Will Cain Country - Tim Brando: Inside The College Football Playoffs

Episode Date: December 20, 2024

The first round of the College Football Playoffs starts today, and Will sits down with the man who will be on the microphone for tonight's first round matchup between Indiana University and Notre Dame, FOX Sports College Football Play-by-Play Announcer Tim Brando. Tim gives you the inside look on what it is like to call major football games, plus, they break down the matchups and make predictions for who will be the final two teams standing on January 20th 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

For a limited time at McDonald's, enjoy the tasty breakfast trio. Your choice of chicken or sausage McMuffin or McGrittles with a hash-brown and a small iced coffee for $5.5 plus tax. Available until 11 a.m. at participating McDonald's restaurants. Price excludes flavored iced coffee and delivery. College football playoff, Texas Clemson. Indiana, Notre Dame, SMU Penn State, Tennessee, Ohio State. Let's break down the most exciting thing to happen to college football with Tim Brando. It's The Will Kane Show, normally streaming live every Monday through Thursday at 12 o'clock Eastern time.

Fox News.com, Fox News, YouTube, and Fox News, Facebook. But always available on demand by subscribing on Apple or Spotify. Like this edition of The Will Kane Show, Kane on Sports. Here we are. finally here. The college football playoff, four games kicking off starting Friday night to carry us through the weekend. The most exciting moment we've all been waiting for, arguing about, and debating. Not only would we get the college football playoff, but who would be in the college football playoff. I'm going to break down all four games today with Fox Sports commentator

and analyst Tim Brando. And we jumped the conversation right off, though, with him poking a little fun at my horns. Am he just curious about what it's like inside the booth? Here is Tim Brando. Hey, I'm Trey Gowdy, host of the Trey Gowdy 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 Newspodcast.com. It is time to take the quiz.

It's five questions in less than five minutes. We ask people on the streets of New York City to play along. Let's see how you do. Take the quiz every day at thequiz.com. Then come back here to see how you did. Thank you for taking the quiz. Listen to the all-new Brett Bear podcast featuring Common Ground, in-depth talks with lawmakers from opposite sides of the aisle,

along with all your Brett Bear favorites, like his All-Star panel and much more. Available now at Fox Newspodcasts.com or wherever you get your podcasts. So are you getting a little concerned about, are you getting a little concerned as we get closer to hook them, the pressure of having to play a three-lost Clemson, clubbed it coming back to texas are you getting a little are you getting a little tight i love giving it to the fans i love giving it to the fans like that yeah you've got a history

of giving it to horns fans Texas fans that's true i'm sure you've heard about that through the years but honestly i love if you ranked i do i love texas if you ranked fan bases that were most antagonist how about this how about fan bases that think you're their enemy How would you rank those one, two, three? Bama's one. Ohio State is two. Let's see, Bama one, Ohio State two. You know, literally everybody now, it's like, and I'm trying to be legit.

It's not like the usual crap that you get on just social media, okay? I'm just talking about people that just believe over time you've always been against them for whatever reason. And it might have been just because you've got a great game or you've got a mostly. multitude of great games that they happened to lose. And I just sounded too damn excited for the other team. That's usually what it is, you know. Okay. But I mean, and that's kind of what happened to Texas.

I had them several times around Thanksgiving, you know, losing to Cliff Kingsbury and Texas Tech at home. And he used some trick plays and, you know, you couldn't help but giving credit. It was like the Texas fans just wouldn't let go. So, but I would put, I think Alabama's one, I'd probably go Ohio State 2, Michigan 3, Auburn 4, and, you know, LSU'd have to be in the top 5, without a doubt. Those people down there, those cases, they think they're the, they think everybody's against them.

That think you hate them. And by the way, they hated me at LSU, even though my oldest daughter, it was you grad and and uh i started my career doing their games and yet when i would come in it meant the game time was moved from night today so they would be pissed at me like it was my fault you know it's like one after the other so there's always a reason that i've always said when you've got one of these in your hands when you got one of these in your hands the first thing you get pissed off at and you're drinking and you're watching the game and you're drinking So you got, the first thing you get mad at is your coach.

Get mad at the coach first. Then you get mad at the refs. Okay. And then when you're really drunk, probably third quarter, and your team's behind. And there's like this delay for the, for the referees to determine whether the possession of the ball stays with your team or the other team. And we're looking at the replay and we're deciding. And I say, well, there's no way that call is going. to be upheld. And the, you know, the fan base of that team just gets so pissed. See, Brando's

rooting against us. So that happens. So the announcer's a third. We're number third. We're number three. No, I put you fourth. I think the order of anger goes like this. Okay. First, you get mad at your quarterback. That's the first place everyone goes. Your quarterback. Your quarterback. Then your coach. Then the refs. But those two could be flip-flopped. Those two could be. be flip-flop, maybe first refs, then your coach, and then the announcer. Hey, do you think about that, Brando? Like, when you have a moment, you know, you brought up Texas, Texas Tech, the one that, you know, sticks in my head and my heart is the famous throw to Michael Crabtree that kept Texas

out of the national championship game eventually at the end of the game. You get to one of those moments, right? what is your philosophy as the announcer is your philosophy 100% authenticity share whatever enthusiasm and excitement you have communicate your awe or do you moderate modulate it because you're like I can't there's also a losing side of this equation and if I'm over the top crazy for this then I'm not feeling the way half the audience is feeling you know what I mean Do I try to connect with the audience? Then it's like which side of the audience?

