WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Four Man Front: Georgia, Tennessee, and Two Techs

Episode Date: September 20, 2025

Georgia rule. Hey, wait a second. Mark, why didn't you do this week's intro? Oh, thanks, Lewis. Georgia rules rocky top. Clemson gets stung in Atlanta, and we issue our formal apology to USF haters nationwide. I'm Mark Ayers, and this is the four-man front, the show where we talk about college football and nothing else. You're listening to Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Mark, I liked that intro. I'd say you could break the AP top 25 with an intro like that. I'm not sure you're cracking the top five yet, but that's a respectable intro. It just means more, ladies and gentlemen, Lewis Thune, our show's resident SEC defender. Joining me, of course, you already heard from Mark Ayers to my left.

How do you, Mr. Atlantic Coast? How you feel in this week, Mark? Feeling pretty good. And, of course, across the table from me is Patrick Hamilton, our Big Ten man, Patrick. Patrick, what's up? I'm doing fantastic. Next to Patrick within slapping distance. Payton Hughes.

What's up, Payton? Nothing much. Just happy that my Cowboys didn't lose this week. This man is a Big 12 defender and will be for the rest of his life or the rest of the Big 12. Let's get into it, boys. Week three. A pretty exciting week in college football, all things considered. I did not think this week's slate of games were going to be as entertaining

as they were. We're going to recap. I want you to tell me within your conference, what were you right about this week, and what were you wrong about this week? Could be one thing, it could be two things. Just let us know what you'd expected, what you'd plan for, and what took you by surprise. Who wants to start? I got you, Lewis. Why don't we start off with one of the teams I was right about Georgia Tech? What a game against Clemson, a stunner at home, knocking off the number 12 team in the country and submitting their place in the top 258 total yards, five more minutes of possession than Clemson, they won the turnover battle, and something I really liked was their mental toughness. I mean, think about their preparation on that last field goal.

If you haven't somehow seen the video of that Georgia Tech field goal, go ahead and look it up, because talk about a gutsy call from Brent Key, just past midfield in a 2021-21 game with 20, seconds left on the clock. To have your quarterback run to the center of the field fall down and with no timeouts, you sprint your kicking team out to get the ball off before time expires, and it's good. It's not often you see Davosweeney get simply out-coached. This is one of those times. Another team I was really correct about was Miami. They're elite this year. I think it's time to face the facts. Miami's very, very good. 576 total yards, 12.4 yards per. pass 5.4 yards per rush against a South Florida team that just knocked off two ranked teams,

very impressive from Miami. What I was wrong about might be Clemson. I thought their talent would work themselves back together. I might be wrong about that. There seems to be a culture issue in Clemson. I don't understand why they're doing so little with the talent they have. Dabo Sweeney has a lot to fix. I said last week that I trusted Clemson in this game because Dabo Sweeney is such a great coach when his backs to the wall, but Brenke just outclassed him this week. It was an impressive showing. Payton, would you like to go next? Would you like me to go next? I would love to. All right. I got a couple things right in the Big 12. Texas Tech and Utah, they looked just as dominant as they have before. Utah got off to a slow start, but they still ended up 31-6

over a solid Wyoming team. Texas Tech wins 45-14 over Oregon State, 600 yards passing already in that game, Kansas State. They're one in three for a team that looked solid preseason to what I got wrong or what I didn't notice. This Houston team won by 16 over Dion Sanders' Colorado Buffalo's great to see Houston actually pulling their weight down south in Texas. Houston, they bring in Connor Wegman transfer from Texas A&M, a guy who looked terrible last year, ended up getting benched for Marcel Reed. And no one in college football was taking him seriously. But the way Houston has come out in the first three weeks of the season. They've got a bright future ahead of them. They could be a real trap team. Texas football, despite the fact that them boys in Austin haven't

looked great yet this season, Houston, Texas Tech, obviously Texas A&M. On that topic, maybe I'll go next for the SEC. I was right about one thing this past week, and that was Georgia, Tennessee. Rocky Top, Neeland, one of the 10 largest stadiums in the world, 102,000 screaming. The Vols brought the energy. And surprisingly, that game was something of a barn burner. It actually was. We were expecting that if Georgia was going to win this game, which they ended up doing, it was going to be a defensive battle.

But lo and behold, Georgia goes out and hangs 44 and beats Tennessee in overtime. 44-41. Gunner Stockton proved himself 304 yards in the air, 38 on the ground, three total touchdowns, no turnovers. Obviously, you feel for Tennessee's kicker had a chance to win it there in the closing seconds did not, and Kirby Smart took full advantage. I didn't see George's offense exploding in the way they did. Definitely didn't see that. Where I was wrong this week, obviously South Carolina Vanderbilt, Lenora Sellers go down, and the Gamecocks gets spanked at home by the Vanderbilt Commodores, 31-7.

