Week 2: Jim Donnan

Vegas, baby, Vegas! End of the game, your copy of your mind. I'll tell you find out who's bad. All my best was safe.

That just wouldn't be any juice. We know some rules. The point spreads. The profits.

The teasers. The parlays. From Vegas to you. This is behind the bets.

The college years. Got a love and underdog. Winnie howls. Now alongside Chris, the Bareful Echog.

Yes. A home team getting points. What's better than that? Here's Stanford Steve.

We're here. It's week two. I don't know what else to say. I've wet my feelings known on the social media.

Sites I think this week is absolutely disgusting. Bear, when I look at the slate, it's not. I'm not a huge fan of it either. I'm going through the Olympic Games.

I'm not saying the game. You've got Clemson A&M. No, exactly. You've got to tell us how high it is.

It's plenty of video. And I had a really good second tier games, but with the Iowa State, Arizona State, Michigan State Games like that. But in terms of finding attractive betting options, I dug deep this week. I'll put it to you that way.

It's I don't know how to line things up. I really, really nervous. I went four in one last week. Your tally ended up out?

I was two and three. Got the always interesting field goal down 37 in the fourth quarter as a 30, 31.00 dog, which was a nice job by Coastal. But that's OK. We were on the wrong side.

I think it happened to you. You had a good week. I think it was a good week as well. So you two carried the squad this week.

And I looked to do my part this week. I didn't even get my favorite pick either. Over and on the brassica game. I thought that was a guarantee winner.

So over here's what we're going to do. We're going to have our old friend, Jim Donan, former Georgia coach, National Champion Marshall, off its coordinator back in the heyday, Oklahoma, who knows Georgia. Coach in the rivalry knows SEC better than anyone. We're going to have him on to discuss Georgia, South Carolina, and Clemson A&M.

And then we'll get our picks for the week, plus some picks for Coach at the end of our segment with him. But let's get to Coach Donan breaking down these games, the big games this week right now. And we welcome in the college football hall of favor from the class of 2009, former National Champion, where he's a coordinator at Oklahoma, head coach at Marshall, Jim Donan and Coach. It's awesome to have you on.

Thanks for doing this with us. Well, it's a real thrill to be on with you two prognosticators, the best two in the country. And I know everybody's lucky to have all these tips every week from you guys. I always enjoyed being around you when I was up there.

And you guys had a lot of behind the scenes stuff that other people ever heard about. Well, we'll get to you. We'll do a little story time at the back end, coach, to talk about your old steamers that you used to have. And you and I used to get together on Saturday mornings about 11.30 AM before those new kickoffs.

But I want to dive in. Obviously, you know the SEC better than anyone. And that's why we're having you on. Let's start with Georgia and South Carolina.

I watched the Georgia tape back against Austin P. I think there's some issues up front on the offensive line. They look a little green. But on the other hand, the Froms got plenty of toys to play with.

They bring a kid from Cal first. It looked like his first touch, Jet Sweet for a touchdown. Obviously, Swift is the guy in the backfield now. He just looks like they have weapons with Froms.

When you look at that and combo that with going on the road to Williams Bryce, is there a better spot for South Carolina to play Georgia than this week? Yeah, I think it's a good issue for them from the standpoint of three of the last four times we've gone down there. We've lost. And but we do have a three game win at streak against them.

The last win against Murray and then the last two since Kirby took over. But you make a good point against Austin P. But I really think our offensive line was very vanilla and the things we did the other day and played a lot of players. So we got her a little bit in the A gaps with some of our second team.

But you know, when you play an overmatched team like that, they're going to take chances and do what they can to make you look bad. But but this is going to be a heck of a matchup. You know, I think Bentley is really developed as a quarterback. He's had some trouble in the big game because it's sporting cast hadn't been that great.

You know, he's one and four against Georgia, Clemson, and Florida. And it's only thrown two touchdown passes and like nine interceptions in those games. So it's time for him to step up in the big game. But I think Kevin Devos Samuel and the back will definitely help him.

Who do you think is going to have the bigger or difficult time adjusting to stepping up in the competition this week? Is it Georgia with all the newcomers that they have, especially on defense or is it South Carolina? Just like that game one to game two going from a lower FBS team or an FCS team to an SEC team in a week two. How tough is that to the plug?

You've done it before. Is there a lot of difficulties and preparation going on there? Well, it really is, Bear. But you know, I've done it and done it well.

But I've done it very poorly, too, particularly it's South Carolina one year where we threw a lot of picks. But I think the big thing for Kirby and this team is the fact they've had tremendous success last year. And they really can kind of keep it going from that standpoint. So many of these guys were involved in those games that they really played well at the end.

And I think the leadership factors lost a little bit with Rokwan Smith leaving the defense in a couple of these really get backs on offense. But as you know, we've recruited extremely well. There's a lot of good young talent to go with this more experience. But I think two of the key factors for me for Georgia is the fact that last week Tyree McGee, one of the better secondary guys, who plays a lot of different coverages for him and plays a lot of different areas didn't play.

