(upbeat music) - Hey, what's going on? This is the Saturday on South podcast. I am Colonel Guerra. We'll plan for today. Lance Taylor is going to join us. A lot of listeners, probably including you, 'cause you grew up on jocks, right? - Oh yeah, oh yeah, man. That is like probably one of the things, that NCAA football, which is coming back at maybe like really fall above a college football. - Yeah, so okay, so Lance is probably a staple for a lot of people who listen to the show, and if you also listen to the next round, you know Lance very, very well. But I can promise you that we got into some stuff that Lance has never talked about on his airwaves before. So really interesting conversation on all things gambling, in addition to some of that never heard stuff that he's ever talked about before. We talk over-unders and all that as well. And then we've got Pitch Me, why your team has a path to Atlanta. But first, Will, we're talking about the 10 non-negotiables for the 2024 season. Last night, Lauren and I finished season three of The Bear. It is excellent. I won't spoil anything for you, because correct me if I'm wrong, you have not watched The Bear, right? Mm-mm, okay. Season two is my personal favorite so far. Season three was still good. In season three, Karmie, who's the main character, he comes up with his non-negotiables for this new restaurant that they're opening. And some of the non-negotiables are pretty vague. They're like time or focus, and others are a little bit more direct and defined, no repeat ingredients change than they knew every day. There are rules, not so much goals, but rules essentially to live by. And unlike Karmie, I will not include hygiene. That's, okay, that's on you. I will say though, I don't know if this falls under hygiene, but don't be the person that's bombed from the moment that you arrive in a stadium to the moment that you leave. Just don't be that. And if you're aware of that, you're probably not the bomb person, but if you're not aware of it, that you probably are the bomb person. It's like if you don't know who the Michael Scott is in your office, yeah, shut up wearing him right now. Yep. Then you probably are the Michael Scott in your office. That's the way that works. You said that like he was a designer. Like what do you have on today, Michael Scott? I do, always and forever. But yeah, the way that we're gonna kind of break this down, the non-negotiables. I'm gonna try not to preach too much here. It might come off a little bit preachy. I acknowledge that. And there are some similarities to what's been discussed in the bear. I won't tell you to break down boxes. It's not what I'm here to do. But this is essentially a guideline for this upcoming season. And what a perfect time to do it. Ahead of media days next week, which is underway in the Big 12 and the Pac-12, Pac-2 sort of, which was so depressing. The fact that they're still writing that out is my favorite thing in the world. Like good for them. Like the side that they tweeted at the other day that was like after dusk or something, good for them, man. After hours, Pac-2 after hours is what they had. We have a conference that's turned into a fireside chat. Unreal. What a time to be alive, man. This is a podcast, this is not a conference. Seriously. Two players just yuking it up. Yeah. Okay, so here's the first one. We'll start with one that everybody can get on board with. Non-negotiable number one will. No fall winnings. Unless you're in one and if you're in one, have a plan. Okay. I've pushed back on this as an absolute of sorts because there are always extending circumstances. I do think there's a line here to be able to define. If your best friend is getting married, you can't tell them, you know what? It's Kentucky South Carolina week. Have a nice life. No, don't do that. It's not worth it, okay? And if that makes me casual or whatever, okay. All right, fine. You're best friends counting on you. So you're gonna have long-term ramifications of missing that one. Whereas missing Kentucky South Carolina in real time won't really change your life and grand scheme of things. And again, have a plan. You can go dark, which that means everything. Like delete apps off of your phone, tell people in your orbit, not to give you any sort of updates, record the game, watch it when you get home. If you can do that more power to you or the more popular option, if you are at a wedding that you're in, it's a fall Saturday. Sneak score updates during the wedding. Have it recorded when you watch, when you go home and you can watch it there. If your team loses, you won't wanna watch. And if it wins, great. Then you can have a stress-free victory to be able to watch. You didn't feel like you missed the craziest, biggest game of the season or something like that. So I do think there is some positive there. But if it's your buddy from college, you haven't spoken to in like three years and it's an out-of-town wedding. - I'll make it four. - Yeah. Let me ask you a question though. 'Cause I was thinking about this if I hold life with John who does not care about sports. If you're best friend, like so everyone, let's call, what do you think our sicko's percentage of listeners is? Like 50, 40, what percent do you think our sicko's listening to this podcast? - In the off-season too, it's higher. - Yeah. - Yeah, like 70, 70, 80. - So if John were to get married in, you know, the fall. - Should I best friend? - Yeah, no, but I'm saying that means the bride hates me. Like-- - No, no, no, no, no. The bride does not care. The bride does not care what you think whatsoever. - I know, I know, but I was saying that I know John would be like, well, that's will is gonna be working that weekend. Like we gotta lock in, we gotta do our thing. And she'd be like, nope, don't care. So I'm just saying, just something to think of. See, this is why I'm asking you 'cause you're a more of a sure adult than me. My friends are all married. This is probably why. 'Cause I think crazy things like that. I'm just saying that if you're a whole friend group or sickos, that's where I'm going with that. If you're a whole friend group or sickos and there's just like one factor kind of like, if the groom himself is miserable because he's a sicko, that's one thing. But like, I'm trying to imagine me at a wedding or I'm the only sicko that would be John's case. Yeah, actually, you know what? That's right. I would be at that. That's actually, yeah, that's a good point 'cause the bride, it's not, it would be moving a whole wedding for me at that point, which wouldn't be there. But if the friend group or sickos, now I'm asking questions. - Yeah, look, and full disclosure here, I got married opening weekend of college football, a wedding that was planned before I had this job. But, but, but before you give me a one star view and tell me I'm a casual, we did get married on a Sunday. We were watching college football for a good chunk of the day on Saturday as well, opening weekend. And I even remember that was the very famous that Sunday where at my college bar, shout out, "Killroys." And we're watching Notre Dame, Texas. - Oh, yeah. - Texas is back, folks. - Yup. - The stickiest floor you can possibly imagine that we're just, my entire family is there. We're just having a little time. - So you, like me, have watched bride, Kelly Lou, another Sunday. - Good, okay. Hell yeah, of course we have. Yeah, so look, and the only two other weddings that I've been to. Best friend got married in fall. Shout out to my guy, Bronson. Got married during cupcake week. One of my other really good friends, Emily, got married during cupcake week. I've been fortunate, okay? I'm admitting this. But draw that line right now, okay? And that's non-negotiable. Number one, something that is going to be a topic of conversation doesn't have to be as absolute as some make it out to be. - Yeah, no, I'm with you. I kinda like, that was my wrap up on that is I think we've already talked about all the extenuating circumstances, okay. Number two, no negative energy at tailgates. I don't want any of that. If you are the person at the tailgate, telling me how this sport isn't any fun anymore because of NIL, just take a lap. Just take a lap, okay? I'm not telling you to get lost. Take a lap, just go walk it off. Cooler heads will prevail. Just ask yourself during that walk around, you know, not all tailgate walks are created differently. You can't exactly walk at the grove. That's more of a shuffle to feet and just find a space to be able to breathe. But if you are in that spot, and if you're that riled up in that moment, just take a walk, come back, get some air, okay? It's gonna be fine, it's gonna be okay. Everybody's gonna be able to enjoy this setting. But if you're there, being that damper, not on board with that, the vibes of a tailgate are sacred, okay? You can be mad and frustrated during a game in a stadium, but at a tailgate, that is a place of camaraderie. It is a place of hopium. It is not a place to bellyache about how spoiled college athletes are. If you wanna say those things, which you can't, okay, I'm not telling you, you can't do so from the comfort of your own home, or do so, you know, with Twitter fingers, message forward, something like that, something that, so I do not have my good time ruined by your gripe with this specific thing. If you were the person at the tailgate who launches into some rants about how messed up college football is, you deserve to be left mid-sense. - Yeah, and I will put one caveat on that too, which is that if you're not a fan of the team, like if I'm at a Georgia tailgate, I'm at LSU fan, let's say LSU loses in the noon window, that is nobody's problem. Like do not bring that up, do not be sad. That's a really common one that I'll see where there was like a random Kansas state fan at the Georgia tailgate I went to, or that they like lost in a zoo, and it was like, okay, like I'm not the nothing on that person, but I'm like, you know, it's not about that. Like the cool, the best place to watch your team lose is at a different tailgate. 'Cause nobody but you cares. So you can literally just, as long as nobody makes a joke, and if they do, you could just say, hey, I'm at your tailgate, I have a great time to talk about it. So having your team lose is kind of a blessing in that way, 'cause if it was gonna happen no matter where you were, might as well be around a group of people who do not care. - The vibe is so important, it truly is. And if you are ruining it with your stuff and your business, man, that is, this is not fun, because you only get a certain amount of space there, too, and it's like, it's not like you're at a massive party or something like that. If you wanna be at that specific tailgate, it's very hard to avoid that specific person, so just make note of that. All right, number three. So open up about this before. We're gonna say it again, because apparently, some folks need to be reminded. Find someone other than Cam Newton for your comparison. Okay, so I ask, I'll die on this hill. I will, if your only thought is to compare a player to Cam, you should rethink that thought, okay? Even Gus Melzon said at Big 12 Media Days, that physically, KJ Jefferson is the closest thing to Cam Newton that he's had. - Yeah. - We have to stop that, because it's just not, right? Okay, and I am, look, trust me, I am the number one KJ supporter, and I am telling you this is not right. And I know what you're thinking. If anyone can make that comp, it's Gus, right? Mm-mm, nope, because that's the same dude who told us Jeremy Johnson's speed was similar to Cam's, and boy, it wasn't. - I was about to say, all you gotta say is KJ is who I thought Jeremy Johnson was. (laughing) - I mean, that's a little too far. We don't want, we don't need to do that, all right? I don't know. I go that far. Just keep Cam's name out of your mouth, okay? I hate, hate, hate, hate Cam comparisons, because it never makes, it never makes sense to just take one piece of his game out and compare it to other people. The part of Cam that makes him so unbelievable as a college player is all the parts, working at the same time, okay? I go around saying like, hey, you know, Jesus and I both had beards. What's the point of that? - Yep. - We're still somehow like in this window of, okay, it's kind of in recent memories. A lot of people have seen it. Like, you know, if you're old enough, if you're even, yeah, 25, you have probably good memories of Cam, or maybe if you're an Alabama fan, I was a fan, not so great at memories, but memories nonetheless vivid enough memories. And some might think Cam can happen again. I'm not saying that it never will, but eventually we kind of stopped comparing people to Herschel, right? We just decided let's not do that. But it was