The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Gen CFB - National Championship Game Preview

Episode Date: January 17, 2025

Jessica Smetana and Lucy Rohden are back with a new episode of Gen CFB. They discuss their favorite moments from bowl season, argue for the success of the 12 team playoff and then preview the upcoming national championship between Ohio State and Notre Dame. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. Now's a good time to remember where Tequila's story truly began. In 1795, Cuervo invented Tequila. Cuervo. What are you doing here? Cuervo. Anytime someone says Cuervo, I show up. Well, I do know that to be true, but even during and reads like Cuervo

I think you could lay out especially for one of our great partners sweet delicious Cuervo Since then Cuervo is stayed true to its roots the same family the same land the same passion Cuervo So enjoy the tequila that started it all Cuervo Cuervo the tequila that invented tequila Please drink responsibly. Queervo. Lucy, we're back. Sort of last time, not really last time, but kind of the last time. Yes, maybe second to last episode.

We haven't recorded in a while because we've been sick, we've been traveling, the show was dark for a couple of weeks, the holidays, et, etc. etc. We don't really have a plan for this show. We're just gonna vibe about the playoffs. There's one game left of the College football season. It's the national championship game between Ohio State and Notre Dame. Since the last time we talked there's been about 60 bowl games. They were all awesome. There's been a dozen playoff games. I would contend that they were all awesome too. And we're going to talk about all of that.

But where would you like to start? What's been on your mind these last few weeks? Oh my God. Well honestly, I wish we could just take the full 30 minutes to just talk about Brett Bielma and what's up with him. His bowl drama. How awesome was that? Everyone's saying bowl season doesn't mean anything.

Well, Brett Bielma is starting fights in the middle of games. I love it. It means everything. He's angrily doing the T signal to signal fair catch. He was just not happy at all in that citrus bowl game against South Carolina. And I think, you know, we had a good idea of who was going to win the Jennifer Awards before Christmas, but there was so much juicy content and drama during bowl season that now I think we're going to have to rethink everything.

Brett B almost got to win a Jenny Award. Oh, he I feel like we should rename the awards after him. The Berties. You said something I gotta push back on. You said he didn't seem happy. He was laughing his ass off at Shane Beamer losing his mind. That's true. It was so just like-

Shane Beamer was the one that was being a little pouty. Oh, and he's still been pouty. He was pouty online for the next like four days. Well, Burt is just basking in the glow of the Orlando sun. Okay, maybe we give our Coach of the Year award, we rename it the Burt of the Year. Oh, I love it. And he's definitely the clubhouse favorite to win that one. But yeah, the Citrus Bowl was phenomenal.

The Idaho Potato Bowl was phenomenal. The Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl between Oklahoma and Navy. I mean, there were obviously the Pop Tart Bowl, Iowa State and Miami. They were so many good games. I think like a lot, there's been a lot of discourse about like, ah, the SEC and all these different conferences and the ACC's record in bowl season and all that

since, you know, bowl season ended. What do you make of the bowl games? Is there anything that we should take away from them other than like, here's 40 free games for everyone to enjoy. Just like shut up and have fun. I can't remember who published it, but bowl ratings, like TV and viewership for bowl games was higher this year than I, maybe it's ever been, I don't know,

higher than it has been in recent memory. People are watching bowl games because people like bowl games. And now that you see bowls like Pop Tart and the Mayo Bowl, like really kind of dive into the absurdity of college football and the absurdity of bowl season, like you're creating this super fun atmosphere. And who cares? Let let these kids have an extra game at the end of the year.

Go to Orlando. Let them go to Universal Studios. There's nothing wrong with that. Yeah, the bowl games averaged 2.7 million viewers for the 33 non-CFP bowl games this season, tied for 21, 22 for the best figure since 2.9 million in the 19-20 season, 22 of the 33, so a year over your game. So yeah, I mean bowl season, alive and well.

