(upbeat music) - Hey, what's going on? This is the Saturday Down South podcast. - I am, I don't know. - Tara, Will is in Vegas for LSU USC. So we'll have a solo pod to recap week one. Week one is in the book, sort of, kind of. Still obviously Sunday night, Monday night, games ahead. This marathon, five day week one. But it was great, it was wonderful. We had start to finish entertaining story lines, galore, we had things that I definitely did not see coming in the SEC that we will recap today. So here's how this is gonna work for those of you who are maybe new to the Saturday Down South podcast. Once again, thank you for joining us. If you're seasonal, need a little bit of reminder, voice got you covered. We recap the, I guess, well, normally known as Power Five, now known as Core Four games, in which SEC teams are involved. And then at the end, we're gonna do, because it's early in the season, I thought we'd do a little overreaction or proper reaction wherein we'll hit on some of the other SEC games, we won't hit on every single thing, but some of the things that we won't hit on today will probably hit on with the midweek pod as well. All right, so let's start with, gosh, can start in a lot of different places, very tempting to start with just a total blasting of Florida. We'll save that for a minute here. Georgia dominated Clemson, which, I'm sorry, if you didn't see that one coming for a mile away. Confession time for a minute. Like, I'll say eight, nine minutes, I had this realization come over me, that this was actually a competitive game. And I thought, is to have all about to make us eat just a little bit of crow, just a little bit of crow, because at no point that I think Clemson was winning that football game even as Georgia struggled to be able to put together scoring drives, but it definitely felt for the first half of that game, like 2021 all over again. And I obviously was not the only person to point that out, but I thought both defenses looked dominant, really, really dominant, really impressed with that Clemson defensive line, man. For all the things that we can criticize Clemson for, that in my opinion is not one of them. It's not every day that we see a unit take advantage of a Georgia offensive line, where it felt like they truly had the upper hand. If I didn't know any better, I would have told you that was a Brent Venables defensive line. I know I've been critical of that, saying the further removed they get from Brent Venables era, the tougher it's gonna be to be able to have that same identity, but they really looked like they had a group that was ready to go, they were speeding up Carson Beck, who as much as I think he is kind of lived up to what Georgia fans hoped he could be, throwing off platform is still the best way to be able to get to him as cliche as that is, but I just thought he looked a tiny bit off in that first half, and I think he ended up having, what, three incompletions or something like that, but a couple of throws that I know that he wished he could probably have back, where even if he was hitting a guy, was he hitting a guy in stride? And I think that's just the standard that we hold Carson Beck to these days, but the Georgia ground game was totally neutralized earlier. I mean, 11 carries 34 yards, 13 of which came from a Carson Beck scramble where he made a really nice play with his legs, and it wasn't necessarily this game, this play in which he was just running for dear life. I thought he actually had a plan and was able to be able to move the chains. I don't know that Trevor ETN would have found much running room early on. He was obviously suspended for this one. I think the news that came out before this game, if you looked at some of that line movement, you're like, "Hey, maybe that's got something to do with it." That line kind of moving down a couple of points. Georgia goes from being like a 13 and a half point favorite. It's like a 10 and a half point favorite at one point, whatever it ended up being. But yeah, it was a struggle for that Georgia offensive line early on and Branson Robinson just could not get anything going. So during those moments, those eight, nine minutes in which I thought this was really going to be a 60 minute game, I was picturing a scenario in which Dabo would get up to the post game press conference. And he would talk about why this game showed that Clemson is still one of the premier programs in the country. And he would use it as this referendum to say, "This is why I've done this in the portal. This is why I've done this with my offense. This is why I've hired this staff member and that staff member and all these things. It was going to be Dabo is going to take it to all the haters who are saying that he's doing this wrong and that his ways are antiquated and that he's not modernizing. He's not adapting in the way that you need to to be able to stay on top in the sport. But Georgia essentially did what it did after the 2021 season opener, which was open at Cannes. That's what this game was. It truly was put its foot on the gas and just cruise past Clemson. Like left Clemson in the dust. Clemson was still in the parking lot and Georgia's like, "Yeah, we're just going to speed on the highway." One very much intended. Dogs roll 34 to three in this one. 40 consecutive regular season victory. No small feat, unbelievable feat. And it's still hard to process that Georgia has not lost a regular season game. So that's excluding the SEC Championship. Have not lost a regular season game since the 2020 cocktail party. Little bit of a different time that was. Still haven't lost a non-SEC game since Sam Ellinger declared that Texas was back after a four-law season. Georgia made halftime adjustments in ways that there are people smarter than me that could probably point out the schematic differences. And they could be able to decipher what were they doing. I thought there were some things on the outside where receivers started blocking a little bit better for the things that Mike Bobo likes to be able to do with those quick hitters and just trust that your receivers are bought in and they're going to be able to clear up space. You're going to get some kind of chunk yardage that way, especially when the ground game isn't really getting going. But whatever they did, I mean, it worked. It really worked. And that offensive line for Georgia had a much different second half, I thought. And I don't want to take away from what Clemson did early on up front. But maybe they just got tired of getting such little help from an offense that had two first downs in the first half and was outgained in the game, 447 to 188. But that very, very brief, eight, nine minutes of Dabo having this-- I don't want to call it a Toby Keith loss. I guess that there ever was one. Maybe this could have been it for Dabo and it wasn't. There's no way that you can spin it. I wonder what's going on in Dabo's mind as he watches Miami transfer Colby Young catch a beautiful fade in the end zone. I usually hate that play, but kind of felt like they did it to the far side of the field. So you got a little bit more room. And it's not like you're working against that sideline. And Colby Young makes a nice play. He's going to be a red zone threat for them. There's no doubt about it. I wonder what Dabo thought when he watched Vandy transfer London Humphreys use the referee as sort of a pick on that pick play, which I don't think that was the intention, but it kind of worked out that way. And then just kind of plow his way into the end zone after running down the sideline. I wonder what Dabo was thinking in those moments because the premier program in this sport used transfers in a big game and didn't watch the foundation fall apart. The foundation of Georgia's program is very much intact. And I'm not trying to make light of all their off the field issues that they've had really since the end of that 22 season. So I still think though that if you are of the mindset that Dabo has a hill to die on, you're crazy. You're just absolutely crazy. It was not stunning that for the second time in the portal era, Clemson couldn't muster a touchdown against Kirby. And I heard a lot of people say on the Clemson offense it's going to be significantly better in year two Garrett Riley and Kate Klumnick. And if I'm betting, look, I think better days are ahead than what they showed on Saturday. It