The McShay Show - 10 Tape Truths From Week 10: Ohio State’s Challengers, the Loaded 2027 QB Class, Clemson’s Collapse, and More

Episode Date: November 3, 2025

Welcome to The McShay Show! The guys rewind the tape and give their biggest takeaways from Week 10 of college football. 0:00 Welcome to The McShay Show! 4:09 10 Tape Truths from week 10 4:40 Tape Truth 1: Oregon (-5.5) is on upset alert against Iowa this week 9:35 Tape Truth 2: This is the Arch Manning we expected to see 20:45 Tape Truth 3: Julian Sayin is better than Manning right now—and looks like a legit NFL draft prospect for 2027 35:30 Tape Truth 4: Indiana has the best chance to beat Ohio State on a neutral field 45:43 Todd's Odds: Indiana [-5] v. Ole Miss (Neutral site) 49:10 Tape Truth 5: IU safety Louis Moore is one of the best players in the country 53:12 Tape Truth 6: RB Kewan Lacy is the untold story for Ole Miss 1:00:38 Tape Truth 7: Haynes King needs to be superhuman for Georgia Tech to make the CFP 1:05:08 Tape Truth 8: Texas Tech LB Jacob Rodriguez is the unsung hero in college football 1:13:13 Tape Truth 9: The collapse of Clemson's defense is one of the biggest disappointments of the season 1:17:30 Tape Truth 10: Vandy’s Eli Stowers and Baylor’s Michael Trigg are two of the best TEs in the country Subscribe to The McShay Report for access to all of Todd’s mock drafts, big boards, scouting reports, and more throughout the college football season. This episode is brought to you by American Eagle. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Todd McShay Guest: Steve Muench Producers: Tucker Tashjian, Conor Nevins, and Daniel Comer Social: Alysha Tsuji Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There's always a whole lot to unpack on a 10-taped trues Monday. Today's no exception. Just 171 days until the NFL draft. You good, Munch? I'm great, man. Roll that beat, Tucker. We're coming off a marathon on Saturday night. I got carried away.

What is it? Fall back. What else is? You know, we get an extra hour tonight. Let's keep going. It's like a two and a half hour show. This is the McShay show presented by Fandul. and college football Saturdays are heating up.

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D.C., Kentucky, or Wyoming. Gambling problem? Call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Help.com. Call 1-88-78-98-9-7777 or visit cpG.org slash chat in Connecticut. But there's still a lot to unpack. You and I would have gone into it on Sunday. We've kind of created this problem for ourselves

where Sundays should be like a leisurely family day and now all of a sudden we're watching tape all day. But you know what? It pays off. this Monday show. And once again, we've got our 10 tape trues. I'll remind everybody, the McShea report is out, kind of recapping and some personnel notes from Saturday's games. And you can just Google it. If you don't subscribe already, for those who do, thank you. If you don't already, just Google the McShay report. Subscribe there for free, the Sunday morning's edition. It comes right to your inbox.

It's right there. Click it directly from me. And, yeah, how many did you put out last week? Three? three last week. Or was it four? No, it was three last week. So we're doing two or three a week every week. And then there's some premium ones as well. So we appreciate all the support there. Appreciate all the support.

Like it was the World Series on Saturday night. I kind of didn't. I mean, I knew there was a game. I didn't know it was like a limit. Like it was it. I get poor Tucker. I'm railing on him all night because I'm all wired. He's swimming.

He's doing the show while watching his L.A. Dodgers win the World Series. So congratulations to Tucker. I got done messing around with Dan about going out clubbing. And there was a lot going on in the world. But we still had one of our biggest live shows of the entire year. So we appreciate all the support. Munch. Tell the fine folks how they can support us moving forward.

You go to the YouTube, the Mixie show on the YouTube. And I haven't done this in a while. Hit the follow button. Go to wherever you can find your podcast at the subscribe button. He's at McShay 13. I'm at You Goodmensch. M-U-N-C-H, you caught me off guard. When's the last time I did that?

I know, and I even thought to myself, I should probably tell my answer, I'm going to throw it to him again. But I do appreciate you. I just stumbled through it. You're wearing Peron's Gourmet-Italian. Go to Peron's Gourmetatilian.com and get some of the finest red sauce,

marinera, gravy, if you call it, that you can find, and it's a family affair. So it's a big show of the Peron's hats coming out. It is. That's how I feel. And it's a big show because, like, I can feel it. Like, the selection committee is, you know, They're getting on their private planes and they're making sure that they're ready.

We get the first reveal this week. As much as it's narrowing, you still got all these bubble teams like the Texases, the Carolomas, the U.S.Cs, the Notre Dame's, the Miami's. So this is a big week in college football. And we've got another great week of games set up for Saturday in week 11 of the season. But today is about recapping what we saw. And not just what we saw as we're sitting on our couch watching games and texting each other and going through it.

What did the tape tell us? And I just want to jump right into it. Every Monday we do it, the 10 tape truths. This is stuff that Steve and I went back and watched sitting here on my clicker with my iPad and I'm just studying everything I can. I know Mench is doing the same. And we want to share it with you today. So without further ado, Steve, why don't you kick things off with the first tape truth

on this Monday? Tape truth number one. Oregon is on upset alert at Iowa this weekend. They are a six and a half point favorite. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Who are they playing? Iowa. Iowa's been good.

Iowa's the best unranked team in the country. I don't understand how they're not ranked. I mean, you look at the last four games. I got to wrote them off after a rough start, but they have been rolling. The last four games, they lost to Indiana by five. I mean, they gave everything, Indian everything it could handle. They lost Indiana by five. They beat the badgers.

By the way, I keep interrupting them. So losing to Indiana by five, there's no moral victories, but my goodness, that's the best kind of loss you can have. It took some late game heroics from Fernando Mendoza and Elijah Seraph for them to win that game. That was a tight game. So you look at that game, they only lost by five to Indiana. They beat Wisconsin Badgers by 37.

They beat Penn State by one. And then they beat a pretty good Minnesota team by 38 this past week. I mean, they're just blowing the doors off of some teams, right? So you're looking at this team. I have no idea. Have no idea how they're not ranked. And I'm sure that Lannin is telling his ducks that, hey, man, this is a damn good team. Don't look at those rankings.

This is a better team than you think. They're averaging 31.1 points per game. You look at that and you might be surprised at some of these, you know, Iowa offenses that haven't put up a lot of points. They're putting up some points. They have one of the most dangerous, probably the most dangerous return man in the country. And Caden Weegean, who has two putt up. returns for touchdown for touchdowns and one kickoff return for touchdowns. And I know Oregon fans, I know no one is given up fewer pot return yards in Oregon this year.

They have been outstanding. Don't have a bad week. Don't have a bad week or you're going to be in trouble. And, you know, they got, I was got an edge guy named Max Llewellyn who could give their Oregon to offensive tackle trouble. Phil Parker, like I mentioned, the defense coordinator had a great plan for Indiana. I'm sure he's going to have a great plan for Oregon. And then on the flip side, I'm not, I'm trying not to put.

put too much stock, McShay, in that 21-7 game, Oregon over Wisconsin. That was the last time they were out. Oregon's coming off a buy. The last time they played 21-7 at home against Wisconsin, I'm trying not to put too much stock in it. Dante Moore came out in the third quarter. Oregon ran the ball pretty damn well in that game. And it was a down-pour.

I mean, it was terrible weather. Terrible weather. So you try not to, but it's still, it's sticking in my crawl a little bit. Just 21-7? I hear it. That's a game. I sense it. That's a game you should handle, man.

And, you know, and, of course, you look at Lanning's record off a buy, coming off a buy at Oregon, it's four and one. He doesn't lose a lot of games. I mean, I think the only team's lost off a buy is Washington. So it's no surprise there that they've been pretty successful. Again, I fully expect Oregon to win this game. It's a six and a half points red. What's Iowa doing well? Oh, they are Iowa.

They are right off the bat. They are the least penalized team in the country. They are not going to hurt themselves. Number two, they run the ball well, right? They are, their offensive line is built for that zone run game. Everything's off play action. Mark Rannowski, the transfer quarterback, not much of a threat of the passing game. Not going to lie to you.

I think it's four touchdowns of four interceptions. It's not, this is not a passing game that's going to scare the ducks. But he has 11 rushing touchdowns, and you have to be aware of that when they get down in the red zone. He's another added element to it. So they're, they're what you expect, I would it be. And then defensively, I think they have, it's seven, it's eight players, eight different players have a pick. They could turn you over.

You got to be careful. Don't put the ball in harm's way, Dante Moore. And the other thing is this is one of the best run defenses in the country. They give up 2.64 yards per carry. You know who else gives up 2.64 yards per carry? Ohio State. This is a real good run defense. So Oregon's are running the ball,

but they haven't really been able to unlock the Corian more of the talented freshman receiver. He's been good, but not great. And Kenyon Sadiq, the talented tight end, who should be putting up incredible numbers, has not been. They haven't really been able to unlock that either. So this is Oregon teams have been leaning on the run really since, you know, losing to Indiana. And I don't know, man. I don't know.

