Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Coach O is Out, Iowa Gets Exposed, and Geoff’s Playoff Rankings After CFB Week 7

Episode Date: October 18, 2021

Geoff and Gabe break down the biggest headlines from this week of CFB action, including the news that Ed Orgeron will not return to LSU next year, Georgia’s young QB, and Iowa’s unexpected loss to Purdue. Plus, should we be paying more attention to Oklahoma State? And what is Oklahoma’s ceiling with Caleb Williams?Geoff gives his first playoff rankings for this year, putting Georgia at the top, and slotting Bama, OU, and Cincy in behind them. After that the top of CFB gets a lot murkier, and Geoff and Gabe try to predict how the selection committee will view potential one-loss teams like Oregon, Ohio State, and Notre Dame.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 18th. I'm Jeff Schwartz alongside Gabe Goodwin. This is Jeff Schwartz of Smarty. We're powered by the Varsity Podcast Network. Another weekend of college football in the books. We have some news on the coaching ranks. We have some good play out of Georgia, some bad play out of Iowa, and some other teams that are creeping up. And this week will be the first week of the college football playoff rankings so we'll discuss where we think teams we normally do the rankings to start the show we're gonna do at the end of the show so we kind of get through some topics at the beginning and then we can kind of decide at the end what we think the top four will be including by the way game i'm gonna have to i've talked about oklahoma but i feel like that time has maybe ended now oklahoma is i think gonna get their due that they that you have said they've needed now for a couple weeks. They'll get their due in my top four. How was your weekend of college football, Mr. Gabe?

My weekend of college football was good. Confusing. Weird weekend, man. Strange news we'll get to in a second in LSU. Some strange results. I think we're getting a clearer picture. It's the right time for the playoff rankings to start coming out because I think we have a clear picture of

who's actually good now and you're about to take us through it. But I was at a wedding all weekend so I'm a little beat up right now, Jeff, if I'm being very honest with you. I'm not a top four. Well, I was up late Thursday night watching my Giants lose. I was up until like 1 o'clock.

Friday, the Ducks played. I went to bed at like 11, though. Last night was Saturday night, as we record this, a Sunday night as usual. Saturday night, I did late night radio until 12.30 a.m., and then now, obviously, it's late on the East Coast. I'm in your boat. I'm just surprised. I don't have, like, any friends getting married anymore.

So I don't know. Like, you're still in the age range where you have a second marriage? No, this is a first marriage, barely. Barely in the age range. Okay. But it's been two years since anyone could get married. So this was planned a long time ago. It's been delayed a few times.

We finally got to it. And so my issue was not staying up late, but what I was consuming while I was staying up late, Jeff. So just, you know up late, Jeff. So just, you know. Oh, yes. I'm sure it was lots of water, hydration and very, very clean food. Yeah. My electrolyte count is not great right now. Jeff, here's what I want to know. What the heck happened at LSU? Because I'm looking at the app and showing me the score of the game, and it looks like they got their first actual good win of the year and then all I'm reading about is how Coach O who won

a national championship a couple years ago is going to be out at the end of the year I'm very confused again late night consuming a little too much I'm thinking what am I reading this correctly straighten this out for me Jeff yeah Coach O is out after the season. Very surprising news. They did beat Florida. They rushed for a bazillion yards, over 300 yards, and they dominated that game from start to finish. Won 49-42 and a big win.

We had talked about the hot seat, right? Coach O's on the hot seat. And we figured a win against Florida might lessen that. And their schedule's still tough at the back end. And now we figure out, we find out that he's leaving. And, you know, as you read up about this and you see the reports, Pete Thamel tweeted out,

source familiar with the situation at LSU, it's one of those things where no one wanted him to be there anymore. The players didn't want to play for him. The coaches didn't want to coach for him. Oh, boy. And there's, if you read stories, and The Athletic has covered this extensively, you know, I didn't know this.

I don't follow his personal life, but, you know, he got divorced and supposedly he's the man about town. Priorities changed in life a little bit. There were some pictures that came out and he talked dirty to someone he shouldn't have and uh who knew a chancellor is like there's some stories out there go the athletic they're all there um and that he started hiring friends and didn't really vet coaching hires and just wasn't fully in as he was previously

and now you get the report like i mentioned from Pete, about the players not buying in. Coaches, why is he still staying? I don't understand. If they haven't bought in, why not give someone else the opportunity to coach this team who's on staff, who maybe could use five or six games as a resume builder, could maybe get the most out of this team? Like, if you're on this team, Gabe, why are you playing hard?

