The McShay Show - QB Deep Dive: John Mateer’s Superhuman Saturday and Early Impressions of Arch Manning. Plus, Takeaways From Clemson, Florida, and Arizona State.

Episode Date: September 8, 2025

Welcome to The McShay Show! The guys have emerged from their tape study with some quarterback takeaways after Week 2 in college football. They begin by breaking down John Mateer’s ascension and how his game reminds them of Patrick Mahomes’s. Then, they discuss why the sky isn’t falling for Cade Klubnik and Clemson despite a rough showing against Troy. To close, they reveal their early impressions of Arch Manning, Sam Leavitt, and DJ Lagway. Our first LIVE show with special guest Dan “Big Cat” Katz will take place at Lincoln Hall in Chicago this Wednesday! Tickets are on sale now—secure your spot today! We’ll also be live on YouTube this Saturday night to recap all the action from Week 3 of the college football season. 0:00 Welcome to The McShay Show! 3:08 Evaluating John Mateer's Performance vs. Michigan 30:20 Concerns with Cade Klubnik and Clemson's Pass Pro45:45 Takeaways on Arch Manning's Lack of Consistency55:07 Evaluating Sam Leavitt vs. Mississippi State59:30 DJ Lagway's Tape in Loss to USF The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit ⁠www.rg-help.com⁠ to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Todd McShayGuest: Steve MuenchProducers: Tucker Tashjian, Conor Nevins, and Daniel ComerSocial: Jon Roemer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Must be 21 and older in present in select states or 18 and older in present in D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem? Call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Help.com. Call 1-88-78-88-88-98-9-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. We're going big game hunting on an absolutely jam-packed show today. From John Mateer to Clubnick to Arch to Lagway and a whole lot more, you're going to want to buckle up for this ride. It's a loaded slate of games and week.

three of college football. And just 227 days until the NFL draft. Man, you good? I'm good. All right, let's roll this thing. Mateer, Klubnick, Lagway, Arch, Leavitt.

Sounds like you did some digging on Levit, too. I can't wait to hear what you have to say. Real quickly. I know we don't do housekeeping off the top. We've got to get right into this thing. And there's so much from John Mateer tape. I'm excited to share that I watched yesterday. but we've got a huge show.

If you live in the Chicago area anywhere nearby, Wednesday night, all right, Wednesday night, just a couple nights from now. We are live at the Lincoln Hall in Chicago. It's you. Like, come on, come see the big fella, right?

We got a few tickets left. Just a few tickets left. We're going to be in Chicago. We're going to do a full, The McShay show from there. And come join us. Go to the ringer. com slash events if you want to buy tickets now and we will uh will be hanging out in in the great city

of chicago for a few days maybe you'll see us around mentioned with this like i think like his tourist hat on me with my binoculars walking around viewing all the sites now it'll be a fun trip but we uh we hope you come join us and uh we appreciate all the support that you provide us on this show speaking of the show i like john meteer was a lot lot of fun to watch in game, right? Yeah. Going back and watching the tape, here's the best way I can put it. The things that looked awesome on, on, like, in game, looked even better in the coach

copy tape. The end zone copy, then the, uh, sorry, the, the all 22 and then the end zone copy for each play. Um, he did some special things, man. You know what stood out to me? Like, a couple things. First of all, what stood out to me first was, we all wanted to know.

All right, he's coming from Washington State. Yeah, they played kind of an easy opening game. He came from Washington State here. He could have picked just about anywhere and not vast majority of places in the country. He wanted John Mateer. He chose Oklahoma. And in part he chose Oklahoma,

opportunity to play Michigan, SEC, brutal schedule, show NFL scouts, show the country. what he's made of. And every report I've gotten from Jim Nagy and other sources at Oklahoma during the offseason, like he's the guy. He's everything you want in a quarterback, the work ethic, the leadership,

guys just following his leading by example, his vocal leadership, all those things, which is great to hear. But I wanted to see, can he do it in the big game? Because prime time, amazing blue, what a scene it was, by the way. It felt like a rose bowl watching on TV. It was awesome. The first half, the sun's going down. You kind of seen the distance and you got like, ABC does an amazing job with like the cameras and the lighting.

And you've got this feel of like, and I was even talking to Nagy a little bit yesterday. Like he was saying like either an orange bowl, like an old school clash of orange bowl or rose bowl. The colors were like the Oklahoma Sooners, you know, versus the maze and blue and the white jerseysys of Michigan. it just felt big. That game in a primetime spot against Michigan, Michigan's first trip to ever have a true road SEC game during the regular season. Michigan's first trip ever to Norman. That game in prime time was bigger than the biggest moment that he played in at Washington State.

No doubt. Also think about where the Oklahoma program is right now and where it was coming into this year. They needed to win. was this a program that was not, you know, if you think of all those great teams that Oklahoma's had in the past, you know, Brent Venables hasn't had the greatest start there. I think he's a great head coach, but you're looking at that program,

and there's a lot of people in Norman and Oklahoma looking at this kid as, can you save our program? Can you make us competitive in the SEC? Are we still going to be one of the blue bloods in college football? I mean, add that on to the pressure heap that was already there. I mean, this was a monster game, a monster situation for that.

man. Yeah, and we've talked about it, but I don't think it can be overstated. Like, Venables is a defensive coach, and I agree with one thing. He's a great defensive coach, and we've seen that even in their losing last year. Is he a great head coach? Can he manage the whole ship, right? And I think, I think there's, like, I don't know, it doesn't get overlooked, but it's certainly worth continuing to talk about knowing what, staying in your lane, knowing you're great at running defense, motivating young men, all the things that Venables does at a very high level. He's just never going to be an offensive guy. And that's, that's okay. So not only bringing in Mathieu, but bringing in Arbuckle, his offensive coordinator

with him. And Arbuckle coming out and recognizing this is the moment, we've got to let John go out and be himself. And it's a wild ride. And it's aggressive. And it's aggressive. And it's scary and I'm out of breath watching it. And I've got fans texting me like this mature guy, man, he's going to give me a heart attack. And I'm like, I know he gave me a heart attack this summer watching tape. And there was no pressure on it. And so it's not like they could have come out and kind of establish the run.

We're a defensive team. Let's keep, let's keep Mateer. Let's get them warm in this game. They come out gunning, man. Absolutely gunning. And it's like right off the bat. There were three plays early on where I'm like, holy smokes, first quarter, third offensive play, 14, 20 left. It's third and nine.

They were on a cover two beater, all right? Number three, number three, number, they've trips to the left, number three receiver. So the one is the outside, the two is the middle of the three. And the three is the slot guy, if you want to call them. That's, that's Canick, the tight end. By the way, I want to get to Canick a little bit more, a little later. I found out some, I didn't quite realize this. story.