It's just be careful, Ducks. Don't go in there. I think this is going to be an easy one because it's not. Interesting. I like that. Way to kick things off with my green shirt on going after the Ducks. You know, I love my Ducks, Ben. I'm just giving them a warning.

I feel like it's a PSA for the Ducks program and you're doing a service for Dan Lannning to like, I'm sure he's on it, man. I am sure he is, yeah. I'm certain. I'm certain. Captain Gladiator, like, he's getting it going this week. I'll also say that Ducks should get a boost from their guy coming out and saying, I'm not interested in any other jobs and saying during the biweek that I'm here and I'm staying at Oregon,

which is not a surprise, but still could give the team a little bit of a boost. Yeah, certainly did with Ret Lashley and SMU in that upset over Miami. Right. Right. Okay. tape truth number two this is arch finally like it's it's been exhausting if you're if you're pulling for arch if you're just a fan of college football and and you knew all the hype coming in right um and the struggles that he had early in this season and you start to question like is he ever going to be

what what the hype was and i listen i don't know that anyone is ever going to live up to the hype that arch had coming in as a first year starter You can't just roll in with, you know, a couple starts and a few games played in, and all of a sudden you're the Heisman favorite, favorite to be the number one overall pick, and Texas is going to win a national championship. Just all has to happen, right? Right. It's already written.

It's written, but this is Arch. And it started against Oklahoma, okay, which at the time, remember, was the number one defense in the country. Texas is now on a four-game win streak, and it has not all been beautiful. Admittedly. It hasn't. Mississippi State, no. But you look at this, that win streak has included two top ten wins. And Texas hasn't done that in the previous four years combined. Okay?

So things are, while it doesn't seem like it's Oklahoma, it's Vanderbilt, they're top 10 wins at the end of the day. At the time they played Oklahoma, at the time they played Vanderbilt, they were top 10 teams in the country. And Texas got those wins. That's something they had not done in the last four seasons, you know, while Sark has been there. So that's something.

Why am I saying it today? Because for the first time, and I said this Saturday night, I wanted a long rant about it. And I wanted to go back and study the tape and make sure that it wasn't just, I'm watching the game copy and it's different. And I'll be, you want true serum? Here's true serum. You pop in the tape if you're me.

I don't like the third person. it. But, but you pop in the tape and you're like, all right, let's go, let's go solidify with all the points I made on Saturday night. And the first two throws, that, well, the first two key play throws. Right. Now, remember, he had, he had, he had that orbit swing to, uh, to Wingo. He takes it 70, 75 yards to the house touchdown. That's not to keep that. That's, I don't learn anything from Archer on that throw. He's got another screen to Wingo for 14 yards. Don't learn anything from that. Great job, Sark.

But then, yes, great job Sark and great job Wingo. But Wingo injures his thumb on that play. Takes himself out straight to the tent. We don't see him again. The second half he comes out without his helmet on. Reports are positive. Sark said in an emergency, like, if this was a critical, like, not that it's not a in an emergency, we could have, you know, Wingo could have gone back out.

And so Texas has a buy and there's speculation and hope, but follow the reporting. and we'll see how if things change, that Wingo will be okay in a couple weeks as the schedule doesn't get any, you know, a whole lot kinder. As they've got at Georgia, number five in the country, they've got Arkansas, and then they've finished with Texas A&M at home, okay, the rivalry game. So that's what's on tap,

and that's kind of the best update I could find on Wingo in the moment. So I see the first key throw, the first throw where, like, you can learn something from him. It's a bad out, a bad miss on an out. Next throw. Bad decision. Kind of scattering to his right. Nobody's open, throws back over the middle. Bad decision.

Overshoots it, bad throw, and I'm like, oh, no. I'm proclaiming that arch is back, and the first two throws are scaring me. Okay? Then at 440 first quarter, you can see the first time, like, oh, he's settled down now. All right? He drill. It's a curl route to DeAndre Moore, but he drills it with confidence. Then there's a touchdown pass rolling

to his right, patient locates a wide receiver number four and makes that throw. Then there was another throw a little bit later. It was like an 18 back to 16 deep out in the right rail and I slow moat it, rewind it, like the ball

is out before he breaks and drills it. And I'm like, here we go. This is what we're expecting to see, right? And it keeps going from there. Here are my notes. Poison the pocket working right to left with his eyes, drills an in-breaker between three zone defenders. Then 12-06 third quarter.

Love this throw. Sale concept, two overs with the slot. It trips to the left. You get two overs. Picture the outside two receivers are running overs to the middle of the field. And then it's a beautiful design. You see a lot of teams do it. Lane Kiffin lives off of this design.

And then the slot receiver is going to work to the out. Balls out on time. It's a thing of beauty. It's a confident. This is the throw that I was talking about on Saturday. This is the throw where I was like, oh, he is feeling it, right? Balls out on time, layers it over the linebacker, hit perfectly in stride, and does so with enough room before the sideline that Moore is allowed to create yards after the catch, too.

So you got to get it there with a layer, but in time to give him the opportunity to work his way up the field. Then I just kept writing, he's under control. Even an incomplete pass he had to Livingston over the middle of the field near the goal line was like a high difficulty, high degree of difficulty throw. Put it on him a little bit high, but Livingston is a real tall receiver to catch that Livingston needs to make. Yeah, let me see what up with one hand on that one, right? With one hand. Exactly, Steve. RPO, he was hit while throwing, drills an easy strike.

It was, you know, wide open receiver, but under pressure, quick on the. the RPO gets it out touch out it's 31 10 at the time and outside of those first two throws it was kind of a thing of beauty you felt like this is this is the deal now there wasn't a lot after that we had a really nicely placed out route to the right side touch placement through and then the last throw on the reel because I kept asking myself because you got to remember they're up 31 10 and now there's other games that I'm watching because this feels like it's in the bad but I see I keep watching the ticker and it's like oh 31 16 or 301 10 or 30. 3416.

And then it keeps growing from there. They, I thought 3416, right? There was this deep throw because I was questioning, is Sark being conservative? And he was after that and a lot of things just went poorly and the defense kind of collapsed and playing prevent. But he had this deep ball down the right rail, up 3416. Sark recognizes we got to keep,

we got to keep, you know, our foot on the gas at this moment. and I thought Sark showed a lot of confidence in him. Driving the ball down the field, right rail, the wide receiver didn't haul it in, but it would have been a touchdown. It would have made it 41 to 16 drop. That would have ended all the drama. We wouldn't be talking about, yeah, but Vandy came back and all that stuff, because it would have been 41 to 16 at that time.

Yeah, 41 to 16 had they kicked the extra point. anyway, my takeaway from all of it is, at the very least now, I know that they have in arch what they hope to have, a guy who's mobile, who knows where to go with his eyes, who is making all of these throws that are NFL-like throws, and the talent is there. And so all the people who are on X and social media showing me, you know, the low-level high school competition he was playing, and the short-arming and all. all that stuff. Like, yeah, there's some stuff he can continue to develop and work on,

and he'll get better and better as time goes on. But I know it's there. And I'm a Texas fan, if I'm an arch fan, if I'm close with the Manning family, or if I'm not. And I just want Arch to be good because it makes college football better. You breathe a sigh of relief because you see it's there. And this is Arch. And that's exciting for Texas.

And it doesn't mean they're going to make the college football. football playoff, although it's all in front of them. And this SEC is wild. And now the ACC's down to one team. The Big 12 is going to be down to one team. There's an opportunity for the SEC to get five in. And Texas, if it handles business, and I think it's capable of doing it, I truly do. The defense has got to step up, but at least it's not your quarterback. And that's not something five weeks ago that any of us was prepared to say. So that's a, that to me, is a huge step in the right direction. And it really, like,

it's what the whole program is about this year. Because if Arch isn't playing at this level, they get no shot. With Arch playing at this level, all right, we got a shot now. I couldn't agree more. Like, you're going into those last three aims, and I'm thinking if they don't run that,

they don't win out. I'm more worried about the defense than I'm about Arch now. And you wouldn't have said that a month ago. There's no way you would have said that a month ago. But, I mean, the defense gave up 31 to Vanderbilt, and, you know, I know it was kind of a unique 31 and that they just kind of felt like they just took their foot off the gas, right?

But 38 to Mississippi State the week before, like I just want to, that defense is so good, but it's not consistent. They got to be consistent. So if that defense can play at the, if it can elevate and get back to what it needs to do, that team, I mean, Texas is dangerous. Yeah. It's going to be interesting. This is going to be a wild ride in November.

It's what we signed up for, right? Right. And everyone screams about, you know, SEC and once you just do an SEC, show and like get out of here. Sorry. There's like six. You got you got A&M's 8 and no. Alabama is 7 and 1 but 5 and 0 in conference.