the only one that ever made any sense. And that's about it. Just because you are a big black quarterback who can run, you should not be compared to Cam Newton, period, okay? - Yeah, no, I agree. - Not negotiable number three. - We've talked about it. I think that this is a version of my thing about the Burrow 2019 graphics that show up on ESPN every single year. It's, you know, trash, it's back Jodes, it's whoever it is. - Jay Daniels last year. - Jay, Jay, well, they're just a little bit different because he's at LSU, right? I think you're actually compared to LSU quarterback that you kind of have to do. But if it's like, you know, if it's somebody red, don't do that same deal here. So it's like, just let people be great. You know, I think that's the easy thing here. It's like, you could be the first Carson Beck. You don't need to be the second, whatever, you know? It's just make your own story and it's lazy. - Yeah, there's, you want to compare Carson Beck to Matt Stafford, Aaron Murray? - All right, sure. - All right, sure. - Same record books, yeah. - No disrespective to my guy, Aaron. - All right, no disrespect whatsoever. But like, Cam is different, different tier, okay? He is an untouchable tier as far as I'm concerned. Number four, no September Heisman's. We shouldn't even declare a leader in the Heisman race in September, okay? And I realize it's a content game, it's something to talk about, I get it. It's unique in college football though because those schedules in the first four weeks can vary so much. They vary so much more in September than they do by season's end. And sometimes guys are putting up 400 yards in the first half against 1000 or something like that or Mercer and that throws things off. I promise that we'll have plenty of time to discuss the legitimacy of Heisman candidates. We will do it on the show, okay? So I don't want to hear about Heisman leaders unless, and here's the one caveat, unless we're talking about it with gambling odds. That's the only time where I think I will bring that up in September if we have Bear Felica on talking about it. I love getting his perspective. Hey, when did you get in on this guy? What did you see? How much did that change after this random game against Houston or something, wherein this guy's numbers weren't particularly good. Then did you jump all over a guy that had better odds, or longer odds than he did in the preseason, something like that. We're talking about value, we're talking about stuff that can put money in people's pockets. We're not speaking in absolutes when we do that. So yeah, just no September Heisman's. It's not worth it. - Yeah, I mean, all the conversation about Colorado last year, like we couldn't have just been spared. Like there were plenty of respects, so I respect your report, I'm not gonna say their name, but that was like, Heisman in the day, it's gonna be Travis Hunter, and then it's gonna be Shirdo Shane. Now think about how that reality would play out. You're talking about Colorado being a playoff team. You're talking about Colorado going undefeated. If that is legitimately what you think that two members of that team would be there, what are you talking about? Like that's always been my thing. Yeah, I mean, shout out to Jacobi Harris, Judo Smith, who has, I guess, respected his career. But yeah, there have been plenty of people that are just like, all right, look, this will be a joke later on to make this kid's career harder. - Tate for CA, I don't really go back. - Yep. - Boy, yeah, many memories of the Tate for CA Heisman conversation. Manzel, before Manzel, some were saying. Sorry, that's disrespectful to Johnny. I take that back out. - Only be one Johnny Manzel for sure as well. - I believe in that one now, for sure. All right, number five. Adapt or die to the 12 team playoff. You can still be a bigger fan of the BCS or even the Bowl Alliance, Bowl Coalition. People don't talk about those as much. - Holy Matrix, get that out of here, but everything else is fine. - Exactly, exactly. I'm not telling you how you should feel about that specifically. I am saying there's nothing that you or I can do to change this. And this is just the system. This is the world that we live in with college football right now. And if you're telling yourself that you're not going to be lined up, ready to go for that first weekend of the playoff, which is what's that national holiday, December 21st, I wanna say that day is that Saturday, where we're gonna have games from like noon, all the way through, probably closing at night of playoff football, like 12 consecutive hours of it after a Friday night playoff game. Like if you're telling yourself that you're just gonna avoid that because you don't like this system, it's a money grab. Okay, fine, do that. You're not part of this. You're not part of what a real college football fan is, in my opinion, okay? You could still like one thing and enjoy another. I know that's a crazy concept because everything has to be defined black or white, but let's also adapt expectations, okay? Going 10 and two is different now that it was before. It is. Going 10 and two means that you get your resume dissected. That's the way that this works. Let's adapt correctly and not by wasting our time on eight and four teams or oh my gosh, seven and 14. Unless, of course, you have a path to play in a conference championship game that obviously changes things. You still have playoff odds in your favor, actually, if you still have a path to a conference championship so you can get to a university of Florida, and you were found a way to win eight games. I saw it graphically. I brought this over here. Kelly Ford. It was like tears of like how many wins you could have in Florida would just buy itself at eight. I was like, I agree with that. If one of those eight games, I'd be saying be like five ranked teams. That's fair. - Yeah, I talked with Kelly Ford about that as well. Who does really, really great work. Some of that I've been wanting to get on the show for a while and need to. I don't know why I just have it, but he does all the matrix up. I actually disagree with him a little bit on the amount of nine and three teams that would be considered because I do think 10 wins is gonna be that mark. But again, I will adapt my expectations if that plays out. And if there are a lot of those nine and three teams that are kind of getting in, we're like, okay, this is, we can extend this out to some of the three loss teams that get left out of a conference championship. But yeah, I mean, I think we're gonna have to change a little bit. We can maybe stop getting into the weeds so much about strength of losses. I don't know how much that's gonna be discussed by the selection committee. We can embrace the chaos. We can understand that there'll be more discussion about the playoff than ever before. We can also appreciate how cool it'll be to have these home playoff games and how unique of a site that's gonna be. So yeah, let's just tweak how we view the playoff, even if we are BCS supporters or something like that. - Yes. And I think this is related to the vibes thing. It's like, hey, man, we're all gonna rewatch this playoff. All right, at the end of the day, you're gonna be there. If you wanna loudly protest or whatever, good for you, keep that out of here, I don't care. And the other part of it too, the one thing I'll add on that, if you are the fan of a power team, like at a higher state, Alabama, whatever, and your rival beats you and you just take to yourself, well, playoff school, like if that's your comeback, get out of here with that. Like, well, you know, just 12 teams, we're still playoff games. I don't know why this guy's celebrating. Like, the game still matters, guys. Like, that's the other part of it, is like, don't make everything about the playoff, but then don't be like, oh, well, this stupid new playoff, you know? - Just enjoy the season. It's kind of the take here. - Yeah, it's a play the long game. Understand that if your rival gets you, like, yeah, that's why Oklahoma fans can still talk trash to Texas, okay? - Yep. - You can still talk trash to Texas when you won that match up last year. And yeah, Texas had a better season overall than Oklahoma, but if you're just under the impression that that nothing else matters, then to me, you're probably looking at that just obviously through a little bit too narrow of a lens. Number six, appreciate tradition, but embrace new rivalries. Key, key thing to remember here. Tons of conference movement we have this year. No core for conference is the same as it was last year. Everyone's got new faces, okay? I love that, I do. And I love tradition, I love all those things, but embracing this new world, these new rivalries, it could mean planning a road trip to be able to visit a stadium you've never really had a reason to go to before. Maybe that means creating a burner account on Twitter and trolling a new fan base. Yeah, shout out UCF fans. Perhaps you're, you know, maybe like embracing a new rivalry means that you lean into things like horns down, like you just do that all the time. Maybe you've never had a reason to hate Texas and you decide this year, okay, every picture I take where I am at an SEC football game, I'm gonna be doing the horns now. And that's just gonna be a thing that I'm gonna do this year. There are tons of ways in which you can embrace new rivalries. It'll take time to be able to get used to these new surroundings. I'm still not used to the fact that Stanford is in the ACC and SMU is in the ACC, it's a weird world that we're living in. But there's something we can do to change it. So let's embrace the new rivalries. Yeah, no, I'm right there with you. It's a fact, we'll see this like every, like there will be about one of these a year. We'll find out like, oh, like this team in the West Coast is like never played, you know, pin state or whatever. And you're just kind of like, how? You know, and you can see that with your own team sometimes where you're like, oh, like there's a couple of LSU that don't come into my mind right now. But you'll be like, it's the first time we were played. These guys is crazy that we've kind of been around together. So that is a really exciting element of, you know, it's always been with bowl games. But see that's the thing is like a lot of the bowl games will last like eight or so years really didn't honestly matter as much. So if you have these like long histories that you have like three or four bowl wins that stack up, it's like, ah, so now that's like actually exciting thing you know, the playoff is like, you're going to get to see your team play other teams. You're going to experience it with new fan bases. It's like, you know, a weird example of this is like when they found out what happened when they married Iowa and LSU together, they were like, we got to keep doing this. We got to keep this rules. They have nothing really in common with the love of calling yellow gold and drinking, but that's all they needed. (laughing) - They have less in common than ever now in a post angel Reese Caitlin Clark World. Oh, that's true. Yeah, that's what we need. We need a bowl game. That's going to be like the new Pepsi ad. We're just going to have LSU and Iowa play in a bowl game or they're going to be shaking hands, like Kindle Jitter or whatever. - That's very, yeah, could definitely see that playing out. But yeah, those two fan bases, I'm sure, have embraced this, their rivalry and many others. BYU and Utah playing in the same conference. Now you get an excuse to hate one another. No, I'm kidding. They've hated one another forever, but you get what I'm saying here. Number seven. - And one thing the Big 12 has done a good job of it too, is they've been very creative with trash hockey. Like, we're going to find new words to call y'all. Like, this old stuff that y'all had, we're going to like Oklahoma State and UCF. What are they going to say to each other? Let's figure it out. - Civil conflict. Some are saying, greatest idea in human history was the civil conflict. - Well, if you make up a rivalry, make sure you win it like what? Like, that's the key. You're going to win the rivalry because like he was trying to give out the trophy. You don't want to care yet. - I don't know. Just make it up and figure the rest out later and hope that you have a good enough story to be able to tell, just like Bob Diaco did. So send an email before we create the trophy. If we put down the deposit, I think we'll be smart. - Yeah, like, - You don't need a newsletter, just an email. - Yeah, that'll do, that'll be it. - If I give you this trophy, would you accept it and be proud or would you laugh at me? Because that's the worst, anyway. - Yeah, to quote George Strait, check yes or no. Okay? - Yes. - What are you going to do? Number seven, don't get got by fake quotes. Lot of them, lot of them in college football, man. More than ever. And the blue checks that do this, that are not really blue checks, but hey, that's the app that's been created. Always click on the profile, see the followers. I shouldn't have to explain this. If it's a quote, it should either be coming from an actual news source or there should be video of said quote. And try and find that. If it's just like this random blue check that you don't follow and you've never actually seen on Twitter before, eyebrow raised, have a bit of skepticism, it's never been tougher to kind of figure that stuff out. Okay, people, some just like throwing that stuff out there. And for the ones that do it, you're a loser. I mean, it's one thing to have a burner and a troll and opposing fan base, but like to put words to people like that impacts lives and stuff like that. So it's just not worth it. Just be aware of the, be aware of quote tweeting something, something maybe you see on IG that you share, that's aggregated from sites that do nothing, but aggregate and don't actually travel anywhere or do anything like that. So yeah, sorry, that's just a bit of a pet peeve of mine. But it, again, these are my non-negotiables. So I think that one place. - Here's the beautiful thing about college football, guys. Mike Gundy will tell you he's driven and drunk thousands of times on air. Kocho will say roll tide FU on Instagram live. You really don't need to go and admit stuff that these people are saying. - Sure. - You can just search their names and you will find a video of college with law personalities saying the strangest thing you've ever seen about like they don't believe in space or like whatever, just let it come to you. Don't go seeking it because it'll find you. Like again, why was I caring about Mike Gundy the other day? 