The McShay Show - Big Ten Championship Reactions: Cignetti Stunner! Indiana Defeats Ohio State! | The McShay Show

Episode Date: December 7, 2025

Join Todd and Muench reacting to the end of the B1G Championship game between undefeated Indiana and Ohio State. 0:00 Welcome to The McShay Show! 1:27 Big Ten Championship: (2) Indiana Defeats (1) Ohio State: 13-10 43:25 BIG 12 Championship: (4) Texas Tech Defeats (11) BYU: 34-747:50 ACC Championship: Duke defeats (17) Virgina: 27-2049:05 TMS TOP 12 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, Daniel Comer Social: Alysha Tsuji Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All right, man. Boy, we got a show to dude right now. It's 1127 Eastern Time. We got the SEC championship game out of the way, but we still got a lot to get to here. I love you in the new green hat. It means you mean business. I'll take it easy on you.

Let's focus on business. Take it easy on me. I'll take it easy on you. Let's focus on business. I stand on business. I mean, we are 12 hours, 12 and a half hours from us going live at 12 Eastern tomorrow. That is going to be so much fun. And 12 hours and 45 minutes away from the college football reveal happening.

And we're going to do it on this show with our people in the chat. And we are also 138 days, Stevie Boy, away from the NFL draft. So I got to ask you, mention you good? I'm great, man. roll that thing, baby. Congratulations. Fernando Mendoza. You are the 2025 Heisman

trophy winner. Congratulations, Fernando Mendoza. You are the number one overall draft pick in the 2026 NFL draft. The McShay show is presented by Fandul. Fan Duel's got it all. Same game parlays, quick bets for jumping

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Call 1-888-88-889-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash. chat in Connecticut. Congratulations, Indiana. You are the number one seed going into the college football playoff. That just all happened. And we're here to talk about all of it. And I'm pumped. Plus, we have the TMS top 12 to get to the final one of the season.

We're going to break it all down. We're going to look at the automatic bids. We're going to look at the at-large bids. Mention and I are going to discuss what we think should happen. But this week, more importantly, we're going to discuss what we think is going to happen tomorrow. And when we're done with that, we're going to get a few hours sleep and we're going to be back at noon Eastern tomorrow. And we're going to cover the whole thing for hour and a half, two hours, even start previewing the first round of the college football

playoffs. A lot is happening. We're fired up. Hope you are too. Appreciate this chat is blowing up. And we're excited to have everyone, even you, Juhas, and all of your negativity. What do you want to fire Ryan Day? But we appreciate everybody being here. That was an awesome ending. And like, I get it. And this is modern day. football and everyone wants 30, 40 points. That was great. Great football, man. What are your biggest takeaways?

Throw them at me. I mean, I don't even know where to begin. First of all, let's start with the Indiana defense. I mean, I guess I should begin by, in case you're, you know, from a different planet. And the final score was 13 to 10. Right. I mean, we're going to talk. Indiana upsets Ohio State.

So go ahead. Let's not go with it. We'll get into Mendezzo's. more. We've already kind of, you know, we've hit on a fair amount of Mendoza. I'm going to start with the Indiana defense. Please. I feel like this is going to be a lot of you patting yourself

on the back tonight. So I'm going to start off by patting myself on the back. I told you about those Indiana linebackers, man. You did. I told you they are for real. And I felt like they were all over the place. The safety Lewis Moore, another guy we talked about early in the year, had a big play. That Indiana defense

disciplined, sound, shore tacklers, always chasing, always, the effort is always at the highest level. Unbelievable performance by them.

I thought they did an excellent job of saying, we could talk about how Mendoza in the Indiana offense was patient. I thought they were, stayed committed to the run. He didn't try to attack deep when it wasn't there. He kind of just took what the defense gave. I also think that the defense for Indiana

was patient and said, we're just going to take away the big play. and if you want to beat us by 1,000 cuts and these little small quick hitters, that's fine, but you're not going to get over the top, which they did. Ohio State did a couple times with Jeremiah Smith, but they were, I thought, keen on limiting those big plays. And then the pass rush was a little inconsistent, but it got home at key points, man. So I thought Indiana's defense, especially when you look at that score at 1310, Indiana's defense established itself as one of the best in the country, probably the second best in the country,

right behind that Ohio State defense. And a reason why this Indiana team, man, has a real shot of winning the whole damn thing. There's so much to break down from that Indiana defense. Okay. First of all, schematically, and I'll give Joel Clatt a lot of credit. Early in this game, like the first series of this game,

he made the point of, I'm interested in seeing Julian saying against this zone defense that can be hard, hard to read. And as a former quarterback, you understand, like, the complexity of a zone defense is in what they show you pre versus what they actually are post, right? She was all over it. Yep. Right. And then you saw in the very first third down, yeah, the first series, third and six, saying was fooled. It was like two plays after Joel Klapp mentioned it. Interception. Okay. that gives Mendoza and Indiana a short field inside the 25-yard line.

They wind up getting stalled, kick a field goal, connect, 3-0, right? That was the start of things. Second series, third down on that series. Sayan was fooled again. Yeah. Tell he's reading through it. You saw the replay of it, didn't trust his eyes. Then he got like kind of hectic in the podcast.

pocket and wind up trying to bail out, takes a sack. Series is over, punt. So that's the first two series, interception and a sack that leads to a punt on third downs versus that zone coverage with those receivers and an offensive line that had been playing a lot better. Even the touchdown to Tate, remember that he had to extend the play for a good five seconds and it was off script. It wasn't, you know, in rhythm,

here are my reads, delivering the ball with confidence. That was a play he had to make off platform. You know what I mean? There was legitimately one drive during the game where I thought Julian Sane was in control and had figured things out. And that was the third quarter. Okay?

Yep. It was in the third quarter. He hit Jeremiah Smith. Jeremiah Smith using his like physicality and body control along the sideline. Max Clare had a couple catches on that drive. They're systematically moving the ball through the air down the field, right?

not chunks, not luck, not one big, but they're like, they're moving it. Chains 12, 15, right, first downs. And then they get down. And that's when they went to commercial on the fourth down. It was inside the five yard line. Fourth down, they get the first. How about this play? They get the first down, come back.

And all of a sudden it was replayed. And Gus Johnson's like, whoa, we had a big, big situation. And Joel explains. to us and the knee was down, doesn't get the first down, Indiana gets the football. And that was with like 30 seconds left in the first quarter. They run one play at 12-yard

completion. Now they're out of the back of the end. The backs are up against the end zone and now they're driving and hold on in the football. But that was like, that was massive. I didn't even think it was close live, by the way. I thought he had the first, no problem.

