Shutdown Fullcast - Our favorite moments of 2018, now that BAMA LOST LOL

Episode Date: January 9, 2019

The 2018 college football season ended with a shocking humiliation of Alabama, so let's review the title game and the best oddball things that happened along the way. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

welcome to the shutdown forecast this is our season recap we get to do this once a year because the season ends and it ended last night great intro how to go did it was it good was it fun did everyone enjoy that did y'all have a good time i had a good time yeah i thought it was good i thought it was really good yeah we're being joined by Alex Kershner, young Alex, did you have a good time? I had the best time. Ryan, you sound so handsome. And your voice.

The booming baritone coming out of Ryan. Are you sick or something? Well, bet. Are you not? At the end of that? I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I got Clemson fever. I got the orange fever and the purple fever. it's so it makes me so sick to see alabama disappoint like this and it and i'd be lying because

there's nothing better than when alabama disappoints it just makes you so warm inside the machine fails it's like it's like watching it's honestly man it's like watching every time this happens it's like watching you know a i gone gone wrong and that's always delightful right it's like watching a robot fall off a cliff it's beauty a robot definitely not designed to fall off cliffs a robot designed not to fall off cliffs at all costs right who then falls off a cliff right like oh it's impossible this robot never falls off cliffs like the opposite of a heat seeking missile a cliff avoiding robot yeah that goes whoa what do i do when i actually see a cliff which sounds like the most pointless machine you could possibly invent but it's like watching it's like

watching the tedious study first hardworking careerist valedictorian of your class completely self-immolate in the real world it's the best because alabama did all the studying didn't they yeah they did how ironic for bama to be brought low after having done all the reading too much reading last night. Not accurately, at least. I got a football question, and I know that's, I'm practicing that because this is the shutdown forecast, so I know that it's odd for me to have a football question. But something that Bossman and I were throwing around earlier that I want to throw out to

our Kennesaw and D.C. contingents, did this, given the evolution, the recent evolution of both the Clemson and the Bama teams that we saw last night, did this in its own way kind of put paid to the notion of the past few years of you can't out-Bama-Bama? What's your got, Alex? And also, you don't have to mute your mic because, you know, what are you going to do, have bad audio? Yeah, please. You guys, I thought that our standards were higher on this show for audio quality. Alex is new, everybody. He'll learn.

Well, I thought that Alabama might have out-bam and Bama a little bit, like when they tried to have the kicker lead block, like the future first round NFL defensive tackle. Did that happen? I thought that Bama was too relentlessly itself. Like, they say be yourself, but I think Bama needed to, I would say fake it until you make it, except that would actually, that wouldn't really, I mean, that wouldn't, in context, work because the fake was a really bad idea. Right.

But I felt that Bama attempted to overpower Clemson in ways that it couldn't because Clemson is bigger and badder in some ways. Can I offer a defense of that fake field goal call? Clemson did. Thank you. My defense of this fake field goal call is that what were they going to do, make a 40-yard field goal? I think in that situation, you got a punt. So I had a couple different kind of thought paths that I was meandering down about not being able to out Bama Bama, which is, A, I thought it was interesting that Clemson out Bama Bama without, a quarterback, without using the Mansell model.

It helps if you have a preternaturally kid who's seven feet tall and can wing it way over the heads of where your D.E. defense is used to having to go to get the ball, but this is, I don't know, this is maybe a longer conversation. This is maybe a longer off-season conversation. But the thing that, the thing I think where Clemson made up the most ground in Outbama and Bama is the level of institutional control and capital that's important this program over the past couple years. Like, it's not like their plucky upstarts that, that caught a lucky break. They have the level of commitment from the university and the athletic department to doing this, that that's what got them there.

I will also state that it's very hard to win, period, when the other team is rolling sixes. Clemson, I think, was something like nine for 12 on third down. And whenever they hit, they did nothing on first and second down. There was a point at like 1614 where I was honestly expecting the turn, right? Like I'm expecting at this point because Trevor looked a little shaky early out and I kind of thought, well, you know, this is it. This was super entertaining and I'm glad we got this moment. But oh, ho-hum, here we go.

And Clemson starts getting breaks. Yeah, they get a pass interference call. They get a false start on Alabama when they're on the one. And I'm not saying that the officials won this game. By the way, I looked over today and I was like, the rest must be a big 10 crew. So as Bench said, how do you know? And I said, well, nobody complained about them. Didn't get, yeah, didn't really get much on that all night.

