WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Bleacher Boys: Another Kansas Upset and George's NIL Dream

Episode Date: November 22, 2024

The boys have another reason to Kansas football after their big win. Also, George has a bold marketing idea for the show. Finally, the show ends with the boys making their picks for the week.

He takes off running up the middle, first down. Inside the 35, he's going to go! King Klebnik, touchdown Clefson! You're listening to Bleacher Boys, where Paul, George, and Matthew break down the biggest stories in sports, from the cheap seats, I guess, on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Welcome back, everybody, to another episode, another week, another day of the Bleacher Boys. and we had an exciting week of football.

It was so exciting that Gus Johnson is now happy again. He is no longer sad and depressed. Good job, Gus. So he got to call a different game from the Ohio State game. Yeah, this is a call back to last week. So we're starting the show, I guess, punishing people who didn't listen to last week's episode. You can always find old episodes on anywhere you can get your podcast on Apple Podcasts. WRFH Radio Free Hillsdale, 101.7 FM is where to find them.

So yeah, here's the call. As you remember last week, Ohio State, he was really sad because he had to call a blowout game. This is him calling a Colorado game, which he doesn't normally get to call some big 12 action. Sanders. Sanders. Oh, what a catch. Travis Hunter. Give him the Heisman now.

I will say, do not give him the Heisman now. I still think Gentie is a much better player than Travis Hunter. But I digress. Well, that was an incredible catch, in my opinion. If you go back and watch it, Travis Hunter goes up in the air and gets spun around by the defenders and still hangs on to the ball. On fourth down, no less. Yeah, fourth and eight, too. It was not fourth and two or anything like most teams usually go for it on. Can we spend a little time talking about the buffs? Because we talked about them nonstop the first couple weeks and they've just kind of disappeared. Are the buffs a quietly good team? Or why have they been so under the radar this year? That's a very good question. I mean, in the AP poll, which we,

have updated the official college football playoff rankings have not been updated as of recording but the buffs and the AP pulse currently sit at 16 they're up two spots from their win over Utah this past week eight and two and only one loss in the big 12 and that comes to kansas state so they've definitely improved their defense has showed up when they need it to and utah only scores 24 and that offense is just incredibly good you got shader sanders at quarterback obviously Travis hunter outside as well as some other potent wide receivers speedster jimmy horn just very impressive that they've been able to do it quietly i think most people would have expected them to be all over the news and they kind of have been they've still been talking about Travis hunter but i don't think people

realize like george said how good this team is and that they're currently sitting in the big 12 championship game that isn't to lippley kansas this week well they definitely have a legitimate shot at the college football playoff if they win the big 12 championship of course they will make it so they have to win out for that but i think a big part is they got absolutely annihilated by nebraska i think that was an nbc game too everyone was watching they really hyped up that game and since then i know i'm speaking for myself you've just kind of forgotten about colorado would have assumed they lost a couple games since then but they only lost one against a good kansas state team and have ripped off what is it now four straight to yeah be eight and two

They have definitely been a team to look out for now, according to ESPN's playoff predictor on their website, easy to find. They have a 36% chance to make it and their remaining matchups before any possible Big 12 championship game is the Kansas Jayhawks, as Carton mentioned, this coming Saturday, and then the Oklahoma State Cowboys the weekend after that. Okay, does that seem a little high 36%? Because I have to imagine, to make the playoff, you have to win out. and win the Big 12 championship game. 36% chance that Colorado wins three games. You have to beat the best four-win team in college football. And then a very good Oklahoma State team,

even before playing, would it be BYU now in the championship? It's still BYU because both Colorado and BYU only have one loss in conference. I believe everybody else has two at least. To show the depth of the Big 12 or the badness to everyone else have two loss. I mean, what you say is very valid, 36% chance. seems high, but the only other big 12 team hire them them is BYU, and that's 39% chance. So they're the team right before them.