I did not believe in Arkansas. I believed in Ole Miss. And the fact that this was a one-score game has me wondering whether Arkansas, is actually very good or whether Ole Miss is actually very bad. Trinidad Shambly has assumed the starting role at Ole Miss for Austin Simmons, who hasn't looked great yet this year. In Arkansas, you've got Taylin Green and NFL prospect at quarterback. There were some doubts. There were some serious doubts. The Razorbacks look good. The Razorbacks look very good. There's my right. There's my wrong. Patrick, if you want to bring us home for this segment, Big Ten, right, wrong, you.

Go ahead. First off, as a Michigan fan, completely opposite of what we saw in the error rate in the SEC, Michigan puts up eight touchdowns on the ground. I mean, everybody was scoring. Illinois, again, looking like a potentially good top 10 team. Oregon coming out smack in Northwestern. I mean, Oregon said it last week. I was right about them.

They look like a really solid team. Ohio State, though, the one I'm a little worried about, yes, they won, 37 to 9, but they struggled. I mean, Julian's saying through three touchdown passes, but two interceptions. But the one team I was absolutely wrong about, I really thought Minnesota could have had a year. But California, who has actually looked like a really good team, I mean, their backs are against the wall with their program.

So glad to see that they're actually doing something well. The University of California at Berkeley, the crown jewel of the Atlantic Coast Conference, Their football program might be going under within the next couple of years. But hey, they liked that to win against Minnesota. They did, yeah. So Minnesota struggled a little bit. I was wrong about Minnesota.

That's where we'll leave week three because conference play begins in earnest all across the country. Week four, we've got some matchups we need to look at. Oklahoma hosting Auburn. This game will be played in Norman. Obviously, Palace on the Prairie. Oklahoma looked great against Michigan. Now they bring in their former quarterback Jackson, Arnold leading the Auburn Tigers, undefeated yet this season. Nice win against Baylor to open up.

Fantastic run game. And then out west, we've got Utah, Texas Tech, Utah playing host in that game. Kyle Whittingham, Joey McGuire, two excellent coaches within the Big 12, leading the two, I believe, the top two odds-on favorites to win the conference. Yes, sir. So Payton, tell me about Texas Tech, Utah. In whatever detail you like, what's the long and short of this contest? I know we've had fantastic games in the season already. This is the game that I've been most excited for. This is going to be better than anything we've seen so far. Texas Tech and Baron Morton, he's their QB. They've been doing fantastic, 923 yards passing for him on the season, only one interception, 11 touchdowns. Then you look at running back, 24 carries, 207 yards,

that's Adam Hill. He is explosive, almost 10 yards per carry. Texas Tech is coming off of their worst game of the season where, get this, they only had 600 yards. That's terrible. 600 yards and 45. points. That's against Wyoming. Then you look at the Utah end of the spectrum. You've got Devon Dampier. He transferred from the New Mexico Lobos last season. He's had 628 yards and 7 touchdowns already. They don't have a fantastic starting running back. They have Wayshon Parker who's been their preferred running back getting 10 and 11 carries a game, but they're normally running through three or four different running backs hitting 6 to 12 carries. So this Utah offense is very diverse in its run game. They don't like to rely on Dampere. Wittingham,

isn't known for putting out NFL talent at running back or really upper tier college talent, but he runs his backfield by committee. And that seemed to work for him for as long as he's been in Utah. Utah likes methodical drives, 10 plus plays, multiple runners, mid-range passes. They need to win this possession time battle if they want to win, as well as winning at the secondary. And I just don't think they have it. I think Texas Tech's going to win here in a one, maybe two-score game. Texas Tech's leading wide receiver, the great white hope, Koi Eakin, the shiftyest ginger you will ever see in college football. This man's lined up at wide receiver and he has looked spectacular. Another factor here is home field advantage for Utah, not solely because of the crowd,

but because of elevation in Salt Lake, basically like Little Denver. I think this Utah team is going to come out in better condition than this Texas Tech team. Waring down that Texas Tech defense, that's buying Utah four or five points in this game. Well, they're going to need it. Texas Tech loves to score. They love to score quick. And Utah's going to be on the field a lot. If they can't score early, that run game is going to slow them down and they're not going

to be able to catch up. Mark, Patrick, you guys are no Big 12 insiders, but looking at this game from the outsider's perspective, who are you leaning on? Yeah, I've seen this Utah offense with Dampier. It's always so hard to plan for these sort of dual threat quarterbacks who can hurt you in the air and hurt you on the ground if you let them. And I think that that might be the X factor here with this Texas Tech defense. Will they be able to keep Dampere in the pocket, turn the offense one dimensional, or will Dampier in his large stable of running backs be able to just really tilt this game in Utah's favor?