They were pretty invisible all night, which I really appreciated after some of the other shit that's gone on this year. But Clemson, Clemson got breaks in the form of Alabama mistakes and capitalized on them, which, man, when's the last time we got to see somebody do something that basic against that team was success? It usually goes the other way if you're dealing with Alabama. just because they get the benefit of the doubt on calls because, I mean, they don't do anything wrong, right? Why would they do anything wrong or stupid? They did the reading. To me, it sort of felt like even more than Outbama in Bama,

which I kind of feel like the last team to win a game in that style was probably Ohio State in 2014 when they just were going to line up and run over you. Yeah, I guess I was thinking about different definitions. of out Bama-ing, Bama, because I feel like they did that in multiple aspects is what I was trying to get at. Well, I think you could call this out 2018 Bama-I-I-N-2018 Bama, you know? Let's take the two-it throws a deep model, and let's throw it to possibly even better receivers.

To me, this was like, it was almost a combination of every genre of Bama loss all at once. Yeah, because they found a way to do this without, you know, the unconventional. wisdom for a couple of years now has been well the Mansell model is is the way to beat Bama and Clemson does have a transformative quarterback but just in a different way and he barely got hit all night like he wasn't running around he wasn't really he wasn't really avoiding that many sacks he didn't get sacked at all zero sacks like this wasn't a dude squirreling around and you need a mobile quarterback to beat next six i know you need a really good quarterback who can throw it to six five guys who can catch anything who coaches that line

at Clemson. Oh, that'd be the turkey baster himself, Robbie Caldwell. Got glasses up to the godfather of turkey insemination. Glasses of what? Of wild turkey. What do you think? Okay. Come on. Ain't no wilder turkey, the one that's got insemination on his side. You love you, Robert. We're sorry Clemson never lets you talk to the media because, God, we miss you. He ain't. Now, this was a, this was a Speaking of horny turkeys. Yeah. Segway! This is, by the way, a great moment for Robbie Caldwell

because every time I'd go to SEC Media Days, if you ask somebody, hey, what's the unit in the SEC that nobody really talks about that they should? It was always like Bobby Johnson's offensive lines. Like, everybody was like, yeah, man, Vandy's offensive lines way better than they should be. This was back in the days when, like, we were feeling sorry for Jay Cutler

because he had nobody to throw to. Yeah, yeah. And the only reason we would notice that is because how long he got to stand up. Yeah, because the line is real dang good. A lot of time to pout. Yeah. So there's a lot of footage of Jay Cutler standing around.

It's kind of the last thing he was ever known for in football. Like, hey, Jay, go out there and run this fake. Just stand there. But yeah, it used to be part of the actual offense, just waiting for anyone to come open. And, well, you don't have to do that at Clemson because there's, you know, two, at least maybe three guys who can all make circus catches. That's another thing. Like, Alabama's wide receivers actually had some drops and their timing wasn't ever quite right with Tula because he was being pressured.

That's especially apparent in the second half if you watch it. Like, Tua is not comfortable. They only sack him twice, but he's pressured something like six times. He throws two picks. He makes bad read. He's not comfortable there, especially when in the second half, they don't score at all. not on the first possession, which of course ends with the hilarity of the fake field goal. But where the long snapper, by the way, this is my favorite thing.

Somebody goes, yeah, well, if the long snapper made a block, like that's his job. I haven't looked it up. The long slap is the long slapper. The long snapper looks at those about 180 max, just from the angle that we were looking at. But here's the, man, we keep coming back to this play, but I want to talk about something else about this play. No one executing the key roles on Bama's side on this play looks as though they think this is going to work either. Yeah, no, no, no.

In fact, when the kicker who's used as the lead blocker goes in, if you check the film, he hits Christian Wilkins, the guy he's supposed to block, and he puts out his hands like, no, no, no. Christian Wilkins is like, pulled up there, sunny. You sure you want to do this. Like, you can see him with, you come see this big old friend. Yeah.

He would have gotten back to the line of scrimmage at best. Like, he could, he could have, if he could have ruffled that young man's hair, he would have. Yeah, like, aw. One of my favorite parts about the replay of the play of the year is, first of all, Clemson is in a field goal safe formation. They're not trying to block this thing. Climpson is anticipating a fake.

You can look, and after the thing is, like, immediately snuffed out right at the line after the 204 pound kicker is buried by a first rounder. There's like multiple Clemson linebackers just pointing at where the kicker might have been if he had somehow made it through that guy. Like, oh yeah, watch out for him. Okay, he's not there, plays over. Like, they were completely on top of this thing. I don't know how you possess the foresight to think Nick Sabin might try an awful fake field goal.

But the Lord granted them with that profit. y'all they had that vision and was it the long snapper who went into the postgame availability and was like yeah we got the look we wanted it was either hammer the kicker which both of whom by the way were probably library crossing guards i hope it was the kicker my time to shine all i saw was red and i was gonna lay a motherfucker out he's not that it was just time to shine but we got to be very specific when we're wishing on these The most insulting thing about Clemson in the second half, besides letting the Butterscotch stallion himself, Trevor Lawrence, run all over you. They held the ball for something like the last 10 minutes of the game. They turned him into Kansas State.

