Irish Beat No. 1 Canes, Utes Win Holy War, Alabama & Georgia Dominate

All right, welcome to the show. Others receiving votes, the overreaction Sunday version. Pat Forty joined by my Sports Illustrated colleagues, Brian Fisher and Kevin Sweeney. So much to overreact to after the biggest weekend of the season, guys. Incredible set of games, major stakes, some surprises, some flops, some big-time action. Uh, I'm going to run through the results of the seven ranked versus ranked games, and then I'm going to ask you for your overview of the weekend, and then we're going to dive in on these seven games big time, uh, and go through playoff rankings, the real Heisman, not just the weekly Heisman, uh, and then who the heck gets fired because some people really should get fired after this weekend. Um, all right, the seven games, here's the results. Started at noon, holy war, fantastic, great uniforms, both wearing their home unis, all color, all red versus all blue, Utah 28, BYU 20. Same time, Texas and Missouri. Missouri had many chances to win. Some people say the officials cost Missouri. Not sure about that. I think they still had chances to win. There were some bad calls, so what? Texas 34, Missouri 20. Afternoon, some beatdowns. Oregon 41, Ohio State 28 in the horseshoe, Alabama 31, LSU 13 in Death Valley, then same as it ever was, Tennessee 34, Kentucky 6, and kind of a surprising wipeout to me in Oxford, Georgia 42, Mississippi 7. And then the game that I covered, and we will talk about that and all of these games, Notre Dame 31, Miami 24. We've been looking forward to this weekend all season. Susan, incredible. Incredible, like I said, impact, I think, on how things are going to shake out. I just want to ask you for an overview to start. Rate it. One to five stars. Brian Fisher, how many stars are you giving the weekend? I'm giving it five, you know, and I think, you know, you left off those results. I know you conveniently left off because it wasn't a ranked versus ranked matchup. Michigan and Michigan State, the classic between those two, 15 to six. I apologize to anybody who ended up watching that one. But, you know, look, MACtion, midweek MACtion. We had four of the five games were one score games. Two of them went to overtime. We had UTSA getting blitzed by FAU on Thursday night to maybe kind of shake up the group of six race. You had that classic pooch kick, onside kick by Arizona late on Friday night. You know, Nebraska, those poor fans. I mean, you know, what are you going to do after the game against Illinois, Kevin? I mean, you might have some thoughts on that one. You had the classic between East Carolina walking off South Florida on Friday. And then just every, it seemed like every TV window. It was perfectly arranged for drama to kind of follow. I know that some of the primetime games a little bit maybe trended towards blowout territory, The drama and the amount of coaches that seem to be fired by their fan bases throughout Saturday, I mean, it was an all-star weekend, and we anticipated that coming in. It kind of delivered. I'll give it five-star freak-out potential. Thank And then I would say before the chaos Miami-Notre Dame finished with the touchdown that was or wasn't, I would have said it was only a three-star weekend in terms of the actual games delivering, maybe because my expectations were so high. I think that finish bumps it up to four-star games, you. five-star freak-out for me. It was great, but for potential best slate of... All-time greatest weekend in college football history. I don't think it was quite that. It was very good. It wasn't quite that. Yeah, I'm going four stars as well. We only had two one-score games. I mean, I was just shocked at the laydown by a couple of these teams, three of them really particular, Ohio State, LSU, and Mississippi. They did not compete on their home fields. So that kept it from being a complete, you know. 100% golden Saturday. But the other stuff, I mean, it was fantastic. And the, yeah, the attention and the tension was just kind of laid out, like you said, Brian, kind of throughout the whole day. You know, it just was, it was there and it built and then it did build an end in the. The Notre Dame-Miami game, and we got to do a little bit of old guy radio here. Sorry, fellas, but I attended both the 88 Notre Dame-Miami game and this one. Covered them both. The one in 88, I was like 24 years old. I did not know what I was even doing. It was the biggest thing I'd ever covered at that point. Still remains one of the greatest games I've ever covered. Watching this thing unfold Saturday night, the similarities were crazy. I mean, it was really, really wild how this came to be. Like that game, Notre Dame controlled the game. Looked like it would win the game. Never really thought it wasn't going to win the game until all of a sudden, oh, my God, Notre Dame may not win the game. Miami coming back. Darian Mensah playing like Steve Walsh did in 88, just carving them up, making unbelievable plays. And it comes down to the deciding play is a pass breakup in the end zone, the same end zone. Press box is on the other side of the stadium now. So it was kind of like in front of me or my side of the stadium both times. Luke Talich reaches his hand in like Pat Terrell breaking up the pass, a two-point pass for the 31-30 win. This one could have been 31-30, but they didn't get that far because it was a fourth-down play. Talich breaks up the pass. Three-star former walk-on from Cody, Wyoming. Making that play. And then the huge controversy. Should it have been a catch? Should it have been a touchdown? And Mario Cristobal echoing the exact words of Jimmy Johnson on another controversy. He'll play in the 88 game. A fumble call on Cleveland Gary that was not a fumble. He said, you can't come in here and leave it in the hands of the officials. So the throwbacks, the callbacks were incredible. The tension was incredible. Thank Notre Dame had to have it and got it. My question, real quick question for you guys, catch or no catch? Kevin. I say no catch. I think when you slow it down, it feels a lot more like a catch. I think live and at game speed. you. It's too bang-bang for me. I don't think there was enough time of him truly possessing the ball to say, yes, it's a catch, it's a touchdown. Yes, on the freeze frame, yes, he has two hands on the ball. Yes, he's in the end zone. But that's not the standard for a catch in any other area of the field. So, to me, I liked the incomplete pass there, but, man, it was close. Man, it was close. It was, you know, by, by the finest of margins, and we're arguing about a catch like what, what is, you know, dead is never dead in college football or the NFL for, for that matter. And I mean, just an unbelievable play by Luke Talich. Like, I mean, he was phenomenal throughout the night. Like, I mean, you talk about teach tape in terms of playing defensive back the interception that he had just, you know, playing through him and, you know, like he said, Oh, we're taught this. Like that was, you know, another, you know, kudos to the defensive staff there at Notre Dame in terms of, you know, The entire episode, that's what you do, and it was close. It was definitely a close call, and at this point, margins are thin in college football, and as we've seen already week after week, this is a game of inches, and Miami was probably on