Speaker 1: It is the Big twelve sec breakdown tit which else
down free year with you in the Coup League and
should look at booths of Big twelve and the Southeast
conferences will have football fucking buck folks. As week zero
he gets this week if some of our teams are
in action, Far Mageddon going on an island between ky
State and Iowa State, kau taking the Presno States on
Saturday as well. We'll talk about those games. And with
this being the start of the season, we got to
give you our official predictions for each of these conferences
as well as our national champion picks. Uh Here on
today's program, Tom, we begin with our hot takes as
we do each and every week, and I'll go to
far Mageddon for mine. I'll say this, Tom, I know
it's week zero, it's very early, but this game means
so much when you talk about two of the top
teams in the Big twelve Conference and the Big twelve
title race. I'm gonna go ahead and say this. I
think the winner of this game of this week zero
roll Big twelve Conference matchup between KSE State and Iowa State,
the winner of this game will be in the Big
Twelve championship game at Arlington. I think KSE State wins,
but I'll say even if I was State wins, that
the winner of this game ends up in Arlington with
a shot to win the Big Twelve title. That's all
I'll begin this week.
Speaker 2: I think you're absolutely right about that.
Speaker 3: Now, I'm not gonna say the winner automatically is gonna
make Arlington.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go with Farmageddon here as well, but I'm gonna.
Speaker 3: Go a little different route, and it's gonna come down
to really the individual here. I think that, and I'm
putting chips on the line here. I think Averie Johnson
goes out and Farmageddon has a big day in Ireland,
and I think that starts his campaign that will eventually
land him to get the Big Twelve Quarterback of the
Year award.
Speaker 1: To get Offensive Player of the Year maybe. So yeah,
And I've said that before Tom that case State goes
as far as Averray Johnson text them. I think we
know that Avery Johnson is extremely talented. He has shown
the flashes, but he's gotta stay healthy and he's got
to take that next step up. And if they can
get elite quarterback play out of Avery Johnson, they could
potentially run the table in the Big Twelve. I think
elite quarterback play for Avery Johnson is basically the only
thing this Case State team is missing right now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I think, you know, last year we talked
about him, or you know, previous shows we talked about
last year, he was you know, hot and cold.
Speaker 2: You really didn't know what you were going to get.
Speaker 3: You know, the games they lost were uh, for the
most part, a lot of it had to do with
Avery Johnson's quarterback play. I think he I think he's
probably a little bit sharper this year. I think he's
gonna have a great year. And like I said, I
think he's gonna go out on Saturday and whoop some
mass and I think it's gonna start.
Speaker 2: I'm on the Avery Johns to campaign trail right now.
Speaker 1: All right, So he's your rock party, Avery Jackson.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Exit Exit October Avery August.
Speaker 1: Avery August August, Avery.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 1: Uh, he's got two games in August to show up
and show out, show me you're Johnson. I would say
this when it comes to this quarterback matchup town between
these two that if you ask me what quarterback I'd
rather have right now at this very moment, I would
take rock Obec, but I would say that Avery has
the higher ceiling, that there's more potential for greatness. I
think Rock Obec's a good quarterback, but I think he
kind of is who he is at this point. I
think that Avery Johnson has some untapped potential that's still
there that could take him to the next one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he's still got the shoes to fill in, that's
for sure. I mean, were right about Rock Quebec. We
we know who he is, we know what kind of
quarterback he is, you know, and I think KSE State
last year, I think Avery left some you know, left
something to be desired. And you know, if you're a
KSE State fanky Lee, you're you're hoping that it pays off.
I mean, you know, he's no calling Klein by any mean,
at least compared to career compare comparison. But Avery Johnson,
I think, I think you're absolutely right. KSE State's gonna
go as far as Avery Johnson takes them. And you
know what, I think at this rate, he's what this
is his junior year. Yeah, I think this is when
you talk about future plans and thinking about Hey, you know,
do I want to be considered for the NFL, you know,
can I now's the time to start showing up and saying, hey,
I can be an NFL quarterback and here's here's my
You know, it's time to keep building that resume.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, I think you're spot on there. Another thing,
since we're talking about this matchup between k State and
Iowa States, I think it's going to be intriguing to
see about how certain players are replaced. When Iowa State
is without Higgins and Nole now two one thousand yard
receivers the first time in program history. How can you
replace that production? But at the same time, you look
at k State and there's no more DJ Giddons now,
and that to me is a huge loss for them
to be without DJ Giddons. But then you know, you
got another really good back in Dylan Edwards, the former
five star that was at Colorado, who was their second
leading rusher last year. I think that, you know, when
you get to these opening games, you're trying to find
players to step in, and Phil rolls pretty quickly here.
I think it's gonna be much easier for Dylan Edwards
to replace the production of DJ Giddens and you're gonna
get some running from Avery Johnson too than it is,
I would say, trying to find more receiver help for
the receivers they lost. To me, I think that kind
of gives them a little leg up when you're talking
about getting ready for this matchup.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 3: And you know, DJ Giddens was was he was he
like a camp scoutaoo now, but still he was a you.
Speaker 2: Know, I mean, he was a hell of a tough runner.
Speaker 3: And I can see why the Colts took DJ Giddens
in the draft. I think we could see a lot
of DJ Giddens this year if Jonathan Taylor doesn't hold up.
But you're absolutely right with you know, new live coming in.
I think Case State will be fine with what they
have replacing Giddins. And you know, Iowa State they've had
several pretty good wide receivers over the past couple year.
I think they'll probably have somebody step up. But you know,
you're not only replacing just one kind of star wide receiver.
Speaker 2: You're having to replace two. Be interesting to see, you know.
Speaker 3: Kind of really we're gonna get a look week zero,
what kind of summers both of these teams have had
and see, you know, has Rock Obec been able to
dial in maybe some new chemistry with some of the
newer receivers that are going to be on the field,
or is he going to maybe struggle a little bit
to find some chemistry that's kind of what I'm gonna
be watching for.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's a good point and just to
kind of give folks an idea of what we're talking about.
If what Iowa State is asking to replace these two
one thousand yard receivers, these are your top great receivers
for the Iowa State cyclones. Okay, you got Xavier Towns
coming in from UCF, who last year had a total
of sixty nine nice receiving yards ten catches at UCF. Okay,
then you got Chay sal coming in from East Carolina
who had thirty four catches for six hundred and seventy
eight yards and three touchdowns. However, he did average twenty
yards of reception, so you do have the ability to
stretch the field with him vertically there and then their
leading and turning receiver on their depth yard, Brett Eskilssen
had a total of two catches for seventeen yards. So
these guys are going to have to grow up pretty fast,
and I don't know if that is going to necessarily
go well. You know, if here's another thing, Tom, There's
a possibility I mentioned earlier that I think the winner
of this game is probably the Big Twelve Championship. There's
another chance that this could be the first of two meetings.
These two teams could play the Big Twelve Championship later
this year, and we could be talking about these two
teams being completely different than what they are now, especially
with Iowa State and their lack of depth or their youth,
whatever you want to call it at the receiver position.
I think that this game for Iowa States, as much
as we're excited that it's the Week zero game and
arguably the best Week zero matchup ever, I think this
game of win you could pick to play a team
like Case States, is awful timing for Iowa State here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I think for I think either team, I
think if you lose this game or season is not
necessarily over obviously by any means. But I think a
win for Iowa State would mean a lot more.
Speaker 2: YEP. I mean, they both obviously want to win. I
know I don't.
