Will Cain Country - Let's Get Controversial!: Moving From Politics To College Football Playoffs

Episode Date: November 15, 2024

On this episode of The Will Cain Show's sports edition, Will takes a break from a long few weeks in politics to discuss something many find even more controversial: who is going to be in the College Football playoffs? Will sits down with Host of ‘Andy & Ari On3’ and College Football writer, Andy Staples, to discuss the biases around the different programs and conferences and how they are viewed in the rankings. Plus, another week of 'Will Versus The Experts' where both Will & Andy make predictions on the biggest games in College Football and the NFL this weekend. Tell Will what you thought about this podcast by emailing [e-mail] Subscribe to The Will Cain Show on YouTube here: Watch The Will Cain Show! Follow Will on Twitter: @WillCain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Let's all take a break for a moment from politics and all that divisive polling and exit polls and dive into the oh so peaceful world of college football playoff. It's the Will Kane Show normally streaming live every Monday through Thursday at 12 o'clock Eastern Time at foxnews.com on the Fox News YouTube channel and the Fox News Facebook page. Always on demand and available on Apple or Spotify. Just hit subscribe. I haven't been able to talk about sports much lately. My mind as yours has been dominated by politics, by America. But I love sports. I'm watching sports. I'll be watching Texas versus Arkansas. I'll be watching a ton of college football games. And there is, sadly,

but expectedly, not a lot of peace around the rankings in the college football playoff. So today we have joining us from On 3 covering college football, Andy Staples, the host of Andy and Ari on 3. We're going to break down Will versus the experts, five games to pick this weekend and talk about bias in college football. Here's Andy Staples. Fox News Audio presents Unsolved with James Patterson. Every crime tells the story, but some stories are left unfinished.

Somebody knows. Real cases, real people. Listen and follow now at Foxtruecrime.com. Hey, I'm Trey Gowdy host of the TradeGatty podcast. I hope you will join me every Tuesday and Thursday as we navigate life together and hopefully find ourselves a little bit better on the other side. Listen and follow now at Fox News Podcast.com. From the Fox News Podcasts Network. Hey there, it's me. Kennedy, make sure to check out my podcast. Kennedy saves the world. It is five days a week, every week. Download and listen at foxnewspodcast.com or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. We're joined now by college football reporter covers college football.

But On 3 is also the host of Andy and Ari on three. It's Andy Staples here on the Will Kane Show. What's up, Andy? Oh, doing good. Well, how are you doing? I'm good. I'm good. I am relieved to take a moment, to take a breather here to not talk about political polls or political races, but to return to the more controversial side of polling,

and that is college football, which you are very well-versed and ready to have that conversation with me. But it's literally more controversial, more heated, more tense. Everybody's mad, Andy. A lot more parties. That's why. You know, you've got the two-party system in politics. You got the 134 party system in FBS football. And the passion is probably similar,

but all politics are local takes on a whole new meaning when there's that many localities. Okay, let's start here. I'm going to have you work with me today. I'm going to do Will versus the experts. We're going to work through five games. We're probably going to lean a little heavily on college football. And so will this discussion today, because it is your wheelhouse, you're the expert.

But if I ask you, almost like a political constituency, who do you think is the most rightfully aggrieved fan base in college football? Right now, it would be SMU. because SMU and Miami are basically the same thing. If we look at their resumes, both of them have a loss. SMU's loss is probably the better loss if we're doing better losses because they lost to currently undefeated BYU and Miami lost to Georgia Tech. But they're in the same conference.

They have the same best win. Both of them won at Louisville. It is the same team and yet they are five spots apart. Now, Ward Manual, the chair of the college football playoff selection committee got asked about this and the gist of his answer was cam ward the miami quarterback's really fun to watch which i agree with he is very fun to watch but so is Kevin jennings and uh smu is really tough run on and miami's defense has been suspect so like if i were the smu folks i'd be saying look this this is kind of a brand bias thing going on here because is it because they just came from the american

athletic conference to the acc or people not quite ready for them to be successful at that level yet but I'm not sure what it is, but they should be right together because they are pretty much the same thing. Let's talk about brand bias, and there are two different types of biases. And by the way, Rhett Lashley, the head coach at SMU has really done a good job, I think, of laying this out. But let's just start with brand bias. They may be inseparable, the two, brand bias and league bias. But the idea is certain college football brands just get the benefit of the doubt. And then you could even do it a little more cynically in saying the college football

playoff committee needs these big brands in the playoffs for big television ratings and then big, big dollars. But when, you know, my friend, former colleague, college football contrarian, Danny Cannell is on this, like constantly, on this idea of brand bias. He hates it. I think he... Number one, ACC. I don't know how much...