If you're like, oh, there's too many bowls, they're not going anywhere, people watch them. They're awesome. I had like one of the greatest weekends of my life, several great weekends in a row, I should say, watching bowl games into NFL games, into college football playoff games, back into bowl games. Like it was just nonstop football from like 11 a.m. until midnight every single night, past midnight. If you stayed up for the Las Vegas Bowl, what a comeback from the USC Trojans. So yeah, I'm with you. Like just have fun. Football is football's fun. We like watching. Yeah. It's such a stupid argument. Like it just makes him okay. Argue with the cloud.

I literally don't give one shit. We saw a pop target eaten. It rose out of a toaster and life has forever been different. Just go outside. I did think it was a little jarring seeing Rocco Beck sentence that specific Pop-Tart to death. They were like, which Pop-Tart do you want to eat? And he just, it was like literally a death sentence. It was very scary. I think it was the cinnamon, the cinnamon one. And then they just killed him on the spot and ate him. That was kind of alarming. Oh look, the 800 points they scored in that game was alarming to me.

I was already like, my senses were very disoriented at the time. There was so much going on. Yeah, and we got to avoid all of the Camelward discourse because we didn't have an episode that week. So that's probably for the best because man, there's one thing that there's been a lot of these last few weeks. It's discourse. It's been, oh my thing that there's been a lot of these last few weeks, it's discourse. It's been, oh my God, Indiana, what a bunch of losers.

The SEC's so much better than everyone else as every SEC team loses their playoff games. You were at the first Texas home playoff game, the Clemson game, which was, for some reason, everyone was like, every game was a blowout, they all stunk. That game, Lucy was like pretty exciting. What was your reaction to watching that one? That game was very much just like sweep the leg,

just finish it. What are you doing? Like it was very much like, okay, great. Texas is up by 20, like life is easy. And then K Club Nick was like, hey, guess what? I've decided to be the best quarterback you've ever seen. And you're like, Texas, just stop up, just stop up one time. And they would not do it.

It was a very much like, it was very exciting. Like it had the aura of a playoff game. Something that I think is really interesting was we ended up like getting tickets for this game and they were very cheap compared to like, when we would go to Georgia, Alabama during the regular season, they were very cheap. It was very accessible to go to the Georgia, Alabama during the regular season. They were very cheap.

It was very accessible to go to the game, which I thought was phenomenal. But yeah, it was like the vibes were high. Texas should have kind of finished Clemson a lot earlier on in that game. They just kept letting them hang around, but it was a good time. I had a lot of fun at Texas

and I really liked their fight song. I think it's quite good. The reaction I had watching that was like, not what I expected to have about Clemson this season, which was, you probably feel pretty good if you're a Clemson fan going in the next year. Like they just hired Tom Allen who left Penn State, which I think is really interesting

to be the new defensive coordinator at Clemson. They got some shit together by the end of the season. Like it wasn't pretty, like the South Carolina game was not pretty, but I do think South Carolina was, you know, obviously one of the two best teams they played this season between them and Georgia. But I don't know, I feel like if you're Clemson

and now you're finally dipping your toes into the portal, you probably have some good vibes going into 2025. Yeah, they've been using the portal like crazy. And you look at the ACC, things feel kind of wide open. I don't know, Carson Beck being in the equation that either makes you feel better or worse. I'm not quite sure. Yeah, I don't know what to make of Carson Beck either because like he's coming, he's going to be coming off of major arm surgery.

But at the same time, like, yeah, he probably is better than whoever Miami has in their quarterback room at the moment. So I don't know what to make of that. Who knows? We'll find out. Congrats on dating a Cavender. Good for you, brother. It works out in the end.

But yeah, Clemson's got me feeling pretty good right now. And that game, they played a lot better than I thought they would. Run Deep, it's terrible though, Jesus. Yeah, Texas was just running the ball over them. I was at the Notre Dame Indiana game, which I thought was awesome. And I've already sort of talked about this on air,

but like going from like, what a fun game, fun game amazing like I love it so much that was so fun the first ever college football playoff game at a home stadium what a cool atmosphere college football is the greatest to then going online and every take was like this game sucked and was shitty and a dud and we all hate Indiana and they should die and I was whoa, I was not expecting that reaction. I thought we were all kind of like, I thought maybe the reaction would be like, wow, Notre Dame's really good.

