WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Bleacher Boys: Let the Games Begin

Episode Date: September 6, 2024

As the College Football season kicks off with a bang, Paul and George kick off their new show! Joined by fellow student Matthew Karten, the guys discuss the biggest games and stories from Week 1 of the college football season. They jump over to the MLB to talk Ohtani, Judge, and the Wildcard Race. Finally, the show wraps up with the boys' pick for the most interesting matchups in Week 2 of College Football.

Love. First stroke in the middle. Love to the end zone and the average take the lead. You're listening to Bleacher Boys, where Paul and George break down the biggest stories in sports, from the cheap seats, I guess, on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Coming to you from Hillsdale, Michigan, we are the knowledge from the nosebleeds, the coordinators from the couch, and the sports sages in the stands. I am Paul Marquette, and along for the ride is my co-host, George Ackala, and we are The Bleacher Boys. Just out of curiosity, Paul, did you get Chat GPT to write that for you? That sounded bigger words than I've ever heard you use before. Well, that's funny enough. I was staying up late one night in the darkness of my room, crafting this magical concoction of words to start off our beautiful new show, The Bleacher Boys.

Are you going to introduce our special guest? Yes, so today we have a wonderful guest joining us today. It is Moneyline Matt. Oh, what's up, everybody? Hey, it's good to be here. I want to thank Paul and George for having me. Moneyline Matt, better known as Matthew Carton, around campus, for those who don't really know him very well. We are here to talk about the biggest stories in college football in the sports world. And, wow, we started off with a great week of college football. football. Week one, we had some pretty big games, and that Saturday we started off with Georgia versus Clemson. And wow, Clemson did not have a good game and got walloped by the Georgia Bulldogs.

But in all fairness, Paul, final score 343, I don't think that does justice to how well actually Clemson did play. After the first half, it was 6'0. Started fading down the stretch. I think you really saw Georgia's talent start to take over. And I mean, ultimately their quarterback filling in nicely for Stenson Bennett just didn't make mistakes. And that was key. Do you think that Georgia is deserving to be the national championship favorite this year after that showing against Clemson? Yeah, Paul, absolutely I do. I think Georgia has a solid quarterback. They got an even better defense than they had last year. Their offense looked great versus Clemson. They got off to a slow start, I'd say, but yeah, as George said, the talent took over.

I'd be pretty high on them to win the championship. That was followed up by the Miami Florida game at 3.30 Eastern. And wow, Florida just got played off their own field by the Miami Hurricanes. Yeah, being roommates with Paul, you know, seeing him cry. I thought our room was the swamp after how many tears he shed on his little Florida sheet on his bed. George kind of alluded to it, but I am. I'm a massive Florida Gators fan, and this was a rough one. I was trying to watch this game, but I kind of gave up in the third quarter once Miami took over.

I was ready for the coach to be fired and our freshman quarterback to come into the game, which, funny enough, he did end up in the game in the fourth quarter after Graham Mert, a former Wisconsin quarterback, got injured. Yeah, I think it was a shame for Florida, really had a chance to be a signature win, but, you know what they say? It's all about the U. And a little trivia with Matt, Matt, when was the last? last time Florida has dropped the home opener? Oh man, I couldn't tell you. I would say it's got to be

at least first time in 15 years, I'd say. Nineteen 89 is how far back you would have to go. And that was before my parents graduated high school for a little bit of context. It just goes to show you how much of a stellar blue-collar program that Florida school is. But right now, they are in the doldrums and struggling against ACC competition. I thought this was a game that Florida had to win, especially considering their brutal schedule this year, the toughest in the nation. You had to get wins in order to make a bowl game, and this was one of them, in my opinion, but clearly I was wrong. Florida, as a result, is left in shambles, and Coach Napier is very much humiliated and flustered. I don't know if you guys saw his press conference, where he

talked about Florida fans in their basements in central Florida talking trash about the team's performance on Saturday. Did you happen to see that? I mean, I don't blame the fans. You lose by, what was it, 31 through a school when they were favored starting the game. So, yeah, I think, say what you want about it, but Florida just absolutely horrendous showing. Well, the funny thing is that Florida has no basements because the soil was not suitable to support a basement. So many fans kept piling on Cochinapier after he made such a silly statement. Just yet another example. of how disastrous this Florida opener has been for the team. Next up, we have the primetime game of Saturday. Notre Dame stays cool in Kyle Field in the Texas Heat to beat Texas A&M. And yeah, actually at the top of the program, you heard the call of the go-ahead touchdown

