Lane Kiffin Loses Another Big Game, Utah Wins Crazy Thriller

Hello, welcome to the show. Others receiving votes. It's overreaction Sunday. Pat Forty joined, as always on Sundays, by my SI colleagues, Brian Fisher and Kevin Sweeney. Fellas, it was a late night, really late night. Thank you, Utah and Arizona, for keeping us up past 2 Eastern time, 1 Central for you guys. But still couldn't wait to get up and talk about everything that happened here on Sunday morning. We still have a game to be played, Mississippi-Oklahoma, over the strident objections of Oklahoma. We'll get to that. But this was a great weekend of knockout play, knockout football. And I don't know whether we'll have something like this again, ever, as we move towards a 24-team field, and you can lose games like you did Friday and Saturday. And everybody just kind of brushes it off and says, yeah, you're okay. You're all right. You're maybe a little further out on the bubble, but you're still in. That's not the case here in the 12-team world that we still occupy. Thank goodness for one more playoff run. By my count, there were probably at least eight knockout games over the weekend. Houston and Illinois on Friday, knocked out by Colorado and UCLA. Illinois might have already been out, but that ended it. And then Saturday, USC almost certainly knocked out by Indiana. LSU knocked out by Texas. Brian and I were at those two games. South Carolina absolutely knocked itself out by losing to Arkansas. Missouri was probably already out, definitely out now. So you've got all those teams that went in, do or die stakes, they died. The teams that won, they do. They move on. Not all of Arkansas is moving on to anything. But Colorado isn't moving on to anything. Some really high-stakes, dramatic football. A lot that went on, and again, we will reach a point next year where four lost teams are like, yeah, we're still in it, and they will get in it. Right now, guys, I'm looking at this, and let's go ahead and start with this. We'll get into all the games, because there's so much to talk about. But I think you can look at a 12-team field and confidently put 10 teams in. Maybe 11. We'll get to that here and then decide who gets the last spot or two. I think the teams that are confidently in, like almost universally in, Georgia, Utah, UCLA, Notre Dame, Miami, Texas, Indiana, Tennessee, Alabama, and the group of six spot, which right now looks stronger and stronger for Boise. That leaves two spots. Who gets them? I would say I. I'm going to say Wake Forest absolutely is in. I've had them in my bracket for a couple of weeks. We'll see whether the committee gets around to it after they absolutely curb stomped SMU. And if they're in, then we're down to one spot, and that was Texas Tech, BYU, Iowa, Oregon, Ohio State, Mississippi, depending what happens today. Fellas, what do you think on that? Brian, who do you see? Do you have Wake Forest in? And if so, who's your last team in? I absolutely have Wake Forest in, and especially after that showing against SMU where, I mean, you want to talk about rolling into Dallas and putting your pedal to the metal. That was maybe the most impressive victory that we've seen in the last month. In terms of venue, going in there, just pure domination from start to finish. I mean, give Jake Dickert a lot of credit. He signed that extension midweek, and you talk about backing it up. His team backed it up against SMU. The problem with Wake Forest is probably just the resume. If you're talking about eye tests, if you're talking about metrics, they pass it by a wide margin. But when it comes down to Selection Sunday, We're looking at this team, and obviously it depends on whether or not they win the ACC. It looks like they're certainly on track to at least get to Charlotte. But if you're looking at them possibly being there at maybe 11-2, maybe they're 12-1 at the end of the season. If you look at their resume, though, that's where kind of the Demon Deacons problem is, is the resume in terms of not having those top 25 wins. Like they barely beat Purdue, certainly lost to Miami at home by a couple of scores, even though that game was probably closer than that final margin indicated. But you talk about not having any top 25 victories. Like, you know, that's going to be the talking point surrounding Wake Forest. And probably it has what has kept them from really advancing in the committee's rankings. You know, whenever getting pulled up on those screens, you know, they're in grapevine. Like, it's the fact that they don't have any of those marquee victories. But you talk about passing the eye test. Like, that is Wake Forest to a T. They are dominating on all sides of the ball. You know, I think at one point they had scored 126 unanswered points in a row. Like, that is it. That is completely insane, number one, to think about in today's college football. But, like, it was pure domination for the Demon Deacons. And they did that even in that stretch run without Gio Lopez, their starting quarterback, who returned for this game against SMU. So I think Wake is absolutely in. You know, the question is kind of where do you go from there? I think you probably would consider BYU in terms of resume. I think the Cougars are certainly well – have one of the best wins in the country in terms of that win, I guess, at Notre Dame. But Texas Tech is just sitting out there. I think the Red Raiders, the way they are playing, they have found something with the quarterback solution. They're playing better defensively. And certainly this is a team, if they get to the Big 12 Championship Game, certainly at 11-1, this is going to be a team that, at least for now, is probably going to be considered into the field. Yeah, so my picks would be Wake and BYU today, right? I think that that could change in the coming weeks. Thanks. Look, I can't remember a team like Wake, right? Like, ignore, like, a couple of true, like, blue bloods that are just better than everybody else. A team like Wake that is on paper, like, one of the lower spends in the ACC, has no, like, grandiose history in college football, being this dominant in a power conference. Like, I truly cannot remember a stretch. I don't... When was the last, like, compelling minute of Wake Forest football? Like, seriously, like, there has not been a compelling minute of football since maybe the Miami game because they've been so dominant. I guess the Louisville game the next week was also a close game, if I recall. After that. Not since September. Yeah, they played six weeks of snoozes. Like, it's remarkable to watch. So they, to me, have to be in. I can't wait for, I mean, look, the thing you're staring down with Wake is the possibility of them losing to Miami in the ACC championship game. And if it is not close... People are using that as an indictment on their resume. And that being, like, if you're, like, gaming out, like, what is going to be the talking point on Selection Sunday, statistically, it's probably that, right? That