Look, football, obviously, there's individual parts of the game where you're playing for yourself to get drafted, right? But some of those guys have already left. And at some point, you're playing for yourself or you're playing for your teammates. And you're playing for your coaching staff. You're playing for all, you're buying in together. And Ed Orgeron, being there as a lame duck coach,

already agreed to leave after the season, getting his full buyout, getting his full contract. But if the players don't respect him, why is he still there? This does not make sense to me. It's like you're USC Trojans, right? The players like Clay Helton, but there was no accountability. They're like, get out of there, buddy. You're gone.

We'll bring someone else in. It hasn't worked out, but that's okay. But you bring in Dante Williams and you give him nine games to try to earn the coaching job. And why not? Why not at LSU? I don't understand why he's staying. I don't either, especially if the insinuation of a lot of the reporting is that maybe he's acting inappropriately or not representing the school well, you know, away from the job. If that's what they're getting at, then it doesn't really seem like a guy you'd keep around. So yeah, I'm confused. It sets up a few other questions. So the things I think I learned, you know, because that's sort of how we like to do this show, the things I think I learned beyond all those facts are that suddenly there's,

now there's competition for good coaching jobs out there. And so now there's the SC job, but there's also the LSU job. And so I'm starting to learn a lot more names of highly sought after college football coaches who are going to be linked to those openings. So I think I'm learning that Mel Tucker could be in line for a promotion. But you tell me, who ends up at this LSU job? You know, Mel Tucker is one of those guys that is going to be out there. I will say that their athletic director, Scott Woodward, he is a guy over the years who has hired splash guys. So, for example, he was at Washington when he got Chris Peterson.

Chris Peterson was like the white whale, right? No one could get him. Morgan couldn't get him. USC couldn't get him. Washington got him. When Scott Woodward was at Florida State, guess who he got? Jimbo Fisher. Excuse me.

He was at Texas A&M. He got Jimbo Fisher away from Florida State. And now, obviously, LSU, he has the opportunity. So, again, Jimbo Fisher's name has been brought up here, right? He's already hired him at one school. Maybe he brings him back to LSU. As you mentioned, Mel Tucker, who's having a very good start

at Michigan State this year. Again, they're one of those teams in the Big Ten that is very defensive-oriented, offensively struggling. But, you know, at LSU, that kid could definitely flip around there. So that's a big come-up. He was at Colorado just a few years ago,

and now he's already at Michigan State. Now he's being talked about for the LSU job. Of course, the same names are always going to be. James Franklin, right? James Franklin, who is going to be up for the USC job. Dabo Sweeney, again, a big swing here. Maybe he doesn't feel like Clemson. The magic's over there.

Maybe he'll go to LSU. Look, they've won three titles in 18 years with three different coaches. LSU I don't think is as easy a job as people think, but it's a winning job, right? I mean, people have won there now. Those coaches got fired. Les Miles got fired and O'Jorn got fired.

I mean, it's part of the business when things don't go well. Billy Napier, I'm just reading off a list here on The Athletic. Billy Napier from Louisiana. Mario Cristobal, I don't expect that from Oregon. I don't expect Napier either. But Mark Stoops, interesting, out of Kentucky. Done a great job at Kentucky. And then Lane Kiffin, which is, oh boy.

I actually think Lane's not a half-bad coach. He handled, by the way, the golf ball being chucked at him in Knoxville with humor that I appreciate. He does feel like he's matured a lot, Gabe, from when he was at USC. Obviously, he's had a couple coaching stints there. He would score points at LSU. I don't know about playing defense, but that's not a bad name, I think. Obviously, he's been coaching for a while now,

but he learned from his mistakes. So those are probably the names. I can't imagine maybe there's a maybe there's a, you know, maybe a Bill O'Brien out of Alabama. You're missing one big name. Who am I missing? Joe Brady. Oh, Joe Brady, yeah, the Panthers coordinator.