for Notre Dame. And for me, that's what it felt like the game was a lot of the way you had Texas A&M. It felt like their game to lose being at Kyle Field, home of the 12th man, though some other stadiums would have something to say about that. It felt like Texas A&M kind of controlled the game, but Notre Dame just popped off big runs when they needed to and ended up winning the game 23 to 13. Texas A&M came in as the favorite and Notre Dame said, we're a storied college football program and they proved it. Things feel different this year about this fighting Irish team. I still think they have a long way to go before Notre Dame proves that. It seems like they get into

big situations and really haven't been able to win the big games when they needed to, but I think this is a big start for them in a very competitive and some would say top heavy college football landscape. The rest of their schedule seems pretty light. You know, a couple of ACC teams on their schedule, but the rest of it is, you know, filled with a lot of seeming cupcake games. So if they can hold on to that undefeated record, they'll most likely be in that playoff this year with the 12 teams. On Monday night, we had LSU versus USC, two ranked teams facing off in Las Vegas, and it did not disappoint. USC tops LSU 27 to 20, and Brian Kelly still struggles to find that opening win. It's been three years now, and he still has not won an opening game at LSU.

Yeah, the former Notre Dame coach has to be upset, because LSU actually was looking pretty good until that final drive where a targeting call pushed what would have been a 46-yard field goal gave USC the opportunity to run one more play and ultimately score the touchdown from the 20. And I'm very impressed with USC's defense, former PAC 12 school. You know, everyone considered the PAC 12 kind of a light conference, not full of tough teams, but USC comes out. Their defense holds LSU to 20 points. It's not perfect, but it's definitely better. And they're in the Big 10. So you got to have a good defense to be successful in the Big Ten now, and it looks like they are making improvements in trying to prove themselves worthy of being in this new conference.

Yeah, can we go ahead and get a moment of silence, Oregon State and Wazoo? Get the short end of the stick there with that conference realignment getting relegated to the Mountain West. That's no fun. Sorry for you guys. Actually, I believe that the Pac-12 still exists with just those two teams. Well, they also have color. Isn't Colorado still in the, or no, they're in the Big 12 now?

Yeah, the Colorado is in the Big 12. The PAC 12, I believe, is simply Oregon State and Wazoo. So a couple of things about this USC game that caught my eye. We saw some stunning wide receiver play from USC, and I noticed Kyron Hudson with some incredible one-handed grabs that caught everyone's attention, you know, showing out skills like Odell Beckham Jr., but he was on USC.

He really showed out and is making a name for himself. Meanwhile, LSU just can't catch a break. Their team keeps taking losses this week as their running back, John Emery, who had a decent game on Monday, is now out for the year with an ACL tear. So hopefully things will go up from here for LSU as they look to rebound and restore hope for the college football playoff.

Speaking of college football playoff, we almost saw a stunning loss by a college football playoff favorite in Oregon versus Idaho. Any thoughts on that game? Yeah, I mean, I was watching that game. I had no idea that it was this close until a friend of mine told me to turn it on. Watching Oregon, playing it close with an FCS team was quite stunning and not a great way for them to start their year off, especially being in the new conference of the Big Ten. Unlike USC, Oregon off to a shaky start and we'll see how they handle the pressure of being in the Big Ten. As much as I love seeing an FCS team beat one of those Power 4 conference teams, that did not happen. It'll be something interesting to watch as the season progresses to see how Oregon does.

I mentioned that the Georgia Clemson game started off Saturday's slate of college football games for week one. We did have the Colorado and North Dakota State game on Thursday. night, which really drew in a lot of eyes and attention as Dion Sanders begins his second year coaching the Colorado Buffalo's. I don't know if you guys had a chance to watch that game, but my takeaways were that Colorado's offense shined very brightly and impressed a lot of people, but their defense was very, very concerning as they let NDSU's offense just roll over them whenever it mattered. Yeah, Paul, I'll tell you what, I am out on the Colorado hype. You know, until, I mean, they went four and eight last year, was it?

Like, they have shown absolutely zero results. And as far as I'm concerned, everybody's going to be paying the big stars, national attention, you know, whatever. I'm out. I'm out. I don't think they're going to win many meaningful games this season. I mean, one thing that stood out to me was their defense and how porous and easy it was for them to just get scored on by NDSU.

