WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Four Man Front: Push and Poll

Episode Date: November 8, 2025

Oklahoma and Texas stay alive, but the ACC implodes on itself. Week 11 looks ugly — Lewis, Marc, Patrick, and Paden assess the damage, and create a poll in the process.

Georgia Tech and Miami fall on the road as the race for an ACC title takes an unexpected turn. Texas holds off Vanderbill. Oklahoma pulls away from Tennessee, and we unveil the first ever FMF pull. I'm Lewis Thune, and this is the four-man front, the show about college football and nothing else. You're listening to Radio Free Hillsdale, 101.7 FM. It's week 11. It's been seven days since you last heard from us. It is long past time.

We get the college football blood pumping through your veins. So welcome to those of you listening live and to those of you catching us over podcasts. I'm Lewis Thune. This show is resident SEC Defender, and as always, I'm joined by three gentlemen. Some have called them scholars. Some have even ventured to call them saints. To my right, Hayden Hughes. The Big 12 is so back.

We're getting three teams in the playoff. I feel like you've said like the past three weeks. But now we have the CFP poll. Now we have a real shot. Like this is confirmed. Like this is actually happening. It's not theoretical anymore. Means nothing.

Everyone is waiting for the FMF poll, which we will remember. reveal in the second half. Across the table from me, Patrick Hamilton. Patrick, Michigan is staying put in the polls. Our running game is the only reason why we are still alive, but a win is a win at the end of the day. And to my left, I'm introducing him last today so we can just springboard right into the hot topic. But Mark, the ACC race. I don't think there's been a bigger wrench thrown in a conference race this year, perhaps even this decade than what just happened this week in the ACC. Lewis, oftentimes I'll have some sort of informed, knowledgeable take to break down this complex situation for you. I do not have that because the ACC is ridiculous and confusing

and I'm not sure what to make of it. You want to get into it? Let's talk about it, Mark Ayers, because I want to remind the people of your voice much earlier on in the year when we talked about Georgia Tech NC State in week four, and you said this. Georgia Tech here, this is a game they could easily lose. 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. Lo and behold, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, at the time the number 18, in the country and undefeated march into rally against the nc state wolf pack and lose 4836 haines

king needs some help he does he needs some help especially on the other side of the ball it would help if he had any sort of defense to get him off the field because lewis he's really doing it all out there 500 and 11 total yards and four touchdowns and a loss unbelievable this man without a doubt should be the front runner in a Heisman race, but the Georgia Tech defense, this was not a weakness we had seen foreshadowed yet to this point in the year, and then NC State goes and hangs 48 on them.

This NC State team put 583 yards of total offense on this Georgia Tech Yellowjacket team, 340 through the air, and 243 on the ground. It's hard to look at this in any other way besides Haynes King, just being the best player in college football. they only punted once, and it was in the fourth quarter. Every other drive that didn't end up with points was either from a missed field goal or the game ending.

The Georgia Tech offense was rolling. He cannot do any more. He is literally willing this team to success, and they're not helping him at all. As far as I'm concerned, the best single game from a quarterback yet this year. But let's move elsewhere in the ACC race to a quarterback who is having a significantly harder time despite a hot start and blaming everyone but himself. self for it. Carson Beck, 26 for 38, with two picks on the day as Rhett Lashley and the SMU Mustangs at home in Dallas knock off the Miami Hurricanes 2620 in overtime. Amad Moses, 15 total

tackles, two of them being tackles for losses, five interceptions on the season, two of them coming from Carson Beck. Carson Beck just launches this ball, throws a prayer up, and the person answering is Ahmad Moses. Carson back, he starts to panic. He makes terrible decisions. in the late game like we've seen in this latter half of the season, as well as we saw in Georgia, and it cost the team everything. I mean, this man cannot win a big game. Well, and apparently he can't even win the small games. This was a game that Miami talent-wise should have just rolled.

This was a game where Miami should have just by the brute force of the fact that their guys are bigger and stronger and faster should have eventually kind of ground down the SMU defense. They also had almost 15 more minutes of ball possession than SMU did. Miami fails in critical moments. It was those moments where they had to make something happen. Those moments where Carson Beck needed to work some magic, couldn't get it done. That's been the story of Miami all year.