Oh, yeah, I didn't even think twice about it. I was shocked when they came back. I was shocked when they came back. But my point is, to the larger point on Indiana's defense, which is exactly where we should start this game. There were two things and maybe three, major takeaways in this game. But the first has to be this Indiana defense. This is an offense that has a quarterback in Julianne saying

that has been ascending all season long and was the Heisman favorite coming into this week. This is an offense with two pretty high first round picks. Jeremiah Smith could be a number one overall pick. If it wasn't for an awesome quarterback class, we'll see what the needs are in 2027. He will be the first non-quarterback

taken. He's that good. And then Carnell Tate could be a top 10, top 15 pick. Okay? In this year's draft, 2026 draft, I should say. And Bo Jackson, who's an ascending young talent at running back and is coming

off of like two, like four game stretch, but against Michigan and like you just, you thought that he was going have a solid day, even though the run defense for Indiana is ranked second nationally coming into this, into this game behind just Texas Tech. And we saw what Texas Tech. We were reminded what Texas Tech is earlier in the day against BYU. So what I'm watching today, and it started with the zone coverage and the different looks and the discipline. The second thing I want to say is that DeAngelo Pons made a lot of money today.

a lot. He's a strong dude for a guy who's not that big. I want you to understand he was giving up six inches and 55 pounds to Jeremiah Smith. I'm just looking up. He's 5-9-175-170 pounds. 5-9-170, like 173, I think is what is listed at right now. 5-9.

He finished the game second in the team with, nine tackles. He was, now, I want you understood, Jeremiah Smith did, did well. You got to, you got to kind of take that last reception away in terms of what, what happened. So it would have been like seven for 93 or 95 yards, right? That last Hail Mary that he caught that meant nothing, really. But he also, he wasn't going against Pons the entire day, and there was a lot of his own

leverage and different things. But when I saw Ponds isolated on Jeremiah Smith, the. vast majority of the night. He held up and he did it with instincts and toughness and being crafty and taking good angles and utilizing like his his body and the leverage. I saw a lot out of him. I'm excited to go watch that. He got beat early and then didn't back down. He wasn't like, oh, well, I'm not good enough or whatever. It was, yeah, right away. So I want to give him credit because when you think Indiana, you don't think unbelievable draft picks, right? I mean, you just don't. And when you think

Indiana, you think, well, yeah, they're really well coached and they do all the little things. But, and Pons was probably, I don't know, I would argue the top, the top prospect coming into the year from Indiana, right? Tomorrow had a lot of

buzz, but he hasn't done as well this year. But yeah, I would say you're right. I would say it, right. That's right. And then the left tackle emerged as the season progressed. And last year, they had a really good class. Like Indiana had the best class it has had

since 2018. CJ West, that defense attack class. CJ West got drafted in the fourth round and Curtis Rort got drafted 227 overall in the seventh round. They hadn't had two players drafted in a single class since 2018. The last time that they had, they've had

three was 2016 and you got to go back to 2010. It happened one other time. And I'm literally like 1988. bud no 91 and 88 like that's that's it so

you watch you got your eye on this a cc game at all let me turn it right now 47 seconds Virginia's driving down seven here we go here we go all right so that all is happening right and

a couple other things stood out to me and you and I do want to give you credit. I said, I was all over this, Indiana's defensive front, you know, and I don't remember who took, you took Ohio State. I took the defensive front. Both defensive fronts were great tonight. They really were. Kate and Curry was awesome. McDonald had a lot of plays. And honestly, outside of Arvel Reese, a lot of guys showed up, it was a 13 to 10 game. It was a great defensive game. Outside of Arvel Reese, like literally every main character played the role of a main character. It was awesome to watch. Sunny Stiles had 12 tackles. Downs had eight.

Caden Curry had seven with two sacks and three tackles for loss. Jalen McLean had six. Caden McDonald, who was stuffing up the middle, also had five. That makes 56 tackles on the season for a 326 pound defensive tackle. They did their job. All right? But Indiana, man, Relaja Hardy and Pons had nine but Relaja Hardy and Isaiah Jones combined for 17 tackles, three sacks

and a pass breakup and another tackle for a loss. Their linebackers are so good at getting after the quarterback, man. It is a unique thing for that team. The level of effort, it's discipline followed by effort. I watched it every single play. And I joked.

I was joking around the other day when you were messing with me about taking Signetti as the coach. And I was like, and I get it. And part of it, I was trying to get a rise out of you, but I also believe that he was capable.

He was the wild card and the guy who scared me the most because he's capable of doing something. But I also knew all four of these coaches. Obviously, DeBore's really good, didn't have a great day. He's now two and one against Kirby Smart, but had beaten Kirby.

for previous two times. Kirby is Kirby. I mean, he's, he's like, you know, modern day legend. Yep. And obviously Ryan Day has been awesome for a long time, and it's finally getting the, not the recognition, but finally, like, we don't have to deal of that weirdness of the Michigan stuff

and the national... Getting out of the shadow of urban. Urban, all of that. But Signetti scared me in this situation because, and quite honestly, he didn't do anything wild. But I also knew in watching them, last two years. And I joked around like hat on hat, gap discipline.

Yep. But like I don't know another team in the country on both sides of the ball is fundamentally sound. And on defense, when you're watching these guys, it's like, you just watch across the board. It's, it's Tyreek Tucker, the NFL prospect of defensive tackle, five and a half sacks on the season, Mario Landino, Stephen Daly, all these guys. Jose. UBA just got a first down on fourth and four.

29 seconds left. Here we go. Let me ask you this question. Let's pause real quick on Ohio State in Indiana. Would you rather for... What? Did he step out? Did he step out?

I hate when you're head. Yeah, he stepped out of bounds. He stepped out of bounds before he came back in. Yeah, but they'll go. They have to go back. Yeah, they got the flag. Yep. Remember, people were watching.

and listening this after the fact, and we appreciate everyone who's on the chat. You're like, calm down, Ben. The chat's about as big as we've ever had, non-draft-related. So we appreciate everyone here. We'll go for another, Lord knows how long. But my point is, it starts with the discipline up front, but they do a lot of twisting and a lot of moving because they know they're not necessarily as talented or big or powerful

or athletic as some other other, other offensive lines they're going up against. So they have to, they've got to combine with, and it's not like, there's no trickery, there's no gimmicks. It's just like being where you're supposed to be, and then when where you're supposed to be, we got to have you work to get off your bucks.

But more importantly, no, they didn't call, no, they let them kick the extra point. It's tied 20. I guess they said they pushed them out, yeah. I wonder why. I don't operate conspiracy things. The ACC has ACC refs, and the ACC is looking at Miami on the outside looking in. And if Duke gets upset to Virginia in this game, you understand, right?

The ACC does not have a representative in the college football playoff. It is a massive black eye for that conference. It's a black enough eye for the conference that Virginia is your representative. No offense to Virginia, but a two-loss team that's not very appealing in terms of Never won an ACC championship. I don't think we've ever won, yeah. But tie goes to Virginia in the situation.

Of course. So they're taking it to overtime. I mean, you believe you're the better team. Let's go play multiple downs, not leave it up to one. All right, so that's tied to 2020. We'll keep an eye on that for you. 22 seconds left. Virginia is about to kick off to Duke.

