Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - College Football Kickoff: Who’s the Hottest Team in the College Football Playoff?

Episode Date: December 24, 2025

The quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff are here. Who’s the hottest team left in the field? Indiana, Georgia, or Texas Tech?Everydayer Club  If you never miss an episode, it’s time to make it official. Join the Locked On Everydayer Club and get ad-free audio, access to our members-only Discord, and more — all built for our most loyal fans. Click here to learn more and join your team’s community: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/everydayerclub  Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! GametimeToday's episode is brought to you by Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONCOLLEGE for $20 off your first purchase. Terms and conditions apply.FanDuelToday's episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner, visit the FanDuel App today and start planning your futures bets now.FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN) Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Georgia Bulldogs may be the hottest team in college football not named Indiana. Can they keep it up with some SEC on SEC crime? And Texas Tech faces its toughest battle of the year. Does a chance on a national championship start now for the Red Raiders? Maybe. All that and more right here on Fire TV's College Football Kickoff. You're watching Fire TV's College Football Kickoff, presented by California Almonds, the unofficial snack of football.

It's shaped like a football and fuels like a champion. Join us every week as we predict who will deliver when crunch time. hits, snack good, eat almonds. I'm your host, Drake Toll from Locked-on, Big 12, and the Savannah Bananas organization, and we're coming in hot from the heart of college football country in Dallas, Texas. On set with me, two legends, 22-time coach of the year, Gary Patterson, and former Tar Heel and Dallas Cowboy Jesse Holly. Every week throughout the season, we've been right here, breaking down the matchups, the moments, the madness, with expert analysis from across the nation. Look for new episodes every Thursday on your fire TV and Echo Show devices. This is your all-out

access past the weekend ahead in college football. Let's kick it off. Look, plenty of talking heads have told the country, the playoff format's wrong and needs to be fixed and change. We don't need to go over that because we can't rebuild Rome in a day here. But we can tell you the hope is, Jesse, the blowouts are over. Yeah, yeah, I think the blowouts are over. We're now getting down to the meat and potatoes of the college football playoff teams. And in this line that we have going forward, you're going to get quality football games. You're going to get the top recruits, the top coaches, the best players in the country in these games heading forward?

Well, yeah, and the first week is what it's supposed to do, eliminate all, even like the college basketball tournament. You're supposed to just eliminate all the people that maybe got in because of circumstance. Right. As Drake would say, pomp and circumstance. And so at the end of the day, we get into this and go all. Now you don't have a home field advantage. Now you're going to a bowl game.

Everybody's going to have free half the stadium, and here we go. Yep. It's the defending national champions who will help kick us off with this weekend in the playoff. I should say next week in the playoffs, the Wednesday game. New Year's Eve into January 1st, Miami and Ohio State. That game in the quarterfinal, the Cotton Bowl, can Miami upset the Buckeyes that's coming up on our playoff playbook? E. As Kenton Gibbs have locked on ACC, an expert of every team. There are like 25 of them in the ACC now.

Kenton, Miami, and Ohio State. Look, when you played football at NC State, you played me. Miami. And there were some good teams mixed in there, but this Miami squad feels different, like best team in a couple decades kind of different. Am I right? You're absolutely right. And we all know that this thing starts with the big fellas, okay? I play them in the trenches myself, and I can tell you, that is where the best teams are. When you think about where you come up with national champions and all that, how many times have we talked about the national champion where we said their offensive line was a real liability, but they found ways to cover it up.

Miami doesn't have to do that. That's a strength of their team. defensive line, you want to talk about a strength. Imagine having number one and number two on almost every draft big board on your team. Those are your guys. You got to trot them out every time. Some people found a way to criticize Bain despite a three-sack performance against Texas A&M. I'm going to tell you something. Texas A&M said, oh, he wouldn't be a threat to worry about.

I ain't seen the Zoom get beat out like that since Microsoft thought they could beat iPod. That's how bad that was for them. And yet we are still sitting here treating Miami as if they're the little giants and, oh, they just have no shot. If you have it in the trenches, you always have a shot, which I do believe that they have against Ohio State a much better shot than people are giving them credit for. Yeah, defensively for Miami, they can turn this game into what Indiana did to Ohio State. I think there are comparable defenses the way the Keynes are playing to what the Hoosiers are doing right now as well. Is that kind of the key, almost mix up what you did against A&M and throw it back at Ohio State and make this a third? 13 to 7 kind of game?

Absolutely. You've got to have a rock fight with Ohio State. And let me get your interest in stat that nobody's talked about all week, okay? Ohio State has had three games this season where they were coming off a week or longer rest. And in two of those games, they played top 25 defenses. It was Penn State. It was Texas.

And it was the Big Ten Championship against Indiana. Now, against every one of those defenses that was in that top quarter of teams, they were putrid offensively. We can sit up here and say, oh, yeah, you know, Texas defense is just that great. We can sit up here and say Indiana's defense is just that great. And I do agree with that. However, the rust factor has to be accounted for.

The factor that these guys are fairly young, this is an Ohio State team that, yes, they do have some experienced guys at key positions, but they also have had multiple guys that they've had to kind of get adjusted real quick. They had to grow up real quick before us. And we thought, oh, yeah, they did it. They did the thing. because they whipped the wheels off people until another actual top defense came through in Indiana.