Well, we're on the topic of BYU. Man, they didn't look good against Kansas. Yeah, I'll tell you what, I was watching that game as the avid Kansas fan that I am. And during halftime, Cosmo the Cougar attempted to backflip over like a go-kart or something, and he hit his head. Really? Yeah. He's okay, thankfully.

but the stunt failed and Cosmo the Cougar failed. BYU failed. Do you think that's why BYU lost? It's very possible. Cosmo has some interesting powers for sure. But it was a really weird game for BYU. From what I watched it, it looked like they were actually driving the ball pretty well,

getting in Kansas territory pretty much at will, but Kansas able to come up with, I saw the pick in the end zone and then holding them to a couple field goals in the red zone. And they end up coming out with a win. Well, this was a completely opposite of how can Kansas played against Iowa State the previous week. That week, they just absolutely blew them out of the water, just overpowering offense. And this one was more of a defensive game for them. They had to come up

big on defense and hold them. The BYU Cougars only scored 13 points this game, which is very good for the Kansas defense to hold them to that minimal points after they've scored, basically averaging 30 points a game almost. It was a great showing by the defense. Jake Retzlap had a QBR of 28.9 against Kansas's defense, and L.J. Martin, the running back, was held to 76 yards, and he's been one of the primary engines along with Retslaff for that BYU-Cougar offense. Putting up Marquette numbers out there. Well, not this year, man. I had some pretty good play as a quarterback. Oh, you've played quarterback? Yeah, I did. Did you lead them to a win?

Remember that one drive? I played quarterback. It was one play. They corner blitzed. Oh, yeah. That's to me. Yeah. No, that was more of your receiver running the length of the field. Looking at what Kansas has, they've got Colorado next week and then they finish up the season at Baylor. With how this season has gone for Kansas, I bet you they beat Colorado and then lose on a last second field goal to Baylor of all of the teams that we just faced in this gauntlet. That would, yeah, just be a perfect way to cap off a not so good season. Occasionally, in years past, we've had five-win teams make a bowl because there's not enough six-win teams, but I don't really foresee that being a problem this year. So you really want to win out and get that bowl game, even if you're not competing for that

playoff. Can't wait for the guaranteed rate Liberty Bowl in the middle of nowhere America. Speaking of teams that really could use a win to make a bowl, the Wisconsin Badgers, and wouldn't that be something if they don't make a bowl game after playing Penn State and Oregon, very tough? Did you have the chance to watch the Oregon game this weekend? I saw a little bit of it. And I knew it was close.

I watched it at the end, but I was also flipping back between some other ones. Yeah, basically Wisconsin had two opportunities for their quarterback to take them on a game tying drive if there was a field goal on either of those two drives or a game winning drive if there's a touchdown on either of those field goals. And in true Wisconsin fashion, we ran five plays. One of them was picked off. And then there was a three and out. If Wisconsin had Marquette at quarterback, I'm pretty sure we're five and five right now.

So it's a funny thing to look at the box score. Oregon only scored in the first and fourth quarters, while Wisconsin only scored in the second and third quarter. So they never scored in the same quarter. Impressive defense from Wisconsin. Dylan Gabriel scored zero touchdown. So the all-time NCAA leader in touchdown scored did not score against the Wisconsin Badgers defense.

So a little bit of a moral victory there. And one win shy of the bull game threshold, as George was mentioning, but there's still too much. more games in the year, and I have a feeling they've got a good shot this weekend as they take on. They play Nebraska. Nebraska. But I would say that Lincoln is never an easy place to go in and get a W, and then you have to finish up hosting Minnesota, which Minnesota in a lot of ways, I think, has kind of been like Wisconsin, where if a few games go the other way, they're actually a serious contender in that Big Ten West. As for now, they still need to scrape by that one win and

been a rough year for Wisconsin after losing some close games to Big Ten. contenders and then obviously falling door against the Alabama Crimson Tide. Do you think that we can take a common opponent like Wisconsin to judge SEC versus Big Ten? Because we saw Alabama go into Wisconsin and completely dominate while Oregon struggles. I think Wisconsin is a fundamentally different team later on in the season than they were to start the season. If you look at how they started the season, they lost to USC and that's in conference. I don't know. I mean, then you could say, oh, the back end of the Big Ten is better, even the,

So it's not. Sometimes you just have a bad showing. And we'll get a chance in the college football playoff to see Big Ten versus SEC. Mr. O.S.C. supremacy. Michigan won the Natty last year. And they did it by way of an SEC team. So right now, I think you can only be as good as your most recent big game. And you got to put the Big Ten in there.

Let's keep moving along and talk about some more football games that happened. We had another upset in the Big 12 on top of Kansas beating BYU. You also had the Arizona State Sun Devils going in and beating the Kansas State Wildcats on the road in Kansas. That also clears the way for teams like Colorado to further cement their place in the Big 12 championship. This was a good weekend for me. I got to watch Kansas State and Missouri lose. So whenever those two things happen, especially in football. And Kansas won.

