Geoff Schwartz Is Smarter Than You - Playoff Predictions, Heisman Hopefuls, and the Top Six Teams Following CFB Week 9

Episode Date: November 1, 2021

Geoff and Gabe take a look at the playoff implications of a wild week in the Big 10, starting with Michigan State’s big win, Ohio State heating up, and Iowa getting upset again. Plus, who should  Oregon fans be rooting for to win the Big 10 to give the Ducks the best chance at a playoff berth?Geoff and Gabe share their thoughts on Kenneth Walker III, Caleb Williams, and some other Heisman candidates (including a  punter?) who made an impact while betting favorite Bryce Young was on a bye. Then Geoff gives his predictions for the first playoff rankings, and ranks his top six teams after week 9. Comment your own rankings on the episode for a chance to be featured in a mailbag segment. Are two SEC teams going to make the playoff? Will Cincinnati get a shot at the title? Tell Geoff what you think!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, November 1st. I'm Jeff Schwartz alongside Gabe Gill and this is Jeff Schwartz of Samara U. We're powered by the Varsity Podcast Network. It was a huge college football weekend as we roll toward the first release of the college football playoff. The Big Ten is in good shape. The SEC looks dominant. The Pac-12, Big 12. I don't know, we'll find it all out. Gabe, how are you? You look, normally we record late at night, recording a little earlier sunday um you look refreshed refreshed for now jeff getting ready for a long uh and draining halloween day with three young kids halloween my kids like so my wife i think i've shared this before maybe on this show her halloween candy policy is very simple it actually makes sense

eat it all at once. Like, just come home Sunday, like tonight's Sunday, obviously. Come home and just eat it all at once because the kids are just going to take one bite of everything. And so you just eliminate all this candy on the first night. There's no school tomorrow for some reason

and there's actually no school Tuesday. So eat as much candy as you want the first night. Get it all out the way. I used to be like, no, you get two pieces. No, eat it all at night. Get it all out the way. I used to be like, no, you get two pieces. You get, no, eat it all at once. Get it all out the way and it works. Yeah, it's like the first few episodes of Squid Game.

Before you even really know what's happening. It's like, what the fuck? Everyone's gone. We wiped them all out. It's down to like six people. What the? Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Yes, that's, yes. i uh luckily my kids are a little younger than yours jeff so i have still have the authority i still have the control over the candy i can still even limit what they put in the bag and bring home so i'm not gonna have to have uh you know a mass murder of a candy bag on sunday evening yeah i'm you know Yeah, we just go straight pillowcase for the bag, too. We don't mess around. It's a little earlier this year than 5 p.m. Everyone's starting out. So we get in before it's time to have football.

I mean, what's better than that? A little Halloween, a little football, some football yesterday, some more football moving forward. It's going to be a wild month of November. It is, and we got the end of October was exciting, especially in the Big Ten. Now, we've been waiting to find out if the Big Ten is as good as it sort of looked on paper before they started beating each other up. We got a hell of a Michigan-Michigan State game.

Better game if you root for Sparty. Kenneth Walker, who I've been hearing about, who I've been told is very good. First real look at him, dude won a Heisman right in Desmond Howard's face. That was an unreal performance, especially with the game winner. I believe that this was a bit of a game that told us something in the most important conference for the playoff right now. Michigan State takes a huge W. Walker wins Heisman.

And I think this sets up a very complicated situation for Ohio State getting in. So, let's go back for a second here. Kenneth Walker, 23 carries, 197 yards, almost 9 yards of carry against his Michigan defense. Really, really, really good. This season, he has nearly 7 yards of carry still, almost 1,200 yards, and lots of football left. And he catches the ball decently well. Not really what he does his best, but he's able to make some plays out of the backfield.

And yes, as of right now, probably the Heisman favorite, right? Matt Corral, which was Ole Missed in play there, where they lost to Auburn. I still think Bryce Young and Alabama, if they beat Georgia in the last game of the season, regular season, he probably wins it. But Kenneth Walker right now would be in the lead. He is playing outstanding. He's got this team

rolling. Mel Tucker, their coach, came from Colorado two years ago. He spent one year in Colorado. Got a double his salary at Michigan State because he came there last year during a pandemic year, up and down year, and he's got this role. And unfortunately, Michigan State, he won't be your coach much longer.