was pretty bad what they showed on Saturday. It really was so far, no good, nothing. Very, very tough to be able to look competent against Georgia's defense, not breaking any news by saying that. But hey, Klumnick's decision making, it still just is not there. And if there were receivers that were getting separation, we certainly didn't see him. At one point at the end of the game, he's like screw it. I know I got Malachi Starks over the top. This is a single coverage. I just got to take a shot. And then Malachi Starks does a very Malachi Starks thing. And you'll be seeing that all over his draft reel. As you should, he's one of the best players in this country. I just wonder what the psyche is right now of Davo, because he's actually made staff moves that I have given him credit for. I liked the Garrett Riley move. God, you post the Broils Award winner from National Run-Up Team. All right, yeah. Garrett Riley, by the way, probably just hoping not to face George anytime soon, safe to say, 65 to 7 in this 34 to 3. But like that hire, like the Matt Luke hire, OK? You've really been kind of-- I don't want to say just a liability on the offensive line, but even go back to 2020. Klumstick couldn't run the football that year. It was bizarre. Like, wait a minute, you've got Travis ETN, arguably the best running back in ACC history, at least in terms of the record books. And you can't run the football at all? It's just bizarre to see how much that unit has really fallen apart, and Matt Luke was brought in to be able to fix it. I thought he made a big difference in fixing George's offensive line a bit, when at times they got a little bit stagnant, I thought in the late 2010s, and got more credit than they probably deserved. But Matt Luke came in and did great things. And I don't necessarily think that Matt Luke is the difference between Klumstick being relevant. You're relevant. Oh, yeah, shout out to Marlar's Matt Luke imitation. He definitely texted me that last week when your classic Matt Luke was on Klumstick's staff. Dabbo was no longer under the impression that the only guys that can coach on his staff are guys that have been there for like 10 years. So that's good. That's progress, I guess. I mean, sure. But I just don't get how he can continue to speak about the portal like it's TikTok. I don't get it. When he's on game day, and he's being asked about it, he's walking on the field. And he's got that peak like Dabbo confidence. He's in his suit. He's got the AirPods in. And he's surveying the field. And he's thinking himself, you know, I've won a lot of big time football games, which I don't blame him for thinking that. And then they ask him about the portal. And he's like, yeah, you know, I just I feel like I'm doing what's best for our program and our roster. Now you're not. Now you're not. You're just doing what you want to do. You're doing what you want to do. And you know that you can't be fired for doing what you want to do. Let's just call what it is. It's as simple as that. There is just no way you can possibly defend it at this point, because Clemson is the program that now, since the portal has become a thing in 2018, they have not started a single player from it. That's almost impossible. Like, I mean, how many times do you think like coaches, start guys who are like, oh, yeah, I guess that guy did just get here, you know, in spring or something like that. Or you wouldn't even think of that. I mean, even service academies, like, got to have those moments at points, right? And I just, I do not get it because here's the thing. You want to coach high school football? Want to coach at the Juco level? Fine, you want to coach as service Academy? Do those things. Stand by your code. You're getting paid eight figures. You're not, you're not exhausting all resources. That's the thing that I hate. So when Danny Canal tweets, well, a lot of good coaches get smoked by Georgia. Ole Miss got smoked by Georgia last year. Let's not pile on Dabo. He doesn't deserve it. I miss the part where Lane Kiffin is refusing to exhaust all resources because last I checked, that guy would do anything to land a player to make his team better. Like he did this off season. Dabo's not doing that. He's not. And the reason why we're discussing this all is because Dabo has to be able to look across that sideline and realize, oh, I don't have to do the Ole Miss thing. I could still stand by all the high school development stuff, all that crap, all that jargon, whatever you want to talk about within our program. This is how we're going to do things blah, blah, blah, blah. All you got to do is look at Georgia and see a program that is using the portal effectively and still in a position to be for national championships. You can sign top five classes. You can sign top two classes if you're Georgia. You can be super selective in the portal. You don't have to give out offers to everyone. There's nothing that says Clemson needs to be signing 15 to 20 guys. But what Clemson is doing is not giving its team a shot. And it's so painfully obvious. And I just don't like who left on this earth that doesn't share Dabo Sweeney's DNA is defending it. I don't get it because even the simple math, not a big math guy, a little bit, did pretty well in stats in high school. Dabo is losing a dozen of these guys a year. How do you not recognize that that's hurting your depth? I just don't understand that you say, oh, it's going to mess with the dynamics in the locker room. You're an eight figure head coach. It is your job to manage the dynamics in the locker room of 18, 22 year old kids. That's what you're ready to do. Or if not, hire a bigger support staff. And they can figure that stuff out. But stop losing football games because you're too stubborn to change. Simple as that. Let me put some praise on the Georgia defense. Talked probably enough about Clemson, how mad they would be. And that's somebody that, look, I don't even have a dog in that fight. And I still just can't stand what they become. This Georgia defense, man, we've run out of things to probably say about how they do this year after year. But Jalen Walker, I already talked about Malachi Starks, the scrutinized Daylin Everett, who I thought played really well in this game. Maybe the one catch that was made against him was a really nice play in traffic. Clemson, I understand, has those issues in the ground game. They really have not been able to run football in the 2020s. But Georgia holding Clemson to 60 sack adjusted rushing yards kind of told the story of that battle upfront. And Georgia was very much winning it. I won't hate on Debo there. You're not really getting the lead offensive lineman in the portal. That's not necessarily something that I can point to. But a little bit teeny, tiny bit worried to see Georgia's defenders get a little bit banged up. Some of those key defenders. Stackhouse was down for a minute. He returned in this one different story for the very decorated Michael Williams, who is just kind of penciled in as Georgia's next elite draft prospect. He took a hit from film off in Pass Pro. That was flagged for an illegal block below the waist because he didn't really hit him straight on. I thought that was a really good explanation from Matt Austin on that play, where I'm like, OK, that kind of just looked like a running back coming across in Pass Pro. And I'm sure Georgia fans are looking at that. Well, I'm like, ah, it's dirty play. Any time a guy gets hit below the waist, that's just kind of the standard default answer. And understandably so. But didn't realize that there wasn't necessarily that rule had been tweaked and that you have to be straight on in order to be able to make that type of hit the way that running backs have been talked for a really long time. So I wouldn't really call that a dirty play, even though it does get flagged. And when you lose a player of that caliber, of course, you're going to be frustrated. But Williams left the game. He was in a walking boot afterwards. Kirby said initial actuaries were positive, but they needed to be able to see more to make the determination about what's going to be for him. Good news. Georgia should be able to kind of take it easy with him, being able to return a little bit of a slower start to September after this one. But it's an entirely different crew that held Clemson without a touchdown than