The Ryen Russillo Podcast - CFB Week 1 Recap With Bruce Feldman | The Ryen Russillo Podcast

Episode Date: September 3, 2019

Russillo talks about the SEC's shaky opening week with losses by South Carolina and Tennessee. He hits Boise State's wild comeback, Hugh Freeze's coaching Liberty from his hospital bed, Michigan's defense, and more (2:25). Then Ryen is joined by Bruce Feldman to discuss Auburn's win over Oregon, Pac-12 implications, Alabama's injuries, Clemson vs. the ACC, Jalen Hurts at Oklahoma, and more (17:40)! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

all right folks welcome in it is episode one of the newly named ryan rossillo podcast part of the ringer network and my new gig here for uh a few stops a week so i'm excited about this so yeah if you're subscribed to dual threat i imagine you'll be subscribed to this, but don't be afraid to subscribe again. And we'll make sure we get you everything going. A lot of college football, a lot of NFL, probably around the bookends of the week. And then right in the middle, the freedom to kind of do what I think will work. I wouldn't say do whatever I want, but I still have people that I have to answer to. But I want to thank Belvedere, the presenting sponsor for this podcast, produced in one of the world's longest-running distilleries.

Belvedere vodka is the world's finest all-natural vodka. Part of a 600-year Polish vodka-making tradition, Belvedere is made with 100% Polska rye pure water and no additives. I also want to remind everybody that Belvedere is putting together the Ryan Soda, where we're going to be out in Atlantic City in a couple weeks, doing a Monday night football broadcast, doing a live podcast. And I don't know if they have all their shifts covered, if they would need me to bartend, but, um, I probably could maybe not, maybe not the main well, maybe the middle well, maybe the service well, cause I don't know. I don't know

if that could go to well, number one one this many years away from the game. I also want to remind you to always drink responsibly. Also reminding you, Yahoo Fantasy Football, still available for you that have not put together your teams. We've all made some bad choices in life. I remember drafting, well, I don't want to call anybody out here, right? Because we don't, players are people now, we're learning.

So we can't ever just assume that they're not human beings as well. So I'll just say that anytime, I've never done this, but anytime you fire a tweet off at a pro athlete because you're mad their hamstring is bothering them, you're the worst. So don't let missing out on fantasy football be one of these mistakes. It's not too late to create or join a league on Yahoo football rules and having a fantasy team makes football season even better. Try a new best ball format where all you do is draft no waivers, no trades

all season long. It's two minute drill time. So drive down the field and score yourself a fantasy team. You won't regret choosing Yahoo. You will regret missing signups. Make better choices. regret choosing yahoo you will regret missing signups make better choices choose yahoo fantasy football okay the plan for today is bruce feldman from the athletic who's a neighbor and a friend and i just kind of want to do a week one roundup of everything that we saw and then i'm always going to do this thing um which i imagine i may save to we should do some titling, Kyle. Graphics, maybe, even sound effects. I'm not sure. Yeah, we'll come up with something.

Just rapid fire observations. You know, we could call it the starting five. We could call it the front seven. You know, I mean, is anybody going? Although sometimes labeling is just the whole reason. I don't think the only reason House has a podcast is because House of Carbs is such a great title. I know. Yeah. I have heard Bill say, I don't even really know if he's a buddy from home.

He's kind of pressuring me. And then he came up with this title, House of Carbs. And they were like, all right, yeah, done. That's fine. You're allowed to have a podcast uh no so i don't you know i have i have a bunch of things just rapid fire observations that i want to get to there but the first thing that i did want to touch on is whether or not we think the sec is still going to be the best conference because it had a disastrous opening week and it's not just that missouri loss up in wyoming yes old miss was actually a dog in that

game against memphis um but the tennessee loss at home is terrible the north carolina beaten south carolina there i mean that was kind of a coin toss but tennessee was a 20-something point favorite at home and they lost to a bad football team and then and we'll ask Bruce Feldman about this, but Florida, who's a preseason top 10 because they have the same, it's the same rule that I talked about last week. And I know I brought this up, but college football, the expectations that we have for your team, the upcoming season, so meaning right now, it has more to do with what just happened than any other sport because we have nothing else to go on. Okay, so it's not really anybody's fault, Robert Williams. It's just that you are sitting there trying to figure out. When Michigan gets smoked by Florida and Florida has Felipe Franks and look at Dan Mullen and things are working out and look at some of the guys on defense and on and on and on. And then you have a really overrated Florida Gators team. That's it. It's so simple to figure out.

So we went over all that stuff last week. But going into this year, it was look at the depth for the SEC, look at the top five teams that are in the top 15 to 16, depending on which poll you're looking at. How would you compare that with the lack of depth in the ACC where the ACC doesn't have as much depth? Okay, well, what about the Big Ten? Well, the Big Ten, we thought maybe last year was a chance that this team, this conference, excuse me, was going to be really special.