Yeah, and Kansas won for sure. And basketball is still ranked number one. It's true. Kansas State, they just, they do this every year, where they look great and then they fall apart at the end. This is coming from a Kansas fan, so I'm biased. But if football is like your sport and you continuously just barely miss out on the Big 12 championship game with like a 7 and 3 record,

it's just kind of mediocre at best, even though they've beat us 16 years in a row, they're very fond of bringing that up. I don't know, it's kind of sad, honestly. We'll just hop over to the SEC. As you continue to listen to Bleacher Boys on Radio Free Hillsday, 101.7 FM. And we had a stunner over there. I mean, the line was close. We talked about it.

We picked this game, and I'm happy that I was wrong. Florida wins at home against the LSU Tigers, and that will knock them out of the rankings. Winning 27 to 16, pretty comfortably. I know I watched that game. It was a busy weekend for me, but I had to make sure I had time to watch this game, especially when it was close.

Like I said, it all depends on if DJ Lagway plays for the Florida Gators. He played, made a busy, big difference and they won the football game. I had no idea that he was going to play and therefore I picked LSU, but I'm happy I was wrong. If you go look at the box score, he had 226 passing yards, one touchdown and zero interceptions. The running game is very strong with Jaden Baugh. So we got a true freshman quarterback and a true freshman running back, but they're showing extreme amounts of talent. And he had six carries for 65 yards and a touchdown. He had an average of 10.8 yards of carry. Overall, very happy. Let's be honest, I think this makes full.

Florida bowl eligible. Yeah, do you think Florida is going to be, you say that you have great quarterback, great freshman running back, are they going to export those guys in the transfer portal? Because I don't know, if you're a player, you want to compete for championship. How's the NIL money that gets paid at Florida versus another school? I don't know exactly all the numbers. As of right now, the coach that recruited him has been announced as staying. We mentioned it, I think briefly last week that Scott Strickland, the athletic director at the University of Florida, announced that Billy Napier will be returning. And he's the one who recruited DJ. So generally guys like to stick with their coaches. But in this world of NIL, who can be for certain?

Oh, Florida Gators lead the nation in number of NIL deals brokered. Interesting. Yeah, very interesting. We've had some problems with it in the past. Jane Rashada was originally promised millions of dollars and apparently that fell through. And now he's currently suing the school. and the coach for broken promises over NIL deals. Yo, note that that doesn't necessarily mean actual quality of them. And it also is across all sports. So it's not just the Florida Gators football. But Florida has led the way they have 498 NIL deals across all sports.

Well, I would argue that it's because such a well-rounded sports school overall, top-tier baseball program and a basketball program that has been at the top of the mountain and is definitely on the way up if certain controversies do not derail it. And then as well as a top tier track program, indoor, outdoor, you name it. I would be willing to pay a hundred bucks or $1,000 to have a player like, I don't know, wear my last name on a sweatshirt when they walked around town or something. That'd be pretty cool. Curtin, can you look into that?

Bleacherboard should be a corporate sponsor. I'm pretty sure that's highly illegal. I think we should look into Bleacher Boys. It's probably highly illegal being a nonprofit radio show. So this is obviously just a joke. But just imagine that. And I would want the faces of us on the back. We could get a lot of exposure.

But there's a bigger legacy of Bleacher Boys. Like, you really think that the day Bleacher Boys ends, the people are going to stop talking about it because I walk around Hillsdale and let me tell you, the energy for our show is really unmatched by anything. Name one version. Dan from Coldwater, I'm pretty sure he wrote in a couple weeks ago. We don't even reach Coldwater with our bandwidth.

No, we do. I think we, okay, let me check. I'll be back in a second. He's checking the map outside. Give him like two seconds. What's the verdict, George? Yeah, so after further research, Paul was right, but I was half right because you can find our podcast anywhere on transistor, WRFH Radio Free Hillsdale, 101.7 FM.

Yes. So the fact that Dan from Coldwater, we're still able to reach us, I think shows that we do have some sort of national reach that, you know, could be expanded. What's Dan's last name, George? The people who send the letters never put last name. Okay. All right. Part of the privacy policy. Yeah.

This is so chaotic and like, people want chaos. I honestly. Oh, no, no, no. We got a letter. We got a letter from. Oh, just in hot off the press. No. Yeah, I just got an email.

