The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Gen CFB: Mack Brown Out at Carolina

Episode Date: November 27, 2024

Jessica Smetana and Lucy Rohden are back with a new episode of Gen CFB. They react to Mack Brown getting fired from Carolina, discuss the weekend that shook up the College Football Playoff, and preview some of the biggest games in Rivalry Week. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. McPops from McCafe are a new sweet treat available in three delicious flavors. Berry, white chocolate, and hazelnut and cocoa. Perfect to add on to a small $1 plus tax premium roast coffee. It's a match made by McCafe. At participating McDonald's restaurants. Prices exclude delivery. Welcome in to Jen CFB. I bet a bunch of people are wondering

why I'm starting this. There's been breaking news. Jessica, your voice sounds so different. Whoops. Breaking news that happened over 24 hours ago. Mac Brown has been fired from the University of North Carolina. My alma mater. Oh my gosh. Taylor, what is your reaction to this crazy breaking news?

Yeah, so this has kind of been in the works where North Carolina and Mac Brown were trying to have this amicable ending. Mac Brown was not so amicable. He wanted to keep coaching. North Carolina didn't want him to keep coaching. A resolution could not be reached. So that's how we ended up with Mack Brown getting fired from North Carolina.

And how did you end up getting scooped on the story that you had before anyone else? Yeah, yeah, I had it probably like 15 minutes before anybody else. I texted my Gryan and I was like, hey, this is going down. I'm working on the story to get reported on Inside Carolina. And then as I'm getting ready to hit publish,

I see it on Twitter and I'm like, oh wow, missed my window. Aw, Taylor. Also, Lucy, you weren't at the watch party. This was a bold move having me start because apparently the only constructive criticism Dan got from the watch party was one fan who just said, we need less talent. Oh, they went up to Dan and said that

a show that is on four hours, a daily show that's on for four hours, the 20 minutes that I contribute a year. They said that's, that's where we draw the line. Dan was like, who four hours every day. The 20 minutes that I contribute a year, they said, that's, that's where we draw the line. Dan was like, who? Well, Taylor, thank you for that breaking news bulletin. Um, that was, there's now only two active FBS head coaches that have won national championships in college football, Dabo and Kirby. That is crazy. Um, End of an era for Mack Brown. He's 73 years old and we wish him the best. What a season for him. He looks so much older than 73. Can I say that?

You can say that. He looks way older than 73. Yeah, he's been through several lifetimes in college football, I guess you could say. And this was a rough season for North Carolina. Taylor's story on Inside Carolina was very good. Good job, Taylor. Are eagerly awaiting who North Carolina hires.

There's not a lot of power for coaching openings this year at Lucy. So this might be the beginning of a spinning coaching carousel. Yeah, because I remember we talked about this like a few months ago about who's on the hot seat, who isn't. And a lot of those names are now pretty much secure. Billy Napier, Sam Pittman, Averanda, yeah, Brian Kelly, just kidding. It's 62 million dollars to buy him out.

But yeah, those names that we really thought those jobs are gonna be open, Florida, Baylor, Arkansas, don't seem to be heading that direction anymore. Tons of group of five openings, but Mac Brown's probably just done coaching. I don't think he's gonna go anywhere else. But yeah, it's a weird, it's a weird cycle. Yeah, I was gonna say looking around the landscape of college football, you can make the argument that North Carolina could be the best job this cycle. Maybe a West Virginia comes open, maybe a Purdue comes open. For me, I think John Someril from Tulane makes the most sense as an immediate replacement

and one that probably wouldn't have to break the bank for North Carolina. But you know, he just got there. So that would be pretty devastating for Tulane fans also Tulane has a shot at making the playoff and Early signing days what in like a week? So tough timing if you're a playoff team or not a playoff team trying to replace your coach Could get interesting but we need to play Taylor's favorite game in honor of North Carolina Losing their head coach to forced retirement. Taylor's favorite game in honor of North Carolina,

losing their head coach to forced retirement. It's the game, Lucy, we like to call winners and losers where we talk about the winners and losers from the past weekend. And then we're going to do a little quick rivalry week, re or preview, I guess. So, uh, where do you want to begin with this week? We can begin with my, with the first winner on this list that I actually don't believe is the number one winner. I think the number one winner of this weekend, I'm going to do double Georgia and Tennessee, not playing anybody, had a ton of losses, helped them out. They both feel like pretty much locked for the playoff at this point.

