The Josh Innes Show - Epic Saturday of College Ball

Episode Date: September 15, 2025

We had some truly amazing ballgames on Saturday. Tennessee/UGA was a classic. How terrible is Nico? Why are all the super hyped QB's so bad? Brian Kelly goes off on reporter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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play responsibly. All right. Let's see here. So college football wise, it's funny because none of these quarterbacks that were all Ballyhooed, is that even really a thing, the much Ballyhooed? Who even says Ballyhood? Like only announcers say that. Have you ever talked to a human? And they're like, well, let me tell you something about all these much Ballyhooed quarterbacks. but all the guys that were hyped up, all the dudes that were supposed to be great in this great quarterback group in college football have all pretty much sucked. And by sucked, I mean, like, I don't think, like, Garrett and Usmeyer at LSU hasn't been bad.

He's been fine, but like he hadn't been as good as he was supposed to, and their offense has been pretty mediocre. Same with Cade Klubnick, same with Arch Manning, all these overhyped quarterbacks, the DJ Lagway, all these people that were supposed to be the next generation. of great quarterbacks have sucked. Let's get into some of that. A little college football talk as we motor along here on the pod.

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Bank more oncours when you switch to a Scotian. Bank Bank Banking package. Learn more at Scotiabank.com slash banking packages. Conditions apply. Scotia Bank. You're richer than you think. There were certainly some great games. Let me tell you the one that I enjoyed the most, and this is obvious because it was a great freaking game. It was an overtime game. It was back and forth. It had everything

you could want at a college football game. And that was the Tennessee game, Tennessee and Georgia. And Georgia eventually won that game in overtime. But it was a fun back and 4th, tons of yards, tons of points, tons of scoring. Joey Aguilar. So let's think of Joey Aguilar for a second. This dude was a quarterback, like, was he the quarterback at, where was he? Was he the quarterback at, what is it, Appalachian State? Is that where Joey Aguilar was the quarterback before he was the quarterback at Tennessee,

right? So Joey Agalore, not Agalore. I keep saying it Agalore like he's Nelson Agalore. It's Joey Aguilar, who was the quarterback at Appalachian. State and the Diablo Valley Vikings before he became the quarterback at Tennessee. Here's what you need to know about Tennessee's offense. Tennessee's offense is basically idiot proof unless you are Nico Iamalavi. If you are Nico, then the offense was just not for you.

And apparently football is not for you because Nico, if you'll recall as the guy that held out at Tennessee and wanted a ton of cash. And eventually Tennessee was like, good, go fuck yourself. and Joey Aguilar was supposed to be the quarterback at UCLA. He's not. He ends up going to Tennessee. And Nico ends up going to UCLA from Tennessee. And Nico was so bad and has been so bad that his dipshit coach got fired after UCLA lost their game last week.

And what is Joey doing? Joey's out here slinging. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. 24-year-old dude out here slinging for Tennessee. If Tennessee would have had even a remotely decent, competent quarterback last year, those guys would have won the national championship. Like, we can sit here and talk about Tennessee, Judge Tennessee, who say whatever you want about Tennessee, the way Josh Heppel's offense works is like a machine.

Yes, they lost the game, but it wasn't because their offense was inept. Every time they needed some sort of big play, they got a big play in that game. Joey Aguilar, a guy whose previous experience was Appalachian State and the Diablo Valley Vikings, whatever the fuck that is, the Diablo Valley Vikings and Apple Latchin State. This dude comes to Tennessee and so far has played the best football of any quarterback in the league. He's been better than any of these guys that are super hyped. He's been better than Garrett Nussmeyer. He's been better than DJ Lagway. He's been better than a lot of the hyped up quarterbacks in other leagues like Arch Manning and Cade Clubnik. All my dude's

doing is dominating. Now they lost, but it was still freaking impressive. But you look around and you look at quarterback play and you look at the quarterback playing college football like Arch Manning just remind her how stupid the Texas fans are. They are arguably the dumbest people on the planet because they hated Quinn Ewers. You must not watch Quinn Ewers. He sucked. What is Arch

Manning? Oh, Arch Manning's only played a couple games. Archmanning blows right now. And that's not to say that Arch won't be good. It's not to say that he can't be good. But he sucks. And the way you hyped him up. You wanted Quinn Ewers on the bench for Arch Manning, Quinn Ewers, who took you to the college football playoff, who you hate,

who is arguably outside of Vince Young and Colt McCoy, the best quarterback that they've had in 30 years. And you hated the guy. And now you're kind of reaping what you sow. You don't deserve good things. We've always talked about Texas being the most overrated football program on the planet anyway. But Arch Manning, supposed to be the second coming. He's a manning.

He sucks. You know who else sucks? DJ Lagway. Oh, I have to hear all these podcasts and TV people talk about how great DJ Lagway is. And DJ Lagway is going to go into Baton Rouge and run all over LSU. And DJ Lagway may be the best quarterback in the SEC. And DJ Lagway is a sleeper, Heisman candidate, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Five.