And I realized, oh, wait, Colorado's in the Big 12 now. They're not supposed to have a good defense. Nobody in the Big 12 has ever had a good defense, it seems like. Yeah, good old Big 12 football, 100 points a game. You know how it is. It's going to be really exciting to watch this team on offense, but on defense will, you know, maybe check in on other games. Travis Hunter can only play two positions on the field, unfortunately, for Colorado.

I would also like to mention about Colorado how Jimmy Horn is kind of sneaky under the radar for that team. really impressed me with his speed. Granted, it was a Power 4 school versus an FCS school. And, you know, he kind of just blew by a lot of those defenders and got some big touchdowns, big yardage. And because he's got Travis Hunter on the other side of the field from him, opposite him, Hunter's going to take a lot of the attention away. Jimmy Horn look for him to get a lot of receptions,

touchdowns, and yards this year. The big game, especially here in Michigan, was the Michigan-Fresno State game on Saturday night. kind of a close one for most of that game. Michigan kept it close, but in the end, pulled away to beat Fresno State. Well, I mean, without Conner Stallions to steal signs, you know, obviously the team is going to get a little bit worse at least. But yeah, now that Jim Harbaugh is in the NFL with the Chargers,

I don't see Michigan repeating. They'll probably make the playoff, but they won't get too far in the new 12-team format. And they've got the big test against Texas coming up this week, which will be interesting test of how good they are. I do find it interesting that we could foreseeably see Michigan be an underdog. They play Texas on the 7th of September. Obviously a top three school. USC is ranked 13 right now.

They play those USC in two weeks. Go to Oregon in early November and then obviously finish up with the team down south. So you've got four very solid teams that are likely going to be in the top 10 at some point during this season. And I don't think it's fair for a team. team that graduated as many players as they did to expect more than I think they should be happy with a nine and three season, even eight and four to a certain respect. Yeah, and if you make a bowl game, you want to one of those higher ends, maybe not a New Year's six, because those New Year's sixes are going to be in the college football playoff. I would be happy personally, you know, as a Florida

fan who hasn't really had a solid team in the past couple of years, you just won a championship. You've bought yourself some time, like George mentioned, it's a transition period. I wouldn't be too worried about it. Enjoy it. If they happen to beat Texas, that's awesome. They may be legit. Enjoy the season. Don't be too harsh. Have some fun with it. Wise words from Paul, as we continue with Bleacher Boys on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Paul, I've got to ask you, what do you think, what's going on in the corn state of Iowa? And what happened with their offense? They're only supposed to score 10 points a game. I'm happy that you mentioned that because all this, uh, news surrounding and media surrounding Iowa was about how they were revamping their offense,

a offense which had been comically bad for the past couple of years. On the other side, they had a great defense, but they could never score points. So the trick to beating Iowa was scoring 14 points, and then you'd win the game. Yeah, Paul, I got to ask, how is Iowa planning on sending all of their punters to the NFL over the next seasons? Like, if they can't develop their punters, You know, what's going to become of all of the Iowa prospects because their offenses are making it to the NFL? Well, Iowa does have a revamped offense. They scored 40 points in their opening game, and they did most of it in the second half, granted. But in the first half, people were clowning them for having their revamped offense that only scored three points in the first half.

But they came back with a vengeance and answered everyone's jokes and critiques, and they ended up with 492 yards of total offense on the day. Granted, it was against Illinois State, but, you know, if you're Iowa, you take whatever wins you can get, especially with this offense. And an interesting stat for you guys, can you guys guess how many total touchdowns their receivers had last year? Isn't it one? Actually, no, they had three total receiving touchdowns in the 2023 season, and that's exactly how many they had in their first game this past week. So Iowa already has equaled their total receiving touchdown numbers from last. year and it's looking good for the Iowa offense so maybe potential playoff run if they can keep it up against the Big Ten competition. Yeah, we'll see how they do in HATE Week. They're playing Iowa State this week, so we'll keep an eye on that game for sure, but yeah, Iowa's looking pretty good right now. And what I will say that Mike O' overlooked is I think they only have one ranked opponent on their schedule so far. So as far as being a playoff contender, if they have one loss when the committee makes their decision. I think it'll be hard to keep them out, especially if they have a dominant

defense like they have in the past, which has only given up in the 2023 season. Iowa gave up an average of 14.8 points per game, making them the fourth best defense in college football. Yeah, definitely something to look forward to. The only ranked opponent that Iowa is going to play is Ohio State, as George mentioned. The team down south. Yeah. The team down south. Let's not, let's cut that. My apologies. A little Southern boy here, so I don't really know about all these terminology and ways we refer to those other teams. So some interesting performances we had this past week was Boise State Ashton Jeanty. He had 20 carries for 276 yards and six touchdowns versus Georgia State. And looking like a I Am flag football stat line out here, very interesting, George.

