The McShay Show - CFP First Round Live Reactions: Miami, Alabama, Ole Miss and Oregon Advance | The McShay Show

Episode Date: December 21, 2025

Join Todd and Muench as they react to the first round matchups of the College Football Playoffs. 0:00 Welcome to The McShay Show! 1:40 CFP first round live reactions! 6:45 (10) Miami defeats (7) Texas A&M: 10-3 30:30 (9) Alabama defeats (8) Oklahoma: 34-24 52:20 Previewing the CFP quarterfinals The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Learn more and join waitlist at ScoutMotors.com 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

But we got plenty of great college football to talk about. Mench is already getting nervous because there's just a hundred and twenty-four days until the NFL draft. But I'll ask you anyway, Mentsch, you good? I'm good. All right, for real this time, Tucker, roll the damn thing. Just letting everyone know for real this. Let's go. The McShay show is presented by Fandul.

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Let's go. All right, here we go. Yeah, I mean, I don't want to spend a lot of time on Ole Miss 4110 over Tulane. We literally saw this game earlier in the season. It was just 41 to 15, right? Yeah. Or 45 to 10. I forget whatever it was. It was almost like a lot too little. Identical to this mess.

And now we're watching Oregon. Here I want to give you some quick numbers before we get to the two big games that happened. And they were awesome. They were a lot of fun in very different ways. 21, 349. In 21 plays, Stevie Boy, Oregon ripped off 300. and 49 yards of total offense. 21 plays.

I don't have my calculator in front of me. That's an absurd yards per attempt or yards per play average. Right. And they did it in nine minutes. I mean, the problem with both of these scores, right? As Oregon now, 8.07 remaining up 41 to 13. We already told you, 41 to 10 was Ole Miss earlier today. And it's wonderful.

It's a home game as it should be. And so great, it's a celebration. It's the last time you get to see the seniors and guys that are moving on to the NFL. You get to celebrate what they've done this season. But it's bigger than this, man. I get the home crowds, love to see a win and this is the final time. On top of it not being overly helpful in terms of like a preparation. I don't think we as analysts,

or anyone, like, it's boring football and you don't take much away from it, you know? That's the problem I have. And so it could have been in Oregon, Texas, or an Ole Miss Notre Dame or whatever. You know, like we could have had unbelievably good matchups in Otson, in the Grove, but we didn't. And so I'm not here to over spill milk. I'll open the floor to you. The only thing I could take away from was, my goodness. At one point on that final drive in the second quarter for Ole Miss against Tulane.

At one point, Kewan Lacey, the star running back for Ole Miss, was in the tent with a bruised shoulder. And all of a sudden, Trinidad Chambliss's head smashes against the turf. And I'm saying, but Ricky Waters, remember Ricky Waters famous quote back in the 90s? For who? For what? For what? Yeah. Yep.

You know? and I'm not making light at these injuries. Thank goodness they both came back. Lacey does have a shoulder injury. It seems like Chambliss is going to be good to go. And when Austin Simmons came in, threw a couple nice balls, but then fumbles,

they couldn't finish that trap. The point is that was probably of these two games, the most, like, newsworthy, breaking, you know, information that came out of them. Other than that, again, I opened the floor to you, Steve. Like, what have you taken from either of these two games? Not much in terms of what the college football playoff is going to look like in the second round. I mean, I'm with you on that.

There's just not much I'm taking from it. There's a couple, couple notes, I guess. I got a draft note on Kenyon Sadiq. You don't we have six drops this year and three of them are tracking the ball down the left sideline. I think his ball skills are outstanding other than that. And then tonight he had to track a ball down the left sideline and made a great catch. So that's, I guess that's one thing I got. got out of it. The other thing that I will kind of circle back to some of the things you were saying,

this is not a great night for UCLA. You know, your head coach is coming over from JMU and you have fans that are trying to get a feel for who this guy is and they're watching JMU in the playoff tonight. And I know, you know, this isn't the most important thing, but that's, that's kind of a rough start to get off to, is that you're getting crushed by a Big Ten opponent, a old Pac-10 rival. I don't know if it's a great night for UCLA. And I know the JMU fans don't really care about that. But I'm also not sure how great this is for the JMU program either. Like this is just, it's not a good situation overall, in my opinion.

Are you muted? I can't hear you. As if we don't have enough problems, I get to go pressing mute when I, when I call. It's one of those nights where like, I don't even want to move. And I won't press mute again. I don't care what's going on here. what was good for college football was the first two games. Agreed.

But we'll get to last night, which was awesome. I had a hard time falling asleep after that game. It was like there was so much to it, so many layers that I want to peel back on. Today was a totally different experience. The wins, the field goal kicking trouble, all of it. It still was an awesome game. Yeah.

Like there were two teams that absolutely deserve, to be where they were. You can talk about Miami, the ACC, and all that. But like, talent-wise, you looked at it and like, oh, this is pretty evenly matched. They're both dealing with the elements. Neither team is perfect. We can see the flaws. But they're battling.

They're playing their asses off. And it's a lot of, it's like, there's still a lot of good ball out there, even though the score doesn't indicate it. 10, 103 was the final. Miami wins at Texas A&M. There were so many elements early in the game that, kind of told us where it was going to go. Like the Aggies, a 13-play drive, couldn't convert,

kind of start backtracking, wind up having to punt. It's like, how did that even happen, right? Yeah. Miami, I started taking these notes, right? Ready? After the second time they stalled, I went back and looked. Miami, first two drives I wrote, third and longs. You can't let A&M get you in third and longs,

because it got Miami the first two times. So I just thought you're being way too conservative on second. down and just happy with these third and long situations where Texas A&M defense thrives. It was driving me nuts. I had a little different view on it, but I'll get to that in a second. And I'm not saying you're wrong. No, it actually paid off. If that's what you're going to say, it actually paid off because they didn't make a big mistake.