Georgia now in the SEC title game after Alabama lost to Oklahoma. So they are winners in my eyes, but it leads us to our segue. Indiana winning and losing, losing by a lot of points in a very devastating fashion. It was one of those things, like, not like this, Indiana, not like this. No, with all these special teams. Not with special teams, yes. Not with special teams, Indiana, please, no. But Ohio State beat Indiana pretty easily.

Not a very close game. Indiana scored on the first possession, last possession, and then that was it. They didn't score anywhere in between, which tends to not be good. But with all those losses that I kind of talked about earlier, Ole Miss losing, A&M losing, Alabama losing, Indiana is in a still pretty decent spot to potentially make the playoff because Alabama's got three losses, Ole Miss has three losses. Do I think that the SEC will put a three-loss team into the playoff? Most likely, yes.

But Indiana had some help this weekend despite how poorly that Ohio State game went, which was devastating for all of us. Yeah, I mean, it was so, I mean, the vibes were so good before the game. It was like, man, after that drive, maybe Indiana is in this thing. And then by the end of the game, you had Will Howard putting out a sig on the sideline. So disrespectful, Lucy. That was hurt. So just oh, my God. Unnecessary. My Yinzer heart was torn into pieces.

But a necessary dominant performance from Ohio State, who now gets to play in their big rivalry game this weekend. But yeah, Indiana looked like things were things were at the lowest possible point. It was like, please don't get blown out of this game and you have a shot at making the playoff. Well, they got blown out of the game and because everyone else lost, they're still in it. So they're the big winner in my opinion. And loser, unfortunately. And loser. I love a weekend where you lose and you win. And that's what happens sometimes in college football. And this year we are feeling the cheesiest with Cheez-It doing our college football.

Recap for Cheez-It this week, Lucy. Another big winner, the ACC, because of all those losses that you mentioned, could we have a sneaky three ACC appearance in the college football playoff? Yes, it seems like if Clemson wins next weekend, we could in fact have Clemson, SMU, and potentially Miami all in the College Football Playoff. And that is hilarious given how trash we've been, we've been making fun of the ACC all season.

That would be crazy. Yeah, I still stand by the ACC as trash. I still take that, that takes still means a lot to me. This is definitely a possibility. I don't think it's going to happen. And I think that if anyone gets left out of the mix, it's going to be SMU. I think they pretty much have to win the ACC Championship to get in because I think that if it comes down to the choice between Clemson and SMU, they're going to choose Clemson,

both for brand value and the fact that Clemson will probably have the best win out of anybody with a win over South Carolina, assuming they win this weekend, which is what has to happen for them to make the playoff. They also still have a shot at making the ACC Championship game, where if Miami loses to Syracuse, which Miami losing to anybody is not out of the question this season, don't ever play close half against Wake Forest again. That's embarrassing. I just, I don't, I don't foresee three teams getting in. I think that like, once again, kind of like what I mentioned earlier, if it comes down to it, if they're going to say, we'll take a two loss ACC team or a three loss SEC team, they're going

to pick the three loss SEC team. So I think that SMU kind of, I think there's a lot of factors that play into it, but I don't think three teams are gonna get in. Yeah, well, we can, if you're an ACC fan, you can hope because right now the largest arguments against the three team SEC teams is like, hey, did you see what Cal did to Auburn earlier this year? And you know what, you're right. That did happen. We should not discount that. And then you know what Auburn did?

They turn around and they beat Texas A&M this weekend in multiple overtimes. Anything can happen in college football. Billy Napier is a testament to that because after this team, Florida, that is looked so hopeless earlier this season, they gave him the vote of confidence, I guess, the vote of we're not firing you or paying your buyout midway through the season. And then he's gone and he scraped together a couple of couple of very impressive wins. Lucy, this Ole Miss Florida game was a absolute jumpster fire for Ole Miss.