That's on the team. That's on Carson Beg. Maybe it's on Cristobal. Yet another Miami game with a failure to sustain long drives with punt after punt after interception after punt, where their defense was putting in all the work. SMU's first three possessions. Fumble, punt, punt, their next four possessions, one play touchdown immediately after a Miami interception, and then punt, punt, end of half. Miami's defense, still one of the best in the country, was yet again putting in work. This SMU team that

has been pretty high scoring this year only got 26 points up. And here we have again, Carson Beck, in critical moments, absolutely failing his team. Those, interceptions came at terrible, terrible times. I think Miami might be done for the year, if I'm being completely honest. Two other games we need to touch on quick. Before we get to the week 11 predictions, Vanderbilt, Texas, 3431, continuing with the theme of excellent quarterback play, Diego Pavia and Arch Manning combined for 693 passing yards between the two and seven total touchdowns.

I said last week in the prediction. With how good the defensive end in the linebacker room. is at Texas, they're going to be able to contain Pavia. And if you can contain the quarterback, then it's going to take big throw ability to turn this game around. I don't think Diego Pavia is a good enough passer to be able to step up in the pocket

and deliver that ball to where it needs to be in tight coverage. And man, was I wrong about Diego Pavia? He was every bit the passer of this Vanderbilt team needed him to be just not at the right time. Texas was able to stop. stop Pavia's magic. They were able to keep him from doing just enough and walk away 34-31.

The biggest thing Texas did very well was containing Diego Pavia to only 43 yards on 14 carries. Overall, team had 58 yards rushing. He had one long 25-yard run, but other than that, it was the second he got outside, Texas just swarmed him. If Miami is the team that can't win in big games, Texas for some reason is the team that can. Maybe the most inconsistent team in college football, going to overtime against Kentucky, and then going to Oklahoma, dominating the Sooners, and then honestly, up until the fourth quarter, dominating the Commodores. I turned this game off at halftime. I thought Texas was running away with this.

This game was completely and entirely the Longhorns up until the fourth quarter, and they still managed to come out with a win. And then on Rocky Top, Oklahoma, Tennessee. The real hero of this game for Oklahoma is Tate Sandell, the kicker, 18 for 19 on the year, because Oklahoma can't finish a drive. The kicker with the shortest shorts in football carries this team to victory. He had 15 points by himself.

It's much better kicking than we're accustomed to. But the play from this game was R. Mason Thomas, one of the best edge rushers in the country there at Oklahoma, and a scoop and score play against Joey Aguilar and the Tennessee Volunteers. Let's take a listen to this, once again, courtesy of ESPN. Matthews the left, as they always line up.

The defense spread line. The ball's knocked loose. And Arn Mason Thomas has got it. Stiffarm moving his way. It's still going. A scoop. And if he stays in bounds, score for Oklahoma. And yes, he did stay in bounds.

And just like that, Tennessee goes from being 30 yards from the end zone to go up 14-0 to a 7-7 ball game with the air taken straight out of Neeland Stadium, One of the biggest quarrels I've had with Oklahoma this year is that the defense has not been able to force turnovers and they've relied on sacks for stops. Three turnovers this game against Tennessee, they picked Joey Aguilar twice. Oklahoma wins 33, 27 in a signature performance on Rocky Tom.

Gentlemen, I picked Tennessee in this game. Paden was the only person who picked Oklahoma. I was not confident in the call when I called it. I think you guys were a little bit more confident in Tennessee than you should have been. I said it last week. This is movable object versus stopable force. Oklahoma broke 30 points. The first time the Sooners have done it in SEC conference play, Xavier Robinson ran for 115 yards, John Matea ran for 80. How many times did we see the pile going in favor of the Sooners? I mean, they got out there and they just pushed this Tennessee

team around. They imposed their will on the line. They got yards when they needed them. I just talked about how Miami couldn't ever get place to go their way when they needed it to happen, exact opposite for Oklahoma. When they needed it, John Mateer got it done. It's something you can see at all levels of football. When you have an O-line that is down, like Oklahoma's O-line with four guys out of the rotation, when you have an O-line that isn't talented, stop passing the ball. We watch Saquan Barkley as a rookie in the NFL. Sorry to bring up the NFL. I know this is college football, with the worst offensive line in the NFL completely tear up the NFC East and people wondered how. The answer is that when your offensive linemen are bad, you want to give them

a running start at the defenders, which you're allowed to do on the run and you can't do on the pass. At long last, Ben Arbuckle has realized that he needs to just hand that ball off or snap that ball to Mateer and give everybody a two-step head start and voila you don't need john matier to light it up through the air in order to win these tough games all you need is a guy who can go get you four yards on first down two final games which we won't say anything about because they really don't demand that much analysis texas tech absolutely malls kansas state in manhattan 4320 payden entirely correct about it. And then, of course, Cincinnati, Utah, proves to be the much tougher team, Brendan Sorsby, 11 of 33 for Cincinnati.