'Cause he said the craziest thing. Well, yeah, it was the craziest thing he said, which is very impressive. It's like a really hard top five for him, but he's in there. So these people will keep talking, bless their hearts. - Yeah, we don't need to create this content. It's out there, it's just let's just take it as it comes. All right, we don't need to be swinging for the fences every single time. It trusts me that. That fastball is coming middle half. We cannot go to the park, we all can. Number eight, do not call it the 2025 National Championship. Even in this new playoff, do not do it. This is the 2024 season, okay? Do not confuse yourself and the rest of us by calling it the 2025 National Championship. I cannot stand this. They do it with the marketing with college ball playoff. I hate it. The vast majority of teams will not play a game once the calendar turns to 2025. Like 95% of FBS teams, their season is over. Why do we do this? This is not the NBA season, which has a true split. The NFL season does Roman numerals for their Super Bowl, so it doesn't have to deal with this. College basketball, that's fine. You're playing the bulk of your meaningful games after the new year. You can call that the following year championship. Nothing wrong with that, but at college football, all we do is confuse people and it's so stupid. If I say to you, Will, what happened in the 1995 Orange Bowl? That should be related to the 1995 season. Not what happened in 1994, and you have to remember, oh, is that game played on New Year's Day? That is the dumbest thing in the world, and we need to get away from this. I hate the marketing. Nobody's gonna be confused if you just call it the season that it's in. I'm getting too far down. - Yeah, I mean, this is one of, you know, like we always joke about like, yeah, we're so different, but they're real key 10 of it, so I think we're pretty, so this is one of the two, the third, third, third, third, third year, right? Where it's like, wow, like, yeah, 'cause that bothers me so much. And the last one, I may have said this right here. This is one of my least favorite people, is when someone will get one of these questions wrong, and you're like, oh yeah, like, you know, Tivo, that was like, what, like, '06, Nadi, '07, Heisman, '08, Nadi. And they're like, who knows, it was '09. They're like, no, it's not, it was '08, well, no, it was played in '09, dude. Just like, you know, it was just wrong, like, yeah. - 2008, 4-1, the National Championship, okay? They did not win the National Championship in 2009. I get that the game was technically played in 2009, tell me how many of those other games, those 13 games were played in 2009. - All right. - Yeah, and here's, this actually gets even more confusing, 'cause I know it's like, it might be a big gay journal thing, it might be a marketing thing, it could be either of our faults, I don't know, but they tried it like, you know, oh, this is, whatever, here's the problem. When you have like the Orange Bowl and the Citrus Bowl in different years, now you've really created a level of confusion that's like, wait, this is the 23 Citrus Bowl, but the 24 Orange Bowl, it's the same season. - Well, if you look on their Wikipedia's of like Citrus Bowl Orange Bowl, like you can find years in which you, if you just scroll, it'll have the same year, it'll be like 2022 Orange Bowl, and then you go to the left for the previous year, and it's like 2022 Orange Bowl. What are we doing? - What are we doing? - Oh, makes no sense. All right, number nine, don't let Georgia football players borrow your car. - Good advice. - I don't think I need to explain this one, pretty obvious, right? Especially after most recent events, we can, we can pass that. Oh, these, even Georgia fans, you're not disagreeing with me on this one. You know, you got it. Yeah, all right, let's close with this one. Most important one. Most important, non-negotiable. No bad Saturdays. I realize that we cannot control wins and losses, despite what underwear we wear, despite what pregame drink we have, despite where we sit on the couch, we cannot control wins and losses. So what do I mean? Your team loses in devastating fashion. You, person, that is on the wrong end of that, you need to end your day on a positive. You grab a delicious dinner with your significant other. Go out with the boys, you go out with the girls, you fire up a little college football 25, you turn off your phone, you enjoy some quality time with the kids, you root for that big 12 team that I told you to get on the bandwagon for, all right? You got a chance to be able to figure it out. If you can wait till after September, kind of wait and see how things play out, I'll give you permission to do that. You do something positive, okay? You feel the pain of a tough loss, and then you do something positive in your life to prevent yourself from thinking at the end of the day, this was a bad Saturday, alternatively, okay? This is the last resort that we're talking about. If your team is just a total doormat, and it's a loss season that you just can't watch anymore and you're like, man, I just can't do college football this Saturday. It hurts too much. This is taking too much out of me to be able to do this. Okay, that's fine. Find positive things to do, but savor this, okay? Savor these seasons, savor these Saturdays. We only get so many fall Saturdays on this Earth, okay? Make this one this year, this fall, as enjoyable as it could be. I don't care if your team is the most mid six and six boring team on the face of the earth. Find ways to make sure that you don't have bad Saturdays because you know what, bad day of college football, still a good day, anywhere else, all right? We can control this and I need to be a bigger advocate of no bad Saturdays, no bad fall Saturdays is what we mean here, you get what I'm saying. - Yeah. - But an important thing to remember. - Yeah, so I am fully on board. I do have a specific question that I can't find an answer to. What is happening to the pack 12 after dark? Is that gonna be like, who gets that time slot now? 'Cause my only caveat before I become positive is that if what used to be the pack 12 after dark, I have to see the big 10 on-- - Big 12, no, it's like the big 12. The big 12 will take some of those slots. - Oh, that would be perfect. - Mountain West still has some of those like CBS, what's that, like the CBS is extra network, you know what I'm talking about. - CBS Sportsnet, yeah. - CBS Sportsnet, I was gonna say CBS Sportsline, that's the internet. No, CBS Sportsnet, yeah. The pack 12 after dark is not just, it's just being repurposed. That's the thing to remember. - So then boom, I'm super happy. I was my only thing, it's like, dang, if I gotta see the big 10 at night, I'm gonna be sad. But no, I mean, that's, so now that we've got kind of like, there will be goofy late night games, I'm so right there with you, man. It's like, and I think that I learned this lesson between the 23 and the 24 season, or sorry, the 22 and the 23 season, because like after LSU lost that issue on Sunday, I was sad, and I was joke about like, I gotta find something else to make me happy, 'cause it won't be this. And I was in New Orleans, and I wasted a night being sad and drinking scotch, and I should've just gone out and not cared. But I was gripping the concept of, I have to root for a bad bright and Kelly team, kind of fair. That's one of the few you've ever found yourself rooting for a bad bright and Kelly team, you now can be sad. (laughs) Anybody else? But like, that was a little bit different. But the next year, LSU got blown out and I was partying by the fourth quarter. I was like, whatever, I'm here with my boys. We're all safe, we're all in a trip, we're gonna have a great time. So like, that's the key is like, there's really even an upset loss. Okay, remember, the playoff is here guys. Any of these sad Saturdays that ruin your season, they can't, it's up to your team. And guess what, if your team loses a second or third time, that's your team's fault. No team can get lucky against your team three times now. It's really not possible. What's asked to bore? They whooped them three times. It's the point being like, it's every, just as we can say, oh, it's sad, everyone matters less. Hey, you losses matter less too. So that's the key. What is the thrill of victory really better than the agony of defeat in college football? Probably not to this point. I think that having that one weekend that could ruin your whole season is why college football has been solved. Now you don't have to deal with that. You have to accept the fact that it's up to your team, potentially the committee. But if you're a CC team, more of your team, right? That's the key is that you're gonna get that help. So your team has the path. You've got to go give them a certain talking to, but it's on them. It's not the refs. It's not all this stuff. They gave us our third loss, man. This is a great season. Uh-oh, get out of here. I think that that's a good point to remember that in this era, whether you like it or not, and I'm not saying you have to like it, but there is that margin for rare. And we will be talking about your team differently after losses. Now again, there are still gonna be losses that knock you out of playoff condition. That can still happen. The scenario that I've mapped out, if Oklahoma has this great start in the SEC and then loses out on getting into the 12 team playoff by losing that regular season finale at LSU, yeah, that's gonna be a really, really difficult day for Oklahoma, if that were to play out. And it might be a difficult thing to think to yourself, what am I gonna do now? What is this life? Well, hard day, brutal day that would be. You're also still in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Right, and the last I checked that's still, if you are an Oklahoma fan, making that trip, I'm saying, you would still be in a really good spot to have yourself a good time that night. And again, I'm not saying this is easy, okay? And it's different for me talking about this because I'm not the one with the dog in the fight. I fully acknowledge that, but I'm telling people that Will is a great example of this because I've watched Will go through some tough times the last three years with his team, specifically watching his team play defense. And the moment's less four years. Who did you see if you go through some tough times starting in 2020? Let's start, 2020 was bad, '21 was bad. These last two years have been awesome. Yeah, true, true. I have seen Will go through some tough times. And Will is as die hard as it gets. And Will is a great example of how you can turn your day around, how you can appreciate these things. I've had some tough days recently. I'll be honest with the people. I've had some tough moments where I've just been like, man, I felt like nothing went right today. And you look