is where we're headed. But right now, I don't see a world where you can not put Wake Forest in the playoff as long as, again, win their next two games, don't get boat raced by Miami. I think they're probably in. And then. And then, yeah, right now, I think I would lean BYU resume-wise over Texas Tech. The other team that was closest for me was Iowa. I think Iowa with two losses, you know, the way they've battled on the road, that to me is very, very impressive. Thank I think it's going to be difficult for Iowa to get to a place where their resume, because they don't really have an opportunity to improve their resume in the next two weeks. Um, I think it's going to be hard to look at them, and they're not going to make the Big Ten championship game without total carnage. I think it's going to be difficult for Iowa to actually get in. you. But to me, if we're doing the exercise right now, they would be a lot closer to the 12th spot than the three and four loss teams behind them. Yeah, I'm totally solid Wake in, and I would... Yeah. We'll see where I put them. But then, yes, I would take BYU as my last team in. Texas Tech is right there and Iowa's behind them. I agree. So that's the state of the bubble to me. BYU on the right side of the bubble, Texas Tech and Iowa on the wrong side. Oregon trying to make something happen. Mississippi trying to make something happen to get in there. And one of One of the interesting developments, I thought, over the weekend here, To me, the SEC was saying, hey, we may get five, we may get six. Right now, it's a pretty clear four. I think they've got four that are in. But after that, with the losses that were incurred by LSU, by South Carolina, by Kentucky, that's thinned out. We'll see again what happens with Mississippi Sunday afternoon. We're taping this Sunday morning at Oklahoma, if they can kind of maintain some viability there. With their concierge kickoff time on Sunday as opposed to playing on Saturday. But that and then, look, Big Ten could absolutely be staring down the barrel of two bids. You know. UCLA and Indiana that now appear even more on a collision course in Indianapolis for a Big Ten championship game. We'll see. The USC loss was damaging for the Big Ten's hopes of getting a third team in there. It's a little bit more diverse. I mean, we've got a better chance right now, I think, of three Big 12 teams than three Big 10 teams, which is probably not what Tony Petitti thought might happen this year. Tony will get his 24 teams next year. He can celebrate having six teams in there, several eight and four teams. It'll be awesome, just awesome. Anyway, so. A lot of playoff drama, a lot of flat-out drama in these actual games. Brian, your game, Texas-LSU. I tweeted at one point in the fourth quarter that this has become grab-ass football because it was just so sloppy and seemed like helter-skelter and just like, did anybody have any composure? I was longing for the days of Fernando Mendoza, cool under pressure in a big game. Arch and Sam Leavitt were not. I think they combined to throw six interceptions. But then at the end, man, oh, man, did the drama deliver. Tell us what you saw there, Brian. It was, you know, I got down to the field, you know, at the two-minute warning. And it was a control-alt-delete type of game for those of us writing. And I think we all understand what, you know, in terms of the drama, like, all right, the story just changed in those last two minutes. And it's an, yeah. This was the most expensive college football game ever, ever stage, you know, and that's kind of what I wrote about on, on si.com. Like you talk about the two, two of the most expensive rosters in the sport that they were playing in this game. You talk about coaches with over $70 million in terms of guaranteed compensation, million dollar coordinators all over the place. Like this was the sports in terms of the monetary spending put on a platter and there was drama and there was everything going on. And then. Man, did that, for 58 minutes, that game was absolutely nothing related to being the most expensive game I've ever played. Like, I mean, it was, you know, the arm punts that both Sam Levitt and Arch had in that, like, Hall of Famers, you know, in terms of just throwing it up there for DBs to kind of come down. Thank Jelani McDonald had three interceptions on it on his own, you very which would have been an amazing story, you know, to say, all right, I got three interceptions. But then Arch comes in and delivers the drama. much And this is the problem with Texas, right? You know, like for three and a half quarters, they can look like a team that. for your It's not a playoff team. And then, you know what, for a certain stretch, time, and it typically comes to the beginning of the game John. when they're operating that opening script, man, they look like that's a national title to consider. And then in the last couple of minutes, and we saw it against Ohio State, we saw it at times against Ole Miss, certainly early in the season, at times they look like, all right, this is a team that can get to Las Vegas. And you kind of say, all right, they are capable of that. That's where their ceiling is. But, man, they reached their floor. So often, and we saw that against LSU, and I didn't get a true sense of, you know, kind of the fan base's temperature in terms of LSU, but four losses in the SEC for Lane Kiffin in year one. That is not going to go down well here in Baton Rouge. I think as much as we want to kind of take away Texas punching their ticket to the playoff and really, truly confirming themselves, you know, given who they have left, if they end up 9-3, like, that's still a team that's going to make the playoff. Given Nobody has their resume and nobody has their collection of top 25 wins. I almost wonder, you know, if Arch had not, that you know, put together that drive. you Like, I think we would definitely be talking about LSU beforehand, and we're probably going to be talking about LSU really very for the next month in terms of Maybe the most disappointing team in the country, because you definitely saw some of those flashes of the program that Lane Kiffin had assembled much. and was certainly capable of winning this game right up until those final two minutes when Arch put it in the end zone. Yeah, I'll get to the LSU stuff in a second. And I think LSU becomes, again, just like an absolutely fascinating offseason team now that their season is essentially over. Over. Um. But it's funny, I grew up a Giants fan, so the quarterback that I spent the majority of my childhood watching was Eli Manning. And there's been so much about Arch, and he's the future, and he's this, and I was like, what if he's just Eli Manning? Right. He's maddening. He's maddeningly frustrating to watch at times. He makes mistakes. His team doesn't look nearly as good as it should, but like you give him the ball in the fourth quarter and a clutch situation. And boy, is that guy ready to play? Boy, is