Yeah, that's interesting. I have not seen his name brought up for this job yet because I think that we look at, again, the AD's history, Scott Woodward's history of going for huge names. Joe Brady's not the name he was two years ago, Joe Burrow. But I agree with you, though. I could see Joe Brady, if you don't get the guys you want at the top, that Joe Brady becomes a very familiar fallback

and one that fans would like, right? And that's part of it, right? You'd win the fan base by saying, hey, look, we brought in the guy who led Joe Burrow, who led us to a championship. Yeah. And so I think he'll be on a short list as we go through this conversation this week and in the coming weeks. I bet you will see his name brought up a lot.

It'd be an interesting thing to see a guy who just got his NFL break, if he decides to go back for the head coaching job at a great program like LSU, when he knows that he's going to be up for one of the big NFL jobs soon if he just waits it out. It's an interesting challenge. He may not have the option, but we'll see. All right, so let's stay in the SEC for a moment for my second learn, or at least what I think was a learn.

Georgia is the best team in the country right now, or at least they're playing the best ball. The defense is great. We know that. And I think they learned that they might've found their quarterback. They've got this sort of weird quarterback battle. You can explain better to me, but this dude Stetson Bennett could play. He put up some numbers. Like, I don't know. I don't know enough about his game versus JT Daniels, but maybe they found their quarterback and then maybe there's no more question marks left at Georgia maybe they're just the best team in the country with a good offense well Georgia's by far the best team in the country right now I'm not even sure it's close they won that game 30-13 against Kentucky this past weekend and you know they have I have all the numbers here that I can pull up, they have outscored opponents this year in conference play.

They have beaten four teams, four top 25 teams, by a combined score of 111 to 26. They've allowed 46 total points in the entire season. And mind you, six of those, because Kentucky missed an extra point, won the final play of the game on the entire season. And mind you, seven of those, or excuse me, six of those, because Kentucky missed an extra point, won the final play of the game on Saturday against Kentucky. They didn't allow a play over 16 yards against Kentucky, and Kentucky averages five plays over 20 yards a game.

I mean, their defense from top to bottom is their defense. Every time Kentucky ran the ball, Gabe, there was someone in the backfield for Georgia. Every time they passed the ball, there was someone hitting the quarterback. And as you mentioned, Stenson Bennett's taking over for JT Daniels, completing 70% of his passes around there, give or take each game.

It was 70% this weekend. And he's just doing what he has to do, right? He's not making mistakes. That's what he, you know, just not making mistakes. Fantastic. And they run the football very well. And with that defense, you don't have to do very much offensively. And their defense is at the point now, Gabe,

where they're trying to set records, right? They're going to play well each week. And since they're better, they don't do very much. Now, when they run trying to set records. They're going to play well each week, and since it doesn't do very much. Now, when they run up against Alabama and they say it's a championship game, let's say, maybe since it's got to do more. But right now he doesn't. And so he's doing exactly what they asked him to do. He's not making mistakes. He's

finding the open receivers. We saw that running back angle route for the first touchdown. He's managing the offense. And JT Daniels again gets his job taken away from injury. Yeah, I mean, he's lost his job a few times because of injury, and he moved schools because of it. But right now, Stenson looks like maybe the better player.

And it's, you know, they had JT available, but, you know, he's not quite ready, I guess. And so they're going to have to make some decisions. Here's the thing, though. Their only real test, at least from my eyes eyes left on the schedule at all is Florida so they get Florida their next game out and then they got Missouri Tennessee Charleston and Georgia Tech maybe you want to tell me that Tennessee's a tough game I don't know but I do not think yeah I wouldn't think you would so basically like they're coasting all the way to that that rematch with Bama is what it looks like right now

assuming they get through Florida. Well, it wouldn't be a rematch. It'd be the only time they play Bama this year. And if they're undefeated in that game, they're going to a playoff win or lose. So that just gives you two playoff teams. Well, if they lose two playoff teams, if they beat Bama,

maybe Bama's not in with two losses. But Georgia's guaranteed a playoff spot if they run the table and show up to Atlanta with no losses. I think Georgia-Florida obviously is neutral site, but they don't play tough road games left. They're on the good side of the conference where they're not playing

a bunch of the Alabama side, right? Where they have Auburn and LSU and Arkansas this year, obviously, but Georgia did play Arkansas anyways. They don't have that side of the bracket. And so, yeah, they are – I think their defense, as I said, each week will show up. Sometimes when you're really offensive-oriented,

there are games where your offense just doesn't show up quite as well as it might in other games. And then it's kind of hard for you to play. But defensively, man, I don't think this is one of those teams that's just going to fail defensively in a weekend. They're too dang good, and they're trying to set records now. Yeah. Well, the only other team that had a defense that we sort of talked about as often in the top five was Iowa. And I don't know what the hell happened to them. Jeff, I think you get to take the victory lap because you were basically crapping all over them last week on this show.

