(upbeat music) - Hey, what's going on? This is the Saturday down South podcast. - I am Connor O'Gara. Will, football, football, football, football. - It's here. Yeah, I mean, we've made it, right? I mean, I feel like that was about as good of a week zero slate as I can remember. Maybe I'm being a little bit too, not slate, but just like the main game. I think those games often disappoint, but I felt like I was going to just have a nice little, you know, hors d'oeuvre of college football. I was going to watch a quarter and a half. If she was going to be up 20, I was going to do yard work. Instead, I was locked into my TV for four hours. So we're so back, dude. - It was great. It was the perfect kind of game to kick off the season. A little appetizer, just because when you have that dud first game, or the only game that you're looking forward to during week zero is bad, you're kind of just like eh, well, this is really anti-climatic. This isn't the best start to college football season. And instead, we get a down to the wire game, a game that had just such a throwback feel to it with how few possessions there were. And we had, you know, we're like doing stuff around the house and whatnot. I was like locked in for the first like hour and then it's kind of one of the things where it's on, but like we're doing stuff. And then for the last, I think the last like 45 minutes was when I was really like, I'm not getting up for the couch right now to be able to watch this. And it set up so perfectly for the person, which I think a lot of people are across college football that was doing just that. And yeah, we got an absolute thriller. It took me until week zero to get a take wrong for this upcoming season. Maybe Mike Norvell doesn't deserve as much blind faith as I gave him. So hand up, a little bit off the mark on that one. - You know what's crazy though? Okay, like maybe I just like Mike Norvell. I don't know, but it's actually pretty wild how much they were outplayed by Georgia Tech and how much Georgia Tech needed to do to win that game. Like if you think about how they counted a 14 in that first half, they come down with the scripted plays. We've said it a billion times up here. We'll come to that, the rest of America. The scripted plays look great. They come down, they run that trick play swing gate, get up eight points. They then hit a 52 and a 59 yard field goal to get to 14 points. It's like the fact that, and that's kind of actually kind of why I like Mike Norvell. This game maybe kind of realized that it's like one player who lost him this game, in my opinion, pretty clearly here is the quarterback position. But this was elements of how he beat Brad Kelly twice in a row, which is that like, both of those games, I was like, wow, we were really just getting our clocks clean here. Even though I feel like we're kind of out playing them. And it's like the fact that they finished that halftime tied at 14 despite their just inability to throw a pass more than three yards was actually kind of impressive. I'll be honest. - Yeah, look, I'm not gonna sit here and defend DJ Uyunga Le's performance. I will say probably the right side of that offensive line probably could have helped him a little bit more. - Yeah, he had a better offer. - He's getting a couple more years. I'll figure it out. - Yeah, just give year seven, year eight. He's probably gonna figure it out at that point. Yeah, the fact that his go-to guy down the stretch was former Alabama pre-season star and then regular season. - Participant. - Participant Malik Benson. - Yeah. - I was like, oh, yeah. When Florida State fans were saying that this, this is gonna be the guy to replace like Keon Coleman, I'm like, look, I remember all the Juco stuff about Malik Benson didn't see it line up last year, but yeah, the week zero reality check for Florida State was, it was real. I do hate though, I will say like the people retroactively saying like, oh, so you just means 2023 was a fraud. And I think that's more people say that just because they wanna dunk on canal, which I'm not gonna talk people out of dunk on canal. I'm not gonna do that. He came out with the Zapruder film, officiating. It was like, brother, I counted so many, just like face masks that were like just again, every play kind of when it gets George attack, that was bagged bagged like that. And they still won the game. It explicably, it's like, okay, man, I love it when a guy comes out with the Zapruder film, it's great. - Never change DK, never change F's. - Now that being said, if you guys would like to discuss the Patrick Peterson interception in 2009 in Italian at length, my phone number is. - I would not like to discuss that at length. You know what I would like to discuss at length? - Just kidding, yeah. - Actual football, that's being played this weekend. I am so, so excited. We got Marty Smith coming up in a little bit. We have a lot of the week as well. Maybe gonna circle back to some week zero stuff with a lot of the week if I had to take a guess. But we are breaking down every single core four game involving an ICC team plus lock of the weeks. That means we got six games to break down. That's the way that we do our preview pods for those that are new to the Saturday on South podcast, first of all, thank you for joining us. We are in for a heck of a ride. Let's get into the first and most important game on the SEC slate, just kidding. That would actually be, if we're being, if we're talking about this in terms of like time, that's there's games Thursday and Friday. But the game that people will be getting up to see is Georgia and Clemson in Atlanta. Georgia, number one in the country, you might have heard Clemson at 14. Georgia's at 13 and a half point favorite as of this recording. By the way, we're recording this on Tuesday afternoon. So that is earlier than we typically do the preview pods. We typically record these on Wednesday during the season. So there's a lot of injury stuff like that that could be sorted out. Things that we're gonna hear about a little bit later on, including this one that is probably gonna be of note on Saturday, not so much an injury, but a suspension. The overunder I have, well, is .5 snaps played for Trevor Etienne. That's, look, in case you haven't seen, there's a lot of uncertainty about his status for Saturday after the DUI arrest that he had back in March. If he had been convicted of DUI, he wouldn't be playing in this per the Georgia bylaws. Yes, those do exist. Don't make a joke at that. But the waters kind of been muddied a bit because they had a plea agreement, basically dropped the DUI charge. He pleaded no contest to reckless driving, pleaded guilty to underage possession of alcohol, all that stuff. Kirby's keeping this coast to the best because that's usually what he does with suspensions. So this isn't necessarily new. We know what this game means to the ATM family. I do wonder how much Kirby is factoring that in with this. And I also wonder how much Kirby is weighing the fact that Roderick Robinson is banged up. He's got a toe injury. He's not gonna be playing in this one. Backfield depth is limited, which doesn't feel like something we often say with Georgia. I realized we were talking about this last year, but historically speaking, Georgia backfield depth is never really much of a concern. Could be a concern in this one without ETN, without Roderick Robinson. If that's the case, that would mean Branson Robinson, the guy whose muscles look CGI, I think, is fair to say. Missed all the last season. - I've heard two of them. There's a Branson Robinson and a Branson-- - Branson Robinson and a Roderick Robinson. - Rob, okay, got it. - Yes. - Yes, confusing, I realize. - 'Cause it both sound like superheroes. Like it's not like there's like a Steve. - Yeah, it's like Shamar Turner and Shamar Stewart. There's like three Shamars right now on the defensive line in the SEC. Yeah, it's very confusing to keep all this straight. But look, if this ends up being a Branson, a Branson Robinson game, now I'm starting to look at you. - That's your buddy, right? - I know, right? Yeah, my best friend Branson, that's what I'm talking about. Look, Carson Beck mentioned, this is someone who, yes, he missed last year, but the last time he was on the field for Georgia, had two touchdowns in that national championship game against TCU, albeit one that got out of hand in a hurry. But either way, I would expect that Branson Robinson is going to have a big role in this game, probably gonna have a big role this season, talked about before how "Don't Think Trevor Etienne" is gonna be the SEC's leading rusher just because I don't think that's typically how Kirby uses his backs. And so they're going to try and dip into the well a little bit, probably wouldn't it be the best look to play Trevor Etienne after the offseason or two that's been for Kirby? I don't know. If I'm Kirby, I'm probably looking at it a little bit differently, then he might end up looking at it, I don't know. But here's maybe the better question, Will, and this is why I brought this up. Is Georgia need Trevor Etienne to be Clemson? 'Cause I don't think they do. Like, let's be honest here. - What else could help back there? - Seriously, put one of your tight ends back there or just impasse, bro, and let Carson Beck throw it 40 times, and then shoot, you're doin' Del Carries. I don't care. - Dealin' Bail? - What was that? - That's by a Southern football coach voice. He is, I could all time, I could imagine like Coach Niblet at Hoover yelling his name. Hey, get over here, dealin' Bail. - I was almost like Jeremy Pruitt Hoover. - Yep, exactly. - That was real thick, I like that. Like, I think if Georgia came out with a really past heavy game plan and just decided, you know what? Branson Robinson, you got a lot of tread on those tires. We're gonna get you involved. We're gonna get freshman Nate Frazier. We're gonna get the aforementioned Dylan Bell involved in here. I think they'd be just fine. Why do we think that at this point? Because why in the world would we have confidence that Clemson can score against Georgia? Seriously, I mean, last year was so bad offensively, and I was going back into the numbers today and realizing how many of these major categories that they weren't even top half in the country. I mean, it was terrible. Like, they couldn't get any chunk plays going. Garrett Riley, experiment, I think everybody agreed, like, didn't work out year one, but it would be blind faith to say Garrett Riley is going to all of a sudden flip the switch, and it's going to be that much better. Yes, Kate Club Nick, fall off season in the offense. Like, I get these cliche things that we talk about, but this isn't going against Georgia Tech here, with all due respect to the one and no yellow jackets. This is going against Georgia, all right? This is going against the defense that's finished top five in the country to the last three seasons, with arguably the best defense of mine on sport, Kirby Smart. Speaking of that national title game a couple of years ago, and speaking of Garrett Riley, Garrett Riley, how did it work out last time he went up against Kirby? Because I, it's a certain 65 to seven wings. Yeah, and that was when he was at the peak of his powers, you know what I mean? Like, that was when he was feeling it as TCU's offensive coordinator. I'm not saying we're expecting 65 to seven, okay? Garrett Riley's probably better talent to be able to work with on the field with this Clemson team as crazy as that sounds compared to that national runner up TCU team. Although, he had some dudes, me, Kendra Miller, Quentin Johnson, like they had some dudes on that TCU team, next Uggin' Great College quarterback. But I am saying, I expect something a whole lot closer to Georgia's 2022 opener against Oregon than I am the 2021 opener against Clemson, okay? Isn't it wild? The thing about that changed three years, three years ago? That was probably the first game that we did as a preview game on this podcast together. And like, I bring to Clemson and win that game. I went back and looked at my crystal ball, like my prediction for that game. And I was like, I think DJ Uyangalay is gonna get going. I think Justin Ross-- - Well, yeah, he touched down pass. - Yes, he did, correct to claim. He had the only touchdown pass in that game. No other-- - Not to his own team. But he scored, he threw a ball that was running to the zone for a touchdown. - Gosh, Dabo even, he was like, kind of had a little bit of a shot at Justin Ross for not necessarily cutting off the route the way that he was supposed to. Like he said after the game that Ross was supposed to, he was supposed to like break off the route. And instead he just kept running a slant and essentially that's why that play happened. And you kind of looked back at that and you're like, "Is he just trying to look after DJ? Is he trying to like get his guy some confidence there? But yeah, huge play in that game. In a 10 to three game, that was V pivotal play. And who knows? Like if that doesn't go George's way, like I don't want to say it changes the entire trajectory of the three years that these programs have had, but man, like it's just so bizarre to see how opposite of directions they've gone. Clemson at the time, six consecutive playoff births, six consecutive ACC championships. They're playing in the building where they win all those ACC championships. That place for Clemson was like what Atlanta is for Alabama, right? Like they own that place. And then to think that Georgia has that moment and runs away with that barn burner of a game. You know, Georgia obviously since then played in a couple of national championships, won a couple of national championships and has more national championships in the last three years than Clemson has ACC titles. I mean, that's just crazy to think about. But yeah, the way that this game sets up is so different than what we were talking about three years ago. And Georgia, in my opinion, should be able to take advantage of all those weaknesses that Clemson's had. I think Georgia wins this going away. I don't think Clemson's pass-catchers are all of a sudden gonna flip the switch. So give me Georgia to win 38 to 10. - Yeah, the other day we were texting and I of course texted you 'cause I was seeing Slender online. I'm not gonna go to the publication, but you know, it was one of these tired old takes of, well, the best two coaches in the sport are Dabo and Kirby. - I like, I like Chris Vanini. The exercise that he chose to do with tears, I hated his justification for it. We can call out people if they have wrong opinions. Like, that's okay. - Okay, fine. - There's nothing wrong with that. But I agree with you 100%. - Yes. And so he like trotted out the take on these guys and multiple national champions. They got to be the best two coaches in the sport. Like here's the deal, man. If you're not cracking 30 in the ACC, you're just not gonna be able to hang with like any top 10 coach in America. If you're struggling with Mario, Cristobal, that's just not gonna happen. And like basically, I'm gonna tell you why. The great defensive coaches, Allah, you know, Nick Saban, I feel like I can, it's gonna be the times I can mention Nick Saban productively, you're just gonna go down, right? But Kirby has taken that mantle for him where it's like, okay, yeah, I guess you hired Mike Bobo, but you still had an electric offense. You still had this multifaceted offense that was getting up and down the field. And when Kirby was winning national championships, they had a really nice, unique offense that powered them to that 65-7. Mark B, you were talking about in a title game, right? Where they're eating chicken wings and the sidelines. And I think that the style of just being, you know, doing the less miles, doing the, you know, the old school, like Mark Rick, of like, okay, we're just gonna get all these athletes together. We're gonna not turn the ball over. We're gonna play defense. It just does not work anymore. And I think that like that puts Davo, it's such a disadvantage, because when you don't have this great generational quarterback, like you're Trevor Lawrence who can make things happen, like make these NFL throws at the college level and hit these tight windows, you just can't hang with these elite teams who are gonna have those athletes on defense and they're gonna have a great offense. There's no offense optionally more. Being defense optional is honestly better. And we're always, you know, coached up and thought, okay, you've got to have defense. You've got to have defense. But I would