Speaking of the Indiana thing, though, When you stunt and when you move around like that and you do simulated pressures and you mix up what you're throwing on an offense, it's great. But it does leave you open to breakdowns in coverage and breakdowns and gap discipline. And it can lead to big plays if your players aren't one, super smart and able to handle everything you're doing. Two, super disciplined. And three, tackle well in space. And I think you saw that a couple times where it looked like Bo Jackson. was going to break one.

And they guys were making one-on-one tackles in space to prevent that from turning into a huge play. I mean, it's awesome to do. And I think every coordinator in a perfect world would love to be able to mix it up like that. But if you don't have players that are smart and execute, then you can get into a world of trouble quick. It's why whenever defense is struggling, it's why you always hear a coordinator say, we've got to simplify what we're doing. You know what I mean? Because that's usually the, the,

more complicated stuff leads to breakdowns a big plays. I mean, I talked about Caden McDonald, right, is the nose tackle for Ohio State 6-3-3-3-26. I'm not saying these guys are small by any stretch, but Tyreek Tucker is 6 foot 298.

Short, squatty build, not 300 pounds. I told you about the two defensive tackles they brought in Joseo Wheeler and Ratcliffe when I said they've got a type, 6-3-298, 6-3-296. Right. That's their type, right?

Do you remember Gary Patterson at TCU? It wasn't that long ago. It was five, seven. I remember covering the Rose Bowl and being on the field and watching Wisconsin. When Wisconsin was Wisconsin. And they were rolling out 1,500, 1500 yard rushers a year and all of that. And I remember watching them in pre-games. You know, the sun's starting to go down.

The mountains in the backdrop. And I'm taking in the beauty, but I'm also taking in, oh, shit, TCU's in for a long night. Yeah. Because those guys are 330. And those guys are like, at that time, like 284, 291, 276. It was like a 40-pound average across-the-board difference. And TCU shut the Wisconsin run game and offense down, like a few others all season long. and really in like a couple of years.

And they did it. And I got to know Gary Patterson after I went to his house and when we were down at a bowl game a couple of years after we talked about that game. But just watching it. It was the combination of getting quicker off the ball, but not just flying up field recklessly, but knowing exactly what gap you have to be in,

how you got to beat your man, what angle you have to have. And each person's playing a role. It's what Indiana is doing. and then behind that you've got to have a bunch of wild, like, rabid dogs chasing because it's your turn to get that clean shot at the running back or the quarterback. You got like, it's the last play of your life. And if I saw everything, if it wasn't Fisher, it was Hardy.

If it wasn't Hardy, it was Isaiah Jones. If it wasn't Isaiah Jones, it was Lewis Moore or Amari Farrell. Like, I don't know, man. I kind of fell in love. Yeah. I've had a crush on Indian all year long. I think I'm in love. I just love the way they play ball.

You always get weird on Saturday night. I like it. Yeah, I know, I know. But yeah, so that's, so that was the defensive side of the ball. And I thought it was an awesome effort, like an absolutely awesome design coaching, execution by players. It was like, the war of like vicious,

ferocious, just attacking. And then ponds what he's doing on the outside. And I don't know. It was a lot of fun to watch. This was, how can 1310 be an instant classic?

But how can you watch that game and not feel like it was an instant classic? Let's flip over the other side. Yep. Your guy. Charlie B. We talked. talked about this earlier, you know, it's seven catches all season long going into Penn State.

Was it Surat or was I think it was Sarat? Yeah, because Cooper had the big touchdown catch at the end. It was Sarat that was out of that game. Well, I want to remind everyone the way this game started. The Penn State game is what you're talking about. Penn State game, yes. But I want to remind everyone how tonight started. The first play from, I think it was the first, second point.

play. We were wrapping up some work. First series, first player two. Mendoza takes a shot from Curry. That was legal. Well, wasn't penalized. Fair. I didn't think it was dirty and it was legal. It was just a good shot when you get an opportunity to knock down and send a message to one of the Heisman finalists and the quarterback of the opposing team. He handled it perfectly, but he knocked Mendoza's ass out. We're looking up at our respective screens, and he's motionless on the ground, and people are flooding to him,

and they're going to commercial, and it's like, what, what? His brother's warming up. It was, yeah. Like, is this it? And, like, it's ruined the night, but it's ruined a Heisman and, like, all of it.

He comes back in the game. The next series, deep ball, good ball for Mendoza, Omar Cooper, who's been the, the number one, the go-to guy, the best wide receiver for Indiana. He had the touchdown catch against Penn State.

He's going down, tested catch, two defenders there. Well-defended, could have made an unbelievable catch, doesn't make it, and then he's on the ground, he's got a lower body injury. So now we've got our quarterback being peeled off the ground and our number one wide receiver's out, and we didn't know at the time. He didn't return. No, right. And so now the defensive coverage for Ohio State is kind of,

shifting over and they're taking Sarat out of the game. Sarat wound up finishing and he played well. He had a couple of important catches in this game. He had the touchdown. Yeah, he had the touchdown for seven, I think it was 17 yards, but it was three for 37.

Someone had to step out tonight. And it was a cool story that Jonathan Brady number zero, I think it was. He came in right away after Cooper went out. He had a couple catches, two for 20. And I've come to find out. he was a Cal transfer with Mendoza. So you're like, oh, well, there's a rapport there.

Great, but he's got 12 catches on this season. So the rapport can't be that great that it's superseding, like the talent or whatever's going on. Right. So now we're down to Surratt, who's getting extra coverage against the fourth or fifth best run defense in the country. And Mendoza's taking sacks because the pressure's on him early on. And who's going to step up? who's going to step up is Charlie Becker one more time.

I told you the Penn State game. He had seven catches coming in. He basically doubled his production in that game. And, you know, on the entire season, that's 14. Is that even right? Yeah, he's six in this game. I've got to look up his. He had one.

So it was seven catches against Penn State, five against Wisconsin, one against Purdue, and then tonight. And then tonight he had six. So essentially, like, I'm here if you need me, but when Surat and Cooper are in the lineup,

you don't need me. And that's essentially what he is. He had six for 126. So in three games, Penn State, Wisconsin, and Ohio State, he said there are 18 catches for 340-something yards. And the rest of it,

he hasn't even seen. sniff that. It's pretty crazy. He's a 6'4-204-pound sophomore from Nashville, Tennessee. Pretty cool. Big Ten championship. Home State. Unbelievable. Unconscious, doesn't care about the moment.

Just go ahead and go make some place. And they found the matchup, by the way, the styles. They got him on styles as much as they could do it. So, yeah, once they got him in the slot and they got a lot, a matchup on the safety. I think Mendoza felt really good about that matchup and went back to it as many times as he could. And I do think it's pretty cool of those running backs against that defense, the running backs who have been really good all season long. And that offensive line that is not the biggest, it's not the strongest, but it's developing to a damn good

offensive line. And you get a couple guys that are going to play in the NFL off that group, but it's not, you know, it's not Texas or Georgia. No. You know, it's just, it's not, but it's a good group and they're getting better in the trenches on both sides of the ball every year. but the fact that those two backs, as I mentioned before, come in and against the defense, 86 rushing yards per game, Ohio State allowed. It's fifth in the nation. She slipped it up.