And then all of a sudden, they looked like that offense that we saw against Texas where it was like, hey, we got to go along to get along. We got to do just enough to win by the hairs on our chinny, chin, which turns out it's not enough because college kicker situations will always fail you. Yeah. Kenton Gibbs, we got about 30 seconds here. Give me a score prediction if you can based on how you believe these four quarters will go. As much as I love Miami and their chances in this one, I got to be honest with myself, Ohio State can win it too many ways. Even in that rock fight that I think Miami is going to make it, you're still looking at one of the best lineback in course. You're still looking at Caleb Downs.

You're still looking at an offensive line that has been mowing people down all year. I do think that Miami covers, but I think that Ohio State wins this one 13 to 10. There it is, Kenton Gibbs, the expert on all things, ACC from Lockdown ACC. Thanks so much. Absolutely. Merry Christmas at that. Coach, Jesse, we're eight minutes into the show and we haven't brought up this time factor. I want to get the player perspective, the coach perspective. That's why you're both here. Jesse, we will start with you. This is an Ohio State team that's had three and a half weeks off. They haven't played football December 6th to December 31st. Do you like that as a player or do you want that warm up game like Miami guy? You know, I would think at the end of the year, after you're talking about coming, you know, Ohio State having that rest period, right? You've played a grueling schedule all year long. You want to get your players healthy and fresh.

I think coach, Day, he understands the dynamics of this is a guy who's been around this football program for a long time, the college game for a long time, who's won a national championship. He understands the temperament of his players. But you can never substitute getting the rest, getting healthy, getting guys 100% towards the end of the year. year, this program is too good and too talented from, in my opinion, to kind of really worry about that rest versus playing factor. I think Coach Day will have this team ready. To me, I always want to get healthy. I always want to be fresh. Coach, oh and four were the teams that got buys last year. They just did not perform. The schools that got a warm up game were super successful.

Was that just kind of a one-off? Do you think there's something to having that buffer? Well, you know, they changed the rules. So it was the winner. of conferences. So I think they changed that. So I think well you're saying the competition is better now. Yeah, because the way it didn't. So I think that helped that situation. But I do, like I told

you, I think because having played like in the Rose Bowl where we were, you get done at Thanksgiving and then you have over 30 days, but you both had the same amount of time off. So you're both rusty. When somebody now plays a conference championship game and then

10 days later, you know, a week and a half later, they're playing the first round of the playoffs, and you're still sitting at home, and you're only, because you're not going to beat on each other. There's going to be X amount of good on good when you practice. It's really hard to do that. And I would tell you, Miami, two things happened to Miami by going down. Nobody thought, because everybody says, well, the ACC's not, they're not any good. So who cares about any of the wins that they have, right?

So let me just tell you, you go in front of 100,000 people, and you go into somebody else's a stadium, them, they don't know about it, and you do what you did because what they held them score-wise in their own stadium, which was a pretty good offense. Second thing, I think they may be because of that, the most dangerous team in there because I agree with him in the situation that to be able to play against a Big Ten team, you've got to be able to have the girth of the size to be able to do all that. And that's one thing Miami has, and the other factor they have is starting with the wide receivers and their D.Bs, I mean, they have a speed factor, the way they get to the ball, how they do things,

and you take a team like Miami and you give them more than five days to get ready. If you watch how they started at the beginning of the season, okay, who they played, right? They had two and a half weeks, you get into two days and you start getting right for, and everybody's fired up about it. I think Miami is one of those teams that when you get their attention, they got their attention, they went into A&M, they were able to come out with a win. I think it's hard to bet against Ohio State, okay, but I would tell you that, you know, I think they're going to get all they want. If I was a coach going, it was kind of like what people said about when we were, if we got in the 14 playoffs the first time,

they were worried about us because of the speed factor because they didn't know if they matched up with us at TCU in that in that time that we had a chance to. And I think that's one of the things that everybody's saying right now. Everybody knows what you're getting from everybody else here. Texas Tech may be the other one. They don't know what they're going to get in. But I think the thing that happened with Miami is, is Miami gained a lot of confidence, made them a lot more dangerous. And I think what people found out is we can go into a place like this and we can play in front of 100,000 people and we can do this. That's a really good defense. And you just saw it on display on the road, like you mentioned, 100,000 people. Miami, it's interesting you say it could be the most dangerous team in the field right now. But based on what we saw, I think you're spot on. coach. We have six more teams to get to without delay. It's time for a little bit more. Playoff Playbook. It is Texas Tech. It is Oregon. They will play the Orange Bowl in Miami.

Craig Scheman is an expert on all things, Big Ten from Locked-on Big Ten. Sheiman, Jacob Rodriguez, Ramello Heights, David Bailey, this Texas Tech defense. I consider David Bailey to be the best defensive tackle in college football. I think it's objective that Jacob Rodriguez is the best defender in college football. This Texas Tech defense, therefore could be the deadliest in college football. How does Oregon move the ball against an immovable force? Well, first of all, thanks for having me and Merry Christmas.

But Texas Tech, you're right. They're number one of the country against the run, giving up 68 yards per game. It is going to be tough. Now, on the flip side of that, I think Oregon has the deepest running back room in the entire country. They can hit you with any number of people out of the backfield. And Noah Winnington, Jordan Davison, who has, coming on strong here. Deera Hill Jr. is great. They got a couple of guys they threw in there. Now, they can't run if the offensive line can't protect for them, but they got a huge left tackle

and Isaiah World, and that's going to be a nice battle to watch down in the trenches. But I agree with you. When I look at Texas Tech, the number one thing I look at is their defense against the run, and they are top notch. As much as for myself hosting Locked on Big 12, I've watched Texas Tech and thought, ah, the offense ebbs and flows. They're not an elite product necessarily. They're numbers. in the country in yards per game, second in points per game. Like they just, they're that good. Oregon defensively, what do the ducks have to do to make sure they limit also a very good running attack from Texas Tech?