And they established the run game by staying committed to it. But it was in the moment, it was killing me because I was like, you're not, you're not getting anywhere with this. third and five, third and six, third in seven, third and six, third and 13, which was actually a third and eight, and then a delay of game, which Christobal didn't call a timeout because he didn't want to lose his one remaining timeout. Christopal is always a, it's a roller coaster, right? Now, Oregon just, Oregon just blocked a JMU punt, and now it's going to be 47 extra point pending for 13.

And then third and eight. And I literally literally just stopped tracking them because I got bored. I was saying the audience will get the point. They got themselves in too many third and longs. And so even if they picked up a couple first downs and they started and gradually over time, they started to flip the field a little bit and they had better field position. They were now putting like the third and long would create an opportunity for a missed field goal or. or so it was just but i'll say this i felt like they got the memo early in this game

like we're we're gonna turn over marcel reed and i promised you like i'll tell you when i'm wrong in fact we're getting ready to write an article that we're going to drop christmas day where i'm going to tell you three things that i was dead ass wrong about and i already know in the nfl draft okay i'm happy to but i But I promise you that Texas A&M was going to get got. And when they got got, it was going to be Marcel Reed. And they did for a half against South Carolina. They did against Texas.

And they did again at home today. Three turnovers from Marcel Reed. He's an unbelievable young man. I don't wish him any ill will. I think he'll continue to develop. I think all these negatives will be turned into positives a year from now. I recognize all the athleticism and everything else. But he has been for an A&M team that was undefeated,

hanging around the top three for a while. They were up and down. The defense really struggled early in the season. They got better. The offense would kind of hit peaks and valleys. But it was always tenuous because of Marcel Reed. And it came down to that final play. And once again, laid on the read, balls thrown behind, interception, third turnover of the game.

You can't overcome that in a defensive struggle against that kind of defense. And so that was an element of it, okay? There were two other elements for me. Fletcher was flat out awesome, okay? Fletcher Jr. Great story, by the way. Absolutely great story. And they did a tremendous job as McDonough always does

and with McRoy. And like the whole crew. And I worked on that crew for a long time with different members of it. And they just like, they're the best in the business. And Molly, like Molly's, as unbelievable of a human being as she is a sideline reporter and she's great, obviously phenomenal at that. But Mark Fletcher had 172 yards rushing on 17 carries. And I'll be honest with you, about halfway through the game, I was like,

I don't understand why they're not running the ball. If one store, one part of the, there were three parts to this game, in my opinion. One was Marcel. read and the mistakes that were inevitable because we knew because we studied the tape and we knew the history two was fletcher's role in man and this offensive line is actually leaning on and wearing down this fast but not massive defensive front for a and m lean on it i thought fletcher should have had 30 carries but then i went back and i looked man 17 for 170 that's 10 yards per carry 10.1 Miami only had 47 offensive plays in this game. And so, and they, and they only threw the ball 20 times. So like, while it

felt like they should have run the ball more, they really, the percentage was pretty good run to pass. And then the third thing was Miami's defense. I mean, my gosh, you talk about having your finest moment in the most important spot. And they've had a lot of fine moments. But Keante Scott, in that hybrid defensive back roll with Muhammad Toray and Wesley Besant. They're all over the field. 26 tackles between them. Scott alone had 10 tackles and two sacks.

And then Rubin Bain had three sacks. And I get news for you. He was the second best edge on the field today. Messador was all over the place. Messador was everywhere. Five tackles. It's a sack and a half. And he handed Bain at least one sack that I saw.

And maybe more so. It was just awesome to. watch. And I'm curious, but like, to me, those were the three things. It was the defense for Miami can, like, even when they gave up yards locking it down. It was the run game for Miami, carrying it. And then it was, as both coaches alluded to when we talked about pregame, like, which quarterback is going to limit the mistakes? And they schematically and give the experience, I know you and Stanford, Stephen, everyone else like to yell at me about the 2,8801 career stats for Carson Beck, but he knew his role today, and he played the part.

Yeah, that was a big part of it. He took care of the football. He avoided the mistakes, and that was a big part of it. One other thing I had point out is Miami's freshman. I mean, Malachi, Tony talked about all year, man, when they didn't score after that pot return, when Tony got tripped up on that punt return, he didn't get in. Then they, I think there was a turnover down, or whatever it was, but they didn't score after that punt return. I thought Miami was in trouble. I was like, you're playing with fire when you're not, you know, making the most,

you're capitalizing off those kind of plays. But Malachi Tony was awesome at times in this game. The game winning catch, I would call it a run, but it's a catch. The punt return, like he looked really good. I know he lost the fumble, but he came back and played really well. And then the safety, Bryce Fitzgerald,

another freshman, two picks in this game. He had a monster game for them, you know, including the game's ceiling pick. So that was something that jumped out to me. it's been driving me nuts all year why Miami doesn't run the ball better. I don't understand it because I love Mark Fletcher. I was very high on him coming into the year

and then that offensive line and they were like the seventh best rushing attack in yards per game in the ACC. This is a team that's built to do that. So it's very encouraging to me that they were able to go into Texas A&M and do that today. It's encouraging for what they're going to have to do

in the next round, which is going to be quite a mountain to climb. Yeah, and X Factor C12 on the chat just said, and he kind of put it well, and he's ingest there's truth, right? Mm-hmm. But he said, Beck did his job. He did absolutely nothing. He's not wrong.