Yes. I know. I don't know how much is self-serving with Danny. and I would say it to his face because I think Florida State is a beneficiary despite what happened last year of brand bias only when pitted up against the biggest brands out there but like certainly a team like SMU

the brand bias comes in right away and that's what Connell would say meaning preseason rankings you have nothing. You have no reason to know who is the best 25 teams in the country so you're basically ranking and you let me amend that Andy it's not no reason we can look at

talent base holdovers, first we can look at a lot of things that we think will impact what actually happens but we're guessing we're guessing and we're using brand bias with preseason polls and more so than ever now because teams change so much and it's weird because the the brand bias league bias thing is is a true thing you know the SEC and the big 10 will get the benefit of the doubt over everybody else the SEC usually will get more benefit of the doubt and then you've got the brands within the leagues. Like within the SEC, Alabama is going to get more benefit of the doubt than South

Carolina. And, you know, in this case, what we're talking about SMU, it is a within league thing because Miami's brand is getting more credit than SMU's brand, even though they're both in the ACC. But then it'll be interesting if it's, you know, down the line, you're trying to decide who gets in the playoff, like who gets that last spot. And it's between whoever lost the SMU Miami ACCCC championship game. Well, what if they're up against Alabama? A two-loss Alabama, because there's a distinct possibility, that's what we're talking about, or a two-loss, Georgia, or I don't know you don't want to hear this, a two-loss Texas. Yeah, I'll get there in a moment to what I think, how this plays out within the leagues.

But to stay on this brand thing for a moment, so the idea of bias, by the way, this applies to any kind of bias that we talk about, is that it's usually, it's subversive. it's always subversive because if it's not subversive it's it's prejudiced meaning it's playing a role lurking in the recesses of our minds but i don't think it's it's wholly um to be dismissed either in terms of it's all nefarious and negative like we have reasons that we believe in certain brands and those reasons are not without merit they're not without without without you know some justification. We can look and see, and I don't think we do this, but we intuitively know, like, how many five stars are on the Alabama roster? How many five stars are on the Texas

roster? How many years in a row have we seen dominance from one of these programs? And then we have to balance that, which I think some of that is fair. By the way, another component, the eye test, like, and I know the eye test is hard because it's always like, it's comparing to things that are not on the same field at the same time, but we do see. the way in which I don't know Miami loses to Georgia Tech versus the way that Alabama

loses to Vanderbilt. We can look at these things and we form opinions but we have to be measuring that against results on the field like record. Well, right, because it's not there's not an objective way to do it like the NFL has

and the NFL also has a way to keep it competitively balanced that college football doesn't have. So you can't really have have with the way the leagues are set up in college football, you can't have objective criteria to put teams into the playoff. And to your point about the eye test and brand bias and all that, I think what a lot of people don't understand is like the college football playoff committee, other people, they're using a lot of analytics and statistics that the linemakers use. They're using kind of power rankings like a linemaker would use.