But instead it was like, Indiana, screw you. And now the last two teams left standing in college football are the two teams that beat the Indiana Hoosiers this season. So were you as a Big Ten fan sad to see everyone take their turn taking Dumps Hunt Indiana after that game? I mean, yeah, it was one of those things where I really loved that you brought that up, because I was curious. I was like, I wonder if people at the game thought it sucks so much,

because I think a big reason of why everyone hated the expanded playoff that first round is because everybody wouldn't shut up about how much they hated the expanded playoff in the first round. It's hard for me to buy into a game when the announcers are talking about how much it sucks and how much they wish that it was an Alabama team there that ended up losing to Michigan and the ReliaQuest Bowl. Like be so serious right now. I think the biggest problem, there are a lot of problems with the playoff. We can fix the seating, conference championships, the bias. They're all a little weird.

That will work itself out. But the biggest immediate problem with the playoff is everybody needs to shut up about how much they hate it because it's really not that bad. And we've had two solid rounds and my dog is barking. That's okay. Your dog is agreeing with you. And I also like, if Kevin Jennings hadn't

just completely melted down in the first half, like that also could have been a better game, but like, you know, it's the playoffs. There's nerves involved. There's Penn State's defense is obviously top five defense in the country this year. I thought that the opening round games, they were what you would expect watching better teams

play worse teams in the first round of a playoff. Like the good teams tend to beat the not as good teams. And that's why they got to host the games in the first round. And it kind of worked out that way. No one's blowing smoke because of the NFL like first round of the playoff. Wild card weekend, you had a lot of blowouts there and everyone's fine because that's what's expected.

No one loses their mind in March Madness when- Yeah, when all the 16 seats lose. Yeah, it just is like, the seating was done that way for a reason. I do think that if I have an issue like Oregon being the only undefeated team this season having such a great year and then getting the draw of playing Ohio State in their first playoff game,

I would not be a happy camper if that were me. So I do think there's problems with the seating, but like overall just, it's really fine. It's really okay. We're happy now. Exactly, I would love to see the quarterfinals on campus sites too, I think. Like if you could rework the whole thing,

personally, I would get rid of conference championship games in general. They, if you're a fan, first of all, there's very limited circumstances in which you'd travel for one of them. Unless you're like an Indiana fan and they're in the Big Ten Championship in Indianapolis. Oregon fans aren't gonna fly across the country for that

if they're gonna be in the Fiesta Bowl or the Rose Bowl in two weeks. So from a fan perspective, and I know they're never gonna get rid of conference championship games because they get great ratings, obviously. I'm just saying if I could tweak things, I would just get rid of those, start the playoffs a week earlier, have quarterfinal games on campus in the week that the first round games were, and then have the semifinals on New Year's Day because A, they get way better

ratings. That's a humongous college football day. And B, I just think it makes more sense. But I digress. The quarterfinals were also, I thought, really awesome. And just because, like, I'm basically just throwing shade at Stu Gatz in this whole segment and refuting everything I've heard him say

over the last, like, month, because he was like, Boise State and Penn State, boo, that stinks. No, that game was really good, I thought. The only game that really stunk was Oregon and Ohio State, which we all, like, this is how big of an idiot and everyone else is like in the whole world, including me. I'm like, Oh, this is going to be the best game of the playoffs. Like this was a one point game to the regular season to be so good. No, no,

Lucy. I spent my own money to travel to that game and watch it. Oh no. I was so embarrassed. I was so embarrassed. I was like sitting in the press box just being like, okay, I guess I have to play Sudoku now. Like I don't really know what to do. Like it was so bad. That game was over so quickly that I was getting my own Rose Bowl flashbacks that I was like, I gotta leave. I gotta get out of here. Oh no. Yeah, but the rest of the games were great.

I mean, Texas, Arizona State. That was awesome. Oh my god. That ruled so hard. And like, I think you can, the Texas Ohio State game was really good. It obviously kind of came down to that one horrible play call when Texas is trying to score late in the game. But that, if that targeting call had been made in Arizona State, Texas, which I believe it was targeting, do I know what targeting is necessarily not particularly.