Oh, really? Yeah. They work him down the scene. Great design against this Michigan defense. It's showing a lot of, a lot of two high safeties early on. Okay. So now we've got,

we've got Canick on a cover two beater. And he's like a legit weapon. Burst, you know, suddenness, making that one-handed catch was brilliant. But I think, and they showed it on the broadcast,

but watching it from like, from the end zone angle, where the cameraman was behind him, watching what Meteer was seeing, that was a different experience, okay? It's footwork, like, here's what I've decided with, I just want to lay this out here right now.

I have made a decision, and I should have made this decision with Patty Mahomes when he was coming out of Texas Tech. I've matured as an evaluator. The game has changed, the position, and the way we view the position, and what's important with the mobility the creativity, the playmaking ability has changed.

Just like analysts. I remember, I like to watch golf in the summer, okay? Just like analysts and golf used to kind of pick apart Scottie Schephler's swing. Like, well, you know, if he could just get to where he's, you know, he's staying in balance and transferring his weight and his feet aren't leaving the ground and all those. Maybe he can make the next step as a golfer. That's when he was kind of breaking through. Then he becomes the best golfer in the entire.

world and everyone's like, yeah, but mechanics don't matter for him. You know what I mean? Like all the analysis. It's so true. It's so true. All the analysis that you do on all the other golfers where you can watch and be like, well, that swing was a little off. The result wasn't good.

Here's the why. The transfer wasn't there. The balance, the weight, the hip rotation, all that stuff. So the great golf analysts on CBS and NBC and ESPN, like who have been doing this their entire lives, came to the realization at one point, if he misses a shot, it ain't because of his footwork, because that footwork is what makes him special. So I've come to this decision. I've come to grips with the fact that mechanically what works universally for the rest of quarterbacks does not apply to John Matere. And it didn't apply to Patrick Mahomes. And so,

when he misses a throw, I always want to go to him. Well, I wish he would just drill in his footwork. It's just not who he is. He's special. He's different. And that's just the way he slings the ball. Okay. But even on this throw, he's a little bit like his weights kind of go into the left. And he's sort of like, but it's like a three quarter delivery. The torque that he's able to get with his lower body, even off balance, is rare. It's unique. It's not what I'm used to seeing from other quarterbacks, just like Schephler, other golf. offers. And so when he does that, it's just he rips it out. And here's the beauty of that throw. I want people to understand. If you can remember back, it's the first, first throw, third play of the game. Third and nine. And he has to drill that ball. Two defenders in the back end, secondary guys converging, but he's got to do it with just enough trajectory. He's got to

layer it just enough to get it over the linebacker that was bailing, dropping into coverage in his own. And he does it. And yes, there's no margin for error. There's no margin for error. None of that throw. And Canaan makes a great catch, too, by the way. It is a great catch.

And so the focus should be on Canick in that catch. It was special, you don't see many of those. Left-handed, one-handed, okay? But the throw was just as brilliant. And then you go three plays later. another third and nine situation. This is the one man. His pre-snap read, he comes up to the line of scrimmage.

This is the one. Comes up to the line of scrimmage. He's got opportunities on both sides. He actually has got trips to the left, single to the right. Back is in the backfield at the start of the play, right? He recognizes, I think he recognizes, it's two over three, two defenders on the left side versus his trips to the left, to the left. left. But from the snap of the ball, his eyes go to the right. Why is that? Well, the snap of the

ball, it's a single high safety, but that safety is right down the middle. Cheated more to center field than he is over to the right. So you got a cornerback against Dionne Burks, his number one receiver, who's single there. And just prior to the snap, he motioned his running back out to the right, basically an offset slot. So now it's a three over two look, what you've got to understand is Michigan's got six hot guys, if you will, danger guys, guys who potentially could rush. They send five. He's only got five blockers.

So this SOB knows, like, I can get the first down here by throwing probably to my number three receiver on the left side. But I got a chance on, if they're in that cover two look and the second the ball snapped, one of the safeties starts bailing into that cover two look but he's got no shot to get back and to get burks because he know because mater's the only one mityer and burks are the only two guys on the field that no he's running a vertical down the right rail so ball snapped that safety who's playing center field no chance to get over there the safety who was in the box at the snap

and was one of those danger guys could come on the blitz he bales out like a bat out of hell to get that deep half right but he doesn't have a chance to get Dionne Berks, who's running a nine right down the right side line. The millisecond that his eyes, Materer's eyes don't go to the left, where it's easy money. He's to the right. The millisecond he sees that cornerback squat because he's got flat responsibility because it's this thing like this safety's here. The center field safety is going over here to the middle field.

The safety who's in the box is going back and now it's a too high shell, but it happened too late. And the second he sees that corner he's squatting, he's like, oh, I got him. Yeah. And, but here's the other part. Let's go back to the pre-staff. We're two plays in. Go ahead.

I want to say something about this play. The defensive linemen jumped off sides. And I don't know if this. I don't know. He's hard counts in this game really quickly. His hard counts in this game were awesome. He had the Michigan off defensive line off balance all night. But go ahead.

So I don't know if that even played into his, of his thinking was pre-staffed because he was looking right the whole time. But it's a great time. And you're taught as a quarterback, even if it's third and nine, like go for the, go for the deep shot. Take a shot, right? If they jump off sides, we'll live with third and four if it's an incompletion, right? So he, he just drills this thing in. But it's not only the pre-snap brilliance and the aggressive thinking.

It's then making that throw with a, with a defender coming right in your face and whacking you and drilling that. There's a moment in your mind. And every time when you know that they've got as many or more rushers as we got blockers, when that ball snapped, there's just a moment in your mind as a quarterback. You got two choices. You can understand you're going to get hit, so maybe I'm going to drift a little, kind of slide a little or bail out, or I'm just going to hang in here. And I'm going to accept the punishment.

I'm going to pay the toll because the reward is worth it. This is a highway I got to drive down. And he does it. And he makes a brilliant throw down the right side. So these are two of the first six plays, his two throws, and they come out gunning, Munch. Really quickly, that's a great call by Wink Martindale, by the way. That dropping that safety the way he did, most quarterbacks are going to have a problem

making that throw. I mean, that is a great call. As the old defense coordinator, he must have been like, let's see what you got kid because I think Matera throws Mattier throws that whole ball we talked about this in the summer too you can go back to it he throws that whole ball the ball between

the safety and the corner in those in those zone looks he throws it better than anyone in the country he throws it better than anyone I've seen in the country and he just excels at it and I think Martindale was like well this is going to be a little tighter window for you my man let's see how you do here

and he absolutely again on third and nine just sits there and drills. It's an absolute dime. It is an unbelievable throw. I love how excited you are about this kid, by the way. You are fired up to me. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

They come out and drive it down the field. Yeah, wink was like, hey, this ain't Washington State, big boy. Let's see what you got. Yeah, right. And John looks over the sideline and winks it and winks it wink. And it's like, now you know, right? Yeah, this is what I do. I promise is the last play I'm going to do,

but there's a reason I'm going through these three plays. Again, starting off this whole, this whole segment, if you will, with he comes from Washington State. He chose this. He chose this path. You know? This is like the road to Hana, man.