that guy fearless? Boy, does he have a memory of a goldfish and he can go out there and like, and play with, play with some feet, like, like fearlessness that is hard to match. It, again, it, it is a, the, the Arch Manning experience is frustrating. Again, for three quarters yesterday, I thought we were going to come on this podcast and be like, Arch ain't the guy, man. Like they cannot push the ball down the field at all. They cannot, like he can only dink and dunk in this game. Uh, the mistakes have been atrocious. And then, again, even the last drive wasn't, like, a thing of beauty. It was just a thing of – it was just a moxie drive. It was just like, we're tougher than you. We'll put it in spots where we have to. And then, obviously, a great call by Sark kind of outflanking LSU on the outside on the final play to win the game for him. And great execution by Arch to make the throw and put it on a spot because that's behind him that he's tackled inbounds and the game's over. So, yeah. Man, I mean, just an incredible closing drive by him. He remains... Arch remains one of the strangest, most compelling figures in college football that I can remember. It really is a unique experience to watch him. Again, Texas is a hard team to count out, even though eye test-wise, they don't pass it a lot of weeks. You just do not want to be with them in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter. And that's, I think, what we learned yesterday, in addition to everything we can talk about at LSU. Yeah, my two takeaways from that there, Kevin, is A, Moxie Drive, very good way to put it. B, Jesus Christ, you're young. Eli Manning was the quarterback of your childhood? He was, yes. It was funny, Pat, because, you know, so after the game when Arch comes in at the postgame press conference and he's asked you, you know, Archie had this amazing comeback in 68, and Eli, you know, scored, you know, two touchdowns, you know, in the fourth quarter in 2001. Do you remember watching any of those games? And he's like, no, I've never seen any of those games. I don't remember anything about those. And I'm just thinking, like, you know. 2001, like, that's not, like, you know, a long time ago. So, you know, yeah, there's definitely some memory of a goldfish, both in-game and outside of the game as well for a lot of people here. Yeah. Age of a goldfish. My God. I'm appalled. But points well taken. And that drive, the winning drive was very similar to the multiple touchdown drives against Ohio State, where, as you said, Kevin, it wasn't like they produced some big spectacular play. It was just like, we are going to get just enough. We're going to convert third and short. We're going to convert third and medium. We're going to get a couple replay review calls our way, which tends to be the Texas way. You know, who's counting? I'm Anyway, third and three, throw a five-yard pass. starting Third and three, Arch scrambles and barely gets to the first down marker. Third and five, Arch runs for seven. And all of a sudden, you're down there, goal to go. to And I really thought Sark had mismanaged the clock, speak and I can still argue. To a degree, he mismanaged the clock because they were down to their last two plays, really, now. and they were almost lucky to have time left after they scored the touchdown. If they hadn't scored there, they would have had time to run one more play, but they could have had 35 more seconds to get this thing done in the red zone if he had called a timeout earlier. Anyway, it worked out. The play call and the execution were things of beauty to win the game. The play, it was outstanding. You know, I'm sitting there thinking, how are they going to get this thing in? It's second and goal from the four. They motion Relique Brown to the right side and then reverse him back to the left. And yeah, LSU's trying to pass that off on who's going to cover him, and they're a tick slow, and he flies out into the flat, and Arch just drills that swing pass, which is not the easiest throw, but I mean, puts it on him in stride on the money where he can win the race to the corner and score the touchdown. As Brian said, it was absolute hash for a lot of that game, but at the end, it was pretty cool to watch, very dramatic. As you said, on the flip side, we have LSU. Oh, boy. Six and four, you paid $13 million for Lane Kiffin. You paid $45.50 for the roster. You're sitting there six and four. You've beaten nobody. Kevin, how bad is it? Awful. Like, it couldn't be worse. I mean, look, and you could see, like, the anguish on Lane's face throughout that game. Like, the way that, like, I have not seen, like, coach shots from a broadcast that were that, like, oh, my God. Like, what have I done? What have I gotten myself into? He looked absolutely miserable. Even when they were winning, he looked miserable. He really did. It was kind of wild to watch. But, look, this is a massive failure. Again. It'd be one thing if they had missed the playoff. It's another to be eliminated halfway through November and realistically have been already close to eliminated before that, right? Like, this team has never been close. Thank It's quarterback play. It's offense that Lane isn't so known for has been very mediocre. Yoker. I think that, when I mentioned, like, the offseason conversation, I think that's maybe the most fascinating element is, like, I think it's very obvious at this stage that Sam Leavitt is not the guy. you. And he has another year, and LSU needs to be in the market for a quarterback. And there aren't a lot of great ones out there, but I shudder to think what they will pay. Whatever the Camario Taylor number is, seven and a half, nine, LSU's going to be dangling more than that at somebody. I'm pretty sure of that at this point. We'll see who they can move. But to me, it was very obvious leaving this game. Like, yeah, they don't have their quarterback for next year. They need to be much better offensively. I thought you saw moments yesterday of the defense being the type of, like, elite dominant group to pair with the dynamic quarterback and pair with Lane's brilliant mind. Like, again, that was what was frustrating about yesterday. I thought there were moments where you're like, man. This is the LSU that they paid for. This is the LSU that Lane envisioned. And so the fact that not only could they not, you know, put up a better offensive performance and finish in the red zone, but it just allowed Texas to hang in and obviously get beat on the final play. Just absolutely gutting and a full-scale. Full-scale disaster in year one for Lane. We'll see if he can pick up the pieces. One year should not define his tenure. I mean, I mean, certainly he has a contract that should give him a little bit of flexibility. Although, who knows? Maybe LSU can go print more money and fire him too if they don't like him after two years. But, man, I'm shocked that they are in this position right now. I'm less shocked, you know, if you had said, you know, like first