I'm going to go with Utah here. I'm going to have to disagree with you. From what I have seen from Texas Tech, they look like a really solid team. Honestly, I think that they could be the team that represents the Big 12. And so I'm going to have to go with Texas Tech here. It's going to be fun to watch. I think we need to look at Dan Peer. How many turnovers is he going to have?

He has not thrown an interception yet on the season, not at 85 passes. That's impressive. He is saving the ball well as a dual threat quarterback. Lewis, what do you think? What I see in Kyle Whittingham is he's prided himself on his defense and shutting down speed, which is what he had to deal with in the PAC 12, Oregon, USC. He destroyed Lincoln Riley twice in Riley's first year in USC with the future Heisman winner and Caleb Williams.

He has what it takes to stop this Joey McGuire coached Texas Tech team because McGuire recruits speed. That's one of the things he talks about most often is he looks for speed at every position. And at a certain point, speed stops working. Most of the guys who have that killer speed don't have. have that killer strength. I had to watch it for so many years at Oklahoma. These boys get roughed up in the span of two, three quarters. By the time it gets to the fourth quarter,

the fights out of them. And Oklahoma needed a person like Baker Mayfield with that fight in them to beat tough nose defenses. I don't think Baron Morton has that. I'm taking Utah here. I'm going to move us along now. We've got Oklahoma Auburn, John Matier, the current Heisman favorite at quarterback against Jackson Arnold, one of the best mobile quarterbacks in college football. Who are you guys taken? And give me a short answer as to why. Yeah, Lewis, I think the most important matchup to look for here is going to be that key matchup between Keeron Crawford and this banged-up Oklahoma offensive line. I know that we've talked about before the injuries that you guys have sustained on that line and how you might be on your second or even third stringers. And Kearron Crawford

has looked really good. This season alone, he already has three sacks, one forced fumble, one interception, and 16 solo tackles. That's impressive. That's a guy to look out for. He might be able to put some real pressure on John Mateer and turn this game in Auburn's favor. I'm going with the Tigers. Yeah, I'm going to have to agree here with Mark. I, Oklahoma, I mean, Matera looks good, but there's only so much you can do when a bunch of guys are rushing you, and especially if they're sending the house. This skeleton team that we see from Oklahoma right now, It's a little worrisome. And Auburn, looking pretty good this year,

especially on the defensive side. Crawford's going to get a lot of pressure. I mean, what? He's got three sacks already on the season, and so that's going to be interesting to see. So I don't think Meteer is going to be able to pull off as much as what he was able to do against the Michigan defense that we saw in week two.

I can't believe that none of you have talked about John Metteer yet. I mean, you briefly brought him up, but you are not accepting the X factor that he is, the potential Heisman winner that John Mateer is. We watched him destroy that Michigan defense time and again, third and long. Oklahoma's down. They got to make something happen. And who does, John Mateer?

He's going to run outside the pocket. He's going to make an impossible pass. He looks like Prime Baker Mayfield. John Mateer is the X factor. He's going to make some plays, and Auburn's frankly not going to be able to deal with it. I'll take Oklahoma in a close one. I've always trusted Oklahoma to fumble winnable games. I don't know if I trust them as much anymore because this Brent Venables defense is currently the best unit in college football.

Auburn knows how to run the ball. They knew how to pass the ball last year and that's what almost put them over if it weren't for a second half choke on the part of Peyton Thorne and the Kip 6. I'm going to take Oklahoma here, not because I believe so much in John Mateer. He looks great as a mobile quarterback. he's the best improviser I've seen in college football in a long time. He has put a lot of balls in trouble. But I trust this Oklahoma defense to pick up the slack that the Oklahoma running game is going to leave them. And I think in a low-scoring game, Oklahoma is going to win here.

If it goes over maybe 50 points combined, this is Auburn's game. But I don't think it's going to get there. I think this will be the test to see of Mateer is the quarterback that he had. Because, I mean, I agree with you. having watched that game, and he put me through a lot of grief when they played Michigan. And this will be the game to see, was this an actual, was Mityer actually showing up? And is he the Heisman caliber quarterback that we've seen through week three going into week four? Or was that peer luck?