One, one, two, three, four, five. Like the Kobe meme that was posted by Blake Baker, the LSU defensive coordinator, or one, two, three, four, five. Five interceptions. Please say, just, like, I just, I don't understand these media people. Like, they pick people that they believe are just supposed to be great. And then they're not great. Shocking. The media people have no fucking clue what they're talking about.

DJ Lagway, oh my God, look out. DJ Lagway is going into Baton Rouge and this is a real test for that LSU defense. DJ Lagway's never started a game on the road in the SEC. But he's going to go into LSU 100,000 people in Death Valley. And he's going to show him in Heisman Trophy candidate. blah blah blah blah he sucked and he might just suck like that's the thing we hype these dudes up we pay them money to come to our schools and then they're just not very good he might be one of them maybe he'll be fine but he kind of falls like he's like the college anthony richardson

you know like all these guys that get hyped up and the media fawns over them and they're like oh they just got to be given the right opportunity and maybe it's the coach's fault maybe it's this guy's fault. No, maybe he's just not very good. I mean, look at, and I get that Aguilar is an older dude. He's 24 years old. He's got experience. He went to Tennessee after playing at App State, and all he's done is gone out there and slung it the first three weeks of the year. He's been outstanding. He wasn't a much-heralded guy. He was a guy that was set to go to UCLA, who's a throwaway program that nobody pays attention to.

Instead, he ends up at Tennessee because Tennessee's quarterback takes whatever it was, a million dollars a year, whatever to go play at UCLA, so bad that he gets the coach fired. And all this dude Joey Aguilar does is comes in here and throws for 400 yards against Georgia. What is Garrett Nussmeyer done this year? What is DJ Lagway done this year? What is Arch Manning done this year? What has Cade Clubnick done this year? Oh, I forgot.

Cade Clubnick's one and two because they lost a Georgia Tech. after almost losing to some throw. I forgot what shitty school they almost lost to last week. And then losing to LSU. Clemson could be 0 and 3 with Cade Clubnick. But again, tell me how good Cade Clubnik is. Again, tell me how good a DJ Lagway is or Arch Manning is or Nico is. Like everybody talked about how great these quarterbacks are.

They're not. Hell, Marcel Reed has a more impressive outing, a more impressive victory, impressive moment than any of those guys have this year. Look at Marcel Reed taking on Notre Dame, at Notre Dame, game on the line, fourth down, delivers a ball that's an incredible play in the end zone. Marcel Reed, who I don't think is any good either, but Marcel Reed at A&M does the job on the road and has a more impressive victory than any of those guys do. Look, I'm a big Nussmeyer guy.

Nussmeyer has been mediocre by what the expectations were. Like, he just hadn't, like, he didn't look right. The offense doesn't look right. It seems to sputter. It's never really kicking into high gear. I'm glad they're three and oh. Brian Kelly had like a little back and forth with a reporter that people are judging him for, where basically he's pissed off.

He's like, we're three and oh. Why are you guys questioning our offense? Like, we're three and oh. And I'm with them actually to a degree because if they were two in one or one and two, you wouldn't be happy. But if they were one and two but we're scoring 45 points a game and throwing for 400 yards, which they've done in the past, by the way, which they did with Jaden Daniels, which they did with Garrett Nussmeyer, would you guys question them if they were two and one,

say they had lost to Clemson or they were one and two and only beat LaTec, but in each of those games scored 50, would it be like, but you know what, everything's fine? And I understand why you should ask questions about teams. I get it. They're legitimate questions. I'm not ripping the reporter for asking it. It is a legitimate thing to ask.

ask, like, hey, what is our offense? Like, what is wrong with it? We anticipated this offense being very good. Why is it that you guys are struggling to move the ball now three weeks in a row? It's not an unfair question. But I think it was the fact that it was the first question out of the gate. After you had just beaten Florida, after you had just gotten five interceptions, and I don't care that it's DJ Lagway or Rex Grossman or Tim Tebow, five interceptions in a game is pretty remarkable. So you dominated Florida in that way and forced five interceptions. You had a defensive score in that game.

So the first question out of the gate is, so what does your offense suck? I can see why that would set you off. Like, hey, asshole, we're 3 and 0. We're a 3 and 0 team. If we were 2 and 1, you'd be pissed. If we were 1 and 2, you'd be pissed. If we were 0 and 3, I'd be fired. But we're 3 and 0.

And now you talk like it's just kind of like understood that we're supposed to be 3 and 0, even though. And look, I get the Clemson ain't as good. as they were supposed to be, and Florida ain't as good as they were supposed to be. But you're 3-0, and two of the teams you've beaten are Clemson and Florida. It's not like you're 3-0 and you beat McNeice and Northwestern State and Villanova. You beat two legitimate power programs that have history of being successful. They're not as good as they once were, but I'd rather take a win over Clemson and Florida over three dipsheds.