year Lane Kiffin, like completely massive roster overhaul, if you would have said, all right, they're going to be eight and four, like I probably would have accepted that, you know, just, just given the amount of turnover there was, uh, given a new staff coming in, like he kind of understood that, but you know, the fact that they went into the portal and they got one of the best left tackles out there, they got a proven quarterback, um, you know, who was experienced. You kind of thought, all right, maybe that raises the ceiling a little bit. This is a game in margins, you know, decided by those margins. And LSU has been awful in those margins. You know, go back to, you know, the Ole Miss game, right? Allow the Rebels to kind of blitz them early, come back into the game, but they don't end up capitalizing, you know, kind of on some of those late mistakes to end up winning that game. All right? Losing it late in Kentucky. You know, they had Alabama there for a moment. And then you kind of let them off the hook in Alabama, kind of runs away with it. And that is a lot of empty calories, you know, for this first year for Lane Kiffin. And it's not just. Empty calories in the sense of the schedule. It's empty calories that matters to that Tigers fan base, beating Alabama. They're not going to play next year. And I think that loss in Death Valley itself, yes, Lane was complaining about that not being a night game and all that. That means something to this fan base. Losing to Kentucky is never a good thing in the SEC. I don't care how good the Wildcats are. When you have that L next to the Kentucky game, that does not... Go over well to any fan base, you know, in the league, you know, certainly losing the old miss, you know, which is right across the river. Like that, that is another game, you know, that that matters to a lot of folks around here in Baton Rouge. So like that to me is, is kind of the thing. It's not just that Lane Kiffin has not met or even come close to meeting expectations. It's the fact that it's not meeting those expectations against the games that LSU fans want to win. You know, that, that, that was the, the, the problem with, you know, Brian Kelly, he won some games. He had actually a decent record. He never lost four SEC games, you know, in the same season. But Lane Kiffin in year one, not only losing four games in the SEC, losing the four games that matter. You know, and yes, they could probably salvage some of their season in terms of derailing Tennessee from not getting to the SEC championship games next week in Neyland. But, like, man, this is a lot of issues, I think, for LSU. And I'm going to be curious to see how Lane reacts, you know, in terms of roster building, in terms of, you know, just really processing. How this year has gone because it certainly has not gone to script. And I think that was the kind of final nail in the coffin was a two-minute drive against Texas. Yeah. The quarterback situation is interesting. I saw somebody saying they were unlucky at quarterback that you're in the four. Like, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Yeah. You wanted to get Brendan Sorsby. Would that have been lucky? Yeah. You tried to get DeMond Williams. He's had a brutal year at Washington. Come on now. Come on. Uh, they could have got, been much less lucky than they were. Think about the, the, the trade, the life trade Lane Kiffin made, right? He was at Mississippi. He's a hero. He's taking them to the playoff for the first time ever. Like you're starting to get into the territory where they're going to build a statue for you if you're there and you say, no, I've got, I could do better at LSU. I'm going to leave a playoff team. Because I can do better at LSU, and then you go and you do worse. You do worse. You're having a worse season than Mississippi is now. You missed out on all of that last year. You somehow got LSU to pay you a playoff bonus for a team you didn't coach. Like, the amount of stupid money LSU has spent here, $13 million for a guy who has never come close to winning a national championship, $3 million in playoff bonuses, all that money on the roster. And you're sitting there six and four. It's got to be miserable. And Kevin, I really, I thought looking at Lane on the sideline, he looked as miserable as I've ever seen him. Because generally speaking, he's not super demonstrative. He's not overly charismatic. But he kind of has a little bit of a cocky visage when he's got things going his way. And he just from the get-go looked like, oh, God, this is terrible. Oh, you know? And that's the life choice he's made. Well, you know, Pat, you know, it was funny. This game was Lane versus Sark, who obviously have known each other forever. Good friends work together at USC. And I was kind of thinking back, you know, to, to that 2006 title game, you know, between USC and Texas. And they were both on the, on the sidelines there for the Trojans. You think about that fourth and two, right. At the end of the game, you know, we're like that, that is college football, right. It's about those, those, the margins and those, those moments, you know, You know, in those margins where you can. End up being a winner, and you can etch yourself into history, or you could not. And I kind of think about that with Lane, especially going back to last year. If he had made the decision to stay at Ole Miss, he would have had a better quarterback. You think about all the talent that was making plays there for LSU. You know, Prince Will, Umami Olin, brushing the pasture. I mean, he collapsed the pocket a number of times there in the start. You talk about TJ Daugherty, he came down with an interception. Like, a lot of those guys, plus, you know, Lacey and all the guys that were still there at Ole Miss. Like, that could have been the team to beat this season. On top of, you know, if you take about... You know, all the coaching staff changeover and all the stuff that was happening around them. Maybe they win that game against Miami and they make the national title game. Like, those are the margins that come back. And maybe Lane Kiffin never gets back to being a national title contender like he was last year or like he could have been this year in Ole Miss. And I think that is the other thing that, like, you talk about the sliding doors moment. There was, you know... For forever, Lane is going to be involved in that, given what happened with Ole Miss. It almost accentuated everything that happened last year in terms of what happened this year for LSU. Maybe he never gets back to that kind of moment. Certainly, he thinks that he's going to, given the resources at LSU, given the recruiting, given the players that he has access to. But, man, you talk about maybe missing the moment. I think Lane kind of regrets missing the moment for sure, especially after taking that fourth loss this year against Texas. Yeah, and you guys said first year, you know, nobody's going to fire him now. But this is a win now sport. It