the wrong side of that. Look, I think it was just added to the incredible element, added to the drama. And I still think that as much as Miami fans are going to be talking about that, so will Notre Dame fans in terms of, hey, we were that close to maybe missing the playoff at the end of the year. Yeah, I mean, it's razor's edge, no doubt about it. And that is, you know, it's obviously why sports is so captivating, is this great game comes down to that, basically. And there was still three minutes to play. Other things could have happened. You could even argue that Miami could have kicked a field goal and then tried to, you know, play defense and get the ball back. Or you could say, look, if they score, fine, Notre Dame has plenty of time and they've been moving the ball, they're going to go down and win the game. But it did. Basically, turn right there on that play. All right. Watching it live, so I'm watching again. I'm in the press box, and I was just watching his feet, and I was like, well, his feet are definitely inbounds. Why are they saying this is incomplete? And then it wasn't until you see the replay when you see that Talich knocks the ball away from Elijah Lofton, the tight end, who was phenomenal. They could not cover him for most of the night. All And in the absence of Malachi Toney, the way he and Cooper Barkat stepped up was very impressive for Miami. You know, there's certainly part of me that says, right. do you have to have the ball until Tuesday for it to be a reception? You know, when is the play over, and should it be over when he steps out of bounds and he has the ball? But that is, as you said, Kevin, the standard. Like every place on the field, that's the standard. So should it be the same in the end zone? Yeah, it probably should be. But it does add another element of eternal controversy. People are still talking about the Cleveland Gary fumble 38 years later. I think they'll be talking about the Elijah Lofton incompletion for an awful long time as well. So very fun to have attended both of those things. So in an attempt to kind of get our arms around this whole day. Let's go through and just do some winners and losers here. We're going to do two rounds. We'll start with the winners because we're such positive people, and then we'll do the losers, and we'll skewer whoever the heck we can think of. But let's start with this, with Brian. Just give me one, your biggest winner from the day out of these seven games. I'm gonna go with Morgan Scally, you know, and I mean, the pressure he knows that rivalry better than anybody he grew up in it, and in the state he played in it as a player he's been an assistant for, for that rivalry game forever and to dramatically at brunch time there in Salt Lake to get that win really stamp, you know, his seal of approval on the program, like I think it was big for him to really kind of be able to step out of. Kyle Whittingham, Shadows, that was the game that he was able to do that. You know, just the way that he's pushed the right buttons this season, the way he's kept that group moving in the right direction, the creativity we've seen on offense. You know, this is not a hard-watch Utah team like we've seen sometimes in the past, where it's all defense, a little bit of special teams, and then they're just getting the job done. And in terms of offense, now you're, you're actually seeing them able to move the ball. You know, Devin, Dan Pierce has been fantastic. And yeah, the, you know, they allowed BYU to get back into that game and the swings of momentum. That's just the, this rivalry game. Right. And you know, he managed that game throughout excellently. And I think that was, you know, that, that was the first time he said, all right, this, this is truly Morgan Scully's program. So big win for him in the, in the holy war, big win for him in terms of getting over the hump for Utah and being in the playoff. And I think a huge for him moving forward with that program. Kevin. Yeah, I think the big winner is Notre Dame. I mean, just the pressure that you felt like they were under. I mean, it didn't even feel like elation as much as relief that they held on and won that game, right? I think everyone in that building, players, fans, coaches, administrators, Damn president, you know, like up and down, like everybody understood this team is good enough to win a national championship and may not have a chance to if they can't find a way to win this game. And the pressure in that building was enormous. And, you know, to come out the way they did and have such control of the game. And then just try to hold on for dear life as Derry Mensah made play after play after play after play. Um, I mean, they're the biggest winner of the night. Their playoff berth isn't a lock because I'm sure they could lose theoretically. I don't think they're going to lose down the stretch, which means they're in. They might be a top four team at that. We'll see. You know, this week's rankings will probably be somewhat instructive there. I'm But the stress of doing this again, the stress of staring down. going How will the committee view us if we're 10-2 and we've beaten those 10 worst teams on the schedule to and lost to the two best? I don't know how many people could have taken it. stop And so the fact that they were able to get the monkey off their back, there. win the big game, do it at home in a game that had so much anticipation and hype, do it to the team that arguably kept them out of the playoff last year, I mean, it was enormous for them. To me, they're the biggest winner of the week. A couple of interesting telling, I think, comments about that from Freeman after the game. One was like, you know, I don't want to let go of this. Like, they needed it so badly, and he was, you know, I mean, obviously so joyful at the win. It's like, gosh, I don't even want to think about the last three games because they put so much into this one. And to get it and not have had, you know, the big signature win last year And arguably, other than the playoff. Not have had many signature wins. The 2024 playoff, when they made it to the championship game, there was no doubt that there was an immense amount riding on this and that Freeman felt it. I'm going to say Alabama and Kalen DeBoer, I think most everybody, certainly me included, thought, what the hell is Alabama doing at number five in the playoff rankings? That's ridiculous. LSU is going to set this straight. They're going to go into Baton Rouge, and we're going to see that maybe Alabama was overrated. No, no, they took care of business there, man. I mean, very impressive. Actually fell behind in the second half, and then, boom, put 21 unanswered on them to finish the game. And that's been something this team has done, actually, for Alabama. They will get on rolls and just dominate. They did that to Kentucky. They did that to Mississippi State. They've done it a few different times this year. South Carolina, I believe, as well. And I think Kalen DeBoer certainly could use that and got it. So I'm going to say Alabama a winner as well. All right, round two. Brian, who else you got? I'm going to go with Kirby Smart because I don't think he has to see Trinidad Chambliss again across the field. So I'm going to go with that. And look, you know, it was just definitely one way traffic. I think it was the best that Georgia's defenses have