Speaker 3: If I'm a player, I don't want to fly all
the way across the pond and get an ass whoop.
And and to be fair, we and granted it's not
technically a non com game, but it is in non
con territory. And we know Matt Campbell is not very
good in the first three weeks.
Speaker 1: Yep, Chris Clemons lost some big games in the first
few weeks in the past two.
Speaker 2: I guess that's true.
Speaker 3: I mean, who's who's worse in the first three games.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about k U at Fresno State. Now, I'll
be at this game Saturday in Lawrence, and what an
exciting time. Let's just start there for a moment. Tom,
you open up this new stadium. They haven't played in
you know, two seasons in this place, and it's gonna
be a sellout crowd over forty one thousand in the building.
It is gonna be hot. It is gonna be a
Saturday night in prime time on the Fox Broadcast Network
Front of the Show, Tim Brando gonna be on the
call with Devin Gardner, an electric environment, a national stage.
You just had this three hundred million dollar gift, and
I know Kyu is coming off five and seven campaign,
but bringing your quarterback back, Lance Leipold is still there.
It feels like heading into Saturday Night, even after a
down year last year, there is a lot of momentum.
There's a lot of good things happening for this Kansas program.
And I can't recall of a time where people have
talked this much about Kansas football where there's this much excitement.
I was here at Pete Tamil of ESPNSA the other day.
He has never seen a program in the history of
college football have the transition that Kansas has had over
the last four or five years. It's pretty remarkable. Now
it's okay, we got the Mojoe, we got the momentium
on our side. Now they need to see results and
see how they can build on that. And I think
Saturday Night's a big first step.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so too. And damn I'll say that
that drone overview or fly through that was on Twitter,
it was pretty pretty nifty. They did a good job.
I mean it looks I mean from taking out the
track and closing it in a little bit more and
building the suites and the end zone. I was always
fond of that area because they had their recliners, and
on every table down there there was a bottle of makers.
I thought, man, this place is trying to call me in.
You know, I thought, damn all right, I could get
down with the l KU.
Speaker 2: This is how you want to do it.
Speaker 3: I'll be in the touchdown club any day. But you know,
it does feel a little different. It feels like there's
a lot more energy surrounding where obviously in prior seasons
it's like, okay, boys, listen, I know it's football season.
We just got a couple more months still about November December.
We gotta wait for basketball season. It'll be our time soon.
And now not so much. I mean, now it feels
like there's a different there's an excitement of hey, we
might not be going to the national Championship, but hey
we might be a dark horse to maybe play in Arlington.
Speaker 2: It all goes.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, that's discussions. We're not used to having Lawrence, Kansas,
but times are different. Times have changed, and now it
all gets started on Saturday night against Presno State. KU
enters as thirteen point favorites at home, and you go
back to last year, Jayhawks got off to a rough
start to the season. Losing to Illinois on the road,
losing the UNLV the week following at home, and the
season derailed from there. They lost a game to Arizona
State that they should not have lost to the team
that ended up winning the Big Twelve, and they didn't
really start to pick up momentum till it was too
late in the year and came short of getting to
a bowl game by one game by losing to Baylor
there in the final week of the season. But now
you had Jalen Daniels healthy and you're not playing from
behind like you did last year where he was still
trying to figure himself out in that first half the season.
You have an offensive coordinator that he works well with
in Zabrovsky, compared to that fraud Jiff Grime. So they
brought in from Baylor last year. If if Jalen Daniels
can stay healthy, if he looks right, and if they
can get off to a good start to the season,
I think that this Kansas team could could win at
least eight games this year. I don't think it's south
of rum a possibility, but I think even though Fresno
State's not expected to be that good of a team,
you can, you can build up a lot of momentum
and be feeling good for yourself if if you have
a strong showing here on Saturday night.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so. And you know, Fresno State's no slouch.
It's not like they're playing hschool or anything like that,
which would be an entertaining game if they brought back football.
But you know, I Fresno State, I mean I think
a formidable opponent. They should wink KU, that is, should win.
There should be no reason why they don't. I think
if you can start the season off, I would like
And obviously I'm not a KU fan here, but I'm not.
Speaker 2: Necessarily KYU hater either.
Speaker 3: I'd like to see K you just go open, just
open a can of whoop pass, and just go win
this game by thirty.
Speaker 1: Right, Mega Study, you're on national TV, send a message
to everybody out there that you mean business, and then
you're ready to play UH in twenty twenty five. I
think you're absolutely right about that as far as that goes,
and we'll see how it Old to Oil plays out.
One more thing before we UH give some predictions for
this week. One other topic I want to hit on,
and this involves the college football Playoff, and specifically on
the SEC side of things, Tom, there is a new
metric that's been added to the playoff formula called strength
of reck which, to kind of put this in a nutshell,
it gives you credit for the teams that you played
and what their record is kind of the value of
the opponents. And so in theory, a team like Indiana
last year who had a cupcake schedule and use that
to their advantage to get to the playoff, this would
basically kind of hurt that type of team that tries
to benefit from an easy schedule, And a lot of
people are pointing to that, Hey, here's the playoff committee
trying to bend the knee backwards for the SEC and
all this, and Tom like, I see why people would
think that with the way the SECS managed things. But
at the same time, too, I don't blame the playoff
committee for doing something like this when you see teams
like Indiana, Nebraska and others trying to basically cheat the system,
cheat the way into the playoffs with a cupcakes schedule
and say, hey, look at us, we didn't play anybody,
but we're eleven and one. You can't leave us out. Like,
who you play should matter. We do this in college
basketball all the time, where we value based on not
just what your record is, but who you played. And
I understand college football is a much smaller sample size
compared to college basketball, but teams should be rewarded for
playing tough non conference games. If you play a Power
four opponent, or two Power four opponents for that matter,
I don't think you should be penalized for that. I
don't think teams should be rewarded for playing a Cupcakes schedule.
I think this makes a ton of sense.
Speaker 2: Yeah, not only that, but for ratings too.
Speaker 3: You know, you want to even if you know Indiana
is you know, wins out or has a Cupdake schedule
and does very well and they still let us in. Well,
then as soon as they play someone formidable or actually
any good, then they get an ass whoop and it
makes for bad TV. I mean, you're looking out for
the bottom line as much as you're looking out for
the other teams who deserve it more.
Speaker 2: You want a competitive game.
Speaker 3: I mean, listen, we like watching football and it's all
fun and games, but I mean this is also a business,
So I mean, really, I mean the bottom line or
the margin is gonna literally affect any decision that a
committee is going to make. And I think it is
a part of that that you're not You don't want
some overcall or a team that's not qualified, even though
their record qualifies, to get in there and ship the
bed on national TV when it matters, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, I look at go back to twenty twenty
one Cincinnati, who's now part of the Big Twelve, And
how funny we bring up Indiana here, because what Cincinnati
did was they knew they had a cupcake schedule in
the American Athletic Conference. But with that, they knew they
had to prove themselves and they made their schedule as
tough as they possibly could with the circumstances they were
given playing in the American They played a power conference
team in Indiana on the road, beat them by two touchdowns,
and they went into Notre Dame and beat Notre Dame
on the road by eleven points, and they proved their
worth that they belonged. And that team was talented. You
had guys like Desmond Ritter, you know, Sauce Gardner, Kobe Bryant.