rather have, you know, last year's LSU team or elected rally team that can at least go shot for shot with a team and make it interesting. Then have a team that's just kind of dead in the water the way that Clemson has been, because you see it with football, we just talked about one play completely changed that game with the pick six. I mean, you're sitting on one or two plays completely making your breaking your team. When the other side of the equation is, ah, we just had a guy fall down defense. All right, Jane Daniels, get back out there and score another touchdown. And like that's just so much easier to get over. So yeah, I think that I hate to say the game is as past Dabo by because we love the Riley higher and we did at the time. Maybe it just is breaking those bad habits. But I mean, that was a thing that I even caution people about at the time was that the TC offense was not pretty. You know, it was not the Lincoln Riley offense, which I think people will just sub like, oh, we got Eli man and he must be Peyton man. No, completely different. And it's like, this offense doesn't look like his brother's offense, Garrett Riley and Lincoln Riley. It looks, it's a, you know, hard hat offense that gets the job done, but it's not the one that's going to be wowing the recruits and the way that, you know, it had in the past. So yeah, I think that that really puts them at disadvantage, which is the craziest part of this too, to echo your point is that we're looking here and going, Georgia with Mike Bobo is just, Beyonce and of course the temos of the offense. Think about this. Well, Clemson and Dabo has maintained for some tier one status, because why? Well, because he develops, he develops and his floor is so unbelievably high. Dabo in the last three years has had two offensive players drafted, none of which were in the first two days of the NFL draft. One offensive lineman was a fifth rounder in 2023 and Will Shipley, a fourth round running back that, if we're being 100% honest, Will Shipley turned into the player that Clemson fans hope to be in a post-Travis ETN era? No, he just, he did it. And so how much of that was the scheme? How much of that was the surroundings? It comes to not being able to find those guys that can stretch the field. I don't know, but he did not turn out to be that guy. And it's wild to think that they have gotten to this place. And we can see all of the reasons why they have gotten to this place. And I think you're going to look at the way that these two teams are built. And there will be moments on Saturday in which Georgia has a big play in the passing game. You'll be like, oh, who's that? Who's that? Oh, it's Don Lubbot. Oh, that's, oh, over there, who's, oh, that's the tight end that got from Stanford. Oh, wait, is that London Humphrey's guy that got from Vandy? Oh, yeah. All of these guys that George got from the portal and Kirby between the first three cycles of the portal, between one and four guys. He was so much closer to Davo than Lane with the portal. It's not even funny. Oh, yeah. Like he was the guy that said, we're going to still recruit at the high school level. We're not going to rely on the portal. Very, very seldom are we going to go after that guy. And they were always going to be at a loss for that. And Kirby took 11 guys from the portal in this class. And now, in the first year that year without Brock Bowers, that year without Ladd McConkey, already had Robert Thomas kicked off the team. And obviously, there are things that Georgia needs to figure out. So I'm not saying that this is a given, because there could be those moments this year in which they just don't have that guy that Carson Beck trusts when it's late game scenario and he needs to be able to move the chains. But they have set themselves up so much better than Clemson has to overcome the loss of legends. And it's like such a basic thing that we can probably talk about until we're blue in the face. But it's what allows you to keep this floor high. And Georgia's floor, if it's a 13-in-one season, is just so much better than what we could have ever imagined three years ago in these teams we're playing. It doesn't feel like it's a fair fight in this one. And it's going to be noteworthy if Clemson makes this a 60-minute game against Georgia. Yeah, and I mean, it's crazy, too. When you think about these teams path to being kind of a dynasty, where it's like with that, it's like, dude, you will never have another challenger in the ACC. I mean, Mike Novella's done to come up just a little bit. You know what I'm saying? It's completely knocked this guy off his rocker. Meanwhile, in the SEC, you got Texas, you got Oklahoma. You know, you have the resurgence. You know, we talk about Mizzou and Ole Miss and Nausim. You got Brian Kelly at LSU. You got all these guys coming in and making the SEC better. And we're looking at Georgia going, and who should they be scared of? Texas Heckno. You know, I mean, Brian Kelly, Heckno. And with that, it's like, man, all the-- OK, we want to just talk about the weather needs to be perfect, 72 degrees. Like, that's what it's feeling like more and more for that vote. And in the ACC, it's like, OK, you guys added, like, half of SMU and some West Coast schools. Like, how are you this-- how are you not in control of this conference for the foreseeable future? So let's do this, then, because you're right. All those points are very fair. And I think everybody kind of realizes, even Clemson fans, whether they want to realize it or not, who might be holding on to this notion that Tyler from Spartanburg sparked a new era of Clemson football. TBD on that, that was no longer taking calls on his-- I was about the man. That's all you need to know is that he didn't want to take any more calls. He didn't want to hear what Tyler has to say. Tyler was like, that was right. Yeah, it was. So here's what we should do. Let's say that Clemson pulls off this upset, because that's what it would be. You're too touched on underdog. If Clemson pulls off the upset, all right, we're going to have different conversations about Clemson. I have different conversations about Georgia. But if that doesn't happen, and if this is the status quo, and if Georgia wins this game going away, and it's not particularly close, let's just please stop putting Dabo into your one. Can we stop? Because you can say someone's the most accomplished coach, but when they're six years removed from winning a national championship, and they're just trying to win a New Year's Six Bowl for the first time in four years, why do we have these conversations? What's the point of that exercise, then? And I think Chris Benini does phenomenal work, so I'm not trying to call him out. I just didn't like that thinking. Because we were talking about this. Once you get into tier two with these coaches and stuff, it is very all over the place right now, and it feels like it's going to go in a bunch of different directions with the 12 team playoffs. So I get the struggle with that, but Dabo's tier two. Dabo's tier two, Kirby's tier one, and that's, for me, that's about as black and white as it gets. And I usually try and find the nuance in these situations, but not with this one. - Yes, and I didn't even do a prediction. I think you're right on the money. I'd go 30 to 10, but I think 38 is probably more likely, honestly, but I still will steal your hits. I mean, that sounds perfect. - Fair, fair. All right, let's talk about the other game of the week. Virginia Tech, 13 and a half point favorite against Vandy. Yeah, speaking of games with 13 and a half points, Brad. The over-under is 12 times in which I wish that Kyron Drones would change his name. And I confirm this, I know, Si, I confirmed this Monday with our ACC Guy, Brett Friedlander. Unfortunately, Virginia Tech's quarterback is Kyron Drones, not Kyron Drones, which is terrible. I mean, missed opportunity, this is. Brad actually suggested when I was talking to him, he's like, Virginia Tech should just take a page out on Notre Dame playbook, you know, Joe, it was Joe Theseman, and they changed his name to Joe Theseman for the Heisman campaign. Kyron Drones, that guy's a Dark Horse Heisman candidate. Kyron Drones, that guy's got it up and down season ahead. He's gonna have his moments where it's really fun. Kyron Drones, that's like straight out of central casting for a college football movie. Like, yeah, sign me up. That guy is- - Put you on pass, I was really rooting for that guy. - I know, and then ironically enough, what could he not do is throw the football. That's tough. But I think Vandy should change its mascot. That's my newest take. If I could ask about Vandy on radio. They should be the Vandy Aggies, not the A&M Aggies, the New Mexico State Aggies. Hand up, I knew this was a thing, but not to the degree that it actually is. I did not process the extent that Clark Lee went to, basically just watching what New Mexico State did at Auburn last year and deciding that he needed to poach the entire New Mexico State program to try and save his job. That's what he did, okay? He admitted he watched Diego Pavia beat Auburn like nine to 10 times. He admitted that at ICC Media Days, but it's not just Pavia that he brought with him from the Mexico State. Lee also poached. Back up quarterback, Blaze Burlowitz. Tight end, former A&M quarterback Eli Stowers, running back, Jamani Jones, other running back, Michaela Young, offensive coordinator Tim Beck, different Tim Beck, not the same Tim Beck, don't go there. And just in case that wasn't enough, New Mexico State head coach Jerry Kill is now a consultant at Vandy. Clark Lee said, all right, you think I'm not going to the portal enough? I'm gonna portal an entire freaking program and bring the Nashville and that's gonna save my job. It's unbelievable. I mean, I have never seen anything quite like this where it's one thing if, okay, like you're a new coach, you know, you bring in players from your previous program or you was talking about all the things that, you know, like Jed Fish did, bringing in Arizona players to Washington and try to get Fefida and T-Mac up there and stuff like that. And you know, the Washington guys that Kaylyn DeBore brought over to Alabama. But to say, I like that program, I'm just gonna get all of them. And that's gonna be my solution is a wild move. It truly is. And I salute him for it because you gotta think outside of the box to win at Vandy. And if we're talking about Vandy winning multiple ICC games this year as a result of poaching the entire New Mexico State program, give Clark Lee another extension. I'm just saying. - I mean, I just don't understand like, guys, Matt House figured out that offense last year. Like the Auburn offense was not good. Like it was like the Vandy offense scored 22.8 points a game and the Auburn offense scored 26 points a game. Like, why, if you're gonna go take over an entire program, why not just aim a little bit higher at that point? Like, why not just. - He took the offense. He didn't take anything from the New Mexico State defense. He wasn't impressed with that. Clark Lee is taking control of the defense. No more defensive coordinator. He said, "Hey, I got you, I'm your offense." - You're saying that like Auburn didn't lose that game because of that. They lost that game 'cause they couldn't score. - They couldn't stop late too. - I guess, I guess I'm just saying, like in terms of like teams that are stoppable, I feel like Auburn was right there with Vandy last year. 'Cause like that's the thing you have to, like we were just talking about, you have to play a little bit of complimentary football. And I think that yeah, it was later in the season by the time they played New Mexico State. And yeah, they had more of an entrenched starter, but it's like, I just, that's such a weird line in the sand to draw where it's like, yeah, I don't know. Like go for a bigger upset. Like go, I don't know, go steal someone from Iowa's defense or something like that point. But it's like-- - Good luck. - Yeah, it's a lot easier to post in Mexico State than it is Iowa. - I guess, but I don't know, it's just such a funny thing. It's like guys, we have the secret, these guys beat Auburn. It's like, yeah, they kind of sorted everybody else. Like not being a jerk, but it's like, I don't know. I just, I think that's such a weird, like, I, I, good. This is a very quickly move. Some of these work. Some of these work for the year we had two wins in the SEC. - Whatever you don't win and you do stuff like this, you look like a goober though. - I'm sure you know somebody like this. My mother-in-law is like this. If she goes to a store and sees something that she likes, she will see something that she likes on the mannequin and say, I want the entire outfit from head to toe. Give me that. Clark Lee did that with New Mexico State football. He saw the entire New Mexico State mannequin and said, give me that, that's the key to my success. He's like, don't overthink this, Clark. Don't just take, oh, I'm gonna take just the quarterback or just the offensive coordinator. No, you like the cut of their jib and you want them to be a part of your program. Go make it happen. And he did. - I love the cut of their jib. That's a great phrase, it's a bunch of shit. - Having said that, I think Virginia Tech covers wins this one 31 to 14. They're fourth in the country in percentage of returning production. Kyron, now you know what, screw it. We're calling them chiron drones. I don't care. I'll admit that I'm saying his name incorrectly. We need to get on board with that. Kyron drones is gonna fall out. - Kyron drones, two dang phones. Yeah, I love that man. I mean, this is like a battle of two teams that are trying desperately to be part of the South. So I love this. You know, we could give them an honorary Southern and membership here between Vandy and VT. 'Cause it feels like both of them are trying. But yeah, I'm with you, man. I just, I feel like this is going to be fun if you're a Virginia Tech fan. I think that that's a program that, you know, we grew up watching. It was really, you know, proud back in the day. And it feels like they've kind of lost their way, but, you know, what a way to start your season. Now, I'm right there with you. I can't wait to see. Okay, here's the question for you. Carkely has had a off season to prepare for this game. What are the wrinkles you think? Do you think we're gonna try a trick play? Or do you think he's like too business for that? - Whatever New Mexico State wants, it gets. Let those Aggies run everything. - Ready to check. - Let the third most famous Tim Beck call whatever's in his arsenal. - Yeah, sure, man. No, good point. It's not up to him. It's above him. It's an Aggie decision now. Oh, yeah. Anyway, I'm taking tech for the recent cover. - There you go. All right. Number 19 Miami, two and a half point favorite against Florida, this game in the swamp. The over-under I have is 91 degrees for game time temp. I'll take the slight under, but heat index will be much higher. Again, that's all that matters to the humidity, not just the heat. I'd say get ready for-- - If the dad reps it early it often. - Yes, seriously. I have a, I probably need to get a shirt that says that, that fits the brand very, very well. It does. We're gonna get that five o'clock shower because that's just what happens in the state of Florida. So Florida fans like, you already know. There's, I mean, a lightning delay. That's coming in this one. That's just the way that we live life this time of year in the Sunshine State. I looked at the last time that Florida opened the season at home with a non-night game because this is gonna feel weird. And it already feels weird talking about it this way. Usually there's a little bit more sense that's put into this. And it's not just as simple as, what's the best ESPN, ABC TV lineup that we can set up? Let's actually factor in what fans would wanna see. It's all about the TV viewing experience now. We've talked about that. But the last time this happened, where Florida starts off the season at home, non-night game, 2013 against Toledo. So pre-play off era. Florida was a pre-season top 10 team and went four and eight, who was a must chance special in every single way. Easy, heal, well, heal. They actually won the opener by three scores and then dropped two spots in the AP poll ahead of their week two matchup against Miami, who beat Florida, even though the Gators had a four 13 to two 12 total yards advantage. Shout out Dan Mullen, but when you commit 10 penalties, turn the football over, not once, not two. When you turn the