the one that we saw last time in 2021. Remember that, because that was a historic defense. And we talked ad nauseam about how good that group was and how helpless they felt for so much of that game. But it's pretty simple at this point, OK? And I try and find the nuance in these situations. And, you know, we try and provide different perspective. But Kirby's just better at this than Davo, period. So don't overthink it. It's not worth it. Will and I talked about how much we hated the athletic, putting Davo and Kirby in the same top tier of coaches in this sport, all because they both have two rings. What else do we need to see to confirm that they're not in the same tier anymore? Because this is a year for this, all right? It's one thing, you know, you have a bad year. You have a bad two years. OK, I understand coaches go through roles. And maybe this quarterback didn't work out. Maybe that quarterback didn't work out. It's year four of this, all right? Like, what do we still need to see? Does Kirby need to walk into Davo's house and steal his wife? Is that the only thing that'll get people to realize, hey, you know what, Kirby? It's probably got a leg up on Davo. Because he's been doing this now for a presidential term, OK? McElroy, I thought, had a great point in the broadcast, too. And it actually shows Georgia's growth since 2021, which is an even scarier thought for Clemson and those who can't stay on the field with Georgia. When Georgia dominated Oregon in that opener in 2022, they looked like the best team on Earth. And I remember being at that game, also at Mercedes-Benz, and thinking to myself, oh, my God. How is this team that just lost 15 players to the NFL draft? This could already against Oregon team that, yeah, it's a new regime, obviously, with Dan Lanning. Maybe Kirby knows the thing or two about the way that he's going to game plan. It's still Bonix. We had different thoughts about Bonix at that time, his first game in Oregon. So like, you can kind of dismiss it. But at the same time, we thought that Oregon was going to be really good in the trenches. It ended up being a really solid team that year. But Georgia made us forget that. And Georgia looked like this world beater, which, you know, 22, I don't know that it was as memorable as 21, but they still ended up being obviously a 15-0 team that won a national championship. But the point that McElroy brought up, which I thought was fair, was how could Kirby have gone to that film in that Oregon game and said, guys, this is where we need to get better? Everybody would have just rolled their eyes at Kirby and been like, man, we whooped that. And you know it. And in this game, I thought Georgia actually had decent amount of mistakes. And McElroy kind of pointed that out, too, where, you know, there were missed blocks. It felt like Carson Beck was sped up a bit more. Were they doing enough offensively to be able to make life easy for them? Maybe some of those running lanes, they weren't necessarily seeing them if they were there. I felt like Georgia only converting one third down in the first half was something that Kirby can go back to and say, this is where we got to be able to get better. If we're going to win these big-time matchups, Georgia ends up committing seven penalties for 70 yards. That's coachable, fixable, things that you can go back and say we need to be a more disciplined team. Kirby beat a top 15 team, at least according to the preseason AP poll, if you've been listening to this, you know that Clemson wasn't worthy of that. But Clemson was considered a top 15 team. And Kirby beat him by 31 points and still had plenty to be able to show his team after a season opener. It's kind of ideal. It's kind of ideal for a program that's one as many games as Georgia has. That's essentially what Georgia has become. Dogs are still the standard and Clemson is still a decent team that no longer deserves to share the field with tier one programs. All right, Florida fans, I don't think you want to hear Muffet. You need to listen to this, you need to hear this. And I'm not trying to preach at you. You already know a lot of the things that I'm about to say, but I think sometimes you need to hear it from an outsider and not someone that's emotionally invested in the way that you probably were before, during and afterwards, what happened on Saturday in the swamp? It was a beat down. Where do we want to start? Because Miami deserves all the credit in the world. How about the fact that the lasting image of this game is a slumped over Florida fan who had a high noon tall boy as a pillow. And Jesse Palmer was telling him to celebrate the positive when the gator scored a garbage time touchdown. Lasting image of this game, not great, not great. In a weird way, I mean, kind of thank goodness for that DJ Lagway. Drive late, it was the best drive of the day because if not for that, I think Florida fans would have been angry enough to throw haymakers at every Miami fan in sight who Lord knows we saw plenty of them on those ESPN ABC cameras. Look, they had every reason to be loud and happy on Saturday. They made themselves comfortable, very comfortable. I got more that we'll get to on legway in a bit, but let's start with the obvious. I feel extremely dumb for thinking that Florida's defense would have a single answer for Cam Ward, much less several answers to fuel a win. Worst call of the week, worst call of the week, even worse than the Vandy call. I really feel a little bit justified about that is Vandy, come on. Cam Ward looked like Brett Favre, he did. Man, that guy showed up with such little concern about that atmosphere. It was borderline disrespectful. It really was how comfortable he looked at times on the road, new surroundings, and you couldn't have convinced that guy that he was playing in a game of that magnitude. At one point, he made this touchdown pass, which was, in my opinion, the moment that Miami was about to run away with it, and he makes his touchdown pass late in the first half. And I don't think a single Miami quarterback would have had the awareness and the arm strength to make this throw since Jim Kelly. And I no disrespect to Ken Dorsey, no disrespect to Heisman winner Geno Teretta, Vandy Testa Verde, any of those guys. But I was thinking to myself, that throw was just different, very, very different. And so Ward, after he makes this throw to Restrepo, and he gets into the end zone, he instantly has his helmet off, and he's straight faced as just the bench is mobbing him. It was like the Dame Lillard GIF from a few years back when he's just straight facing, he's just looking right at the camera, as everybody else is just going berserk. Cam Ward's the truth, okay? He is, and I'm not saying that means he's gonna win a Heisman Trophy or anything like that. But Miami is undoubtedly in better shape with him, with a guy like Damian Martinez in that backfield. He really didn't have the best day, but I thought he had some big time runs. And that defensive line that Miami brought to this wamp was nasty. And having a guy like former Tennessee defensive and Tyler Barron, who has just had a bizarre off season, Ole Miss for a second, Louisville for a second, he ends up at Miami. It's like, is this guy a dick through the portal, whatever the case may be, he was really good on Saturday. He was in Graham Mertz's ear, what felt like all day. I said I wasn't buying the Miami hype. I'm not saying that you part three is unfolding here, or anything like that, okay, let's not go that far. But am I saying that emphatic statement in that atmosphere was darn impressive? You bet, absolutely, that is nothing to scoff at truly. Like when the swamp is rocking, I'm telling you, there are very few places on this earth that are tougher to play. Even when they're bad, even when they're bad, that is still a difficult thing to have to navigate for an opposing team. Bad era of Florida or not, this was unthinkable. I mean, tied for the second worst Florida season opening home loss ever. That was not a scenario I envisioned playing out. And yes, it definitely makes me think that Miami can win the ACC, especially knowing what we saw from Florida State against Georgia Tech, knowing what Clemson still looks like, sleeper, Virginia Tech. Couldn't get past Juggernaut Vandy, which again, we're gonna get to it a little bit here. But let's talk about Florida because