And Baron Morton, who's gotten better and better? Well, I'll look at it differently. I'll work from the back to the front with the Oregon defense. So they're secondary, pretty good. They're going to the playoffs. They're number three in the country against past, with their past defense. And as you get closer up to the line, maybe a weakness to it. because they don't put as much pressure on the quarterback as you would think.

My big concern for Oregon in this game is their defense, and that performance they just gave against James Madison on Saturday night. They gave up 34 points and over 500 yards. And no, it wasn't a total disaster. They did some good things. They had five tackles for loss. They had 11 pass breakups, which is pretty good. I think they forced five puns.

But the 500 yards of offense that they gave up is a big concern to me. And I took a lot of heat for that. I suggest it because everybody's like, oh, well, their second and third stringers were in at the game. No, not really. I mean, JMU's opening drive was eight minutes long. That was against the starters. 400 of the 500 yards came in the first two and a half quarters. That was against the starters.

Dan Lannning in his post game right there on the field and then in his post game press conference, again reiterated that we did not play up to our standard. He wasn't talking about the offense. It just put a 50 burger on the scoreboard. He was talking about the defense. So I think there are some concerns defensive. that if they gave up that many points and that many yards to James Madison, what are they going to give up to Texas Tech?

Now, I'll flip that on you a little bit here. Maybe that was their warm-up game. Remember, Oregon didn't have the luxury of a warm-up game. They were the number one seed last year. I'm going to be real curious to see all the teams who have buys do this go-around, but they were off for 23 days last year, and then they ended up hitting that buzzsaw against Ohio State who had a game against Tennessee under their belt.

This year, Oregon's in that favorable five. spot and they got a game under their belt, knock a little rust off against James Matt's. And hopefully for Oregon fans, they tighten this up a little bit and are more ready for Texas Tech. Got about 20 seconds here, Sheeman. Give me a final score prediction if you have one. I think it's going to be very similar to the Oregon-Indiana game because Indiana does just about everything well on both sides of the ball. I think Texas Tech does everything pretty well on both sides of the ball, very balanced. So I'll go in the 30 to 24 range-ish. And we'll see if the Ducks can come up with a win in advance in the in the college football playoffs expert

on all things big 10 Craig scheman thanks so much merry christmas guys merry christmas craig jesse texas tech their last four games they've allowed seven points nine points zero points seven points yeah that they combined 23 yeah over the course of four games Oregon just allowed 34 in four quarters against james mattes yeah this is what tex techs does this is i've said it many times this year it's the best defense that money can buy. And they start up front. They understand, or Joy McGuire understands, if we're going to win anything,

it's going to be won in the trenches first. And so they have one of the best defensive fronts in the game. And so that's where they start out. And then they let everything flow from there. You're going to see a lot of that in this game against Oregon. They're going to recreate that line of scrimmits, get the pressure onto more, shut that running game down,

and make them very one-dimensional. And that's when they'll let their passports get out to the quarterback. Coach question of Drake Toll College will kickoff Amazon Fire TV. You coached against one Patrick Mahomes. Remember the name? Texas Tech quarterback. Those Texas Tech teams would put up 60 points, but they'd let you have 70. I think a lot of the country still has that in the back of their mind. Oh, it's the Big 12. They do the offense. It's Texas Tech. They're throwing the ball around the yard. This is not what 2016 Big 12 football was. Well, here's what I'd tell you about Texas Tech. is that Oregon will be the most talented team they played against from front to back.

You look at BYU, BYU really couldn't throw the football, so it was a shrink, and that was the best team in the Big 12 as far as playing them. I look at the Arizona State as a game that I think is a very good monitor of how this whole thing is going to go down because they were probably the most athletic. They lost their quarterback at the end of the season, so they weren't. I think you're going to see something of that kind of ball game. game, okay? They're going to have to be able to defend both. You can't put a lot of people up on the line of scrimmage if you have the speed that Oregon has throwing the football

and the kind of athletic quarterback that they have. So to me, it's, you know, I'm going to be in further. They're from Texas. Texas Tech, I'm going to be that guy. But, you know, I do believe this. I think it was a Rust game. I think it's an advantage for teams to play somebody, especially a game like that. I think he's going to prove his point in practice. Dan Lanning is about how this game went, how the last game went, just went down. And so I don't think you're going to see the same Oregon team in the Orange Bowl that plays Texas Tech. Does Texas Tech have a little bit longer?

But the advantage is they played in the big 12 championship games, so it wasn't quite as long. You know, the thing that happened to people last year is if you didn't play in the, in the championship games and you got in the playoffs, you played in Thanksgiving. And if you got the buy, you didn't play to the first, you know, the first of the year. year. And so having to do it, that's an advantage for people. That's an advantage for people because you're getting all the rust off. You're kind of cutting it in half and you're getting everybody healthy. You can still get people healthy. So I think you're going to see a different Oregon team than what you saw last week. And, you know, Texas Tech has a chip on their shoulder

because people are saying, you know, everything I just said as far as, well, you know, there's nobody except BYU in the conference. They didn't play anybody ranked outside the conference, all the things that you just heard. So they're first time in it. So, you know, they're ready to go. Before I explain it, it is imperative that I tell you about my friends at Fandall because I love Fandall.