He decided, like, the end, like, if anyone's done that road to Honda in Hawaii, like the end is worth it, but the ride there is like, like my buddy Matt O'Neill was a chef who's got anxiety and biting his hand all the time. He's driving it and like everyone's car sick when you get there. But when you get there, it's worth it, right?

So he chose this bumpy road. And he comes out and he's like, I'm going to let everyone know. I'm putting everyone on notice. This is what we're doing here at Oklahoma this year. And you better buckle up. So then there's a play later. There's the last one I'll do, I promise. Play 14 on the offensive side.

627 left first quarter. It's a first downplay, but they're on their own three-yard line. He's in shotgun three yards deep into his own end zone on the, on the O of the Oklahoma, okay? I, it, it takes absolute Kiyan's onions to patiently and properly to commit to, I'm going to patiently and properly go through my reeds when it's when when, when Michigan is now showing six. and by the way, in the snap of the ball in this play, they bring six. He kept Jaden Ott, his running back in. So now, again, you got six blockers against six rushers. It's not an ideal situation.

You'd like to have numbers. As you well know, Mention is an offensive alignment. He doesn't. So he knows what's going to happen. Again, there's a toll to pay, but he's willing to pay this toll. This son of a gun hangs in the pocket with six rushes. He can feel the goalposts behind him. Because he gets the snap at three, three yards in the end zone.

A little drop, he's now like six yards deep in his end zone, but he's looking it through. And then this is the part that's certifiably insane. You have to have a screw loose to hang in there against six rushers coming, six yards into your own end zone. From the left hash, mensch, and patiently wait and help sell an out and up on the right side line. Do you know how far you are? Like, visualize. You're standing on the left hash and you've got a receiver on the right side line going, voop, voop, voop, and to hang in there, and I still can see it's burnt into my mind.

That linebacker comes. I wrote his name down. That linebacker, Ernest Hausman, he comes, he measures up Mateer, straight line to him. And not only hits him, but runs through him. But Mattier just got the. the ball off and he drills it perfectly down the right side. Yeah, the execution. The execution was incredible in that play. So if there's any question of who this guy is, what he's about, and if Wink Martindale, who's, I talked to you about it Saturday night. He's a friend of the show.

He's got an unbelievable career. NFL college. This guy knows defense. Like he's one of the all-timers, okay? If Wink thought, like, we might have a chance. This isn't Washington State anymore. We might have a chance against this guy. This moment might be too big. We're big, we're fast, we're vicious up front, and they are, Michigan is. He learned really halfway through this first quarter, uh-oh.

We got our hands full with this guy. Right. This is going to be a battle. Yeah. Can I ask you something? Are we wrapping up material? Because this is something I, this is where my mind goes. Go.

Would you rather have to tackle John Manteer after he gets a five-yard running start and gets downhill or have to catch a pass at five yards right at your eyes? Which one would you rather do? From Meteer? Yeah. Like he's unloading that five-yard pass, by the way. He's not trying to layer that ball to you. I guess I'd rather tackle if I'm a football player because it's what I've been asked to do,

but I don't, I'm not pumped about it. the embarrassment level that that would come with I'm probably going like four for four for ten catching that thing and when I do it's not pretty anyway dude if you go 0 for one you've got a broken nose you go if you go

oh for one you're done for the day you're not trying to catch that thing 10 times that is he the velocity on that ball is is notable I want to make a few bullet point things and we can move on in a little well but I could go I could do an entire show on him is here just watching that tape, as you can probably tell.

Dionne Burks isn't on the level of the elite guys, like the Jeremiah Smith and the Ryan Williams, but he's a damn good player, man. You know, he doesn't have that size and he doesn't have certain elements to his game. He's just a really good, like I really was impressed with his body control, quickness, suddenness, routes, hands, along the sidelines, some of the stuff he did. He's a really good player. I mentioned, I mentioned the, um, the, um, Sharon Canick, the tight end. I did not realize this.

He played linebacker. He was a defensive player through last season. Hadn't played in the office. Kind of plays like that, by the way. Yeah. Loves contact. Loves. Aggressive physical, yep.

But to come out and to make that catch and do some of the things. And yes, he didn't run through that one in the end zone. He's a little bit overthrown. But had he kept running, like the instincts aren't quite there. This is his second game at tight end, bud. Yeah, I'm excited. He's just going to keep getting better. And I was texting Nagy about it last night, and he's like,

like, I don't, like, let's just put it this way. He loves the guy, one of his favorites in the building. Just like, can't. So you got to, and by the way, he went, KANIC went into the, into his exit meeting from a season. Just wasn't getting play. It wasn't working at linebacker. He's going to be a career backup.

This is last year. How do I get on the field? Coach, can I just try to move to tight end and see how it happens in the offseason? Can you give me a chance? They're like, yeah, sure. Like, we've got a bunch of linebackers here. We're good. Right.

Sure. Yeah, give it a shot. And now he's starting tight end and he's making big time plays. Cool story. Deonté Lewis, who had a great first game, going to need a little bit more consistency from him. Isaiah Satanga. They're talented. They're both upperclassmen.

So I don't know, like, how high the ceiling is it? but they're going to need a little bit more. Because you now have one of the premier quarter. I'm talking like shortlist, premier quarterbacks and premier passers in all of college football. These guys are going to have to grow with him throughout this year with that schedule that we talked about. And it ain't, like, it ain't pretty.

I don't have it in front of me. We went through it the other night. It's a brutal schedule that Oklahoma has. Yeah. I do want to say this too. Final thing on mature. I sometimes walk away from watching tape on him talking about last years and now the first couple games being like what am I more impressed with

like the aggressive attacking the skill set as a passer all those things or that he might just be the most competitive son of son of a bitch in all of college football and in this game I get news for you Michigan had two defensive tackles draft in the top 13 that's rare doesn't happen very often Okay. You had Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant go in the first 13 picks. But I also got news for you. Like they're not as talented, like individual NFL prospects talented, but this defensive front for Michigan is vicious.

Yeah, don't feel that for Michigan. They are stout. They're tough. They're athletic. They're sudden. That zero guy. I think you talked about it. Trey Williams,

he's a monster, 6, 2, 320, all of them. So I think what happened, and he's good, yeah. What happened with Oklahoma early in this game when things started to settle down

and they're like, all right, let's get into our offense and after Mateer's like brilliant early on is we got to be able to be balanced. And we've talked about, we talked about Ott and only, you know,

only five carries in two games. He's on the field a lot early on that game. They just for some reason, they trust them in pass protection, even though the shoulder isn't right. But anyway, my point is between Blaylock, Barnes, and Ott, they had 19 carries, 57 yards rushing, zero touchdowns. And Oklahoma at one point in this game, the second half came to the realization.