He will be somewhere else, most likely LSU after this season, but he's doing a fabulous job. And what impressed me about this game in specific is you're down 30 to 14. Like, it wasn't as though you were winning this entire game. You were down by a decent amount amount and you were down in the end of the third quarter in that range 30 to 14 and you didn't look very good right michigan was rolling i mean they were i think 80 i look right now 87 win probability in the third quarter 92 at one point i mean they were rolling even with even with about uh fourth quarter that 80 win

total uh win probability. And Michigan State just gave it to them. At the line of scrimmage, made more plays on defense. And Harbaugh, again, getting really quick to Michigan. Harbaugh, again, I mean, dude, just not good in his big moments. Jim Harbaugh is 3, excuse me, 2-13 against the top 10 in top 10 games. He's 54-10 against everyone else. And he's 3-10 against everyone else.

And he's 3-9 against Ohio State and Michigan State. He's 35-8 against the rest of the Big Ten. He does not beat his rivals. Michigan State has won 10 of the last 14 games. He's never beaten Ohio State as well. And you hire him to win those games. He wins 9-10 games every year. That's not the problem. The problem is he continues to lose to his rivals.

That's the problem if you're Harbaugh. But, Gabe, it's if you fire Harbaugh, who's better? I don't know. I don't know who you're getting who's better than him. So you're kind of stuck with Harbaugh if you're Michigan. So back to Michigan State. Again, I am very impressed by this performance coming from behind to win this game at the line of scrimmage with Michigan's defensive line,

with the way Michigan limits explosive plays. They just took this game from the Wolverines. Very impressive. And they might find themselves, and we will get to our top six, they might find themselves in the top four heading into the Ohio State game. They have a bye, and they go to Ohio State. Excuse me, don't have a bye. They have two games before that. I have the schedule have uh they have two games before that i have the

schedule wrong they have two games before that they have purdue maryland then ohio state i saw someone put that when you said bye that's what it meant purdue yeah i'm sorry i had that i had that a mistake because i saw someone i saw someone put out that um they would put ohio state as 15 point favorites that's before the ohio state penn game. So it might change between then. 15-point favorites? I'll tell you what, man. The hell were they watching on Saturday? Do you know Purdue has the most wins against top two teams ever at home?

Something like that? That's a crazy number. They go to Purdue. Michigan State goes to Purdue. Purdue is sneaky good in these situations, FYI. I think you get one a year. And it turns out, by the way, watching Iowa dump one, it turns out Iowa maybe never was that good in the first place.

I told you guys. I tried to warn you guys about Iowa. So the Big Ten is – okay, so it pertains to Ohio State, right? That's what we want to talk about. Well, first I want to just point out some shade you threw. I mean, you congratulated Michigan State and LSU's head coach, Mel Tucker, in a tweet. I mean, that was some gaslighting. Mel made himself a lot of money, man.

He made himself a lot of money this game. Unless he dumps one in the stretch here. But yeah, so that Ohio State game is looming. And suddenly, you know, obviously Michigan State just wants to keep winning. And if they do, they're going to the playoff. It's a little more complicated for Ohio State, brings your team Oregon into the fold I guess I want to know what do you think this means for the Ohio State game and what are other conferences rooting for when Michigan State and Ohio State play we can do this now I guess instead of waiting for the playoff right oh no

please wait I'm just no no no no we'll do it now because why not because I'm fired about this morning so the college football playoff rankings will come out on Tuesday, I believe. And the question becomes, the number one question, obviously, Georgia's won, right? We'll talk about the rest of them in a second. But where does Ohio State and Oregon fit in, right? Because Oregon beat Ohio State. Ohio State has looked good. Now, they didn't look as good against Penn State.

Oregon has actually played much better lately. They lost to Stanford. It's a bad loss. Stanford's terrible. I told you at the time, Stanford sucks. Bad loss. Some context to that loss, though. Our offensive coordinator wasn't there.

He was in the hospital. And since that game, our offense has looked markedly better. Anthony Brown, who I complained about for weeks, is playing his best football. Oregon's playing better on defense. They're playing better on offense. They're playing better ball. Ohio State, better on offense, better on defense. They're both playing better football

right now. Ohio State will be ahead of Oregon. We know it's going to happen, Gabe. You know it's going to happen listening. As much as you want to talk about head-to-head wins, it's not going to matter. They're not going to give any attention to Oregon in this situation. They're going to keep it on Ohio State. Ohio State's going to be ahead of Oregon.