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Hey, Merry Christmas from Coach's Corner. You know, right now all I hear right now because of the playoffs and everything else going on is that bull games are going to disappear. I'm going to tell you a story of why I think, and there's a few things that I want to tell you about why I think the bowl games were important, even if it has to be where, just like they do with the playoffs, where you put everything, you put it where they go and play a bowl site in the second or third round. So 1998, when we came to TCU, at the end of the season, they had been one in 11 and we went to six and six. At the time, we weren't going to.

to get a chance because of the amount of bowl games to play, the WAC, as it was called, when they got to, decided they were going to split. And everybody from the north decided to go north. And the one school that they left out that used to be was with them for a long time was El Paso, U-TEP. And so the city of El Paso decided that they weren't going to invite anybody from the northern part of the WAC conference that left. And so they took TCU.

And then, you know, if you know anything about history, we played U.S. USC, we won that ball game. And to be honest with you, that kind of started our journey. If you want to know what college football and going to bowl games, 18, 19, 20 bowl games in 24 years that I was part of. And it was a building period, you know, and even in 2004, I stood, it was our first losing season. The media asked me, you know, during the spring, they said, well, you know, you think you'll ever get it? I said, someday we're going to go to a BCS game. And they kind of laughed and said, well, we like this young head coach's spirit. Well, then 2009, we went to the Fiesta Bowl.

We went to the Rose Bowl. And between 8 and 11, we went 45, we went 45 and 5. And so what you've got to understand is that bowl games are important for a lot of different reasons. Number one, 15 practices. You get an opportunity to gain. You get a chance to gain and grow your team up. I think it's really important after the 2008 season. We were able to do that going into the,

than a 12-and-1 and a 13-year-old season with Andy Dalton and guys that played for us. I think the other thing is that you've got to understand it's a reward for your kids that travel. We had kids from a lot of different parts of the Midwest and the Southeast, and for them to go to the Point Center Bowl, even though it wasn't considered a big bull

and go to San Diego and be a part of it, it was an experience. And it was a reward. And so I think those kind of things need to be taken in place. I understand if you're part of a university that probably every year that you're going to be thought of, as being, I'm going to probably be, if we go to 24 teams, we're going to always be part of

the playoff system. Well, so how does a team do it like TCU did from 1998? And I'll tell you why it helps universities. In 98, TCU had 4,000 applications for 1,500 students in 98. When we went to the Rose Bowl, it went to 24,000 applications for 1,800 students. And then when they went to the National Championship game in 22, it went to over 40,000 applications for 2,000 students. So if you want to know what athletics and going to bowl games and being part of the whole situation,

my point is going to be is how does a team that doesn't start where they can be in the playoffs, even if somebody up higher that has a bigger pay grade than I do decides that, well, we're going to have the power four, and they're going to have a playoff, and then the G5 is going to have a playoff, I still believe there's some way to integrate the bowl games. And so these kids and players and student athletes and their fan base is getting them. an opportunity to travel, get a chance to play different teams, get a chance to experience, and also be able to grow their resume. And I think that's what we were able to do at TCU. We went through four conferences from the WAC to Conference USA, then we ended up in the Mountain West Conference,

and then we ended up in the Big 12. How does a team ever build themselves? And so going forward with my two compadres over here to ask them that question, I mean, at the end of the day, you look at it. It's not just about wins and losses. And I understand, the money, I understand the playoff, everything that everybody wants to pay attention to. How do we do what's best for college football? And so everybody gets a chance to win or maybe some people don't believe that you do. You just take your ball home. No, I think one of the things that you mentioned, coach, which I value a lot, is anything that you do, it's kind of almost a 10,000 hour rule, right? You get reps, you get better. We're not talking about professionals here.

We're talking about young men who are 17, 18, 19 years old. While they played some high school football, there isn't a lot of experience that they have at that position at this game. So getting those extra 15 practices plus that bowl game, it allows them to get a more opportunity to get the reps that you need for just for you personally. I remember how I was when I went from my freshman year to my sophomore year and how big of a jump that was because I got an opportunity to play as a freshman and getting those reps. And the same thing from my sophomore to my junior year, seeing different defenses and hearing the calls and hearing the offense, I was able to up my game.

game because of just the repetition that I got. And you made another good case was about the travel part. Here it is. I come from a place where I'm an inner city kid from New Jersey, from Roselle, New Jersey. Hadn't been out the state but only one time in 17 years. But when I get to school, I'm traveling to all these different cities and places, expanding what I see as a young man, different cultures, different people in all these different cities.

And you experience that when you get a chance to go to some of these bowl games if you're traveling around the country to do so. it expands these young men's vision, his minds of what the world looks like and how that can shape and mold better young men. That's what you're trying to be at the end of the day. I want to build good football players, but I also want to build better young men. Coach, the portal window. How does the portal window mess with the concept of taking bowl games seriously again?

And where would you put the portal window? Well, I think, well, you know, one of the conversations I heard, you know, when I was at the National Football Foundation College Hall of Fame talking to some other head coaches was, you know, most June is when the fiscal year turns over for colleges, a lot of them. So I would not be surprised. You know, as coaches, they voted a year ago to put it into January to get it down to one month so you could control it more.

So you had it. I'm not sure because when the money gets allocated is in June. So one of the ideas out there is going to be is June might be one of those periods. Now, as far as I think it just depends, as far as the importance of the bowl games, I think it just depends on who you're talking to. Like I said last week, I would have never known about number seven, the wide receiver from Arkansas State, if I wouldn't have watched them in the bowl game. Last week when I watched the game. And so I think you got, you know, we all have to understand it just, it's in the eyes of the beholder of how they look at a bowl game and what importance it does.