Georgia's 7 and 1, 5 and 1 in conference. Ole Miss is 7 and 1 5 and 1 in conference. George has got the beater against Ole Miss and you can do all the tiebreakers, right? But Texas, 7 and 2 but 4 in 1 in conference. And then you get Oklahoma and Vanderbilt, both 3 and 2 in conference, but with opportunity, to knock some teams off and for things to happen where they're not completely out of it. So that's seven teams I just listed right there.

I don't think, I'd say maybe 50, 50 best of the SEC gets five in. But a week or two ago, we would have said maybe it's like 15, 20%, you know? So it's growing as other conferences are kind of collapsing as we get closer to the finish line. It's interesting, man. I mean, I think they should, we'll, three loss SEC team get in. I think they should be considered.

That was the problem last year, right? That they, it just, I don't, I don't trust the committee, Todd. I don't trust them to do the right thing, but I'm with you. Tape truth number two. Three. Three. My second one. But thank you.

Tape truth number three. I'm not saying he should win Heisman, but I am saying, Arch is good, saying is better. Julian Sane is playing better football than Arch Manning right now. Period. All right. Should he go to New York? You're saying he's not saying he should win it.

Should he be invited to New York? Oh, absolutely. And we'll get to the Heisman in a minute. And he's the odds-on favorite right now by Fanduel. Say it is? Yes. Oh, I didn't know that. That is interesting.

I didn't see that. You didn't tell me that. We'll get to the Heism. But the most important thing is this, and we'll get to the, Heisman and can't have that discussion at the end of this. The most important thing I, like probably the most important thing that at a conclusion that I came to on Sunday watching tape. Like, yeah, again, I'm not saying he's going to win the Heisman or should win the

Heisman. But I am saying that Arch is really good. Julian is better. Yeah, gotcha, gotcha. Julian's better than Arch. and I'm not here for any debate on that. And listen, I get news for you. At one point in time, Drew Henson in the coaching staff's mind was as good as Tom Brady.

Brian Greasy was better than Tom Brady. Drew Bledsoe was better than Tom Brady. Eventually, Tom Brady became the best to ever do it. So just because Julian's better than arts right now doesn't mean that that's how it's always going to be. But it's my job to go watch the tape and report what I'm seeing. The tape tells me what the facts and the truths are. And tape truth number three is that Julian is playing better ball than Arch. And if you were to give me one player, one quarterback for the biggest game of the year

and said you can choose between Sayin and Manning, I'm taking Julian. This tape was, I mean, it's not just this. I begged people, buy his stock now, couple weeks ago. And it was even better this past week. And I get at Penn State. They've lost five straight. They don't, they've fallen apart. It's not what we expected. Who cares? But this is Penn State with a lot of talent. And this is the final punch that this program was going to throw. And it's a defensive coordinator that understands, well, it's not Chip Kelly, what Ryan Day wants to do and what Brian Hartline wants to do and a lot of those tendencies. And they were prepared to play. And I didn't

see any lack of effort. I was going to ask you. I'm glad you're saying that because they, I'm glad you're saying that. I didn't. I saw, I saw a system and I want to give a lot, I want to give a lot of credit to two places, both the coaching staff and the offensive lines for Texas and Ohio State. Arch had more protection in this past game than I've seen all season. Julian saying, I don't want to say more than any other game, but Julian's saying, I don't want to say more than any other game, but Julian in San San's protection against that defensive front and with Jim Knowles knowing kind of how to get pressure on the quarterback and to do it against this offensive scheme, I thought they were

outstanding. Both quarterbacks had to maneuver around and there were times. But like for the most part in college football to have that kind of protection, you don't see it very often against. Right. It's never 100% clean. It's never 100% clean. Vandy's gotten pressure on on quarterbacks. I'm not saying they have any first round draft picks along the defensive line, they don't. Right. But they've got some players and they've gotten pressure. Penn State's got better talent up front. They've got players.

They've gotten pressure. And both of these offensive fronts and both of the coaching staffs did amazing jobs this past weekend. But back to saying, this guy, man, to see what he was. This should be a coaching clinic. And granted, Ohio State has has loved. because of its defense, because of its talent, because of its weapons, that most other programs are not afforded. So to do this at another program, the way that Ryan Day and Brian Hartline

slowly brought this young quarterback along, responsibilities, you know, pass run ratio, different things that he was asked to do in terms of his pre-snap, post-snap, his reads you have seen almost on a weekly basis this ascension and the responsibilities handed to Julian Sayan so that now here we are in the back half of the season and we're to a point where I'm not saying he has the key to the entire palace but he's he's allowed to enter most rooms okay and I'm seeing a quarterback who has a complete a complete understanding of what they're trying to do where his eyes should go And in doing that, he's gaining confidence every week.

And yeah, nobody else in the country has two first round receivers like Ohio State does. And the level of, because we all know Jeremiah Smith's going to be a top 10 pick at worst, probably a top five overall pick. And we're watching Cornell Tate grow up in front of our eyes. He's become an absolute weapon because of the attention to detail and the rut running skills that he has. But here are my notes. You ready? Drilling the ball with confidence. Ball hitting spots.

On time, out route to his left to Jeremiah Smith. Like NFL-style throw. Isolating Smith and getting the ball out on time. And by the way, Ryan Day and Heartline. Like I love what they're, whether it's bunches formation or motioning pre-snap, three guys to one right before. So the ball snapped. And all of a sudden it's like, shit.

We game plan all week so that we wouldn't allow. Jeremiah Smith to be men to men. And here we are, you know. And so they're doing a lot of stuff pre-snap that's creating these matchup advantages for them because they're personnel. But then I saw plays with Julian extending and doing it like under control with poise

and not rushing, not getting hurried, not making young quarterback mistakes. Under, like, it's just everything's done with confidence. trajectory and catchable ball. That's the thing. It's great to have Carnel Tate run that post to seem where he just snaps off

the route and gets the safety turned around and gets five yards. But if he overthrows it or if he doesn't throw it with a trajectory, it allows the defensive back to get in the play or it prevents Tate from tracking it down. He's throwing a catchable ball

down the field where his receivers who are great can go up and utilize that greatness. And that shouldn't be overlooked. So while they're so special, no one's taking anything away from four and 17, those dudes are like, they are the real deal.

But somebody's got to get them the ball and give them opportunities to go make those plays to showcase their greatness, and he's doing it. There's even more tempo and decisiveness in what Julian's doing than what I'm seeing from Arch. Arch looked really good.

Looked really good, man. And I just told you all the reasons. And tape truth, too, why I really like where Arch is right now. This guy's doing it with a little bit more and like, it just looks better. It's cleaner. It's crisper. It's more confident.

The ball's coming out a little bit better. The ball's being drilled into spots a little bit more precisely. Everything he's doing, while Arch is doing it really well, Julian's doing it better. So why isn't saying the Heisman winner? Why is he not the guy right now? I'm not saying that he shouldn't be and absolutely in the conversation.

But I'm also saying like let's keep, I'm always a pushback guy on it's got to be the quarterback from the best team. You know what I mean? Yeah. And this is the best defense in college football. And this is starting to shape up to be one of those defenses where we put it in the conversation.

I've mentioned it before. like USC in the early 2000s Miami back in 2001 Alabama and the and like the 2011 that kind of early 2010's range Georgia in like the 20 what was it 2019 that

2020 maybe 2019 yeah that range right it's shaping up to be that level of defense so he's got that work working for him he does have a you would give a Haynes King a nod because he means more to his team

that's yeah and again and i think we have that so it's julian saying right now this is fanduel always trusty no hans king keep the lights on for well haines king's king's coming off that that loss i know i know but this this is the top five and i was surprised at it no haines king no no uh jeremiah love from notre dame right there are other guys that you can argue but this i'm just like these are the odds on favorites julian saying plus 175 Fernando mendoza just behind him from Indiana. Haynes King, I'm being told right now by Daniel. Daniel Comer.

I've never called him Daniel before. I'm just reading the screen. Sorry, Dan. It's plus 10,000. That's wild. Yeah, I think it's realistic. I might have to get on Fandul after this. No, you shouldn't because he's just not going to win it because people don't think so.

If he wore, I told you, if he wore a Gator's jersey, then, then yeah. And you saw Marcel Reed on that? list. Yeah. Gunner Stockton on that list. Gunner's coming off kind of a, and yeah, Haynes King is 11th best odds.

Wild. Don't forget that Dan's a... 500 total yards on Saturday night. Just trying to gut it out for his team. But Jeremiah loves interesting that he's not on that list. We'll see how it all plays out. But so I'm not saying that Julian doesn't deserve to win it. I'm just saying like,

let's also keep in perspective what other individuals are doing and their value to the team and where that team would be without them. Gotcha. That's the only thing. So I don't really care about the Heisman right now. No. And so because Fandle just came out with these odds and all of a sudden, I think that's going to be a lot of talk when you go watch other shows.