played against Trinidad. But look, you go back to the shootout last year in the regular season. That was just a pinball matchup between the two teams going back and forth. And I was at that game between the hedges and Kirby just like, you know, he looked like he walked out of the shower. He was just like, kind of like, um... You know, like, okay, I'm moving on. I'm going to wipe my brow and move on. And then, obviously, Ole Miss pulled the upset there in the Sugar Bowl with a tremendous comeback where he was just making play after play. But you know what? Thankfully, I don't think they're going to see them again in the SEC championship game. I don't think they're going to see them in the playoff given where Ole Miss is. And so congrats to Kirby for, I guess, not seeing Trinidad Chambliss anymore. And I think. More than anything, that game really stamped Georgia as the favorite in the SEC and probably the favorite to win the national title at this point. Yeah, I mean, very impressive. I'll go with Shane Beamer and the South Carolina Gamecocks. I don't know if – I mean, that game became a little bit more intriguing because that window had sort of waned in interest. And I don't know if you guys saw Shane Beamer's on-field post-game interview. Very emotional, had his wife next to him. I think he, it was sort of the like relief of I'm not getting fired. I mean, and that was a real, and I think it's been building over the last month. But I think just in that moment, you could tell it's like, man, like I really thought I was dead there. And now I'm not. And that was pretty cool to witness. But look, he's done a great job with his group because. You know, the quit factor in some of these teams, especially that come in with expectations, that spent money, that get punched in the mouth early in the season. Like, it's been there for a lot of these teams. And the way he's been able to get them off the mat. Find different ways to win, right? They won this one very ugly. They've scored at points really well with Sellers. Sellers was grinding it out yesterday on an ankle that didn't look 100%. But that was an impressive result for me. And, again, I'm not saying they're beating Georgia. Probably not beating Georgia, quite frankly. But if they do, you've got to find a way to put this team in the playoffs because there won't be 12 teams playing better than what this Gamecock team is doing right now. Yeah. We're going to get to some quit factor here, I'm pretty sure, in a bit. But, but, uh, When they were 2-3, everybody was firing Shane Beamer. Everybody except his boss, who wisely did not, and now they're sitting here at 6-3. My last winner, I'm going to say Miami. I thought without Malachi Toney, go on the road, down 24-3, I thought they were possibly going to get trucked, and we're going to say, man, if they don't get Toney back, this team isn't any good. And they rallied, and they come back, and they're within a bang-bang play of potentially tying the game and taking it down either to the wire or to overtime. I was blown away how good Mensah was. And not just – we see – their offense has been so efficient this season, so good. You see Mensah drop back and throw on schedule, and it's all perfect, and it looks lovely, and it just works. That was not the case this game. He was getting rushed like hell. I mean, Notre Dame's defensive line played great. They were all over him, but they couldn't get him on the ground very often. He was really mobile. He was throwing on the run. He was creative. And then, as I said, Barkate and Lofton rising up the way they did. I thought, geez, they're going to need Mark Fletcher to be able to, you know, at least just kind of run the ball and control the game to have a chance here. No. No, they still chucked it around, and they were fantastic. So I look at Miami, and I'm like, you guys are still really good. And even without Malachi and Tony, that's a playoff team, and that's at worst a home field playoff team, if not a top four. We'll see how things play out. Okay, let's kill some people. Let's find some losers here. Brian, your first loser. My first loser, and I might even consider that Malachi Toney is kind of in the same camp, but like, you know, Jeremiah Smith, man, he cannot catch a break. He's been the best player in college football, I think, for two, two and a half years at this point. Right. You know, I think kind of universally acknowledged like that is the guy that everybody's game planning against. That is the guy everybody's circling against. It doesn't matter what kind of defense you throw at him. He is making plays, and he is fantastic. And yet, of all the years where he could have easily walked to winning the Heisman Trophy, walked to winning any kind of award you have out there, the Maxwell, the Biletnikoff, all that, and then this is the Ohio State team he gets stuck on. I mean, it's not out of the question that this is a team that is playing in the Citrus Bowl at best right now. And so, you know, Jeremiah Smith, he was a little frustrated at the end of that Oregon game. You kind of saw that come out. Man, I can understand the frustrations. And, you know, the worst part is, too, is like he's going to go to an even worse team next year in the NFL. Like he's going to be on the Browns or the Falcons or he's going to have to be dealing with all this. So, like, it's just a truly terrible cycle that poor Jeremiah Smith is in at this point. Yeah, I mean. Gutting for them and watching their season just kind of collapse over the last two weeks. Thanks. Curious what it will change long term in terms of how teams approach backup quarterbacks and whatnot. I mean, clearly Ohio State's problems run deeper. I like it. It's easy to blame the quarterback. It ain't all the quarterback. They were a more flawed football team than I think we realized. Um, I mean, I mean, to me, the big loser of Saturday is Michigan. again. This was the game you couldn't lose if you're Kyle Whittingham. Michigan State has not been a very good football team. They've been a feisty football team the last couple weeks, but they have not been a good football team. Let's be very, very clear about that. Thank To not only be bad and not only to get beat, but to be so hapless offensively. you I mean, I think it's hard to imagine a world where Beck is on the staff next week, even. for Like, I don't know how he has a job after this. having Certainly not next year. But this feels like a Sunday announcement or a Monday announcement that we're going a different direction with the offense. But, I mean, the offense has its own woes beyond the coordinator, right? me. Beck has coordinated good offenses before, right? It's not like this guy is his first rodeo here. They don't have talent. They don't. Their talent doesn't look particularly good when it is out there. I mean, this is a train wreck to the magnitude. I don't think any of us really saw possible for a coach in Kyle Whittingham who's so good and so respected. I mean, it feels increasingly to me like a clean break is the only path forward here Thank Given this is not a long-term solution anyway, which I think everyone knew when you hired Kyle Whittingham, I don't know what the point of going into next year or the year after of like, oh, we're going to build this thing right at Michigan here if the coach isn't going to be there in four years regardless. you. So, I