I was trying to, you know, get excited about Iowa. I love their stadium. I love the way they played in that Penn State game. And you were like, come on. They beat a backup barely. They're not real. They shouldn't be happy about this. They got problems ahead.

Well, you basically predicted it because Purdue took them down. I think what we learned is that Iowa's done. We don't need to talk about them again. But the Big Ten is now kind of a mess. It's pretty confusing. And Michigan, Michigan State is coming up. And, I mean, that game suddenly means a whole hell of a lot. Yeah, so Iowa's exactly what I said they were, right?

They're a team offensively that's very challenged. If they can't force turnovers, and they forced one against Purdue, but that wasn't even them forcing it, right? If you recall, Purdue took the ball and tried to reach it out, one of those pylon ones, right? They tried to reach out the pylon, ball fumbled, it was a touchback. So it wasn't even like a forced fumble by Iowa's doing. And Purdue threw for 380 yards.

I mean, Aiden O'Connell was fantastic for them. The bell kid, 11 receptions, 240 yards. They took the game plan that Penn State had, which was a lot of play action pass, move the pocket, find holes in the zone, especially kind of in the corners against two-eye coverage. And it was brilliant. And Iowa, of course, on the flip side especially kind of in the corners against two-eye coverage, and it was brilliant. And Iowa, of course, on the flip side, couldn't move the ball

when they didn't get the ball at the plus 40 right after a turnover. So they're dead in the water. And they had a chance, by the way, and they still have a chance to go into the Big Ten Championship game with one loss. I mean, their schedule was pretty cush, but if you can't score, you're not going to win all these games, right? Because eventually your defense is going to fail. I look at the Big Ten very simply as, you know,

this is, I think, Ohio State's to lose. I mean, Ohio State right now is improving each week on offense. They're 5-1, obviously. They had a bye. C.J. Stroud's playing much better. Since that Oregon game, things have really changed for them. Michigan State and Michigan play this weekend. So we'll know, excuse me, they're off this weekend.

They play the following weekend. And, you know, right now they're ranked 6-9. So that will give us a good tell on what will possibly, you know, someone's going to lose that game, obviously. And whoever loses that game probably loses it because they're not good offensively. Again, it comes down to offense in this division. And then they've got to play Ohio State. Both those teams do at some point.

So this will all sort itself out, Gabe, because they all play each other in the Big Ten, at least on this side of the bracket. So the Big Ten's, again, very good defenses, very talented teams. But Penn State has the best offense. That, to me, is the difference between all these schools. Like Penn State can, excuse me, Ohio State has the best offense.

They can score whenever they want. If Sean Clifford comes back for Penn State, I might lean in that direction a little bit. But we'll see if Clifford comes back as healthy as he was beforehand. Yeah. Well, they've got defenses. They've also got social media managers. Purdue football after the win. We just beat the number two out of Iowa.

Pretty good. It was very good. Yeah. Have you noticed this year, too, man? Social media teams, they have stepped their game. They just do not care. Nah, you got to let it fly, man. I used to run a few handles back in my ESPN days.

Did not allow for the poop jokes coming off the SportsCenter handle. But now, you know, people are letting it rip. And we're getting a lot more likes out of it. So good on you. There was a SportsCenter tweet the other day in the first person. It was like, we love this. I love this reaction. Like it was some player.

Yeah, that might have been somebody fat finger in their account and logged in as the wrong profile. That has been known to happen, but you never know. All right. Well, so, I mean, I guess we're sort of done talking about Iowa. I declared us done talking about the Colts a few weeks ago on the NFL show that we do. I'm here to say I'm done talking about Iowa.

I'm over them that quickly. Is that fair? We can just move on from them? Follow me, yeah. Okay, great. Alright, listen, here's a team that we haven't spent any time on that I'm declaring the time has come. We need to get smarter on this.

Oklahoma State, they're going to creep into the top 10. They're undefeated. Got a coach we all know. You know, we both said we don't know a whole lot about what they're doing out there, but they keep on winning. We got an Oklahoma game coming up soon. Feels like it's time to know more about Oklahoma State.

