Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Oregon’s Big Day and Geoff’s Top Six CFB Teams After Week 2

Episode Date: September 14, 2021

This week Oregon finally showed up in a big game vs. OSU, and Geoff loved it. Geoff and Gabe discuss how that win will affect the rest of the season and playoff hopes for the PAC 12 and the suddenly wide-open Big 10, plus Geoff shares his top six teams through two weeks of CFB play.Geoff gives his reactions to the Clay Helton firing at USC, and explains why championship teams don’t use the Air Raid offense. He also shares why he isn’t surprised Texas lost, why he’s gone from disliking Bama to appreciating them, and why he’s not that impressed by cats.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 september 13th i'm jeff schwartz alongside gabe goodwin this is jeff schwartz smarter than you we're back with another monday episode breaking down all of college football starting with my organ ducks we'll give you a top six as well we'll talk about two teams are definitely not back gabe your team is one of them we'll get to that in a second some breaking news before we get to gabe and the rest of the show. USC has fired head coach Clay Helton after a horrific home loss to Stanford. And an era that has been underwhelming has ended as USC has fired Clay in the middle of the year when they should have done it in the offseason. And look, before we get into the downfalls of Helton, I think it's worth pointing out that Helton held this job with class, with grace, and they needed a coach like that after the issues the program had been in and the school had been in. I've met Clay. He is an awesome guy.

He means well. He works hard. It just didn't produce wins at USC the level they want to produce wins. And later in the show, we'll talk about USC. We'll talk about why they have the issues, what they have to fix. And the immediate question is who becomes their head coach? I have long argued this USC job is not as good as people want it to be. And this will be the test because if they want to spend the money, let's assume they do, they have many options to go, right? Urban Meyer, is he leaving Jacksonville today or tomorrow, right? But Urban had a chance. I don't think he's going there, right?

Bob Stoops, supposedly they were in on him last year, didn't want to pay him. Part of paying a coach is not just paying him, by the way, it's paying for the assistance, which the Pac-12 is lacking, is lacking, strongly lacking. So you have to pay for the assistance as well. Chris Peterson, the former Washington coach, now doing Washington and Boise coach, now doing analyst work for Fox, he'd be a great hire.

He'd be a home run hire. You know what you're getting with him each and every season. He recruits at a high level, he plays sound football, and he wins football games. He'd be the safe hire. Does he have the la glitz and glam no but at this point you need to hire someone who's a good freaking coach and chris bruce is a good coach luke fickle matt campbell james franklin all names will be thrown

out there but my question is this is is this job as is it looked at in such favor that we think it should be looked at the usc we think it should be looked at? The USC fans think it should be looked at? We'll find out with this hire. We'll find out if they want to spend, who they're going to spend it on, and what they're going to do. They have to rebuild the program. The program doesn't have the talent.

It does have the talent, but it doesn't have the physicality needed to be a great program. So someone's going to have to come in there and rebuild the physical culture of USC. The last name found out there will be Oregon head coach Mark Christobal. We'll talk plenty about Oregon today, their big win after Ohio State, but he already has a playoff caliber team now and a team next year in 2022 that should be better. So he's not leaving Oregon for USC.

He has the financial support there, the support from up top. He's got Phil Knight and Nike. He's not going anywhere. The Pac-12 needs USC to be good. And so I'm hopeful the hire will help the Pac-12 do this. Obviously, that could be to the detriment of Oregon. Fine.

But a good USC is good for the conference, good for the West Coast. And I hope they nail this hire. We'll find out what they do. They've gone, you know, USC guy, the last four last four hires three hires don't want to do that right find the best coach don't have to hire usc guy we only hire michigan guy or michigan man jim arbaugh hire the best coach the money can buy put the money into it put the money into the assistance in the support staff and go out and find yourself a top-notch coach.

We'll see how it goes. I'm shocked they actually did this. And we'll see what happens the rest of the season. Obviously, you have a whole year to figure this out, who they're going to hire, and we'll see what they do. So let's see what happens. All right, to the show. How was your weekend?

Shut up, Jeff. You know, you're so happy. You come in here wearing your Oregon Duck swag, and you're calling out my team, USC. We had very different weekends, and you know it. You don't need to taunt me for it. Congratulations. You know, you almost broke Twitter trying to celebrate this thing,

but Oregon is all the way back. Dude, I had a good weekend. The Ducks won. The Chiefs won. My gambling picks won. My Giants have won seven in a row in baseball. Leeds still lead the NL West. Maybe the best sports weekend of my life.

But let's get back to the Ducks. I've been waiting my entire life for them to win this game. I don't know what else to say. You know Dan Rubenstein. I Faceimed dan rubenstein after the game and we were both like emotionally couldn't even talk to each other we were so excited because this is a game the pack 12 first of all has lost for 25 years in a row now right we've lost this game i think the last time it was like usc and o3 went to virginia tech and like smashed them at rfk stadium right like it was like it'd been so long since theatov had won a game like this.