mean, an ugly result, a result that will feel really, really bad for Michigan fans even in a season where they weren't going to the playoff, they weren't winning the national championship. But man, were they bad yesterday. Embarrassingly bad. Oh, I don't know. I think going 57 minutes scoreless against one of the worst Michigan State teams in memory, you know, their arch rival from across the state, that isn't too bad. Is it? Really? Okay, yes, it was terrible. I mean, just unbelievably bad. They had 192 yards of total offense. They lost to a team that didn't score a touchdown. They lost to a team that basically had no hope. This was Michigan State's Super Bowl, and congrats to them. They won it. But good God, Michigan, please show up. That was a disaster. But you know who I think was the worst disaster? LSU, Lane Kiffin. Their best win right now, Lane Kiffin's best win as a $13 million a year coach is against 5-4 Auburn. I guess that's it. I mean, that's it. They have beaten nobody. They have lost to Kentucky. They have lost to Mississippi. And they got punished at home by an Alabama team. LSU fans hate Alabama. They've always hated them, but they really hate them since the Saban era came to pass, when Saban went from LSU to Miami to Alabama and just beat the hell out of them. So I'm astounded at what I'm seeing from an LSU team that spent about $50 million on its roster, certainly one of the most expensive ones in the country. And between them and Ohio State, some quit factor out there for sure, for sure. All right, who else? Round two, biggest losers, Brian. I'm going to go with West Virginia defensive coordinator, Zach Alley. I don't know if you guys caught that shootout. Like, that was an old-school throwback Big 12 game, back and forth and back and forth. And, you know, to allow Thomas Castellanos to throw for 362 yards and five touchdowns, yeah, I mean, I think you've got to be – and the poor West Virginia fans. I mean, they've allowed the last couple weeks, 53 to Texas Tech, right? All right. You allowed 20 to TCU, so good on you. You got the win there. You allowed 42 in a win. You allowed 52 to Arizona, 42 in a loss to Iowa State, 41 for Oklahoma State. You can't. You know, put it on Rich Rod in terms of the entertainment factor. Like, at least he's bringing that every single week. Now, it's not ending up on the right side of the ledger, but poor Zach Alley. I mean, the only worst defense in the Power Four is Stanford at this point. So, some bad company for him. And at least they've given us some classic big bowl shootout So, that is a much-watched team at this point because you know you're going to get some points and you're going to get some touchdowns. But to allow Thomas Castellanos to look like a Heisman Trophy winner at that point, yeah, I'm going to. I'm going to put you under the bus right now. Yeah, cool. I'll go to Friday night and Matt Rhule. This is an absolute disaster. They can't score. I mean, they just fired Dana Holgorson. Uh I guess I don't understand. How at some point we keep letting Matt Rhule fire coordinators Like how many times can Matt rule be like, well, you it's everybody else's fault, but mine, right? Win some games, score some points. a And by, oh, by the way, this quarterback that you just re-signed two weeks ago. I mean, he looks horrible right now. much. Like, they cannot move the football. Their one touchdown in that game, or the one explosive play, the one explosive play they had in that game was a deeply underthrown ball that might have been tipped that sort of somehow dropped into either Barney or Gilmer's hands. I can't remember which one. I mean, they are putrid offensively. They seem to have rolled over and quit yet again, which is a big pattern. Look, last year, your athletic director gives you a contract extension right before the wheels fall off. This year, you give your quarterback a contract extension right before the wheels fall off. I mean, everyone in the state of Nebraska needs some research and time in the market because this is not good. And again, does it feel responsible to pay the buyout that it would take to get rid of Matt Rule? Probably not. Is there a grand list of candidates that look amazing for this job? Perhaps not. Can you move forward like this? I like increasingly, I don't know. I didn't really take the rule hot seat stuff seriously until I watched Friday night. And I was like, yeah, I mean, they kind of have a point. Oh, yeah. No, it's so bad. I mean, it is so, so bad. They've lost four in a row. Point totals in those games, 17, 14, 10, 13. And Calandria. He runs around and makes some stuff happen. You can't build a team around, run around and make some stuff happen. You have to actually have a system in which he can thrive and in which you drop back and read and throw and you break defenses that way. And, yes, to blame this on Dana Holgorsen. Remember, they brought in Dana Holgerson last year, and that was the magic bullet, man, two years ago, whenever. They needed somebody to, you know, to help Dylan Raiola. That's the thing. They've had two magic bullets, and they have both missed the mark completely. First, we're going to sign the best quarterback in the country, Dylan Raiola. Oh, it's going to be the savior. Nebraska's back. Well, things aren't going too well. Let's get rid of the coordinator, and let's bring in Holgo. He'll fix it. Oh, now we're firing him in the middle of the season. I mean, there's no doubt. Look, this is on rule. Ha! That was so cool. Whether it's too expensive to fix or not, I think you have to try. I think you were in that video. Yeah, it was a good one. It was a good video. I mean, talk about untenable situations. I think you're going to appreciate it. It was a great video. We have a few more minutes. It is just the same thing over and over and over at Nebraska. And that fan base is too invested, I think, to put up with this. Anyway, my other big loser, I'm going with Kentucky here. That just looked like every other Kentucky game against Tennessee. It didn't look like a special Kentucky team. And, hey, they've had a good season, a really good season. Kudos to Will Stein. 7-1 is phenomenal. But they went down to Knoxville and played just like a team coached by Jerry Claiborne, Bill Curry, Hal Mumme, Guy Morris, Rich Brooks, Joker Phillips. And Mark Stoops, everybody, they go, all Kentucky teams go to Knoxville and get thumped like this. This was a 28-point beating, and it just looked like, oh, yeah, we still have a long way to go in this conference. Hey, kudos to Tennessee. Tennessee, a little bit under the radar, is prominently in the playoff mix at this point. But for Kentucky, that looked a little too familiar. All right. Speaking of the playoff mix, I sketched out my bracket, or at least my top 12, last night at like, yeah, look at here, 3.48 a.m. when I got back to my hotel in Indianapolis from South Bend. So it may not make sense, because this is 3.48 a.m. work, but this is what I got. You guys, tell me... Where you agree, disagree, what you think you would do this year. I've got Georgia number one. Georgia number one clearly and Utah number two clearly. I think I'm starting there and I have no qualms about that. I do think overall this weekend did really help. It did clear out some chaff, all right? We got enough SEC teams that we've got to look at and say, I don't think we need you in this