linemakers in Vegas are not they don't have a bias toward the SEC they have a bias toward not losing money for their casino and so I actually trust them more than I trust anybody else and if you look at a lot of these power rankings

they kind of mimic or well the playoff committee rankings kind of mimic those like that's how your Alabama's and your Ohio states keep coming back up even when they don't do as well as you think they're going to do that's a really interesting point about the betting lines they they would not be subjected to the brand bias they would be looking to find the perfect line to to make and make the most and lose

the least amount of money um do you think i've seen somebody say this recently andy that congress airs their their uh their committee meetings often and they debates on the floor on c span the college football playoff committee should also you know exhibit that same level of transparency, and we should be able to see what goes on in these debates when we come out with the rankings for college football. I would love that. I would love that. But it's funny because now that you mention it in terms of like a congressional committee meeting, I don't want that because you know what happens every time somebody asks a question in one of those committee. It's a total grandstanding moment. Like they've got their whole speech prepared. I don't want

that. I want the interneas. I want to see what that committee argues about behind closed doors. I want I want the yelling match between, no, we can't drop Georgia this far, no, we got to keep Miami here. Like, that's exactly what I want to see. And I would actually pay extra to get that. So if you, listen, these guys are always looking for new revenue streams. You get, you'd have my 10 bucks. I would love it.

And, but see, I, I would tend to think, like, you just made the argument if they're, if they're using these analytics and power rankings and they're, and they're becoming more like Vegas that that would help with what we would believe when we hear what they put into it. But then, like you said, when you make an argument that, well, it's exciting to see Cam Ward, but you don't mention Kevin Jennings from SMU, then I'm like, this is going to be a huge embarrassment. If we get to see the debate, it's going to be a huge embarrassment for college football. Yeah.

And the other thing is everybody would take everybody's history because everybody comes from somewhere in the case of the college football playoff selection committee, you've got sitting athletic directors you've got people who were you know stars at certain schools people who are coaches at certain schools and everybody's just going to be trying to figure out the buy like why does he like this team and not this team is it because he he lost to this team when he was a coach or like it it would get pretty silly again i still want to see it but you're right it would because because that would be interesting like you would have the we love cam more thing and then somebody's not Somebody's blanking on Kevin Jennings' name.

They're like, that quarterback at SMU, the one who came in in the middle of the season and they can't think of his name, like, it would look bad. So let's get started now on Will v. The Experts. We'll continue this conversation behind the scenes of what goes into the college football playoff rankings, but it's going to be impacted by the games this week. So we have five games that we're going to pick together. And I pick games, Andy, that I'm interested in watching. But the truth is, I probably have more than five.

and I'll explain as we go. But I will obviously be watching Texas versus Arkansas. It is at Arkansas. Texas is favored by 16 and a half. The Texas that we saw last week against Florida looked like a Texas that's back on track offensively. They've been good defensively all year. It looked like, okay, if that's what the Quinn Ewers is that we get,

and that's the offense that we get, yeah, I could see them. I could see them easily covering the 16. but Arkansas hates Texas, hates them. People don't realize, like, if you're ranking rivalries, it goes, you know, A&M, OU, 1A, and 1B, and then it's Arkansas, but it's more one-sided. Like, they hate Texas, and they're gear up for this game. But Arkansas does nothing but think about Texas.

Right, right. And I don't know, it's the kind of game that in the past, until I think Texas has arrived recently as one of these teams that you should consider as a national title contender. In the past, this would have terrified me. So I'm actually leaning towards taking the 16.5. I think Texas wins, but I don't think they blow out Arkansas.

So if this game had been a month ago, I would have said this spread is free money. You just take Arkansas to cover. Doesn't matter if they win or not. They're not going to lose by more than two touchdowns. Because they do have a salty defense. Landon Jackson is one of the best pass rushers in the country. You saw them shut down Tennessee's offense when they beat Tennessee.

and it's like, okay, this is going to be fine. Even if Quinn Ewer's has a big day, like Tailing Green's going to have a big day on the other side, I just, they're not the same. Joaquin and Jackson, their best running back has been hurt. Defensively, they've not been as good. That last game, the last time we saw them was against Ole Miss. And one of those embarrassing performances you've ever seen a defense have.

