WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Bleacher Boys: New Names, New Faces, and New Playoff Teams

Episode Date: September 26, 2024

Paul, Matt, and George are back talking college football with George now controlling the soundboard. They talk the Tigers epic run to the Wild Card. Finally, The boys are joined by two guests, Josh Mistry and Nathan Furness, to make picks for Week 5 of college football. On this episode, we learn that George has a new nickname and athletic ability, while Matt is devastated to hear what others think of his beloved Kansas Jayhawks.

Rojas on the ground at third. Machado touches third, fires to second. Out there, out there. Out at first! Oh, my goodness! It's a triple play! It ends the ball game. The San Diego Padres have clinched their spot of the postseason

after a magical 2024 campaign. Will this finally be the year for the faithful? 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, 0.7 FM. Welcome in to the Bleacher Boys. I'm your host Paul Marquette. Alongside me is Matthew Carton, making his second appearance as a co-host on the show. And as always, we have George Ackler in the

booth. Faithfully running the board. Absolutely, Paul. Well, guys, we had a great week of college of football. Man, we had some exciting games. First off, on Friday night, we had the Illinois Aligni just derailing the Nebraska hype train in overtime, 31 to 24. And it wasn't without controversy with a late hit call that, well, as you might have guessed, didn't get called. Was that late hit no call against Nebraska's quarterback, Dylan Ryola? It wasn't Ryola. I don't think it was the wide receiver, and that's why it didn't get called. Because as we know, Patrick Mahomes gets every single call. And Dylan Ryola is Patrick Mahomes. 2.0, yeah. Oh, dear. Well, Matthew, I don't know if you were crying yourself to sleeve after that game because you're such a big Patrick Mahomes guy,

but do you care about the Nebraska Cornhuskers? I mean, listen, you know, I thought they were, they were going to be a little bit better than what they played like on Friday. I just saw the stat on Twitter a while ago, but Matt Ruhle is now like two and ten versus ranked teams at Nebraska. I was rooting for him, but, you know, they got, they got some work to do. Both teams played really well. The announcers on the Fox broadcast afterwards said,

that Illinois played the best game they possibly could and it resulted in the win. I'm not so sure about that. I think these two teams were about evenly matched up. You might have a five and five record if they play 10 times. But in overtime, Nebraska just looked pretty bad. Ryola just running backwards and getting sacked without throwing the ball away was not a great look. He's a young quarterback. He'll learn and they'll definitely grow as a team.

So I've got to ask you, Paul, do you think that fans would have stormed the field at Nebraska if they would have beaten Illinois? well, I don't know about that one. Maybe because it's a ranked matchup, but that's, you know. Well, because I think it makes sense if it's a ranked matchup to storm the field, or at least a little more justification. But if you beat a team that you're a favorite over, that just seems a little odd that you would storm the field against that type of program. Colorado.

Sorry. Yeah, well, a bug in my throat there. That's exactly what we saw this weekend. If you guys stayed up late and watched the end of this. stunning game Colorado beat Baylor in a shocker, 38 to 31, thanks to some heroics from the stars on the Colorado Buffaloes. And the crowd stormed the field earlier. Am I right, George? Yeah, they stormed the field, even though the play was under review. And honestly, it took a little while to review because it was pretty close whether Baylor's running back fumbled at the end or whether

the ball broke the plane. And I thought it was going to get called back. I was. was hoping that they would take the fans off the field. But in the interest of time, it was ruled a fumble and Boulder, Colorado can have their fun, I guess. I'm just, I'm a little sour. I'll be honest. Yeah, I believe we had this exact same thing last year when the Colorado faithful, I guess they're not, are they really faithful? Because I feel like they've only come out in these past few years.

But the Colorado fans stormed the field after a double or triple overtime. I believe it was double overtime win over Colorado State. And, I mean, it's your comfort, it's your rival. in-state rival, but unranked and a Mountain West team at that. Some interesting behavior on the Colorado fans part. And this is, yeah, coming from a Kansas fan who watched their fans, you know, storm in the field after every win like a couple seasons ago for like six straight wins. What was that?

Oh, that was six wins? I was thinking you were talking about one or two wins. No. Was that when College Game Day went to Lawrence? Yeah, yeah. that was with the TCU matchup. Watching that, from a fans' perspective, I can understand, right? Like, at least in Kansas's case, you've been, like, absolutely horrid for so long.

And, like, winning any game at all is, like, the best feeling in the world. I don't think Colorado's at that level. I don't think they were as bad as Kansas was to be able to justify storming the field like that. But that's just my opinion. Well, especially, I think, as school like Kansas, you kind of have the homegrown boys. the local feeling where Colorado, they're recruiting nationwide. They're trying to be considered as a college football playoff team, and they have five-star recruits.