playoff. All right. So Georgia one, Utah two. I've got UCLA three. Look, they're undefeated. They went on the road nine o'clock body game, body clock game, win by two touchdowns through consecutive bombs. I mean, great play calling by Drew Kennedy to load up the first one and then shame on Minnesota for letting it happen again. But same play, same guy. He caught two passes, 150 yards, two touchdowns. I've got Notre Dame number four. I've got Miami five. I have Texas six, Indiana seven, Tennessee eight, Alabama nine, Wake Forest ten, and no, I will not apologize for that. BYU 11 and Boise State 12, and I think the list after that gets more narrow. That's the part where this weekend, I think, helped the committee because I think it really stratified. Now, there's going to be enough other upsets and losses and stuff that they'll get hard again, but I think this week's fairly easy. Kevin, your thoughts, your reaction, what you might change out of that. Yeah, I mean, the one that stands out to me is BYU and kind of what to do with them. Yep. You know, my instinct was them losing that game means they're not a playoff team, especially given they had opportunities. They bounced back. They took the lead. But then you see how the Notre Dame win ages, which ages quite well after the win over Miami. And I'm not convinced that you can knock BYU out yet. I think for a week 10 playoff, it's probably right. I think for a week. 14 playoff? I'm not convinced that BYU has enough to hold on, but that was the one that really kind of stood out to me is like, what do we do with this potential two-loss elite non-conference win? One loss you can't quibble with, one loss you can. My gut says no, but we're going to do this debate every week, so might as well start it now. Yeah. I mean, you get down, that's the last spot, basically, the last at-large spot, and it's tough. Anyway, Brian, go ahead. Yeah, I'm kind of. Along your lines, Pat, I think Georgia has clearly established itself as the No. 1 team, even though Utah is undefeated and has that great win over BYU at this point. And look, they've taken care of business, looked good in all three phases. But I think those are kind of clearly the established top two. I would have Notre Dame three, to be honest. I've seen the Irish up close in person for that BYU game, and obviously they just kind of got blitzed early on. But you look at that second half, you look at how controversial it was, certainly at the end of that game as well. You throw that in there, I would put Miami right behind them. At number four, you know, especially considering, you know, just getting used to not having Malachi Tony, Mike, you know, look, he was such a huge percentage of their offense early on in the season. They've adjusted at this point, you know, took them a while against a very good deep Notre Dame defense. I mean, that's still one of the better defenses in the country. So I would put Miami right there at number four. I still am a believer in Indiana. I don't know if I'm kind of out on a limb there at number five. I think they are, they are, they are taking what is in front of them. and still doing. I think this will be a big test, certainly coming up against USC. I am expecting them to win that. And once they win that, I think everybody will be back on the Indiana bandwagon in terms of they're going out there executing. We'll see what happens with the quarterback. I put UCLA right behind them. And then I think it's like, all right, yeah, you're, you're picking teams out of hat. I would definitely go with Alabama at this point. Yeah. I think that the Tide have clearly established themselves. Yes. The floor can be low under Kalen DeBoer. We know that at this point, but man, Big games, you know he's going to show up, and I think that's why Alabama, especially with a quarterback at this point, it's late November. You don't have an inexperienced quarterback anymore, and so I think now that they're kind of falling into a rhythm, now that guys are getting a little bit healthier, I think on both sides of the ball that they're going to come along. And yeah, I mean, I think you can kind of pick your dozen. I would put Wake Forest slightly ahead of Texas at this point. I think Texas, in terms of resume, they have the edge, clearly. But in terms of how these teams are playing. Like, you know, give me Wake Forest every day of the week, you know, at this point. Like, I don't know what to expect out of Texas from week to week. And, you know, there are times that, you know, they execute and they look crisp. And, man, the opening script is fantastic. And they go out and it looks like, yeah, that is a team that could win a national title. But, man, there are also times where you're just like you're pulling your hair out. Like, I don't know how Texas fans put up with it from four quarters. Like, it seems like every time, you know, you want to just scream at your TV or whatnot. in terms of their execution. So that's kind of how I have things settling out and then Tennessee right behind them just because of that win in Knoxville. So yeah, I think you can throw in BYU at the end, but it's going to be interesting. I think to me, the committee debate this week going into Tuesday, it's going to be interesting to see whether Kentucky, because they started so high there and they were pretty closely grouped, whether Kentucky... Falls below BYU. I think BYU has a better resume. I think they're the better team at this point. I think Kentucky's resume overall certainly took a hit this week with the LSU loss. So that's kind of how I see it shaking up. But I wouldn't be surprised at all if the committee kind of throws a curveball in terms of debating a lot of these teams. You have the head-to-head come in. It's going to be a fascinating kind of debate there going into Tuesday night. It'll you know that this will be a test of their flexibility, because I think you really have to shake it up after last week, which which I thought was going to have to be the case anyway, because of all these big games. Right. The committee would have been better off if they just said we need to wait a week for this first one till we see all these teams play in these big moments. But that's not the way it works. ESPN has to have a TV show. So we have to have it go head to head with the midterm elections anyway. Anyway. So I think the last couple spots at large are going to be really difficult. I can see, you know, through nine without too much problem, and I think Boise State's now pretty clearly the at-large. It's the 10th and 11th spots. I've got Wake, I've got BYU, and then Texas Tech. USC is gaining ground here by not playing. Oregon, back from the dead. Kentucky, how far should they drop? Iowa. Red Hot South Carolina, SMU, you know, that's going to be where the difficulty comes. But it's better now than, you know, I mean, look, you can't rank LSU. They, again, as I said, they don't have good wins. They've lost three times, and they have no good wins. The other three lost. Mississippi has been trucked twice. I mean, smoked by Georgia. Great, great team. Florida, not that great a team. Got smoked by Florida. Um, you know, some of the other teams that now you're looking at with three losses and like, eh, I don't know, Ohio State, what, you know, you can't, I don't think you can rank them. They got the nice win over Indiana on the road, but they're