Wisconsin's O-line, enough to carry them. Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, even Michigan State. We can get to Michigan State a little bit later because defensively they looked amazing again. So I could start to craft a thing in my head where I'm going, wait, we could be sitting here by the end. And I'm doing this as of last year at the end of 2018, saying to myself, this might be the best conference now. Like, look at what those four or five teams are possibly, the peak version of them. Michigan flirting with the playoffs. I know not enough. Penn State getting very close one year to the playoff. Ohio State being in it, Wisconsin. And granted,

on their side of things, it's just an easier division. And then Michigan State, you always feel like you have to respect, even though they had a down year last year. But that didn't happen. That didn't happen. Purdue, of all teams that ruin things for Ohio State, they get smoked in their bowl game. Michigan gets smoked in theirs. Penn State loses to Kentucky. Ohio State didn't play an SEC team, so you just kind of went like, hey, Ohio State's going to run through Washington, and they beat them in the Rose Bowl. We also went over this last week on the one-score game carryover thing. It wasn't really a one-score game. So you see the point is that you were left going, eh, I thought the Big Ten was supposed to be better, and the bowl season isn't the end-all,

be-all. I wouldn't just go, okay, look at this record for this conference. It's a culmination of things. The Pac-12's out of the playoff the whole time. The Big 12, we still collectively have kind of a hard time nationally trying to figure that out. So what I'm warning you of is when you see national college football guy,

remember that he's probably just rooting for or against something else. And if he went to an ACC school, or if he went to a Pac-12 school, or if he went to a Big 12 school, and it's like, I think there was a Big 12 guy saying, because I don't really want to call out the names anymore of the people, because I already did that segment, and I just, I absolutely kind of went batshit on the air about it.

But it needed to be said. So I don't regret the segment, but I definitely cranked it up a bit on that one. And when I see somebody go, well, hey, if the Pac-12 had the kind of opening weekend the SEC did, we would all lose our minds. You're like, well, there are two reasons. One is because the Pac-12, at this point, it's kind of like us waiting for them to collectively be better and we're more willing to bash them. But if going into this season and, you know, I'd go through some of the analytics stuff and there was a big study about how the SEC East was actually the second best division behind the SEC West. I was like, I don't know about that. That doesn't really seem to make a ton of sense. But I do think Georgia is really good. Obviously, I picked them to win the whole thing. I do think Georgia's really good, obviously. I picked them to win the whole thing.

The East thing, you know, the analytics part of it is, what do you want me to come up with? What do you want me to come up with? So what I'm telling you is, listen to me, because I'm not rooting for really any of these teams. Yeah, I like LSU a lot because I got some hoodies, but I could just see it happening. I could see it was so much like sec angst already. And maybe here's,

here's what everybody's wish is going to be outside of the South. Maybe they are bad. Maybe, maybe LSU. Isn't that good? Maybe Bama is going to have too many injuries on defense. Although once they got things going offensively, that's filthy watching Judy and rugs and w and Waddle with Tua, that offense,

when they're blowing teams out, I enjoy watching their receivers so much that I can keep one of the couple TVs on Alabama, if nothing else is that important, that's going on. Maybe Texas gets LSU this week. The way Oklahoma looked, are you expecting to look every single week? Iowa State, a little shaky. They're open, but they win against a good Northern Iowa team, at least I think a competitive Northern Iowa team.

So that's kind of the point, is this seeing guys go down that road. And the SEC looked bad. The SEC absolutely looked bad. But then there's always a little bit more of an extra of like, hey, how come we're not madder at them? You're like, well, how mad do you want me to be? Because you might get your wish. You might be right. They might be really overrated compared to other years where it's been suggested they're overrated. Okay, a little rapid fire for you. But first, let's check in with the guys at CBS Sports HQ. This episode of the Ryan Rusillo

podcast is brought to you by CBS Sports HQ. If you watch much football coverage on TV, you know it's full of a bunch of dudes yelling at each other and throwing out hot takes they probably don't even believe themselves. Tearing players down and throwing out massive overreactions are par for the course. Well, CBS Sports HQ is here to change that. They're a 24-hour streaming sports network that's just focused on the game with highlights, news, stats, game previews, game reactions, fantasy advice, and gambling picks. No fake debates, no politics, no made-up drama. It's just sports for real sports fans. Even better, it's free. Seriously. You can watch CBS Sports HQ 24 hours a day, seven days a week, totally free. And no, I don't mean free for a

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I remember I used to have a bowl cut, but that was after I had kind of like this weird flying V, not a rat tail. Although some guys did believe in and rock, like believe it or not, there were guys walking around with rat tails in Mass and Connecticut in the mid eighties. And it wasn't thought to be the worst possible

thing you could do it sure would seem that way now tell your buddies you want to go a rat tail in 2019 see how that conversation goes so don't let missing out on fantasy football be one of them it's not too late to create or join a league on yahoo football rules and having a fantasy team makes football season even better try a new best ball format where all you do is draft. No waivers, no trades, all season long. It's two-minute drill time, so drive down the field and score yourself a Fantasy Team. You won't regret choosing Yahoo. You will regret missing signups.