Biggest test, this skeleton line that Oklahoma is going to have going into this matchup. Yeah, Oklahoma is going to be coming in with three offensive line and out and for questionable. Now, not all of those guys are necessarily. necessarily starters, but you like to have your offensive line deep heading into conference play, and Oklahoma does not have that right now. So Mateer could be running for his life, and if that's the case, look out, OU. Then of course we have Michigan, Nebraska. Now, Michigan is ranked number 21 in the country, but they're absent their head coach Sharon Moore currently serving a school-imposed suspension. But Biff looked pretty good in his play con. He did. He did. But this week they've got to go to

Lincoln and play the Nebraska cornhuskers. Dylan Ryola, the Patrick Mahomes impersonator, he's going to be looking to get a big win. We saw Nebraska Pants, Colorado last year and derail the Shadour Sanders hype train. Can they do the same thing here with Bryce Underwood? All right, rapid fire here. Michigan going to Nebraska. Who's winning short, maybe one, two sentences why? This Matt Rueh, Nebraska team knows how to win. I think this is fine. finally their year. Give me Nebraska. Michigan, they had a little bit of swagger. I mean, Bryce Underwood started to look really comfortable. Yes, they scored all their touchdowns on the ground. Everybody's

getting a piece of the action. But now we're starting to see this chemistry starting to come in with an extremely young team. They've got all the confidence in the world. They're going to Nebraska. This is another Big Ten matchup. I think that we're going to see a battle on the ground. and I think actually because this week, coaches said training wheels are off. So I'm going to have to go and take the maize and blue. Give me the Wolverines in this game. I'm going to disagree with you here.

I watched Matt Ruhl reform the Baylor Bears, turned them from a two-win team into a 10-win team. He knows how to turn teams around. Now he's in Nebraska with all the money he can help for and with a fan base that wants to win bad. Those fans are going to show up. They want to beat Michigan. They want to knock off the big 10 leaders.

Give me Nebraska. Bryce Underwood is a fantastic quarterback. He's going to show out this week. It's why he's going to win the Heisman in his time as a college quarterback. Not this year, but in the future. Bryce Underwood's a Heisman-level quarterback. Thank you. He's going to show it this week.

Give me Michigan. All right. Missouri, South Carolina. Now, Lenore Sellers has been upgraded to Probable, so he will be in for South Carolina as they play in Columbia. Even so, I personally have lost a lot of faith in South Carolina. Meanwhile, Missouri continues to look better and better and better each week. I got to go with Missouri here.

I'm going to have to go for South Carolina here. I loved this Missouri team. They kind of changed my mindset going in after this Kansas game. Missouri has looked really strong. They have two of the top 10 leading rushers in college football. Give me Missouri. I don't think Lenora Sellers is going to be back. he's in concussion protocol.

They don't want to risk losing him for the rest of the season. Missouri wins. They run away with it. South Carolina. I believe in Lenora Sellers as much as anyone in college football, he looks like Cam Newton. He can play like Cam Newton. I think he's going to have a fire lit under him

after having to watch his team fall to Vanderbilt this past week. And he wants to make the college football playoff this year. South Carolina is going to have to go nine and three to do it. It's a tough schedule. But I think Lenora Sellers is going to be. to be the X factor in this game. All right. Last game we're going to talk about this week, Illinois, Indiana, who you got. Indiana had a great run last year, took them all the way to the playoffs. But honestly, I've got to go with the fighting Illini here. I've seen good stuff from

Illinois. I liked their game against Duke. I liked their resolve. They were down early and came back with a resounding victory. Give me Luke Altmire. I think he's going to do very well this game. Indiana, they're returning a lot of key players. And they also integrated a lot of transfers into their team. And they looked really good the last three weeks. Illinois, with a game like Duke, it worries me in the first half that against a good team, you go down early. Can you crawl your way back? And so I'm going to have to go Indiana.

I think last year they had a good run. A lot of people worried that they're a fraudulent team. I think that this year, this could be their year to make a deep run. I'm going to agree with you, Patrick. I'm going to take Indiana. Honestly, not for any reason besides spite. I think Illinois is way overhyped. I just do not want to pick them.

Give me Coach Signetti. Kurt Signetti earns his keep by humiliating well-established coaches. Brett B. Lemma does it better than Kurt Signetti could ever hope to. He's going to take the air out of the ball. He wants to beat Kurt Signetti bad. I wouldn't be surprised to see bad blood in this matchup, maybe a blooming rivalry here in the Big Ten. Yeah, give you Illinois.

But that's where I'm going to have to call an end to this first half because we're going to have to take six minutes in order to recuperate before we're back for a second half action. Every single thing college football fans are talking about this week, we're going to cover it if we can. Stick with us, folks. You're listening to Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM, and this is the four-man from it.