No, he's not. He was 14 of 20 with 102 yards passing. He threw for a touchdown. But the absolutely nothing was he didn't turn the ball over. Right. And they knew in this game. They didn't, no one knew.

No one knew that it, that Miami could win this game with their quarterback. And those weapons at receiver. And we talked about Daniels coming back and, and Tony kind of reemerging after a mid, mid-season slump. No one knew that 102 yards passing would get it done. But everyone knew.

Best chance that Miami had of winning this game was if Carson Beck didn't have one of those games. And you, just like I alluded, just like I, like I made, I got out, I don't want to say got out in front. I'm not trying to like take any credit for, but like pinpoint after doing a deep tape study. Like Marcel Reed is the reason that why they're going to lose if they lose. You were very astute in pointing out early on this season. Like they come in batches with Beck and it's not just a single game. sometimes it's multiple games and that's exactly what happened and when they lost a couple games in the middle of the season but he's capable of all of a sudden a two three interception game

he's capable of that despite those 2,881 snaps and all the experience so playing within himself in this situation windy circle like he missed that throw early second quarter deep shot to trainer down the right kind of left left throw back to the right down the right rail it was wasn't even the rail. It was kind of a crosser. I'd have to go back and watch the tape, but it was along the right sideline where the incompletion happened. And that's when I was like, I don't know if, I don't know if we can lean on this today because that's a wide open receiver, you know? And the winds were brutal as witness in both passing games. And quite honestly, Marcel Reed, for all of his flaws, I thought Marcel Reed managed the wind as a passer better than

Carson Beck today. I agree. But I also thought that Miami got itself into all those third and sixes, third and sevens, third and 13s, third and eights, where for as big and as physical and as strong and as capable as that group is up front I'm talking about from Miami of pass protecting on early downs, when it's not when it's not an 80, 20, you know, maybe 90, 10 that the opponent is going to throw the football. when you got Cassius Howell and the crew, like, ganging up, they do a pretty good job. But circumstances, both the wind and the downs and distances and everything, it just prevented Miami from getting anything going through the air,

and it turns out they didn't need it. Yeah, I mean, I think that's their recipe for success going forward. Is they, that's what that team is built to do. That defense, we, I now can say that that defense is as good as we thought it could be. and I think it's peaking at the right time. That defense is outrageous. And I think they got players on all three levels. I really believe that.

And then if they can run the ball, if that offensive line plays the way that it can play, I do want to ask you about this because it came up in our chat and I think Connor and Dan were talking about it. Should Malachi Tony have kneeled the ball at the one at the end there? And they just try to kick a chippy field goal

and not give Texas A&M any time because it did get, it got a little sketchy at the end there when Texas name drove and, you know, Miami had that late hit to gave him another 15 yards and all of a sudden the Aggies weren't positioned to score at the end there. Would you, did you feel about Christobal's game management there? My feeling is they told Tony to score.

It doesn't look like anyone had a conversation with that young man of if you get close, get down. If it's like the night before and it's 3424, 24, You got to understand not a human being had crossed a goal line with the ball in their hands. Correct. Do you know what I mean? It was 3-3 at the time, right?

Yeah. Yes. So I get it. And I'm, first of all, why is Dante Moore still in the game for Oregon? I don't know. I just thought the same thing. Honest to God. And he just threw an interception.

Could have been a pick six, but it was returned like 60-something yards. Like, I get. so angry in situation. Do you understand what's on the line for that young man? If it's not enough for your program, how about for the, like I just, and I only say that because,

yeah, these aren't valuable reps at this point. They're not. And secondly, JMU, I'm sure they're a bunch of really good young men. But at some point, and I'm sorry,

it's three minutes left, it's 48 to 13, and Dante Moore is still in this Oregon game, and I know we're jumping. around. But there might be a bad seat or two on that JMU defense and someone who's just pissed off enough. Just lost their cool. Yeah. Because this is an embarrassment and all those things. So I hope that that's the last we see of Dante Moore. Yeah, no, I hear you. Here's what I know. And here's what does

transition with us or translate to the rest of the college football playoff for Miami. it's hard. They're going to have to overcome some questionable decisions. And it's not going to be the best game management. And I say it all the time, like, here they are, second round of the playoffs. And they finish strong. That's your first complaint about Christobal in this Miami program in recent years. Yeah, they're great in September and October, but they fall apart in November.

And they really crash in December. So I get it, but like, yeah, you'd like to think that he would have someone on staff that's absolutely brilliant that they would have hired and paid somebody who's absolutely brilliant managing these certain things, right? I'll say this. For what it's worth, I think they should have scored. I think they should have let Tony score. I think you have a field goal kicker or miss three kicks that day. Who knows? I'm actually agreeing with them, but I wanted to, I didn't want to just.

Okay. I did, I actually think in, because it's not 30. to 31. It's not some high scoring game where we're like, we trust things that we're doing offensively. Like you're in that game,

that situation, no one has scored a touchdown, score. And our defense is playing that good. You know what? If they drive down the field against this defense, the way we've played,

and for the first time all game long, they're able to do what we just did to their defense, which hell us out of the end zone all day, then God bless them. And if they get the two-point conversion, that they move on. We don't deserve it.

And if it's over time, then let's re-rack the thing and go. So I just want to say this quickly. Analytics are an interesting thing, and I think they're very helpful for coaches, and I'm not anti-analytics, but you have to use them appropriately and understand the way the game is unfolding.