is, you know, with roster turnover, with what Cignetti did at Indiana, with what Bob Chesney's doing at UCLA, the old give them time is becoming a little bit more of a hollow platitude than it used to be. Um, and so they, they did, they went and spent a ton of money to put that team together and it has not worked. So give him time. We'll, we'll give him next year. We'll see that place is crazy. They are crazy down there. And we'll see after 2027 where things stand. But like, if they, if they're willing to spend what they did to get rid of Brian Kelly, there's no, there's no such thing as an unlimited supply of money, but don't be shocked if, if this thing, if the wheels go off again next year. People are going to want Kiffin out, rational, reasonable, or not. That's the reality. Speaking of people who had a lot of money and haven't really delivered on it, the game I covered, Indiana-USC, once more underscores the difference between Kurt Cignetti's substance and Lincoln Riley's cell job, which continues to be a hollow cell. Five years in, they're not going to the playoff again. You know what could help them? Here's one for you. They're 7-3. Maybe you can beat UCLA to get 8-3. If you were playing Notre Dame at the end of the year, that could really help you. If you win that game. Oh, but you don't want to play Notre Dame. You sure don't want to play them at the end. Too scary. Got to dump that game. Oh, well. Three-loss team with a bad non-conference schedule. Goodbye, USC. Anyway, the game I covered in here again. I'm The difference, the coaching difference is unbelievable. starting Indiana, total quarterback crisis. And they got to bench Josh Hoover. He had been playing hurt, shoulder injury. to You know, how much is injury? speak How much is just shattered confidence? And like, so what's plan B? Plan B is a seventh-year guy who last started a game in September of 2024 for Old Dominion. now. Who hadn't taken a really meaningful snap till last week, till the emergency second half against Minnesota. This is his first start going up against USC and he throws for 305 yards and leads Indiana to victory. Comes really close to solidifying them as both the Big Ten Championship game and as a playoff team. Indiana 9-1, they find a way. They're leading Russia. Turbo Richard is out. Hey, we'll plug in Kobe Martin. He's played like... Eight snaps this year. Fine, we'll plug him in. He'll rush for 82 yards. Relijah Hardy, second-leading tackler, linchpin of that defense the last couple years. He's out. Ah, freshman. Savage, get in there. Make 13 tackles. Just unbelievable what they are able to do over and over and over. Let's get this over. Brian, look at that game. What stands out to you, especially I'd say from a USC standpoint and where things stand there? Well, you know, I wrote a column saying Lincoln's time is done, you know, after the Wisconsin game and that has held up, you know, pretty well. And really you could go back to the Oregon game. Like you could have written that after the Oregon game and, and been pretty spot on because I think the USC folks are. Frankly tired of like, it's the same old show, you know, like it's, it's penalties. It's just the, the, the, the margins you have to win in the sport USC has never kind of gotten up to where they've improved in that area. And I mean, this is the second game that they've, they've, uh, you know, gone, gone East in terms of coming off the buy. And, uh, you know, like Lincoln Riley is supposed to be a quarterback guru, Jaden my off at five interceptions, these last two games against Wisconsin and Indiana. Um, you talk about, you know, if you're going to play an Indiana team, That is so buttoned up under Kurt Cignetti in terms of every phase of the game. Like one, one of the best red zone defenses, right? You know, Brian Haynes is, is masterful down there. When, when you get compact, you would have thought that if there was any area where you're, you're saving some of your best plays, some of the plays that you know are going to be the difference in terms of winning and losing that you're going to practice a couple of extra times, you know, during the, during the, during the week, maybe even practicing, you know, throughout the season, like it was for those moments, you'll see it was awful in the red zone. Like it was just, I, you know, this, this again, was just the kind of the same old show. Like this is, you know, once again, proving that for, for all the money that's being spent there at USC Lincoln's not the guy. And I, that was another confirmation there against Indiana. And you know, I do give hats off to the Hoosier. This is a team that I kind of have equated to that 2014 Florida state team that they won the title of the year before they beat Auburn. And, man, like every game seemed like coming down to the fourth quarter. It was more high scoring, certainly, than this Indiana team. But, like, talk about the winning in those thin margins. And, yeah, they might end up making the playoff. They might end up winning the Big Ten this year. But, like, you talk about maybe they end up getting blown out, you know, come the playoff time. Like, this is still an impressive coaching job by Curt Sigonetti. He is a difference maker. And there was not one on the opposite sideline there for the Cardinal in gold. Yeah, I just don't know if anyone's going to be able to score enough on Indiana to blow them out and put them away. And if you can't blow them out and put them away. I'm afraid of Sig in the fourth quarter. That, to me, is the reality of the situation. I may not be afraid of the personnel. I may not be afraid of the quarterback, but I'm afraid of Sig Nettie. I'm afraid of the magic juju that they seem to have on their sideline. And, look, I mean, they just continue to find ways to win. It was a really impressive defensive performance. It continues to be one of the most impressive groups in the country. Again, I think Brian Haynes deserves all the praise he has gotten. You can criticize maybe some of the offenses that they've played against. Even Lincoln yesterday, and obviously Minnesota is not a wagon on the offensive side of the ball. Michigan is a disaster on that end. And, you know, Ohio State obviously had the injury late in that game with Sayan. It's like. It's like poke holes where you want, but at the end of the day, they don't let you score on them. That is pretty important in this game still, and that is why it is impossible to count out this Hoosier group as a national championship team, even if the eye test does not always match. They're just too dang disciplined and too dang tough. Put them away. Yeah, they find ways. And Brian Hayes, the defensive coordinator, is so good. So good in the red zone and so good making adjustments, I think, in games. Because there are times that you can get them early. Sometimes it's like a great pitcher where the first inning is the time when you're going to be able to touch them up a little bit and then they're going to lock in. And