Julian Sayans, you know, odds on favor to win the Heism. They're great. I'm not saying he shouldn't, but I'm also saying let's keep some perspective on the schedule they've played, the talents that it's around them. Carnell Tate, you can make an argument in some years, might might, might, might deserve a look. Problem is he's got he's got a top five NFL draft pick playing opposite him who's not eligible this year, who hasn't had like the production and the numbers to win a Heisman, but is the best player in college football and I'll like fight me on it. So you know what

I mean? So there's a fun conversation, but yeah. But I guess my point is at this moment in time, I don't really care. I don't want us to be the show that's talking about Julian Sayans, odds on favorite for the wins to win the Heisman. I want to tell you something that I saw on tape, and while I'm like all in on what Arch is doing, and I think it's amazing, and I'm relieved for him, because no human being should start the first year as a starter

with that kind of external pressure on him. And so it's awesome that he's been able to weather that storm with Sark, with that supporting cast around him at Texas, with I'm sure the help of family members there and the first family in football of the Mannings. He's had a lot of people kind of, hey, stay the course, work the process. And so it's great to see the results start to come with that process. And I feel really good about Texas and it's quarterback position.

But Julianne's saying is playing at an even higher level. And I didn't know that we would, like I'm talking about he's getting to a point now where it's like, oh, this guy's a legitimate NFL draft prospect. and 2027 started to shape up to be something that could be like, holy shit. If Arch keeps playing like this, if Julian Sayin keeps playing like this, if we've got other guys like Ty Simpson,

Lenora Sellers coming back, I don't know if Mendoza's leaving after this year or not, but he can come back, John Mateer can come back. I mean, it may get gutted in 2026, Steve. We may have a draft that like doesn't have it as much as excited, as we thought it would coming in this year with hopefully clubnick takes the next step and Nussmeyer takes the next step and Dante Moore might be the best pure passer of all these guys

but he needs another year but you could have you could have Julian saying archmanning Dante Moore Lenora Sellers John Mateer Ty Simpson all in that 2027 draft and I'm not and there's a few other names is going to be in there too so it's going to be not only for this season but like when we get to January and we're getting ready for the senior bowl, that's going to be like, holy smokes, that January 15th date where prospects have to declare, are we in or are we going back to school? And with the NIL money that they're going to get to come back to school, that January, everyone else is going to be talking about the national championship, and we will be too. We'll be doing live shows after those those playoff games and after the national championship

game. That's going to be our focus. But we're going to have a like a firm eye on who's declaring and who's not because it's going to dictate what's going on for the next few months leading up to the 2026 NFL draft in April and then it could be setting us up for an unbelievable 26 season in college football and a 27 draft when it comes to the quarterbacks. Like maybe as good or better

than what we saw a couple years ago with six quarterbacks drafted in the top 12, starting with Caleb Williams, Jaden Daniels, Drake May, Michael Pennix, J.J. McCarthy, and then Bo Nix 12 to the Broncos. It could wind up being a better class than that. I'm with you. I'm with you. And then you add in all the other talent that could be in that group.

It's going to be. I get excited about every draft. I don't want to overlook what's going to happen in 2026, but you're right. 2027 could be different. Mind-law. Yeah. All right. You're up.

Got a tight 45 minutes on two quarterbacks. Good for you. That was really good pace. Get out of here. Go. Tape truth number four. Fandil gives our guys at Fandle give Indiana the best odds to beat Ohio State on our neutral site. And I think they got it right.

We've got Todd's odds. Here we go. To give Ohio State's favored by four against Indiana, five against Alabama, and six and a half against Texas A&M. Let's start with the most obvious about why they got it right. Ohio State should be favored against everyone. So that's step one, right? As much as I am concerned about that schedule, like I think it's 33rd strength of schedule so far,

43rd remaining strength of schedule. It hasn't been overwhelming. I do want to see them play someone. I said that on Saturday night. I still believe that, but I still think they're the best team of the country and they should be favored against everyone. Here's why I think Indiana matches up best with them, okay?

Indiana's defense. I'm not sure people understand how good this defense is and how good Brian Haynes is the defense coordinator. They are special. They rank third points allowed per game. seventh and yards allowed per game. There are eighth in sacks in the country, even though they didn't have a sack against Maryland this past week.

They can get after the quarterback. They know how to do it. I just think that defense is super good. One of the least penalized teams in the country, Signetti's not going to beat itself, man. And we talk on offense all the time about Fernando Mendoza and those playmakers on the outside. Do we realize how good the Indiana run game is,

six in the country and rushing yards per game with Kalin Black and Roman Hemby? And by the way, they've got a freshman, Kobe Martin. Oh, he's got two 100-yard rushing games this year. They are deep at running back. They are talented at running back. Man, it's just a really good team. And now I look at Alabama, and I love Ty Simpson.

And I think that passing attack could give Ohio State some problems. I love, I mean, as good as that Ohio State defenses, they don't have an elite edge rusher outside of Arvel Reese. Outside of Arvel Reese, I understand that. I get that. I think Alabama's passing attack could give them problems. but like Alabama's defense, inconsistent play at corner, I think.

Their passing defense numbers are inflated by the fact that they've played Missouri, Georgia, Florida State, all these run-heavy teams. I think when you look at it, Alabama's past defense that you can get them. They don't, they're not as great on past defense as they've been in the past. And when you got Mendoza and those two receivers on the outside,

I mean, I'm getting it mixed up. Ohio State. When you look at them trying to slow down Ohio. state, that's going to be a hard thing for Alabama to do. So as much as I like Ty Simpson, I just don't, I don't see it. I will say, I will continue to say that I think that Texas A&M is the most dangerous team in the country. They're just not the most consistent.

And Marcel Reed has had some, you know, he was, I forget, his numbers against Notre Dame where it was 17 for 37, 12 for 21 against LSU. He is absolutely electric, but he has stretches where you're like, oh, no. It gets scary. Marcel Reed is the reason why A&M is so dangerous and legitimately can be any team in the country. Marcel Reed is also the reason why A&M of these elite teams is the most getable. Right. And I'm convinced of it.

And I believe, and I've said this, and both things can be true. I can be blown away by the talent and the playmaking ability and how special of an athlete and like decision maker on the fly and some of the things he does. I can be blown away by all those things and have a great appreciation for them. But I'm also the one who said, I think Texas A&M is going to get gut.

They could be easily good. And I think Marcel Reed is going to be the reason. Those things can both be true at the same time. 100% they can both be true. It's why they're so much fun to watch. It's a tightrope act. It's, are they going to get to the other side of this thing? Because, I mean, they're wobbling here.

Look at the other thing. They've had a couple of real shootouts with Notre Dame and Arkansas. As good as that defense can be, as good as that pass rest to be. It is weird to watch, right? They give up some points in games, man. I mean, it was 42, I think, to Arkansas. All of a sudden, and I get that that's a different offense than what Ohio State is. I get all of that.

But that defense, man, every once in a while, they start giving up points. They start giving up yards. And I just, so it's clear to me that it's Alabama and Indiana. I do give Indiana a light edge. I do want to ask you something. Yeah. If you're Kurt Signetti, you go into the Big Ten championship against Ohio State. Let's say that's how it plays out.

It's Indiana, Ohio State, as we all think it will be, right? How do you game plan? Are you hiding some stuff? Are you saying yourself we're not coming out with – Think about it. Think about it. I know. The full game playing.

You want to get – it could be a real – if you're talking about not only is Indiana, maybe the best built team, the best matchup for Ohio State, and again, I think Ohio State wins that game. But not only that, they will have – a distinct advantage of playing them in a game that I'm sorry won't really matter that much in the long run. That's what that is now. The Big Ten Championship won't be like I understand fans want that big Ten. I get that. The team wants to win it. I understand all that. I hear you. I do. Am I off the rails? It is an interesting thought, but you have played competitive sports your

entire life and you have been part of a college football program. What? I'm not saying you don't compete. That's not what I'm saying. I'm not saying you sit starters. I'm not saying any of that. I'm saying that you maybe tweak your game plan, even if it's tweaking your game plan to see we want, like if we were trying to win this game,

we might be playing our strengths, but we might want to see what their weaknesses are and we're going to adjust it that way, just so we can have some things on take. I think when you're a coach at this level, it's they might want to not throw everything at us because we're the ones to beat. You know what I mean?

Yeah. you don't hold something back in that game because if you because by throwing it all at them then you come back and you work counters off of what you did the first time around yeah you can still to so whatever you threw at them then you throw them kind of the reverse and it's like a you know reverse psychologist you off of what you did so i i know what you're saying and it's and it's and it's kind of a fun thing to play with mentally for a few minutes but but i you know that as you have a responsibility to your players to give them every opportunity to win. And then it's your responsibility if you're going to play that program again in five,

six weeks or whatever it plays out to then to then go study that tape and work off of, okay, what worked, what didn't work? What are they going to expect? What can we throw at them differently? Right? Yeah. Here's my biggest takeaway of this. And I think this is fascinating.