Or do I just let it go how I feel in this moment? Announcers are taught to go with the decibel level of the crowd. You want to be heard. So our voice is an instrument. And that instrument has to be heard. Now, I don't want somebody yelling and screaming at me. Okay. I call it controlled excitement.

Controlled chaos in the booth. controlled excitement so and this is where fans really get upset and where social media goes berserk if there's a touchdown scored by the team that's on the road i'm going to be excited for that call but the decibel level of my voice on that call will never be as high as it will be for the home team because the crowd 80 to 100 000 people are going wild and that moment is is an incredible moment for the winning team. There's nothing wrong with the emotions of the play call to be on the same level as the play made. You know, that's just, that's authentic. That's the way we're trained. That's the way broadcasters were trained that our voices are instruments and we have to

meet the level. I mean, going all the way back to my days as a disc jockey, when you were playing a great rock song with a 15 second buildup to the vocal post, you got pumped up. You got pumped up. as you were as you were doing that you know back in my college days so the reality is sports casting is the very is the very same thing when you look at a live sporting event there's a reason why jim nance when he's doing the masters is only going to get so excited when he's doing it because very rarely will the crowd ever reach the decibel level of a college football game okay but when it does happen you have to go with it you have to enjoy it and because that's what the audience at home is doing.

So you view it as though everyone that's watching is a casual fan, and they too are excited because of the great play they just saw. You can't think about what fans of the home or away team may be thinking. You can't. I have another question about your situation. One of the things that I find inconsistent is the ability of a broadcaster, either the play-by-play broadcaster or the analyst, to accurately tell me something that I saw

on the screen with my own eyes and it is now being done under replay. So here's what I mean by now. Okay, was it a fumble? Wasn't it a fumble, right? Spot of the ball. Spot of the ball. Oh, they spotted that shorter.

No, that's good. It's weird, Tim, and I actually don't know, I have no opinions on you on this. I can't recall you, and I can't recall anybody. Like, it's not about I have developed, reputation. But there are sometimes I'm watching a game where I'm like, how is that announcer so sure and so wrong at the same time from what I'm seeing? And the thing is, I know there's subjectivity, but I think it's not just subjectivity. Like your situation in the

booth, couldn't it be argued that your situation in the booth, Tim, is not as good as my situation on my couch for those really fine judgment calls me. I've got a 72-inch TV. I've got replay that is sometimes playing and outpacing what you're seeing. And correct me if I'm wrong, you're in the booth with live action in front of you, very far away, but also monitors right there in front of you that are not that big. So I'm just kind of curious, like, how do you get those moments accurate? When we might sometimes have a better vantage point than you do. That's a great question and a valid point because, you know, again,

going back to my training, when I got into this business and I started in the early 80s, We didn't have HD television back then, and obviously we do now, and the screens at home are incredibly big, and the HD, and now with the additional technical aspects that have even made that a more premium view than the one that you were getting with your original HD, we were, again, we were raised to speak in absolutes, okay? Our voice is one of authority. We want people to believe in what we're saying. And so there was always, I think, a belief, at least for me and several other broadcasters, I think, because you either are, you are sure that that is the first down or you're not. You're not wavering, okay? Because if you waver, that's boring. Okay.

And it's like a flip-flop in a political debate. If you're watching, you know, if you're watching someone change their minds, it would be like what costs Kamala Harris any opportunity to win, right? So if you're flip-flopping on certain decisions in a game as a broadcaster, you lose a lot of credibility with people. All right. Now, that changed the moment Mike Pereira became a factor in sports broadcasting on a regular basis.

I think the single greatest hire that's been made in sports television was by Fox Sports when they hired Mike Pereira and then later Dean Blandino to be in charge of rules. It started with the NFL and both of them came from the NFL. I remember going to seminars when I was at CBS when the NFL would bring Mike to our seminar to explain to us the nuances of all the different rules changes that were being made, most of it having to do with targeting and that kind of thing. And when I got to Fox and I started working there, I still had that same tendency to speak in absolutes. And I'm as collegial as the next guy,

and I think the world of Mike, but he would come in and say, well, Brando, I never have to worry about you. I know what you think. But I have tempered that. I have tempered that quite a bit since I've been, you know, broadcasting football games for Fox,

because that guy does know a hell of a lot more than I know. And he is in a studio in Los Angeles with those same, same number of monitors that, that, that, uh, any production house would have. And you know what they look like, uh, at, at your facilities there, uh, in New York, uh, at Fox News. It's the same kind of setup. So he's got just a multitude of monitors with all kinds of different views. And he knows the rules better than I do. So you wait. Now, you can surmise what he's, what maybe we're thinking that we're seeing before he gets on board with you. And a lot of times he'll be agreeable or maybe disagreeable. But I never speak now in absolutes when I'm dealing with that

because I know that Mike and Dean are there for a reason. And that's something that I think has changed. If you notice CBS did the same thing, they hired another farmer referee. Gene does a great job for them. Sterator has been around for a long time. And I did both college basketball and the NFL. So that part of it has changed just in the last few years, no doubt about it. So one more question just to ask my curiosity, and then we're going to get into the college football playoff. I've hung out in the booth, Tim. I've done Monday Night Football. I've hung out with Joe Tess, and at that time, I was Jason Whitten. For everybody that is not got that opportunity, I think it would be interesting for them to understand how you guys do it. Like, you've

got you and your analyst right but then there's other guys in the booth too like don't you have a spotter that helps a little bit like like how do you know give me one second i'll appreciate how difficult i'm gonna show you something he's getting up hang on he's getting up he's going to get something this is fun well he's walked away from here we go oh okay he's got the big board yep yeah what is that i see you guys fill those out what is that so indiana so indiana playing Notre Dame Friday night for CFB. The last Indiana game was the old Oaken Bucket against Purdue, and we had that, Devin Gardner and I had that.