You're not really an underdog at that point, especially against a team like Baylor. Yeah, and Colorado's offense led by Shudor Sanders, had to bail out the Colorado defense after the Baylorer scored at them when they needed to, but not especially in that overtime. And special teams were a problem for Colorado with Baylorough getting a nice kick-return touchdown on them. Next, the Missouri Tigers had another close one and barely escaped again against the Vanderbilt Commodores with a 30-27 final in double overtime.

Man, oh man, I was rooting for the Commodores in this one. I do not like Missouri one bit. You know, they're in the top 10 this year. I was ready for their whole world to come crashing down. And unfortunately, didn't quite happen. Yeah, Vanderbilt, they played it close with a couple of teams this year. They're not looking too bad. Yeah, they beat Virginia Tech in an early season game that I think not a lot of people expected.

I think Vanderbilt is never going to be a great team in the SEC, but maybe this is their year to play spoiler. They missed a big opportunity, but with plenty of games coming down the line against big ranked opponents, be on the lookout for the Commodores. Yeah, the Commodores have Diego Pavia as their quarterback. He looks pretty good, led the team down the field. I think the story in this one was missed field goals. I mean, you had Missouri missing a couple of field goals. and Vanderbilt obviously misses that field goal at the end in double over time, which puts Missouri on top.

Both sides had him pretty bad misses, hooking kicks, but Missouri survives and they stay in the rankings after that one, though they do drop, I believe. Well, speaking of kickers, let's take a little segue into the wonderful world of halftime kickers. At the Hillsdale game, there was a pretty impressive halftime kicker who knocked the ball through the pylons. Paul, do you want to talk about that? Yeah, we had an impressive feat of athleticism by our very own George Ackola. I mean, how did you feel after nailing that kick? I mean, I probably, I think it would have been good from 50 or 60. I hit a 25-yarder.

Hey, there we go. And in tennis shoes, so that's got to add some distance now. But honestly, fun, I made the field goal the kid I was competing against. He hit the upright, which is quite frankly a lot more impressive. but, you know, go in there, get the dub. Hey, we're not judging impressive. We're judging straight up victory, man. Exactly.

Bleacher boys win. Man, I wish you would have told me I would have came out and supported. Instead, I was in bed crying because Kansas lost, but regardless. Speaking of surprises, in addition to George's field goal make, we did have the Michigan Wolverines getting a big win over the USC Trojans. 27 to 24. None of us saw this game coming. and we all picked USC in fact.

I mean, we just got to say we were wrong and we got to apologize to the Michigan faithful for this one. Yeah, Michigan's making me eat my words a little bit. I had zero faith in them. I thought they were kind of washed, honestly, but they showed up in a big moment and kudos to them. Yeah, very old school football with Michigan only passing for 32 yards. As USC's defensive coordinator, I don't know who it is,

but that's got to be pretty embarrassing, just allowing Michigan to beat you in one aspect of the game. Yeah, I mean, you got to be happy with your pass defense, I guess, but at the same time, you got to go. I mean, they only attempted 12 passes, though. They didn't really need to pass the ball because the run defense was just getting gashed. I mean, it was not a blowout score. Michigan only scored 27, and really the major running came from breakout runs in which they missed tackles.

there was an embarrassing one where two guys just completely blew a tackle off of a spin move, even though one of them had both of his hands on the running back. USC, I said that they had a decent defense and that Michigan's offense makes everyone's defense look good. But, I mean, I'm going to have to eat that and say that Michigan's pretty impressive, especially now that they've kind of got those dual running back with Donovan Edwards and I believe his last name is Mullings in the backfield with impressive games. And I'll say as a former lineman in high school, if you can run the ball, if you only need to pass the ball 12 times in a game,

that means your guys up front are doing a really, really great job. So, I mean, I didn't watch the game, but hearing this, I wish I could have. I'm a sucker for some good linemen play. Well, another problem that USC faced in this game was that they didn't really have much time to operate on offense in terms of the passing game. Miller Moss, their quarterback is, he's not that bad of a quarterback leading that offense, but he had very little time. Michigan's defense just swarmed the pocket and basically prevented them from passing all over their secondary. And a standout performance on Michigan's

defense was Josiah Stewart just constantly in Miller Moss's face. So big shout out to them for helping that Michigan team get the win. Just briefly mention Tennessee manhandling Oklahoma defensive game 2515. I will say the impressive thing was Tennessee was so good on defense that they forced Oklahoma to bench their starting quarterback and replace Jackson Arnold. And Oklahoma has announced that Jackson Arnold will be benched for this next week's matchup against Auburn. I mean, that's a huge fall from Grace when we consider that Oklahoma used to be QBU with Kyler, Baker Mayfield, Spencer Rattler, and I guess, what's the Eagles quarterback? Jalen Hertz. Jalen Hertz, yeah. To be fair, that was back when Lincoln Riley was coach. And I mean,