It reminded me at the end of the Cal Miami game. I was like, I thought I knew what it was, but I guess there's, there's a huge difference between the crown and like next to the crown. I don't know. I don't know. It doesn't make, there has to, we have to do something with the helmet. So we have to put an X on the helmet and when it hits that, that's when you know. Put ink on them. So like if you you hit someone there's a little stamp.

Yeah, like get a little insurance person there who can like when they go to a car accident they can tell who's at fault. So you get the two helmets in you and you look at them. Yeah, and if that call had gone differently, we probably would have had Arizona State, Ohio State, which I do think would have been probably a worse game. But like, that was the cool part of the playoff is Arizona State would not have made the playoff in any other year. Notre Dame might not have made the playoff in any other year with that loss. Ohio State might not have made the playoff with two losses. Like it's exciting to see that like expanding it.

I do believe that the two best teams are playing in the national championship game. Yeah, except for a hypothetical SEC team would be right. expanding it, I do believe that the two best teams are playing in the national championship game. Except for a hypothetical SEC team would be the most. Hypothetically, Alabama would beat both of these teams by three touchdowns. And Taylor, for some reason, is an Alabama fan, so he's fist pumping. We're kidding, okay?

God, it's so annoying. Yeah. I'm with you. I think that the biggest difference between this championship game and any previous championship game is that there's no good argument to say, well, Ohio State, they lost to Michigan,

so they shouldn't be in this championship game. Or Notre Dame lost to Northern Illinois. Notre Dame had to play the Big Ten runner-up, the SEC champion, and a top four Big Ten team to get to the championship. Ohio State had to play a top four SEC team, the Big Ten champion to avenge their loss in the regular season, and the SEC runner-up to get to the championship. Ohio State had to play a top four SEC team, the Big Ten champion to avenge their loss in the regular season,

and the SEC runner-up to get to this championship game. They both had really difficult draws in the playoff. There's no like asterisks. Like if Penn State had made it, it would have been like, oh, well they had to play the G5 team and SMU and blah, blah, blah. Like I still wouldn't have agreed with that.

But I think both of these teams in particular had really difficult paths to the championship game. So even if there is a lopsided championship, like we've seen in, I don't know, But I think both of these teams in particular had really difficult paths to the championship game. So even if there is a lopsided championship like we've seen in, I don't know, a half dozen of the last dozen championship games, it's like, well, what else can you ask for from a playoff? Both of these teams had to win three tough games in a row. I believe there's some stats that like the average margin of victory in the Super Bowl

or in the NFL playoffs is like 30 to 13. That's, I'm making it up. I'm making it up, but it's in the vicinity of that. But we don't lose our minds over it. But when it comes to college football, you're like, if every team isn't, if every game isn't a one-score game, then this is a horrible system. Right. Or if every game doesn't hit like a 55 point total, it's like, that was bad. And it's like, okay, wait a second. I don't agree with that. Yeah, you would understand.

Defense is cool actually. But I'm with you. I thought that the semifinal games, I was at the Orange Bowl, or you were at the Orange Bowl too, right? We didn't see each other. I have only bad things to say about Hard Rock Stadium. I did not have the best time of my life, I'll say that.

It was so hard to get around that place, on foot, by car, by sea, whichever vehicle, or however you were getting around. Just, oh, it was not easy. Plastic and Arqueso, which I've documented on my social media anyways. An all-time classic though, like holy shit was that a crazy third and fourth quarter. James Franklin's obviously getting slammed for once again not being able to win a top

five game. But at the same time, all of Penn State's players are coming back next year except for like a couple big ones like Abdul Carter for instance. But do you feel good if you're a Penn State fan at the end of the season? I think you feel like you've always felt. I think that Penn State is very just, I'll have to look at Penn State schedule and see if they play Ohio State. Their non-conference is very easy next year.