This would be the Indiana offense. That's the Indiana offense against the Purdue defense. Flip it over, and you got the Purdue offense against the Indiana defense. Now, my spotter. So what do you got there? You've got names, numbers, pictures and factoids in each box of each player? Is that what that is?

Right, right, right. And there, and anecdotal material that I've gotten from the coaches. And you see, that's, that I wrote that myself, okay? And, yeah, there's some research done that, you know, a gentleman does that for me. But I go in and talk to the coaches. And my thought process always is, I want to get the stories directly from the players whenever I can. I talked to the quarterback at Indiana Roarck, find out more about, you know, how he and Surrett, another fantastic guy that can make some big plays for them in this game with Notre Dame if they're going to win.

And my, it's the choreography in the booth, okay, that's unseen is pretty remarkable stuff. You've seen it because you've been with Joe Tess and that crew, but they're hand signals that are taking place. For instance, when the ball is tipped, right, ball is tipped. I'm getting this, Gary Bender's son, Brett Bender, the great broadcaster at CBS, Gary Bender's son is my spotter. He's giving me this. It was tip. If the ball was intercepted off that tip, he's giving me this.

That means it was received by this guy, okay? Here's who got it off the tip. Same would be true with a fumble. Who caused the fumble? That's the guy that made the hit or the strip, and here's who. here's who got the fumble those are the hand signals that we're going to get during the course of the game from our spotter and he's he's right between he's standing right between myself and my analyst in the old days it would have been spencer now it's devon gardner and then you have your content coordinator aka another term for statistician who is giving me the numbers if ashton gente has now moved within 120 yards of barry sanders all time rushing record he's handing that to me He's to my left. So I have my content and stats got on my left.

I've got my spotter to my right. Devin is to his right. And he's got his own spotter that's to his right. So there are five of us, okay, extra sets of eyes, extra sets of ideas. And the spotter for the color analysts may be looking at what kind of are they in cover two. How many times did they go switch back to man? They're looking at a completely different set of artifacts than the spotter for me. Spotter for me is the win and what guy, okay?

But the guy that's spotting for the analyst is the Y guy. Okay. By the way, so Tim, that's all nonverbal. So your spotter, you showed us all those hand symbols. He's doing, I'm curious, for your spotter, the win and what guy, the who, what, win guy. Is that a second set for you? Because you've also got your eyes either on a monitor or on the field. So is he doing it in real time and you're relying on him? Or is it sort of like if I missed it, then I'm looking at him? How does he play into your information flow? I have to have faith that I

know who's quarterbacking, who's in the backfield, okay? But when you're running five wides, let's say you go empty and you've got five wide receivers out, okay? Or you're going two by two. you've got four wides and an extra tight end and still no back, he's got to be watching off the ball. He's got to be watching what's happening off the ball. I'm on the ball. So I'm keeping up with where the ball is. That's on me.

But everything that's off the ball that's affecting the play is on him. You know, where was that pressure coming from off the edge? You know, pressure was coming from 98, the defensive end. That's why I threw the ball early and it was picked. You know, those are the things. And you've got to have a lot of trust in the people that you surround yourself with. My statistician has been with me for 30 years. My spotter Brett Bender's been with me for over 20 years. And that's true for just about every booth that's out there. You know, you've probably heard Al Mike. Tim, how does your statistician talk to you? You know, in TV, right now, for example, doing this podcast, I have an IFB in my ear right here. This is called an IFB for everybody, watching or listening. And a producer can at any point get into my ear and talk to me. Now, that's an art in and of itself, because, you know, I can't have multiple conversations in my head going on at the same time, but I can receive some direction here and there.

Right. Right. You said your spotter's giving you nonverbal stuff, right? Your statistician, I would imagine in the old days, he's handing you maybe a handwritten note. He's handing you notes for you to read. He's right now in real time? Still is. Yeah. Not a computer. So it's not a laptop. He probably keeps posts. He probably keeps post-its in business. Oh, yeah. Okay. I can walk out of the booth sometimes and I got post-it stuck to my feet

because he's been throwing them at me left and right and they leave. And sometimes he might give me a stat that's really, really good, but it's only good for like 15 seconds. Once another play is run, it's obsolete. I don't need it. So it's all about judgment, Will. It's all about judgment. judgment and you know the ability to and this is true whether you're doing a studio show i had

this happen when i was in the studio all those years my producer saying one thing and yet i'm still talking to the guys on the set you've got to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time you've got multiple things going on in your head always that you cannot respond to but you it's guiding you it's taking where you're going to go next it's a it's a little like uh best way that i think to describe it is if you've ever been the cockpit of an airplane, a big airplane, a commercial flight, right? And you're thinking about being the pilot and taking that baby up to 30,000 feet. That's the way I've always viewed live sports television. It's what excites me about it, is I feel like I am the pilot. I am the pilot of this show. But I am deferring to people

that know more than I know on several different occasions to make sure that we keep it going going in the right direction. That to me is what separates being at the games versus being in the studio. And it was once said to me, Tim, you do such a great job in the studio. Why do you want to be in the booth? And I'm like, nobody replays on classic networks, the halftime shows and the pre-dames. Studio shows. It's the games.