An absolutely atrocious offensive showing for the bear cats destroyed in Salt Lake. We'll close week 10 there. We have to get to week 11 and talk about the matchups coming down the pike. We have Oregon visiting Iowa, A&M going up to Columbia, not South Carolina, but Missouri to play the Tigers, and then the matchup we have all been waiting for in the Big 12 this year, a clash of the Titans, the BYU Couges head to Lubbock to play Texas Tech in what is sure to be some amazing action and a preview of two teams that could very well make the college football playoff, no matter how this game turns out. So let's start out with BYU Texas Tech. The Cougars enter this game, undefeated, Bear Bachmeier, quarterback number 47, passing one,

necessary running when not. L.J. Martin holding down the backfield and the Cougars defense doing just enough in the critical moments to deliver them wins. On the flip side, Texas Tech, dominant all year with one exception in a flute game against Arizona State but looking every bit as strong as they have with a recovery win against Kansas State. Payton, who's winning it and why? Texas Tech is winning this game. I have called that all season long. This is not BYU's game. BYU is a great team. They're very gritty. They get wins. They get hard-fought wins. But Texas Tech is just going to run away with it. Texas Tech learned from this week. They learned beating Kansas State that, sure, you can lock down the regular rushing game. You can lock down the passing game. But when you're facing

a quarterback who can move like Avery Johnson can move, you have to readjust. And Texas Tech adjusted in the second half and absolutely dominated Kansas State. They're going to face probably the freshman player of the year, definitely the Big 12 freshman player of the year, Bair Bachmeier. Absolutely. Who has done more than enough whenever called upon. You need him to pass the ball. He's going to pass the ball. You need him to run the ball.

He's going to run the ball. That Texas Tech is going to be able to lock down Bear Bachmire. And when Bear Bachmire can't do what Haynes Ting is expected to do and what Diego Pave is expected to do, this BYU team is just going to be too weak. L.J. Martin is a great running back. L.J. Martin is a great running back. I think he's the rushing leader in the Big 12. You have to respect that.

But this is arguably the best rushing defense in all of college football. I'm going to take tech by at least seven. I agree with you that this game is going to come down to Bear Bachmeier. He is the Diego Pavia of this BYU team. He does have a great running back with him in L.J. Martin, but games are defined by whether or not he can prove himself. Sometimes he has to do it on the ground. Sometimes he has to do it in the air.

If BYU is going to win this game, it is going to come down to time of possession. They are going to have to control the pace and control the clock the entire game. I hope Kalani Sataki, they're in Provo. has studied up on his Urban Meyer footage because if he wants to win this game, he's going to have to run Bear Bachmeyer like he's Tim Tebow. You're going to have to see nine, ten, eleven quarterback draws where the ball is snapped to Bear Bachmire, it's one step back and he's hitting the hole for three yards.

For all the BYU fans who travel to love it, Kalani Sataki is going to have to bore them to death with how slow and conservative his offense is. But if he can manage to do that and he can win the field position, game and he can win the time of possession game. Texas Tech is falling at home to BYU. That said, I don't think he's going to be able to do that to the degree that BYU wins. So I'm taking Texas Tech in this game, agreeing with you, Payton. So I'm going to have to go with BYU here. I have absolutely loved watching them. They win close games. This is going

to be a close game. Give me the Mormons. I don't have much to add to what's already been said, but I'm going to agree with Peyton and Lewis here. And I'm picking the Texas Tech Red Raiders to win this game. If it's an offensive war, Texas Tech wins. If it's a defensive war, Texas Tech wins. If it's a war of attrition and it's the ugliest game anyone's ever seen, BYU wins. That's a good way to play. Hey, I'm saying if it's a close game, BYU is going to pull it off. If that doesn't happen, this is going to be a runaway with Texas Tech. So we're agreed. The only result we don't see is a BYU blowout. Yeah, it's not happening. All right, let's chug right along into another game. One team on the inside looking out of the college football

playoff one on the outside looking in. Oregon heads to Iowa City to play the Iowa Hawkeyes. Iowa obviously 6 and 2 has looked very good on the year. Their only losses coming to Indiana by one score and Iowa State in a rivalry game by one score. Oregon is 7 and 1. They also lost to Indiana by two scores and this Iowa atmosphere does not get enough credit because this game is at 3.30. This is an afternoon game in Iowa. Iowa City is is probably one of the few places in college football where the afternoon atmosphere far out does the nighttime atmosphere. Afternoon games in Kinnick Stadium are events on the college football slate.