We just can't traditional run on Michigan. So now not only does the mature have to do mature things in the passing game, the only way we got a chance to run the football is when we have a numbers game advantage with Mateer at quarterback. And so now Mattier, I want to remember those numbers, 19 between the three running backs, 57 yards, zero touchdowns. Meteer ends the game with 19 carries of his own for 17 more yards, 74 yards and two touchdowns. So like that commitment to whatever it takes for my team this night against that defensive front and the hits I'm taking. And then I have to go drop back as a quarterback after getting knocked around and still

be dialed in. And I knew it was a great performance on Saturday night. And you kind of came after me because I was pointing out, you know, some inconsistencies, some miss throws. And it's the material experience. He threw a couple of balls, a couple of balls should have been intercepted, missed some targets, all that stuff. but what he did in that game was like almost superhuman considering who they were playing against.

And I just, I can't, like, he is, he and Nussmeyer are the two guys in college football right now that I'm sitting back in awe of because they are so special and so like, so much above the rest of a, and we're talking about this, this quarterback class, this year in college football, the golden era of quarter. They are a notch above in terms of everybody else right now and what they're putting it on tape. I agree with you where those guys are playing. I just like the kid from South Carolina. Lenora Sellers a lot.

So I think he's, we'll see. We'll see. We'll see. He hasn't had the opportunity like the other two have. He just hasn't had the chance to really do his thing. But I think Sellers is kind of in that conversation too. I love how excited you are. I had to get out of the way of you.

I know. I don't get your stuff this morning. The McShay show is brought to you by Fanduel. Ready to fire up your Saturdays? Fan Duel's got a boost you don't want to miss. It's called boosting with the boys. And it's giving everyone a college football profit boost every single week. Each week we're giving everyone a profit boost to use on college football.

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Fandual.com. Gambling problem? Call 1-800 gambler or visit R.G.Help.com. Call 1-888-7-8-9. 7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. Well, I kind of did this on purpose because I know you, I asked you, I don't give you a lot of assignments, but I asked you because it's a, it's where you excel and you clearly, like, know your strengths and weaknesses, right?

You understand offensive line play. I watch Clemson on television and it seems to. me like they're not playing to talk about they've got seven guys who could start seven guys in a rotation for returning starters all of that and i watch on television and i i see an offensive line that maybe isn't playing to a level that you'd expect given the experience and the alleged talent and all that stuff so i asked you to go back and watch club nick but with a special eye on the offensive line basically the offense in general so i want to kind of turn it to you here i did watch the tape. So I have my own thoughts, but I'm really curious, like, your thoughts are actually more important

to me and what you saw. Well, first of all, they had an injury going into the Troy game that I didn't realize, but Tristan Lee, the left tackle didn't play. So now you kind of got a shuffle and they, they put out, Colin Sattler, who plays guard, played out there tackle and was competitive. He's a good player, but he's a better fit at guards. Already you're moving guys around. You got to bring in the backup left guard now to play. They put out their talented freshman. Braden Jacobs and it was evident early on at left tackle. They didn't start him, but they got him a couple of reps, and it was evident that he wasn't ready.

He was just getting beat to the inside fairly consistently. He'll be fine. He's a talent to do, but right now he's just not ready. So they're rotating guys up front already, and I'll say this again. I think that Blake Miller, the right tackle is their best player. Some people think he's a early round prospect. I don't see that. I think he's a solid college office.

offensive tackle. I just don't think they are great individually, as maybe some other people do. And I don't think they have guys that can win consistently one-on-one against elite pass rushers. And that's going to be a concern for them going forward. So then you throw in the injury, you throw in guys rotating. It just was, it got messy at times. And again, I, I sort of understand trying to get your freshman snaps against Troy, but not when you're down. And that's when they were doing it. It didn't make sense to me of, you know, if you're going to get up 21 and you want to throw in the young kid and see how he does. I understand that.

It was interesting to me that they chose that time to throw in the freshman and see how he did because immediately it was two pressures, like right out of the gate. And I think he had a holding call, too. So that offensive line, I don't want to say that they played poorly because I just, I didn't have that high of expectations coming into the year. I think they're a good offensive line. They're not great. And now you throw in the injury and they're not as deep as they said they were.

If you have seven starters, you should be able to, you should be good. They're also rotating it right guard. I don't know what's going on there, but they're playing two different right guards. So again, if you're, if you have a lockdown outstanding front five, you're not rotating guys. And we'll get into this too. They weren't the biggest problem in this game. I mean, Clubnik did not play well. I mean, Clubnik, even when he had time, did not play well.

And they desperately need to get Antonio Williams back in the line after wide receiver. They desperately need him out in the field. Tell me about Clubnikmore. My biggest concern with him, and there's two of them, one of them I want to see if you're seeing the same thing, but I think we'll both agree that he's evacuated in the pocket too early. He is, he wants to go right, he wants to get out, he wants to make plays with his feet, and he's not showing the poise that I think he showed when he was really playing well down the stretch. It's a balancing act, right?

You're walking that wire. You're trying to balance that ability to make plays with your feet and make plays with within your pocket. I thought there was a, there was a period of time in the second half where he got into a little bit of a groove and was better from within the pocket. There were other times where he just wanted, he was first reading, he was go, which is surprising to me after watching him last year. The other thing, and I want to see if you saw this too, it was when he throws over the middle right now, I feel like he's holding on the ball too long. Like, he's not trusting his middle of the field reads and he's just not getting out the ball as quickly as I seen him in the past.

and it's affecting the timing, it's allowing defenses to recover, it affects yak, it affects all of those things. So that one I was wondering if you were seeing the same thing. Some things can happen, right? I'm going to give you three things that could happen. One is you got to remember he came into last year, he's coming off of a pretty tough year. And early on, he played pretty good. He got a lot better as a season.

progressed and he became a dude by the end of the year, right? All of a sudden, now the offseason is, okay, who's back in college football? It's Clubnik, it's Nussmeyer, it's sellers, young, young gun with all these tools, you know, and, and you got people like us and others, maybe Clubnik's on QB1 in 2026 draft, right? And I, and I promise you this because I know enough people in the kind of like the quarterback circle and people who know these young men and and I got to see like hands on like humble hardworking like but but everyone's human and so I wonder like sometimes I did see and I wrote it in my notes quarter count late at times kind of wanting to be in my you know and like so there's this pressure that comes with that and again it's I'm not saying

it's just club nigger there there's a pressure there's a there's a there's a there's a there's a there's an ease of burden that Mateer plays with. He's the underdog. Comes from this system. Does it translate to the NFL? Maybe he's a third round pick, right? Coming into the year. Can he do it at Oklahoma?