I know you've put a couple of those games together. Actually, no, it wasn't I am flag football. It was a more serious game, fourth grade recess national championship on the last day of school. And I had eight touchdowns, four two-point conversions. It was a great day. Yeah, that was before George had to hang it up and become a professional sports watcher like myself. So, you know, we always love reliving our glory days, but, you know, now we're in the bleachers, as our show name suggests. Meanwhile, Arizona's Titoa McMillan impressed with 10 receptions for 304 yards and four touchdowns versus New Mexico. You know, he almost broke the school record of 314 receiving yards, but I believe he was benched after the took a massive lead against New Mexico.

Interesting that him and Boise State's Genie are now Heisman watch candidates because of their big. week one performances, how long they last there is under question because while McMillan may stay there being in a power four conference in Arizona, Gene T does have a big test coming up. Now, as the AP Top 25 released its second pull of the season with their new rankings going into week two, I guess, first week was week zero. What are your guys' opinions on the most overrated versus the most underrated teams in that poll? Yeah, well, definitely the most overrated team. before this poll was obviously Florida State. They've had a rough one to start the season, to say the least.

Lost two games pretty badly. Yeah, they aren't looking good. As far as overrated in this poll, though, I've got to say, NC State at number 24, didn't really look all that good week one. True, they struggled against Western Carolina. I was kind of interested in Georgia Tech jumping up to 23. You know, that was an impressive victory over

Florida State, but we just saw Florida State lose to Boston College. So now questions are being raised as how legit or how good of a team is Florida State really. And if Georgia Tech beat them and it's a bad, mediocre Florida State team, then that ranking may prove to be a sort of fool's gold. So we'll have to watch them over the course of the next few weeks. I think I have to go with right along those lines, Boston College, the fact that they're not in the ranking, despite beating up handily on Florida State. If you remember, Georgia Tech only won on a last second field goal. So I think if you're going to justify putting Georgia Tech in, you also have to include Boston College. And now, I get that the committee doesn't want to fluctuate the rankings too much because it would show that they didn't

do their job perfectly well at the beginning. But I don't think Oregon should still be at seven after their terrible performance against Idaho when you got teams below them like Penn State, Missouri, even Michigan that struggled less against a better team. Yeah, that's a a very good point, George. As for the most underrated team on this ranking, I would probably have to say Arizona. I believe that that team was pretty good last year and, you know, the coach is still there that's only going to get better with time. They're now in the Big 12 and that Big 12 is wide open for the taking and, you know, they showed out. Their game was probably a little close, but it seemed like they kind of benched their starters as the second half went on. So keep an eye out for

Arizona to stay in those rankings or even climb them even further. Yeah, speaking of the Big 12 being wide open, the Kansas Jayhawks only have one ranked opponent on the schedule this season, and that's Kansas State. So the Jayhawks could be looking at their first conference championship in at least a while, unfortunately. Well, that's always good to win a conference championship, even if there's been a lack of them for several years. I've got to go with mine and jumping in here is why.

Washington. They came one game short of a national championship last year. Yes, they lost their coach and they lost some of their great players, including Michael Pennix, going to the NFL. But they still are a very legit team. They beat Weber State by over 30. And I know Weber State isn't great, but compared to these other teams, I think it's a little disrespectful with a transfer quarterback that played very well at Mississippi State, that they're still not ranked. Yeah, I would also like to add on to that. I know this is a little bit late. and I already gave Arizona, but Texas A&M, they played a pretty good game against Notre Dame. It was very close and, in fact, tied until the fourth quarter, very end of the fourth quarter.