I mean, there was several players that went on to
the National Football League from that Luke Fickle team and
they were rewarded. They got to prove themselves by embracing
that tough schedule and they got a playoff spot out
of it. Like to me, that's what these teams should
be striving for. If if you're a Big twelve team,
for example, you know, thirteen to zero in the Big Twelve,
no matter who you are, is not going to get
the credit to know, gets in the Big Ten or
the SEC. But if you're say Oklahoma State for example,
and if you can beat Oregon this year, that's gonna
help your cause. Or if you are willing and able to,
you know, go against those tough non conference teams and
you can put up a good fight or you can
sneak an upset win, you're going to be rewarded for that.
So I like the idea of rewarding these teams for
playing these tough non conferences. It paid off for Cincinnati
and we might not be talking about them being a
member of the Big Twelve had they not had that
great twenty twenty one season where they went out there
and proved themselves.
Speaker 3: I absolutely agree. And you know, some of these teams,
like you know your run of the mill. We say, Indiana,
if there's any Indian nfp bout here or you know,
hoo's your fans and I'm sorry, but are just speaking
kind of the truth here. If teams out there like
that that are trying to maybe game the system early,
so well, we're not gaming the system.
Speaker 2: It just works out better for us.
Speaker 3: And well we plan to do here at this university
or whatever boat bullshit statement they're gonna come up with,
you know, we're we might hear. Oh, we're being punished.
I wouldn't call it a punishment. You get to make
the schedule. You're making the schedules. You're not being punished.
Other teams are just being more rewarded for what they
attempted to do or put in good faith. Right, if
you want to be a bad fake team like Indiana
and move series around because you know the team you
might have scheduled years ago is looking to kick your ass,
and well that's pretty scary football. Scared money, don't make money?
Speaker 1: Yeah right, all right, let's let's make some predictions. Let's
talk week zero and then let's uh talk conferences in
national championship picks?
Speaker 4: Shall we?
Speaker 1: Tom Iowa State, K State k State favored by three.
I'm gonna go with k State, but I think Iowa
State is gonna make this competitive. I think this might
be the best Farmageddon of all time, not just the atmosphere,
but two very good teams to have a shot to
win the Big Twelve title. I think we're in for
a hell of a game Saturday. Give me the Cats
by a whisker, how about you?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm gonna take the Purple Cats as well, and
I'm gonna say Purple Cats by seven.
Speaker 1: Okay, so more convinced.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think it could come down to
the last possession type thing. I mean, I think it's
gonna be a thrilling game. It will be a damn
shame if one team blows out the other. I will
still enjoy it either way, but I hoped. I think
it will be close. Both these teams are gonna be
at each other's throats and ready to get the season
kicked off.
Speaker 1: Kansas and States. I'll be at this game Saturday. I
like the Jayhawks to have a convincing win. I think
this is one where the score tom might not be
indicative of how much Kansas dominates. I think we're looking
at them coming out of the gates, firing, looking to
send a message in the first half, and maybe they
call off the Dogs and the second half and Kurt
Warner's son is in at quarterback at Fresno State and
they get like a couple of garbage time touchdowns or something.
I think Kansas wins this game, probably by three scores,
and probably should win by more if they if they
don't call off the dogs of sorts.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was thinking like maybe like a forty five
twenty four KU win.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that sounds right thinking.
Speaker 2: I'm thinking somewhere in that in that area.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that's that's uh, that's pretty spot on there.
But uh, we'll see what Kansas can do. Kansas is
Fresno State coming up on Saturday night, five thirty in Lawrence. There.
All right, let's stay in the Big twelve for a
moment out who gets to the conference championship and who
wins the conference title game.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm gonna go with k State, I said,
I said earlier about Avery Johnson. I think he's gonna
have a good season. I'm gonna go ahead and take
case State. I know earlier I didn't want to give
it away, but Let's say KSE State's making Arlington, and
you know what, I like what Kenny dilly AM's doing.
You know, you lose Kimskataboo. I don't care. He's a
great player. They're gonna bounce back. Sam Levitt's gonna be great.
I'm thinking KSE State and Arizona State in Arlington. I
will take KSE State to win the Big Twelve.
Speaker 1: Man we're in completed so far, we stayed the same
on game picks, and that was my Big Twelve title
pick too. I got k State in Arizona State with
KSE State winning the Big Twelve title this year. I
think Arizona State's gonna be very very good, but it'll
be interesting to see how they replace Cam Skataboo out
of the gates. Even though they bring back seventy percent
of their production from last year. KSE State, I think
that they look like a complete football team. They just
need Avery Johnson to take that next step up. I
got the Cats winning the Big Twelve. The SEC tom
who gets to the SEC title game and who wins
the SEC Championship.
Speaker 3: I think we're gonna pick the same teams here. I
think we talked about it prior. I think maybe our
teams are the same, but then outcomes different. I'm gonna
say Texas versus Alabama, and I'm taking Texas to win
the SEC.
Speaker 1: We keep the trend going. I got Texas at BABA too.
Speaker 2: I think parlay right now, all right.
Speaker 1: I'm not a believer in Georgia and Gunner Stockton, and
I look at what Alabama has, what they bring back,
what they've brought in. You know that that team is
gonna be so good. I think Texas is gonna be
talent from top to bottom. They just need to see
Arch take that next step up. I don't know if
Arch is necessarily gonna be a Heisman finalist, but I
think he's gonna be very good and good enough. I'll
go with Texas to win the league and BABA to
be the runners up, but still ultimately end up in
the Collechball playoff. Of course, Uh, they're in the SEC.
So with that, let's get to the national title. Pick Tom,
who is gonna be in the title game and who's gonna.
Speaker 4: Win it all?
Speaker 3: Oh man, you know, as much as I hate the
burn orange, I'm gonna have.
Speaker 2: I'm I'm rolling with Texas.
Speaker 3: I rolled with him in the in the College Football
twenty sixth Dynasty League that I'm in.
Speaker 2: Uh, I like, I like who they have.
Speaker 3: I mean they got injuries that tied end obviously arch
question mark on I he'll do. Especially the Week one
game against Ohio State at the shoot.
Speaker 2: You have Wingo Who's who's a great wide out?
Speaker 3: I mean, you have a pair of running backs and
I think Giftston Baxter are great.
Speaker 2: I really like what they've got going.
Speaker 3: So I'm gonna say Texas, and really, you could give
me anybody on who they think.
Speaker 2: I think Texas is gonna win it.
Speaker 3: But for what it's worth, I also like potentially here
in the Like I said, you can pick any team,
I'm gonna go ahead and say Texas versus Organ in
the National Championship.
Speaker 1: Now, there was reports out this week that Dante Moore,
who they're very high on, is still contending for that
quarterback competition, that he has not won the job just yet.
But Dante Moore I think is a sleeper Heisman candidate potentially.
But Oregon, even though they went undefeated last year, they
didn't finish the job. And I think if your organ
this year, Tom, You're not so focused on, you know,
their first year in the Big Ten. I think they
wanted to make a statement like, hey, let's go thirteen
and oh, let's win the Big Ten. And then it
was like, oh shit, now we got a college football
playoff to win. We just you know, went through all this,
Now we got to go through the playoff. I think
if your organ now you say to yourself, Okay, winning
the Big Ten would be nice. Going thirteen and oh
again would be nice, but we've already proved ourselves winning
this league in our first year. They just need to
do what they can to figure themselves out and put
themselves in the best position for the playoff. If they
win the Big Ten, if they go thirteen to know,
I think that's gravy. I think now, if you're Dan
Lanning in company, Dan Lanning I think is a fantastic coach,
but his shortcomings have been in big games and been
in these playoff games. I think that's where they kind
of have to turn their focus to.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean, at that point, it's it's kind of like
you it's in a way, it's kind of like in
the NBA, right, you don't you know, you don't have
to be the number one seed some of these teams.