Yeah, George just wrote it himself. No, it's Wally from Waldron. Wally says, hey, I like when your show gets chaotic, especially when George takes you down a rabbit hole. Keep up the good work, sincerely Wally. Paul, you know you're going to keep this in. We're a family, Paul. We bring family.

Thank you, Vin Diesel or Dom Toreto. We bring family to the world of podcasting in a way that I would dare say Theo Vaughn and Joe Rogan can't even. Anyways. seamless transition there Paul good work that was a wild game for the Florida Gators and all their NIL deals hopefully we'll get our own NIL deal someday anyways we'll stick to the SEC and we'll get into the big game of the week that happened number seven Tennessee lost to number 12 Georgia Georgia was the favorite but I know I considered Tennessee the team to beat in this one as

Georgia had a lot to prove coming in, coming off a loss, but they did it. They won 31.17. Tennessee came out the gate pretty strong, 10 points in the first quarter, just unanswered. And Georgia came alive in the second quarter and just ran with it from there. Well, it's pretty crazy that even today, after that big loss to Georgia, they're still in the top 10 I see. Is that the AP? Yeah. Yeah. See what I did there? Tennessee. I know. I appreciate you, George. Yep. I got it. Very interesting, like Carton was mentioning, Tennessee didn't score in the second half, just very impressive from the Georgia defense. And I mean, that is the best part of that team, in my opinion. But another thing worthy of mention is that Carson Beck finally didn't throw a pick. He had two

touchdowns and no interceptions plus 347 yards. Shout out Carson Beck. A complete reversal of his previous performances against Texas, Florida, and Ole Miss. Good job. I know I had. my concerns about him and he definitely does a lot in this game to alleviate those. Yeah, like you were saying, he looked great. Yeah, Nico Amaleva for Tennessee just wasn't up to snuff. He was a game time decision. Okay, okay. If you remember, there were a lot of stories coming out. He was in concussion protocol. Tennessee's quarterback position was up in the air. Okay. Through no touchdowns and only had 167 yards passing. But coming off of an injury,

I think that's a little bit excusable. But the majority of the offense came from the rushing. attack. Dylan Samson, the running back for the Tennessee volunteers, had 101 yards rushing and a touchdown. The SEC constantly in chaos, you just look at the standings for that. I think Texas is back on top, if I'm not wrong. Crazy week, everything shakes up. We've got some upsets. And I know we talked about it last week, but Georgia probably will be in the SEC championship game. Is that a correct? Yes, most likely. I don't know the tiebreakers. I know it's probably head to head. So if Texas does lose to Texas A&M in the last game of the year. Georgia would for sure be in against Texas A&M as they beat Texas earlier this year. However, if Texas A&M loses, I don't know who would be in

that game because they would both be... Oh, so Texas A&M controls the destiny now to be a Texas versus Texas A&M. Is that what you're saying? I believe so. I'm not super well versed in all the rules and what's the priority tiebreaker. I just know that head-to-head is usually one of them. And it's usually a high priority in all conferences. And because Texas has lost to Georgia already this year, that does put Georgia ahead of them. Yeah, head-to-head is the first. So if Texas A&M loses, and who do they play the rest of the way? So Texas A&M and Texas play each other. I know Texas plays Kentucky this Saturday. And then Texas A&M plays... They play Auburn and then that final Texas game. Auburn, which Auburn and Kentucky are both no blow-off games. They could pose a threat. Kentucky

already beat Ole Miss earlier this year. Auburn has not been so successful at upsetting teams, but still they seem to have gotten better as the year has gone on, especially on offense. No, no. The reason I'm just wondering is looking at some of the news surrounding Georgia's win about Tennessee, people are saying that they're guaranteed to make the college football playoff now because they're ranked eight right now. It's hard to see them getting punished for losing the FCC championship game to a good team. like Texas. All these playoff contending SEC teams are all two lost teams. And they've all happened in conference. They did not happen out of conference. We'll just have to wait and see how everything

plays out. I mean, it seems like something chaotic happens every single week. Nothing is set in stone as of right now. So I think that that prediction that, oh, Georgia makes the college football play playoff absolutely is not necessarily, because don't they still have to play Georgia Tech? And Georgia Tech is not, they're an average team, but they're not a slouch team. Beating Miami I just don't think Georgia Tech has the firepower to take on a team like Georgia on the offensive side of the ball. That's very fair, but it's not a 100% guaranteed win for Georgia, is my point. Remember a couple years back when the committee left out undefeated Florida State?