And they're now out of the rankings. Granted, they're the first one up in the others receiving votes list. But if you're going to have Notre Dame at number five and you just lost to the number five team in the nation by a score, you know, I feel like you deserve to stay in the rankings, especially since they've got Clemson at 25 after they just got demolished by Georgia. Just gone, Paul White. You're listening to Bleacher Boys,

where Paul and George break down the biggest stories in sports from the cheap seats, I guess, on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Coming to you from Hillsdale, Michigan, we are the knowledge from the nosebleeds, the coordinators from the couch, and the sports sages in the... the stands. I am Paul Marquette, and along for the ride is my co-host, George Ackola, and we are

the Bleacher Boys. You're listening to Part 2 of the Bleacher Boys with Paul and George. As you just heard at the top of the show, the White Sox are the worst team in baseball, and they are historically bad. The White Sox are 31 and 109 as of this recording with a a winning percentage of 221, and they are on track. They haven't done it yet, but they are on track to break the record for the most losses in the modern era of baseball. Yeah, as a Royals fan, watching this White Sox team, you know, just through the lens of a fan of a historically bad baseball team, this team just is absolutely horrible.

They have no team chemistry. It's honestly hard to watch. They're five and 45 or their last 50 games. This is, it's just, it's really bad for Chicago right now. Yeah, it's almost so bad, it's hard to put into words. I mean, the one thing that comes to mind after hearing that audio clip, it's almost like they're the focus of a new major league movie, a team that's historically bad, but they haven't even figured it out to turn it around.

Yeah, to put that in perspective for Michigan sports fans, the white sacks have only won 31 more games this year than the, the 2008 Detroit Lions. So just think about that for a second. The record currently for the modern era of losses is held by the 1962 New York Mets, who were 47 and 115 in that team was an expansion team. So they had been, it was their first year in existence and they were not expected to do well. The White Sox have been around for years and years and over a century. Yeah. And they can't seem to put together a competitive team right now. I want to tell you guys a little story about the Cleveland Spiders. I forget the owner's name and the other team that he owned, but he owned two

teams. And all of the good players that he got were automatically traded to the other team, which was his good team. The Cleveland Spider won 20 games, I believe. And the 2024 White Sox are not even to double that mark yet. So just that kind of puts into context how horrible, just absolutely horrid the White Sox are this year. Yeah, and White Sox fans are looking forward to to when their owner, Jerry Reinsdorf, sells the team, but I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon as he's looking to build a new stadium in the city of Chicago. So they may not get new players, but at least they'll get a new stadium. Yeah, it's overflowing with capacity right now. You know, fans are just lined up at the gates to see the elite baseball program, which has gone.

What's the record over the last 50 games? Yeah, that's five and five. 45 for those of you who missed it. Meanwhile, while the putrid play of the White Sox is stinking up in Chicago, Shohei Otani is lighting it up in Los Angeles. He is currently in the midst of a historical season where he is chasing 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases. He would become the first player to achieve this if he were to pull it off. Yeah, I mean, just what a guy. This baseball player is something special. He's on the level of a modern Babe Ruth. And as far as, I don't know how the Angels like never made the playoffs with both Mike Trout and Shohei Otani on the same roster. Like that's, that's organizational failure on a drastic scale. But getting back to, getting back

to Otani, this season is, it's something special to be sure. And he's attracting, you know, all sorts of fans from Japan or coming over to Los Angeles. just to see him play, and it's really something special to watch. Well, and I think it's crazy that he is widely considered now the best pitcher batter combination in history, even more than Babe Ruth, who is more than, who is more of just a batter during his prime, which is crazy because the difference between pitchers and position players back in the early 1900s was not very strong. Like, you had people maybe throwing curveballs, but it was still mostly fastballs, whereas

Today you have a very highly specialized pitcher position where you're trying to maximize RPM. You're having balls that are breaking 18 inches. Just wild stuff and something that maybe we will never see again. Yeah, and we haven't seen Shohei pitch in about a year now since he hurt his arm and got some Tommy John surgery. But I think a lot of folks sometimes forget that he threw over 100 miles an hour and had the nastiest splitter in the game. So whenever he gets back on the bump for the 20-25 season, you know, opponents better watch out because that man's going to be hitting home runs and striking you out. Meanwhile, on the East Coast, we've got Aaron Judge, again, hunting down 60 home runs or more, currently sitting at 51 home runs.