up at the end of the day and you're like, all right, what am I gonna do? Let's go, we're gonna go grab Chick Play or something. I mean, you know, we're gonna sit down, we're gonna watch a new show, we're gonna have a drink, we're gonna, you know, I'm gonna go run over to Culver's or something like that. We're gonna do something positive. We're gonna do something positive. I'm gonna turn off my phone, we're gonna, you know, we're gonna play with Claire, we're gonna go for a walk, whatever it may be, finding that positive, man. So many college football fans need to do because these losses are crushing. I totally get that, but we have ways. And maybe a new video game would be a really nice source for all of these people. Hey, it didn't go my way on the field. This is what I can't control. Let's get her done. Let's go with her national championship. - That, yep, yep, exactly. I pushed the story the other day that was talking about like the amount of time, like unlocked this memory that I saw, it was like, I would watch LSU score 10 points or 17 points and lose to like Arkansas or whatever. And then I would just fire up in Z double A whatever the year was and like put it in the backup quarterback and just run the aerate and just be like in a happier place. If I coach LSU, this is what I would do. And it just, it's cathartic, it makes you feel great. And an older lady, man, 'cause that just opened up a bank of memory is like the other day, like let's call it two months ago, I was like getting in my car and my podcast like shuffled a random episode. And it was like the one of the first podcasts I did was after the UCLA loss, the LSU UCLA loss. - 21, yeah. - Yeah, it was so bad. And I was like, this defense looks like they'll just met each other in a parking lot. And I was like, going through this to the furious. And I was like, yeah, I mean, like that's the thing is that like week one used to not really, you know, matter as much like we've seen teams get over it, right? And like we've talked about like it's pretty hard to be a great team and lose like week one. But now it's like, yeah, like we were talking about it. It's like, hey, if Brian Kelly loses on Sunday this year, it's gonna be the least impactful Sunday loss of his career ever. So yeah, I think that's just like super, super cool. And then like to your point, it's like these are fun places. If you can't have fun in a college town, I mean, we've all done the move where we like, okay, well, maybe we haven't all done this. Maybe I'm a weirdo for doing this, but it's like, if you are at a rival team stadium and your team wins, I always like, you know, keep my gear on respect for whatever. I've definitely done the thing. I'm like, I'm gonna change shirts to just be a nobody 'cause I don't feel like getting heckled all night. And like that's the key is that if you're at like, if you're an Oklahoma fan and you're at the LSU game, just throw on like a, you know, whatever, a hurling shirt and just go hang out at a bar. Do you have a great time? It doesn't do you anything to have drunk age and gel. Like it's you, I promise you, you don't get a medal of honor for that or have it up lots. - I've done it before to like being in that spot of like a rival fan base and you're going out afterwards. And like your team just got its teeth kicked in. - Yep. - And sometimes like you just lean into it with that, with whoever you're with and I've been there before and it's like, yep. Yeah, man, you got us like, I got nothing. I got nothing. - Yep. - But I'm gonna enjoy myself. I'm gonna have a good time. Yeah, the return of this college football video game and the playoff expanding more reason than ever. Just end your set and your fall Saturday is on a positive. No bad fall Saturdays. - Mm-hmm. - All right, let's kick to Lance Taylor. We talk about his extremely unique college football hustle life in the '90s as well as his favorite over-unders for this season. And then we close with a little bit of Lincoln Riley talk as well. So here's L.T. Now I'm excited to be joined by a very special guest. It is the next rounds, Lance Taylor, the founder of Lance's Lock, the place that, look, everybody should go. You're looking to get a little bit of skin in the game. You need somebody that's been in it from all different varieties of gambling. We were just talking about this before you came out. I had no idea, Lance. Before we dig into your over-unders and stuff, we're gonna talk college football bats and all that stuff. You used to be a bookie in Tuscaloosa? - Yeah. - How did I not know this? - Well, I mean, I don't think, I think it was public knowledge kind of around here where you originate out of Birmingham and I'll still run into people. Hey, man, you took my money back in 1997 or whatever. I started out as a freshman in Tuscaloosa as a very bad gambler. And I love to play three team parlays 'cause I was like, I'll play a $25 parlay and the six to one return on that's pretty good, not knowing that it's almost impossible to really hit. Very difficult to hit one game con or much less three. So after losing my money that entire fall, the next year I was like, you know what? I got with a couple of guys. I was like, let's put all of our summer money that we've earned working at home or working from restaurants, landscaping, whatever it was. Let's book and let's see how this thing goes. And I'll be honest with you, we never had a losing season ever. That's how hard it is to gamble and win. We got some tricky spots in 2003 and this is when I was gone from Tuscaloosa. I was actually working at WJOX. I was in Baton Rouge for Dennis Fran Choney and Nick Saban. And I'll never forget I got a call from my younger brother. He said, everybody is on Alabama in this game and I think Alabama was like a three point underdog. And I remember when I was actually at the game in Tiger State and it was one of the coldest experiences ever. But he called me up and he's like, based on these numbers, if we don't throw this off and I was a guy that was always against throwing up, we're gonna have to close down shop. And I felt great about LSU. I was like, I love LSU plus the three or minus the three, whatever it was that night. And one of my other partners was with me at the game. We were like, we're not throwing off. And Alabama won the game, I think it was 24 nothing. And I just remember heading back to Bourbon Street that night and we were like, I don't know what we're gonna do. And we found a way, we took out some loans, we were able to pay that off. And we got the same situation like a year after that and we didn't throw off. We ended up winning that one. But that was the only time it was really, really tricky where we almost went out of business. - My head just went to rounders of that moment. - I never go to the Teddy KGB though. You know, I never was on the, and that was kind of the thing about it. Like organized crime, you know, they're big into gambling and racketeering and everything. But you know, with that level, I did have some pretty amazing waves that I did things though, which I don't know if we wanna get into that, but it was all on the up and up. And you know, everybody was gambling and it was a way to make a little extra money back in the day. - Okay, so the craziest way you had to collect. - Okay. - Is there, it's obviously not my name names. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I've never told this story before, and it's funny. We just don't ever really talk about it up here. I really don't care. I think statute of limitations is probably up. But there was one of my former counselors who's now retired. She worked at the University of Alabama. She would give me class schedules. So if I had a guy, 'cause you know, this is back before cell phone. So this is, you know, mid to or early to mid 1990s. Like I didn't have, I don't know about you. My first cell phone, I think was 1998 maybe. So we didn't have cell phones at all. And so there was called somebody's home phone. They were obviously screening it. They weren't there, whatever. So if he would give me, hey, he's gonna be in the biology building, you know, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12, 30 to 145 or whatever, I'd show up at class. You know, I remember, and you know, by the way, there was never any violence. There was some talking sometimes, never any violence. But I remember it galettes. A lot of people were familiar with that place. The pikes would hang out there on Friday afternoons. And when there were pikes that owed me money, I would just go to galettes. And I would be like, you're drinking and shooting bull in here. Let's go to the ATM. And 99% of the time, it wasn't a problem. I was just one of those persistency was the easiest way to collect. And then that's one of the reasons I think I've had success in sales, not afraid to ask for money. And especially if it's my money. - That's incredible. So wait a minute, let me, I got it. I feel like we should just do a separate podcast about this, but so I'm good with it. - So if you're talking about the ways and remember, this is before all these states had legalized gambling and stuff like that, before it became such a mainstream part, it's kind of crazy to think that ESPN Bet is now a thing. And there are so many different ways into it. But like you being this physical presence and just essentially stalking an area to be like, you owe me my money, man. I still can't picture you in that role. And maybe that's just because I've only known you for the last, what, like three years. But you like in that role, like, did you have a specific outfit you would show up and I'd be business for an important dude? - I will tell you it was funny though. So when I left in '95, I kept it going and I moved from Tuscaloosa to Birmingham where we are now. But I remember towards the late '90s and into the early 2000s, when I would go to Tuscaloosa and I had a couple of different guys before my younger brother ended up going to school there and he took it over for a few years. I had some different guys at different fraternities and I would go in town once a week. And the way it worked is we collected on Tuesday, we paid out on Thursdays. So normally I would go into town on Wednesday or Thursday and I would get with certain guys and get all our money that was owed and find out what wasn't. And problems that they had, I would go set up meetings with those people and go meet with them. And I do remember there was a time where I guess me at 30 looked a lot different than a 20 or 21 year old. And I do remember wearing like the Carlito's way, leather jacket and just, you know, having them sit in my car and just talk to them about, like I didn't force you to, you know, put $100 on Clemson that led to you doubling down on the Vikings on a Monday night and now you're down $2,000, you know, it's not my problem. If you always ask them this question, if you won the 2000, you came on Thursday and expected to get paid, right? And they're like, absolutely. Well, I expect you now that you've lost this, it works both ways. And most of the kids were really good about it. I had one kid and another thing, I would get their phone numbers. I'd always call them over Christmas break because a lot of these kids, some wouldn't come back. They would disappear after that first semester. You know, college football was where it was, where we made the majority of our money. But I remember getting this kid's number from somebody else at work to the university. And boy, how bad would the lawsuits be if all this stuff really, really came out? But I got this kid's number and I called him and his dad apparently was an FBI agent. So his dad calls me back and his dad's like, you need to forget, and I still remember the kid's name, I remember the amount he owed, you need to forget my kid ever gambled with you or I will have your operation shut down. And I remember telling him, and I wasn't being a smart ass, but I was like, what kind of lesson are you teaching your kid that he owes this money? And now you, and working for the government, you're going to threaten to shut down the operation. And I was like, I'll back off, but I think it's a bad lesson. But I had a lot of those, and I had one of my, well, I say there was never violence. I will say I had a guy when I was once out that went to collect from me, and he happened to hit some kid that was obviously a big co-kid, and they ended up having a pretty bad altercation. And that was one of the reasons, I told you earlier, one of the reasons I got out of the game, but when I was on my way back from the beach, it was in early June, I think it was. And this money was from the fall before, but my guy called me and he was like, hey, this dude went to his place to collect. He basically whipped my ass. And I was like, well, when