Jackson Dart was like, I'm going to throw a pick to end this game. There's nothing you could do about it. Please don't try to stop me. And they tried to stop him and he just kept doing it. He did it again. Yeah, this game nasty for Ole Miss. Lane Kiffin was like the lowest I've ever seen him in his postseason or postgame presser. Florida has beaten ranked teams consecutively for the first time since 2008. Taylor's in a note in here saying, do Florida fans owe Billy Napier an apology?

I'm gonna say no. The low points were very, very low, so I don't think they do. The decision to retain Napier seemed to be a lot of different factors. The fact that they knew they had just a brutal final stretch of the season coming with Texas, LSU, Ole Miss. They didn't really expect for that to happen to beat LSU and Ole Miss,

which has been good. I also think DJ Laguay seems to be the future of that football team right now. And retaining him is pretty much the best thing Florida can do. So I'm not going to go full give Billy Napier an apology, more of just like a, let's see how this plays out because there's still a good chance that Billy Napier is not the head coach after next season because Florida has that entire athletic department and university seems to have no one in charge right now. But this has just been an incredibly impressive run for Florida.

Back-to-back wins against ranked teams. You've got a quarterback. You're making Lane Kiffin cry. That's always a good thing. Unless you want him to coach for you, then it got a quarterback, you're making Lane Kiffin cry, that's always a good thing unless you want him to coach for you, then it's a bad thing. Right, that's also bad. But yeah, Lane's comments about talking to other coaches and wondering if it would be better to miss the SEC Championship game than play in it because of playoff reasons sort

of blew up in his and a lot of other SEC coaches faces this past weekend because there's still a lot of football that you got to play before you get to that point so really rough I mean Ole Miss like should have won this game like this was not like they the postgame win expectancy I can't remember what the number was but like it it they had it Lucy they had it and they couldn't finish it. Yeah.

It was three trips to the red zone where they didn't score a ton of like really bad drops that would have been touchdowns. Like they were a 10 point favorite in this game for a reason, but it was like, I don't want to take any credit away from Florida. They were efficient. They were good, but Ole Miss lost this game just as much as Florida won it. Yeah, for sure. Cal, the CalGarithm, we mentioned Cal already, but I want to bring them up again

because the Calgary them another big winner from the weekend as well. You know, along with Billy Napier in Indiana, Cal had a comeback, went over their rival, Stanford and Fernando Mendoza after the game. Lucy, did you see his postgame press, his postgame interview? It was so emotional. I did. And first of all, I want to give all the glory to God. That was an amazing comeback. It's

a testament to how tough we are as a team. I love my boys. It's amazing. I'm so proud of our team. We're 6-6. We're bold bound and we retain the Axe. Go Bears forever. Let's go. You are so emotional right now, Fernando, in this moment. What's bringing out these emotions for you? We worked so hard. We worked so hard for this. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional.

I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now. I'm so emotional right now for me in this moment. What's bringing out these emotions for you?

We work so hard. We work so hard for this. I thought I'd get emotional, but it's so hard. We've as an offense, we've done everything we possibly could have done this summer to be down having a close game. This has to be the most special moment in my life to be. Look around at these fans in this moment. What will you remember most from this victory today?

I remember going 98 yards, my boys. 98 yards at that moment, we told them, this is why we did the camping trip. This is why we did every Saturday walkthrough. This is why we stayed late until 9 p.m. watching film together. And so that meant so much to me to go 98 yards against a defense that's been playing great.

And we ended up scoring in the clutch. Fernando you told us yesterday you just wanted to hold that axe so go hold that axe and enjoy this. Thank you go Bears let's go. Man Cal they've had a rough season rough time in the ACC so far but this is one of the things about college football that sets it apart. Some I saw someone tweet this and I want to give them credit, but I can't remember who it was. But like the difference between college football and the NFL is that on any given Sunday, something can happen in college football

that a player will remember for the rest of their life. And I think that was this moment for Cal knocking off Stanford. Just a very, very special moment. We're so happy for them. Bull eligible Cal. Yes, bull eligible Cal. There were a lot of a lot of funny results that ended up with bowl eligibility this weekend. Like Nebraska, I know it's not on the list, but that's

that's the biggest winner. Winner. Yes. This weekend's Nebraska will be playing a bowl game most likely in December. But how awesome is that? I'm just happy for them. LESLIE KENDRICK Finally, the bowl streak has ended for Nebraska. One more winner from the weekend, the Norman, Oklahoma Taco Bell, where Brent Venables and his daughter spent $98 after the upset victory against Alabama.