You're listening to Radio Free Hillsdale, 101.7 FM, and this is the second half of the four-man front. I'm Louis Thune, joined to my left by Mark Ayers. How we doing, Lewis? I am spectacular. I'm ready to get into this second half, but I also need to introduce Peyton Hughes to my right. Big 12 aficionado.

And Patrick Hamilton across the table. Hey, I'm excited for the second half. This is the show where we talk about college football and nothing else. In the first half, we covered week three. We previewed week four. Now it's time to get into the fun stuff. We're going to talk about everything that doesn't fit into one week. Paths to the playoff is what I have in mind.

We've got three teams that we need to take a look at, one of which disappointed us, two of which have actually pleasantly surprised us. It's now late enough in the season, late enough in week four, to begin speculating about the playoff. Because that's what college football is all about. Let's go. Nine games left to play.

And here we are talking about who's going to be in the 12-team playoff. Gentlemen, let's start out with a team that has absolutely wowed the world in the first three weeks. Georgia Tech, the Yellow Jackets. Spectacular showing in week one against Coach Prime, held serve against Gardner Webb like everyone was expecting in week two. then week three, a field goal win at home against Clemson. And now this Georgia Tech team has a cupcake of a schedule. I'm going to give you the game. Let's be rapid fire about it. This coming week, Temple visits Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech. Yep, win for GT. Yeah, let's give me Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech unanimously, Temple, for those of you who might not know, is a school in Philadelphia that is not

good at football. Following week, Wake Forest hosting the Yellow Jackets. Win. Definitely a win. Win. Win as well. And then they host, rest in peace, the Virginia Tech Hokies. They fired their coach. It is a disaster in Blacksburg. I'm assuming we all have Georgia Tech winning here. Yep, win. Yeah, got to give it to Tech here. All around. All right. Then the following week, in a game that could get interesting, they headed Durham to play Duke. win. I'm going to have to go with Duke here. Why not? Let's see it. Give me Georgia Tech. I think we've seen the best of Duke, and they're not good enough to beat Georgia Tech. All right. Syracuse comes to town. Interesting matchup, but still give me Georgia Tech here. Yeah, Georgia Tech's going to take this win.

The Orange, don't got it. Georgia Tech. Those boys in Syracuse, it's not a recruiting hotbed by any means, but Fran Brown knows how to get the most out of his players. I'm going to pick Georgia Tech here, but we'll keep our eye on Syracuse. And then the next. Next week, they're heading to NC State. Ooh, okay. For the folks who don't know the ACC, NC State is a devil to play at NC State. Their fans are electric, their team feeds off that energy. Still give me Georgia Tech here,

but this is a game they could easily lose. I'm going to have to go with Tech here. I'm going to trust Mark. He's our ACC guy. Give me Georgia Tech. I will also take Georgia Tech here, NC State is quite a nice environment. Rally gets hyped up. But Haines King knows how to silence a crowd.

Brent Key knows how to win big games. I'll take Georgia Tech here. All right. Following week, they head up to Boston to play Boston College. This really shouldn't be that much of an issue for them. Give me Georgia Tech. This is a Georgia Tech win all the way. Win. Win.

Win. Win. Pittsburgh. Win. Quinn. Win. All right. So we've all got them at least 10 and 1 here.

Patrick, you've got him 10 and 1 with a conference loss at Duke. The rest of us have them 11 and 0. Mark, you have them 11 and no, but keeping our eye on NC State. I have them 11 and no, but keeping our eye on Syracuse. And then they get their out-of-conference game, rivalry week against Georgia. Listen, it's always so tough to call rivalry games because they're rivalry games. Anything can happen at any time, just as we saw last year. Don't I know it. Eight overtimes against Georgia, against a good Georgia team. This is another good Georgia team. But this Georgia Tech team looks better than they did last

year, even at this point in the season. I'm expecting a very close game. I'm expecting a game full of madness, but I can't in good faith pick against Kirby Smart yet give me Georgia for this one. I'm mostly salty about last year. So this is kind of a pick and spite. And also too, I am definitely on the Georgia Tech bandwagon. I am going to have to go Georgia Tech

here. I guess I'm going against the panel. I'll take Georgia. Let's be rational about this. Georgia showed us what we haven't seen from them the past couple of years, and that's a high-flying offense that can score points. Georgia can now put points on the board against a good Tennessee team. I know you're worried about their secondary, but, I mean, Tennessee is something else. I wouldn't be so worried about that with Georgia Tech. They're going to have to contain Haynes King. I think they can do that. They're known for strong defensive lines. Give me Georgia. All right, I will take Georgia as well. So we all have them 11 and 1 right now. Payton and myself, we have them losing out of conference to Georgia, which means in all likelihood they would play in the ACC championship game against the winner of Week 5's Miami Florida State game.

