Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Cincinnati’s Playoff Odds, Heisman Debate, and Geoff’s Top Six Teams After CFB Week 8

Episode Date: October 25, 2021

Geoff and Gabe break down this week in College Football, starting with Cincinnati winning again, and what they need to do to be the first Group of Five team to play in the CFP. Also, Caleb Williams mania is taking over Norman, but he’s not a real Heisman candidate (this year), and what does Geoff think of the LSU coaching vacancy?Geoff’s top six teams are chalk this week, but he says Bama is still the second best team in the country, and neither the Tide nor the Bulldogs would have any trouble handling the Bearcats.Thanks to everyone who left comments last week, remember to send your questions to Geoff for a chance to be featured in a mailbag segment!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

it's monday october 25th i'm jeff schwartz alongside gabe goodwin this is jeff schwartz asmar and you are powered by the varsity podcast network we will get into what we learned about in this glorious week of college football kind of a week a reset week a little bit right not much happening as we talk about the stories that are still around including the lsu job the usc job cincinnati some playoff talk some heisman talk talk. But first, Gabe, you are a jinx. We'll go to that as well. But you completed another mini triathlon. You survived, and now you – what's that look for?

Why did you put mini in? What do you mean mini? I did a real triathlon. It's not an Ironman, but it's a full-on triathlon. I thought it was only the Ironman. No, Ironman's for psychopaths, man. I didn't do an Ironman. It's a full-on triathlon. I thought there was only the Ironman. Really? No, Ironman's for psychopaths, man. I didn't do an Ironman. I did a triathlon.

But it was a real one. Like a full-distance one. I was going at it for over an hour and a half straight. Okay, so tell me the distances again because you texted to me. Is a triathlon always the same distance until you get to an Ironman? There's a sprint distance, an Olympic distance, and an Ironman.

An Ironman is insane. We don't need to talk about that. Which one did you do? The sprint. Okay, so what is it? It's the shortest, but it's not mini. I mean, you know. Notre Dame's win over USC wasn't a mini win.

It's just like maybe a less impressive win than if they beat Alabama. You know, there's grades to this. So it was an hour and a half straight. Yeah. You swim in the ocean? Yeah, about four-tenths of a mile swim in the ocean, 15-mile bike ride, 5K run, all back-to-back. I feel like I could do that if I trained hard enough.

Yeah, come out here and do it with me. You could. How long did it take you to swim? I don't know exactly. I think it was in about 15 minutes. Oh, I can't swim that long for that. Yeah, and through the waves too. It's hard.

Yeah, I would have to like after every minute, I think just go on my back and rest for a second. Some guys do that. Yeah. Yeah. The bike sounds fine. The bike's not a problem. The running would be very miserable in my body.

We should be a tag team. We could get producer Hank. He can pick whatever he wants. I think I'm probably going to help the team most in the run. I think you should do the bike. I've seen you do a lot of output on Peloton. Let's see if Hank can swim. And if he can't, you know, goodbye, Hank.

But let's hope he can swim. That would be fantastic. We'll do a Jeff Schwartz of Smart on You podcast relay team. All right, let's get to the topics at hand. Again, just like not a crazy weekend in college football, some upsets, some unusual things. But let's start with a team that I think, Gabe, me and you believe might be in the playoff this year. We've done the number crunching. Look, face it, people. Cincinnati, this is the year. Jeff's been saying it for a few weeks. face it people Cincinnati this is the year Jeff's been saying it for a few weeks if they get past Notre Dame this is their year and now the path just looks very obviously theirs right so here's

how I break it down we're going to probably get two SEC teams because it's going to be Georgia Alabama again we think the winner and the loser unless something fluky happens both get in it's looking more and more like Oklahoma's in we'll'll get to them shortly. Then it just has to be Cincinnati, assuming they stay undefeated, because your Ducks and Ohio State just, I don't know, at one loss, it just doesn't seem like you can propel them past Cincinnati. So talk me off Cincinnati, or let's just spend a minute giving some love to Cincinnati. So the realistic outcomes of the season are Cincinnati's undefeated, right? They have SMU left to play second to last week of the season.