football over five times, these things happen and you lose games that you probably shouldn't lose. Why do I bring that up? That is the last time that Miami beat Florida. I was a throwing match up since then, 2019, week zero game, another game that was entertaining, not as entertaining probably as Georgia Tech, Florida State in terms of like down to the wire, but it was entertaining nonetheless. Here's something wild. This will be their fifth matchup in the last 20 years, 2004, 2008, 2013, 2019, and now 2024. Every time these two teams have played in the last 20 years, both teams have had new coaches, like different coaches from the previous matchup. So I'm not saying first year coaches, I'm saying like, 2004, think about it, like they're very different 2008 new coaches again, like every single time they are facing off, it's like, oh yeah, Miami's, Miami's coaches, facing Florida's coach for the very first time. Weird, speaks to the instability that both programs have had at times throughout the 21st century, at least at the head coaching spots. They play again next year, that game in Coral Gables. What are the chances that both have new coaches again? - Hey, one of them both are sure. We just told exactly know which one. - This game could have a huge say in that. Probably will. - Yeah, exactly. - Probably gonna be very important. This game is my clap back to anyone who says the regular season doesn't matter anymore in the 12 team playoff era. Huge game. - Have you ever met anyone from Florida? That's the case 'cause they are fired up about this one. - Very, very fired up. And I think that there will be a whole lot of takes going around on both sides. And that's kind of the beauty. Those are the games that I love. When we get to overreact to both sides, that's when you know you're watching a game that's carrying some significance. - And FSU has already lost. So whoever wins this game can dilute themselves factually into thinking they're the best team in Florida. - How about Florida and Miami fans, both kind of dunking on FSU on Saturday. It's like coming off a 13 and a start to last year. I mean, it's. - Ancient history. - Let's bump the brakes a little bit. I think Billy needs this game slightly more than Mario does. That might be obvious, but as devastating as it would be after an off season of hype for Miami in a weird way, maybe it's kind of what they need to maybe get the spotlight off of them and then just creep into contention in a very winnable ACC. I mean, it's part of the reason that Miami hype is there is because the schedule feels like it sets up really well. That Miami roster might not be at its best in the opener. I don't think it will be at its best. A lot of new pieces, the scorching temps, I think Florida plays desperate. I really do. In a game that would be devastating for Florida to lose because of obviously the looming ladder half of the schedule. I think Florida's defense makes life difficult on Canward. Maybe those are famous last words and I'm gonna come away from this with even more respect for Canward 'cause I do love him as a player and think that he'll have a really solid year, but I think Florida's issues on that side of the ball defensively have been more about depth down the stretch than being able to show up and play a game in August. It hasn't really been, are they ready for the start of the season? Because I think the last two seasons, you've probably felt good if you were a Florida fan about, oh man, this is gonna be the equation that solves our defensive woes and we got things figured out. And obviously things down the stretch have just not worked out. I think we see Austin Armstrong like head button dudes coming off the sidelines because he's so fired up and the broadcast crew is praising the addition of Ron Roberts, even though Billy's answer to the defensive issues that he's had was hiring a guy that's been fired at each of his last two jobs in the last two seasons. And hired him because of his relationship at Louisiana, but that's a different subject for a different time. And we'll go there if we need to go there. Nonetheless, Toby Keith win for Billy Napier. - I placed one of the most confusing friendly wages in my life and I think you'll be even more shocked by knowing me. So Cam Ward is the runaway preseason all ACC player of the year. And my couple of buddies that are Miami fans, I bet them that Grandma's sort of a better season than him. - Oh, that is, that's interesting. Okay. - I don't know why we keep waking up. I've said this on here before and pretending like we fell out of a coconut tree when it comes to the Miami Hurricanes. - Yep. - I don't know why we think that suddenly everything is gonna change and the cat is gonna bark here. Maybe the cat will bark here. And if the cat barks, oh my gosh, what an interesting thing. Let's talk about other cats now barking. Every time Miami has dealt with any type of hyper expectation over the course of pretty much my life, outside of the 2020 season, which we've just admitted did not matter. Mac Jones, Trey Lance, you know, what was his name, Wilson on the Jets, just all of it was made up. That was the only time Miami was kind of good outside of when they hired Mark Ripped explicitly, explicably and were kind of good for a year. - Just go Garrett Wilson of fraud. - I'm not Garrett Wilson, what's his name? - Quarterback from BYU. - Zach Wilson. - Zach Wilson. - Yeah. - Okay, there are two Wilson's on the Jets. The one, that's quarterback. Yeah, Zach Wilson's on the Jets anymore. - Well, yeah, but they, you know, they tried, didn't they? Anyway, it's a point being, oh yeah, they did the good Wilson distillate. But point being, yeah, like just quarterback play was rough that year. It was kind of my point and everybody was good. So that doesn't really count. And then yeah, again, like that was just a weird year for Miami in 2017. Outside of that, there's not been a year that Miami has even performed near preseason hope for expectations. Like just call it expectations, not hope, 'cause the fans are always above expectations. And I just don't think this is the year. In a year that Miami's not even predicted to do well that Cam Ward comes in and just does something that, you know, Herbert couldn't under Mario Cristobal and plays above expectations. I think that we've given, you know, this team and this specific head coach chances to do many things. And one of them was Neil the football and he couldn't do that. I feel like we, on the other side of this, building AP here loves a good press win, loves a good PR win, loves a good preseason or like early season win. Like we always talk about, you know, his win against Utah where I look for like 24 hours or like probably about a week was like, "Oh no, this guy's gonna be really good at Florida." And then the rest of his Florida tenure happened, thankfully. But these like starts to the year, he is a motivator. One thing about building AP here, he is a motivator. When you get these type of guys and they're ready. I mean, like the week one games, we saw that under coach O2, his guys just get guys ready to run through a brick wall. And I think that Mario Cristobal is the exact opposite of that. I think he is a guy that is, we call it a CEO, but kind of like, you know, I'm not gonna get into that. But point being, I think that this game is exactly poised for a Florida, how do you like me now one? Like you nailed that. And a Miami, we're still Miami performance. And I, and that's the thing, like they have the talent. I think their offensive line is gonna be better. That's, that's the thing. I'm sitting here trying to rationalize this bet that I made with my buddies. And I'm like, none of this makes sense. I wanted to sit here and tell you, Florida's offensive line is worse. They've lost their only receiver he has trusted for a lot. Like that has been trusted. That program's just building out there. None of this makes sense. But at the same time, Graham Mirth was inexplicably good last year, despite the horrors. And I mean, in terms of like being like a top five or so SEC quarterback, I think he was that. And point being like, Kim Ward is a guy that if he had his brothers, would have gone to the draft. You know what I'm saying? That's been it, backed out, went to Miami. But it's not like this is a guy that is like, I am a hurricane through and through, even the way that Derek King was. So yeah, I just think this fit is gonna be very Miami. It's gonna be very money over, you know, fit and the substance I don't think is gonna be there. And you know, maybe if this coaching staff of, why do these people keep hiring cages Connor? What is going on? The whole Florida thing and Miami is just full of cages. They got like former LSU players on the Miami staff losing out on DJ Pickett. This is weird. Anyway, I hope that there, I predict that Florida's Cajuns come out on top. They could go for their little part of Louisiana that these teams are now fighting over. But point being, I do genuinely think that this is going to start the year off on a good foot. Now, where the second foot goes, we've known this doesn't predict anything as we saw in the Utah wind for Florida. But yeah, I just, I don't think this is gonna get put in a, on a hype video to like horrible, like creed music. But I just don't know who's scared of Miami anymore. Like I just don't know what is, what about Miami? I should be like horrible. What a, what a creed music is horrible. - Well, no, but like a 480 highlight that's been like a docked down in quality. Like when Festus is easily retired and he had like (mumbles) Anyway, so that was the reference three people got. But anyway, so like, I just, I don't know who's scared of Miami anymore. And I think that Florida like, at least has some things like their quarterback 'cause it's just like better. I'm sorry. - I think you need to apologize for saying horrible creed music exists. I'm, I'm offended. - You're right. - You're right. - This would be more like a 10 years type thing. - Yeah, everyone's entitled to their own opinion. But if their opinion's wrong, we need to call it out. - Yeah, you're right. - I think people like Ken Ward. I think people like the Ken Ward story. I think the stuff with him go to the NFL. Like the NIL stuff was a little bit weird and all that. But you kind of like go back into it. Like his roots of playing in a wing tee offense in high school. You only offer he's getting his incarnate word. He ends up playing in a superstar offense and gets this opportunity to watch in state. And in this era of college football, where we can actually have access to watching these guys and we're not just like, well that quarterback went five and seven last year. You must not be a winner. I think there is a little bit more of an understanding that Ken Ward has a lot of really redeemable qualities as a player. And I think that has fueled a lot of his Miami love. I think that's a big, big part of this. But again, I think it's difficult to go into a place like that and to be able to pull off a victory even at a program that is struggled on that side of the ball. So yeah, I'm there with you. That is an interesting take about Mertz having a better year than Ken Ward. What would you consider to be a better year overall? 'Cause Ward isn't like, he's not gonna light it up from a rushing standpoint. Mertz isn't gonna light it up necessarily. But like, are we talking quarterback grading? Are we talking like? - So I said yards, touchdowns, quarterback grading. I said, look, I mean-- - Four yards? - Yeah. I think Van Dyke actually would have won this bet last year. And that's the thing. That's my only thing. I like Brad Kaya. I like Tyler Van Dyke. These guys went from quarterbacks that I really had a lot of promise to, to Miami fans telling me they were horrible over and over and over again. And I'm like, I like Ken Ward. I really do. I think he's gonna be a good player. I think Miami is where quarterbacks go to die. I think that's just, that's it. I mean, what was the last good quarterback that played at Miami? - Did your Corey Harris at a moment? You get a minute. - Oh boy, do I, we've talked about, did your Corey Harris has been guaranteed? But that's how it always goes, right? It's like, he gets built up and then it just implodes at the worst possible time. I remember seeing Brad Kaya came to, was that 2014 at Nebraska? I think it was. And I covered that game. And I was like, Brad Kaya is Jesus Christ. That guy is the truth. He is awesome. A little bit of a tougher time living up to that might have been Apex Mountain for him that, that year 2015, I guess he had a couple of coffees well and other nice performance against Nebraska the following season. But yeah, the way that it is just always falling apart, like Dear King was the guy that was built for this modern era football. And I remember the Ross Delinger story about him and all these NIL opportunities at Miami was taking advantage of with him. And he was this guy that was going to be built to finally play in this modern offense that they were going to run. And they've had moments. They've had moments offensively but for whatever reason, they just haven't found that guy. quarterback maybe came where it is. Maybe this is the launching point. I still think Florida wins. All right, Saturday night. This one's going to be awesome. I think this might be the game that I'm looking forward to most. I really am. Number seven Notre Dame is on the road. Number 20, Texas A&M. A&M is the three point favorite. Oh my gosh, the Brian Kelly's son's bull. Look at this. How about that? The over under I have is three times that you see someone reference A&M quote, pulling off the upset. Don't be that person. Don't be that person. I say that because this is set up perfectly for many people to make that mistake. Notre Dame is the higher ranked team but A&M is the favorite according to the odds makers. In this setting, you defer to the odds makers, okay? That's what you're talking about. Favorite and underdog. Don't make that mistake. A&M winning would not be an upset but honestly like I don't even like Notre Dame winning as an upset because that feels weird too. So let's just not use those terms for this game. Let's just accept that this is a game in which I think either team has a path to be able to come out on top. But I've got an unpopular opinion about this matchup and I'm gonna get pushed back on this. I'm very, very well aware of that. We talked a month and a half ago about how the Big 12 is America's Conference and I had Kansas as America's team. You had Ole Miss as America's team but that's for this season as a whole, right? For this week, Texas A&M should be America's team. Oh man. Unless you are a future Notre Dame opponent, you need to be rooting for the Aggies here. Even you, as an LSU fan, need to be rooting for A&M in this game. Even Texas should be rooting for A&M to win this football game and here's why. I think we have this belief that the 12 team playoff is now going to be super inclusive and that everyone is in contention. And to a certain extent, that's true. We've got seven at large births that are up for grabs after the auto bids go to the highest ranked conference champs, that's the way that this is gonna work. But think about this, the loser of the SEC and Big 10 championship games, those might as well be auto bids, right? So now you're down to five auto bids or five at large bids, I should say, five at large bids. If Notre Dame is 11-1 and doesn't play for a conference title, I got news for y'all. Notre Dame's getting into the 12 team playoff and now we're down to four at large bids. The at large bids, which is the only thing that Notre Dame can get. They're not getting one of those auto bids, right? Oh, hey, they're gonna find a way, it's not like a big 12 champ or something like that where, okay, well, that's gotta go to somebody. No, Notre Dame is going to be more of a bid stealer than they were before. And the at large bids could basically be cut in half without really giving it much thought. And if you looked at that Notre Dame schedule, you'll realize that 11-1 feels inevitable with that Miami cancellation, which is Miami's fault, not Notre Dame's fault. So I know Notre Dame's gonna get dragged. It's gonna be like, " Notre Dame doesn't play anybody." Miami overbooked non-conference play, blame it on Miami. It was by Evie's storyline, they just didn't check their, they're playing there. Yeah, I don't know, we got you. Sometimes we need the next year, bro. The overbook, the underbook, and I would have it all the time. Like, oh yeah, hey, I can't make that call one