Yeah, Oklahoma State, three straight wins against top 25 opponents. They beat Kansas State, Baylor, and now Texas, right? They were down at one point in the Texas game. I believe it was 24-13 in the third quarter. And Texas scored zero points the rest of the way. They had one yard, if I recall, the fourth quarter. I'm sure Hank will let me know whether that was wrong or not. But Texas is definitely not back.

But Oklahoma State just kind of squeezed out this game. Defensively, they are really good. And offensively, they're just okay. And actually training probably, they were kind of training the other direction. Let's put it, a bad texas um a bad texas uh defense and and recall too that the final touchdown the game texas let them score because it made sense uh clockwise to let them score so really i mean it's 25 points um including by the way a pick six so it wasn't even it wasn't even 32 points offensively right it was it was 25 points offensively. And that's kind of been their MO this year. So if you can, again, play defense well enough,

then you don't have to score points. It's good for you. They get Iowa State next, Kansas, West Virginia, TCU, Texas Tech, Oklahoma. The thing about it is Oklahoma, with Caleb Williams now, looks much different in just one week, right? They went to TCU, put up 56 points. Caleb Williams, five touchdowns as a true freshman, his first start. First time ever that's happened.

If Oklahoma, offensively, is going to be this good, and their defense has improved from last year, Oklahoma State, no matter how good their team is, they're not beating Oklahoma. So I think Oklahoma State's for real, Gabe. They're going to win games because of the style of play they have, but we project them out as like, where are they at the end of the season?

In Bedlam, it's at home. Yeah, I would be very shocked if they could beat Oklahoma, I guess 31-30. You could beat them if you keep them to 31-28 points, but if Caleb Williams is going to play this well, you're not doing that. All right. Well, so I was just trying to imagine a scenario where if they get through Iowa State, most of the other teams you named before Oklahoma

are pretty winnable games for Oklahoma State. So now we're looking at four versus five or something after a few other teams knock each other off. And I thought, uh-oh, well, let's not be caught flat-footed by then. But you're saying, and this will transition us to your top six for the week, you're saying that Oklahoma is considerably better with this new quarterback than Oklahoma State could possibly be in a few weeks. Yeah, I think so.

But the story here for Oklahoma, by the way, is this Caleb Williams-Spencer Rattler thing. Gabe, you've followed sports as long as I have. I do not recall a situation where a top-ten quarterback, who we assume was a top-ten quarterback, not only got benched, but will transfer. Spencer Rattler's never playing another down for Oklahoma again unless Caleb Williams gets hurt.

He is gone. He's going to go to Arizona State. He's from Arizona, so let's say jay daniels leaves arizona state he goes anywhere right there'll be there'll be 15 20 top 40 programs that want him right sure um and so we'll uh we'll obviously see where he ends up going but i've never seen this in my career of following sports where the the guy top top 10 pick maybe number one quarterback gets benched and boom, he was shipped off.

Now, obviously, because of the new transfer rules, it makes it easier for him to go. But yeah, quite a couple weeks for Oklahoma. Yeah, it's really weird. And it's why I was sort of joking last week that I could get into an offense under Lincoln Riley and probably score. I'm 5'11.5". That seems like all it takes to put up four or five touchdowns for this coach. So I wonder, maybe he found a really special player in Caleb in the freshman, but is it just something about the way that he's coaching them up and well who they're playing

against that you know the quarterback position in that offense is just going to look like a no-brainer you know future hall of famer every time i mean i get it that rattler rattler did not pan out or wasn't panning out the way expected but can anyone succeed in that offense well i mean rattler didn't show that right so not well he he didn't. But, I mean, listen, they just knew they had the better guy. It's the same as Tua replaced Jalen Hurts. Nobody was saying Jalen Hurts sucks. They thought they had the better player in Tua. No, I know what you're saying.

Yeah, but he's also had Baker, Tyler, Jalen, and now Caleb Williams. Like, he's had the top player so if you put in the kansas quarterback is it as good no um but but these good these players want to come to his system because it is quarterback friendly he gets the most out of that i think kind of as a two-way straight there all right fair enough well so then let's let's use oklahoma who i think will be they've never been higher on your rankings than they sound like they will be right now. We've hit Georgia, so I'm assuming I can start you off with an easy one.

Georgia's number one. Where are you going with number two? All right, so this is where the fun begins in the playoff discussion because what I, should we guess what I think they're going to do or should I just do my rankings? Because this is what I think is going to— what should happen— Here's the two questions. I know there's a conundrum here, right?