They're having a nice year. Yeah, but Cincinnati is at home for that game. They should win that game. Yeah. Okay, so they're probably going undefeated. They got Houston, Memphis, UCF. Excuse me uh excuse me this is smu schedule i'm sorry i knew since i schedule was not this difficult um i was looking at yeah yeah that's what i thought they play tulane tulsa usf smu ecu so like they're going undefeated guys they're going with 13-0 uh georgia is not going to lose to

anyone except alabama and the SEC championship game that's it so they're they're in even if they don't win the championship game they're in Gabe Alabama is only in I think if they beat Georgia in the championship game if they don't the two losses they might be out yeah even even even though Alabama might be the second best team in the country still they're probably out with two losses. That's fair. Thank you for fixing that. I said either way they're in. They're not in if they lose. Yeah, I think if they lose to Georgia,

especially if they lose by more than a touchdown, yeah, I think that's fair to say. Ohio State is playing much better football. They blew out Indiana. They won 54-7. C.J. Stroud, the quarterback, kind of was getting a little booed a little bit. Are we sure he's the guy?

They're now, they've scored 59, 52, 66, and 54 in the last four weeks. They go to Penn State now. And now Penn State, we saw lost this past weekend in a nine-overtime game. That was a nine-overtime game with 20 points

because of the new overtime rules. Now, after the two overtimes, it's two point conversions back and forth, and they did not convert like 12 times in a row. It's wild. So they go to Penn State. They have Nebraska, Purdue. They end with Michigan State and Michigan. So look, there's a chance they do not go undefeated.

But if they do the rest of the way, they'll be 12 and 1. And Oregon obviously can be 12-1. I think Ohio State were to get in over a 12-1 Oregon team, even though Oregon beat them. Their schedule's tougher, and I guarantee Oregon's not going to be in over Ohio State.

So that leaves, again, Georgia, Alabama, Oklahoma, Ohio State, Cincinnati, Oregon. The combination of those six teams, if they're undefeated, they're probably getting in, Gabe. I don't really see, unless Alabama beats Georgia, and then so we have Alabama, Georgia in, Oklahoma State's undefeated, are you putting in an undefeated Cincinnati or a one-loss Ohio State? Well, I think you've got to just do the Cincinnati just to, you know, get rid of the claims that the whole thing is rigged.

You can't pick Cincinnati over Ohio State this year, or the other way around. Georgia or Alabama, whoever has the one seed, will dominate Cincinnati. It will not be pretty. But it has to happen. It just has to happen. Like, we have to get it done one time so we can stop talking about this about how it's you know the mid-major can at least mid-major

college basketball you know a group of five teams they're in they got their birth and they'll get smoked but i mean i'm sure anyone who's the four seed would get smoked by georgia all right so let me ask you this are we positive because I don't know a lot about Cincinnati. I'd like you to tell me a little bit more if you can. But are we even positive Cincinnati is better than Wake Forest, who is undefeated still? Looks like they have a Heisman contender at quarterback. Do we know?

Yeah, I think they're just much better on defense. I mean, that game the other day was, what, 70-56, Wake Forest and Army? Yeah, it was weird. The problem is Wake, look, Notre Dame might not be as good as they have been in the past, but since they did go beat Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Wake has played no one close to Notre Dame. Nobody. And they really have Duke, UNC, NC State, Clemson, and BC left.

I mean, I don't think they were on the table, just the way college football works. But defensively, they're just not there, what Cincinnati is. Well, I was led to believe that a few of the teams you just said were competing for a national title this year just a few weeks ago. I mean, North Carolina and Clemson were obviously both talked about. I never said North Carolina, but Clemson, I mean. Plenty of people talked about North Carolina, and Clemson was everyone's favorite.

Oh, yeah. Well, I didn't because, you know, the Sam Howell thing, that's what everyone was talking about, Sam Howell and whatnot. So Clemson, dude, they can't score. Like they just – Yeah, they're not good. I only have scored more than 19 points, so 21 once a season. But they've scored 21 or less every game this season.

Well, teaser, I'm going to ask you some stupid questions about Dabo in a topic we're going to get to soon. But back to Cincinnati. So they got a good coach who probably is only there for another couple of years if they have this much success. They've got a pretty good quarterback, I think. You're mentioning their defense. You don't think they can actually compete with the other three teams that would make the top four. So is this just the best year in their school's history and it amounts

to nothing? Or, you know, what's the ceiling look like? No, they get an opportunity to play in that game. And that's what they want, right? That's what everyone says, right? Put them in. They deserve to be in. Okay, well, I mean, again, I'm not sure anyone's going to beat Georgia this year. Yeah. But give them a chance. They want in. All right, well, we just led the show

talking about Cincinnati. So, you know, for anyone who's left with us right now, let's move to Oklahoma and talk about Caleb Williams, who is just a delight to watch. You know, me describing plays on a podcast is probably not going to get anyone excited. But just go look up on Twitter this crazy fourth down conversion where he basically took the ball away from his own teammate to then rumble across the line of gain to keep the game going and basically ice the game for them. The dude's wild. A true freshman who obviously looks like a Heisman contender next year.