Yeah, I assume so. But if they're playing Ohio State during the regular season, then I don't feel great. Um, yeah, I think there was a lot of like, I have a few questions just about like when Drew Aller came out for that final drive, I looked at Harry and I said, he is dying to throw in a double coverage. He's going to do it like without a doubt. And if I knew what he was going to do, that James Franklin should have known what he was going to do. Not getting the right receivers involved at all. Zero catches, zero yards, just a big fat zero for Penn State's receivers. I just, you feel good because you got to the semifinals.

You are considered one of the four best teams in college football this year, but we still see that there is such a gap between four and one. Where if you're looking at Ohio State, Penn State, like those teams play every year and we know there's a big gap in between those two. So like I feel good. I just don't feel like like super duper rock and roll. I feel like the hot rock. I would feel not great about Drew Alar.

I think that was I think the biggest bummer from the semifinal game was that he just didn't play well. Like you said, Lucy, they haven't thrown to their wide receivers like all season, but luckily Tyler Warren's like the best tight end in college football, so he helps a lot. But yeah, Allard threw three picks, two of them obviously got called back, but the last one was an absolute dagger to Christian Gray,

Notre Dame's DB corner extraordinaire, only a sophomore. Next year Penn State has Nevada, FIU, and Villanova to open the season. But then they get Oregon, they have to play Iowa, Ohio State, Indiana and a couple other big 10, you know, Nebraska, Rutgers, Michigan State. Take it back. I feel bad. Yeah, it might be tough. It might be tough next season once they get through the non-com, but I don't know. We'll see. I still think that they're always going to be a really good

football team. They just like they need to get over that hump and they haven't yet. And James Franklin was nagging Marcus Freeman during the press conference and it totally backfired. He's like, how old are you again? And Marcus Freeman was like, I'm 38. Didn't work. And for what?

And for what, James? And then he's like, you should join a conference. It's like, okay, well, we can't keep doing this. Notre Dame is 4-0 against the Big Ten in this season. So I can't. I claim you all as a spiritual Big Ten team. I don't know if I'm allowed to do that. Yeah, that's gross.

I don't want anything to do with that. I think it's accurate. I heard you talking shit on godless football, but we don't have to talk about that either. That doesn't sound like me. We're both gonna be in Atlanta this weekend. What are your thoughts on the title game? Like I said before, I really do think that the two best teams are playing in this game.

The line right now, what Ohio State as of recording Ohio State minus eight and a half, I think that's kind of high. I'm not like counting out Notre Dame as much as everyone else is. I do think it would require Notre Dame putting together like an unbelievable football game, like the close to perfect, where I kind of think that is possible because I don't think they played particularly well against Penn State. I thought the second half, those adjustments were phenomenal, but the first half, they were kind of ass. So to see Notre Dame sort of put together such a good half after that original just kind of stinker, I do think that Notre Dame's defense is good enough that if they can force Ohio State into

these third down situations and Ohio State sucks on third down, like they're really, really bad. That's their only glaring weakness on this team that I think that if it's a close game, Notre Dame could win. But that's an if it's a close game. I think it goes close game, Notre Dame wins or Ohio State blows them out. Yeah, I think Ohio State definitely has the ability to just like do that knockout punch right? Like so many of their passes this season have just been to wide open receivers

that they're able to just scheme open. They've been playing so well in this postseason whereas you know both teams have struggled with injuries on their offensive lines. Notre Dame left lost their left tackle in the Orange Bowl. Their right guard got banged up. They're down four starting linemen. Their best player on defense, Benjamin Morrison, out for the season who was really effective in covering Marvin Harrison Jr. last year when these two teams played each other.

So I think you're right. I think Notre Dame can, if Notre Dame can keep it close and play out of their minds, especially defensively, this game could be really close. From a fan perspective, this has been, the last three games have been so awesome. And I think Ohio State fans probably agree. It's been, winning postseason playoff football games

is not a thing that ever existed in college football, really, until this season. We had semi-finals and that was it. But now it's like you get the chance to win multiple New Year's 6 bowl games in one season. You get the chance to play against teams that you never really play against in meaningful games in January and December. Being on the winning end of that is pretty cool. So no matter what, like either Notre Dame is the best team in the country and they win

the national championship and I retire from my job and move to an island and never talk to anyone again because I will have no purpose in life anymore. My life will have been fulfilled. Or Notre Dame is the second best team in the country this year and I'll just keep doing what I'm doing now. So either way, like I'm at peace with it.