Yeah, noted possession offense, Clemson, right? Not only did they do that, Hunter Renfro starts picking up passes, which is just salt the wound because if there's no more triggering figure on that offense prior to this game, It's the walk-on wide receiver who caught a national championship winning touchdown against Alabama out of the slot. And then they just start peppering Hunter Renpro with pass. It's like, hey, remember that? You remember this guy? Now we're just playing the greatest hits.

And now we're going to send the offensive line that crushed you all game out to thunderous applause. Oh, yeah. Five targets for 10 yards. But the most devastating two yards of target performance. Oh, yeah, it's just an insult. Psychological warfare. This is feeding back into what I was talking about earlier about how I, one of the things that I really appreciate about this game is that it was in no way close.

Like I appreciated the blowout for obvious aesthetic reasons, but also I think it's going to force a conversation about how Davo likes to treat this team as like, oh, we're just little old Clemson. No, this team is as corporate and as controlled and as finely machined as he, and a whole bunch of other rich people know how to make it. And I hope that doesn't get lost in the conversation that like, man, all these weird and wild things happen. Yeah, but a whole, you know, millions of dollars

and months and years of preparation went into the making of this. Like last night was amazing and it was astonishing, but it wasn't an accident. The touchdown that sends Clemson up to 43 before the extra point, right? the final touchdown of the game. The touchdown pass to T. Higgins. Again, T. Higgins, my favorite kind of wide receiver because cannot catch a wide open five-yard curl.

However, can catch a 38-yard acrobatic, one-armed catch downfield with a stray dog who ran out of the field clinging to his leg, right? That's the best kind of wide receiver. That's T. Higgins. Go back and watch that to see what Trevor Lawrence was capable of doing and how good he is. and what a physical advantage he has just being that tall and having that strong an arm. Because when he puts that ball up,

he is throwing it with two defenders in tow who he has to clear and one who he has to throw on the top of, Mac Wilson, who if you'll watch, Mac Wilson on that throw is at full vert. He is at least two and a half feet off the ground. And full extension with the arm. And Lawrence throws over him.

And Higgins goes up and gets it because that's what he does. He gets very difficult catches in traffic, and he's extremely good at it. This is a great season recap. But just getting that ball there? Oh, my God. Does it mean that you keep talking about this until next season?

Yeah. All right. I'm just making sure. This is the only thing that happened all season. Yeah. You know what? Point taken. I mean, we talked for four months about how, okay,

two teams are standing astride the rest of the country. You know, every other team has four losses. You know, every team is clearly flawed. These are the, you know, we could have summed to the title game three months ago. You know what? Maybe we did. I don't really remember anything else other than Bama getting its ass kicked. You know what?

We owe Clemson a debt of gratitude, too, that I don't think has been articulated yet. Guys, we're not going to hear anything else about how Georgia should have been in this playoff. That was something Alex was saying since the very beginning. Georgia, what a lucky draw you didn't have to play Clemson. You know, George, I think that the only people who were owned more than I was when I said that George is the real winner of the offseason because they get to beat Texas by like 30 points or whatever and then pretend that Clemson would not have done that to them, the only people who were owned worse than that were Georgia fans who like before that they were like sending

like, you know, I'm not going to say they were sending death threats, but it was like, you know, kill yourself, like, you know, your family. Yeah, we're from Georgia. We know what you're talking about. All right. And I mean, those. It's half right. I mean, Clemson might have beaten them by like 48 instead of 30. But I mean, I think they are still winners for having to get, you know, I'd rather lose to Texas by 7 in the Sugar Bowl than have whatever Clemson would have done to them.

Like, that would have been a dismemberment. Well, what is it? What, 117 FBS teams didn't have to play Clemson, something like that? 116? Yeah. Something like that. They're all winners. Yeah.

The biggest winners. Holly, so what you're saying, I think Clemson is football toys are us. You know, like, they're very, they're very fun. They have, they have a slide in their facility, but, like, they'll lay you off and not pay your severance, you know, like, if they have to. They'll be very ruthless with you. And in this case, you know, laying you off and not paying your severance is putting the head coach's son in motion on a jet sweep while you're up 28 with four minutes left in the championship. They're very ruthless. I mean, I think they're as ruthless as it gets.

I think that's a great point. Maybe they're like football Nintendo. Yeah. Like they're super fun, super popular. When they do something, they do it the best. But at the same time, they'll be like, yeah, that very popular 8-bit machine, it's gone. Bye. You can't get anymore.