I don't know. Maybe he's sneaking into the race this year if he has enough games left. We've been talking about Oklahoma every week. They're up and down. But right now they look like they can beat anybody. Talk me off it. Look, I think Oklahoma is still dealing with the up and down play of a freshman, a true freshman.

And his play was incredible. He grabbed that ball. I'm not even sure how he saw. I'm not sure how the receiver, or the running back, Brooks, saw to give the ball to Williams. But he gave it to him and he made the play. And look, they were shut

out in the first half. In the second half, he was 15 of 12 for the game. It was 15-20, 178 yards. But the offense just didn't work very well in the first half. Now they're on the road, and they survive in advance, right? That's what Cincinnati did against Navy. That's what Oklahoma did here, survive, advance the next game. They're A-0. So look, their schedule is set up pretty well

until the end of the season when they're at Oklahoma State but all I do is win it doesn't really it doesn't really matter how they win Gabe as long as you get it done Caleb Williams that was a great play he's not he's not winning the Heisman uh at least I don't think so unless he I think right now Vegas has him as the fifth favorite he's on the board can I tell you can I give you one can I give you one Heisman name that we're not that we're not talking about yet that might have to be talked about Oregon's defensive end Kayvon Thibodeau has been hurt most of the year he's come back his last three games his last three quarter three halves he played half against Cal full game with UCLA I think the number is is like 20 pressures three s, five and a half tackles for loss

in just three halves of football. There's still five games left. Are you telling me that if he ends up with 12 sacks, especially in a year like this, he doesn't show up in New York? I think Caleb Williams, he could do it. He could. But C.J. Stroud, Ohio State's

playing better than him. Kenny Pickett at Pittsburgh's playing better than him. It was a Heisman-esque moment. And maybe one day we look back on that and say, hey, that was the start of his Heisman push into, obviously, the next year. But it was a hell of a play game. It was a heads-up play. It was a gutsy play.

And it's one of those plays that we talk about the it factor of guys. This is the it factor of guys you know the it this is the it factor right the it factor is is players like Williams making special plays in the moment like he did yeah well it reminded me of Johnny Football in his prime just like doing stuff that you're like I've never seen a guy do that on a football field before but it also kind of reminded me of Johnny Football when there's the other thing you see if you go on Twitter and search the kid is he's rolling right and he just sort of waves like very cocky, just sort of waves his receiver. Go deep, go deep, go deep, like, you know, Sandlot stuff and then throws it and under throws him by like 15 yards and it's picked off. Now, that's the sort of live and die with this cocky freshman, right? Like, that's going to be the thing that makes Oklahoma beatable against a great team is he can only get them so far,

or can you win that way? I don't know. Just remember, Gabe, this is his – was this his second start? His second start – Yeah, he got a lot of run, then he got the start, and now he's the starter. Started against TCU, and it's his first road game, okay? First road game against an opponent that no one believed could keep them close.

So I just think that this is a road game. The first time he played in the road game. He's going to be fine. He's going to be fine. They get Tech at home. You know, at Baylor in a couple weeks, it'll be interesting. Baylor's really good on defense. But I chalk it up to first road game, honestly.

All right. Since you mentioned a couple Heisman guys, including a few dark horses, and we're just saying Oklahoma looked good. They did what they're supposed to do. It wasn't a great blowout win, but they're not sliding out of the top for you. Just win. But let's talk about the kid on Georgia's defense because their defense is the star there.

Jordan Davis, the tackle. What do you think about him? Could he be? You're bringing Thibodeau into this. No, he's not going to get... I mean, he's been dominant, and he might be the most dominant interior player in the country, but you're a defensive tackle who's not a sack guy,

who's not winning the Heisman Trophy. It's an odd year. I mean, right now, I think Matt Corral, Bryce Young's the favorite now. Bryce Young, Corral, CJ Stroud, Pickett, and Williams. The way the year is going, I could see there being, and I think Kayvon Thibodeau's the only defensive guy because he'll put up the sack numbers,

that he could be in New York. Jordan Davis has been great. He is terrorizing teams. He terrorized Kentucky last time Georgia played. But he's not winning the Heisman. He's not even going to New York.