I'm just letting you Oregon fans know. You can complain about it. You can moan about it, bitch about it. It's just the way it is. And I would take Oregon to beat Ohio State again. Why not? We won that game with a team that wasn't as good as it is now. However, our running back is out. Our center is out. We'll have three safeties get hurt against Colorado. We're down to our third middle linebacker.

We've got walk-ons playing. We have wide receivers playing cornerback now. We're a wreck with injuries, but it's just the way it's going to be. Ohio State will be ahead of it. So Oregon has to root for Michigan State to beat Ohio State and probably Michigan State to lose at some point as well. There has to be a loss for both of them.

The guarantee is Oklahoma's probably running the table. Even though they have Oklahoma State, they have Iowa State coming up, there's no guarantee Oklahoma runs the table. Alabama, obviously, if they lose to Georgia, two losses, they may or may not be out, right? We'll see. Georgia's not losing to anyone except Alabama. They're in the playoff.

They're just going to, if they lose to Bama, they're still in the playoff. And then Cincinnati, who, it's interesting, we're starting now that this is becoming more real. People are doing the up, starting to schedule who they're playing. And it's true. If they had played in a power five

conference they would not be undefeated right now just the way it is there's what two undefeated teams in power five conference right now three right michigan state oklahoma and georgia that's it three am i wrong on that i'm trying to empower my brain like utsa is undefeated they're not in power five oh wait wait I was trying to remember if wake ever lost they didn't and Hartman looks pretty good yeah wake uh okay wake oh wake oh man yeah I thought you were kind of just being snotty towards them they're not I actually I actually I actually forgot that they were defeated but they are good for them you you can win the games in front of you it's all you can do right um and? And so, but Cincinnati, people are already doing the thing of like,

oh, I don't know, Gabe. They're starting the schedule. And so I think Ohio State. That conversation, we're trying to creep the conversation towards maybe we should let Ohio State in. Aren't they the best team in the state they're in? Cincinnati isn't even the best team in their state. We're going to hear that.

We'll get to a full playoff conversation in just a second where we rank these teams. But again, it's a matter of deserving versus best, right? Best or deserving. Alabama would be favoring against everyone but Georgia. They just would. But yeah, Oregon and really all these proliferate teams have got to root for Michigan State to lose to either Ohio State or Penn State,

Ohio State to lose to either Michigan State or Michigan,. Ohio State to lose to either Michigan State or Michigan. And Oregon to keep winning if you want Oregon to get in. If you want Wake to get in, I mean, you need everyone to lose, right? And see where Wake ends up being. But my takeaway from the Michigan State game is Michigan State is good. I don't know how good they are. I mean, they're good, obviously. They're undefeated.

I think Ohio State beats them. But Michigan, again, my takeaway is like Harbaugh, we knew this was coming, right? And it happened exactly how we thought it would. And Harbaugh, you can't fire him. Who can hire him that's better, Gabe? No one. No, probably not anyone.

So let's just spend another minute on the other Big Ten game that taught us a little bit. And I think I'm going to use it as a segue to some Heisman talk, which isn't usually your favorite, but it brings up a few important names. So first of all, Penn State kind of looks like they're just like also the Steelers. They're the Steelers of college football. Like they're good enough on defense. They can do enough things that like they're going to screw up a few more people's seasons. They're just not actual contenders themselves. Ohio State gets past them, took a fat guy touchdown to help seal the win. Love it.

I didn't think C.J. Stroud, who's still in the Heisman race, obviously, I didn't think he looked like he could really throw. I know he's got some really, really great receivers who are just always a few steps ahead of whoever's trying to defend them. I don't think the guy can throw, yet he's a Heisman contender. Meanwhile, this kid Caleb Williams, the true freshman in Oklahoma, I mean, he looks like the best player in the country. He's putting up huge numbers, and their offense is completely different.