I'm a happy, happy little camper and I love College football so much. And it's been a fun season and I'm excited for the Jennys. Jesus, I've seen what you've done for others and I want that for me. As Taylor said too, after the Orange Bowl. Look, Notre Dame has been really good and I love that I get to actually talk about Notre Dame

because they're in the national championship. No one can be like, stop talking about Notre Dame. Okay, well, when your team is in the national championship, you can have the floor. Notre Dame has been a really good football team for the last decade, but they have not been able to win in the postseason. They've lost both of their semifinals when Brian Kelly was a head coach. Marcus Freeman is now on two in two New York six games, three playoff games in like three

weeks. I feel like I'm on cloud nine right now. It's great. I love winning football games. I feel like I'm a part of it. Have you noticed the hating going down now that you have the super cool, hot head coach? Oh yeah, I've seen so many national media outlets post the is Notre Dame likable now thing,

which I don't care if other fans like Notre Dame or not, that doesn't bother me, because I hate everyone else too. That's part of the sport, right? You hate everyone that you don't like, and you like the people you like, and it's usually just your own team. The thing though that's annoying, they're just doing the like,

yeah, Brian Kelly's not the coach. That's fine, that's all that takes you to be, because Notre Dame had some very likable players on all those, like Kyron Williams, extremely likable. Kyle Hamilton, very likable. Ian Book, what a sweetie pie. There are so many likable players from those teams, so we're just doing the Brian Kelly,

Marcus Freeman comparison thing, which is fine. I agree with it. Marcus Freeman's like one billion times more likable than Brian Kelly, but if fans are rooting against Notre Dame, that's fine. It's okay. I would be probably rooting as your team too. It's an all time hater matchup. Ohio State, Notre Dame. Everyone's got someone to hate. Oh, Michigan fans are like, I guess we're rooting for Notre Dame, but like this doesn't feel good.

I've heard that they're rooting for Ohio State. I've gone directly to the source to ask a few Michigan fans, Hey, who are you rooting for? And they say, I got a root for Ohio State. I've gone directly to the source to ask a few Michigan fans, hey, who are you rooting for? And they say, I got a root for Ohio State so that Ohio State can say that they put together one of the best college football teams of all time and we still beat them. Okay, I guess that makes sense, but like, I...

I still find that hard to believe. I don't know. Like, that just doesn't seem right to me. You can't, like, I would never root for USC in a national championship game. Like I just couldn't do that. It would make me nauseous. I think it's also conference,

even though both teams are spiritually or literally in the Big Ten. Geographically should be in the Big Ten. I love that college football goes to the Midwest, Lucy. I mean, that is something that I'm feeling great about this year. It's like, oh, let's talk about the SEC and I see this and that's there should be 100 SEC teams in the playoff and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Guess what? Both of these teams in the championship, Indiana and Ohio, the heart of the Midwest, the heartland, if you will. There's only one big team that lost to the SEC in the postseason, and they didn't mean to do it. No, it was Iowa. I don't know. You'd have to look it up. I'm not going to do that though, but I'm sure that they didn't mean to do it and it was just, it was Nashville. There's, I don't know, something in the air.

Something crazy happened and we'll talk about it maybe during the Jennings, maybe the accidental loss of the season award. I don't know. Well, if you want us to talk about Accidental loss of the season award. I don't know. Well, if you want us to talk about certain things from this bowl season or football season, send them to us on Twitter and Blue Sky and Instagram. We'll put it together. Next week will be our big award show finale.

I'm very excited for that. Yeah, TikTok will be gone. I'll be able to really focus on it. All right, Lucy. Well, see you in Atlanta. Good luck. I want you to be happy. I actually genuinely believe that. I would hope so. Even though I heard you talking shit.