All right. Well, I mean, that defense might get him, you know, they might all be getting rings or trophies. But, okay, no Heisman for Jordan Davis.

Let's talk about the biggest story of last week, that this story is only getting more intriguing as the weeks go by. So there's this massive opening in the offseason at LSU. You know, I hate to say this because everyone, you know, likes my guy here at SC, but like there's going to be a coaching opening at SC in the offseason. You know, interim's not sticking around after the way they've played the last few weeks. at SC in the off season, you know,

interim is not sticking around after the way they've played the last few weeks. So a simple question. What's the better job USC or LSU forget reputation, forget, you know, history of who won championships more recently. Cause I know you're going to throw that number at me. Oh,

I am. Which job, but which job is better right now, moving forward. Okay. So LSU is one, three championships in the last 18 years, three different coaches.

It feels like it's easier to win an LSU championship. And I'll explain why that is. You play in a tougher conference. Absolutely right. If you go to USC right now, your only competition for recruiting is Oregon. And that's basically your only competition to win a championship right now is Oregon.

Isn't Arizona State getting some players now? I feel like they're suddenly pulling a few guys away. But they're not winning so it doesn't matter if they're getting players.

Might win the South this year. Never know. I think a paperback will win the South this year. I don't know. There's no favorite.

I set myself up for that. Fair enough. You did. So I think that here's the difference between the jobs. And this is something that really because I know the Pac-12 Conference. By the way, so, um, I, I think that here's, here's the difference between the jobs and there's something that really, cause I know the Pac-12 conference. By the way, Gabe, how about this? I, um, I'm terrible NFL picks this year, but I'm, I've won 15 straight Pac-12 games.

I know it. I love it. I bragged to you guys about that. Yeah. 15 straight the last three weeks. I've been undefeated last three weeks. Um, so I know my conference pretty well. Here is

the difference in the jobs. To win in college football, really in the NFL too, you need to have elite offensive, defensive line play, right? You need to have the trenches shored up. If you look at all the championships, all the good teams, we talk about Jordan Davis, right? Like a big boy.

You can find offensive linemen on the West Coast. They're there. But the defensive linemen are not on the West Coast. You got to go and grab them out of the South. You got to grab them out of Texas. And Oregon's doing that. Oregon's going and grabbing players.

You might get one guy. Kayvon Thibodeau is from LA. He's from right outside the Coliseum. I mean, how do they let him get away? And USC got Corey Foreman this year, a five star, but that's it. You can't,

you're not winning a championship with one pass rusher and the rest of your guys, like just dudes. So in LSU, you're in the recruiting footprint to build up the trenches where you're not at USC. You have to work harder at USC to go recruit those players to you. And it's hard to get them because they look and say hey you know what like USC just had a five-star defensive tackle from

Georgia decommit and go to Georgia well of course you go to Georgia right now you fly across the country to USC and and well obviously it's in this season because of the coaching issue but like of course you're staying in so you're staying out out the South. That's why I think that job is easier to win at, even though USC is in an easier conference. Also, is USC, Gabe, fully committed to building and putting money into the staff, the recruiting, the extracurricular stuff? It's all needed to win at a high level.

And they claim Mike Bone is in that direction like he's kind of been able to push people aside and be the buffer between the important boosters and the coaching staff and kind of thread that that needle there which is good they need that usc needs that but i think the commitment from the very top is not the same really any pac-12 school outside of maybe oregon then ellis than any southern school right like we we know this the top the presidents the pac-12 schools do not care much about sports sports is very low on their radar right and so do you have the buy-in from the community, from the higher-ups that you have at LSU? That's why I think LSU is a better job. Yeah.

There's some easy jokes there about rowing or some of the other sports, golf, some of the other sports that go look at the news, why the Pac-12 schools have cared about those sports. Yeah. I mean, look, you're obviously not wrong, and I think it doesn't help that just living out here in L.A. this week is a pretty obvious example. I mean, you know, everyone was obsessed with the Dodgers. Everyone's freaking out about the Lakers. A lot of people are excited about the Rams and Chargers. Chargers are off, but the Rams. You know, it's kind of hard to cut through if you're not having a fabulous year at USC.