They have 365 yards through the air, and Jackson Darnock only attempted 28 passes. that's 16 and a half yards per attempt like that's obscene it does not happen and i think when you were in texas are going to bring like texas has more talented receivers than old miss did that day because trey harris wasn't playing and i i think texas had its get right game against florida i think they're they're looking better that they did struggle against georgia didn't look great against vanderbilt you know they are they they seem to have figured some things out so i think texas is going to actually win this game fairly easily, cover the spread, which is crazy because you're right about

how much Arkansas hates Texas. The last time Texas went to Arkansas, they stormed the field after beating Texas. But I just don't know that Arkansas at this point in the season is there to compete with Texas. I just don't know if they're capable of it right now. Okay, I hope that I'm wrong and that you're right. So another game that I'll be watching now, and the audience knows just I've talked about it. My nephew plays for Clemson, so I watch Clemson every weekend. Now, it's my second favorite team. Clemson has Pitt at Pitt. Clemson's favored by nine and a half. Now this time, Andy, I think Clemson's a better team. It's interesting what's happened in the last two weeks. Like two weeks ago, it was really exciting. We had all these one loss or no lost teams in

all of the conferences, and it was about to shake out. And it kind of has for Pitt. And they lost Eli Holstein. And so I, they're quarterback. So I do feel pretty good. Clemson's an up and down team. Like there's moments offensively where you're like, oh, Clubnik's ready and he's NFL level like the rest of these guys you're talking about. There's other moments where you're like, it keeps grinding in the gears. I can't figure out why this team isn't reliable offensively. But I still, I'm taking Clemson. I'm with you on that one. I think Pittsburgh, you had a feeling. They started out seven and oh but as you watch them in those those games right before the smu game you thought okay this team's going to turn into a pumpkin at some point and they did against smu and then

smu is really good but then they go lose to virginia eli holstein's banged up pat and arduzzi says it's a game time decision this week and and if he can't play or if he's limited i just don't think they have much of a chance against clemson clemson is a good team it's not a great team kate clubnick is a good quarterback. I'm not sure he's a great quarterback. Clemson's defense is pretty good. Maybe not as good as we hyped them up to me. If you saw the Louisville game, Louisville was just running right through him. But I don't think Pitt has the weapons to do that, especially if Holstein's not 100% are not playing. I think Clemson wins this one and wins by double digits. You know, this is one of those games where

you expect Clubnik to play pretty well. Those young Clemson receivers have come on as the season's gone on. And I love Phil Moppa. I just think, you know, he's been, he's had to play on some inconsistent offenses, but he's, he's a lot of fun. Okay, so here's where I want to talk about league bias now. So I think it's fair actually to say if Clemson loses this game or any other game, they're out of the conversation. Climson is going to lose South Carolina will. I'm telling you right now, Clemson's going to lose itself. Oh, they will? Yeah. And then out. And then out, if that's the case right you're done three losses coming from the acc and those those would be not losses i don't know if you brag about losses but they're not they're not losses that you're happy about the um

but the thing is this is where ret lashley comes back in and we talk about league buys and he does make a really good point first of all he says hey look at us in the acc and and look at our record right now against the big 10 um against the cc we're in good shape so tell me why this is the case Tell me why if Miami loses to Georgia Tech, that's a bad loss. But if Alabama loses to Vanderbilt, that's like, oh, tough deep league. He's pointing out, and I do think it's very fair. But he's pointing out the way this is seen by the committee, in your mind, in Andy Staples' mind, and perhaps in reality. But he's pointing out that the college football playoff committee treats losses in the SEC as evidence of a deep league and losses in the ACC as bad losses.

for the loser of that game. And how this adds up and matters is, who's going to get more than one, more than two bids in the college football playoff, right? And if Big 12 and ACC are the one bid, maybe two bid conferences, they have a legitimate complaint when it comes to seeing, like, I guess what we'll be looking at

is maybe a three-loss SEC team. Well, and I don't think you're going to get a three-loss SEC team in the playoffs. South Carolina would be the one if it was probably. But I just don't think that's going to happen. I think there's going to be two lost SEC teams left out of the playoff the way things are going. But, you know, Lashley correctly pointed out, the ACC is not ahead of the SEC in record. They are ahead of it. They're over 500 against the Big Ten this year, not against the SEC.

There are more chances against the SEC. So, for instance, the Georgia Tech win against Miami, is that a bad loss for Miami? Well, it's a lot less bad if Georgia Tech beats Georgia. Georgia Tech beats Georgia, that it doesn't look like a bad loss at all for Miami. It's like, oh, they're pretty good. And I think if you've watched Georgia Tech when Haynes King is playing, they're pretty good. So I, and I was at Ole Miss Georgia last week. Like, would it shock me if Georgia Tech is in that game with Georgia for four quarters?