falling apart in front of our very eyes. So right now, I think the committee should, in my opinion, have a pretty clarified nine teams in whatever order, and then they need to decide whether we respect Wake Forest, which I think they should. And then what do you do with that last at-large spot? So it's going to be fascinating to see how that transpires. I want to talk Heisman real quick, and then we're going to talk about who gets fired. And I think we have a hiring that's happening today as we speak, as we tape this. So we'll get to that real quick as well. But we do the small-scale Heisman every week, right? I think we should talk large-scale here. Brian, you brought up, I mean, Jeremiah Smith, good Lord. He still had seven catches for 133 yards and a touchdown. I mean, he is still impossible to cover, but getting him the ball is harder, and playing on a good team, which tends to matter a lot, is going to factor in here. And I kind of think with J.J. Smith, it's almost like you're looking at Travis Hunter a couple years ago, and you're like... Do we just throw out the team record? And Colorado was pretty good. I mean, they were 9-3, lost their bowl game 9-4. For Colorado, it was really good. But we just said, look, Travis Hunter's doing stuff nobody else can do. We're giving him the Heisman. So does J.J. Smith get that level of respect? Or... I think both quarterbacks in Notre Dame-Miami really helped themselves as Heisman candidates. Malachi Toney now, I'm sorry. Look, a wonderful player. I probably would have had him on my Heisman ballot. He's going to miss the last month of the season. So he's not getting a vote. But boy, did Darian Mensah play well without him. And boy, did C.J. Carr play well. And I will say, this is not really our sandbox, but the NFL's sitting out there saying, oh my God, we have no quarterbacks to draft. Both these guys, now, C.J. Carr, we don't know, this is his third year of college. He could stay for two more years, probably, I mean, I would not be shocked if he stays for one, depending, Notre Dame wins the championship, all bets are off. But, and then Mensah could play another year as well. So, you know, we'll see about that. But I think both these guys, if I'm the NFL, I'm putting on that tape from last night and saying, oh, okay, we don't have to go. You know, overextend ourselves for one of these other quarterbacks we thought was good at the beginning of the year, and now we don't think is good. But anyway, right now, probably my ballot is those three guys, Jeremiah Smith and those two quarterbacks. I don't know the order. We'll see how that plays out. But what do you guys think, Heisman? Yeah, I was a little surprised, you know, seeing C.J. Carr, I guess, just maybe in terms of the narrative, like, all right, Notre Dame quarterback, probably going to be an 11-1, you know, played well, has, you know, like did he get a Heisman moment in that game? I mean, maybe some of those throws, I mean, he played well. Like, I'm not downplaying it. I just, I feel like we're getting a little bit ahead of ourselves in terms of, like, naming him as the favorite, I guess, from a betting-odd standpoint, from a narrative standpoint. I think Darian Mensah almost enhanced, you know, like you're saying, almost enhanced his case for the Heisman. And especially with Tony out, if he continues to put up big numbers, he'll have a championship game, you know, on that week, and that CJ Carr will not. You know, so I think that's another kind of additional thing. The one guy that I might throw out there as a potential option to kind of upset this order, and I think you can probably throw Jeremiah Smith out there as a guy you've got to have on the ballot at some point. Um, you know, just because he is that outstanding, but Drew Allsmake at Oklahoma State. He leads the country in touchdown passes. He'll have a big marquee game against Texas Tech coming up. So like, I think there's a chance that even, uh, Oklahoma State ends up in the Big 12 championship game. So like, there's a whole lot of possibilities that maybe Drew Allsmake as kind of the guy, especially because you're going to hear a lot of talk about him in the NFL. So on those Tuesday and Wednesday shows, all the voters are going to be hearing about Drew Allsmake being the number one quarterback, uh, in the draft. So I think that's going to also, also help. His case, you know, he's been a phenomenal and really against with a pretty decent, you know, mediocre defense at best for the Cowboys, man. He has really put that team on his back. So I would kind of throw him out there as a potential option if you're kind of going off the radar a little bit at this point. Yeah, I think Carr lacks the Heisman moment. He lacks the like overwhelming feeling of stardom, but he also never makes mistakes. And I think that will start to add up in the final month of the season as no one else kind of claims it. That being said, I've got a different Big 12 quarterback I think we should be really talking about. I think Devin Dampier should be very much in this conversation with the way that he has played. I mean, he's a lot to deal with. They could be an undefeated team. There's a very real chance that he is the quarterback, a star quarterback of an undefeated Utah that is a top two or top three team in the college football playoff rank. If that's the case. How is the guy not the Heisman? How is he not at least in New York and very much in the conversation? That is the one to me that is not getting enough attention. And again, maybe it's just because Carr is a little boring and you're splitting votes a little bit between Mensah and Tony. And now that Jeremiah Smith is maybe less in the conversation. I feel like Dampierre is being undervalued in this conversation just because of the way that he's playing, how dynamic he is, how much he kind of dictates the way they want to play offensively, like the pace that he plays with, the speed. All of those things, I think, are reasons that he should be in the mix. Yeah, no, fair comments from both of you guys. We'll keep our eyes on the Big 12. All hell can still break loose there. Noah Fafita, you know, I mean... I wish he had played better at crunch time against Texas Tech. You know, they had that game on their racket, so to speak, and he did not. He just missed several big, big plays, and that one got away from him. But he's had a great season. You know, I'd certainly keep an eye on him. Keep your ballot open. There's still several weeks to go. No reason to be declaring a Heisman winner at this point, but I think the field is starting to crystallize a little bit more. All right, every week we fire people. Kevin Sweeney did send the group text, you know, that this week we could just say Team X from the Big Ten can fire their coach and cover most of the Big Ten. And, um, But who are we firing this week? Again, many candidates. Go ahead, Kevin. Yeah, I mean, I kind of already hit Whittingham and Rule. So those are the two big ones for me of the week. I think the other, if we're doing the more zoomed-in week firing, I mean, John Summerall's had some chances, man, in the last month to put this team in the conversation. And it just feels like kind of every time, okay, here come the Gators, they lay an egg, and they laid an egg yesterday. I know that it was Barnes and not Philo under center. They just need better. I mean, I