So you're 3-0, you go into the locker room, you come out, you're being interviewed by the media, and the first thing they ask you is, so you're off. offense sucks. Tell us about it. Like, fuck you. We're 3 and O. We just threw, we got five interceptions against Florida at home. Screw off. I was texting with AJ about this. AJ, of course, from 97-5 in Houston and now, you know, he was in San Antonio. I tried to get a gig at that station he's at, actually. Like, over the course of my unemployment, I kept talking with AJ and he's like, I mean, I've told them about you. I think we need a midday show, whatever. I tried.

I was like, you know what, I'll move to San Antonio with you and do some cool shit. I'd live in San Antonio. Why not? Didn't come to fruition, never worked out. Didn't really have any long-form conversations with any about it because there wasn't a job opening. I was trying to manifest a job opening, if you will. It just never happened, but either way, that's neither here nor there. But AJ's like, basically, all of these quarterbacks suck.

And I'm like, you're not wrong. Like, there isn't a dominant team, which opens the door for a lot of teams. You know, even though Texas has sucked at quarterback, they're still right there. They're still in the mix for it. Like, everything is out in front of them. There's not one dominant team. And you could argue that's good or that's bad. Like, there's a lot of mediocrity, but everybody's mediocre.

And if everybody's mediocre, everybody's still alive. Everybody can still do it. So, like, I don't know who's going to win the national championship. Like, you could say, hey, is it going to be Ohio State? Ohio State just puttered along with their game. Their unimpressive game that they played over the weekend. I forgot what dipshits they were playing, but it was unimpressive. Texas has been unimpressive.

I mean, just go down the list of these top power programs that have been unimpressive. Michigan, I mean, they were dominant this week, but they got bludgeoned by Oklahoma, couldn't move the ball. Speaking of Michigan, I enjoy that now they played the game this weekend for their coach who's suspended. Like, we won this for coach. Like usually when you win it for someone, it's because, like, they had to leave the team because their wife died or, like, they had to have a leg amputated or something. It's not your coach is suspended because he cheated. That's usually not what you reserve that for, right?

You don't usually reserve the, we won this for coach. And by the way, that's the same coach, if you recall, who cried on the sideline when he had to coach in place of Jim Harbaugh because Jim Harbaugh was suspended for being scummy. scumbag university is Michigan. So the fact that the players are like, we won this for coach. First of all, you played Central Michigan. I was listening to the post game show of that on the radio because it's on here in Detroit. And they're like, man, you guys really seem to figure it out offensively and you took the gloves off of Bryce Underwood. And man, you guys really, I mean, you looked impressive and blah, blah, blah, blah.

Like, what would you attribute that to? Like, I don't know, we played Central fucking Michigan and not Oklahoma on the road. Perhaps that's it? You know, perhaps. I don't know. Hear me out. Maybe playing the Central Michigan Chippewas at home at noon on a Saturday is different than playing a primetime game against Oklahoma on the road. Huh, figure that out.

Boy, do you think Bryce Underwood really figured things out? No. He figured out that you can sling when you play against Central Michigan. But cool, good for you. But man, college football, no real definitive great team. Like Tennessee who lost to Georgia, Tennessee could line up and be. anybody in the country today. Anybody. And they could score 40 on any... If you can score damn near 50 on Georgia, and I don't think Georgia's as talented as they've been. Like, nobody really

stands out with Georgia. Gunner Stockton isn't impressive. Although he put up a lot of yards and they won the game, so good for him. But I mean, he looks like a guy that would do your taxes at H&R Block. Like, there's nothing impressive about the guy. You look at Georgia and you go, oh, I mean, I guess because they're Georgia, we give them credit and assume they're good. Tennessee could line up against any team in the country today and score 40. I don't know how many teams could do that. As we talked about with shitty quarterback play from guys who are supposed to be good. Clemson, with the best quarterback out there, Cade Clubnick, they couldn't line up against just anybody and put up 40.

LSU couldn't line up and put 40 on anybody. I know this because they haven't. I don't think they scored 40 against Lotech. So LSU couldn't do it. Florida couldn't do it. There's one team, one team that when I look at the. them, I go, that team, I think maybe two, even though they didn't put up 40 either, but I think Oregon could probably do it. But Tennessee, if I had to take one, if I had to put money

on it and just say, all right, who's one team, name one team in college football that you could line them up against anybody? And no matter what, they're going to be able to move the ball and score. It'll be Tennessee. I just think they are a force offensively. Hipple's offenses are always a force unless Nico is the quarterback. Well, he ain't the quarterback. He's over there getting coaches fired in UCLA. It's pretty impressive to get fired in September. Good for him. But Tennessee

is that team. If you line Tennessee up there. I think Ole Miss maybe kind of falls into that category too. Like no name. First time starter. The name was Trinidad Chamblis. Throws for like 400 yards against Arkansas. Like wild. Anyway. All right. More to come.