The McShay Show - Week 6 Tape Takes! Unfiltered Thoughts on Florida State–Miami, Vandy-Alabama, Texas-Florida, and More

Episode Date: October 2, 2025

Welcome to The McShay Show! The guys are back to preview the biggest college football games of Week 6, with picks, matchups to watch, and everything in between.0:00 Welcome to The McShay Show!1:55 Browns Name Dillon Gabriel Starter - Shedeur Still 3rd String QB3:08 Unfiltered Tape Takes: Week 63:19 Tape Takes: (3) Miami [-4.5] vs. (18) Florida State38:40 Tape Takes: (16) Vanderbilt vs. (10) Alabama [-10.5]48:11 Week 6 Picks!50:51 Todd on Paul Finebaum1:12:52 Tape Takes: (9) Texas [-6.5] vs. Florida1:22:38 Tape Takes: (24) Virginia vs. Louisville [-6.5]1:24:29 Tape Takes: (11) Texas Tech [-10.5] vs. Houston1:30:31 Join Us Saturday Night!Subscribe to The McShay Report for access to all of Todd’s mock drafts, big boards, scouting reports, and more throughout the college football season.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

It's Thursday. You know what that means. It's time for unfiltered tape takes previewing week six in college football. Speaking of unfiltered, is it October yet, Steve? It's actually the second. Well, I guess it's time to share my receipts on Paul Feimbabom. Just 203 days until the NFL draft. You good, Mench?

I'm good, man. Can't wait. All right, let's roll that thing. A couple things I love about Steve Mentioned that everybody should know. First of all, I get myself into some trouble. sometimes. I try to get myself out of trouble. It kind of goes up and down, right? But Mention's always there in the background to laugh when I need someone to laugh at or with me

and also to, you know, when I need someone to talk to or a shoulder to cry on every once in while, he's there too. This episode is presented by Duluth Trading Company. Ready to give rival tailgates the foam finger? Duluth Trading Company crafts Hall of Fame game day gear to help you grill hotter, cheer louder, and tailgate longer. bibs loaded with pockets, gusseted pants so you can crouch without snuffing out your coals, and free swinging shirts tailor made for Cornhole Tossin.

Stay comfortable from preseason to playoffs in the toughest tailgate attire around, only at Duluth Trading Company. The second thing I love about Munch is every once in a while he'll just make me die laughing. And he does it sometimes as a quick text. today he asks me right before we go on the show when you ask me you good munch to start the show should I just mime my response it's fair question

I had to remind him politely that that we're on a podcast too it's not just a show not just on YouTube and Spotify we're also on Apple and thank you everyone for for watching and being a part of this and supporting everything we're doing so the miming thing probably wouldn't work for the guy or the girl driving in the car, listening to it on Apple or Spotify or wherever.

I'm still green. Whatever else you get your podcast. It would be funny. And it would only be funny. And we're not going to get into it here. Actually, I have nothing much to say outside of Shador Sanders. Once again, is kind of showing some of the concerns that the general managers and executives

had in terms of maturity and handling the process. We talked about it. Dylan Gabriel announced a starter for the Cleveland Browns. they branch Joe Flacco. He deserved it. I'm excited to see what Gabriel does. Good luck, yeah. I hope he does well.

And we could get into a whole breakdown on Gabriel and fast processing and tempo and getting the ball out quickly and quick, you know, the release and the accuracy on certain throws and play action and all those things. But that's not where we're here for. We're here for week six of the college football season. It's not the week five slate, always going to be transparent. parent, but there's still some really intriguing matchups, none more intriguing than Miami, right,

at Florida State. Miami favored by four and a half in that game. It's a 7.30 prime time game. Don't forget, we will break into it just like we did with Penn State, Oregon a week ago, and Alabama, Georgia. We'll be there live on the YouTube channel. It's the McShay Show YouTube channel. If you want to come join us, it's a fun hang.

We react to the game as it's finishing up, and then we do a, we'll be, kind of re-rack it and do a full it's been almost a two-hour show every single Saturday night into Sunday morning and it's been a blast and it's been the most well-received show that we do here and for obvious reasons. So you're just you're just going to go buy the fine bomb stuff or are we waiting to the end? Like what's going on here? If I'm listening to this pod, I want to know now. I didn't quite know it was going to have this response.

It was like almost past midnight, I think. almost one in the morning. Silly you. Silly you. And that's what I love about you. You just get to sit back and laugh at kind of the messes I get myself into. And it's not even a mess. I'm excited to share the story because honestly, why not?

Right. We'll get to it in a little bit. Today, we will. I promise you this. By the end of the show, I will address the fine bomb situation in the comments that I made for good reason. Okay. But I don't want.

want it to overshadow like what's important. And what's important is all the tape study we've done. And that's why we do the unfiltered, unfiltered tape takes leading up to each week. We do it on Thursdays here on the show. And I look at this Miami Florida State game and there's a lot of storylines, man. There's a lot of storylines. I think, let's start with this. I spent a lot of time because what happens is the season starts, right?

and you watch a tape here, you focus on certain games leading up to and preview and all that stuff. And with the NFL draft prospects, a lot of times it's guys who are merging, you go in and quickly try to, like, get caught up on them. Or if someone's really, especially a quarterback, like what's going on with Nussmeyer? What was going on with Klubnick coming into the season, the first handful of games? Like, arch, so on, so forth. You know, we've had so many quarterbacks that have struggled this year. So a lot of our tape focus has gone in that direction. And there's a quarterback in this game who has gone the other way,

kind of like Dante Moore, who we spent time on for Oregon. I'm glad we did that prior. You and I both agree right now what's on tape, it's not against great competition prior to Penn State. But what's on tape looks like might be number one overall draft pick. Hopefully it's 2027. But I bet you if you pull GMs right now in the NFL, it probably would be 2026 too.

don't want that for him, don't want that for Oregon. We see what experience does. But Carson Beck, we've talked a lot about. I feel like we just beat it to death last year. Coming into the 2024 season, into last season, he was the top 10 pick. He was the number one quarterback, QB1, as everyone likes to say these days, right?

And then the season happened. And the struggles happened. and the injury occurred. And it felt like every week, we started the show on October 22nd last year. I talk about it all the time. Kind of jumped right in. And at that point,

Beck was kind of starting to struggle and there were ups and downs, but he had some good moments. And then there were other guys like Nussmeyer who were coming on the picture. And we were talking nauseam about Cam Ward and Shador Sanders. But then Beck leaves Georgia.

After declaring for the draft, I think people will forget. Right. We forget that. He declared for the draft. And I honestly think, like, when you put in for the advisory committee, the NFL is an advisory committee, you can put in a certain number of names per program. And you can, they will give you a grade back. It's one of three things.

First round grade, second round grade, go back to school. And I think it's a very helpful tool for a lot of you, a lot of people who have agents and advisors and. people in their ear who have no idea what they're talking about, right? So, so Beck gets a go back to school. I probably would have had a fourth round grade on him last year, somewhere in that range. I don't know, but Pete Thamble, the beginning of last season, when he pulled 25 executives,

he got the most first place votes coming in, you know, in early September. So then all that happens. And I've, you know, I've done the whole bit on buying Lamborghinis, having Lamborghinis, Col and Cavendger twins, breaking up with the Cavender twins. Just a lot of like, ick in the off season. Then the season gets ready to start.

All the positive information comes. And we see on the field beat Notre Dame, playing better. Looks a little later. So I, and I've watched clips and I've watched some certain plays on tape, but I hadn't gone back and watched the whole thing. So I spent time in the last 48 hours watching both Beck and Bain, while also watching the offense and defense for Miami. So, um, interesting.

Yeah. I know you, you want to go. Let's start with Beck, okay? Okay. And then I know you want to transition. You've got some stuff. You spent some time watching the tape with Malzan and Heatherman, the defensive coordinator.

And so we can go to that side and then I can interject my thoughts on Bain. Okay. Um, the Miami offense with Beck. Let's just do it. Beck. NFL draft prospect absolutely reascending. I'm going to get to the short version. Now is a good time.

The McShea report, Google it, subscribe. This one's for free. A lot of them have been for free and will continue to be for free. There is a premium section. Eventually you're going to, I think if you have any interest in this stuff, especially NFL draft, you're going to want to be a part of this.

So, but the McShay report gives you a detailed breakdown on Beck as a process. expect, NFL comp, what round I think he would get drafted if the draft was today and the same for Bain. Okay. So, but I want to give you just a synopsis as we prepare for this game. Carson Beck looks better to me in terms of his, like, he's not quick. He's not agile. He's not fast. I want to prep, but he's moving around a little bit better. Functional mobility inside the puck. I see him sliding, climbing, not afraid to take off and run. Just see a little bit lighter on his feet, a little bit more aggressive with his feet.

