The McShay Show - Week 1 CFB Recap & Reactions Following LSU vs. Clemson | The McShay Show

Episode Date: August 31, 2025

Todd and Muench recap and react to the biggest games, plays and prospect performances from week 1 of the college football season. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Todd McShay Guest: Steve Muench Producers: Tucker Tashjian, Conor Nevins, Daniel Comer, Social: Jon Roemer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're live, Mench. Here we go. You good? I'm great, man. Even better than normal good. All right, here's the situation. Seven point game. We love coming on.

Breaking into the game. We wanted to be on a few minutes earlier. First week. Playing through some things. My link wasn't working. Who cares? 322 left, 1710, LSU. LSU just got the ball back.

It's interesting. Connor Nevins asked us an interesting question. Who would you rather have in this situation? Late game. Coaching staff and quarterback. I said I'm happy with either of these guys, Kate Klobnik or Garrett Nussmeyer, right? Yeah.

I feel like I would be better late game considering, like everything that's gone on in this game and LSU's history in week ones and some of the penalties. this game and the fact that they've not been able to close out games that I feel more comfortable with Clemson's staff and Clemson's organization, if you will. But then I started thinking to myself, with Antonio Williams out of this game, I think I'm like I just feel like there's more juice in the LSU offense. So here we are. It was a good question. I figured I'd start this whole thing

with it. I don't know if you have any thoughts on it, but Nussmeyer so far. Go ahead. You answer. or your thoughts on that first. I mean, you make all good points. If we're going off just this game, too, which I think you would have to when you're talking about this group specifically, the LSU offensive line is playing out of its mind. I mean, the LSU offensive line is, I'm stunned with how well they've played tonight.

And I think it's actually played better than the Clemson group. This has been a tail of two halves, right? Yeah. I think that, you know, the halftime adjustment that LSU made in terms of keeping Clubnik in the pocket has been a real difference maker in this game. but I think the offense did I am impressed with that LSU front I am too but you know what else I am you you go to the Manning passing academy and you watch some of those guys throw you watch the tape

of like Lenora sellers you watch the mobility of Clubnik you watch some of these other guys and the special traits that they have and it's kind of like pre-draft right yeah the further you get away from the tape, the more influenced you can become. Then you get into a game situation. Here's what makes, and I want to make this perfectly clear, as we're watching Nussmeyer right now with the ball, 235, they're up 17 to 10. It's third and 11.

Here we go. Let's watch this play first. We've all night long to talk about Nussmeyer and what makes him special. And if you're watching, like I've got YouTube TV. I don't know what Mention is watching, probably basic cable up in Jerry, New Hampshire. You're probably ahead of us behind this. I'm a couple of seconds ahead of you.

All right. So they dumped it off to the back, safe play to Durham. They're going to run this clock down. Clemson's got one timeout left. It doesn't appear, the college football, the two-minute timeout now. Right. So they'll run it down the two-minute time-up. So here's our, here's what we wanted.

This is everything you wanted. Everything you wanted. I said early in the week, it's going to be Nussmeyer driving them down. Scoring. I didn't think it was going to be early in the fourth quarter, but it was. A little back and forth, QB1 versus QB2. I've got Clubnet QB1 because I think the physical tools are slightly better than Nussmeyer. Nussmeyer, though.

My point I was about to make, this dude is so special. Garrett Nussmeyer is so special managing, sensing, feeling, and dictating pressure. it's his special sauce if you really watch him in this game and i can't wait tomorrow on sunday to go back and watch the coach copy tape all 22 and the tight copy what makes him special man i still have the volume on you probably hear it in the background is the fact that he's he doesn't have to be the fastest he doesn't have to have the strongest arm he knows where the pressure is coming from he senses it he's never like i talk about i talk about about Jackson Dart and some of the things I loved about him, kind of everything calms down

when the pressure builds up. And it's the same thing with him. And I saw that and I saw it. And I was like, that's the same thing with Josh Allen, some of the great ones, right? He's got that innate ability. And it's maybe because he's been around the game of football his whole life. His dad's a quarterback in the NFL quarterback coach. Now he's the offensive coordinator of the New Orleans Saints. I don't know how that's going to go. for the Saints this year. They named Rattler to starting quarterback. But my point in all this is

the wide receivers weren't stepping up. The run game is not a championship level. I don't think for either of these programs tonight. But we can get to all this as we recap the day. But my point is, like with everything on the line, his ability to distribute the ball and handle pressure, tangible pressure, like pass rushers in his face, and then pressure of moments.

How about that throw he made? Best throw of the night. Maybe the best throw I've seen in college football the entire first week, dating back to week zero, was I thought a terrible call by the referees. You didn't think it was. I did.

I was messing with you. Bill LaMontier's on my side, but Bill can be up and down on this, and I love Bill. That's a catch all day. That's a catch all day. It was, right? He dropped it down right.

Like, it was a tear drop, right in the bucket down, the right side line. Was it Barry and Brackett? This hair. Yeah. Barry and Brown, right? The Kentucky transfer. Unbelievable play. Great release.

Great track. I mean, just reward the young. But the ball couldn't have been put in in a more perfect spot. No, the placement was perfect. And then we're going to call that an incomplete pass. And then they missed the field goal. Right. Kid cramped up as he was going through.

Yeah. They got nothing for it. So this game would be over. But you're right. That was the best throw of the night. That was, I mean, that was maybe one of the best throws we've seen all, I've seen all weekend so far. So, so how do we not reward,

how do you not reward two college kids for making that kind of play? Like, I just don't get it. I get all, we've just gotten so crazy with what's a catch and what's not a catch. And it's been years of this now. Yeah, Barry and Brown are you. Where are you? And it was an SEC crew, by the way. But I mean, like, could,

Could it be any better? At home, LSU's punting the ball. Two minutes left. You're in your Death Valley, if you're Clemson. You've got your quarterback in Cade Clubnik. Doesn't have Antonio Williams. But so what?

I'm all night. Yeah. Time to step up. Feels like the SEC needs this one. I'm in. Feels like they need one. There we go. Oh, my gosh.

I know. Already early. I feel like they need one. I know. We'll get to Alabama in a little bit. Just saying if the SEC is so, so great, come on, man. There's, they're showing Antonio Williams on the broadcast right now, as they do. This is the best crew in the business. I'm not even, you know, I love Kirk and you know, I love Chris, and I've worked with them a lot.

But I'm talking like the production crew, the camera people, the people inside the, the truck, just knowing the moment. there's nobody there's nobody better in the business than these guys but you get the ball on the 43 yard line i'm a couple seconds before it's so hard not to tell you what's happening oh you are by the way this is a little bit of payback because if you if you remember captain jack strip sack for the touchdown i was a couple seconds behind you yeah and you're like you're not going to believe what's about to happen here mince well there's an incompletion in the first play which you knew I'm not giving anything away. Yeah, there are like FCC laws against us doing play by play.

This game is not disappointed from the quarterbacks, in my opinion. I know it's not high scoring. I know it's not high scoring. I, you know, we'll be interested to do the deep dive tomorrow. We can talk about that more about the nitty gritty of it all. But on face value, I've not been disappointed. Nussmeyer has outplayed clubbed it slightly. I didn't think so in the first half, but overall.

No, not the first overall. I think Nussmeyer has like when he settled down, how he settled down, the way he distributed, the pressure he was dealing with. Nussmeyer has been the better quarterback tonight. But like, Clubnik's been good and it don't matter if Clubnik drives him down and scores here. Where are you? Oh. Okay.

All right. So we've had two completions. now. You're ahead of me. I know we are. I'm at 1.34. Set the table again, though. Yeah, I'm at 1 3.14. A minute 34. Clubnik is holding his helmet. He's getting the call in from the sideline. 1710 LSU fourth quarter. They've got two completions now. One was a great throw under pressure, arm hit to his right side. Second one was an easier throw run after catch. They're now of the ball in the 21 yard line. completed for a short gain. It looked like the tight end, but I'm not sure who it is. Yeah, 87. All right. So now second down and, what's call it seven?

Second and seven about? Yep. He's not pressing, which I like. He's let his guys make some plays after the catch. He's not pressing. He's not forcing the ball downfield. All right. So now we get to take a deep breath.