Indiana's defense is a little bit that way. And Riley had a good game plan. They came out with super tempo. I thought it were like looking at Oklahoma with Baker Mayfield or Kyler Murray out there in terms of go, go, go. And I think it really put a lot of pressure on Indiana early, but they, you know, you get down to the red zone, you stop them, get down to the red zone, stop them again. And then they start figuring things out and turn the game into a grind. And you're not just going to sprint down the field on us. And that's when things change. And again, getting pressure on the quarterback. They find ways to do that without overly exposing themselves on the back end. Um, and, and And Maeda, he's a very good quarterback. If you make him move his feet, if you knock him off of center, if you make him play off platform, that's where he struggles. And they did that. They got him to run. They got him to move. They knocked him down. And all of a sudden, the offense is much more susceptible to breaking down. So Indiana does it again. I mean, if we're really getting to an Indiana-UCLA Big Ten championship game. The final one. Yeah. Yeah. Think about, like, the amount of money invested by Oregon and Ohio State specifically, and you've got to sit there and watch those two. And if you're USC and you've got to watch UCLA play in that game. Can we put a James Madison logo at, like, the 20-yard line or something? Like a presenting sponsor situation? Exactly. Hey, how about those Dukes, by the way? Man, they announced the move to the American, and then they have completely, like, just the bottom has fallen off under Billy Napier the last couple of weeks. You know, they lost to UConn over the weekend. Like, it's a James Madison sport, but James Madison finally faltering, you know, in terms of these last couple of losses. Probably not going to even make the Sunbelt title game at this point. Yeah. I mean, look, they broke the mold. They stopped going and getting FCS and Division II stud coaches. They went and got a failed SEC coach. Hey, looked good for a few weeks. Doesn't look so good now. We will see. But, all right, let's talk about this again. Oklahoma and Mississippi are going to play in a couple of hours. They pushed back the AP Top 25 to Monday to account for that game. This has not gone over terribly well in Norman. I get it completely from the standpoint, like, I mean, the upheaval. For your fans and everything else, you build your weekend months in advance of hotels, travel, all that sort of thing to be there probably Friday, Saturday, and you're out Saturday night. Maybe you're Saturday, Sunday, and you're out Sunday morning, and now all of a sudden you got this coming along, and it's going to be a mess. And the fact of the matter is, it was a mess all over the place. The FAA ground stop led to... Huge chaos nationwide. Kudos to everybody except the Rebels for getting where they needed to be when they needed to be there. Rebels couldn't quite pull it off, whether they're too precious or whether they had legitimate excuses, whatever. Utah flew in day of to play Arizona. Won the game at 2 in the morning. Devin Dampier, our culture is no excuses. They got excuses at Mississippi. Arizona State flew in cross-country day of and beat Central Florida. No excuses there. The comments from Roger Denny, the athletic director at Oklahoma, were, whoa, they were hot. Oh, my goodness. So he issued a statement late Friday night, blasting the SEC for this. And lo and behold, Saturday morning, Feinbaum fires back. Paul Feinbaum, SEC Nation, I believe, on the set there Saturday morning. And Feinbaum says, I understand the frustration. None of us really know what happened to Ole Miss. But I believe the administration in Ole Miss did everything they could. What I don't think is correct is Roger Denny, the athletic director there, pathetically pandering to his fan base at midnight to try to cover up whatever. I don't know. Mr. Denny, the commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, made a decision for the entire conference and for the safety of everyone. I think safety is getting a little too much work here in this. But anyway, he's not concerned about what you're doing with your fan base and what Roger Denny has been doing all this year is pandering to his fan base. And Denny fired back later on Oklahoma radio before the non-game. Basically, he's asked about whether the relationship with the SEC is hurt. He said, I don't know. They'll probably send their carnival barker out there to accuse me of pandering again. And candidly, I don't care. All right. This is an old school SEC like pissing match. Oklahoma finally has a new rival in the SEC. Kevin, what were your thoughts on this? Is Ole Miss justified? Is Oklahoma justified? Where do we stand? Look, I think everybody's justified, right? I think if I'm Ole Miss, like, yeah, maybe there's a path that we could have gotten there and, like, landed the plane and immediately went to the stadium. And, like, if I was Ole Miss, I would not be fighting for that. Or we could take the eight-hour bus ride. If I'm Ole Miss, I would not be fighting for that. And if I'm Oklahoma, and I'm Roger Denny, by the way, especially if I'm Roger Denny, given I have a football coach who's in battle, then people aren't going to like the extension that I gave him. Even if I wasn't, like, the driver of it, I gave it to him. I've got a basketball coach that everybody wants me to fire, and I've got an empty basketball arena at that. Like, yeah, like... I got the easiest way to get popular in these parts. I'm going to complain. And, like, yeah, like, why wouldn't he? Like, yeah, Feinbaum's calling him, like, pandering to his fans. Yes, that is kind of his job. Like, that is... Yes, Roger Denny has a... He has a duty to the SEC to, like, not be a total jackass about it. But, like... His kind of job is to fire up the fans and make them know that he fought for everybody. He wanted to play the game on Saturday when his school would have the most fans, would have the best chance to win the game, and would make the most money because there'd be more people in the seats, more people buying beer, more people buying concessions, more people buying merch, the whole thing, right? Like, this is not good for Oklahoma. So why is Roger Denny supposed to be like, well, Ole Miss tried. Like, who cares if they tried? Who cares how hard they tried? His job is to represent the interests of Oklahoma. I don't understand why there's criticism of him doing this, even if he is pandering to his fan base. Yes, he is pandering to his fan base. Congratulations, Paul. You found the smoking gun on this one. My God. Ha, ha, ha, ha. Yeah, I think if you had pulled the other 15 SEC teams in terms of who's going to pull this stunt, I think every single one of them would have pointed towards Ole Miss. You know? And, you know, I don't know, Roger, all that well, but, like, you talk about putting your stamp on the program at this point, kind of