Speaker 1: One of my favorite guests.
Speaker 2: You guys have come to really love his interviews. The
Speaker 2: dashboard indicates as much. The great Josh Paton joins us
Speaker 2: on a Wednesday afternoon. Josh, Happy Wednesday, Sir, how are.
Speaker 3: You, greetings of my friend, How are you doing?
Speaker 2: I'm well, I'm well. Great to have you on as always,
Speaker 2: appreciate your time. I know you're a busy guy, so
Speaker 2: let's do a little local stuff that you know you're
Speaker 2: gonna make a really fun trip coming up this weekend.
Speaker 2: Is he essentially the biggest game maybe that we've seen
Speaker 2: so far this year, with the exception of Bama Georgia.
Speaker 1: But Josh, I hate to ask.
Speaker 2: You the same thing, but we're sitting here once again
Speaker 2: with a game coming up on Friday night, and we do.
Speaker 1: Not know who the quarterback is going to be for
Speaker 1: the University of Utah.
Speaker 2: Now, over the past ninety minutes, the line went from
Speaker 2: Utah favored by six and a half now to Utah
Speaker 2: favored by four. Seems to indicate Isaac Wilson is going
Speaker 2: to be under center. So we're going to operate off
Speaker 2: that premise. If once again it's Isaac Wilson under center,
Speaker 2: temp you Friday Night against ASU, What do you think
Speaker 2: that looks like?
Speaker 3: Expected? So sorry, I just put a new piece of
Speaker 3: gum in there. I was trying to get all the
Speaker 3: sweetness out of it. So I have adopted a mentality
Speaker 3: with them, as I told you last time I spoke,
Speaker 3: where I'll just be surprised and I will be pleasantly
Speaker 3: surprised if Cam plays, and so I'm just gonna plan
Speaker 3: on backup here. I'm going to be in backup mode.
Speaker 3: I almost think at this point, also, if you're an
Speaker 3: odds maker that you bake that in, I'm kind of
Speaker 3: taking aback that we still see those line moves the
Speaker 3: way we do. But who am I to tell people
Speaker 3: how to bet their money? So I'm looking at my
Speaker 3: numbers right now. I got Cam already baked in as
Speaker 3: not playing, and I got Utah winning by five. So like,
Speaker 3: I think that number is right. I think that they
Speaker 3: will go in there and find a way to win.
Speaker 3: It's not a team certainly that finds out they're starters
Speaker 3: out and they're shaken by it. They're used to it.
Speaker 3: That's their life. So I mean they're almost the most
Speaker 3: battle tested team as it relates to quote unquote major
Speaker 3: injury as there is in the country because they've all
Speaker 3: lived it for multiple years.
Speaker 2: Now, do you believe it's a competitive advantage to withhold
Speaker 2: injury information from your opponent.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know to what degree. I mean, there
Speaker 3: are different schools of thought on that. I think that
Speaker 3: I was at a game last week where I know
Speaker 3: it happened. I mean candidly, I was at Texas A
Speaker 3: and M on Friday, met with that staff. They knew
Speaker 3: Connor Wegman was going They knew he was going to start,
Speaker 3: and that was not publicized until Saturday, and Missouri's staff
Speaker 3: was of the opinion that Marcel Reid was going to start.
Speaker 3: Those are two very different preparations, by the way, and
Speaker 3: it showed and I firmly believed that Missouri just prepared
Speaker 3: as if Reid was going to start, and they were
Speaker 3: convinced Wegman wasn't going to start. Not only did he start,
Speaker 3: he threw the ball all over him all day. So yeah,
Speaker 3: it's a competitive advantage case by case. I just don't
Speaker 3: know in Utah's case, if any staff's going to be
Speaker 3: caught off guard by that particular situation because it's been
Speaker 3: so frequent, So.
Speaker 2: How commonplace because Utah is getting getting injury. You know,
Speaker 2: injury information is like breaking into the Kremlin. Okay, so
Speaker 2: it's like impossible, you know. They just don't discuss it
Speaker 2: unless it's season ending. How commonplace is this policy across
Speaker 2: the landscape of college football.