All that. So there's this like, oh yeah, fuck yourself mentality. Really? Okay. I'll show you. Clubnik, though, comes in as one of the guys. And Clemson's most talented roster

since 2016 and all that stuff. So that, and you live in Clemson, just not dissimilar from like Athens, Georgia and Tuscaloos, it's a, it's a bubble. And it's and even Austin, Texas for, for arch. It's a, and so like all the attention is on this guy. Can't go down the street. Can't go to a convenience store and grab a water without videos and shaking hands and sign an autograph.

So there's just a lot that comes with it. And so when you get out there in game action, and then especially when the first game doesn't go as planned, there's this like, I don't want to, I got to make sure I'm not part of the problem. Right. And the biggest thing I could do to not be part of the problem is to make sure that I don't throw a turnover worthy ball, right? So that's one part. Second part is I know this. I haven't played the position and not very well, but like you learn when you're around it and you play it and all that. when you don't trust your protection up front after a game like LSU,

that clock speeds up. And it's almost one of those like until otherwise proven. You know, and so I, and you watch the tape all week and you're like, well, they're getting us on this and I'm not, I just, I'm not sure. So like if it's not there right away,

I'm not sitting in here and taking the sack, not because I'm not tough. It's because like what's best for the offense is if it's not here right away, I've got to assume protection is not going to be there, even against Troy. It's like a rather than a mentality,

right? And then the third thing is you add those two elements to you add to those two elements in the first quarter of the first game of the season, your guy, Antonio Williams, goes out.

And so Westcoe was awesome and we'll get to him in a minute. And, and what's his name? TJ Moore, right? Yeah. The other receiver, he's done some good things, right? And they're both very talented.

And they've got other guys that are talented. And who's the, Tristan Smith, big body receiver. He showed a flash cut to touch up. So like there's other guys, but you always have your guy, right? Right.

And I get to arch in a minute, and I think he's finding his guy. And so when you don't have your guy, your security blanket, you trust where he's going to be. You just have that rapport. He's gone, speeding up the clock,

and I just don't want to make the mistake that's going to cost us because the whole weight of the world is kind of on me right now after that loss from LSU. It's a bad combination. I agree. And it's kind of speaking to your point, which would kind of back it up a little bit, is you're going to want to do what you do best. And what he does best is make plays on the move and get outside of the pocket and threaten with his feet and all those things.

So maybe that's why he's getting out of the pocket quicker than I think he needs to. I will also say early in this game, I thought it was interesting that they did go to more six-man protections as the game progressed, but it's a lot of five-man protections. And when that said to me early on, and Troy was bringing, I mean, they were bringing six. So they had a free rusher. And what I thought that said to me was they really don't trust their backs and tight ends to help out and pass pro. And they're going to let their experienced quarterback find the hot read, get the ball out and beat it with his arm, which he did an okay job of. I thought he did a pretty good job of that early on. There was just no big plays.

I think Randall's a wide receiver, okay? Yeah. And he had a good game. He had a good game. He runs hard, man. He runs hard. He does. And he's got some juice, and they need that.

They even had that for a couple years at running back. 21 carries 112 yards and a touchdown. He had a good game. I'm not saying he's like special, different. I'm not putting him up in this, but he had a good game. I think I think a risk assessment, a cost analysis. has been done by Clemson after that first game. You and I saw the tape.

They've got smarter offensive coaches than we are watching offense. They watch the tape. And it's like as a play caller and a scheme designer, you do a cost analysis. Are we better off keeping him in in protection? And that frees up the linebacker, you know, green dogs. And that frees up the linebacker, right? Mm-hmm.

To come and blitz. would we rather an extra rusher with our guy in the threat of an extra rusher with our guy in protecting or are we smarter just to get him out as a receiver because he is a receiver he's a much better receiver than he is past protector as we now know and it only makes sense and and take another guy out of the box take another right away from blitzing and that's what they and it's a smart football decision right i want to go back to this i was it was a tough game to watch on TV because it came out and they got down 16 nothing or they got down 7 nothing had that long delay got other games going on finishing then other games are starting and so I've watched a good deal of it I told you when I saw 16 nothing and I had watched a decent amount but it gets to 16 nothing and now it becomes the primary and the McShay residence it's like the primary and I happen to Marissa Mia AJ like grew up up in Greenville.

Clemsons there are a lot. So like, I want to say this. I watched a lot of the game, but it was on TV and a lot of other games going on. Okay. I do want to say this. After watching the tape, I actually thought Clubnik played better than I did when I exited the TV viewing experience. Okay.

I saw all the same things you did. And there are concerns. And I think we just touched on three things that like could be going on. that I think you stack a couple wins. I think it will, I do see them get, I think this offensive line will settle in. I don't think it's going to be a great unit. I think it'll settle in.

I think they'll figure out the right rotations, get healthy, all those things. I think they've got a running back, who's a wide receiver. They got that star freshman, five star guy, Gideon Davidson. He got two carries that game. I'm interested to see if he starts to get a little bit more run.

There's a little balance there. but you don't trust your starter in past protection. I don't know how well you're going to trust your true freshman. So, like, that's going to be an issue throughout. But if you get, I don't know what the timeline is on Antonio Williams. I would guess me neither. Two or three more weeks to be safe. But he's going to come back at some point.

Westgo now. And you said this, I think, the other night. There's a, you know, silver lining to the Williams injury. It's that Georgia Tech, like, that's going to be a tough game. Like they are on alert. They're at Georgia Tech. They're only five and a half point favorites last time I saw on Fandul when it first came out, okay? And so, but it's Syracuse at home.

It's at UNC, at Boston College, before that big showdown against SMU that looks beatable, but it's still a damn good football team. They'll get some things figured out defensively. They got to get through this Georgia Tech game, but I can see a picture in which Clubnick gets more comfortable. gets his top dog back in Williams. Offensive line kind of settles into a groove, and this is a much better offensive football team than what we've seen.

And the defense is playing really good. Right. Both games, really damn good. That's a top 10 unit in the country. I think Williams is the key because his ability to get open quickly, he's the guy who can help you over the middle. I think that, I mean, just look,

hit like 34 catches more than any other receiver on the roster last year. Clubnick just trusts him. when you get into those moments and he needs to get the ball out of his hands quickly, having Antonio Williams on the field will be great. Now, in the meantime, you're right, and I stand by that point. It'll be nice for Wesco and all those guys to get more reps and develop a little bit. But right now, that offense has got some vulnerabilities to it.

It does. But I kind of felt like the sky was falling after watching the game on TV. I no longer think that. He hung in and made some throws. That 34-yard touchdown, Pat. he threw down the seam was nice. The one to Westco on the left side was a nice ball. It was a little bit high.