Speaker 2: Hey, what you need to focus on is just getting
in right.
Speaker 3: You don't want to be now, you don't want to
be a playing team here. You want to solidify your spot,
But you don't necessarily organ. You don't necessarily need to
be have a first round by I'm sure you would
love to have it, for sure, But I think if
you're Organ, you just say, hey, we're going to play
the best football to our best ability that we can,
and when it comes down time of it, we might
have to make some decisions and say, hey, we're gonna
focus on being healthy, ready and hot for the college
for a playoff.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna go with Texas as well to make
the title game. But we have our first disagreement here, Tom.
I got the Penn State Nitney Lyons getting to the
title game and winning the whole thing. I believe in
Drew Aller. I know James Franklin hasn't been great in
big games. I get that, but I really like their
oc Andy Koloniki a lot. He did a fantastic job
at KU. I think he and Drew Aller are a
very good fit. Not gonna be easy to replace. Tyler
Warren but they got some dogs on that defense too.
I think Penn State walks away with the national title
Penn State versus Texas. Penn State gets over the hump
and gets the job done. But with all that said, Tom,
it's put up or shut up time. Like you know, eventually,
James Franklin the company is gonna have to get over
that hump and win those big games. And for me,
it kind of reminds me of the discussion we had
about Ryan Day. Ryan Day couldn't win the big one still,
you know, needs to be Michigan. He won the whole
thing last year without beating Michigan. But but I think
last year was Ryan Day's year to get over the hump.
I think this is James Franklin's year to do the
same thing, and.
Speaker 3: Very might well happen. I mean, you know, for Penn
State to do it, I think it would be huge.
I mean, you have Ohio State just announced Julian Saying
is going to be their starting quarterback. I mean obviously
the one that last year with Will Howard, So I
mean I can't imagine that. I would say Julian Saying
is as good as Will Howard, if not maybe better.
Speaker 2: From what we've seen and heard.
Speaker 3: You know, they still have Jeremiah Smith, who is great,
and they're gonna be locked and loaded, ready to go.
They're gonna it's hard to defend the title. I don't know,
it's been a while since we've feel like like, well,
I guess it hasn't been that long, but I don't
know if. I don't know if Ryan Day is the
guy that could go back to back, but we'll see.
And then you have Oregon too to compete with. It's
the Big ten is going to be. It's gonna be
could as a potential to be kind of a bloodbath
on who gets out of there. And really I think
a lot of it comes down to Jones. Like you
mentioned too, you gotta be healthy, yep. I mean, to
win a national championship obviously requires a lot of skill,
but just like in any sport, to win a national
championship or the main trophy in anything, it takes a
little bit of lock.
Speaker 1: Yep. You gotta win three maybe four games in December
and January and you could be a completely different team
than what you were in October and November. So it's
it's a good point there. My playoff field by the
way I got Clemson winn of the ACC, Penn State
winn of the Big Ten, Arizona State winn of the
Big twelve, Texas winned the SEC. They all get in
the playoff. And then I got Bama, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oregon, Illinois,
South Carolina, KSE State in Tulane. You know, they're in
the playoff field. And then I'll go with I'll go
with Jeremiah Smith, the Ohio state wide receiver, to win
the Heisman Trophy. I think that he was unbelievable last
year and I think he'll take a huge step again.
I'll go with him to win win the Heisman Trophy.
Just put up ungodly numbers. This is not a great
year for quarterbacks, and so I think with that, it's
a good year to pick a non quarterback to win
the Heightsman Trophy. And that's one reason why I got
Jeremiah Smith. You got a Heisman picked for me in tom.
Speaker 3: I like Jeremiah Smith, you know, I mentioned him earlier,
and and I like that pick a lot.
Speaker 2: I think the only y'all go.
Speaker 3: I like Jeremiah Smith too, but I'm gonna I'm gonna
change it up a little bit just for the sake
of being different. I'm gonna stick with you on not
not being a quarterback. I'm gonna just take the other
wide receiver set out there. I'm gonna say, Ryan Williams.
I mean, it seems like a DeVante Smith type of
year for you know, a wide receiver to get it.
So I think one of those two guys is a
solid pick.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you're right. I think you're right about that.
And we'll see how it all ultimately plays out here
in twenty twenty five. Tom. One more set of predictions
here for you. We are a pro coach firing show
on this program. And how about this. Let's let's each
give a name from the Big twelve in the sec
of a coach that we can garantee will be fired
end of the season. I'll let you start. Give me
a Big twelve and give me an SEC coach that
you think is getting canned.
Speaker 3: Let's see Big twelve coach getting canned. I'm gonna say,
hm hmm, we can't use Neil Brown anymore. Unfortunately, we
got we got rid of him finally, all right, we
can't we can't use him, sadly, sadly, I.
Speaker 1: Think the Neil Brown memorial firing.
Speaker 3: I think I think they're gonna give Joey Maguire another
year if he doesn't pan out and.
Speaker 2: They don't do well with that money.
Speaker 3: I think Gundy could be on the list if he
shuits a bed and goes three to nine again. I
don't I think they would still give him one more
year to figure it out. But I think right now
they might have even giving him extensions. So forgiving me
if I'm wrong here, but it might be Dave Randa.
Speaker 2: Oh, I think.
Speaker 3: If Baylor doesn't do very well, I don't you know,
every every time it seems like Dave Randa's on the
hot seat, he figures it out and turns it around.
And I think if I think Baylor might eventually get
sick of it, and this might be the year if
Baylor doesn't do well that they say goodbye. David Randa
will figure something else out.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I'm not a big Dave Randa fan. I think
he's a fraud. And I don't think Baylor is as
good as people think. I don't believe in Sawyer Roberts
at all at the quarterback position either. I think Aranda's
a good choice what about an SEC coach you got
out there for Invinables.
Speaker 2: Maybe no, no, no, you know who.
Speaker 3: And I hate to say this guy and I feel
like they gave him another chance, and I feel like
he might even retire. Maybe I would love to have
some old kolbeer with him. But I think this may
could be the end of the road for Sam Pittman.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think so.
Speaker 2: He might hang it up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it might be a peaceful exit, but there will
be an exit for Sam Pittman.
Speaker 3: I didn't want to see your obvious choice. I know
what's coming for your SEC coach.
Speaker 1: Yes, so let's start with the Big Twelve. For me,
I am going to go Joey McGuire because if they
do not make the Big twelve championship game with the
twenty eight million or thirty million dollar roster they have,
it is going to be hard to justify bring Joe
McGuire back. I don't think Joe McGuire is a very
good coach. I think Joe McGuire is going to be
gone and Texas Tech is going to highly underperform. They
have a very good roster, but I do not think
they have the coaching there. I think McGuire's going sec Tom,
I feel like the obvious choice would be Jeff Levy
at Mississippi State. But hear me out on this. I
have been told from a very good source that Zach Selman,
the AD at Mississippi State, is the front runner to
be the next AD at Oklahoma. And we know why.