Like I said, does Ohio State probably, do they need a bowl experience to add to their already 60,000 students or whether they have their or A&M or Texas? but there are schools that I think are going to be out there that has to have an opportunity for them and their student athletes to be able to showcase and to be able to grow. How do you, how does somebody where they start now? How do they ever get to where they can, they can stack on top of bowl games and wins and get to, people are going to say, we'll get to the playoffs. Well, how do I get there if I start, you know, sometimes you just don't get that chance. No doubt.

I do think, you know, we've got to fix the portal window first. That's the beginning of bowl season mattering again. and having these players start to rethink, opting out, and actually playing these games. We've heard the concept of moving even bowl games to week zero of the next football season. I don't like that. I think there are better ways to do it,

but a lot of theories going on, which... And at the base level of all of this, for I think the first time that I can really remember, everybody agrees. College football is as broken as it's been in a little bit. Now, it's not in such a bad place that I'm done watching it. The viewership is not a problem.

But there are so many things that need to be fixed as money has corrupted the product that was in such a good spot even 10 years ago. And today it's a lot different. But coach, great input on the bowl games. Hopefully the schools adopted out. Listen to this. Surely they will. They're locked in. Amazon Fire TV.

Coming up more playoff playbook, Indiana, Alabama, the Rose Bowl. Give me the Hoosiers. Here's why on our playoff playbook. They are a football school. Jacob Goans, locked on Hoosiers. All things, Indiana every single day, joins college football kickoff. I just said it. I'm going to stick by it.

I think Indiana wins this game. I want you to help qualify it for me, but I'll start here. It feels like a 13-0 number one Indiana has a prove-it spot here. Is that right? Is there still something for this team to prove right now? I think there's more to prove to people across the country. And I thought it would happen after beating Ohio State and winning a big did championship, game and then having Fernando Mendoza is the Heisman trophy winner. But believe it or not, Drake,

there are still people who don't believe in this Indiana team. And that's okay. If it takes beating another big historic brand like Alabama to do so, then I'm fine with that. And I do think that Indiana's the better team. I think they have the fire, they have the energy, and they have the talent to do so. So yeah, there's always a chip on their shoulder. And Kurt Signetti is one of those guys that won't let them forget about that and won't let them sweet walk into this game at all. This Indiana team, when you, You ask the metrics and analytics is historic. They are a six and a half point favorite.

Now, seven point favorite against Alabama. It continues to sway in Indiana's favor. Is there a chance this is a blowout and the Hoosiers win the ballgame? I think so. Yeah, I mean, after watching the Alabama Oklahoma game, I put out on social media, I said Indiana wins by 17 plus because of the Indiana team that shows up that played against Ohio State and has played the way they have all year. and that same Alabama team shows up.

I just don't know how Alabama can move the football, can score when they need to and get stops consistently against this Indiana offense. And so will it be a blowout? Probably not. But I think Indiana can win comfortably here. I don't see Alabama winning in a blowout by any means because nobody's been able to beat Indiana this year. They have so many ways of beating you with Mendoza in the running game and the defense

that's just so opportunistic. I just think that Indiana's too good. in this situation. Now, we do have the, the factor that Indiana's been off for a couple of the weeks and Alabama just played a game. So maybe that plays a factor here. But no, I think Indiana's too good of a football team. I think if anybody's going to win in a blowout, it's Indiana easily. About 30 seconds here. Tell me how these four quarters will go. And if you have a final score prediction, give it to me. Yeah, I think Indiana and Alabama will be a fantastic game. I think the Hoosiers, believe it or not, will control the line of scrimmage here. The Hoosier

can actually do this thing called run the football, which will help them. And I'm taking the better quarterback here. I'm taking Fernando Mendoza. I think the Hoosiers will dominate throughout. I think they pull the way as we go. And I really do think that Indiana wins this thing by 10 or more points. I just think they have too many guys on both sides of the football who will handle Alabama for four quarters.

I'll take Indiana like 31, I don't know, 31 17 somewhere in there. I think Indiana wins comfortably. Goans, Goans, goings, gone. Jacob Goans, locked on Hoosiers, incredible stuff. Thanks, friend. Yeah, appreciate the time. Jesse, what's crazy to me about this is when you look at the teams that made the 12th team field that are homegrown, that have the fewest amount of transfers, Indiana is pretty low on that list.

They're doing it with guys that know and understand the program. It's more about development than it is taking the transfer portal and recreating their team. That's what I think makes them so dangerous, the way they're building this. It's not a dynasty, but I think here in five years we'll look back. I can say now it is. I think you're spot on right there, Drake. I think you hit a home run with that one because of what Kurt Signetti is able to do with this football team.

When you start, as a young kid say, started from the bottom now we hear. Nice. You get a bunch of kids who believe far more than a guy who just transferred in six months ago because the dollar amount was there. This is a homegrown situation. A lot of these players had to go through the process of building to this point. And of course, I think Frank's, Frank, that's his brother who coached me. I think Kurt Signetti, he is one of the good coaches left in this game today.

These players believe in him, I think he's a damn good coach. And like I said, a week ago when it came to Alabama, Oklahoma, if all things were equal offensively and defensively, who has the better coach and who has a better quarterback? I think both of those lie in Indiana. So it is the obvious. People at home are going, Fernando Menonis is a transfer. They're doing it like Texas Tech.