But like he's got some bigger targets with that Tristan Smith guy and the Westco guy. If he gets Williams back at some point, like, I don't know. I, I'm not, I'm off the ledge from Sunday, some Saturday night into Sunday more. I will say this. I also think that's a hangover game. You're coming off that LSU, heavyweight. heavyweight bout and then you got Troy you got the weather delay i mean it's just there's a lot of things that you can you can say mitigating factors to this whole situation right um but yeah there are still still some concerns a couple other things i spent time on yesterday tape wise i'm in the process

of going back and you're going to marry the tape from what we saw last year and all this throws you know the pff ultimate where we can do we can do cutups of certain things and and i want to study more mechanics last year versus this year and some of the things like that i'll say this and i i saw the viral thing he was wincing on one throw and yeah i saw that too and and maybe there is a shoulder thing and obviously he came out and was like i have no idea what you're talking about and sarke was like that's the news to me like i what do you but and listen who knows i i i truly don't i i tend to believe them like i think he's okay because he made it a lot he let it rip and different stuff he His footwork and arm angles are still concerning.

Here's why. There's a lack of consistency. There are throws underneath, and we saw it in that Ohio State game, there are throws underneath some, where like, and I told you, I've spent a lot of time my whole life, like obviously playing the position in high school and college, but like even more so, honestly, I wish I knew then what I know now.

Obviously, you hear that all the time. I spent a lot of time around whether it's offensive coordinators, great head coaches who are offensive minds, quarterbacks themselves, even like Jordan Palmer and George Whitfield and some of those gurus. And now I told you, Tate's working with Alex McLaughlin and Mike McCarthy from the M2QB. And they've had like that Miles O'Neill who had an awesome game. They work with him. So like I've been around like the mechanics.

Trent Dilfer used to like grind it with me. So I've just been around that a lot. And so I know what I've been, you know, fortunate to learn like what, what, what. And it's just interesting to me with Arch and all the coaching and all the things that he's had. But you go back and look at like the high school level and running around and it wasn't like the highest class, apparently. And so I think he's just a young quarterback kind of learning on the fly. But one thing I've learned from all of these guys, obviously situational dependent. But vast majority of the time, you are better off instead of saving a quarter count

of throwing off balance, feet not right, all that, and trying to flick it. You're better off bringing your feet with your eyes, marrying them up, and working and setting yourself up when you're going through progressions and doing all these things, your feet are, when you say feet married to eyes, it's, I'm surveying the field. I'm going, whether it's pocket pass or progressions, like boom, boom, boom, or even on the run, you get to a point where you drill it in so hard that your feet are married to your eyes so that you, you try not to, unless you're Scotty Sheffler, John Mateer, you try not to put yourself in a position or you try to limit the amount of positions you're in where you're throwing,

where your body is not a helpful tool to help generate torque, to help guide the throw your arm angle and all that, okay? when his feet are right, the throws are there. And when his feet are even a little bit off, the throws are there. And sometimes on the move stuff, he's comfortable and just kind of lets it rip. The throw is where it needs to be. It's when he's going through progressions and he leaves his feet here. But the progression comes, and if you're just listening on Apple or Spotify, we appreciate

you doing so. I'm saying if your feet are kind of pointed towards the left hash, And you're watching a crosser come from left to right. Your eyes are going from left to right, but his feet are staying pointed that left hash. And so he goes to rip the ball and his hips are open. And it kind of looks like he's just trying to flick it, right? Chest.

Yes. Chest parallel to the line of scrimmage instead of shoulder perpendicular to the line of scrimmage. I know I'm going through a lot ofs, but there's a reason why Arch is inconsistent on these throws. And you're like, I watched the throw at 1259 second quarter to Livingston, an example. In the pocket, it was that touchdown pass. Livingston's become his guy. He trusts him because he's a quarterback right now who's been a little bit erratic, inconsistent with his ball

placement. Now I've got this six four wide receiver who's just a freshman, but my gosh, he's a big catch radius that makes me comfortable. And he's in the places he needs to be and he knows how to use that body to kind of shield defenders. So he's got that second quarter throw 1259 to Livingston. he transfers his weight from back to front and he lets it rip bang balls in place but he's got i went in charted like four or five other very similar situations just so happening i saw some of this stuff on on on x and social media he must he must hate um he must hate wingo wingo hates him, you know. And I get it because like his, the bad throws and then a couple drops from Wingo. Wingo, yeah. Happened to be to Wingo. But he threw one at Wingo's feet.

Guess what? Feet pointed. His base was pointed left. Saw the same thing. You know what I mean? Yeah, I saw the same thing. And he's overstriding sometimes too, which leads to some off. So it's just interesting because you would think that Arch with everything that he has around him would be a little bit more buttoned up with his footwork and all that. But it's never been his game. He's not Eli. He's not Peyton. That's not his game. He's Arch.

He's his dad's son. He's his mom's son. They're athletes. He's his grandfather's grandson running around, creating. And so it's going to be fascinating to see how this develops. if he can continue to work on his foot, but it's correctable stuff. Now, what is interesting to me,

some of the arm angle stuff, it's kind of tight in the upper body, and it's kind of shot put, and it's kind of pushing. You can't help yourself. Yeah. I know. There's just some stuff there

that's got to be worked through. I am really encouraged, by the way, he was extending plays in this game. The 20-yard touchdown run was what you want to see from Arch. That was just amazing. I thought it was a great run.

The one concern, the biggest concern, other than all the stuff that you just said, I agree with. The fundamentals, the technique, all that has to, the footwork, it all has to be better and more consistent. My concern is I don't want him to start pressing because things maybe haven't gone the way he

wants to. And the pick he threw at the end of the first half in this game with the defender in his face. Oh, that's weird. I know you, you know better than that. He knows better than that. And it felt like I'm just trying to make a play, just trying to make a play. I couldn't tell if he was trying to throw it away and then the defender got on him. Maybe, maybe that's why.

it was. Maybe that's what it was. It just, but it was a weird play. Yeah, my read was he was trying to make too much happen and don't do that. Just don't do that. You don't have to do that. Yeah. My takeaway was, it was a lot better and we're heading in the right direction, but it's going to, like, and they've got Sam Houston State. The schedule lines up well. We took our beating. Arch had a really tough opener. Now you got two games to build on. The tape to watch, drill in some of the footwork, all that stuff. But then it gets interesting, man. You got Florida, and I know Florida's coming off a loss,

but that is a really talented team on October 4th. Then you get Red River the week after against an Oklahoma team that we just saw. So I'm going to save some of this. It doesn't feel like there's more to save, but I really want to do more of a deep dive and try to get stuff out, like video and all that to show where, and you're smirking. I see you smirking. No, there will be more.