It's like eye test versus kind of like record test, right? Because Alabama is the second-best team in the country. They won 49-9 at Mississippi State. They had one blemish against A&M. They're the second- best team in the country. I think number two will be Oklahoma in the playoff rankings. 7-0 off a big one against TCU. They just beat Texas.

All the hype on Caleb Williams. I think they'll be two. Number three will be Cincinnati. They're 56. They won 56-21 over UCF. They're number three. If they win out, Gabe, I think this is the year they're in. They're 56. They won 56-21 over UCF. They're number three. If they win out, Gabe, I think this is the year they're in. I really do.

And number four will be Alabama. That's how I think the top four will go down. All right, number five will be Ohio State. And number six is kind of interesting. Number six can kind of be a couple different ways. It could be Michigan State. It could be Penn State. It could be Michigan.

You know, based off of, need to check that just to make sure that i'm right here on the new the new rankings that just came out uh they have michigan six so they basically have the the coaches polls what i have for my playoff is georgia at least right now georgia oklahoma san diego alabama they have ohio state and then michigan um guess is for now, if you're just taking an undefeated team, you would take Michigan over Michigan State just because of the allure of Michigan. That's kind of just what it is because, to my knowledge, Michigan has not been a ranked opponent yet, which is a big part of this.

And Michigan State, I think, has... They beat Miami. It was 24 at the time. So I think Michigan probably goes heaven. And again, look, Ohio State's 5-1, right? They have no ranked wins either. They have a ranked loss. But I think people look at Ohio State at 5-1 and know what their potential is,

and they'll be number five, and Michigan or Michigan State will be six. Okay. So usually when we go through these rankings up until this week, you have told me from what you've seen, here's your personal top six. And it's always been fun to kind of debate it with you and throw other teams out there. So let me throw other teams out there, even though you've been very clear that you're talking about the playoff rankings, what do you predict? We talked to Oklahoma State. They would not be in currently. They would need a lot of help

and to keep on winning. And then they'd ultimately have to beat Oklahoma, but they're out there. You mentioned Oregon, your ducks. So they have that win over Ohio State, which is more than Ohio State can say about who they've played. But they have that loss also that sort of derailed them. So we're not assuming that Oregon gets any real talk, right? No, if Oregon wins out, they will be in the playoff. But the problem is, is they just beat Cal by seven points and they barely beat Fresno and they were up five to oh in six arizona in the fourth quarter um they go to ucla this weekend game day is going to be there i don't have high hopes i don't really um you know corporate situation is a problem right now but there's no answer because the young kids is look

everyone at oregon knows they want that everyone in who follows this team wants ty thompson the five-star freshman to play he's not ready to play that's what he keep telling us and i believe it like i think they would play him-star freshman to play. He's not ready to play. That's what he keeps telling us. And I believe it. I think they would play him if he was ready to play. He's not ready to play. So we're stuck with Anthony Brown. It's that simple.

And, yeah, I mean, look, again, if they win out, they'll be in here, but they've got to win out first. And they're going to have to score 35 against UCLA this weekend. I just don't see it. Well, we'll talk about this game more on our gambling podcast on Thursday. Trust me, I'll have some thoughts on this one. If you would like to, just let me know. Tweet me at Jeff Short.

I've won nine straight Pac-12 plays. I'm really good at Pac-12. It's the only thing I'm good at because I'm not good at anything else, especially not the NFL. Don't say that, Jeff. You're very hard on yourself. You're good at a number of things. You're especially good at that.

The NFL, the last 14 games, I picked two correct out of 14. For example, we're recording on a Sunday. I know it's a college show. Pittsburgh's up 14-0 at home against Geno Smith-led Seattle. They've allowed 17 straight points. It's 17-17 in the fourth quarter. It's just, it's unbelievable. Like, it's just, I just have had,

it's been a very bad run of things this year. But so has everyone else, because the public this week, if you're a public, if you're a public, the public won everything. They've won everything, so. Yeah, you're overthinking things, Jeff.