They're plugging and playing where they need to creating competition. but they're not building a roster based off the transfer portal. Let's be very clear there. Coach, you told me after that Oregon game, you said I watched it back. I watched the whole game back. It wasn't some funky blitzes and creative stunts. Indiana is just that physical, that good. Well, he's done a good job because if you listen to their kids talk,

all their kids talk about, we're just a bunch of misfits. Yeah. He made it be like, you know, nobody wanted us kind of like the island of misfit toys. Yeah. When you watch Rudolph. Yeah. And the other thing is, you know, when you talk about one of the good guys left, You know, he's only a year younger than I am.

So you've got an older guy that's been around a long time. He gave in a, I saw him do an interview how he gave Coach Sabin a lot of credit for a lot of things that he believes and what he says and how he talks about doing things. I would say this to you, though, though. We went in for as far as Alabama's concerned. Oklahoma has a good defense. And they played in Norman. And they went into Norman.

And I think one of the things, if you heard people talk about because of the time off, Alabama got the running backs are a little bit healthier than they were and especially the big ones that had been beat up that had played that really didn't play much or played any at all in the Georgia game in the championship game. So I think you see a lot different. I think Alabama has to sit up the run because in the second half they started running the football

but they sit up the run because what they can do with the past. They're very dangerous throwing the football. I think that's the one thing that Indiana has to do with. But they had to deal with that with Oregon and Ohio State also. The difference is, is I think this guy has been battle tested. The Alabama guy has. I think he's been battle tested. Ty Simpson has been of the teams he's had to play through the whole season.

And he's gone through some rough patches. And so having 10 weeks, I mean having 10 days for a young quarterback is a big advantage for him to see more of all the things they're going to throw out him. And the other thing that I think is different is that Oklahoma, old schools, they do a lot of dropping, a lot of people all over the place when they do it. You know, it's not, Indiana's not going to, they're not like that. They do a little bit of that, but they try to beat you with physical up front, good press coverage, doing playing quarters and doing all that stuff,

that they're not going to try to fool the quarterback. Now, a game against Ohio State against the big players, and this is where I think that I'm going to pay real close. attention. What I call 12 personnel, two tight ends in the ball game with two wideouts, when they get max where people have put more people up. I think Indiana changed their coverages up to kind of get over the top of people of the two big wideouts for Ohio State. I think that's where they're going to have to take advantage of Indiana's, is get them in there and get them in one-on-one, see where they rolled their coverage and then throw the other

side. Ohio State did it, but they didn't do it. They didn't do it till late. And so they're going to have to get to that a little bit earlier. I hope Alabama's coaching staffs watching that, by the way. They're probably in there just taking notes right now. Oh, shoot, he's right. I see what he's talking about there. Fernando Mendoza, here's a stat for you. 316 passes thrown all year.

That's 24 per game. That's how dominant they've been. They don't even have to throw the ball if they don't want to. Indiana is a juggernaut. I think you'll see that again this week against Alabama. Georgia Ole Miss, which SEC team will advance to the semifinal? That's coming up with Stephen Willis. It's our final breakdown with our local expert this week.

And this one, maybe the game of the week. Georgia and Ole Miss, Stephen Willis of locked on Ole Miss, knows everything about the rebels. You told us last week, he said, don't, don't let Pete Golding and this squad get to the Sugar Bowl because this stadium will be packed out with Ole Miss Faithball. And the momentum has to feel extreme after the win against Tulane. Yes, absolutely. You have this Ole Miss team. And like everybody I've talked to has mentioned that they're going to New Orleans.

Like literally, I was the Tampa Bay Watch Party over the last weekend during the playoff game. And all of them were talking about going to New Orleans. Every Ole Miss fan is heading over to this game. And honestly, guys, that is a big deal because in Georgia, it was Trinidad Chamblest's first road game. There was 90,000 screaming Bulldogs. That's not going to be the case in New Orleans.

It's going to be a 60-40. split probably at best for Ole Miss. I really like the intangibles and what's shaking up in New Orleans this week. Stephen, Ole Miss scored 35 points against the mighty Georgia defense the first time these two teams played. Only problem is they gave up

43. Aside from better defense, what has to be different, what will be different in game number two between these teams? The first part of the season, they did a lot of drop eight coverage, a lot of three-man front. They did try to protect their defensive backfield as much as they could. What happened

is teams like Arkansas, teams like Georgia just ran Ole Miss out of that drop eight. And Ole Miss, after that, against Oklahoma, started getting into more even fronts and getting after the quarterback and trying to get negative plays to the point where before the Georgia game, they had five sacks as a team. After the Georgia game, they had 20 sacks as a team. The defense has gotten noticeably better at the last part of the year. And those young guys on the defensive line, Will Echols, Cam Franklin, those guys have gotten a lot better. This front seven is going to determine how far Ole Miss goes.

How Ole Miss does in this game, how Ole Miss does against Ohio State or Miami if they advance. It is going to be almost the entirety on this front seven because Trinidad and Kiwan Lacey and all those guys, they're going to score points. It's going to be up to that front seven to determine this team's fate. Stephen, I graduated high school like two years ago. So the scientific method is still pretty top of mind for me. There's something about experimentation in there. Last year, we talked about how the teams that got the buy all lost in their first game in the playoff.