There's a minute and eight left. He went out about, he caught the ball. Receiver caught the ball. underneath throw. It's going to be about third and four, third and five, I'd guess. But clock stops. Yeah. I mean, the beauty is it's the best game so far of all of college football.

Yep. You knew it already, huh? Incomplete pass on third down. So it sets up a fourth and four. Mr. fired it a little bit high. A little out of receivers reach. Oh, hearts pounding. You got defensive coordinator baking.

There's a timeout coming up to say you know. Okay, time out. All right. So, I mean, would you rather Nussmeyer in that offense in this situation, fourth and four? It's just like Club Nix. I still, listen, they have shut down Clubnick's feet in the second half. I was just going to say. I still like it.

It could just show up here, right? It could just show up. I got to be honest, man. this LSU defense is better than I thought. And I went on a rant about LSU's defense and what I thought it could be. Remember, you're like, we talked about it sucked two years ago. Baker comes in as the deep coordinator.

I was like they made a significant improvement. You're like, yeah, but they were just kind of, they were middling last year at best. Yeah. 41 tackles. I stand by that, by that by way. Four tackles for loss, two sacks. Monsour has been freaking awesome.

Monsour Delane. Delane has been awesome. Yep. Huge play in the fourth quarter batting the ball down. Had an interception, did some really good things in coverage. Comes to Virginia Tech Transfer. This guy's a dude. Yep.

Perkins in that star role. Early in the game, they had to call a timeout because he was, all right, here we go. You're probably ahead of me. But Harold Perkins has been awesome. Oh, no, why you're staring at me. Weeks has had some big. big plays. There's Nuss, man.

What did I tell you about that cat? Yeah. Got some big ones. Big ones. On the road. Look at Harold Perkins. Look at him. He spied him.

He spied him. Yep. And he did it a lot in the second half. In weeks, too. Weeks in Perkins were just massive and not letting you get out of that. But in that role, that roaming role. Yeah. In coverage against tight ends.

spying quarterbacks, rushing the quarterback. I told me, my sources at LSU have gotten a lot better from the Jamarcus Russell days, man. I told you, they were raving. And Clubnik, you know, he knows. He's owning it. I'll tell you one thing. We walked away from Ohio State, Texas, and there was some ick.

You walked away from Florida State, Alabama and you're like, how good, who, how good's anyone? Right. And is this really just all that Alabama can be or is this just a, you know, I know, I know two things, two teams definitively are legit top 10 teams in this country and these two. Okay. You don't think Ohio State? Oh, no, no, no.

I'm not saying Ohio State isn't. I'm saying, like, this is the first game where I'm like, both these teams are really freaking good. Okay. And I'm sure of it. And it didn't, like, the result didn't matter. I, yeah. I get what you're saying about that Ohio State, Texas game.

We'll come back to that in a minute. Yeah, I think we'll look back and then and be like, these two teams are really good. Oh, I know both those teams. But it's so felt, I still felt, I don't feel ick. I don't feel like, no, ick. No, I don't have a major, like, glaring. Even though it's 1710, low scoring, man, for these two, I mean, awesome quarterbacks.

The reason I like LSU, even, like, remember what the first thing I said when we came and we're doing the power rankings, right? The last 10 days or so, we've done power rankings leading up to the season. And I said, I legitimately believe bottom of my heart, if they come together and play the, way I think they can. Some of the portal guys work out, I legitimately think LSU could play for the national title. Yeah. I think you're right now. I wasn't sure about it then. I hear what you're saying now. But my questions were the run game, which has not been answered, but the defense, and I'm not saying it's answered for the whole season, you can't ask for much better of a showing from that LSU defense,

then 10 points against Clubnik in that offense? No. No. That was veteran offensive line. They shut Clemson out in the second half. They came out and said, look, you're really hurting us with that run. You're hurting us with your feet.

And by the way, Brian Kelly said it before the game. In his pregame interview, he said, we want to keep Klubnick in the pocket. If we keep in the pocket, we feel better about it. And Klubnik was extending all these plays with his feet in the first half and they were like and Baker said no DeVorecuitter said no we're not doing that anymore you're not getting outside but I've got this guy named Harold Perkins

who is just going to shadow your quarterback and it's not going to be an issue I'm encouraged by the LSC running game after tonight I'm surprised you aren't tell tell me why I'm not I'm not one one I thought that defensive front again I just thought that defensive front was going to control I thought Parker for Clemson tonight was awesome I did not see enough of Peter Woods who's supposed to be all world I didn't either. Now, we'll go back and see why that is.

It's sometimes hard to gauge why. I mean, he was second on the team with tackles when I looked late, early in the fourth quarter. Okay. I just didn't see, I just didn't see him making impact plays. Parker, I didn't either. Parker was a force.

He had the bad penalty, but other than that, I thought he played a really strong game. That, but the reason I'm encouraged is that, that defense front from Clemson, I think, is good. I think it's going to be very good. And Caden Durham won 17 carries for 74 yards,

4.4 yards per carry. I'll take it, man. He was, you know, it was a competent running game tonight. It was it great? No, it wasn't what you would maybe call championship, but it was a lot better than I remember being last year. No, you're right.

A lot more balanced. I mean, they had 39 passing attempts than 31 rushing attempts tonight. That's a big difference than Nussmeyer just airing it out all night. So to me, I mean, I thought that was a step in the right direction. I also, I'm just looking at these numbers now. that's why I'm rattling them off. Do you know what Clubnik finished with? Passing?

Yeah. No, it wasn't great. In 19 to 38. Yeah. No touchdowns, one interception. It felt like a better night for him. Yeah. But the second half, again, that, that, LSU made the better adjustments.

You know, they went in and made the better adjustments about what they needed to do, even on the offense, too. I mean, defensively, it's obvious what they did. And then on offense, I thought they got some of their green game, some of their quick hitters going. It really got that offense rolling. They found a way to get the ball in Anderson's hands, the slot receiver, who, you know, all the Aaron Anderson, the guy they've added all these guys around them and they're all great. And, you know, the tight entry is green and the red zone's great.

I think Bauer Sharp's going to be a good player for them. All of those are nice, but Aaron Anderson's the guy. And he may not be the guy that they've had in the past who's that elite outside dude, but he's the dude when you need a play. Aaron Anderson's going to make a play for you, find a way to get him the ball. he'll do something after the catch with it. So I was impressed with the way LSU, the way the coaching staff handled it tonight. I don't disagree.

It turned out to be a much more complete game than what I thought in the first, like the first half I was going through, first of all, we've got almost 500 people or 500 message or 500 people in the chat right now. Awesome. And like, let's just stop down real quick. Games over.

Thanks for being here. This is week one. you know, didn't like promote it a lot. You guys aren't used to this. We're going to be here every week, okay? And we're just going to grow this thing. It's going to be a lot of fun. Every single after the primetime game,

this is where you're going to be. This is where we're going to be for sure. Contractually, I guess. Or just we made our own decisions. We promised it we'll deliver it. I might be here anyways, yeah. But this is awesome, man. Yeah, week one, QB1, QB2, Clemson, LSU.

Got a lot to talk about. and like just look at like Garrett Fitzgerald the boys are back in town you're right about that man Nuss Meyer reminds me of Romo get out of here pepper squad I guess is that a positive or negative I don't know I like Romo I don't think that I think that might be a positive man yeah but Nuss Meyer is going to win games late and do things that I think plagued Romo's career Okay. Nuss bus. We got all like we got all these people. I like what's going on. So thank you for being here. Keep it coming. I'll check the I'll check the chat as we go. And we'll keep you involved. I was watching this game, right? In LSU, it started out and I'm like, here we go again. You see the 1 and 0 T-shirts coming in today in more?

No. No they have 1-0. Like that's been the offseason. focus. And when you set a focus in the offseason, you come out and you play the way you did in the first half, that thing can backfire on you. Yeah. They're practicing at night. They're changing their routine. They're going team team team. They're doing a lot of different things because they had to get up to the middle. Yeah. Kind of like kind of like the Bengals, right? Playing, playing, playing their starters late was the second or third preseason game. Late, in the game. You get your franchise running around taking big hits. Joe Burrow, like things you don't want happening. But it's because of a mindset that you're trying to establish. Same was going on

with LSU, this offseason. So they come out in the first half, and I'm just right, mistakes, early penalties, fumble on second possession, two timeouts in the first six minutes of the game. This did not appear to be a team that was that dialed in and had that emphasis. in the offseason that this was the game had to have this, okay? Think about how the first half ended. They throw that quick hitter to Chris Hilton and, and he, on fourth down, and they get no points. They fumble.