And now that Iowa is working themselves back up into contention in the Big Ten, this game is going to turn a lot of heads. Who's winning and why? We'll start with you, Patrick, as Mr. Big Ten. This will be a war of attrition because Iowa, they have the, worst offense, but they somehow managed to score points, like putting up 41 points against a good Minnesota team. Do not be surprised if Iowa gets it done, but I'm going to have to go with Oregon in this game. Mark? I got some flack last week from Payton for calling Oklahoma, Tennessee,

an immovable object versus unstoppable force. Well, I'm going to do it again because this is the actual game of immovable object versus unstoppable force. Patrick was not wrong when he said Iowa's offense is the worst because their passing offense is 132nd in FBS. They are dead last. The more things change, the more they stay the same. The number 20 team in the country in contention for the Big Ten championship, the team that lost by one score to probably the best team in the country, Indiana, has the worst passing offense in all of college football.

Can I give you a little stat here? Please. Mark Grinowski, their quarterback, has four. touchdowns on the season. He has four interceptions on the season. Oh my gosh. It's terrible. But their defense is actually good. Their defense is putting up more touchdowns than most of their rushing and wide receivers. That's the thing. Their rushing offense is decent. They're number 36 in

the country with 185 yards per game. But they make their money on defense. Iowa always has. They probably always will. They're number two in FBS. They only allow 234 yards per game. They're scoring defense. is number four in the country, allowing 13.1 points per game. And here's the thing you need to know about that Oregon offense. Yes, they're good. Yes, Dante Moore is a good quarterback,

but their passing offense is only 52nd in the country, with 246 yards per game. They make most of their money on the ground and on big scoring plays. They score 41 points per game. That's quite good. They're number five in the country. Most of that comes on big chunk plays. This is the perfect situation for a stellar Iowa Hawkeyes' defense,

to blow up Oregon's offense because it's not complete. This is a team that relies too much on a couple specific ways to win, and I think that Iowa is going to have their number going into this game. Give me the Iowa Hawkeyes to win this game against the Oregon Ducks. You talked about Iowa, how great the defense is. You slightly touched on how poor Oregon's offense is. It's great, but they rely on big plays. They've played one good team this year, and that was Indiana.

Great defense. Oregon scored 20 points. They're going to face a defense of similar quills. quality in Iowa this week. And if Iowa can hold Oregon to 20 points, I think Iowa's going to come away with a win because they're going to get one, maybe two turnovers. That's going to propel this offense. They can put up 21 points. I believe in Mark Grinowski to lead them to three touchdowns. And that's all they're going to have to do. I agree, Mark. It's funny. Before you talked about big plays, I was thinking this is a game that's going to come down to one play.

Not one play at the end, but one big play that defines the game. Massive momentum. shift. Could be in the third quarter. I think that's going to come from the Iowa defense or special teams. I'm taking Iowa in this game, and I'm saying that it will come down to a massive play that's going to turn the tide. All right. One last game, Texas A&M, Missouri. Missouri is without Beau Prevula, but they still have that rushing game and they are in Columbia. Will it be enough to come up and snakebite this Texas A&M team? You've heard us talk about them before, about how good Missouri is, they're good. I'm not going to rehash all our arguments. Texas A&M is better, giving the Aggies. Yeah, I don't have much to contribute here

except Texas A&M. Yeah, Missouri couldn't do too much without Bo Prabula. You have to have a threatening pass offense if you want that rush offense to really break out like we expect it from Missouri. Without Bo Perbula in, Texas A&M is going to be able to stack the box. Once they can stack the box, Missouri's best weapon, it's rushing is going to be gone. A&M's going to run away with it. I think Kevin Coleman Jr. and Amad Hardy still there for that Missouri offense are going to do enough for them. I just don't think their defense

is going to be able to hold Texas A&M. So they're going to fare a lot better than people think A&M is winning. Yeah, watch out for this one to be a slow grind up until late in the fourth quarter. I think Texas A&M was going to break a big one. Absolutely agreed. We're staring down the barrel

of three very ugly games this week. One can hope. I love ugly games. I don't know about you guys. They're more fun. That is where we'll leave off for the first half because the second half contains the biggest drop in four-man front history as we release the four-man front pole to counter the college football playoff poll, which everyone knows is terrible. So don't go anywhere. You're listening to Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM, and this is the four-man front.