That's the first thing. The second thing is, I see he's comfortable in this offense, man. His eyes, you can watch from the tight copy, his helmet going, bang, bang, bang. He's going through his progressions more, spreading the ball around to his different receivers. He loves Malachi Tony, who wouldn't. But he's not locked on to one guy or stuck on a read. his ball placement was streaky on tape. And I watched the three games of importance, okay?

Notre Dame. I watched South Florida and then watch Florida, those three games. The Florida game was the most recent game, and that was the hardest one, I don't want to say, it was pouring rain a couple different times during that game. And so I'm trying not to, I'm trying to keep that into perspective. he didn't have any big time throws in my estimation.

I know PFF does their, I don't even know what number if they gave him zero or five. But there weren't any big time throws that he connected on. He missed some throws. And he hit a lot of like average to above average throws, okay? That game I kind of gleaned the least out of, if I'm being honest, in certain regards. South Florida and Notre Dame, I thought were a little bit more telling.

I think he's really good, like off the play action. I think he's doing a really good job moving his feet inside the pocket. I think he's comfortable. I think he's decisive. I see a guy who's like, I don't know. I always thought everything was a lumbering at Georgia. And every play felt like the weight of the world on him. Now I see a Carson Beck who's playing loose,

he's making some aggressive throws that aren't always the best idea, but he's trusting his receivers. And so that works both ways. His receivers have been more reliable. They're catching the balls for the most part they should catch. That wasn't the case always at Georgia, right? And so there's this like give and take that's happening between him and his receivers, which is really fun to watch.

And so I think he's playing with a level of confidence as a runner, as a pocket mover, mostly as a passer going through his reeds and pulling the damn trigger. He's not afraid to rip it. He's not afraid to make a mistake. And that's a beautiful thing for a quarterback, really. And it pays off with the one-handed catching the, you know, in the Notre Dame game. It pays off in certain moments. I'll say this about Beck and Miami offensively.

the thing that's missing from what I can see between them them being a really good team that's up there in the rankings and all that stuff, but like legitimately being a team that can win a national championship.

And I don't know if it's something they can solve. I don't know if it's going to be overnight. I don't know what it is. I don't know when or if. There's a lack of a vertical passing game that's obvious. in Miami. And I, like, I wrote, I wrote down a bunch of throws, right?

Um, yeah, because the freshman Malachi Tony is, is awesome, but that's not his game. It's not his game. Right. Um, and I wrote him down here. And I, it doesn't matter. I mean, no one listening, but, but, okay, Notre Dame, it was 951st quarter, 752 first quarter, USF, plays 16, 17, 17. Oh, my, 456 first quarter.

325 first quarter. Even the 39-yard touchdown to his wide receiver number three, which I've got it written down here. Joshua Moore. Thank you, Joshua Moore. It was, that was late in the first quarter, 306 in the first quarter, that was underthrown. It was a terrible ball, but it was underthrown.

It could have allowed the defensive back to get back in the play. The outlier was like, was this other play. It was a play 30. So let me stop you right there for a second. And because he said the ball wasn't great, is it a, is it a Beck issue or is that the weapons they have aren't really suited to take the top off? Play 30, 319, third quarter on my clip reel, the plays I clipped out. That was his best throw. That was the third quarter.

Truly, like the most positive example from three games where I'm like, that's what it looks like. Beautiful balls down the left side. He throws the receiver's got a step, but he throws it back. over to the shoulder, brings them to the sideline, perfectly placed ball to wide receiver zero, Marion, right? It was a stop and go. Mm-hmm. I don't think they have, I don't think they have, Restrepo obviously ran a 4-8, 4 or whatever it was. Right.

Not a vertical guy, but average 16.3 yards per catch. Jocobie George average 14.2. Isaiah Horton averaged 11. and he was he's the ex-possession receivers we see you with Alabama. Elijah Arroyo averaged 17 yards per catch. He was a problem. He was a problem. Sam Brown, their fifth tar, fifth receiver.

If you include Arroyo, average 14.1. And Cam Ward was the trigger. Right. It's a combination. I don't see a receiver who's this big time like height, weight, speed, vertical guy who's stretching and getting. consistently down the field opening, threatening the defense. I do think, I would put a little bit more weight, honestly, in the quarterback,

because there have been open receivers, and he's missed him. So the onus is on Beck. Now, I don't know that they're ever going to have a great vertical passing game, but I do think, I do think that receivers have gotten open enough down the field. I mean, I know, and he hasn't connected with them. Yeah. You would hope that, I mean, that play action should create some opportunities for downfield shots, the way they run the ball, that offensive line. The protection. Yeah, the jump sets they can use them play action will play to their favor. There should be some chances to strike deep. It'll be interesting to see if that develops. So if I'm Florida State in this game, let's bring it back to the game.

Close it on Beck. I think right now he's a day two pick. I think I think he's ascending. I think he's put to rest all the questions and concerns, at least to a certain degree about all the other stuff. And I think he found the right home and fit. I think he's a day two pick. I don't know that you look at him and say he's a starter, let's hand him the keys to our franchise. But I think that there's enough there where you bring him in, like he can be a really good backup and maybe we can develop a new starter.

And let's see how the season ends, you know? But if I'm Florida State, I'm challenging these receivers. Yeah. I'm challenging these receivers, which is going to allow me, I'm going to take an aggressive approach. And Tony's the guy I got to worry about and I got to try to get physical with them and I got to have over the top help and I got to have help for after the catch and case. So I'm not saying it's going to be cover zero all out. But I'm, but I'm aggressively like with within reason aggressively approaching this Miami office because I got to stop the run. I got to generate pressure on Beck.

And even though he's mobile, more mobile this year, he ain't mobile. He's not a running threat. And so I'm going to force Beck, similar to what I was saying, you should do to Drew Aller for if you're Oregon, and they did. I think it's going to be that kind of game plan, what Dan Lending and the coaching staff for Oregon had ready to go for Penn State last Saturday night. I hear you. And I think you made a very, you mentioned it briefly, but watching the Virginia upset of Florida State,

the thing that jumped out to me was the way that Virginia had, I think, three drives that were 20 minutes of the game. I mean, that's a third of the game clock was taken up on three drives because they were able to really push around the Florida State defensive front at times. And Virginia came into that game banged up up front. That was the most disturbing thing about that game was that Virginia was, when it mattered, Virginia was able to move. the ball. And good for them for, you know, they would go for it on fourth down and they weren't like gashing them. But they were, they were extending long drives. And to me, you look at this Miami offensive line and you look at their run game. I'm concerned about Florida. They're going to have to get more guys in the box. And if you're going to do that, you might as well be

aggressive on, in terms of bringing guys after the quarterback. You know what I mean? Like you already know you got to bring that safety down. Because if they don't, I think they're in trouble. I think that that's a big key for them is bringing, he's getting their safety's involved in the run game. So if that's going to be the case, you might as well heat him up. And I think it's the right approach too. Get him, force him to get the ball out quickly, you know, make him uncomfortable. That's, you know, that's, I think that's the key for Florida State in this game defensively. If I'm honest, I was based off of watching games on TV and I was expecting a little bit more out of the offense. Not the offense.

not the offensive line, but out of the off, out of the passing game in general. Truly. I think this is a team and this is what Mario Cristobal wants. This is a team built on the trenches. They've got a quarterback who is more than functional, playing at a very high level for college football, very high. They've got some targets and some playmaker,

but they're going to run the football and they're going to win up front and they're going to wear you down. And then they're, and he brought in Corey Heatherman, the defensive coordinator, about that and I want to get to that now, um, to go from a defense that was a liability to a major asset. So this,

this year's version of Miami, while they won a lot of games and scored a ton of points and they were the national spotlight and everything like all the excitement. That team was hard to trust. Yeah. Just think about like the cardiac kids last year. You know, that Virginia tech game kind of stole one at the end.

The comeback against cats. like they had some some brutally hard games that they had to just they had to put up massive points and rely on camor. This is of course. Yeah, the cardiac canes. I mean, they were like all year. It was, you know, are they going to be able to pull it out again? But this, this is built in the image of Cristobal and what he was looking for. And it took a couple of years to get the foundation, right?