First, I do think, I do think like we're very fortunate that that we have a relationship with Fanduil that they would be willing to put these things together for us. And we joke around about Todd's odds and they think I'm kind of crazy. And they probably are like, yeah, sure, here we go. But they might be honest of them. The fact that we're able to get these things to work off because of our relationship with Fanduil is awesome. And we appreciate it.

And I rail on Tucker all the time. And but I do it in a loving manner. And this show would not like, it doesn't have a chance to do anything without Tucker. is the Wizard of Oz and beyond just like the operational stuff, I don't think people realize that, that my guy Tucker is like constantly working with it. It's the ad teams, he reads and all that stuff. So my appreciation for the for the Major League Baseball World Series champion and Tucker,

is it Tasgean? I can't believe here we are. And I, of course, do it on air because I do everything on air and I get made fun of. Tasjin. Oh, there's his voice. There he is. Oh, you can't hear him on the show. What a tease.

Zoom. What a tease. We'll get him on. That's the biggest reason why I keep needling Tucker Tassian. There's two ways to pronounce it. The chat keeps calling for him. Huh? The chat wants to see him, too.

They want him to come on. Oh, wait until they see him. He's a handsome man. Oh, here we go. He is. He's a handsome man. And so, yeah, but no, but my biggest takeaway from all of this. And again, we appreciate being able to do this.

The odds makers really respect Indiana. Think about last year when we did this exercise, how much disrespect. And I, and I agreed with the odds makers. Now you look at, you look at Indiana. And not only, not like, so it tells me the odds makers view Indiana as the better football team than Alabama. and Alabama and Indiana as a better football team than Texas A&M. So I think, to be honest with you, they kind of are in line with our thinking. Well, we love Texas A&M.

And they deserve to be number three in the rankings. And if they were number two, we wouldn't put up a massive fight based off of what they've done. They're seeing a little bit of what we're seeing as well. The other thing that we asked, and I forget which person on the chat, asked a great question this week. Not even a question. Just pose like, how awesome it would it be? to see Lane Kiffin with his personality

versus Kurt Signetti. Mateus, it was Mattias, who's becoming a rising star on our Saturday reaction show. We all know the Haasas of the world and always trade back. Yes. But Mateus is a fast-rising prospect, right? And if you don't join it,

like it's the most fun thing we do all week. And we'll be back on Saturday night, breaking into the prime time game on YouTube. So lock that in, go check it out. We send it out early in the week. You can even get it where you get a notification. But that matchup's fascinating to me. Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss versus Kurt Signetti and Indiana.

And that's kind of how this whole thing started. Indiana would be favored by five overall Miss. Thoughts on that. Yeah. I mean, that's the same number as Alabama, right? Is that got that right? Well, that was against Ohio State. Oh, yeah, I'm sorry.

You're right. I'm getting them all mixed up. now. Yeah, I still think, listen, your guy Trinidad Chambley, I put him, he's a better kind of version of Marcel Reed. I don't think he's as volatile, but I still I'm not sold that he's going to

be, I mean, he was a little inconsistent this past week. We saw him at the end of the Georgia week. I love him. I really like Trinidad Chambliss, but if you tell him he's going to be steadier at a big point in the game, it's going to be Fernando Mendoza to me. And I do think that Indiana, and again, Ole Misses run defense, a little

shaky at times. And like, just said this Indiana run game might be, might be underrated by some people. I think it's really good. Oh, it's really good. But this is a perfect transition. This is a perfect transition to Tape Truth Six. Kiwan Lacey is the untold story for Ole Miss.

You just told, you are, you are off the rails. Tape Truth 5, not even a thing anymore. We're not even going to mention you tape truth 5. I thought you just had one. Oh, yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Fine.

I'm worried about you. It felt like a good transition. This is what happens. This is what happens. We'll bring it back to Keywon Lacey. Go ahead. Yeah, this is what happens when you know we like what we're talking about. Like we're going to have a long show.

We're going to like start pushing each other around a little bit. Here we go. All right. The McShay show is brought to you by Fandool. Ready to fire up your Saturdays? Fan Duel's got a boost you don't want to miss. It's called boosting with the boys. And it's giving everyone a college football profit boost every single.

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They've got every style and everyone covered. You can check it all out at ae.com or just go to the store. I feel like Indiana is a no-name defense. Tape Truth number five. We're going to put some names on these guys. Lewis Moore is Safety Lewis Moore for Indiana is one of the best player, He's playing for one of the best defenses in the country, and he's one of the best players on that defense.

And nobody knows who he is. No one knows who he is. And his story is awesome, okay? He started at Navarro College where he played DB and wide receiver for three years, I believe. Goes to Indiana for two years. And then they hire Signetti. He's like, I'm not playing for this guy from JMU.

I'm out of here. He goes to Ole Miss for a year. Really? Yeah. Then he transfers back to Indiana. He's like, well, you know what? That Signetty guy might know what he's doing. Transverse back to Indiana.

If you're doing, I don't know if that's really what he's thinking, but that's what I'm thinking in my mind that he's thinking. He gets back there and he says to, if you're keeping count of the numbers of years here, like six or seven, he's out of eligibility. Okay. But he sues the NCAA says in a varro. Really?

Really? Much like Diego Pavia, who kind of paved the way for this lawsuit. Very interesting, right? Yeah. He wins the lawsuit. He wins in late September, by the way. He's playing early in the year. Doesn't know if he's going to be able to finish the season.

So what's he doing? He gets this shot, right? How do I not know this story? This is unbelievable. It's awesome, right? It's awesome. He's tied for the FBS lead with five interceptions right now. She leads in Indiana in total tackles and solo tackles.

He is having a year and he's awesome. Now, we'll say this. How is game not done this? Like, this is amazing. It's amazing. So I went. through it, right? And he has, I went through every, all the five interceptions. He is a vulture for overthrows and tip passes, okay? It's a lot of overthrows and tip passes, but he still makes

those plays, knows how to track the ball, and is very natural catching that ball. And to me, I was like, this guy's kind of more of a ball magnet than a playmaker, you know what he mean? Like, these picks are kind of finding him more than he's finding. More magnet than Hawk. Right. So, but that's not a complete knock. Listen, that's not a bad thing to be. And you're still getting I'm in. And then I watched the Maryland game this past weekend. And he has a pick as a single high safety where he runs under a receiver running a go route. Then I'm like, oh, you can do that too. Oh, okay. All right. So you're not just this guy who's getting lucky all the time. You can actually go out and go get it. You can go make plays too. Okay. Plays mostly single high. He plays mostly

high, but he also plays in the box a little bit, a little bit over the slot. I love how physical he is at 5-11, 200. The way he closes, breaks on the ball and limits yards after contact. He is really good in that area. He's really tough against the run. Like a lot of safety, he misses some tackles. Give his name again so that we can get it out there. Lewis Moore. Lewis Moore.

Very physical dude for his size. He will come up and hit you after the catch. He will get involved. He will knife into the backfield and try to blow up the run. Here's another thing I love about him. He's on every special teams unit. He's been on every special team for this year. This is a guy that like, you know, we're talking about, I think, Aidan Fisher.

People know about Ian Fisher. You know, there's not a lot of NAPE. DeAngelo Ponds. Yeah, Camaro a little bit. A lot of these kids aren't getting a lot of, you know, it feels like it's a no-name defense for Indiana. It really does. This guy, I was, I throw on the tape,

I was like, this is awesome. Awesome. I love when you throw on your Peron's Italian gourmet hat with your beard going on a Monday morning and starts some story. I'm fired up in. Storytelling with draft Santa. I love it. That's fascinating.

That's amazing. Yes. Yes. Now I can't wait to watch this. cat play. All right. Now going up against Old Miss and our hypothetical, if we can ever get that Signetti versus Kiffin matchup, which would be awesome. And all the attention has been on Chambleus, right? And as I mentioned

before, I already, I spoiled, alerted it, and I blew through the alert. Tape Truth 6, not 5, is that Kiwan Lacey, the running back, is the untold story for Ole Miss. His value to that team has been, and I believe, has been great. And I believe it will be, he could be the difference if Ole Miss can run this thing, get in the playoff and make a run in the playoff. But if he's not right and they can't keep him going, I don't know that they have enough balance as a team. Why do I say that? Okay. You look at,

he's just a sophomore. He's 5-11, 210 pounds. He started out at Missouri, okay, one year at Missouri before transferring to Ole Miss. He had just 23 carries as a reserve. Got to Missouri probably saw Ahmad Hardy. It was like I'm going to be a backup here for a couple years because Hardy's not eligible until 2027 draft. So Hardy's going to be back for another year. So he goes to Ole Miss.

Great opportunity. If you're leaving because you're not winning a job or I don't know how exactly it played out, this is a great opportunity, right? He goes here and he wins the job, 2025. So far this year, he has 189 carries, 863 yards. Only 4.6.