So as soon as they dump one game, and they did that early this year, it is kind of hard to cut through if you're not having a fabulous year at USC. So as soon as they dump one game and they did that early this year, it is kind of lights out. I just, I have a hard time believing that that wouldn't be a desirable job, though. I mean, I understand all the points you're making. And I think... Who, USC desirable? Yeah, I mean... Look, I think it still is. I think, and I've said, man, made this case for years, for years now,

that the USC job is not what, and you're not this person, but not what USC fans think the job is. I think it's not as good as people think it is. I'm curious the direction they go as far as who they get as a coach because that will kind of tell us, I think, what people think of the job. But I just think there's, again, there's other factors, like I mentioned, at play here that make LSU better than USC.

So I'm curious, look, if LSU calls James Franklin at Penn State and USC calls James Franklin at Penn State, he's taking the LSU job. Okay. Like, it's that simple. In my opinion. More money as a head coach there as well,

I mean, which is not all that important to some of these coaches, but some it is, right? You want to get paid what your market rate is. I don't know, man. I think, you know, a lot of guys would like to live in Manhattan Beach and put their kids in L.A. schools. Oh, yeah, no, I don't disagree. I just say that USC, man man they are lifeless like they're

worse than i mean you there's there's a big cultural change that has to happen usc that i don't think you have to do at lsu like they are far behind you they're uncompetitive against anyone with a pulse i try to think of last night well i mean i bet on notre dame so um but i was trying to think to myself when's the last time usc won a game against a good football team uh i mean you're pop quizzing me here i they they got it they got a winner too i guess last year was pretty wonky um last i mean but they lost organ last year there was the best team they played last year yeah i mean i'm i mean my mind goes to like darnarnold and the Rose Bowl. I don't know.

There's got to be a better win than that. Yeah. I mean, that's about it. Two years ago, they beat a Stanford team at home that was ranked, but Stanford ended up with four wins that year. Yeah. They lost to a ranked Washington, a ranked Notre Dame. They beat Utah in 2019.

That's a good win. They beat them at home. Lost to Oregon that year. They just don't win big games in 2019. That's a good win. They beat him at home, lost Oregon that year. They just don't win big games in forever. And like, that's a problem. So there's a lot of work to be done at USC. All right. Well, let's take a quick break because I think there's time to spend on a few of the best teams in the country instead of one of the worst teams in the country. We'll be right back after this. I want to hear about the top four in the playoff and your top six which might be different Jeff it always is so we'll be right back we'll look at the top four

all right Jeff we're back it's Jeff Schwartz is smarter than you talk to me about the uh the CFP give me the rankings and tell me where you agree or disagree and what your top six looks like. Yeah, I was mistaken last week. I thought the playoff rankings come out. They didn't. They come out in a couple weeks still, which is very late. I feel like it's much later than usual.

And look, how do we handle rankings moving forward? Because this year has been a wonky. Do we have the most upsets ever, most losses of ap of ap top 25 teams like do we just do we just great do we just rank teams after four weeks like what what do we do because there's been a lot of bad rankings so far well i mean i i think a lot of guesses were wrong and i you mentioned it at the top of the show i obviously you know each time i say i think by the time we start looking at this team, they fall on their face. Oklahoma State and Penn State come to mind,

probably because of the time we spent on Cincinnati earlier. They'll dump one to a team they shouldn't lose to. But, yeah, I mean, you know, I think they make some bad guesses based on last year and players coming in, and then we have to live with the bad guesses. But right now we're're expecting Georgia's one. That's easy. Cincy, we think, is two unless maybe Oklahoma or Alabama leapfrogs.

Where are you, though? Give me your look. Look, I think it's pretty simple right now. It's Georgia, Cincinnati, Bama, Oklahoma, Ohio State, Michigan. I know I kind of sped through those, but there's really not a surprise there. The question is what the committee does with Alabama, right? Because I think if you were to say, okay, Alabama, Cincinnati are a neutral field. Who's the favorite?

The favorite is Alabama, okay? Alabama, Oklahoma, Alabama. Alabama, Ohio State, Alabama. Alabama, Michigan. So it depends on, you know, if it's second-best team, then you put Bama there. But I think Cincinnati deserves right now to be two. And if Bama continues to win, maybe they're jumped at some point.