That was last year. That was last year. That was really last year. Wow. Time flies. Florida State should have been in that playoff. Yeah, absolutely. And they just, they left him out because the quarterback got injured.

And, you know, is that fair to all the rest of their play? players, but the reason I bring it up now is because who's to say the committee can't include a 6 and 6th Kansas team because their quarterback started playing well. Matthews having a lot of pipe dreams about. No. Kansas's chances at the college football playoffs. Okay, hypothetically, how much would Kansas have to win their last two games by to be in the college football player? Like, they've got to beat Colorado by probably 90 points at least. Even then, like, I don't think that anybody is going to just be okay.

You don't think if they beat Colorado by 140. If they beat Colorado by 140 points, I think best case scenario. Something happened to the Colorado players. Let's say hypothetically that happens. I think they get one of the best bulls outside of the college football player. I don't think that they can justify putting them in, but they will get one of the best bulls outside of it.

200 points. Simply because they already have what? six losses. Yeah. So, and they've lost to teams like West Virginia. Yeah. And nobody's going to be okay with that. And so it's not happening.

I'm very sorry. Yeah. I think we wanted to cover this one real quick. The U.S. Army released its new uniforms for this year's matchup against Navy at the end of the year on December 14th. And a nice all-black uniform paying homage to the 100. 101st Airborne Division, and they look pretty clean. Yeah, they look.

I don't know how to describe them. They kind of have these white paint specs on the helmet, but not in a bad way. But that's honestly one of my favorite parts of that December 14th game is looking at the different uniforms, how they honor our country. This year, this matchup actually has more implications than it has in the past. And the sense of Army is looking for that college football playoff berth. And maybe a big win against Navy. be it just the bounce they need to get their resume up in tip top shape. Yeah, and to go back to these jerseys, I mean, the head, I've seen multiple pictures of them.

One has a clover on the helmet, on the side of the helmet as the logo, and then others have a skull and crossbones. So I think... Oh, it's not just one helmet. I don't think it's one helmet, so it might be... That'd be very cool if it was position specific. I'm not finding much else. It's hard to find pictures on these. but it would be very cool if they did it by like position or even just unit to have different emblems on the helmets,

or even if just they let guys pick whatever they prefer, that'd be very cool. And I think it's about time we get to the picks, but first we're going to obviously update the records. And last week was not that great for George and I. We both went two and five, picked a lot of the wrong teams last week. But on the other end of the spectrum, Matthew went five and two. Let's go, baby. So an overall standings update. Don't tell me, curtains beating me.

Put myself still at the top, 49 and 28. George is still in second at 4433, and Matt is two games behind 42 and 35. It's close. And this week, we have week 13 in the college football world, starting off with number five, Indiana going to Columbus, Ohio to play number two Ohio State. Indiana Hoosiers are still undefeated, by the way.

Yeah, I can start this one off. And I think Ohio State playing at home is going to be looking ahead to that Michigan game. But not in a way that is going to catch them on their heels. I think they want to be at their best. They want that final game to be consequential. And really, this game for Ohio State, I would say seals the college football playoff. Because if they win, even if they lose to Michigan and in the Big Ten championship, I still think it's really unlikely that a three loss Ohio State team and I guess two of those

losses would come against Oregon is going to be left out of the playoff. So for them, this is kind of a championship for them. Let's go Ohio State. Indiana, it might knock them out. Indiana is also playing, I think, for a position in the college football playoff because if they get blown out badly in this game, they might fall outside the top 12 or there gives them a lot more reason to be put outside. That list they haven't really played anyone that good this year.

If they keep it close, if they keep it competitive, Indiana has a really good shot of making the college football playoff. Give me Ohio State, though. I want to pick Indiana just because I like chaos. Unfortunately, I don't think that it's going to happen. I think Indiana has played a lot of teams that are categorically worse than teams that Ohio State has played. and I think Ohio State, while they haven't looked great this season,

I think they'll look better versus a relatively untested Indiana team. So I'll take Ohio State here. All right. Well, I do have the wiggle room to take some risky picks, and that's exactly what I'm going to do with this one. But I'm going to back it up with a little bit of common opponents history. So if we look at Indiana's common opponents with Ohio State's common opponents, which is not the tell-all indicator, but it gives us a really good idea.