Man, that's a lot of money at Taco Bell. that's a lot of money at Taco Bell. That is a lot of money at Taco Bell. Lucy, if I gave you $98, could you spend it, could you spend that much at Taco Bell right now? Yes, but like what's the most expensive thing you can get? I would just, but Taco Bell's not expensive, but the inflation, so maybe, so maybe. Okay, here's the question though.

Did he door dash the Taco Bell or did he go there the Taco Bell did he go there directly I can see there directly okay after the game yeah if I could door dash it you door dash Taco Bell I did one time and I and I was I was in a really dark place yeah and and I left it outside because I fell asleep oh yeah it was a tough time it's alright it was ninety four dollars down the drain I'm really happy for Brent Venables. That was a big win. I, you know, like we said, anything can happen in college football, but like holding Alabama to three points, three points. What? It's the lowest. Alabama has not scored fewer points in a game since 2004. They have never

lost to an unranked opponent by so many points since 2003. Those are the first time since 2011 they failed to score a touchdown in a game, which makes me so mad just reading that. And they have three losses in a season for the first time since 2010. I think we knew there would be a drop off from Saban to DeBoer. I think that was natural. They lost a lot in the portal after it happened. It's a new coach, it's a new system. I didn't have the drop off of getting blown out by a pretty not great Oklahoma team. Like that's I thought

they'd lose three games. I kind of felt like that was gonna happen. But that is that is crazy. And now Alabama is probably not going to make the playoff. I didn't see it here. Like they let Jackson Arnold run all over the place. Milro had a really rough game. The whole offense, I think, yeah, really brutal game. And thank God Milro won our September Heisman because he's not going to win the regular Heisman this year.

It was a rough, rough night for the Crimson Tide. And yeah, you're right. Like, they were in the driver's seat for the SEC Championship game, despite having a couple, you know, a bad loss against Vanderbilt and a loss against Tennessee. But, oof, man, Iron Bowl should be interesting. The Iron Bowl will be very interesting this weekend. This is how I like the Iron Bowl, though. Like, Auburn is playing for something, Bama isn't playing for shit. Auburn beating A&M got them to five wins. If they beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa, they will be bull eligible, which is crazy.

And I think we all did not see that coming. Not necessarily that, the whole thing is weird. So I think that, I think Alabama is going to win. I think Auburn is, they used all their magic up this weekend, but we are in a really weird spot where I'm like, I'm happy. The iron bowl doesn't really mean shit this year. I think that's when it's the most fun. This is the first time that Alabama has lost its iron bowl lead in since 2007

when they lost to Louisiana Monroe. Well, that's normally cause they're playing Mercer this week. Well, that's just switched it up. Let's move on to our losers, Lucy, because I have I've got a lot of losers from this weekend. I want to start piggybacking off of the Auburn game to Mike Elko, who got caught saying that he was looking ahead for the game against Texas Auburn this upcoming weekend. And then they lost and looked like they were actually looking ahead to Texas and not ready to play Auburn this weekend.

Auburn went out to a huge three touchdown lead. Texas A&M clawed their way back but did not could not finish it in overtime. That's brutal. That's a brutal soundbite. Auburn tweeted it out after the game and I don't know how you recover from that if you're Mike Alco. I think our focus is single-handedly on Texas. I'm in on Auburn right now and locked in on what we gotta get done. Honestly, yeah, I should have put money on Auburn the second that he said that. Also, this is such a, like a little aside.