As we mentioned, Oklahoma, Ohio State we talked about. How about Michigan? Look, Michigan's 7-0. They're 133-7. Their quarterback, by the way, I think was 20-27 this past weekend for 120-ish yards. They just don't throw the ball a lot, but they're winning with defense and rushing the football. They go to East Lansing this week to play Michigan State, who's also undefeated at 7-0. Mel Tucker has been talked about as a name

for a bunch of these jobs. Remember, he was at Colorado. He was D.C. at Georgia. Colorado went to Michigan State. Maybe he's the LSU coach very soon. We'll kind of get that figured out between Michigan and Michigan State. Oregon is somewhere in the mix. Oregon's anywhere from 7-8 in the coaches poll and the AP poll. Oregon is just, every time I watch a play, I need a cigarette afterwards. It's just so frustrating. And that's kind of about it at the top right now.

Look, there's some teams that you mentioned. Wake Forest doing a great job this year. They're ranked much higher than I think people imagined they would be ranked at any point this season. Ole Miss is 6-1. They're ranked number 9. Kentucky is ranked 6-1. They're ranked 12th.

How about UTSA? University of Texas San Antonio, 8-0. They're ranked 12th. How about UTSA? University of Texas, San Antonio, 8-0. They're ranked 22nd. San Diego State, the Aztecs are 7-0. They're ranked 20th. That's kind of nice to see some of these different teams that we don't often see ranked up in the top 25. UTSA, undefeated.

Would not have guessed that. Can I tell you my UTSA story? Please. So I called college football games in 2017 it's the only year i've ever called them i wasn't very good at it i think i'd be better now but it wasn't very good back then i called for stadium and that time stadium i'm not sure that i think they still call games but it was streamed on facebook and there were no commercial breaks it's just straight straight through because it was streamed online. All right, so I get the call like Monday of doing the game.

And Monday, I get a stomach bug. It goes Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Pretty bad game. Like, you know, not very, not, you know, it looked a little bit like Oregon's uniforms in the toilet bowl sometimes. That's right. Yeah, not very good.

I get to San antonio on thursday night or friday and it goes away i feel good friday saturday it's game day take three imodium show up to to the alamo dome utsa rice call in the game i tell my partner like look man i had the stomach problem might be an issue just heads up if i if i gotta bounce i gotta bounce all right so about seven minutes left in the game someone starts rumbling i'm like oh geez you guys know that feeling sorry to be a little bit a little bit gross but you know that it's i call it the poop attack right like you know it starts kind of starts kind of you know kind of grumble in there right a little grumble especially when you get closer to home. I call it the GPS. Like you just, your, your body knows you're close to the toilet. All right. Everyone

knows. Everyone knows. Don't lie to yourself. Don't lie to yourself. You all have this feeling. And so it kind of rumbles. And the funny part is, so I called my way through that. My dad texted me too and was like, Hey, you sound kind of different. I'm like, yeah, because I have to go to the bathroom. Okay, so about two minutes off from the game, it is go time. So after second down play, I'm taking my headset off and I run to the bathroom. I get it in, got to do what I got to do, and I make it back by basically the end of the fourth down play. So it's third down they call a 30 second timeout and i ran i put the headset back on as the fourth down play ended might be

the greatest accomplishment of my entire life that's really impressive and uh and and yeah and no one in the booth felt the you know effects of what you did no jason just jason just called his way through it man pro so when i Pro. So when I was in college, no poop involved in this story, but I went to GW and they had us, for some reason, call Georgetown football games. Georgetown was 1AA at the time. I don't know what they are now. They did not have anyone who knew how to call football games. For some reason, they wanted the people who called GW basketball games to call Georgetown football games, which included me. I didn't play football, had no business calling a football game.

And because of some technical difficulties, we never came back from a break we were supposed to come back from. But the game kept going. And there was a whole series of downs that happened. And my play-by-play partner recreated play-by-play at a normal pace. And I then reacted in real time to him faking it. And we caught all the way up to game action. And that guy went on to be a professional broadcaster. Really? Not me.

Yeah, no, I'm here with you. But he called games for a living. Yeah, he was really good. Wow. Yeah, the great Tom Kolker. Go look him up. Really? Yeah.

I mean, you know, I don't know if he's doing it anymore, but he had a bunch of years doing it. That's incredible. You know, dude, some of the school broadcasts are kind of fun. A lot of people start out doing those. These stadium broadcasts, you know who I felt bad for? Those sideline reporters. Like I had Kristen Balboni and Shea Peplers, now ESPN.