We're done. Next. I thought my favorite thing about this game was how you can look at so many of those little moments, so many of those things that usually when Bama, loses, that is the thing that it came down to, like Johnny Mansell throwing some bullshit pass or an Ole Miss doink off a helmet or Stephen Garcia blacking out and throwing touchdowns or, you know, Oklahoma, Trevor, whatever his name. I can't remember. I don't, I only got room in my mind for one, Trevor. The other Trevor, Trevor Knight. Trevor Knight suddenly turning

into, you know, Johnny Unitas. Like, all these fluky little weird unreplicating. things that happen when Bama loses, there were like 30 of those things in this game. So I mean to the point that it's like, okay, take out half of that shit, you know? Say Bama kicks the field goal. Say a couple of those pass interference calls that could have been called, got called. Say they hit the extra point. You know, say there's no false start.

Two, it doesn't throw a pick six. Two, it doesn't throw an arm punt. He only makes one of those crazy catches. Take all that shit away. Cool. Clemson still won, maybe by more than a touchdown. Like, it was so overwhelming. And, I mean, just basic numbers.

Clemson outplayed Bama, yards per play basis. The most simple stat you can get, Clemson outplayed Bama. And then you add in all this other stuff, insane. The thing Bill wrote today about how Bama had like, it was like 44 wins on first downplays, like by success rate, to like 18 or something like that i mean it's in that ballpark like they won like more than two thirds of the first down plays and then they were pretty even on the other downs and on third downs they just got molly whooped out of the building like it was just awful on third downs and that

was the whole deal yeah i thought bill's point about third downs was very very key like obviously it was the first name thing nick sabin talked about in post game uh very pleased with our achievements this season. We won the Orange Bowl and oh my God, they killed us on third down. And Bill's stat about how you know, Bama won first down on the game. Offense and defense altogether

Bama won first down. Bama one second down. Clemson won third down to an insane degree. Like that's when the 37 yarder, the 62-yard or the 74-yarder happened. Yeah, like if it was a lot of three-ticket time, buy them all.

Because you would have won twice. That's how rare what they did was, and that's how good they were on third down. And it wasn't, you know, it's almost, there were, I think, 28 third down plays in this game. And just by success rate from Bill, BAM, or Clemson won 19 of them. And yeah, and that doesn't even explain half of it because, you know, you have all those, like, 80-yard pass plays or whatever it was, where Bama just got out-athleted for the first time in, like, modern history. That was the most exciting thing for me was just that, you know, and say even talked about this too, but they just, like,

I don't think they're used to having one-on-ones and losing them. He said he was worried about it before the game, which is crazy, because they never lose those, but they lost so many of them all on third down. I've only seen a couple of athletes win one-on-one with Bama consistently across the course of an entire big game. You know, Mike Evans at Texas A&M was won. Go back and watch.

The second Mansell game, the one that A&M loses in College Station, where Mike Evans is catching balls over kids like they're his kids, like they're his children. That was magnificent. Ezekiel Elliott and the Ohio State Offensive line. They did on the ground what Clemson managed to do

through the air because in past pro, it's not like Clemson moved a whole lot on the ground, but in pass protection they were seamless man they got nothing if quinine williams had a jump on a run play it was generally pretty bad for clemson if he had a jump on a pass play it didn't matter he wasn't able to get anything also like i think bugs was injured right i do not think he was 100% on the left side of bama's defensive line what can you imagine bama having secret injuries that like we didn't know about and they come out after the season no they go a list that it's supposed to be publicly disclosed jason so yeah let's see what uh donbess.com

oh it's it's already done oh damn donbess.com is cleared out for the season now the season's officially over oh no shit there goes all our medical data i was gonna i was gonna ask uh just just around the table like Alex what was what were like two of the games that you go okay, this is what I enjoyed watching. This was actually worth this whole season. Well, number one will be Ohio State Purdue. Hi, what happened? Ohio State played a strong road game

and a Big Ten West hostile environment on national TV, as they do. You know, I had a great time watching the Valdosta State, Ferris State, Division II game in that, like, strip mall of a high school stadium in Texas. That was the game where a defensive back on one of the teams, like, left out of bounds, caught the ball, and tried to, like, basketball save it so his team I could call time out, but then he threw it to a dude on the other team who caught it in the end zone.

And if that had happened to, like, an SEC team in a big game, that would have been, like, there would have been a 30 for 30 about it. Like, it would have just been, like, if that had happened in the Alabama Clemson, would have been unbelievable. It was unbelievable in this. I love those two games. How about you, Jason? If I had to pick two, let's see, I won't talk about this,

but obviously Kennesaw State's five over time, victory over Jacksonville State must go on anyone's list. Oh, no, please do. Who-hoo! Army, Oklahoma. Damn it, you took up behind. Are you made of money or something? That guy's feet.

