Speaker 1: We're live today at beer Bar right downtown Salt Lake City, Utah.
Speaker 1: Great Sausages and Burgers, about one hundred and thirty beers
Speaker 1: on tap, another forty to fifty Canon bottled.
Speaker 2: Beers non alcoholic options for those of you who don't drink.
Speaker 2: It's oddly crowded on this Wednesday.
Speaker 1: I think people are either celebrating or drowning their sorrows.
Speaker 1: We have tailgate passes for the Utah BYU tailgate coming
Speaker 1: up on Saturday.
Speaker 2: Let's do some more college football.
Speaker 1: Always enjoy my time with my next guest, the Great
Speaker 1: Josh Pate from Josh Pat's College Football Show on a
Speaker 1: Wednesday afternoon. Josh, Happy Wednesday, buddy, how are we doing?
Speaker 3: I'm good. I assume that there are a multitude of
Speaker 3: reasons for people to be on edge out there and
Speaker 3: gearing up for this weekend if I'm.
Speaker 1: Not mistaken, Yes, certainly, and obviously, Josh. Last night, we're
Speaker 1: all sitting in front of our TVs. We're nervous about
Speaker 1: the results that are going to roll in. We see
Speaker 1: state by state by state by state, and then it's
Speaker 1: revealed that BYU comes in at nine. See, you thought
Speaker 1: I was doing an election thing, and I wasn't doing
Speaker 1: an election thing. I was doing a CFP ranking thing.
Speaker 1: So a lot of people around here wondering BYU at
Speaker 1: nine with a resume that you could argue is better
Speaker 1: than Indiana at eight, and maybe even Penn States at six.
Speaker 1: I mean, BYU is undefeated. They have two top twenty wins.
Speaker 1: There are number four in strength of schedule. What's the
Speaker 1: Josh Pate take on BYU coming in at nine last night?
Speaker 3: I thought they'd be higher. Honestly, I think they should
Speaker 3: be higher. I mean, I mean as much as as
Speaker 3: much as I personally like the traffic in the way
Speaker 3: I stack teams based on a more pure power rating model.
Speaker 3: That's not what the playoff committee supposed to be doing, right.
Speaker 3: The Playoff Committee is supposed to be judging purely off merit.
Speaker 3: And you notice how after all these years, we never
Speaker 3: have a static list of criteria put out, And that's
Speaker 3: very purposeful. So they can move the goalpost as much
Speaker 3: as they need to. And I'm not normally the one
Speaker 3: that's banging that drum, but I will bang it here.
Speaker 3: I'll bang it for both of them. Actually, i'd make
Speaker 3: that case for Indiana if they were wearing a Michigan helmet.
Speaker 3: I'd make that case for Brigham Young. If they were
Speaker 3: wearing a different helmet, they would be treated differently. I
Speaker 3: don't think there's any doubt about that. Now. What aggravates
Speaker 3: me to no ends with all these people who want
Speaker 3: to tell you, Bro, relax, it doesn't matter. It's just
Speaker 3: the first version of the rankings. Well, they're lying to you.
Speaker 3: It does matter. And here's where it matters. It doesn't
Speaker 3: matter if Brigham Young wins out of course they'll be in.
Speaker 3: They were always going to be in if they won
Speaker 3: the conference. But where it matters, where rubber meets road,
Speaker 3: is they are building a giant trap door under your
Speaker 3: feet and under Indiana's feet to where they can reasonably
Speaker 3: pat themselves on the back for having ranked you top ten.
Speaker 3: But you know, full well, just like I do, as
Speaker 3: soon as either one of those teams incurs one lass,
Speaker 3: they're gone. Trapdoor opens and they disappear from the horizon,
Speaker 3: and that committee says, well, you know, we gave them
Speaker 3: a shot. They didn't take care of business. Meanwhile, I
Speaker 3: got Penn State sitting at six after losing to Ohio
Speaker 3: State at home last weekend, which is just amazing to me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I'm with you outside of BYU, outside of Indiana.