You know, the Selman family very tight with OU. He was,
you know, Joe C's right hand man and everything. I
don't think Tom that even if Mississippi State struggles, even
if it's not within the best interests in Mississippi State here,
if your Zach Selman, I don't think you want to
make that call of firing your head coach, especially guy
though you ties it for that end, when you're trying
to be the next day d at OU. Now, maybe
the President steps up and says you have to fire
Jeff Levy, But if you're trying to impresso you here
and get that OU job, there's probably something you don't
want to do. So I'm not gonna go with Jeff Levy,
although I think Mississippi State will be very bad. I
will go with Billy Napier Florida. I think that things
are gonna go very poorly. I don't believe in DJ
Lagway at all whatsoever. I think that he's gonna be
gone and we're going to see the Billy Napier experiment
be the new Neil Brown of sorts, and things will
go bad there. I will. I'll bring this up Tom
one more point on coaching firings, Brian Kelly and Brent
vinibles are gonna be very interesting to watch, and you
could throw in Lincoln Riley in there for that matter
as well. With the Big ten three coaches that all
took their programs over at the same time, they're all
three getting paid a lot of money. Their buyouts are
not cheap by any stretch of the imagination. I think
all three of those guys have to have top twenty
teams if they want to keep their jobs. Because those programs,
all three of them owe U, L, s U and USC,
the money they have, the resources they have, There's just
no excuse for them not to be competitive here. I
think all three are under tremendous pressure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think they could be. I'll I think Venables
will be fine.
Speaker 3: I as much as I hate to say it, I
hate see them do good. I think their offensive coordinators
it could be a home run higher. Yeah, and I
think I think Matier might say Venable's job. I think, oh,
he is gonna have a pretty damn good year.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 3: And for you Sooner Gooner fans out there, it's gonna
be it's gonna be like a breath of fresh chair
from the past few seasons.
Speaker 1: I would say Tomas win those three. If I were
frank them, I would say Brian Kelly's the safest because
he's probably got the best team of the three. Venables second,
and then Lincoln Riley's seat is the absolute hottest because nobody,
even USC fans, nobody is believing that USC is gonna
be a good team this year. There's some optimism in Norman,
maybe even a bit too much optimism. I saw our
friend Kad McFarlane the other day talking about that people
are talking about this OU team like they just came
off an SEC championship appearance and they got twenty NFL
players on the roster, which you know twenty players are
gonna be drafted this year. That's just not true. LSU,
like a lot of people can census is they'll be
a playoff team. But nobody believes USC is going to
do anything. And I think that you know that that's
the coach that's most likely to go. And I wouldn't
even roll out of mid season firing potentially because once
they're through with you in Los Angeles at USC, they
are done with you and they're not afraid to get
that coaching shirt started right away.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think so too.
Speaker 3: If and you know, obviously didn't work out for him
or it's not, I don't. I don't even think a
long term even if they do, if they surprise this year,
I don't think they will.
Speaker 2: Long term.
Speaker 3: It's it's not it's still not gonna work out, right,
I it's I don't. I don't know where he goes
from here. You're just kicking the can down, Yeah, I
mean kind of collecting the check. He's got that nice
that nice house out there that he bought for however
many million.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: I bet his I bet his wife is like a
step for wife probably, And I don't. I mean, and
now obviously you're not a Lincoln Riley fan. If he
is canned middle of the season, where do you where
do you think you could see him?
Speaker 1: And I think he goes the uh Cliff Kingsbury round.
We see him as an NFL offensive coordinator.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I could see that.
Speaker 3: You think his you think his little brother gets a
chance as a coach here Soon.
Speaker 1: We'll see his little brother's the oc AT clumpson Garrett Riley,
and if they have a very good year, I think
he'll certainly get some calls, you know, and a lot
of people optimist it about that Clemson team, So we'll
see certainly, certainly possible as far as that goes. But
who would have thought of that hiring cycle That was
maybe the biggest we've ever seen that Marcus Freeman was
gonna end up being the best head coach of those four.
I think he was the one that people had the
least optimism about. And he's coming off a national title
appearance at Notre Dame and they're gonna be a contending team,
a playoff team once again. So watch out more to come.
We're gonna be joined by Jerry Palm of CBS Sports.
Get his thoughts on everything happening I say at CBS Sports.
He just left CBS Sports. He's doing his own thing.
We'll get his thoughts in the Big Twelve, in the
SEC and tall college football playoffs. When he Joints is
coming up next. Joining us now on the program this
week from the brand new site Palm Brackets, formerly of CBS,
it is long time college football and college basketball writer
Jerry Palm who's here with us, and he joins us
right now. Jerry, appreciate the time and congrats on the
new site. Some exciting stuff going on here after a
great run you had there with CBS.
Speaker 4: Yeah, thanks, and thanks for having me on. Yet, I
started out with my own website, which I had for
quite a while before CBS picked me up, and now
I'm going back to basically where I started and having
my own website again and giving me sort of the
freedom to do the kind of things I like to do,
both with writing and with the analytics. So hopefully people
will come and enjoy it.
Speaker 1: I like with the site, Jerry, for what I've seen
that it's not anything flashy. It's just all right there
in front of you and giving people the business just
straight to it.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I've always on that I'd preferred to really focus
more on the content than making it overly pretty. It
needs to be readable, of course, but I could put
like little helmet graphics next to every team, but that
just takes longer to load, it takes up space. It's yeah,
it's a thrill, and I'm not really into things that
are that make things more inefficient, even little things like that,
So I try to make the site efficient to get
around and efficient to display.
Speaker 1: Let's start Jerry and the Big Twelve conferences. We're already
getting started with Week zero this week in Ireland, Pharmageddon
between Iowa State and Kansas State. And not only is
this a rivalry game to start things before everyone else does,
We're not even technically the Week one just yet, but
this game's got some major Big Twelve implications, even playoff
implications to an extent as well.
Speaker 4: Sure, it's the Big Twelve. I think it's going to
be the most interesting to follow. It probably was last
year as well, just in terms of of the competitiveness
at the top of the conference and so many teams involved.
You could make a case for at least six teams
to emerge as a conference champion this year. Two of
them are playing in Ireland this weekend. I actually have
both of those in my current college football playoff projection.
I am the least confident of those two just because
of the competition within the league. So this is a
big game. You know, obviously the winner has an advantage,
but there are so many potholes ahead. You've got to
be ready every week in the Big Twelve, in particular,
if you want to win a conference title, you've got
to be mentally sharp every week, physically sharp, ready to go,
because you can't afford to take a loss to a
team that should not beat you if you want to
compete for the conference title in this league. So, yeah,
this is a huge game. The Island Game last year
ended up being huge two only because Florida State's loss
turned them into this enormous spiral of a season. Hopefully
the loser of this game won't have that problem, but
the winner certainly has an early leg up on what
figures to be a very interesting conference race.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I look at this game. Two quarterbacks that
I think are certainly capable, with rock Obec and Avery Johnson,
but each of them trying to take that next step
of sorts. What's you know rock O Beec gonna do
without his top receivers that both went to the NFL.
And then Avery Johnson, a former four star quarterback. He's
been good, but still waiting to see if he can
become great here. I think, honestly, Jerry, this matchup on
Saturday might come down to these two quarterbacks. Sup performs better.
Speaker 4: Let's say you, Yeah, this is actually a league that's
got in part of what makes it, you know, a
league with a lot of competitive teams. If you've got
a fair number of returning quarterbacks. Yeah, and you know
a lot of teams, you know, you get a really
good quarterback and they're off to the NFL as quick
as they can. And the Big Twelve has got you know,
half a dozen returning quarterbacks that are gonna be on
teams that are pretty competitive. And and I think that's
part of what makes his race so interesting. And these
are obviously two of them different guys. Uh. And you know,
it's college football, so you're gonna lose pieces every year.