Make better choices. Choose Yahoo Fantasy Football. A couple rapid-fire things. This Hugh Freeze Liberty hotel bed deal after some surgery, and I'm trying to be delicate here, but it felt a little bit like, I know my rep's taken some dings here recently. So can I go, like, was this the equivalent of like wearing a neck brace, like, to a court hearing? I don't know. I don't think anybody cares enough. Like, we do move on as a society.

I think we're very forgiving. And so, you know, Hugh ended up getting bounced out of Ole Miss there. And it just, it felt a little bit like, hey, I'm doing this thing for my hotel, my hotel, my hospital bed. I'm going to do a sideline hit, but it's from my hospital bed in this press box. And then I'm going to do a post game presser. Like the thing was crazy. It was crazy. It was totally crazy. And then Dino Baber's like pointing up at him and he's like, yeah, man,'s waving like it was such a weird thing it would be it'd be like somebody like on a boat at the end of some movie and it wouldn't even be just a movie about nautical stuff i'm just telling you like a guy on a boat waving slowly like paddling away

and i i just found the whole thing really really weird i wanted to bring up the boise state comeback because that easily could have been lost because it was like the first thing that we get to see they were down 31 13 and willie tagger now goes to five and eight but if you want them out as a florida state fan already like relax okay relax you shouldn't even be thinking about if you're a big big time program unless all of a sudden you get a guy in and you're like wait a minute this guy's a total fraud he tricked all of us um i don't think we can work with this guy anymore. But Boise, while they were down in a weird way, I kind of thought they had a chance to get back in this game.

If you haven't watched Hank Bachmeier yet for Boise, who's a true freshman, he won this year's, or excuse me, this week's true freshman of the week. That would be pretty aggressive to give him the award after just one game but when you watch them i go you know they've actually moved the ball against florida state this entire game and yet florida state blackman their guy who you're not sure of you know didn't play last year gets a job back two years after being named the starter and he had a magnificent first half cam acres their stud running back was awesome they've got a backup who's actually pretty nice to watch too and they put up this big number and yet i'm watching it going i know this sounds nuts but they've moved the football and bachmeyer was so tough all game long 400 plus yards so get

a chance to check him out for boise if you haven't because i was even impressed with him when he was just getting his head kicked in the whole game and coming back up and fighting all right and finally one other smaller observation Michigan State was nuts on defense okay Tulsa couldn't move the football couldn't move the football now do you want to come back to me and tell me the Michigan State's offense averaged like three yards per carry and it's not what you'd want? Yeah. No, absolutely. Absolutely. It wasn't crisp offense.

And D'Antonio did this thing where he didn't fire people. He just reassigned them all on offense. And I guess that made everybody mad because basically you're not even allowed to have one bad year as a coordinator on either side of the ball. If you're a big program, you're just supposed to be fired immediately. And guess what? The coaches who hire their buddies to have these jobs, they don't want to fire their buddies after their buddies move their entire families to a campus one year later. And I'm not saying this with D'Antonio's done, but that's why you'll hear about a guy on the way out and they're like, well, he didn't want to get rid of his coordinators.

Well, a lot of reasons why is because they don't want to have to go to the guy and be like hey tell your wife to pack up sorry you guys made it nine months so their defense was incredible again it's Tulsa but it was it's exactly what you would have thought and yet they made these changes by shuffling guys around and the reaction is not positivity about the defense in East Lansing. It's about, oh great, our offense looks just as boring as it did all of last year. We're going to talk to Bruce Feldman about all that stuff, but have you ever had to miss a football game because you couldn't get somewhere to watch it? I remember I used to have this little handheld deal where it was seriously this little small Sony thing with a one little earpiece

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on your phone. It couldn't be easier, and you get to unlock your daily drop. Let's talk some college football in the next 30 minutes with my good friend from The Athletic and Fox Sports, Bruce Feldman. So, I know that everybody really wanted to kind of figure out what the future told for the SEC, for the Pac-12, and all this stuff.

But what do you make of the outcome of what we saw with Auburn and Oregon? You know, it was such a bizarre game. And at the first half, I thought Justin Herbert, Oregon's talented quarterback, he looked like first pick of the draft guy. You know, his offensive coordinator, Marcus Arroyo, they were really aggressive. They were attacking. You saw Justin's athleticism in his arm. And it was impressive

because they were going up against a talented defense with a big-time defensive line at Auburn. In the second half, it just looked like they got really conservative. And you just didn't see them going downfield. There was a lot of underneath routes routes in the flat they didn't do look like they couldn't attack the middle of the field

and it just felt like it was a team that didn't have all the confidence that it could go make plays and you know credit to Auburn because their freshman quarterback Bo Nix made the plays and credit to their defense because they really shut down Justin Herbert and that offense in the second half. And it's another kind of a dud performance on a big stage by a Pac-12 school. Yeah, I can't believe they blew the game, because the way it was playing out,

you're going, they're better than Auburn, right? The missed opportunities. And yeah, I'm sure Auburn fans could say, hey, there's a couple points here or there, but it didn't feel like 14 points that that Oregon had just left there. And I completely agree on Herbert that I like him in comparison to other young QBs, like when things break down, his ability to kind of move, but not move and lose his mind back there. He just sort of slides left to right and, and makes a nice play. And you go, okay, this guy's really good.