And basically just locked everyone down. And Hemby and Black come in in 29 carries for 120, yeah, 121 yards. So they almost doubled. No, that would have been 100s. So, but anyway, like 40 something more. rushing yards between the two of them. And it was typical Kaelin Black and Roman Hemby have been just sharing the load all season long. And it was 16 for one, 13 for the other, 69 rushing yards for Black.

Hemby had 52 all season long, right? Duke just scored a touchdown in overtime. 2620. So I thought like everyone, it was a team effort. It was a team win, you know? And that was cool. And I want to get to Mendoza in a second. And right now we still have Virginia and Duke.

And there's a flag and it's 2620. We'll get to that in a second. But I do want to let everyone know how appreciative we are of the Home Depot, man. It's time to get in this special segment. And it's like could not be more apropos to what went on in college football today. So this is a special segment of the show called the Home Depot, Home Field Advantage, I should say, brought to you by our friends at the Home Depot. the place to go build your dream game day set up on your own home field, whether it's the tailgate, your backyard, or your living room.

And I got to tell you, and it started last week, I didn't even bring this. I forgot to bring this up last week, match. Like, I live in a house, right, where I'm watching the biggest games. And last week is we've got the game on at noon. And we're doing a show right after that, right? And that's Ohio State and it's Michigan. And it's a massive game. But I also have a bunch of Clemson crazies in this house.

too. And Clemson didn't have the season that we were expecting. So like in in preparation. And I've got a, I've got a normal family living room, right? I don't have like all these screens like a man cave and all that. I've got my office and studio up here where I come in and I can isolate away from all of them and get my work done and watch ball. But I don't want to sit up here for 12 hours, you know, in between shows and all that. I like to be downstairs and Mercer puts out a spread and all that. So thinking ahead, knowing that I couldn't just do the four screen because I'm not like, like, It's not like four games are going on. Like, yeah, I'll give you one of the quads. Like, I've got to watch Ohio State, Michigan. But I also got like AJ and Mia who grew up in Greenville, South Carolina. They got to watch Clemson, South Carolina. So what did I do? I was like, who better?

Home Depot. Delivery, because I'm busy. I can't drop delivery. Had a mobile TV stand come in. You just hook it right up to the thing. So now you put it in there. it doesn't look bad. You tuck it against the wall.

Now we get two screens. Big Mac gets to watch the big TV. They got a nice, decent size. It's mobile. And then when you're done, you can just put it away in the side closet and bring it back out when you need another time. Amazing.

Interesting. Rivalry week. And so we had it again today. It's amazing. So since we're talking about the home field, that's my home field. You've got to create advantages, right? since we're talking about home field energy, right?

We're going to talk about, and I want to, like, how important today was, and I know there was no, no, like, definitive home field, traditional home field, but you're telling me, look at the results today, man. You're in Indianapolis. You're inside the dome where we're going to be for the combine. Indiana beats Ohio State, Georgia, playing in front of heavily home crowd. favorite home crowd in its favor, in Atlanta, against Alabama.

And I know Ohio State travels well. I know Alabama travels well. But your home, there's something about the comfort of home, right? Yeah. And then by the way, in that Georgia game, Block punt, get some momentum. Kirby's struggles versus Alabama. Owen 2 versus DeBore.

1 in 7 versus Bama. Owen 3 in that stadium today. But it got personal today. Sometimes you've got to regain your home. like me getting the TV roll in, the mobile TV stand. Sometimes you get to take over your home again. Texas Tech this morning. I know they're better than BYU,

but playing in Arlington, inside. It helps. Playing at home helps, man. And those crowds were electric today. That was, I mean, the crowds were awesome today. So whether you're inside the Combine Dome, the Georgia Dome, Texas Stadium,

it definitely gives an advantage, a serious edge. But you can create your home field advantage. This is what I'm trying to tell you. It's all tying together. Whether you're tailgating at the stadium or watching from your backyard or living room, the Home Depot is everything you need for a game day setup that brings the energy.

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to home depot they have been awesome partner and all this is season. Duke one. Oh, what a mess. Let's finish on Mendoza and then let's get back to Duke. Yep, go. And then it will help us transition to the TMS top 12 and start previewing what's going to go on in the madness tomorrow.

I started this show off by saying, Fernando Mendoza, you need a moment and whether a moment is a play or a game or a play within a full game, tonight was the game, the third down, throw down the right rail that we all watch together was the moment. I agree. It's confidence from your coach and then delivering in that moment, right? Yeah. And to throw to your third string wide receiver who's been elevated to two, see him one-on-one matchup and just drill it.

I can already see the Heisman coverage now. Like Julian's saying will be there. Jeremiah Love will be there and deserves to be there. In fact, I think you should probably be second in the Heisman voting. If I'm being honest, I have to make my Heisman vote. vote tomorrow morning. I will do so. I will not give out my, but if I had two guests right now, because it's very important as a voter, but I just got all the paperwork and a reminder. I will not let you know whom my one, two, and three are. It is part of the deal. And I will honor that,

obviously. But I think just go to Fandual or wherever, not Fandual or any analysts out there, it's very clearly, this is, this is Fernando Mendoza's to lose, if you will. I agree. But I would kind of love to see Jacob Rodriguez the linebacker from Texas Tech get an invite. He won't win it, but I wouldn't mind seeing him get an invite. Seven force fumbles, four picks, 100 tackles. I mean, he's been unbelievable this year.

Yeah, like you're lobbying right now. He wasn't even the best linebacker on Texas Tech today, but he's been awesome all season long. But he showed me more today, Mendoza did. than in any other game. And there were other moments like we talked about, Iowa, Oregon, Penn State. Yeah, the stakes are higher now, right? This was the biggest stage.

Dude. Against the best defense. We're talking about this defense is one of the best. And you're going to say, McShay, like, who cares? They scored 13 points. But they moved the ball tonight. And he had, like, when I was watching, if you really look at it, they control,

you got to remember, they had three times inside the red zone, and they had to kick three field goals. and went two for three. Okay? And, but they were, like, they kind of dominated the, the whole first half and the vast majority of this game, offensively moving the ball on this vaunted defense. Yeah, they just couldn't punch it in.

That was getting frustrating. I thought that might come back to haunt them. But, yeah, they moved the ball well. But it started with his toughness, bouncing back from that hit. And it's not just like peeling yourself up and going back in the game. It's when you take a hit like that, how does it affect you?