Speaker 1: You kind of gave us your take on on Penn
Speaker 1: State any other Josh Paid reactions either good or bad
Speaker 1: from the rest of the rankings, which aren't the seeding
Speaker 1: for the bracket, but not one of the rankings. What
Speaker 1: are your other thoughts away from the dynamics we've already discussed.
Speaker 3: I thought I thought it was interesting that seven of
Speaker 3: the top sixteen teams in that thing or SEC, but
Speaker 3: a lot of them are tend to sixteen range, Like
Speaker 3: you got your Alabamas and your LSUS and they'll play
Speaker 3: this weekend. A and m and Ole miss are in there,
Speaker 3: so there's going to be probably some elimination blows dealt,
Speaker 3: which is fine, that's the way it's supposed to work.
Speaker 3: But we're also in the situation where I mean, we
Speaker 3: are looking at a situation rapidly approaching where the SEC
Speaker 3: is going to kind of judge themselves and judge how
Speaker 3: their future they want to pan out based on a
Speaker 3: committee handles them cycle. And what I mean, by the way,
Speaker 3: if they don't get as many team in as they
Speaker 3: want or they think they deserve big ten, you could
Speaker 3: fill in the blank same way here. They've got that
Speaker 3: look in provision in that playoff contract in two years,
Speaker 3: and they may very well want to take their ball
Speaker 3: and go home or go elsewhere. And I'm paying close
Speaker 3: attention to that right now.
Speaker 1: So ultimately, it does feel like the other message that
Speaker 1: has been sent. And I don't even know if this
Speaker 1: is the wrong message, because we do a Big twelve
Speaker 1: power rankings every week. You know, anybody who covers the
Speaker 1: conference does something like it. You have your your JP poll,
Speaker 1: And this week I told my producer, we're not doing
Speaker 1: it because it sounds like BYU at one then everyone
Speaker 1: else two through sixteen, And I don't know if they're
Speaker 1: good or bad. I mean, the problem is the conference
Speaker 1: is chaotic. So is this a message sent with BYU
Speaker 1: at nine that the Big twelve period end of story
Speaker 1: is a one big league and that's going to go
Speaker 1: to the conference champ no matter what.
Speaker 3: Uh, that's a big question.
Speaker 2: I have.
Speaker 3: I heard them say last night or I thought it
Speaker 3: reported that they're trying to trying to crystallize the notion
Speaker 3: that you won't get punished for playing in a conference
Speaker 3: title game, which is great. That's the way it should
Speaker 3: be okay. I don't doubt that for the Big Ten.
Speaker 3: I don't doubt that for the SEC. I don't think
Speaker 3: their conference title loser will fall very far. I want
Speaker 3: to see what happens. We kind of need the case
Speaker 3: study here of Brigham Young goes undefeated all the way
Speaker 3: to Dallas and then they lose in the conference title game.
Speaker 3: They would almost assuredly, I mean, they would absolutely be
Speaker 3: a top ten team going into that Saturday if they
Speaker 3: lose in a game that they're only in because they
Speaker 3: earn the right to be in. Are you going to
Speaker 3: drop them out of the rankings? Because if you don't,
Speaker 3: then they go as well as the Big twelve champ
Speaker 3: going And that means two Big twelve teams just crash
Speaker 3: the party. And I know that this is not the
Speaker 3: way it's supposed to work, but this is the way
Speaker 3: it will work. The folks in the SEC portion of
Speaker 3: the room will scream about the boats in the Big
Speaker 3: ten portion of the room will scream about that that
Speaker 3: is not why they expanded this thing now, That is
Speaker 3: not why they built more seats at the table. Those
Speaker 3: seats are not for everyone else. Those seats are for
Speaker 3: more of who's already been there.
