Texas vs. Mississippi State: Pressure Mounts on Sark

We've got Texas, Mississippi State today in Austin. What do you like here? Yeah, this is just such an interesting spot, man. And we'll get a little bit more into the Miss State side of things. But for Texas, and I think one of the reasons they deserve the top billing is, let's be very real about it. They played Ole Miss last week, and Archer's job was on the line. Sark told us that. And I don't know. Maybe I should probably circle level set for a second. I'm not saying that if I were in charge of USC, I would fire Lincoln Riley. I'm not saying that if I were in charge of Texas, I would fire Sark. I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is these schools have a lot of pressure to win, and these coaches have a lot of pressure to win, and expectations are set before every season. And for USC, the expectation, since Lincoln has been there, is to compete for a playoff spot. And I don't know if they've done that on a regular basis with Lincoln. And for Sark. The expectation has been to not just make the playoffs. The expectation this year was to be one of the very best teams in college football. One of the very, very best teams in college football. And they beat Ohio State. Nobody left the game thinking that was true. They blew double-digit leads in consecutive games against OU, who they are obviously better than. And Florida, who had a backup quarterback. And it's not like they're like, no, no, no, we found something in Jones. They immediately gave the job back to Philo, okay? Immediately gave it back. Like, couldn't give it back to him quicker, in fact. Like, Jones made the winning play. Like, an awesome, and they were like, don't matter, don't care, get Philo the ball. So, at the end of the day, Texas now plays every game with their back up against the wall. I've listened to an argument that if Sark goes 8-4 this year, I don't want to hear about the hard schedule. That'd be one of the most unacceptable results in football. So, so, that is why when you go and get Texas, whether they're laying two or 20, it is a big deal. Because it is Arch Manning, it is Sark, and it is a spot that they have to have. Also, they are the most popular team in the country that nobody actually wants to bet. That is the one of the more fat... Texas, every week, feels like the, if you're betting them, you're sharp, right? Like, nobody ever actually wants to bet Texas, so they are incredibly fascinating to me, Dave. They are. I'm going to make two points here based on what you said. First off, they're laying 18 and a half, 20 and a half, whatever it is. It'd be like a bad financial advisor giving out really horrible advice on the stock market by saying, go lay this number with Texas. I'm not saying they don't cover because Mississippi State's missing their quarterback. We saw what happened versus LSU. But I'm not in the business of being paid to do this show to give out bad advice. And laying 20 points with Texas seems to be like... Something that would put me in jail for, you know, for financial error. That said, I wanted to go back to Sark, Lincoln, Riley. I'm going to tie the two together. You know where I stand on the 2014 playoff. I'm all out. I don't want anything to do with it. I want to go back to the BCS days. You're kind of on the fence, and for good reasons. You've stayed in both cases. The one, the one, the one silver lining, and the one thing that I think is positive about the 2014 playoff is I actually think... It saves these guys jobs and you won't see the coaching carousel that you used to see. To get rid of Sark, to get rid of Lincoln Riley will cost these teams a fortune. When you know with those two guys as your head coach, come hell or high water, these two teams are making a 2014 playoff every single year. Like clock, maybe he gets close and they're on the bubble. They're making a 2014 playoff and you're paying these guys a fortune. And you talked about How much pressure is on them? Texas may not make a 12-team playoff. USC may not make a 12-team playoff. They're considering firing their coaches. I think the 2014 playoff saves their jobs because you're like, you know what, we're going to make it anyway. Who are we going to get that's better? Why are we going to do the buyout? And I think making this back to the Texas conversation versus Mississippi State situation, don't be surprised if the guy who's in charge in Austin decides, you know, Arch just wasn't my guy. Went to back-to-back college football semifinals in the 14 playoff. I get this Arch guy that comes with all these expectations, as number one recruit in the country, and has the same DNA as two Hall of Famers, and just wasn't my guy. Let me go get my guy, Sark. Let me go get my guy, and I'll win national titles in Texas. Don't be surprised if he throws Arch right under the bus and says, I need someone else to lead this Texas team, because Arch hasn't gotten it done. And we've seen Sark. Sark! Sark is gone! The two semifinals and the old college football era. So we've seen him do it at Texas. We haven't seen him do it with Arch. Not that Quinn Ewers is any good, but we've seen him.