemen basically in the first round they reload completely an offense that puts up 40 plus against what we're told is like the best defense in history there's a former assistant to Saban coaching the other team, and it's never even a close game. When it matters, they just win. It's broken. Until something changes in the way that teams can recruit in college football, it will be Bama, Bama, Bama, and they will always be the favorite when it matters. Yes, but I don't know what the solution is because it feels very unlikely to sort of put a cap on recruiting, right? Like, what do you make the solution out to be? This is where I have to just claim ignorance.

All I can do is identify an obvious problem. I have no solution. I do not know. You're smart. Tell me a smart way to fix this because it's not fun. It's just not. And I don't have anything against Saban or Alabama, but because it's it's not fun it's just not and I don't have anything against Saban or Alabama but like it's not interesting well I think it's interesting

because I like watching good good teams play so I'm okay with the idea of these teams of these teams like playing each other because they're good now again I understand like you are you know you're a fringe not a fringe fan but you like USC you like the west coast football and to see two south teams play you know two teams on the South Point so it doesn't interest you as much as it might as it might me because I like watching I get that I totally get that um but a 12 team playoff would make it more because everyone would get in right you'd have two West Coast teams most likely okay get in and again are they winning no but I guess you'd have a little more fun in the playoffs you'd have some teams to root for.

Okay, so 12-team playoff, sign me up. Anything that makes it harder for it to just be the inevitable Bama victory. Because we looked it up, right? So this playoff's been around for a while, and that felt like a more equitable way than the BCS or just the random bowl system of previous generations. Alabama's made the playoff six of eight years. They've made the championship

game five times. They've won three of them. They're probably going to win this year. That makes them winners of like almost half of the championships that have existed under this system. One team has won more than a third and they're always in it. They always have a chance. And they're always in it. They always have a chance. So that makes Brady look like, oh yeah, he's on a good run. It's insane how dominant they are. There's nothing close to parity.

And just so you know, it has nothing to do with region for me, Jeff. It has to do with lack of competitiveness. I didn't like it when the Yankees won every World Series for a bunch of years there. It just got boring. like it when the Yankees won every World Series for a bunch of years there. It just got boring. Yeah. I think with college football, though, with the players rotating in and out so much, you do get a different team. I mean, there are players on Alabama, Will Anderson, who's been hot this year and might be the best player in all college football, Bryce Young. I mean, there's more players you had not seen in this spot before, but you're right. I mean, seeing the same team all the time would get boring. Again, I'm different because I just like watching good football,

so I'm okay with it, but I get why that would bother a lot of people. I understand that. It's just an inevitability. Bryce Young's going to win the Heisman, okay? Like, first year as a starter, he's just going to win a Heisman international championship. I don't even know how to grade if this guy's great or not. He's just automatically going to put up numbers and get wins. I like, what is it? Nobody builds anything.

It's just a system now. And by the way, if you aren't a starter within a year, you're going to be off to the other school and they're just going to ref but but see but the difference is that at alabama you're not i mean guys stay at alabama because if you get to play one or two years you go to nfl like that that's that's the thing about alabama yeah i just the factory mentality takes a lot of the joy out of it for me that's all and i don't think i'm alone on this i think a lot of fans wherever they're from whoever they root for are kind of tired of, oh, we thought this was the year that it wasn't going to be Bama. And when

push came to shove, they just dominated this team that we were all telling ourselves was good. They embarrassed them. Yeah. No, and they did. I was just watching that game and like, oh, I couldn't believe it. I really couldn't. So, I mean, you know,

the Heisman's a shoo-in for Bryce also. I just, I don't know, man. I hope I'm not peeing in everyone's cornflakes this morning as they listen to the show. I mean, I feel like the Heisman should go to Will Anderson, who's the best player in Alabama's team. But I don't think it will be. But, yeah, good luck with that. I know. People are trying to talk themselves, and's the best player on Alabama's team, but I don't think it will be. But, yeah, good luck with that. I know people are trying to talk themselves, and this will segue us,

talk themselves into this, because Hutchinson and Michigan, I know people like Pickett at Pitt, next Steelers quarterback, just wait. But, I mean, it's Bryce, it's Alabama. They're going to be favored by two touchdowns in the opening round and a touchdown whoever they face in the final, and they're probably going to win by more than that you know see in january yeah i mean that we're kind of already feel what's going to happen so let's talk about the team that is at least a little bit more intriguing right now and sure they have their haters too but the this harbaugh led

michigan team is looking really really. They've been hot for weeks. They put up 42, which is a meaningful number in the area right now. Go look it up if you aren't sure why. It's kind of a bummer of a story, but it means a lot there. They look good, man. Harbaugh finally sort of shook the ghosts. I'm rooting for them. I've got friends who've gone there.