Speaker 1: One more thing on this Boise State comes in and look,
Speaker 1: Boise State's good. I mean we're kind of in that
Speaker 1: footprint because Utah State a mounda West Conference team. Is
Speaker 1: there any way Boise State in your estimation, and of
Speaker 1: course there's no way of knowing for sure because ultimately
Speaker 1: the football needs to be played, but there are only
Speaker 1: a few.
Speaker 2: Spots behind BYU.
Speaker 1: Is there any way Boise State could catapult past the
Speaker 1: Big twelve champ and get a top four seed, and
Speaker 1: therefore that Boise gets the buy and the Big twelve
Speaker 1: champ is there at five.
Speaker 3: I think it's possible. It just you'd probably need a
Speaker 3: little chaos here down the stretch, and then one of
Speaker 3: the teams that emerges from the chaos ends up being
Speaker 3: the winner of the Big Twelve championship game. So maybe
Speaker 3: like a two conference chant there, then I could see it.
Speaker 3: If it's just bringing young going on a run, no,
Speaker 3: I think that enjoy the higher seeds.
Speaker 2: I've got one more BYU question for it.
Speaker 1: Then we'll move on and obviously want to talk about
Speaker 1: the big game coming up on Saturday night.
Speaker 2: But you reference something.
Speaker 1: Early on in the interview about you know, the Michigan
Speaker 1: helmet or the Penn State brand, And certainly there's going
Speaker 1: to be brand biased and they're television executives that simply
Speaker 1: want the biggest and best brand on their TV show.
Speaker 1: And I understand that what from a national standpoint and
Speaker 1: not necessarily you because you cover and understand every team
Speaker 1: in college football, which makes you, you know, good at
Speaker 1: what you do. But how would you articulate as a
Speaker 1: national college football guy what BYU's brand is nationwide?
Speaker 3: I think the brand is tucked away and isolated, hard
Speaker 3: to get to, really hard nosed team, hard nos program.
Speaker 3: They embody the mentality of their head coach to kind
Speaker 3: of always been that way. There. There are echoes from
Speaker 3: the past of big time teams. You hear from your dad.
Speaker 3: If you're my age, you've heard from your dad growing
Speaker 3: up about Brigham Young teams that did big things in
Speaker 3: the eighties, and you know of a few big time
Speaker 3: names will come through there. As for today, I think
Speaker 3: that people are still getting used to by being in
Speaker 3: the Big twelve. First off, like a lot of people
Speaker 3: have put two and two together there, and then when
Speaker 3: they do, they probably lumped them in with every other
Speaker 3: Big twelve team and that you've got to earn benefit
Speaker 3: of the doubt. In their minds, thought position is you're
Speaker 3: lesser than because you don't have an SEC or a
Speaker 3: big ten helmet sticker on. And I think that's the
Speaker 3: way the average college football fan to use Brigham Young
Speaker 3: right now.
Speaker 1: So we have a little football game here in the
Speaker 1: market coming up on Saturday night.
Speaker 2: I made a plea early on to.
Speaker 1: Get a Josh paid appearance out here for Utah BYU,
Speaker 1: but that was dependent upon both teams doing their jobs.
Speaker 1: BYU has Utah has not. We can be simply as
Speaker 1: reductive as saying Cameron Rising's not under center and he's
Speaker 1: been hurt.
Speaker 2: Therefore everything is different.
Speaker 1: But nobody saw four and four for Utah and no
Speaker 1: one saw eight no for BYU. Everything I thought Utah
Speaker 1: would be BYU has been. How surprised are you, Josh
Speaker 1: on that dynamic.
Speaker 3: I'm very surprised. I mean, if you told me I
Speaker 3: wasn't coming out there, I would have thought it was
Speaker 3: because one of these teams dropped the ball. I would
Speaker 3: just have the wrong team servile, right, And so as
Speaker 3: it turns out, I mean, it's it kind of. It
Speaker 3: surprises me only because Cam Rising not being available is
Speaker 3: not the biggest shock to anyone in the world. I
Speaker 3: just thought the program may be it had bit more
Speaker 3: equipped to deal with it. And maybe I was wrong,
Speaker 3: or maybe I was just overestimating how difficult that is
Speaker 3: to continue to prepare for. But you know, I wanted
Speaker 3: to be out there now. We had it circled internally,
Speaker 3: I had it on the grease board in the office internally,
Speaker 3: But plans plans change as the season.