I didn't see any. It was like business as usual. And then you saw at one point, they did a close up from the behind the huddle. And he's got just cuts and all over his. The elbow is bleeding. And just like he looked like the guy who's, you know,

the gladiator stuff. And then I'm watching the mobility and functional mobility, not the Daniel Jones shit that I just like, I'm like, great. Yeah, we'll pick up for like actually getting outside the pocket

and creating it a little bit more suddenness. and like functional stuff that I can I can hold on to as an evaluator. And then the smart decisions, when it wasn't there, just throw it away. We're in a defensive game today. I can't make the one interception, man, that was a fluke that bounced off his blockers. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? Yeah.

And then I'm watching other things, the anticipation on throws and the balls out before the break, leading the receiver here. And it's not a lot of them. He finished the night. And it wasn't awesome. It was 15 of 23, 22 yards, touchdown, an interception. But there were NFL throws in there with NFL decisions and with mobility and,

and arm angles, a couple throws we've got to change. Yeah. It was just all functional. And it was in a game against the defense that I can actually say, oh, that's an NFL dude. There's seven or eight NFL dudes on there at high level, and a few high, high level ones.

Against a former NFL defense coordinator. Tonight was the night I'd been waiting for before I could actually put a stamp on the guy that I fell in love with a Cal but said he's got a lot of flaws and there's a lot like I feel now I got to watch the tape and it'll be probably tomorrow night or early in the week because we got a show tomorrow at new and Eastern time I keep reminding everybody. Okay. We got over we got 1.1,000 on our right now at midnight munch. This is awesome. This is the dream. This is what we've been building. And thank you so much for being here.

But when I, I do have to say this, it's got to get solved, the eyes dropping and that like quarter count. And it led to sacks. And he was sacked. I had three sacks at one point. He wound up being said, yeah, three times. But he didn't get sacked once in the second half. And I give that offensive line a lot of credit because I noticed coming out in the second half. All of a sudden, Mingoza had time in the pocket.

Yeah. I mean, King Curry looked unblockable in the first few series of this game. and then they started to figure it out a little bit. So I'm not here like I'm not like what I don't do is the Twitter mafia stuff as you have always called him. Where I'm like I had him first. But like I really wanted this guy to get to where he is now. So I better celebrate the fact that he is where he is now because that was awesome what he just did tonight. And it's awesome what he's done all season long.

And I start to look at guys like Ty Simpson. and I see a beautiful future for him in the NFL as a starter. I see all the reasons why he can't succeed, including a better arm than people think and better mobility than people think, and the pre-snap and the post-snap and all the mechanical stuff that he does inside the pocket. But he's not ready.

Nope. And I watched Dante Moore, and he's the best pure pastor in all of college football. You give him just a little bit of time inside the pocket, the calm he has, the smooth stroke, the catchable ball, all those things. he's a brilliant passer and he's going to be a really good pro man yeah he is yeah he's not but he's not ready and i know he's played great and maybe he goes on a run in the college football playoffs and he has three games that he stacks and he's throwing the balls and maybe he leaves early

the will stine like you said in the earlier show yeah will stein's gone to kentucky now took the head job that is a curve ball i did not foresee and by the way kentucky congratulations because you got what I think is the best assistant coach in the entire country. But he's a Kentucky guy. South Florida, too, though, getting the heartline. That's a nice pick up. There was a couple of those. Yes, yes.

Yeah. It started to fall. But anyway. But now I look at this and I say, who's got the first pick? You can take that guy. Yeah. Well, it's going to be, I already made this point. I got yelled at by a lot of fans, but it'll be the Jets.

Even if they don't have the first pick, they have the, they have. the ammo to go get them. Yep. Because they get two first rounders this year and is it... I guess it does matter. There could be someone who says that there could be a team that thinks Mendoza is so good that they don't care what they get offered, you know?

Yeah, and tonight's not about the NFL drop, but I do I have been holding out for a long time on it. And I do want to watch the tape and things, but I'm just saying this is the first time. That's not for tonight, though. This is all happening. Yeah, well, that is happy. I'm saying this guy went from

someone who like I'm really excited about and he's building and he's getting better but I'm just not I can't put all my chip I'm telling you like my chips are here and it's they're in it's good I'll leave it there I love it what do you got what do you got Mench I mean we just broke down the whole thing what do I don't know what else you want for me I will say that Jeremiah Smith every time I see him run and this is kind of besides the point because it's an Indiana night that dude's just different I mean he is just he is different every time I see him him move the way he gets in and out of breaks. Incredible.

It just speaks to how good that, again, it speaks to how good that Indiana defense was, though. The talent that Ohio State has, and they were still able to do what they were able to do tonight. I don't know. I mean, it was just, again, I feel like we've killed it, I think, but

it was just awesome. Like, it was just a great game. All right. I think it's important that we spend the appropriate amount of time talking about the rankings which are coming up tomorrow and we're going to be back at noon eastern tomorrow and i'm pumped to do that and we have plenty of time tonight to do it how far does that oh how state fall i we'll get to that in a minute let's tease the tease the

i just want to know i do want to get to texas tech for a second okay okay because i'm watching that game and i'm literally watching an nfl defensive line that just so happens to have like another month in college. And whether, like, it was, it's just wild. And it was like A.J. Holmes and David Bailey didn't even have a big day, but it was Romello height and, and the linebackers are making plays. And Ben Roberts is stepping up. Like, the two biggest stars in the defense didn't even do that much compared to what they normally do.

Yeah. Yep. But, but you get home. with the hit, you know, force the fumble. There was like this flurry, late in the third, early in the fourth quarter, was like, holy shit, man, this defense is different. It was like a feeding frenzy, right?

It was like sharks had gotten. The blood was in the water, and all of a sudden it was finish it. So they win 34 or 7, but I do want to make a point that I love when we get ahead of things, and I love that it was covered today by, it was Joe Tess and Jesse Palmer. and I do take

I love that Jesse's in the moment like he closed the broadcast by saying it's rare that you watch a team and there's no flaws. I don't want to call it a flaw but I I see the defense in the offense as different entities. I think the offense has some functional qualities and I know they scored a lot

of points but when we start to play Indiana and we start to play Ohio State and we start to play Georgia and Alabama and Oh, and Oklahoma put them way high up there. In terms of defenses, like, you know, that offense is not at the level. And especially, I think, the passing game, to be honest. I agree.

But more importantly, you brought up a point earlier this week, which I thought was awesome. And they touched on it a lot during the show, and I'm glad they did. And I don't know if it was because maybe someone listened to the show. and you but james blanchard i just want to give you credit for bringing that up for giving the credit to james blanchard and in the whole structure where head coach head coach can head coach and gm develop and to do all that stuff yeah and and james blanchard's unique in that he literally has all personnel say he decides and the coaching staff is thrilled that he does that he does because they trust them and they work together, right?

Shit, I'd be thrilled, too, if those, if that defensive line walked through the door, I'd be thrilled too. But I think people are going to start to look at that and be like, all right, well, first of all, give me a Madador club and give me $25, $30 million a year. Right. There are a lot of places out there that do have that, but they have coaches that want to control this thing, you know?