Not at all. So that's one. Clemson, South Carolina will be another one. I know I said I think South Carolina is going to win, and I do. But if Clemson can win that one, that would be very helpful. if Louisville could finally beat Kentucky, for whatever reason they can't. But if they could,

which they should this year, that would be very helpful for the ACC. So those are the things that they got to win those games and they haven't been winning most of those games. But, you know, this year Miami crushes Florida out of the gate. Now, Florida's not a good SEC team, but that's still a good win and a resounding win. It wasn't like a skin of their teeth win.

But, yeah, I mean, that's, that's the thing. All that stuff matters. Vanderbilt, Virginia Tech matters. Vanderbilt beat Virginia Tech in overtime. That matters too. Well, we're not picking these games. These are on my list of five games.

But, like, I will be paying attention this weekend to, for example, Utah, Colorado, and Kansas, BYU. And because they feel like they have real playoff implications, right? So if BYU, and I guess we would call Kansas a bad loss, although I think they're a better team than what, what are they three and six? Not what I think Kansas will be at the end. I'm picking Kansas to beat BYU. Kansas is not a bad team.

What does that do to BYU? What does that do to the Big 12? Well, the Big 12 is going to be one big league anyway. Whoever wins the Big 12 is going to the playoff and nobody else is. I guess maybe if BYU got through undefeated and then lost a close Big 12 championship game, they would have a good chance of getting an at large. But they, like I said about Pitt when they were 7 and O, like BYU has lived very dangerously. the last few weeks. I don't think they're going to make it to 12-0.

If they do great, then by all means, we'll talk about it, we'll have a different conversation, and they'll have a chance to be an at-large if they don't just win the Big 12th. Like Colorado, they're playing the best of the Big 12 right now. They're the other team that controls this destiny for the conference championship game.

They've lost the Kansas State in Nebraska. They're not making the playoff if they don't win the Big 12. but that's but andy forget we have to set aside nebraska for a minute but the kansas state like okay is that a bad loss kansas state's a no it's not a bad loss but Nebraska's a bad loss Nebraska's a bad loss what i'm wondering about the big 12 is and i hear you saying they're only one that one would be the conference champion so if that's b yu they're undefeated presumably i guess a one lost team still get into the conference championship game they could win it either way

it's all good yeah but if b yu takes that up you don't think kansas state or colorado could get in because they would at that point be a three lost team right but if one of those teams runs the table they're a two lost team they're the conference champion they're in how big is the fight for b yu to get that at large with one loss i mean call it the big 12 yeah if they're 12 and 1 i think they're going to have a chance to get in but they're also going to be fighting against now what's interesting is If they're 12 and 1, I wouldn't want to be Indiana in that situation if Indiana were to lose to Ohio State and be 11 and 1 because that's a tough conversation to have there. Two one lost teams, but Indiana, you play the who have you beat game.

It's not, it doesn't look good. BYU has beaten SMU. That looks very good. And then they'll have beaten some good big 12 teams. They'll have beaten somebody good, you know, probably along the same. away in the big 12. Kansas State, they beat pretty badly. So we'll see if, you know, where Kansas State ends up, if Kansas State ends up with a very good record, that's going to look good too. So that would be an uncomfortable conversation, uncomfortable conversation

with Indiana, BYU. Yeah, some of these two lost SEC teams, it would be an uncomfortable conversation. I mentioned if Texas were to lose the Texas A&M, like, they don't, like, Texas doesn't want to have to play the who have you beaten game with anybody because their best wins Vanderbilt. Yeah, the Texas thing is always hard for me to stomach. I know it's reality, but when you schedule the defending national champion, Michigan, you've got Georgia. It's not their fault that Michigan stunk this year.