It's the games that they replay. And so I always wanted to be, you know, where Vern was or where Dick Ginsburg were. And of course, Brent Musburger were. And of course, Brent did both so well. He was the original five-two talent that could do just about anything. But Kurt Gowdy was my hero as a kid growing up, the old cowboy, the American sportsman of Wyoming fame. And Kurt was my mentor. And he said to me one time when I was coming up in my earliest days at ESPN, and he said,

remember, kid, they don't pay us for what we do. They pay us for what we might have to do. Because in a live game situation with no script, you never know what might happen. You know, I had a tornado hit the SEC. tournament one year. And all of a sudden, I had to flip into becoming a newsman, similar to the earthquake situation that Michael's had. I was at a football game where a lady ran through barricades at a homecoming parade and killed three people. And we opened the game with an obit and the flags that have masked. And CNN and Fox News, it started broadcasting with choppers and

helicopters where we were. And so that was a different kind of broadcast. So you have to, understand that the environment you're in is going to affect what you're doing and it's not a controlled environment you know you know i bet it's so much fun tim to do that yeah i mean obviously i've been a studio or yeah i've been a studio show guy and then on location guy i've never done live sports but i've gone through the iterations of that like i for me it's less like a cockpit of an airplane a little bit a little bit yeah yeah it's more like i would have it when it's being done its best to surfing because so when you first do it there's so much external stimuli and different instructions and things going on this in your ear this and that

and you're overwhelmed by the minutia of it all and like there's a sports analogy it's like the player who has to think through everything he's not true you know they always say a rookie a rookie linebacker has to get to where he's not thinking anymore right well you're the thinking in the beginning and it's all hitting you and it's too much and then there's that the evolution where you feel like you have control over it all and you want to have control over at all and at that point you think you're at the top of the game like i i understand every aspect the director should be following me i can do this and you kind of get mad at people who aren't you think who aren't doing it at your level but then the ultimate to me is um less flying the cockpit now and realizing you're part

of something bigger and you're riding the wave instead of trying to control the wave yeah and if you're writing the wave now you connect to the audience because you're authentic and they're seeing what you're seeing and you're seeing what they're seeing. And it's this really cool feeling like imperfection becomes perfection. Oh, that didn't go right. Well, guess what? That's going to be okay because we're all doing this here together, riding this wave. And I think that's where I hope I am now in TV.

And I don't know if that's the way it ever gets in the booth, but certainly that way for me in a studio. No, absolutely. And I've been in both worlds, as you know. And so to borrow a phrase, from the Clintons, it does take a village, okay? It does. It takes more people than just you to make a show go, whether that show is a studio show or a live broadcast from a game event. I think more than anything else, though, Will, what you learn over time, and I'll be in this thing. I will have done

my January 5th of 1985 was my first live broadcast of a college basketball game with Dick Vitale on ESPN. It'll be 40 years this January 5th for me. That's a milestone. It's something that really mattered to me that I lasted this long and that took four networks for me to get to that milestone. But God bless them all, they gave me opportunities. So, but I do think that once you learn that your version of control is not real control, but it's the, it's the thing that you can control. Then, then you're on the right track. And in television, in sports television, it's not monologue you know a lot of guys come into our business from radio i came from radio and that's when you are painting the entire picture and it is all you all the time but when you come into television

and people are watching there are things that you don't need to say just let it breathe right and and and understand that the guy working with you the analyst who is the why guy you're the win and what guy okay the why guy is what people want to hear they want to know why this or that play happened, why it failed, or why it was successful. And so, you know, for a guy that likes to talk like me, you have to back off and understand that being a minimalist on occasion is the right way to go. You know, some of the great broadcasters of all time calling live events, Ray Scott, Pat Summerall, I think in the modern era Joe Buck falls into this category, are guys that were minimalist in terms of their approach to play by play. And it enabled guys that were the analysts,

us to become the stars. Those are the guys that you want to be dominating the airwaves. And so I think that the belief or the common belief should be that we've got my spotter, we've got our statistician content guy, his spotter and Devin's analyst work. Those five guys are, that's 10 eyes to watch this game. That's 10 eyes. And if we can make it sound like, amongst all of us, if we can project ourselves in a way that a bunch of guys sitting with a beer at home or maybe in a bar somewhere are going, man, this is fun. They sound like they're enjoying themselves. This is like they're right here talking for us. Let's make it, let's make it dialogue, not monologue. If we go to dialogue and not monologue, it's going to be a much more

enjoyable show. All right. I followed my curiosity and what I want to talk about there, but I know a lot of people are ready to talk about what's going to happen this weekend. We're finally here, Brando. We're finally to the college football playoff. I want to get your thoughts on these different games. So I want to start with Notre Dame, Indiana. Let's start in the, you know, up in the Midwest. That's my favorite matchup, actually.

Is it really? Why? You think it's going to be the best game? Well, because Indiana for years has been an afterthought in football. You know, there are a lot of Indiana alums that were basketball fans, but when football started, they cheered for Notre Dame, sort of like our state school in football. I'm serious. I've met them through the years.