you've got your collectors, your enforcers that are getting beat up by college kids, probably time to shut it down. - I think that's for the best, probably. And I'll tell you this, for all the money I made, I basically turned around and lost it. For me, it was the, you always hear that the drug dealer don't get high on your own supply. I was the bookmaker that would, knowing better, why not discount your winnings? I would still sit there and gamble it all away. So it basically was coming in one hand and going out the other. - What a perfect way to set you up for this, talking about the lances locks of the year. We can call these locks of the year, because you have overs and unders that you love, that you sent me these yesterday. So I want to just dig into all these. You've got five favorite overs and five favorite unders that you like. Let's start with the overs that you love here. And I'll push back on you a little bit, because that's what we do whenever we're on one another show or something like that. So you have Nebraska over seven wins, SMU over eight wins, Miami over nine wins, Virginia Tech over eight wins, Auburn over seven wins. Let's start with Auburn. We'll start in your neck of the woods here. I have Auburn going eight and four. So I'm on board with you on this one. Why do that number of seven wins stand out to you? And please just tell me because you guys went golfing with you freeze and you're feeling the good ones. - Yeah, that was not it. I am a Hugh Freeze fan. I thought it was a really good hire. When a lot of Auburn fans believed it was going to be Lane Kiffin, once it was Hugh Freeze, I was like, I think you got the better end of the deal. Now that's hard to say with Lane Kiffin coming off an 11 win season last year, but I do like Hugh Freeze. And the numbers actually seven and a half. And I think when you and I talked about that, they kind of put a hook on a lot of these where you won't have the push situation. I do think we have some hard numbers, but the Auburn number is seven and a half. You go back last year with six and a half and how they didn't get that seventh win with New Mexico State and the Alabama game. I mean, that was, you talking about a bad beat. If you had a ticket on the over six and a half last year and Auburn goes six and seven. But I look at Hugh Freeze and I think he's a really good coach and I don't know where you fall on Hugh Freeze, but in year two, I think great coaches make big time jump. And you look at Hugh Freeze and his year two's at Lambeth, he goes from eight wins in year one to 12 wins. Ole Miss just seven to eight, so just a one win improvement. But Liberty goes eight wins to 10 wins. No LSU, no Ole Miss on this schedule. I think they're gonna be favored in eight or nine games. There's some big swing games, Oklahoma at home, at Missouri, at Kentucky, A&M, five straight home games to start the season. They really need to, you know, I think they've got to be four in one, coming out of September to get this number, but I fully expect them to be four in one, coming out of September. Yeah, that Oklahoma game is huge. Yeah. Really, really big for that over under. You're buying the Miami hype, why? I love Meats and Cam Ward. I mean, you think about the great story and, you know, I told this the other day, I was doing a podcast for Lance's Lock. And, you know, this is a kid that only averaged 14 passing attempts to senior year in high school. They were running the old Wing T offense. And so he didn't get offers. The in-coronate word is the only offer he got. And once he gets there, he completely blows up. And you're talking about a guy that's got him with 14,000 career passing yards, 119 total touchdowns. You bring in Davian Martinez or running back. A lot of people don't really know about. They played in that Jonathan Smith grinded out offense. I think he's going to be a physical presence, taking a little pressure off of Cam Ward. And year three from Mario Kristoff, I don't know how you feel, Connor, but this guy is 12 and 13. And you go back to the seven and six last year. Four of the six losses were by one possession. I just think they're going to be so improved. They could be favored in up to 11 games. They've got major swing games at Florida. That's going to be a massive one because I know we're going to get to Gators in a little bit. Virginia Tech at Louisville and Florida State. But I think this is going to be a really good Kane's team. I expect them to win 10 games this year. I think they got a good chance to go into a college role playoff. - If they lose that one in the swamp though, that might be your game of the year because you don't get to Florida with the unders here. - It scares me because, you know, when I, and I try to project and a lot of times they'll be like, hey, what is that number going to be coming up? And I did see an early number. And I think Miami might have been a one, two, three point favorite. I fully expect everybody will be on the Miami Hurricanes in that game. And Florida might be a little better than advertised. I mean, the schedule is completely brutal, which we will get to. But yeah, gotta get that game one. It's massive. The first one you listed here, Nebraska over seven wins. That feels, look, I've talked about my, you know, time spent in Nebraska, my two and a half years there. And it's changed my perspective certainly on, I just college football as a whole and understanding the way that certain teams are talked about when they're, you know, on the rise as opposed to others. But getting to seven wins, getting to eight wins actually is what you're talking about here. - Yeah, seven happens the number. - Yeah, I mean, I'd be worried about that from a betting perspective just because the variability of having a true freshman starting quarterback is probably gonna have some eps and flows as decorated as Dylan Ryle is. And then Marcus Satterfield as an OC is maddening in my opinion. And that's for a team that's got seven consecutive losing seasons. This has to just be faith in Matt Rule. That Matt Rule is gonna take, just like you talked about with Hugh Freeze, that year two jump. - Yeah, it's in Matt Rule we trust. You look at Temple, two wins to six wins in year two, Baylor from a one win to seven wins in year two. And I think you're gonna get that kind of jump five and seven last year. I think when you look at this, they could be favored in their first seven games. I think eventually they could be favored in eight or nine games this year, you know, it's true freshman quarterback. But you go back, you look at the offense. I think we would all agree maybe the worst offense in the power five was Iowa. - Yep. - I think there was only like a two or three point differential between this Nebraska offense. And, you know, they've got a tough close. You gotta make hay early because they close at Ohio State, at USC, Wisconsin and at Iowa. So if you hadn't gotten this done by, you know, late October, you're probably in trouble. But I do like the over seven and a half and it really is about Matt Rule. - You're just gonna be sitting there watching these one score games, just pulling their hair out, get ready for it. What was it like, three and 21 in one score game? Tom Fournelli had that set of like one score game. - Nebraska just can't win a one score game. - It's so painful. And I'll tell you another big game early on is Colorado, 'cause you go back to Colorado last year and Nebraska just couldn't do anything offensively against that terrible Colorado defense. And they hung around in the first half and the Colorado ended up pulling away. I fully expect Nebraska not only to be favored. I think they beat Colorado in a week too, which I know we'll get to Colorado as well here. - Okay, let's talk about those teams. Your favorite unders here. You have Mizzou at under nine wins. You have FSU at under nine wins. UNC under seven wins. You're in Muffett, Jeff Collins. Colorado under five wins and then Florida under five wins. Let's start with Florida because again, like the opener against Miami is really important. And under five wins, I don't think there's any question. Billy Napier would be gone in that scenario. They would pay that buyout. I guess I slightly disagree with this just because I have Florida going six and six and actually starting five and oh, to at least get to that, that, you know, not necessarily breaking through just yet. But tell me where you're at with the Gators, you know, besides just the fact that obviously the schedule is incredibly daunting. - Well, you go back last year, Connor. They were five and two to open the season. They lost five straight. So they're sitting at five and seven. He is squarely on a hot seat. This is one of the more difficult schedules we've ever seen in the history of college football. At least going into a season on paper. The total is actually five and a half. I go back last year when we were at SEC Media today's and you joined us, you know, in our room. And we talked about a lot of different things. And I remember talking about Graham Mertz. And I remember specifically talking to Jacob Hester about this kid. And a lot of people believe going into last year when you ranked one through 14 in the SEC, a lot of people believe based on what we didn't see at Wisconsin that Mertz maybe was number 13 or 14 in the pecking order. - I have that, yep. - He completes 73% of his passes, only turns it over three times. And they still go five and seven. They can be underdogs in nine games. I'm gonna say they're gonna be favored in five and seven games are gonna be underdogs. Major swing game, as we mentioned, it gets Miami to open it up. They go two missed to be state. I know Jeff Lebe, year one, I still think that's a loseable game central Florida at home. Loseable game, Kentucky. Really tough swing games. I've got them at five and seven again, which I think probably gets Napier fired. But the Miami game is the one to circle. I mean, we're putting a lot of long-term season tickets on the line in week one when you go under Florida and over Miami. - Yeah, that's what this is all gonna come down to, that game, which is just gonna be squeltering. I don't imagine you're gonna be in person for that one, when it's probably gonna be like 99 degrees at kickoff. - Yeah, I don't know about you, man. The older I get, the less likely I am to attend a game. I probably go to two or three games in person a year. I'd rather sit in the AC, watch a bunch of games on TV and not worry about it. But not a chance in hell. I've been to the swamp five, six times, way too hot. - I got into a fight with my brother about this because he's like, "Man, you need to be able to tough through the weather." You know, I would go to a game at Lambo or Buffalo or something like that. I'm just like, "I don't know, man. I don't wanna pay that type of money to be uncomfortable and wanting something to end." And I'm, look, I'm not the biggest guy in the world. I can't necessarily stomach ridiculously cold weather. And it's the same of the other end. Like when it's squelted, it's just like just that brutal Florida heat that time of year. Like, no, I'd rather just sit at home and watch all the games as opposed to just that one and be uncomfortable doing it. So yeah, right there with you on that one. - Yeah, and I do think, if I'm going the hottest, I said the coldest I ever was, and I really believe was in Baton Rouge for that Alabama, that November game, where Dennis Ranchoni beat Saban 24, nothing I think was the final score, but the hottest I've ever been, I think was a Florida Tennessee game in the swamp. And it's just like, add 20 degrees on top of whatever it is in Gainesville in September. - Swamp is the most appropriately named sports venue. They're constantly-- - It really is. It really is. - It really is. - Okay, Mizzou, under nine wins. That's not going to go over very well with our crowd. That fan base in general is feeling good right now, and that drink would itself is feeling really good, because obviously you're coming off of a 10 and two season with tons of offensive firepower returning, in my opinion, best returning player in the SEC and Luther Bird in the third. And the schedule is really favorable. So that's going against public money probably? - I would, yes. - Are you just, are you not necessarily a drink guy, or what's pushing the under for you? - I give, and I've said this, I've kind of given this analogy about drink. He looks like the guy where the wife and kids are walking up the boardwalk in front of him, and he's carrying all of the sand buckets and the beach chairs, and he's burnt. - He's a dad. - Yeah. - And he's just getting bossed around. He's henpecked by that wife. But you look at drink, five wins in 2020, there was no expectation, then six wins, six wins, and then they