And that was just a one year sample size. Do you think that carries over into this season that Ole Miss has an advantage given they played last weekend? Yeah, if you want to talk about intangibles, yeah, I think that absolutely plays a role in this because Georgia hasn't played a football game since December 6th. And it's hard to do the buy week, buy week, buy week type thing going into a playoff game. But also in case you guys didn't notice, they've done a really. match in the Sugar Bowl three or four times in its history and the team that won in the regular season has lost in the Sugar Bowl every single time. Wow. We just have a quick second here, but Stephen Willis, give me a score prediction if you have one. Hey, I'm going with right now 2824

Ole Miss. The Rebels get it done. Much lower scoring. He is the expert on all things. Old Miss. Stephen, thanks as always. No problem, guys. Coach, Jesse, we flip it over to you two. Coach, do you see a world in which this game is so low scoring? Could they make it a defensive battle between the and the rebels? Well, I think Georgia, that's what they want. They want that. They play great defense, run the football, pull it. You know, some of the stuff that

Ole Miss did last week against Tulane, Tulane had some positive things happened in the run game and in the play action, oh, the boot, all that stuff. So I think what he talked about is going to have to be, they're going to have to do where they have to get him where first down is going to be second and seven

and above. That's how I think Ole Miss wins, because like he said, I think They will score their points, but, you know, they've got to get to where they don't allow Georgia to do what they did before where they're controlling the clock and, you know, the time of possessions, like, way in their favor. And I don't, then the offensive weapons for Ole Miss can't get on the field. Jesse, that's a point that Stephen made about how Ole Miss has changed its defensive strategy at the back half of the season. But Georgia, they allowed 35 to the rebels and said, not again. Their last four games, they've allowed 10 to Texas, three to sharp. Charlotte, 9 to Georgia Tech, 7 to Alabama.

Those were all 10 points or less. This dog's team is clicking. No, it's absolutely clicking. This team, you talk about led by their all-world linebacker, C.J. Allen. What they want to do defensively is they want to be physical up front, right? And you got guys like Mikel Williams, and you have their back in KJ Bolton, right, their safety. These guys, they're going to be physical up front. They want to drag you into the deep waters.

This team wants to just kind of just control the line of scrimmage, which they've done a lot of times this year in SEC play and out of SEC play. And then when you make the mistake, they capitalize on it. So defensively, they're going to be physical. They're going to win the line of scrimmage up front. And then they'll just wait for you to make a mistake late in the second half of those games. And that's when they'll capitalize. Let's predict who will win this game. Georgia and Ole Miss, but not yet. That's coming up on our crunch time selections. You're watching college football kickoff presented by California Almonds, the unofficial snack of football. It's shaped like a football. Fules like a champion.

When it's every week as we predict who will deliver when crunch time hits, snack good, eat almonds. Let's start with a game that we'll get on New Year's Eve, Miami, and Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. Coach, our very backyard. Who is your crunch time player, coach, fan entity? Well, you've got to go with the proven one, but like I said earlier, I think, you know, you've got to understand Miami's dangerous.

But Ohio State's been there, done it. They're the defending champ, so here we go. Yeah, I think, you know, for me, of course, you always got to beat the man, you got to beat them. Ohio State's coming off of that national championship last year. But I'm sticking with my ACC. I'm sticking with my ACC. The Miami Hurricanes will have the upset. It will fall on the shoulders and arm of Carson Beck.

And I know it's easy to talk about that. This is the one person that will move the needle. You'll have a defensively, there will be five first rounders between the two teams. When you're talking about Sunny Stiles and Alvail Reese and. and downs, and you look at Bain and Mesodore. There's going to be enough first-round picks on both of the defenses. This is going to come down. Can Carson Beck finally step up in the moment that it matters the most

in a game like this to help his team get over the top? I think he does. I think Miami finds a way to get the victory in the Cotton Bowl. I know games from August and September aren't supposed to matter anymore. They don't remember we cancel those out. Nobody thinks about them. We're going to the playoff. I believe Miami turns us to do a very similar game.

game that the way that Texas played Ohio State. And that's not a great thing. Texas lost the game. When out of neutral cycling, Miami slows this down, plays really solid defense. They have a spot toward the end of the game with a quarterback who's better than Arch Manning with Carson Beck that can win them this contest. They keep it close. They play good defense. I've got Miami with the upset. They are my crunch time team in this. I'm going right there with you, Jesse. Let's go ACC, maybe. Underdogs. But I think Miami gets it done. Ohio State's really good, but they're also young. I think they're a year away from being another juggernaut-style team. Crunch time, give me the Cains.

Oregon and Texas Tech will kickoff at noon Eastern time from Miami. Coach, the Red Raiders, one and a half point underdogs. Well, the thing I'd still go with it, and I think until they get proven wrong, I think you have to go with the Texas Tech defense. They've proven it all year. You know, people are going to say now Oregon's going to be the most athletic team they played in the whole entire season. But at the end of the day, I'm going to have to watch it.

and see if they can prove them wrong. But right now, you'd have to bet on Rodriguez. You've got to bet on their defensive front. You've got to bet on all of them. And, you know, Oregon played an Indiana team that's very similar as far as defense, big, physical, and do it. And they control them. So it's going to be interesting to see how they attack them.

This might be one of the closest games out of all these playoff games, this particular game right here. But I'm right there with you, coach. Defense travels. And the way that this defense and Texas TechSex plays, you want to know how you stop speed, you punch them in the mouth. And I think that's what this Texas Tech team is going to do.

They're going to punch all that speed and all that finesse in the mouth, and they're going to have to make them play a tough, hard-nosed football game. I don't think that Oregon will have enough tough dudes on their teams willing to take a punch and give a punch back and win this football game. Give me Texas Tech. A quick note on this one, noon-eastern time kickoff. Texas Tech when they played Utah, noon-eastern time, when they played BYU the first time around noon-eastern time.

BYU, the second round in the Big 12th Championship, noon east. They're used to these games in the morning. It's a 9 a.m. mental clock game for Oregon. That's going to be really tough to do for the Ducks. I think crunch time zones. That's what I'm going with here. I love it. Texas-type Oregon matchup.

Red Raiders get it done in Miami. Let's go Ole Miss and Georgia mix it up a little bit. Jesse, your crunch time player, coach, fan. What may it be in this matchup? I've said this many, many times, and I am not getting off this big black and red train of the Georgia Bulldogs. This is the scariest football team left in the college football playoffs. They have everything that you want. And I'm going to go with their running back, Nate Frazier.

He is solid. That line up front. They're going to wear this Ole Miss football team down. And Georgia is going to keep that thing on the tracks, and they will be victorious against the Ole Miss rebels. Coach? You know, I think we just heard this earlier when we were talking to our experts about how they tried to drop eight and do things. I think Ole Miss has no pressure. They've already played them once.

They got beat at home by Georgia. They understand how good they are. Georgia, the advantage that Ole Miss has is that they've already been beaten once. It's hard to beat them again. You heard about it. They're going to be in New Orleans. It's going to have a lot. There's going to be a lot of rebel fans going to be there.

And I think the biggest thing is he can call the game like it doesn't matter. He knows his offense can score points. What he's got to do, I think, to beat Georgia's. He's got to create. If you blitch, you bring one more, then it's hard to run the ball. As long as they can't break the line of scrimmage. And the second thing is he's got to be able to create a lot of lost yard. He's taking so on.

For them, for Old Miss, again, I'm going to go for them. I'm just going to tell you, Ole Miss. I'm going to have to be how their defense plays. And they're going to have to be, leave no prisoners. Georgia fans definitely traveling them out of where the game's at. And there isn't a better second half football team than the Georgia Bulldogs have been all year long. People forget last time Ole Miss was in the Sugar Bowl, 217 final score lost to Baylor, the Baylor Bears.

They're like 80% Ole Miss fans that building, too, and it did not happen. Imagine how you know that. How would I know? A couple surveases in for that one. I remember some of it, no doubt. My crunch time, I'm going to go with Kirby Smart as my crunch time coach in this matchup. We've talked about it, the better quarterback, better coach. In this situation, it's Kirby Smart for me,

and it's Gunner Stockton. I know Trinidad Shamblitz is very good, but Gunner Stockton has just been tactical this year. I think Georgia gets it done. They'll probably cover that six and a half, though. They keep it tight. Alabama, Indiana. There's a chance. We get to next week, and we're watching Indiana and Texas Tech on one side, and Ohio State and Georgia on the other side.

What a week that would be on college football kickoff. But to get there, it would take the Hoosiers beating Alabama team as seven-point favorites, coach. Well, Indiana hasn't been beaten, and they played some good people, and they've done it in critical situations. They went to Oregon. They went in the Big 10 championship game. When nobody gave them a chance, they didn't think, well, they're not good. They played.

They haven't played anybody. They just went to Oregon, blah, blah, blah. Well, everybody knows about them. And they have the Heisman quarterback, and he has proven when you said again, Coach, quarterback. Signetti's done an unbelievable job, and I think you have to look, and they're going to be my crunch time. players, you're going to go with the head coach, what he's done and the things he gets,

he's going to get him prepared. And then you also got to look at the quarterback and see when it counted, when at Penn State, with the length of the field scored, got it done. He got it done this last week when it was down to third, third or fourth down, and they threw the long pass, the fade route to get the first down to end the football game. He's a special cat. Jesse? Yeah, man, I'm right there with you, coach.

I got Indiana, and my crunch time will be to Coach Signetti. He plays against the tough competition, and he just flat out wins. And I think this is another feather in the cap for Kosignetti, where he goes, I'll take on Oregon, I'll take on Penn State, I'll take on Ohio State, I'll take on Alabama, and I'll kick their tail. Google me. Spot the coach. Well, I think the other thing is I'm kind of a believer in destiny. And, you know, Ohio State last year, some things happened to them.

They got them in place and the games like just going to, you know, the Oregon game, and how they dominate it. You know, if you look at Indiana, nobody, oh, Indiana did it one year. They got the playoff. There's no way they're going to do it again. And here they are, and every time somebody's tried to prove them wrong,

they've just proven them right. You know, as he says, it's just a bunch of misfits there in Indiana. I think this is exactly the way it's going to be. Destiny was my second grade girlfriend's name. Hey. Thanks, coach, for the reminder. Capital D.

Crunch time. Yeah, I give me the Hoosiers in this one. Now, look, I'll say my backup crunch time is one of the six Alabama receivers that will show up and get 200 receiving yards. Never Ryan Williams, but somebody out there that you're like, wow, I haven't heard of that guy. It just finds away for Bama every week in their receiving core. Nonetheless, Indiana gets it done. I think they win this game by 10 points or more and make another statement for the Hoosiers.

And that is a wrap for this week's college football kickoff. Next time we see you will be down to four. All fighting for a national championship. Same time, same set, same unapologetic football energy. Big thanks to Coach Gary Patterson and to Jesse Holly for bringing the heat and to you for riding shotgun with us. Enjoy the action all this week. Stay locked in, stay fired up. And we'll see you next time right here on Fire TV.