We're not talking about some of those magical college football rushing average numbers. Excuse me, but he's got 13 touchdowns. Just an outlet in the passing game. He's got 21 catches, but he's only averaging like 5.7 a catch, okay? Only 121 yards. He had an undisclosed injury prior to the Arkansas game. He only rushed for 62 yards in that game, and that game was a scare, as you alluded to earlier. It was 41 35, right?

They had to throw the football and the defense didn't play up to the level that they were hoping that it would. And then the only rushed for 31 yards in the loss to Georgia. So two of their worst performances, I shouldn't say two of the performances where they just didn't feel like they were clicking as a team, they couldn't get Lacey going, right?

And so it's a trend that you watch. He's been critical, though. he's gotten back healthy 100%. He's been critical in four tight games. Four of the last five games for Ole Miss have been tight. And I'm even including this past week against South Carolina. It's LSU, Washington State, which I went back. There's only a three or four point win, right?

Oklahoma and South Carolina. The first three were one-score games, and South Carolina was for a while, and then they pulled away. All right? And Chambliss was struggling, so they needed the run game to offset. set that. Lacey carried the ball. You ready in those four games? LSU, Washington State, Oklahoma, South Carolina,

carried the ball 23, 24, 27, 24 times, respectively. They want to run the ball, man. Kiffin wants to, that's the thing. Once to run the ball, man. I've sat meetings with Lane. Every time I bring up the run game to Lane, he goes back to his dad.

I grew up in this sport with a defensive coach. I know the importance. I know what it does to defense. One of the greatest defensive coaches of all time Monty Kiffin. Monty Kiffin. Like birth the cover two,

the Tampa two. All those great Tampa defenses that you think about with the Derek Brooks and Warren's that. So he's a pop running around in the field, playing catching, like doing the ball boy stuff and all the things you think with the coach's son, he's doing it from the defensive perspective. And that helped develop his offensive brain.

And he, I'm sure sat in three million meetings and at the dinner table and everything else, like got to stop the run. Absorbing stuff when he doesn't even know he's absorbing stuff. Exactly. Exactly. Osmosis.

But that's how he revolted against his dad. He was like, yeah, I'm not going to be a defensive coach, dad. I'll be an offense. Yeah, I'm going to go beat all your schemes. I love it. Right. That's awesome. But in those four games where I talked about 23, 24, 27, 24 carries, he averaged 119 yards,

providing balance. And here's the important part. It's not just the balance for the offense. when they can get him 20 plus carries, it becomes, Kiwan Lacey becomes the best asset for an Ole Miss defense that is not up to snuff this year. They lost all those guys to the NFL a year ago.

Lacey's become a member of that defense, I swear to you. By possessing the ball, grinding it out, letting the defense rest, he's become arguably the best asset that Ole Miss's defense has. All right. Now, let's talk about his traits. He runs a little bit high. He's not...

He runs a little bit high and he's not super, you know? But the more I watch this cat, the more I really started to appreciate him. He's got this thing, whether it's lateral or off of sticking his foot in the dirt and going. He, and I think he's like a 4-48 guy. He ran a 4-49. I think it was in high school, as what they reported. He can scoot. He's not slow.

But he's got this thing with the first. two, three steps where you think you got him. Because he's patient, he's going, and then all of a sudden he'll do this lateral and go. One of those guys that ruins pursuit angles. You think you got it. In a short area. And I'm sure guys watch him on tape.

Yeah, guys watch him on tape and say, no, no, that guy. And then you get into game situations in live speed and you're like, oh, shit, he does have more juice than I thought. We've always talked about, like the longer. we've been in the evaluation game, the more I've come to just realize, like, let's not overthink the running back position. How many yards do they create on their own? And it can be a combination of power, speed, it can be shifting this. Like, how many yards? Because at the end of the day, if you're not creating yards on your own in college, you're not going to be able to do it with

the speed of defenses in the NFL. This guy right now is, I went and looked at it because I'm watching the tape and I'm like, he's grinding out three, four yards at the end of run. He's making one cut. He's weaving in and out of traffic. He's got this unbelievable, Steve, unbelievable sense for not just cut back lanes in the zone, but also when he gets to that second level,

there's not a lot of like, you know, like the mogul skier. There's a lot of weaving. But he feels where the defenders are coming from, and so you very rarely get the clean first hit on him. It's a lot of guys with arms out, and he's

breaking through that, and then he's weaving around. So there's some special traits to him that you don't see right off the bat. It's not like, oh, well, he's a 4-4-4-7, 4-48. But he's not like a 4-39 guy. He's not the shiftyest. He's not the biggest, most powerful. But he's got this combination of vision, feel, instincts, contact balance, and first step burst. And you combine all those traits.

And he's 96 percentile in the nation. and missed tackles forced. That's pretty wild. Just, yeah, maybe not the best athlete or whatever, but he's the, he's a damn good running back. I love him. I do too.

I think Knox, wasn't Knox talking about him on the pot? Knox was on it. Knox is on early, man. Under the lights, it's a fast rising pod coming out of Oxford, Mississippi. Yep. I'm with you on it, man.

You ready for tape truth number seven? Always. Haynes King is going to, have to be super human for Georgia Tech to get in the playoff if they don't improve their run defense. I mean, it's just, I mean, the proof is in the pudding, right? He had 511 total yards, two rushing touchdowns, two passing touchdowns against a North Carolina State that's a team that's good, but not great. And they lost by 12. And the reason they lost by 12 is because the backup running back for the Wolfpack ran for 196 yards in a touchdown. So what are some of the

problems? I talked about this a little bit with Ole Misses defense. I'm going to try to be clearer about it here because I think it's worth saying. They do some slanting. They like to move their defensive line around. And I want to be clear about this. You're trying to get into gaps. You're trying to be disruptive when that's the case. And so you are moving laterally.

You're crossing an offensive alignment's face often. But you can't, once you get across, you have got to get vertical. Because if you don't get upfield and hold your ground a little bit, good offensive lines, good running games. They're just going to take you where you want to go. Oh, you want to go inside? I'm going to ride you right down the line of scrimmage. because I've got a patient back behind me who's going to wait for all this to clear and then I'm going to go.

That's some of the problem the Georgia Tick has. Then when their defensive linemen are getting vertical and getting into gaps, they're not finishing. So even though they're doing the right thing fundamentally in terms of getting upfield a little bit, they're not finishing. Then you have linebackers and safety taking bad angles and overreacting. I mean, play eight of the North Carolina state is a great example. Just a massive cutback lane opens up because guys are just overreacting. And then I got to give North Carolina State's offense a shout out for the 36-yard touchdown run that seal the game for Scott. Recognize that they had a man look.

This is such a great run scheme, run call, basically. So they recognize they have a man look and they use the outside receiver to block the safety. And what happens is the corner doesn't recognize run quick enough. So he runs with the receiver. The receiver doesn't even have to hit anyone. He basically runs the corner into the safety. and it is wide open on the left side for Scott to break out. So they've got to do a better job.

The tackling, they got to clean up a little bit. I wasn't overly concerned with the tackling, but these guys got to do a better job of their gap fits, getting up field and finishing when they get into the backfield. You know, if they don't, if they continue to give up numbers like this, it's King can do everything in the world. Again, 500 yards, four total touchdowns, and they still lost that game to an unranked team,

it's going to be tough for Georgia's time. to get in the playoff if they don't clean it up. And they've been, by the way, they're 16th out of 17 ACC teams and rushing yards allowed per game. It's been a problem all year. Yeah. He is special, though, man. He's awesome.

I give you a hard time because it's like, I feel like it's when my kid, Tyler, is telling me that Mahomes is as good as Brady and or, you know what it is? It's LeBron Jordan. That's what I hear from you. You know what I mean? My kid's always like, oh, LeBron's better than Jordan. you're like when you say Tebow, I mean, you gotta be careful.

You gotta be careful. I'm just saying if he's wearing a Gators jersey. And if he's got Urban, if he's got Urban is his coach and he's got all those first rounders around him on both sides of the football, we would be talking about Haynes King in the same light as we talked about Tebow. Now obviously he had massive religious backing and had all the support and had all the, but like he's carrying a program and doing some of the things and the leadership and the toughness and the dual threat and all that stuff and while lacking great passing skills and NFL level, you know, ability to throw the football with trajectory and timing and the delivery and all those things. But you can't tell me he's not one of the five best players in college football. I can't tell you that.

I will not tell you that. I love him, man. I do love him. I give you. I try to push back a little bit. Throw out the NFL. I'm just talking about, like, value in college football. I don't know that there's, what is, what's Georgia Tech?

What is Georgia Tech with a, not just an average, with a good, but not great quarterback? Middle of the road, ACC team. 500 team. 500 team. Yeah, middle of the road. I appreciate his game. I really, I love him. I love him.