good Lord, Billy Napier, good Lord. Eight months, eight months to prepare. And that's what you look like. Horrible effort all around, horrible. Well, and I were texting when it was still a one score game. I think it was early the second quarter. And I'm like, Miami is a better team. Miami is a better team. Miami should win this football game. If Miami doesn't win this football game, we're gonna be blasting Mario Christopher for saying, how did he lose that game when he has the better team? Because Miami dominated in the trenches and they were putting Florida in positions defensively that I don't think they envisioned at all. Florida looked like a team that missed so many guys and they looked like if you didn't know any better, you would think that Florida lost like their four best players on both sides of the ball. They looked like they really missed Ricky Pearsall on offense. And by the way, I hope Ricky Pearsall is all right. After getting shot. What a weird story to come out on Saturday in the midst of everything that was going on. You saw that and you're like, what? Ricky Pearsall got shot like, man, I hope everything is gonna be okay with that guy. But anyway, just an awful, awful look that Florida was so inferior to Miami. Anyone with two eyeballs could tell you that. There's no spinsum, nothing, absolutely nothing. Oh, I refed this. Oh, you know what, tip pass here goes our way. None of that, none of that. One year three coach looks like he's figuring things out about having the right combination of talent and scheme. Those air raid concepts work really well with Kim Ward and they've really built that offense to be able to give him opportunities to succeed. Well, another year three coach looks like he's still searching for answers. What's troubling for any Florida fan of stomach is that they've been sold, but rather they've been sold. That's the better way to phrase this. They have been sold this notion that Billy had all the answers to clean up the Dan Mullen era. Speaking of Mullen, interesting afternoon for old Dan Mullen for another program kind of sort of not really. I disagree with what my guy Matt Berries tweeted about Mullen. If you missed it, he said, "The Florida coach that got fired went to three consecutive New Year six games in his first three years and was let go in his fourth season." Mullen retweeted that. Why wouldn't you? I think if you heard Mullen on this show when he came on a little over a year ago, there's no love loss between Dan Mullen and Florida. Not breaking any news there. I also think that Mullen lost his way in that job, and if you are just looking back on the Mullen era ending and chalking it up to Florida fans, having unrealistic expectations, you are forgetting the context of that final year plus. That ignores Mullen's disastrous end of 2020. The mess that was 2021, yes, it was a mess. Go ask Sam Furt about that. The significance of that show cause, which was not nothing, and that was a big deal at Florida. Drink if you've heard Matt Hayes say that on this show before, it ignores how much Florida's recruiting fell off and go back to that Georgia game, folks, because the optics of that one couldn't have been worse, and Florida looked like it had fallen off the face of the earth in that cocktail party 2021, and it was, oh my God, Dan Mullen has just given up on recruiting. He's not recruiting a single player anymore, and this belief that, oh, he was just railroaded, not the case. He was indifferent with the recruiting stuff by the end of it, and you know it, and I think he would even admit that if he had some truth serum, there was zero alignment whatsoever by the time that he left between himself and that administration, that relationship with Scott Strickland had fallen apart, and especially after the 2020 season when Mullen himself admitted that he was kind of a different guy, and if that extension gets done before that season, instead of the pandemic happening, maybe things turn out differently, but we know how things turned out, and to ignore that, in my opinion, is just, that is so nearsighted, and I don't like that at all, and I like Matt Berry a lot. Matt Berry's a good dude. We'll get him on the show very, very soon, I'm sure I'll yell at him about that or something like that, but I didn't like that take, okay, I did not like that, and if that's what you feel like you need to blame or hold on to, if that's your life raft, as a Florida fan is, ah, you know what? We messed this up four years ago. I don't do that, don't do that to yourself, it's not worth it. So let's acknowledge that Mullen was far better than Billy, okay, he's got a lot more success, but this notion that he was wrongfully fired is just untrue, it just is. That feels like a lifetime ago, it really does. Billy told us that overhauling the nutrition program would be the difference. 500 pounds lean muscle they added, gotta say, don't think he had the more physically prepared team in that heat. Billy made tweaks to the defensive staff in the form of hiring Ron Roberts, who was fired at the end of each of his last two seasons at different power five programs, but because Billy worked with him at Louisiana, he trusted him, said, all right, this is gonna be our guy. They showed him way more than they were showing Austin Armstrong on Saturday. Nank of that, which you will. So far, no good there. Whether it was Roberts, whether it's Armstrong, there was no alpha on the field for that defense, whatsoever, none at all. Miami had 529 yards of offense and it could have been more of this had actually been a 60-minute game. I thought Dorings said it best on ICC final. Whenever Miami needed to respond, it did that. Or it took advantage of Florida doing very Florida, Billy Napier things, which is have these crucial mental mistakes, like the two roughing the passer calls. There was a moment where, just like with Clemson against Georgia, in the first half, I tricked myself into thinking, oh my God, this is about to be like a true down to the wire fight. And maybe Florida just did enough to be able to respond and steal the momentum. And you know what I'm talking about. 17 to three, zero offensive rhythm for Florida with the first half winding down. No chunk plays yet. And DJ Lagway is trending on Twitter, just in case that isn't enough. That's because Graham Mertz, to that point, wasn't particularly good, wasn't particularly good all day. And when it looks like Florida just has no hope whatsoever, Montrell Johnson gets some incredible blocking. Florida even had a center polling to be able to help set the edge. And then boom, just like that, he takes off 17 to 10 game. The swamp is rocking again. But then right on cue, Miami just slices through the Florida defense, goes up 24 to 10, never looks back. That was actually the throw that that Cam Ward had to Restrepo, where he just straight faced, did not look phased whatsoever, needed to check his polls in that one. But that game was over and done and place looked like it was clearing out in the middle of the third quarter. That was the single saddest rendition of One Back Down that you will ever hear. Just dejected and ironic. I mean, come on. The most ironic thing ever to play that song. Obviously, I know Florida does every home game. Love me some Tom Petty, but listen to a lot more Tom Petty over the course of the last couple of months. Nothing to do with Florida, but just a guy that an almost before my time and need to go back and be able to listen to. Them playing that in that game was just the single most ironic song that could come on because Mercy did Florida back down from that challenge. Did not show up ready to go in any phase. We talked about how much this was a pressure cooker game. And while I didn't necessarily think that Billy winning it would guarantee him a year four or anything like that, it's telling that he's getting to the post-game press conference after a game like this and not spinning it anymore. He's very clearly aware of how bad this is. He's not hiding from it. And I'll give him at least a little bit of credit for it. You just couldn't have drawn up a worst start through the season. That's obvious, that's true. Because just in case all of that wasn't enough. Final score, the fact that it's an in-state rival, again, they're both the year three coaches, a lot of pressure to be able to win this year. Mertz going down in this one