Yeah. I talked to Urban about that. And I've talked to other people. We're going to have Jake Rosenberg on, who's helped put together the group like Jim, That would be cool. Yeah. Home in the front office.

I think we're going to do that later in this week. But my point is it's happening in college football. And for you to get out ahead of that and hear them talk about it a lot was awesome. But, I mean, Texas Tech, I know they've already beat them once, but to go out and beat a BYU team that seemingly was improved. And LJ. Martin was healthier. And we beat you 297 the first time. Now neutral site technically, 34-7.

So they, like, if you had any questions about Texas Tech, I guess it's not over until you go, but like, I don't know. I just, I see something as a personnel guy defensively that I don't know anyone else. Anyone else has that talent up front defensively like Texas Tech. And it's weird to say because it's Texas Tech. Right. So there's that. Let's get into it. And I guess the jumping off point is, and we don't need, no one wants a recap of.

Duke, Virginia right now. What did my boy men's to do? I'm not going to lie to you. Did not get a lot of my attention with that Ohio State game going on. Let's see. It's a good TV. I know. I don't think he was putting up.

No, I can pull it up. Here we go. I figured out of Fuller. All right, 10 for 25, 196 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. Yeah, so it wasn't anything special. But did they run the ball better like I thought? That doesn't matter. All right, so.

So congratulations. Chandler Morris had two picks, including one that sealed the deal in overtime. So. Greg. Well, that sucks because he had a really good year. Yeah. I've got family in Charlottesville and I, you know, keep close to. Tough kid played hard.

Yeah. And I won the best for them. But, and quite honestly, it does suck. Because I think, I don't know. JMU or Virginia, who's better? I would argue Virginia, and I want the best 12 teams in. I would argue Virginia. But we got a mess on our hands now.

It's not a mess. It's not, it doesn't necessarily complicated. It just kind of diminishes it, I guess, a little bit. And it really sucks for the ACC, especially because I'm not sure they're going to get any team in. All right, here we go. The TMS top 12. Here we go. Right?

So this is not not who we think is getting in or should get into the playoff, is it? So I wanted to talk to you about that. Okay. This is why we don't have show meetings because it's just better to go organic. Right.

Here's the way I look at it, right? And I hope everyone in the chat is ready to help out. And like let's get into this because we, like, JMU DDDDDD-D-D-5706 believes JMU is better. Duke should end up. up as one of the five highest conference champs dot no no they have they have five losses that i've i've i have i have worked shopped this i have i have certain before i come on this show that i'm i'm not giving false information this this i know duke is not involved um remind me at the end i do

want to give a shout out to jack keeled captain jack in here in cohacette okay yeah yeah remind me don't let me go off the air before because he did something cool for us. And he may wind up doing some stuff for us in the future. You have the automatic bids and you have the at-large. Tucker, do we have the automatic bids? Excuse me. These are things that we can't change. We can't adjust.

They are what they are. They're the conference winners of the Power 4 should have been. Now it's the conference winners of the Power 3, let's call. call it. And it's going to be two group of five, which is just wild. And so that means it's going to be in the Big Ten, Indiana,

SEC, Georgia, Big 12, Texas Tech, right? Right. And then the other you get Tulane out of the American. Tulane out of the American. And then also, that means JMU's the

highest ranked. J.M.U. is the next highest rank. Conference champion, yep. Yep. So I'm just filling this in as we go, right? So it's... We can't do anything about that. IU, Georgia, Texas Tech,

ACCCXed out. Tulane and JMU. Weird. You told us in the beginning of the season, who are the five... Hey, Steve, who are the five going to be? The five automatic bids in the college football

playoff? And if you told me, Indiana, Georgia, Georgia, Okay. Gunner Stock. Texas Tech. Wow, all that money paid off. Indiana.

Really? Okay. Not Ohio State? Yeah. Okay. What about the ACC? Miami? No.

No. No. No. What about Clemson? Clemson, right? Yeah. Okay. Louisville?

Florida states off to a hot start. They mean out of Alabama. Forte de Castellanos? No. Now, the agency didn't get an automatic bid this year. Really? So who's in? Tulane?

and JMU. JMU with the coach who's already taking the job to be the UCLA coach. Right. And Tulane's coach is going where? Where is he going? Is he going to Florida? That's Summerall, right?

Isn't Summerall going to Florida? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Sorry. I was thinking Memphis and Saturday. All right.

So that's the five. Now we look at the at large. Okay. Okay. Do you have yours? I do. You go one. Why don't we go in rotation?

You tell me who's your who's your war. So mention I, we've got the five we can't change. Those are locked. Then we have seven. This is where the committee is going to spend all their time going through all of these things. Steve took his time. I took my time. We had discussion on the previous show earlier today after the SEC championship game.

This is what we're presenting as the seven, right? Right. This would be our argument in the, the room as if we're committee members on these are the seven teams that should be the at large in this order in our opinions in this order in this order i'm going ohio state oregon olmiss texas a and m oh oh oh i thought we're going to go one in one oh okay no that's fine i thought you want me to give your seven ohio state organ o'm miss and a and m are the four that you gave that's good stop there stop there okay

I was saying one, you give your one, I'll give my one. So I've got Ohio State, Oregon, Ole Miss, A&M. Okay. I would actually argue A&M over Old Miss, but I'm not, and it is important. I'd be fine with that. We have to come up with the consensus, right? I'm okay with that.

I'm actually okay with, can I tell you my next one? And part of it is laying in all the chaos that they've gone through, if I'm being honest, because their offense has got to carry and their defense has not been very good. And now they don't have the guy calling the shots. So I'm going to go three A&M for Ole Miss. But we do have to go back and we've got to seed these. Just so you understand.

We have to see them after. But Ohio State, for the at-large bids, Ohio State 1, Oregon 2, A&M 3, Ole Miss 4. Who would be your fifth in the at-large? Oklahoma. Agreed? Agreed. who would be your six is where it gets interesting.

The last two are fascinating. Yeah. Alabama. You want to tell me when we tell you six and seven? Because that's just really what the conversation is. Yep. Alabama and Notre Dame. Really?

Yeah. Mine's actually Notre Dame and Alabama. So, I mean, we arrive at the same place. I think it's very difficult. And I have a hard time. I think BYU fans are going to be kind of pissed because the only two losses they have or two, the team is going to be.

Yeah, I don't care. I don't care. I don't care. I know. I have a job to do. And it's my job to tell you to like cut through all the bullshit and tell you who are the 12 best teams. Who are the seven best at large? Like B. W. Held the season. Held the season. Taki. Congratulations on all the money. They're going to continue to build off of this. They get a great not quite there. All of it. Yep. They're not at the level. In fact, I want to give you my two OLIs outside looking in. Yep. Texas would be eight on this list. and Miami would be nine. I sat down and I really looked at and I really thought about it. And three losses in the SEC against, yes, the Florida, I get it. But they beat a pair of top 10, was it two or three top 10 teams, two down the stretch. Three, didn't they? They beat Vanderbilt.