They seem fun, but I don't actually think they have a hope. They're a balanced team. They're top 20 in offense and defense, but I don't think it makes have a hope. They're a balanced team. They're top 20 in offense and defense, but I don't think it makes any damn difference if they run into Georgia or Bama. Yeah, so the thing about Michigan is I am really happy for Michigan's success for this reason. We just saw a coaching cycle. We'll get to this in a second, by the way,

where teams fire coaches right away. We'll get to this in a second, by the way, where teams fire coaches right away. We'll get to Miami. Manny Diaz is 12-5 in his last two years in the ACC. That's not bad. Right. And they're letting him go for Mario, obviously. And Michigan said, look, we're going to stick with Harbaugh because guess what?

We're not hiring a better coach. We're not finding a better coach. We're not finding someone else to win us 10 games as often as he does. They stuck with him. They stuck with, I think, Harbaugh to his credit. They are much faster this season. Remember Ohio State when they've been losing to Ohio State? They just look slower, right?

Right. They don't look slow anymore. They look fast on the field. They play fast. So credit Harbaugh for changing maybe some of his recruiting going after different players and they play a repeatable style of football rush the passer protect the quarterback their offense line is not the best at run blocking but they do enough of working the edges and then kind of working the middle where they get enough play enough uh they just played a lot of effort and passion energy so i i like that michigan stuck with harbaugh and it paid off because i hope other schools stick with coaches in down years and it

pays off for them afterwards but to your point about can they beat georgia it's gonna be tough because they're we saw georgia now the the only time that um they've been stressed is with a passing attack down the field that's not Michigan's game no that's not what they do and if you're one-dimensional which they're not one-dimensional but they would prefer not to like they're not getting in four wide to throw the football they're they're very schemed up when they throw the ball play action pass trick play stuff like that you're not being Georgia that way. So the way you beat Georgia if you're Michigan is you just have to not let them score. The game's got to be a one-position game

in the fourth quarter, and then anything can happen, right? Then if it's 13-10 or 17-14, special teams play, string a couple plays together, get a field goal range. That's the way they have to win the game. But I like the way they play,

their style, their energy, their passion. And I like that Harbaugh was, they let him stick around and he made some changes. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I also like that he stuck around, but this is sort of, it'll get into all these other coaching changes we talk about. Like the money was there. Like there wasn't, there isn't a better coaching job in college football than the one he kind of had especially if they're giving him a few years to figure it

out so it's not surprising to me he stayed um how long he'll be there if if this you know if he wins another game or two this year who knows um i i don't know man i i just i find that as good as they've looked uh their defense will have to basically pitch a shutout to have a chance in their next two games. I don't see how they score on an SEC team. I just don't. And, you know, it was fun watching their running back pile up some stats a couple weeks ago. But no one thinks they're doing that against NFL players. And that's all there is when you play Georgia and Alabama.

There's a bunch of NFL guys. Yeah. So, all right. So, so I mean you're with me they they're probably a loser um against Georgia and we're barely talking Cincy so let's give it a spin is there anything to say about Cincy other than way to go way to get there you proved something to everyone just by arriving but nobody expects you to even compete with Bama. Sounds about right. I think that the committee still tried to find ways to keep them out as much as they could, but they get rewarded for having basically two undefeated seasons, right?

And the ability to win the games they're supposed to win. But there's a big jump up now. And a reminder, guys, these are playoff games, right? It's not catching the loser of the NCAA championship game in the Peach Bowl. You're playing a Bama team that's trying to win a championship, and they're going to try to run right through you. And now let's see what you got. Yeah, I mean.

I mean, it's in one of two ways. Either it goes Bama wins by four touchdowns, and everyone's like, told you. We don't want to see this anymore. Or it's close, and people are like, well, you know what? I feel like that's the latter. I feel like it's a... When Nick Saban, in these playoff games,

when he has a month to prepare, you're not winning often. It's that second game he loses more often than not, I think, right? It's not the first. He doesn't lose in the semis very often. I don't think he's lost in the semis. It's in a championship game to Ohio State, right, in Clemson. Or he's lost once in a –

So it just seems like it'd be – It's just, again, it feels – I don't think they're going to win. I'll put it like that. All right. Well, so they are playing on behalf of a lot of the group of five teams who finished season undefeated and not had the chance, right? So they get the chance.