But I still think they're a good football team. So as disappointing as this stretches for the Pac-12 against the SEC, which we know is way worse than anybody even realizes, I guess I didn't leave it as a loss. And I know the opportunity was missed here, but I don't leave it as this loss that's like, hey, when the tiebreaker comes down to it, that means the Pac-12 is going to be out of the playoffs.

Because I look at Oregon and go, I still think they're going to be pretty good. Yeah, I just think they don't have any margin for error at West. Like, right now, I think the Pac-12 is certainly going to need to have some, they got to capitalize on some of these opportunities somewhere along the way. Somebody needs to beat Notre Dame or something. They need to, they can't keep losing all these games. Having said that if a team like Utah,

it keeps winning. And if Washington keeps winning, if you have a team that comes out of the pack 12 and is 12 and one, I think they will have a, they will have a decent shot to make the playoff. And then when it just comes back to, you can it just comes back to, you can't miss that opportunity if you get in there, whether it's Oregon or Utah or Washington. They got to beat somebody because ultimately, even if they won this game,

I think what would have happened, Ryan, is you would have a lot of people going, well, Auburn's like the best team and Gus Malzahn's on the hot seat. They're playing a true freshman quarterback. People would have found a way to kind of pick it apart a little bit. But, you know, ultimately, I think, you know, to me,

it's like two different kinds of big storylines that are interconnected. One is the Oregon slash Pac-12 one. The other one was just because Justin Herbert is so talented, you know, has this big arm. You start to wonder, is he going to be first pick in the draft kind of player? Or is he more feeling like the guy you'd say, eh, some of this kind of starting to feel a little bit like Blaine Gabbert or there's some Josh Allen in him. And we need to, we need to see that. And I think sometimes that subplot, uh, for a lot of people ends up becoming

the main story. if your team isn't you know alabama or clemson where you're where you're just a pretty good team and i think right now we know we know mario cristobal's recruited well there they gotta they gotta go out win bigger games now they gotta take that next step they're not that young team anymore all right speaking of young teams and if we're staying up at the top um not a surprise to see alabama take care of duke but we know that i was looking at the top, not a surprise to see Alabama take care of Duke. But we know that, I was looking at it, I think on the two deep in the front seven or something,

like half are true freshmen now. We know about the injuries. When is too much for even a place like Alabama? Are they facing that right now as far as injuries to their front? I don't think so because I think they have so much margin for error. They have the best offense in that conference. They have a star quarterback who's now played a lot with the best receiving core in the country. They have plenty of firepower and a big physical offensive

and defensive line. So I think all of that, and it's not like they have a huge gauntlet of a schedule. I mean, they blew Duke off the field, and Duke is just an average team. That is their toughest non-conference game. You look at the SEC, I think Georgia's really talented. I think LSU's really talented.

And after that, I think you have Auburn's pretty good and we'll see about Texas A&M. I think the rest of the SEC is pretty shaky right now. You start looking at it. I don't think, you know, Ole Miss isn't very good. We saw Tennessee is horrible. Uh, you look at some of these other teams and I just don't know how, you know, short of maybe LSU. Um, I don't know who else really puts a, puts a challenge and goes toe to toe with Alabama, you know, Auburn potentially could, we don't know what kind of state they're going to be in by the time they play. It's obviously a rival game rivalry game, but that's not a lot when you're just talking about, you may only be get, get a serious test from somebody who looks remotely like you twice in the regular season.

I mean, that's the reality here. This is not like, yeah, they got young guys. Yeah, they're going to have some missed assignments and probably have some inconsistency. But because they are so loaded on offense, I think they're going to be able to overcome all that. But because they are so loaded on offense, I think they're going to be able to overcome all that. One of the things that I was bringing up in my open was about that bad stretch for the SEC here. We kind of felt like, wait a minute, I think the East is finally coming back.