And also we've got Terry Godwin, who was the best receiver the last couple of years, and has not been able to play either. So if both of these guys come down there, that'll help. Not only the fact that they help the offense and defense, but also the spatial teams, because some of those guys that are playing for them in the regular snaps might get in on spatial teams. But as you know, both of you guys, this is a kind of game.

If you play a divisional opponent, if you lose to a divisional opponent, then you're behind the eight ball, because that team's got to lose twice. So I think this for me is definitely the two best. Beast. Coach, when you look at the two head coaches, we know they're obviously defensive minds.

They differ a little bit in their schemes. They're a lot of like to me with the fire they bring, the passion. I love both of the guys. When you look to break down like the ideas and the concept, these guys, who's who do you trust more from a defensive mindset, Kirby or Will?

Well, I got to say Kirby, because I coached him. I live here in Athens. But certainly the one thing that you did a little bit different, even though they started out with Nick, you know, in a lot of ways. But you know, one thing that Will did, he started at Auburn under brother Oliver and learned some different things.

But he bounced down on his own little bit and went out to Texas. And then became a head coach and had a little bit of head start. And I think some of their concepts are very similar on defense, but they play a little bit more man coverage and don't switch off the guys like we do on our combo type stuff. And but I think the biggest thing is both of them, as you mentioned, have a lot of fire and passion, well organized from men, just recruiters.

I mean, both of these guys can go out and get players, kids like to play for them. And I've always been impressed with what Will's been able to do. He just couldn't get over the hump there that second year at Florida. You know, if for some way that, you know, Sony Cal could have beaten Notre Dame, he'd have been in a national championship game.

But I think he's really found his niche there in South Carolina. But the biggest problem I see for South Carolina right now is that the fact that the two best programs that they got to beat are in the top five in the country, Clemson in their own state and Georgia in their own division. So he's got a tough road to hold to catch up with him. But but I think he certainly caught up with the rest of the Eastern division.

Is this two quarterback thing going to be an issue this year, keeping both guys happy? Is that type of thing where I think team loves from from what I read in here and getting field snapped? Is that something that potentially could maybe cost them a game in a game like this weekend or later down the road? Maybe Kirby pulls Jake and puts fields in.

He doesn't do well. And then is that a problem trying to keep both guys happy? Well, it could be, but I think the biggest issue there is going to be solved because this guy is a generational talent. He might mess up a little bit, but I just think he's the kind of guy that's going to take over a game very quickly with his athleticism and his arm.

And the fact that Jake's such a good kid that he doesn't let this bother me. I mean, he's really responded well and had a great fall camp with the competition. And I think it's helped both of them develop. So yeah, I don't like musical chairs and quarterback any more than even one of you do.

But I do feel like that this is an interesting situation. Kind of like the one we see at Clemson with Trevor Lawrence and both these guys, 50 miles apart in the state of Georgia last year, one and two in the country and quarterback ratings as far as freshman coming in and both of them are playing right away from both teams where they have good quarterbacks. So you make a good point. It could be a problem, but I think Kirby is really nipped it in the butt.

The kids really rally around both of them. And I think if I'm a defensive coordinator in this league, I'm hoping that you don't put fields in the game. I'm just telling you he's a difference maker. Wow.

All right. Defensive coordinators be where coach got your eyes. Coach, let's get down to it. Georgia is a 10 point favorite.

The overrunners around 55. Do you expect the road team to cover double digits? And do you expect a high scoring game in the process? You know, I'm not here as good as this as you guys are.

I'm just an old coach, but I do feel like there's a couple of issues there. We're going to have to stop them and make them be one dimensional way. You're talking about the dogs. Yeah.

OK, I've got to say we here. Yeah. If I said we and I'm in South Carolina, you think I was going to come and sell in stores there. But I mean, Georgia's going to have to stop the run and make them one dimension.

They haven't run the ball very well against Georgia the last two years. It's like 450 yards. They're like 100 in each two games. So if they can run the ball at all on us, then that's going to help their passing game because they really can throw the ball down the field.

But if they're one dimensional, we can put our ears back. I think it's going to be hard for them to really do a lot against us. And then on if they can get us on third and long, that's not one of our best suits either. But when we're first and second and rolling, it's hard to stop this thing.

The other thing that is a hidden value in this game for me is our kicking game. It's just out of sight with blanking ship. And we got a punter here, man. What you guys seeing?

He's a real thunderfoot. I mean, this guy is the best punter I've seen in practice since I've been here in 20 years. And if he plants like that in the game, it's going to help him and they got a good return game. So I've seen what's happened in Williams Brice before.

I've seen teams go down there and lose it. We'll prohibit it favors. If we don't turn it over, I think this will be a tight pit game. It could go either way.

But I got to go with the dogs and I got to go. I got to get the points. All right. All right.

Very good. Let's transition over to Clemson at A&M. Jimbo, obviously in a big spot, his didn't take long to get into the big time, you know, in college station where there's old faux Clemson coming in. When I look at A&M, I just see, do you see Jimbo just this way?