It's not, yeah, right, and oh, you. Yeah, I mean, on paper at the beginning of the season, I know people like, oh, it's one of the easier SEC schedules. I'm like, yeah, but it's one of the worst schedules in the country. And as it turns out, okay, those teams aren't as good as we thought they were going to be this year. I'm having trouble with this I don't know

brand bias Indiana let's do that for a minute do you think Indiana is being disrespected not anymore I think I think people have figured out like you look at where they're ranked in the CFP rankings I think they're getting the respect they deserve

they've not played a particularly hard schedule but they've kicked the crap out of almost everybody they've played this Michigan game last week is the closest game they played all year every other game was 14 points or more So I think they are getting the proper amount of respect and then they'll play Ohio State and we'll have a much better idea of how to evaluate them. I think they're going to play well against Ohio State.

I don't think Ohio State is going to blow them out. Yeah, but what I hear you saying is we're going to end up in a situation, I mean a possible situation, maybe a probable situation of one lost BYU, one loss, Indiana, two lost SEC team, maybe Texas. One lost Miami. And who gets in? I'm sorry, one lost Miami is a champion. But, yeah, two lost Miami, two loss SMU that played in a conference championship game, either one.

It's going to be interesting. And it's also going to be interesting. Like here's another wrinkle to it that we've been talking about this week that I hadn't thought about until this week. For the SEC, they're a very good chance to two lost SEC team gets into the SEC championship game and then takes loss number three in the SEC championship game. do you then punish that team by leaving them out of the playoff because they had to play in the conference championship? Like that doesn't seem fair either.

But that's a scenario that you could be headed toward. There's a lot of weird. And I think when they came up with this plan, it was a world of college football that was very different. It was because they actually started talking about this plan before NIL, before the transfer rules got changed.

And the sport, was a lot more stratified there was a there were two or three teams that could actually compete for the national title and there were a couple more down you know one level lower and then everybody else now i don't think it's like that i think there's probably 10 teams that can compete for the national title and then another 15 right below that are just kind of a notch different so i think when they created this 12 team field they were thinking that's probably going to be too many teams and now they're realizing oh no there's going to be a lot of teams that feel rightly aggrieved when they get left out of here right it felt like it was going to be easy

in the debate between 12 and 13 with not that impactful and now it does feel like we've got you described as 10 potential national champions and and then the 15 teams a notch below what that is to me is like any of them can beat one of those top 10 teams there's just no domination right now Awesome for the sport. It's great for the sport. It's what everybody's wanted out of this sport for the last 20 years. It's just the sports

having a hard time dealing with it right now. But ultimately, for the viewers, it's great. Yeah, just not for some fan bases. All right, last one, Tennessee in college football, Tennessee, Georgia. It's at Georgia. Georgia's favored by 10. So this is an elimination game, right?

This should be a playoff. elimination game for georgia and i think i'm i'm taking i'm taking georgia by the way i'll take georgia well it's elimination game for georgia but tennessee only has one loss so it's not necessarily an elimination game for tennessee they've got a winning against alabama so if you're comparing a two lost tennessee to two lost alabama you're probably putting tennessee ahead but or maybe you're not because then alabama would have a win against georgia but tennessee wouldn't So it's going to get very interesting. Now, this game is fascinating because Georgia is not what they have been.

They're not the dominant, just better players than everybody else. That's not what they are. And Tennessee is not what it has been, which is a chuck it all around the field, try to outscore everybody. Tennessee is a really good defense, and they're capable of winning in a slog, and I think this game is going to be a slog. I don't think Georgia's offense is going to score much on Tennessee's defense. And I'm not sure Tennessee's offense is capable of scoring much on Georgia's defense either. Nico I.M. Aliava, the quarterback for Tennessee, took a big hit against Mississippi State. They weren't sure if he's going to play. It sounds like he's going to play now.

But I still don't necessarily see Tennessee being able to put up a ton of points. This is a low-scoring game, and it's going to probably come down to who wins the turnover battle. I took Tennessee to cover because I thought that was just way too many points. but I don't like I don't have any confidence picking a winner I think it'll be low scoring in close but I'm not sure who wins I've watched a lot of Georgia Andy and Georgia just hasn't been very good I mean honestly the Texas game is an outlier maybe the Clemson game as well well at the beginning of the Texas game and Georgia's defense was amazing in the Texas game that's the best game their defense has played all year and the offense awful was not good

in that game. Right, right. That's what I was going to say. But didn't they go up and what they give up to Ole Miss, 35? Was that what it ended up being? I don't remember what the final score was. They were holding them to field goals at first and then the dam broke and Ole Miss started scoring touchdowns.