now you got Brett Venables there, who was a defensive coordinator at Clemson. And Oklahoma's defense wasn't terrible. I mean, only 25 points against a prolific Tennessee offense. It's a far cry from the past where Oklahoma just had offense. So definitely have changed the specialty of the Oklahoma team. But next up, we've got a close game. Utah faced Oklahoma State, and they beat them thanks to their backup quarterback, Isaac Wilson. Yeah, can I just say something as we continue with Bleacher Boys on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM? Did I not predict this? I said, Isaac Wilson, Zach Wilson's younger brother, who is maybe the same person as Zach Wilson, they look the same, would come in and have a great game and lead Utah over Oklahoma State. And I was right about everything in that statement, except Isaac Wilson having a great game. But regardless, the backup Hubey came in, filled in, and did what he needed to do.

He got the passes when he needed to. He did have a couple picks, I believe. Two picks, one TD. Hey, a win's a win, especially over a ranked opponent. It's a big win for the Utah Uts as they continue their push for the college football playoff. And what this means is, you know, Kansas State and Oklahoma State play each other next week. So one of those teams is going to start 0-and-2 in conference play, which is not what they had in mind for their seasons.

Big old fraud check right there. Yeah. Well, speaking of the Big 12, we had BYU welcoming in the Kansas State Wildcats. And boy, what a welcome it was. Yeah, I bet you're happy about this one, Carton. K-State gets trounced 38 to 9 in Provo. I mentioned it. Even though I went with Kansas State last week, I said, listen, you're in Provo.

It's a night game. white out. This was, uh, this had, you know, trap written all over it. And, uh, man, that was, a boy, was it a trap. Yeah. You should have gone with your mascot pick. I should have. Yeah. No. Yeah. Cougars over, over Wildcats any day. Well, Willie the Wildcats, just a dude in a, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Don't even, I can't believe they don't even have a body for that costume. Anyway, um, yeah, that was, uh, that was a rough showing for Canaan. Kansas State. They got a taste of their own medicine, too. There was a big special teams. I forget if it's a punt or a kick return touchdown, but yeah, I mean, that just can't happen if you're

going to win games. I think it's about time we move into Major League Baseball. We've got some exciting times coming up in the world of baseball. The playoffs are approaching. I don't know if you guys noticed, George, as you predicted, the Tigers have leapt into the wild card spot, jumping the twins just this weekend. I said it in our first week when no one else said it was possible. Literally, you walked down the street, you asked Joe Smith. Joe Smith, do you think the Detroit Tigers are going to make the playoffs? People would laugh in my face. It was not a fun experience. Analytical acolys, inventing straw men to support his arguments. Man, Joe Smith is kind of a hater, man. No, no, but I mean, in all actuality, I think we saw four weeks ago that Detroit had

had it laid out in front of them that if they did well in the series against the Royals, they would have a legit chance to step into one of those wild card slots. And now I believe they're not even the last seat in the wild card. Is that right, Paul? Where they're... The Royals sell the tiebreaker. So they're in the last wildcard spot currently. So if you go on to MLB.com and you pull up the standings, it will show the tigers in the second wildcard spot. But yeah, the royals do hold the tiebreaker because of divisional play. So they are technically the last wild card. But if they do separate from the Royals, they would be the second wild card and would play the Baltimore Orioles in the first round. Either way, Detroit controls their own destiny where they

wrap up in a series against the White Sox and then they have a series against the Tampa Bay Rays. They're currently playing the Rays. Yeah, they're currently playing the raise. Yeah, I'll tell you what, with the season Minnesota's had and now to be two games out of a wildcard spot with six left to play, that's, that's rather unfortunate to understate it. greatly. And yeah, they've, you know, kind of gone bad lately. This haven't played well. And so of the Royals. The royals finally busted out of their streak today. So that was good. But, yeah, the Minnesota Twins haven't looked great as of late. And you've got to win some games close to playoff time if you're going to be out of a spot. So as of this recording, the Tigers currently

sit two games ahead of the Twins. And as George mentioned, you have the famous, or I should say, infamous White Sox as the last series of the year for the Tigers, which speaking of the White Sox, they did tie the all-time loss record of 120 this past week. Okay, so I have a question, Paul. Do I do a applause cheering sound effect there? Because it's something that we all wanted, but at the same time, like, I can do too. I will say, having talked to several White Sox fans on campus, they said, we just want them to break the record at this point because there we go

yeah so that would probably be the appropriate response hopefully they will fully break it and not just sit in a tie that's pretty lame nobody wants a tie they did win

against the angels and so they are I guess well they would have to rip off five straight wouldn't they yeah and in three versus the tigers to end the season which I mean as a royal