Speaker 1: Of Yes, indeed, I can't argue with it as much
Speaker 1: as we would have lowed to host you once again
Speaker 1: like we did last year against Florida.
Speaker 2: One more big twelve question. Then we'll do some other
Speaker 2: stuff with the.
Speaker 1: Remaining few minutes, and then I'll set you loose outside
Speaker 1: of Brigham on who do you think is good in
Speaker 1: the conference? Because I really can't figure it out week
Speaker 1: to week.
Speaker 3: I think Colorado is the biggest wild card out there.
Speaker 3: I mean, Colorado has improved defensively, fairly significantly. They run
Speaker 3: the ball much better than they did, so they are
Speaker 3: I mean, they're a complimentary improving football team. And last
Speaker 3: week I thought they were the biggest winner out there,
Speaker 3: even though they didn't play because Iowa State Kansas State
Speaker 3: went down. I don't trust Iowa State, or I don't
Speaker 3: trust Kansas State away from home at all. Right now,
Speaker 3: Iowa State, I thought they had been skating on thin
Speaker 3: ice with hot blades for a few weeks and got
Speaker 3: a lost dealt to him by another team that's pretty
Speaker 3: bog walk card in Texas Tech. I kind of think
Speaker 3: that may end up being good for them, just in
Speaker 3: that it allows you to hit the reset button a
Speaker 3: little bit longer, dealing with the pressure of undefeated and
Speaker 3: do you just go play? Every one of your goals
Speaker 3: is still in front of you, Just go play. I'm
Speaker 3: still pretty high on the Higway State's capability. I think
Speaker 3: they've got the highest end capability of any of the
Speaker 3: teams out there. But Colorado is the one that I
Speaker 3: circle because Colorado's one I don't really know. They haven't
Speaker 3: peaked yet, and I don't know what they look like
Speaker 3: when they do.
Speaker 1: As as disappointing as Utah football has been, and how
Speaker 1: difficult that is for a fan base around here with
Speaker 1: different expectations, how do you articulate owen six Oklahoma State
Speaker 1: in conference?
Speaker 3: I think I think Gandhi did a pretty poor job
Speaker 3: of putting his coordinators together. I don't think this is
Speaker 3: a very strong staff he had. It was one of
Speaker 3: my biggest concerns coming end of the year, and it is.
Speaker 3: It has really manifested itself into a poor result. I
Speaker 3: give him credit. They went and played BYU hard in
Speaker 3: the game they played against him a few weeks back.
Speaker 3: Still lost, But I expected that team to kind of
Speaker 3: roll over and they didn't. But they're just it's not
Speaker 3: a good team this year. And it's a shame because
Speaker 3: they had a lot of returning pieces that look like
Speaker 3: it may be otherwise, but that they have not even getten.
Speaker 3: This alls the chance.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know you.
Speaker 1: Reference Colorado and I'm not sure that I've really ever
Speaker 1: seen a talent like Travis Hunter.
Speaker 2: Shouldn't he win the Heisman Trophy? Josh? And if not,
Speaker 2: who do you think does?
Speaker 3: I think it's I think it's gonna come down through
Speaker 3: is he active on conference championship Saturday. It's gonna be
Speaker 3: him and cam Ward, I believe, and Dylan Gabriel may
Speaker 3: be in that equation. But the thing about those other
Speaker 3: guys is Gabriel will be playing in the Big Ten
Speaker 3: title game. I think I think cam Ward certainly will
Speaker 3: be playing in the ACC title game. If Hunter is
Speaker 3: just playing on that last Saturday, I think that's gonna
Speaker 3: make a big difference, because otherwise I think the voters
Speaker 3: are going to be willing. I think a lot of
Speaker 3: voters are looking for a reason to vote him, and
Speaker 3: it may come down to that. It may be as
Speaker 3: simple as that.