But Ole Miss was moving the ball at will and Georgia could not move the ball at all. George's only touchdown came off an interception early in the game where they had a short field. And that's like honestly, that's what they're going to have to do to beat Tennessee. see. It's forced some turnovers, take advantage of short fields. That's what they did to Texas. They had one good drive against Texas. Right. The other four scoring drives were

35 yards or less. And we've seen Tennessee, by the way, have trouble on offense. So that's a possibility for Georgia. So what I'm getting at is Georgia's game against Texas being an outlier and you're absolutely right to focus on the defensive side of the ball does kind of make you look back and go,

was that one Georgia's dominant performance or does that show that we're overrating Texas. And I'm trying to say that with objectivity. Of course, my answer, I think, I actually do believe in Texas. I think they're really good. But I think that you have to analyze Georgia in that game and say, were they just, in hockey terms, standing on their head in that game, where's Texas offense, which is shocking to say with Quinn Ewers and all that talented receiver and Steve Sarkisian to say, um, Texas offense ain't what you think it is. Yeah, the shocking thing to me about that game, Will, was the Texas offensive lines

an ability to handle Mikel Williams and Jalen Carter or not Jalen Carter I'm sorry Jalen Walker that was because I I had seen Texas's offensive line in person it's Michigan's D-line which is very good and Michigan could do anything against that group and that Texas group has guys like Kelvin Banks is going to be a very high draft pick and so I was shocked to see how well Georgia performed against that group I would like to see them against somebody like that again because I think I'd like to see if it was different or is it the same. That's why I actually love that we're not going to get to see this under any circumstances, I don't

think. But Texas, South Carolina would be such a fun matchup because South Carolina is the best team in the country at rushing the passer from the edge. So the Texas tackles against those edges, like we'd know if they were for real or not within about a quarter. well we'll see a and m and a and m's got a pretty studly defense line yeah next court will be will be just fine as a as a stand in for for cow canard and and dylan stewart so all right andy also knows uh pro football so i'm going to do two pro football games here to round out will versus the experts first raven's taking on the steelers in pittsburgh it's a three point game it's a new steelers russell wilson time uh but i i don't

know. I, Derek Henry, Lamar Jackson, I've got too many, I've got I'm over-invested in the Ravens fantasy-wise, and that, it's like every other week, that pays off really well or it doesn't. Like, Zayflowers, I have all the Zay Flowers and Devonte Smiths of the world where I'm going to get 30

or zero. You know, I'm going to get on my fantasy team. But I'll take the Ravens. I like the Ravens, sir. I was checking to see what Kyle Hamilton's status was in this game, because I think he makes a huge difference for them defensively. But like Derek Henry, he's a cyborg.

Like running backs aren't supposed to be able to do this anymore. At his age, you're just not supposed to be able to do what he's doing. It's been fun to watch, and I think it helps Lamar so much. And Lamar having legitimate targets to throw to. Like, Zay Flowers, I love, you know, Isaiah Likelykely, Mark Andrews. Like, they just, they've done a good job putting weapons. around Lamar, whereas they didn't necessarily have those before. Obviously, the Steelers pass rush is pretty scary, but it's Lamar Jackson.

Like, you don't worry about him. And then Russell, as good as he's looked, since he got named the starter in Pittsburgh, I think the Ravens defense can change that. They can make him look a little more like Justin Fields. your point of Derek Henry is like first of all he's a cyborg as a specimen just size speed he's a I don't know if you've met Derek I met Derek once oh yeah I have he's gigantic yeah and but here's the part the cyborg that that we should say being a physical running back like that and doing it this late in his career at his age I don't even know if there's a comp to that like Earl Campbell

didn't last this long running that way. And so I don't know. Nobody did. You know, all the guys, if you think about Christian Akoye, who was the other Kansas city guy, Barry, what was his name, was Akoye? And I can't remember. Barry Word. I mean, those guys had like three years running that way.