fan I'm hoping that happens but that'd be a very Detroit way to end the season is losing out against the white socks. I'm sorry, but I know Michigan sports too well. Well, speaking of history, we had some on the opposite side of the spectrum in terms of Shohei Otani's 50-50 achievement. He hit 50 home runs and reached 50 stolen bases. Now, this is something that we brought up earlier on one of our previous episodes, but he finally reached it, and his stat line in that game was very impressive. insane. One of those games that, you know, you hear about regardless of the history that he broke

on top of it, but he had three home runs, 10 RBIs and two stolen bags to reach that 50-50 mark. And he is now in a class of one, the only baseball player to have 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a season. Yeah. I mean, this is this is a stuff of legends. So I'll read this stat off here. So since we started recording RBIs in 1920, only one, Major League Baseball player has had over the course of his entire career a game with 10 RBIs, a game with six hits, a game with five extra base hits, a game with three home runs, and a game with two plus stolen bases. And that one player is Joe Hattani, and he did it all in that one game, which is absolutely wild. Well, you hear the phrase, and I think it's overused

that, oh, if you were to write it in a fictional book, it would be too crazier. Like, you know, it would be too unbelievable to put in there. I think this is one situation where that actually applies very well, is if you were to say Shohei breaks the 50-50 with maybe the single game best hitting performance of all time, it seems too unbelievable, but I mean, that's been the story of Shohei Otani's career. Now, let's talk about something not so great in a player. I don't know if you guys saw this story over the past week, but the Washington Nationals C.J. Abrams recently got demoted.

And the reasoning is quite unique. He was out gambling at the casino till 8 a.m. in Chicago, I believe, and came to the stadium three hours before game time, and I believe I read that he was still a little bit intoxicated from his night out. I'll tell you what. I'm a big C.J. Abrams guy. Not for any of those reasons, but just because he did all that right before the Nationals played the Royals, I hate it for him that he made those choices, but it was great timing for me as a fan.

Well, and that's so extreme that it's not even like, oh, he's probably having a good time. He probably legitimately has an issue, needs to get it solved, and maybe he can get that figured out in the minors. As you heard at the top of our show, we had a stunning play to end a game and clinch a playoff spot

when the Padres turned a triple play to end the game against the Los Angeles. Dodgers and lock up their playoff spot. I wouldn't want to play the Padres in the playoffs at all. Like if you take out like the first month or so of the season, I saw this a couple weeks ago. But besides the first months of their season, the Padres would have the best record in the MLB at this point.

They are extremely hot, underseated, not a team that I would want to see at all. Do you know what their record is since the All-Star break? It's the best in the majors, but I don't know. You've got one and 17 since the All-Star break. They are on fire right now. That's a loaded team. I think I mentioned it earlier when we talked about the wild card in the NL briefly.

But you've got Tatis, you've got Machado, you've got Hassan Kim, who had a great year last year. You've got Jerks and ProFar and Jackson Merrill. The names keep going on of guys who have been playing and balling out this year. So definitely an interesting team to keep an eye on, an exciting team as well. It's a great time to be a sports fan. And we've got the baseball playoffs right around the corner and football season and full swing. One story I do want to get to, we mentioned Hillsdale College's own Isaac Tesla, who's now playing football at the University of Arkansas, but I think it's about time we shouted out another

Hillsdale College Charger. Hillsdale's own Zane Barnhart was recently listed on the Arizona Fall League roster for the Baltimore Orioles. If you guys didn't know, Zane Barnhart was drafted by the Orioles, not in this past draft, but in the year prior draft in the 17th round. and he is now going to the Arizona Fall League. The Arizona Fall League is a nice developmental league for the league's top prospects, and they are handpicked by their own organizations. So some very solid progress from Zane Barnhart,

and hopefully we get to see him pitch in the big league someday. Yeah, and from the looks of it, it looks like he had a pretty good year in the minors, continuing that development. Yeah, and interestingly enough, he will be teammates with big prospect names like Jack Caglione from the, University of Florida and now the Kansas City Royals organization. So he gets to be with some great

players playing some baseball in the beautiful weather down in Arizona. And it looks like we have two guests at the door. Well, stick around folks as we have picks coming up with two very special guests on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. So Paul, what are the records for the picks? From last week, we had Carton going three and four on his picks. Moneyline Matt, for those of you who don't know. George, you went four and three, and I myself had the best record this past week with a five and two outcome. That puts us overall at Carton at 11 and 10 for the year so far. Just barely over 500. I'll take it.

And George, you are at 13 and 8. Absolutely. And yours truly is at 15 and 6. Looking to keep that first place for the rest of the year. Yeah, well, you know what they say? I notoriously don't know ball. so I don't know why I'm even here, but I'll keep doing my best to provide entertainment, I guess, because I'm not good at picks.