You know, that's the nature of the sport. So I
find that you've probably just got guys that haven't gotten
their chance, and we'll have an opportunity now to step up.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 4: And you know, for Iowa State, it's gonna be receivers
that need to step up so that their offense can
be efficient. But both of these teams, you know, with
with really quarterbacks with some star potential in college football.
I'm not gonna speak to the next level, it's too
early for that, but you know, these are these are
quarterbacks that can carry their teams a long way into
this season. And you know, Iowa State did that last year.
They had a great season last year, So it's gonna
be another just really, you know, it may come down
very well to which of these quarterbacks performs the best
or at the on the other side of the field,
which defense can make the opposing quarterback uncomfortable and maybe
for some turnovers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and staying in the Big twelve, let's kind of
talk about some of the other teams. The reigning champion
is Arizona States, and they have a very impressive quarterback
in their own right in Sam Levitt. Coming back, they
return over seventy percent of their production from a season ago,
but one key piece missing from that production is Cam Scattapoo,
who was so fantastic in twenty twenty four. I'm looking
at Arizona State, Jerry, and I see a team that's
got a lot of potential. But last year, I think
it was not until maybe the halfway or three quarter
point in the season that people even noticed how good
Arizona State actually was, and it's it's gonna be a
total different animal for them. I imagine of being the
hunted as opposed to being the hunter now with getting
these teams best shot uh this season? How what what
do you think of of Arizona State heading into twenty
twenty five here?
Speaker 4: Yeah, they're one of those half a dozen that certainly
could you know, uh be a conference champion in their
in their case again, but replacing Cam Scattibo, I mean,
that's that that's a unique guy. You know, you may
not replace him with one guy. You may you might
you know, have a committee of guys that do different
things than all of which he could do. It's uh,
I he was one of my favorite players in college
football last year and it's just he was so much
fun to watch. Uh it was as I'm a Purdue guy,
and he had a little bit of Mike Alstott and
for those of you old enough to remember Mike Alstott.
Uh So, Camp Scattabo is gonna be pretty hard to
replace scattaboo. But yeah, you know, Arizona State will still
has weapons on that offense, but they're probably gonna be
a little more diverse offensively, and that might actually make
him tougher to defend, and because you're not going to
be focusing so much on one guy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's a terrific point. We're joined by
Jerry Palm here on the program this week as we're
talking all things Big Twelve at SEC College Football Preview
with a kickoff coming up here in just a matter
of days. Jerry looking elsewhere in the Big twelve conference,
a lot of attention of course on coach prime Deon Sanders,
his son. His son's no longer there. Also, Travis Hunter's
gone now, but they still believe they're building something here
there in Boulder. What do you think of what Deon
Sanders has in store for year three?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that this is really when we might
find out, you know, how good Deon Sanders actually can
be as a coach at this level because he's lost.
I mean, Travis Hunter was the best player in college
football every year he was in school. And Shador was
a good player too. You know, he ended up getting
it drafted. But you know, Travis Hunter is the guy
that you just don't replace, and so now you know
he's not gonna have the flashy star. You know, he's
gonna have a team of guys that he's now fully recruited. Uh,
and they're gonna have to go out and compete in
one of the toughest leagues to compete in because of
how many good teams there are. If Colorado can stay
in the conference title hunt and make a run for it,
I think that that's probably the best you can expect
from Colorado this year. I don't really see them as
one of those half a dozen teams, but that doesn't mean,
you know that they couldn't push their way in. They're
just playing under the radar because these other teams have
got so much returning talent and Colorado has lost, you know,
a generational player that you know with a weapon on
both sides of the ball. You hardly ever even see
anything like that. So Colorado will be more one of
the more intriguing teams to follow this season, and I
think expectations will be tempered a little bit and that
may help them, uh, you know, because they might fly
as under the rad rsdon stands to fly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you're right about that. Another game in
the Big Twelve this week, Kansas taking on Fresno State. Uh,
Jaylen Daniels back for his sixth season in Lawrence. As uh,
they're starting quarterback, and I feel like Jerry, you know,
I'm a Kansas guy myself, so I know this team
pretty closely, and I think we're gonna learn pretty quickly
because you look back at last year, they got off
to such a rough start, but they were playing as
well as anybody at the end of the year, and
Jalen Daniels took a while to get going himself. If
if they can have a good showing against Fresno and
if they can, you know, maybe pull off an upset
against Miszoo in uh in the non conference play, I
think people should be watching out for this, uh, this
Kansas team potentially. But I think we're gonna They're gonna
be one. I believe that we'll learn pretty fast. What
do you What do you think of what Lance Leipold
has there in Lawrence? A big gift for them too,
getting a three hundred million dollars last week as well.
Speaker 4: Nice Huh. I don't know how much that helps them
this particular season, but yeah, their quarterback is terrific. It's just,
you know, they got off to such a slow start
last year. They need to be ready to go Week
one and Fresnoe stage is a game that they should
be able to win. Fresno State has had some quality
teams over the years. Like a lot of the Group
of five teams, it kind of becomes hit and this
as soon as you get good, you lose your coach
and you're almost rebuilding all the time. So for a
team like, for example, Poise State to be as consistently
good as they are is pretty remarkable among the Group
of five. This Presno State team should not be a
big threat to Kansas. They've got to come out and
and then you know, nobody plays their best football in
Week one, but they've got to come out and put
up a performance that they can build on as they
get in toward conference play because they need some momentum.
You know, they can't have the the rough start they had,
and you know they've got to build off of. Really,
they're building off the moment of how they finished last year.
That's got to continue into the start of this season
so that they could possibly be a player in the
Big twelve race.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you're you're right about that. Who else
in the Big Twelve? We mentioned about how much depth
there is in this league. We haven't talked about Baylor
or Utah or many other techs, Texas Tech as well.
Who's who are some of those teams that catch your
eye in this league.
Speaker 4: I think Baylor a lot of people think of as
the favorite. If you were going to have a look
around at previews and stuff to have a consensus, I
think that Baylor would be, if not the consensus, you know,
one of the consensus teams that people are looking at.
And I think part of the reason why is you've
got so many good returning quarterbacks in this league and
it's such an important position on the field is to
have a veteran quarterback, and Baylor is another one of
those teams. So it's I think that, you know, people
that are favoring Baylor, I think have a good reason to.
I think Texas Tech is in the mix. TCU could
be in the mix. It's I just I can't think
of a more compelling league top to bottom of the
Big twelve because you've got you've got enough returning players
on a lot of these teams, and so many of
the top quarterbacks in this league came back this season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know you're looking at Texas Tech. We
know how much money they spend on that roster. Projections
were about the second most in college football behind Texas,
and you know a lot of pressure on Joey Maguire
and everything there this season with how much they're spending.
But I would say, Jared, I don't know how you
think about this. If you're a Texas Tech fan, obviously
you want to win the Big Twelve this year, compete
for college football playoffs, But with the money they're investing there,
as long as the money's still there, I don't think
Texas Tech is going away by any stretch of the imagination.
