Just tot now for our Big twelve breakdown, I'll look around it to be
a Big twelve conference where we break down the latest happenings in this league,
and we begin each and every week with our hot days and Tom, we're
gonna plited discuss even with no Big twelve games going on this upcoming week,
but now that we have a number of ways to go with it. Whether
you want to talk coaching, James Wise, branch Reportalum, you know the
Bowld situations, whatever it may be, Tom, the floor is yours.
I'll begin with you. Where are you gonna go to hot take? Wise
to Big twelveth game. I'm gonna go to hot take where I know at
the best. And if you listen to all seasons, you'd probably say,
well, Tom's probably gonna still water and you're pretty spun on. We know
that Spencer Sanders is not returning to this Oklahoma State Cowboys team. We know
that Tracey Ford probably I don't know, maybe the best defensive player on the
team. Um, you know you could you could throw around some different options
on off on the defensive side of the ball. H He has also entered
the transfer portal. You can look to some sort of what's happening in still
Water scandal when you talk about the younger Pressley brother. Braylon Pressley also entered
the transferring portal. You can you know there's there's several Oshue players entering the
transfer portal, um, but none other brought the attention to national media,
like Spencer Sanders saying, Hey, I'm dipping out Jones hot take hot take
a lot of people and still or I think I wanted Kay McNamara he ends
up going to Iowa. UM, you know you can. You can do
dj from Clemson. You could you could want that, or you could say
something like that. Um for dj Uno La La Laya or however you pronounced
his last name, I call him dj You um come to Stillwater hot take
care and it might not be too much of a hot take. I'm not
going big this week. I'm saying Hutskin Hudson card coming to Payne County,
coming to Stillwater, Oklahoma, Hudson card Texas Longhorns played great when Quinn yours
was you know, out and out and done for um, you know,
did what he needed to do. I like Hutskin Hudson card. In the
next two weeks to say he's come to Stillwater, Oklahoma. Well, you
you must have been watching college football now by chat sports, where I listened
Hudson Cards number one destination as Oploma State before Spencer Sanders entered the portal.
So with that, yeah, I think Hudson Card's gonna still Water when it
salt said and done. But my hot take, I'll stick with the Cowboys
as well, Tom, And I'll say this. They lost so much and
we've heard a lot over the last couple of days of how much Mike Gunde
lost that locker room and lost the respect of those in the locker room,
and that you know, Casey Dunn wasn't doing a good job, that Derek
Mason wasn't doing a good job. I think next year is maker break for
Mike Gundee. You cannot have this happen again. You can't have another seven
win season and half your roster walk out the door. That's not acceptable,
not acceptable. Mike Gundee has to go back into the portal and go get
more talent. And they got to win more football games next year. Oklahoma
States got great facilities, they got a bright future in the Big Twelve Conference
as one of the flagship teams of the entire league now going forward. Um,
but they can't say it will be content. This is a team that
needs to be contented for conference titles every year. Seven wins should not be
acceptable. Um, you know they they I think it's this puts the pressure
on man. I wish Taboon Pickings was still around for a lot of reasons.
But if t Boon was around, they have already hung Casey done.
Outside of the stadium. Te Boon would have loved the n I L era
and he would not have settled for what's going on in Stillwater right now.
Yeah, Casey Dunn's got to be done. And you know, to be
honest, that I think what hurts Oshu the most. I think that's why
Braylon Pressley's gone. I think that's you know, well, Dominic Richardson,
one of the running backs, is also hitting the trans reportal. But a
lot of people are like, oh, well he can hit the trans reportal
and that's you know, it's it's not it's it's not that the playing time
and YadA yada's being thrown around. Well, in terms of the running backs,
Dominic Richardson's gone. He was a great running back but Ali Gordon.
We saw what all the good Gordon could do, and Dominic Richardson was going
to take a back seat. Um, the defense worries me more. And
also it came out that and I didn't notice either. M Derek Mason was
only on a one year contract, so it'll be interesting to see what he
wants to do. His name got thrown around for Arizona State and a couple
other jobs. I think even Stanford he got thrown around and that head coaching
job. But we'll see what they do to extend him. But Jones,
you know what, even even um the president of the university, doctor Shrum,
her husband even got into a little Twitter trouble. M in the Mason
Cobb thing. You know, you know if if you watched Big twelve and
you know who Mason Cobb is lyne back for Oklahoma State. He entered the
trans reportal he was like one of the first alb when it was the fall.
But there was a little background info on on Texas A and m essentially
saying hey, let's throw some money at you and literally paid him to leave
OSU. So it hasn't been formally announced, but everybody in the Big twelve
expects Mason Cobb to go to A and m Um. So you know,
not only do you lose players because hey, you're not throwing around money or
Mike Gundy has lost the locker room. Um, you're also losing players to
other former Big twelve schools that are willing to throw money. So it's it's
a weird time. Jones and n c W a Um with the nil going
on to see how schools build up their NL NIL program. Um, they're
they're doing right now at ls who pokes with a purpose, trying to get
fans to throw in five dollars a month to to you know, maybe even
booster you know, it's essentially boosters. It's like the rather give money though
tom uh de kay us nil collective than I would do their uh you know,
to the endowment, going back to the students whatever. I mean,
Yeah, I wouldn't pay anything. I'd pay five dollars a month to fire
case he done. See, if I'm gonna throw money back in the school,
I'm buying players. I'm not wasting my time giving money to endowment.
Yeah that's fair too, But yeah, I mean, Oklahoma State's in big
turmoil right now. Things are in trouble with Mike Gunday that Oklahoma state program
for sure on that front. Also on on the portal, something to look
at there staying within the same state in Oklahoma, Owe You and Brent Vinibles,
they've done a really good job. They've already had some nice pickups in
the portal. They haven't lost a whole lot, They've made some positive gains.
We know that they got a great recruiting class coming in and similar to
what I sit with OSU, but different circumstances for Owe You here. We
know that Brent Vinibles in his year in Norman so far, Tom, He's
proven the guy can recruit. He's a good salesman. I mean he brings
in He's brought in some good high school talent now some good kids in the
transfer portal. He's a good salesman. But is he a good head coach?
I don't know in this what the what this has done with the system
where it's at now, you have eighty five scholarships that you can use in
any way you want any year right now, where you can bring in as
many transfer portal and as many high school players as you want, as long
as you're you Catho at eighty five. Brent's done a good job finding talent,
no question, but pressures on a Norman. Now, Brent vnibles M.
I think next year, realistically anything less than ten wins. So that
Oklahoma team is a failure. And that's an indictment directly of Brent Vnibals.
Now, I mean, I can't say you're lying. Yeah, I can't.
I mean, I can't say you're wrong. I mean, you know,
to be fair Jones, A lot of though you fans expected that this
year, which was you know that that should have never been expected, but
you don't terrible timing for preventables of of his hiring and trying to recruit.
There was no way he could have put together a good roster last year.
But excuse I mean, this year was for a lot of OU fans.
They haven't seen this about a year since the nineties. A lot of OU
fans have never seen this because edn't been born. But you know, a
lot of this year was copium, but I like, I love to call
it copium. You know, he dealt with Caleb Williams and Lincoln Riley leaving
and the roster being gutted, and then you had just copium of Dylan Gabriel
being the second coming of fucking Sam Bradford, which was never gonna happen.
But you call it copium for a reason, you know. But you're absolutely
right now yere on his belt. Bret Ventibles has to get together. He's
got two recruits, he's brought in some people. Anything less than ten wins
is the disappointment. I think anything less than eight or really, you gotta
win nine. You gotta win nine if you lose. If you win eight
or less, then is the grounds for an firing. I don't know.
It depends really who's available. Yeah, I see we're going with that.
Moving on for the transfer portal one coaching change in the Big twelve, and
this still sounds even weird to say. In the Big Twelve, Cincinnati hires
Scott Saderfield from Louisville to be their new head coach for placing Luke Fickle.
We talked to him last week's show, Tom that it was a huge loss
for Cincinnati and for the new Big twelve to lose Luke Fickle, who is
probably one of the top ten fifteen coaches in America to Wisconsin, that Cincinnati
would let him go like that, but to replace him with Scott Saderfield.
Saderfield hasn't done shit at Louisville. He hasn't done anything there. I mean
has he been bad. I mean he hasn't necessarily been bad, but he
hasn't been good either. He's just been mediocre, been average. Sure he
knows how to recruit the area, and he's been in the Power five at
Louisville. I get all that, But there was a lot of good candidates,
and there was a lot of people interested in that Cincinnati job, and
I thought Saderfield was closer to getting fired than getting another Power five job Cincinnati.
You just went to the playoff a year ago. You had a golden
opportunity to build off of the success that was there from Luke Fickle, and
personally, I think they blew it. I'd give this this hiring at f
toom. Who would you have gotten um right there within their own staff.
I may have just promoted Mike Trussell, their DC, the nephew of Jim
Trussell. Um. Yeah, you know, that'd been not bad. That'd
probably been better. I think even a trade. I think even bringing in
Jim Leonard from Wisconsin would have been better. You know, I wouldn't argue
with that either. Um, even delon I think if they would offer I
don't know. I don't know if don would have if they would have offered
more money. Okay, here's a question. Also, I also heard rumors
for Colorado to the Big twelve today. Yeah, Um, if Cincinnati offered
more money to d O than Colorado, you think he's taken Colorado over Cincinnati.
No, Cincinnati's an easier place to win than Colorado. I don't know.
Do you want record recreational weed or do you want Skyline Chili's. Yeah,
you probably don't want both either. That might not mix. Well,
Yeah, I don't know if I I don't know if i'd eat high Skyline
chili. Yeah, that sounds like a vomit inducing Yeah that's not bad on
the stomach. Yeah, especially like an edible before that. Yeah, that
would have been good. Yeah. Man, I couldn't even imagine. Yeah,
goodness. But I nott Cincinnati blew this. I hated that higher.
Well maybe it's Sanderfield proves me wrong. We'll see. But I thought it
was a mistake and they're gonna regret it, and I think that's gonna set
that program back. But to this, um that's Cincinnati program. Tom you
know, everybody thought they missed it when they hired Tommy Tubberville. Tommy Tuberville
still won average like seven wins a year. I mean they might have,
you know, just Scoots the pooch hiring Centerville here, but I mean the
way that program's going and the way things to stabilize, I mean, they
could still be even a seven win team potentially with the wrong guy in charge.
Like part of what Cincinnati has done a good job of is the resources
around that program have made it good even when they haven't made the right higher
I mean, yeah, I mean going to the Big Twelve, I think
they'll get players that they normally wouldn't have, you know, And I'm very
interested to see, you know, I think the first year will tell us
a lot, you know, and I think they'll benefit obviously from coming to
the Big twelve. And I'm very excited to see the Cincinnati team, see
what they can do and see what type of kind of competitiveness that they're gonna
bring to the Big twelve like they have. You know, It's this is
not like Tulsa coming to the Big twelve. Like since you know, I'm
not saying that. I'm not saying that lightly in terms of like, Okay,
you guys didn't already know that, Um, you know, like Cincinnati
can be a good team. I mean, look at I see them,
kind of like I see TCU right coming into the Big Twelve. You know,
had some success. Obviously, TCU before they came into the Big twelve,
you know, had you're Andy Dalton in crew and had that recent success
and then came into the Big twelve and then did struggle some seasons. But
I mean, damn it, look at TCU. They're in the fucking playoff
m you know, as as the Power five team and went essentially undefeated until
they met a very strong, resilient Case State team that took him over time
to get it done in the Big Twelve championship. So I'm not saying in
five years that I couldn't see Cincinnati had that same success or you know,
if it's not five years, give it ten years. Or if it's not
even ten'll give it, give it. You know, maybe we see
that in four you know, Um, that's not out of the question.
It's it's the wrong higher. Um, if they keep fickle, I think
they have a shot to make the Big Teltaba game in their very first year.
Not now, I think that that's that's a pipe dream at this point.
Do you blame Luke Fickle? Do I blame Luke Fickle for leaving UM?
Why would you want to go to the Big ten and be the number
three program behind Ohio State in Michigan when you can dominate with I think Cincinnati,
it could be the best, to be right up there among the best
of the best of the Big twelve every year, that's true. How much
money? How much money? Though? What's the money differential? He got
a pretty good good cut of the pie at Wisconsin. I don't know if
since he so, he's chasing the bag. I think that's what it is.
That's what I think. So he's in Colorado. Let's bring that up
real quick, and then we'll talk about TCU in the playoff and all this
um with Colorado. Our buddy friend of the show, Tim Brando, has
been going around the last couple of days and he suggesting that Dion is gonna
bring Colorado back home to the Big twelve. We've heard rumblings for the last
couple months that Arizona wants to go to the Big Twelve. But they want
they need somebody to go with them to make said move. Um best.
One of the things I wanted to d On it at Cincinnati. I would
have loved to see Dan on the league. If Dion and Colorado come to
the Big twelve primetime in the Big Twelve, that Colorado program, I think
Deon's gonna start winning pretty fast at Colorado too. Yeah, that would be
That'd be electric. So I mean, even if Dion wasn't that Colorado,
I'd want Colorado in the league. You had Deonto it, watch out,
he would be the face of the league pretty fast. I think. Yeah,
I'm scared of that as just as a Big twelve. Oh as you
fan a little scared of that just be you know, being in Boulder.
That's a big party school, not to mention the recreational marijuana, which should
be on the ballot and is going to be on the ballot for the people's
vote in Oklahoma. So maybe we compete with them, but damn it,
man, I don't know if you're a party in Boulder, but it's a
hell of a lot of fun. And if you could play for a coach
like Dion, Freaking's Sanders, then why not. Uh, you know,
he's he's he's the type of coach that you know. I heard a lot
of stuff happening in Jackson State, Um, a lot of scandal stuff that
I think is gonna come out soon. Um, but damn if if if
you know Colorado, you've you've heard the reports of, uh, well we
don't have the money yet, but we're gonna have the money. Um,
well worth it. Um. You know for a team that shit the bed
so hard this season has been you know, back to the cupcake team,
they have shades of they have shades of uh Baylor prer Briles and then the
turnaround as much as our brows as a piece of shit. But um,
same turnaround I could see happening, um without the scandal. Um, I
mean Colorado could be. Colorado could go from worse to first real quick.
And and you know we also heard Bret your Marks say this past week that
they want to tap into the Pacific time zone Colorado Mountain time Zone school.
We take them anyway, but the Big twelve is not done yet. We
heard your Marks say they're open for business. And you got a couple of
Eastern time zone schools. Now you got three in Cincinnati, West Virginia and
UCF. You get all your Central time zone schools, you got one Mountain
time zone school and BYU. But if you can get a couple more mountain
and get into the Pacific. And I know Gonzaga has been heavily rumored and
there's been discussions as of lakes, the floodgates are about to open. I
know that we've been talking about this for months on end, but something's got
to break eventually. I don't know if it's Colorado. I don't know if
it's Gonzaga. I don't know if it's one of the four corner schools,
whatever it may be. There's too much momentum, too much positive things head
in this league's direction, the new TV deal and all this, that the
fruits of their labor is not going to pay off with something here sooner rather
than later at your time. I don't know what it is. I don't
know if it's Colorado, Gonzaga or whatever it may be, but something's gonna
happen. Yeah, you know, if Colorado drops and comes, or you
know, maybe they've packaged the deal with Arizona. I mean, a deck
could very easily be the first Domino, the first real Domino to fall.
Even getting Gonzaga at this point, I think it would be a big wind.
Yeah. Can you imagine the basketball? I mean, the basketball is
already on the real ride now. I mean, what you know, is
it pains me to say gotlie? It hurts me. Last week, every
Big twelve team in college basketball besides freaking Oklahoma State obviously got votes for the
Top twenty five. It's the best. I mean at this point, anybody
that tells you that the Big Twelve is not the best basketball league is lying
to you, is biased, is lying to you. It's it's unbelievably competitive.
It is absolutely the fucking English Premier League of college basketball, and no
one's even getting close. Um. You know, the Big Twelve stands to
put, you know, as many as they can put in every single year
into the Big Dance, and in this year you could easily put I'm calling
eight. Yeah. Uh. I don't know if there's enough wins to go
around for everybody to get eights. But there what last year? Last year
was there seven or seven? I mean there's there's quality teams. I just
don't know if there's the wins there. But I see where you're going at
for sure, real quick, and we have more time over the next couple
of weeks to break down the College Football Playoff and TCU in depth and all
that we'll get. We'll do that more of the next couple of weeks,
but just kind of, you know, looking at this point here, TCU
is in. They're the three seed, and we're gonna talk more about this
with Riley Gates too here just a moment, but Tom, I think this
all worked out pretty good. TCU loses a close game in overtime and they
weren't punished for it. Case Day gets their first Big twelve title in ten
years. They've finished off the year strong. We get a great game.
The ratings were incredible. Ten million people watched on Saturday afternoon to see that
game, and you know, TCU is still a okay. It also defeats
the NA narrative too, that if you're not Oklahoma or Texas you have to
go undefeated and make the FWELF. Well, they lost one game, they
still made it in with them. The best case scenario would have been if
TCU would have you know, won and just had no controversy whatsoever, you
know, But but they didn't so the next best thing I think worked out
pretty dang well. TCU gets in even with one loss. They lose a
close game. Now they get to regroup, they get to see what they
did wrong, go fix those flaws. When you lose, your weaknesses are
exposed. You have a chance to get better off. That This could actually
work out pretty nicely for TCU here. I mean yeah, And you know,
TCU I think is very competitive, and they have a high flying offense.
You know, they get you know what, three Hill, they get
a month to figure it out, and they know their opponent, Um,
you know, Sunny Dikes has has been you know, incredible for them.
So uh, you know, TCU should be rewarded for that. And they
were and and you know, I think the rest of the what we call
the Hateful eight are rooting for the hitting note toad baby. And I'll say
this though, Um, TCU did deserve to lose Saturday. When you don't
go forward at the end of the game in the fourth quarter, when you
choose to play for overtime, I mean that that right there, that's that's
some pushy shit. And then in overtime when they didn't call a quarterback sneak
on either one of those goal line plays. That was just stupid. Um.
I hated that last year at the end of that game. But hopefully
they learned from it and they get better. I think that people could be
overlooking this TCU team against Michigan. I can tell you this. I'm not
picking TCU to win, but I think TCU is going to be more competitive
than people realize here for sure. I mean they're not. You know,
I mean KSE State that you know, the way they beat KSE State in
the regular season, the way they beat them. They were down by what
like seventeen, Yeah, came back to win by ten. Yeah. I
mean in heard the quarterback in YadA, YadA, YadA. This this was
already written in the in the stones, you know, for KSE State to
to to pull this off. H this is written in the sky. And
and so you know, case State gets what they want, they you know,
you know KSE State Gali what they lost to TCU. They lost to
two Lane, which actually didn't end up looking terrible. Um, considering all
things, the way the two Lane had their season, and then they lose
two to Texas. Oh yeah, I mean overall, you know, if
a couple of things go k State's way. We're talking about the Purple Cats
in the playoff right so well, and that's the other thing too, Like
TCU in KSE State, obviously k State's just as good as TCU. They
won, you know, they won the Big Twelve title. This new playoff,
that TCU team, that KSE State team that got off to a rough
start. Now they come in with momentum and they're the Big Twelve champs and
they get a seat at the table and let's see them figure it out.
That new playoff comes in where it helps out teams, uh like KSE State
who may have started out slow, but now they got it figured out.
Now they reforced be wriking with I mean, if if you threw KSE State
in the fourteen playoff this year, I think they would get have just as
good a chance against Michigan as TCU does. And you know, freaking watch
out, Nick Saban, like you know if if k State upset, well,
I don't you know that's that's another interesting part is case State beating Bama.
Is that how big of an upset is that? UM Bama's got a
lot of opt outs already. UM and Deuce Vaughan has already said he's playing
for KSE State. So in a regular season game, yeah, that would
be an upset, But I don't think with the circumstance. You know,
Bowl games are not what they use. I think in terms of a program
win, that's pretty still freaking huge. It'd be one of the biggest wins
in KSE State history. And they can pull it off. And I'm not
gonna be shocked as they do. No, I'm not either. I'm not
gonna I can't. I can't wait to see the line. I cannot wait
to see the line. Well, the line, I can tell you what
it is right now. Well, I'm saying, like maybe a week before.
I'm sure it's Bama by ten right now. The line right now for
that game, Bama is a three and a half point favor Oh wow,
you know, I'm you know, uh, we'll talk about that when it
gets closer, obviously when we picked that game, but uh, as it
sounds right now, I'm I'm a little homeward, but give me, give
me KASE State. Okay, we'll see more on the Big twelve, transfer
portal, uh culculable PLAF and more. Riley Gates set to join US next
stay with us. Drug us now on the show this week from on three,
one of their newest contributors covering college football and everything in between. We're
here to talk about the portal and also the college football Playoff. It is
a Riley Gates who's here with us now. Riley appreciate jonnasped, you're just
telling me before we started that you were in Dallas, but you didn't get
to see your caps at the Big twel title game. What happened, Ben?
Yeah? Yeah, my h one of my friends from college, actually
did a radio show with him in college. He was getting married and he
had me in his wedding and I knew it was the victual championship, but
I didn't really know if it'd be an issue. And then, of course
it did end up being an issue. But I guess that's a good problem
to have, so to speak. You know, So, did your buddy
not think Case State was gonna be in the title game? I don't even
know if he ever even once thought that it might be the lining up with
the same day, And I sure don't think anybody was thinking after they lost
in two lane in Week three, that's for sure, what a turnaround,
and that Big Twelve title game delivered ten million people watched and went right down
to the end overtime case State gets it done. And you know, I've
looked at it this way, Riley. Good for KSE State to get to
win and win their first title in ten years, but for TCU, I
was so glad the committee got it right that they still we're not punished for
losing that championship game, going to overtime, holding the same spot they held
before for a loss. I think that worked out pretty well as good as
it could have for all parties involved here. Yeah, you know, and
I think I mean, I was pretty skeptical that they would still get in
with the loss, just because of the way that the Big Twelve usually gets
treated. But I think that with the type of fight that TCU showed and
the type of season that they had, like, I think it was gonna
be really tough to leave him out. I think probably the only way they
were getting left out was you know, like a twenty point Kase State win
or something like that. And honestly, looks like we were headed there for
a little bit with how the game was unfolding, and then of course they
did what they did all season, long fought back, made it a game
late even over time. It was a heck of a game. And I
would have been real disappointed if they would have been left out, not just
because it would have meant that Alabama was like I didn't really care for Alabama
or not. It was just, you know, a two loss team that
didn't play for the conference championship versus a team that just suffered their first loss
in the conference championship. Right, Yeah, that's well said, and you
know, you look at it, and I keep hearing people say, well,
talent wise, Alabama was one of the four best teams. Vegas probably
thinks so too, But of the sample size we have, Alabama lost their
two biggest games, and you know, TCU dominated Texas compared to Alabama,
who's quick buy. So I mean you could you could say, sure,
I think you could say Riley that Alabama on papers one of the four best
teams, but when they had a chance to prove it, they didn't.
Yeah, you know, and I think that that has to account for something,
especially considering the teams that they lost to. I mean, Tennessee was
a really great team all season long, but then obviously they go and just
get drugged by South Carolina. That kind of ended their season, and LSU
looked like they were possibly gonna make a run at the SEC championship and then
they get beat handily by Texas A and M in the last week and then
they just get run over in the SEC title game and saw it. I
mean, while Alabama still has the best players, and frankly, let's just
hypothetically say they were in like I really could see a world where they win
the national championship, Like that's that's kind of the world we're living with Alabama.
But I think leaving them out was the right move. And I'm really
glad that they didn't just get the well their Obama treatment and get one of
those spots, because I don't think that would have been right. Yeah.
And uh, this TCU team I saw last year with Georgia that they lost
the SEC tattle game, bounce back and put two incredible performances in the playoff.
Do you think TCU is capable of responding well to this loss that they
suffered a case stay here in these playoff games or you think they're gonna be
overmatched by a Michigan team or facing potentially Georgia Ohio State in the championship.
Um, I think that's kind of tough. I think, first off,
like we have to find out like how they're gonna respond. Obviously, this
is a team that hasn't lost a game all season, Like I was saying,
they were a team that always battled back and always found a way to
win. So we don't know what this team does after they lose a game.
So that's that's really big. But also on the other hand, on
the other side of things, like I think Michigan's a really really great team
full of a lot of great talent, probably better talent than TCU has.
And so if they struggle and if they get if they get throttled by Michigan,
like is it because they lost and they got thrown off their their path
or whereas it because Michigan is just that much better? Like, I think
it's kind of a tough a tough question to answer one side or the other,
because I really could make a case for both. I think I would
still pick Michigan in this game. I think what they did to Ohio State
kind of shows the elite talent that they have, but I don't think they
mean that. It would probably be a mental aspect of losing a case State
because this is a really good team that had a great season and frankly was
one inch away from winning the Big dual championship, right yeah, and a
team they already beat earlier in the season on top of that as well.
So Riley with that, looking at the College Football Playoff, of the four
teams that are in, what do you make of these semifinal matchups here?
What stands out to you in these two games? I mean, the biggest
storyline is going to be defense in the College Football Playoff. That's that's what
it's going to come down to. Ohio State. Sure they have the explosive
offense and it's it's a lot of fun to watch them go, but can
they do it against Georgia. They couldn't do it against Michigan. And I
think Georgia has a better defense than Michigan, and so you know, how's
that going to shake out? And then I think that the TCU Michigan Michigan
game is completely about defense. This is two defensive minded teams also to run,
two teams that focus on the running game. If you're a better I
would probably lean to the under in that game. Because it's going to be
a lot of defense and a lot of running the ball, so that clock
is probably going to be ticking very fast. Um it's it's more intriguing than
what we've had recently, like last year with Alabama and Cincinnati. Yes,
Cincinnati was the feel good story, but they were never gonna they were never
gonna beat Alabama, they were never gonna make a run. I really could
see a world and where probably three of these teams win the playoffs. I
don't think TCU can win the playoffs. Like it's a great story. I'm
kind of pulling for him as a big twelve guy, but I just don't
think that they have what it takes to win two games here in this playoff.
Obviously you would favor Georgia. I think Georgia's the the cream of the
crop of this playoff. But I don't think that this People just think this
is the same Georgia from last season. It is not like, yes,
it's a great defense, but it's not anywhere near what they had last season.
Like it's just they do not have the I think it was four first
rounded NFL draft picks last year. They don't have that on this defense.
So they're very successfulal to be being beaten in this in the semi final game,
I think, or even in the championship game. So the thing with
Ohio State is that while they obviously struggle to put a good defense on the
field, you saw Michigan just pick them apart. Even without Blake Koram,
Ohio State can get you into a running gun, shootout type of game.
And so it'll be very interesting to see which side kind of comes in stronger
there. Yeah, for sure, it's gonna be very interesting. And you
mentioned, you know, Georgia great team, not as good as they were
last year, but with them in Michigan balls, we've seen them play close
at times. I think about that that Michigan Illinois game for example, the
week before the Ohio State game, where that game was probably closer than it
should have been. Or Georgia against Missouri, or some of these teams.
I mean, just in human nature, you can't play your best every single
week. But the difference I look at in this playoff Riley, if those
if Georgia plays let's say like they did against Missouri, or if Michigan plays
like they did against Illinois, that's not good enough. You're you're gonna lose
here. I mean these teams, yes, they are better, I think
than their opponents, but I mean, you can't win with a C plus
performance here, correct, And I think that that's I think I don't really
fear that with this Georgia team because while they had a lot of performances like
that at times, you know, Kirby Smarts an excellent coach, and and
they have the edge here that these other teams don't have. They know what
it takes to win two games. And when the National Championship obviously, the
House State's been here before, a little bit different situation considering um, you
know, kind of the overturn of players and coaches and everything like that.
But Georgia literally just did this last year, and they did it. Frankly,
I think Georgia beating Alabama last season is more impressive than Georgia beating any
team in this year's field for the National Championship. And so they know what
it takes, they know how hard it is, um and and that's kind
of why they have that edge. So you definitely could get a performance like
you were mentioning, those those kind of letdown games. But I think that
Kirby smart will have his guys ready, They'll have his guys focused, and
they know, like when the when the lights come on, when it's a
big game, they really need to step up to the occasion. Here,
let's let's shift gears and moved to the transfer portal now, Riley, I'm
on on free every day, Uh, checking this out. And you know,
I know you've you've covered recruiting for a long time and this is just
bunkers. This takes. This is recruiting nothing compared to what we're seeing right
now. I mean just every day something's going on. Uh. You know,
very good players entering the portal. Used to be in the past,
if you transferred, you know, there was probably a coaching change or you
were a backup, you weren't getting enough playing time. Now we're seeing quality
starters on good teams enter the portal here. I mean, these are chaotic
times that we've never seen in this sport before. Yeah, and it's it's
not a hand I mean, it really is. And I know that it's
it's good for kids, I get it, But I mean we're the portal
has been open since Monday and we're at over a thousand kids in it already.
I mean, it's just crazy what we're looking at here in terms of
kids just popping in the portal every day. Like I literally, as we
record this, I have a I have a column on my tweet deck just
with transfer portal, and there's kids popping into it every every ten minutes.
It feels like, um, look, I mean we've been having this conversation,
you and me and other radio shows that go on, whatever is the
transfer portal good for college athletics? Like, and I give you the same
answer every time. It's good if it's used the right way. It's good
that kids have the opportunity to perhaps step down a level if they maybe kind
of overshot their skis a little bit going into the Power five level out of
high school. But for the most part, man, this is just it's
crazy to try and see a home for every single kid, and that's what
every single kid get thinks they're gonna get. There's plenty of guys that will
go from Power five to Power five. There's plenty of guys that'll find a
maybe a slightly lower level Division one home. But there's also a lot of
guys, you know, two star lineman, three star cornerbacks that they'll be
at a KSE State or a KU or a Texas Tech and they'll transfer and
they'll have nowhere to go and they'll end up at you know, Utah Valley
or something like that, and just to pick in a random school out of
the hat there, and it's just it's tough because there's really no way that
you can kind of corral it. There's no way that you can straighten it
out. I do not envy being a college coach right now having to deal
with preparing for games, recruiting high school kids and oh yeah, you have
to rerecruit your entire team while also managing your roster and going into the portal
to find needs that that's your team needs going in the next season. So
college coaches get paid an insane amount of money and it still doesn't feel like
enough with all the hoops they got to jump through in this process. Well,
and with this year's rules. Grec if I'm wrong here, but I
believe no matter what whatever it takes to get there, you're allowed to add.
You know, you go up to eighty five scholarship players to bring in
this year through recruiting or through the portal. Either way to get to that
that even number. And so with that's said, with knowing you can completely
flip your roster this year, I mean, the pressure should be as high
as ever on these coaches, Riley, because you can, you should be
able to rebuild pretty fast. There's no excuse not to find the players you
need here pretty quickly. Yeah, I mean, it's it's definitely a great
tool for that. I mean, I let's look at Case State again just
because it's one that we kind of know very well. While Will Howard was
kind of the guy that led them to the Big Twelve championship down the end
of the season, they're not in that position without Adrian Martinez and getting him
out of Nebraska. Now, Adrian didn't end up being exactly what a lot
of people thought he was going to be or what he looked like he was
gonna be at the start of the season. Like he he definitely did not
meet expectation in terms of the passing game. But he put them in that
position by you know, giving him some some solid non con wins early,
going down to Oklahoma and putting on an amazing performance. So you can easily
fill holes that you need right away and it's it's great for schools, especially
with new coaches. I think of Matt Rule at Nebraska now, who he's
going into a situation where he has to rebuild, but he's not gonna get
four to five years to rebuild it. They're gonna want to see results,
and they're gonna want to see him right away, So he's gonna have to
attack the portal. He's gonna have to get some really talented players out of
that and give him a new spark. So I think that that's huge for
a guy like him. Heck, we've seen it with k State basketball too,
and not just football it. Jerome Tang has a very competitive seven and
one or eight and one team right now, and it's mainly portal guys.
So for every one situation where we can criticize the transfer portal and say it's
it's not good and kids are taking advantage of it in the wrong way,
there's there's a lot of good that it does bring. So that's why it's
kind of one of those situations where you're gonna go back and forth. You're
never really gonna have a strong opinion one way or the other that holds holds
to be more true it just comes down to how much you're willing to tolerate.
I guess of the portal getting bigger and bigger. Some big schools,
uh, some power programs have taken some hits negatively from the portal so far.
Obviously they can potentially rebound and replace them with other guys, but for
me so far, Riley Oklahoma State, Texas saying him and Alabama, I
mean, the hits just keep on common. They're losing some quality starters those
schools. Well, yeah, I think the interesting one was Spencer Sanders leaving
Oklahoma State. That was one that I don't want to say it was completely
unpredictable because it definitely makes sense that he I mean, he's just been dinged
up and he's kind of been struggling as of late a little bit, but
he kind of seemed like an Oklahoma State lifer, and Mike Ndy doesn't really
feel like a guy that's gonna lose a starting quarterback to the portal, especially
when it doesn't really it's not like they have this this star waiting in the
wings, so to speak. So that that one definitely caught me off guard
a little bit. And yeah, you know, I just think that There's
been some some very big names that hit the portal, guys that, honestly,
two months ago you probably would have never seen it go that way.
Heck, for until tonight, Drake May at North Carolina was rumored to be
one of the biggest guys possibly going in. Now he has since come out
and said he's not entering the portal. But it just kind of goes to
show you, like, how how uncertain this is right now with all the
coaching changes happening, and oh, I want to go play for my old
coach here at his new school, so I'm gonna hit the portal even though
I have a really good situation here. And it's also getting to the point
where guys are transferring in conference, which is absolutely wild to see because they
could be playing for Oklahoma one season and then be playing for West Virginia the
next season. It's kind of crazy. Speaking of West Virginia, like JT
Daniels, he's off to play for his fourth school in five years. I
think, like that's just crazy. I mean, he's Ryan Fitzpatrick college football,
the first journeyman of the sport, and we're gonna tell our grandkids of
all the schools that J. C. Daniels played for so I'm interested to
see where he ends up because I think he really struggled this season at West
Virginia. But yeah, I mean it's it's a mat house. That's just
kind of all I can say about it. And um, until that window
closes, it's not gonna calm down anytime soon. That's uh, that's something
else with those guys, uh going in and we mentioned, you know,
just how much you can flip a roster here. Uh, you know,
I go back to what Dion Sanders his uh, his speech to his team
a couple of days ago. I think they got kind of taken out of
context a bit, uh, you know what what he was saying. But
at the end of the day, you know the message that I think he
was trying to deliver, and that really I think resonates around the rest of
college football generally. You better just be ready to compete if if you're gonna
stay, I mean, you better build the work hard otherwise they can replace
you pretty fast. I think that's what he was trying to say. And
that's what's gonna go on in Colorado really everywhere. Yeah. Well, and
it's it's because it's Dion, and it's because he's non giving people a fair
chance quote unquote. That's kind of what everybody thinks, and I get it.
I understand kind of a little bit of the complaints, but let's be
real, that's that's why Dion's had successes because he's not afraid to tell people
they're not good enough. He's not afraid to kind of put them in their
place, and he knows that. Look, there's a reason that Colorado fired
Carl Doyle after just two seasons, like he doesn't have talented players on that
team. So I had and then a video did come out today like he
was talking to his team a little more privately and he's like, you guys
are competitors, like you'll you're going to compete for spots. You're not Twitters
things like that. So it definitely got taken out of context. But that's
just kind of the Internet world we live in now, where we love to
jump to a conclusion and let a video go viral on Twitter. But that's
another instance where I think we're about to see crazy turnaround, and probably very
fast thanks to both recruiting and the portal. Everybody wants to go play for
coach prime and now you can do it at the power five level. It's
crazy. Yeah, yeah, certainly is. I know we'll have a little
bit of tout left. I ask you, what are the top layers you're
you like so far that are in the portal and what are some possible destinations
for some of these guys? You think, Oh, man, that's a
that's a really good question. I do think that. Uh. I mean,
I mentioned J. C. Daniels just because he's the one that's kind
of sticking out on the top of my head right now. He's he's obviously
one of the most popular guys right now in terms of where he's gonna land.
That's really intriguing to me because you know, he's kind of been in
in all the all the various conferences so far, and he's got a little
bit taste everything. But he he got benched at West Virginia late in this
season, so I'm not really sure that he's gonna be a hot commodity right
now. Um. So to speak like, I just don't think that a
bunch of people are gonna be falling over their head over heels for to go
and land him. So, um, I think it'll be interesting to see
where he lands, but probably not a move that's going to exactly light up
college football. It's not really gonna draw bunch of headlines. I guess where
he ends up. There was one tonight Mississippi State had a running back,
Dylan Johnson, and the portal is very funny that he he called out Mike
Leach as he was going. He says, Mike Leaches is happy that I'm
in the transfer portals. Now, everybody's kind of interesting where he lands.
But the biggest one right now, did it did come out today? Um
Storm Ducks leaving North Carolina the cornerback m just as he's a solid player,
m you know, and he's he's pretty well known in the ACC. He's
probably gonna be one of those guys that that ends up getting a lot of
big offers. Um. So it'll be kind of fun to follow which which
school is jumping on him. And and there's even been some lower level guys
d two guys that are are drawn the eyes of Power five teams everywhere.
So it's just as crazy as to watch how many are jumping into the portal,
it's equally as crazy to watch who's recruiting them out of the portal and
where they might end up well. And I mean, I look at it
this one, Riley, it's go eat or get eaten. You know what
I mean. Like if if you're going to be successful in today's college football,
you gotta embrace this thing. You gotta go get the best players you
can. And uh, you know it can't be something where you're not interested
in try to focus on the traditional high school recruiting route. I mean,
because you're gonna fall behind pretty fast. And we saw Texas A and M.
They brought in an old time high school recruiting class and how many those
guys are going and it did not work at all. And so it just
goes to show you that maybe sometimes the people on paper are not exactly the
ones that translate to success right away. Yeah right, I know you gotta
run telp it where they can find you. Check out all the stuff on
on three. I believe that there's a big deal going on in there for
sign up, so people can check out with with on three. Great time
to sign up, I met. Yeah, man, it's uh, we're
always turning out in terms of the national team, We're always turning out content
left and right. I mean, it's just kind of crazy how fast our
writers go um and us in the editorial room are kind of trying to keep
up. So the national team's always pumping out great stuff. Um. And
then if you're a fan of a specific team, there's there's a specific offers
for your team on all the various sites. Uh. It does very um
but depending which one you're looking at. There was a one dollar for a
year right now it's ten dollars um until the start of football season. So
if you're looking for looking for your team on on three, we can definitely
get you set up there and it's not going to cost you a lot of
money to stay locked in on on recruiting transfer portal. Nil. It's a
it's a great site that we got going and really excited about the product that
we're continuing to build. And it's clean to read. It's not messy like
some of those others. You know, it's very all right there. I
love the layout, it's great content. Riley and Company doing a great job.
Riley, thanks you the tot man. I know that you're gonna be
busy here a couple of days. Uh, we'll talk to get down the
line. Brit sh joins absolutely