getting out from longtime athletic director Joe Castiglione's shadow. Like, this is a way to do it, and boy, did he ever. And, you know, I think that the war of words between him and the SEC office, like, I don't think it's done after this weekend. I think there's going to be some bad blood, and I think there's going to be some continued conversations, if we will put it that way. You know, between everybody in Norman and the rest of the SEC office moving forward. And I can, I mean, I completely understand, you know, why they're thinking this way. Because, look, Ole Miss was the only team, the only team in the entire country that could not overcome these flight issues. And, you know, I think this was very much down to their decisions. You know, like if you talk about plane availability, you know, pilots, crews, all that. This was an Ole Miss decision, you know, based on everything I was told. I can understand the, the, if you're there in Norman and I'm, I'm going to be curious to see how, how the game goes. Certainly, you know, they're, they're at noon, but like, I, I don't think this is the end of the story, but by any stretch of the imagination and you know, a lot of it's going to come down to like, there's going to be a lot of eyes way more eyes on, on this game, you know, on Sunday than there ever would have been if it had been buried, especially if it had been buried at night last night, given the insane fireworks that we saw from prime time. You know, through the late night there in Tucson like this, this would have been buried by all the other action, you know, if Ole Miss had been able to get to Norman, whether the Rebels would have won or lost. But now I think there's going to be some extra pairs of eyeballs, you know, certainly across the sport, and probably not just for this week either. I think this is going to be a continued talking point surrounding Ole Miss and surrounding Oklahoma moving forward, and especially given, you know, a lot of continued conversations about Greg Sankey and the job he's doing there in the SEC. Yeah, this, it's fascinating, and this is one of these situations where, you know, beware of simple solution guy. You know, it's just like, well, we'll just get another plane. Okay, that's not so easy. They fly out of Tupelo, they charter with JetBlue, getting JetBlue and crew in and out of Tupelo, not that easy. So, there were complications there. Semi-simple solution here, I think you could have found buses. And eight-hour bus ride, not that fun, also not impossible, has been done, does get done in other sports, does get done at like the Mac level and a lot of other places. And this is where we get, you know, football teams are so precious. We've got to have everything perfect. And that includes our charter plane. If they had thought immediately like, okay, let's get some buses, we can do this. They could have gotten this done and gotten in late Friday night, but still been able to play the game Saturday. I get it. I understand. I'm not sitting here saying Ole Miss is just egregiously wrong here because it would have been difficult. And if you're Ole Miss, you're like, hey, can we please move this thing to Sunday? And the problem here also for Sankey is it looks like you are playing favorites for somebody who's in playoff contention. If the thing's flipped the other way. And Oklahoma's trying to get to Mississippi. You're like, hey, you get there or else. So Ole Miss is like, ah, this is a pretty important game for you. You can't really lose this game. We'll make sure you get your opportunity here. So that's the appearance there. The other thing, hey, Texas and Oklahoma absolutely ruled the roost in the Big 12. They got what they wanted. They got what they needed. Now it's a different reality. Oklahoma's just part of the rattle. Texas is more important than Oklahoma. I did find it hilarious that somebody was saying, one of the reasons Oklahoma left the Big 12 is because the Big 12 office kept giving them 11 a.m. kickoffs. No, that's not why they left. I see the pile of cash in your accounts right now at Oklahoma Athletics. That's why. So let's leave that alone. Let's not try to say that Oklahoma was hardship in any way by the Big 12 office. Anyway, yes, I think, Brian, to your point, this will linger. There will be continued discussion of this. I would also say, guess what, Ole Miss? You better win. Better win this game. You got it when you wanted it. Go win the game. Don't talk to us if you don't. If there will be a fourth loss, you'd be out anyway. All right, guys, let's – Let's do our weekly staples. Let's fire somebody and let's hand out a Heisman. Let's do the Heisman first. Brian or Kevin, whoever wants to go first. Got a Heisman. I mean, we didn't really get to the chaos of the late night game, the Utah versus Arizona game. And my Heisman goes to Devin Dampier. I think we talked about him last week or the week before. And I said, like, we. We really need to take this guy seriously in the conversation. I'm to the point where if I had to vote, that would be my choice. I mean, first of all, that was a Heisman moment of all Heisman moments, to hit that bomb pass, to go win the game on the road in a raucous environment at a place that you could sense the students are getting ready to storm the field, and then you just stick a dagger in their back. I mean, that was pretty cool, and that was an impressive performance. I mean, that offense is so much fun to watch generally, just the way that they use them. Lined him up in the backfield as a running back for a touchdown yesterday. But, I mean, this dude is just special to watch. 100 yards rushing, two touchdowns, two touchdown passing, 200 yards passing. To me, in a world where Jeremiah Smith doesn't have a quarterback and doesn't win, doesn't make the playoff, I don't know how we don't give this thing to Devin Dampier. That would be very cool. I agree. I mean, that might have been the game of the year, you know, in terms of college football, just the drama, the back and forth nature and, you know, hopefully. Hopefully on Tuesday, the committee will actually reward Arizona and not drop them from the rankings because they proved, even though they took that extra loss, that they are a top 25 team. And that's going to matter, you know, in terms of the Big 12, certainly potentially getting multiple teams in the playoffs, to give them the resumes that they kind of support, you know, in terms of BYU and some of the others. So, you know, hopefully the committee will reward that. I'm going to go with Aiden Flora, though, in terms of outside of Devin Dampier, that category. I'm going to go with Aiden Flora. The Cyclones, man, taking it to Cincinnati on Saturday. I know this kind of got lost in the shuffle amongst those early games, but Aiden Flora threw a pass, you know, 37 yards, rushed for 216. Another incredible game, scored three touchdowns on the ground, caught four passes. I mean, he just dominated Cincinnati. And I tell you what, I mentioned