So I don't want to get that, get mixed up. Just that, you know, Tebow is different. Tebow is different. All right. Tape truth number. Great. Jacob Rodriguez, Texas Tech linebacker, is the unsung hero in college football this year. And you probably, maybe you'll get to know them a little bit.

Game Day is descending on Lubbock, Texas this week. And Texas Tech in the Big 12 are going to be putting the spotlight going up against BYU, and it's an awesome showdown. One lost Texas Tech, undefeated BYU. Like, it's going to be an awesome scene. And everyone talks about David Bailey and Ramello Height. defensive line and they deserve all the credit. And Bailey's like, he's got like 11 or 12 sacks right now.

And he's every bit of money that the El Matador Club, the Red Matador Club rolled out for this entire defensive line. And they rolled out a lot of money. But Rodriguez has been such a difference maker, man. And we know, like, and they've told the story, his wife Emma, who's a Black Hawk pilot. He's not even the toughest human being under that roof. And they have an awesome relationship

And she's always there in the first row And they're hugging like It's a great story And I'm sure game day and everyone will cover it What I want to cover Before people even All the folks from ESPN get down to Lubbock this week Is what this young man has been doing

Number 10 Watch for him on defense This week against BYU Texas Tech owns the top run defense In the country Steve The country Yeah

74.6 yards per game allowed on the ground. 2.4 yards per carry allowed on the ground. Better than Ohio State. Better than, was it Indiana, you said earlier? Better than everybody else, okay? Rodriguez has 77 tackles, 8.5 for loss. He's got a sack.

He's got five pass breakups, and you want to know what separates him from a lot of damn good linebackers in the country? And there's a lot of damn, there's a lot of damn good. He's got two interceptions. I knew he had a pick in the Utah game. Not that.

He had a pick in the Utah game. He had another pick this last weekend against Kansas State. Okay, so two interceptions this year. And I'll get to some of those things in a minute. And I want you to hear these names. This is going to go down as one of the better off-the-ball linebacker drafts in at least a decade. Because you've got Arvel Reese, who could be a top 10 pick, very likely to be. C.J. Allen, who's 12 solo tackles this past week.

Sunny Stiles on that same defense as Reese and has first round ability. Anthony Hill Jr. from Texas. Jake Galday from your favorite Bear Gats program in Cincinnati. Justin Jefferson's playing his ass off at Alabama. Aidan Fisher, you talked about at Indiana and beyond. What separates this cat from all those guys? Seven forced fumbles. Oh, wow.

He's forcing a fumble a turnover almost every single game, just doing that. That's crazy. So between the force fumbles and the interceptions, he's taking the ball away at a clip that's greater than one per game. Think about all the work a defense does,

11 guys trying to find a way to get one or two takeaways. He's giving you one a game. I went and watched, oh my gosh, man. And listen, he's 6'1, he's 2.35. And coming into the year, like National Bresto, undrafted free agent.

I get news for you. They're wrong. He's getting drafted. And I'm not saying it's going to be the first day. I'm not saying it's going to mean the second day. He's going to be a day three pick and he's going to latch on because he's instinctive. And yes, he's not the fastest. And yes, he's not the biggest.

And I promise you, I'll sit here and admit he gets washed sometimes. And there's some times where he's got to kind of work around all those things. And listed 6-1-2-35, I don't even know if he's that big, right? Right. But when you watch him, all the traits are average by NFL standards, but his read and react skills are exceptional. And he has a feel for getting around and off of blocks. And we talked to Teddy Bruske about take that snapshot like a Polaroid right before you get into contact.

And get in quick and then get out. He makes so many tackles like that. Like, all right, the back's coming this way. Let's get into this guy's pads, jack him up, and then go. He's bigger than me, so I can't get it. into a phone booth we used to say back in the day. I can't wind up in a tight alley fight. Hallway, whatever it is. But I can

give him a little slash, a little jack and then get off of it and go make the tackle. So he does all that stuff. Really good in coverage. Like instinctive, yeah. No false steps. Takes the right angles. I see him like turning and running and carrying guys down the seams doing all

that stuff. But this thing he does, man, call it a peanut punch. Yeah. I call it like, well, one man jackhammer. And it happens so fast that your world is spinning. All of a sudden, you're a hero, you got a nine-yard carry,

you're going for yak, you know, the cheerleaders are cheering for me, the crowd's screaming for me, here we go, and then he comes out of nowhere and he's a fucking nightmare with this little, and he, like, I'm telling you, 1.35, first quarter in this

last, against Utah, that peanut puncher. Yeah. A little jack camera, right? Big part of that time, man. Big point in that game. Big point. And that's the other part. He's doing it.

He's trying it and he's getting, and he's successful with it a lot. But it just so happens. These critical moments in games, it's when it's happening. And Kansas State, this is a fight, right? This past week. 618 second quarter is a drag route, wide receiver underneath, punches it out. 1353 third quarter second force fumble of the day and I wrote he's everywhere he's a machine he just comes in pops it out he's got this punch man he gets like a welterweight fighter like

it's awesome to watch so now now bYU you comes in and they're not going to do a bunch of crazy stuff offensively but they are nothing without the run game because bear batch mire is is ascending he's a freshman he knows where to go with his eyes and we did a whole thing on him last week. But everything's built off of play action. If Rodriguez and this defensive front take care of the run game the way that they have all season long, Texas Tech should win this game. And I bet you Rodriguez will have one big play in it when they need a swing that turns the whole thing for the Raiders. Yeah. Do people get the peanut punch reference? I got it right away. I don't wonder, that's from Charles Tillman, right? From the bears. That's, you know,

Tillman, yeah, because he used to, he was outstanding at that. Yeah, yeah. Yes, that's exactly where. I love those punchouts, man. It's becoming more of a thing. The defensive coaches, I don't know what they're doing in the last five to ten years about coaching that up. But it is so cool to watch. And he's outstanding at a, it's almost like a nail gun.

Like, have you used a nail gun in your house from Home Depot? It's that one inch punch. Home Depot will deliver one for you, by the way. And we appreciate their sponsorship on the show. But like, when you do a nail gun and you have, hit it against the thing. It's like it happened so fast you didn't, you don't know.

Did it get in there? Yep, it's in there. It's almost like a nail gun. Like, yeah, it's awesome. By the way,

127 tackles last year, five sacks. He's been doing it for a while. He is, I was, I'm going to be honest about this one. This was one of those ones where I was pissed.

He took it. I was like, why haven't I done him yet? I love him. Love him. No, you got on it. Understandably so you were talking about.

I'm glad we got some love. And he's a big. part of what they do, man. You can talk about that front as much as you want. He is the heart and soul of that defense. All right, tape truth number nine, ready? Yep. Okay.

Mention is always a downer. There's always a down to the Clemson, too. Tape truth number nine, the collapse of the Clemson defense has been one of the biggest disappointments of the 2025 season. As you're wearing a Peron's Italian gourmet. Yeah. From Greenville, South Carolina. I didn't think about it.

Better days ahead. Go ahead. Better days ahead. Listen, everyone is in agreement. It is what it is. And it's frustrating for them. gone to Clemson Games and the Peron family, and it's frustrating. So I think everyone wants to know what you're seeing.

So I'll say this, since, you know, obviously since Brent Venables left before the 2022 season, it has been, it hasn't been the same. 2023 was actually a pretty good year. The last two seasons, it's been a problem. You know, there were 69th in total defense in 2024, 49th of points per game that year, 54th in total defense and 64th in points per game this year. That is not what we have come to love about Clemson. Also coming in the year, you got Peter Woods, a defensive tackle.

You got T.J. Parker the Edge, potential top ten picks in this draft. And Avion Terrell, the corner, could be a first round pick. You got Will Health, the transfer from Purdue, look good early, thought maybe we've got something here. Going through the tape, I'm not as worried about that front, man. The pass rush could be better at times. I get it. They could be better against the run at times.

That's not the problem. This secondary is an absolute mess. And Aviontrell is part of the problem. They're 103rd and passing yards allowed per game. And I'm watching, you know why they gave up so many points? Because Darian Menza, the Duke quarterback, is one of the most efficient passers in the country. And he walked into that stadium and saw that secondary.

It was like, it's time to eat. He was like, this is, I'm going to have, it's going to be a good day for me. And it is everything. it's everything you think it could be. You know, it's the corner Missouri, the nickelback, Missouri, Kelly. They have a hard time covering the middle of the field with their nickels and safeties across the board.

First touchdown of the game, the nickelback Missouri Kelly just gets torched. The slot receiver runs right by him. Like he's standing still. Play 12, busted coverage for a 77-yard touchdown. It's, it's Avon-Torrell's side of the field. He's pointing at the safety, Ronan Hanifan. as he's chasing down the field after this guy. You know, we're blaming guys.

Which in play, which is not a good sign of what's going on in the locker room. Yeah. How about the end of the first half, McShay? Tell me. Ashton Hampton, dropped pick. Two plays later. Avion Terrell, dropped pick. What happens?