They played Michigan State and beat them 47 to 10. Ohio State only beat them 38 to 7. I would put the edge on Indiana in that one. And then also, they beat Nebraska 56 to 7, absolutely blew Nebraska out of the water. And meanwhile, Ohio State barely won by four points, 2117. So just those two games alone, looking at those two, kind of give you a decent idea that Indiana's not that bad and that their undefeated record is legit. There are concerns about the teams overall just being mediocre, as Carton said. However,

Indiana is coming off of a byweek. They've had time to prepare for this. They've had two weeks to just look forward to Ohio State, break them down, watch them on film. As their coach said, whenever people asked him initially earlier in the season how his team is doing this and pulling off an undefeated season. He just said, I'm just a winner. I win. That's what I do. I expect him to take his team out there and do the exact same thing this week and win. Can I change my pick? I want to pick Indiana now, but not because of anything Paul said, although it was. Paul, are you picking Indiana too? So two Indiana picks. Well, yeah, I'm going to, I'm going to pick Indiana because I like the narrative that Ohio State doesn't show up in big games. I forgot about that. Yeah, there's that

too so thanks for that next up we're going to go right over to the big 12 and we've got number 14 bYU versus number 21 Arizona state so ranked matchup and just as a disclaimer we are going off of the AP rankings so these are the AP poll rankings for all of the teams yeah in this one I know they just lost to Kansas but BYU is a pretty solid team I think pretty solid might be an statement. Arizona State, they've been sneaky good this year. They're eight and two now after they beat Kansas State. So they're no slouch either, but I think BYU is just on a different level. I think they'll come out hungry after losing at home to Kansas. I think BYU takes this one. Yeah, that Arizona State defense has looked really good and getting Sam Levitt has really impressed

me down the stretch. They have two losses. That's Cincinnati game, I don't really know what happened. they had, it looks like they had a backup, they had quarterback Jeff Sims in, I think he was a backup at the time. So I don't know if you count that as a real loss, you just take the game off. Well, wasn't that game also the kicker tryout game, remember? Oh yeah. Arizona State, the coach came out and said, we're having kicker tryouts on Monday. Yeah, didn't they miss three field goals and then they lost by 10? So the math wasn't quite math thing there.

Either way, though, Arizona easily could be 9 and 1. Easily could actually be 10 and 0. they lost to Texas Tech by eight points. So I think their record isn't as different as BYU would suggest. I'm going to go with Arizona State here. This is a lot closer. It's a small spread, only three and a half, in favor of the Arizona State, Sun Devils.

Most of BYU's big games have been in Provo at home. And this is probably their biggest since, I don't know. Last week? Well, last week was pretty big, but that was an unranked team. I'm saying this is probably their biggest in terms of just pre-game rankings since Kansas State maybe. But they're on the road for this one, and I'm still tempted to take BYU. I think what Carton said is probably going to come to pass. They've got to bounce back, and this is going to be their game to do it.

Prove to everyone that they're still a legit contender and that they still want to get into the playoff. Because if they slide here, then there's probably a slim chance that they make the playoffs. so they have to get in line and get on track. And next, we're, for the third straight week, we're picking a Kansas football game, and that is because they are hosting number 17 Colorado. You know what? For the third straight week, they're going to win a football game.

I'm going with my Kansas Jayhawks. They're going to take down Travis Hunter. They're going to take down Shadir Sanders, while also paving the way for a potential Kansas State return to the Big 12 championship game, they are going to show that Travis Hunter isn't all that, and Ashton Jentee get the Heisman Trophy. That's my prediction.

This is a win-win, because if I screw up the pick, I'm still happy because that means Colorado lost. But if I get the pick, it's because Colorado won. Give me the buffs. Man, we got a bunch of Colorado haters on this show. I personally would not hate it if the, Colorado Buffaloes were in the playoff. I think it's an exciting team to watch. Their offense is dynamic. As I mentioned earlier in the show, it'll be fun to see Dion Sanders pressers in the playoff.

Some people might find it annoying, but I think it'll be a bit of entertainment value, and that's why we watch sports. So I'm going to side with Colorado in this game. I think that the magic runs out. The clock strikes 12 for Kansas's Cinderella story, and Colorado comes in there and wins. Here's the thing. In Lus Can you, Kansas puts out a strong defensive performance like last week, then I don't think they have a chance. They can't really just out sprint this Colorado offense. It's just too explosive. They've got too many weapons to really just outpace, especially for a Kansas team that has had an inconsistent offense. So I'm going to roll with the Colorado Buffaloes and Coach Prime.