this on social media, but, like, Jimmy Rogers, the Cyclones were supposed to be one of the worst Power Four teams. They're sitting there at 5-5 right now. They play hard. They are a tough out for anybody in the Big 12. You talk with coaches around the league, they don't want to play Iowa State right now. They have found something, maybe not the greatest of rosters, certainly not in terms of the roster spin, anywhere near that. But they are a tough, tough team. And you've got to bring it. If you see Iowa State on your schedule, have a shot to make a bowl game, which I don't think anybody expected. So kudos to Iowa State and kudos to A&4 for, again, being one of those central characters there in the Big 12 base. Okay, I have to explain. My strategy was to get to this game now, so the Utah-Arizona game. We didn't talk about it earlier because that's my Heisman. I'm giving it to Daniel Bray, the backup Utah running back. Who, you know, Wayshawn Parker's hurt. He gets one carry. He's trying to go. He's been, I think, bruised heel. Can't go. Daniel Bray get in there. All right, 197 he ran for. Unbelievable performance by him. And, yeah, this, I mean, this was just an outstanding, really fun game. Really fun. And you could, this is one where you could tell the stakes were huge for the home team. There was just desperate energy for that fan base and in that stadium. So kudos to Arizona for putting it on and rising up and giving that great atmosphere and a great game. And I do feel bad. Look, they're three losses. BYU on the road by 11. That game wasn't super competitive. Texas Tech on the road, really good game. They lost by eight. And then Utah by one. The problem is, ain't no way we're getting four Big 12 teams in this playoff. We'll be lucky to get three, and they're the odd team out. So I do, yeah, they deserve to be ranked in the top 25. They are a good three-loss team, without question. Couldn't quite get it done in those big games, and Utah gets things done. Again, our culture is no excuses, and that means we've got to throw in our backup running back and get 197 from him. We can and we will. All right, who wants to fire somebody? I'll go. And I'm going to go with the entire Colorado State coaching staff. Oh, God. Oh, God. I feel like they've been some main character energy, too, in terms of this kind of segment. But 73-7 to Washington State. The Cougars scored nine touchdowns the entire month of October. They scored 10 against the Rams. And going to end up missing on a bowl game. Yeah, I've known Jim for a while and I know he's at his wits end given the last couple of weeks where he's threatening a lot of folks there in the program, already fired the defensive coordinator mid game. But, like, yeah. Oh, this, this, this is rough. And I think that was, that was, uh, it definitely put a point on it to, to lose like that, uh, to Washington state on Saturday, man, there, there, there's going to be some, uh, definitely some, some moments of, um, you know, continued clarity, uh, there that, uh, are going to have to happen there in Fort Collins because it, uh, a rough season, uh, that was, that was, that was the low point right there in terms of getting blown out to Washington state. Real quick, these are some of the point totals allowed by Colorado State this year. This is after firing the, or during firing the D.C. 59 to UTSA, 56 to Oregon State, 66 to Texas State, 49 to San Diego State, 64 to Boise, and now 73 to Washington State. Like, do you have 11 guys who can tackle it all? Please put them out there. Washington State was 127th in SP plus offense coming into the day. Okay. Um, And also Jim Mora after the game said, quote, the people here don't know how to win. The place I came from, they've won 18 national championships in basketball. So the whole school knew how to win. We have to teach people around here how to win. First of all, beyond why would you ever say that? Oh, Colorado State's been, like, in the NCAA tournament every year in basketball for, like, the last five years. They're a terrific program. And UConn football was the ultimate loser when you got there. my So it's not as though, like, you inherited a band of winners. Like, what are you talking about here? That was insane. God. That is unbelievable. He contributed zero to those national championships. Zero? Good God. That is unbelievable. I mean, he sounds like he's trying to get fired, which, look, I mean, him and Kyle Whittingham can have a race to the death to see who can get fired first after their year flip. My firing is a more serious one. I think that was it for Luke Fickle, right? Oh, just brutal. All you had to do, you had done all the hard stuff. All you had to do was take care of business, and you lost at home to Maryland. Um, that, that, that, that, that is not good. You lost at home to Maryland, by the way, without Malik Washington, you lost a Cardell Williams who, I mean, okay, great. 24 to 21, the final, um, Jason Eck is sitting in Albuquerque and now doesn't have a playoff race to, to, to be in like, ah, I, I, I did not think it was going to get fired, but now I don't know how you don't like, this is the easiest move of all time. Let's just, let's bring coach Eck up and. Get him to start recruiting offensive linemen already. Oh, you're right. Sorry. College Park. Yes. Thank you. Yeah, that was a brutal loss. I could fire multiple people. I'm going to fire two, though, in the state of Texas at the same time. Rhett Lashley and Willie Fritz. Get out. Get out. I mean, Rhett Lashley, you've got a big game. Wake Forest is coming into Dallas. And you've got a lot to play for, and you get boat raced. Again, I'm all on the Wake Forest bandwagon. They're doing that to a lot of people. But this was pitiful. It was 42 to nothing at halftime. 42 to nothing at halftime, and this is a great development where Wake Forest has become bloodthirsty. Quote from Jake Dickard at halftime to Dave Gorin, the sideline guy for the Wake Forest Network. We're not finished with them yet. We came for 60 minutes, and they've got nowhere to hide. Ooh, ooh, stick that knife in, man. I think it ended up 49-7, but that was just terrible performance by SMU. But then Willie Fritz and Houston, again, a team with something to play for. You're ranked 14th. You are playing a Colorado team that cannot get out of its own way offensively. You give up 42 points, you give up 466 yards, and the Buffs just ran it on them. Just ran it all night, 249 yards rushing. This was something we haven't seen from Colorado since Shador Sanders was playing there in terms of production, and it came out of nowhere, and Houston just folded. Again, playoff hopes gone right then and there. So two firings for the price of one in the state of Texas for me. All right, everybody, thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. That's the show for this week. We will be back to overreact more next week. I'll be back later in the week with Gene Wojciechowski. Have a good one. We'll talk to you all later.