The East had been bad for a while other than Georgia. There was even stretches before where you felt like Georgia wasn't as good as they should have been. But you have South Carolina lose in a weird game against UNC. Tennessee gets smoked by home by a team they were favored by over 20 then Missouri I thought looked terrible against Wyoming and then Ole Miss

who was actually an underdog to Memphis in their loss so if we're ready to look at the SEC differently like I said when people are like oh here we go again this conference is really overrated and you go or if this had happened to the pac-12 everybody be crushing them and you're like well yeah because the pac-12 hasn't done as much as the sec and that's the reason why certain programs and

certain conferences get a benefit of the doubt if um you know if it's just the way i mean it's just the way all this stuff works so i'm willing to be like ready to go hey this is not the best conference but is there even something you would point to that you think challenges even uh an sec that doesn't seem to have as much depth well i don't think they have that much depth i think they like to say that um but when you look at it yeah no you're right yeah you're right it Yeah, you're right. It's just bad. I mean, Florida, you didn't mention from week zero, they played a Miami team that's pretty average. Florida almost gave them the game. And Florida's the second best team in the East.

And I think when you look, a lot of this comes back to, you can see it and trace it to recruiting rankings. I mean, almost all the elite players that have been signed or elite prospects that have been signed or elite prospects that have been signed by the SEC East teams, almost all of them have been scooped up by Kirby Smart. So I think you take that. I think what you take is, uh, you had a couple other schools who were like, Hey, we're going

to try to hire a Nick Saban like guy. And it's looking pretty shaky. They're a Nick Saban-like guy, and it's looking pretty shaky. I mean, Will Muschamp didn't get it done at Florida, and he's struggling at South Carolina. I mean, that was a mediocre team they lost to in week one. To me, the most mind-boggling thing that's happened in college football the first week wasn't Hugh Freeze coaching from a hospital bed. It was Tennessee losing to a team that went 2-10 in the Sun Belt last year. And they got dominated by them. That's the crazy thing.

I mean, Tennessee should never be this bad. Missouri losing at Wyoming. You start looking at it. And I think the one thing, and it is significant, but the one thing that has set the SEC apart is Nick Saban and Alabama have been the dominant program in college football for the last decade. After that, it's not that, it's not different from anybody else. I mean, it's just, you look at it and basically there is a, there is a Rutgers and maybe it's not a Kansas, but there is a Rutgers and there is an Oregon state. And there are similar programs like this in the SEC. They just, you know, they just drink sweet tea more and they probably have more, you

know, more passionate fans. I mean, to me, that's the difference. There's a lot of mediocrity around there. It's just, it's Alabama's at the top of the food chain and Georgia's really good, but Georgia's eating up on, you know, a lot of teams that are pretty below average. I mean, when Georgia played LSU last year, who who has similar talent, they got blown out by 20 points. So, you know, I get it. It's the SEC, and they've won a lot of titles,

but I think a lot of that is all related to the top of the food chain, and the rest of it, I think, is pretty watered down. What did you think of Jalen Hurts at Oklahoma? It was impressive I don't know how you couldn't have been let's get this part out of the way Houston is horrible on defense they were horrible on defense last year

and they had Ed Oliver and they don't have Ed Oliver now they gave up like 70 to Army in the bowl game they looked really overmatched but I think he's going to obviously put up huge numbers. They got good skilled talent around them. And Lincoln Riley is, you know,

as a masterful coach and making it look easy and coming up with little wrinkles. I mean, he is, he's taken his air raid pedigree and done some creative stuff. Now, having said all that, I think it's, I think for people saying, Hey, he's going to have three Heisman trophy winners in a row and they're all high and they're all transfers. I'd pump the brakes on that a little bit. Again, Houston's going to have three Heisman Trophy winners in a row and they're all transfers, I'd pump the brakes on that a little bit. Again, Houston's defense is really bad.

It's one we, I think, will have a really good year. But I don't think it's handing the Heisman just yet. There's a lot of, you know, we still need to see a lot more from him and from everybody else. How has, and we know some of it's a graduate rule, the uniqueness of bigger programs over recruiting the position, which if you're a kid out of high school and you say yes and you want to go compete and you lose the look, I'm the number one recruit. Like I'm going to be good. And then he doesn't get the gig and he's like, all right, I want to bounce. And I think older people have this thing where it's like, oh, you know, you're supposed to just stick it out. Like, well, what? And not play for two more years. Like, I don't know about that. So we've seen so many big names move and we've seen them immediately pay dividends. Like, is there a conference? Cause you're as plugged in with this stuff as anybody, but is there almost a thing with top programs that they've changed their approach on how they recruit quarterbacks, or they'll just go, hey, if we miss out on our own guys, there's a really

good chance we can get a transfer in here later? Yeah, and I think that's the latter is the reality now. You know what? We can shake it up, and we can make this happen. There's more flexibility. You know what? We can shake it up and we can make this happen. There's more flexibility. The way these recruits are, they are much more inclined to bounce than they are to sit it through. You just almost never see a guy who stays through. much as it is much as people think it does i mean for every joe burrow and for every baker mayfield and uh kyler murray there's plenty of other guys that just kind of fizzle or they get hyped they just don't kind of fit where they're at uh and i think what what the challenge with that is whether it's a tape martel you know we had a game this weekend where our crew had Stanford against Northwestern and Hunter Johnson was a five-star quarterback who transferred from Clemson. He really struggled. Now, maybe he'll turn out to be a really good quarterback, but I think for people looking at it going, okay, he's going to do all this, you know, this amazing stuff that five stars were