Patrick, you have them with one loss in the ACC, which would potentially send them to a tiebreaker. But if they finish the regular season 11 and 1, whether or not they make the conference championship, that should probably be enough to get them in the college football playoff, no? It really should, especially if NC State looks, continues. They're currently undefeated. They could very easily be undefeated when they play Georgia Tech. That could offer them another ranks win. I don't think the committee is going to punish teams for losing conference championship games. So if they make a conference championship game, they're definitely in.

If they miss out 11 and 1, they will still have been 11 and 0 with one week left in the season. Just judging on the rest of the college football landscape. there's going to be plenty of teams that have lost up to that point. So Georgia Tech probably 9, 8, even 7 or 6 in the AP or college football playoff bowl. And then that one loss comes to a Georgia team who we anticipate will be top 15 by the end of the season. That's not going to be enough to drop them out of the top 11, I don't think. No, it'd be criminal to do that. A loss is not enough to move a team out of the playoffs.

You have to win in order to get bumped from the college football playoffs. at Florida State. So we've all pretty much got Georgia Tech making their way into the college football playoff. Let's move on from Georgia Tech. We've got Tennessee now. This is a team two and one. No one was initially expecting this team to break the top four, top five in the SEC this

year. But with what they showed against Georgia, we can assume that this team will have a significant chance at the college football playoff, even with a nine and three record, with the kind of wins we can expect them to have. This could be a contender. Joey Aguilar is looking great. Josh Heppel's offense has shown, even though they lost to Georgia, that they can groove with the best of them. After starting the season two and one with wins against Syracuse and East Tennessee State,

and then losing number five Georgia, this next week they host Alabama Birmingham. This should be an easy win for them. Got to go with Tennessee here. Tennessee is going to dominate. They go to Starkville to play Mississippi State. Yeah, Mississippi State showed some signs of life, but I don't think it's going to be enough to overcome this powerful Tennessee offense. Yeah, I'm going to have to go with Tennessee here. Same reasons. Give me Tennessee. We've seen that Mississippi State is able to stop mobile quarterbacks. They beat Sam Levitt in Arizona State.

Joey Aguilar is not a mobile quarterback. He is a pocket passer and a pretty good one at that. Four touchdowns, two picks against Georgia. This hypole offense has him in his groove. This Tennessee offense is going to pour it on in Starkville. That's a win. week Arkansas comes to Knoxville. Tennessee, 100%. I'm going to have to go with Tennessee here as well. Yep, W. I'm going to go with Arkansas here.

Really? Wow. Taylon Green is a phenomenal quarterback. Sam Pittman is fighting for his job. Bobby Petrino is fighting to take it from him. This Arkansas offense is going to want it. This could be the upset of the year in college football. Next week, K-Town headed to T-Town.

Bryant-Denny, Alabama. This is the game. Tennessee looked great against Georgia. Alabama, when they played the great Florida State team, they couldn't put it on the board. Give me Tennessee in a high-scoring game. Tennessee... Tennessee?

I think Alabama has this one. Loss. Go to Kentucky. This is a win for Tennessee. Yeah, this is another win. Yep. Tennessee hosts Boomer Sooner. The last time these two teams played,

Baker Mayfield stole. the game from a very good Josh Dobbs-led Tennessee team. But now Josh Hepple is in in Knoxville. Excellent coach, scapegoated by Bob Stoops, fired from Oklahoma. He's now in at Tennessee. He got his revenge game last year. I think he wants even more revenge this year. Give me Tennessee in this game. Tennessee. I really want to pick Oklahoma in this matchup, but I can't yet. Stick him with Tennessee. Brent Vindel's defense is too much for Tennessee and the Vols here. Give me Oklahoma. John Mater is too much. You guys know how high I am on the Sooners this season.

All right, so they host New Mexico State the following week. We've all got that as a win. The world's largest outdoor cocktail party. Tennessee heads down to the swamp to play Florida. Go Gator! Give me Tennessee by a million in this one. Florida's going to be like 0 and 11 by this point, so it's not going to matter. Yeah, it doesn't matter.

I really think that I think Tennessee is going to hang at least 40 points. and if they don't, I will be so upset at this team. There is almost nothing in college sports in general that I hate more than that Florida chop. That gator chop is just so stupid. Give me Tennessee by, I don't even know, 60. Crazy things happen in rivalry games. Give me Florida. Oh my gosh.