So they were like subway Irish fans, but they went to Indiana, you know. It was all about Bob Knight when basketball season started. And screw Digger. They didn't like Digger at all. But Coach Holtz, which is our guy. Yeah. We love Coach Oles. So whether it was Arapars Segan's era or Coach Olts or any of those guys that were so successful,

now Indiana is finally getting to play with the big guys on the biggest stage. And Kurt Signetti is, I think, one of the most incredible stories, what he's done, basically bringing a group of transfers from James Madison that at their level was really good, you know, which was out of the, you know, out of Sun Belt Conference, okay? He brings like 20-some guys from James Madison. He gets a quarterback from the Mac, you know, Rourke, who is now a six-year player. And I think they've got a tremendous advantage in terms of passing the football with this offense. Now, they had a bad game at Ohio State, a couple of faux pauses in their special teams, which made that game go

lopsided a bit quickly right before halftime. And I think that he's feeding off that, letting his guys know you know there are a lot of doubters in us but there are a lot of doubters in indiana football you know this is a little bit like the movie hoosures you know we're getting go play the big boys at notre dame and nobody thinks you can win because of the egg we laid against ohio state and particularly given oh they deserve it because of that game with michigan yeah but the bottom line is this indiana matchup wise in my view can not only compete with but i think beat Notre Dame. And they're a seven and a half point dog.

I think you're going to see that number come down, probably to at least six and a half or six by game time on Friday night. And I think that they can win the game. I like Indiana to upset Notre Dame. I think Marvin Freeman's got all the pressure on him. I think all the pressure is on the Irish. And now let's not forget, Riley Leonard, their quarterback,

is not thrown for over 200 yards yet. Okay, really good quarterback, really good running quarterback. But this Indiana defense only gives up 2.6 yards per carry. You can't run on them. You've got to throw it. And the last team that forced him to throw it was Northern Illinois when they beat Notre Dame and their only loss of the year. I like Notre Dame. And I actually like Notre Dame.

We'll get to both of your and my thoughts on who could win it all this year in a minute. But I like Notre Dame putting a march together. I really do. All right. Let's go to this game. SMU Penn State you got a dynamic

quarterback in Kevin Jennings you got a good passing attack and Drew Aller and Penn State I don't think the weather things a factor

people talking about cold weather southern team going up I don't think it's a factor what do you think

here I'll be honest Penn State's is one of the teams this year I have not paid a ton of attention to

I haven't watched a lot of Penn State I have watched them SMU and I know that Jennings Jennings makes big mistakes

but also big plays yeah you got to take the good with the bad with Jennings, okay? Because what makes him great are the risks that he takes. And, you know, to Rhett Lashley's credit, he's let that guy be him. Go be you. You're our guy.

Okay. And once he made that pronouncement, SMU took off. I think that the issue here will be Penn State's size and strength and their ability to just pound the rock. And ultimately, I think that that'll weigh heavily. they're going to look at what Clemson did early to get that lead, and they're going to say, well, I mean, we can do that. So let's just go ahead and pound the rock and let's get it done.

The other thing that's different with this Penn State team that I think makes them dangerous is their offensive coordinator, Andy Kodlnicki, had been with Lance Lippold at Kansas. And people wonder, what happened to Kansas this year? They lost their offensive coordinator. He went to Penn State. He's made Drew Aller better. And so for that reason, I like Penn State. the game because I think they can pound the rock, yes, but I think if they need to get a little more

exotic offensively, they can do that too. SMU, I think, will play with them. I think they'll be in contention in this game, but I think by mid-third quarter and into the fourth Penn State will open it up and take control of the game. I really don't know. I like Notre Dame over Indiana. I don't know what to do with SMU Penn State. It's like, it's a game I really don't know what to do with. By the way, on the note Of the ACCs Not totally I just think SMU is such a

I think Here's the thing Penn State always finds a way to disappoint And not live up to their billing That's the truth That's who they've been for a while And I just think SMU's a wild card Haymaker puncher

Right I hope you're right And you saw I mean Kate Klubnick I think you threw for four touchdowns And you're like Oh Lord SMU And then they come back Then they come back.

So it's like, I don't know if SMU can cut out one or two of those mistakes in a game. They win, like, all the time. So, I'm with you. Hey, on the note of the ACC, Brando, help me make sense of this. So Washington States, Jake Dikert, right? That's how, Dickert, how do he pronounce his last name? Dickert, Dickert. Dickert, he leaves Washington State to go to Wake Forest.

Right. Right. Right? Right. I don't know what that's, that doesn't, that's not a good look for college football, is it? It's not a, it's not a good look for college football. Because help me make sense of that. Well, what happened was his quarterback who replaced Cam Ward, who was a Heisman finalist this year, as you know, went to New York last week. He loses Cam Ward and this kid, Mateer comes in. And I'm here to tell you, he's like, he was like Ward 2.0 this seat. I mean, great player, absolutely fantastic. I saw him a couple of times this year.

And, you know, despite losing to Boise State, he single-handedly kept them in the game and had them tied midway in the third quarter of that game before Boise got a few more long runs from Gentay and they pulled away. When that kid decided to transfer and he did so after he lost his offensive coordinator, Arbuckle, who's yet to say for sure, it looks like. like he's he's definitely going to go to Oklahoma. Our buckle is now at Oklahoma. He's been hired by the Sooners to be the offensive coordinator. Our buckle is about four years away, by the way, from making about $25,000 a year as a gopher, you know, getting his first break as a,

as a college football coach. Okay. He's not that far removed from selling phone books. Okay. Young, young guy. Okay. Oklahoma hires him. So he's lost his OC. Then Mattier says, okay, I'm in the portal. I'm going into the portal. So Mateer, who could go to a variety of places, most people think he's going to OU to follow Arbuckle, who was his offensive coordinator, okay? But that doesn't mean he couldn't go someplace else. Hell, Cam Ward's done. He could go to Miami. Mario Cristobal may be looking at him to replace. So we could see the second straight year, a Washington state quarterback moving over to Miami in the portal. So all this is happening, and this is the problem yesterday, as of this taping, it was yesterday.