supposed to do. I think so many people are looking at the recruiting evaluation, the star system, where a lot of these guys get anointed when they're sophomores in high school and they're still developing. I think what that's done is it's created almost like a trial after trial process where you don't really know what you have until these kids are actually playing and doing it. And by that point, if they struggle, I think coaches are inclined to go, you know what, let's find somebody else. And they're almost as hair trigger with some of this stuff as the, as the players that become, because it's like, well, get this guy in there. Oh, wait, he can't see it. He can't read it. He doesn't, he doesn't get it or he's not tough or he's whatever. And then they just move on to the next guy. I think you can look around the country and find plenty of examples of coaches just

kind of looking at it going, all right,'t work let's find somebody else let's go did they know that ohio state like immediately when they had fields in there they went okay this is this is not that haskins i mean haskins ends up going in the first round but haskins really um to think of urban's offense and whatever day's version of it like i imagine it must have been weird for them to not feel like they had any kind of running threat at the quarterback position, and now with Fields, it's the complete opposite. Yeah, I mean, I think part of that is interesting just in that Urban Meyer, I think he was kind of blindsided by the fact that Dwayne Haskins,

after one season and even going into it, midway through that season, he was like, this kid may leave, and Urban's going to, you know, Urban said this, he's like, he's going to go where? To the NFL. And then obviously it becomes a first round pick after a great year. And the ironic part is, I think of all the quarterbacks

that Urban Meyer's had at Ohio State since Braxton Miller, I think Justin Fields probably was the one who fits what he wanted to do best. I mean, he's a really good runner and he is a big dude. He is much bigger than JT Barrett and he throws it better than him.

But, you know, Dwayne Haskins, I think is really in line with he's more of a pro style quarterback. And look, Ryan Day, to his credit, is a really good quarterback coach. He's a Chip Kelly guy. So I think he's comfortable with a guy who can run

and do stuff in the run game and go between the tackles. That's the stuff Urban Meyer loves. I mean, I think Urban Meyer, at the end of the day, if it was third and short, his go-to is he wanted to run the quarterback. Well, who better to run than this kid, who's the biggest, most physical quarterback he's had since Tebow, and he's more talented than Tebow.

Is there anything, you know, because when I look at LSU, I'm like, wow, okay, they lit it up. All right, maybe. Same thing here with Ohio State. We could get to Penn State. We could talk Michigan with the new offensive coordinator, Gattis, that everybody's excited about. But was there anything, storyline, that you took from anything that happened

that maybe the rest of us would be missing on? You know, the part that kind of, to me, I go back to the beginning is just, I think it's so hard for people to get a good read on quarterbacks because guys get hyped so much. And so whether it is, whether it's Justin Herbert or, you know, the next evolution of Tua or certainly Jalen Hurts. I mean, it's really interesting that the quarterback, you know, because of these kinds of RPO offenses now that are infused in it, because I think that defense, the rules that go against defenses, you're seeing, you know, the Lincoln Riley effect of a lot of people. And I think that carries over. And here's a good example. We're going to find out a lot about it this weekend.

You know, Joe Burrow, Georgia Southern, you know, is a good group of five teams, but they are not Texas. They looked really sharp in how they operated. And they only showed a portion of what their new past game coordinator, Joe Brady, who's a Saints guy, came from the Saints staff, worked under Joe Moorhead at Penn State. Really smart guy.

I mean, I did a big story on him for the Athletics a couple months ago. They think he's going to be great. Well, in the little bit they showed, Joe Burrow, his quarterback, who was a transfer from Ohio State, threw five touchdowns. And I think this is a big stage. They looked very sharp.

I want to see what else they have to show, because I don't think they've shown all that much of what they're going to do formation-wise and some of the wrinkles they've added. And this is going to be, you know, to me, this is the biggest game we've had in the first two weeks, is them going into Austin, and he's facing a really good quarterback on the other side, Sam Ellinger. And Texas is banged up. They don't have all their running backs. They only have really one real scholarship running back. I want to see what happens in this game.