There's going to be more over the next couple of games. There will be more to see what what's the arc look like. What's, are we progressing, are we regressing? Have we plateaued a little bit here? What's the situation against these teams that he should be playing at a high level against? So we'll see. I want to get back. I'm with you right now, though.

I am with you. He looks like a young quarterback who's just figuring it out and, you know, got all the talent in the world. So, and I will say this, I like Parker Livingstone. If we are not Livingstone, if we are not throwing the ball to Ryan Winggo college football, is missing out. I want to see Ryan Wingo with the ball on his hands making plays. So I'm hoping that that connection gets there's a little more chemistry there and a little more

momentum with those two make it plays because that's when that Texas offense will truly be explosive is when Wingo's the feature guy in Livingston's playing that kind of complimentary role. And John Ray Moore is playing that supporting cast role in Andres. I mean, the weapons are all there, but Wingo's the guys.

Give Wingo the ball, man. And Sark knows that. If you look early in that game. It was about getting... Absolutely. When go to the ball. Whether it was an overthrow down the middle early in the first drive

or throwing a ball at his feet or the in-cutter before, sandwich in between those two plays, where the ball is thrown perfectly and he just flat drops it. It just wasn't happening at the efficiency level that it should. But that's a critical part. I couldn't agree with you anymore.

I want to get to DJ Lagway in Florida in a minute, but you watch Sam Levin. Arizona State. I did not get to their tape. And we were on live when a lot of that game was going on. I'm very, very, very curious because I am a Levitt guy. I'm very curious as to what you saw in that ugly loss at Mississippi State. I mean, look, I think we're all Levitt guys coming into the season. I compared him to JJ McCarthy because the way he throws the ball off of play action. And I still think he's got a high ceiling. But if you're watching this game and you're bringing this game into a general manager. You could show a bunch of great stuff about, about Leavitt. You can. If you bring this game

into a general manager, I have a hard time of them not saying, look, I get it. Let's check back in a year. He's not ready. Just does not look ready. He was 10 for 22 in this game. He looked lost for long stretches. And I'm just being honest about it. Lost. He was missing on throws. He was overthrowing players. I went through his 10 completions because I was like, well, what are we, what are we looking about what's working for him. Swing pass. Swing pass. Dump off to the running back.

Five yard out to the slot, tight end. 13 yard to Tyson, nice throw on, I think it was an out, but off platform, not from in the pocket, on time, in rhythm. He had on the drive that they tied the game in the second half, we got 1717, they made the comeback. He got into a rhythm there. He started to look like, oh, there's Sam Levitt. There's the guy I know.

outside of that drive, he looked like he wasn't reading coverage as well. He was inaccurate. He was pressing the ball downfield. There was a bunch of different things that just were super concerning to me, not the player that I remember staying during the offseason at all. I will say the one thing I do love about him is he's still super competitive and he runs like a maniac. He will do whatever he has to do with his feet to make plays. The other thing is Arizona State ran the ball really well in this game.

it wasn't a game of yeah relique brown at 18 for 110 conya udo had had 23 for 105 they ran the ball well man the play action was there it just didn't look like himself happy feet in the pocket holding on to the ball too long a time again all a bunch of red flags in this game for sam levitt so i'm hoping he can you know get back to playing the way he's played in the past going forward but i when you get back and you watch his tape

you're going to be, I think, surprised at how poorly he played. It's interesting to me, too. Again, second year starter. Second year starter. So keep in mind, these are good guys that are still developing, but this was not a good game for him. Yeah, I just have a, like, tattooed in my memory. And I know they hit the portal, and they're an SEC team,

and they got personnel assistance. But that Mississippi State defense couldn't cover a lick last year. And very clearly big... Yeah, I felt he had opportunities and he didn't take advantage. I think it's probably a better Mississippi State team. Don't get me wrong. I thought he had chances in this game

to make plays and just didn't. That's concerned. And Jordan Tyson, who we're talking about like potential wide receiver one in the upcoming class, certainly in the top five somewhere. Six catches for 68. The other thing is like,

who else is there? Like Relique Brown was their number two production guy at receiver. He had three for 10. Yeah. Maybe he's figuring out he trusts. Cameron Harpole, one for four, that's it. And you knew this this year, like, we got good young running backs, and that's clear.

You have 31 carries for Brown and Udo for 215 yards. But you knew that this is going to be a Levitt team. By the way, they, when they, when they went up 20 to 17, they had the ball at the two-yard line, first and goal at the two-yard line and couldn't punch it in. that is i mean it is a gut punch for arizona state to lose that game i mean to come back like that then to go to get to the two-yard line not figure out a way to get in the end zone and give up the big play to lose that game that's it's going to be interesting to see how that team uh bounces

back and a big 12 that i think is going to be really competitive all right so yeah i mean that it's interesting to me but um not as interesting to me as is j lagway in florida For the draft, it's more interesting. Segway. For college football, the 13th ranked team to come in against the South Florida team that we're all learning is better. And I can't wait for that matchup on Saturday. Miami's favored by 16.

South Florida is like, okay, good. Let's do it again. After beating Boise State and upsetting Florida in the swamp. But this to me was more about Florida and Lagway than it was. We've got this unbelievable Cinderella. Time will tell on South Florida. Florida. I want to start with this on Lagway, Mitch. And you just touched on it. And if Levitt's young by quarterback experience, Lagway is an infant. Levitt started his career, Michigan State,

transferred to Arizona State, won the job, but, you know, he's been around more. Lagway is a true freshman last year, was a backup. And you know, as you know, when you get out of fall camp as the backup for a good portion of the season, you're not getting number one reps, right? So, and then he gets injured and he doesn't get a lot of practice time because of the injury. Then he has an injury in the off season with the shoulder, right? Doesn't get as much work as you want. So now he's going into whatever number start, like eight or nine, whatever the number is. But he hasn't been practicing like a number one quarterback who's had a full season with nine starts. That's important because what I'm seeing on tape is a guy who's literally

like still a true freshman trying to figure it out because he hasn't not, it's not his fault. It's injury and circumstance, but he just hasn't had the time to develop. And so that shows up where in footwork, like consistency of footwork, I mean. There's a lot of throws where his feet are right, delivers the ball and there's good stuff. And I want to make sure people understand this. Like, again, kind of like with Clubnick, I went back and watched, there's more good tape from Lagway

than I expected there to be given the result, 18 to 16 loss. And given what I saw on just watching TV copy. But you come out right away, that first, the first big throw, he had a screen pass early. You come out right away, and the first throw down the field

is kind of a, I think it was like a wheel route down the left side. And Chris Beelman and I used to talk about this. He actually, it was his line and I always revert back to it. Picture like the, you know, like the old pictures of like sailors going off to war. It's like the kiss the sailor, he would call it. Where like, you know, the wife comes, he gives a big hug and they have, they go to him for the kiss and their foot comes back up in the air, you know? It's just kind of like dangling in the air.

The kiss the sailor is when you're not, when you're not driving off. that back foot and kind of transferring weight front to back and rotating around. It's just like you throw it and your leg just goes up for no reason. And it shows that everything's kind of on that front foot without weight transfer. He had a kiss to sailor moment on that first throw, overthrows it. Then his next attempt, a few plays later, the throw wasn't great. The feet were better. The throw was better.

But the decision to throw to a receiver down the seam bracketed, you know, when you had you could have easily taken some easy change and and lived to play another down. He tries to fit it in. It's just, and I like that about him, but until you're like, you got to, your game, you've got to be more efficient and consistent with your ball placement to make those kind of throws, right? So that's another one. Then that mid third quarter interception, another bad overthrow.

So there's like, there's overthrows that seem to be happening. and he just needs more work. Right. In the lab and between the lines, in practice, drilling. And he just had, yeah, understandably hasn't had that. But he did settle in for a while in the game. And I saw some good things.

Like he still rips the ball. He's throwing pretty accurately on a lot of throws. He's getting out. When they let him get out rolling to his right, especially like that run pass option I want to see a little bit more of. And it wasn't, listen, man,

we talked about it after the game. It was not just a lagway thing, but you're expecting lagway to take your, your offense to another level. He's got to be dynamic and special as a runner. He's got to make throws that a lot of guys can't because he has those tools. Florida is counting on that.

My concern is, are they counting on something that isn't quite there yet due to those circumstances. And I think we got a glimpse of that. Then you add to the fact, like, I think, I like, I like, I like, I like, I like, I like those two receivers. I think, um, Eugene Wilson and Vernon Brown the third. I think they're, they're playmakers.

They're, they're good, they're great athletes. Vernon Brown on the, on their return, the big return kind of lit a spark cutting back in the game. But Wilson's 510. Right. Brown's 511. again we talked about like arch arch likes living stone right now

and I know when goes a big target he's got big he's got big targets club nick he's got big targets yeah it's helping he doesn't have those big targets who are proven playmakers and so that's a bit of a concern they had the drop there were some drops in the game

drop catchment in the in the end zone was the first one that comes to mind early in the game penalties you talked about it after the game and untimely penalties. Yeah. And here's the other thing too. And I'm not like, listen, I'm not sitting here and banging on Napier's staff.

But the part I couldn't understand is he comes out and he misses that overthrow. I just talked about. Kiss the sailor. Then he makes a bad decision thrown between coverages. But they're still driving the football, Steve. Yeah. This cat. this cat that they got at running back, Jaden Bough, or Baugh, I should say.

Bah, yeah. Jaden Baugh is, he's different. He's, he's shifting. He creates. And they're driving, he has six carries on that first. Size, too, man. He's a big dude, yeah. But he's quick on his feet, and he's making cuts and finding holes.

Six carries on that first drive. That's what went well on the first drive. the passing game failed Florida in the first drive. So you come out of that drive and you're like, all right, we can run the, we are fucking Florida. We've got two. Where's that mentality by the way? Where is that mentality?

I swear to goodness, where is that mentality? We've got two offensive linemen that are going to be playing in the NFL this from the 2026 draft. We got other talent up front. We've got this ball cat who's big, light on his feet, effective, shit. all those things. We come out against South Florida in our home and we run it down your throat,

six carries for our back. And so the past game failed us a little bit. That's okay. We got this in our back pocket. Do you know how many times after that first drive that Baugh touched the football? No, I have no idea. Twelve.

How does he have six carries on the first drive and only 12, the rest of the entire game? It doesn't make sense. And then I'm seeing big, big shifts and they like to do that pre-snap, but it's jet sweep, reverses, misdirection, trick plays. Right. Just to get the ball back in a lag. And I'm like, hey, you're Florida.

You're playing South Florida. So why don't you show the in-state team who runs this state? Yeah, even some of the fourth down anymore. Miami's trying to come up and get us, but it's us. and we got a quarterback who gives us a numbers game. So I got ball and lagway. They should have been shoving it down Florida's throat, South Florida's throat, the entire game.

They didn't. And so now they're one-on-one. And now they're going, now they've got LSU coming to town. This is a fascinating game to me. Really? Because Napier, because Napier knows he's got this team. We saw it at the end of, last year. He knows he's got that. They're talented enough to rise up, but LSU's just better.

I can't wait to see the product, how the bounce back, the buy-in. This is going to be a fascinating game to me. Just so you know about the receiver situation, I want to make sure about this double-check. Florida does have a freshman named Dallas Wilson. There's Eugene Wilson, and there's another guy named Dallas Wilson, who is 6-3-213 who hasn't played because of injury yet. If they can get him going, that'll help too. I should have mentioned it. Yes, they need, they need him. They need a him, like that kind of guy.

They need to get their swagger back, though. They need to get their like, we are, you know. They just look timid and like cute, like cutesy and like gimmicky and like they better not like that that ain't going to work against that LSU team. Yeah. Also, some of those fourth downs in that game, I can't get it out of my head. some of the fourth downs late in that game, just go for it. You have that quarterback.

You trust your quarterback. And then if he's not going to get it, trust your defense. And then even if that happens, at least you give your chances yourself a chance to score and trust you're going to do that. I mean, it just seemed timid and I don't know. It was playing not to lose, right? That old don't play not to lose, play to win. And I felt that it bit them.

If you're watching this show or listening to this show, you support us. And we appreciate you supporting us. if you live in the Chicago area, come see us on Wednesday night. We'd love to see you. We'll stay around. I literally, I promise you on my life and those I love lives. We will stick around as long as you want after this show.

We'll meet everyone. We'll greet. I'm excited to meet some of the, this is the first time we get to see some of the people who have supported this show. So I'm excited. It's just a small gathering. Big Cat's going to be there. We love Big Cat.

Everyone seems, you know, everyone nationally, internationally loves Big Cat. But Mention and I are there and you're, you're part of this group. You're helping us build. If you live in that area, we'd love to see you on Wednesday night, Lincoln Hall in Chicago.

The ringer.com slash events is where you can go get it. There's still a handful of tickets left. The newsletter, McShay Report, will be out deep dive into some of the stuff we talked about today, like some video stuff. It's going to be really cool.

We're back. Because we have the show on Wednesday, we will have a show coming out Thursday morning. We'll kind of see where the wind takes us on all that. But what I'm really pumped about, man, Saturday night, we're back live. Primetime game. We're going to crack into the last five, seven minutes of that game.

And it is an awesome slate. Georgia, Tennessee, Notre Dame, Texas, A&M, LSU, Florida, Miami, South Florida, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Ole Miss, Arkansas, Bama, Wisconsin, South Carolina, Vandy. Just because Sellers is in that game. And the brawl. Pitt, West Virginia. Can't wait. This is a fun week.

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