So I'm curious for your take, because I know, like, I'm just, talk to me about the Malazahn versus Heatherman. I was going to say really quickly, you're probably somebody typing away, and I was just trying to check, because all these weather delays this year has been wild. That's been weird, right? They had one against South Florida. I thought they might have had one other one. I wonder if that affects the continuity of their offense, whether or not that's had, you know,

it's kind of an excuse, but it's something worth mentioning because it did happen with South Florida. I don't know if it happened any other games. So I was just, I was trying to check real quick to see how many of those they had. But on the flip side. I think that Gus Malzahn, the offense coordinator versus Florida State, going against Corey Heatherman, the defense coordinator for Miami,

is going to be a heavyweight fight. In a way I would describe it, and I sent this to you in the text, is Malzahn wants to win with body blows. He wants to go 15 rounds. He wants to wear you out. He wants you to get to start low, you know, start lowering your hands at the end,

and then it'll start coming with some headshots. And what I mean by that is Florida State's averaging about 50 carries per game. They're second in the nation in rushing. Really? Yeah, they're looking to get, that number up. I like this Miami defensive front and I'm not sure

even with that amount of carries, I think they've got better depth than maybe people realize, not on the edge, but a defensive tackle, they're pretty good. So they're, he's going to try and wear this defensive front out. And by the way, Miami is eighth in rushing yards allowed per game and have a, I mean,

we're going to talk about, I'm sure, but have studs up front. They are, they are a great front seven in my opinion. So now you have this. Malzon won't blink. If they come out and they go three and out,

three and out, don't expect Florida State to get rid of the run game. I'll say this also to get away from the run game. They're going to give, I think they're going to find a way to get 40 no matter what rushing attempts. And I'll say this too. Malzahn does some really interesting things. I'll just say that their quarterback counter is one of my favorite

plays to watch. It's really fun with Tommy Casano. He's a great runner. You know, he creates numbers by doing quarterback runs. He creates numbers by doing wildcat packages that he'll bring in he does some motions he gets danzy the receiver with some balls on reverses and all that's really window dressing malzon is a it's a physical downhill run game he wants to brawl and everywhere he's gone he's had some success doing it and you look at look that offensive line for florist state maybe not the most talented offensive line in the country

but they i mean they got big boys up front i mean they're their they're right tackle micah petis 349 pounds. Left guard, Richie Leonard, 329 pounds. Gunner Henson is 325. The other guys are all 309 plus. So the other two are 309 plus. They're big. They get tight in Marcus and Douglas, 270 pounds. He also,

and he'll do things, you know, Malson will do things with formations and personnel groups and all that stuff. So you'll see some double, some two tight end looks, some spread looks, all of that, right? On the flip side, I think Heatherman saying, I'm okay with all that. You want to get into a brawl. I've got the, I've got the guys

up front to take care of this and it's going to be all handle. And I think for Heatherman, he's more of looking for that knockout punch. And what I mean by that is if Florida State gets behind the sticks a lot in this game, they are in a world of, they have a, they have some big time problems because that pass rush

is going to tee off. And Casalanos has been good, but he's not the most accurate passer, right? So if they can tee, if that pass rush can tee off when you've got the guys up front with Rubin Bain, who I know you're going to get into in a second, and I want to make sure I say his name right,

Messador teeing off and getting that guys, then it's going to be interesting how that goes. Now, Zahn will run six-man, seven-man, eight-man protections. But I think Heatherman can counter that by especially kicking Messador inside. So now you've got to block him with the guard. It's harder to chip. It's harder.

There's things that he can do. He'll also run a lot of simulated pressures. Well, it looks like eight guys are walking up, but then they drop seven or eight guys. So it looks like you have a lot. more defenders that are actually coming. And I know I'm rattling off one more thing I'm going to say. Yeah. Is even though they get to, they get to you with four. And what that allows you to do is to drop into these own looks, which makes it much harder for a mobile quarterback like Tommy Costellanos to scramble for

yards because the eyes of the defenders are always facing the quarterback. They're not turning their backs and creating those, those lanes. And this team, this Miami team, we've talked about it. I'm going to talk about it again. They rally to the football better than any other team I've seen on tape this year. They, wow. It's unbelievable, isn't it? They swarm. They fly. If Casolanos takes off, he's going to have five, six guys after him right away.

So that's one thing that's going to be interesting to me. I think that Heatherman is an advantage in terms of personnel. He's going to have to be careful. He will. Castellanos. Like, physically holding up this. Yes. Because they're not.

Yeah, because he's the enemy. The opposing quarterback is always the enemy. but he's wearing a, he's wearing a, a seminal hat, you know. And they're going to have to use them a lot in this game. He's going to have to, there's going to be times where he's going to have to get down. There's going to be times he's going to have to protect his body because he's going to get a lot of carries, too. They're going to use them in the running game. Like Florida State's deep at running back, but they're going to have to get him involved in the running game as well.

I know I just rattled on, but to me, no, I love it. The malls on, but just wanting to pound the rock at them as much as possible. And I don't, again, I don't think he'll blame. if they struggle early. I think he'll stay with it. And then Heatherman having the guys up front to really get after their quarterback. It's interesting to me.

I think I watched 76 plays, put together a reel for Bain in the three games. Ruben Bain Jr., the edge rusher. I don't remember. I'm sure there were, but let's put it this way. I can't like recall. And I watched the rest of it. I started last night, watched the rest this morning.

It's fresh in my mind. I don't recall a five-man pressure. No. It looks like they're bringing them, but they don't. But like when as the rush progressed, it was always Bain and his three buddies. Right. You know?

So with Beck, I was pleasantly, I was pleased by the progression in his game from what we saw at Georgia when it felt like it was struggling. but I but there was there's a ceiling on with which I'm able to or I have to put cap on it in terms of it's not everything you want to see. Bain has been fucking awesome. I don't know. He's got all the tools like he's got all the tools that continue like short of like running a

four five as an end washer he's not a speedster. You're right. But but but but you don't need that in the NFL. In fact, go and look at any point in time, whether it could be week four in the NFL. It could be week 16. Go look at the sack leaders every year. It's heavily weighted towards the physical, powerful guys who also have become masters with their hands. If I had to nitpick on Bain, it's, yeah, he's not a burner, fine.

But it's, he's improving with his hand usage and his array of pass rush moves. but he's still got room to grow. And that's like it's a, it's a negative, but it's also like if he just, when he, because he will, when he continues to get better, this guy's going to be scary.

I can't, I, I haven't watched every player for every team, the entire country. I don't know how you could, I'd put Bain up against any player in the country. I know there's Arvel Reese in the Ohio State dude. Like I gave a rant on that.

Careful. There's, yeah, everyone's going to come out of the, If you're yelling and scream, I'm just saying it would be hard to find many other players, if any, that have been more impactful than Bain has been for this defense. And I'm talking rundowns, powering up guys, getting off blocks, chasing. I'm talking pass rusher, setting guys up with power, then coming back with a flash to hand, dip and rip. I think Bain and go read the McShea report,

I go through great detail and have all sorts of plays clipped off and you can really get the full experience. He's six threes, 270, 275. He's got 22 tackles, three and a half tackles for loss. You say McShay, more impactful, my guy's got six sacks. Yeah, he's only got two sacks.

But I want you to really watch. I want you to watch the pressures, the hurries, the way, he is affecting the game. And then I also want you to watch how many times he's doubled, chipped, dealt with with multiple blockers. And I also want you to then go look at your other stats and realize there are eight different dudes on Miami with at least a sack this year.

Bain is freeing up a lot of other guys to go cook from Akeem Messador with his two and a half to Ahmad Moten, Booker Pickett, Muhammad Toray, Jacobi Tom. Thomas, Marquis Lightfoot, Armando Blunt, the common denominator with all those names I just ripped off. They all have a sack, at least a sack this year. So like, when I look at the Keldrick Fox, the T.J. Parker from Auburn, Parker from Clemson, when I look at Overt, L.T. Overton from Alabama, Mateo Ongalal-Lay, Anto Sacco from Northwestern, Zion Young, Missouri, Danny Dennis Sutton from Penn State, Tyreek Sapp, Florida, David Bailey, Texas Tech,

Gabe Jackis from Illinois. A lot of dudes. A lot of dudes. Bain's the best of them. Bane's a top 10 pick. This is the guy. I agree. This is the guy.

And he, listen, this isn't new necessarily for him. It's just this last year he was banged up and didn't play quite as well as he did two years ago, two years ago, he was lights out too. I mean, he's always been a good player. He reminds, sorry, Jared Verse, man, there's a lot of similarities. It's more power, yeah. Yeah, he's a power rush. By the way, I don't know if you saw what Jared Verst did,

did that poor Indianapolis Cold Center over the weekend, but oh, my God, he ran right through him and then almost Superman did into Danny Dime. It was unreal. Miami's minus four and a half. Let's just throw it out there. at Florida State night game coming up. Yeah. Can I throw one thing in here and I'll make it quick?