No, sorry, two, Vanderbilt and N. And they beat Oklahoma. So they did. Oklahoma. At the time, it was three top 10 teams. And it's still two top 10 teams. Yep. Has Miami beat Notre Dame. Miami lost, and here's the thing. And I am a head-to-head guy. I've got to be convinced otherwise strongly. I think anyone who's played competitive sports, anyone who's played football, that there is something sacred about head-to-head, truly.

but when it happens in August and teams have evolved and one team has gotten significantly better and the other team took a real dip and that dip I went back and looked at it that dip was late October early November a dip wasn't like late September early October it was late October early November

they lost to two four lost teams two four lost teams two four lost teams in Louisville who by the way way lost to Virginia who just lost in the AACC title game and SBU lost to Cal in the regular season finale which was

I mean brutal I get Miami is just as every bit as talented as Notre Dame they beat them maybe Alabama top to bottom probably Oklahoma both sides you know like they have the talent

there's no question about it Yep. I just don't think that team had finished. I mean, they did the last, like, few weeks, but I don't know. I just, it's hard. I mean, people talk about the margin of error down the stretch. It's like, yeah, Syracuse, North Carolina State and Virginia Tech and Pitt, who Notre Dame handled too.

Like, I just don't, I don't know. And it sucks because it really, I do feel like I'm chipping away. I'm taking a chunk out of my soul, and I believed in the head-to-head my entire life, but it was in August. I believe, listen, you can't dismiss the head-to-head. I'm not doing that. I'm not saying that that doesn't matter, but the game was in Miami.

It was with a quarterback making his first start. Like, you have to look at all of these things. And you can say, like, you're starting to make excuses or whatever. I don't really think that's the case. I'm looking at where are these teams now? Like, I'm sorry, but I think Notre Dame's a better team now. And it was a three-point game. And I keep hearing about how my,

I mean, you know, I don't really see it that way. I mean, remember that game where, where, I'm sorry, I got to pause you.

I do love this. At you, Miami 11, just wrote, your credible is gone. I don't even have to explain it. That's amazing. It's a good Miami team,

man, and if it gets in, it's not going to be like. Hey, Holly, I know. I know they won head to head. I know.

And I told you, I feel like I'm, it's like sacrilegious. I know. I know. I got it. But when you're three in, when you're over November,

when you're over three months removed and you've had 12 games, I hate when people fucking say data points. We're not doing data points. When we've had 11 and 12 games since, you got to, it's your job, right? You've got to make a tough decision.

Right. There's the, yeah, the record, the records are all we're looking at this graphic now Miami's 4 and 0 against top 25 teams Alabama's 4 and 2

Notre Dame's 2 and 2 I got it strength of record is 14 though for Miami Bama is 8th Notre Dame is 13 Bama won four straight games against SEC ranked opponents in four straight weeks Notre Dame lost to

Miami I get it Texas A&M and they did that the first two weeks of the season by three and by one better and better and I'm not saying it's easy I'm not saying like it's just it's brutal but I think you know what I do think I actually think the committee was smart and it protected themselves from this very scenario I'm what they did with right I'm not saying it's the right thing to do or anything else and I agree with Herbstreet and Nick today I think we need to get Why don't we give an initial one and then we revisit it this week?

Because how do you're setting up for- Now because neither one of those teams played and now all of a sudden you're going to have Miami Leapfrog Notre Dame because all this this national pressure because the ACC channel wants to play that game every like on loop. You have you seen this? The ACC channel keeps playing the Notre Dame Miami game. I love that. Yeah. No, I love it too.

But like what would so what has changed for the rankings of those teams? neither one played. I don't see how either one can jump ahead of the other. Notre Dame doesn't have what I would characterize as a bad loss on its record. Miami has two. You could say that Miami has a bigger win because they beat Notre Dame. I think that Notre Dame's win over USC is a big deal. I think that was a big win.

So, like, I don't know. I think that that Notre Dame team is slightly better now than Miami. I think they're much better than they were at the start of the season. I'm interested. All right. I'm, let's hear the Rikis. Hear what?

How do you, do you decide to keep Alabama in? Because the resume is just too good, right? It is. And I had to cool off after that loss. And I think when you get jam back and, um, not Bam Miller jam,

I think when you get, when you get him back in two weeks and you get LT. Overton back and, and you got a minute to read. group after a brutally hard SEC schedule that we'll see Alabama closer to

what we saw in the middle of the season when they won those four straight against ranked opponents and we're just stacking wins and looking really good. I really do. Can I tell you... Go ahead. Sorry. No, I just say... Yeah.

Two larger implications here. Yeah. There's a lot of talk about how Notre Dame needs to join a conference to giving Notre Dame crap. I think Notre Dame would be smart to join the ACC. I think they'd be smart to join the ACC. I think they have a real chance of winning that conference every year.

I get the tradition of it all. The other thing is Texas, these games, and you're already starting to see it, do you think Texas is ever going to schedule an Ohio state out of conference again? That ain't happening. Those games are those early, awesome blockbuster games that we used to see. Because of the additional conference game, you mean? If you're telling me that if Texas, If Texas hadn't, if Texas had played, pick a mid-major team, a Marshall, and won that game by, who cares?

Seven. Texas is in the playoff right now. With that resume and a win instead of a loss to Ohio State in the opening game, they'd have two losses. They would 1,000% be in this playoff. Yeah. So the out-of-conference games, those big tests that you had in the beginning of the year, those are gone. you know, they won't even play like that Florida State game, that Florida State team ended up being,

I mean, the wheels came off. That's obvious, but that wouldn't even happen. They're not going to play those kind of opponents. They're going to look for guys at the Mac and no offense to those teams with those mid-level teams. Why play a big game? It doesn't help you in the eyes of the playoff committee. I hear you.

There's a lot more to that. I got you. Yes, I hear you. Yeah. And expanding to an additional conference game and all that stuff. But I feel it's more off-season stuff. But you're not wrong. You're not wrong.

We do have to, in order to create this bracket, though, let's go. We got to actually rank the top 12. And I mean, I don't think ours is going to be much different from the – let's just do ours, okay, the TMS top 12. So number one, we see if you're watching on YouTube or Spotify after the fact, we appreciate you doing so. you'll see the graphic pulled up here with the TMS top 12 from last week. We had Ohio State 1.

Here's the biggest question early on in this thing. I'm going to go one in Indiana. Awesome. Just love it. Two, Georgia. Tell me where you disagree and let's have a debate. Good so far. Three Ohio State.

Yep. Four, Texas Tech. Yeah, I think, yeah. I think it's close. But they just won 34 to 7 in the conversation. championship game and they were against a team that you don't think should be in the play like i get it i i i'm not going to argue about something that i do i feel like i do from the and also if we're going to i'm not saying we're trying to predict here but if if we've got it kind of

a cluster to to um to break to sort to lean to sort through what let's try to um lean towards what it's going to be tomorrow so we can give people a feel and i'm not saying we're going to be right but there's a lot of emphasis put into winning a conference championship. I think the committee will definitely have Texas Tech 4. Yeah. So five will be Oregon. I think we agree on that, right? Yeah.