Now it's time for us to get into the part of the show where we make picks for the upcoming college football week, and we are joined by two special guests. We have Josh Mystery, who also goes by the mystery machine. That's right. And Nathan Furness. Whoa.

Insane Nathan Hate. We didn't talk about it last time. episode, but I get to run the board from a separate room, so have to make my presence felt. Let's get going into our picks. So first up, we've got Colorado going to central Florida to play the Golden Knights of UCF. Matthew, you want to start us off? Yeah, I'll start you off. And I'll tell you what, Colorado barely beat Baylor and they storm the field afterwards as favorites, which is crazy. I'm still all the way out on Colorado. I've got UCF by a mile in this one. Yeah, I'm going to echo that same thing.

Not a big Colorado guy. Haven't seen a whole lot out of them. I don't know. I just don't like the program. I don't like the feel of it. I really like UCF. They have RJ Harvey as running back who has eight touchdowns through three games already.

One of the best rushing attacks in the country. I think they're just going to run all over Colorado, when that game by three touchdowns at least. Yeah, UCF's looking sneaky good this year. Yeah, I mean, they have a really good in the trenches. Their O-line played really, really solid last week. Their D-line can definitely stop Colorado. lot. I am going to take Colorado, though. Actually, I think that Travis Hunter is gearing up for a really

big game. I liked what I saw out of Shudder Sanders last week. I know that it was a tough game against Baylor, but I think that if their O-line can hold up, they have a decent shot to make the game closer than the lines might say. Yeah, as we swing around to analytical Akela, I'm going to give you a stat to watch this game. Where did that come from? Did you just nickname yourself? You say, an al-a-a-a-what? He's like the Falcons owner. Analytical Ackola. Anyways, the stat to watch UCF has only forced one sack through three games. That's the one thing that Colorado has struggled with. Their offensive line has quite frankly looked worse than my JV football team,

but I think they'll be able to hold up enough. And George was starting center. That they'll be able to take the game. UCF is averaging nearly seven yards of carry, but Colorado's run defense has been relatively stout this year. I'm going with Colorado. Well, I guess I'm going to be the last one, and I got to go with the UCF Golden Knights. I'm a little bit biased on this one. My dad actually went to UCF and got a degree there. So I'm used to cheering for the Golden Knights, as those guys covered, really good run attack.

Colorado's defense is, you know, you're being too generous to call it a bad defense. They've got to really show that they can stop teams, and their special teams were terrible against Baylor, letting up a nice 100-yard kick return for a touchdown. And if you can't even do the intangibles, then you're not going to be able to stop a mean, lean running attack from the UCF nights. Next, we've got the game close to home, Minnesota going and facing Michigan at the big house.

Michigan's coming off a great scrappy win versus USC last week. I didn't see it happening. I missed my pick. I'm like barely above 500. It's not looking good for me. That's money line mat for you. Yeah, yeah, for real. I got Michigan beaten Minnesota pretty handily, I think.

I'm going to be at this game, actually. And as a Michigan fan, you know, interesting game where we threw the ball for about 32 yards last week. And it's not like looking great for our offense, but I think Minnesota is a much lesser opponents. We're able to take care of them easily. It should be interesting to see about the quarterback play, though. Obviously, Alex Orgy started and barely threw the ball. We've had Davis-Warns start a few games, throw way more interceptions than TD so far. So it'll be interesting to see what Shron Moore picks out for this game.

in the way that we're going to attack the offense there. But I think Michigan should handle this one easily. Maybe a game where they can try to figure some stuff out moving forward to some bigger opponents down the road. Mystery Machine? Yeah, I'm going to ride the wave. I'm going to take Michigan as well. I definitely think that this game can be a chance for them to test out some passing attacks, try out some new plays, some new formations.

Alex Horgie is going to start again. And while he didn't look super strong, they also weren't leaning on him last week, obviously, had almost 300 yards on the ground. So I think they can continue to develop that really, really good. rushing attack. See if they can figure out some passing stuff before bigger games down the road. Yeah, we'll say as a fan, it's boring to watch a team that just runs the ball every single play. So I'm kind of hoping we throw it a little bit. Otherwise, I'm going to be bored. I'll tell you what, though, with a good running back, like Michigan has, you don't really need good

quarterback play. If you can just run the ball. They got two good ones. Yeah, Mullings and that's a lesson. Orgy can even run to Kansas could learn also because we got two of the best running backs the nation and we're trying to run the ball. Anyway, anyway, let's get back to pick. So, Curtin, just for what it's worth, we haven't had any fan input that says we want to talk more about Kansas. Oh, go on, man. Sorry, Moneyline. George is really keeping an eye on those show analytics. That's analytical for you.

Apparently, our viewership goes down whenever we start talking Kansas football. Just like when Kansas plays, the viewership goes down. Dude, why did you invite me as a host then? That's all I talk about on here. We got demoted to ESPN Plus. next week. This is bad. George, what do you've got?