Because, again, if Texas wins this game, it just feeds into the hype of Texas is back. But also, I think if Texas beats LSU, the narrative about how good is the SEC beyond Alabama is going to get a lot more traction because I would argue that LSU, along with Georgia, is the next

best team, and if they lose to a Texas team that had to rebuild its whole defense, that's a bad sign for the SEC. More with Bruce in a second, but today's episode is brought to you by Floor & Decor. Don't miss out. Floor & Decor is the only one-stop flooring shop that keeps general contractors, flooring specialists, and renovation experts ahead of the game. That's everybody, man. Thanks to their fully stocked warehouse of hard surface flooring, no job is too big. Job block quantities of tile, wood, and stone are in stock and available

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That's flooranddecor.com. If you could take any guy right now to run your program, I think, I mean, it sounds like the dumbest question because it's college football and it's Saban, but then you go, what's up with Dabo? Is Lincoln third? Yeah, I would have, you know, before this, I would have said maybe Chris Peterson,

but I think with what you see with what Lincoln's done, and granted, he has a really good situation. He has great leadership above him and his AD jokes to go on is probably the best in the country. But I would say right now, Lincoln has moved into that number three spot because of just, he is so good at making things fit to the talent he had. And I don't think he has anywhere near as much talent as the guy the two guys you know that people would say are above him and that's dabble and and and saban so you know i don't know how i don't know if he's going to be here 10 years from now i don't know if he's going to be there five years from now but he is got it going at oklahoma and just to see them go from back to back number one pick and there doesn't

seem to be a lot of drop off that's really hard to do you were running through it and you're actually making a really good point because you know Bama that's their non-conference they're going to win the rest of their non-conference they've got LSU at home um they're at Auburn right because that usually flips um so you're like okay like who has an easier path them or what clemson has in the acc not like i was expecting louisville to to hang with notre dame uh that was a really weird game to begin with but um yeah just just give me a breakdown of clemson versus the rest of the acc because we thought it was easy last year and it might be easier this year yeah the only the only conference that is even more top-heavy

and one-dimensional, one-team-oriented than where the SEC is right now is the ACC. There's nobody close to Clemson talent-wise. Clemson has a much easier path. Look, there are rivals they play in. They just lost to a North Carolina team that won like two games last year. So you look at it. I don't see anybody who can get close to to Clemson. And then when they, you know, when they roll through their division and go play in a conference title game,

at least Alabama probably has to play Georgia, who has a lot of talent. You know, what is Clemson going to get? A Miami team that's probably, in reality, 8-4-ish? Now, Miami plays after Florida. They don't really have anybody. To me, the second-best team in the conference is Dino Babers' team at Syracuse, who's actually matched up and played Clemson better than anybody. The crazy thing about what Fabers has done there, you know, this being a Northeast guy, I mean, Syracuse football was completely left for dead

for like the last decade. He goes in there with his, you know, he's got a big personality. He is kind of, you know, he is, he is kind of a out there guy a little bit. He's got a big sense of charisma. But if you look at what he's done there, he hasn't had any recruiting classes ranked in the top 50. And yet when you look at what they've got personnel-wise, they've got a lot of long, fast kids, and they've got a bunch of speed. And if anybody can even hang with Clemson in that conference, I think it's Syracuse.

But I mean, just to say this again, we're talking about a team that's like the average recruiting class under Dino Babers, like number 55. That's the state of the ACC right now. When you have certainly Florida State and Miami still kind of spinning their wheels and trying to get out of the gutter at this point of where they've been the last few years usc held on jt goes down um this is arguably then their third qb with the sears transfer uh you know fresno fresno didn't you know sometimes these carryovers in every espn game they were throwing showing last year's record on there and you're like okay well this one for fresno is misleading based on the team we have out there now from a personnel drop off but um I don't know I was really excited to see what this team looked like with with Daniels

with another year with Graham at as the OC and we all know like it's just basically this USC fan base it's it's so odd and that it's like every week, it's just waiting to figure out if they want this guy fired again or not. And. Oh, they want them fired. I mean, yeah, I mean,

obviously they want Helton fire, but go ahead. No, I, I think you look at them. I went to their last scrimmage of this, of this summer and you kind of reminded, wow,

they have some really athletic, big receivers. And you, you watch the game late Saturday night. You saw reminded, wow, they have some really athletic big receivers. And you watch the game late Saturday night. You saw that with Tyler Vaughn and Pittman, and they have some really good young skill guys. They don't have like a wow running back there, which is USC almost, you know, when they're good, almost always does.

I think their defense is okay. Their offensive line is at best okay. And all that stuff adds up to, you know, you should be an eight or nine win team. Here's the problem with them is, first of all, their schedule is pretty loaded in the first six games. It's going to get heavier. We have them in a couple of weeks on a Friday night against Utah, who is way more physical than them and more experienced. Now they've got a true freshman quarterback, Keaton Slovis, who wasn't a huge recruit. I think probably is better off two years from now being in the battle, but he actually outplayed Jack Sears and was the guy who got the number two role. That's part of

why I think Jack Sears put his name in the portal and decided to leave. So now they have two scholarship quarterbacks and the guy they're relying on is the true freshman. You wonder where the leadership in the locker room of that place is going to be, because what happens when real adversity hits, when they lose the game and the buzzards are already circling that Clay Helton's getting fired. And I suspect in the relatively near future, the AD Lin Swan is going to get pushed out of there for them to get, for USC to get ready for the inevitable that they're going to have to

have a coaching search. And to me, here's the problem USC has had, is that if they were to win 10 games, go 10 and two, I still think there's a huge portion of USC people going, are we now convinced that this is the guy who should be our head coach moving forward? Because if it's constantly a wait and see with him, and he's on the hot seat this year, you can't recruit that way.