That's who I worked with. They were great. But they had to fill so much time. Normally, you just go to them and give me a tidbit about a story or an injury report. But because we were live the whole time, it was like, hey, let's talk to Kristen now. And she had to do some, like, ridiculous five-minute segment on, like, how the fans are feeling on social media and some poll they put up and talk to fans in the stands.

It was rough for all of us. No breaks is bad. I can't imagine doing five minutes of filler on UTSA football. But, hey, they're undefeated, so love to them. We just spent five of filler on UTSA football. But, hey, they're undefeated, so love to them. We just spent five minutes filling on UTSA football. Yeah, you know, we kind of did. I mean, you mainly told a poop story. But technically it was a UTSA story.

It was in the Alamo Dome, and it was about UTSA. So if the shoe fits, right? I went to San Antonio one time, and I was on UTSA. So if the shoe fits, right? I went to San Antonio one time. And I was on a bachelor party. And we went to the restaurant. Do you know the restaurant Dick's Last Resort? No. Am I supposed to?

Well, I didn't know it. Is this a pop culture reference? I don't know what it is. I didn't know what it was either. I guess it's very popular there. I did not know what it was. But apparently their shtick is the waiters are famously insulting. They come over and instantly talk shit to you.

Okay. I guess if you're expecting it, it's really funny, but I was not expecting it, and I got into it with the waiter, which only made him go further. I didn't understand. I was like, what is- What did he say to you? Oh, he came in red hot. I mean, he was like... I can't even say the things that he said to me on this podcast.

Oh, was that bad? Went right at it. Did he call your triathlon a mini triathlon? It was a little saltier than that. But that was my only experience with San Antonio. Otherwise, that was on the Riverwalk. Otherwise, a nice town. But all right. So, Jeff, on the Riverwalk. Otherwise, a nice town. All right, so

Jeff, circle it back for the football fans here. Has anything changed in your overall prediction here? Are we still talking about Georgia-Alabama SEC final, and the winner of that is the clear and obvious favorite overall? Did anything change? I'm not

sure. I think Alabama beats Georgia either or could win the championship. We're probably going to have a Bama-Georgia championship like we had a couple years ago, if that ends up happening. If you want to avoid two SEC teams, Georgia has to beat Alabama in the SEC championship game. And I think Alabama, again, still would be the second best team in the country. But two losses, and they're out of the playoff. That's part of it.

The four-team playoff puts that pressure on these teams. A 12-team playoff would not. Bama would be in. They'd be the five seeds or 60, whatever it is. But, man, this puts a lot of pressure on you to win each one of your games. And that's what it comes down to. And if they've lost two losses, even though, again, might be the second-best team in October.

They're not in the playoff. All right. Well, I still see a lot of paths for a few teams we've talked about. Ohio State's far from dead. Your Oregon Ducks are far from dead. Michigan has the biggest test of the year probably this weekend until, of course, they have to play Ohio State. They're far from dead.

Oklahoma is exciting as hell, but they could trip up. Who knows? I mean, you know, there's a lot still left to talk about so uh it's been a fun week we got an nfl show on tuesday uh by the way my comedy god um stole my bit and we're gonna play it on the tuesday show larry david and i are i was gonna ask you if we were gonna play that oh we are going david dude it was can we play the whole thing i'm it was incredible i mean i don't know if he listens to this podcast jeff but he basically took what i I mean, David, it was – can we play the whole thing? It was incredible. I mean, I don't know if he listens to this podcast, Jeff,

but he basically took what I was saying and made it funny. He made it very funny. He even went so far as to eliminate the goal post. It was an incredible, incredible bit. So, yeah, guys, I got a bunch of reviews. I really appreciate it. Rate and review, subscribe. We really enjoy seeing that. If you leave your questions too, we answer them

on the podcast as we get going this week. A big NFL show coming up tomorrow. My Chiefs, hoo boy, oh boy. We'll talk a lot about them. I wrote like a 2,000 word article for Fox. The Chiefs will not be happy with that as they all read all my stuff.

You could do that with two words. They stink. They do. They stink. We're powered by the varsity podcast network as usual uh please again leave me review uh five stars preferably that'd be that'd be the best way to do that and leave a question as well and we're back tomorrow take care everybody