He is on a tear with the bat and pretty much the MVP favorite this year. Yeah, absolutely he is. And, you know, as a Royale, I've been pulling for Bobby Wood Jr. all season. And it sucks because, you know, obviously the teams play in two pretty drastically different stadiums. If you equalize their home runs, like if you average the stadium dimensions, Bobby Wood Jr. and Aaron Judge are within like three home runs of each other, which is a crazy stat. But it just kind of makes you think, you know, I think it's time for a field renovation in Yankee Stadium. But I don't want to take anything away from what Aaron Judge is doing. It's very special. Kind of what you're doing right now. No, no, no, no.

He's a really good player, and so is Bobby Wood Jr. is my point. It's very interesting to see historic players right now in the game. You know, sometimes we see players and we don't really realize their greatness or we kind of hate on them, you know, because it's like, oh, he's a Yankee, or, you know, he's a Dodger like Shohei and Judge. But sometimes you need to just sit back and watch their games. I was lucky enough on Shoah's bobble head night to have the game. I was lucky enough on Shoah's bobble head night to have the game on and saw his first at bat where he just, you know, tanked a lead off home run. And it's just kind of beautiful to watch that swing of both guys, to be honest. Do you know what else is beautiful to watch? What? Philosophy. And recently we saw the fastest

pitch for a strike in MLB history. Want to talk about that, Paul? Yeah. So Ben Joyce of the Los Angeles Angels struck out a batter with a pitch that got up to 105.5 miles an hour. And on the broadcast it showed as 106. It was very interesting to see this happen. And, you know, despite the fact that the Angels have a worse record than the Oakland Athletics, it's kind of a little bright spot for their season. They do have some talent on that roster, but it's hard for them to put together some wins. As Carton mentioned earlier with Shohei and Mike Trout, both being on the same team,

but they can't even get into the playoffs. I mean, former Tennessee pitcher, and yeah, just crazy to see a pitch that's double the speed of Paul's fast bowl. Now, as we're approaching the MLB playoffs, we've pretty much got it set, but there's some battling still left to do. Do you guys foresee the Mets making a run at the wildcard spot and dethroning their division rivals or possibly one of those NLS teams? No, I can't say that I do. The Mets are too inconsistent. They had their shot in 2015, and they just lost to the Royals, unfortunately. I'm not biased at all. Yeah, I would tend to agree with you. For me, I just don't think they have enough dudes on that team to really finish that run for the playoffs. I mean, they've

got Francisco Lindor, who's had a massive season for the Mets, and they've got a lot of nice players out there. But, I mean, the star power on the Padres, you know, you've got Tatis, Machado, Luis Sorayez is out there. You've got big names. playing for the Padres. Same thing with the Diamond Vacks. You've got Corbin Carroll and Zach Gallen. And then same thing with the Braves. Big names all across the board. And the Mets just don't have it on the same level. And also, they're in that tough NL East. So they still have to face, you know, good teams out there. And yeah, a little update for you as we continue on with Bleacher Boys on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. If you're a sports fan like me, for some sports,

you like to hop on the bandwagon. So Michigan residents, your Detroit Tigers have a 13% chance of making the wild card. They're four and a half games out right now, but do have a series against the Royals, who is the team that they're behind in the wild card. So I would look forward to that series if they're able to get a clean sweep of Kansas City. They'll be in, I would assume those odds would at least double, if not more, and they'd be in pretty good position to overtake there. Yeah, absolutely, George. And I'll tell you what, there is not a better time. to be facing Kansas City in the league right now because we, you know, we were tied for first place in the AL Central with the Guardians. And then Vinnie Pasquentino and Lucas Ursaig, our one good

reliever, got injured on the same play. And we've been on a seven-game losing streak ever since. We still have, yeah, we're right in the middle of 14 straight games against teams in first place. We are not looking great right now. I hope we can hold on, but I'm not very optimistic. Yeah, the Tigers are one of those teams. They've got really good pitching. And, you know, those bats, sometimes you're like, how does Javi Baez make it work? But sometimes they just get it done. And that sometimes is all it takes to make the playoffs and be successful. You just have to get hot at the right time. Speaking of hot at the right time, this is the first time that we've had two soccer players that haven't been, for lack of a better word, hot, getting votes as the best players in the world.

For the first time since 2003, Christiana Rinaldo and Lennyl Messi did not get votes for the Balloon Dior, which is the top award in soccer. But very historic, the fact that we've had two athletes that were widely considered the greatest at what they did for over a decade and were at least, you know, top players for 20 years. Yeah, that's over two decades.