And this guy's been doing it forever. Yeah, it's, we're never going to see it again. You know, I would look at it, they were talking about some of his numbers relative to some of the Hall of Fame backs. And guys just can't have. have as many carries in the NFL anymore because defenders are so much bigger, stronger, faster than they used to be. The fact that he is doing this now, it is kind of a throwback and enjoy it because I just don't know that another human being is going to come along that's

capable of doing it. I thought of the comp, though. I'll give you a more modern day comp who pulled it off. Jerome Bettis. So that's, he did it for a long time running this way, being a big dude. yeah and he's a hall of famer so there canry be all right fine this is the big game of the weekend in pro football it's tennessee georgia and college football and it's the kansas city chiefs buffalo bills in the nfell it's in buffalo buffalo favored by two to me you talked about b yu i kind of feel the same way about kansas city they've been living dangerously a lot and but at the same time you know you keep placing that bet on black and it keeps ending up red you after a while you get little little gun shy, Betting against Kansas,

they do just keep winning despite they shouldn't be. But it's got to be the time for Buffalo. It's got to, this is, now or never for the bills. And so I'm taking the bills. The problem with this is, yes, this is probably their spot to win it. And then they'll play them in January and lose. And it's going to be back to the drawing board. Because I'm with you.

Like the chiefs have got, I think they've finally run out of different ways to win by the skin of their teeth. Like the blocking the field goal at the very end of the game, that's the last frontier. There's not another way to win. Well, maybe there is. Like, who knows? Maybe they intercept a two-point conversion and run it back for a safety or something insane like that.

I don't know. But it feels like they've run out of ways to win very close game. So I am with you. I will take the bills in this game, not for any other reason than probability. says the chiefs can't keep this up. Right. Now here's what's going to ruin our probability. I think this may happen.

At some point, DeAndre Hopkins sort of has found the fountain of youth. And then he's, even if he's 70% of what he used to be, DeAndre Hopkins with Patrick Mahomes totally changes Kansas City's offense. You've got Kelsey Hopkins and then the other supplements around them. That's kind of scary. And they figure out how to use it. If DeAndreis was given to them. yes yeah yeah if they figure out

to use Xavier Worthy that's that's when it's like okay they skated through all these games and now they're the machine that they've always been in Kansas City all right and just like watching Carson Steel become a star for them has been you just know like I watch that dude inaction before he transferred to UCLA and you're like oh I wonder what NFL team's going to figure out how to use this guy

oh Andy Reid did by the way that's a little level of college football fandom that I've never been able to reach, someone like you or some of the guys at Barstall have been able to reach it, watching Macion. I have never, I have never tuned in for a Mac game that I can think of. There's no Toledo's or Bowling Greens or Eastern Michigan's on my life radar, not whatsoever. You should have been watching Northern Illinois and Akron on a broadcast where it was raining and the wide shot of the field every time they went to a wide shot to show both

both teams in full there were bubbles on the on the lens and you couldn't see anything it's amazing way to start snowing next can't get to that there's limits to my time can't get to maxon uh but i will and i'll encourage everybody else to get to and ari on three um go check out that show you can always check out andy uh covering college football at on three he's great he's on x are you still on x or if you have you uh abandoned x like everybody else i i see everybody Andy underscore staples. They seem to still be tweeting. So I don't know. I don't know what's going on there. I am I'm an old person, Will. I can only handle like one form of social media at a time. I can't multi post. I have enough trouble putting pictures on Instagram. So like the X is what I've been doing. I'm too old to change now. They'll be back, Andy. Anybody that announces they're leaving a party that loudly and that repetitively is back at the party within an hour. They'll be back. back in a month on X. All right, man.

It's great to talk to you. Thanks for being on the Will Kane Show, Andy. My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. There you go. I hope you enjoyed that conversation. Once again, subscribe to Andy and Ari on three. Keep up with college football. That's going to do it for us today.

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