The Texas fan in my life, you can only have one. So I only have one Texas fan in my life. Moderation did not like A&M losing to Auburn. Feels significantly less confident going into the ATM Texas game with that Auburn loss. I think that makes things more interesting. I think I kind of like Texas A&M's chance better than I did before after this loss. I still think Texas is going to win, but there's something about losing to Hugh Fries that really, that's a wake-up call. Yeah, that is, and like, ooh, I don't know if I feel great about a injured Quinn Uers playing

against Texas A&M, but you're right, they totally slipped up and dropped one there, but they still have a chance to redeem themselves against Texas this upcoming weekend, which would be huge for SEC Championship game implications. Lucy, I have a hot take about Kenny Dillingham. He's one of my losers from the weekend. I know the people are really into him and they think that he's been energetic and fun. And like, he's done a great job with ASU this year. I'm not, that's not what this is about.

This is about when he tried to run down the clock at the end of the game this past weekend, failed, and then the team rushed the, or the fans all rushed the field. They added a second back and he freaked out at the end of the game this past weekend failed and then the team rushed the or the fans all rushed The field they added a second back and he freaked out at the refs and there is a video of this which we will play. I Don't like any of this. I do not like the whole thing gave me I don't know. Can I say gave me the Ickers that are redone. So you can say the egg. Okay gave me the egg I didn't like how he was upset. It was, it was just weird. It was bad. Bad look. Oh, I hate disagreeing with you, but I like Dillingham.

So does Taylor. I think he's fun. I think he's got this, like, great energy. We're like, this is an aside, the funniest thing I saw from this weekend was a TikTok of an Arizona State student where, in that 15 minute stretch where they, like, pushed everyone off to the sidelines, went into the blue tent. It was just in the blue tent. And he was like, no one knows I'm in here. What are they going to do? Oh, God, what a disaster. I thought it was so, so funny. I kind of get the anger in that situation. He did, called an unnecessary timeout, just did some weird stuff with the clock management at the end. It ended up not costing him. But to have 50,000 people on the field and be like, you need to get off.

It's just kind of a crazy ask. But I like Dillingham. I think he's fine. I think that he's kind of the right vibe that Arizona State needs. He fits the Tempe energy. He does. And this is not an anti-ASU take. I like their team. I'm happy for them. I will continue to root for their success. This is me reacting to the end of that game when they just needed to burn some seconds off the clock. And then it almost blew up in his face. BYU was like a couple yards away, three yards away.

A successful Hail Mary, which would have been insane. That would have been so funny. I can't pretend I wasn't rooting for that. Just funniest case scenario there. So another big loser from the weekend was Colorado. They got their shit handed to them. Like they really just got, it was very reminiscent of the Colorado team that we saw last season. We're like, great, you have Chaudure, you have Travis Hunter, you have a lot of just insanely like really valuable pieces of, know just great talent surrounded by a bunch of mush you know the offensive line was bad like they got controlled in the trenches like it was a beat

down of all beat downs Colorado did come back at a certain point like Kansas was up really early it's just it was a bad bad game for Colorado and this has completely sort of opened up with what happened with Arizona State and what happened with Kansas Colorado And this has completely sort of opened up with what happened with Arizona State and what happened with Kansas-Colorado this weekend has completely sort of opened up the Big 12. Where I saw a stat from CBS Sports this morning, and I don't know how it works. Don't ask me how it works. I don't have any intention of learning how it works. There are nine teams right now in the Big 12 that still are mathematically alive to make the conference championship game. I don't think any of them control their own destiny. I don't think a single one does. Maybe. I don't know. Like championship game. I don't think any of them control their own destiny. I don't think a single one does.

Maybe, I don't know. Like I said, I don't know. Doesn't make any sense to me. But the Big 12 is a nightmare and it was just, it was a really bad weekend for Colorado. They got rushed. They like just got run all over. Yeah, it's, the Big 12 tiebreakers are like mind numbing.

It goes off of opponents winning percentage, I think is the first tiebreaker. And so if like all the favorites this weekend went out, there's going to be a multiway tiebreak in the big 12. The favorites don't win every week. There's been there's been a lot of crazy shit in that conference this year. And we could spend the next five minutes of this podcast going through the tiebreakers, but we're not going to do that because we're going to talk about rivalry weekend, Lucy and college football, the best weekend of the year. If you're a college football fan, I love it so much. I sit and I eat my leftovers and I watch college football for three days and my eyes bleed and it's awesome. Which game are you most excited for this weekend?