o'clock 'cause I've got a 115 or something like that. I'm like, oh no, it's actually Thursday, not Wednesday. It happens. It's the best of us. Just not usually with college football non-conference scheduling, but will. This is a schedule that is just like begging, begging for 11-1. And I say that as someone who isn't saying that Notre Dame is gonna compete for a national championship, they're the team that's got three wins against AP top five teams in the last 25 years, all right? After A&M, Notre Dame's next game against a team in the preseason AP top 25 is at home in November against 0-1 Florida State. Yeah, after that, only other preseason AP top 25 team on Notre Dame schedule is USC. That's it. Everyone needs to be rooting against the Irish because they might be able to sleepwalk to 11-1. And if you're saying, Connor, what are you talking about? Doesn't that mean that A&M will just have a path to the playoff? Isn't that what we're talking about here, right? Well, you just let out a laugh that I was like, do you see Walter back there? I do not. He's trying to break into this room. It's no, it's hilarious. It's fine. His little Paul just shot up from under the door and is he trying to open the door, continue. I love that. I'm always like, do I open the door for my pet? Do I have to? What's in the downside? They just sit out there. They just can't get into the room that they aspire to get into. Life will be okay. They have an entire house to get to. But anyway, the way that right now people are probably looking at A&M is, okay, well, they're in the top 25 already. If they win this game, then all of a sudden we're talking about them for the 12th team playoff, right? They have a much tougher path to get to nine regular season wins, which is something that they've only done twice in the 21st century. Only two times has A&M won nine regular season games in the 21st century. They also still need to win a true road game for the first time since October 16th, 2021, okay? A&M's path to the playoff is a lot more difficult than Notre Dame's. But at home, if they can pull off this victory, not an upset, this victory, monumental, it would be for A&M, it really would. And I think A&M's gonna have a lead late in this one. I really do. I think Connor Wigman's gonna make some plays that make me say, you know what? I love me some Connor Wigman, I really do. He's gonna be fun to watch this year in this con-cline offense. But I think the A&M defensive line after looking really, really good for the majority of this game just can't quite put it together late. And I think Kyle Field will be rocking. Mike Galco is minutes away from avengeing last year's Notre Dame loss with game day at Duke for the first time ever. Just like last year, his defense can't quite get the stop that it needs late. He puts together, Riley Leonard, that is, puts together consecutive scoring drives, touchdown pass, maybe a Clemson transfer, Bo Collins in the final two minutes. Notre Dame wins this game, thrilling down to the wire, fun game that lives up to the billing opening weekend. America's week one team comes up just short. - Yeah, I'm right there with you just in terms of like, I mean, Notre Dame is just, the coaches can change, the schemes can change, but we all end up in the same place, which is how do you guys keep getting away with this, with these schedules? And it just goes to share that they should just never join a conference. 'Cause at the end of the day, they're, I mean, NBC, we just saw the Olympics see Sunday Night Football and what a great product that is, they're gonna have money pretty much forever. - 60 million bucks. Why would you ever do that? - Why would you ever do that? If you can be, like, oh, no, I don't want to go to one of my college, okay, you also don't have to play for a conference championship. So at the end of the day, it's like, yeah, I think this works out perfectly for them. I think the similar days in contrast between these two teams is gonna be fascinating, right? And like, I joke about the Brian Kelly Bowl, but there really is something to that, right? These are two former Brian Kelly defensive coordinators. So you're gonna see defensive alignments are gonna be kind of similar. I'm not gonna go to the front. So although I bet Marcus Freeman, which is he did, he gets Ohio State, didn't know if he was going into three or four down. Anyway, so point being the thing that's the most interesting about these two teams is a comparison, right? Outside of, okay, year one, four A&M, typical year one storylines is, you know, the offenses, right? Whereas Notre Dame has gone back into the brand Kelly well and gotten, like, Din Brock, who has just come off of, you know, coaching a Heisman Trophy winner in Jaden Daniels. But the thing about Mike Din Brock is, you know, you saw the offense last year. It is a little bit more, you know, I hesitate to call it an antiquated offense, but it's kind of, it's kind of like Bobo in a way, right? Where it's like, you started off as this very antiquated offense, but then you improved it to be a little bit more modern, but it's still not exactly what A&M has, which is truly, you know, this young hot shot and Colin Klein, you know, a guy who we're not gonna talk about his age 'cause I can feel my hair falling out as I say it. - Don't tell that. - Yeah, we don't need to. - No, he's in age at some point. - He's in age, right? And so point being, we have two of these, you know, former defensive guys, defensive coordinators who are at different points, right? You have, okay, we are gonna go get the young hot shot. We are gonna do things kind of our way from A&M, where his Notre Dame is bringing in stability, right? They already tried, you know, this with Pete, what's his name, the Bema OC from last year? Tommy Reese. Tommy Reese, duh. I was, I started to make a joke about him earlier. So many names today, but yeah, like, they already tried that with Tommy Reese, right? Initially. And didn't go great, you know, we saw The Lost to Marshall, we saw all of that stuff early in Marcus Freeman's tenure. Well, now they're trying to bring back kind of the established voice of the room and blend these two eras of Notre Dame football within Brock and Marcus Freeman. Well, A&M, they're like, what if the young guy just works? How about that? What if we just don't hire the one young guy who is traumatized by Brian Kelly in what's around the 1980s office or does it get yelled at? And so point being, like, I think it's kind of funny that at Notre Dame, they were replacing, you know, this like old, like, like younger old-school guy. And obviously, there was a gap here there. It wasn't one to one. But remember, these guys were coaches together under Brian Kelly. So it was kind of hard to get out of that mold. Now the first kind of mold breaking higher was to go back into that tree for Notre Dame. And so, you know, we've seen the transfer quarterbacks in Notre Dame do really well, Hardman, you know, last year, Riley this year. A&M obviously has like their guy. And so I think while these two teams will look similar, right? I feel like there's gonna be a little bit of, it's gonna be, like, these are both of that mold of size, right? Strong teams, teams that really are going to try to prioritize strength and conditioning. Now, again, A&M, how much does that prioritize in a resume by the Fisher? How much did you really have control of that locker room when you have, you know, Denver Harris, doing whatever he was doing and everything? So they are, they are ordered. That is something that this whole thing, this whole beat of the drum has been under this big coaching tree is order. It's about blocking and tackling. It's about, you know, minimizing mistakes. And so I really am fascinated by the contrast between these teams because you are gonna see two teams that are structured pretty similarly. Does that make sense? - Yeah, I think they're, I think that they have been built by a couple of defensive minded guys. - Yep. - Who don't mind winning 24 to 21. - Exactly. - Exactly. - That is, I mean, kind of a dying breed in this sport. At least at the top of college football and what it's become, I do think that both hiring the offensive coordinators that they hired this off season suggests we're gonna need some offensive firepower. - Yeah. - We're gonna need some help because if we don't do those things, I think that we're gonna limit our ceiling. And I credit both coaches for doing that because I think that's a tough thing to do at times. Like I just think that defensive minded coaches, I mean, I always go back to the example with must champ. I'm like, do you ever want to score? Like, do you know that you can get to 28 points? Like, you realize that it's not gonna hurt you if you have a quarterback through the football 25 times in a game. - It's got like a dog shot collar on every time you say, ah, number two, no. - Right? But like, I think some of these guys are just wired that way and it's tough to kind of break out of it. And they are going to be two fascinating hires. I mean, maybe the two best offensive coordinator hires that we had in college football this off season. And I think that it's going to be a great battle up front. I think if Notre Dame can handle the pressure that Elko's going to throw at them with that defensive line, something I feel like I've been talking about forever with sport and a Turner. If those guys are neutralized with a couple of new tackles that Notre Dame has in a post-Joe-alt world, that's such a great sign for Notre Dame. I don't know that that happens. But I think my takeaway from this will be, A&M's going to be able to hang with anybody. They're going to be able to hang with anybody on that schedule the way that it sets up because of the fact that they get all these headlines or home games and yeah, they're easier games in theory are on the road. And they're going to be that type of team this year but I think my takeaway will be, Ryan Leonard's got this kind of figured out and credit him coming off of injury with all these moving pieces in that atmosphere knowing the potential mismatch that's going to be staring him in the face with that pressure rushing off the edge, speeding up his decision-making process. That's going to be such a difficult thing to manage in that venue and I will give him his flowers if he does that. That will be really impressive. And I think that's why A&M is a slight favorite. - Yeah, and I'll say two men. One thing that is legitimately fascinating to me is I wish in college football you could sort by quarterback carries the way you came in the NFL but it's actually like counted as carries. I would love to know how many carries Jaden Daniels had in that offense because I want to see what this offense looks like when your quarterback's not averaging 9.3 yards a carry. - SEC stack cat does a good job of tracking that as well. And I think that the quarterback design runs, he usually does a really good job of separating that and you can eliminate or I think there's, there's certain settings, I don't know, PFF does this. The air if they do, I don't know, I'm out of season with my PFF stuff but the, you can treat it like the NFL, like there's a way that you can change stats to be able to do that where NFL doesn't obviously take away from rushing yards if a guy gets sacked. So there's probably ways that you can figure that out. - Yeah, I'm super duper just interested by that, right? Because we're going to learn is a great, good to great quarterback, right? But just seeing like the parallels between this game is so fascinating more thing. I mean, Riley Litter who, you know, was with Elko it do, right? Like these two sides probably know each other more than any two coaches have ever known each other. Like this is actually crazy. So that's kind of where I'm going there. It's like, okay, well, this is a dream match up for Elko because at the end of the day, he knows this defense. He knows this quarterback, right? And like I said, I'm just so fascinated to see, okay. Like there were not a ton of runs called Virginia and I was sure that was my design. But like I said, when your quarterback's not averaging 9.3 yards a carry on when plays don't, your first and second, like imagine you got Malik neighbors and BTJ and neither of those guys are open, then you can take off. That feels like a sheet code, right? So at the end of the day, if you have to get down to that third and fourth read in that offense, if your receivers are not two first rounders, how does that offense really look without a guy who is just the easy eraser, easy button from Staples? So yeah, I'm fascinated to see what, if you isolate the den brought component, play them with a good to great quarterback and not something we've kind of never seen before. And then yeah, I just, I think that seeing that defensively knowing how smart rather than it is and the fact that they were together at Duke and the fact that they've seen these defenses together, I'm gonna be like locked into this game, man. The more I think about it, every play is gonna be such a chess match between, you know, Dinbrock, Dinbrock plus Leonard versus Elko or, you know, like just going back and forth and back and forth. The client is the only guy who's like, Oh, yeah. - Where'd y'all come from? You guys miss the family picture. But yeah, point me and you gotta respect a coach for going outside that tree too 'cause you need other voices in the room. So yeah, I do think that it wouldn't be shocking to me at all if A&M won this game. And to your point, like you're talking about these guys, A&M like it's like, oh yeah, A&M lost like the flashy fast guys that I've talked about. Those lines are still gonna be pretty good, man. Like Notre Dame is gonna have two of the best lines in the country and not take it away from them. But this is not gonna be like, this will be one of the harder teams. Maybe the hardest team on their day of schedule to push around just because of the talent they have and the coaching they received. - Yeah, the offensive line for Notre Dame, the further removed, it's like I talk about the Clemson defense, the further removed you get from the Brian Kelly era offensive line, does it start to fall off at any point? Do you kind of see, do you kind of see like, oh, you know, Joe Alts like a Brian Kelly recruited guy, like, you know, those types of dudes that just became a staple at Notre Dame. And it's something that they were known for during, you know, their best years in the 2010s. Like, yeah, that's gonna be interesting to see. Can't wait, can't wait for this one Saturday night, college game day in college station for the first time six years should be a lot of fun. All right, the game that you will be at Sunday night, number 23 USC against number 13 LSU. Elsie's a four-point favorite for this one in Vegas. The over-under I have, I was gonna do a joke related to pre-game adult beverages for you. I decided not to, you know, well, let's just, let's do it. It's over-under five and a half pre-game drinks for a certain Will Ogburn. - Man, my schedule for this trip is gonna be so funny. I heard from Peyton officially yesterday that he's getting at like 930 or 10 on Saturday night, which is just chaos. Like, I don't know what, we got an Airbnb for Thursday, Friday, Saturday. And he is, I guess, getting in at like 930, 10 on Saturday. And so, sorry, and Sunday. So like, we're all gonna be, we're only gonna hang out for Sunday. So I told him, like, dude, pick a brunch place, 'cause that's kind of like all we're gonna get. So I think we're gonna be pretty, pretty well, you know, get the, get the lather going, you know, it's gonna be kind of hot out there. Now that being said, this game is gonna kick off a little bit earlier 'cause it is on, oh, it was 'cause time. So it won't be like the whole, you know, waiting around thing where you used to be doing all day. But yeah, I'm really excited about this game, man. The more stuff that's come out, you know, the fact that they're going to that 12 personnel, the two side ends, I was telling you about that, coming back to board the big guys, Brian Kelly likes, seeing Lincoln Riley, you know, and my guys Zach or I have Brits, seeing it all like the way that these two coaches are kind of positioned. I'm so fascinated by this game the closer it gets. - I ask Will about how many pregame drinks he's gonna have and he turns it into an answer about 12 personnel. - I'm so excited, bro. I'm so, this is the most disorganized that bit of one of these 'cause I'm like, oh my God, the week is here, let's go. - Ball junkie threw it through. - Yeah, by the