Charlie Baker is on Capitol Hill making an absolute fool of himself, you know, in front of a committee, you know, just making a fool of himself on several fronts. And one of the areas here is the NCAA has put a calendar in place where players on teams preparing for the college football playoff and having to make decisions about whether they're going to go into the portal or not, for their long-term future. What sense does that make? It makes zero sense. And oh, by the way, we have, we have some of these guys are still going to class. Some of them still do want to get a college education. And if you're on the quarter system, I mean, you cannot be doing this to the

college game. It's almost as if the NCAA is purposely undermining college football because it doesn't have a financial stake in it anymore. And they haven't had a financial stake in it since the 1984 lawsuits that were brought by Georgia and Oklahoma that meant all the TV money went away from the, you know, the neo-colonial outfit we all know is the NCAA. What a joke. But that's what's precipitated all this. So you have mature, first the offense coordinator leaves,

then the quarterback leaves. And now the coach is like, okay, I know we're going to make 52 million with the lawsuits we had with the Pact 12 teams when they left. But what's our long term? future look like? What does it look like? Well, the ACC is a power for program, and it doesn't appear that they're going anywhere. And White Forest has an opening because Dave Clausen left, and he's taken him up on it. Just like Jonathan Smith left. That's a weird career. Just like Jonathan Smith left Oregon State to go to Michigan State a year ago. Same thing happened to Oregon State.

That one I can actually, that one I understand a little more. It's lateral. This feels like throughout our entire life, the story would have been Wake Forest, his coach was hired by Washington State, not the other way around. No, I'm with you. You know, I absolutely agree. Yeah. That's the problem that we face in college football today. The bigger picture is really screwed up, and we need the leaders to lead.

And right now, the head of the NCAA, I think with the Republicans having all three branches of government, the NCAA could still have a voice. They could still be, I think the Congress and the Senate that is part of the branches, along with the president's office, obviously the executive branch, are all on the side of college football. The NCAA should want to play ball. And instead, all they do is undermine and undercut what's best for college football. It makes no sense. Okay, this is the game I'm going to this weekend.

I'm not going to work this weekend. I am going to Austin. Good for you. I'm going to Clemson, Texas. Yeah, I got a nephew in the game playing for Clemson. My heart is with the Longhorns. It's a complicated weekend here in the family. But there's really no reason on paper for Clemson to beat Texas.

There's really no reason. The only reason, the only reason is I'm going to put 80% of it on Quinewers and I'll put 20% or 70% and then 30% on Sark is if for some reason they do this thing where they play awesome and they dominate a team for three quarters, but they make enough penalties or turnovers for some reason to keep the game close for the other team, and then Clemson's good enough in a close game to beat Texas. Like, that was the story against Kentucky. That was the story against A&M.

Honestly, that's the story against Georgia. It just went the other way. You know, that's second game against Georgia. Texas dominated. Dominated. So I don't know. Does Texas dominate Clemson and then lose by four? Here's the thing you've got to be concerned with.

And I would, you love the game so much. Go back and look at the first half of Clemson and Georgia, very early. early in this season, played in Atlanta. And I think you'll find that Clemson defensively, physically, stacked up really well against Georgia. They were in that game. The problem they had with Georgia was the same thing that Texas had, the pressure that Georgia's front could give their quarterback,

and they were all over Clubneck that day. I mean, they were all over it. So the game got away from him in the second half, because finally Carson Beck started making some plays, and it turned into a blowout. Clemson, I'm sure, is thinking, boy, we hope, we really hope that they decide to let Ewers air it out. And we really hope they don't try to run the football. Because if they don't try to run the football and they put this game on yours, you know what? We're going to force

them to bring Arch in. And maybe, just maybe, Sark will pull Arch back out. Just as he said, he shouldn't have done in that game with Georgia. I think if you asked him, him in a private room without consequences, did he take Quinn Ewers out too soon in that game with Georgia? I think he'd probably say, yeah, you know, Quinn's my guy. You know, I probably lost, we probably took a step back offensively when I benched him that soon in that game. And here's the deal. It's all mental, okay, because Sark calls the plays, and he's the best play caller in the game. He is. But when you've got this issue in your head. Well, I wanted to go the other way, Brando. I know. I know you do. What I want, no, what I mean is I like what they did

against A&M. I want to see Arch in the game in red zone packages. I want to see him in third down, third down plays. And I don't want it to be so telegraphed and obvious that Arch is running the ball. Arch can throw the ball. So I want to see RPOs. I want to see play action. I want to see designed runs. I want to see Arch. Now, I'm not saying I don't want Quinn to be the starter and play 70% of the game. But Arch is too good and too much of a variable weapon that you need to get him on the field to keep defenses guessing. You really don't have a dominant back. You don't. You once did, but you don't now. And Arch gives you that extra body that defenses, their front sevens have to respect. You know, you've got to make sure that you match up when he's in the game because he's like

an extra back. You don't have that with yours. And when yours holds on to the ball a little too long, bad things happen. I'm with you. I absolutely agree. Here's where I think Sart gets into trouble. He spent time, as you know, is not just with Sabin, but also with the Falcons in the NFL. And there's a part of him that the quarterback whispering part of him believes that he's not doing what he should be doing for his guy. And right now, his guy is Quinn Ewers. Arch is going to be his guy next year. He's not his guy this year. And I think that weighs into his mind way too. much and this i think you're right let's it become and if he lets it become an issue will an upset is in play here because club neck you know that the sidebar story to this game is the relationship