I think A&M Texas. I think that's what I'm most excited for. I think they match up pretty, this is Texas's most difficult game of the entire season. I just think that there's so much rivalry between these schools. Like Texas A&M's entire fight song is about hating Texas. Like down with Texas University, something like that. I can't remember exactly. But there's a lot of hatred in this game. It's the first time they've played in a long time.

I'm really, really excited for that one. We are going to, I'll be at Michigan, Ohio State, which I'm pumped for. I might single-handedly put Indiana into the Big Ten Championship game if I bring my home team losing curse with me. And Michigan might just beat Ohio State. I don't think that game is actually going to be particularly close. Michigan is just not very good this year. And then Clemson, South Carolina, That's something I'm pretty excited for too, which I didn't really expect going into this year. Oh, yeah, Clemson and South Carolina fans.

You could say this about every rival in the sport of football, but man, they really, really, really hate each other. And this is going to have big playoff implications, which I don't know if we also saw this coming into the season. Like, South Carolina has a legitimate shot at the playoff. If they can beat Clemson, they'd have a great ranked season. Like South Carolina has a legitimate shot at the playoff. If they can beat Clemson, they'd have a great ranked win. Clemson has struggled against good teams all year.

I think I'm going to take South Carolina winning on the road on this one, but don't tell any of the Clemson fans I know about that. We also have, we mentioned the Iron Bowl. We have Farmageddon, which I only am mentioning, Lucy, because next year they open the season with Farmageddon in Ireland, which is so fun. So we get back to back. They get to play in Ireland and Iowa doesn't. That sucks.

I know. Well, I mean, I highly recommend the Ireland game if you get a chance to go for a fan of any team playing in Ireland. You should do it. I want to mention Notre Dame really quick because Notre Dame beat Army by, oh my god, 35 points this past weekend at Yankee Stadium and now they get to play against their hated rival USC on the road. This is going to be a really, really tough game. I think I'm a little nervous for it personally as an NND fan, but if Notre Dame wins, they

are in the playoff. And if USC wins, nothing happens because they stink this year. And I would be personally devastated if this upset happens. I'm very, very scared. I hope it goes like the women's basketball game went last weekend and Notre Dame wins by a lot of points and blows out USC in LA. But I'm scared, Lucy. I'm so scared. I feel like you say that every game.

I think that's what you just do as a Notre Dame fan. You go into the Army like I'm terrified of the troops. You go into the Army and you're terrified. And I think you're reverse psychology in yourself, but I'm going to shut up so I don't jinx. I don't reverse your reverse psychology. Look, you might be right. I don't know. It's it's a big weekend.

I want to be able to enjoy it in peace and not in sadness and not in tears. The Egg Bowl is Friday. I don't know why. I don't know why the Egg Bowl is Friday. Georgia Georgia Tech is Friday, too. So is Nebraska, Iowa. there a name for that game? Uh the Heroes game. Do you call it that? I don't know. We don't have like a fun nickname for it. I know like clean old-fashioned hate is my favorite one. Georgia Georgia Tech. I like the Friday games. I like that my team plays on Friday because then I just get to enjoy Saturday and not feel any sort of despair.

It's such a good slate. It's it's just an impeccable, immaculate slate of college football. And I'm so excited for it. Oh, man. Prediction for Texas, Texas, ain't it? I think Texas wins, but I think it's close and I think it's weird. Yeah. Ooh, another another big game at Kyle Field this season. I can't wait. This is gonna be a hell of a weekend. We'll be back next week to talk about it and get ready for conference championship weekend

the following week. Bring back divisions. Happy Thanksgiving. If you're traveling this week and you're listening to us on your travels, safe travels. Have fun, eat some turkey. Get to us on your travels, safe travels. Have fun. Eat some turkey. Get to the Charlotte Airport early.

They're on strike.