Yeah, so Minnesota lost 31 to 14 against a team that plays very similar to how Michigan played last week. Cade McNamara only had 62 yards passing. The Iowa rushing attack was able to get things done. I'm going with Michigan. I think it's going to be a similar game and maybe 31.14 is the similar scoreline too.

Well, I think if I picked Minnesota, you'd have to put me in a mental institution because I don't really see how they pull this off. Michigan coming off of a big win. They know that their ground attack is one of the best in the nation, especially after proving it against USC in a big game. As we kind of alluded to, they've got two, if not three, really good running backs. If you consider Orgy one of them, they can just constantly rotate in fresh legs

and just run it down Minnesota's throat. I'm going to have to go with Michigan as well, and it's not going to be close. Next up, we've got another ranked matchup from the Big 12. We've got number 20 Oklahoma State going to Kansas State to face the number 23 Wildcats. I mean, my bias is clear. I'm not a big K-State guy. I'm going to go with Oklahoma State on this one. I mean, Kansas State just got absolutely trounced by BYU last week.

I think it was like 31 to 9 or something. But you picked Kansas State last year. Oh, I absolutely did. And you know what? I'm just going to, I've got to start picking the teams that I think are going to lose because I'm just that bad. I've got Oklahoma State over Kansas State. I think Kansas State.

kind of up in the air. They looked good, they looked bad, pretty inconsistent, I think. So I'm going to go Oklahoma State. Two teams coming off tough losses, you know, Oklahoma State, losing out home to Utah, and Kansas State getting absolutely destroyed by BYU. I do like Kansas State, though. I think that BYU game was kind of a fluke. It was like a night game. And there was like a six-minute streak where BYU scored like 28 points. It was just kind of a fluky game. I really like Avery Johnson. I think he's one of the best quarterbacks in college football right now. He's beautiful hair. I trust him to bounce back. I think they're going to win. I'm taking Kansas State.

So Furness, I got to ask, as a Michigan fan, do you think the Texas game was a fluke or did they actually lose that way? No, I think that was pretty valid. Kind of a fluky game for Kansas State, so I wouldn't put that one against them too much. I think they'll bounce back and take this one at home. Yeah, I'm going to concur with Furness there. I definitely think Kansas State has a better shot.

Alan Bowman, Oklahoma State's quarterback last week, played horrendous. I mean, he had two picks in the first half. He was benched. Ollie Gordon showed really, really good signs last season. kind of been inconsistent at best this season. I think that Kansas State's defense is going to be able to stop him as well as a rushing attack with Giddins. They're 15th of the nation in rushing. I really think they have a good shot to beat Oklahoma State. Yeah, for my pick, I think I'm going to go with Kansas State. Oklahoma State only lost by three, I believe, last week. But the time of

possession game, Oklahoma State only possessed the ball for 17 and a half minutes. It's not going to get any better with Kansas State's run game, which has been very dominant in the performances that they've had. So yeah, I think Kansas State controls the pace of this game and they get the W. Well, I'm going to stick with Carton on this one. I'm going to go with Oklahoma State. Oklahoma State has faced better opponents. They've faced Utah, which was number 12 last week, and they've also faced a pretty solid Arkansas team who's only loss is to the Oklahoma State Cowboys. K State has played it close with Tulane. They lost to an unranked BYU team, which now they're ranked, but I just think that Oklahoma State's strength of schedule and they're more

battle tested. I think they roll out and show that a tougher schedule helps a team in the long run. And next up, we're going to the SEC for a nice little showdown. Arkansas goes to college station to face the Texas A&M Aggies. Matt? I'm going to revert to my previously mentioned strategy. I'm going to pick the team that I think is going to lose so that they end up winning. No, I think Arkansas pulls off the upset here. I'm rooting for him. Go ahead and take Arkansas as well on this one. think their one loss, like we just mentioned, was the overtime game against Oklahoma State. I don't know. I like the direction that the program is heading.

I think Texas A&M hasn't looked great. The loss to Notre Dame was not amazing. So, yeah, I'm going to stick with Arkansas this one. I'm going to take the Aggies. I don't have a ton of faith in their offense. Getting rid of Jimbo Fisher, which was supposed to hopefully give them some juice offensively. Hasn't really helped out, but their defense has been solid this year. Connor Wegman can put up points when you need him to.

He's not the most consistent, but I think that he can help the Aggies out last of the Razorbacks. Yeah, as much as I think that the Razorback passing attack led by Isaac Teslaw is going to have a strong showing, can't bet for a team in Arkansas that seems to have lost a lot of big games. They lost by three to Alabama last year. They lost in overtime this year until I see them close out and play four quarters of football. I'm going to go with the Aggies. I'm also going to go with the Aggies here. Bowling Green has been a trap game for a lot of these teams.