So tell me why C.J. Stroud is someone everyone's in love with, but we maybe have to talk about a true freshman as the Heisman cont contender right now oh the heisman's so interesting this year i mean there is not what i mean the leader now is as we mentioned is kenneth walker right i mean that's who the leader is and um i i my radio co-host on fox sports radio is named steve hartman and uh he's been doing this business a long time he's a heisman voter and we talk about each week And his rationale each week is this, is how do you play in your biggest games? All right? So, C.J. Stroud so far has had two really big games.

Oregon and Penn State have been not as good as we expected, right? Now, he's still okay, but not as good as we expected. Caleb Williams, on the other hand, so far in a big game, played well in the second half against Texas, right? Now, a little bit down and played really well against TCU, a little bit down against Kansas, played better against Tech. Now, they finished with at Baylor, at Iowa State, and at Oklahoma State. Those three games are for the Heisman for him. If he plays well in those three games and they win,

I could totally see him winning the Heisman for half the season, 100%. All right, Kenneth Walker played well against Michigan. Now he's going to play well against Michigan State and Penn State. I mean, Ohio State and Penn State coming up. How do you play in your biggest games? Again, Matt Corral is probably out. Bryce Young, how are we going to play against Georgia? He played okay against Florida, right?

Okay against Florida. How are we going to play against Georgia? These type of games will matter toward determining who wins Heisman, right? Kenny Pickett was up as a Heisman guy from Pitt. Well, they lost. Now, he had 500 yards passing, but they lost to Miami. And he's done. Bye-bye.

Yeah. So that's going to be all considered as we head down the stretch um it is an odd year for Heisman man there is um there really is is again Kenneth Walker probably has a lead right now but after next week it's someone else could be looking at if Caleb Williams plays well against Baylor then excuse me they have a bye so they won't play this weekend but two weekends from now he plays well against Baylor maybe he's the Heisman frontrunner. Yeah, so I declared Walker the winner in front of Dez from this weekend's performance. Too much football left.

Let me make the case, whether I believe it or not, for the true freshman. By the way, no true freshman has ever won the Heisman before. Two redshirt freshmen have. Johnny Manziel, that was awesome. Jameis Winston, great year. By the way, I thought I saw a guy dressed as Jameis Winston for Halloween yesterday. And my wife was like, why are you staring at this guy?

I was like, because he's dressed as Jameis Winston. And she had absolutely no idea what that meant. I know we do over-unders in our other show on Tuesday. But very quickly, because it's Halloween. Over-under the amount of people, 10% of people you see that are dressed like Squid Game. Oh, way, way over. Yeah. In the circles I'm running in out here in LA,

I mean, people who think they're clever and creative but probably aren't, that's going to be number one costume. Ted Lasso's the only thing that could rival it. The Ted Lasso's got to stop. It's, oh, jump the shark already in one Halloween. Yeah, I fully agree. I mean, sexy Ted Lasso could come to stop. Too many people. Oh, jump the shark already in one Halloween. Yeah, I fully agree. I mean, sexy Ted Lasso could come along in the future.

But for now, we're dealing with regular Ted Lasso and regular Squid Games. Please no sexy Squid Games. That's going to be horrible. Sexy Ted Lasso? I don't know. There's always a way. You just add sexy to everything with Halloween. How come?

I feel like guys are being under service in Halloween. Why can't we have sexy costumes and get away with it Jeff nobody wants to see sexy Jeff Halloween costume nobody wants to see sexy game we were playing with our kids in bed this morning we were all fully dressed by the way so we're playing with our kids and Emmy's like just out of the nowhere my daughter's like you're hairy daddy I'm like and Alex like that's mean to say I go no I'm a hairy Alex okay just fine you say can say that. That's a good observation. Yeah, so like, yeah, I would not do well with the,

as you can see in the video, like this, how sexy would this tricep hair be in a sexy Ted Lasso costume? Tricep hair. Sorry, podcast listeners, you don't get a better view of his tricep hair. All right, continue on. Well, let's try, the sexy pick could be and my buddy skip bayless said heisen alert and he's calling out caleb williams i think listen it's it's unprecedented it's unlikely but if he blows through those last three games that you're talking

about putting up huge numbers just just to mention like good job on hank and i know it pained him to put this in here because he's a Texas kid and we're talking about an Oklahoma quarterback. But right now he's on pace to have more touchdowns, averaging more yards, more yards per attempt, higher completion percentage. All the stats that you sort of keep track of, he'd be higher than Manziel and Winston the years they won it

as registered freshmen. So it's not impossible. I think we're kind of getting ready to say Matt Corral's, unfortunately, probably out of the conversation. Look to the NFL, Matt. But one other name I have to mention, because of the Hank, there is a punter. Oh, yeah.