in terms of the recruitment of these two guys and they played against each other and they were part of state championships and club that got the better of him and that is one of the issues in this game that maybe isn't talked about nationally but everybody in the state of texas knows that it exists it's the elephant in the room and if they get into the third quarter and this game is close okay pressure will make a pipe bust and i think the favorite team can be in trouble climson's uh they're a three lost team yeah and but but they're dangerous here dabbo's got two national are you picking clemson in his hip pocket no are you picking clumson i'm thinking no i'm not picking kansas to hold on but i don't think they'll cover and i think it's

it's going to be really close. And I think you need to get past this, and I'm with you, I think Arch Manning needs to be a factor in the game. If they win this game convincingly, I think Arch Manning will have played a role in that convincing win. Yeah. I do. I'm in lockstep with you.

I'm in lockstep with you. I like it. I like it. Okay, final game, I think, I guess this is the marquee game, probably over Texas Clemson. Tennessee, Ohio State is probably the marquee game of the opening round of the 12th.

team playoff. Yeah. First of all, do you think, do you think this is a make or break game for Ryan Day? Like, do you think if Ohio State loses Tennessee that you think he's fired? Well, I think he may get out before the posse gets to him. If he can't get it done in this game, Ryan Day will have enough suitors that he might just take stock and go, why am I putting myself through this? I can coach anywhere in the country.

And every game that he coaches is a referendum on his career in Columbus. It doesn't have to be that way. Right. He's a magnificent coach. I mean, he really is. Right. I mean, his overall record is what it is. But he's made all the, like, he's made all the changes.

Well, he'd be surprised. Be surprised. Well, he could do what Sark did if necessary. He could go call plays in the NFL for a year and wait for the next high profile job to come up. listen in this world will you know we could see a lot of guys walking from the coaching ranks later than usual if the portal doesn't go well guy goes you know what i don't need to fight this anymore we have no idea who might surprise us and walk away late in the game my point to you is i think that ryan day and remember there's a new ad there jean smith is gone jean smith

the longtime athletic director at Ohio State always had his back and was a buffer for him. Now, as you know, Ross Bjork, the one-time Texas A&M athletic director, he's replaced Gene. Now, he's given the so-called vote of confidence that all A-Ds would give, but he doesn't have his back the way Gene Smith had it. And I'm sure Ryan Day knows that. When he brought in Chip Kelly, and by the way, I thought that would be the answer, I think one of the reasons why Will Howard is there and Kyle McCourt is not there is because that's who Chip wanted.

And you saw that game plan against Michigan. It was awful. They played right into Michigan's strengths. They do something remotely similar to that against Tennessee. Tennessee's greatest strength is their defensive front. This is not a Tennessee team that has to score 50 to win like a couple of years ago. The volunteers come in here with a lot of house money. They come in with a lot of house money.

Nico is a really good quarterback. Not great, good, but they've got really good receivers and good backs and their defensive front. If they don't turn it over a lot, Tennessee doesn't turn it over a lot in this game, then they got a really good chance to win. As a matter of fact, I will pick them right now to win this game. You pick, I think Tennessee beats Tennessee. Yeah. That's my other upset. I've got Indiana over Notre Dame and Tennessee over Ohio State. And remember, they may say there's only 3,500 tickets available to them, but trust me, there'll be more than 3,500 Tennessee fans in that stadium.

And the other thing about Ohio State, we're talking about volatile fan bases earlier, okay, one thing about the Michigan fans, they are always in. They are all Michigan, all maize and blue all the time, okay? Ohio State's a pro crowd. they are a berries and cream college football audience and if the game goes the other way on ohio state early the bluebirds will be out and they'll be loud and that thing can turn on them quicker than you can say dot the eye i didn't i never heard that and i've never heard the term berries and cream but i've never heard that about ohio state that's interesting um

oh by the way i did hear this rumor yeah i heard this rumor what do you think about this brando i i heard who was floated out there i saw him floated out there i saw my old friend and colleague dan orlovsky hinting at this uh mike vrable to ohio state i could see that yeah i can see that uh i think he's also up for the jet's job too so um the potential of that happening there is is also uh the potential of that happening is there uh yeah i think oh i but i don't know that they would just fire him outright, I think he might be a step ahead of the firing, is my point. So, but it's just, all right, you gave me some picks for the first round, Brando.

Who do you see, like, are you, do you have a pick for me when this whole thing is said and done? Who is in the college football playoff championship game and who's our champion? Well, as you know, the winner of the Indiana game feeds into Indiana, Notre Dame is going to feed into Georgia. It's really hard not to look at them right now and say, oh, okay, if everybody's playing at their A level, if they're all playing at their A level. And I do think that in the playoff,

we are going to see a new gear, okay? It's going to be amped up. And as critical as I've been of Kirby Smart with some of his antics and underdogs this, and y'all are all picking against me that. My man's won two national championships. He still wants to be the underdog. His players still believe it, evidently.