And next, we've got number 15, Texas A&M going to Auburn. Yeah, I'll take Texas A&M in this one, playing at Auburn. and it's always tough to go on the road in the SEC, but I think Texas A&M has the SEC championship in mind, and they know what they got to do to get there, and they got to win this football game to do that. So I'll take Texas A&M. I'll make my pick with a little bit of a parable.

A master was out for a walk with one of his students when they noticed a fox chasing a rabbit. According to an ancient saying, the rabbit will escape, said the master. Not so, replied the student, the fox is faster. Nevertheless, the rabbit will elude the fox, the master stated. How can you be so certain, asked the student. The fox is running for its dinner. The rabbit is running for its life.

And in the same way, Texas A&M is running for its life to make that college football playoff. This is just dinner for Auburn. And that's why I'm going to go with Texas A&M. It's a lot of stuff just to say something very simple, but very creative. Did you come up with that by yourself? No, it's an ancient parable. Oh, okay. Pulling on the wisdom of the ancients.

Yep, 10 for my picks. I'm going to go and pull on the fact that Texas A&M has looked better on offense since they've gotten Marcel Reed in there. Had a cupcake game this past week against the New Mexico State. I believe they're the Aggies as well. Yeah, New Mexico State Aggies. A little bit of a cupcake, and they pulled away and easily dealt with that. However, they're playing Auburn. Auburn's offense has been getting a lot better.

They had an impressive catch by one of their wide receivers this past week, one-handed catch. But Texas A&M is just top of the conference. They can't afford to lose, as George has mentioned, and they've got bigger aspirations. I think it's just too much for Auburn's offense, and their defense just can't hold back the extra level of dynamism that Marcel brings with his legs. So Texas A&M for the win. next we have a nice classic matchup classic rivalry number 18 army going to south bend to play the notre dame fighting irish can we tell notre dame to get a conference already like i don't know

i see this game every year and every year i'm like Notre Dame is ranked in the top five in the nation and army is just a team that isn't very good this year it's different but yeah uh anyway that's a Big side note that we can have that discussion later. But yeah, armies looked good. Notre Dame, are there? Army still undefeated? Yes. Yeah.

Notre Dame, again, they just have that one massive blemish to Northern Illinois. Everything else has been pretty dominant. I think teams can have bad showings. I think they can be good teams still. I think Notre Dame takes this one away, although I think Army puts up a little bit more of a fight than people that will expect. Yeah, and what I have liked about watching Notre Dame football this year is they've actually survived a lot of trap games besides obviously that terrible

loss to northern Illinois early on so the last few games they beat a very good Georgia Tech team or a Georgia Tech team that can't be overlooked I should rather say they beat Stanford which played toe to toe with Louisville by 42 they beat at that point I think a previously undefeated Navy team 51 to 14 and then they beat a Virginia team which Pittsburgh, 35 to 14. I think Notre Dame, it's hard for me to say that they have the talent level of a top tier, a CCC team like Texas or a team like Ohio State. But I think they could sneak into, if not a national championship, the semi-final game this year. Give me Notre Dame. Well, I'm going to sound like a broken record on this one. Army, an impressive year. However, Notre Dame is just cruising at this

point. They're coming off of three straight big wins, not in terms of like importance, but in terms of score differential. First, they crushed the undefeated Navy 51 to 14 and made it look very easy. Then they crushed a absolutely devastated and struggling Florida State team for 52 to 3. And then as George mentioned, they beat Virginia team 3514. And in those past few games, they've really just been like getting out to a big lead early and just playing with their food, doing whatever they want to do. They run the football really well, both Riley Leonard and Jeremiah Love, lead that rushing attack. And then as well, Riley Leonard has been working on developing his passing game, working through

those schemes and stuff against these teams and has been looking very sharp. I think that he continues that trend and they take it to Army and win by at least two who scores. And next we go to a classic Big Ten matchup, a rival game. Wisconsin goes to Lincoln to face the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Yeah, this is the game where if both teams wore their home jerseys, I wouldn't be able to tell which team's which, because they're both red. Good observation, Carton. Yeah, great, great.

This is why we haven't missed our color commentator for game. Great analysis for me. I think Wisconsin ultimately takes it. I think they played Oregon really close last week, and I think that they know that they have it in them. Call me T. Payne, I'm going Wisconsin. Yeah, and there's no doubt about where I'm going to go with this. Lincoln, Nebraska is going to be jumping after this game.