We said A&M over Ole Miss. I might go Oklahoma over Ole Miss, too. Not with that offense. I can't. And I love them. You know I do, but I just can't. Okay. So A&M, Ole Miss, Oklahoma.

I'm just pulling up to make sure. did you have the did your computer did your phone do the recent update it's like all the no just don't let it do it

we're so old I know I love it um on a side note add St. share I love it man 1,200 people in the chat

and only 168 likes let's go smash that like button people yeah why is that I don't know I mean I hate being a I hate like hoaring it out

and but we are putting in some some time we're grinding it out today and like you literally just all you get to do is you know just um you don't have to get your mouse like you just phones and just all right so i think it's you know so all right so one is indiana two i'll get to focus now sorry one is indiana two is as is georgia three is ohio state four is texas five is Oregon. We're going to say six A&M, seven is Ole Miss, eight is Oklahoma.

Okay? Yep. You've got Bama, then Notre Dame was yours? I got, uh, I don't know how I said it. I would have Notre Dame then Bama. Yeah, me too. Okay.

Am I missing anyone? Okay. So nine would be Alabama. 10 would be Notre Dame, right? Yep. And then 11 and 12 are Tulane and James Madison University. When you played at University of Richmond, Munch, back in 1999, Yep.

Did you ever think that you, when I would be doing this, no. Did you ever think that we would live in a world where the James Madison Dukes, who were right down the road, I-64, played in our same conference at University of Richmond, would be in the college football playoff. That's why. You wouldn't have even imagined that we were back in BC. I think we were BCS or pre-BCS then. Yeah.

But that we would be in 12-12-team college football playoff and James Madison would be in it. Another feather in the cap for Signetti, I think, too, by the way. That his program that he brought along. Footprint. Yeah. Also in. So that's it.

I mean, that's it. I think that's going to be it. I truly think that's going to be it. Maybe like the A&M, Ole Miss, Oklahoma could be shuffled. I truly think it's going to be nine Alabama, 10 Notre Dame, and then it will absolutely positively be Tulane and J.MU, 1112.

So I think I have this right. the first round match The first round matchups would be Oregon versus JMU A&M versus Tulane Ole Miss versus Bama and Oklahoma versus Notre Dame

Same again Oregon versus JMU Oh gosh A&M versus Tulane Ole Miss versus Bama and Oklahoma versus Notre Dame Well we got two good games

on the 19th 19th, 20th? Is it two days? Yeah, it's 19th and 20th. Yeah. 19th and 20th. Okay. Well, we'll get to all those and we'll start. Once they're official, we'll start breaking them down.

How are we doing on the chat? This thing's rolling, man. Dude, it's been a good night. It has been. All right. Let's get some. We've got to be up early, man. I didn't even think about it.

We've got to be up. We've got to re-rack. Hey, remember, new. I can't. I'm excited. I'm excited. I'm excited. Tomorrow.

All 1,300, you mad. Mad folks, men and women, my kind of people. I want you back here at noon Eastern time. You can have recent guys in the background. That's fine. We'll react to the committee and the rankings reveal. We will tell you what's crazy about them. If there is anything, we'll tell you, we'll let all the Miami people scream.

If they're screaming, maybe they'll be screaming joy. And then when it's done, we will, after that, once we get over the reaction of it, we'll start breaking down those games. If those are the four games, great. We'll talk about it. and we've got two to dissect and two that we don't really have to. But maybe those won't be the games. And then we'll let you go on your way the rest of Sunday.

I do want to get to this. Oh, good, good, good, good. I was nine and one my senior. Now, I, we were. I was a quarterback of a nine and one team, my senior year in high school. We missed that. And Sean Stalado, the Paizan, the Italiano agent, right? Tommy DeVito, who just haunts me.

And I'd get, Tommy Cutlets. Yeah, we've flown down to Mobile together. But he's just like, just think about you, it would be like the man who stole your woman or the guy who stole, he literally threw a touchdown pass with three seconds left against Beverly in the final week of the season. They beat us on an unbelievable circumstances. So unbelievable, he wrote a book.

But my point is saying all of this is I could taste going, it wasn't Gillette at the time, it was Foxborough Stadium. I could taste going to Foxborough Stadium. and having that dream of playing the Super Bowl, never got there. So my steps on, AJ Postolus is on this cohastate team, small town, coastal town, Massachusetts, you know, Division 7. But like he moved up from Greenville, South Carolina,

and comes up here, it's like, yeah, it's a football. And all of a sudden, they go undefeated and, they win, they win, whatever, their number one seed going into the playoffs. They make a run, undefeated in the playoffs. and they're now going to Gillette. So we all piled in, went down to the stadium. And he took a picture from inside the bus. I put it up on tour like, it was great.

Yeah, it was a great pick. Just like a high school kid in a yellow school bus driving down, all of a sudden an hour later, you pick it, you look up and like, I'm going to play there. And so being in there, it was awesome. And this guy, this young man, Jack Heald, who's a friend of our family, he's on the team, but injured and it was like really good with video stuff. So I asked him.

I said, you know what? I want to put, like, he works so hard. And honestly, like, just good family friend too, but like really works hard. And he put together a little video. And honestly, I think in the future he'll help us do some different cool videos for our show. But he put together his video of Cohasset and he has awesome music to it. But apparently, right before we came on, Tucker told me and understandably so that we don't have rights to it. So unfortunately, Jack, I can't play the music with it that drives at home, but look how cool this video is.

Wow. Right? And I told him he had to keep it short. So we just did 15 seconds. He condensed it all. But look at the quality and then look at just a reaction. And like, how cool is that? That's your high school team from this tiny town, 9,000 people in this tiny little town, right?

And you roll off of a yellow bus that picks up at school at 1.30. And the whole town's driving behind you. And you get there. And then you win the championship. Congratulations to everyone. Michael Wildflower, the quarterback and August, Gras. Green, set the school record, 27 touchdowns, scored another one or two in the Super Bowl that we're in, and had a 45, 50-yard touchdown run to win it against Amesbury.

Yeah, Amesbury gave him a game, too. Good for those. It is. Old school, like winged tea, grinding it out, going fourth downs, getting fourth and twos. It's one of those games, like, oh, this thing, it feels like it's getting, but anyway. So, congrats to those young men. Thank you, Jack Healed. Congrats AJ. Jack does awesome stuff and congrats to AJ who's just a pup on the team

but he's going to get his chance to be a big factor in the next couple of years and we're all here for it so I just wanted to share that and I can't thank everyone enough for being a part of this. This is an awesome

this is an awesome day it's exactly what you hoped it was going to be and we're going to be back tomorrow at noon Eastern time and mensch like double duties today so for that five stars man five.

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