bust out with 11 wins last year. Now that number really is ballooned up to nine and a half. Last year, 2023, their win total was six and a half. They flew over with the 11 wins. Now it jumps three games. And I just don't know if they've got staying power. I agree with you on the schedule. I like Brady Cook. I think he's a really, really good quarterback. We did our top five quarterbacks, returning in the SEC. I had him number five. I agree with you on Luther Bird in the third. I think he is the best player in the SEC, and I think he could have just an incredible year. But you look at the schedule, they might be favored in 10 games. They go two A&M and two Alabama. Those games they won't be favored in. But the swing games, Auburn, Oklahoma, and at South Carolina. I just think Missouri's gonna trip up and lose a game they shouldn't. I think worst case, they're eight and four. I've got 'em at nine and three. And I play the under just because I don't think Missouri can handle the expectations. And you know that it's coming off 11 wins last year with what they've got coming back offensively. Their expectation is college football playoff robust. - As it should be, I agree. And I still was asking those same questions and had 'em go in eight and four. So I'm right there with you on that one. I think you're the most anti-Colorado person that I know. - I thought that was Tom Lugenville at least last year. The one after him. It's not that, you know, I thought it was a great story last September. And by the way, their win total last year was three and a half. They actually win over the three and a half. But, you know, they start three and oh, they were the story of college football and then they lose eight of nine coming down the stretch. My thing is, shooter Sanders is a great quarterback. And especially when you watched him last year, Connor, because this guy threw for over 3,000 yards, 27 touchdowns, only three picks, but he was sacked 52 times. How he survived the season last year is a miracle in itself. I know the offensive line is gonna be a little bit better, but I think the big 12 is gonna be much better than advertised. People are talking about the ACC is gonna be better this year. I think when you look at the big 12, I think Utah, Kansas State, Kansas and Oklahoma State all have a legitimate shot of winning that conference. I think all are really good teams. They better win early when you look at this Colorado schedule. And again, Nebraska is gonna be a big swing game there, but they go to Texas Tech. They've got Utah at Kansas, Oklahoma State, but circle at Nebraska again for me, because I've got Nebraska going under in Colorado going, or excuse me, Colorado going under in Nebraska going over. Week two in Lincoln is a big game for me. - Here's why you're great at what you do. I, when I came out with you guys a few months ago, I think the first thing you asked me was, who will have more wins this year, Colorado or Vandy? And I like laughed you out of the room. And I was like, how could you say that blah, blah, blah? And then you're like, no, no, think about it. And look at the schedule. And then you kind of look at the schedule and you realize a couple of the gaming games that Vandy has that Colorado doesn't necessarily have. And I thought about it more and more. And I thought about it for the last like four months since you brought that up the first time. And I'm like, gosh, is Vandy gonna win more games than Colorado this year? It's not that crazy. - What is, yeah, what is the realistic expectation? I know Deon's gonna tell you, hey, we're playing for big 12 championship. And I've heard some guys like Klat that think they're gonna be really good. They lost a ton and they brought a ton in from the portal. I just don't know how that works. Like we saw it work sometimes for John Calaparia, Kentucky. And then we saw some disaster seasons. And I think this being Shador and Shiloh's last season, I just don't know if Deon's gonna be coaching again next year. I know he says he's gonna be long-term. I just don't know if I believe it. And I don't know how many Colorado fans are gonna loan him if he goes four and eight again this year. But I think four is kind of the number there. I think you're getting value under the five and a half. - The underrated thing too is the loss of Sean Lewis. Like that move and what went down in December or November. All of a sudden Deon's like the best thing about my team. I'm just gonna abandon that. I don't know that they're gonna be able to call offensive plays. - Well, I think the first month of the season, you were looking at Sean Lewis as maybe the broils award winner last year. They opened 3-0 because their offense was popping. And as good as Shador and Travis Hunter were, and Travis got hurt in the Colorado state game, everybody was talking about Sean Lewis. - And go figure, he ends up getting a head coach and gig at San Diego State. - He's a better spot now. - So that one year bridge really did work out for him. - Yeah, the Kent State to Colorado OC move. Everybody's kind of looking at it going like dude, what are you doing? And yeah, he has definitely made it a better move for himself. Okay, last one for you. And it's not gambling related. You can make gambling related if you want to. But this is more of just kind of a big picture thing. Since you are the most LA person I know, I think, with the exception of my cousin who's lived there for a really long time, but USC. You guys talked to Bruce Feldman about this, but I'm curious what your take is on Lincoln Riley, considering that it feels like he has zero momentum going into year three after he's been struggling and recruiting, he's getting called out by his former AD, he's getting outed for trying to duck the LSU matchup. Like, what do you make of him going into this season and what do you think his next five years look like? - You know, kinda when you look overall at the body of work in two years, I mean, it's better than what you got consistently from play Hilton. I mean, 11 and three, I don't think they were that good and they ended up getting exposed at the end of the year against Utah. But you had a Heisman Trophy winning quarterback and 11 wins in year one. It's a good year, it's a good solid A. But then you back it up eight and five and you don't think the defense can be any worse and they give it 35 points per game. The Ant and Lin comes in now, Anthony Lin's kid. He is well respected. I think the defense has gotta be better. You've got Barry Alexander and Eric Gentry and some guys to build it around. I just don't know what you're gonna get offensively. I trust Lincoln Riley to get the offense right. I can't remember him ever having a back quarterback and Miller Moss, the small sample size we saw against Louisville, he goes 3.72 and six touchdowns. So, you know, I don't think you're gonna get that year or weekend, week out. But Zachariah Branch is gonna be really good. Didn't get enough touches. Only 40 offensive touches last year had just as many on special teams. Gotta get the ball in his hands. And I think Woody Marks transferred from Mississippi State in that backfield's gonna be really good. So I think the good for USC is there's not a lot of expectation going into this season. I mean, their win total was seven and a half. It was nine and a half last year, obviously goes under at eight and five. I think they're gonna be favored in eight games. I think they win eight or nine. And I think if you're a USC fan and you're one of the big 10, you can build on that. - The counterpoint, the doomsday scenario for USC is Lincoln Riley having this like seven and five type season, which I, yeah, that'd be the under 'cause I think it's seven and a half. - Yeah, but I could see a seven and a five. Yeah, like if that happens, all this traveling in the big 10, like having to learn all these new teams and stuff where it feels like you're kind of starting over. And he looks around and goes like, "Why did I sign up to do this again?" And then the Cowboys thing, the timing of that with Mike McCarthy that everybody's been talking about forever with Lincoln Riley. Like if that actually lines up to be able to happen, like, I don't know what the odds would be of that scenario playing out, but it feels like it's better than zero. - Well, and I don't know, like Lincoln Riley personally, like where he is on some different things, but talking to somebody that covered USC football last year, they said that the environment was more NFL. It was more, it was more Louie, it was more Prada. They were worried, NIL really, really took over that program, at least this is what he told me. And, you know, after a loss in college football, it should hit these guys hard because, you know, it's a little bit different when we're talking about 12 team playoff now, but back in the day, you lose a couple of games, you're out of it. I mean, for a team like USC, the expectations should be championship or buzz, but those players were walking out, smiling, laughing. It was like the losses weren't that big of a deal. And you just hope that that's not the entire culture. It's not just about a money grab when it comes to USC, but you know, they've had some weird recruiting things going on recently with, you know, verbals that have decided to do a 180 and go elsewhere. And I don't know, I mean, I like Lincoln Riley. I think it's a fun style to watch. Defense cannot be any worse. I know I said that last year, but I think it will be better and we'll see. But I think eight or nine wins, we'll get a little momentum going into 2025. - Yeah, that's why the Caleb Williams thing, when he was crying after that game last year, I know I'm biased as a Bears fan, but like when Caleb Williams is like crying after a loss, I made fun of him for thinking like, they still have playoff chances. But I'm like, at the same time, USC needs more of that. They need more guys that take it that seriously. I think this is kind of a life or death deal as opposed to like, yeah, yeah, got paid, whatever, who really cares. - By the way, I do think Caleb Williams is going to be really good for the Bears. I really do. I know like it is one of the more polarizing things, but with that said, I think Justin Fields was going to be good. - Yeah, I did too, for a while. And then I realized, am I saying this because he looks cool on the internet? Or am I saying this because I think he can actually leave them to the places they want to go? And then the fact that the market was what it was, was a little bit tough to stomach of being like, oh, yeah, okay, then they probably made the right decision in the long run. But I mean, I love Justin Fields. I wanted him to work out so badly, but my life is a Bears fan now. And you're not mocking me at all. Like as a Rams fan, there's like seeing his team, you know, do the whole, like, oh, we're going to get to a Super Bowl. We're going to win a Super Bowl. Like that whole thing, right? Like you're not coming from that place. - No, no, no, no. Look, I went a decade. Stephen Jackson was one of the best running backs to never play in the postseason. I guess he played one game in the postseason for the Rams, but old number 39 from Oregon State, he had such a great career. He would have been a Hall of Famer if those Rams teams would have been better. He played behind some awful offensive lines. My point is, I can't remember the last time I missed a Rams game. Like I have seen every snap, every play for years and years and years. And I go back, I started getting Sunday ticket in 1997. And so I suffered all of those years. And the worst Rams loss to me that I can remember was in the 2000 and the three divisional game where Steve Smith walked it off in St. Louis against the Rams in overtime. Because I believe that Mort Bolger team, they would have matched up the next week with Atlanta and Carolina ended up with Jake the loan going to the Super Bowl that year. But that was a tough one to stomach, but there was nothing like 1999 when the Rams won their first championship. I told you the Rams, they're a third kid to me. - That would be like your strawberry wine football season. You know, like just go back and just like such an innocent place. Like everything seems so pure and fun. Like the first time in all of this and you just long for those days and time. - But I'll tell you, maybe more fulfilling was the recent Super Bowl 56 where they beat the Bengals because that playoff run, they smashed the Cardinals. That first opener, they go to Tampa, they were dominating the game. Cam Acres Fumbles on the goal line right before half. Brady leads this amazing comeback and then, you know, final possession, game tied, Stafford hits Cooper Cup on that amazing and they end up Matt Gaik's field goal. They win, they go on NFC Championship, if San Fran holds on to an interception, that game's over, they're able to come back win that. That was so fulfilling because where I am in life, before that season started, I said, if you can give me one Rams Super Bowl and the rest of my lifetime, I'll take it, the championship. And I went that entire postseason without having a sip during a game, which is amazing for me. - Dude, you gotta get like some flower seeds or something like that to calm the nerves. - I paced, I paced nonstop. I've got my basement that I watch all the Rams games and that's all I did. And I've had people that are like, why don't you just sober? 