Speaker 1: We have statements. We have statements flying around. Tim Buckley,
Speaker 1: the NCAA Senior vice president for External Affairs, just to
Speaker 1: release the statement for the nc DOUBLEA basically saying there's
Speaker 1: nothing we can do. The collective at UNLV has released
Speaker 1: a statement as well regarding the decision by Matthew Sluca
Speaker 1: to well essentially leave the program.
Speaker 2: He's gonna utilize his red shirt.
Speaker 1: We'll get to these statements, but our next guests, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna take a little sip here.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna do a little paper pop.
Speaker 1: I do not have immunity, but we welcome him in
Speaker 1: the great Josh Pate from Josh Pate's College Football Show,
Speaker 1: Back on the Drive, Josh, Happy Wednesday.
Speaker 2: Man, how we doing.
Speaker 3: I guess I'm doing good. I thought we were gonna
Speaker 3: wake up this morning. I thought I was gonna come
Speaker 3: on the show a little bit later today, and I thought, man,
Speaker 3: we got a big week of college football coming up.
Speaker 3: And then loga, hold, we get the old UNLV bomb
Speaker 3: dropping our lap, and now we're talking about everything but football.
Speaker 3: I'm not saying us, but in general, that's been the talk.
Speaker 1: All day, and certainly I want to get to the
Speaker 1: games more than anything else. But I do view this, Josh,
Speaker 1: to be a pretty big deal because it's.
Speaker 2: Never happened before.
Speaker 1: Now we've been talking about it all day, and I've
Speaker 1: been talking about this for years. I'm sure you have
Speaker 1: been too, about a product that is so incredible. Despite
Speaker 1: the inability of leadership to direct the product appropriately, it's
Speaker 1: still consumed at an incredibly high level where it's the
Speaker 1: second most popular sport in America, only to Pro football.
Speaker 1: But what is the Josh Payton take on Matthew Sluka
Speaker 1: leaving UNLV three and zero start Vegas favorite as the
Speaker 1: G five team to make the CFP.
Speaker 2: What's your take on the decision that came down today?
Speaker 3: There's probably blame to go on both sides on the
Speaker 3: immediate front, but larger it's so appropriate. The NCAA steps
Speaker 3: up and says, yeah, nothing we can do. In totality,
Speaker 3: this is absolutely on them. It's always been on them.
Speaker 3: It's just been year after year after year, a chronic indecision,
Speaker 3: lack of a spine. No one's stepping up in a
Speaker 3: leadership position, and so then you get to I mean,
Speaker 3: I had an NIO. I had a guy who runs
Speaker 3: an NIL operation for a major program reach out today
Speaker 3: and say, hey, all this is probably true, but just
Speaker 3: an fyi. Our legal counsel came to us last year
Speaker 3: and said, we do not advise you to enter into
Speaker 3: any contractual agreements with players, just let it be verbals,
Speaker 3: not to mislead them, but because we don't even know
Speaker 3: what's legal and what's not, so we're not even totally
Speaker 3: sure how to advise you. He said, We've got similar
Speaker 3: agreements with guys right now. We've got coaches that promised stuff.
Speaker 3: We've got we try and track it, but we don't
Speaker 3: even know. Everyone's flying by the seat of their fans.
Speaker 3: Rules are never the same over a twelve month period,
Speaker 3: and that's the result of people not taking action years ago.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's the bottom line.
Speaker 1: I mean, when you kick the count can down the
Speaker 1: road long enough and you procrastinate long enough, it's a
Speaker 1: tidal wave and you're not prepared for it.
Speaker 2: And man, I don't know.
Speaker 1: It's a sport that we all love, it's a sport
Speaker 1: that we all consume, but the lack of leadership and
Speaker 1: oversight for years has been just ridiculous. But let's been
Speaker 1: the rest of our conversation talking about actual college football
Speaker 1: and let's start out in our footprint, Josh, where we
Speaker 1: have both Utah and Surprise Surprise BYU at four and
Speaker 1: oh and one and zer on conference play, we'll start
Speaker 1: with the Utes. They go to Stillwater, no Cameron Rising,
Speaker 1: they get it done. Okay, State comes back a bit
Speaker 1: at the end. It was never really that close. Number
Speaker 1: ten team in the country, Josh. What do you make
Speaker 1: of the Utah uta right now?
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was a game where I saw the final
Speaker 3: before I was able to watch the replay of the
Speaker 3: game because I was at the Oklahoma Tennessee game. So
Speaker 3: I see the final and I think, oh, wow, dogfight man.
Speaker 3: Good for Utah. I go back and watch it and
Speaker 3: I realize, oh, that's the real story on this game.
Speaker 3: It's a big indicator. Man, win it without Cam Rising too,
Speaker 3: is a big indicator of basically what Kyle Winningham said saying,
Speaker 3: of course we won our starting quarterback. But you know,
Speaker 3: reading between the lines, we're not a quarterback centric team.
Speaker 3: We are a program that is best when it has
Speaker 3: its starting quarterback. But don't think for a second we
Speaker 3: can't get the job done without him. And you can
Speaker 3: say that a lot of programs say that or less
Speaker 3: of them can actually put it in practice, and they
Speaker 3: did so. Now I'm interested because I mean that was
Speaker 3: test one in the Big Twelve. And now I'm really
Speaker 3: interested to see you because it may very well be
Speaker 3: that we just see separation between Utah and the rest
Speaker 3: of the field. I still think it's too early to
Speaker 3: say that, but it was a It's not a game
Speaker 3: that stood out on the national radar, but I think
Speaker 3: in many ways it was a statement win because they
Speaker 3: had how they had to go about getting.
Speaker 1: It sure, and also Mike Counny doesn't lose in Stowwater,
Speaker 1: you know, he just does not lose there very much.
Speaker 1: So I think it was a really good win for
Speaker 1: a team right now that is still in a pretty
Speaker 1: ambiguous space about who will be under center coming up
Speaker 1: this weekend.
Speaker 2: My question for you, Josh is.
Speaker 1: I think I still believe for you Todd to win
Speaker 1: the Big Twelve, the Cameron Rising has to be under
Speaker 1: center for most of the year. But I also think
Speaker 1: I've seen enough from Isaac and the defense. Look, it's
Speaker 1: just a classic coach with a team. It's just the
Speaker 1: way Kyle's built this thing where it's about the you
Speaker 1: and the helmet, not the name.
Speaker 2: On the back of the.
Speaker 1: Jersey, and they find ways to win games even if
Speaker 1: it doesn't feel like they're going to be able to
Speaker 1: base off the talent or skill set. But if Cameron
Speaker 1: Rising is compromised and unable to play very much this year,
Speaker 1: do you still think Utah can win the Big Twelve?
Speaker 3: Can? Yeah? Wouldn't be my pick, but can. Yeah, they
Speaker 3: absolutely can. I agree with you. Your take is basically
Speaker 3: my tape in the interim. They can get by. They
Speaker 3: obviously just prove that. I think they need him long
Speaker 3: term to fulfill, you know, on their potential. But I'm
Speaker 3: not about to sit here having watched what I just
Speaker 3: watched them do, and having known the profile of that
Speaker 3: program for a long time, I'm not about to sit
Speaker 3: here and say they can't do anything. I mean, if
Speaker 3: they were playing in the SEC, I may be more defenditive,
Speaker 3: but that's a conference that it's winnable for Utah just
Speaker 3: less than your percentage chances. But that's common sense. Everyone
Speaker 3: knows that, So yeah, they can absolutely still do it.
Speaker 1: Any I don't really have a lot of anxiety for
Speaker 1: Utah coming up on Saturday night with Arizona in town.
Speaker 2: K State didn't just beat them, they bullied them.
Speaker 1: Case State played Arizona the way that Utah will play Arizona.
Speaker 1: I'm going to go off the premise that Isaac Wilson
Speaker 1: is under center just until I see cam because we
Speaker 1: went through this crazy charade a year ago every single week,
Speaker 1: so I'm just kind of landing on Isaac until I
Speaker 1: see Cameron, which I believe means they're going to just
Speaker 1: run it down Arizona's throat. Arizona great quarterback wide receiver duo,
Speaker 1: one of the best in the country, but I just
Speaker 1: don't think they have the dogs in the trenches to
Speaker 1: keep up with Utah. What do you think of Utah
Speaker 1: Arizona coming up on Saturday night here in Salt Lake?
Speaker 3: I'd agree with you. I do an upset pool with
Speaker 3: one of the stations I do a weekly hit on,
Speaker 3: and you always want to get the dog that's big enough,
Speaker 3: but also the one that you think got a shot,
Speaker 3: and I think some people are going to be tempted
Speaker 3: into looking at Arizona there. I think it's terrible matchup,
Speaker 3: And like you, I don't have to go too far
Speaker 3: back in the memory bank to remember what Handas State
Speaker 3: did to them, And so yeah, it wouldn't crazy things
Speaker 3: have happened. It would very much surprise me in lieu
Speaker 3: of like three turnovers or something like that. It would
Speaker 3: surprise me if that things really nip and touch in
Speaker 3: the Foyt supporter.
Speaker 1: All right, let's move over to BYU, who welcomed in
Speaker 1: k State to Provo and just curb stomped him. It
Speaker 1: was the biggest margin of victory for a BYU football
Speaker 1: team in the history of that program over a top
Speaker 1: fifteen team. So Josh, for me, it was a combination
Speaker 1: and just kind of a confluence of a bunch of
Speaker 1: different factors, and a lot of it was good fortune.
Speaker 1: A lot of it was prepared, pared, skill, and they
Speaker 1: called the kill shots in the red zone when they
Speaker 1: needed to to score touchdowns. And that defense is ten
Speaker 1: times better than it was a year ago year two
Speaker 1: under j hell Hill. Obviously, Colonnie cut his teeth under
Speaker 1: coach wit here in sal Lake as a defensive coordinator.
Speaker 1: But my question for you is, you know a lot
Speaker 1: of folks around here excited. You know, do we have
Speaker 1: two big twelve contenders in the state.
Speaker 2: I'm not there yet with BYU. We'll see what they do.
Speaker 1: They're at Baylor this week ten am Mountain Time kick.
Speaker 1: What is Josh Pate willing to say on this Wednesday
Speaker 1: about BYU's four and oh start?
Speaker 3: Well, first off, I have profited off of it. I
Speaker 3: will tell you that I've ridden them every single week.
Speaker 3: I think that you have to when you're talking about
Speaker 3: a conference title contender, you have to scrutinize the statement
Speaker 3: a little bit more than if we're just trying to
Speaker 3: talk a team into Bowl eligibility. So if we're just
Speaker 3: trying to talk about getting six good wins, Brigham youngslip
Speaker 3: that point, okay, If we're trying to talk about them
Speaker 3: in more lofty conversation, that's when you run the fine
Speaker 3: tooth comb through them. So what I'm about to say
Speaker 3: is not exclusionary. What I'm about to say is more conditional.
Speaker 3: When you go back, for example, on the Kansas State game,
Speaker 3: it is very rare that you beat someone by four
Speaker 3: scores and they outgain you by one hundred yards. But
Speaker 3: it was just the way the game played out. So
Speaker 3: that means nothing more than what I just said. It
Speaker 3: counts as a win, it's a conference win. If we're
Speaker 3: talking about future predictability, a lot of times what you
Speaker 3: learn is those kind of results you throw them out,
Speaker 3: not because they don't count, you throw them out as
Speaker 3: it relates to trying to figure out what you're gonna
Speaker 3: do down the road. That is why, For example, in
Speaker 3: odds Making World, Brigham Young is a three and a
Speaker 3: half point dog at Baylor this weekend. That would otherwise
Speaker 3: make no sense. Kansas State wouldn't be a dog against Baylor.
Speaker 3: But yet Brigham Young is why is that? Well, that's
Speaker 3: an odds Maker world telling you. We saw the results,
Speaker 3: we just don't necessarily think it bakes them very well
Speaker 3: in a predictive model. So all that means, all that
Speaker 3: jargon means is Brigham Young just has to keep proving
Speaker 3: people wrong. I haven't bought into him as a Big
Speaker 3: twelve title contender yet. Okay, but I've been wrong before.
Speaker 3: So all that means is you just go keep proving
Speaker 3: people wrong. You just keep playing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, well said, well said, all right, one more
Speaker 1: Big twelve question? Then, of course, there are some massive
Speaker 1: games this weekend. Your pod that you released earlier was
Speaker 1: really really good, So I did want to do a
Speaker 1: little Georgia Bama. How many teams, Josh, it's you know
Speaker 1: we're coming up now on five weeks of college football,
Speaker 1: how many teams do.
Speaker 2: You really think legitimately can win the Big Twelve?
Speaker 3: Oh, buddy, half a dozen or more. If you just
Speaker 3: started rattling them all, there aren't There still aren't a
Speaker 3: ton of no's. Ironically, I'm gonna tell you this now,
Speaker 3: I've got serious doubts about Oklahoma State. Mathematically they're still
Speaker 3: in it, but I've got serious doubts.
Speaker 2: Souse.
Speaker 3: Everything I thought would be a strinth about that team
Speaker 3: is not. Utah's obviously there, Kansas State's still there. My
Speaker 3: Iowa State Cyclones are in there. Iowa faced one of
Speaker 3: the most interesting teams to me because they've got good pieces,
Speaker 3: they're veteran. It's kind of a Spike Yer for Matt Campbell.
Speaker 3: So Kansas out of it, I think, not mathematically, but realistically,
Speaker 3: want to see what TCU is able to do. I
Speaker 3: want to see if they're able to turn it on.
Speaker 3: So we shortened the list a little bit, but there's
Speaker 3: still quite a few of them that I would say
Speaker 3: are contenders for sure.
Speaker 1: All right, moving off the Big twelve, let's talk some
Speaker 1: big picture.
Speaker 2: College football here. Last year it was tough.
Speaker 1: I kept hearing a lot of really smart football people
Speaker 1: who I respected saying that Michigan was among, if not
Speaker 1: the best team in the country, but the first month
Speaker 1: of the season they just beat up on dog teams,
Speaker 1: and so it was hard to really cooperate that statement.
Speaker 2: Are we dealing with the same situation.
Speaker 1: With the Buckeyes with Ohio State who a lot of
Speaker 1: people think potentially the best team in the country, but
Speaker 1: we just don't over the first month have a great
Speaker 1: matchup test. Is that kind of a similar thing that
Speaker 1: we're dealing with Michigan a year ago Ohio State this year?
Speaker 3: It could be. Yeah. I try and figure out as
Speaker 3: much as I can about a team in the preseason,
Speaker 3: and if I think you're good, you're gonna get benefit
Speaker 3: of the doubt with me until you play quality competition.
Speaker 3: Same way, if I don't think you're good, you go
Speaker 3: beat a bunch of teams. You haven't proven anything to
Speaker 3: me until you beat quality competition. So is that bias?
Speaker 3: Is that fair? I don't know. It doesn't matter, but
Speaker 3: I'm there with Ohio State right now. I've watched them some.
Speaker 3: I think it's a really good defense. It may be
Speaker 3: one of, if not the best defenses in the country.
Speaker 3: I think people are painting it to be this impenetrable
Speaker 3: force and not quite that. Just a bunch of really
Speaker 3: good players, so someone will score on them eventually. I
Speaker 3: also don't know that the verticality is there in their
Speaker 3: past game with Will Howard, which is not a shot
Speaker 3: because it wasn't there when he was at Kansas State.
Speaker 3: So they're I mean, they're gonna have flaws, just like
Speaker 3: any other team does. They're a really good team. I
Speaker 3: haven't necessarily changed my opinion defaulting off what I thought
Speaker 3: about in preseason. But if someone does think that, I
Speaker 3: could understand why.
Speaker 1: All right, you were at Memorial in Norman, Oklahoma, and
Speaker 1: it feels like most everybody now is on this Tennessee
Speaker 1: hype train. I've heard a few people, maybe hot take artists,
Speaker 1: say that they can win the national championship.
Speaker 2: You've seen it up close. What's what are you the
Speaker 2: same question?
Speaker 1: What are you willing Josh to see today about Tennessee
Speaker 1: after seeing them up close?
Speaker 3: Well, they're in that conversation. I mean, I'm gonna obviously
Speaker 3: stop well short of saying they're my pick, but they
Speaker 3: are in the conversation. They have not been there before.
Speaker 3: This is the first time they will have been there.
Speaker 3: Big difference in this team in the twenty twenty two
Speaker 3: team is obviously defensively they're a different level, but I
Speaker 3: just want to point out to people athletically they're a
Speaker 3: different caliber. They had the number one scoring offense in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty two. They had to win against Bama. Everyone
Speaker 3: forgets they went down to Georgia a couple of weeks
Speaker 3: later as the number one team in the country and
Speaker 3: they were not competitive physically. So they are this year.
Speaker 3: And it's ironic because they get Bama and neland again
Speaker 3: this year, and they go to Athens to face Georgia
Speaker 3: again this year. That trip to Georgia is the one
Speaker 3: I have circled. That's the one I am most intrigued by,
Speaker 3: because I think the athletic and physical profile and death
Speaker 3: profile of that team matches Georgia a whole lot more
Speaker 3: readily than it did two years ago. I have seen
Speaker 3: Texas in person. I'll see Bama Georgia this weekend. I've
Speaker 3: seen Tennessee. The Tennessee's not really taken a back seat
Speaker 3: to those teams. They may they may not wuite be
Speaker 3: you know, shot for shot recruiting wise, what Georgia and
Speaker 3: Alabama have been, but they are They are not miles
Speaker 3: away at all, and they can absolutely compete with them,
Speaker 3: and it would not shot me at all to see
Speaker 3: them in that final four national title game kind of conversation.
Speaker 1: All right, as you reference, you'll be in Tuscaloosa first
Speaker 1: time since O seven. Dama is an underdog at home.
Speaker 1: George's a two point favorite. The eyes of the college
Speaker 1: football world are gonna be on this game. Man, It's
Speaker 1: gonna be massive five thirty times. So what's the take?
Speaker 1: How does this play out and kind of set the scene?
Speaker 1: What do you think it's going to be like down
Speaker 1: there at Brian Denny Stadium.
Speaker 3: It's going to be one of the best environments of
Speaker 3: the year. Keep keep I got I got a buddy
Speaker 3: who's more a pro football fan, have gotten into college football,
Speaker 3: and I try and tell people like that this setting,
Speaker 3: this kind of game is bigger in its scale than
Speaker 3: the college football playoff games and national title games, which
Speaker 3: is not the way it is in the NFL. You
Speaker 3: won't mind a better environment than this kind of game
Speaker 3: in the regular season. I don't care what the playoff
Speaker 3: or national title game does for you. I am really
Speaker 3: interested to see what Bama can do running the ball.
Speaker 3: I think they'll have a fair amount of success running
Speaker 3: against Georgia. Georgia is getting some guys back in their
Speaker 3: defensive front, but even getting those guys back, they are
Speaker 3: not that vintage elite run stopping unit. They're just pretty
Speaker 3: good by Georgia's standards, which is still great by normal standards,
Speaker 3: but you ad the Jalen Milroe mobility effect in there
Speaker 3: as well. I think they'll be able to do some
Speaker 3: business on the ground. They've got one of the best
Speaker 3: young receivers in the country and Ryan Williams scores virtually
Speaker 3: every time he touches the ball. But I want to
Speaker 3: know where does the explosivity come from in Georgia's offense.
Speaker 3: Because you haven't seen it so far this year, that
Speaker 3: doesn't mean it's not there. It's a big, big point
Speaker 3: to make. It's week four, it's week five, it's weak six.
Speaker 3: Like that point in the season, every single year you
Speaker 3: see some guys start to pop. Didn't necessarily show up
Speaker 3: right out of the gate. And I don't know who
Speaker 3: it's going to be, maybe for either one of these teams,
Speaker 3: but I think someone or a couple of someone step
Speaker 3: up in this game that aren't on the marquee pregame
Speaker 3: that end up deciding it.
Speaker 1: All right, Josh, before I say you loose, we got
Speaker 1: to revisit a conversation we had maybe two months ago,
Speaker 1: I think it was prior to the season starting, because
Speaker 1: I asked you, as your star rises, you know you're
Speaker 1: gonna be able to go around to all these places,
Speaker 1: see a lot of great robbery games. And I asked
Speaker 1: you if you were overly familiar with Utah BYU in
Speaker 1: the Holy War that takes place out here. And we
Speaker 1: talked about if things fall into place, could we see
Speaker 1: a Josh Pate siding here in Salt Lake City on
Speaker 1: November the ninth. So I'm going to hold your feet
Speaker 1: to the fire and say that if over the next
Speaker 1: four weeks, because they both are gonna have a buye
Speaker 1: as well, both Utah and BYU intern November the ninth
Speaker 1: at A and O and Utah will they're already a
Speaker 1: top ten team. If they win their next four games,
Speaker 1: it might be top six or seven BYUS creeping up
Speaker 1: towards that top ten.
Speaker 2: If they handle their business.
Speaker 1: Can I get a at least a loose option of
Speaker 1: considering the Josh Paiate show rolling into Salt Lake for
Speaker 1: Utah BYU November the ninth, if both teams are undefeated.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, I'm ready to commit verbally that that is
Speaker 3: on the radar I'm looking for right now. Yeah, that's
Speaker 3: on the radar.
Speaker 1: I feel like I need this in writing based off
Speaker 1: the news that happened in UNLB today. Oh man, All good, buddy, Hey,
Speaker 1: thanks for the time. Keep up the great working with Chatzoom.
Speaker 3: Appreciate it, guys.
Speaker 2: All right, the great Josh Pate.
Speaker 1: Get him on Twitter at Josh Pate CFB, host of
Speaker 1: the Josh pay College Football Show.
Speaker 2: I always appreciate his time on this Wednesday