Well, maybe not the Cornhuskers fans, as their favorite team goes down by two scores. to them Wisconsin Badgers, them old pack of Badgers. Give me Wisconsin. I am finding it hard to argue. I generally don't like following the crowd on picks, but Nebraska's been having some struggles recently. They just lost to USC, and USC has had a very mediocre year,

despite a strong start. Paul, but if you don't pick Nebraska, then it doesn't, the picks don't matter. if we all pick the same thing. And they also lost to UCLA. So they've lost to the really mediocre, average teams out on the West Coast. And I really want to pick Wisconsin,

but I'm hearing word from backstage that I have to pick Nebraska to make it interesting. So I'm going to pick Nebraska. Even though my heart's not in it, I'm doing it for the paycheck. I'm selling out. I'm picking Nebraska. Dylan Ryola, they need a big game.

This is a rivalry game. I mean, you have no motivation to play a team from California. Like, oh, what the heck? And their loss to USC was only by eight points, and they were traveling all the way to L.A. That's just a tough travel schedule for them. We can excuse that one, you know, make excuses and, you know, brush that one off.

But this one, they're coming to home turf. It's Wisconsin. We're going to bring it to them. Wisconsin's coming off of a tough loss to Oregon. They're probably drained. They're devastated and Nebraska's going to seize the opportunity to strike. Speaking of Wisconsin, didn't they have a pretty big upset on the hardwood? So my Wisconsin basketball knowledge is limited.

So you tell me, weren't they preseason top 25 ranked anyways, though? They were 13. That's who it was. Wisconsin was ranked 13, but they took down number two Alabama at home. Well, they only beat Texas Rio Cran Valley by three today. So, you know, can't feel good if you're Bama. Yeah, not too impressive. Did they really take them?

No, they didn't. They beat Arizona. Oh, Arizona. I don't know. It was 17 that started with an A. On Friday, they beat Arizona. 103. Who's number 17 in the nation, yeah.

What? So by more than almost 20 points. I got to look this up now because I'm convinced I had a, fake memory uploaded by the people that run the Matrix? Well, Arizona was number nine at the time of the upset. But somehow Wisconsin is... 19. Yeah, that's kind of weird that Wisconsin isn't higher than that, but...

Does that mean they started the year unranked? They must have. I'm just speculating now, but maybe, I mean, they deserve it because Texas Rio Grande Valley is exactly the blue blood. Well, we can always talk more college hoops on this show. we just need we need to make sure that it's what the people want.

Anyways, we'll move on to our final game of the week that we're going to pick and that is going to be Vanderbilt going in to Baton Rouge to play the LSU Tigers. This is an unranked matchup. Both teams have fallen out of the rankings

but it's still an exciting game nonetheless. Yeah, this will be interesting. LSU is in pretty big slide. Vanderbilt they've played a lot of teams close, haven't been able to pull out a lot of them. That being said,

I think LSU, even though they're in a slump, is just a better team. So Vanderbilt, they might be up and coming, but LSU, I think, has the weapons to take them down. So I'm sticking with LSU.

This is a tough game. The seven and a half point spread, I don't think, does justice to have. close it could be. LSU lost to Bama 42 to 13. Wisconsin only lost 42 to 10. Wisconsin and LSU are pretty close. I think Wisconsin loses to Vanderbilt. I actually got some inside intel of a kid from my friend whose friend played both Miami this year and Vanderbilt this year. And he said that Vanderbilt's offensive line was by far better. Give me the Commodores. Well, this

This is really tough, as George said. I think the game is closer, like he said. However, a lot of stuff is coming out after LSU lost to Florida. I think Brian Kelly might be coaching for his job at this point, and that can make a man a little bit more focused on what he's doing. The game is also in Death Valley, in Baton Rouge. That's a huge advantage, as we've mentioned before. And this year, it's not the same as,

Vanderbilt coming in in past years. The team is a little bit better. They're more exciting. They've got Diego Pavia. I expect the environment to be still same thing. It's not going to be an Alabama game-type level environment, but it's still going to be up there with their normal home games. Give me LSU.

They have a lot to prove and playing for their coach's job. So anyways, that's about all the time we have for today's show. Thank you so much for listening to the Bleachers. Boys on Radio 3 Hillsdale 101.7 FM.