I'm going to butcher the dude's name. I'm sorry, buddy, but Matt Ariza. It's Ariza, yeah. Ariza at San Diego State. Got their first L. Dude is setting, like, every punting record imaginable. He bombs the ball. Jeff, I'm sure you've seen him play.

The internet is obsessed with him. Could a punter possibly, maybe, somehow end up in the Heisman race? Okay, so this is a tweet by Roger Sherman. This is last week. 80-yard punts by all NFL punters combined since 2014. How many would you guess? 80-yard punts since 2014 in the NFL? Two?

One. One, one. Okay. 80-yard punts by Matt Ariza this month, two. He hit one the other day at Air Force. Now, it's at elevation that traveled 84 yards in the air. It actually hit and then went forward three yards. It was an 81-yard punt, but it went 84 yards in the air. It actually hit and then went forward three yards. It was an 81-yard punt, but it went 84 yards in the air.

In the air. Now, I know it's elevation. I don't care. That's incredible. And these are either kickoff guy or place kicker, too. So, in this year, man, yes, he can win. Now, here's my question. For his future,

did this guy become the best thing ever at a position that is about to not exist? As we look at the NFL, like literally teams are just giving a fourth and nine on your own side of your field. Go for it. There's no reason to bring a punter out. Poor timing for this kid, huh?

It's bad. What's wild, even yesterday, Dan Mullen was fourth and 13, was like, I'm going for it. You're like, what are we going for against Georgia, fourth and 13? Like, what are we doing? It just, it's, yeah, punters aren't important. But who drafts him? Like, which team in the second round takes the punter?

It'll be someone like Bill Belichick. As the whole league goes one way, he'll be like, we're going back to punting. It's an important field position, something we have to really respect in this game. I think we could really help our team if we were able to establish a good field position. It'd just be some stupid crap like that. But, I mean, shout out to him. The internet loves the kid.

He's setting records. It is cool that a punter even gets mentioned in the Heisman conversation by no one else but this silly show. I'm happy we get to do it. Oh, no, we mentioned him on the radio yesterday because my radio host is a San Diego State guy. And so, like, he mentioned him. He put him in his Heisman ballot yesterday.

Okay. All right. Well, see, it's starting. And here at the Varsity Podcast Network, Desmond Howard and Jimmy Roberts do a show called Hello Heisman ballot yesterday. Okay. All right. Well, see, it's starting. And here at the Varsity Podcast Network, Desmond Howard and Jimmy Roberts do a show called Hello Heisman. Maybe they'll bring him up. And if they do, boy, that really mints you.

That one's, that's official. So let's get back to talking about the best teams in the country, not the best punters in the country. I want to go through the playoff ranking with a little bit more detail. We'll do that right on the other side of the break. You're listening to Jeff Schwartz is smarter than you.

All right, Jeff, we're back. You're still smarter than me and probably everyone else. But I don't know if you're smarter than the committee. So this is it. We're finally here. We thought we were going to get there sooner in the year. We're finally at the playoff ranking week. You sort of previewed it. You sort of teased it at the top of the show, but let's start at number one and spend a minute or two talking about Georgia because they look better than ever before. Yeah. So Georgia's easily number one. I mean, that's, that is no brainer, no doubt about it. That's they're going to be number one. You know, they're a defense, and they just – the Florida game yesterday was 3-0 with two minutes left in the second quarter,

like 2.30 left in the second quarter. It ended up being, what, 24-0 in just like – Instantly. Snap of the fingers. A fumble, a pick six, a touchdown, a pick six. A fumble, was it was good luck playing them i mean their defense and what they're doing it reminds me very much of the you know the early you know the early nick saban kind of 2010s alabama team right the one that just