Speaker 3: Josh, it is fairly common. I mean, I'm in the
Speaker 3: South now, so I'm in sec country where what Kyle
Speaker 3: Whittingham does is commonplace down here, and so much so
Speaker 3: without naming names that, I will tell you a lot
Speaker 3: of these staff have burner accounts on opposing message boards
Speaker 3: and team sites, and they will intentionally float false injury
Speaker 3: information and false depth chart information, which I love because
Speaker 3: that is the kind of toxic thing that makes me
Speaker 3: love the sport. So it does happen. I think that
Speaker 3: college football in general wants to move away from that,
Speaker 3: much as the NFL has, because that is, in the
Speaker 3: gambling world, the only way that you insert kind of
Speaker 3: a grain of sand into the micro shop. If you
Speaker 3: have injury information that's being withheld, then you increase the
Speaker 3: market likelihood that someone gets a hold of it and
Speaker 3: does very bad in various things with it. And so
Speaker 3: I think in time we'll alleviate this as a problem.
Speaker 3: If you think it's a problem, if you don't care, whatever,
Speaker 3: But we're still dealing with it right now.
Speaker 2: Do you believe that we are high speed ahead to
Speaker 2: uniformity with the policy of you have to report for
Speaker 2: P four football?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I do. I think that's a matter of time.
Speaker 3: And I know that some conferences or some programs within
Speaker 3: conferences may be drug kicking and screaming there. But I
Speaker 3: mean it's very clear to me that yes, we're headed there. Yeah.
Speaker 2: No, I tend to agree, all right, Josh, big picture,
Speaker 2: big twelve question, who's good?
Speaker 1: Who's good? Who's good in this conference?
Speaker 3: All right? So I think a few teams are good. No, great,
Speaker 3: But I think a few teams are good. Now there
Speaker 3: are two of them along with Utah. So let's talk
Speaker 3: about three teams here. I think that we are looking
Speaker 3: at your Kansas State and Iowa State and Utah's of
Speaker 3: the world, all of which I've got rated in like
Speaker 3: the thirteen to twenty range. What I wonder about those
Speaker 3: teams is is there one of them that has a
Speaker 3: ceiling above that? Like I mentioned Texas A and M
Speaker 3: a second ago, that team's got top ten potential about it?
Speaker 3: Because it just has that kind of talent roster. It's
Speaker 3: not right now, at least we don't think, but it
Speaker 3: could be that. I wonder if any of those teams
Speaker 3: that I just mentioned in the Big twelve have that
Speaker 3: kind of high end potential that remains to be seen.
Speaker 3: But then behind them, I also wonder team like Brigham
Speaker 3: Young total enigma to me, did not see this coming.
Speaker 3: I wonder about you know, West Virginia, for example, got
Speaker 3: a big game against Iowa State this Saturday. They could
Speaker 3: really pop on the scene. Those are the teams. I
Speaker 3: don't think I'm leaving one out. Arizona, eh, kind of enigmatic.
Speaker 3: Those are the teams, the ones that I just mentioned
Speaker 3: prior to that. And then Colorado of course the ultimate
Speaker 3: unknown there that game with Kansas State. I'm looking really
Speaker 3: forward to watching I think an eight to fifteen local
Speaker 3: time kickoff there Saturday night. So I don't think there's
Speaker 3: any great I think we still have four or five,
Speaker 3: maybe as many as six teams in a handful of teams,
Speaker 3: and I'm not riding off to win that conference.
Speaker 1: So one more question.
Speaker 2: I want to go back to the youths for a minute,
Speaker 2: because there's a debate going on in the market this week,
Speaker 2: and it's based off a conversation I had with somebody
Speaker 2: up there over the weekend who listened to the SEW
Speaker 2: on Friday and called to just kind of talk talk
Speaker 2: me through.
Speaker 1: Some of the camp stuff.
Speaker 2: And this, by no means is a report, and I
Speaker 2: don't know what's going to happen moving forward.
Speaker 1: There seems to be.
Speaker 2: Some momentum in the direction of just rolling with Isaac,
Speaker 2: just giving him the job, because week in and week
Speaker 2: out they're splitting reps with the ones, and according to
Speaker 2: what we understand, Isaac finds out pretty close to the
Speaker 2: game that it's going to be him. And you know,
Speaker 2: seven interceptions for young Isaac Wilson. No other top twenty
Speaker 2: five team as a QB with more than five, and
Speaker 2: it's been fun to watch him grow.
Speaker 1: But there have been a.
Speaker 2: Lot of mistakes, which is what happens when you have
Speaker 2: an eighteen year old quarterback. At what point, Josh, in
Speaker 2: your opinion, do you kind of just look at maybe
Speaker 2: we should just roll with the freshman so he knows
Speaker 2: he's going to get the job, or whenever Cam's ready,
Speaker 2: he's backed on her center.
Speaker 1: Period.
Speaker 3: I think that's tough man I get what you're saying.
Speaker 3: I probably agree. I'd probably sit here on a couch
Speaker 3: in Nashville and without any emotional tie to the situation,
Speaker 3: say I do that today, I do it yesterday. I mean,
Speaker 3: I am not splitting reps with the ones in the
Speaker 3: middle of the season. I am rolling with a guy,
Speaker 3: and I mean, if Cam gets healthy, then okay, we
Speaker 3: can have that discussion. But I'm not doing this thing
Speaker 3: every week because it doesn't put my team in the
Speaker 3: best position to win, at least I don't think it
Speaker 3: does now. The difference is I don't have any loyalty
Speaker 3: baked in there. I don't have any emotional attachment, you know,
Speaker 3: I don't ultimately have to look those players in the eye.
Speaker 3: So it's a whole lot easier for me to say it.
Speaker 3: That doesn't change that it may or may not be
Speaker 3: the right or wrong decision. It just changes how easy
Speaker 3: it is for me to say it, as opposed to
Speaker 3: Kyle Winningham actually happily having to implement that.
Speaker 1: Sure, you reference Brigham Young.
Speaker 2: They welcome in Arizona, Fox Big newon Kickoff will be there,
Speaker 2: which I don't know if you are old enough to
Speaker 2: remember Urban Meyer. I'm older than you, but Urban Meyer
Speaker 2: coaching Utah. He just loved to needle BYU and he'll
Speaker 2: be back down there as a media member, which will.
Speaker 1: Be interesting to see how he's received.
Speaker 2: As you reference, they're clean, they're five and oh two
Speaker 2: and zero conference. Arizona rolled in a salt lake, can
Speaker 2: smoke the Youthes. Then lost to Texas Tech. Maybe maybe
Speaker 2: Texas Tech is good. I don't know anymore.
Speaker 1: BYU a slight favorite at home.
Speaker 2: They're getting four and a half. So what do you
Speaker 2: what do you think happens? Is BYU welcomes in Arizona
Speaker 2: coming up on Saturday.
Speaker 3: I got him winning by three. I am telling you,
Speaker 3: pound for pound, there may not be a more unpredictable
Speaker 3: game in the country. An Arizona Bringham Young Saturday. I
Speaker 3: have less than zero confidence on that game. I sit
Speaker 3: there and watch Arizona do what they did to Utah
Speaker 3: and think to myself, Okay, I mean I saw them
Speaker 3: get smashed by Kansas State a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 3: Now they've righted the ship, they've rectified things, and then
Speaker 3: Texas Tech happens. And that's just basically that sentence right
Speaker 3: there is classic Big twelve. That is the Big twelve
Speaker 3: in a nutshell, and so Brigham Young. Conversely, I watched
Speaker 3: them beat Kansas State and it was so weird because
Speaker 3: they beat them, I think thirty eight to nine and
Speaker 3: got out gained by over one hundred yards. And you
Speaker 3: tell yourself, boy, that can't continue. And then they go
Speaker 3: to Baylor and Baylor looks like they're mailing the game
Speaker 3: in Baylor almost comes back on them, and it's there's
Speaker 3: just so many things I've watched with Brigham Young that
Speaker 3: make you say, well, the next team will get them.
Speaker 3: But the next team doesn't get them. And so if
Speaker 3: I had to guess, I don't think this team gets
Speaker 3: them either. I think they'll continue it roll in in.
Speaker 3: Every single year there is a team that just defies
Speaker 3: conventional or mathematical wisdom. Maybe that's Brigham Young this year.
Speaker 3: And if it is good for them.
Speaker 2: Yes, sir, all right, you reference you're in Nashville, and
Speaker 2: you know, my buddy Frank, who is the one a
Speaker 2: couple of years ago that sent me your stuff, is
Speaker 2: a Vanderbilt.
Speaker 1: He went to Vanderbilt, got his law.
Speaker 2: Degree, Vandy loot degree, and so he was very excited
Speaker 2: last week. Help us understand, help me understand put that
Speaker 2: into perspective and context, just how big of a day
Speaker 2: that was for Vanderbilt football.
Speaker 1: Upsetting Alabama.
Speaker 3: Those are the biggest day in the history of the program.
Speaker 3: It's one of the biggest upsets in the history of
Speaker 3: this conference in the SEC, dating back to whenever you
Speaker 3: want to date it back to. I mean, Solwane used
Speaker 3: to be an SEC team, So I don't know how
Speaker 3: far people want to go back, but this was a
Speaker 3: monumentally big upset. And what was crazy for me is
Speaker 3: I mean I live I don't know, I'm about a
Speaker 3: mile from that stadium as I sit here right now
Speaker 3: in my apartment, I could have walked over there. Of course,
Speaker 3: no one expects it to happen, so I'm trying to
Speaker 3: find the biggest game of the week to go to.
Speaker 3: So I fly seven hundred miles to College Station. I
Speaker 3: watched A and M blow out Missouri, and I'm sitting
Speaker 3: there in Houston on a tarmac waiting to fly back
Speaker 3: to Nashville as that upset goes final. So about the
Speaker 3: time I get back, I land in Nashville and I
Speaker 3: only live about five or ten minutes in the airport.
Speaker 3: So I'm driving over the bridge over the Cumberland River
Speaker 3: right into downtown. They've got a crane crew that is
Speaker 3: trying to use a like a pulley system to lift
Speaker 3: the goalpost out of the river. That these people have
Speaker 3: marched two miles to the river to dump it INIM
Speaker 3: just an amazing, like surreal scene. You never thought you
Speaker 3: would see it in a million years. I saw Tennessee
Speaker 3: fans do it two years ago at kneland when they
Speaker 3: beat Bama. But that's Tennessee and that's one hundred thousand people,
Speaker 3: and the river's right next to the stadium. This is
Speaker 3: an entirely different animal. So I don't think you can
Speaker 3: overstate how huge it was. Now Vandy goes in place
Speaker 3: Kentucky this week and they are about a two touchdown
Speaker 3: underdog again, so who knows what happens, but at least
Speaker 3: they had this week if nothing else for sure.
Speaker 2: All Right, a couple of minutes left, let's look ahead.
Speaker 2: I heard you say on the pod that the Red
Speaker 2: River Rivalry say that twenty times quick is your favorite
Speaker 2: game in college football. Now I can't speak to it
Speaker 2: because I've never experienced it.
Speaker 1: But why is that, Josh, Why is that your favorite game?
Speaker 3: It's so unbelievable. I used to think people overhype that
Speaker 3: thing so much when I grew up in the South,
Speaker 3: and I'd see him talk about the Red Rivers shootout
Speaker 3: and look at the State Fair and it's fifty to
Speaker 3: fifty split. And then I went three years ago for
Speaker 3: the first time, just unbelievable. Everything I love about this
Speaker 3: sport is on full display there. There are so many
Speaker 3: elements that they have kept pristine, like first off, just
Speaker 3: having it at the Cotton Bowl, which is a place
Speaker 3: I think Roman gladiators used to fight. It's a million
Speaker 3: years old, it's wonderful, it's decrepit, it's old, it's uncomfortable,
Speaker 3: it's all metal bleachers, it's great. No luxury suites. That day,
Speaker 3: I was standing next to someone on the sidelines watching
Speaker 3: the game. I look over and it's Mark Cuban. So
Speaker 3: you got a billionaire on the field. And the reason
Speaker 3: it's called there are no luxury suites to my kind
Speaker 3: of stadium. Also, so the way they split the crowd
Speaker 3: is you don't draw the line down the middle of
Speaker 3: the field, goal post to goal post. You draw a
Speaker 3: line with the fifty yard line, and that's how they
Speaker 3: split the stadium. So there's this weird dynamic where like
Speaker 3: if a ball goes up in the air, like it's
Speaker 3: a long path, you have one side that's full throat
Speaker 3: because they're on defense, and then everyone goes quiet, and
Speaker 3: then sometimes the other side explodes because their team just
Speaker 3: caught the ball. Is so weird you almost get like PTSD,
Speaker 3: but in a good way from it, because that sound
Speaker 3: is so unique to that stadium. Also, if your credentialed media,
Speaker 3: actually none of the other ones do this, but I
Speaker 3: do it. There's a ramp. It's kind of like Michigan
Speaker 3: Stadium if you've ever been there, there's just one tunnel,
Speaker 3: one ramp that goes right down into the stadium onto
Speaker 3: the playing surface. When they hit halftime, you can run
Speaker 3: up that ramp, walk right out of the stadium, go
Speaker 3: out to the state fair, get fair food, coin, dog,
Speaker 3: funnel cake, whatever. I mean. It takes five to ten minutes,
Speaker 3: play a couple of carnival games. I did last year,
Speaker 3: won a little stuff chicken by the way, and then
Speaker 3: you can run right back down the tunnel and be
Speaker 3: right back on the field in the third quarter. These
Speaker 3: are things you cannot do anywhere else. So I absolutely
Speaker 3: love that place.
Speaker 2: Wow, that sounds like a damn good time. Can Oklahoma?
Speaker 2: Can the Sooners keep it close? It seems like everybody
Speaker 2: it's obvious that Texas is awesome, but this is a
Speaker 2: game we have one similar here with BYU that ultimately,
Speaker 2: even when there's a big talent discrepancy, the rivalry nature
Speaker 2: of the thing makes it weird. Can Oklahoma make this interesting?
Speaker 3: Josh, that's got to be what happens. I mean, there's
Speaker 3: nothing on paper that suggests it'll be close. I can't
Speaker 3: find a single matchup and I looked because I had
Speaker 3: to break the game down last night, but we don't
Speaker 3: play football games on paper, and Britain venables with a
Speaker 3: week to prepare. I think Steve Sarkisian said it best
Speaker 3: earlier this week. He said, we got to be prepared
Speaker 3: for the stuff they haven't put on tape. And you
Speaker 3: know what, if that ends up forcing you into three
Speaker 3: turnovers and Oklahoma's plus three turnovers on the day, then
Speaker 3: it's a dogfight. They may end up winning game. I
Speaker 3: just don't know. Absent some non offensive points being scored
Speaker 3: or big time turnover differential advantage towards Oklahoma, I'm not
Speaker 3: sure how they win that game. They are a very
Speaker 3: poor matchup for Texas, but I'll watch it because I
Speaker 3: know what the sport.
Speaker 1: Can do every year.
Speaker 2: And this is me coming from Salt Lake City radio
Speaker 2: host perspective. It just I don't remember the last time
Speaker 2: USC entirely lived up to the hype that's bestowed upon them.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I think they're better and improved, but they welcome in
Speaker 2: Penn State to the coliseum and the Ninny Lyons are
Speaker 2: getting four and a half?
Speaker 1: What do you think happens with that game?
Speaker 3: All right? This is the one I'm most conflicted on.
Speaker 3: So my numbers love USC. They think USC wins outright
Speaker 3: like ridiculous, almost to the point where it looks flawed.
Speaker 3: But my model has nailed USC every single game this year.
Speaker 3: It thought that beat LSU, it thought they would lose
Speaker 3: to Michigan. It had it's ahead every USC game now,
Speaker 3: So I'm not ignoring this. I'm sitting here looking at
Speaker 3: the matchup. I think it heavily leans Penn State. And
Speaker 3: yet I also know what travel has done to teams
Speaker 3: in the Big Ten so far this year, and I
Speaker 3: know what you know, Lincoln Riley and a team being
Speaker 3: embarrassed then going back home with their back against the wall,
Speaker 3: could mean there are some vulnerable spots, specifically at corner
Speaker 3: for Penn State. Now, the downside is Penn State gets
Speaker 3: to the quarterback faster than any pass rush in the country.
Speaker 3: This year they are number one in the country, So
Speaker 3: you have got to be able to get the ball
Speaker 3: out fast or that us. The offensive line is just
Speaker 3: got to step up like they haven't all year to
Speaker 3: this kind of degree. I'm so conflicted. I picked Penn
Speaker 3: State to win. I picked the USC to cover, which
Speaker 3: is kind of a cop out, but I don't know.
Speaker 3: It's a classic head versus computer game. For me, I
Speaker 3: am very interested because one way or another, this is
Speaker 3: a huge sledgehammerge of the face for one of those
Speaker 3: head coaches, because both of them need it really, really bad.
Speaker 2: For sure, Final one and you will be there, heard
Speaker 2: on the pod, You're going to be up at Autson.
Speaker 2: I've experienced the Aughtson experience. It is amazing. You've been
Speaker 2: there before as well. I think Ohio State certainly is
Speaker 2: one of the teams that most people believe is top shelf.
Speaker 2: They maybe have not been tested, and you know they're
Speaker 2: not going.
Speaker 1: To be afraid of that moment or that place.
Speaker 2: They play in stadiums that are bigger and maybe equally
Speaker 2: as loud, and you know, Oregon has been a little
Speaker 2: bit up and down, but they both have stayed clean.
Speaker 2: This is going to be a fun one. You're gonna
Speaker 2: be there. How do you think it plays out?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm very curious about Ohio State's offensive line. I
Speaker 3: know everyone in the Buckeye camp is convinced that they've
Speaker 3: upgraded there. Maybe they have, but there was a ways
Speaker 3: to go from what they had been. Now that's relatively speaking,
Speaker 3: because this is considered one of the best teams in
Speaker 3: the country. The way that Landing recruits, the way they develop,
Speaker 3: specifically on their defensive front. They are deeper, they're more athletic,
Speaker 3: and they're more multiple than anything that's been thrown at
Speaker 3: Ohio State so far this year. Now, I can say
Speaker 3: the same thing on the other side of that matchup,
Speaker 3: and I acknowledge that, But I do think that there
Speaker 3: are enough minute edges here and matchup advantages that Oregon
Speaker 3: find some way early season to win that thing. At
Speaker 3: home field and travel I think plays a big part
Speaker 3: in that.
Speaker 1: Well, my friend have a safe trip up there.
Speaker 2: It's a great atmosphere should be a great game, and
Speaker 2: I appreciate the time.
Speaker 1: Thanks Josh, Yes, sir, appreciate it all right.
Speaker 2: Josh Pate The College Josh Pat's College Football Show is
Speaker 2: one of the best college football podcasts out there. I
Speaker 2: like to think we introduced Josh to the market. Get
Speaker 2: him on Twitter at Josh Pate CFB. It releases two
Speaker 2: or three a week, does a great segment on some
Speaker 2: of the picks, and then talks all things college football,
Speaker 2: Big Picture, Big twelve. So definitely check him out, give
Speaker 2: him I follow