'Cause I'm a superstitious guy. Why aren't you just sober for Rams games, games moving forward? And I hadn't tried it since and they haven't really had a lot of success in. So maybe I should go back to that, I don't know. - There we go. Okay, I probably won't last one for you. Probably won't be sober at karaoke next week. You did Big Papa last year. What's the play this year? - Well, I didn't play on doing Big Papa. I know that that's more of y'all's thing. And I'm trying to remember how that went down. I know Barrett Saleh is really big into that. I had a guy that was with us. We had gone to another party before where we saw you guys at. You told us where you were gonna be. I didn't plan on going over there. I went to another place called Pushing Days is a little tequila bar across the street. And the guy said, if I can find, I told him, I said, if you find Big Papa, I will come do it. And the next thing I know I got a text is queued up, it's ready to go. So I ran over there, kind of butchered that, but I'll definitely hang out with you guys this year looking forward to it and I will see what happens. California love this time, maybe, I don't know. Regulate. - We go from Big E to Tupac, is that allowed? Set your limitations. It's all good. - I embrace and love both. Like most white men my age, you know, the internal debate on who was the best rapper, Big E or Tupac, I love both. So. - It's looking like a true LA guy through and through. Love it, man. Hey, looking forward to seeing you guys next week in Dallas. Appreciate you in this, man. - Yeah, and you know, last year, remember we had Barclays vodka on set, we were going out bottles of vodka. We've got some really cool surprises for guests this year. - Charles, giving out the vodka on set. - No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I don't think that's gonna happen. Yeah, this is gonna be bigger and better though. I'm telling you, Connor, you're gonna love it. - That's a tease, man. That's the tease. Lance, appreciate it, man. - Absolutely, always fun. - Pitch me, we're talking today why your team has a path to Atlanta. Okay, here's the thing. We and the media are very bad at this whole predicting and ICC champ thing. And you might think that's because media is really dumb. All right, I get it. But at the same time, last year, think about this. Georgia's coming off two consecutive national championships. Georgia was the pick to win the ICC. Did Georgia win the ICC? No, was anybody really pushing back on that at the time? No, remember how I said last year? Look at the way that this is gonna play out one or two ways. Either Georgia is gonna win this and go on to win a national championship or it's gonna be a year in which Bama's not picked to win and then Bama's gonna find a way to win the ICC championship because that's just what Bama has always done. And for the fourth, then each of the last four times that Bama wasn't picked to win the ICC championship, Bama won the ICC championship. That goes back to 2009, okay? That's crazy. So it's this fear that if you don't pick Bama, you're automatically gonna look like an idiot. And we in the media, we feel that, we feel that pressure. I've talked about that before, but I don't know that it's as easy as everyone thinks it is. Okay, I don't think it truly is. And since we have started this whole SEC championship media voting thing back in 1992, we in the media have only gotten this right nine out of 32 times. Not cool. 281 batting average. Wait, I've only been voting since 2018. So I won't take all those Ls, but I'll take some-- - Oh, it's your record. (laughing) - My record, I think I've gotten it right twice. - Yeah. - I think I got it. - I think I got it. - I think I got it. - I think I got it. Georgia both times. - Yeah, it definitely didn't have LSU winning in '19. I mean, yeah, I think I had Bama winning in '21, and then I had Bama winning in '18. So yeah, I think I got it twice, right. And then '22, who did I have in '22? I don't think I picked Georgia winning in '22, did I? I don't know. Two, maybe three. - Yeah, you would have to be really high on Bama, 'cause obviously LSU went on the west, so that would have been, you know what I'm saying, that would have messed up the bracket by itself. - I probably picked Bama to win in '22. - Yeah. - Because Bryce Young, Will Anderson, preseason, but one was overwhelming for that team. So yeah, that's definitely possible. Yeah, so I'm saying this at the top because it's a hard thing to do. And I'm not gonna hate on people that are saying low. My team's got a path, and you're wrong to think this team doesn't have a path. By the way, Georgia will be my pick, okay? I don't really need to be pitched on Georgia's path through Atlanta, I said on the last podcast, why I'm picking Georgia to win a national championship, why I think they're going to accomplish history by winning three and four years. So we don't necessarily need to dig into that a whole lot. And again, we're starting by getting to Atlanta. This is the path to Atlanta. It doesn't have to be winning an SEC championship. As we know, getting to Atlanta, a little bit different now. Divisionless SEC for the first time since we've had an SEC championship. CBD on the tie breakers, hopefully I'll be able to ask Stinky about that. We'll wait and see. So anything that we need to kind of get out ahead of before we discuss path to Atlanta, 'cause we've talked most difficult schedule, we've talked most favorable schedule and stuff like that as well. Yeah, yeah, I think for me, it's gonna be picking anyone but my team just works out perfectly. Actually, I would, off of that getting to Atlanta tip, let's start with the second one. Let's start, okay, let's start with this. This is from Marcel Jermaine. Marcel says, "From Athens to Drove on Route 78 "for half a mile, merge on to 29 for six miles." Take route three, 16 for about 40 miles, then follow I-85 south for 20 miles before taking exit 84. That's the path to Atlanta. Yep. Can't argue with that. I hope that Marcel just knew that and didn't actually have to look that up or GPS it. Or anything like that. It's just so ingrained into a Georgia fans, 'cause remember, Georgia can play as many as three games in that stadium this year, just like they did two years ago, 'cause they opened the season there, they played the SEC Championship, that'd be there, and the National Championship is at Mercedes-Benz as well. Georgia fans should know that, exact route to Atlanta. That's pretty good. Yeah, that's actually like one of the best answers, 'cause it's so factual. It's like, "I, we go there all the time, dude." And to your point, we both are gonna take them to go, so it's like, "Correct." You really don't need to think too hard about this one. The only pushback is, "What if there's better route?" We just don't know it. Yeah, you don't wait, it's about that. Think about that? I took some back roads back from, when I was at the Georgia Parade after the 21 title. Yes, it's the 21 title, not the 22 title, that I'm talking about Georgia's first National Championship, right? Yep. And I flew up for the day. I flew back like the same day, and I drove back from Athens to Atlanta, and I took some back roads, man. Like places I had never seen been to before, something like that. I don't know why. I don't know how crazy traffic was that day. And I'm here to say that route was not faster than the one that Marcel Germain just described. There you go. All right, let's go to this one from Paul Rake. Rike, Paul says, "Godzilla and Mothra emerge from the Pacific Ocean." The two monsters step on all SEC teams, except Vandy and Mississippi State. The two are unable to locate Starkville and Japanese action movie heroes or monsters would likely not know that Vandy is an SEC team. That is how Vandy makes it to Atlanta. That are the apocalypse. Either one of those is really good. Anything short of that? I mean, they did win two games in SEC play a couple of years ago, like Kentucky tough. Yep, no, that's it. That's the path. - I think we have two equally correct takes to start off. (laughs) - Something so direct and literal. And then something also not so much literal, a fantasy more so. I don't even want to call that science fiction. That's just fantasy at that point. - This is like house of the dragon. Like it's like, well, okay, what if we find the dragon eggs? (laughs) Then we can get to Atlanta that way. So yeah, I love the real fans. Like that's my favorite. Like the fans are like real about it. They're like, yeah. So I think both of those are very strong starts 'cause it's like, there's nothing worse than a fan of a bad team who will not admit that each year's for a bad team and that the whole world's out to get him. Like I don't like putting in Miami fans like that. They just think that the world is stopping them from being good. And it's like, no, like you're gonna need some stuff to go your way, dude. - I love the most underrated part about that is Paul, Paul decided that Godzilla was not enough. (laughs) Godzilla needed a tag team partner for Vandy, for Vandy, hug a Vandy fan. Seth Calhan says, "Mazoo, one loss in Tuscaloosa, "Lutherburden is a Heisman finalist." You could look at that schedule and say 11-1, you can. I personally am not, but that is the only game on the schedule that you look at for this Mizzou team and you say, "Nope, not gonna happen." And you know what, I mean, I don't think that Mizzou goes into Tuscaloosa and wins that football game, but if Alabama is suddenly that eight and 14, that game totally changes the complexion. I don't really like this pitch as much from Seth because he left out the game at UMass, which if you talked about that, you'd be in the conversation. - Yeah, we don't overlook that one. You want to talk about a sleeper game. There will be people that will be sleeping in the bleachers at that football game. And it'll be tough to get the boys riled up for that one. - If you see UMass's AD at the casino, leave. That's all I gotta say. If Ryan Bamford is smoking a cigar on the sidelines of this game, Mizzou, you've already lost. He's gonna find a way to talk to the officials and it's just, you're taking that out. Your only L will not just be in Tuscaloosa, mark my words, Ryan Bamford's fingerprints will be all over that game. - And I will say to you guys, great responses this week, okay? We had like a lot, I forgot what it was a couple weeks ago, but people were like giving these big scenarios and not talking about their game. It was about the rivals. Everyone here gave it their team and how they would get there. So great job, 100% correct. - Love this. This is what we want with pitch me. - GradyStucker09 says, for Kentucky, it's go 10 and two with wins over Georgia, Ole Miss, Florida, and the two losses to Texas and Tennessee. - Kentucky schedule is tough, man. It is really, really tough. Wins over Georgia. Wins over Georgia, Ole Miss, Florida. Eating Florida has not become this hurdle that it used to be, of course. Everybody knows that, okay? Three consecutive wins. This is not so much that, oh, that's just an automatic L. They'll find a way to be able to lose that game. So I'm not gonna talk you out of that one. We'll talk you out of that one. I won't even talk you out of the Ole Miss thing, because Ole Miss and Kentucky have played pretty competitively. That game a couple of years ago, that was, was it a top 10 match? If it was like seven versus nine, yeah, or something like that with the Will Levis, two turnovers late in that one. Big, big game in Oxford, that was. The Georgia one's what I can't get past. I just can't. And it's tough because I think if you're a Kentucky fan, you told yourself a few years ago, well, this is probably because of the style that we play. There's only so much upside. If you're gonna try and beat teams in the trenches, you're never gonna beat Georgia in the trenches. You gotta be able to innovate. You gotta be able to scheme better. You gotta do this isn't this. And then you've still seen the way that it's played out. And last year, Stupes gets up to the podium and does the infamous pony up comment. And you're kind of realizing, yeah, it's not just as simple as game. It's not just as simple as Jimmy's and Joe's. This is kind of all of it. And it's not particularly close at this point. So I can't fully get bored with that. And go in 10 and two. Remember how historic that is for Kentucky, which the two winning seasons in SEC play since the Jimmy Carter administration. Yeah, 10 and two for Kentucky. That's a tough sell. Brady's digging deep, I can tell, but I don't even know if he feels that one in his chest. Yeah, see, but I think this is real though, right? Because it's like, it's almost like if you're in that situation, you would rather like, like, like, you would rather your losses be to the worst teams, right? So like, you gotta be like, you know, the Georgia, the Ole Miss that are gonna start off with that preseason love. Texas is there too, I get it. But like, a lot of Tizzy's not the worst thing in the world, even though they'll probably be a good enough team to where we'll be embarrassing. So yeah, I think this is actually a pretty logical thing. And I'm gonna go pee really quick. This is why I love getting like stuff from just like different fan bases. 