Stick with us. We'll see you in six. You're listening to You're listening to Radio Free Hillsdale, 1.1.7 FM. And this is the second half of the poor man front. I'm Lewis Thune. I'm gearing up to talk to you about college football and nothing else for 22 more minutes with my co-hosts. I'll send it around because we have a big, big drop to get to my left, Mark Ayers. This is probably the greatest innovation in college sports history

since the forward pass. Who knew Microsoft Excel could give us such amazing things, Patrick Hamilton? Wait, actually, you knew this, Patrick Hamilton. I did know this, but I didn't know how to do it. So thank you, Lewis. But also thank you to my father and brother. They were the ones who had said, we should do this. And guess what? We did it.

I'm so excited. It was a great idea to happen. I'm not sure how we did it, but we made it happen. It is so much fun. I love the idea. All right. Let's get to it. First off, let's read off the college football playoffs.

Paul, 25 through 20, Tennessee, Pittsburgh, Washington, Missouri, Michigan, Iowa. Now we've broken into the top 19 teams in college football, USC, Miami, Georgia Tech, Vanderbilt, Louisville at 15. This is the interesting portion now. These are all teams that don't need any help to make the college football playoff. They just have to take care of business, and they will have a fighting chance. Number 14, Virginia, number 13, Utah, number 12, Oklahoma, number 11, Texas, and at top 10 who are currently in the college football playoff if it were to begin today. Number 10, Notre Dame, number nine, Oregon, number eight, Texas Tech, number seven, BYU,

number six, Ole Miss, number five, Georgia, number four, Alabama, number three, Texas A&M, number two, Indiana, and number one, the Ohio State Buckeyes. This is a terrible poll. I think we're all in agreement, gentlemen. So we decided to construct our own poll, ladies and gentlemen, and here's a little about how this worked. Out of 33 teams in the country, we ranked 25 from 1 to 25 on three criteria of dominance, consistency, and strength of schedule. Dominance and consistency, each account for 40%, strength of schedule for 20. All of our rankings for all of those teams were then combined. So to score a place in this poll, a team will have more than zero points. This is a way to

separate the top 25 from one another, not the rest of the field from the top 25. So, the number one team in the country, by our metric, will be very close to 100, which is the highest possible score. Whereas the number 25 team in the country, still very good, will probably be somewhere in the range of two or three. That's simply how it is. We're distinguishing the best of the best from the good. And here is how it went. Our number one, no surprise, is Ohio State. What might come as a surprise is that they are in an exact tie with Indiana at 96.8. So, gentlemen, we are going to break this tie live on air. I test Ohio State or Indiana. Which team is better? The majority vote will decide the number one overall FMF

poll team. Just to clarify, we're talking I test. I test. Absolutely. Indiana. Agreed. Indiana. When I'm looking for a tiebreaker on I test, I'm looking at point differential. Ohio State is the number one team in point differential in college football. So give me Ohio State here. I'm also going to choose Ohio State, which means we have a 2-2 split.

Wow. So, ladies and gentlemen, it has come down to a coin flip. I'm going to flip this coin live on air. Are we ready? Ladies and gentlemen, Indiana is the number one team of the country. Yes! Let's go.

There you go. Followed at a conference. close number two by Ohio State. The coin does not lie. At number three, we have Texas A&M with a composite score of 91.8. Closely following at number four is Alabama. And rounding out the top five in our first departure from the CFP poll, aside from Indiana being number one, are the Texas Tech Red Raiders at 8 and 1. Me and Payden had them scored the highest. So Payton, talk about what you've seen out of this Texas Tech team that sets them above Georgia, Ole Miss, BYU. We're looking at dominance, consistency, and strength of schedule being third.

Dominance, outside of Ohio State point differential, Texas Tech is probably the best team in the country. I knocked them a little bit for having that loss, but I did give them a little, I gave them the benefit of the doubt because they were missing Baron Morton a couple key defensive players. I had them graded really well on dominance, consistency. Again, outside of the one loss, which I'm half discarding. They are winning by 17 plus points every single game.

That is consistent. That is showing up on offense. That is showing up on defense. And then Strength of Schedule, they have the win over Utah, who by our poll is doing well and by the CFP poll is doing well, too. I think they are in this position. You had them over Georgia in Strength of Schedule, which I don't quite understand. But even if we were to reverse that, they still beat Georgia in the composite ranking.