They played it close with Penn State, and they played it close with Texas A&M last week. I think that Bowling Green is a pretty solid team, but I expect Texas A&M to roll over the Arkansas Razorbacks, especially being in College Station, which is one of the best home field advantages in the nation. The next game we have is number 19, Illinois, going in to face Penn State at Happy Valley.

Yeah. So if you remember, I was all out on Illinois. I was like, no, this isn't happening. They're overrated. And then they went in and beat my underrated team in Nebraska. So this week, I'm going all in on Illinois. I think they pull off the upset. And because I picked them, you know what happens.

Illinois fans are crying right now. Yeah, I'm going to go ahead and take Illinois as well. You know, Penn State's looked pretty good. They had a rough game against Bull and Green, though. I think Nick Singleton hasn't looked as good as people had chalked them to be at the beginning of the season. Obviously, the Alignite looked amazing last week. Luke Altamire just cooking out there in Nebraska. I like the Alinae offense, like the direction they're going.

Put up a lot of fight against a really good Nebraska team. Took them in overtime, got the dub. They have a lot of momentum. I like them in this game as well. I'm going to take the Nittany Lions this game. Penn State's offense has looked vastly better than it did last year. They finally have the ability with Aller to make some explosive plays to actually drive the ball down the field. They have a really good balance attack rushing and passing.

And I think that even though Illinois's defense is pretty good, I think that Penn State can get a win. My instincts are telling me that Penn State is a tough place to play. Illinois has to travel hundreds of miles to go on the road. And they're going to be a little sore getting off the bus, have to stretch it out. I don't trust their stretching routine. We're going with Penn State in this one. interesting that we're going off of stretching routines. That's analytical ACLA for you.

Yeah, that was very deep in the stats. I'm going to stick with Penn State here. Illinois is pretty good. I like them a lot, but just came off of an overtime game. I'm going to be pretty tight. They did have that extra day playing on Friday. But Penn State at Happy Valley, really good team, as Josh mentioned, their offense looks better than it has in the past.

I think that they, you know, pull out a good classic Penn State game, dominate on defense, do enough on offense. and get the win. Now we've got the big game in South Bend. Number 15, Louisville goes to play number 16 Notre Dame. You got a team in Notre Dame that looks really good, and they've lost to Northern Illinois. I get it. You know, good teams have bad games, but how bad of a game do you have to lose to Northern Illinois? A pretty bad one. I don't know. Have you style performance people were calling it? Yeah. Have you guys seen Northern Illinois? noise. They call it the bone yard. Every time they, they pull off an upset, they like add a bone

to a wall because like they're the huskies. They put in the team that they beat's logo. And so I saw a picture of it up with the new like Notre Dame upset. Kansas was up there like three different times and I was like, you've got to be kidding me, man. They could probably make that bone wall pretty fancy after getting paid $1.4 million. Yeah, for real. This one's tough. I think it could really go either way. I'm going to go with Louisville just because I don't think Notre Dame. It might be a little overrated. Like Arden was talking about, you know, you have a Notre Dame team that has not looked amazing so far. Obviously, a game against Preetu looked really nice. Yeah, just like HomeCrowd hasn't done a whole lot for them considering they lost in Northern Illinois there. So I don't think that's a

huge factor in this game. And then you look at Louisville, Tyler Shuck is like really good so far, hasn't thrown an interception yet. Connection to Jacori Brooks has been well. Another thing here is you have a wide receiver Colin Lacey who's coming back this week, most likely coming back this week. He was seventh in receiving yards last year. There's a lot of ups and. for him if he comes back for this game. He's going to be a huge fact in the past game for them. Their defense has been playing well. It just shut down Haynes King almost entirely last week week is one of the best quarterbacks in college football. Yeah, and I think Louisville wins this game. I really like Jeff Brom what he's doing here, coaching at his alma mater, 10 wins in the first season.

I really like Louisville. A lot of upside there. I think I see them winning this game and then going on to even make the college football playoff this year. And yeah, I think they're going to go in there win by at least two touchdowns against Notre Dame. As we continue on with our college football picks on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM, and we swing it over to the mystery machine. Mystery, what's your pick? Yeah, I'm going to go with Louisville here as well. Louisville's defense has been really, really consistent at stopping big plays. They are a little susceptible to the pass, but Riley Leonard has not been very good in yards of attempt. Even though Notre Dame has really, really good rushing attack, I think that Louisville's defense is going to be strong against

that and shut that down. The line has Notre Dame winning, but I think that this is a pretty easy Louisville win. Yeah, I'm going to go with Louisville. Louisville has a very stout run defense that's going to force Riley Leonard to put the ball in the air. And if you look at what pro football focus, they've put in actually Riley Leonard. They've ranked all the quarterback so far. And Riley Leonard has been in the bottom quartile.