I think you're, I told you I was going to do this. I don't know if you love it, but I'm going to say it really quick. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. If you were scootering around town on Friday night last year, last week, like our guy Dan likes to do at times, you might have only caught the highlights of the Virginia, Florida State game. And you would have seen that Deuce Robinson, the big receiver for Florida State dropped a pass in the end zone.

They would have tied the game in overtime. I want to remind people that, well, that was a tough play, and he should have caught that. That dude also had nine catches for 147 yards of a touchdown in that game. And I think he's developing to a player for them. And I really think he's the ultimate wild card in this game. Because his ability to win against his own looks, he's a big target he can settle. But his ability to win 50, 50 balls downfield. And what he's developing with Casillanos on back shoulders,

back shoulder throws is giving them more of a downfield element. He's not a quick guy, but somehow he's getting dudes to jump on these double moves and getting behind them. And he's a little more, he builds speed as he goes. He's fast enough to get down there. I'm interested to see how they handle them if they don't try to get more physical with the line of scrimmage and make it tough for him to start building up that speed. Miami's got good size of corner, but this kid's six foot six,

two hundred twenty three pounds. That's different. He's built like a tight end. He was recruited to play a tight end at USC originally, and they moved a more wide receiver. So he's a real wild card this game. If they can start getting some backshoulder stuff going and start to get a vertical element to this offense,

it's going to be interesting to see how Miami counters. I don't want to pick against Miami, but I feel like we've seen this movie before. Team has a look-ahead game, right? team is overrated. Team gets a home game against a rival and a big spot. Friday night.

Everyone expects the other team who's ranked really high to come in and like, oh, they're frauds. We found out. And the game is like, whoa, not what we expected. So like the fan duel guy in me is like, I think, and the line's only four and a half, you know, I kind of like Florida State in this spot

because I just, I have a hard time believing it's not going to be a tight game at the end and you give me the four and a half points. I like it. I like, I just, I'm so, I feel like you have a better big picture feel. I'm just going to admit this. You have a better big picture feel.

And I'm such a week to week tape guy that after watching that Florida State defense getting pushed around, I'm like, oh, they're going to get pushed around again by Miami, which does not always happen. It just doesn't work like that. players have bad games teams have bad games and again some of the worst handicappers in the world are coaches and people who are watching the tape are like so like i always there are two sides of my brain one is the tape and evaluation yeah side the other is i've learned over time like

put it wagering on on on on a side literally has all outside of like the oregon game last week and look at that that almost was a mess outside of like a certain circumstance where you're like, oh, no, like, this is not what people think it is. More often than not, it's like it's like the right side of your brain versus the left side of your brain. Like they're two different. Yeah, USC at Illinois. I was convinced. Oh, me too.

Convinced that USC was going to handle that. Washington was going to keep it tight. It was going to be, like, I learned that Ohio State's defense might be like generationally good. Yeah. So I hear you. Listen, Florida State hasn't had a hard time. Now, this is a different defense. defense, but Florida State hasn't had a hard time moving the ball or putting points on the board.

So it's going to, it's going to be a good game, I think. It's going to be a battle. All right. We purposely want, you know, took a chunk of time to do that because that's, that's the game this one. 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. So here's how it works. Each week, we're giving everyone a profit boost to use on college football. No opt-in gymnastics, no invite-only nonsense.

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777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. This episode is brought to you by Duluth Trading Company. Ready to give rival tailgates the foam finger. Duluth Trading Company crafts Hall of Fame game day gear to help you grill hotter, cheer louder, and tailgate longer. Trust me, like, I'm a scene at the grill. I know what this is all about. They've got bibs loaded with pockets,

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Vanderbilt's plus 10 and a half. I'm going to rip off a few things. I don't know how much you watched this game. I actually did some tape this more, after I got done with Bain today. The Vandy's defense on paper has been excellent and has been excellent, right? Except for South Carolina.

And really the team in general, and you look at that South Carolina game, you're like, what was the final? 31 to 6, 31 7. Yeah. And you're like, oh, they, They dominate. If you just watch some highlights or popped in and out of that game,

oh, they dominated South Carolina. Yeah, but they ran the ball 37 times in that game Benner. Bill did only 26 passes, which is good. You get a lead and you run the ball out. But nearly identical they were with South Carolina in total offense. Right. Only two more first downs in South Carolina. The reason I'm focusing on South Carolina is it's a fellow SEC opponent.

It's the best opponent they faced all year. They played Virginia Tech. And the three other games, were like throw it out. And remember, Lenora Sellers left that game. Hugh, that was the game that you got hurt.

Yeah. There's a, there's two big butts in this. And one has, and, and they're tied together. Star quarterback who's carrying that team, and it's become kind of a one-man show for,

for the game cocks, got injured early. And South Carolina turned the ball over five times. Mm-hmm. Five. Okay. Tough to win doing that. So when you go back and I watch the tape, it's like it wasn't quite the like physical domination that you would expect.

Vandy's run game. I'm going to focus on this side of the ball for a minute because I'm really intrigued against, because everyone's saying that Alabama, while they had a great performance against Georgia last week, their linebackers are over aggressive. They have holes versus the run game. Interesting. Yeah. I mean, and Georgia gashed them on the ground at times. They did. So Florida State gashed them, okay?

So, and Florida State, you know, tap me if this sounds familiar, mobile quarterback leads the team in rushing, misdirection, can take a defense that has some second level guys that struggle with discipline and get overzealous and can make them look silly at times and can really exploit them. So Bandy's 18th in the country in rushing, like 224 rushing yards per game. A lot of misdirection. QB is involved, similar to Melzon, Castellanos, right?

Gave that back seven trouble. Pavia actually leads the team in rushing, which surprised me when I looked that up. 294 yards rushing, six yards per pop. Cedric Alexander's been a good back for them, 5.28 per pop. McLean Young, McIllan Young, I guess.

It's just 20 carries, but it's averaging 10.5. So, and obviously brings a little bit of juice. But for it to be enough, I guess this is my point. For it to be enough against Alabama, that run game, Pavi is going to have to hit downfield, some throws. He's got to keep them backed off. And when they're not backed off, he's got to exploit it. I don't know that they have the guys.

And I know you'll get to Eli Stowers in a second. Trey Richardson, Junior Cheryl, Richie Hoskins, they've all been productive, 18, 17, 10 receptions, respectively for those three. Cheryl's has been like the bigger play guy, 13.2 yards per catch, five touchdowns.

Dda, da, da, da, da, make shea, stop ripping off numbers. It's not what we do. But I'm just giving, I'm setting this up. so you understand. Like, the past game is not overly sophisticated. It is built on jet sweeps, misdirections, play actions, quick game.

A lot of screens, a lot of quick game stuff. Occasionally, they'll try to pop one down the field. Occasionally they'll run a crosser. Pavia is not a very sophisticated passer of the football. What he does really well is he, they, They'll move the pocket with them sometimes, sometimes off of play action, he'll boot, sometimes pressure comes. But like, it's not sustainable. And you say, well, it was last year, McShay.

Remember 40, 35 at Vandy? I'd like to talk about that game. Okay, good. I don't see it at all. And maybe this is where you and I, the tape guys, watch Alabama on both sides of the ball and then watch Vanderbilt. I think, like if Alabama games. Banderbill, and I, and by the way, Pavia, I love you. Yeah.

I love, I love the competitor. I love the guy. I'm even, I'm here for the nonsense. You know me. I, Ziegler and other, other, like, very official analysts that. I'm here for the nonsense. I'm here for your mom dating, the one on and, like, all of it. But I'm not quite here for you saying, if we keep this game between the lines,

I'm paraphrasing, not quoting, that, that we're going to handle Alabama. He did not say that. Oh, yeah. Something like we're going to win and win easily, I think, is about what he said. And so now you've woken up the giant. He's already pissed off. If they weren't already pissed off from a year ago.

Yeah. Go ahead. Can I just tell you this is just one thing that these two numbers, I know we said now we're going to do a lot of numbers. I'm about to throw a bunch of numbers at this game because that was, this is my numbers game this week. But I'll say this. Vanderbilt had the ball for 42 minutes and eight seconds last year

and had an interception return for a touchdown in that game. Do you know how hard it is to have the ball for, like, it's statistically strange, I'll say, I'll put it that way, rare where you actually have an inters, because if you have an interception return for a touchdown, you basically are giving the ball back to Alabama's offense, and here they come again. They should, that should eat up some clock.

And despite that, 42 minutes and eight seconds. And one of the reasons that happened was penalties in Alabama making dumb mistakes and extending drives. And they still only won that game by five. Vanderbilt is a better team this year. I do believe that.