was a really, really tough pill to swallow. He got absolutely crunched on a ball that gets picked off, which Mertz did not throw a whole lot of interceptions last year, drink, if you've heard a comment about his completion percentage, only three picks all last season. So if you were a Florida fan who stuck around, you probably had to hold your breath in those moments. Obviously, you don't root for anyone to get hurt. This is the silver lining, of course, everybody's talking about it. All right, you get DJ lag way. You get to see what this kid is capable of doing. This guy that's been billed as a savior of the program. Up and down, I thought the TD drive that he led was the best drive of the day. Again, cue the high noon pillow with that fan. See the positive, see the positive. That was also against Miami leaving its first team defense in. So that was impressive and I'm not trying to take away from that. That wasn't part of Billy's plan, I can guarantee you. Unfortunately, concussion for Mertz, that's what they said afterwards, TBD on what that means for him moving forward. Everybody's gonna be wondering, is Billy's only hope? DJ lag way. Is that it? I highly doubt he sees it that way. He loves Mertz, he wants to do right by Mertz. I didn't notice that he'll just abandon him in favor of lag way, I think is really premature and really go back and look at it. Guys, this is a unique situation. I know we talked about this earlier in the off season, but go through the SEC and think about the coaches who have relied on true freshmen quarterbacks and think about the standing that they were in at their university. You know, like Alabama turning to Jalen Hurts 2016, okay? Nick Saban, not exactly on the hot seat. You have the freedom to do what you want the quarterback position and it would end up working out obviously extremely well. Okay, you wanna get into like, you know, an Auburn situation with Bonix. He ends up being the starting quarterback 2019. Is that, you know, Gus maybe relying on a freshman to be able to save his job? Yeah, but he also did so because he had a defense that was out of this world. And if you forget how good that Auburn defense was with Kevin Steele, go back and watch because they had to do it all over the place. So it was a little bit different that they could lean on Bonix and trust him to be able to kind of figure things out. You wanna go through like a Georgia situation, Jacob Eason, all right, well, Jacob Eason's you're one of the Kirby Smart Era. What about Jake Fromm? Well, Jake Fromm wasn't exactly supposed to be starting as a true freshman, he started out as a necessity 'cause Jacob Eason gets hurt and it's still year two of the Kirby Smart Era. That works out extremely well. All right, you wanna go to like an LSU. Okay, LSU hasn't really had that drawn up by design with a true freshman quarterback in recent memory. You could probably find an example of like, okay, what about an Ole Miss, Ole Miss 2019? Matt Luke fighting for his job a little bit. John Rice Plumley, he was electric, didn't matter. They still ended up firing him, didn't necessarily prove to be the savior as much as I love true freshman John Rice Plumley. And by the way, he wasn't the starter by design at all either. That was a little bit more out of necessity with injuries. Look, you can go up and down and you can find these situations of teams that have maybe put in true freshman quarterbacks in this conference, but leaning on them to be the savior is much. And it's much even when you have things that you feel like you can trust, when you have an unbelievable ground game, you've got NFL receivers, you've got a defense that you know is going to be top 20 in the country. What the hell is Florida have? Trey Wilson? Not Joel Johnson every once in a while? That's it. I love like way too. Like I have loved everything that I've seen and heard from him. And I'm very tempted to just say, just let the guy play and figure it out. And we'll talk about the positives and how that could benefit Florida moving forward. I know that's going to be the big long-term benefit to doing something like that. I don't know, man. I don't know because I think his surroundings are not good. And I think this game confirmed that. We were not stupid to talk about the schedule of offseason. We had to talk about it. And this is now six consecutive losses for Florida dating back to last year. Florida is now 10 and 24 and it's last 34 games against power five competition. We're calling it core four now. Three consecutive losing seasons. What are the odds they make it for? Because that was not a winning team. That was a winning team with a manageable schedule, much less with a historically daunting schedule. At least that's the way that it's perceived. Maybe we'll be right about that. Maybe we'll be wrong, but I think we're right to be skeptical about this Florida team. At some point proof of concept has to set in. Okay, and it's not Florida fans fault. It's not their expectations. They want two national championships in the 21st century and people want to act like three consecutive losing seasons at a place with that type of tradition, that type of in-state talent, those types of resources. People want to act like that's just, oh, you know what, fans just aren't gonna fan. No, it's not. Fans should be upset. We talking about Florida deserves better. Billy has not given them better, despite what he has said. And almost every turn, perhaps with the exception of this post game press conference. All right, Notre Dame beats A&M at Kyle Field. Speaking of quarterback performances, I was wrong about hand up. Connor Wigman was bad in that loss to Notre Dame. Bad, bad, bad with a capital B. I think ESPN gave us that close up slo-mo of him puking just because it felt in line with his performance. They usually don't show stuff like that, but they're like, yeah, this guy's really struggling. Let's show him puking. I also think it was bizarre to listen to Fowler continue to mispronounce his last name as Wigman when it's Wigman. Herbie and Holly Rowe had it right and Fowler just dug his heels in, which I love Fowler. I think he's great. I love him as the voice of the sport. But I'm like, does he not hear Herbie and Holly Rowe like calling it Wigman? And it's in the pronunciation guy and all this stuff. I mean, in Fowler's defense, I guess I'll say that it's not like Wigman did anything to make people think he was worthy of being a household name. I wanted to lead with that because, obviously, that loss is not all on Connor Wigman. It's sort of played out how I predicted with Riley Leonard being able to lead a late touchdown drive to be able to take the lead, Notre Dame kind of getting out of college station with his hard fought win. I thought that was going to be on the table. Credit Notre Dame offensive line, which entered with six career starts and made enough plays to be able to lead some key, key drives late. By night's end, I thought they were pushing the pile. I thought they were creating running lanes against an A&M defensive line that did indeed look the part for the majority of the night. I held my breath a little bit when Nick Scorton went down, but in my opinion, he and Chamart Turner were as advertised. Those guys are going to be awesome. And if you're not prepared to be able to handle them, they will take over games. But the difference in that game, there's Notre Dame's defense having an answer for everything that Connor Wigman and Colin Klein tried to do. There were so many instances in which I said, either out loud or to myself, Connor Wigman's lost and he has no chance, none whatsoever. Whether that was Notre Dame pressuring him to be able to force an errand throw for the pick, or a rare instance I thought in which his footwork was really bad and he sails a throw that he shouldn't have sailed obviously, but it's still pressure that forced that. Or the fact that Notre Dame felt like all night, they're stepping into passing lanes and they're making better plays in the ball than those A&M receivers. Wigman was frustrated, really, really frustrated. You could see it all over his face. Al Golden, Marcus Freeman, that was a defensive masterclass, it really was. And yeah, it's an A&M offense that, I don't think it's going to be a top 10 offense in the country, I can say that with confidence, but they were bringing pressure all over the place. And