offensively a little bit challenged but the mackerel years you just weren't going to score points on them you want to score points on them um they won 34-7 covered again and they really have no battle until they play alabama they have missouri tennessee uh some some team named chso i'm certain that's charlton southern and they're at georgia tech so they have a pretty uh kind of just get your team right get your offense right to play Alabama schedule yeah I I'm starting to think you know we've been for the first few weeks of the year on this show at least and probably most we sort of were like starting all playoff talk with like okay so Georgia or Alabama will be one and then whoever loses in the SEC championship game which probably Georgia will be the four or the three i i think georgia just beats bam and bam is out you know i think two losses we will get to that in a second but with two losses if everyone else continues to win bam

is out yeah listen look here's the thing about this okay as we get to our second our second team our second in the poll the question becomes is it best team or most deserving? Now, Alabama's second best team in the country. They are. They are. With two losses, they probably still are, but they lost two games, and they're going to be out. It's just the way it is.

You have to win the games in front of you. They lost to A&M. They lost to Georgia. They're out. Now, in a 12-team playoff, they're still in. But this is the playoff we have right now. So I personally, if I'm ranking them by best teams, I put Bama second. But right now, I have Michigan State second.

All right. Well, look at that. They're Michigan State second right now. And that'll play itself out again. They have Ohio State. So they still – and I'll give them – they're undefeated, so they get credit for that. Are they the second-best team in the country you know, I'll give them, you know, they're undefeated. So they get credit for that. Are they second best team in the country?

No, I think Alabama would beat them. I think Alabama would beat most of these teams on my list, but that's where we are right now. So I have Michigan State number two right now. I give them credit for this win. Can't come from behind. They've won all the games in front of them. They deserve credit for doing all of that.

Number three. I swear I put Alabama at three. I think they deserve, again, I think they're the second best team in the country, but they're number three right now, and I have no problem putting them at number three. So here comes the question, right? Is number four.

Cincinnati or Oklahoma? I have made this very clear in the way I look at Cincinnati. I think they're very talented. They're very good. They have a better win than Oklahoma does at the moment, even though Oklahoma did beat a ranked Texas team. And I don't know if Texas could beat Notre Dame right now,

but they've played better teams. TCU, Texas Tech. I'm putting Oklahoma four right now. Wow. Yeah. Sorry, Cincinnati. I put Oklahoma four, and then Wow. Yeah. Sorry Cincinnati. I put Oklahoma four and then I put Cincinnati five

and I think Cincinnati's going to get screwed out of this. You're starting to really think that. You've talked about that. If Alabama beats Georgia Cincinnati's out. I don't think they're going to get in. Unless both Big Ten

unless Michigan State and Ohio State both lose two games. Right. If the Big Ten has to be out of consideration overall. Yeah, I think so. Okay, so I have Georgia, Michigan State, Bama, Oklahoma. Now, Oklahoma, again, finishes with ranked Baylor, ranked Iowa State, ranked Oklahoma State.

If I have it on my head, I think it's like at Baylor, home Iowa State, at Oklahoma State. So it's it on my head, I think it's like at Baylor, home Iowa State, at Oklahoma State. So it's probably unlikely they win all three games. I just, I just, I don't, that's a hard, that's a hard thing. Oklahoma's playing better offense, but they still have some flaws. I just don't see that happening. Number six is where we get into

this issue, right? Oregon beat Ohio State. I'm putting Oregon six. Sorry. Like, why play the games if you're not going to count them in the rankings? So I'm putting Oregon six beat Ohio State. I'm putting Oregon 6. Sorry. Why play the games if you're not going to count them in the rankings? So I'm putting Oregon 6 and Ohio State 7. And I don't think I think the committee will have that flipped.

I think the committee is going to do exactly what I have. Georgia, Michigan State, Bama, Oklahoma, Cincinnati and they're going to put Ohio State and Oregon 7. That's what I think they're going to do. I can't really quibble with any of that. And we already said the words Wake Forest earlier in the show,

which means we've talked about them plenty. There's some spoiler potential out there, right? So Baylor has a chance to screw up a couple seasons. Oklahoma State has a chance to screw up a couple seasons. Obviously, the whole SEC can throw things off if somebody pulls an upset with Bama or Georgia. I would have said SMU could blow it up for Cincy. I'm not even sure after they lose to Houston.