I also think Alabama is a better team. And they may not have, I'm not getting into draft evaluations right now. I'm not talking about that. I'm not talking about talent at certain positions. We will get into that at some point. I'm talking about Alabama being a better football team, playing with more confidence, having more balance on offense.

All of these things I think are true. I think Alabama is a better team. And this game's at Alabama. It was at Vanderbilt last year. One of the players, I guess I'll just transition this really quickly, one of the players that I think is interesting to keep an eye on is the Vanderbilt tied in to Eli Stowers. Because he had six for 113 last year.

Every one of those catches resulted in a first down, and four of them came on third down. Now, it's interesting when you look back and you look at the breakdown of those teams of those catches. Two of them were shovel passes. Another one was a scramble drill. But I'll say this about him. He's an excellent runner after the catch. And that shovel pass is a real threat.

You've got to keep an eye on them. They have to do a better job of staying Gap Sound in case he gets that ball and you can wrap him up. He's an excellent route runner for a tight end. And they do some things with rub routes that help him get open. But man, I mean, we just watched Alabama go against Georgia, and I like Georgia's tight ends. You know how many catches they had last week, those Georgia tight ends? How many?

Zip. Zip. I like, you talk about the, I thought you were going to get the aggressiveness of Alabama's linebackers. Maybe you could talk about them on the run game. I love how Alabama's linebackers match up once the routes are declared and underneath those zone coverage. They are aggressive about getting a body on a body.

They do not sit there and they do not guard grass. It makes it tougher. I think they're doing a really good job in coverage right now on that second. second level. So to me, you know, he had a great game last year. I think he could get, he could, you know, make some plays in this game. I don't think he's

going to hurt Alabama like he did last year. I don't think Alabama's going to only have the ball for 18 minutes in this game. I don't think they're going to make the same kind of mistakes. I think this is a different Alabama team. I think this is a pissed off Alabama team. This would have been dangerous. If they, this game would have been dangerous if they had

beat Vanderbilt last year. So I guess that's the silver lining for Alabama fans about losing the Vanderbilt last year. is that if you had gone into Georgia and gotten that win and then you had Vanderbilt the next week, that's a trap game to me. But if they're not, I'd be really surprised about not being pissed off about that loss at all,

everything they heard after that game. And it was bad. It was bad after that game about how Alabama was over. All of, like, it was, it was as bad as it gets. So I can't imagine that team not being fired up to get their revenge. This is my fan dual pick of the week. It's Alabama. It was almost mine.

It's Alabama minus 10.5. I think, I don't want to say they can choose their number. I think that they can, they can allow Pavia to hang around this game. And Pavia will take every bit, every little window of opportunity. But if Alabama plays close to the level that, that we've seen it play most recently, Wisconsin was one thing, Georgia, between the hedges is another. I'm not expecting that same level of intensity or even preparation, you know, dialing in the week before.

But I think they'll be prepared enough because of last year. I think they'll be prepared enough because of Pavia and the quotes. I think it'll be an easier. This will be one of the easiest Alabama head coaching motivational weeks. It better be. And the history of Alabama head coach is having to go up against Vanderbilt. Okay? For a lot of different reasons.

And I think because of that, I could easily see this being a 20-point game. Yeah. By the way, I mean no disrespect to Vanderbilt. I think they are better team than last year. I think they're a better team than last year. And I like Pavia too. Like all of that, I just think this Alabama team, after that Florida State loss, we were quick to dismiss it like we did last year.

And I think they're good, man. Give me your fan to a pick of the week. I got the Cincinnati money line against Iowa State. We talked about Iowa State kind of being a paper tagger all year. And I remember this. It was opening night. Nick Sabin's favorite team, man. Careful.

Oh, really? I didn't know that. Every week. He loves him some Rocco Beck. Yeah. They played well, but I just, look, I got a text the first game, Nebraska, Cincinnati, a scout texted me and said, this is the coming out party for

Brendan Sorsby, the quarterback for Cincinnati. And when you look at him since the second half of the Nebraska game, I mean, he's had two, he was 333 yards against Bowling Green, 388 yards last week passing against Kansas. I think he's a very mobile quarterback who's starting to find his rhythm as a passer

and can hurt you with his legs on top of that. I think Cincinnati, I think Cincinnati gets Iowa State this week. So I'm taking, that's the money line. I think Iowa State's been really good and really solid. But when you look at the teams they've beat, I got some questions. All right. I think it's a pro.

And I still want to get, there's some other games. So Texas, Florida, Texas Tech, Houston, a couple of thoughts and a couple of updates. And I know Manchin's got a couple of things on his mind, too, as it pertains to week six in college football. But we're coming off of Alabama. And Paul Feimbaum's show began. and it continues to go from Alabama. So I made a comment, as we've touched on in the beginning.

I made a comment the other night, and I said that I'm going to paraphrase my own quote, but something along the lines of that Paul Feinbaum is a, I wouldn't be on coward. I said he's a something coward. I thought that was bad enough. I remember coward. I thought that was bad enough.

I think an all-time coward. And I also said that that I also alluded to when it was picked up on by, you know, awful announcing bleacher report. I didn't even know it was a thing. And I started getting all these texts. And I was like, oh, here we go. So let me just address it. Okay.

It's like the elephant in the room. My contract with the SPN officially ended yesterday, October 1st. And by contract, I mean, obviously I've been with the ringer and Spotify, thrilled to be here. like we're building something special. My life has changed. It's different than it was before. I'm in the happiest, healthiest place I've ever been in my entire life. And I'm thrilled to be doing it with one of my best friends in the world.

And the people that we work with on this show have been phenomenal. And like, I'm in whole. I've said that, right? But I also want to make it perfectly clear while it was a kind of ESPN was so good to me and certain people there that when I decided to come to the ringer in Spotify, they said you can still stay on. We'll supplement your income, keep you whole as you're building this thing and start putting together certain things.

Want to take care of you. You took care of us. And I was a soldier for ESPN. It was the right thing. For 17 years. They did the right thing by me. And I've always done, I tried to do the best, you know, the right thing by ESPN for a long time.

It was a great relationship for the vast majority of it. Like any worker in a situation in a corporate, like you're not going to love everyone you work with and all that stuff. But I do like, I want to start this whole thing by saying just because my, the final tie was snipped on October 1st, this is not going to become a Todd McShay scorched earth tour on ESPN. It's just not, it's not my, it was not my experience and it's not who I am. I love Burke Magnus. I started with Burke Magnus.

He was in Charlotte when I first learned how to do a little bit of television for ESPNU. He's been wonderful to me. A lot of executives there. Wonderful to me throughout my years, through the thick and the thin, okay? I have friendships that will be lifelong friendships. I consider a lot of people there from the Steve Levy's to the Brian Greases,

to the Sean McDonagh's to the Herb Street, Chris Fowler, Des Howard, David Pollock, people who are still there who aren't there, Joe Tessator, like inviting me down to his restaurant, letting me have his box to go up to Saratoga. Like I have so many experience, Jesse Palmer, you know,

Schaefter, Pete Thammel, still friends. Like, Stanford Steve. Stanford Steve. Chris Felica. Like, honestly, I feel bad even saying some names because.

Right. There's just so many. If you gave me 30 minutes in a pen and paper and I sat down, there would be over 100 names of people that I consider to be truly friends, okay? And they're varying levels of friends. of friendships and but there are many on there that I consider almost extended family. I traveled so much with them and, and you know, you just become extended family on the road.

So this is not going to be the Todd McShay tour, but there are some things that I didn't like at ESPN and it was not a corporate thing and it wasn't the top executive in Burke Magnus. But there were some people there that I didn't like. And I think that's common for anyone, any experience with the corporation, right? Yep. I don't want to say none more so, but let me give you the background on Paul Feinbaum. I worked with Paul for probably a decade or so right around there. Not not like intimately all the time.

Like we've had very different roles at ESPN came, you know, cross paths here and there. Okay. I want I want people to understand like when when Paul was brought in and he started showing up at like college bowl games. like national championships and things like that. Like there are a circle of people. I hope everyone realize that like, oh, he looks different. Oh, he's 100 pounds wearing, you know, wet wearing boots. He doesn't know ball.

He doesn't, you know, it's a little bit of that like bullying stuff of like, oh, Paul, he's this, he's that. He's the other thing. I never got involved in that. Find me, if you can find, if someone wants to say, oh, yeah, you did. Come on. Say it. I never did.

I didn't protect him because I didn't know him. but I never piled on or did anything like that. When asked to go on his show, there were some shows I didn't want to go on. And sometimes I would say, no, I'm all set. That wasn't one of them. I respected what he did, even though it was completely different from what we do.