Speaker 1: All right, moving off the big twelve, now, just simple question,
Speaker 1: how good do you think Miami is? It's another team
Speaker 1: when you're looking at the resume and their number four,
Speaker 1: and of course the bottom line is staying clean, which
Speaker 1: they've done. But do you think their record where they're
Speaker 1: at right now actually.
Speaker 2: Reflects simply how good they are?
Speaker 1: And if they have the opportunity to go against another
Speaker 1: one of those teams that live in that cul de sac,
Speaker 1: do they stack up in your mind.
Speaker 3: Talent wise? They do. I don't think the product they've
Speaker 3: put on the field measures quite yet, but we can't
Speaker 3: be sure because they you know, they haven't been pushed
Speaker 3: to the brink against quality competition. They've been pushed to
Speaker 3: the brink, but it's almost one of those situations where
Speaker 3: they've played with their food a little too long and
Speaker 3: then took it serious in the end if I put
Speaker 3: them on the field of Texas for Georgia, I don't
Speaker 3: really know what I should expect from them in that scenario.
Speaker 3: I think we'll end up seeing it because I think
Speaker 3: they'll be in the postseason. But the other thing I
Speaker 3: wonder with them is I remember kind of two different
Speaker 3: versions of LSU, the twenty nineteen and twenty twenty three
Speaker 3: EU teams. They both had Heisman quarterback. One of them
Speaker 3: got it backed together enough defensively to become a superpower
Speaker 3: team in twenty nineteen, wasn't always that way. Last year's
Speaker 3: LSU team heis mcquarterback, but couldn't stop molasses in December defensively,
Speaker 3: so they wasted that Heisman season and never accomplished anything
Speaker 3: of note in the postseason. Miami's gonna go one of
Speaker 3: those two directions here. I'm just waiting to see which one.
Speaker 1: Do you think We were discussing this earlier, because we
Speaker 1: were talking about Byu and Kolonie Satake and whether or
Speaker 1: not they were going to actually step up and pay him.
Speaker 1: It's a private institution, but they're known for not paying
Speaker 1: their coaches very much. And look, I have no inside
Speaker 1: information or knowledge at all about where Southern Cal's head
Speaker 1: is with Lincoln, but ultimately Kilanie's a Southern California guy,
Speaker 1: and if that job came open, I think he would
Speaker 1: answer the phone if they called.
Speaker 2: I don't know what they would.
Speaker 1: I don't know if they would, but that's a long
Speaker 1: way to me asking you do you think Southern cal
Speaker 1: Is looking around wondering if they have the right guy
Speaker 1: after this really really rough first season of the Big Ten.
Speaker 3: I think they may look around and ask the questions.
Speaker 3: I don't think they're looking around in the form of
Speaker 3: let's do our due diligence because we may make a move.
Speaker 3: I think they're a long way from that. I did
Speaker 3: a segment on the show last night, just did job
Speaker 3: approval ratings, and Lincoln Riley's approval rating would be a
Speaker 3: little low right now, but that's kind of detached from
Speaker 3: his hot seat rating. I don't think it's hot seat
Speaker 3: ratings anywhere. I'd say the same thing about Hugh Freeze
Speaker 3: at Auburn after that mattered. But I will say this,
Speaker 3: They've got five losses and they've led in the fourth
Speaker 3: quarter of all five of those games. I mean, they're
Speaker 3: half a dozen plays if you change in their season
Speaker 3: they're undefeated, which means nothing other than to say they're
Speaker 3: not a long way away. It's not Florida State, where
Speaker 3: they're just dead on arrival and there's so many problems
Speaker 3: you don't even know where to start. He started, he
Speaker 3: replaced his defensive staff. They look a lot better this year.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's probably as simple as you don't have
Speaker 3: Caleb Williams anymore and you need to go find the
Speaker 3: next version of him.