So it is Texas Tech at number five. Then we come to number six. It is the Georgia Bulldogs, followed by BYU at number seven. Close race there between the two difference of 0.6. At number eight is Oregon. Number nine is Notre Dame. And number 10, the Ole Miss Rebels, who are in the AP poll number six. We dropped them down four spots.

Payton, you had them ranked lowest at 12.4 out of 25. I don't believe in them at all. we agreed on these criteria of dominance, consistency, and strength of schedule. Yep. They have a decent strength of schedule, but unfortunately, that's only 20% of the ranking. Dominance, they haven't looked dominant in any way, shape, or form the entire season. Their defense is bottom half in the SEC. The offense is maybe doing just enough.

I don't believe, so they're not consistent, they're not dominant. Oh, I'd say they're consistent, but they're consistently not dominant. Right. I mean, this team does not deserve to be number six in the sea of people. Yeah, I'd agree there. I just don't understand the 12.4 out of 25. Mark, you had them highest at 20.2. What do you see out of this Ole Miss team that has you believing in them?

Well, given the criteria that we established, yes, to a certain degree, they haven't been purely dominant in the same way that maybe Indiana has been. I'm glad you bring this up because they haven't been dominating games like Indiana has on the scoreboard. What they have been is in control of all of their games. there hasn't been a game where you look at and you're like, okay, Ole Miss has a very, very good chance at losing this. There's always that shot in your mind,

but it feels like Ole Miss is sitting in the driver's seat and they're controlling the pace of the game. So as far as pure dominance goes, I think Payton is right that this Ole Miss team hasn't shown us anything special. But as far as control goes, if that's how we're going to define dominance, which I think once you get out of the top five,

that's probably the better metric for dominance because there's not going to be, a lot of purely dominant teams in college football outside of maybe three or four teams. I think that's a pretty decent metric to go by. However, I do agree that Ole Miss is way overvalued in the CFP poll. We've knocked them down to number 10. At number 11, to my surprise, the Oklahoma Sooners. So they would be the first team out of the college football playoff if it were to happen right now from the FMF poll.

Number 12, the Utah Uts, tough losses this year to BYU and to Texas Tech, but an excellent and absolutely dominant win last week against Cincinnati, 45 to 14 on their home field, definitely reestablished themselves as a player in the Big 12. They're probably eliminated from championship contention, but they can most certainly win out and at 10 and 2 with that strength of schedule and how well they've looked aside from legitimately elite competition. They'll need some help from other conferences, but no conference has shown us that

they're not capable of helping the others out yet this year. And then, in what I think is the biggest surprise to me, we see the ACC PAC, Louisville at number 13, Virginia at number 14, Georgia Tech

at number 15. Mark, we premised it at the very beginning, and we're going to get into it a little later. The real issue is that no team looks really, really good right now to the point where we probably will only see the conference champion getting into the college football playoff. We have been so back and forth on the ACC this year. It's kind of nuts. And you're right. There isn't one team right now that looks like an elite team, a team that, you know, oh, of course they're going to be a shoe into

the playoff. Why wouldn't they be? What instead we have are lots of great teams? These are great teams. Georgia Tech, Virginia, Louis. Louisville, these are great teams. They could go and compete with most other teams in the country. But could they compete in the top 10? I don't know. That's the biggest question that we're facing right now. Now, I have Virginia and Louisville in my poll ranked exactly the same.

They each end with a total of 13.8. I have Virginia as being slightly more dominant than Louisville. I have Louisville as having a much better strength of schedule than Virginia. But I have Virginia being more consistent than Louisville. Now, it evens out. It ends up being 13.8, but that's a little bit of insight into how I'm looking at this. So, yes, Louisville has not looked as good. Yes, Louisville has not been as consistent as Virginia.

They've played a harder schedule. Now, what's interesting for the ACC race is that Virginia is currently undefeated in the ACC despite the loss to NC State. I've talked about it before, but it's worth reminding. So right now, they're the front runners. They're the only undefeated team in the ACC. And now Georgia Tech is outside looking in not only the college football playoff, of the ACC Championship game.

If they go into rivalry week, they're in Atlanta and they are able to beat Georgia, which I think they legitimately could with how well Haynes King has been playing and how motivated this team is going to be, they would finish the season foreseeably 11 and 1.