I mean, last year they had the worst recruiting class they've had in such a long time, probably three dates to Pete Carroll era. And it's only going to get worse. There's a pretty good class in state right now, relatively compared to the last few years. And a lot of those kids, they're going to Clemson, they're going to LSU, they're going to Oregon, they're not staying at USC. And I think that's going to make it almost impossible for Clay Helton to keep his job unless they have something short of a miraculous turnaround under this true freshman quarterback. And it just hasn't really worked. Everybody likes Clay personally, but they just don't feel like the fit is right.

And I think it's just losing momentum with every decision they make. Were you surprised with UCLA's first game? I was, I mean, I was out, I spent a day over there a few days beforehand and they are, they are much bigger. They're more athletic.

Now, having said all that, I, and I saw them do a lot of funky stuff with motions and shifts. And I could see where, if you have, if could see where if you're operating at full capacity, I could see that could give people problems. I did not know their best player, Darnay Holmes, was not going to be able to play.

Theo Howard is probably their most experienced receiver. He was 50-50. Josh Kelly, I didn't know who's by far their best running back. I didn't know he was going to play. And the two areas where they really have depth issues is the offensive line at linebacker. They were missing, I think, a three-year starter at guard who didn't play. So all those things, I'm like, yeah, it doesn't shock me that they lost. Cincinnati's pretty good and it was on the road. I was surprised at how sloppy their

young quarterback looked. Dorian Thompson-Robinson. He's got a big arm. He can run. But it just looked like he was a really young quarterback trying to figure it out and look lost a little bit. That doesn't mean that they're going to go 3-9

again. I think they're going to be a lot better. But they definitely stubbed their toe. I'm curious to see how much better they will be from go 3-9 again. I think they're going to be a lot better, but they definitely stubbed their toe. I'm curious to see how much better they will be from week one to week two because playing Rocky Long in San Diego State is not a cupcake. They struggle with this, and they lose, and then they're staring at 0-3 because our crew has the game next week when Oklahoma comes in here. Whether they win this game or not, they're going to be a big underdog.

And, you know, then all of a sudden you're dealing with mounting pressure, but I thought they were going to be a lot better. I still think they're going to be a lot better, but that was a surprise to me week one. So before I wrap up here, then kind of just rounding out the rest of the Pac-12, Eason, who I feel like is completely off the radar

transfer-wise, maybe just because he's where he was up there, and maybe some people, or at least in the Northwest, have no idea how good he actually looked at times at Georgia. And they put up big numbers. Not a huge surprise there. There's an argument to be made between Washington, Oregon. I'm sure there's some people like Utah, a lot of the ESPN analysts.

I thought it was, I just thought it was interesting. I'm not, I'm not, I could care less that they had Utah in the playoff, but do you, do you sit here today feeling like you think one of those three teams is better than the others? I think Utah is probably the best of those three. They have the easiest path. But I also think this is Kyle Whittingham's best defensive line he's ever had there. They got a lot of speed in the secondary. I think Zach Moss is a terrific running back.

They have experience as a quarterback. And I just think that they are the most physical team on the West Coast. And they have a real identity with Kyle Whittingham. The other programs we're talking about, I think Oregon is still kind of figuring it out. I look at Washington, and I thought it was an impressive debut for Jacob Easton. I want to see it consistently from him,

and I want to see it against some better competition. I you know, better competition. I think they're really good. I think they're a 10 win team, but when I picked it, I picked Utah over Washington just because I feel like they are, they are just a little more comfortable in their identity. Whereas I did a bunch of Washington games last year and I just thought offensively they were shaky and now they went from a four-year starter and had the best running back they've ever had. And miles Gaskin,

those guys are gone. And I, I, I just have more confidence right now in Utah. I mean, I don't think they'll win the national title, but I think they're a really tough team. And unless you see them in person at field level,

I think you don't really appreciate how physical and big and tough they are. And I'm kind of riding with that right now. You can check out Bruce's work on the athletic, probably one of the best homes for college football going right now. I can't believe all the guys that you put together and we'll see on the sidelines for Fox as well. So thanks, man. All right.

Always a pleasure, Ryan. Thanks. Hey, want to thank you again for our first episode of the Ryan Russillo podcast at The Ringer. Three a week. We'll do another one here on Thursday. Then once the NFL starts, we'll be picking them up mostly Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I want to also remind you to check out Hotel Tonight.

I'll be checking them out this weekend as I head to Austin for LSU. Hotel Tonight shows you incredible deals at cool hotels you actually want to stay at. Score an extra amazing deal with Hotel Tonight's daily drop feature. Unlock a special deal at a hotel selected just for you and snag it within 15 minutes. If you want to swipe again, you can unlock a new deal every day. Go to Hoteldonight.com or download

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