So let's overthink these rankings for another second here for the college audience that's listening. So you're telling me Oregon can and probably will win out and then that well i don't think i don't think probably will but okay they can't they can win out and make the playoffs because then they would suddenly look better than the champ in let's say the big 10 um like if it's if it's a one loss ohio state who goes through you know a pretty good schedule uh winning the big 10 and a one-loss Ohio State who goes through a pretty good schedule winning the Big Ten and a one-loss Oregon who beat Ohio State winning the Pac-12,

you think they give Oregon the fourth seed and put them in the playoff. That's what you're betting on? Yeah, because Oregon beat Ohio State. Right. I'm following the logic. All right, so then the only other couple teams I have to throw out there is like kind of wild cards. We're just assuming that Iowa and Penn State, there's some other loss waiting for them on their schedule.

And Michigan, Michigan State beat each other up, and then whichever of them loses to Ohio State. So we're good. We covered those conferences. I want to talk about Ole Miss for a second because their only loss right now is Bama, but they have a few more ranked opportunities as they go. If they somehow just keep on winning,

what do you think about them sneaking in some way somehow? Yeah, they're not going to keep on winning though. Really don't see it. No, they've got Auburn A&M still. I don't. I don't see them winning. I just don't. I mean, they barely beat Tennessee.

I don't see I don't see them winning. I just don't. I mean, they barely beat Tennessee. I don't see it. Okay. Notre Dame, we're assuming their path is kind of closed at this point. The loss to Cincy was too much. Coastal, we're not going to talk about them until we have even more. I mean, they're doing well. I mean, UTSA is 7-0. They're going to be in their top rankings too?

I don't think so. The Roadrunners. So then the only other thing that you mentioned, that I guess this is kind of dorking in the weeds, but you would project that Alabama will be the fourth seed in the playoff rankings, but ahead of them would be three undefeated teams. Yeah. So do you honestly think that they're going to make Bama the four going up against Georgia in the first round?

Because that ain't going to happen. Well, but this is week seven, though. I think if this was – yeah, if they play each other in the SEC championship game and Georgia were to beat Alabama, Alabama might be out totally. Yeah, sure. But then if Alabama were to beat Georgia, Alabama would have won most likely, and Georgia would be three. Right. Okay, so we're agreeing that when two SEC teams ultimately probably make the playoff, they're made the one and the three, not the one and the four.

Or the two and the four, whatever. Well, then they'll just beef up. They'll probably end up putting Cincy opposite. Yeah, they'll make Cincy the four to have to lose to Georgia, and then they'll get Oklahoma or Bama, the committee or whoever. They're not going to have them play. They will not have them play together in the first round. I promise you that.

Okay, just making sure we're seeing that the same way. Rather than playing the final. Yeah, exactly. Which happened a couple years ago, by the way. Georgia-Bama, yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right, well, so fun week ahead.

I'm excited about Michigan State coming, not necessarily this week, but that's going to be a fun one for us to talk about. And I'm glad to hear you're coming around Oklahoma overall. I'm going to watch a little bit more of that juice, I think, for Spencer Rattler. And it just looks, and our producer Hank is now going just full Texas sad now. UTSA is going to beat Texas and blah, blah, blah. They don't even play Texas, but they're going to beat him because he's just a sad Texas fan now. How about that? Poor, sad Texas fans, Gabe. Texas was back momentarily twice this year,

and then now they're completely done. So we don't have to talk about Texas. They're going in the Iowa and the Colts bin. I'm sorry, guys. Hook them some other year. Well, let's keep an eye on the Ed Orgeron story. I hope nothing weirder comes out about that. I don't think he finishes the year with the team.

I just can't see that happening. Yeah. It seems completely pointless. From the little bits and pieces that came out this weekend, it also would surprise me, but we'll see. Ed Orgeron, next coach of your Trojans. He already had a chance at that,

and they let him go, and then he won a national championship somewhere else. I don't know why you had to do that. We're 30 minutes into this. We're having a lovely conversation. We're obviously both playing a little bit injured, but we were getting along, and then you try to end the show with a dig at usc that was that was rude i will be honest uh about thursday's show i will be taking notre dame minus three against usc so just letting everyone know just a little a little a little heads

up again good in the pac-12 sucky everywhere else this year. So be on the lookout for that. All right, guys, appreciate you joining us. As usual for college, we'll be back tomorrow with our NFL show. We have a lot of talk about the NFL. So as usual, there's always a lot of NFL action. And yeah, we're powered by the Varsity Podcast Network. As usual, please rate, review, subscribe. Always appreciate getting that feedback. And we'll talk to you guys tomorrow.

Take care.