They would not make the ACC championship game, but if you beat a number 5 Georgia team, you're probably jumping into the top 12. It's just a matter of can you jump high enough that the group of five auto bid isn't going to supersede you. If Georgia Tech beats Georgia and you have a 10 and 2 Georgia team, assuming they don't go to the SEC championship, and an 11 and 1 Georgia Tech team with a head-to-head over Georgia,

I know who I'm picking. You take Georgia Tech. They just beat Georgia in the final game of the year. Even if they miss their conference championship game, there's a scenario in which both of these teams miss their conference championship game. I don't think it's unreasonable at all to say that Georgia Tech would jump Georgia, Georgia out of the playoffs, potentially. This is going to be a crowded playoff. Two lost teams right now are not safe, not a single one of them. These one lost teams are coming for it, and especially

one lost teams that have a highly ranked matchup to end their season. If they come out with a win, they are going to go. No one is safe. And to get into two lost teams, we have at 16 and 17, Vanderbilt, Texas. Now, we can use eye test or head-to-head to flip rankings and make tiebreakers. Texas just beat Vanderbilt this past week. Gentlemen, does Texas jump Vanderbilt in 1617? I think you have to. You have to honor it. All right.

You just have to honor it. All right. So Texas, Leapfrogs Vanderbilt, superseding the ranking system at 16, Vanderbilt 17, and at 18, the disaster that is the Miami Hurricanes. Mario Cristobal, it's only speculation at this point, but I would not be surprised. if he's looking for a way out of Miami, probably to the NFL. And I think if that is the case, his players know it. There's always going to be dysfunction at Miami. Cristobal isn't going to fix that.

I think he has his eyes set on a bigger prize. And honestly, with as good as a coach as he is and how much he's evolved since Oregon, I don't blame him. I'll agree that Cristobal has his eyes on the prize elsewhere. However, I don't agree that he can't fix the problem at Miami. I think he's actually proven he can. What's his problem right now? I'm gonna be totally honest. His problem is a transfer who looks like Sid the Sloth, who transferred to be with his girlfriend,

who then promptly broke up with him, and with how far apart his eyes are, it's no surprise that he can't complete a pass to the correct team. His name is Carson Beck, and he sucks, and he sucked at Georgia, and he sucks now at Miami. Carson Beck is, by and large, for all intents and purposes, outside of a few fluke plays here and there. He's the reason Miami is not undefeated. and solidly in the CFP Championship contention. There's no way they make the college football playoff.

At 19, no Justice Haynes, very little passing offense, but Jordan Marshall can run the ball, 185 against Purdue, just enough for Michigan to win. And hey, if they keep running the ball, I will keep watching. Your Michigan Wolverines, by all indications, they'll keep winning. At number 20, we have the USC Trojans, regrettably. Lincoln Riley's season hasn't crashed and burned yet. It will, trust me.

May 21, Missouri Tigers down their starting quarterback, but still looking serviceable in the SEC. 22, Iowa Hawkeyes. Obviously, they will have their matchup this week against Oregon, who's number eight in our poll. They could very much improve their fortunes. At this point, they're out of Big Ten title contention. But, again, no Ten and Two team is safe, but a lot of them will have a chance at ten and two. Iowa, the foremost among them. And number 23, we've got Washington, the Huskies.

Their two losses on the year, Ohio State, Michigan. One every other game. One pretty convincingly. 24 and 25, we have our group of five teams, North Texas, and James Madison. They made it. We love to see the group of five breaking in. They're obviously supplanting Pittsburgh and Tennessee, who are 24 and 25 in the C of People. No, I personally think Pittsburgh deserves to be in this, but I noticed you guys disagree.

North Texas receiving a lot of love, and James Madison, I believe rightly, receiving the same degree of love. Also, receiving points in our estimation, but not enough to break that top 25. So this would be 26 through 30. First is Cincinnati. Second is Pittsburgh. Third is Memphis. Fourth is Tennessee and fifth is TCU. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the first ever FMF poll. They will follow in the coming weeks as the college football season winds down and bowl season and playoffs approaches. We'll be going through new ones every week. We'll be posting them on our socials at the dot for man front on Instagram. We would love to know what we got right, what we got wrong. But with that said, we're going to get very quickly into some punt or go. You've probably heard of punt or go before most sports shows. do it. I'm going to make a statement. If the gentlemen like it, they're going. If they don't, they're punting. It's conservative versus aggressive. It's yes versus no. What kind of coach are you going to be? Gentlemen, are you ready? Let's do it. Ye. I'm game. All right. Coach Kurt

Cignetti signed an eight-year, $93 million extension with the Indiana Hoosiers. In that span of eight years, Coach Signetti can make Indiana the premier football program in the Big Ten. Punter go. Go. He's got what it takes. This guy has the eyes of Nick Sabin, and this is the

makings of 2007, Alabama. Last year was the warning. This year is the real deal. You think Ryan Day has it together? You think Jeremiah Smith's going to save you? You think Ty Simpson is going to win it all this year? No one wants it like Signetti does.