Speaker 1: Where's the Josh Paid Tour taking place coming up this weekend?
Speaker 2: Where are you going to be?
Speaker 3: We are headed down to Baton Rouge, Louisiana for Alabama
Speaker 3: at LSU on a Saturday night.
Speaker 2: You know, I've never experienced that game.
Speaker 1: I have experienced LSU, but I've heard that's the spot. Man,
Speaker 1: that's the place to be with that game. What I
Speaker 1: would imagine you've been there before. So what's that atmosphere
Speaker 1: going to be like as Bama is down in Baton
Speaker 1: Rouge to take on LSU.
Speaker 3: The best way I can describe it is if you're
Speaker 3: standing on a runway at a major airport and you
Speaker 3: just hear jet engines around you. That's kind of the
Speaker 3: way it sounds on the field there in big third
Speaker 3: down moments and especially at night double especially if Alabama
Speaker 3: or Florida someone like that in there. I mean, especially
Speaker 3: if LSU show some life early and they get up
Speaker 3: on someone early. It feels it feels like you weigh
Speaker 3: one hundred and fifty or one hundred and fifty percent
Speaker 3: of your body weight. You just press it down on you.
Speaker 3: It is really, really difficult to operate in that environment.
Speaker 2: We do like to keep track of our former Pac
Speaker 2: twelve buddies. What's the hulla balloo, like.
Speaker 1: The conversation like down and down there with Alabama and
Speaker 1: our old buddy Klein de Bor who's a great coach,
Speaker 1: but he's not Nick Saban, because nobody is.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a lot of attention on that this week,
Speaker 3: just people and myself included, wondering how they'll handle this
Speaker 3: moment because they did not handle Tennessee well for many
Speaker 3: different reasons, but one of them was Bama under Nick
Speaker 3: Saban was a big game program, and I ironically used
Speaker 3: to feel more confident in them when they were on
Speaker 3: the road than I did when they were at home.
Speaker 3: I just thought they handled that stuff so well. And
Speaker 3: it's really early with the boor we have like a
Speaker 3: one game sample size, but I didn't like the way
Speaker 3: they handled the trip to Tennessee. I think it was
Speaker 3: a learning experience for him. This will be another one.
Speaker 3: Both of them are coming out of the buy really
Speaker 3: interested to see how Jaylen Milroe performs, how healthy he looks.
Speaker 3: They'll tell you he's healthy now I don't believe him.
Speaker 3: So huge wildcard. Both teams are huge wild cards right now.
Speaker 1: Last thing is Oregon firmly entrenched themselves as the best
Speaker 1: team in the country, and if not, who else is
Speaker 1: in that kind of just in that area.
Speaker 3: As of now, they're the best I've seen. I think
Speaker 3: Texas has higher end potential. I think Ohio State has
Speaker 3: high end potential. Oregon's the best I've seen. I've seen
Speaker 3: them all in person, some of them a couple of times.
Speaker 3: At this point, they are so multifaceted. They have got
Speaker 3: an assassinate quarterback right now. They can run the ball
Speaker 3: on you, they can stop the run. They're very multiple
Speaker 3: and athletic. Defensively, I think they're going to get Test
Speaker 3: Johnson back before the end of the year. So that's
Speaker 3: the one I'd like to be if I could pick
Speaker 3: any team to be right now.
Speaker 1: Josh, thanks man for the time. Keep up the great work,
Speaker 1: and enjoy the games this weekend.
Speaker 3: All right, all right, appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Josh Pate, host of The Josh Pate's College Football Show.
Speaker 1: It's one of my favorite college football podcasts. Josh is
Speaker 1: a very talented guy. Find him on social media on Twitter,
Speaker 1: it's at Josh Pate CFB or X or whatever the
Speaker 1: hell we're calling it. The Day after what happened yesterday
Speaker 1: at Josh Pate CFB is where you find him.