Well, not yet. Not only was it the ultimate victory. for my personal favorite gambling strategy. Yeah, we've talked about that game several times, and we'll probably will again. But that to me was the most college football thing of the entire season. It didn't even have a fucking broadcast.

It was a great, it did. You had to go find it, like even beyond Pac-12 network levels. Is there anybody who live-streams the Pac-12 network? slash their own feet. Probably that same guy. I just imagine he's sitting somewhere in Oklahoma, just with the periscope constantly open, right? Yeah.

Hey, I've got the Cal OSU soccer on and my feet. And my feet. I'll show you my feet. I just need to see enough retweets. There they are. Yeah, that's a compression host. But yeah, if you missed it, if you missed it, there was a guy who brought the world Army, Oklahoma,

despite it being a pay-per-view by streaming it on Periscope pointing his phone at the camera and occasionally going Sooners got this you get that trash out of here yeah he was amazing you guys remember this there were two stream games there was Army Oklahoma and then it was back in week two when Florida State was about to lose to Sanford I believe yeah yeah that happened yeah and we were all just furiously looking for it and then by the time I found it you know like so I think Florida State scored with like a minute left to avoid losing to Jimbo and Bobby Bowden's school. And it was demoralizing because by the time the stream cut up,

it had been spoiled for me. But that was tough. It's fun when there's one of those games that everyone's watching, but like on their phones or whatever. And you have this, I remember this happened for Army, Oklahoma. I had the sense that I was the only person on earth making gifts of it. It was like I felt like I was a historian. Like, I must chronicle this moment for posterity.

the other one for me is the cheese it bowl the greatest piece of shit i've ever seen like we listen it's time for the mea culpa i don't think we've talked about this game on here yet if we have who cares whatever no one remembers uh all the shit we talked about cheese it man listen all as well all as well they didn't sponsor us but in a way they were sponsoring us the whole time they sponsored the most shutdown full cast bowl in recent memory i would say in the past decade since that wouldn't include Pitt, Oregon State. I love that they're not speak its name. That's it, the forbidden, the forbidden fruit of the Cheez-It Bowl.

Are you going to take that title from the first responder bowl, for real? Yeah, I guess the one that didn't actually happen is the most shut down forecast. Yeah, the Cheez-It Bowl, the Cheez-It Bowl featured my favorite sequence of substitutions in place when TCU's quarterback was playing so badly. they inserted a guy who hadn't played for a year and a half and who had drop foot. You know, the condition where you can't actually, like, work your foot that well, the one that Stone Cold Steve Austin got after 20 years of wrestling and wrestling-related injuries. Yeah, they put in a quarterback who got drop foot.

Cal immediately sent a blitzer because that's what you do in football. Hey, that guy's crippled. We should blitz him. And they sent in a linebacker, and the linebacker bounced off. off of the guy like a Super Bowl off of a hardwood floor, just right off of him somehow. And he scrambled to the sideline and then left the game one play later. Magnificent.

That was it. He came in to prove that he was actually immortal and could withstand all injury but not deal any out and then left. And this was after like 18 insane things. I think this was after seven interceptions. and this was like before like the announcer said like he barely has control of his feet and you look at him running around like and yet he's playing football that's how bad the other guy was it's not called feetball can I remind you that drop feet I've been more worried about

drop hands my my sorry my favorite ending to a game was West Virginia Texas No, you took mine. Okay, Jason took one of mine and you took the other one. That means you've got to take one of Alex's. Yeah, that's all right. Yeah, that's all right. I love the end of that game because Hulgo comes out and I believe they're going for two. You're going to steal Valor from my ancestral team like this.

Well, I mean, you'll hear why. So, Holgo, one, has my future hairstyle. And two, Dana Holgerson made one of my favorite calls of the year by, I believe it wasn't it a late timeout that killed the first shot at this play and we were sitting there we were watching us together we were sitting there and we were both screaming just like call it again Dana and guess what yeah it was uh wasn't it tom herman iced the two point try or something like that but you can't ice petty yeah and uh the the signal for the play was horns down was the whole play this was the one we're on the sideline Dana hoggerson was overheard by multiple people saying let's

go fucking win the game. No, that's what he said to Will. As he was sending Greer out on the field, he was like, you want to go win the game? Let's go fucking win the game. All right. That's great. Good job. I'm going to leave for Houston. Bye. Hey. No, I'm sensitive. Well, then you had after that, you had West Virginia adopting horns down as this thing to the point where Oklahoma fans are like, all right, this is cool, but like, seriously, that's the time thing. Jason had the marvelous idea to just have all of college football adapt that as our own fan signal. Yeah, everyone liked it. Like, even Texas fans were like, oh, we're living rent-free in your head.