That's insane. Closing out the season. That's honestly worse. Somebody saved that song. Honestly, that might be worse than me saying Duke is being Georgia Tech. How many weeks away is that? here. We're going to post that in. That's November 22nd. Tennessee versus the best football program in the state of Tennessee, the Vanderbilt Commodores. At home, Tennessee versus the fighting

Diego Pavia's. Look at what Vanderbilt has done these past few weeks and from last season. Diego Pavia is experienced. He's seasoned. He's a dual threat quarterback. He makes smart decisions. Give me Vanderbilt. That's crazy. This is unbelievable. And you know what's even crazier? the fact that more people aren't agreeing with you because that is the right take. Thank you, Mark. In New Vanderbilt in this game. Tennessee is going down, I believe. I will do a Travis Kelsey photo shoot if Vanderbilt wins this game.

And we can post it on the four-man front Instagram. Give me Tennessee by over two touchdowns. I didn't want to say it, but you are entirely correct here. Payton and Mark are assuming that Diego Pavia is still going to be alive by the time week 14 rolls around. That's a good point. He's got Alabama. He's got LSU. He's got Missouri. He's got Texas. He's got Auburn and Kentucky. Fraud. This man might actually get murdered on the football field with all the smack he's talked in the offseason.

People are going to be out for his head. And if Diego Pavia isn't in that game, the Vanderbilt Commodores are not a good football team. trust in Pavia. If Theo Vaughan trust Diego Pavia, I trust Diego Pavia. Diego Pavia will be dead and buried

by the time this season is over. So Patrick, you've got them 11 and 1. The rest of them have 9 and 3. My 9 and 3 includes losses to Florida and Arkansas, which means that Tennessee team does not have a chance at the playoff.

Payton, Mark, your 9 and 3s have them losing to Vanderbilt. Mark, you have a lot. them losing to Alabama. Payton, you have them losing to Oklahoma. Assuming those teams continue to play decent football, staying in that top 20, top 15 range, could this 9 and 3 Tennessee team make the college football playoff? Potentially, you know, I hate personally to talk about, you know, so-called quality losses, but that's just a reality we have to live with, right? I just have a

feeling that this year there's going to be more 10 and 2, 11 and 1 teams. from other conferences that have better records than Tennessee. And I think because when you're looking at this, you're looking at the schedule, their best win would be over Oklahoma. In this situation, Tennessee won't have a conference championship. They won't have a conference championship loss. And they're going to have three losses.

There's no shot they make it into the college football playoff. Yeah, I'm seeing three teams from the ACC in all likelihood. Maybe just two. But if the ACC gets multiple bids, We know the Big Ten is going to get three or four bids. Big 12 could potentially have two. And then Notre Dame's always lurking around. I don't think Tennessee with the three losses is finishing high enough in the SEC to warrant being in the playoff conversation.

Patrick, with them at 11 and 1, they are undoubtedly in the college football playoff whether or not they make the conference championship. All right, let's fly, boys. Notre Dame, O and two, they need to finish 10 and 2 in order to make the college football playoff. Can they do it? Here we go. First off, they're going to host Purdue. win. Yeah, Notre Dame's win in here. Win. Go to Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Win. Win. Win. Boise State. Win. Win. Host NC State. Win. Win. Win. Host USC. Lose. Win. Win. All right, so Mark now has them out of the college football playoff. They go to Boston College.

Win. This has got to be win. Win. Win. Host Navy. Win. Give me Notre Dame. Win. Win. Two Pittsburgh. Win. Definitely win. Win. Host Syracuse. Win.

Win. To Stanford. We don't even have to talk about that. That's a win. That's one of the easiest wins of Notre Dame Mora. 10 and 2 for us 3. Mark has them 9 and 3. A 10 and 2 Notre Dame team gets into the playoff.

They are Notre Dame. Well, and there's going to be a lot of talk about, first of all, USC potentially could be ranked so they might have a ranked when NC State could be ranked. There's also going to be a lot of talk, especially if Miami continues to play at a very high level and Texas A&M plays at a high level. It's going to be a lot of talk about those two losses. They lost to Miami by three and Texas A&M by one point. Two top ten teams. Notre Dame will make it, except in Mark's mind. Tennessee will not. Except Patrick thinks they will. Georgia Tech will make the college football playoff. And Diego Pavia is him? We'll get back to you on that. There's still a

long season ahead of us. But boys, it's time to get to the intentional grounding. You know the rules. important thing is that the ball gets out of your hand. Who's going first? I'm going to go ahead and take over the mic on this one. And I think that Miami, I wouldn't say that they're my favorite to win at all, but I think Miami right now is truly the best team in the league. They have that. I keep using the term, but I'm going to say it again, Miami has that swagger this year. And I think that we're going to see revitalized team. Miami's going to jump to number one. Because I think Penn State's going to drop. I think LSU is overrated. Ohio State isn't looking so good and they're going to drop this season. I've already been super high on Texas Tech in Utah and I'm going to keep going high on these