I mean, Clemson goes in the halftime with all of the momentum in the world. Yeah, it was fourth and two before the half, or, yeah, from the 12-yard line. They pass on the field goal. I kind of like, Brian, like, it's still the mentality is, and by the way, but the execution sucked. I love the mentality. And I wanted to blame it on the coaching staff and the offensive play. That was Nuss, man.

He checked out of the play. Yeah. In that crowd. That end zone. Noise. Had the onions. Been around this game. Trusted himself.

Wasn't the right call, especially when he moved his back over to the right. And he had all those jerseys. It happened fast. It was loud. But there was a confidence level about. I'm in control. Yeah, I messed up. But we'll come back in the second half and we got, like, we got these guys.

It's all right. We scored three in the first half. We're going to get this thing rolling. I thought in the second half, that, that, um, they were just trying desperately to find someone that could do something with the ball, the ball in their hands in the first half. It didn't see, LSU. Okay.

Then I thought it was that, that, that, 39-yard catch from Aaron Anderson early in the third quarter, they kind of like, all right, here we go. Mm-hmm. And then right after that, yeah, and then Aaron Anderson had another catch, right? That was kind of the moment where it felt like, what, the adjustments they made, the talk they had at halftime, now they're, now they're going out and proving what they're saying.

And from that point on, LSU was in control of that game, man. Yeah. I agree. Right? There's been a lot of talk about play callers this week, obviously, because of Brian Harlan becoming the play caller for Ohio State. And it was something I was watching all day today. And, you know, with Sark, and whoever, name one of these coordinators.

And it's so fascinating to me that one, when they get into a rhythm, when they get, when they start to feel it, you, you, can tell the play callers are starting to feel it. And you can tell that LSU was, they were starting to feel it with some of the things that they were doing, whereas other teams were struggling. And you got to create more opportunities for yourself to kind of probe defenses.

If you're getting three and outs, three and outs, three and outs, you're not getting a good feel for what kind of, what kind of defense they're going to throw at your two by one looks or whatever, you want to talk about, whatever your personnel is, whatever your formations are, you're probing defenses. And if you're constantly three and out, you're not a good, getting a good feel for, okay, when we come back to this look, they took this away, but we know we have this if we get that same look again. And so it's just fascinating to me,

like you have to get into a rhythm, you've got to get going, and you have to create more opportunities for yourself. And it's difficult when you don't. Defensively then, you know, for Clemson, we talked about it. I thought Sammy Brown was awesome and everywhere. Mm-hmm. Right from the jump. Right from the jump. Woods was underwhelming. let's watch the tape. Parker, some pressures. He had that one big penalty. What did you think about that, by the way?

I thought it was warranted, but unfortunate. It was a little closer. I probably, I kind of leaned towards the same way as you, but I felt like they were making it sound like it was egregious, and it didn't feel egregious to me. No, no. It felt like that, you know, Klobnik, I mean, not Klobik, I'm sorry. Nussmeyer got bumped towards him.

And he kind of took a little bit of a liberty with a little extra shot at the end. I also thought Nuss did a little bit of an acting job. I didn't think it was as egregious as some other late hits I've seen. I agree with that. What I liked about one of the things I liked about T.J. Parker in this game as a potential top 10 prospect. The motor chasing from behind, LSU did a nice job of when they moved the pocket, it was away from him. And he was barreling down on Nussmeyer. it wasn't just that play. Run defense was pretty, pretty good throughout the night,

especially at first like two and a half quarters. I agree. Even Avion Terrell had that force fumble. I thought with the exception of Woods, who I think was really good versus the run, but just didn't have the impact plays that we saw that they were hoping to see from him in the first game in the past as a pass rusher. I thought the defense showed up. Yeah, I agree. I mean, look, he only put up 17, man. It's not like LSU was running up and down the field.

No, no. I thought it really, all right, flip side, I thought it really hurt not having Antonio Williams. Yeah. You know, when you look at, but here's the thing with Clemson. I remember, I'm just going back to my notes, like, this was supposed to be the thing. like Antonio Williams, T.J. Moore, T.J. Moore had a good night. Do you have his numbers there? He had a good night.

He had four for 55, Westgo four for 66, Tyler Brown, four for 43. I mean, they were all kind of middling. You know what I mean? They, they're all okay. That Southeast Missouri transfer, Tristan Smith, 78 catches, FCS level last year, didn't see much of him. Nope. I just, I thought. I thought this receiver group was going to... I keep waiting for Wesco to explode. Mm-hmm. But I think the bottom line is, this is Antonio Williams. He's the star.

Right. And the other guys are really good in their roles. But you've got to have your star. And I thought that that was absolutely missed and noticeable tonight. That could change over the course of the season, but it's clear that that's how it is right now. I mean, Westco's got more than enough talent to turn into that kind of a guy. But if you were expecting it tonight, it didn't happen.

It just didn't happen. There was a couple times I thought him tracking the ball. He made it more difficult to come down with the catch with the way he was positioning his body. He wasn't tracking it as well as he could have. I mean, there's just these little things. I thought that the one where you said that Clubnik was a little too far on the third down catch. I thought that Westcoe should have had that. So, I mean, just not quite there yet.

all the talent in the world, but you're right, Antonio Williams, when you need to play. You know, all these other guys, Barry and Brown made some great plays tonight for LSU. But when they needed it, it was Aaron Anderson. And when you need it, when you're Clemson, it's Antonio Williams. And they just didn't have them. The run game was the big question coming in. For Clemson, does this team possess championship caliber run game? You remember last year showed up in big moments, completely outrushed and losses, South

Carolina and Texas. Yep. Adam Randall was their leading ball carrier, excluding Cade Clubnick, who technically had eight carries for one yard. I'm talking pure runners. It was supposed to be Adam Randall, right? Yep. It was supposed to be, we never saw the freshman that I saw, Gideon Davidson.

Nope. He was on the field and they noticed him, but he blocked. as he a moose a mu me david david easy as i call him he had three carries and the guy who was supposed to be there like the load carrier who they came in feeling confident about the wide receiver remember former wide receiver adam randall had the great touchdown run yeah but he had five carries for 16 yards man and i'm trying to go through it right now todd i don't think he carried the ball in the second half. So if he did, he had like one or two.

I mean, when you have five, I mean. It felt like LSU had the ball the entire second half. Sure did. So that's something, but I'll say this for Clemson. You get to now regroup. They're going to be favored in all other 11 games. Right. Georgia Tech, Louisville, South Carolina are on the road.

But you got SMU at home. And by the way, that road trip. making down that I'm going to try to get them trying to get you to come November 8th November 8th Florida State all of a sudden that's a big game that's a huge game all of a sudden I thought it was going to be like that's going to be a tough game Florida State's going to be better this year we'll get to that in a minute yeah I think they're all right I'm not I'm not no I do too I'm I do too I'm not either but I'm saying it they it's not like they're jumping from this to like Florida, A&M, but, you know, like this,

like some of the other teams that we talked about leading up to the season. And this is the roller coaster that every college football season is. You know, last year, I mean, Ohio State was done, done after the Michigan loss. It's just, you know, Northern Illinois, no way they get to the final, I have to lose in the Northern Illinois.

Unless in Northern Illinois. So, you know, there's a lot of football to be played. And these teams are built to get better and they're built to compete at the end. I've never seen a fly. I got a fly in my room in my office. But I've never seen one who's like half dead. I love how you play through adversity.

He's pushed through. Yeah, I'm just like if you're going to sneak in off the porch and come into the studio slash office and you're going to be a fly. Like I expect a little bit more fight out of you. I expect to hear the buzzing and like annoying me. It was just sitting on my papers. Anyway. Most encouraging to me, though, man,

I go back to it, that LSU defense. Yeah. No, that's, that's a, That's a good group. I didn't see, I liked Witt Weeks. Okay. I liked him. Tonight, I loved it.