think they gave up a 13-minute touchdown drive to John Mateer and the boys. 13 minutes? A must-stop stop. It was full. That's an Army drive. No, it felt like, I think it was a 20-play, 13-minute drive. Let me confirm this. But it was quite the sight, and it was, I mean, it was a killer because Florida, I think Florida had a chance to kick a field goal. to cut it to 13 to 10 and they chose not to do that and went for went for the touchdown on like a fourth and three and didn't get it uh and then right immediately Oklahoma went on one of the longest drives I can remember I kept checking I wasn't watching I just kept checking my phone and going Man, Oklahoma still has the ball? What is going on here? Yeah, this drive, this touchdown drive for the Oklahoma Sooners, if the CBS app is correct, was 20 plays, 89 yards, 12 minutes, and 45 seconds. Holy moly. Wow, that is three yards and a cloud of dust. All right, Brian, who are you firing? Oh, so many options, so many options. I think I'm going to go lean into the fan base panic and say Ryan Day at Ohio State. Woo! The fact that, like, especially in the horseshoe, right? You know, like, it's one thing to lose a game. You know, it happens, especially at Ohio State nowadays. He's, you know, six and five, you know, the last against Power Five opponents at this point, you know, these last year and a half. And, I mean, to have a team, to spend the amount of money that they have to just look like this. And I get the backup quarterback situation, but, like, the defense has. Completely evaporate. You look at how they're playing early in the season to now. What happened? Like, and, you know, like. It's completely gone away from him. The coordinator hires from the NFL have not worked out at all. Let's face it. He definitely hit on Chip Kelly a couple of years ago, but it's been some misses with some of his coordinator hires, placing guys, he elevated. Um, you know, guys, and maybe they weren't ready for that role. And, um, you know, now I think that's, that's probably the biggest challenge, especially at a big time program like Ohio state, you know, you're going to lose assistants. You're, you're, you've got to replace them at some point. And, um, he has not hit on that. And, um, now, I mean, like, look. Are you going to convince the Buckeyes fans out there that, like, the Citrus Bowl or, you know, the Pop-Tarts Bowl is, like, you know, your ultimate destination there? And, like, are they going to be happy about that? Absolutely not. And so I think, you know, the pressure's on, especially, like, can you imagine, you know, going into that game against Michigan, right, if they end up losing this game? We have seen worse Michigan teams end up beating better Ohio State teams before. I definitely, you know, throw it, throw that out there. So I, I think, you know, the pressure is definitely on for Ryan Day. And like, if there's any kind of escape hatch for him, whether it be the NFL, whether it be somewhere else, like maybe, maybe you should start exploring that because like the fishbowl that is Columbus at this point, it is just going to get turned up to 11, you know, and I kind of feel certainly we we've heard about that before in the past years, he does have that national title ring, but like. This is the downside of being the Ohio State coach. Yes, you get everything on your plate. You have everything possible out there. But when you lose games like this and you start getting compared to the 99 team or that team that Luke Fickell had that went 6-6, those are bad records to be bringing up if you're an Ohio State fan at this point. And they are now getting brought up after that loss to Oregon. Yeah, I'm not sure I've seen a worse Michigan team beat a better Ohio State team. I'm not sure I've seen a worse Michigan team since Brady Hoke was the coach. But. Uh, point taken that game is a dud. It's unbelievable. Ohio State, Michigan, which has been must watch for several years in a row is now just like, eh, doesn't matter, which that, that throws a wrench into our Thanksgiving weekend planning. Cause I think I've been to that game like five years in a row. Um, anyway, that, yeah, that like the whole Ohio State thing is just shocking. And we will see, yes, if they end up in a Citrus Bowl or whatever. We'll see if the game check contract thing can keep that from being like a 20-player opt-out because ain't nobody going to want to play in that game. And the fans aren't going to want to go watch it. I mean, that would be incredibly dismal. And the Ryan Day thing, it's wild to me that, like, they just have games where they fall apart. And not just one, but, like, the Michigan games, they have fallen apart. They fell apart earlier this year when they were leading Texas. Although, really, I still give Texas credit for taking that to a degree. But still, they couldn't finish. And then this game, this was quit factor. This was a, like, we're just dysfunctional. We don't know what we're doing. And they had a little bit of that going against USC the week before when I was there. By the way, three games, three field stormings in a row for me. If you want to win a big game at home, have me come cover it. I was at Cincinnati when they field stormed against Texas Tech. I was at the Coliseum when they field stormed there and everybody hurt Ross Bjork's feelings and he had to snipe at Lincoln Riley. And then last night, Notre Dame. Notre Dame and USC, both kind of half-hearted field storms. You know, it's not like they're just running wild like a stampede. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, I am going G6 for my firing here. Will Hall, who never should have been hired at Tulane, lost. Did you see this score? They're at home. Tulsa, 60, Tulane, 10. lost at home by 50 to Tulsa. It's impossible. It wasn't Georgia, it's Tulsa. They're four and five. That program, it's hard to sustain things when you lose coaches. I get it. But that program was operating on a high level from Willie Fritz to John Sumrall. And then you hire Will Hall, who was not good at Southern Mississippi, who was on your staff and you wanted something easy. And it's been a debacle. They have gone lose, win, lose, win, lose, win, lose, win, lose by 50. Four and five right now. Will Hall shouldn't get a second season, in my opinion. It's bad there. It's never good when the AD has to release a statement after a loss. Yes. Which, Tulane she, AD David Harris said the performance was quote unacceptable and far below the standard we have come to expect in recent years. That's after like a random week game against like not a rival, not anyone you care about. They just played so bad the AD had to be like, yeah, we're not very good. Good. I like David, but like that was the whole hot dog meme right there. Like we're all trying to find out. The guy who did this, you know, man, nobody, nobody was sitting out there saying, gosh, I want to hire Will Hall. I mean, are you kidding? So anyway, bad times suddenly at Tulane and David Harris might want to watch his back as well. But all right, we do have, it looks like some early reports. Everybody saw this coming. We talked about it. I believe a couple of weeks ago and Dave Doering got fired, but Philip Rivers. Looks like he might be the guy at NC State. Some reports they're finalizing. I watched interviews of his. You know, he's been a high school coach in Mobile. Team lost