They brought him in, not because he's one of the guys and one of the crew. They brought him in because he has an audience down in the south, and people either love him or hate him, and the people who hate him probably listen and watch more than the people who love. of them. All that said, this is not like some petty thing. There were some things over time that happened that rubbed me the wrong way that Paul probably doesn't even know. Some comments, some things, okay? But it wasn't, it never reached a point where I wouldn't say, yeah, I'd go on.

In fact, that last year I was at ESPN. I was traveling, doing games every other week, and I probably won on his live show. I went on his live show a couple times. I probably was on his show during the fall close to 10 times. Let's call it seven or eight times. Okay. I never, I never, you know, even though some things that happened, I'm like, ah, it's just Paul, right? But the final straw was the Jalen Carter situation.

Okay. Yeah. The final call straw was the Jalen Carter situation. I'll never forget. I don't even know why, but it was on. the background and I in my living room downstairs and someone called in about jailing I don't know someone a caller called in and asked about jay did you hear about Todd McShay with the Jalen Carter something and and Paul responded okay and I watched him sit there and talk about me like

he didn't even know me Todd McShay had some disparaging comments about his character. He went to, he, he, he said, I've talked to people in Athens. I've talked to people around college football. I've talked to people who would know. And they not only say there's, they've no idea what he's talking about. It's erroneous. It's, it's, it's, um, he, he should be reprimate, like whatever.

I'm paraphrasing all of what he said. Essentially, not only does Todd not know what he's talking about. This guy's a model citizen. This guy's everything that you want in a college football player. This guy's the should be the face of the Georgia program, right? And so in a time, remember, I think I said it in December of 2022 for the 2023 draft. Correct me if I'm wrong here. And so there was this, and I said it, kind of preparing people for, yeah,

he's the most talented player in this draft. And you see it on the field when he's right. he's one of the most talented players in that entire league. But there's some stuff. And I want people to understand. And Colin Cowherd had my back on this. And later on in the process, when the arrest happened and he left the combine, right? And I'll get to that in a second.

And he put it well. He said he had my back saying, you know, the media does a great job of attacking other people in the media. But we don't do a good job of coming back. and apologizing and correcting it when it turns out that that person in the media was right. And I can tell you, I sleep very well at night knowing, A, I have never once ever made any mention of anything to do with character or injury or anything where I wasn't 100% certain checked and double checked and triple check and triple check.

And I can tell you this too about Jalen Carter. I had, for most players, if there is a character blip, you have about that much of a paragraph, okay? You got to, it's, whether it's an arrest, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a source, it's whatever. And so I keep, we, we have, you and I have been doing this for 25 years, Steve. Yeah. We have like a little note section on the character stuff so that we're up to speed on it and we

share it with each other. For Jalen, I had two full pages, like 12 font. of incidents, behavioral, on the practice field, classroom stuff, on campus, off campus, on and on. But I have sources that give me this information. And then I go to other sources to double check it. And in a case like this, if I'm going to say it, I better go get a third and fourth and fifth, okay? And I did. And so it finally got to a point in December going into that process, I think it was like the first mock draft or something.

him in Bristol, like, if he doesn't go one or two, it's probably, and if there is a slide here, it's going to be because of the character issues that I'm hearing about. There are concerns in the league. So I did that. And it blew up. And people in Athens still hate me. And people, like, even after the fact. And from, from big talk shows to Paul Feinbaum show to everywhere else, they're going after

me. The problem I had with Paul is, I was on your show all fall. Right. your producers and your producers and people around your show like there's some shows where like you'd get one call and then it maybe follow up email before the show here's the rundout there are some shows like paul's like they text or call or email incessantly they had they knew how to get me paul could have texted me paul's producer could have texted me in fact i was waiting for someone from that show to call me and say hey the show just ended uh we realized this is a bigger thing, can you come on the show tomorrow? And I probably would have gone on and blasted him. Because what he did in a moment of volatility, I wasn't worried about what I said, but it didn't feel good knowing that all of Athens was after me and that people around the media landscape were

blasting me. And I was all over message boards and social media and talk shows and everything. This is a McShay is disparaging the name of Jalen Carter and showing. us the proof situation. And so my own teammate, a guy who I've worked with, who I didn't pile on him personally, who when called to come on his show to enhance his show, I was there for him. I showed up. I did the segments. I came on me.

I brought McDonough over. We went to the set. We did a big show. Like I did a lot of stuff. I'm not trying to oversell, but I was there. I showed up. supported his show. Didn't have to.

Didn't do much for my career to go on the Paul Feinbaum show. I'll be honest with you. It just didn't. But I did because I'm a teammate. You can say a lot of people can throw a lot of accusations at me. Some of them true, some I would argue. But no one out there would say that McShay is a bad teammate, you know? So I have a loyalty thing.

And so when someone in your own team does, this and they have your number, they have your email, and they can reach out or have one of their people reach out, and they don't, and they feel so comfortable sitting there and piling on. Now it's not just people in Athens. Now I get the whole South. Right. Now it's an SEC thing. Now it's an SEC thing. So that pissed me off. Then you know what pissed me off more? Oh. Here's the timing of the whole situation with Jalen Carter. The arrest warrant was issued on the first day of the draft, March 1st, 2023 for Jalen Carter. The charges were that Carter was charged with two misdemeanor counts, reckless driving and racing. He turned himself in, booked and released,

posted a $4,000 bond, returned to the combine on March 2nd, finishes interviews and measurements, as you well remember, you know, we're covering the whole thing. The context of the charges where there's a fatal crash. The charges stem from a fatal crash on January 15th. So this was, I was, I My comments and everything that happened and the fine bomb response and him, you know, pouring fuel on the fire all happened before any, even before this incident on January 15th, hours after the national championship game. Okay. The crash killed Georgia offensive lineman Devin Willock and staff member Chandler LaCroy.

All of that, all of my comments and all of this. stuff happened before the incident. Then it goes to the combine. So instead, like it was bad enough the first time around. And I texted and called executives. I was pissed. And I can't remember another time where I like,

I went out of my way. It wasn't like we were in a meeting and I brought it up. Executives at ESPN, right? At ESPN. Okay. And they talked me off the ledge. Like, that's just Paul, you know? And he shouldn't have done it, but like next play.

And so I did. I moved on. And I'm taking, I'm taking a beating, right? You saw it. It pissed you. I was even more than me at times. And I just, I'm, I'm actually good with that stuff. I've been through enough awards with all of this and I know when I'm right and I know

and I know one. And could I have given some more detail? But if I did, then I was given up sources. And that's what Kyle heard said. Of all that he said, you know, we don't do a good job of coming back and, and, and telling people out there that when we were wrong about other people in the media, but Todd could have given some, some specifics. The problem is if I give specifics, then the people who gave me that information feel like I'm selling them out.

So I keep it wrong. Not to put words in your mouth, but you're also trying to protect the player a little bit of you're going to, people are going to ask you. If I read the sheet, if I read the sheet of stuff that the people told me, it would have been damning. And you don't want to do that. I'm not here for that, man. I just wanted to let people know this could be coming up and you know what it did. And you know what? I was privy to the conversation that happened between

Howie Rose and the agent, too, on draft night. Because there was, there were some stipulations that had to be put in place and some promises and some, I don't want to say begging, but like there was a whole backstory there. I had all the information, okay? But instead then, after this incident, instead of going on and saying, you know what, first of all, instead of just,

keeping my name out of your mouth paul fine bomb you came on and almost doubled down and that's what set me over the fucking edge because he goes on and he referenced the fact uh oh oh by the way in the very beginning when he did this when he responded to the person on his show he said he insinuated that according to fine bomb the negative report could have been a quote unquote smoke smoke smoke screen floated to McShay in order to get Jalen Carter. So now I'm now I'm complicit in the same thing. Yeah. Right.

So now here we are. So the incident occurs and everyone gets their first, you know, public glimpse of, you know, there's some stuff that's going on with Jalen Carter and this is going, this will affect his draft stock. And maybe Todd was on to something. Maybe there is information out there that the public doesn't know. So he goes on and says, I'll say this about Jalen Carter.

Until yesterday, he had an impeccable reputation. This is the day after that arrest. There was a report that came out earlier this year by Todd McShay. So my name's back in Paul Finebaum's mouth. Yeah. That there were some character issues. I went to numerous people in Athens and around college football.

And quite frankly, I cannot find anyone to contribute to that report. I mean, my blood's still burning, reading this thing. I couldn't find any players who privately would say that. In fact, all I heard was to the contrary about how well he has handled himself, how liked he has been by almost everyone in that community. That doesn't mitigate anything that we now, that we now know, but I think it will be a critical factor moving forward to him to determine whether he goes as high as number one or falls dramatically.