I mean, I, I remember his brother was the one who was healthy during camp and starring during camp. Witt shows up game time, man. I mean, that play he made, where Clebick tried to take off and he came off the pass rush to wrap him up. It would have gone for like 20 yards in the first half was an unbelievably athletic, smart, great play. I mean, it was just unbelievable play.

I thought he was outstanding. And we were excited about Harold Perkins and we should be excited about Harold Perkins. And we're excited about Delane and we should be excited about Delane. I mean, it's that date. I wanted to see it. Even Patrick Payton had a nice play early on. it's great on paper until you see it because I've, you know, I've thought you,

LSU's had talent in the past and not had great defenses recently. And tonight, they play like a really good defense. Yeah, I'm encouraged. I'm really encouraged. So, yeah, I mean, I don't know where, I mean, LSU, LSU gets over that, they had one since, it was Georgia, Duke, Georgia. No, that's, no, that's, no, that's Clems.

at LSU hadn't won since Joe Burrow. In the opening, you mean? Yeah. So Clemsons has now lost three of, uh, for their last five openers. But LSU hadn't won an opener since Burrow, 2019. Is that right?

I have that wrong. They haven't won five. They haven't won five. They haven't won three under Kelly and they hadn't won the two years before. Yeah. Yeah. So Joe Burrow, that, I remember that.

by the way in a way this is good i think for the way the playoff bracket could lay out because ls u.su needed this win more than clemson let's be honest ls uigre lsu schedule is going to be so much tougher that there's a couple losses that you can you can just see popping up in there whereas if clemson had won this game lsu's margin for error was a lot smaller so if you're wanting to get the most talented teams in there i think this is actually good for the overall playoff picture Yeah. I don't disagree. Ellis, you need this more, considering their schedule,

considering what they've got to deal with. I'm all over the place because there's so many more angles I want to go to. I think the most important takeaway, honestly, is when you got a guy like Nussmeyer, everything calms down. Yeah. And he was up and down and up and down last year. And I hope physically he's able to not show some of the, wear and tear that he did a year ago.

I think he has a supporting cast. The run game is improved. The offensive line, big question losing those guys of the NFL. Huge question coming into the year. Brian Kelly said definitively, like, I trust this group. I know a good offensive line and this is a damn good offensive line. Even though they lost Will Campbell, fourth overall pick, Emery Jones, third round pick, Garrett Delinger.

I mean, they lost three guys. four guys in Miles Frazier. Four guys to the NFL draft. And that group was pretty darn good tonight against a really good Clemson front. Okay. It's hard not to believe, but I also like truly believe Clemson is one of the ten best teams in the country.

I think they can become one of the five or six best teams in the country come October. And I would not rule that team out from getting better and better as the season progresses like they did at the end of the last. last year and playing for a national championship. I think we saw two teams tonight that are capable of making a run if they keep getting better and making a run and playing in the national championship game. I think that to me that's fair to say.

100%. I'm still high in Clemson. All right. Now let's get to the rest of this. Where do you want to start? Texas, Ohio State. Okay? Let's just get to it.

Yeah. I just want to get it out of the way because I want to talk about the rest of the game. Okay. People suck, man. Yes. People do suck. People suck. It's.

And I don't even have to tell you and you and I haven't spoken once today. We've been on a group chat, but we have, but not like talking to each other. Everyone loves to tear people down and I get it. Arch didn't choose to be born into the Manning. family, but certainly being born in the Manning family has allowed a path for him, both genetically and support staff and everything else that is needed to develop a young man into a quarterback at a high level is all there for the taking for Arch. I get it.

I'm just going to be real with everyone here. Okay. Yeah, I'm close with his grandfather and I like his family and I was at the Manning Passing Academy and all that. But I think people have come to trust. Like I'm going to like I got no problem separating church from state. What I do have a problem with is like the people in this industry, man. I get news for you.

I watch the same game. I do have more perspective than a lot of these bozos out there. Because I'm because I'm better at our job and you're better at our job than a lot of those bozos out there too. And we're certainly better at what we do. And people come to us for real information because we're not trying to get people to click and do all that stuff. Okay. There's a real easy path to that. We can take it.

But I'm not here for that. I'm here to do it the right way. But I'm watching the game today. And I see a couple things. I thought the training wheels were on and it was maddening. I thought Sark did a really bad job today. I thought Sark coach like Quinn Ewers with injuries last year. I thought it wasn't until they got behind and the pressure was on.

And we saw this a couple times last year with Ewers in that Texas offense. It took them in an emergency situation, Arizona State being the most recent example, where it's like we got to open it up. We got to get creative. We got to just take some chances. Got to take the training wheels off for that offense to start. looking a little. And so I think Sark was part of the problem today. And by the way, I don't even think you, Steve, know the level of respect I have not only as a coach, but as a human being

that I have for Sart. And it's okay because you know what? You have sucked at your job some days. I have certainly sucked at my job. And Arch today, if we take his name off this thing and the expectations, it was still a less than desirable. I mean, you're the starting quarterback at Texas, okay? It was a less than desirable performance. 37% he was off target, was his percentage off target throws. And I saw the same thing. I didn't need the number to come up.

And they're popping it everywhere on ESPN because it makes the analysis easier. He wasn't, not only on throws that he completed, I mean, not only throws, were in completions that he missed on, throws that were completions even. We talk about missing inside the strike. So he was off target today, a lot. I'll tell you what I am concerned about in a minute. What I'm not concerned about is, and I've said this for a while now, Steve. Like, I do this for a living.

I've done this for 25 years. The biggest improvements I see in a quarterback, it's not from week one to week two, like coaches always say. It's from week one to about week four or five in a season when you're a first year starter. We can get into all the science and the methodology and all the reasons why, but you learn from your mistakes. You go into game two and you haven't repped it enough. Then you see it again.

You make that same mistake again. Then you stop making that mistake. It's a process. And so what we saw from ARC specifically is not what we're going to see from him in week four or week five. So you know what I'm not going to do? I'm not going to come out and say he's a bust. He's terrible because everyone wants me to either say he's a bust and he sucks.

Or, no, I'm not buying in. Hang on. Be patient with Arch. Right? And I even- People early for the bus talk, man, when you go into Ohio State as your first start. Like I'm watching awful announcing today.

And like, and I think they've got a purpose too. have a purpose in this industry. And they've got a pretty good purpose. I think they keep a lot of people honest. I think some stuff's just really funny. I think some stuff they do is past the line and that kind of sucks. But like society sucks these days, probably always. But I can only speak for my, my generation and the generation, you know, after me.

You know what I could do? I could say, you know, Steve and I had a podcast about Arch Manning. We talked about how he wasn't developed as a past. and I told you so like he's not there yet and I and I told you I didn't rank him in the 2026 draft class because I knew this could happen I said let's wait to 2027 because I knew he's going to come out and suck today and you know what I saw people do that I actually saw people do that fuck it I don't care I saw I saw I saw I saw Rogers come out and do it he played quarterback his brother's one of the all-time quarterbacks whether they have a relationship or

I don't I don't know but to come out today and say, I told you so. Like, why? Does that make you feel good? I watch the same tape. You were actually a little bit harsher on them than I was, but we've, we, we agreed on the same things. The mobility is a great asset. Well, guess what? The mobility was taken away today in part because Ohio State's defense is awesome again. And in part, because I don't think that they had an aggressive of enough approach. And every report I got from camp down in Austin was he's running, man.

The QB run game is a big part of a, where was it today? So there's a lot of factors in here. And so to come out and do that I told you thing makes you just as horrible, maybe more horrible. We were talking about TV, by the way. How many of these guys have watched?

I haven't watched you yet because I'm watching the other games. I'm getting, I'll tell you, we're going to have another show on Monday. Yes. And I will sit down with you. and I will be level-headed, and you will be level-headed, and we'll say, here's what we saw. What we're not going to do is say that this kid sucks after watching TV tape,

after him going into Ohio State. And honestly, what are we doing? Do you want to know what I'm mad about after that game? It's not about how Arch played. I'm mad about the goddamn quarterback sneak against that defensive front on fourth in goal, where you get no momentum. You have no momentum with your quarterback.

Can we run downhill, please? Can we just get downhill and see if that works? Can we try something other than a quarterback sneak in that situation? They don't act like Arch played so poorly that Texas didn't have a chance today because that wasn't the case. I thought the difference in the game today was Brian Hartline clearly knows how to call a game. I thought he was outstanding today. And it helps me of Jeremiah Smith.

And that's the second thing is Jeremiah Smith. Now, you could talk about the Ohio State defense. I would counter by saying that Texas DeKine, it's pretty damn good too and held you only to 14 even though their offense was struggling too like I mean there's a lot of things to play to me jeremiah smith and brian hartline with the difference in this game yes arch didn't play well i didn't expect him to play well in columbus for his first start we'll see where he is at the end but here's the difference and here's where i'm willing to go here's where i'm willing to go because i because and it's not because i care about my media standing and i have to

have a strong take to get on a show or for people to run this clip somewhere else. I couldn't care less. You shouldn't. But I do want to make this perfectly clear. Arch Manning did suck today. He was not good. He was not good. Not good.

And if you want to drill down before I watched a coach copy tape and what I know I can tell you, I am concerned about one thing. in this moment, I am concerned that he is a Manning, and his uncles are Peyton and Eli, and he's had every resource, including a college-level coach, come and be his offensive coordinator in high school. If my son can go to decent camps in Massachusetts

to work on his footwork and throw accurately short and intermediate to open receivers, a manning with that talent level with those resources at this point in his career can't miss some of the throws he missed today. And so without watching the coach copy tape and going back, I'm not going to sit here and lie about it and sugarcoat it. And I get news for you. Arch is watching the tape and he's banging his head against the desk

and he's pounding his fist and he's pissed off at himself. But if I wanted to raise an initial concern, that young man should not be missing those throws. Some of those throws. Not all of them. There's a handful that I looked at today and I was like, hmm, that concerns me. And that's fair.

Yeah. Now in week two, no one's saying that they- And by week 10 as a starter, if he's still missing those throws, now it's a problem. now it's part of his evaluation. Now it's who he is.

And now you start asking the questions. Can he fix that? Can that be corrected? But Josh Allen was missing a lot of throws. And at that time, I didn't, there hadn't been many examples of guys who came in the league and got more accurate as a passer.

But then all of a sudden, Lamar Jackson did, and Josh Allen did. And then Jalen Hertz did. And a lot of guys did because they had the mobility. But what was stripped of him today, by maybe the defense and certainly by some play calling stuff was the mobility element of his game. That can't happen anymore.

Right. That's on Sark. That's on the offensive staff. That's on arch. So there's a lot of, like for people to come out and do a 60 second clip of I told you so. I mean, yeah. I mean, there's a reason to do it.

It's absurd. This one hits. I get it. You know what I do like. And then people come out and be like, you know, like I don't have time for them. but if you want to have a conversation about, yeah, I'm concerned about that part. I'm also concerned that Sark is still coaching the way he did with Uers. All fair.

We'll be fair. And let's be fair with Sark. It is a first year starter. It is in the shoe. And nobody but Michigan goes in and wins in that place. It ain't easy. Right. So there's a lot of factors here.

But like they better get it figured out pretty soon or else this is going to be a really disappointing season. Okay. You know what I like? What? San Jose State at home, U-TEP at home, Sam Houston at home for their next three games, then a buy, and then they go to Florida. So they've got time now to, you know, hey, look, didn't go the way we wanted it to go. This is what we need to work out on.

You've kind of, you've been kind of punched in the mouth a little bit. Let's go back, regroup, catch your breath. I think that gives them a, I think the schedule now gives them a chance. And they better make the most of it, man, because then it's at Florida and then Oklahoma. you better make the most of it. But they do have an opportunity here to regroup, fix. They have some tape to look at now and say, here's where we're off.

This has got to get fixed immediately. But yeah, I'm not saying here. When I'm saying we're going to go back and look at it and have a different conversation, I'm not, I want to be clear. I'm at no point am I pretending that I walked away from that thinking, well, maybe this is better than we think when I get to the tape. No. I want to be specific about.

No, it was bad. Right. We'll be specific about what our criticisms are. not I told you he was trash or whatever, whatever these people want to say. Like that's, I mean, it's, that's a pointless conversation of it. That's not something I'm interested in. And so we'll come back on Monday and we'll drill in with some more details on it.

But I can say this. It's that part of it was concerning for me. Some of it I can write off to at Ohio State. First game is a starter. Whole off season, all the pressure, all those things. Offensive coordinator, maybe who's also the head coach, maybe trying to protect the young guy and then that road spot and all those things. I can write off some of it.

I'm not at, I can't write off the portion I talked to you about, but can that I want to see it. Yeah. I want to see it. I want to see it. And I don't even mind like the memes. I like, I get like that's the crazy. I'm not even mad at the crazy people, right?

I'm not mad at it just and I'm not even mad at Joe fan. I hate that. Like it seems condescending. I'm not mad at the average fan who's like having fun drinking beers on a Saturday. some of the shit's funny i get it like i laughed and then i was like it's not like that's the human beings but like a couple things but like i'm talking about people who are paid to be professionals in this industry yes and you get jordan rogers coming out to do a 60 second clip of i told you so when like yeah i saw it too i've been doing this a lot i actually i like i covered you in a game in

college i actually like the guy i actually like jordan but like i'm done i'm done not talking about who's doing stuff that I don't like. That's last season. I played nice last year. I'm done with that. Nice. There you go. I can't wait.

I can't wait. You're going to see a whole new side of me, Munch, because I just, I'm getting too old and crusty for this stuff. Don't make somebody's bad day your gain. But if you got something for me

and you want to talk about it and you're ripping up. I just said he sucked today. I told you, there's a part in there that I'm worried about that I hope gets erased, just like I would hope got a race for Nuss, for Klubnik, for Lenoris, for all these guys.

But like to get in first with the quick hit so I can get on get up on Monday morning, so I can be part of a bigger show because it's my career. I'm not here for that anymore. All right. The flip side, can I say? Please.

I think Ohio State fans, already knew this, but there had to be a little doubt, a new coordinator, new coordinators, you know, new quarterback, young quarterback, a rebuild. Yeah. You got a, you got a good squad again, man. Oh my gosh. Buckle up. You're going for another run.

Well, that's why, okay, that's why I wanted to get arch out of the way so that we can actually talk about this game. Saying I thought was encouraging in his first game. I don't want to an aoint him and act like he had the best game ever either. That's, I think that would be an overreaction to the other side just because he won. But it's encouraging. He had an encouraging performance. And I'll say this too.

I'm already catching heat from some of our listeners on X and I get it. That I keep underestimating the Ohio State offensive line and they just keep playing well. So that's going to continue this year. I'm going to look at them and be like, they're just not that good. And then they're just going to go out and win games. So that's probably going to happen again. They played pretty good today. I do question.

In the run game, they're really good. But I don't know how much juice they have it running back. if we're talking about a national championship. I like Donaldson. It was, it's not, he's not quite that guy. I hear you. But a pretty good squad. If you had all those fears and doubts coming in of maybe like some butterflies in your stomach,

I know we're ranked high, but I mean, chips gone and we got a new defense coordinator and rebuild defense, rebuilt offensive line. Are we really going to be that good? It looks like they're going to be that good. They held them to, and I know that's another like, and we can have those all sorts of fun. But like every,

every season's a new season and the players are new players for, you know, a large percentage. Like Ohio State held Texas to one for five on fourth downs and that was critical. It was absolutely critical. I do want to say this. Absolutely great to see C.J. Baxter out there for Texas and doing his thing.

And Sark wasn't lying when he said after that last scrimmage and I watched him going 100% and that need. brace was off to see the juice he had in those legs again to see him catching the ball i think he had five or six catches today cj baxter's and i talked to a scout like if this guy's back i'm telling you he's a top 100 draft pick so and i like that livingston kid i know he had the one drop and it looked like he could have had a drop i didn't really know much about him the wide receiver i think he i think he's got a role in that offense got to get wingo more touches man you got to find a way to Wingo the ball more.

Wingo and Westgo, they're the two frustrating guys from that class. Yeah. Yep. I'm just, I keep wanting more from those two guys. Get him the ball somehow. But I did think it was interesting of going back to Ohio State's offense now. I,

while I thought the training wheels were on too much for Arch because his game is built on, you got to let him be a playmaker, and you got to let him make some mistakes in order to get the good from him as a young guy. And he'll have to figure out, figure it out on the fly saying needed the training wheels on and played really well with them yeah he seemed calm it's what i it's what i kept hearing about him just really smart Todd he's really

smart he understands his role in things he knows he knows how to protect the football he's getting like with a great team around him he can for a young guy he can kind of manage this thing pretty well that's what he did today mm-hmm didn't help early on that the best receiver in the planet and maybe the best receiver in college football in the last, I don't know how many long years. We can have that debate another time. Had a couple drops early. Those drops, I know he dropped the ball. He wasn't getting the first down on those plays. Like it was.

But how about your boy Max Claire from Purdue? That was a bad one. Right through his hands. You had to go right there, huh? Okay. I'm just saying it didn't help for a young guy against a Texas defense in his first start with this new program. and a big time moment, all offseason,

all the pressure that's in Columbus. Dude, we talk about two families, like the Austin with that Dallas media and all that. Like, it's, it is a bubble. And so to come out and all of a sudden, I get Jeremiah Smith dropping a couple passes, and I kind of maneuver around the pocket,

and I throw to the left. We got like 11 yards. A stud tight end, yeah. He's tight end that we picked up from Purdue who's caught everything this summer, this fall camp. And he dropped, like, and it kind of looked like, like that.

Yeah. You know? But he hung in there. And I never saw ups and downs with him, which is really encouraging, right? And I think they'll keep kind of letting, giving them more rope. And you see the talent. The run game was okay.

But they, but they stayed committed to it. Donaldson had 19 carries for 67 yards. James Peoples had had 10 carries for 20. which is highly underwhelming, but that's still 29 carries. When you look at LSU and the numbers of carries, you look at Clemson and the few numbers of carries for their running backs. Like they're clearly and then and then pounding it on like short yardage, goal line, trusting that offensive line.

There was just a lot of encouraging things. I agree. That Carnot Tate double route, the double move. Unbelievable. I had two catches the entire game. I mean, what an impact he made. Two for 49. Yeah.

Jeremiah Smith, six for just 43. It's kind of weird, the two greatest receivers in the history of college football, right? Yeah. I had a note on this. I had the exact number. Ryan Williams and Jeremiah. It was like 73 combined receiving yards today. Ryan Williams and Jeremiah Smith, but oh, well.

Do you see the Texas running numbers? I mean, they were 37 carries for 166 yards. I mean, they ran the ball okay today. It's just when it matters, they don't, they can't come up with those fourth downplays. It's just, to me, it's wild some of the play calling in that situation. You've got to be able to figure that out, especially with a guy who can make a play, like get, get Arch out of the pocket.

Find a way to get him out of the pocket and let him make a run past decision. They allowed, they allowed him to a couple times, but it wasn't until like the third quarter. I was like, what are we doing with these quarterback sneak? It was driving. It just drove me nuts. The best drive was the first drive of the second quarter. But then Arch got outside on the move, hit the run pat.

That was like the only time in the first half, I should say, where I felt like they were starting to open it up and he was getting in a rhythm. They got him outside, that run pass option. But it ended with that goal line stand. Yeah. With the quarterback sneak, by the way, he should have snuck it to the left side. And there seemed like a fire drill. anytime they pan to the head coach who's the play caller and he's looking around like someone

else did something wrong it's like yeah what do we doing i saw the exact same thing who are you looking at and me i don't know maybe someone some somewhere along the way something got relayed incorrectly i don't know but it didn't look good it's not a good look i like the enderies guy a little bit i saw from him he's got a little bit of juice to him it's what i'm saying it was a little speed. So there were positives for Texas. And also, like, I give Ohio State credit. Five transfers to defensive tackle for Texas, new, new faces and bodies in there. They went after them early, but then I also give Texas credit. They kind of bowed their neck defensively. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Those were two heavy weights today, man. Yeah, it was, it's, it wasn't the game I wanted. It didn't on, it didn't play out the way I wanted it to. You know, I wanted arts.

to have this great game and I wanted this to do this back and forth and I always see Jeremiah Smith running up and down the field. It doesn't change the fact that these are two damn good football teams. And again, two football teams that the potential for growth, that's one of the flip sides that we're talking about all these new quarterbacks. Well, yeah, that's true. Where are these teams going to be, though? Who's going to be the team that gets better?

Who are the teams that are going to get better? Because the potential for growth in Texas is outrageous. I mean, they could be a far better team. if these teams were to meet again in the playoff, they're going to be, they're going to look very different than they do today. I completely agree. All right.

I did, I mean, it was very clear throughout college football. From week zero through, through this game, and even in tonight's game, the defenses are always ahead of the offenses. I wonder if that's more so now with all these, the portal stuff happening. I wonder if it's even more exaggerated. Absolutely, it's more exaggerated.

Okay. except in Tallahassee. That son of a gun, Castellanos. What? Yeah. Key difference for that one. And Clemson rain on my parade with you bring in an experience quarterback who's mobile. That's what I think the difference is there.

You have an experienced guy who may. Yeah. No, I know. I don't want to talk reason here. I want to talk about. I want to talk about Tommy. Tommy Castellanos for Heisman, man. Talking trash all offseason, yeah.

He was talking shit to Alabama. You ain't got Nick Saban to fix your problems to come save you. And to back it? Yep. And to come out in that first half and do what he did? Yep. You got to remember, they had a graphic today. Back to 1996 in the ACC, there's only been five guys who did what he did at Boston College,

2,000 passing, 1,000 rushing. Two of those guys were Deshawn Watson and Lamar Jackson. This guy's different, man. He was right up the street, the Heights. Boston College, not a lot of talent there. Still was keeping them in games. Now you put them with Florida State, and they clearly the portal money worked this year.

Who, well, you know what else worked? Bringing in Gus Malz-on, who is an absolute wizard, a wizard in the run game. the mobile quarterback. It was like, oh, this is such a, such a perfect fit.

I mean, but he, watching all these other quarterbacks and they're so good and, and Nussmeyer with the pressure and Clubnik with some of the mobility stuff, but he was kind of bottled up,

but still, but making throws and some of these other really good quarterbacks. And then I'm watching Florida State, and I'm like, oh, it looks so easy. Yeah. Because that guy makes up for any other mistakes that are going on. And then the thing with Florida State,

on top of all the other problems they had last year. They didn't have chunk plays. They didn't have anybody who made big plays. This guy, Mackay Danzy, is a receiver, but yet has 58 yards rushing and a touchdown on two carries. Then you get your running back Jalen Lucas, who 5-9-173-pound Lightning Bolt. At the running back position,

he doesn't really carry the ball, but he's got two catches for 66. They've got, they're intriguing, man. They're very interesting. Last year was a blip, it looks like. Mike Norvel is like, I tried to tell you. Yeah. We do this portal.

LSU, go get you guys. Texas Tech, go get you guys. We do this portal thing. And last year, we made a couple of mistakes. And then when we started losing, we don't have a culture here because it hasn't been built over. But like a lot of programs are going to be like this moving forward. But you know, Castellanos went from plus 5,000?

Tucker asked our guys at fans. They always deliver plus 5,000 to end of game, plus 3,000. And get your money in. Dude, I can't, I cannot stress enough, the malls on magic show, though. I mean, he was at UCF. Last year, fifth best rushing offense in the country. Year before that, fifth best rushing offense in the country. Year before that, ninth best rushing offense in the country.

You think about those Auburn offenses that he has? He knows how to, like, he is so creative with the. run game. And you saw it, you know, with those dansy reverses and the way they were getting, you know, all these guys, they were getting Lucas outside on these jet motions and you're watching. And you're, it's a magic show. If you're a defensive, if you're a defender,

all you're watching. Look at my left hand. I'm trying to tell you. So what you're in my left hand. Well, I just shove it up here with my right. And then you try to be in position to make a tackle. And then they're like, we're very happy with getting, you know, 10 yards every three plays. We don't need to break long runs. We just want to run.

like we're just going to beat it out of you. 49 carries today, 49 rushes for 230 yards for Florida State today to beat the hell out of you. Now, the other thing that was a problem for Alabama today was their beat up on the offensive line and the defensive line. No Tim Keenan today.

Their best interior run stuffer isn't in the game. Did not play because of an angle injury he had in practice. I mean, it was a, an avalanche for, for Alabama in this game. I'll say this, though, just about Florida State going forward a little bit quickly. I'm interested to see how good this defense really is,

because I'm not sure how good this Alabama offense is. And they kind of were starting to make this a little closer than it should have really been. And Jeremy Bernard, your guy, my guy, your guy, eight for 146 today. The eight catches for 146 yards with Ty Simpson throwing in the ball. We'll see how good. Come on. You're just going to gloss over Jeremy Bernard. Unbelievable night.

Is everyone happy now? Like, because I'm getting all sorts of noise about Jeremy Bernard. He's just a, he's in number three. Now, this guy's a player, man. Yeah. What's up with Ryan Williams? I don't know. I did not see after the game.

It didn't look good. And by the way, Isaiah Horton didn't. I'm talking about the game. Oh, you know, he had a head injury, right? He got hurt. Yes. Yeah. But when?

I'd be, because he bulked up. He looks better. He looks more physical. Like last year, he looked like he was going to, he was brittle. This year he doesn't.

Early. I remember. Yeah. And then he came back in. He wanted nothing going over the middle and contact, but maybe that's, that was weird too. A byproduct of his head injury.

And he, and I did notice and I thought to myself, he's acting a little funny on the side line. He tried to check himself back in. They pulled him out. They pulled him out. Yep. I saw that. So if you look at that, I mean, it was a, for Alabama, it was a just, again, an avalanche of problems, avalanche of issues.

But I mean, this, that's the one team. I'll be up front about it. That's the one team I watched it. And I was like, oh, shit, they're in trouble. Like, this team is in trouble. This is not, this is, they have a, they have a real problem in Tuscaloosa. I thought, I thought, I thought, Kail and DeBore was going to fix it to the point where I actually, I went out on a limb. I was like, I think Alabama can win the next.

National Championship. I 100% was, I don't know about winning the National Championship, but I thought this was going to be a very different program. They miss Jam Miller a lot at running back, but I don't know if that's enough to solve these problems. That office line, it is talented and it is inconsistent. Caden Proctor will drive you nuts, man, the left tackle. He will drive you nuts.

Yeah, I know. I'm excited to watch that, go back and watch the tape on the Parker Brails for Daryl Jackson matchup. Yeah. It felt like Daryl Jackson got the better of the. that thing, not necessarily against Braille's for, but just clogging up the middle. Kevin Riley's the only back with Jews for Alabama. I looked in the fourth quarter, you know, Alabama, the Crimson Tide with the first

year starting quarterback was averaging two yards per carry. Yeah. That's not going to work. And where are the receivers? Because Jeremy Bernard was awesome. Ryan Williams got injured. But remember there was a lot of talk about Isaiah Horton comes in. He's going to be a third.

He's actually going to be the X opposite Williams. Is Horton injured? Did I miss something? He did. In the very beginning of the game, he was on the bike. And I don't think he, I think he was very limited today. Richard Young, I didn't see much of him. The guy I did like was Rico Scott. He stepped up, great block. And then it gets paid off late in that drive with the touchdown.

Great effort pile on. They reviewed it touchdown. You want truth serum? Yeah, I do. I, how do I phrase this kind? Not kindly, but just like the two FCC quarterbacks that came into the year and I wonder like physical tools wise, passing consistency, are they good enough to bring their elite programs where they expect to be? Ty Simpson at Alabama

and this is not going to be popular I'm not saying I'm wrong I hope Gunner Stockton is good enough smart enough competitive enough and I know he's great in all those areas I don't know how advanced he is as a passer too and I think some of those inconsistencies

as a passer are going to show up at times especially for a Georgia team now that has all these wide receivers so that'll be interesting to see I'm not talking about what they did today. I'm talking about like in the SEC. That's going to be interesting. But Ty Simpson, I thought he looked good and so, like did a great job. He competed his ass off.

Oh, he did his ass off. And he got himself, he got out of some trouble that he didn't create for himself. And he did some positive things. And like that first drive, first or second driver, I forget, looked really good. But I think he's one of those guys that's going to have to have for a little while, at least, going to have a lot going on around him. and if that line plays like it did and the lack of a running game,

it's concerning. I'm not saying like, Connor asked a good question. Are you more concerned about Alabama or encouraged about Florida State? That's the question you asked earlier in the day and I wanted to ask you that. I think I'm very excited for Florida State fans.

I think I'm more concerned about Alabama coming out of this game. This is an Alabama team that had an ugly loss to Oklahoma last year. This now feels like it's something different than what I thought it was. I thought it was maybe Jalen Milro. It wasn't the quarterback they needed. I thought maybe it was Kalin-Divore's first year. Now I'm starting to think, oh, no, this is more of a, this is more of an issue. This wasn't a blip.

Those weren't blips. That wasn't he needed a year to get his guys in and get the program right. I don't, I'm no longer. After today, I'm not feeling like that. After today, I don't think they get out of September without two losses. They play Georgia right now if you get, you know, look, I know Georgia didn't play anyone really, I mean, they played Marshall. Yeah. Georgia's good, though.

But Georgia's good. And they're at Georgia for a night game. You know, my, you know, I don't think anyone, I don't think there's a lot of people would disagree with me that Georgia should win that game. Now you have two losses. So now you're going, later on the season, you're going Tennessee at home, South Carolina away,

LSU at home, Oklahoma at home. You're going to win three out of four of those? I don't know, man. I don't know. You got, I mean, like, and then you got a very, tough Auburn team in the Iron Bowl that's going to look to finish you off. That it would make nothing happier than

to end the the tides run at this. They are in real trouble. Real trouble. And if they don't get healthy, I mean, Jaden Roberts, I don't think played at offensive guard or play it was limited today. If they don't get healthy in a hurry, because I don't think they're as deep as they've been in years

past, I think this is a this could get ugly, fast. I'm looking up Florida States. I'm trying to decide myself. I'm super happy for Florida State. I want to take the negative approach. Well, you sound so condescending when you say,

I'm super happy for Florida State was on a national championship run. Like, stop with the happy thing. No, this is, I will tell you this. Oh, they have a good little team. Castellanos, I'm telling you, was the, the quarterback I'm most scared to play in college football after week one. And it's just one week. I don't want to play that guy.

That's a fucking nightmare. That guy's a nightmare. with a little structure with Gus Malzahn with some of those weapons that are running around my wide receivers running the ball my running back's catching the ball like I get it now you get some time to prepare you've seen it

and and even in the second half Alabama bottled them up a lot more but they were also trying to run the ball like run the clock out so let me be clear about what I'm saying here two years ago Florida State absolutely should have been in the playoff and it's bullshit that they weren't and I understand that the committee looked at it And they said, Jordan Travis broke his leg.

You're not the same team with that. I get all that. That defense was good enough. They deserved a shot at the playoff. They had played well enough with the way that was structured at the time. And so when I say when I'm happy for them, I thought they got screwed two years ago. And then last year, the wheels just came off of their season.

And if you're a Florida state fan, that must have been a dizzying experience to go from, we might play for a national championship, so we're not even getting a chance to now it actually makes it look like the committee was right. And we should never have had that chance because we're not that good of a program. to now coming out and beating Alabama and the opener, I think that's great for the Florida State fan base.

I love that. I'm saying after, I don't think they deserve, like, I don't think they deserve, like, any kind of a sympathy vote. I just think it's cool that it's gone this way, you know, because it was a shitty year last year. I'm telling you, like, I,

I won't be shocked at all. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. I won't be shocked at all when we go down to Greenville and stay in Greenville. with Marissa's family and the Peron's feeding us red sauce. It's November. We want some pastas and stuff. Peron's Italian gourmet.

And we venture over to Clemson. If Florida States ate no. I wouldn't be surprised either. That means they beat Miami. And I think they play Miami at home. Like I think they're good enough to beat Miami. Do you know how crazy that would have sounded 24 hours ago? There were two touchdown dogs.

I actually would say that I feel vulnerable saying that not at worst, but it looks like they're going to be one, one loss team. I mean, seven and one going into Clemson. Those two, that could be a seven and one versus seven and one. If Clemson has that same amount of games,

a one loss versus a one loss, or Florida State could be undefeated, the undefeated team that Clemson's looking up at at the standings. I want you to understand that. Yeah, no, I get it. I get it, man. But to answer, my own question, question, which was stolen from Connor,

I'm a little more nervous than I am. You're such an asshole. You're such an asshole. You know that? This is so typical. This one's both. You want to call me out. This one's a classic overreaction. Having the take. And then you want to like to have the same take. It was the condescending way in which you did it. But I'm, I'm worried. I don't think you're, if, if I don't, that Georgia game's scary. Yeah. And then the rest of it ain't right by Georgia. No, I know that, but if it ain't right for that Georgia game, but it might be.

They're talented enough. It might be. But something seems off. Something seemed really off today. All right. I got just a couple quick hitters for you. Then we can get out of here. I will take some questions. Someone asked me a little bit ago. MLS Weech asked. And MLS Weech made a good point when we were talking about, Like guys, you're absolutely scared to death of playing at the quarterback position. And he's a big fan. We're big fans in the McShay household. Tate is obsessed with this guy, Jalen Daniels from Kansas. Yeah, he is.

Yeah. Yeah, he looked good. And when he's rolling, he's frightening. How was Connor's guy today? How did he do? How was John McTier from Oklahoma? Well, I was going to say, I've got some quick hitters. Hibby.

do all right John Mateer he's he's he's a heart attack and even in like his mechanics are all over the place he's sling you see him but did you see it all today he's flipping it it's just oh god it's so fun to watch

it's amazing 24 of 31 319 Oklahoma's like ah okay few because that

they're used to you know they had been they had that run with Baker and Kyler, you know, like... Yeah. And then did it deal with that nonsense? And they now have like, oh, we're back. Yeah. And also that

are we going to be able to compete in the SEC? And we'll see more of that going forward. We'll see. But I think this team's going to be really good. Really good. Really good. So I put him in the top 12. 3037. 37. 392 yards. Oh, was the 30 for 30.

30 is that what he finished with 300 what was it 392 yards oh i would i thought he was out of the game so i wrote down the stats i'm like they're winning silly so he threw for almost 400 today yes that's like a joe burrow stat line it's insane and now it's illinois state but you could say whatever you want that's still insane uh Penn state 46 nevada 11 aller was 22 of 26 only encouraging because i saw something with like his knee brace on recently and I just wanted to make sure he's okay he looked he looked really good what I really cared about two things sort of with that deny deny Dennis Sutton yep he looked good though the competition he did Nevada but a couple of the plays I saw like standing up I got a question about this on X

two force fumbles I got a question about him on X and about how early he would be and I have him just inside my top 50 right now. He's not Abdul Carter, but he's a damn good player. And I think that's fair a little bit. I think that's fair. Day 2's good. Again, against competition, not sure, but it was promising. Because sometimes

you hear about these transfers and guys coming in and they look good in camp. And I just talked to you about a couple teams who were like, where are those receivers I kept hearing about? Yeah. And I got, one didn't see the field or he's on the bike or he's this. But Kyron Hudson and Trevor Pena.

I keep one wanted to call him Trebor, but it's like Trevor, Trevor. Trevor. Trevor. Trevor Pena had huge first games, man. So that's encouraging. Like what you're hearing. Very encouraging. Is what's going on the field against competition. But 13 catches 173 in a touchdown combined.

So right or wrong for them. It's going to be, you know, big games. And it's, they look, they look great today. but it's going to be like not good enough until they show they can win the big game, which sucks because just be happy that they played well today. I didn't watch the Michigan game outside of a few plays. No. Shout out to Deborah McShay,

who is a much more reliable scout than Ryan Rissillo is and tries to be every single year. My mom, you know, she brought me in this earth. She's got an eye for talent. She really likes what she saw from Bryce Underwood. Nice. And she can be very hard on Michigan. She's in Michigan. My grandfather, Marshall Brown from Michigan, the whole thing.

But a little bit excited. Then she got nervous, but then I guess he made a couple big pros. So I'm excited to watch some of that tape with Underwood. Because that, I mean, honestly, man, if he's as good as advertised, you know the talent's there. I'm excited to see Michigan. Like, what is Michigan this year? I think that's a massive question mark in the landscape. Yes.

We know Penn State's going to be good. We now know Ohio State is freaking good. Yep. Is Michigan? to the level. Right. Be interesting. Indiana.

I want to see Indiana in a game that Matt, like, you know, with Mendoza. But Tennessee, I watched some of that this morning around the noon kick, basically commercials and going back and forth. Aguilar had a really good game. That's what I heard. I didn't see any of it. He was missing high on some throws early on. And apparently that that was a problem with him at upstate and all that.

But like, Star Thomas, Deshaun, Bishop, like really good in the run game. And Tennessee runs that football, man. But Bishop and Thomas combined for 23, 174 and 3. Now, obviously, Syracuse throws it all over the yard, and they kind of kept it closer than it was, and then finally Tennessee pulled away. But encouraged by the wide receiver, Brayland Staley.

It would have been dinged up in camp. They weren't sure he came in four for 95 with a touchdown. some big plays off of that run and the play action. The one note I do want to make before we go, Jermad McCoy, we talked a lot about him in the preseason, reports where he's practicing, tracking to playing. He's not playing, but there was no setback. He's cornerback one based off of tape.

In my opinion, if he gets back to 100%, we'll see how the season plays out. But we talked a lot about him. I just want to kind of give everyone an update that he's out probably two weeks. Maybe on Trell comes to play really well. you throwing that into I think you froze which is why Avion Terrell played well

okay good I can't tell if you're just freezing on the Zoom link and you just keep having it almost like Tourette's almost like Tourette's because all I keep hearing is Aviontorel played well Aviontorel played well I'm just mess with you Okay What else you got anything?

What about the ducks? What about them? What about the ducks? Tell me. How do they do? Do you see Dante Moore? No, but everyone's asking about Dante Moore I didn't watch it.

Dean for 23, 213 yards, three-touch. Kid good throw all the ball. I mean, he just, Tadeke had one catch, a 20-yard touchdown. Mateo Ui-Galila, Ghalilele. Oli-Li, believe in that name.

Two sacks. Amari, yes, thank you. Two sacks. Amari, Washington, the defensive tackle, who's a stud, to tackle an a half for loss. Fly, ducks fly. All right.

And by next week, folks, we'll have, well, hey, Tucker, I'm going to fly you from your posh little warm area. It was good until the end. Up to Derry, New Hampshire to get this internet fix for, good until the end. I'm looking at this. Anyone have any questions before we go? Matt A. Matt A is angry.

I think Matt A is a Clemson. No, she doesn't have an elite arm. Isn't big. physically. Limited mobility. Isn't a great decision maker? Okay. Okay. Okay. You know what he is, Matt A? When you all get off the stream, please watch the Cal game. I can't believe this QB is 18. Okay. Yeah, see that Cal freshman? So we're going to watch the Cal freshmen. So, so apparently Cal got their, their quarterback stolen and they found, they found a pretty good one behind them. Utah. Jonathan Caddick, I, I, 20 to seven right now.

Well, you're breaking up. So when you're given reports, Utah's up what? I got to see. Yeah. 20 to 7. 20 to 7. All right. We're done because Mention's internet said we're done.

It's also 1230 in the morning. This is fun. We'll be back next week. We got some guests we might have lined up. I'm also going to eat up. Yeah, I'm not going to bring it up. I talk too much. We'll see you on Monday morning, though.

Here we go. Season, you watch your tape. I'll watch my tape. Let's get back on Monday. morning and we can do a detailed breakdown of some of the things we saw. We talked to breakdown kind of the quarterback prospects, but also some other prospects and how they played. And yeah, and we'll get your internet figured out between now and then.

Appreciate everyone joining. Sorry. We had a good amount of people here for the whole time. And we're excited to keep doing this the entire season long. So we will be back on Monday and we will be back for this live stream next Saturday. Until then, I hope you're well and enjoy Sunday with your family and friends. later. Must be 21 plus and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem? Call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Help.com. Call 1-888-88-88-8-9-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit MDGamblinghelp.org in Maryland.

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