teams. I think Texas Tech and Utah, this is my call, will both be top 15 teams by the end of the season. Texas Tech will certainly be a top 10 team, if not a top five team with how they're going to play. Texas Tech looking at their schedule doesn't have to play Iowa State or TCU, two of the best other teams in the conference, they've got BYU, that'll be a tough game, and they've got Kansas, that'll be a tough game. Otherwise, Texas Tech can run the table and run up the score and make something

pretty for the playoff committee. Then you look at Utah, Utah doesn't have Iowa State or TCU either. They've got a simple path. They just got to be Baylor and BYU, and they've got a clean slate. They're all the way through. They'll have one loss to Texas Tech, like I called. They're going to be

set to go to the playoff. Both of these teams should be in the top 15, if not the top 10. So on the flip side of that, I'd like to talk about a team that's cronally overrated, that being your one and only LSU Tigers. Go Tigers, go Tigers! Yes, great take. Unbelievable that they are ranked number three in the nation. Supposedly, they have two phenomenal wins against Power 5 opponents.

Clemson, they beat by touchdown, 17 to 10. Florida, they beat by 10 points, 20 to 10. Each one of those teams that I just mentioned is 1 and 2. And not a particularly good-looking 1-2. No, ugly. Their defense had five interceptions against Florida. One of those interceptions went for six. So of that 20 to 10 victory, six of those points came from the defense. They were unable on five interceptions to put together more scores. LSU's offense has looked enemic this year. LSU has not been able to put up points when it counts. They also had their filler game was against Louisiana

Tech, which they beat by resounding 23 to 7. So not any particular showing there either. They do not deserve to be number three in the nation. I think it's criminal to be talking about how they're a shoe in for the playoff and how they're so clearly going to be the best in the SEC. Why is this the case? It's pure preseason bias. It's pure artificial inflation of SEC teams.

Heed not the words of SEC haters. Let me intentionally ground and bring us home. On behalf of everyone here at the four men front, I would like to issue our public apology. South Florida was not as good as we said they were. That's our public apology. It's not really that important. What is important is that we memorialize the career of Lincoln Riley.

In advance, he's not going anywhere yet. By the end of this season, he will. He'll beat Michigan State. Congratulations, Lincoln Riley. You cracked the AP Top 25. You'll open up your season 4 and O. Yippee, skip. Then you'll go to Illinois and get destroyed.

And then you'll lose to Michigan. You'll lose to Notre Dame. and you'll lose to Nebraska. Maybe you can beat Northwestern, but you're going to lose to Iowa, and then you're going to lose to Oregon. And you'll beat UCLA and finish the season 5 and 7. Hey, hopefully 6 and 6.

You can go back to South California and tell your fans, we finished 500. Thinking, Riley, you were a fraudster, and you always have been. Recruiting only offensive skill positions gets your team nowhere. It's why your defense is terrible. It's why your offensive lines are terrible.

It's why you're going to get bought out by the USC Trojans. I'm sure you won't be sad about that. You'll be sleeping on a bed of millions and millions of dollars. You won't shed a single tear. In fact, you'll probably laugh in your unemployment as your fraud is exposed. But guess what? We'll be laughing too. You know, why?

Because you won't be a coach in college football anymore. You won't be there to hurt any fan bases, fooling them into thinking that the Bob's stoop. lineups you inherited are actually a work of yours, that you're really an offensive genius when you're a scam artist that can't beat a good defense. You can't recruit size or strength. You don't have anything to offer kids except money. That doesn't fly in college football. College football is different. That's why we love it here on the four-man front. And that's why you'll never be anything within this sport at the collegiate level.

Maybe you could go be the offensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys. It wouldn't be the worst decision Jerry Jones has made. Lincoln Riley, we mourn you here on the four-man front. We mourn that you were ever a coach in college football. Enjoy your retirement. That is the elegy born from four straight semifinal losses in the college football playoff. Well done, Lewis. Thank you, gentlemen. That one was from the heart. That was pure. It was beautiful. I think I'm content to call it a show there to ending on that somber yet hopeful note that Lincoln Riley will be unemployed by the end of the season. Everybody okay with that?

Yeah. Let's do it. All right, folks. I've got no problems with it. We hope you'll be watching Week 4, and we'll see you back here next week, to talk about college football, and nothing else, because that's what we do here. You're listening to Radio Free Hillsdale, 101.7 FM, and this has been the four-man front. For Payton, for Mark, for Patrick, I'm Louis Thune. So long.

Happy football.