And for me, this showed up in both the Alabama, Oklahoma game, and the Miami-Texas A&M game, because I think the analytics people might tell you to get down and kick the field goal there, but that's ignoring the fact that the wins were the way they were. It's ignoring the fact that your field goal kickers already missed three field goals. And he probably hits the chippy. I'm not saying that he doesn't, but it's ignoring those facts.

It's just looking at the paper. I also think if you're Oklahoma last night and you get into that situation, they're going to tell you to try to get the field goal and then get the onside kick. Well, the first time I got it, the second time after your kickers already missed one, maybe that's not the right call at that point because your kicker just missed one five, ten minutes ago or whatever it was. You have to play it. I thought Christopold did a good job of that. You have to like understand how the game is being played out that day.

It's not all black and white on paper. This is what you do every time. Yeah, I guess let me just ask this before we move on because that was a good way to transition to Friday night's game, Alabama, Oklahoma, and we won in a minute. I'm looking at these odds, right? And you've got, you've got Georgia's six and a half point favored already over Ole Miss. Well, when this game comes to a close

and J.M. You just scored a touchdown. They're looking to make it 20 or 21 to 48 to 19 right now, a minute 15 left in the third quarter. But when this game wraps up, we'll get Fanduil to give us updated odds on the Texas Tech Oregon game, which will be held. Let me, let's do this real quickly. What do you, prediction for the odds in that game. Don't say, yeah, Oregon, Texas Tech. I want a prediction, and I'm going to count backwards.

I'm going to count three, two, one, and then we're both going to say it. And everyone on the chat, I want you to put it up real quickly. I'm going to buy you 15 seconds right now. Texas Tech, Oregon, it's at the Orange Bowl, okay? What is the spread? Is it Texas Tech favored? Is it Oregon favored? You'd think Texas Tech would be as the team with Dubai?

We saw last year sometimes playing the first round. It was helpful, but is playing this competition helpful? no one in the entire chat is actually listening to our show. They're talking about Cincinnati and Sorsby. It's kind of why I love them. All right, here we go. Pre-war dreams. Oregon minus five.

No, Texas minus two, maybe. Oregon minus three and a half. Oregon minus three and a half. Oregon. A lot of Oregon's. I got tech minus three. Oh, my gosh. I'm just, I don't know what it is.

You told me to, you're literally like, my children. Well, you're blurting them all out. I'm reading all the chat answers. All right. What do you have? Do you know? No. I have to talk this whole time. And then I take five seconds to pause and think. What I think it is. The build up was too much. What I think it is is, is, I think it's Texas Tech minus it will start blue. Texas Tech minus two and a half is my guess. What did you say? I think that's that three and a half.

I said three and a half. I think it's good. I think it will go down. I don't know. I think it could go down as the week progresses, but we'll see. Okay. So that's that.

What I was trying to get to, and we took a little detour, and that's fine. Ohio State is minus nine and a half according to Fandul. That's in the Cotton Bowl. against Miami, obviously. Ohio State, I don't want to say they caught a break.

They would much prefer to play Miami, and it's not disrespectful to Miami. But my goodness, like the playoff, the college football playoff committee, putting the number two seed or three seed, right? Three seed. No, the two seed. Are they the two seed?

Yeah, Ohio State's a two seed. Yeah, putting the two seed in a spot where their opening game in the playoff, because they have a buy, could be against a Texas, Texas A&M program right down the street, the Cotton Bowl or Jerry's World. So it feels a little bit more fair and balanced.

It feels like honestly like an old Orange Bowl game, Miami versus Ohio State. That's nine and a half. Without doing a deep dive into this. Is there anything you see from my, like, do you give Miami any shot to, by the way, my plus 650 to get to the semifinals look a little bit better. Now my Fandul futures bet.

Here we go. I think that Miami defense is for real. We just saw the Indiana defense, which is for real hold Ohio State to 10. I think that they could keep this game close. I really like Ohio State that game, though. Me too, actually. Yeah, I mean, that defense is for Miami could make it a game,

but I don't, I think that offense is going to have a game. hard time moving the ball against the Buckeyes. And it will be the largest spread of the four with Indiana favor by seven and a half over Alabama. And I mentioned Georgia, six and a half. And that Texas Tech Oregon spread is going to be, I would be surprised if it's more than three and a half. So that will be the biggest spread. Miami's certainly talented enough.

But I act like while it was an awesome win, did the conditions lead to all the past? in game troubles, or is that a problem that's going to rear its ugly head against that Ohio State defense? And can Carson Beck, with all that experience, handle all the stuff that's about to get thrown at him? Because Patricia's had a lot of time to prep for both, you know, and he's got all these multiple hat wearing weapons on the defensive side from Arvel Reese to Sunny Stiles to Caleb Downs. It could be a, it's going to be a challenge. Let's put it that way. And we'll get to more than Monday in our show.

The Carson's back's played like two How many snaps? 2,881 1,493 passes. That was coming into the college football playoff. On Monday, I will get you More snaps now. He's got more snaps now.

I will get you the updated snaps when I need. This episode is brought to you by Scout Motors. As we get closer to the playoffs, everyone's focused on the future. Who's advancing? Who's not? Scout Motors is focused on the future too. The all-new scouts,

Scout Terra and Scout Traveler will combine iconic heritage with reimagined engineering and design. With plans for advanced four-wheel drive and optional 35-inch tires, they'll be ready for whatever challenges come next, whether that's winter roads or no roads at all. Join the waitlist at scout motors.com. Concept vehicles, not available for sale. Features and performance specifications are preliminary and subject to change. joining the wait list does not guarantee purchase visit scout motors dot com for more details um well at 45 snaps he had today so 45 to that total we're over 3 000 no no we're over 2,900

i'm obviously being a i'm obviously i know you are i know you are you needling you but it is a thing it is i do think it's a thing i think the experience is a thing i just love that you're like hammering at home a t b hoss dweyer godin saints chair matthias and everybody else in the chat know that you're you're busting balls right now. Okay, Alabama, 34, Oklahoma, 24. My gosh, this was fun. I have a different feel on it, but go ahead. I want to hear which I like.

No, no, no, no. I want to hear yours first this time. You show me yours. I just feel like it was this big swinging momentum and this Oklahoma team that had been so mentally tough all year, all of a sudden just it wasn't there anymore. And I don't feel like Alabama just had this great game. I felt like right after the punt, the muffed punt snap,

whatever we want to call it, the turnover and downs, Alabama scores, and then the pick six at the end of the half from a tier, all the air goes out of the building. I mean, it was just, and all of a sudden it was just, here comes Alabama. And it wasn't even, again, I never felt like, while Alabama's playing much better all of a sudden, it didn't even feel like that to me.

It just felt like Oklahoma out of nowhere had just had the wind taken out of its sales. They didn't respond well, which again is really surprised me based on what this teams had to go through to get there. They had to go through so much just to get this opportunity. And they showed so much mental toughness for so long. And then it felt like they just,

they didn't have enough to come back. And maybe they just ran out of gas at the end. And maybe this is just that Oklahoma program, which has been historically really good. But this is kind of a different animal now, learning what it takes to win in the playoff and they'll be better the next time around. But to me, it just, I don't know, it wasn't really a back and forth game. It was, you know, Oklahoma jumped them and then Alabama took advantage of mistakes. And then it was the first half was a lot better than the second half, in my opinion. Let's put it that way.

I had the good pleasure of going to the Bill's Patriots game last week, right? And I pretty... A lot of similarities there, right? Stacey James and everyone with the Patriots, I can't thank you enough. It was an awesome opportunity. My entire family, all six of us went. It was AJ's birthday. We had an awesome time.

But just the football guy and me, more than just like the dad and the family guy. Like, I'm watching... And you would think that I would kind of learn from that because it was like 21. nothing like this game's it feels over it feels like like a changing of the guard and all and then so i'm watching the i'm watching the other night and it was kind of that similar thing home everyone's going crazy and in this case it was oh alabas you got to remember when we came into this game man we spent all that time last week Alabama there's a groundswell something's strong.

And even the folks on game day that are very careful about these sorts of things, like openly, Thammel, openly, they lose tonight. The entire college football landscape could change. Because Caleb D'Bor could legitimately be looking at Michigan. Right. He was going to be in Ann Arbor by morning.

And then Alabama, the most coveted job in college football has been, it just is right now. It would be. Is open? The portal opens on January 2nd. What? You know what I mean?

Like, but they're talking about like there's real. And I told you, I'm talking to people in Tuscaloosa, and there's something going on, right? And they're coming off to lose my 21 points. Negative three rushing yards to Georgia. An embarrassment of a game. And if you're pro-Bama, you're looking at this thing and you're like, well, we had like 14 guys who didn't play and Quavis is back and Jam Miller's back. I said his name right.

And you got a minute to regroup and blah, and we knew we were in the playoff. But then it's 17 nothing. And you're like, oh, this thing might be fucked. Alabama might be a mess. But you also had Sabin being like, hey, like, look at, like, give me a single. I want to give me a cameraman. Come here. Alabama wants DeBoer here.

So it's up to, like if Kaelin doesn't want to be here, which was a weird thing too. Yep. So Kailen Dabor just doesn't want Alabama? Like, I don't know. Like, none of it was making sense. And so now it's 17 nothing and you're like, oh, they're cooked. but I didn't learn from the Bill's thing. And it just, it was fascinating to watch because,

and I don't want to miss this part of it, okay? John Mateer's a show favorite. It started with Connor Nevins talking to us about the snack and the, wasn't even the snack in the pack at that point, the pack 12, you know, pack 12 after dark. And we'd be doing a show until two in the morning. He's like, but here again. and I'm like, all right, I got to watch tape on John Mateer out and...

You guys are going to go watch the Batyr game? You're going to go watch the game? Yeah, I'm like, no, I'm going to grab a half a slice of pizza and go to bed, Connor. And then I start watching his tape, I'm like, oh, there's some stuff here. And then he goes to Oklahoma. And I just, I love the way he plays the game because it, I'm not saying it's going to translate perfect to the NFL. And there's all sorts of stuff to get in that conversation. But it looks like we're postponing it to next year.

But he comes in and he rips apart Michigan a little bit. And he, that Auburn defense was awesome. and especially early in the year, and there's everything to play for, and the plays he made late in that game, but then the thumb injury. And then Texas, and then seven interceptions and seven games,

which is four touchdown passes. And you're like, I was like, I know it'll get better, but hopefully this isn't like a permanent thing because he's throwing the ball funny. The ball's not coming out the right way. He's on those gripping it here, and it's coming out there,

even though he does some sidearm stuff. I've seen this stuff, and I'm only seeing this stuff, and it's not coming out with the same. And then he comes out Friday night, and he's just ripping it. And yeah, there were a couple throws where you can see the elbow dips and the ball's under, and he overshot that one to the left by like 12 yards.

I don't know what, you know. And they showed a great camera view from behind the end zone looking at him where the ball, and you can tell like he's gripping it here, not here. Yeah. He's kind of, fsh. But for the most part, all night, ripping the ball. And he's looking more like Mattier.

And I'm like, this is interesting now. Because you know who else looks like the guy that we thought he was going to be? Dionne Burke's wide receiver, over 100 yards. Yep. He looked quick, too, man. He looks. He had a juice. Maybe that week off, maybe this is what the doctor ordered a couple weeks to get right.

And Satania didn't even do that much. But they're rolling. and Mateer throws for 307 yards. And so, like, I don't want it to be lost that, like, Mathier should be back. I can't imagine he won't be back. But it was, from one perspective, it was like, it was, I don't know, I felt this sense of, oh, the world's right again.

Mateer's making mistakes, but he's doing it aggressively and the ball's firing off his hand, you know? And by the way, up 17, nothing on Bama. I'm like, alright, so who's next? Huh. I don't know. Like, why can't they beat Indiana? Honest to God.

Honest to God. 17-0. That defense with this John Mateer, one game. I'm here for it. But then we kind of saw the, I don't want to say the true colors. We saw the surprising element that you just talked about. We saw something that no one could have predicted. and I don't if you go back and watch the TV copy

I remember feeling it in the moment it was one of those weird things I don't and and and I respect Oklahoma's fans so much that they did their job there should be kind of silence when you take offensive snaps and when you go to punt the football the less chaos the better

but it was like this weird silence like almost like everyone's like hey what's going have you guys get your tickets for for the new years you know Like, it just got so silent in there. And then this punter who's been amazing all year, one of the best special teams groups all year long. And the kicker, Tate, like, he's been awesome all year long.

But that punt, when he just flat out glitched and dropped the punt, it was like, wait, what? And now we're going to halftime and it's like, we got a game. That was the first part, as you said. And obviously a tale of two halves and it really wasn't even a full first half. I was thrilled to see Mateer back up and running. And it gives me so much hope for him

and next year and everything else. Okay. Honestly, and had we sat down and Tucker gave us like a, and Dan gave us like a rundown and said, all right, here I'm going to give you, let's do scenarios. Meteer throws for 307.

What's the outcome of the game? We're like, oh, yeah. Oklahoma by double digits. There's no way. No problem. He's not healthy enough, guys. He's not, no, it's cute, but he's not. He throws for 307 and a loss.

Like, no, that, right? That's not. But then the other part was, it's good to see Ty Simpson back too, man. We hadn't seen that Ty Simpson in a while. I thought he played better. I'm not saying perfect. Yeah.

I thought he played better. I thought it was encouraging. I don't, I hope before you, I'm going to allow you to go here, but I do want to remind you, still an offense that did not have, they had a great run game by their standards. This rushing attack is like 120 something in college football. And I want to remind you, that's Oklahoma's defense, okay? Well, they had 25 carries for 28 yards against Oklahoma.

They ran Daniel Hill, at the end of the game when they needed it. He had one carry for 30 yards. Yep. And he had that one carry for 30 yards. And then he had that tough run of the goal line to seal the game. So when they really, really needed it, they got it from their run game. So you're right. I mean, Ty Simpson is still doing it without a run game.

I mean, the run games. And I want to tell you another stat. Again, before you, before you, I know we're going to go. I want people to have this perspective when they say this. Is it one for five? It is. So you take, you take away. that one shining moment

for the Alabama run game, because I heard a lot on the broadcast and I heard a lot of people after the game. Well, the run game, it seemed like they started to get the run game going. I'm like, no, it didn't. It actually didn't, really. They had that one long run.

You know that Daniel Hill and Jim Miller combined for 24 rushing yards on 14 carries. That's not, like, that doesn't cut it. So my point is, against that defense with your top two backs. Fine, throw in the 30. 54 on 14 carries for your top two running backs. And the star wide receiver, who I get has not been a big part,

glitches out again. It's twice I've used that word. I'm not trying to. But the drop, like, it's, it's big. And now I'm reading all the stuff about transfer portal. So something's going on there, too. and they try to go to one of the key third down drop Ryan Williams one catch five yards last night

yep and it's a continuation of what we've seen for the last few games of the regular season SEC championship and here so Ty Simpson without a run game without a star wide receiver against that defense now go ahead and tell me he was just average I thought he played better I love them too I just thought I just think that

earlier in the year, he was surgical. And I thought last night was really encouraging and he played well. But I mean, like, Jeremy Bernard had to make an unbelievable, he did have a drop that he should have caught earlier in the game. But he made an unbelievable Randy Moss type over the back of the defensive back made a play. I mean, that was a great play. I, you know, there was things, I get it. It's not that I thought, I didn't think Ty Simpson played poorly.

But we're still talking about a guy that was. 18 for 29 for 232 and two touchdowns. It wasn't like he went out and lit the world on fire. But he doesn't have a run game, Steve. He doesn't have a star wide receiver. He's got a tight end who's limping around and is not that effective. I'm not saying he played poorly. I'm not saying he played poorly.

I'm just saying that I don't watch, I didn't watch that game last night and think to myself, wow, Ty Simpson's back. I was like, this is better. And I want to remind you, this is Brent Venet polls. I hear you. And the pressure packages and everything. How about the throw 1123 third quarter, Lottie Brown?

Back left corner of the end zone or Lani Brooks, yeah. Yeah. I got, I got Jam Miller's name right, so now I got to go screw up Lotties. Back left corner of the end zone, 17, 17 at the time. There were onions all over the field on that throw. 14 minutes, fourth quarter, right rail shot, tear drop, outside shoulder. older. Lottie Brooks. Brilliant. There were some throws, man.

There were. Maybe, you know what? Maybe this is the problem with Ty, with me and Ty Simpson right now is that his, he sets, he set the bar so high that if he doesn't play to that, because I'm telling you, in those three games, the three or the four games, they beat those ranked opponents, Ty Simpson was playing quarterback better than anyone in the nation. Yes. Not even close. Without question. okay so when I was like I was encouraged last night I thought he played better I thought they played better like I get all of that I'm encouraged I still that that team that we were seeing earlier in the year that was the team where you were starting to say to yourself maybe this Alabama team can win it all when you have Ty Simpson playing at that level and that passing attack operating at that level then I do think they're they are a legitimate contender I still don't know if I saw that I think Ryan won't has to play a bigger role for them to really get there. And yeah, I guess it's maybe the passing game over just Ty Simpson's performance.

But that's what I'm comparing him to. I'm comparing him when he was at his absolute best earlier this year and now. And last night was good. And it was against a really good opponent in a really tough situation, not only game-wise, not only being at Oklahoma, in a playoff game, but also all the noise surrounding the program. Like, I get that. and he deserves a ton of credit. He's got another level he can go to.

We've seen it. Yeah, I guess there's some... All right, so I do want to say this, though, as I look ahead of this, because apparently we've had some technical difficulties. That's fine. You know, in the next... This is the point I wanted to make.

In the next two, we could see the top three quarterbacks dance it off. I don't know that we've ever had a situation like this. to the end of the season. So good. There are three quarterbacks we talked about it the other day. I think this is important for people who like this show

and are in the draft and college football as passionately as we are. We have an opportunity to three quarterbacks could wind up almost like a play-in situations like mono-a-mono and then winner gets to play mono-a-mono to go play for the national championship. Ty Simpson, Fernando Mendoza. and who would have ever guessed Mendoza comes in with the chip stacked in his favorite Indiana over Simpson does it, Alabama.

But welcome to 2025. I love it. And then the winner could, if Dante Moore carries this over, this momentum over, and they knock off Texas Tech, which you and I both think that they're capable of doing. In fact, you picked them to do that. I did, yeah. I still feel good about that. I actually, yeah, it's a toss-up to me right now, and we'll get into more of that in the next couple shows. But the winner of Mendoza versus Simpson gets to go play Dante Moore if Dante Moore can take care of his business. That's pretty awesome, man. And by the way, it kind of doesn't, wouldn't matter most years.

But we started this whole college football playoff last week by telling you, things are getting really interesting with these quarterbacks Ty Simpson's got a massive decision to make and it's beyond just the 17 starts or whatever it will be when I'm done the 13 starts he had plus 14 now and it'll be 15 starts right it's yeah I'm 24 I'll be 24 I get that part of it

but there's a five star coming back the DeBoar stuff maybe that's cleaned up he and he and Caleb Dabor look like this. You know, seriously. No, no, they do, though. And I've heard that. And so, I don't know. There's just a lot of factors there.

And then you got Dante Moore, who everyone's like, this guy's mature beyond his years. Middle of the season, it was, he, he is in no rush. He's 20 years old, man. Cool it. He's going to be back next year. But then Will Stein leaves.

So there's just a lot. lot of things going on, right? Mm-hmm. And so now, and we said coming in, if Simpson makes a run and or if more makes a run and things go really well, they have not, I talk to people who know, they legitimately have not made their decisions. They want all the information, all the information doesn't come out until their college football playoff season or their college season and the college football playoff run for

them respectively is over. That should be the process, right? They should not be making up their mind. Absolutely. Right. Absolutely. You get it's more time, more data, more, talk to more general managers, have your people, you know, like, absolutely.

And most of all, the last thing you should be thinking about while you're preparing for JMU, if you're more, and now Texas Tech, for Oklahoma, if you're Simpson, and now Indiana, is, well, let's weigh these pros and cons and all. And you don't want to be in that headspace where you've made a decision. You know what I mean? You want that. That's something you deal with later, right?

So with all that said, it's a subplot for us to keep an eye on in the next couple weeks and all of this. All right. They think we should get out of here. And I don't disagree. By the way, really quickly, I may have spoken too soon about Chesney. I mean, they're, they've put up, Jamie used put up 20 second and a half points here

and kind of showed a little bit of a compete level here that I did not expect. So good for them. Yeah, it's 4826, 9.06 remaining. Oregon does not change my feeling on whether or not G5 schools should be in. If you're ranked high enough as a G5 school, you should get in, it doesn't change my feeling on that. But, you know, this wasn't,

this is not the dumpster fire that I expected coming out of half. No. No. And it shows a guy who's capable with this personnel, but quite honestly, I don't know that the personnel's any better. In fact, I would argue JMU's personnel currently as

is situated as better than UCLA's. Maybe, I mean, I'd have to really sit down to a deep dive, but there's not a big difference right now. Right, but he will hold change. You can get, in theory at least, you can get a better player to UCLA with the guy with like Chesney there.

I know what I mean? I totally agree. Yeah. So, yeah. Um, yeah, I mean, what? Do you want to, do you want to rank the eight teams that are going to be left in this thing or what? Let's do it. A TMS, TMS Final Eight playoff power ranking. That's what we do. I know it's what Dan and Tucker want because apparently like the world is collapsing. Give them what they want. It may be a, this is where I get in trouble. I'm going to shut my mouth for once. I'm actually going to shut my mouth.

Good for you. Look at the growth. Look at the growth. I want people to look at me right now. This is what growth looks like. I'm proud of you. Because I have so many one-liners right now that I want to drop in behind the scenes

to get people riled up, but I won't do it. Yeah, go ahead. You want me to go mine? Or are we doing a consensus? Or you just want me to roll mine out. I'm going to go. Roll yours out and I'll tell you and then we'll create a consensus.

Quickly. just off the top of my head, I'm going Ohio State 1, Indiana, 2, Georgia 3, Oregon 4, Texas Tech 5. Let me sure I'm not missing anyone here. Texas Tech 5, Ole Miss 6, Miami 7. Who am I missing? Well, here's the problem I have with this. We need some qualifiers here.

Okay. Are we saying this is our rankings? You can't rank Ohio State ahead of Indiana, given that neither program has played, and the last time we saw one beat the other. So you're telling me, even after the, you know what I mean? I hear you. I'm fine with if you want to do in a rematch,

I like Ohio State slightly over in Indiana. But then you have Oregon winning at all, so Oregon then would have to be number one. So pick or choose, but it's going to be one or the other. Okay. I don't disagree. And by the way, Fanduil agrees.

Ohio State, I believe, is the confidence ranking. That's what they went. Which one do you think you have the most, to win on a neutral field? So it can be Ohio State. It can be Ohio State.

It's just confidence. I like Oregon's path. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to go Ohio State. No, no, no. Not path. Not path.

Neutral field. If you lined them all up, who do you like the most? I got you. I got you. I'm going to Ohio State. Indiana, Georgia, Oregon, Texas Tech. That gets me to five. Ole Miss is six.

Alabama. You know what? I'm going to Alabama six, believe it or not. Ole Miss 7, Miami, 8. I'm going to Ohio State, Georgia, Indiana, Oregon. Alabama, Texas Tech, Miami, Ole Miss. I don't hate that. I hate that, yeah, I'm a little worried about Ole Miss.

If Kiwan Lacey's not 100%, like he's a big part of what they do. Yeah, I don't hate it. Indiana is getting a little bit of disrespect there. But this has come up with a little bit of our brackets, man, a lot of feelings about our brackets on X, which I love. I love the reaction. But I hope people understand the top five seasons in this thing are like legitimately any one of those five, I think, could win it.

Like, they are, they are, it is a good, it's funny. I think, I think four of them can, but I, is Texas Tech the one you think maybe, I think Texas Tech can beat anyone? I don't think that they can run the whole thing. That would be of all the top teams, of, yeah, of all the top teams. Yep. In a weird way, I almost think Alabama could make a run before Texas. Tech could actually want. I thought we were done with this. I thought you'd fix it. I thought you were

over it. What I hate is now they're going to make, then now they're going to make the run. And I'm going to have to, you, the stuff I have to deal with from you. I will be absolutely insufferable. And mind you, I picked Oklahoma to win last night. Okay. But I will be insufferable if Alabama is in the national championship game because you'll have to listen to me for weeks. or two weeks, whatever it is. I can't wait to get a text from you in about 20 minutes, too, when we get off this thing and jam you backdoor covers for your fan dual pick of the week.

Oh, yeah, what was it? 21, 21.5, so it's 47. Was it 21.5? I did 21.5, posted it. It was like minus 120. 126 or something like that. Oh, they're a half point off the cover. They're going to backdoor cover at the end.

Who's got the ball right now? It's fourth and forever. Fourth of 21, Oregon's got it. I don't know if they're in field goal range, but they're close. Yeah, it looks like they are. They're not going to kick a field goal, are they? All right, this has been fun. We'll be back on Monday.

What are we doing on Monday, Munch? We've got, I don't know which one we have. first for next week. We're going to, I mean, let them behind the curtain a little bit. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, okay. What show is airing on Monday? We're going to try to tape some things that we don't screw it up.

Damn, what are we doing on Monday? What's the Monday? The all show team. Oh, the, yeah, the all-TMS team. Well, I got to get some work done on that. All right. That's, yeah, that's a big one. A fun one, but a big one.

Yeah, the inaugural. I got a couple guys. show team. I haven't even started. Now I'm going to, now I can't sleep tonight. There you go. All right. This has been fun.

Hey, we appreciate everyone in the chat. Thank you for being there. Obviously, thank you guys. Kind of a disjoining because the games kind of sucked. But we're going to, we will be back live for, um, oh,

which one is it? It's just, help me out here. What are we? Let's tell the, let's tell all the people. We're going to be back. on oh it's the that's the 29 that's the 31st so it's new year's eve and it's new yeah the first

we'll be back the night of the first we're not going to break in the new year's eve like everyone go have fun even even you ap and ghost of steve adazio i know you guys have plans go out and have fun best handle jeremy godin x factor all you guys we appreciate you being straight back colmarie but jan jan 1st everyone's licking wounds we got we have some awesome games that day, three games that day, and then we'll jump in the last game, probably what, five minutes left, and we'll watch it together. And we will, and we'll review all those. And now we get the semis from that point on. So we'll have a ton to cover there. But in between, we're back on Monday, as we always are. And we're fired up, getting ready for the holidays,

getting ready for Christmas. And we will, but we'll be back before then. And Mench might even get his fucking draft Santa, man. You know he's got to get his suit on at some point. All right. We love We appreciate you. We'll see you on Monday. Bye. Bye. Five stars. And present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus

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