I don't think he's able to get the job done. Well, I guess I'm going to be the odd one out. I'm going to go with Notre Dame. I'm going to go with Notre Dame. I think that they have the prestige. They won a close game against Texas A&M on the road. They've got their home crowd in front of them. I see the Northern Illinois game as a wake-up call to them.

This game was a little close against the Miami Red Hawks, especially early on, but they did buckle it down and pull away. And I just believe that Notre Dame has what it takes to get it done. Yeah, can we get a hand a round of applause for George on the soundboard there? That was excellent work. Yeah, yeah, there we go, there we go. Well, our final game that we're going to pick is the big one. We have number two, Georgia, going to Tuscaloosa to play the number four Alabama Crimson Tide.

Georgia, they look pretty good. They look pretty good this year. Alabama also looks good, and that's what you get in the top five matchup. I really think I've got Georgia. I think they have the edge here until I see the Nick Sabinless Alabama. you know, performed to the level in which Georgia has in recent years. I think I'm going to stick with Georgia. You know, this is obviously a huge test for new Alabama head coach,

Kalin DeBoer, in his first really big game. You know, this is a really big opportunity for them to make a statement, you know. And I think with the, you know, just like the amount of players they have on their team who have a lot of experience, I think, you know, there's a good chance they can do that. Looking at Jaden Milro, I think he, obviously, one of the best quarterbacks in college football and he's going to, you know, play really well in this game. but at the end of the day, I'm going to agree with Money Line Matt on this one. I just think Georgia's too good.

Won 42 games in a row in the regular season. Carson Beck has yet to throw an interception this year. He's looked really solid, really consisted in the past game. I think they will be able to move the ball well. And yeah, I think it's going to be a close one. I think Jaden Moeller was going to play well. I think it's going to be pretty high scoring, but I think Georgia is going to sneak this one out.

Yeah, I'm going to go against the current here. I'm going to take Alabama, like Pat McAfee on Game Day that one time. Go dogs. Go dogs. Man, how does he just have this stuff ready to go? Bro, had that on cue. That's actually live footage of me right now in the studio, believe it or not. But no, yeah.

We've got all the Alabama fans, I mean, the Georgia fans in the corner, you know. You wouldn't believe the amount of people that show up to hear these recordings live. I mean, it's just astounding. Jalen Milrow has been on fire this season. I mean, the tighter averaging 49 points a game. Jam Miller, SEC Best, 9.1, 4 yards of K. George's offenses look good. Carson Beck obviously hasn't done a pick yet. I just don't trust him. I think that even though Georgia's defense is phenomenal, I think that Alabama is going to get the

win here just because their offense is that good. Yeah, and if you look at the pro football focus rankings, which have droned on about like a broken record, they actually have Carson Beck as a below average quarterback relative to the talent that he has around him. And yeah, ultimately I'm going to trust Jaden Milro more than Carson better. Jalen? It's Jalen. Jalen? Jalen? Jaden? Jaylin. I'm pretty sure I said that. Either way, I think Mr. Milrow is going to have a fantastic game at quarterback. Give me the tide. There you go. Another thing to remember here is that South Florida game, 42 to 16 is what it looks like on the scoreboard. It was a one score game with like four minutes left. South Florida nearly pulled off the upset on the Nick Saban night. It was a rough

outing for the Alabama offense. I think people overlooked that. That's something that they should be concerned about heading into a game against a much stouter Georgia defense. Well, they have a week to prepare for it just like Georgia, so I think they should be good. I'm going to have to go with the Georgia dogs. I think that they're a better all-round team. They're coming into this year a little bit with a grudge for missing the college football playoff. Yeah, Jalen Miller has playoff experience and some of these guys have playoff experience. They've been in big games. Look for this to be a possible preview of a playoff matchup, if not the SEC championship game, but Georgia wins this regular season bout. And who's at the top of the podium at the end of the year? We'll start with Furness. The Michigan Wolverines. We go back to back.

Yeah, Alex Orgy is going to run us to victory. Absolutely. And mystery? I'm going to go with a sleeper pick here, the Northern Illinois University. I think they've been eliminated from playoff contention. They've just lost this past week to the Buffalo. Then you know what? I will take my second pick, the University of Texas Longhorns.

Oh, okay. I've got something queued up just for this. Just like College Game Day, we like having the best and brightest stars on our show as guest pickers. And money line Matt. And, well, he's a co-host. Yeah, they elevated me to co-host. I'm still not sure what exactly this position entails, but I'm kind of figuring it out. Thank you guys for joining us. Hope you guys have a wonderful weekend watching all those sports. And as always, have a great week. Thank you for listening to Bleacher Boys on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM.