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Speaker 3: A look at college football news, analysis and insight from
around the Sunshine State. This is Florida Football Insiders, a
part of the College Gridiron Coast to Coast podcast network,
and here's your host, Jason Cowers.
Speaker 1: Hard to believe, but we have reached week six of
the college football season. Welcome into Florida Football Insider's podcast.
I'm your host, Jason down here in Tampa. Yeah, appreciate
you finding us. We are part of the College Gridiron
Coast to Coast podcast network feed. If you haven't already
done so, hit that subscribe, rate and review button on
your favorite podcast platform. Love to hear from you if
you have any comments, questions. But again, hard to believe.
We hit the month of October, week six of the
college football season. We are real close to the halfway point.
Had a lot of buys in the state of Florida
last week. FIU, USF, Miami, Florida all had buys last week.
Heading into this week's action, We're gonna do a couple
of recaps for you, and then we're gonna do a
great preview with TJ.
Speaker 2: Reeves. We're gonna preview the.
Speaker 1: Big showdown up at Tallahassee Saturday night Florida State Miami,
as well as the critical, critical game for the Florida
Gators and Billy Napier in Gainesville as Arch Manning and
the Texas Longhorns come to town on Saturday afternoon.
Speaker 2: UCF will be hosting.
Speaker 1: Kansas on Saturday in their second Big twelve game. USF
will be playing on Friday night against Charlotte here in Tampa,
FAU on the road at Rice, and FIUs on the
road at Yukon.
Speaker 2: So lots of games to preview.
Speaker 1: Were going to talk a little Florida State upset last
week in Charlottesville just takes the luster off the game
this week a little bit, but again a critical, critical
game for Mike Norvell coming off the loss up in
Virginia last Friday night. And we'll again we'll do nice
little preview both games. We'll talk about some other topics
in the state of Florida coach Jim Levitt, We'll talk
a little USSEF Memphis potentially showdown in the month of October,
and all the rest Again TJ. Reeves will be joining
us here in just a couple of minutes to talk again.
Speaker 2: TJ.
Speaker 1: Reeves, sideline reporter for the Buccaneer Tampa Bay Buccaneer Radio Network,
longtime media member here in the Tampa Bay market, has
followed that Florida State Miami rivalry for going on thirty
five years. Again, we'll get into some nostalgia and some
other things. We'll talk a little Billy napier future as well.
So let's do a couple of quick recaps of last
week's action before we get to TJ. Obviously, Florida State
drops there for a tough, tough game up in Charlottesville,
double overtime. You know, if you saw the game, the
receiver from Florida State drops the perfect throw in the
second overtime from Thomas Castellanos. Juggles the ball, not able
to retain possession, really really close call on replay, he
doesn't end up making the catch. Florida State ends up
not scoring in that second overtime. They lose a tough,
tough game to Virginia. Tony Elliott and the Virginia Cavaliers
just gave up too many points up there in Charlottesville
if you remember back in nineteen ninety five, which we
will discuss. They also Florida State lost a as a
top ten team in America. Lost a last play of
the game scenario up in Charlottesville back in nineteen ninety five,
but again a terrible, terrible loss for the Seminoles. They
dropped a three to one. As Miami comes to town
this week, again Castellanos the defense gave up a lot
of points. I was in and out of this game.
I didn't get to see much of this game. I
was officiating a high school game on Friday night. I
did catch the overtimes, but again it sounds like the
Florida State, you know, defense did not play as well
as they had been playing. Obviously, Virginia, we know, is
a pretty good offensive team. But again Castellanos got them
to overtime, delivered in the first overtime and then throw
a beautiful ball in the second overtime. I believe it
was Deduce Robinson, who if he catches it clean, it's
an easy touchdown, but he doesn't. He juggles the ball,
juggles the ball, and then finally gets that foot in
just a.
Speaker 2: Smidge too late.
Speaker 1: After prior to him getting possession. After getting possession, full
possession of the ball on the juggle, so FS huge
again drops the three and one first eight conference loss,
which makes this Miami game even more critical, which we'll
get into that here in a little bit. So the
Knoles fall to three and one. UCF plays their first
Big twelve game last weekend in Manhattan, Kansas. They fall
to Kansas State thirty four to twenty for their first
loss of the year and Scott for Scott Frost. The
theme of this game was the injury situation at quarterback
for Central Florida. They have a bunch of rushing yards
to Dylan Edwards. I think he had about one hundred
and seventy yards plus rushing for Kansas State. UCF just
mightily struggled on offense to move the ball again. Tavan
Jackson got injured. They played a couple of different quarterbacks
in the game and just could never get the offensive
rhythm going there to fall to three and one. UCF
comes back to the Bounce House this Saturday night to
face Kansas, who came off of a shootout loss.
Speaker 2: To Cincinnati last week.
Speaker 1: Kansas comes into about about a five to five and
a half point favorite. Kansas will be led by quarterback
Jalen Daniels, who's had who had had a really good
year so far, very good, dynamic dual threat quarterback. Again,
I think this might be a tough This will probably
be a tough matchup for UCF. Again, we're not sure
the quarterback situations.
Speaker 2: As of yet.
Speaker 1: But again, and you know, if you're Scott Frost, this
is a game you should be in the game. And
if you're gonna win a couple of games this year
in the conference, this is when you need to win
at home against a middling Kansas team who've already lost
a couple of games this year, lose a heartbreaker thriller.
Speaker 2: Last week in Lawrence against Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: So again the opportunity here for UCF to get off
to get a win in the Big twelve Ledger in
Orlando on Saturday night. FAU falls to one in three
they lose last week fifty five twenty six to Memphis.
This game was relatively close going to the fourth quarter.
If FAU gets outscored thirty one to seven. In the
fourth quarter, quarterback veld Camp throws for three to eighteen
for FAU. FAU had two receivers both Messer and Platte
with one hundred plus yards receiving, So good showing there
for FAU, but again just a collapse in the fourth quarter.
Get out scored by twenty four, you lose by twenty nine,
so it's a five point game going to the fourth quarter.
Speaker 2: They they had.
Speaker 1: They head back on the road this week to Rice again,
a game that's winnable, a winnable game for them. So
FAU falls to again one to three heading on the road.
Conference play at Rice this year, f i U two
and two on the year bye last week, they head
up to see Jim Mori Junior and the Yukon Huskies. Again,
Yukon has been pretty mediocre, so this is a game
FIU can win, so again look for the Panthers to
put up a good performance on the road at Yukon, again,
a winnable game, conference game as they get their conference
schedule and going in full fourth us F three and
one coming off the by they play Friday night at
home here in Tampa against Charlotte, a game they got.
Speaker 2: You have to win this game if you're us. They're
a big favorite. Again.
Speaker 1: They're eyeing a potential late October showdown with Memphis. But
you got to take care of business here. Uh in
the in the early months, in the early games weeks
of October. Again a game that they will be They're
heavy favored in uh Byron Byron Brown, Alex Goldish and company.
H coming off the bye week again following the Miami
loss where they were thoroughly beaten by the Hurricanes again
again will be a see what this USF program is about?
Can they be professional and take care of business the
next couple of weeks leading into that Memphis game?
Speaker 3: Uh?
Speaker 1: They don't you know? That Memphis game will be a
long way in determining potentially who could be a potential
playoff team, non Power five playoff team here, non Power
four playoff team you still got. You got Navy later
in the year. But again, uh, a Charlotte team that
you have to beat. Uh and they should beat here
in Tampa on Friday night. All right, the Gators. Let's
get to the Gators again coming off the buye. They
got Texas again, TJ and I'll break down this game
in depth here in just a couple of minutes. But again,
all the speculation about Billy Napier's future.
Speaker 2: And we will get into that as well. So in Miami.
Speaker 1: Obviously, coming off the buy four and oh top five
in the country, they're heading They're heading to Tallahassee Saturday night.
Herb Street and Fowler will be on the call again.
Game Day probably would have been in Tallahassee had they
not lost last week to Virginia, but they did. But again,
still a epic renewal of the rivalry here. Florida State Miami,
where both teams are are ranked, got a lot to
play for. So good to see this rivalry back to
where it needs to be in the national forefront, in
the national picture for a potential playoff bid. Again, huge
game for Florida State. You don't want to have two
losses in early October and two conference losses at that,
so big, big game for Florida State to rebound at home.
The defense needs to be better and we will should
be a really, really good matchup. Florida Miami comes into
into this game about a four to four and a
half point favorite, but again, the lines of scrimmage will
be key for Florida State. Miami has been excellent on
the defensive and offensive lines. The running game with Fletcher
and company have been good. Carson Beck's been good, not great,
and he doesn't need to be great if he's just good.
They got a good core wide receivers, lean on that
defense who's been really good, so it should be a
really really good atmosphere up in Dope Campbell on Saturday night.
There So quick update on the NFL teams. Bucks go
to the fall to Philadelphia, they go to three and one,
head head back out on the road to Seattle this week.
They're very beat up on the offense. Bucky Irving probably
not gonna play. You're missing some guys on defense, so
he beat up. Buccaneers. Team heads on the road to
Seattle to face the Seahawks, who also three and one.
Good note here, both teams will be wearing throwback uniforms
the nineteen Both of these teams were nineteen seventy six
expansion teams in the NFL, so you'll see both those
teams wearing the old school uniforms, which would be cool
to see late late starting Seattle four o'clock start Eastern time.
In Seattle, Jags are gonna be hosting the Kansas City
Chiefs Monday night football. They moved to three and one
after an impressive went out west against the San Francisco
forty nine ers. You probably saw the little beef between
Sali and Liam Cohen concerning some alleged sign stealing, legal
sign stealing, you know, comments by Robert Slid towards Liam Cohen.
There was a nice little altercation after the game. Some
choice words were exchange. But again, nice job by the
Jaguars going out to San Francisco and beating that forty
nine er team. This Jaguar defense leads the NFL.
Speaker 2: And turnovers. I think they had four turnovers last week
in San Francisco. A big test.
Speaker 1: Coming up on Monday night with the two and two
Chiefs come to town. The Chiefs have gotten their act
together the last two weeks. They destroyed the Baltimore Ravens
on Sunday. And this is a game I think I
think the Jaguars can win. Lawrence has been playing pretty
good at TN, has been playing really well running back.
You got to get Brian Thomas back on track and
that often those wide receivers going. But again, I think
this is a game that the Jaguars can be in
and can potentially win this game. Again, if you remember
listening to early in the year, I said the Jaguars,
We're gonna be a surprise team for me in the
AFC along with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Both teams are three
and one, so keep an eye out on Monday night
in Jacksonville. Shout out to my guy David Moulton, who
will be on the call part of the broadcast team
with ESPN with Buck and Aikman. So shout out to
our guy, David Moulton, who also works with the CBS
crew on Saturdays with Danielson and Nessler. They will be
out west this week, I believe in Los Angeles to
do UCLN Penn State. So kudos to again David Moulton,
who's been on this podcast before and we will have
him on later in the year. As we moved through
the year, Miami Dolphins finally get their first win of
the year and Monday Night they beat the Jets. Want
to go to one and three. Big news here is
Tyreek Hill. Obviously, with the gruesome knee injury, he's done
for the year. The Dolphins head to Carolina this weekend
again another winnable game. How will the Dolphins handle no
Tyreek Hill? They do get Darren Waller back in the
lineup who had two touchdowns, so he will be a factor,
I believe for the Dolphins at tight end. But now
you have Wattle, you have Waller a chan How will
the Dolphins handle no Tyreek Hill will be interesting to see.
But that was a must win game for Mike McDaniel
being a bad Jets team on Monday night and they
did what they needed to do to take care of business.
So there's your recap again. TJ Reeves Buccaneers Radio, part
of the Three Doll Thursday podcast, part of The Last
The Last Word on Sports Media podcast and such and
many other things that we TJ and I do together.
But again we're gonna talk Florida Texas as well as
Florida history of a little Florida state, Miami, talk a
little Jim Levitt, talk a little Billy Napier, and some
other great topics.
Speaker 2: So you'll enjoy that. Again.
Speaker 1: Appreciate you finding us X and Twitter at JPO Sports.
Love to hear any feedback you have again, College Gridiron,
Coast to Coast podcast, network Feed if you're interested in
stuff about anything college football related. Big twelve, The Service
Academy's the ACC the Big Ten. Go to the College
Gridiron Coast to Coast podcast feed. You can get a
podcast from our great team of hosts about all things
college football no matter what part of the country you
enjoy outside here of the state of Florida as well,
So appreciate you finding us. Tell a friend go check
out the video content as well on my YouTube channel
and Jason Powers Sports channel on YouTube. You can also
go to the Facebook page and check out the video
with TJ and I as well.
Speaker 2: So have a great week.
Speaker 1: Let's go Florida State, Florida State Miami Rivalry back on
the center stage. Have a great week and we'll see
you next week. Right after you hear from TJ Reeves
Florida Football Insiders podcast, be right back with Labor Day
in the rearview mirror. Finally, the college and NFL seasons
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Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: We are going to preview a little Florida and Texas
as well as Florida State Miami. No better person to
do that than somebody who's been around this, these two
rivalries and these programs going on thirty five years or
so in the.
Speaker 2: Sports media world.
Speaker 1: Radio covering Buccaneers for the Buccaneer on Sunday on the
sidelines for the Buccaneers, host of the Big twelve weekly
game Day, Big twelve Game Day on tune in nine
am to twelve to talk all things Big twelve. I
e UCF in company as they get into the meta
there Big twelve Schedules to TJ Reeves back with us.
Thank you for jumping in on last minute.
Speaker 4: Notice here, so I'm happy to do it, and we're
even doing it live here talking all things college football.
You and I speak the language. I mean, we can
go back to Casey Weldon and Gino Torretta and all
the names of the eighties and the nineties from Derrek
Brooks to Michael Irvin, etc. And the Miami Florida State
r I know Toretta, Yeah, Toretta with a heisman, Charlie
Ward with a heisman. Out of all of this, they
renew the rivalry again here and it has magnitude. A
little of the luster is off, We're going to get
into it because of the loss to Virginia, but it's
still a large one and we got plenty to talk about.
How long does Billy Napier survive, especially if Texas rolls
them off the bye week. We keep wondering that so
a lot to go over. Great to be with.
Speaker 1: You guys haven't already done, so hit that subscribe and
rate and review button on your favorite podcast platform you're
on Facebook'd love to hear some comments while while we're
doing all this stuff.
Speaker 2: And again, tell this.
Speaker 1: Florida Football Insiders podcast comes out every single week.
Speaker 2: We talk nothing but Florida State of Florida college football.
We'll sprinkle a little NFL with the Jags and the
Bucks and the Dolphins.
Speaker 1: They're off the good starts with especially in Jacksonville and
Tampa had the injury with Tyreek Hill. But the focus
of this conversation with TJ's primarily going to be Florida State, Miami,
Little Texas in Florida.
Speaker 2: Let's go back to last Friday Night.
Speaker 1: Thirty years to go almost you know, thirty years anniversary
of the famous Thursday Night lost in Charlottesville for the Seminoles,
a similar fate for the Knowles on Friday in Charlottesville.
Give me a thought or two about very dangerous situation
at the end of that game. When Florida State throws
that last incomplete pass, the crowd goes wild, which again
we understand that, but you gotta have some better security
in place to protect the players and the people on
the field. Give me a thought or two about what
can schools conferences do to help this situation with the
field rushing.
Speaker 4: The primary word is dangerous. I mean that was such
a dangerous situation. And another word is preventable. It's preventable
in that if you have a show of force with
security and you've made the threat real enough to the university,
to the athletic department. That I mean they ended up
finding Virginia fifty thousand dollars. And again, to just elaborate
on what you explained, the pass goes incomplete in the
overtime to end the game on the fourth down, and
when it does, there are literally I'm not exaggerating. You
would agree there are literally two or three thousand people
who are in the end zone and on that half
of the field within five to seven seconds. Yes, I
mean it is an absolute stampede of people. I saw
something where there were nineteen injuries among the Virginia students
and the yahoos and morons that were running over each
other to run on trample on each other, and there
were easily five thousand what would you guess there were
easily five thousand at the end, and maybe seven or
eight thousand people that it's dreamed on the field, trampling
everything and everybody just way too dangerous. I have advocated
for a while that I don't know that it's just
financial penalties. They're gonna do it again. Virginia got fined
fifty thousand dollars. That's for like a first offense, and
then the next defense is supposed to be like triple that,
or you know, maybe two hundred and fifty grand. If
what about this real quick, and we'll get into the
extras and those of the game. If you were to
go nuclear option, I think you and I have talked
about this before, and you say to these conferences, say
this to your schools. Do you do the field storm,
you do the court storm. You're losing a home game
next year instead of playing six home games, whatever it is,
five home games, you're gonna play five or four of them.
You're gonna lose one of your home games. If you
do this, watch these athletic departments and the security staff
and the operations people. Drill it into the students, drill
it into everybody at the game. You're not running on
the field Nowhere in your ticket, Nowhere in any part
of the fan code of conduct does it say, you
know what, if this ends, you get to run on
the field at the end of any of this. Because
you bought a ticket, you get to be out there.
So some would look at that as heavy handed, but man,
you would only probably have to do that one time
to put a stop to it everywhere, that's my thought.
Speaker 2: Or give make an announcement.
Speaker 1: We're gonna give Florida State three minutes to get off
the field or five minutes. Let them get off the field.
Make sure everybody's safe on that front. And if you
guys want to then come on the field after five minutes,
right open up the gates.
Speaker 4: Sure, and they do that in a lot of these arenas,
now for Big time basketball, where they make the announcement,
do not run on the court, immediately, let the visiting
team get off the floor. Blah blah blah. You'll see
the security and again a basketball arenas different, less people,
more confined area. They'll put the big yellow rope up
with the security show of force and everybody's got the
same polo or the same wind breaker on and let
the visiting team get off the floor. That's the danger.
I mean, the thing that I'm thinking is did that
Florida State player and even the Virginia player, did they
get trampled on? I know they're in patting, but it
was just crazy at the end of the game, and
it marred what was as big a game that Virginia
has had, as big a win as they have had
in a decade, if not, going back to that Florida
State game, the initial acc loss by the Seminoles tremendous
win for them, and it does take a little, as
we Saidgue, it does take a little luster off the
Miami game to have had that happen, to have a
loss last Friday night.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's let's move forward to this Friday or Saturday night.
You know, obviously, the Canes come to town top five
in the country. They come into about a four point favorite,
coming off of a bye week. This is desperation time
for Florida State. I mean, a second loss is now
a second conference loss. Now you're in real trouble of
not having enough quality wins left on the schedule to
get back in the mix potentially, and there's no guarantee
you make.
Speaker 2: It to the a SEC title game.
Speaker 1: There you go Jamia having a tiebreaker, Georgia Tech playing
well Miami, So you got a lot of moving parts
here that really make this a desperation kind of game
for Mike Norvell and the Seminoles.
Speaker 4: And again, you know, this is what the sport is about. Now,
that's not to say because we saw two loss teams
and even Clemson was a three loss team get in
and SMU ended up being a three loss team, right
get in. So it's not unheard of that you have
three losses and get in. It's who's those three losses
too when it's right down to it. But yeah, this
means a lot. This means a lot. And again Castellano's
played heroically for Florida State. They ran killed them.
Speaker 2: In second overtime.
Speaker 4: They killed them, couldn't couldn't come up with the ball.
They've run the ball pretty well, Virginia moved the ball
on them. You go against Carson Beck and the Miami
run game with Fletcher and the explosive players they have,
and Miami is probably as good a defense as Florida
State's gonna see all season, that includes playing the Gators
at the end of the year. So this is gonna
be a wild scene. Again, you and I are nostalgic.
We go back to the eighties and the nineties when
this game was such a massive game. Uh, in particular
because neither one of them were in a conference. They
were independents playing each other, and it meant everything trying
to get into a better bowl game or kind of
the you know, the mix for the mythical national championship
because there was no playoff. So it's fun to be
nostalgic here in twenty twenty five and reminisce about primetime
Florida State hosting Miami.
Speaker 1: Give me, give me a memory that just you know,
as a sports fan and as a broadcaster.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna say it. I'm gonna say it because you're
a or wide right? How do you get away from
wide Right biting Florida State not once, not twice, but
three times in this series that cost them? And you
were around? Tell the story. You were around for the
first of the was it the first or the second
of them? Of the wide Rights in the late eighties?
Speaker 2: The first one, Yeah, nineteen ninety one.
Speaker 1: I was a freshman at Florida State and uh, yeah,
so I was involved in some of that And yeah,
when a series is named basically nationally got two words wide, right,
you know it's historical. But again, the number of all
Americans that have played in this game and they've been
at the top five, the number of times both teams
have been in the top five of the country is unmatched.
I think nationally yeah, r you know, ray Lewis has
played in this game, where adunn Is played in this game.
Speaker 4: And you just go on and on from Bernie Cozar
to Willis McGahee and Clinton Portis back in the early
two thousands. I mean, this is this has been a
wild game for a long time. And let's see if
we get a good one on Saturday night with the
Canes and the Knowles.
Speaker 2: Do you give me?
Speaker 1: Give me a quick who do you like? Miami is
a four point favorite. I think Florida State gives a
big effort.
Speaker 4: Ultimately, this is Florida State bouncing back at home. I
love malson the play caller again. Full credit to Miami
beating Notre Dame at the beginning of the year. You know,
since that time, there's kind of question marks. USF is
pretty good. Are they really good? They beat Florida in
a in a slug fest so stay tuned, stay tuned
on this one. I think it could be Florida State,
probably by a god. Do I say a field goal?
A field goal wins it for FSU. Maybe what do
you think? Are you going on the record.
Speaker 2: I hate to say this.
Speaker 1: I think the trenches are going to be the difference
in the defense of Miami is gonna make enough plays.
I think Miami's gonna win a close one.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I mean, I hate to say that.
I just think this is a year for Miami.
Speaker 1: I think if Mario stays out of the way doesn't
botch it, which there's no guarantee you that, right, right, I.
Speaker 2: Mean, it's it should be.
Speaker 1: The cool thing is is that the matchup is back
in the national spotlight. You're gonna have Herb Street and
Fowler calling the game. It's a night game, so I
think that's gonna bring some of the luster back.
Speaker 4: But again, still, I still I'm nostalgic for like Ron
Franklin and Mike Gottfried on ESPN. We love those announcers.
I remember Musburger, Brent Musburger and Era Parsiger doing this
game on CBS in the eighties. Uh when when Florida
State would battle Miami.
Speaker 2: See Jackson, Bob Greasy, Keith.
Speaker 4: Keith Jackson, Bob Greasy, great call. I mean that that's
what you're talking about with this, with this rivalry. So
let's let's see if we get a good one on
Saturday night.
Speaker 1: All right, let's before we get to Florida, Florida and Texas.
Little news that come out of the Tampa Mayry in
the last couple of weeks that has a little effect
on another team in the state of Florida.
Speaker 2: University of South Florida.
Speaker 1: Jim Levitt, the Chargers, you know, if you didn't follow
the story, was arrested on some on some felony charges
those or just have been dropped. USF has just hired
a new athletics director slash CEO guy, you know, Rob Higgins,
from the Tampa Bay area, and they and they coach
coach Levin, Rob Higgins have gotten together and talked and
he was coach Levitt was supposed to get put into
the USF Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2: That is not gonna happen this year.
Speaker 1: Just give me a thought of do you think it
will happen down the road?
Speaker 2: You know, how do you think that's been handled by this.
Speaker 4: Will clarify a couple of things they're having the induction ceremony.
USF has said, just to be clear, they're going to
put him in the Hall of Fame. However, it is
not in anybody's best interest to have him around the
media and have him around the publicity of this event,
because it's automatically going to turn to this recent arrest,
even though the charges were dropped. It's not a good situation.
It involves a female, an ex girlfriend I believe of his,
where he was upset with her. They're in a parking
lot of an apartment complex. Something happened where he was
trying to take back literally a Louis Vaton expensive perse
cops are called. Investigation ensues. He's arrested for assault. He's
arrested for false false imprisonment not letting her leave, and
again the charges are dropped. It's an ugly situation. The
guys the architect of the USF program and full disclosure,
I have a lot of personal relationship with him going
back to the late nineties. He has been very good
to me on a professional and a personal level. I
have not spoken I purposely stayed away I've not spoken
with Jim Levitt during the middle of all of this.
I will reach out to him here as all of
this wanes and after they do what they do Friday.
But I understand USF's point of view. You're going to
taint this for the other Hall of Fame members if
he becomes a focal point and a negative focal point,
and so they need to let this die down and
maybe a year from now they recognize him, maybe a
couple of years from now. I know he would like
to be recognized sooner than later. Deserves a lot of
credit for what they built. I understand the people that
are in the camp that he obviously had problems with
an active player on his team and allegations that he
struck that player at halftime of the game. It led
to his firing. So there's a lot of USF people
that are anti him, not an overwhelming number, but there
are some. There are some that believe he should not
be in the USF Athletic Hall of Fame too, right.
I disagree with that. I think he should be there.
But if they're going to make him wait, I understand
why Rob Higgins, who's brand new as the new athletic
director and why the university want to wait on the
negative publicity. There's all of my takes if you want
to get in on that, and I'm.
Speaker 2: With you, Coach Levit has been very good to me
in this podcast.
Speaker 1: He's been on this podcast in my podcast numerous times
in the last two three years. So I like coach,
and like you said, I've purposely not reached out to
him during all this. I will, like you said, as
this wanes and gets a little further away from from
from all this, I definitely will do that.
Speaker 2: But he's a great football mind.
Speaker 1: Like you said, he he started this program from a
trailer correct zero.
Speaker 4: The fastest assent from one Double A or Division two,
Division three to Division one once now the FCS they
they got to Division one inside of five years, and
at that time nobody had ever tried that that quickly.
And they were competitive. They were competitive and pulling upsets
of Division one teams people, And so there needs to
be recognition for what he built. Here we are now
almost thirty years later on what he his staff and
those players built.
Speaker 2: No doubt, no doubt.
Speaker 1: I think he'll, like you said, I think eventually he'll
get the recognition of an in person celebration. But you're right,
this is probably not the time, Like you said, new ad,
new new kind of vision of the universe. So I
think they're probably making the prudent thing to do. But
he is getting inducted just for be on site.
Speaker 2: Okay, correct for the clarification on that. Yes, yep, very good,
very good.
Speaker 1: Give me a quick thought on the USF program again,
we're four weeks in there, three and one again lose
badly at Miami, but again, your team, Memphis, USF could
have a showdown here in about three.
Speaker 2: Weeks or so in Memphis. He's wearing the shirt.
Speaker 4: For the pod audience. I couldn't see it. I'm pimping
the shirt tonight for the Memphis Tigers. All right. So
USF is gonna be favored here against Charlotte, and I
can't remember the other two games before, but that showdown
in Memphis looms large with the with the yes for
the for the the nonpower schools, for the group of six.
I guess they're calling it. This is uh, this is
gonna be a massive game in Memphis at the end
of the month. USF's got to take care of business
to get there, so does Memphis to get there. And
again for Byron Brown quarterback, their defense is improved, they
should be able to win this game with Charlotte on
Friday decisively. Charlotte is not good, so it's kind of
it's set up well for that to be a Marquee
showdown game where the Bulls have already beaten Boise State
and they've already beaten Florida. And for Memphis, they've already
beaten Arkansas out of the conference. And again I'm just
double checking on the USF schedule that after Charlotte they
will play North Texas who's pretty good on the road,
and Florida Atlantic, who's bad at home. So theoretically USF
should roll in six and one to Memphis, and Memphis
on their schedule probably gonna be seven to zero going
into that game.
Speaker 1: Stay tuned, no doubt, no doubt that that will be huge, huge,
that'll be a big ESPN game.
Speaker 2: If those two teams.
Speaker 1: Get there, that'll probably be a mid afternoon three point
thirty kind of game on ESPN two. You will see
that absolution, no doubt about it. All Right, let's go
to the swamp TJ again. Armageddon, Armageddon kind of game
for the Gators coming off of a bye week. They've
been competitive against LSU, been competitive against Miami, but can't
get over the hump. They keep can't score. The offense
has been a disaster. DJ Lagway has regressed again. Arch
Manning coming in not playing great either against you know,
did not play great. Ohio State played three cupcakes, still
haven't played great. How do you see this game kind
of unfolding Saturday?
Speaker 4: Texas obviously has the higher powered offense. Clearly, Florida has
struggled to do anything well offensively except going back to
playing the week FCS Long Island program. In the first game,
they could not do anything with USF defense, They could
not do anything with LSU where Lagway through the five interceptions,
and then also down in Miami. They got back in
the game. They ran the ball a little better in
that game, but they still lost. Now they've had a
bye week. You know, I guess there's two schools of thought.
They have had an extra week to prepare. They have
the game at home, they're gonna play with the most
It's going to be a close game. Or is this
the beginning of exposing just what a mistake this was
to bring Billy Napier back and Texas drills them, and
then they go to college station in Texas A and
m drills them next week. And now you're you're basically
borrow time. He's just whenever they want to fire him.
I don't know. I don't know what we're gonna see
for this matchup at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium and Steve
Spurrier Field. Stay tuned. What do you think off the
bye week here for four?
Speaker 2: It's gonna be very interesting.
Speaker 1: I think it's again the defense we think is going
to be good, but again, can can Florida manufacture enough offense?
Speaker 2: DJ Lagway has not been very good.
Speaker 1: The play calling has been very pedestrian. They've got good
running backs, but they've not been given the guy and
the running back to.
Speaker 2: The ball enough.
Speaker 1: In my view, I just worry about them not being
able to move the ball. And will that you know
this crowd, will that Florida crowd if it's turn on early,
turn on them quickly early second quarter?
Speaker 4: Well, and you know I heard Chris Doring talking about this,
who again he would have credibility. He's on all the
SEC network coverage. He's also on Sirius XM doing a
regular show, if not a daily show, and he was saying, listen,
you know I am orange and blue through and through,
but there is just no imagination on this offense. There's
nothing different this year than what they was last year.
It is what it is. Billy Napier is who he is.
This isn't gonna change. And he was saying, without saying it,
it doesn't matter here. If you were to somehow sneak
a game out of this gauntlet stretch with Texas, Texas
A and M, what did we say, Tennessee Georgia?
Speaker 2: They started a miss right, miss Florida City State. Who's
pretty good that.
Speaker 4: How many of those games are you gonna win? Realistically?
Playing offense like this, I'm saying that now. But Doring.
Doring was basically saying, we ruled, We ruled the sec offensively,
We dominated and destroyed people offensively. And he goes this,
this isn't going to ever be any different than what
you're seeing. You've got to make a change. And so
is this the beginning of the end. If Texas drills them,
what does Scott Strickland do? Does he wait for the
A and M game and wait then, because at that
point the outcry is going to be so large that
you've got to do something. So stay tuned, stay tuned
on Florida Texas.
Speaker 1: And you just saw at Arkansas what they did to
Sam Pittman after getting destroyed at home.
Speaker 4: So what are we up to now with Deshaun Foster
being fired by UCLA, Brent Priye being fired by Virginia
Tech Pittman, and there's one other FBS Big time conference
program that somebody else fired the coach as well, So
you've had four of them already. So to say, oh
my god, you can't do this during the season early
in the season, well, you're seeing it already. And part
of it is the nil the transfer portal. I mean,
you are basically going to lose all of your guys
if you go through the motions here if they are
bad and they've lost, now a fourth game, a fifth
game here in the middle of the season. Not a
good situation. Not a good situation.
Speaker 1: They do have a bye week before Georgia, so that
could be a natural time if you're gonna do again.
You can always do it week to week, but if
you want to give whoever the next person is two weeks,
that would be the next natural which is not until
four weeks from now, so they could be easily one
in seven something like that.
Speaker 4: This is Florida we're talking about. This is not Vanderbilt, right,
This is not your doormat programs the year in year
out that don't seem to win, like Northwestern or Wake
Forest or the lowly programs of college football year in
year out that don't ever seem to win anything. This
is This is a program that, by the way, has
a couple of national championships in this century in the
last ten or fifteen years with Urban Meyer, and has
an expectation of being an SEC championship caliber team. And
you're talking about one in seven. Dear God, all.
Speaker 1: Right, listen to Florida Football Insiders podcast along with TJ.
Reeves host a Big twelve Game Day on tune in Saturdays,
nine to twelve. Anything Big twelve related. UCF Kansas is again,
very very competitive conference. Arizona State TCU, got a lot
of good teams in that conference, Iowa State, Rock Obeck,
Tampa guy leading that charge. So you got yeah, you
got BYU who's playing well. So a lot of great
stuff on the.
Speaker 4: All right, So UCF hosting Kansas on Saturday night while
we talked Florida Football Insiders and UCF off the loss
to Kansas State last week and their quarterback Tavan Jackson
got hurt looked like separated throwing shoulders. So we're not doctors.
We just play them on Florida Football Insiders here doesn't
look like he's playing. Kansas is smarting because they lost
a shootout game again, this time to Cincinnati at home.
Cincinnati came from behind in the final minute after Jalen
Daniels threw for four hundred plus yards and I think
had five combined touchdowns running and receiving wasn't enough. Cincinnati
drove down the field and scored in the final minute
of the game and won the game. So now both
teams off a loss. Game in Orlando, UCF decimated North Carolina.
That may be more about North Carolina than about UCF.
Speaker 2: So, like Scott.
Speaker 1: Frosts in the return as the head coach, do you
think that was a good move?
Speaker 4: They they have been better, although they had trouble defensively
with Kansas State. That's what a lot of people are
talking about. Jalen Daniels is a fantastic duel threat, dangerous
running quarterback, So let's see if UCF can contain him
or not. That'll be a fascinating later later in the
night matchup in the Big Twelve that we'd be previewing
on Saturday. As she gave me the plug there with
Big Twelve Game Day on tune in, we set the
table for all the different Big Twelve games. And it's
wild that this conference has Eastern time zone teams like
UCF and SINCE and West Virginia, and then you go
all the way out west and you've got BYU and
on you got Arizona and Arizona State out in Arizona.
You you span three different time zones here with this conference.
So it's wild.
Speaker 2: Give me a thought on the quarterbacks.
Speaker 1: We all thought this year was going to be a
huge quarterback class, and through five weeks there's been a
lot of disappointments, a lot of under overvalued. Nussmeyer Arch
has not played well. DJ Lagway has not played great.
Give me a thought or two on these quarterbacks get
huge nil money, all these guys.
Speaker 2: In your view. You've watched a lot of these games.
Speaker 4: Now, some have delivered. I know you know this. Bryce
Underwood has delivered so far as a freshman at Michigan.
He's a guy that has stood out. How about Dante Moore,
We've talked about him the UCLA transfer to Oregon. Man
was he ice water at Penn State the other night
in the overtime when they in the double overtime when
they had to have it. So some of the quarterback
play has been good. How good has Tyler Simpson or
now ty Simpson looked for Alabama since the opening loss
to Florida State. He's come on, Carson Beck makes Miami
a better team. So you have some quarterback play. But
I'm with you that the hype on arch Manning right
now seems to be unfounded. And I guess the announcement
that hey, he's not going to come out even though
he would be eligible. Because he's not coming out, he's
gonna play college football again next year twenty twenty six,
that looks like the smart move right now for him.
So yeah, but again, rock O Beck is very entertaining
to watch and a leader for Iowa State, one of
the best teams in the Big Twelve. So yeah, the
quarterback play has been interesting all over college football. Stay tuned,
stay tuned for more of it. And let's see. Why
do I get the feeling that we're going to see
is Arch Manning going to really be the difference against
Lagway and play a brilliant game here? The question marks
grow if he's not very good in this game early on?
You know, I've I've heard a couple of people saying this,
and I want your thought. That he's got the Manning name,
We understand that, but he was playing at like the
two A level of private school football in Louisiana, right,
all right, so now you take a step up to
the Godzilla SEC and the learning curve may be getting
to him or dare we say was he may be
overrated based just on his name and the fact that
he's Peyton and Eli's nephew. Jury still out. What do
you think of that? Though, that there's some question marks
about level of competition at the high school?
Speaker 2: Lo oh, for sure.
Speaker 1: I mean it's again we all want to put Arch
on the pedestal of Peyton and Eli. They if you
look at Peyton's you know, Peyton wasn't great from day one.
I mean, he was good at ten play as a freshman, right,
I mean, so I think we have to have through
the balance of being fair that he's new to starting,
first time he started. I know he's been on campus
a couple of years, but that ain't the same as
getting in there every Saturday in the SEC.
Speaker 2: And I know he only had he's only played one
big opponent.
Speaker 1: His first game was at the defending National Championship on
the road. So you can't expect him to be great.
But some of the basic things that you want to
see out of quarterback play, he's not shown to be
super consistent. Will that get better over time? We will see.
Speaker 4: Sarkisha would Sarkshan is a quarterback guru offensive mine. He
can help him. Now, stay tuned and let's see if
it delivers.
Speaker 2: The good thing is the good thing. He doesn't have
to be an All American.
Speaker 1: He's got a big defense, he doesn't have to be fantastic,
but he's got to be good.
Speaker 2: He's got to be better than he's been.
Speaker 1: If Texas wants to have real national championship aspirations, I
think he will grow into the job again. Will it
happen this year, we don't know. Will it happen Saturday
in the swamp, we don't know. But ja pressure, big
pressure on him if he doesn't play well, in the
swamp and they were to somehow get beat in Gainesville
on Saturday, the heat would be excoriating if he If
they lose that game in the swamp and he doesn't play.
Speaker 4: Well, Welcome to the pressure cooker of the SEC because
I mean, everybody's clobber and Kaylin de boor what's wrong
with Alabama? Blah blah blah. They go win this game
with Georgia and now everybody's talking about them contending for
the national title again. Week to week, this all changes.
We got to keep up with it, Jason.
Speaker 1: That's the beauty of the portal and all that stuff
is the balance of power has been spread. Who would
have thought Vanderbilt Alabama would be college game day?
Speaker 4: Well right, but it was an upset a year ago
and there are a lot of people wondering is there
going to be a letdown for Alabama after the win
at Georgia. And you know, again, the quarterback makes a difference.
This Diego Pavia is electric for Vandy and DJ Lagway
has played nothing like that for Florida. So stay tuned,
stay tuned on whether the Gators get there at together. Man,
it's a shame that nothing's going on with all the
different college programs in the state of Florida on this pod.
I love being with you about all of this.
Speaker 2: All right, last question and I'll get jaded.
Speaker 1: Airo. We'll do a little NFL here real quick. Give
me a thought on the Buccaneers three and one at
the quarter pole.
Speaker 2: You got the.
Speaker 1: Jaguars who were surprising at three and one with what
Trevor Lawrence and Liam Cohen, who you know well, he
was in Tampa last year. Give me a thought or
two on those two teams as they get to the
quarter pole.
Speaker 4: Buccaneers lost a tough one with the Eagles. The Eagles
are really good. They got to get off to faster
starts and not dig a hole. Now you're going all
the way out to Seattle to play the Seahawks if
you're the Bucks, so you got to try to get
this because you don't want back to back losses. You're
coming back home to play San Francisco and then going
back out to play Monday night with the Lions. So
you don't have an easy schedule here with this four
game stretch with Eagle, Seahawks, forty nine Ers, Lions. But
I roll with Baker Mayfield. That guy's a ton of
fun speaking of college quarterbacks, that were fun with him
at Oklahoma and the Heisman Trophy and the whole bit.
So let's see what the Bucks do in Seattle this weekend.
And for the Jaguars, they go out and beat San
Francisco last week. Again, Liam Cohen is an offensive mind.
How he left the Buccaneers in the lurch to take
the job is still a bad taste in the mouth
of a lot of people in the Buccaneer building and
the fan base of the Bucks. But hey, the Jaguars
are loving this right now with the offense he's got.
And speaking of former Gators, Travis Etn the running back
is tremendous so far in the year, along with Lawrence
the quarterback. So Jacksonville gets Kansas City Hello. Now Friday
night foot for Monday night football. So yeah, we cover
it all here. You do a great job with with
all your endeavors, including Florida Football insiders. The Dolphins even
got on the on the board, but it looks like
they've lost Tyreek Hill, not just for this year, but
that's a that's a career threatening type injury. Yeah, with
the the kneecap fracture and the dislocation and the tor
kneeleg is awful, awful for them. But yeah, there's there's
no shortage of Saturdays and Sundays where we're paying attention
to everything in Florida football, for sure.
Speaker 1: Remember, folks, you know this podcast is part of the
College Greenwar Coast to Coast podcast Netwill reed we did.
We have podcasts concerning the ACC, the Big Ten, the SEC,
the service academies who are playing really well. So go
to College Gridiron Coast to Coast feed you'll see all
the podcasts.
Speaker 2: Each week. You can go archive previous week's podcast.
Speaker 4: Let me tell you the hosts are doing a great job.
Our buddy Matt Zimick with the Get Off My Pylon
podcast right name covers Western football. My man Tim Hamm,
Tim Hamm covering everything in Texas and food and alcohol
with the Pig Skin and burn Ins. Tyler Jones with
the Big twelve SEC Breakdown. You do tremendous work here
talking Florida. I mean there's such a cross section. Noah
Drewury talks the Big Ten up in Michigan, the ACC guys,
Jeffrey Fan and the ACC guys on their podcast, and
then Price and Steve are all over it with the
Service academies with Army, Navy, Air Force, and once again
Army and Navy look like contenders down the stretch here
in the American Conference should be a lot of fun
with the Service Academies, the Commander in Chief Trophy. If
you're a college football fan, there is something from for
everybody on this fee right here College Gridiron Coast to
Coast that you're on. If you're seeing us on social media,
go find the podcast seed because you can spend a
couple of hours, a couple of hours over the course
of two or three days and get caught up on
everything in college football. That's the whole idea behind the
College Gridiron Coast to Coast podcast feed. And you do
great work here talking the Florida angle well.
Speaker 1: He also TJ is involved with the three Dog Thursday podcast,
which so for you gamblers out there, we pick doggies
every week this.
Speaker 4: Short term investors are doing well with our advice? Are
we not? Through five weeks? What did we establish? We're
nineteen ten and one in thirty picks?
Speaker 2: Do I need to worry for?
Speaker 4: The host is twelve and three? The host is twelve
and three picking underdogs in college football.
Speaker 2: I believe one last week.
Speaker 4: Last night, find three Dog Thursday, wherever you get podcasts,
finding on the winning cures everything platform video, Channel three
Dog Thursday dot com. You and I are going to
be back on their handicamping games. It's not just FLA
every Thursday morning, every Thursday morning. It's out on pod
and on video. We've been doing well handicamping the games.
So let's see if that continues. Just underdogs. We don't
care about the underdogs, we don't care about totals, we
don't care about favorites. Thank you for all the plugs.
Great stuff is always. I mean, we love this. Uh again,
I go back to uh uh to the days of
this rivalry when uh, you know, Bernie Kosar was throwing
to Alonzo Heimman patrolling things for Florida State.
Speaker 2: Rad Johnson, Casey Weldon.
Speaker 4: Oh my god, all of these different players that are
that were in the NFL and uh, just tremendous had
read that played in this rivalry that's now in the NFL.
Oh my gosh. Yes, just tremendous, tremendous names throughout the
series of Miami Florida State. Let's see if we get
a good one. Let's see if we get a good
one in Tallahassee. How about this. I'm flying all the
way out to the Pacific Northwest where they don't care
anything about Florida and Texas in the afternoon, or Florida
State in Florida. But I'm gonna dig and find a
place where we can go and watch all of this
unfold out in the Pacific Northwest. Uh so before the
Bucks Seahawks game on Sunday, So stay tuned, we'll see
what the way.
Speaker 1: I gotta ask you one more thing before we go.
Have you ever thrown the salmon? Have you caught the
salmon out there?
Speaker 4: I have I have not caught or thrown. I have
stood next to somebody that tried to catch and dropped
at Pike's Market where the salmon comes flying in. They
love to they love to fire it back and forth.
It's a it's a neat tourist thing that's down there. Uh.
It's definitely different out in that part of the world.
And the Bucks and the Seahawks into the NFL the
same season nineteen seventy six, forty nine years ago, fifty
seasons ago, and here they are playing in the fiftieth season.
Speaker 2: Against were wearing some kind of throwback.
Speaker 4: Is the throwback again? The creamsicle numbered white jerseys with
the Bucko Bruce again will be out for this game
of Seahawks. Well, have the traditional royal blue and the
silver helmet and it'll be fun nostalgia but great college football.
First in the State of Florida. Before we get to Sunday,
my friend, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2: You got you.
Speaker 1: Appreciate you finding us. Folks were going to hit the
subscribe button. We'd love to hear from you. Give us
a share on Twitter and Facebook, whatever you wherever you're
seeing this at or listening. We'd loved again all things
State of Florida college football. Well you know you heard
in them before we talked to TJ. I gave you
the recaps with FIU and Faud. We had several teams
on buys this week, so not as many games to recap,
but every week we recap the games preview the next
week's games. Again, this is a big week in the
state of Florida with two matchups, big matchups, Napier's future
on the line, Florida state playoff sabilities online in Miami
got a big chance here to make a big statement nationally.
Speaker 2: All right, TJ Reaches, appreciate it, have a great trip out.
Appreciate you finding us folks.
Speaker 1: On the Florida Football Insiders podcast and we will see
you next week Florida Football Insiders Podcast. Thanks for listening
to the Florida Football Insiders Podcast as part of the
College Gridiron Coast to Coast podcast Network. Please remember to subscribe, rate,
and review if you've not already done so, and you
can reach out to me on Twitter at Jpost Sports.
Love to hear your comments and feedback about our episodes
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and we'll see you next week on the Florida Football
Insiders Podcast