I actually think Cincinnati was the only team who finished season undefeated. Well, there have been other undefeated teams in the BCS era. Well, I'm saying with this season, though, the only team of 130. Oh, in all of college football. That finished undefeated. Yeah, well, UTSA blew it. Yeah, as far as I know. I'm not aware of any other team that completed a season undefeated this year, but there have been others in the past. So they're playing for the UCS and the TCUs and the Boise States, who did pull the upset, and Utah and Marshall and Tulane and all these rando play teams that always wanted to make their case and never really got the chance and so the question is with Cincy with all that pressure

do they just get blasted and set all those schools back for another two decades yes or if they hang with Alabama does this path get easier for other teams in the future I think they get blasted yeah unfortunately so do I let me ask this and I don't mean this to be rude, and I'm also, it's because I don't know a lot of the players. Well, are there any guys on either side of the ball at Cincy that you've seen, again, not to be insulting to them, but that could start for Alabama? Like, are there guys you could pick up and move over and actually give them a starting job, job or is it 11 for 11 the better players on Bama yeah I think that's 11 for 11 yeah I mean certainly on the line right or at least at least 20 22 I mean obviously Alabama's out Mechie uh with the 20 ACL which unfortunate but yeah I don't think that I think that's again they're just they're just better. Yeah. Well, I'll say this, tying my anti-Bama rant

and my good-on-you Cincy thoughts together. I would say anyone who's not rooting for – if you don't come into this with a team, if you didn't go to one of these schools or haven't been rooting for one of these teams for a lot of years and you're not rooting for Cincy, there's something wrong with you. I'll say it. It's going to be a tough couple of weeks for you with Alabama and the Patriots.

So you just got to get your mind right, buddy. Because we'll do an NFL show. And the NFL show will be done, I believe, before Monday Night Football, unless we change what we're doing. So we record the show tomorrow. And the New England Patriots will be atop the AFC. Yeah, I'm sure you're right. No, I am right.

As of right now, the Chiefs win tonight as we're recording this. There'll be four teams at 8-4 at the top of the AFC. Ravens, Harbaugh's brother, got a little gambly. He could have been atop all of that, except he rolled the dice. Yeah, so it's interesting that, for those who didn't know, I know it's a college show, but the Ravens are in Pittsburgh.

They score with a couple seconds left. They're down one extra point since it's overtime. They went for two because they had no more players on defense left. They had like no more, Humphrey got hurt, they had no one left. And so Harbaugh's like, we got no one healthy, let let's go for it and the guy was open and dropped the pass the throw was a little bit

off dropped the pass so all right I mean aggressive I like it I'll take it which Harbaugh's had a better year oh interesting because John Harbaugh's played like a million guys if it's so many guys hurt yeah um he's coached up that team even though they lose today. They lost left tackle, cornerback one and two, four running backs, linebackers. They've had a rough go of it. Michigan has not had that injury problem. Quorum was out for a couple games and he's back. So they lost Bell, I guess, during the season,

their best wide receiver. But they haven't had what John has to deal with. Then it's a different, obviously different competition level. All right. Well, let's keep talking about coaches and uncomfortable situations. So we touched on it, but Brian Kelly is the new coach at LSU, but it's off to a weird start. Okay. People, I think probably got the reference earlier, but he was at a big rally at LSU, and people were laughing because it almost sounds like he figured out how to sound Southern. Definitely not from down there,

but he's picking up some y'alls pretty quickly. He's from Massachusetts. So I love the sound. I say y'all. I showed the video to my wife who was from the South, and she goes, she's like, ah, yeah, that was bad. He just tried to draw it out, yeah, that was bad. He just like, he, he just, he tried to draw it out, man. It was fun. It was so funny. Get it for you, bro. I mean, look, if I got $10

million a year too, I would do whatever I'd be Boston accent, whatever you need me to do. Well, yeah. I mean, so that wasn't really, I mean, that was fun for Twitter to, to poke fun at, but, but here's my real question. Like, you know know did lsu go get the wrong guy we we all think lsu could be one of the top jobs and schools programs in the country just a couple years ago they were i don't know man it looked like pretty quick though notre dame players were like onto the next guy yeah kind of over brian kelly pretty quick i mean i know it's dumping season on him but it doesn't seem like anyone has any real affection for him. Is he the guy to turn an LSU program around?

So a couple of things to note. Let's go with the Brian Kelly first. We'll get to Marcus Freeman. So yes, Brian Kelly can coach his ass off. He's a very good coach. He went undefeated in Cincinnati. Within two years, he had Notre Dame, I think, in the BC Championship game against Alabama.