in the playoffs. And the comments basically, reading between the lines, like, yeah, I'm done. I'm done here. And where else would he be going? But NC State, where his son is going to be a four-star quarterback. This is. Way outside the box, other than the fact that Philip Rivers is a magic name at NC State. Matt, you know, unbelievable NFL quarterback. There's a great one there. Is this a good hire, Brian? Good is, you know, a relative term. You know, I think for NC State, it's a good hire because it's going to get the boosters on board. You know, they're going to open up their checkbooks. Like, I think the fan base itself is bought into this hire. Like, they've been sold on this. This has been teased out long enough to where they're like, yeah, so I'm all in. Like, this was, you know, he was part of the, you know. One of the great eras in NC State football, like nostalgia is a powerful drug. And, you know, I think that means a lot for a program like NC State. And like, you know, yes, there are other options out there. You can hire an experienced group of six coach and you can go that route. But like in terms of actually getting the fan base fired up and winning the press conference, sure, this is that hire. And I do think it's different from the, you know, plucking the high school coach like, you know, Trent Dilfer. Like I think this is a very different situation. Number one, Philip has. Coach successfully, he's been in the NFL, there is a reason like in terms of how he wants to put things together in terms of his program, how he wants to run things, how he operates as a coach and really as a former player. I think there's some things that are happening behind the scenes that you can say, all right, he's at least not going to go into this and look green in the face. He did interview with the Buffalo Bills. I think he has an approach to how he wants to do things that is going to be much different from the Trent Belfort types. And yes, he's still got to hire an experienced staff. And I think there has been some outreach behind the scenes in terms of bringing guys, not only that he knows, but do understand the college game. And it will come down to players. And I think Philip Ruger is a very charismatic guy. He has money talks at this point in terms of what's that final figure. But I think if you could maybe convince somebody, especially some quarterback, not just his son, to maybe take a little bit less. Maybe you don't have to pay him in terms of the salary. You can pay some of your staff a little bit more. You can pay some of the players a little bit more. You know, maybe potentially a court. I'm not going to be fully convinced until I see him winning an ACC title or something like that. But, you know, you can understand from NC State's standpoint, look, this is probably the best they can do in terms of landing a big name and maybe getting the fan base fired up. And, you know, worst case, if it's an experiment and it goes wrong, two or three years, you can pull the plug. It's not that big of a deal. I mean, it's hard to pull the plug on, like, the favorite son, right? That is the risk, is that you walk into a situation where he's so well-liked by the boosters. If it doesn't go well, who cares? Because he's Mr. Buddy Buddy, and he's great with the donor talks, and he goes to breakfast, and he drinks scotch, and he does all the things you want him to do, right? Like... That would be my risk, is that you end up kind of stuck in this path. I think I said it when we talked about this the first time. The fact that the only way for NC State to go get this money is to hire Phil Rivers means they're probably not that serious about winning in football. These donors don't really understand it. Uh, and... Look, this is where they're at in basketball, too. They react. They sort of forced their AD to hire Will Wade. It didn't work, and then they said, well, we need an NC State guy, so they hired Justin Gainey who's never been a head coach. It was, quite frankly, not in the mix for other comparable jobs. So, yeah, I don't know. We'll see. Look, I think the biggest thing is that NC State felt very stale under Doran. Like, they were a CW program, quite frankly. Like, they were a great team to slot into a CW game for the ACC. And I think the hope is there's certainly excitement locally around Phil, but also some excitement nationally that this is the program you want to watch in this conference. And that matters not just for vibes, but also financially now in the ACC with the way that their deal is structured. If your TV ratings are better, you are making more money. And I wonder if that factors in at all. Maybe, you know, I remain skeptical. This may work out. As you guys said, it could galvanize the money, and that is a huge part of the game these days. But we certainly see some teams that are spending a lot of money and not winning, and we see some other teams that aren't spending much at all and are. We are, so. It's, you know, this does, this feels like a comfort hire. Kevin, you're right. All of a sudden, NC State's all about the NC State guys. Okay, great. Well, everybody's going to like that at the press conference. What are they going to be thinking if you're three and four heading into November next year? We'll see. These things are... They are very ephemeral, and if they start going south and everybody's like, oh, I gave all the money to Phillip because I thought he'd do it, forget it. To your point, Kevin, if these guys are not, if you're not like, hey, I'm in for millions of dollars every single year, whoever the coach is, are you really ready to back a football program? And I think NC State's a little bit in that kind of tweener range where Do we care that much? And if things are going well, yes, I care. And if things aren't, eh, I can go watch basketball or do something else. So, you know, that's who NC State's been. They're trying to get themselves out of that, quote, unquote, rut. And I think it's, look, if you look around and you see what Indiana did and what Kentucky is close to doing right now and, Some other basketball-centric plays, you're like, yeah, we can do that too. But if you go get a high school coach because he's got a magic name, it's one of those things. It's like if you're going to go for every fourth down, you better convert them. Thank Otherwise, that's just stupid, and that's what this is going to be. This is fourth and seven on your own 38-yard line, and you're going for it. Better work. you Well, credit to all our friends in the triangle, man. They have a good between this NC State, Phillip Rivers thing. very You have Bill Belichick and Michael Malone at North Carolina. You have Duke as a perennial basketball top five program. much. And then, you know, Manny Diaz wins the ACC championship last year. And you have maybe a coaching search and where is he going to go this offseason? Like, man, there's the storylines that they write themselves there in the triangle. Plus Wake, you know. Well, I was going to say, also, you know who didn't really win the press conference? Wake Forest when they hired Jake Dickard, who's kicking everyone's ass. So, you know, sometimes that's the way to go. Anyhow, all right, great show today, guys. Thanks, everybody, for watching and listening. Leave us a review. Leave us a comment. We appreciate it. And we will talk to you all next Sunday. Thank you.