I guess we are back. Pee, pee, pee. Texas and Notre Dame really got a play every year, man. They got a lot more in common than they think they do. They like the idea of living rent-free in people's heads. The only lives. I don't you start horns downing. on the streets of Washington, D.C.,

it's probably the West City to do it in. I mean, unless you're probably like in like the House of Representatives building on a very southern floor. I don't think anyone's gotten it yet, but we'll get there. No, just do that. Just do that and roll tide and see how many people you can confuse. I'm going to go look that up on the internet.

Man, today was a really weird day for people like me who say roll tide as other people might say aloha. It feels a little funny. It means hello. goodbye, and I'm going to slash your tires. I also really enjoyed, and this is strictly personal, I loved Florida LSU. Florida LSU was one of the first times I've had hope for Florida football in a long time. It was a game that we probably in the past would have lost, and we somehow managed to hold on to win.

And after all, LSU beat Georgia, so we must be really good right now, because Georgia deserved to be at the playoff. And I understand that that makes us a playoff team as well. Well, did you see the final AP poll? Oh, no, go ahead. I have not yet. Guess which two teams happen to tie at number seven? Florida and Georgia. Number seven is the Florida Georgia line.

It's like the game didn't even happen. What game? Yeah, what game? Exactly. Florida, Georgia, in the first responder bowl. Boy, wouldn't that be apt? First responder. No, they don't believe in paying taxes for firefighters.

responding to what and first in doing what that's what i want to know technically the first responder is the arsonist yeah that's true come on it's like ryan is speaking with my voice it's upsetting channeling ryan nanny don't love it don't love this feeling yeah but i i enjoyed that because i enjoyed that in the peach bowl but that's because i went to the peach bowl and actually watched for to win so that was part six of our peach bowl recap commences now. Part six. Who are we all playing in that game?

We were playing Michigan. How interesting. That was really good. So Michigan blew a big game? Yeah, that's a consistent top six S&P performer is what I kept saying to myself. And that's a real burn on opposing fans. That's the game where you gator chomped a child. I did gator chomp a child.

I did. And I almost got into a fight with a guy who looked like the lead singer of my morning jacket. But I did. That was where I invited a man to come down and see him. We really are just going to keep talking. about that peaceful. All right. Harbaugh's going to, he's finally getting his guys in there this year, though.

Parvot just needs time for his system to develop, and he needs time to, I can't even finish this joke. I think he's got Ohio State right where he wants them. He's shipping down all his defensive coaches as plants. They're all spoiled. They're all spoiled. They're going to corrupt the entire coaching staff. Is he bringing in any offensive coaches?

Enough about that side of the ball. Yeah. Yeah. That was one of the more bitter things to watch was watching Michigan lineup at its best shot yet against Ohio State and then get wiped off the face of the planet. Now I'm sad. Man, Michigan looked like Alabama out there.

No, no, no. Michigan scored in the second half. Oh, right. Sorry. Yeah. to ask you, sir. Also didn't try a fake field goal where the holder and kicker formed a two-man game. We didn't want

your sound in big moments. Does anyone have Texas and MLSU on the board? No, not at the moment. We need it on there. The second 7-O-T game. The one feature in the the Tusslin and I'm brawlin

with one member of the Fisher clan at the end? Allegedly. No, it probably is pretty confirmed at this point. Yeah. We should call them the gang, right? The Fisher or the Fisher boys. The Fisher boys. Soon they'll be fishermen.

God damn it, Jason. Yeah, that game had everything. It had Coach O' drinking weirdly out of his water bottle and sprinting down the sideline. It had the Fisher boys fighting with Kevin Falk. Afterwards, it had a victory dousing an hour and a half before that coach lost.

I totally forgot about that, and that might be my favorite single moment of the year. Just big, wet, mad, Coach O, slowly drying. Just steaming in that college station heat. I'm going to be real delicious, body, under this. I've been brine. I've been Brian. My favorite thing about that was the These A Pruder film that came out like, I don't know,

three or four days later. We were still talking about three or four days later. Heck, we're talking about it right now. And it showed beyond any shadow of a doubt that the Fisher boy was, he was a good guy. He was a peacemaker. It was like a flashback in a movie where you find out that the villain was a good guy,

like Snape in the last Harry Potter or something like that. He was, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wrongfully done. I don't know. I don't know if he was, I think you're ascribing him a bit too. Like, wasn't he still shoving around an old man? No. Or at least, at very least, laying hands upon an old man. Perhaps, hand, laying hand.

Like, I agree the initial description that he punched Steve Crackthorpe was a bit much, but still placing hands on your fellow man. It was a place. It was a place. I just see Steve Kraftthor going to an attorney in Louisiana going, so I was assaulted. And like the attorney's like, was it by a big truck? No, it was by a member Jimbo Fisher's family. Was he a truck?