'Cause it's like, yeah, we've talked about the schedule a little bit, but just wanna fluke this out there. I've brought this up at Nausen whenever we talked about Mark Stewart's and expectations. Calvert is gone now. So there's just you to hate, Doug. (laughs) So that's the key. Like, if you got a hard schedule this year and just let you know, it's the podium thing I go work this year, but at the same time, you have a partner that Mark Pope will be nice to you. You guys may not have beef. So that's a great opportunity. So you have your SWAT analysis done for you, Kentucky. Point being there, yeah. I mean, this could be a solid enough. That's the thing. Kentucky's been a talented team last couple of years. Like, even though they've had like a couple of struggles here and there, the ways that they've been struggling have not really made a test since. Objectively, we talked about like the blue wall, kind of the big blue wall kind of imploding. And, you know, the quarterbacks have been talented but just not putting it all together. So, yeah, I mean, a strong season from Kentucky wouldn't really be that surprising. Honestly, when you really like look at their personnel, but to his point, to your point, both of your else points, the schedules are hard and you just can't have a repeat last year. So Kentucky's actually, I think it's pretty interesting to make sure. Kentucky's never the team you want to pencil them for 10 or two. Yep. Yep, 'cause they will get to nine wins in the weirdest way you've ever seen. Yep. Well, like with a bowl game or something like that, they would probably, it'd be more like an eight and four regular season, something like that. But when you're giving them that kind of love in the preseason, that's usually where they falter. Yep. Okay, let's end with this one. Excuse me, from Alex W 540. Alex has none. There is no path for Arkansas. That's as brutally honest as we can be. It's tough, man. So I go on Arkansas Radio on hit that line every other week. And I've had this discussion with my guys, Phil Elson and Matt Jones and like the upside of how this year could play out, like best case scenario that we're talking about. It's like, if you get beyond seven and five, like tell me I'm crazy for thinking that anything more than seven and five is just like, it's silly talk for Arkansas. And I think Arkansas fans know it. When you say it like that too, though, I mean, there's seven and five. Is it going to keep a job with seven and five? Like seven and five would be enough to keep Sam Pittman around. Yeah. Seven and five would be enough. Okay. But if you're coming up short in these games that we saw last year, if that plays out in any sense whatsoever, yeah, I mean, I think that's like, you can't have these Mississippi state type losses, of course, that everybody talks about. And there's nothing wrong with going into a year. I know this is a crazy concept. This is a really crazy concept. There's nothing wrong with going into a year saying we don't have a path. It's not there. It's not there. We're not built like that. Even if you're in year five with a head coach as Arkansas is like, there is not necessarily that great shame in admitting that. And sometimes you set yourself a little bit better. If you can acknowledge like what seven five is. I think the vast majority of fans do acknowledge that. I do think there is a lot of understanding of the teams that just don't have that path that can't even just have Godzilla take over and stomp SEC teams. And Godzilla needs additional help. There's nothing wrong with that per se, but it does probably feel really depressing to say that as an Arkansas fan after the year of athletics out of it. Yeah. And that's kind of like the dichotomy of it, right? Which is that, I mean, to me, like at this point, like seven, five, seven, five, right. So I don't really think, I don't want to do the cop out, which is like, oh, like, it depends on how you get to 75. 'Cause I'm like, but to your point, aim four feels incredibly like extension level impressive. And six and six feels like you're in trouble. So you got to really find a way to get to those seven wins. And so yeah, this is an incredible crop of pitch means. Like, I think all of these are real accurate. There's like a funny one, but it's real, you know what I'm saying? Like, and like, to be honest with y'all, like, I've talked here about this, I've talked to Marlar about this. Like, I don't see it for LSU this year. Just to be honest, as good as they might be. 'Cause here's the deal that we haven't talked so much. There's a ton of really good teams this year. So like for LSU, like they would need Mizuda's trouble, just for instance, right? 'Cause they wouldn't have to play him head to head. Like it would, they would need to be, okay, well, Bama is not as good as people thought. Ole Miss, you'd be head to head. You know what I'm saying? It would just take eight different contingencies for this current LSU team with this new defense to get there. So like, that's the thing is like, this year in the SEC, unless you are Georgia, it's like that second spot being kind of auto open is like rough because it doesn't even feel like it's like the divisions, like we're trying to go say, the way that Alabama was almost like auto locked in the West for like eight years there, 10 years, it feels like Georgia would be that the East going forward. So the divisions this thing doesn't really matter at this point. It's really just like, okay, well, either way, it gives some team, what's up? I don't know, I kind of pushed back on that a little bit. 'Cause what if we're talking about, and I don't know that this is gonna play out, okay? I don't. But if we get to a place where there's a 10 and two team in the SEC, who goes six and two in conference play, and again, TBD on the nine-game conference schedule, the way that this is kind of setting up now with some of these teams like Georgia and Florida having these match up cancellations, it does appear like the SEC does want to move forward with the nine-game conference schedule starting in 2026, TBD on all that, okay? But if we're talking about teams that can go six and two, division-less, right? In a division-less SEC and get to Atlanta, that I think changes the conversation a lot about who thinks they have a path and who doesn't. If it's still every single year, 8-0, 7-1, you lose that second conference game, you're done, and you don't have that division, that favorable division to fall back on, then I think that we're talking about this in a little bit of a different way, not as much like, oh, yeah, it's just gonna be Georgia, it's gonna be Alabama, Texas, LSU, at the top, and there's a little bit more room that isn't, so it's just not quite as defined, I think, 'cause it once was. Yeah, well, I'll say it like this, right? So it's almost like Georgia would need to be disappointing or need the opposite of help to not be in this championship, so we can kind of admit to that, right? Like, they have the track record, they're gonna get kind of a little bit of the polling, that matters too much more, but they're gonna get that love and they've been in these big games, so like, it takes what need to go pretty wrong for them, talking about like, injuries or like, you know, there's suddenly the offensive lines bad, we've seen that not at, well, it started Alabama last year, yeah, sometimes that just happens. It would take something like that to get them out of the conversation, but same, the inverse of that would be like, okay, number two in the east, the old east would be like, I guess, Mizzou, this year coming up. Mizzou would be number two in the east, Tennessee fans would probably push back on that, I'd say that game I would hold on to you. Nah, that's for last year. Hey, if you're pushing back on that buddy, you gotta start pushing back on Mizzou, a little bit better. Anyway, so, point being like, Mizzou would have to have Alabama, Texas, Ole Miss, even like an LSU, fall off a little bit to get them into a dual old east matchup. You see what I'm saying? Because Georgia is what they are right now, and Kirby Smart is not leaving anytime soon, it just kind of resets the deck where you are just playing for the old Alabama spot, whereas Alabama, 'cause if we had, let's say we had 10 more years of saving, but we also had Kirby, the SZ would have just been locked, like, dang near every, like maybe one over three or four years of team would sneak through, which is what we see in the last five or six years. But now it's like, well, as long as one team is auto-locked, the east has quite gotten to that point because, not being mean, Florida's out, right? So Florida's that team that won it in 2020. They're that team that we've seen in the east enough to where it would matter. So, yeah, I think that Mizzou would be a surprise, because they haven't made it since they dang your first got here, right? Like, it was the two kind of back-to-back, I think. Yeah, they struggled for a year, and then I think it went two back-to-back. It was, yeah. - 13 and 14, yeah, with the first years. I still think the number, the number to get to in the A-King Conference Cup will be seven, get to seven SC wins, be seven in one conference play. You're going to have a chance if you're six and two, and it's like, I don't know that you can necessarily bank on that in the same way that I think the new college ball playoff, the number to get to is 10 wins. That's the all-important number that's going to make such a big difference. These were good. I think the best pitch is, hmm, I mean, that Fandy one is so good. It's so good. But the Georgia, the actual directions for Georgia happens is just, I can't disagree with that. I can't disagree with that. That is the most, the one that I agree with the most. - I like this. - This is the first time I've said this. I think this is a tie, because each person had an answer for their own team. So I think that this is a 10 of 10 Vandy answer and a 10 of 10 Athens answer. I couldn't pick. I started with the first one, but then like us going from like, yeah, and they're kind of locked in to just like, here's a specific direction, it's so funny. And then the other side is like, here's the strangest thing you've ever heard. Get ready. - All right, look, okay, you heard it here first. Saturday down south broadcast, endorses Vandy in Georgia in the SEC championship. - Heck yeah. - Different paths to get there. Different paths. - Add as many playoff teams as you want. We gotta split Nati right here. We're bringing back, we're going back to tradition. - Let's do it. Let's get newspapers to vote on this. And yeah, these two teams will be the deciding factors. Okay, we're going to have a lot of coverage from SEC Media Days next week. I am so, so pumped. We've got some great things in the works that we're going to be able to do. So we will have pods next week. We're going to be recording on Monday and Wednesday. So that means you'll have pods that hit your feed on Tuesday and Thursday. If you have not, leave us a five-star review. Subscribe to our YouTube channel where you can watch every episode of the Saturday down south podcast. Follow us on Twitter at the STS pod, @setdownsouth, @seatyourgarra. That goes so hard. Thanks guys. Talk soon. (upbeat music) You
It's non-negotiables time! Connor borrowed an idea from "The Bear" and came up with the 10 non-negotiables for the 2024 college football season (0:30). The Next Round's Lance Taylor joined the show to discuss his wild gambling past, his favorite over/unders and Lincoln Riley (37:00). The guys close with Pitch Me: Why your team has a path to Atlanta (1:11:00).
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