way, I'll be solo on a Sunday pot. It's like Will's like, oh, you know, I'm trying to watch all the games Saturday and stuff like that. Will. - We looked at each other, we were like, let's play for success here, right? - Let's come on, we're gonna go here. - Let's be real, right? I'm gonna go to Vegas, you're watching a scene like, I can handle it, your boy will be just buying solo on Sunday, so that'll be the plan. We'll have our recap pod come out before this game, so we're not gonna preview this game again, but we'll have more takeaways from this with our midweek pod that we do next week. The actual over-under I had was four Miller Moss completions of 20 yards. - Me to balls. - It's got a southern name. I don't know where it's, where's Miller Moss from? Why do I at least-- - That's a great question. - Gosh, I feel like I know this. - Wow, man, I wanted to say Oklahoma, but that didn't really line up. - San Monica. - Okay, that makes a lot more sense. - Yeah. - 'Cause he didn't start off with Lincoln Riley, obviously. LSU allowed an average of four 20-yard passes per game last year, not good. 121st out of 133 FPS teams with 51 20-yard pass plays allowed. Bad, Basura in every single way. I wanna see if Blake Baker can turn that around, because that's the thing with this LSU defense that has been a constant in the 2020s. Think about this, in the four seasons of the 2020s, LSU has not ranked on the top 90 in FPS in 20-yard pass plays allowed. That's bad, that's real bad. That's chunk plays that you're letting up for DBU, nonetheless, to have that, not great. Three different DCs are to blame for that, so you can't even just blame it all on Matt House. And probably not great that LSU is also just trying to finish top 50 in yards play allowed for the first time in the 2020s. We already know, LSU hasn't won a season opener in the 2020s. I feel like I bring that up whenever I need to knock you down a peg and you're getting a little bit too confident. LSU signed a big time recruit, or LSU got a verbal commitment from this recruit. Remember how it's a weird will that LSU hasn't won a season opener in this? - You know what's crazy about it, too? I don't know if I've talked about this, but like Les Miles had this real specific stat that he was good at, was regular season non-conference wins. He like set the NCAA record for regular season, non-conference wins, so not a ball game, not a, yeah, I don't think he even coached the playoff era, but it was like every time LSU played a West Virginia, an Oregon, a TCU, they would go so far outside themselves, Virginia Tech. Les Miles would bring the boom on these random teams, and it would be like, this is SEC football right here, like we would be fired up beating the mess out of him. And now it's like kind of starting what that implosion against Wisconsin. If you remember that, LSU's not been good at these games since then. - Yeah, that was my wedding weekend. I remember watching that game. Yeah, I watched that game in shout out Nix in Bloomington. I watched the game that night. I was like, wow, Kimberly, Wisconsin's actually gonna win this football game. Yeah, but you could see all the ways in which LSU's historic defensive issues, 2020's defensive issues could resurface in a matchup like this against Lincoln Riley, who by the way has top eight scoring offenses in each of his seven seasons as a head coach. Sage Ryan, banged up, make what you will. - Oh, no, Sage Ryan's not playing. No, he's not packing it now, brother. - Zai Alexander still maybe working his way back. That might be a little bit. - Yeah, but I would like to have all the muscles, please. - Yeah, him, him, you want in full pads, definitely. New defensive scheme for LSU, obviously. Could be some moving parts for this LSU defense, whatever, can't be worse than last year, at least one would think. I hope for Blake Baker's sake. He just lets Harold Perkins rush the passer on USC's first eight passes of the game. Do that because last year, that man played 35 snaps against the pass in the season opener, and he only rushed the passer seven times. That's what Matt House had eight months to prepare for. Probably didn't exactly set the wheels in motion for a Matt House extension. It instead of course set the wheels in motion for the entire defensive staff to get gutted. That can't happen again. It just can't allow 52 points. Let Harold Perkins rush the passer 15 times, okay? Make sure that you do that above all else. Really as a whole, obviously, LSU getting kicked in the face in an opener. That's what can happen again, because if it happens again, that's three for Brian Kelly, it might not just be an LSU thing, although we would all be talking about the five in a row in season openers. I don't think that happens again, because for all I keep talking about with this LSU defense and how you could see a world in which, oh my God, there's a dry and chasing Zacharya branch into the end zone. That's not ideal. Yeah, you don't even have to close your eyes and picture it. That's just like, you know, the little squiggly line you see in your eye. That's just the image of this happening in this football game. Even if this is not necessarily an LSU offense that looks exactly like it did last year. I think we're still gonna see Garrett Nussmeyer have a lot of success. Garrett Nussmeyer having success against the Lincoln Riley coach defense. Imagine that. Even if Chris Hinton doesn't play, banged up, it looks like. I think the takeaway is that LSU has an offense that's still plenty capable of putting up big points and that USC's defense is still plenty capable of allowing big points, breaking news. Even though I really did like the Danton Lynn Hire and think that he could have some long-term success, he's gonna be better than Alex Grinch. I'm hedging a touch because I'm gonna say that USC is gonna cover, but I'll go with LSU winning a thrilling 38 to 35 game. In the game that Lincoln Riley wanted to get out of. Yeah, I so imagine this, right? I was explaining, I felt like Jonah Hill and Moneyball explaining Lincoln Riley to John the other day because John's just like not a big football guy. And I'm like, all right, this is Lincoln Riley. He's coached like all these high-speed trophy candidates. He's won the big 12 years. Oklahoma's career win percentage leader. There's just one problem. He's best friends with Alex Grinch. It's like the funniest thing ever 'cause it's like, how has this guy not been more successful? And I went through every bowl game. It's like, I started with the Georgia game. Really looked like this was like the two coaches that would be on top of the sport for a minute. And then the last couple of the balls to Tulade, you know? So it's like, it's very interesting to see kind of which version of this team's gonna show up. I do think, you know, whatever Lincoln Riley is worth as a college football coach, we're gonna see it this season, right? Because we've just had two, honestly pretty disappointing seasons with Caleb Williams, given how great of a talent he was in the situation where his talent was never questioned. It was never about Caleb Williams. It was pretty much all about the defense, all about Lincoln Riley and all the distractions. So I think that this might be an addition by subtraction situation with Caleb Williams for Lincoln Riley, where it's like, well, now I really gotta focus on my fundamentals 'cause I don't have a magician playing quarterback. I can't just line up my buddy to go play, you know, coach D.C. and go play linebacker or whatever. Yeah, I think that, you know, Nussmeyer is gonna be such a fascinating player to watch. I love him. Going back to the tight ends thing for a second, seeing some of the practice full of him, this is a guy who's gonna have some turnovers. And it's funny. - He will, yeah. - Like, there's practice footage of him throwing balls that look like my first week of playing NCAA where I didn't have the throwing mechanics down and it was just throwing it right to a DB. So I think that goes hand-in-hand with why these tight ends are coming in. But at the same time, these tight ends are horrifying. And I said this from the beginning, talking about we need to get these tight ends involved. Looks like that's what's come out very, very excited about that. Again, I've said it at Nauseam. The fast receivers designed to get downfield, the huge tight ends designed to eat space and set the edges on the run game. I think the running back stable is gonna be super interesting to monitor in this game. And I think at the end of the day, like these are two teams that want to be more Smash Mouth for lack of a better word. I think that last week and over the course of his career, Lincoln Riley has been painted as a guy who is pretty finesse for the nicest way I could say that. And I think that Brian Kelly, never ever, we just talked about two of his defensive coordinators, being two of the greatest defensive minds in the sport and having these big physical teams that are gonna punch you in the mouth. He never, ever, ever thought he would be here. And so I think both of these guys' reputations are kind of on the line. They're on a softness watch, which is never where you want to be as a college football coach. I do think just, and again, I've said this over and over again, I love Blake Baker as a hire. I love these coaches they hired. Because of what happened last year, right, talking about the deuce chestnut interception in this game, talking about Denver Harris, talking about the gambles they made in the portal to Phil, some of these holes that Brian Kelly had to go, to go Phil. I think he's building the old school way now, you know, when it comes to the defense, because he saw that those didn't pay off last year. And for that reason, combined with a new scheme, I think these DBs are gonna be an adventure. I really do, I honestly am kind of glad to say dry, and you know, might not, might not play, because these younger guys are really showing something. But the guys that have been there forever, you know, to me, all you know what to do is lose, right? Because you played for, you have these bad data, these bad coaches that you're not really your fault. You know, I've joking the other day, like what if Sage Ryan had just gone to Alabama? He would probably just be in the NFL now. He would be hidden by that scheme. He has someone who would have been sold the dream of Sage Ryan, the five star. He would have gone in the second or third round, already gotten paid by now, and he would have been exposed in the NFL, just like Mark Barron, see you later, right? You've already got the money run in the bank. So I applaud him for staying at LSU, as long as he has, for sure. You know, but at the same time, I think, you know, we're going to see these younger, hungrier guys on defense for LSU. Now that being said, you know, if we're going to send Harold Perkins, that coverage has to be good. I don't think there's been enough time to get that coverage down. So I would say this game's going to be a little bit more higher scoring. I'm going to go like a 42, 39 or 38 win for USC, just because of week one. I think if this was week four, I think LSU wins this going away. But I think that, you know, yeah, you got to adjust the defense, but this team has just feels like been together for longer, where when you've gotten entire coaching staff, the way that LSU did last year, when you lose your offensive coordinator and replace them with a Co-OC, when you lose your entire defensive staff and upgrade in every position, you got guys from over here who were saying, here's the best advice I ever got as a coach. Here's the best advice I ever got as a coach. I'm coming from Texas. I'm coming from the zoo. I'm coming from, you know, over here. So yeah, I just think that's how humans work, man. I think that, you know, at the end of the day, yeah, you send Harold Perkins. Yeah, he creates some mismatches and creates some havoc. And I would love to see that. But that coverage right now, especially with Zyla Alexander-Banked-Up, is not good enough to take those chances one-on-one. And I think that the Lincoln-Riley offense has shown that against an undisciplined defense, that's the thing. The defenses that have exposed Lincoln-Riley have all been disciplined. Alabama-Georgia defenses that are out there to kill you, and they have pushed them around. I don't think LSU right now is the Jimmy's and Joe's to do that on the back end of the defense. But yeah, I think up front, LSU was much of a chance. I think they could score easily on this team. But we have about one more game of the 2023 era to live through, because this is just a nightmare matchup. Week one for a new defense. It is. And for anyone that's ever called Will and LSU Homer, let the record show. Ah, he's predicting USC to win this game. I got a bet on Graham Merce. What else do you want from me? There we go. Is there, because we're both on the record saying we don't think LSU is going to make the 12-team playoff. Is there a result that could play out in this game that would make you... I don't want to say do a full 180 and overreact and say, "Oh my God, LSU's destined to make the playoff." But if LSU wins this game 20-10, something like that. Defense balls out. Blake Baker looks like the Messiah. Harold Perkins is the 2022 version of himself. Does that, as an LSU fan, make you think, "Huh?" 10-2? Is that on the table? Or is that more so just they exposed a work in progress? An offense that, while historically, has been great under Lincoln Riley, obviously, is still trying to fit a lot of new pieces up. I think that's a great question. I think at the end of the day, someone like Zachary Brandt really presents an opportunity, because the whole at LSU is, to me, the biggest issue, I talked about defensive talent, right? But it really just is man coverage. It is the ability to play cat defense and say, "Hey, we got whoever the star at LSU corner is, that we're used to having. I'm going to go erase that guy." And Brandt, who is so shifty, so fast, all-purpose preseason. We talked about that. This is the type of guy that Lincoln Riley can use us with. I mean, even if there were that, you know, Patrick Peterson, we would need a Tyrone Matthew, who could move around the field and shadow this guy all game. So I think that that's the thing, right? It's going to be solo man coverage specifically. If these guys can hold up in one-on-one man covers, that will show me something. Are these guys real? What scares me a little bit is the composite talent rankings, right? Are these guys better? Are they five starheart guys, right? Are they going to show up and play like they're higher, that they're recruiter ranking? Maybe, okay, maybe they're going to be all on the same page, but that's the thing that worries me is the back end of the defense. So if these guys are great at communication, if we don't have blown assignments and if man coverage looks good, I'm going to be fired up because I love, you know, how the offense looks. I love how the linebacker core looks. D-line could use a little bit of work here and there, but the corners and the safeties are really the issue here. At pre-season, all SEC second team are Major Burns. How's he going to show up? Yeah. What if he just shows up and plays like all SEC this year? That would be electric. National championship, if that's the case. Yeah, and Major Burns plays like, you know, prime Jamal Adams. We might be onto something here. Shout out all the five star hearts, by the way. Just slid that right in there. We always need a good five star hearts reference. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, that's why I love the composite. When you've talked about it, they got to adjust that formula because of forward ranking. Because sometimes, guys are overlooked and stuff. But like, when you really take the emotion out of it and go, how many of these guys would be LSU's first choice four, five years ago? You know, not a lot. Now, we're getting those guys. We're getting the DJ pickets, right? We're getting the guys that are going to be that next generation of DVU. So get your licks in now. But they just got to get that turned over. And some of them are in the building, but they're just young. Yeah. That's true. That's perfectly fair. Yeah, those came out the other day. I wish they would come out with those a little bit earlier, because I would do, I would do an entire pod on the silent composite rankings. And we'll be definitely referencing those at various points during this season. All right. Well, lock of the week, Iowa, 22 and 1/2 point favor against Illinois State. I'm a sicko for doing this. I was looking off at it. Scapey worse. I have four best friends in this world. Two went to Iowa, two went to Illinois State. I can all but guarantee you that two Illinois State buddies, they have zero clue that they're opening the season against Iowa. That will be news to them. And maybe they'll get a text from someone of like, oh, hey, it's seven nothing game. Third quarter. Where's the mascot there at Illinois State? I can just ask you. Redbirds. Yeah. Redbirds had many, maybe a fun weekend at Illinois State. A little normal Illinois state farm. Oh, some Blono. Some Blono talk? Yeah. What that? Eight thorns. Stand up. Okay. He's from Naperville. He's from Naperville, which is not Illinois State. Not Illinois State. The state of Illinois, he is technically from, but not Illinois State. Yeah. I got ahead of my skis with the Blono talk there, sorry. Yeah. No, I'm sorry. It's okay. I appreciate the swing. The swing was there very much most. The new Iowa offense will get to 28 points in this football game. Mark it down. Tim Lester comes out firing. He is replacing nepotism. Three Iowa offensive touchdowns. Cade McNamara quiets all of this noise about his bad scrimmage numbers. As seemingly the only player in all of college football, who probably saw his stock drop in fall camp, a next two impossible tasks, tasks that he somehow accomplished. Although at the same time, it's like your coach is suspended for the first week because he's tampered to be able to get you. So I think that at least stock up a little bit for that. That shows you're kind of worth it. Will, do you know how many times that Iowa scored three offensive touchdowns in a game last year? I don't think I saw a watch any of them. No, two, two, you know. Yep. Last time it happened was against Western Michigan week three of last season. So a little bit of a drought. Casey, I haven't heard trying to overcome that. Go figure that's where Tim Lester coached, but he was not coaching their last year. So they scored these two of their first three weeks. And if their last one was in three. Correct. Yes. Utah State and Western Michigan. For the two teams that allowed three offensive touchdowns to Iowa. More importantly, Kirk Farron's being suspended for tampering to get Kate McNamara. You think McNamara's going to want to show why his coach was right to tamper to get him? I think he's going to be like, hey, coach, I got this fam. We're good. And he's just going to come out slinging the pill. I missed this story. And I'll just be honest. You're telling me Kirk Farron is suspended. Oh, you missed this. Oh, yeah. Pretty Kate McNamara. And you just watch Alabama go get Kate and Brock are back out of the portal from them and it's so funny. I know it's it's it's Pete College football. Yep. My guy Ben Stevens had like the best tweet about it. It was like when Ron Swanson realizes like what cookies are on his computer and like how they save your personal information. He takes the computer. He throws it into the dumpster. That was Kirk Farron's using the portal. That's that's basically what happened with this. But think about this. Ryan Farron's is now an offensive analyst at Maryland, which is just a sentence that I can barely say with a straight face. Yep. I'm convinced it's a move that Mike Locksley made just so that he can have all the end all the intel on things that didn't work against big 10 West defenses. And he's just one player. What are you doing here? All right. Now what's the opposite of that? Good. All right. Great answer. Keep him coming. Awesome. This didn't work. Okay. Perfect. You are providing value to our program. I don't think analysts are required to be at games, even though they're allowed to be on the sidelines now because the NCAA basically just gave up on enforcing that. I want everything. Yeah, and everything. Except for tampering to get Kate back in the background mirror. Even though they should be taking him for doing, by the way. Anyway, they really should. I want Ryan Farron's Kirk Farron's sitting at a basement in one of the Farron's households in Iowa City. Two TV setup. Iowa on one screen. Maryland on the other at the same time. So it's going to be a little bit difficult. 11 a.m. local time. Maybe some triscuits on the table, little ginger ale sitting on. Oh, you got him nailed. That sounds like him. Ginger ale on the coasters. One's off the coaster. Brian's is definitely off the coaster. Who are we getting? New random peanut shells kind of sitting on the table. Just scattered like somebody will clean that up. We're not going to get to that. If that scene exists, the Farron's family owes it to us in the college football world, just the world as a whole so that we can now, as consumers of content on the internet, have a caption contest for the rest of the day. That's all I ask. I don't care. Like, all right, if I get locked in the week wrong, whatever. I like started off 0 and 3 last year. We got on a roll. I get picks wrong. It happens. I don't need Iowa to necessarily cover 22 and a half against the Illinois State. I need the Farron's boys hanging. Just guys being dudes, opening weekend at college football season. The most unappetizing snacks ever on the table. It's like talking to the Manning cast. It's just like two guys destroying, like being football terrorist and being like, ah, long past there. Shouldn't have done that. Maybe they're talking on Skype or something like that. If they can't get the in-person set up and it's not Zoom. They're talking on Skype. There you go. Yeah, love that. So yeah, that's my luck of the week. All right, well, let's kick to Marty Smith. Great to catch up with him. Body year ago that we had him on last. It was one of my favorite conversations that I've had with a guest during the seven years that I've been doing this show. So once again, here's Marty. I'm now excited to be joined by a very special guest. It is Marty Smith. Marty, I've got a lot that I want to get to with you, but you're here today with Game Change, which is a competitive giving tool specifically for college athletes. It just launched this past Saturday. Tell everyone why you wanted to get involved with this and why this is unique. First of all, Connor, thank you for your time, brother. I'm grateful to get to spend this time with you. And yes, I'm grateful to partner with Game Change. And the reason is in this NIL era, a lot of fans are trying to figure out, okay, how can we give to our university so they remain competitive? Not all of us have millions of dollars to get our names on buildings. And Game Change is a way to do it. You just go to go, gogamechange.com. You input your credit or debit card of choice. Choose your team. And then I'm sure you've been to the grocery store and they ask you, do you want to round up? A lot of different charities are a benefit from those round up programs. That's exactly what this is. Only the money goes directly to your chosen athletic department. It goes right to the athletic department. And then the athletic department chooses how that money is distributed within the department. And it is a tax write off. It is a charitable donation to your university of choice. And I just think it's so cool. You know, I'm grateful to partner with them. And as somebody who, look, the schools that you and I spend a lot of time around in the SEC, they're, most of them are doing okay financially. Basically, they have television revenue, massive television revenue coming into the athletic departments. But I went to Radford University. All right, very low division one, Big South Conference. And you want, I wonder, I went to the Big South Conference tournament last year. And I'm like, how are we going to compete? How are we going to stay competitive and keep athletes in the door? Because NIL has made its way all the way into D2, for sure. I know that. And so this is just a unique way where any fan can input their credit card or debit card into gogamechange.com, choose your school. And every single purchase with that specific card is directly going to that university's athletic department. I think it's a really cool initiative. And you know, you're like, okay, do I, do I want to partner with them? And then the more I learned about it, I was like, absolutely, I just think it's cool. Yeah, it's different than just giving to a collective, so to speak. Right. There's different tentacles to it. And the way that it works universally, I think, is something that's really easy to get on board with. And it's cool to see the innovations of NIL as much as everyone wants to talk about why it's hurting sports. This is something that can greatly benefit in first school, like yours, like Radford. I mean, I'm telling you, that's awesome. I was worried, man, as I watched the Big South Conference tournament last year, I walk into High Point University has a brand new arena, Cubane arena. It is a gorgeous arena, six figures, plus they have a beautiful hotel attached to it, all that. And I'm sitting there looking around going, all right, this is High Point University. This is in the Big South Conference. This is what we're competing against at Radford University. We got to do something and we got to do it now. And as I started to really process what game change is, I went, okay, this is a way for alumni all over the place to have a charitable opportunity that goes to the athletic department. And then they, again, they choose where the money's going. It might go to women's tennis. It might go to basketball. It might go to baseball, softball, whatever, volleyball. We don't, that's up to them. That's their discretion. But ultimately it is great that the money goes directly to the athletic department. And again, a lot of people want write-offs. Very true. Very, very true. So last time you were on, I really appreciated getting the chat about our late fathers and what that grieving process was like and kind of, you know, the different things that you go through. And your conversation with Lane Kiffin about his late dad Monty and the timing of when you had it, obviously very, I mean, I think it was like a week after the death of his father. That conversation made the rounds. Everyone go watch it if you haven't. The seven minute clip that you posted, I'm sure was just like a fraction of a much longer conversation with Lane about his dad. But you start by asking him about the influence that his dad had on him. And with, it's so removed, like Lane is, basically says like, you know, I don't really want to go there. I'm going to get too emotionally, you could tell he's still trying to like process everything. But Lane went there, take us behind the scenes with all that because if you would just chimed in after Lane had said, you know, I don't really want to go there and said like, all right, let's talk about your, your portal additions or something. You never really see that conversation happen. It was a very interesting moment, to be honest with you, Connor, because I haven't lost my dad to your point and knowing his overwhelming influence in my journey and who I am as a person. Uh, both good and, and bad. I, I know that dynamic really well. And I know that 16 years after losing him, I still learn about him every day and learn about how he shaped my perspectives and, and how my personality traits in certain ways are a direct derivative of his and, and my mom's too, but, but certainly my dad's influence. And so for somebody like Lane, who is such a dynamic personality, hilarious on social media, who's evolved so much himself and, and made decisions in his personal life and in that, that affected his professional life, uh, first and foremost, the decision to, to get sober a few years ago, uh, along with his quarterback, Matt Corral and what that meant for them as people. I, I chronicle that in, in pretty great depth in my book sideline CEO and the middle clarity and the bond that it gave those to what a, what a decision on Lane's part and, and having met his dad a couple times, I didn't know Monte will, but I, I knew his grace. And so I just wanted to, to know Lane's perspective on it. And it was very fresh. His father had just passed when we sat with him in July in Dallas and to see his facial expression, to see his body language and his energy that he said, I'm not capable of doing that right now because I can't maintain my emotional composure. And then I was, of course, totally, oh, okay, you know, I'm sorry, I don't, I don't want to pry. Nothing else was said. He just started talking. And as he started talking and saying, I'm not 10% of the man that my father was, I never will be. And then to see him detail, the influence that Monte had on so many men and women support staff, training staff, janitorial staff, or custodial staff, all the way up to the top presidents, chancellors. And to have that kind of grace and that kind of influence is the greatest endorsement that you can have and the greatest influence you can have. And to see Lane's vulnerability in that moment was something I've never experienced. And I've had wonderful personal moments, conversations with Lane off camera, away, no tape recorders, know nothing. And that was as, as moving and as impactful for me as any conversation I've ever had. And I'm so grateful to him because I texted him that night. And I said, you don't know what you just did. You don't know the influence that your vulnerability is going to have on millions of people. And I think now he probably does now that it's aired. The conversation was 20 something minutes in total. You guys saw seven and all 20 of those were just beyond, beyond anything I've seen from him. And so full of gratitude for him. So is Ryan McGee, my brother and my co-host, who also was involved in and immersed in that energy. We spend a lot of time, brother. You guys, I said to you before we came on, I love what you guys do Saturday down south. I love the content. I love the immersion. You know that we spend a lot of time talking about the dynamics on a day to day basis. We don't spend a lot of time talking about the broader scope of what these coaching staffs and these athletic departments are trying to do for young people. And that's genuinely prepare them for life and grow them as individuals. And it's obvious to me that Lane is in a season of his life where that matters the most. Of course, winning matters. It's your, you're either employed or you ain't and winning is the why and the how. And he's doing a very good job at that too. But his, his relationships with Matt Corral with Jackson Dart, that relationship with Matt Corral is why Jackson chose Ole Miss. That's, that's, he told me that himself. And so it was just a really fulfilling moment for me. Sorry for rambling forever and on and on and on. No, that was the exact answer. I, I hoped you would provide because I think we all get in those settings at media days and I've seen the behind the scenes, even with you guys, like with your set specifically, you have a very specific window with these head coaches. I'm pretty sure Lane was off his schedule for the rest of the day as a direct result of that. Like he went on fine bond lane, stuff like that. But that speaks to him wanting to be vulnerable in that moment and him wanting to be able to share that with people who very clearly were there to listen to it. And at different points in Lane's career, I think we all questioned whether or not he had emotional maturity. And I think it's been a fair criticism of, of who he's been. And so now, one of the burning questions in all of college football this year for me is is Lane ready for all of this? Because it's the preseason expectations that are, you know, like 2012 USC, maybe not quite that same level because of something number one team in the country. But dealing with, you know, the death of your father and this, this team that is ready to take this next step in this new era of the sport that you've embraced. Like, is he ready for all of this? And that is such a fascinating question. Do you feel like you have a better perspective and feel like you have an answer to that question? Because obviously, we won't know until we see it. But seeing what you've seen from him, do you feel like he's now ready to conquer this in a way that he wasn't? Maybe he's recently is like two or three years ago. Absolutely. In terms of where he was a couple years ago, compared to where he is now, it's been a quite an evolution as a person. He's learned to go inward. He's started to be very analytical in his spiritual self. And I'm in a season of my life where I'm doing the same thing. So it's very relatable to me. There's so