Was it a big truck? Did you get hit by one of those sinister big trucks? So is every, what is, is this every judge in Louisiana is like a radio attorney ad? Yeah, and they're all, and they all have it in for the innocent American trucking industry. Because if you turn on, like, television or check any of the bus stop attorney ads in Louisiana, half of them are for like, did a big truck hurt you and your family? Truck fraud. Truck divorce. That truck called my wife names and slapped me in front of the entire parish.

I feel like we may have done this on the show before, but what is the best crime with truck appended to it? Truck mail fraud? Truck murder is pretty solid. Oh, that's fucking awesome. Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, as much as I love arson, I feel like truck arson is actually too common in the real world to be real fun here.

Truck racketeering, trucketeering? Trucketeering? That sounds fun. What about truck espionage? Ooh. I like that. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, truck treason. I got a good one.

Truck impersonating an attorney. Truck treason's a baby name. Yeah, truck treason. Yeah, no, truck treason. That's a tight end for, let's see, South Alabama. Just going to say, that's a South Alabama name if I've ever heard it. I was also immensely pleased at the way that, the way that the season sort of peak late.

Is that a good way of putting it? Peak late. That's fair. Very late. That's fair. And that's also not really a dis. No, no, no. It had a banger of an ending.

Took a minute. But otherwise, banger of an ending. Even if, you know, we did finish, we did award college football's highest honor to a team in the traditional powerhouse of Santa Clara, California. Holly, what were your two games of the year? I had Oklahoma Army and West Virginia, Texas, but just West Virginia in general,

I didn't really think after, you know, I feel like we spent most of the past seven years, so I'm like, oh, this is probably it for Dana, and then one thing happens to the other. And this was just a real fun team to watch, even with a normal human haircut. I liked Will Greer a lot more than I thought I would

after he cut his hair. You know, I kind of thought that maybe he lost his way. There were, you had many special targets to watch. I've always been, I've been a big Tony Gibson fan for several years,

just watching the, with, you know, varying results as, as it goes, with love for things in this game. And I was really, real super sad when Dana decided to pull up stakes for Houston but I love the Neil Brown hire so I in an era in which I have

you know almost entirely decamped from my actual alma mater my my ancestral team I feel has really stepped up in feeling the void of joy in my heart and gosh did they give me a lot of fun things to play with this year

they they also did my favorite thing which was go into bowl season in their conference, the Big 12. And somehow, this is always the thing. Hey, we're sleepy. It's winter.

We're sleepy. We're sleepy. Dormant. Why did you? So I get through talk about how much joy this team is not bringing up. You start bringing up bad stuff. Start bringing up old shit. That sounds like hater talk.

You got to give, I believe, Syracuse, their first double-digit win season. So Dino got something out of it. That what was wrong with you? I was trying to get to the point that the Big 12 performed really well in Bulls, even, you know, then that West Virginia is. Except for West Virginia? Except for them, yeah. I just got. And Oklahoma covered moment about how this team filled a void in my heart in a year in which my heart had several voids in it. And you are here to pee all over it. Like the giant unbroken house pet that you are. House bear specifically. I'm sorry, bears could be skinned for a pelt. You're a poor pelt, sir. It's one-star pelt. Poor pelt. Poor pelt.

Is comparing West Virginia to Tennessee, like, West Virginia is like the harmlessly interesting team? Like, both of them, they're never boring. But with Tennessee, that can mean a lot of things. Like, is that it? I don't know. I grew up with both of them as such ambient factors that, I'm sorry I got distracted because Trevor Lawrence's hair

was just flowing in slow motion on the screen. That happens. Yeah. I would never call West Virginia harmlessly interesting, not for the past few years, because the way they play can swing games too quickly, and it's never good for the heart. Yeah, compared to Tennessee, though. If Tennessee has a true analog in the Virginia's,

I think it's Virginia Tech. You know, I never thought of Virginia Tech in that way until I went to Landover to Dan Snyder's parking lot like that West Virginia game like a year, two years ago,

like two Septembers ago. And I'll tell you, not a whole lot of distinguishable factors there between the two sides. Virginia Tech is a highly underrated fan base in terms of cussedness. Yeah, absolutely. I love them all the death.

I wish we could play them. I wish either team would play Virginia Tech every year. I just love going there. I love their fans. And, well, for a while there with Justin Fuente, I love their football team. We'll see what happens next year.

And they sell, yeah, because this was also the year where Virginia Tech lost to Old Dominion. Old Dominion of all teams, who was dropping bombs on them in their high school-ass stadium on national TV. Yeah, Alex, I'm a longtime Beamer Ball hater. Like Virginia Tech was once

on time like the the team that I wanted to watch the least in the country like I just I found it completely devoid of anything that I felt like spending time on and then you know then they pull Memphis's coach after the best Memphis run in ages like oh and and then this year happened and yeah well ain't my team I do have a team I do have a team of the year I don't think about this too yeah yeah I have a team of the year and I did to randomly choose what do you mean team of the year Like the team, the team that I would watch every single week that was the most entertaining that put on their best performance possible that did something the program had either never done before and rarely done before and was an absolute blast every single week.