if you saw some of the quarterback view replays of the way that they would set up their defensive line and their linebackers like, good luck, good luck, man. It felt like they were getting one guy untouched, time after time after time. And that's going to be a liability with this A&M team. Like I continue to say, as much as I like Connor Wigman, I think their offensive line is really going to struggle because they haven't really given us a whole lot of confidence that they won't in recent memory. And look, the irony with the way that it played out is that one of the reasons I'm such a Wigman guy, present tense there, I'm still a Wigman guy, haven't totally sold my stock yet, is because up until last night, he's been mostly awesome against pressure. I think that's the biggest thing he can hang his hat on. And if and when that time comes for the NFL, I feel like that'll be when you go to the nfl.com, the combine profile page, the top thing will be handles pressure extremely well. I still believe that'll be the case, but man, it wasn't there. And it was very easy to forget that this was a guy that before he got hurt last year, he was leading FBS with touchdown passes against the blitz, that according to PFF. But his first game with Colin Klein in his year, he looked overwhelmed, totally overwhelmed. He looked like he didn't have much faith in any of those receivers. Let's say I totally blame him on that, but I thought this was really telling. In the middle of the fourth quarter, Lavey Amos was split out wide. Lavey Amos, the running back, he split out wide on third and nine. And it's a running back, running a nine yard out. And that's Connor Wigman's first read on that play in that spot, I gotta have it type spot. And of course, it kind of sums up the night. Amos runs the route, probably about a half yard short, didn't have the presence to be able to extend the football, to get across the first down marker. I thought he had it and he didn't. And A&M is forced to punt in their own territory, Notre Dame gets it back, 85 yard touchdown, try to be able to take the lead for good. I do think that better days are ahead for the A&M offense. They will not run into a group that experience, that prepared every single week. That's not always going to be the case. Notre Dame is one of the best secondaries in the sport. And again, a year three defense is such a game changer. I guess we call it a year four defense. I mean, this is the fourth year that Marcus Freeman's been there. Obviously one is a coordinator three as a head coach, but man, they won that battle. They really did. A&M does not have an offensive identity, none. I couldn't tell you what their strength is. What does A&M do best right now? Because I would have told you before last night, Connor Wigman being able to handle some pressure, being able to make some throws down field, trust that this guy's going to be able to go off and make a play, maybe Colin Klein's going to be able to scheme in the ground game. That's been a popular topic of conversation. We talked about that beforehand. One there wasn't there. They are still searching for that. This feels like an A&M team that if they're going to have success on the offensive side of the ball, a lot of it is going to depend on Colin Klein being able to scheme at an elite level, which that's what he's been paid to do. That's why he left his alma mater at Kansas State to go to Texas A&M to be able to draw up those looks. And it make life easier on a quarterback that in theory should be rounding in a form, but he certainly did not look the part. Notre Dame beat a ranked SEC team on the road for the first time in 20 years. Last time they had done that beat number nine, Tennessee in Knoxville, 2004. Nothing is set in stone, but let me ask this. And this goes back to what we were talking about how I thought A&M, if you didn't have a dog in the fight, A&M should have been your dog in that fight because of Notre Dame's path to be able to get an at-large berth in the 12 team playoff. If you were picking teams to make the playoff based on what we have seen in week one and what we know awaits with the schedule. How many teams would you put ahead of Notre Dame right now? I'd put Georgia ahead of them. I put Ohio State ahead of them. You know, Ohio State, you know, understandably got off to a slow start against Joe Moorehead. It happens. Oregon, 10-point win against Idaho. That make you feel that confident? Is everybody, and again, is everybody that confident that Oregon's gonna be able to step in the big 10 win the conference? I don't know about that. As much as I like that team. Ole Miss, favorable path. Still not as favorable as Notre Dame. Penn State, nice win on the road in Morgantown. Shut me up for going to a couple different places and saying I can see that upset happening. Did not happen. Nice win for Penn State. Notre Dame's path is still easier. A&M, on the other hand, not a team with 12 team playoff upside. Not there yet. And that's fine. It's your one. We don't judge your one coaches on this show. I still like Mike Elko. I still think that they're gonna be able to win a couple of those games they're not supposed to. I'm not necessarily selling stock in that. I think better days will be ahead. But yeah, I mean, you got to credit Notre Dame for the way that they showed up in this one. Both defensively and, you know, at the end, got Mo Bomba just blasting 107,000 people. It is ready to go. That atmosphere looked like it was second to none. You saw the pregame. I had the pregame photo of the final image of game day of just Corso doing his Irish jig and McAfee shirtless, like, arm around saving. And in the middle of him is just Johnny Manziel standing there awkwardly, like the most sober, normal one of the group. It was an awesome college game day. It truly was. I probably could have done without the Pete Damill fishing stuff, but nonetheless, it was still an entertaining college game day to be able to start off for, I guess, the hour that I was able to watch of it. But yeah, unfortunately for Texas A&M, yeah, a little bit of like the 2018 vibes early on with Jimbo where you're just not there yet. You're not ready to win that type of game and not saying that this is the Jimbo Fisher all over again. Do not twist my words into that. But A&M came up short, has some clear weaknesses to be able to try and go back to the drawing board handle. All right, Virginia Tech Vandy, the one you've been waiting for. I know it is. Vandy did the unthinkable. How about it, man? How about it? As I have said so many times, ad nauseam, you probably got sick of hearing me say it this offseason. It was like a broken record, I really was, but in Clark Lee, we trust, man. Look, I just couldn't believe the way that game played out. Every single turn, the start that Vandy had, the fact that Vandy blows the lead and then misses the field go late and then is still able to win in overtime. I just could not believe that Vandy responded in the way that it did at every single turn. I think New Mexico State maybe should get half a win for this one, for all the different pieces that they played a part in winning this. Vandy poaching the program, bringing over all of these New Mexico State Aggies to be able to kind of write the ship. We need to talk about Diego Pavia, man. Absolutely electric in his debut at Vandy, loved it. Absolutely loved it. It was like he just picked up where he left off from that Auburn game. The game that Clark Lee watched nine to 10 times before bringing him in to Vandy, he just oozes confidence and swagger. And I get why Clark Lee fell in love with him after those nine to 10 viewings because, buddy, I did too. It was very, very fun to watch him and continue to respond in these moments when Vandy has just been so desperate for any quarterback to have that kind of confidence and to be able to back it up after the game. Pavia said, someone said I'm a poor man's trace McSorley. When you can stop me, then you can talk. I love it. And if we're being honest here, if I had called Pavia a poor man's trace McSorley before this game, I would have been trying to pay him a compliment by saying that I love trace McSorley. It was incredible, man. He clearly does not like that. So let's do this. Let's come up with something that he can get on board with. And something that I think is a little bit more appropriate about Aldi Matt