If you're a teammate, if you're a co-worker, or if you're just a decent person, and you added to someone's problem and you piled on or you threw gasoline on a situation, and then something happens. You don't come out and do that and then to be like, yeah, Todd said it. No one else I talked to was right. No one else I talked to said he was right. but yeah this might affect his draft stock a little bit hey paul carter had an impeccable record carter uh carter had an impeccable character because you talk to probably one person at georgia

and they're going to protect their guy hey paul pick up your phone call me shoot me a text email that's my whole thing he didn't call me directly to get background he didn't go call for my comments. He didn't have me on his show. He did nothing but keep my name in coming out of his mouth in a negative regard without doing any work or just asking the person who said the comments who also works for the same company you do, who also was on your show dozens of times throughout the years come on set on college campuses with you and was on your show between five and 10 times that fall. And instead of doing what you, instead you just, Paul, instead of doing the right thing, you just do what you did what you do. You incite more drama. You just throw shit out there

that you know nothing about. Paul knew nothing about this situation. He made a call maybe two to people who were going to help protect their guy. And he stirs more shit up. And so he gets everyone in the South, not just Athens after me. Right? And so that's it. So when I say he's an all-time coward, that's why I say it. When I say he has no loyalty, that's why I say it. And to be honest with you, I think the guys are rat. And so he's perfect to be a politician. That's a good way to end it. I'll say this. Yeah. If there's only one thing in fairness to him or not really in fairness to him, I think it's worth mentioning. He wasn't the only one.

And I remember there were others. And I will not forget that there were others. And some of it's just making a mistake and learning from it. And that's fine. But there were others who wanted to hop on that train and use your backlash as a way for them to propel their careers or get likes or whatever. And he wasn't the only one. I will say, you brought up Colin Coward. He is, he doesn't know me from Adam.

I've had a couple conversations with him while you were there, you know, in Bristol. He is one of the nicest human beings. He's exactly who he is on air. He is off air. So there are a lot of good ones out there, man. There are a lot of good ones. Oh, Colin's great. Collins great.

You don't always have to agree with this takes, and that's part of the whole thing. Colin is, it. Right. Collins, one of the ones, like, that's how it should be, you know? And I also, I don't want, like, I don't want people to think, like, well, ESPN just bailed on you. Like, yeah, certain people did. And I learned then, but there were a lot of, a lot more in that building that, that had my back and supported me throughout the whole thing.

And I honestly, like, I promise you, there were times where you were more upset and bothered to piss off than I was because like, I'm just, but that's that. All right, Texas, Florida. Here we go. Oh, sorry. No, it's good. It's good. Yeah.

How do you transition? I was transition with this I actually this this afternoon right before we came on the show I watched um all the dropbacks for arch okay it was and it was um it was a sam houston state right yeah i think it was and then another some other tape i watched was it versus no no no i watch all the tape remember okay um i did that whole arch report if you want to go back and watch and and read it it's on the McShay report. Really detailed breakdown of all the games leading up to that Sam Houston State game, right? What I hadn't done, because I had written it and we talked about it last week,

what I hadn't done is go watch, actually watch the same. Oh, the latest game. I got you. The latest game. Yeah. And so I just did that. I literally just did that, right? and I was encouraged, man,

because everyone knows like he stood on top of the defender and ran in the touchdown. So I wanted to see like what actually happened on tape. And like, I'm not, excuse me, I'm not kidding myself. It ain't Florida. It ain't, you know, it's certainly not Ohio State.

It's a different level. And you can get comfortable in the pocket and you have wide open receivers. But I was looking for the little things, right? Like, what I saw with Arch is he actually made some big time throws in the game. His best throw was, was the second or third quarter to DeAndre Moore's, like a deep crosser defender, defender.

Yeah. That was a nice throw. That was a nice ball. And he had a few good throws. I watched his footwork and I, I would be interested to talk. I would be interested to talk to him at some point. It seemed like from the very, like the very first throw, it was, and I was just this past Saturday, my uncle Cal and I, Cal was on our show, his son.

Ty and Drew and my son, we went with the quarterback coach, Alex McLaughlin, and, but just watching like, because his son, Ty has, is a baseball player. Right. And so he has that long, like, think of a crow hop, that long delivery and working on tightening it up. And it almost felt like he's working on,

like keep like more narrow base feet, like, and it could be misconstrued at times as like, happy feet in the pocket and all that. But I think he's working through, I got, I'm a taller, long, long lever, I got to keep my feet tight, you know, to keep that base to not overstride. And we saw some overstriding on some misthrows, right? Yeah, it was encouraging, but like, what does that mean for Florida? Yeah, what does that mean for Florida?

I saw another drop from, from Wingo, but I saw a couple nice, like, there was good and bad. Florida's pretty beat up in the pass rush, by the way. They're pretty beat up front. There are two things that I'm most in, three things that I'm just going to throw out at you. And I don't have answers, but they're questions that I can't wait for 3.30 p.m. on ESPN, my former employer, number nine, Texas at Florida. We all know the storylines. We all know three things I'm really fascinated by.

First of all, does Texas come out and attack early? like take some shots be aggressive because the second thing i'm most i'm really curious about is how long is this florida defense going to keep playing for this team how long are those 11 individuals that are on the field wearing a gator's jersey gator's helmet how long are they willing to lay it all on the line because they have laid it all on the line man i'd be so damn proud of this defense if i was one of the coaching members of the staff on the defense you're defensive side for Florida. This group has been put in one bad situation after another. You talk about loyal. You talk about like team. You talk about all those things. This unit is the epitome.

Okay. How long will they be able to play it with that level of effort? And then number three is to the slight improvements and the footwork and some of the things and the confidence. He just seem to have a little bit more, and I hate to say swagger because everyone's, oh, great, he stood over a Sam Houston State defender in the end. I don't mean like that. There was a confidence. His demeanor, the way he was carrying himself was a little bit different, a lot different than Ohio State, a little bit different than some of the other games, okay?

Can he keep that talking about arch against his Florida defense when the bullets are flying fast and something goes wrong and then to bounce back? So those are three things. Like is Texas on the absolute attack knowing that we might have a unit that's on the ropes. And if we can get out ahead of them, like, it could just be like enough. I'm not saying they're ever going to quit. I'm not saying that. But there's a certain level of like vicious attacking that they are like you can only do it so long if the result is not not what you're looking for.

You know, so I'm looking for those things. And then Arch, you know, is he going to hang? in there and he's he going to translate whatever it is that has happened over the last couple of of weeks as he's had time to kind of reset and is he going to play at the level um is he going to play at a level that we would expect him to play or had expected him to play coming into the season yeah just continue to make progress for him I think you know and this is like this is the next big test this is the first real big test as we saw him against Ohio State and there obviously have been a lot of up and down. That's obviously, look, that's obviously the biggest storyline going into this.

But it's interesting that on the flip side, DJ Legway from Florida, who's a super talented player is just, I mean, if someone's had a worse season than Orange Manning or someone's had more of a disappointing season, and actually, you know, in fairness, there's been a lot of quarterbacks that haven't played this well, play that well this year that we thought were going to be great coming in. And DJ Legway is one of those quarterbacks that is just, I mean, struggled mightily. And if Texas can, I mean, one of the, one of the advantages, if you are Texas and you can get out early as you're forcing legway you're putting more pressure on him to make plays in the passing game uh and maybe forcing florida get away from the running game

and that also plays into your hand i mean i you know i was watching florida against miami and they targeted their talented freshman wide receiver vernell brown the third twice in that game and i i just don't get that i don't get and and it made me think through it's to this point to made me think, is there something else going on? Is he banged up? It didn't look like it. Brown or Lagway? Brown, Brown, the 3rd?

He banged up. Is there some kind of a thing going off the field where they're limiting his things? Is there some kind of something else going on? It didn't line up? I couldn't find anything. No, but I'm saying like it just, it didn't feel something,

you smelled something there. Yeah. So you have to get this kid the ball more. You have to get the ball to him more. And you just have to find a ways. because he's electric in the open field. As a punt return or two, by the way. Yeah.

Or a kickoff return or two. He's electric. You've got to find ways to get him the ball. Texas, he's going to see a Texas defense. It's really good. And they'll throw some zone looks at him. But Florida has a pretty good zone beater with him where they, they run a go route with the outside receiver,

release the back of the flat, and then they bring, they bring Brown over the top of it almost from the other side on an intermediate crosser. And he's been open on that play. You know, it was like two or three times. in the Miami game. And the problem is he's a smaller receiver. He's an undersized receiver.