So they go out and play hard each time. if everybody's playing at their a game level you've got to respect the road that Georgia has Oregon's got the tougher road the misseating in the process by the rules that were put in place which the committee should have never done you know winning your conference championship should guarantee you a spot yes but not a seating okay that Arizona State in Boise State are sitting this week waiting for the quarterfinals is kind of nuts but but Oregon does have a tougher road to hoe. I think Dylan Gabriel is an X factor here. He finished third in the

Heisman, but he's the best quarterback in the country, most reliable quarterback in the country. And he's got more pieces than anybody. So, I mean, it sets up, in my opinion, as an opportunity for Oregon to go out and win the whole thing. I think the chink in the armor here is going to be Arizona State and their potential of winning a quarterfinal game. They are the most abused. They are the most abused and under-told story in the history of college football. James Scataboo is, I mean, granted, Ashton Jente sucked up all of the oxygen when it came to running backs this year. But Scatabu's been really good for a long time. And Dillingham has been magnificent as a head coach.

And they won, I mean, they were so hot at the end of the year. And at one point, at our old network, I heard Desmond Howard say, why are we even talking about them? Okay, and I'm like, well, maybe because they've won seven in a row, I think you might want to talk about them. Arizona State is out there in the desert, and no one is giving them a snowball's chance in hell. I think Arizona State can be the outlier that really proves a lot of people wrong.

But ultimately, the Oregon-Georgia matchup is the one I think everybody is counting on. I think Arizona State can be the outlier to prove a lot of people wrong. And I do think Boise State is capable of winning one game in this playoff. I think those two teams that are sitting this week, I think both coaches probably want to be playing this week as opposed to sitting because they're both playing really at a high level at this stage. And Genti's going to have an edge to him because he knows that that vote was really close for the Heisman and he didn't get it.

And he could pass Barry Sanders. in one game. And he might easily pass him if he gets to play two as the all-time Russian king. Well, hear me out. Okay. But I'm taking Oregon to win at all.

Who's... Okay. If we're going with... Over Georgia, I heard you there. Yeah. My pick, just for the record, I've done this on other sports pods, my pick is Oregon over Notre Dame

in the national championship game. I just think the momentum that Notre Dame has built up throughout the season has been something impressive to watch. However, there's a couple different ways we could go with this. If you're talking about kind of like you did, best player on the field, which is a little bit basketball style analysis,

but it is the playoffs and you definitely want to have the difference maker on your team. Right. Who has that guy? Well, I would argue that Georgia does not have that guy. I would argue that Texas does not have that guy. They could. They both had the talent to, but Ryan Wingo is a difference maker. But he hasn't yet emerged.

He's a freshman at Texas. So I don't think that either of those teams have that guy that's like a Vince Young style player. Like, he's going to win you this. I actually think SMU does have that guy in Jennings. He could be that guy that you're like, oh, my God, how we're doing this? And the answer is Kevin Jennings. I do think Oregon has that guy in Dillon Gabriel, to your point. I do.

But that's only one way to analyze it. Then there is who has, if we go to the maximum of defense wins championships, well, guess what that does. that takes me back to Texas and Georgia. Those are the two teams that have the kind of defenses that can win and stifle somebody. Right. And then you go balance. And then it's like, what about just a balanced team that pulls it off? And that kind of takes me back to Notre Dame on why I kind of believe in them.

But that's also Oregon, even though Oregon's defense has given up a lot of points and some big games. I don't know. I'm just leaning in the end. But isn't this great? The team that has the most of those elements for me is Oregon. Yeah, right. What's that? They've got too many playmakers.

I think we're having this conversation, Will. Think about that. This is college football that had the worst postseason in the history of sports in America. Okay. We had AP writers and UPI riders determining a champion not that long ago. You know, the BCS didn't play until 1998, you know, and then we went to the college football playoff, and I would argue that teams like Boise State that could have been in the championship in the BCS when Kellyn Moore.

was playing, missed a field goal against Nevada, or they would have been playing in the 2010 national championship in the old BCS. That would never happen in a 14 CFP. No way a team like Boise State would get to play for it all. Now we got the potential of a guy like Scataboo or a guy like Ashton Genti carrying a team. I agree Dylan Gabriel has more around him. Therefore, I think he's going to be ultimately the winner. But the fact that we're just having that conversation. God bless you for doing a segment on your pod about it and everybody else in the streaming world that's talking about it. Because when I turn on daytime television on cable television, whether it's at our place at FIS1 or if it's ESPN, I'm hearing NBA Cup. I'm hearing Aaron Rogers ad nauseum.

I'm hearing LeBron and Bronny. I could care less. College football is making history this year. History. You know, I halfway thought about talking about Michael Pinnock's taking over Kurt Cousin's job, but then I'm like, no, all I care about right now is the college football playoff. Exactly. Exactly. And by the way, I sincerely hope we get the Army-Navy game. Whoever we can get to become the czar of college football, we got to find a way to keep alive what Mike Oresco,

the former commissioner of the American conference did. And that is find a standalone date where, No game is opposite Army Navy at the end of the year. No game. That's my job, Brando. You just did it. That's my job. Why didn't I? I was there at Army Navy.

I was talking to Trump. I should have said, hey, what do you think about a czar of college football? And I could be the czar of college football. Yeah. How awesome would that be? You got to get it in excess here, you know, and make sure that that President Trump goes there. I'm going directly to the big man. He can do it.

You know he can do it. I'm working on. I'm working on him about it too, so between us, maybe we can get it done. All right, national sports commentary for Fox Sports friend, Tim Brando, always appreciate talking to you. Thank you, Tim. Love it, Will. Merry Christmas to you, and hook him, okay? Merry Christmas.

All right, thank you. Hook him. Merry Christmas. Tim Brando here on the Will Kane show. There you go. I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Fox Sports, Tim Brando. I will see you again next time. we'll be on to the next round of the college football playoff.

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