Indiana is the best team in the country this year and that's not an accident that's because of Kurt Signetti that's because he's the man so mark it put this in your receipts files because when they win it all this year I want this audio to be played that I called it

Indiana is winning the college football playoff and they were right to hire Kurt Signetti I mean you give a guy eight years $93 million you are banking on the fact that he can be what Nick Sabin was for Alabama Alabama was an inferior brand to Florida and to LSU

and to Georgia, and Saban came in, and he restructured the entire SEC around Tuscaloosa, the beating heart of college football. Still today, Indiana thinks they can do it. And obviously, you have to compete with Ohio State. You have to complete with Michigan. You've got elite brands with a lot of money. But if the Indiana boosters are willing to put $93 million into getting a coach in the era of NIL, they're at least going to be competitive.

So Patrick, Payden, punt, or go, Cignetti, $93 million, he can get it done. This is 100% a punt. But I want to just look at just the 2026 recruiting class. He is not even in the top 25 recruiting classes for this year. And here's the thing, Indiana's team, they're old. Their team is full of upperclassmen. Well, I'm going to agree with Mark here. I'm going to go on this.

I would not have gone on this a couple weeks ago, but I'm going on it now because the investment, $93 million, just like Lewis said, in the era of NIL, what you need to show is you need to show winning and you need to show that you have money behind your program. Indiana has shown both of those. Once you win big this year, if you get to the semifinals in the cultural playoff, that's enough. That's going to set yourself up. They didn't do it last year. Everybody thought they were a fraud. Now you have a winning coach who's getting paid.

So players know that they're going to be behind one coach should they go to Indiana. They know that they're going to get paid if they go to Indiana because the boosters are ready to spend the money. and they know that they're having an opportunity to win on the biggest scale once Indiana does well in this college football playoff. Once all three of those are met, you're going to see a much bigger and better recruiting class next season going into 2027, not 2026. So I wholeheartedly believe that Indiana has the ability.

There you have it, folks. Pun or go. We are rapidly running out of time. So let's get into an extremely, extremely intentional grounding. You know the rules, gentlemen, something that needs to be said before this week of college football kicks off and you're going to get it out of your hand for better or worse. This is the intentional grounding. Who wants to go first? Oklahoma is not going to make the college football playoffs. There's going to be three SEC teams in

the playoffs. No more, no less. Bang, that's my take. You said three teams no more, no less for the SEC. Three. Three. Oh my gosh. You know, I would be so happy if that were to be the case, but that's insane. That might be the craziest take so far on intentional grounding. Okay, mine. Put some respect on Texas Tech linebacker Jacob Rodriguez. He needs to be in the Heisman conversation. He is the best defensive player in college football right now. Seven forced fumbles, two interceptions, 74 tackles, 39 of which are solo tackles. He is leading this Texas Tech defense. For sure, the best linebacker in college football, probably the best defensive player, at least get him in the conversation. I'm starting to see him get talked about now after he had two

forced fumbles against K State this last weekend. He needs to be in the top. five, and he needs to honestly be in the top three. He'd have to beat out Bain. I think he's up there with him. Oh, oh, certainly. Certainly. He is the best defensive player, I believe that. 74 tackles.

He has more tackles. He has more forced fumbles. He already has two interceptions as a linebacker. He is the madman with a mustache. All right, folks, my intentional grounding. It's not really related to college football. Well, I suppose it is. If you haven't yet in a long time,

encourage you to do what I'm going to do this weekend. that is go to a football game. A college football game, if you can. It can be D1, can be D2. I'm going to be in South Bend, watching Navy Notre Dame. But you could watch football here in Hillsdale. Go watch football in Pennsylvania or in Virginia or Georgia.

There's football everywhere. Anywhere there's college, there's football. Because this is America. Heck, go watch high school if you need to, especially if they're running the wingtie or the wishbone or the flex bone. It could be six-man or eight-man football. So go watch and be thankful you live in a college. country with such an amazing national sport. We'll see you back here next week on the four-man

front. We haven't gotten a bad week yet this year. It's not going to stop in week 11. We'll be watching. We hope you'll be watching. You're listening to Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM for Peyton Hughes, Mark Ayers, and Patrick Hamilton. I'm Lewis Thune. This has been the four-man front. We'll see you next week. Happy football. You know,