And Oregon, look, for as good as we've been, we have won Rose Bowls, yes. We have been to a championship game twice, by the way, right? Lost to Auburn by three and got blown up by Ohio State. But we have never been this talented before, right? Our team's now, it'll be four straight years of top 10 classes. And we've been waiting to see this talent

and this kind of style of football, which was not under Chip Kelly that we had, where we're kind of winning with just big physical bodies and defense, right? Defense, which we hadn't had in a long time. And we're waiting for it to come to fruition, right? And it has. Nine and four, Mario's first year.

Then 12 and two with a Rose Bowl win. Last year was COVID. But we hadn't had a game like this where we're on the road against Ohio State. And look, Ohio State's not the same team they've been, I think. I think we can agree on that. But nonetheless, still going on to the shoe, down our best player on the team,

our defensive lineman, Kayvon Thibodeau, who would be a top five draft pick. Then we're down Justin Flo, a five-star linebacker who had 14 tackles in the first week. We're down actually the guy in front of him. And the guy behind him got hurt in this game as well. Two defensive starters were coming back off suspension that did not play very much in this game.

Like, it's a game that we should have lost and instead we dominated Gabe in the trenches, right? The line of scrimmage, which is things that the Pac-12 hasn't done since Pete Carroll's USC teams, right? We have not won a game in the trenches in so many years. And we won this game with our offensive line, who was fabulous. And look, our defensive line got home at the end, right?

For a long stretch of time, it was hard to get home. But we actually limited their rushing attack too, right? We were good up, we were just, yes, we gave up 500 yards passing, which is kind of the plan. I said this before, I said it last week. The goal of the Oregon game plan was just don't get beat on chunk plays, which we didn't do, right? We didn't give up except when Mikael Wright was looking at his wristband for the play.

We kind of just had a slow bleed and it worked. It worked. And everything that I said was going to happen worked, right? Joe Moore had the offensive coordinator. He came with a brand new game plan, which I said was going to happen, right? Everything that I asked for it to happen actually happened like I planned it to. And the one thing, too, that is incredible is our quarterback, look, Anthony Brown is just okay.

Like, you don't win those games with just okay quarterbacks, right? When everything is schemed up, when it's one read or look at this side of the field, he's good, okay? But when it's third and eight, he's not good. And that's something to worry about later. But it worked. Everything worked Saturday. And it just felt so good to finally have like a day where I can just, I was so tired too Saturday night, man.

I went in the tub, had a cigar by eight o'clock. My wife was out of town. I put the kids to sleep. And like, I just passed the F out about 10 o'clock. I had the remote in my hand, TV on. So I woke up at about 2.15 and checked the USC score. We'll get to that in a second. But like, I just, and like, it's,

we've been waiting for this for so long. I don't even, we play Stony Brook this week. I'm going to even watch. I don't even, I don't give any shits about this game this week. I'm just going to like, it's on Pac-12 network. I'm going to, I maybe want, I don't even know what time the game is.

I do not care. I don't care. We can win by one point. It doesn't matter. We've won this game. And here's the most important thing about this. Is it gives us an inside track to make the playoff, right? Which is very important.

And the reason it does that is now we have a tiebreaker over Ohio State. Very important, right? Just like Georgia has a tiebreaker over Clemson. Also very important. And two is that no Pac-12 team has run the Pac-12 conference since it expanded 12 the last team to do was Oregon in 2010 and Oregon has all their tough games on the road I know Washington might not be any good Stanford we'll find out they go to Utah like they have all their they have all their games theoretically their toughest

games on the road this year at UCLA October 23rd So like, I know I wasn't even supposed to start with Oregon today, it was my top six, but I just couldn't help myself. And I'm so happy that Oregon won this game. It's coming across. You're right. We have a format. We're going to get to your top six, and then we're going to revisit this game and also look at the Ohio State side of this game. That's an important thing for a lot of our audience they're thinking oh man wait a second what does this mean for the Big Ten what does this mean for a team that many people assumed was marching towards another you know another chance at a playoff at least we'll come back to that I just need to help with one visual yes you're in your hot tub with a cigar holding a remote and you fall asleep no I fell

asleep in the bed I got okay yeah no I was nervous for a second you're in the remote and you fall asleep no i don't know i fell asleep in the bed i got yeah no i was nervous for a second you're in the hot tub you're falling asleep i might be dead if i did that no i was i got out like i was trying to watch the washington game fell asleep trying to watch you utah byu i didn't even plan to watch usc stanford and like um i put it on i think it was maybe over by then or maybe not by the time I woke up you're like a lot of the players on USC and fell asleep in the middle of that game yeah yeah so it seems like we're on the same page there but yeah I um it was a it was a fun weekend and yeah let's get to my rankings all right so normally uh just to be fun and different here you give us your top six yes

as of the moment based on what we've seen yes preseason rankings be damned what's gonna end up happening later in the year screw that give us your top six right now jeff i'm ready for laughter all right well alabama and georgia are obviously one and two right alabama they played northwest tech state this week and won by a thousand uh Georgia did the same thing and they they crushed uh Stenson Bennett played Stenson Bennett a perfect feels like a perfect name for um for a quarterback who's playing at Georgia he was 10 of 12 for 288 yards as they beat UAB 56 to 7 all right so and Alabama beat Mercer 48 14 like. Like, I mean, whatever. Like, those two teams are on the top right now. Number three, I've seen some polls come out.

I just don't agree with what they're doing. But to me, it's Iowa at number three. Whoa. Yes, Iowa's offense is exactly what Kirk Ferentz wants it to be. They're going to run the football. They're going to play action pass when needed. And they're not going to take chances. They got out gained 175-339 against Iowa State.

But this game was on the road. First time in history of this game that both teams were ranked. And they happened to both be ranked in the top 10. But their defense, again, was terrific. Forced four turnovers. Brock Purdy, Iowa State's quarterback, got benched in this game. And he's supposed to be,

and Iowa State was supposed to be the cream of the crop in the Big 12 this year. They're supposed to make the run this year. Again, never won 10 games in their program history, but yet they're supposed to make a run this year. And so, look, Iowa has now won two games on the road against ranked, sorry, one game on the road, but two games against ranked teams. To me, that's pretty important.

And again, the rankings are kind of wonky. And we'll get to that in just a second. I'm going to have one gripe at the end of my rankings. I put Oregon at four. Look, went on the road against Ohio State. I don't know how they're not in the top four. I think there are four in the eight people. Look, I think I had UCLA up there last week as well.

I'm not moving the Bruins off of this right now. They didn't do anything to deserve to move off. So, I'm going UCLA 5. Why not? We're going to keep it as we had. And then, I think Clemson's going to go back to 6. They got back on track this week. I think they're a really good football team.

They just kind of ran up in a buzzsaw against Georgia. But I'm going to put Clemson at 6. Penn State's close to being up there. They're 2-0. They smashed Ball State. A lot of people actually, sharp people, were picking Ball State to cover this game because of their offense.

But Penn State played much better. The one gripe I have with rankings, what's that face for? You're missing an obvious team here. Maybe this is your gripe. Nice case for Iowa. You know, thanks for mentioning some of these other teams.

Have you forgotten Oklahoma has a football team? Thank you. I'm glad you mentioned Oklahoma because they are my gripe. So I'm purposely leaving them out of this. Not because they don't think they're a top six team. It's because the voters in the AP poll that has been out so far, I'm not sure the coaches poll. Yes,

coaches polls out as well. They're both three in the coaches poll and in the AP poll that has been out so far, I'm not sure the coaches poll, yes, coaches poll is out as well. They're both three in the coaches poll and in the AP poll. I'm just curious what they've done that Iowa hasn't done. What do they deserve? They beat Tulane by five and scored three points in the second half of that game. They beat a team called Western Carolina this past weekend. I'm just curious, what does Iowa, Oregon,regon ucla i guess from extent like what has to be done for those teams get respect like the team who looked bad against tulane and then smashed

nobody like what what has to happen in college football because the problem is gabe is that right now is that oklahoma clemson like it doesn't matter if they lose right they're still going to be right back up at the top and we're not rewarding teams that have played tough schedules so far over teams that haven't. And I get it. By week six, Gabe, this is all going to work itself out. That's why I make my rankings the way I do, is because right now it's fun to talk about this.

But by week six, Gabe, we're all going to be back to where we should be because we're going to have enough games, enough sample size, teams will weed themselves out. But right now, we do not give credit to teams that win big football games iowa has won two big football games so far you might not like indiana fine but everyone loved iowa state this year and they smashed iowa state like they should get they should get oklahoma hasn't done that this year oklahoma played iowa oklahoma probably be a touchdown favorite or more on a neutral site. Okay, fine.

But let's give Iowa some credit. Let's give Oregon some credit. Oregon, win on the road. Beat Ohio State, number three team in the country. They should be ahead of Oklahoma. Yeah, I mean, I'm with you. I think that it actually, for the teams I'm about to bring up, you're saying it works out in the end, but not always. Not always.

And unless you get the right thing on your schedule, that one loss team that everyone was in love with preseason still gets to leapfrog you if you don't have the right schedule. So let me bring them up. Cincinnati off to a very good start. Heisman contender at quarterback. They get Notre Dame in a couple weeks, few weeks here. And and OK, so if they come out of the other end of that undefeated with a big win over a top 10 Notre Dame don't we have to talk about Cincinnati in the top four or five we probably do and look at Indiana this week that I don't think will be an easy game that Indiana's not ranked um obviously but they came back and smashed Idaho this week I think they should be better against the Bearcats uh but yeah look at Notre Dame you know they they had a tough one against Toledo that I don't think anyone could watch because it was on Peacock. But I hope they're not a sponsor of this fine podcast. But yeah, there was a game no one watched. Yes, they need to be talked about.

And this is where we get into the interesting part about these. And Cincinnati will now be in the Big 12, which would be good because we're able to judge them more fairly. The issue that we have with group of five teams, in my opinion, is we give, at times, too much weight to one game, right? So UCF beats Auburn. Oh my God, UCF. The reason what makes a power five team, it makes it so impressive to go undefeated, is

they play a power five schedule of conference opponents right so if you are Cincinnati and right now your schedule is Temple UCF Navy Tulane Tulsa UCF SMU and ECU that's your schedule when you're in the big 12 you're going to have Iowa State Kansas State Texas for a couple years Oklahoma for a few years Oklahoma State right Kansas who sucks but know, they're still a Power 5 team. Like, you're going to have a much tougher schedule of opponents that running the table is not very likely, right? So while, yes, if they beat Notre Dame, I'll put them up there. But as soon as Clemson starts beating more teams, Oklahoma, UCLA,

they're just going to pass Cincinnati again because their schedule is not very tough. Well, does that mean that you're going to be forgiving of Texas A&M, who barely, I mean barely, got past Colorado? Well, that's why they're not very tough. Well, does that mean that you're going to be forgiving of Texas A&M, who barely, I mean barely, got past Colorado? Well, that's why they're not in here. Because, I mean, their quarterback got hurt early in the game, which I get. But Colorado is not a team that A&M should play close games against. And credit Colorado.

I mean, Durrell's done far better than I thought he would. But that's a case where that's why they're not in the top six right now. They just haven't shown they haven't shown very much. They kind of sluggish against was it Murray State two weeks ago?

And now, excuse me, Kent State. And now they sluggish against Colorado. They get New Mexico this weekend and they play Arkansas. So we'll find out. Then Mississippi State. Then they play Bama. So again, week six,

we'll know more about all these teams. Okay. All right. I'm going to mark week six. Then Mississippi State. Then they play Bama. So, again, week six, we'll know more about all these teams. Okay. All right. I'm going to mark week six. Interesting top six to start. Your larger point is a good one for me to hear, so maybe for the audience to hear. Like, do something with your first couple weeks of the schedule and earn the credit now.

So, Iowa, UCLA, Oregon, they're all shining bright. Penn State as well. Like, get your credit now, guys. Okay. All right. So let me throw a few. The way we like to do this show is I throw a few things I think I learned as just a fan, a guy. And then you sort of tell me if I got it right or maybe inform me a little bit more about a few games. So let's take a quick break here.

We'll come back. We'll do things I think I learned. And we'll cover the whole rest of the sport that way. All right, Jeff, we're back. It's time to go over a few things I think I learned this weekend. Now, obviously you opened the show and couldn't contain yourself. You went all in on Oregon. I want to come back to that game against Ohio State. So what I think I learned, Oregon blew up the whole college football playoff even more than Georgia did last week. OK, this basically guarantees and you touched on this. This guarantees the Pac-12 champ is making the playoff because now if you have to go through Oregon, you're basically proving you did everything you have to do to make the playoff.

Right. Yes. And UCLA does have Oregon October 23rd. And again, USC wouldn't play them or the winner of the South wouldn't play them until the Pac-12 championship game. Actually, they do play Arizona State though. So it'll be USC essentially. So, and Oregon's the only chance.

I don't think UCLA, I mean, maybe I'll be wrong. I mean, that game's gonna be in the Rose Bowl. It'll be fun to watch. I'm not sure that UCLA's that good of a talent. The one thing about both about both these teams it's pretty interesting so pro football focus is not you know it's a good good resource put it like that right it's not the be all end all but it's a good resource

oregon's quarterback and ucla's quarterback anthony brown during thompson robinson are ranked ninth and tenth in the conference in in for quarterbacks. Like their quarterback situations aren't ideal. And even though Oregon won this game, like I said, when things aren't as planned, that, you know, they're just not as good. And we're going to talk about that on the NFL show on Tuesday, by the way. There's a great example of that. I can't wait to get to that. But nonetheless, that's the concern with Dorian Thompson, Robinson, Anthony Brown.

And so, I don't expect anyone to run the table in the Pac-12. I know it sounds weird that Oregon just beat Ohio State, but it's kind of not

how the Pac-12 conference works. If they had better, if they had Justin Herbert, I'd be like, yes, we should go all the way, right? If UCLA had

Cade McNown, I'd be like, you know, like, it's been a long time since they had like a real um you know josh rosen doesn't count obviously oh your boy uh love you know aaron rogers best friend he was there yeah you went to utah state who am i thinking of why am i thinking who am i

thinking of that hunley the hunley thank you god why because hunley was rogers backup that's a good that doesn't count kate mcdown was like their best, like their actual, whatever. Nonetheless, we'll talk about the Bruins. So yes, it sets up the Pac-12 Conference for a loss somewhere. The UCLA can lose and Oregon can lose. But Oregon has a tiebreaker against Ohio State, which is the most important thing here, right? A four-team playoff.

If they're 12-1, I don't care how they get there, Oregon should be ahead of Ohio State. Yeah. Or conversely, let's say they make it all the way to the Pac-12 championship game, either undefeated or with one loss somehow. And now USC comes back from the dead or Arizona State. Some team, UCLA, beats Oregon, who we know beat the best team in the Big Ten. How are you keeping them out?

How are you keeping a one-loss Pac-12 champ out if they go through Oregon? That's all I'm saying. You're not. And it's funny talking about the Pac-12 like this because the rest of the conference is a bunch of steam and poop right now. And so, like, to see that...

And this is... Look, this is the ACC model, right? Yeah. The ACC is a dumpster fire, but Clemson's really good. Look, for all honesty, the Big 12 at times is a dumpster fire, but Oklahoma's been really really good. Look, honestly, the Big 12 at times is a dumpster fire, but Oklahoma's been really good.

You know, and the Big 10's been traditionally more solid, so is the SEC. But we're looking at the Pac-12 where Washington can't buy themselves a touchdown. USC, Stanford, ASU, Utah, like, eh, right? In the Bruins, beat UCLA,

beat LSU, and we're going to beat Ohio State. So, they're in that same boat, right? In the Bruins beat UCLA, beat LSU, and Oregon beat Ohio State. So they're in that same boat, right? Where those are the two teams most likely to give a playoff shot, but both have those signature wins that can help them get there in tiebreaker situations. All right, so then let's spend a little time on the, you know, the schedules and the signature wins on the Big Ten side. So this is a real killer for Ohio State. They're not dead, but their conference has looked good through two weeks, schedules and the signature wins on the Big Ten side. So this is a real killer for Ohio State.

They're not dead, but their conference has looked good through two weeks, at least to this fan's eyes. So Penn State won again. You mentioned them earlier. Michigan looked good against Washington. You touched on them briefly. We already talked to Iowa. So the Big Ten feels like a complicated one now that it isn't just automatically Ohio State.

So who do we like now well I think Ohio State is probably still the team but but probably about what what they've done kind of right and wrong right so you know offensively they're they're great like there's no doubt about it I mean the Olave and Wilson and and CJ Stroud just he misses still a couple throws right he's a young player we saw he missed a couple throws early then he overthrew at the end for Verona, killing their offensive line. So they're going to score a ton of points. But what worried me about their defense this past weekend, and it played to our advantage,

was we just out-schemed them, like plain and simple, right? Played man coverage, and we ran away from man coverage, right? So what you can do, and this is what Oregon did, is getting to the edge on man coverage is really good, right? Because if a defender is over a wide receiver or a tight end to that side and that tight end or wide receiver leaves the area the defender has to run with them right they're in man coverage and so you can pin the defense inside which they did and they ran they ran untouched for three touchdowns I mean CJ Verdell got hit one time with the one. His 70-yard touchdown, he got touched about the seven-yard line.

And the other one, Dye just ran it. Dye and four of them, I think. They just weren't even touched. And so they were out-schemed. So it wasn't even out-physical, Gabe. They were out-schemed. And that has to worry you because the rest of the Big Ten sees that now, right? And so they're going to know how to make an adjustment.

But then if they make an adjustment one way, then the other way is possible sees that now, right? And so they're going to know Ohio State will make an adjustment. But then if they make an adjustment one way, then the other way is possible to get them, right? So now if they go zone coverage, maybe they're a little bit softer and you're able to get some passes completed on third and short or whatever. So I think that that's the concern. They were thoroughly out-skiing by Oregon. Joe Moorhead, the OC, did a great job. And teams will study that film now.

And Ohio State has to make the adjustment. Which, look, their defense has not been quite good comparative to what the talent they have for a couple years now. So that's your concern is defensively, how do they get better? All right. Well, Penn State looks like a good defensive team. And we know they've got a great coach. If I had to just dummy here, bet on a team who can out scheme some of the best teams in the country and stop a good offense, I'd say Penn State.

Yes. You know, but I think the same thing still still applies with between, you know, the quarterback that can do about 90%, 95% good and the extra 5% so important. And we almost saw at the end of the Oregon game where Anthony Brown, that extra 5% wasn't there, right? And Clifford, it doesn't have that. It doesn't have that extra. So when things are going well, when you're ahead, the quarterbacks are fine.

But when things are behind, things aren't going quite well, and that's why I worry about those teams being really good. Now, Ohio State, CJ Stroud's not that problem. I don't think that's a problem for him. I think he's fine. I think in those situations, he'll be good. You know, Ohio State gave up a sack, they had a holding. It wasn't really his fault why they lost that game at the end.

So I just don't think Penn State's quarterback is good enough to do that, Gabe. Yeah. Well, we probably won't know for another few weeks. Yes. But obviously the top, top teams in your top six mostly have the quarterback. Oh, yeah. It's probably not changing much with Alabama and Georgia until records start to shake out.

So let's talk about a couple teams that get a lot of national attention, get a lot of attention on this show because of the people who work on it. Listen, it turns out that USC and Texas are not back. A week ago, we thought they were. Then they were humiliated by unranked opponents, fell out of the top 25. And Steve Sarkeesian, who knows? He may fail upwards into the Cowboys job or something. But really disappointing weekend thank you disappointing weekend uh for USC and Texas

two programs we were so excited to see relevant again nationally what did you learn because I learned we got ahead of ourselves on those two well let's start with Texas first I mean look Sark it's his first year okay as a head texas like he people got overconfident and they got bullied the line of scrimmage by arkansas arkansas is coached by former offensive line coach sam pitman they're gonna try to bully teams up like i i it's no surprise i think texas first road game new coaching staff it's actually not that big they're all set there are seven point favorites i mean you know It's actually not that big of a... They were seven-point favorites. I mean, you know... So, I'm not that surprised, Gabe. But the problem with USC,

I've said this for three years now, is their offense, okay? USC, for their entire history... You've been a fan for how many years, Gabe? Oh, not very long. I just moved to LA. Wife went there. Okay.

So, but, for, for, forever, forever, the calling card for USC was quarterbacks, running backs, offensive line,

and really like linebackers, right? Like physicality on defense. Linebackers, pass rush, you know, of course they have, they have some Hall of Famers

in the back end, but right, like, when I think USC, it's big offensive lines, stud quarterback running backs and then you know very physical on defense that's not all what they are anymore right they run this air raid offense and i have no problem with the air raid offense okay

i get its purpose but let's talk about what offense they run people look at lincoln riley as an air raid guy and look at the oklahoma offense and say oh he runs an air raid Lincoln Riley is an air raid guy and look at the Oklahoma offense and say, oh, he runs an air raid. Sometimes, okay? Oklahoma is a power run football team. They run the ball, at least I haven't looked at numbers this season, but like 60% of the time.

It's not what an air raid does, right? Not an air raid offense. They have air raid concepts in their passing game, but they do play action pass too, which again, air raid does do play action pass. USC runs like a Mike Leach, How air raid they spread things out they throw the ball a bunch and they're soft as shit in the run game it bothers me to no end it bothers me and it's again it's i don't think it's even like they have bad offensive linemen they've had offensive linemen draft in the first round the last two drafts i'm gonna have bad guys it's a mentality right it's a mentality, right? It's a mentality. Oregon beat Ohio State because guess what?

They want to be bullies, right? They want to go in your face and knock you down. And they want to punch you in the face. And they want to tackle, be violent, and be, you know, Noah Sewell, right? Their number. Fourth and three. Scrapes Russ just tackles the Ohio State back in the hole and stuffs them, right? Like, USC has none of those dudes.

And they have guys on the roster. Drake Jackson, who's going to be a first-round draft pick. Corey Foreman, who's a five-star freshman defensive end. They have a bunch of talent, Gabe. But they don't play like they should, right? To me, USC should not be running an offense that is of this style. Does Alabama run this offense? Does Georgia?

Does Clemson? Does Notre Dame? Does Oklahoma? Does Florida? Does Oregon? No! None of them runs this offense? Does Georgia? Does Clemson? Does Notre Dame? Does Oklahoma? Does Florida? Does Oregon? No, none of them runs this offense because you can't run offense like this and be a physical team. And that's the only way you win in this sport is being physical, right? And that's my problem with USC is they just run an offense that doesn't allow them to bully people up. When things aren't going well in a game, the way to get your team going is to run the ball eight times in a row and bloody up the defense and

it fires everyone up you guys know it you've watched football long enough you see that when your team is struggling and your offensive line just goes boom boom boom boom fires everyone up right usc can't do that game they can't do that and so i just and look and and the skill position players aren't as good as they were last year, right? Like they don't have those wide receivers. Drake London's really good, I think. London's good. Brew McCoy's –

Bad, bad. Brew's out. Dropped this week. But yeah, London's a legit player. He's good. Katie Nixon, the transfer from Colorado, is good. Brew's not playing though, right? I don't think he's playing.

Or is he back? They've got enough players out there every every game you see someone who you like i think it's to your point it's great you know they're they're great on first and ten but what happens when you get down to third and four and what happens when you want to just like turn clock and smash people they don't they're bad the red zone by the way they're terrible in the red zone because they can't rush the football. Rushing the football in the red zone is so important because the field condenses, right?

So those holes in this offense, especially as air raid, aren't there in the red zone because there's less field to work with, right? Defenses can sit on stuff. So guess what? Being able to just ram the ball down the middle of the defense is great in the red zone.

They can't do that. Well, yeah. And let's give a little credit also to the other side. So nobody was taking Stanford seriously. USC was a huge, huge, huge favorite. But Stanford's Stanford, and they've got one of the better-known coaches out there. And every time he has a big game, somebody asks, so I will, is David Shaw going to the NFL one day?

He feels like a very, very good coach working with limited talent. There's guys slicing up USC who didn't even get offers, any D1 schools, and they're running wild all over the field. His quarterback, you know, is like he came back from a mission. You know, he's an older guy. Like, I don't know how he's doing it, but he makes pretty good winning teams in Stanford. Why can't he be an NFL coach?

Yeah, so Tanner McKee played really well for him uh I actually think that he's moving that direction I'll tell you why he's either moving that direction or he's moving in the direction of doing more more media which he's really good at you know for a long time Shaw has been very not quiet but like he doesn't really make news. And this offseason, man, he was very vocal about a lot of things. He was vocal about the Arizona State recruiting scandal. He was vocal about his kickoff time this year when they played week one. He's been more out there lately. And I do wonder if that's because he's trying to get his name out there

to either be an NFL coach or do more media. It's kind of like for years he was very quiet, and all of a sudden, boom, he's just kind of been more vocal. And I think David Shaw is a heck of a coach. Stanford just can't recruit at a high level anymore, right? They're not getting the players anymore that they used to have. The win total this year was four. I mean, it's shocking how i but i think

i think if you wanted a pro job you could have it but there's this change in his personality i feel like we've seen lately and again i cover the pact of conscience for a living so i kind of see this happening like he's just been more outspoken lately yeah well then let me ask you this are we sure that we know what the heck we're talking about? Because watching the game, the quarterback, you know, again, he missed a little football because he went on a mission. He was down in Brazil on a mission. So he comes back. Now, a few years ago, this guy was the number three rated quarterback

in the country coming out of high school. All right. So he's just behind Trevor Lawrence and JT Daniels, two guys we've heard of. But now he's the quarterback at Stanford, and we're acting like this guy isn't good. Like, maybe they're just a good team. I'll tell you the reason why is he wasn't even starting after week one. Jack West started against Kansas State.

Like, Shaw didn't feel comfortable enough to make him the starter in week one. I think that was kind of the issue. If you're like, oh, well, if Tanner McKee is this good, why is he not starting? So that, I think, is part of the reason why. And look, Stanford has had good quarterbacks that have been drafted. Davis Mills was just drafted.

And they just really still haven't performed at the level that was expected of them in college and so that i think is the concern again there's not really much talent around them as i used to be and i think those are all the reasons why now it might change because he might have found a quarterback now and and this will you know vanderbilt this weekend which i don't know how much you take away from that game but things change quickly once you find a quarterback. I mean, as soon as that guy's found, your outcome, your outlook changes. Yeah. All right. Well, let's talk about a couple teams who have less worries right now.

I'm sort of going to repeat myself from earlier times this season. So Bama, Florida in Gainesville is probably the best game on the schedule in week three, right? If this game isn't close, if Florida, an SEC team who can recruit like hell, who, you know, is borderline top 10 team right now, if they can't hang with Alabama at home, then we just can skip right to New Year's and just hand this thing to Bama, right? Like there is no hope for college football if a Florida team in Gainesville can't get up and give Bama a game you're exactly right

they're 15 and a half point favorites in Gainesville and you're exactly right like I there's and we talked about this last week or whenever it was I've done so much the last week, it feels like it's been a month. I used to get upset about the lack of parity, whatever you want to call it, with Alabama. But now I've become in awe of what they're able to do because they just keep rolling this thing forward, Gabe, right? Like they just keep being able to play at a high level because the players that get to play, they only play for a couple of years

and they want to win the championship. They want to have their own thing. They want to get to play, they only play for a couple of years and they want to win the championship. They want to have their own thing. They want to get to the NFL. So the motivation continues to be very strong for them. If this was a team where they won one year and everyone came back, it's not that they can't, you know, that they're not going to, you know, they can't win again. But the motivation is a lot tougher, right, when you've already done it.

All these players are new. They want to do it again. They want to win again. And so motivation is a lot tougher, right, when you've already done it. All these players are new. They want to do it again. They want to win again. And so you have a new team almost every year that's hungry, that wants to get it done. And that's hard. But Florida's not as talented as them. They're not coached as well as them.

Can they hang tough? I think for a little bit. But in the end, the depth of Alabama is what prevails in all these games. And I think here, unless Florida's defense, which is just okay, they're not elite, they're not great, Alabama just seemingly scored a bunch of points and Florida just can't keep up. Is Florida starting the right guy at quarterback?

They've got a couple options. I mean, we'll find out more after this weekend, right, who the right guy is. If you have two quarterbacks, you have none, right? They need to settle in this game and find the right guy. Richardson has done a great job when he's been in. And Hank notes in here that he's the first Gators quarterback to run and throw for 100-plus yards each in his game

since Tim Tebow in 2009. Like, he's legit. I think you stick with one this weekend. If Richardson's your guy, then do it. If not, stick with Jones. But you have to just, at some point you have to choose one guy, man. Like this is part of it too, right, Gabe?

How do you bet on a team that doesn't know what quarterback they want to play? Yeah, well, you're teasing us for our NFL show. We got that issue going in a few teams in the NFL as well. I just really was slow rolling you into being able to say Tim Tebow. Remember when they had Tim Tebow, Jeff,

man, those were the days. Uh, you weren't even a Tebow fan back then. Yes, I was sure. I was, I wasn't as much of a Tebow fan,

but I loved watching him there. And by the way, for you, for Hank, for everyone, Tim Tebow started his, his path towards greatness by doing exactly what you just said they can't do, which is have two QBs.

He and Chris Leak would alternate drives and snaps when they won that first championship. Tebow wasn't the starter for that first championship, so it can be done. It can be done. And look, Tebow was a fantastic college quarterback. He was a special player in college.

Yeah. Alright, last takeaway. The thing I think I learned is if I am a cat and I'm going to find myself in a precarious situation, I would like it to happen at Hard Rock Stadium with fans of Miami and UAB around. Did you see this crazy video of a cat for some reason dangling from the upper deck, dangling by a uh you know a fingernail and then is essentially caught in a towel from some fans underneath here's my question jeff what are the upper deck people doing great effort by the lower deck people nice job saving the cat there was no way to get him the cat was like on a string oh come on make some effort do something macgyver it a little bit dangle a rope i'm not i'm in fact i'm just i've had a cat before

like they're they're okay i'm okay with cats but i can't just go attempt to like try to save a cat and get injured in the way injured what's it gonna do scratch you no like what if i reach over there and it's like i just kind of like i fall over the edge it's not worth it for a cat. You're saying you're just, you feel like too many bad things could happen if you put yourself on the line for the cat. Would you be willing, if I was there with a towel, would you be willing to hold the towel with me to try to catch the cat?

Or does that seem too risky? Sure. I mean, look, they use an American fly to catch the cat. Yeah, it was very patriotic. Now, did you like their technique? Because they actually technically dropped the cat. They just broke its fall a little bit. Correct.

Yeah, it wasn't a great job. But, you know, cats live forever, man. Like, the cat was going to be fine the entire time. That's what I didn't understand. They supposedly land on their feet. I don't really know what the big deal was, but okay. They're going to be fine. But the biggest loser of the week wasn't the cat

wasn't the fans of this game it wasn't people that that that dropped the cat or failed to get the cat or whatever else it's florida state yeah it's florida state florida state locked lost jacksonville state on the final play of the game i think jacksonville state had lost before 41 nothing and it was embarrassing go listen to the radio call florida state's now oh and two but a young a young man on that team proposed to his now fiance after the game on the field gabe if you're in this spot do you just put that ring back in your pocket and try again next week yeah yeah i think you hold off on that one yeah i don't think that's the right kid poor kid for sure was like you we're gonna blow jacksonville state i'm opposed

to my wife and my you know my future wife and it's gonna be like the best day ever he had the ring planned out you know his all his family was there taking pictures and then all of a sudden they lose the final play of the game and do this to do this anyways. Oh, the poor guy. I hope you have a great marriage, but Oh, what a, what a terrible engagement picture. Yeah. That's, it's not a great look. Um, I, I didn't know that, uh, he had even had to do that. I don't know how you, you can't put it back in your pocket. I feel like you're, you've already got her parents, your parents, whoever's involved, her girlfriends, everyone knows you're about to do this.

You can't back off it because you lost a stupid football game. But man, yeah, that is rough. Let me, by the way, clarify this for people. If you listen this long to the show, you probably don't need this, but I did. This is not Dion's team that beat Florida State. Correct. There's Jacksonville State and Jackson State. This is not Dion's team, beat Florida State. Correct. There's Jacksonville State and Jackson State.

This is not Dion's team, which is Jackson State. Because I first saw this and I was like, wait a minute, Dion beat Florida State? That's the biggest headline in history. No. Go look at my likes on Twitter, which I don't think you should always do. People obsess by likes on Twitter and don't get it. But I like the audio call from Florida State where the analyst threw his headset down.

You could hear him visibly. And then the Jacksonville State call, they're just in pandemonium. College football, that is the part about college football that's the best, right? You don't get that in the NFL. You don't get Homer radio with guys that are just... He's the radio guy and he like he works concessions, too.

And he's you know, he's the equipment manager, like just the guy is doing it all. Oh, that's what we love about college football. Yeah. You're allowed to say we in college football in the NFL. You got to be a little bit more objective. So with that, you've got plenty more to make us smarter on this week. We're talking NFL and college football on our Tuesday show. And then you're making some bets on both sports on Thursday with Matt. So let's wrap it up on the college exclusive today.

Let's prep for tomorrow with NFL. And let's make me some money on Thursday, Kenny. Just remember, guys, Oregon, little Oregon, with almost no recruits in the state of Oregon went into Ohio State and smashed Ohio State. Just remember that. Just remember that

as you head into your week, guys. The Oregon Ducks finally won a giant game again. We might be losing to Stony Brook at halftime this weekend. I do not care.

Oregon won this game. We don't have a tough game for another couple of weeks. Don't care. Oregon won the game. My life is not complete, but pretty close. And go Ducks.

Have a great week, everyone. We'll be back next week talking about Alabama, Florida, UCLA Fresno State, some of the big games around the schedule. We'll do that all next week. Take care, everybody.