I'm 21 and I was born in 2003. So that's crazy impressive. Yeah, these guys have been a, at the top of the game longer than a lot of the kids at this school have been alive. And now it's kind of sad to see it ending. Like I said earlier with Otani and Judge, you know, you really kind of miss when these guys are at the top of their game. And then you look back and when they're done and go, man, that was awesome that they did

what they did for so long. So they're still around. So enjoy them while they're still there. But all good things must come to an end. Just like this segment. But now we get to transition into college football news. So Paul, I'll let you take it away with that. All right, and now it's time for our pick seven.

This is the part of the show where we're going to make our picks for the upcoming week of college football games. And we've got a slate of seven games. So first up, Michigan State at Maryland. Matt, what are you thinking? Yeah, so Aidan Child's quarterback for Michigan State didn't look super great against Florida Atlantic. And also, you know, they lost key players.

including Alante Brown. Meanwhile, on the flip side, the Terps quarterback, Billy Edwards, looked amazing in Maryland's Route of the Huskies. So I've got the Terps buy a lot in that one. Yeah, I'm going to go same way here with Michigan State. Their quarterback for Michigan State last week was 10 for 24 with two picks. Those are Paul Marquetti type numbers out there. So you've got to go with Michigan State and Sparty.

Or you've got to go with Maryland. Sparty's going down another tough season for the green. Well, I, on the other hand, will lean the other way and pick Michigan State. I think that the boys up in Lansing, while they're not going to be in Lansing, can still put up a good performance, and they will fix everything, or not everything, but they will fix most of those problems that they had in their opener and come out and beat Maryland in the Big Ten opener that they have this weekend. I just want to correct you, it's East Lansing, and I know Michigan people can be sensitive

about that, so just for what it's worth. Next up, Georgia Tech at Syracuse. Matt, what do you got? Yeah, this one's going to be a fun one to watch. You're going to have some awesome QB play. You got Kyle McCord and Haynes King. Now, I will say Syracuse's run defense

versus Ohio, week one, was a little suspect. They were giving up six and a half yards per rush. And meanwhile, over on Georgia Tech side, Jamal Haynes has three touchdowns already this season. so I'm looking for him to kind of run over the Syracuse defense. So Matthew's going with Georgia Tech. I'm going to go with Syracuse in this one. Look, have I done a lot of analysis on this game?

No, but I do know that the dome, as it's lovingly called in Syracuse, is one of the best home field advantages in sports. I think it's the reason that this game is very tightly contested. I think Georgia Tech is clearly the better talented team, but I think that environment's going to keep it close. Syracuse wins on a last second field goal. You can take it to the bank. Yeah, I'm going to have to go with George on this one. I think I've got Syracuse winning this game. Look, Kyle McCord, he was Ohio State's quarterback. He's been in big games. He's facing his first

ranked opponent as the Syracuse quarterback. Just because the team down south was not happy with Kyle McCord as their quarterback, I will have to say that he's still a good quarterback. He was highly recruited and he chose Syracuse. And Syracuse has a chance. chance to be a really good team in the ACC, and the ACC is wide open with the fall of Florida State and Clemson in week one. Next up, we've got Appalachian State going to Death Valley, the Clemson one, to face number 25 Clemson for a big game in the Carolinas. Yeah, and this one, I mean, we already touched on it. Clemson, Clemson didn't look super great against Georgia. They kept it close for a while, but ultimately fell off. Now, on the other hand, Appalachian State isn't all that

great this year either, and Clemson is 11 and 0. It's last 11 versus teams in the Sunbelt conference. So I'm going to take Clemson in this one, but it might be closer than you expect. I think that's a bad take by Carton. I think Clemson is going to win, but I think it's going to be a blowout. Look, Dabo Sweeney is not going to be happy with last week's performance. He wants his team to be considered with the top programs in the nation, especially maybe as he looks for more transfer portal players on that strategy of not getting those uh didn't seem to work out super well for him so yeah they're going to take the opportunity to beat down on the smaller school clemson by a mile yeah i'm going to have to agree with uh both of these guys here i think clemson takes it you know it's a

rebound game for them they got really bullied by georgia especially in that second half and they will come in and play angry dabble will make sure his guys are ready and prepared to beat up on appalachian state Now for the battle of the Iowa's, Matthew, what are we thinking? Yeah, on this one, you know, we're getting into some Big 12 territory here. I got to go with the team I know best. Iowa State, Rocco Beck's got another year under his belt. He's looking great this year. Iowa State's defense also is much improved.