I would if I'm a Red Raider fan, I would
be pretty optimistic about this future, even if this year
doesn't go their way.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's a start. I mean, you're building here, right,
and you've got your building a war chest to go
after talent, and it's hard to do it all in
one year, especially in football basketball. I think they have
higher expectations because of the money they're thrown into that program,
and you only really need about maybe three really good
players and a cast around them to be successful. In
basketball football you need much more than that. So it's
a little harder to get an investment to pay off
immediately in football, but yes, if you're a Texas tech band,
you have to be encouraged with the direction that athletics
is going and what they're investing into that because it
takes investment now to really be good and Texas Techas
and their boosters are stepping up to do that.
Speaker 1: Big time beg time. Let's shift gears now head to
the Southeastern Conference. Texas the preseason number one and almost
every poll, all eyes are on arch Manning as he
takes over as the starting quarterback there, obviously carrying the
family name and all Jerry. What's a realistic expectation to
think for arch Manning in this Texas team? Because everyone's
all over the place with Texas and the comparisons are
you know, already jumped the shark, it seems on what
this guy could potentially do. What do you think of
Texas entering twenty twenty five and how good do you
think arch Manning realistically is going to be?
Speaker 4: Well, you know, it's his first year as a full
time starter. He got in a couple of games last year,
but it's it's gonna be you know, he comes from
a family of quarterbacks, although his his particular father wasn't
one of the star quarterbacks. But it's it's a it's
a family that that knows about dealing with pressure. Those
were almost like built for it. So, you know, I
don't know that. I mean, he's been arch manning in
all his life. You know, he's been under a microscope
all his life. So I don't know that it's gonna
be that much different this year now that he's you know,
the full time starter. But he's a very talented kid.
It's a big reason why Texas is the preseason number one.
I actually have them as the seventh seed in my
projected playoffs. But that has nothing to do with, you know,
the total level of talent at Texas. It has to
do with their schedule. They open at Ohio State, They're
two and a half point underdogs. They're gonna have to
go to Georgia at the beginning of November. They're gonna
probably be an underdog in that game. If both of
these teams are what they think they are going into it,
then you know, they could end up ten and two
and ten and two. They might not even get to
play for an SEC title. So but if they are
the seventh seed in the playoff, that's not really a
big disadvantage. You get a home game and then you
don't have the really lengthy buy that the College Football
Playoff has built into this. And I just don't see
how being off for three and a half weeks, which
includes the Christmas holidays, is a big advantage. And last
year we kind of saw it, I mean, three out
of the four loss but this will be the first
time where the teams that are getting buys will be
the higher rate team in every one of those games.
And one year is not a trend anyway. But I'll
be really curious to see how keep with buys do.
But I don't think getting a buy in this system
is the advantage it is in say the NFL, where
you will get one week off and it's a nice
rest of recover time. This is a little bit it's
hard to maintain your sharpness in your edge through three
and a half weeks.
Speaker 1: Right the NFL system, you're talking about a week off
and you're getting a home game. Compared to this, if
three weeks and go to a neutral site and so
much stuff that goes on, I think you make a
great point there. I know you're high on Georgia. Up's
looking at your projections. You have them as the top
team entering the field, and people are talking about Gunner
Stockton and the belief is, man, he's not good enough.
He's not a guy that can carry this team. But
I look at what Kirby Smart has done at Georgia
and Jerry. The point I would make is, maybe Gunner's
not going to be that great, but they've never really
relied on quarterback play that much compared to some of
these other teams with what they've done, They've never really
needed an elite quarterback to win as much as they've done.
Here is the quarterback situation that big of a deal
for Georgia. Do you think Gunner Stockton is is good
enough to get the job done? What do you think
about what's going on there?
Speaker 4: I think that's kind of an unfair judgment. I mean,
we haven't seen enough of it. Yeah, you got thrown
to the walls in the playoffs last year, and yeah
it's I mean, that's a tough situation. But now we'll
have a full offseason, he'll be working with the team
that he's going to be leading through the entire offseason.
I don't think it's fair to judge him based on
what we have seen on the field for him now,
So I say, let's wait and see. It's funny because
you know, we talked about all the experienced quarterbacks in
the Big Twelve, when we talked about the top of
college football or what people perceive, we don't have a
lot of experience up there. Arch Manning's got a couple
of games, Stockton's got a couple of games. Uh, Drew
Aller is the lone exception. Everybody else is almost brand
new to the position. So yeah, you're talking about great
teams that you know are gonna be depending on young quarterbacks,
and you know, in some cases right off the back,
I mean, you've got Arch Manning will be the experienced
guy in the Texas Ohio State game where Julian's saying, we'll, we'll,
we'll take the field for the first time as the
starting quarterback at Ohio State. So you know, the top
of college football it's good. What's it's gonna be interesting
there is how do these all these new quarterbacks develop?
And you know, because the margin for air is very small,
you just you lose a couple of games you're definitely
not getting goodbye. You may not even make the playoffs
for some of these teams. So uh and you can
certainly get momentum going the wrong way in a hurry,
and especially in the SEC and the Big Ten, which
are so competitive, especially at the top. So Georgia has
a favorable schedule. That's why I picked them to win,
because the talent schedule UH factor works out best for them.
Texas may actually be the best team once we get
into a playoff situation where it's mostly neutral sites. You know,
then that's that the home field is no longer a factor,
and that's maybe where Texas really gets to shine. But
you know, Alabama's gonna be good as well. You know,
the top of that league is is going to be
really strong. I don't know if they're going to put
four teams in the playoffs or not. I mean that
remains to be seen, but it's gonna be a strong
top of that league and with oh maybe five or
six teams that could compete for spots in the college
football playoffs.
Speaker 1: You mentioned Alabama, Let's let's talk about them for a second.
Ty Simpson takes over as their starting quarterback, and I
know that Kaitlyn de Bor got a lot of flak
last year. And when you lost to Vandy in the
fashion that they did, when they you know, got blown
out by Oklahoma there in November, it took them out
of playoff. But I feel like Jerry had to remind
people Kaylyndor is a very good coach and has been
successful everywhere he's been. And even though they took their
lumps last year, they still beat Georgia and had some
big time wins. They weren't a bad team last year.
I'm looking at Simpson and Milroe wasn't necessarily he was
a good quarterback, but wasn't necessarily the right fit for
that offense that Kaylyn Debor had. Now you get a
guy and Simpson that's a better fit for that offense,
and the players they bring back here, I think we'd
be remiss as if we all of a sudden slept
on Alabama here. They very well could win this whole league.
Speaker 4: Yeah they could, They absolutely could. And yeah, look, Alabama's
got top door talent all over the field, and so
they're gonna have a chance. And every time they take
the field, they have a chance to win. Every time
they take the field because they're that good. And you know,
Alabama's coaching staff is still you know, was at least
last year, still you know, new to the gig and
and you know, try and to adapt what they do
to the talent that they already had a ton of talent.
Albeit there were times where you know, there were fits
and starts and we saw i mean the Oklahoma game,
you know, should have kept them out of the playoffs.
I mean, that's just it was one of those things
where a complete note show in the middle of the season.
So that kind of lack of really effort mental being
locked in mentally, that can't happen in the SEC or
you or you will have a day like that. So
this is a team that's got to be good, you know.
And Nick Saban was really good at having his teams
focused and ready to go mentally and physically every week.
And now this this team now and this coaching staff
has to be able to make sure that these guys
are locked in every time they take the field, because
they cannot suffer any games like that Oklahoma game.
Speaker 1: So I'm looking at your projections, Jerry, and if SEC teams,
I believe you have three in in your par projections.