Two plays later after that, a 43-yard touchdown pass to the slot receiver running right by Strong Safety, Khalil Barnes, another player who's supposed to be really good. I mean, there's, I mean, I just, do want me to go through the whole thing? I'm not going to do it. No, no. The secondary is just not good enough this year. But I'm curious.

I'm curious. Those two guys, top 10 prospects coming into the season. I've done a little bit of tape on them before the top 32. I don't see the level of dominance from either that are expected, but the traits are there. What did you see from Woods and Parker, Parker, Parker, T.J. Parker and Peter Woods. One tape, not top 10 tape. Not top 10 tape, but also not the problem for the.

for the Clemson defense this year. I would, I still want to see him turn it on as a pass rusher. All the traits are there. I haven't seen it. Parker, when we thought he is, yeah, oh my God,

he's talented. And someone's going to take him, I think he's a first round guy. Don't get me wrong. Oh, he definitely is. And those guys, a lot of times,

and the NFL continue to develop and become absolute stars. And you look back, almost like some left tackles. Like, in top 10 defensive tackles aren't, they're not the norm. If you're a top 10 defensive tackle,

you're a dude. Like, there's not a lot of Mason, Graham's coming out every year. You know what I mean? Yeah. The hit from Michigan who went to Cleveland last year. And Parker, I still love his game because he's physical.

A couple times it felt like he was running past the quarterback. I want to see you work back inside when you see the quarterback climb, you know, little things like that, but he's still a physical player who wins with power coming off the edge. You know, his numbers aren't going to wow you. I get that. And he's definitely fallen. He's definitely fallen.

But I still see a guy who's going to be a first round pick. All right. We got to get this thing out of here. We've got to land this plane. Taped Truth 10, and we don't have to go on a long thing here. But I did feel like coming off of National Tight Ends Day in the NFL, the college tight ends deserve a little bit of love. Because what's going on in the NFL is a direct byproduct of the development

we've seen recently in college tight ends. And so I wanted to put a shine a little light on Eli Stowers from Vanderbilt and Michael Frigg from Baylor, who have been really good this year, and they're not by themselves in that, you know, tight end department of guys who are excelling in college football, but recently they've both stood out. I do want to say this, Munch,

and as I've been watching a lot of NFL, getting ready for the draft, and just because I just love football. Do you know that six tight ends were drafted in the top 67 picks last year? You probably do know that. But it was a really good tight end crop last year. I feel like there's been an interesting.

influx in the last few years of really talented tight ends. And listen over the production that's been going on from said tight ends. The first three, we're talking the first three in a few picks in the fourth round. Tyler Warren is number one. This is coming into this past weekend. We saw a Monday night football. Coming into this past weekend, prior to this week's games in the NFL, Tyler Warren is number one in receiving yards among all tight ends in the NFL.

Yep. Arronday Gadsden Jr., who is a fifth round pick, I want to say, is fifth. From Syracuse, fifth. Harold Fanon, Bowling Green, we all knew how awesome he was. He winds up as a late second or early third. Seventh. Three of the top seven leaders in receiving yards at the tight-end position in the national football league are all rookies for playing in college last year.

Also in the top 32. And remember, a lot of teams are playing two tighties. So you're talking about 64 tight ends at least that are seeing a lot of the field in the NFL. Also in the top 32 in receiving yards coming into last week, Mason Taylor, Gunner Helm, Elijah O'Royle. I'm watching Sunday night football last night. And Elijah Royo is getting 20-something yard touchdown reception. So that's kind of the backdrop. I know you want to land this.

Schneider nailed it again with this draft, huh? I mean, he just kills it. I remember jumping on the phone with Dan being like he's getting back to his roots. this like this he's saying yep you can take my quarterback i'm going to go get another one who's younger and it's going to play at a higher level and i'm going to build this thing through the draft because that's my roots that's what i do and i've had enough with all this other bullshit and look at what seattle is right now pretty remarkable i was talking about the draft but you're right about how he handled uh all of you know darnold situation it's unbelievable what he's doing

most unassuming guy when you see him in person and he's a right he's a killer he's the life of the party, but he, but he's a trained assassin. All right. He's awesome. Eli Stowers, number nine for Vanderbilt, former quarterback, 6-4-235, adequate frame, but lean. He's like, I think he's a mid-round draft prospect. I think he could wind up maybe late on day two, but I'm just watching him. He's so damn smooth and smart and understands what the angles are and where the soft spots are in zone. And he's so damn reliable. This guy catches the football and he does it plucking on the run, getting up the field. And he's

got this weird thing, man. Like Weebel's wobble, he just doesn't go down. You've got to like really, you got to bring him down even though he's only 235. He's got this great contact balance as a runner. He's got, he's combined for 115 catches since 2023.

That was his first year of playing tight end. He was a quarterback, as I mentioned, right? He had a career high, seven catches for a 146 yards and two touchdowns during Saturday's loss at Texas. Pavia was awesome. Once they got it rolling and Stowers was awesome. It was a two-man show offensively for Vanderbilt.

And I just wanted to shed some light on that. Evan Ingram? Evan Ingram? Similar type. I don't know that he's quite as explosive, but similar type. Yeah. Yeah, I don't think that's wrong. And this, I'll get to the rankings in a second.

And then Michael Trigg for Baylor. I watched Stowers tape first and really liked it. I told you all the positive. Then you put on trig, it's like, oh, he's verified 6033. So he's 6.3 and 3 eighths of an inch. He's verified 250 pounds. You just see it when you first put on the tape. He is put together.

Well, he's not the tallest. He is put together. Estimated 465 speed, really good for a tight end. He's got 40 catches for 607. He's averaging 15.2, Steve, at the tight end position with six touchdowns this year. He had another five catches for 82 yards in a touchdown this past week against on Saturday in the win. And Mensch mentioned while we're on the broadcast, because I said Stowers,

there hasn't been a tight end. So there's been a tight end that's had that production all year in a single game like Stowers had against Texas. Metsch was like, what about, what about Trigg? Trigg against Kansas, right? Kansas State. And that was just a few weeks ago. So while it was tight end day in the NFL just this past Sunday, I did want to give a little

bit of love. But this guy, Trigg, man. and we knew it, and I've been talking about him all season long. He's been in college ball so long that he was catching passes from Jackson Dart at USC. Well, this is his year, his showcase year, 40 catches, 607, as I said, 15.2 and 6. He's improving as a route runner, has some sharpness. He's so sturdy catching the ball. When you watch him, his two traits are 11-inch hands and then the ability to it.

Is that verified? I don't know. Okay, because that's not surprising. It's not surprising. He's got massive mess. Swallow the ball with his hand. I wrote in my notes, it's almost uncomfortable. Like he's messing around with the kids on the playground at times when the ball is.

But he also adjust to it. So it's not just a, I'm bigger. I get bigger hands and all that stuff. He's actually the athletic ability. He's been awesome. All right. I think he's, I think he's tight end to right now in the 2026 NFL.

Kenyon Sadiq. Kenyon Sadiq would be one. I think Trigg is two. I really like Joe Royer from Cincinnati. I think he would maybe be three right now in the list. And we'll dive deeper into it. But I just wanted to let people know, like there's another batch coming to the NFL. After that, Max Clare is not, I mean, when you've got Carnell Tate, Jeremiah Smith and Innes and all the stuff. And then Bo Jackson at running back, there's not a, there's only one football to be passed around. But he did start to play a bigger role for a few weeks there. Max Clare's, I don't count them out, man. Jack Endries at Texas is a good player.

We saw everyone, everyone looked past a Gunner Helm and look at, he's in the top 32 in receiving yards for tight ends in the NFL. This year is a rookie in a fifth round draft pick. Jake Ferguson, these guys are Jake Ferguson's. Go ahead. Overlook me. Draft me late. I'm going to tear you apart NFL.

Then I would put after Roy or Claire injuries at six, I would probably put Sowers, okay, mid-round pick, I think. But then there's some other cats like Justin Jolly and. State, Eli Raritan from Notre Dame, this Miles Kitzelman from Tennessee. So there's a lot of guys in college football. And I don't feel like we give them a lot of love because all the love is the quarterbacks and the wide receivers. Yeah, I'm with you, man, all the way.

First of all the first of all, I love tight ends anyways. But this, the influx of talent, when you see the guys who have been going in the last like three to five years, whatever, the Trey McBrides, the Dalton Cicades, the Brock Bowers, I mean, you're seeing an evolution of tight ends in the league. no question about it. And Brock Bowers was back yesterday for the Raiders. I don't know if you caught it.

I didn't see it now. He's reminding everyone, I'm healthy now, and there's only one best tight end in the NFL, and it's me. And it's me. There's some good ones, man.

I don't know. Yeah, but he's awesome. He's a unicorn. He is different. So I guess that makes him the best tight end. Give the folks who support the show. Give the Indiana safety name again. so everyone remembers Lewis Moore.

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