And legway is, his accuracy is not there. The timing accuracy is not there for them to consistently connect on that play. And if people are trying to remember who Vernel Brown, the third is, you might remember him from the Long Island catch early in the season where he just went full on Odell Beckham. And made that, like, reaching behind his

body, one-handed catch. I mean, this kid is a, he's a real talent. He's the Malachi Tony to that offense. A hundred percent. And they've got to find ways to get him involved. I mean, he's either going to see his safety or a freshman nickelback and Grayson Littleton, who's talented, but he is a freshman. There's got to be ways that they can get this kid the ball and get him to get him more

involved in the game plan. Who are you liking that one? Man, it's tough, but I just like Texas's defense against that struggling Florida offense more than I do, the question mark of arch against a Florida defense that's playing, you know, with like just a noble effort. I don't know what the over is. I don't know what the over is, but I'm almost certainly betting the under in that game.

Well, I mean, every asshole, east and west of the Mississippi and north and south of the Mason-Dixon lines betting the under in that game. Be nice. 41-40, oh, 41-5, man. 41-5. That's a good line, though.

Six and a half, right now on Fandall. It's going over. At FD Sportsbook, Fandle. give them a little plug here. But my goodness, things trusty. Six and a half is a spread. And $2.75 is the money line. Over under is 41.5.

Yeah. Are we done with the Texas Florida game? Because I want to ask you about another spread that really jumped out to me. Yeah, we are done. Okay. The Louisville Virginia spread. Can you pull that up? I want to make sure I got this right.

I know you get some stuff on that game. Go ahead. I'll pull it up. I think. Six and a half. Sorry. Louisville minus six and a half. Go ahead.

So Louisville is favored by six and a half. Correct. Virginia, coming off this win against Florida State, this upset win over Florida State, and now in the AP poll, Louisville's not. Somebody knows something and I'll go out for somebody. They're getting it right, man. I'm telling you right now, that line is correct.

Miller Moss is starting to get more comfortable in that offense. He's coming off his best game. They just came back from 17 points down to pit. That Louisville defense is playing super well. People don't realize it. It's it they're they they got guys who can turn the ball over they're playing well and then he's got he's miller moss has got two real weapons and Chris Bell and Colin Lacey at wide receiver I'm looking at that game and I was I was I because that's what jumped out to me I looked at that sprint and I was like sark and lane sark and lane kiffin are kind of the obvious like blue blood answers when the question is where if you had a son who is a quarterback where just send him I think going where I thought you were going to go yeah there I would consider. consider strongly, depending on the circumstances and the NIL money that would be in daddy's pocket. Now, I would consider Will Stein and what he's done at Oregon with Bo Nix, Dylan Gabriel,

who's now the starters we talked about, and now Dante Moore, and the Brahm brothers in Louisville. Yeah. And that games in Louisville. That Virginia team better not have any kind of a hangover effort. they're going to need everything they got to win that game. I got Louisville. I got Louisville by two scores. Sorry, Aunt Lisa.

I think you're right, man. I think you're on to it. I think you're right. Last thing I want to touch on, unless there's more, you can take it wherever you want after this. Texas Tech at Houston. We've already gone way too long on a Thursday show.

But both 4 and 0. Texas Tech is like this darling that everyone jumped on for a minute, but like I think they had a buy last week. No, they, um, they played, they played an inferior opponent last week. I forget who it was. I think it was, or they had a buy. I can't remember. They're four.

I think they had a buy. They had a buy. Sorry, they had a buy. The inferior opponent was the Houston schedule. I remember before I was, I was thinking Sam Houston State. I was like, but I wrote down some other, um, some initials, SFA. Stephen F. Austin was Houston's first one. Yeah, yeah.

That's why I was getting. it twisted my mind. Rice, Colorado, and Oregon State. Oregon State game was tight, right? But there's a couple things I want to mention in this game. Three, actually. One, Willie Fritz's team, he was at Tulane when Tulane in the Cotton Bowl beat Caleb Williams. So he's no stranger, if you go back in his history to a little, you know,

so like keep an eye on this game. 10 and a half point spread, 7 p.m game, ESPN. I'm not saying it's going to happen. I'm just saying keep an eye on this being a little bit nastier and tougher for Texas, for Texas Tech than people might want to think. And I say that because the schedule starts to get harder after this game, right? Houston's 4 and O, but you're still, it's like, ah, it's Houston. We can handle this, I think.

We spent $55 million on our football player budget this year. we got this, right? So keep an eye on that. More importantly, for NFL, for fans of the NFL draft and people just who love what, like, who are the NFL guys in this game, we know about the edges for Texas Tech, right? And that defensive line went back and watched you, like, we're going to have to, well, that game is circled when we start talking about

those two first rounders, low moving on. Well, I'm telling you, there's a bunch of them, man. There is a bunch of them. I told you this earlier where there are some offensive tackles that have, haven't lived up to expectations. Well, it's only appropriate. I came in and called the golden era, the golden age of college quarterbacks.

And I love the offensive tackles. And you were bragging on the offensive tackles. And now here we are in week six, and it's a mess. David Bailey and Ramello Heights, six sacks and four games combined between them. Legit players. And hopefully just continue to get better and better as the season goes on. So those are two NFL guys that you want to keep an eye on.

And that side of the ball, here's someone. You know who brought? this to my attention today, bud. Wasn't on the national list or Brest-Stol list in the preseason. I haven't talked to any NFL scouts. Our good friend Pete Sousa and the big 12. He's got the big 12 on lockdown.

Yeah, I went on the show today. And we talked about big 12 NFL draft prospects. And he brought up to me. He's like Tanner, Tanner Kosiel, Cozio, the tight end at, at Houston. You ready for this? Ball State Transfer. on any list before he's six foot seven he's 250 pounds i put on the tape today he's not he's not

darnel washington remember the georgia guy who was like six six six seven who could forget that but like couldn't catch a lot and you know stealer he he he doesn't have the speed or athleticism yeah Pittsburgh stealer um but he's catching the ball well he moves pretty well like he's an intriguing guy to keep an eye six seven guy you ready four games 23 catches at the tight end position. That's good. I mean, I love that size too. We see somebody 235 pounders right now that guys in the 250s, 255, that's, that always jumps out to me.

He's a ball state transfer. Nobody really, yeah, yeah, fine, have them. Houston saw so Willie Fritz and Company saw something. So that game's interesting, but the most interest. Oh, we're going to say. The most interesting part of that game, I saved the best for last. Baron Morton is back. He was throwing last night.

well, two nights ago now. And he is going to be the starter. Their speculation. Quick hook? I don't want to say quick hook, but the speculation, nobody knows. I did a lot of digging. Nobody knows for certain,

and they're certainly not going to bring their speculation that my guy, Will Hammond might, whether it's a rotation or whatever it is. Get a series here in there. But it's everything I said it was going to be. This guy will him and is more talented. this guy Williamman when came in the game that offense took off for Texas Tech. And I would only be talking about Texas Tech if they were one of the 12 best teams in the country.

And they are. And the AP poll agrees they're 11. This is a team that needs to start getting more attention and respect. Because they're legitimately like damn good. Okay. Yeah. Sometimes you buy talent and the talent doesn't gel in a short period of time and it doesn't work and it's a disaster on the field. Florida State's a good example.

One year it was great. The next year it was an unmitigated disaster. It seems like it's working at Texas Tech. Will Hammond's more talented. Will Hammond kind of bailed them in that game against Utah. It was tight. Yeah. Two interceptions from the starter Baron Morton.

But Morton's the leader. He's the heartbeat of this program. And so you can't do that. You can't pull him. And it's a fifth year. And he's talking about his day three draft pick and all this stuff. It's a brutal spot that they're in. But they're going with their guy, as expected.

but I'll be very interested to see. That's why I set the whole picture up here. If Willie Fritz has added again, like the Cotton Bowl against Caleb, and things start to get tight, what happens? So it's a reason to watch. 7 p.m. Eastern, ESPN. Love it.

I would go, I would have gone with Hammond. You would convince me that I'd just go with Hammond. Coach McGuire's got a pretty good problem, though. He's got a pretty good problem. Until it's just a problem. But we'll see. This is a fun one. I'm interested to see the views on this one.

This should be interesting. Yeah, and I didn't do it for the views. I did it because no, no, no, no. That's not what I was suggesting. I just, I, I, after the show ended, not that night, but the day after on Sunday, my phones are blowing up because everyone thinks I know all of the background information on, on McShea. What was, what's that fine Bob stuff about, you know?

So I get it. Well, there it is. Yeah, I never really talked in full about the whole. situation. So it was an opportunity to kind of get it all off my chest and there we are. Hey, this is a fun one. Five stars. Must be 21 plus and present

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