With Georgia, Texas and Alabama, who do you see is
potentially having the best shot to crack them all of
being that fourth or maybe even a fifth team. Man,
I know that there's a case to be made for
a number of teams, but they all seem close from
the LSUS South Carolina's, Tennessee, Oklahoma's Whole Miss of the world.
Who's kind of that next team to keep an eye on.
Speaker 4: I kind of like LSU with Grant and us Meyer
quarterback quarterbacks. You hear me talk about it a lot
because I think they're so important. You know, they're not
just They're not just the leader of the offense. Oftentimes
they're the leader of the team, and so much of
a game can hinge on whether or not they're on
that day, because you know, if they turned the ball over,
you put your defense in a hole. So I think
that LSU was ready to take a step forward and
you didn't. It's North Carolina, it really had a nice
run at the end of last year, could also be
poised to make a step up. And I wouldn't rule
out Ole Miss as a team that can get into
playoff contention as the season wears on. You know, I've
got three. I wouldn't be surprised to see four SEC
teams in the playoffs as the season rolls on. It
depends on what happened to some of these other leagues
and how much beating each are up they do. But
the the SEC is going to be well represented in
the college football Playoff as it usually is, and will
have at least one team that everybody considers to be
a favorite.
Speaker 1: So I mentioned some of your projections, Jerry, tell tell
me about the rest of your projections of how you
see the College FOOTBA Playoff playing out here.
Speaker 4: Yeah. So I had Georgia number one. I also have
Notre Dame number two, and I'm projecting them to go undefeated.
And for me, that's as much a function of their schedule.
They don't really have, you know, the big time opponent,
you know, the I catching opponent that that they normally
have on their schedule, where they'll have like two or
three of them. But some of their the teams that
they're playing are maybe not going to be at their
best this year, like the USC game. You know, USC
is at Notre Dame this year, and you know, USC
is not the USC of the past. They're not horrible.
But you know, this Notre Dame team is really I
think poised to have a big year, but they don't
have much of a margin for er because their strength
of schedule won't be great. But if they get to
twelve and like eleven and one, they're probably still going
to make the playoffs, but they may not get a buy.
And then of course this year they can be number
two because of the new bracketing rules where the top
four teams get the get the buys instead of the
top four conference champions, which Notre Dame cannot be so,
and I think the ACC portion of their schedule generally
drags them down. They used to have, you know, when
they've made their own schedule, you know, they always would
have four or five marquee opponents on the schedule. But
when you're playing half your games almost against ACC teams,
if you're not getting Clemson, that's the only reliably good
team in the league right now. So others kind of
come and go have a year here and a year there,
as if you had a year last year. But Clemson's
the only reliably good program in that league. If they're
not on the schedule, you're probably you know, hurting your
overall strength of schedule, which means our margin for air
is smaller. Also, they can't win a conference so to
automatically qualify, so it's harder. The standard is harder for
Notre Dame in part because of just the way things are.
And then I've got the top two teams in Big Ten,
Ohio State and Penn State boy Ohio State. In a
nice schedule, they get not only Texas at home, but
Penn State at home. And I have Penn State as
a conference champion, losing at Ohio State and winning the
rematch on a neutral field. And that's how those two
teams could get there. In that scenario, one wins the
regular season game and the other wins championship. But yeah,
so the Big Ten, Oregon's in there as well. The
SEC has got three teams in there, a couple from
the Big twelve, so the major conferences are well represented.
And of course Boise State from the Mountain West as
the loan group of five team. It'll be interesting to see,
you know, now that Ashton Genti's in the NFL, you know,
can they continue this role as a program. They have
been very successful, you know, consistently through coaching changes, and
talent changes, and if it's not them, then it might
open the door for somebody like maybe Memphis or someone
from the American Conference to take that spot.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, it's a great point.
Speaker 2: Jerry.
Speaker 1: A couple more thanks before we wrap up here. With
that said, So you got your projections out there. Are
you ready to make a championship pick yet? Are you're
still holding out on that.
Speaker 4: I'd like to see your teams play a couple of
games first, but I you know, I just we talked
about it a little bit. In this bracket, I have
Texas is the seventh seed. If they're the best team
in the country, I guess I would pick them, you know,
because I think that that's a good place in this
bracket to start from.
Speaker 1: Yeah, very well, could be the case. Start with a
home game and then go from there throughout the rest
of the playoffs. Jerry, as somebody that studies the analytics
and has looked at this system in about every way possible.
I know that there's a ton of discussions about this
format and where should we go from here. We've only
seen the twelve team playoff one time and we're already
talking about changing it and we haven't even seen the
twelve team format with the top four seeds getting the
automatic buys. Now, in your opinion, what do you think
of where we're at right now and where should we
go from here when it comes to this playoff structure.
Speaker 4: I mean, I like this structure. If you expand to sixteen,
you probably do away with the buys, so you have
a regular sixteen team, four round tournament. It's still a
four round tournament now, so you're not expanding. You don't
need more date on the calendar to make that happen.
Or you can do with the Big ten wants to
do and invite all one hundred and thirty sixteens to
the playoff, you know, and play it all the way
through March Madness in March and April. But now it's
the twenty eighteen proposal is kind of ridiculous. I don't
think anything like that's going to happen, but I could,
I could see sixteen. It's hard to go beyond sixteen
and without getting deeper into the calendar and you know,
doing a way maybe with conference championship games, which none
of these conferences want to do. So I think sixteen
is a realistic maximum for what I would call the
foreseeable future, which in college sports it's not very far along, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, you have to preserve the value of the
regular season. It's the best regular season in all the sports.
And uh to me that that's the number one priority here.
But then, you know, I hear all this talk about
the auto bids and you know, the Big ten wants
you know, you know, four automatic bids in a twelve
team format, in a sixteen team format, and and all
of this, and you know, the SEC thought about it,
but now they're you know, favoring the five to one
model after listening to their coaches and such, and and
I hear this, Jerry, about taking the uh you know,
power out of the committee's hands. Here, what nobody wants
to admit quiet part out loud is this sport has
been at its best when it's thrived off controversy and
debate and having these discussions and maybe a team that
got left out that shouldn't have been. I have my
issues with the committee all the time, Jerry, but I
would be more in favor of going with these uh
you know, the these wild cards or these open spots
and and having that discussion rather than diluting the regular
season and and giving gifts to the Big ten sec
What what say you?
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm a Big ten guy and I'm offended
that we have a commissioner who thinks we have to
have four automatic qualifiers that we can't just go out
and earn them. Yeah, you know that's that's so that
that kind of that kind of concept bugs me. I
want to go compete and earn what I get and
earning it in the boardroom is not the way you
want to do it. You want to earn it on
the field with your performance. And the Big ten should
be good enough most years to get four teams into
a sixteen team playoff. It doesn't need to be a gift.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm with you one hundred percent, Jerry. Before we
go plug away where people can find you and see
all the great work you're doing.
Speaker 4: Now, yeah, it's Palm brackets dot com. The football portion
of my site is up now. I'm still working on
the basketball part. Of course, basketball doesn't start till November.
It will be up in plenty of time for that, uh.
But the football portion of the site is up now.
I'll be writing a little bit today about the new
strength of schedule stuff, The committee talked about yesterday, and
then you know, week zero into week one. I'll be
writing at least once a week on the site and
both projections every week except for after week zero, so
so we'll uh, it'll be busy there on during football season.
Speaker 1: Can't wait, Jerry, appreciate the time. We'll talk in down
the line, and thanks for joining us
Speaker 4: All right, thanks for having me on