Even though, yeah, Iowa is 7 and 1 in the last 8 in the series, I believe that Iowa State's defense could give Cade McNamara a little bit of trouble here. I'm sure Iowa got 40 some points last week which is crazy for them I'm looking for a little bit of a regression to the mean this week and I'm going to take Iowa State in a close one well they say defense wins championships and I'm never going to bet against that Iowa defense that smothered opposing offenses last year for 14.8 points per game if their offense has even marginal improvement they're a playoff team Iowa all the way yeah I'm going to also go with Iowa I believe their offense is much improved. I believe in Cade McNamara and that receiver core. I look for them to dominate them on defense and show out on offense. Next up, we've got a good rivalry game between Colorado and Nebraska. Who we got? Yeah, I got an old big 12 matchup here.

Like I said earlier, I'm out on the Colorado hype. You know, until I see their defense improve, I don't think they're going to do much. Yeah, I'm all in on Nebraska on this one. Curtin, though I do think the fact that Nebraska is favored by seven and a half points is a little excessive considering their recent struggles in previous seasons. But yeah, I do think Lincoln is going to be buzzing Saturday with a Nebraska win. I'm also going to go with Nebraska. I talked about Colorado's very bad defense, their poorest defense. Dylan Ryola, quarterback at Nebraska, five-star recruit. It's Matt Ruhl's second year, Nebraska. Look for them to be good this year. Matt

rules teams in his second year of coaching always show up and put out a really good record. So I'm going to have to go with Nebraska in this one. Tennessee at NC State. So both teams played Southern Conference teams week one. North Carolina State struggled to put away Western Carolina and Tennessee just flat out overwhelmed Chattanooga. This one, I'm not thinking it's going to be particularly close. I've got Tennessee by a mile. If this was being played at Tennessee, I think Tennessee wins this by three or four score. Being at NC State, it's going to be a little bit closer. But yeah, Rocky Top looked dominant in their 66 point win against UC Chattanooga

until they show something different. Tennessee all the way. Yeah, your boys at Rocky Top, George, looking good this year. I will also take Tennessee. I'm a big SEC guy, you know, as bad as the Florida Gators are going to be this year. The SEC is still a strong conference. Look for Tennessee to lay the beat down on NC State. Finally, the biggest game of the week, you've got Texas coming up to Ann Arbor to face the Michigan Wolverines.

This is a matchup between two former playoff teams, and we will get to see these two teams tested at the highest level. In this one, you know, I already touched on it a little bit, but, you know, Michigan, you know, this is their first real test without Jim Harbaugh. And, you know, also they don't have a signed stealer anymore. So in this one, I'm going to have to go with Texas. It is going to be close, and it is at the big house. So it's going to be a pretty good game, pretty good environment. Yeah, I'm still going with Texas in this one, though. I think Sarkesian and Quinn Ewers have a good thing going down there.

So I will say, I do think that a lot of other people were stealing signs. It was just they wanted to make an example out of a team. But that's not important. The important thing is Michigan is a tough place to play. I've been to the big house before that stadium can get loud. It's going to be a brisk fall morning. with kickoff being around 55, 56 degrees. Texas isn't used to that sort of cold,

especially their new recruits. Quinn Ewers, he's from the state of Ohio, and Ohio quarterbacks have not had good recent history against the Michigan Wolverines. Michigan shocks the football world and takes it to Texas. Donovan Edwards runs for 224 yards, a pair of touchdowns as Michigan gets the win in a big noon kickoff at the maze out at the big house.

Yeah, this is an exciting one. I'm looking forward to watching this one, but I'm going to have to stick with Carton here. Texas looks good this year. Quinn Ewers, back again, trying to win that national championship before he goes off to the NFL. He's trying to prove himself as a bona fide college quarterback. Texas has a great offense. They've got a great defense. Michigan has a great defense.

They have a pretty good offense, though that offense struggled against Fresno State. That's something that is very concerning to me. I don't know how they're going to perform against a really good Texas team. Also, a little bit of my bias, but Texas is now in the SEC. They've got to prove themselves. They got to prove that they're an SEC team. We'll see how they do and whether they're worthy of that. I think Texas goes in there and wins by probably two scores, if I'm going to be honest.

But we'll see. Well, that's all for this week's edition of the Bleacher Boys. Thanks for listening in, and hope you guys enjoy this weekend full of sports.