Is there any team out there to keep an eye on that could be just the grenade in all of this? Well, I mean, as a Pac-12 fan, Washington State at home, well, Oregon at home against Washington State terrifies the shit out of me. That terrifies me more than at Washington, at Utah, at Oregon State. I mean, Oregon State's at home. That game, and that only affects one school, and that's Oregon. Obviously, what you mentioned with Baylor can ruin some seasons.

The SEC doesn't feel like Bama or maybe Auburn ruins it for Bama in the Iron Bowl. Auburn's playing better football lately. So, yeah, I am. Or Michigan can still screw things up. Because what if Ohio State beats Michigan State and then Michigan somehow beats Ohio State and then the whole conference is like, nah, they're not, any of them are very good.

Yeah, I think Michigan is just, they're not going to be, they're not beating ohio state i don't know man i i didn't see anything in in what was supposed to be sort of the biggest weekend in a long time for them i didn't see anything special at home against penn state nothing at all except for coach day's beard which is he doing the uh is he doing the walt frazier uh keith hernandez just for men beard thing that's a very very rich, dark-colored beard he has. It feels like it, yeah. I mean, as a guy who has a lot of gray in his beard,

and it doesn't really come in as thick as it should in some spots, I was really blown away by the thickness, lushness, darkness of his beard. Oh, geez. Do you and him need a room together? I'm just saying I was impressed by Coach, and I wondered if he had some performance enhancement. That's all. Maybe I'll ask someone at Ohio State.

We'll see what answers we can get on the performance enhancement. See what we can do. He looks like one of the guys in the Netflix show Narcos. Yes. Oh, yeah. Very much so. Yeah. Yeah, I. Oh, very. Oh yeah. Very much so. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm with you there. We're officially got it at that point in the show where we're spinning off the wheels. If I'm talking about coach day's beard and comparing it to Narcos, is there anything from college football that we missed this week that we aren't going to get to in the NFL show tomorrow? Isn't it kind of interesting that we talk all through weeks one through six about where teams are seated?

And I told you guys like right about now, right? Like it just all falls into place. So we have our five, six, seven teams that we kind of thought, right? Oklahoma, Oregon, Ohio State, Georgia, Alabama, Cincinnati. The teams we thought would be there are right here every single year this is why I've said you know the 14 playoff is fine with me now they're talking about expanding to 8 or 12 it will happen it will expand to 8 or 12 um real special shout out real quick not special but like I was um very obsessed to see Drake London get hurt Drake London on USC got hurt that sucks um

I'm beginning to think there's no worth in playing college football once your draft slot is determined like once you play enough to where it's like okay first round pick there's no reason to play do you think there's reasons to play well i mean all the reasons we were led to believe people played i'll put it like on on a bad team so for those who don't know drake london's usc's wide receiver he is their offense he's the best wide receiver in football he's gonna be first round draft pick and usc is awful and he broke his ankle like yesterday and blocking out of all things um and like we discussed on the radio on friday like should these guys play he has a thousand yards so far he's 88 receptions a thousand yards in eight games this season it's's ridiculous. Like, it's wild.

The question is, should these guys play once they have the kind of their draft slot determined on bad football teams? I should just pack it up and be done with it. I think we're heading in a direction, not because of NIL, but the sort of culture of college football is now an acknowledgement

that this is just a step in a business decision. And the business math would tell you just don't play. And he has been an obvious first round talent since before the season. He only locked it up with being the only good player on the team for a bunch of weeks. I think probably assuming he heals well that all teams still are just thrilled to pick him. We saw this year a few great receivers who were coming off injuries or hadn't played in a long time and nobody hesitated they took him and they're already succeeding in the nfl so i i assume he'll be a late first round pick anyway um but yeah he probably he probably shouldn't have been out there i mean unfortunately it just sucks to say that because we want to see the best players in college football competing for something i agree and and that always is always a topic of mine that i like to discuss as we get

20 years guys start getting hurt i mean injuries are part of of the game um all right buddy i think i think we nailed it all again uh we'll rack the cultural playoff rankings next week um as well as kind of go over the games as usual we're back back tomorrow with NFL. Lots and lots, as usual, to talk about in National Football League. It's already eight weeks. Eight NFL weeks. Doesn't feel like it, but we've gone through

almost half the season so far. And we'll talk about all that. We're powered by the Varsity Podcast Network. Have a great day. We'll talk to you guys tomorrow.