Corral. People like Aldi. I don't like that they charge you for the cards, but my mom loves Aldi, swears by it. If Aldi closed its doors tomorrow, I would get like a phone call and I don't want to say it'd be full on tears, but she'd be upset. I actually know people that are pretty high up at Aldi who used to live in our area. Actually, the person who sold this to our house used to be high up at all the fun fact that absolutely nobody cares about. If Diego Pavia hates Aldi Matt Corral as a nickname, I'll come up with whatever he wants. We can worship that. That's fine. He's earned it. He has earned a nickname after doing something that, look, I did not see coming. I think even a sold out Vandy crowd, which I take that for what it is. You got the stadium under construction. Still great to see that. They were turning students away. They've had to do that. That was unbelievable. They got an absolute treat to be able to see that team respond time and time again. But man, you could just tell how comfortable Pavia was with Tim Beck, his OC from New Mexico State and then Jerry Kill on the sideline as well. That, to me, looked like a guy that was so comfortable within the offense. He knew where he was going with the football at all times. Or if he didn't, he would find a way to be able to improv, like he had that one play where it looks like he's gonna cross the line of scrimmage. And then he throws it to, basically looks like to the sideline, like a parallel type pass instead of scrambling. There's like, that's a guy that seeing the game slowly is having fun and does not care what you think of him at all. The ball that he threw to Skinner was a dime. Really nice catch too. That guy is very important as well in the passing game. After what they lost, being able to have Shepard go to Colorado, they lose Humphrey, so I brought up before he went to Georgia. What else is huge for Vandy? Clark Lee running a defense again seems kind of important. Who would have thought? Who would have thought the guy that did really well at Notre Dame and was a rising up and coming assistant on Brian Kelly's staff is now showing that he still knows how to run a defense. He's his own defensive coordinator. I think it was Taylor Davis who said on the broadcast, how different the vibe was for Vandy, year to year after, I think she said she covered like four Vandy games last year. And just the energy, everybody flying around to the football, such a massive, massive year to year change. You could not have convinced me that Vandy was the same program that we've seen for the first three years of the Clark Lee era. Even 22, I thought they were still a defensive liability for the majority of that season, even though they obviously got the wins against Kentucky and Florida. But man, they did a lot to frustrate a very experienced Virginia Tech team. A team that I think is, what are they like? They're fourth or something like that. They're top four in percentage of returning production. Could have been fooled by that stat, because Kyron Drones, that's actually how you pronounce his name. I got it wrong last time too. He was not effective. I do stand by my take that if his name were actually Kyron Drones, he's a sneaky Heisman candidate, but nonetheless, he is not. Instead, he's the guy who looked like he didn't have an answer for everything that Vandy was throwing at him until late. And Vandy did try and blow it. Of course, Vandy can't just have all the nice things, all right? There's still had to be some drama there. Still to miss a field goal, that seemed pretty makeable. But man, give me more Diego Pavia. I need more of that in my life. That is quite the way to be able to start and send a message to your fan base that look, might actually have a fun football team this year. Vandy should be three and oh going into Mizzou, because home against Alcorn State, Steve McNair ain't walking through those doors. Rest in peace. Heard the Netflix doc with him wasn't particularly good, which is disappointing because he's got a very interesting story. And then at Georgia State, a team that has a ton of turnover, not on the level of Virginia Tech, one would think, if Vandy starts off three and oh, they hit the over for their regular season wind total by mid September, the over unders two and a half wins. How about that? Diego said on Zen Game Pod in the off season, that he liked that the odds makers had Vandy at two and a half wins because of course he did. Thinking people would be able to bet the over and make a lot of money on Vandy. I'm just gonna bet the farm on all the macro. Love it. All right, let's close with some over reaction or proper reaction. I think we'll usually do this with me throwing these at will and seeing kind of how he feels about these as opposed to just throwing them at myself. We'll try and have a little bit of variety with this. Okay, so over reaction or proper reaction. Niko Yamalehava was the best quarterback in America on Saturday against Chattanooga. Booger actually said this several times. That's why I wanted to be able to bring this up. I'll say it's a slight, slight over reaction just because I think there's a ceiling when he's getting to face an FCS team and there are others that aren't necessarily given that kind of time, but I encourage anyone, anyone who maybe you got other things going on. It was a 1245 start, that weird 1245 start. This year is gonna throw everybody off at least once, but I would encourage everyone to go look at the throws that he's making, how effortless it looks, how on target, how instride it is, how comfortable he is with the Josh Hypo offense in year two, it's so easy to understand why people are amazed by this guy. It really is, and I'm usually, I try and refrain from being the, oh my God, look what he did against not impressive competition. So I am trying to hold myself back as a Niko believer, but he can put that football anywhere. The up tempo is there, the way that he sees the field is so evident, even when he's running between the tackles and he's like navigating around at six, six, he just looks like he has such a feel for the game that I don't think Josh Hypo taught him that. I think Josh Hypo looked at it and said, that guy is worth going to a war against the NCAA to be able to get in our program. And you know what, I think he's right, I really do. I love Niko, I know I'm not alone. I will say Cam Ward probably deserves the nod in the who is the most impressive quarterback in America because of the surroundings, obviously. But man, Niko, Niko looked the part and anybody that was of the belief that the spring game showing, the underwhelming spring game showing was a sign that he was going to be in trouble. I hope you watched yesterday and felt better about that take because that take did not make sense to me. It really didn't, and I'm not saying that he, that means he's destined to be Peyton Manning, but. Dude, it looks good, it looks really freaking good. And Dylan Sampson, by the way too. So I have Dylan Sampson, that is awesome. I'll be the drum team member. Okay, overreaction or proper reaction, South Carolina's offense was the most concerning SEC unit in week one. I'm gonna say proper reaction, I am. You could go with Florida's defense here, but in A&M's offense, that's definitely a candidate. How could it not be? But I would argue that both of those units struggled against groups that we expect to be really good. So I'll give them a little bit of the benefit of that for that. South Carolina's offense struggled against old Dominion. At home, Lenore Sellers did not get a whole lot of help, but really we're not a lot of high percentage looks that were schemed open from him, from Doll Loggens. He is a ways to go as a schemer. I talked about how much I liked what he did as a quarterback developer with Spencer Radler. And to me, that's why he earned the right to be able to withstand some of that criticism. But they are just not getting these chunk plays that they need to get because I don't think they're gonna be this team that is having these like four or five minute drives where they just go downfield and they just lean on you. I don't think they have that identity to be able to do that. I think they need the chunk plays badly. And that's just not really been there. I mean, Sellers, he didn't really have a go-to guy in the passing game at all. And South Carolina pretty much