much outside noise. There's so many inputs coming at us all the time. And we can let those inputs define us as people. Or we can take the time to go inward, really self analyze, because we can't lie to ourselves. We can, we can put on fronts for everybody out there. But when we're in the mirror, when we're looking at, I mean, one of the greatest, your country music guy, one of the greatest, maybe the greatest, this is the hell of a statement, but maybe the greatest stanza of any song that I have ever heard is the truth about a mirror is that a damned old mirror don't really tell the whole truth. It don't show what's deep inside or read between the lines. And it's really no reflection of my youth. That's from Troubadour by George Strait. And you listen to what that says and you go, holy cow, like I can be something out here. I try very hard in my life, Connor. I don't always succeed. I try to be the same guy all the time. But I'm not. I want to be. I want my children to know the same guy that they see on the TV in their daily walk. I want to influence them at people that are watching TV the same way I do my children. But guess what? You can't, because not everybody's going to like you. Not everybody's going to appreciate who that person is. But if it's your authentic self, that energy that you're putting out, you have to be okay with whatever comes back because it's real. And I believe that's where Lane Kiffin is. He is putting this version of self out there that is unencumbered. Like he went from us to your, he went to your point. He goes from having that conversation with Mark with, with Ryan and me to find bomb, and he's busting find bomb's ass. Yeah. And I love that versatility because it's real. And so I would venture to say that he's as empowered personally as he's ever been. And he also has a ton of talent between, if you don't have talent, but that dude's got a lot of talent, man. He's obviously tweaked. The Quinn, Sean Jugkins went to Ohio State like he's tweaked. You can see it in his tweets, whatever they're called, X is what the hell do we call them now, bro? I can't tweet. I'm old. It's a tweet. So you can tell that he is poking the bear that that he chose to go there. But he too has a lot of players from the portal and good ones. So yeah, there's a lot of expectation and there should be. And I do believe he's equipped. Let's talk about another piece that you did. This is going to be coming out mid season. You got a chance to tell Scott Cochran story and his battle with addiction during his time. You know, most recently at Georgia, of course, he was at Alabama for a long time. And now he's not in college football this year. And that's going to be a conversation that a lot of people I'm sure will be talking about. So maybe that's become a household name in SEC circles. What did you take away from that? So much. And I can't wait for the college game day and college football on ESPN viewing public to to see it. I was completely I've known Scott for a long time. We're we're generally close. And to see this person share that journey and the depths of that journey and what it ultimately meant for his life or his personal life or his professional life for his own insecurities for what his new drive is and his new goals are. I was moved emotionally personally to a tremendous degree and I just can't wait for you guys to see it. That will it's scheduled to air during the Georgia Bama Week. It's week five on college game day and the interviews were extremely vulnerable. They were very emotional. And so Scott's journey through opioid addiction. You know, I've watched a lot of things on Netflix. There are many shows that really show in in great detail what what that can be. There's a book I read and I actually suggested this book to Scott after our interview was over. There's a book by a lady named Barbara King solver called Demon Copperhead. If you haven't read it, I highly highly said you want to pull a surprise. I mean, that that's all you need to know. But the reason that it impacted me so deeply was it's set in the region in which I grew up. It's set in the Southwest Virginia East Tennessee East Kentucky region of Appalachia, which is right in that corridor where opioids really had a dramatic effect. Still are. And so and she did a beautiful job. Miss King solver did of she lives there. And that's why she nailed the spirit of the region. And then I go and sit down with Scott Sissy, his wife and learn about how that unfolded. I just don't want to get it's weird when it hasn't aired yet. You know, you don't want to give too much away. But but I appreciate you asking. I will just say this. Those of you who see it and I hope that's millions of you and share it will have impacts on people who are living in the darkness because Scott hit it for a really, really long time. And in a lot of cases, that was including his own family for a long time. So I look forward to y'all seeing it, brother. Thank you for asking about it because it really matters deeply to me to nail that piece. Because I'm sure, you know, that's it's not like you're you're reaching out to him being like, Scott, I hear you're going through a really tough time. Very about it. It's his it is now his purpose. We I say all the time, brother, ESPN ain't my purpose. ESPN is a platform for my purpose. And it's a platform for which I have gratitude that I can't even describe. I see that from Scott now. He has eight national championship rings, bro. Eight one at LSU, five at Bama and two at Georgia. And I believe based on what I've seen that he believes those are now a platform for his purpose and that's saving lives. And so I will tell you, in the aftermath, when I drove home for math, and after doing the interviews with Scott and his wife, I was emotionally exhausted. I bet. Yeah. Yeah. Be on the lookout for that. I'm sure that that is going to be must see TV. You cannot wait to be able to see that full conversation. Speaking of ESPN, you talk about your purpose, co workers, I guess, so to speak. Nick Saban's your new co worker, which is, man, it's so like you probably had like, you're what and obviously like people that are on the beat, you know, they talked him a lot of time. But in terms of national people, like you've talked to Saban about as much as anyone, how weird is it to see him on that side? Because even seen him on game day and he's admitting, Oh yeah, you know, the prediction stuff and all that. I didn't necessarily take into account like how tough that was. And now I'm seeing this new perspective and like even Saban himself is evolving. Like, have you had any interactions with him as a colleague yet? I have it as you see media days. And I watched, I'll tell you, just as an aside, I'm in my bar in my basement of my home and I came down here on Saturday morning and I had poured myself a cup of coffee upstairs and I walked downstairs and I turned on my TV and I sit here on my couch. I opened up the doors. I have these sliding glass doors that open up to Lake Norman out here. Okay. The beautiful air is coming in. The air feels a little crisp. What a scene. And college game day comes on and I'm watching my friends. I want you to know too, all of you guys watching or listening that Reese and Kirk and Des and Pat and all those folks, Jess and Jen and everybody involved, Jimmy G Jimmy Guiero, the producer, all everybody involved are great friends. And so I sit down and I turn on the TV and they're on and Reese is delivering his live from Ireland. Beautiful, soliloquy open with the gorgeous images of the cliffs of Moore and whatever else they they're shooting there. And I'm sitting there sipping my coffee going, damn, this is pretty, this is how people get up on Saturday mornings. This is pretty good. And then coach, you know, they show coach and he was so honest in his assessment of, I am now everything that I hated. Yeah. I thought it was the coolest thing because you know, if you think about the kind of, I almost said an anatomical term, you think about the guts that it takes. All right. And the self confidence that it takes to say that on that international television that I admittedly and now doing these things that for 40 years I hated more than 40 years, but it's who I am. And then I love that he leaned on his analysis. I've not talked to him since college game day, but I do, I have been around him enough to know that mindset very well. I mean, I was somebody that received a lot of high roles over the years when I would go down to Tuscaloosa and say, you know, coach, where do you think your, your team sizes up in the overall scope of the SEC? And he gives me that we don't have goal sheet. We don't care about, we don't, do you know the whole thing? And so when we were at SEC media days, I had the neatest conversation with him, his neatest, the dewevious word ever. Sorry. It was like that place. It was like the coolest thing. So let me paint another picture for you. I'm sitting in the makeup chair. All right. And Lindsey and Emily are amazingly talented makeup and hair staff are fixing me up there. I call them a pit crew. And I'm, I decide I'm going to take a video, I put this on my Instagram and I'm doing a video and I'm like going to show them doing their thing. And I see in the background, Nick Saban walking towards me on my selfie video and he walks over and he's like, Hey man, and I'm like, Oh my God. Oh my God. I like I turned it off as fast as I could because I didn't want to put him in a bad spot. But guess what he asked me? So the previous your makeup done? Was it a makeup question? Okay. It was not a makeup question. He'd already had his done. He'd already been on Sports Center that morning. So he sat down with me and he, and he, and we had a cup of coffee together. And he was all, all enthralled with, how do you formulate questions? And man, I want to be able to, because the previous day, Ryan McGee and I had done a 30 or 40 minute interview with Greg Sankey, the commissioner of the SEC and coach Saban together about the state of collegiate athletics. Because I don't believe there are two more informed authority voices and minds on that than those two. And he didn't know yet. Like if Greg Sankey says something, can I just, Oh, I want to talk right now. I want to say this. And that's of course what we wanted him to do. But he was not comfortable yet. And I said to him, I said, Mark, my words right now, Mark, listen to me, Mark, I actually got to say, listen to me to Nick Saban. By the 1st of October, you are going to be so comfortable on the college game. They said that that's what you're going to do. And I want you to listen. Listen, that's what your producers, the viewing audience, and your colleagues want you to do, because you're the smartest mind in the entire world about what's about to come out of your mouth. And he didn't say this to me. Gosh, I wish he had it because boy, I'd have walked around with a big old fat head all day long. But my hope is, is that my 20 years in the business at ESPN might have in some small way empowered him. Maybe that probably sounds so egotistical. I don't mean it's true. It's fair. I just, it was, it was cool for me that he respected our time together in that setting to just inquire. And damn, it was a cool moment for me. And I haven't had the time to tell him that yet, I did thank him at the time. But like, I've really tried to again, going inward, tried to process, wow, what an opportunity that the greatest of all time, salt, a little bit of affirmation in that moment from a guy that, you know, he was busting his chops for the last bit, because I think I've probably been going to Tuscaloosa very regularly for at least a decade. And so just a cool moment for me, man. Yeah, outside of Miss Terry, his coaching staff, like how many people has he actually like sought? Like even Jimmy Sexton. I mean, try telling Jimmy, like, hey, this is how things are going to go. Well, I'm sure now, I'm sure he's doing that from everybody on the college game day. So I saw him doing it with Laura Rutledge, because he was going to be doing segments with Laura during the day on SEC network and throughout the college football platforms. And I mean, he would sit with Laura and go through the entire, because he wants to know he wants to be prepared. He doesn't want to be surprised. Tell me what you know. Tell me what you don't know. Never let me be surprised. Nick Saban Edict's right there, buddy. And so it truly is someday. I hope he lets me write his book, coach. Hey, good one. I read that. He'll have somebody who's like, well, it's a prize winner. Do it. But your time, yes, but I don't think that impresses coach very much. All right, let me get out and get you out of here with this, this last one. You've been everywhere this week. You're with Kirby on Tuesday or Monday. I mean, you've had conversations with Billy Napier. You were at LSU talking to Brian Kelly. You've been all over the place. What's a takeaway you've had from these conversations going into week one without necessarily revealing, you know, not revealing any sort of, you know, injury news or anything like that, but something that you found interesting that you're going to be thinking about this weekend. All three of those men specifically really like the teams they're putting on the field. And as you know, this year's vital for Billy. This Saturday is vital for Billy. But he loves Graham Mertz's quarterback. He there's been a complete culture shift there. And I'm speaking directly to Gator fans right now. I have several, I have several really passionate Florida Gator fans who are like, man, went, why do you keep telling us this guy's the guy? I believe you're going to see it this year because they're going to have competitive stamina, talent, unity that they didn't, they haven't had during the Billy Napier 10 years and so forth. Like he had to turn an entire culture during NIL, roster to complete roster, um, changeover. And he's now has guys that chose Florida and that Florida chose. And so it's interesting, but I had a great conversation with him. Uh, McGee and I will flush that out much more on Saturday while we're down in Gainesville. Brian Kelly, of course, Grant Nussmeyer now takes over behind center, um, for Jaden Daniels. He knows that now Blake Baker, who's leading that defense. That is huge because they couldn't stop a nosebleed in 2023. And if they could have, they might have been a national title contender. They had a best offense in America and a Heisman trophy winner and two wide receivers for E that were really good players and, and will be good players at the next level. Offensive lines back. They got Will Campbell, who's going to be a top two or three pick in the NFL draft coming up. They got dudes. So he's very bullish and, um, I mean, Kirby, it's funny. Kirby tries to tell me that, no, we don't, we don't, we don't use what happened in the SCC championship game last year's motivation. We don't, we start over a new every year bull. They, they may not want to, but they talk into, I had a 30 minute sit down interview with Carson Beck. And it was great, great, great. And I was asking him about what, what was the aftermath like of that Alabama loss? And he just detailed the pin drop, desolate quiet of the locker room and the hallway outside the media room right before those guys went in to address the media. And when they detailed that, their jaws were clenched. So don't tell me they don't remember it. And I think, I think Georgia wants a reckoning. That's what I think Georgia went in all this year. You on record with that? They are my, I think it's going to be them in Ohio State. And of course, that is, as we said here right now, injury free, feeling good and healthy. Obviously all that. It's like, again, going back to coach saving prognostication. I'm not good at it. First of all, I'm terrible at it, but I just really suck at choosing who's going to win what, but yes, I think that Georgia is the team to beat nationally. With that said, I've gone on record with my conference champions. You ready for this? Fire what Georgia? Number one seed. Ohio State out of the big 10 number two seed. A lot of people like Oregon. Clemson number three seed in the ACC. And are you ready? My friends. Oh, I saw. I know it's coming. The West Virginia Mountaineers out of the big 12. Most people love Utah. Totally see why Cam rising is back. I love the toughness that Kyle Wittingham has instilled in that program. Love him as a person too. But man, I just Garrett Green behind center. If you don't know that name, you better remember that name. That's a Tyler Hassey kid. He was the, he was the