Then that got smoked. They have recruiting kind of restrictions, right? It's tough to recruit to Notre Dame now. All it does is win a lot of football games. I've asked people who, I don't know if they play with Kelly, but knows the program very well. There's all these images of Kelly from when he first was coaching there remember how angry he was on the sidelines it's like red and just like yelling screaming that's not what he

is anymore he's mellowed out yeah he realized you can I don't get that about college coaches man they're so freaking intense like they're on the field they have a college coaches need to have an adult grab them by the waistband and pull them back to the silence because they're on the field they have a college coaches need to have an adult grab them by the waistband and pull them back to the silence because they're out of control it's unbelievable and um it's just it blows my mind so um i think he'll do really well there he can obviously recruit the area i think he'll do fine there um as far as Notre Dame, it's pretty interesting. So Marcus Freeman gets a job. Marcus Freeman was at Cincinnati, he's at D.C.,

and now Notre Dame for one season, and he gets the head coaching job. That's a pretty big ascent, pretty fast game. Yeah. And the players like him, and that's great. But I am always skeptical of players' coaches. I just, I'm always worried about it it doesn't mean that he won't work doesn't mean that he might you know he might have some hiccups early on and figure it out but I do I do always kind of worry about I just worry about that in in you know kind of generally

speaking but everyone speaks highly of him so I mock it I don't know I don't know Marcus for him but everyone speaks highly of him. So I don't know Marcus Freeman. Everyone speaks great of him. I just would say, generally speaking, I do worry a little bit about players' coaches. Okay. Especially ones that don't.

This is a big-time job, and he has not had any head coaching experience anywhere. I'm not saying Lincoln Riley didn't either. It worked out well for Lincoln Riley in Oklahoma. I'm not saying you have to have head coaching experience to have a big job like this. But Lincoln Riley was also the OC for Bob Stoose for a couple years. Freeman didn't do any of that. So I'm excited to watch.

He's coaching a New Year's Six bowl game for his first game. Because it's not like an interim coach where you just sit out the bowl game. It's his job. He's been there. So he gets a really tough first game. Yeah. Well, good luck to him. Players, you know, go, go check it out on social players are rallying behind them, including some big name guys and Notre Dame. I'll say this. It can be tedious actually, for those of us who aren't fans, but they do have culture and they do seem like they recruit some pretty, pretty bright guys. You don't hear about their guys getting in a lot of trouble,

or at least it doesn't make it to my timeline. It might be an easier place to step in than some programs where you're playing babysitter a lot. I don't think that's the case at Notre Dame, so maybe he'll be all right. That's not – and that's the thing too. The type of players you recruit, you're not recruiting jackasses, right? It doesn't seem like it. I mean, a lot of the guys who play there come out and go into the media and they have good NFL careers.

They seem, I mean, it's generalization, but we're trying to be positive here. They seem like an easier group of guys to manage than some of the other programs. All right, so let's talk about a couple other guys who are stepping into big roles. So because of all the coaches moving around, Oklahoma, huge job. Brett Venables, former Clemson coordinator, is going there. I don't know anything about that. I know that they had a pretty good defense when it mattered. Now he's the guy in charge at Oklahoma.

Do you like the fit? Yeah, look, I will rely on the Oklahoma charge at Oklahoma. Do you like the fit? Yeah. I will rely on the Oklahoma people I know, and they love the fit. He used to be there way back with Bob Stoops, so he knows the program. I saw Dusty Dvorak tweet out how happy he was, and Gabe Eichert, who I know, and RJ Young, who I work with at Fox Sports, who's an Oklahoma guy. They love this. And he's been a good coach at Clemson.

He is by this time. He's waited for the right job, and who's an Oklahoma guy. They love this. And he's been a good coach at Clemson. He is by this time. He's waited for the right job, and it's a big job. Now, it's a 180 from what Lincoln Riley was, right? He's an offensive guy. So you bring a defensive guy in, and maybe that's good. Bring a defensive guy in. You know, you look at the playoff, you have three defensive coaches in the playoff

and one offense coach in Michigan. And Jermon Harbaugh doesn't even call the plays anymore. It's someone else's offense. It's his offense, but Gattis calls the plays. So it's a good coach. It's a good hire by Oklahoma. And, you know, I just, Oregon might get that. We might be left out of this party, man.

Everyone else is hiring people away. So really, Oklahoma should be happy to go from that. Now, Venable's one of those guys that has a get-back coach. Like, coach, man, it can't be that crazy, buddy. Like, we've got to calm down a little bit. Yeah. Well, let's see. I mean, let's see if he can keep them at the level they're at.

He may not be pumping out Heisman winners every few years, but if he can win 10 games, he's got a shot in Oklahoma, at least until they move to the SEC. I'm glad you mentioned 10 games because that used to be the standard. Kind of like 10 games. There are programs we talk a lot about Matt Campbell at Iowa State that never won 10 games.