resorted to running the football to survive. That's not the type of game that you wanna run the football that much. Not much running room for Sellers, for Rocket. Old Dominion got Stripsack twice, backed up and basically like backed up in their own ends on like within their own 10 yard line, which was the difference in the game. South Carolina had to actually put together stops late to be able to come out with a win. Not great that Beamer is already busting out the fakes with Kai Kroger, who had a touchdown pass called off because of the penalty. Can't really say if you're a South Carolina fan, you know what the game plan is really basic. I don't know, man. I think they wanted to get Lenore Sellers some actual reps and realized they didn't really have a lot of stuff in the offensive playbook that they felt particularly good about. That was pretty concerning, it was. Maybe not quite as alarming as what we saw from them in the opener last year against UNC. Maybe better days are ahead. It's still obviously a very, very young quarterback who would up until yesterday never completed the pass against FBS competition. But still, I've watched that and went, hmm, man, I was hoping for more. I was hoping for more from this offensive line and they did not necessarily have that. Now you gotta go to Lexington, face a Mark Stoops defense which Shane Beamer has had some success against them. Obviously in the last couple of years, but still, that's gonna be a tough task for an offense that, I don't know that they figured it out a ton in week one. Over reaction or proper reaction, Ryan Williams will only score touchdown every time he touches the ball. Slide over reaction, slight. Two catches, 139 yards, two touchdowns, 69 and a half yards per catch. That's pretty good, not bad for a 17 year old kid. Ryan Williams definitely wins the Jake Bentley award for weekly reminders that he should still be in high school. He should be a prom, not gonna get sick of that. Probably not gonna have many ICC defenses that take the Western Kentucky approach of just forgetting to cover him. That first play, it was definitely mixed up in the secondary, you know, credit Jalen Monroe, credit Williams for being able to take advantage of that. It was a non-target throw, wide open receiver. The second TD though, I really liked because I thought that the first throw was a lot of what we saw last year from Monroe where it's just like, all right, Chug and D, you got a big radius to be able to hit this guy with that second throw where, if you actually watch the replay and see kind of Monroe go through his progression, maybe he was looking off a safety, but whatever the case, he throws it on a line, what was it, 25 yards down field? And the area that he's been scrutinized the most is obviously 11 to 20 yards of that. Like that's where the exact accuracy percentage is like 52% or something like that. That's where he needs to be able to get better to become a more well-rounded player. Everybody kind of knows that. And that throw to me, the way that he ripped it and Williams was in stride, kind of in traffic too, showed he's got some confidence in this and he's not just looking off guys that are maybe got a little bit tighter covers than he would care for, but Williams gets past the two defenders in space and takes it to the house. I will say if there was one thing that kind of bummed me out, it was that Monroe only got nine passes in the opener. And I understand it's a blowout. Alabama was dominating that game pretty much from start to finish. But part of that was Alabama having these splash plays. It also helped that Bama's other possessions were either short fields because of TJ Finley turnovers, of course they were, or they were after Western Kentucky had a 21 play drive that ended without points. That's just the ultimate kick in the nuts, it really is. But yeah, we'll say it's a slight, slight overreaction. Okay, let's end with one more here. How about arch manning is the Messiah, slight overreaction with that one as well. Great to see arch get in there. That's the thing that's gonna be fun about to, and I'll admit like Texas, Colorado State, like that game I wasn't as dialed in on early on just because I knew I wasn't gonna be talking about it at length here. Knew that I was gonna be going back probably midweek to like some things before I talk about them against Michigan, the game of the week kind of in week two. But seeing arch be able to get into these games is gonna be a lot more fun. It's gonna be a lot more fun for Texas fans who look, I think there have been times with yours where you faced a team like Colorado State and wondered is this offense that good? Why is the slow start there? That was not the case at all. Yours highlight real day went full Pat Mahomes with the no look pass. I don't necessarily need that to become a trend. It's cool. Take it for what it is. Let's just kind of leave it there. It's a fun thing to be able to see on replay. Let's not make anything more of that than we need to. But seeing arch come in and make the play that he did with his legs where he makes this flip to the sideline. Again, I talked about that with no row last year. When a guy has the confidence to be able to flip the ball like that, and it's a different kind of flip I guess that arch had, but when he has the confidence to be able to see the field like that and he's not panicked and he's has this, I don't want to call it moxie. It's almost arrogance. That's really what it is. It's arrogance to be able to make that play in that spot. To me, that's a really good early sign. Texas fans I'm sure felt great to see arch out there having fun, being able to enjoy this and not talk about, oh, is he going to get into a game in week 11 or something like that and just hand the football off? You got to see him actually throw the football and that's fun. And who knows? Maybe Texas is going to need to turn to arch at some point this year. But so far, looked the part. I praised the development that he had in spring. I thought year to year, you really saw a significant difference with him, stripped down the last name, all those other things. Obviously, he's got a lot left to determine with what his college career, his college legacy ends up looking like. But for a guy that came in, obviously you hear the crowd when he steps onto the field, man. I flipped on, I remember I had something else on at that moment, but I was like, I want to make sure that I'm watching when it's very apparent that arch is going into this game. And Texas fans were like, they were giddy. I mean, not quite the level of that picture, that surface from the Sugar Bowl last year where yours is at the podium and it's empty and it's just the entire media contingency surrounding arch. It wasn't quite that level, but nonetheless, there was excitement to be able to see him play and he looked good so far. Don't think that he'll be getting those reps against Michigan. If he is getting those reps against Michigan, either a really good sign for Texas or a really bad sign for Texas. Well, a lot more thoughts on that game, of course, with our midweek pod. We'll also have full thoughts on LSU USC when we record on Wednesday. Maybe you're listening to this after that game has already taken place. I'm not going to cold take myself. I refuse to do that. We're not going to do that for this season opener. Just know that I'm recording this at 75 on Sunday morning. Guys, that's a pod. That's a pod week one in the books. Hope you enjoyed it. Hope you got to watch a lot of football. Hopefully, you weren't the fan, summed over, sleeping kind of on a high noon tall boy. Hopefully, your day was better than it was for that Florida fan. If you haven't, leave us a five-store review. Subscribe to our YouTube channel where you can watch every single episode of Saturday Night on South podcast, follow us on Twitter @DSDSPod, @SEDU on South, @SEDU on hard. Thanks, guys. Talk soon. (upbeat music) You
Week 1 is in the books! Connor has a solo pod to recap all the action, including Kirby Smart owning Dabo Swinney, Billy Napier getting embarrassed by Cam Ward and Miami, Conner Weigman crumbled at the hands of the Notre Dame defense and Vandy pulled off a stunner because Diego Pavia is an instant legend. Connor closes with a Week 1 edition of Overreaction or Proper Reaction.
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