scuttlebutt coming out of the Manning passing academy. And so I just, I don't know, we can't just do chalk all the time, right? That's boring. It is boring. Let's take a, let's, let's take a chance or two, man. Go Mountaineers. Well, Marty, you're the best. Um, behalf of game change sounds really cool. Like an awesome initiative that you're involved with. Yeah. Uh, I know you got a, you got a billion places you got to be, but appreciate you making the time. And I will do this again real soon. Always appreciate spending time with you and your spirit, brother. You, um, I feel like we're very like minded people. And I appreciate how you do what you do in the person you are. Have a great day. Thank you, man. Thank you, man. You too. Well, let's close with some later of the week. I teased it before. You want me, you want me to start? We, do we have the same later of the week? No, I got an interest to go. Like I got like a random one. Good. Okay. I love, I love random later of the week. Ray Gunn's going to be tough to top. It really is. But, um, George Tech coach, frankly, obvious choice here. Run the ball. I love how he said that. It like he, he, for whatever reason tapped into his pal. Like, and I don't know why it came out that way, but I'm so glad that it did. It was perfect post game interview material. I don't know why Katie George is always there for the great opening weekend post game interviews. Like, I'll get, we'll get her back on the show sometime soon here, but she's always there. She was there for the execution comment for Brian Kelly a couple of years ago. There's like, how is she just at the center of these, these moments to her credit? The question was set up very well for him to be able to answer like, you know, as a former offensive lineman, like watching the way that you guys won this game. I'm sure that had to mean a lot to you. And like for George Tech to win in that fashion against a top 10 team, which by the way, George Tech had beat a top 10 team since the weird miss field goal returning as floor state 2015. Yep. So think about that. George Tech just always finds a way to somehow beat Florida ACC teams in the most bizarre fashion possible. Why is that? I don't know. Every Georgia Tech win is just the strangest thing I've ever seen, isn't it? Like it's just over, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's timeless. It really is. It really is. And who knows? Maybe this is the beginning of, of kind of this, this rise for George Tech. It certainly felt like a big moment for that program. Great to see Haynes King and, and he kind of chopping it up afterwards. But he is thriving with his first opportunity as a head coach. And look, everybody knows I'm a big Jeff Collins guy, Jeff Collins guy through and through. It's hard not to be impressed with what Brent Key is doing at George Tech in a year in which the ACC could be a bit all over the place. And week to week, we're kind of like, eh, who's going over like a couple of years ago where we were just debating who's the best team in the SEC West. That might be the case for the entire 18 team ACC this year. It very well could be. But yeah, I mean, I was thinking about this too. And I hate that my mind goes here. I don't like that it goes here because I would love nothing more than for Brent Key to just have a great life, coach George Tech for the next decade, make a bunch of money, win a bunch of football games, have George Tech win a bunch of games, whatever, like have a good life. But even though he's doing this at his own model, well, is there a possibility that someone with his background who has really spent his entire career coaching in the SEC footprint? 10 years at UCF, by the way, as well. I was about to say that's a UCF legend to me, brother. He is George O'Leary's shadow. Yeah, could he be a Florida candidate? If that job opens up, could he be one to keep in mind? Because that's kind of the smash mouth they need a little bit that they're that they thought they were getting with Billy. And it's been a little bit up and down in that regard and the success that I think he's had playing against Georgia, playing more competitively against Georgia than what maybe the final score is indicated. I'm just just keep that in mind. Keep that in mind for Florida. Yeah, no, I think it's just a crazy record against like ranked ACC teams. And I it's so cool to see a program that it felt like they were delaying the inevitable, right? They had like the triple option. And it was just, you know, because the academic standards and like the type of athlete they were getting. And it just felt like this program was just sinking into the into like a year as it was like, yeah, like it was just being like, you guys will never be good again. It was like, actually, we have a guy who was just so old football coach coded that he's just going to run counter like 30 times. And it's just, I love to see that much counter. Surely they'll counter a good here, right? Because like, they just like, uh, went back to Scott or like had this like kind of keyed early. He's like, they haven't made a decision how they're going to cover this counter. So it's just going to keep happening because the ins are literally reading it differently every time. And so they're like, well, we wanted to read it this way. We're going to go this way. If we want to do the reason that we're going that way. So yeah, it was beautiful to watch, you know, and to cut to their offensive coordinator, who just looked like three year letterman in the disguise. And it was just like, these guys aren't just running the tag ball. What a concept. What a concept. I love seeing that every once in a while. It's tough to, it's tough to do that week in, week out and have the advantage. You got to find different ways to be able to scheme. But I love it when a coach just realizes you ain't stopping this. And I know you ain't stopping this. And we're going to, I don't care if we're boring. It's going to work and got it done. Big time went. My last of the week, and this is fitting for Ireland, right? We're talking about lads. My last of the week is foot ballers, right? Now, footy players, right? So this game with football, right? The forward pass really changed it for Americans, right? But we went to Ireland and we found our roots, right? Starting, of course, with David Shanahan, Georgia Tech's punter. Now, didn't see the field, it's done two times, but he was able to return to his homeland. He's from Castle Island. Castle island of Ireland. It's something that I can't pronounce. I apologize. You have any idea how to pronounce this? Uh-uh, but it's beautiful. It's all the college game they feature. General, good work. Castle Island. That's the most Irish place I've ever heard. I can't even pronounce it. And so David Shanahan looks like a FIFA player. He kind of has like that, like, look to him. Like he's a businessman. Like he's already like 25 years old, right? So cool to see him, right? We already talked about Ryan Fitzgerald, FSU's kicker, who honestly would have won player of the game. They hit two insane fields. It's very funny that everybody was making excuses for DJ Uyungo-le, but with a plane ride, the jet lag. I don't know the amount of times I've seen a guy hit a 52 and a 50-darder the same game. That generational kicking performance is going to be completely overlooked by history. And it really shouldn't be because goodness, this dude almost single-handedly saved his team. And it just didn't matter. And of course, he's from Coolidge, Georgia, right? And then this is the last time, the most recent time. I can't remember the most recent time. I've seen a college football player who looked like a college student. But when I saw Aiden Burr, not like the founding father, but B-I-R-R, who hit the winning field goal for Georgia Tech, I was like, this guy looks like he's in a one-on-one class. This guy looks like he is at Georgia Tech to go to class. He does not look 6-4. He does not look like Shanahan, who looks 26. He looks like he just stepped off the plane and is excited to be here. He looked like SpongeBob. I was watching him warm up and I went, oh my goodness, after Georgia Tech took that like one bad fumble or like lost him like 18 yards or 16 yards. And I went, oh my gosh, this poor kid's gonna miss this kick, because he had already missed a kick in this game. And lo and behold, he ended up being the hero for Georgia Tech and like just watching him. I mean, it was just such a time capsule. The moment watching Georgia Tech, you know, run the ball like we talked about, run these counters, and then watching a kid who looked like he was from like Friday night lights from Texas just being like, well, man, I'm just so happy to be here. And it was just like, man, this is why I fell in love with college football. You can put it in Ireland. You can make it a weird conference game between FSU and GT, who at least are legacy members of the ACC. But yeah, it was just interesting to think, hey, in Ireland, you know, the legs really did come through like that really did turn into an old school football game where not a ton of forward passes, Haynes King for a long time. You know, you hanging on to that Haynes King stock is like Bitcoin in 2012, buddy. That thing is going straight to the mood. It might take a couple of years, couple of presidential administrations, maybe, but it'll get there. All right. So that's the thing. Footballers are my lads of the week, literally. I love it. That's great. Yeah, look, I understand there's pushback of some of these international games. I think they're cool. I really do. And obviously, I'm biased. I, you know, took a trip to Dublin for our honeymoon, absolutely loved it there. Great environment. Like, I mean, to be able to like walk the streets of Dublin is just such a surreal, cool thing and just the overall vibe with going into authentic pubs there and feeling like you are truly immersed. And in their culture is such a fun thing to do. And like seeing, when you're in Ireland, do you introduce yourself as Connor Ogara? Why would I would have pronounced my last name wrong? Is Boer Irish? I don't know, just trying to fit, you know, be like, hey, this is my whole plan. I'm Connor Ogara. True story. They added the O apostrophe. Yeah. When we got to Ellis Island, my ancestors way back in the day. And for my mom's side of the family, my mom's side, my mom's maiden name is Byrne. And her original name was O Byrne. And they took the O apostrophe off at Ellis Island. And my mom's family had a better life than my dad's family did because the no Irish need to apply that hurt my dad and his family. And like, I did that. I remember doing that for like a research paper in sixth grade or something like that. I was like, oh, that's like legitimately interesting family history that I think is as fascinating. So to answer your question, a weird way, no, did not do that. I certainly blended in. I definitely did. I looked the part, then they heard me speaking like, yeah, here's, you guys still got a little lingering effects of a Chicago accent. Like, yeah, you're not quite, you're not quite our people with you. But yeah, really cool. Loved all the scenes, clips of more stuff like that. Ireland's like, I was talking to Barrett about this because Barrett got a very last minute opportunity to be able to go and cover the game. Our guy, George Summerville was there. Shout out, George. He's the man. And I was saying to Barrett, like the cool thing about Dublin is that you don't have the language barrier. It's an eight hour flight from us for us in the East Coast. Like, no, find out. It's only eight hours. It's not that bad. Okay, that's changing my life. Thank you for that iteration. Wow. Air lingers, man. I'm saying you got to take the red eye. So it's like an overnight thing and all that stuff. And you got to adjust to the time change. But I think Dublin is such a cool place. I'm sorry. That makes me think of what Michael Rappaport watched Kristoff's prison against get drafted. And he was like, who is this biggest, biggest, like, I thought air linguist was made up. That's a real thing. No, no, it's real, real airport. Yeah, a lot. If you were going, if you were going to the game, you know, exactly what I'm talking about. Yeah, the, uh, look, the travel accommodations are pretty, pretty favorable. I think for Americans and not having to deal with the language barriers, uh, is a big thing. So yeah, I enjoyed week zero. It was great. Glad that week one is here, week one on American soil. No, I'm just kidding. Uh, but I am looking forward to a full weekend, man. It's going to be so, so great. I'm going to get a little sentimental for just a second here. It's about 10 season with this company. Well, 10. Wow. Yeah, you're 10. This is, uh, this is not something that I thought I'd be talking about. Honestly, like when I signed up to do this job, did not think I'd be here for 10 seasons. And here we are. And I'm here because I love doing this. And I love being able to talk about this, this wild, crazy sport, love being able to write about it. I love, I look forward to these midweek pods that we do for you and games so much. Like, I was, I woke up today so tired because we're dealing with right now with like weaning and stuff like that. So you're up in the middle night doing all that. And I woke up and then I remember instantly like, Oh yeah, I get to put together a preview pod. We can talk about actual games this week. I was fired up. I was ready to go. And I'm, I'm very appreciative of all of you who have stood with, who have stuck with us through different iterations of this podcast who are listening year round, even if you're only listening seasonally, it means a lot. And I'm extremely grateful to be here for now. Yeah, 10 seasons. This will be so we're going to do a lot of fun stuff during the season. We have a great time doing this. If you're, if you're new, subscribe, please do, because we work extremely hard, but we love it. And guys, we're here. We're here. We made it. Awesome. Yeah. I mean, it's funny. I was actually talking to, we had a college student at our, at our workplace today. And he talked to me like he like booked some time with me. And I was talking to him. I was like, Hey, like, you know, if you want to work in sports, you know, your first, like, several years are going to be hard. I was like, you're going to watch, you know, your friends make more money than you and get these titles and all this stuff. And I was like, you know, but at the end of the day, people are going to sell you crazy and your dreams don't make any sense. So I was like, I remember people telling me that 10 years ago, when I started working for SDS, I was like, I'm still, you know, just co-hosts that are podcasts that were, you know, on their producer, whatever you call it. And the fact like the cool times we've had, the relationships we've had in this company, take a chance of this has been super duper cool. And, and those memories, like, you know, dude from Chicago got from, you know, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, put us talking about something we both love. And I look forward to it multiple times a week. It's why, you know, we both moved to heaven and earth to make it work. So yeah, man, I mean, this is what a fitting way, right? You're 10 for us. And first of the new Wild West and college football that, you know, every week is going to be the craziest week ever, because people are not going to know how to react to all these losses. And I'm just, so this is the most excited I've been for college football season probably since like 2019 with Barrow coming back and maybe even more so good this year as they were in 2019. So it's a little bit more a little bit harder. It's a little bit a little bit more neutral. What if they are? Well, what if they are? You never know. Hope Springs eternal. It's still talking season for a couple more days. There you go. If you have not, please leave us five serve you subscribe to our YouTube channel where you can watch every single episode of started on South podcast, follow us on Twitter at the assist pod at set on south at your girl act goes hard. Thanks guys.
Week 1 is here! The guys have a full preview pod with breakdowns/picks for the Core 4 SEC matchups of Georgia-Clemson, Virginia Tech-Vandy, Miami-Florida, Notre Dame-Texas A&M and LSU-USC, with Lock of the Week. ESPN's Marty Smith joined the show to discuss his new NIL initiative, GameChange, as well as his conversations with Lane Kiffin and Scott Cochran. The guys close with Lad of the Week!
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