That is a really, really tough thing to do. And it's great when teams can do that. But it's interesting because Oregon won 10 games this year. Oklahoma won 10 games this year. And Oklahoma won 9 or 10. They only won 9. Oh, I know Oregon won 10 for sure.

And I'm, like, disappointed. Like, I should be happy to win 10 games. Like, that is a big accomplishment. Yep. I think we, and because of games. That is a big accomplishment. Yep. And because of the playoff and all the pressure there is to make the playoff with a 14 playoff, a 10-win season is looked at as something that's not good. I know we didn't end well. We got blown up by Utah twice.

But I am super excited to get 10 wins. And if Oklahoma continues to play that way and get 10 wins, it should be fine with preventables. Now, the SEC will make it tougher, obviously. Yeah, I mean, good luck getting 10 wins when you're playing half your schedule's ranked opponent. All right, so a couple names to throw around, and then we'll have a few weeks to try to talk about the games in front of us.

So let's just spend another minute on some coaches. So everyone loves the coach at Baylor. Speaking of a 10 win, they pulled off 11 wins. They looked great down the stretch. So everyone's talking about their head coach being the next guy. You mentioned Matt Campbell at Iowa State. Joe Brady, who just a minute ago was the hottest guy coming out of college after leading that LSU offense, goes to the NFL.

Now he's out of a job very quickly as a Panthers coordinator. He could come back into the mix. Who's the next hot guy? Because you're right, the Dominoes fall fast. There really is not. Well, now he's out of a job very quickly as a Panthers coordinator. He could come back into the mix. Who's the next hot guy? Because you're right, the Dominoes fall fast. There really is not right now. There's just not a hot guy. Oh, so they'll just all go be Saban coordinators next year?

Is that what it is? I'm trying to think of who, like, you know, because Oregon's going to be the last really big job open. They're not going to, there's no one that's, like, going to come there to save the day. There's no, like, hot coordinator. Well, so play it out, though. So if Aranda goes to Oregon, let's say, this all might sound silly to people by the time they click play on this.

He's not going to Oregon, but sure. Well, I'm just saying. He's a West Coast guy, though. You know, if Cristobal moves and there's an opening, that's a huge job. Then a big-name guy wants it. A lesser job is now open, but it's a raise for someone. So if Baylor was an open job, a lot of people want that.

I guess I'm just wondering who are the people that the smart guys are talking about right now. I don't have a great answer for that. All right. I mean, they're both Clemson coordinators, and Tony Elliott, the OC, might go coach at Duke. Obviously, Venables just got hired. And there's some movement with Kentucky's office coordinators

is kind of young and good. People talk about him possibly moving up at some point. But it's not like a must-have young hot coordinator. Okay. And what's his name? Dan Lanning, the coordinator at Georgia. I feel like maybe he should have cashed it in a week or two ago. But guys like that who coach up a side of the ball

that's just been phenomenal all season, isn't this their chance to jump up? It is their chance, but those jobs have to be available right yeah all right well that's i'm counting on i'm counting on a baylor job opening up before too long but we don't have the domino yet so all right look uh we're going to be talking about college football until the end of the season so we get the heisman coming up we'll have a little fun talking about that i know it's it's a hard one to get into, but we'll have some news there. Then we'll get ready for the playoff and then the champ game,

and we'll preview it as best we can. I do want, Jeff, for us to get a little smarter on Cincinnati, or I'll get smarter on Cincinnati, so that we can at least talk them up like they have a shot. I'd just love to imagine there's a way, because talking about Alabama as an inevitability is just driving me crazy. Well, look, I plan, and my championship game preview was like two and six, I think, against the spread. I plan to try to get as many bowl games on this show that we can get to as far as giving you guys a little heads up.

As we move into college basketball, we'll do a little college basketball, I'd imagine. I don't know how many big topics we'll talk about, but we'll talk about some college basketball. And then draft. This will be the place to get your draft stuff out. We're going to have a lot of draft talk as we continue. We're going to see as the bowl games, which draft guys are going to play.

Probably not a lot. That's the trend, obviously, now. We'll have a lot of fun in this college episode every week. Hope you guys enjoyed our Powered by the Varsity podcast. Now we're back tomorrow talking the Patriots. That's the number one seed in the AFC Conference. I cannot wait to have the discussion with you, Gabe.

Alright, guys. Have a great day. Have a great night. I don't know if Oregon has a job opening. I don't know. If you're listening to this in the morning, maybe they do. Maybe they don't. At Jeff Schwartz, I'll have you covered for all my Oregon thoughts if you are tuning into the podcast for that. Have a great day.

Talk to everyone later.