And that was the Washington State Cougars. I would watch, I would watch Wazoo any week with Gardner Minshue. Yep. They were so fun. They, even their losses were like wild. They lost by three to Southern California. they lost by, I want to say, two scores to Washington,

but they were playing in a blizzard. And they stayed true to themselves, damn it. That's what matters most. They kept passing in the middle of heavy snowfall. They refused to log off. That's no, I will never logoff of Aereid.com. I will keep posting. Just pasting mesh, mesh, mesh in over and over and over again.

but yeah they were they were a blast even their bowl game was really fun they ended up winning 28 26 over a game as hell iowa state team yeah no this is just entertainment value all over the place man bazoo bravo team dear do you guys have the listeners in norfolk virginia uh yeah tons yeah if you're if you're in uh norfolk virginia right now you tweet at alex kershner i just if if i may on this season recap podcast i I want to say that maybe my favorite team of the year was Old Dominion, which here's why. They were bad. I mean, they were no holds barred very bad.

They went four and eight. One of their wins was against VMI. But their other three wins were beating Virginia Tech as like what, like a 30-ish point dog. Yeah. Beating North Texas after being down 28-0 and North Texas beat Arkansas by like 70. So that's a transitive SEC victory for them. And then they had the wildest game probably the whole year, which helped get Mike Sanford fired after all two years at Western Kentucky,

which was where they won by a field goal after like, I mean, it's almost hard to describe it. So they go down a touchdown with like two minutes left. They tie the game with like eight seconds left. And then somehow like with some dumbass roughing the passer penalty, let WKU kick like a middling distance field goal to win the game. They, I think they iced that kick or something like that. I don't know, no, no, it was short.

They had a penalty on it. They had like a leaping penalty was what it was or something. I don't remember. Anyway, they wind up after like multiple failed field goal attempts. Returning, they almost kick six it and they get face masks. I'm rambling at this point, but this game was rambling. after like an attempted kick six that falls short as time expires they get an untimed down because of a face mask and then they hit a field goal to win the game it was it was like 15 plays in the last 97 seconds six plays in the last nine seconds three plays in the last zero seconds so i appreciate you old dominion um for your contributions to to this season very weird that's all we ask yeah i think if i could get any if i could get one more game out of this season like Like, I don't need, you know, like Ohio State to log on and get a shot at Clemson.

I'm satisfied with Clemson. I don't need a playoff-level game. I would take, you know, Louisville versus North Dakota State in a relegation game. That would be a delight. But, like, for an actual good game that I would love to watch, Appalachian State. Shit, hang on. Motherfucker. My Mike did the thing.

Of course. Yeah, we get. Excellent. Anyway, Army Appalachian State. I feel like I joked about that. Like every time a bowl started lagging, like, all right. It's like trying to round up, you know, like round up support to see if we could actually make this happen. But, I mean, Army, one of their best teams since literally World War II, Appalachian State came from FCS,

the best team at that level, but still came from FCS and very quickly turned into one of the best teams in FBS to me. that's at least as amazing as UCF story UCF has been here for a while Appalachian State not exactly central Florida resources I thought App State was very quietly one of the best stories of the season should have finished the year rank so you give their coach to Louisville and you know should still be fine going forward return a ton I'm going to give App State a team of the year honors since I had Army as a game of the year I like it

Yeah they also play You know like they played Scott Satterfield's team plays played in a A charming stadium if you've never been there Like It's a bucolic It is

It is tiny and they sell With a capital collic And they sell homemade fried pies And the concession stand So thumbs up All around for Appalachian State They play North Carolina next year, and that has high problematic potential, I feel like, for Mac.

He's a former App State coach. Like week four. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I know North Carolina lost to them, but you know what? A little bit of Mac still in that program. My DNA is still there. So Mac Brown really only lost to Mac Brown tonight.

You know, I like to say once a program is on stable footing, it remains as such until a coach who is not Mac Brown comes along. but sometimes other coaches are able to carry on the legacy. They play South Carolina, too. Didn't recognize that. That would be four to five. Mack Brown's going to be picking up the mess that Larry Fedora left and ruined after several other coaches ruined Mac Brown's solid footing.

So everything Mac Brown is building on is, in fact, something Mac Brown has already built. Yeah. Holly, did you have a team of the year, besides, I guess, besides West Virginia? I'm too upset at listening to Matt Brown's DNA, frankly. To process such a thing, but I appreciate your consideration. Texas, it is.