I feel I just feel like he might be a little too stubborn when his offensive mentality, which might hurt them in the spot this big, knowing how dominant Clemson could be on defense. Yeah. I mean, he looked at that wall of China to say God over there. Those guys are just unbelievably athletic.

And I think it really kind of changed the whole landscape of college football for this season, when all those guys decided not to go out and then came back. I really was a big plus one. But I think one thing is, you know, his own man offensively. But the one thing that I've given credit for is he went out and hired Darrell Dickey from Memphis, who was really a guy that knows how to air it out and do some different concepts in the spread and maybe not be under center as much and mix it up.

And that's added some value to their offense to go with what Jimbo has always done. But you know, bottom line, you know, I don't know if he needed to take a point of Clemson when he took this job, but for 75 million, you can play anybody. So I think the main thing there is the fact that three straight years here, Debo kind of had their number for the state and now they're playing again. And he's got more players than Jimbo, that's for sure.

But I like the fact that he also brought that Elko guy in on defense that gives them some multiple looks there and they might try to confuse Clemson some. But the one thing that all of you know, they got a hard time winning at home, particularly in the conference games there at under someone. So I know Jimbo is going to want to switch that around, but it's definitely going to be in the electric atmosphere. And I'm sure that they got to take advantage of that.

Yeah, I was going to bring up the defense with Elko coming in. You mentioned the Dickey higher and then Elko. I mean, we saw his what is it about his scheme that gets players to it? Simple.

Is it just have a way of relating to the players? I mean, you can come to a couple of home run hitters on that on that offense. I think he's going to be able to win the conference in the place. Yeah, I think that's a real key, Barry.

You got to keep them from making hay on some of these RPOs. And then, you know, we've seen larks for it deep and certainly Kelly Brank can break the line of scrimmage anytime with his runs too. And he's developed as a passer. I mean, I think he's a little underrated as far as what the country looked at last year because everything he did was compared to the shit to Watson.

So, but I do think in the case of Elko and I always like that, see a coach move up the ladder, the fact that he coached in a place like Wake Forest, I think, Claus is doing a good job there. But sometimes when you're undermanned a little bit with your defense, you have to come up with more schemes to try to stop some of these better teams. So now that he moved on to a place like Notre Dame and now A&M where you got better athletes, some of these schemes mess up some of these teams because they haven't, you know, they've seen more conventional stuff, but he's a real basic football coach and knows what he's doing. And it's a really good heart for Jim Bowen.

I think as they get better guys on the back end, that's going to help. I like their defensive front. But I think they're secondary has got some issues that maybe Clemson can explore. Coach, what worries you about Clemson's offense going on the road in this spot?

I mean, obviously, all anyone will remember, you mentioned how Brian is a tough comparison. And that's a great point. We're always being compared to Watson. But everybody obviously everybody just only remembers that dominant performance by Alabama in the Sugar Bowl last year.

When you look at, I mean, it's only a little tape and obviously everybody wants to talk about Lawrence and think that he's going to bring a lot more to the table. What do you expect? What worries you about Clemson's offense on the road in this spot? Well, you always worry about as a coach, the fact that, you know, stopping yourself with needless penalties jumping off side because of the crowd noise, you know, making some silly mistakes blocking the back, getting behind the chains and having, you know, third and long when it should be second and short.

You know, so don't stop yourself number one. And when you're playing on the road and then, you know, you could have a game like they had against Syracuse last year. I mean, Syracuse kept celebrating that game for seven or eight weeks and forgot to play effort. So, you know, they won and then went another one.

So, but I think they've certainly got more talent than Syracuse in A&M. But there is a, you know, there's a reason why they made a change there. I'm not sure all the reasons, but, you know, certainly the fact that they want to try to win the conference and catch up with Alabama. That's a tough deal to hold.

But Alabama's defense last year to do that to a lot of people. You look at so many of those guys in the pros now that played on that team. So, I think Kelly's trying to make a statement and he knows that Lawrence is breathing down his neck and it's a situation a lot like we saw with Alabama last year, Steve. But, you know, too, it was breathing down hurts his neck, but he just couldn't get in the game because he kept winning.

But this Lawrence kid is another generational type quarterback that certainly gives him a different element with his building throw the ball down the field. How hard is it for Dabbele, the entire offseason, you're both likely team to reach the college football playoffs. You're going to be in the playoffs again. You know the chance to win a national championship.

You know, you're the odds-on favorite in the ACC. And then the season starts and you see probably the two teams that many people thought would be your two toughest games. Miami and Florida stay hooked the way they did this weekend. I mean, how tough is it for a coach to just now you're going on the road, a double digit favorite, but it's a tough place to play.

You don't really know what you're going to get with it with a new head coach and how they're going to respond. It's just how tough is it for Dabbele, just to keep these guys looking one game at a time because we've seen them the last couple of years, the last three years, that was two regular season games. Both have been as big double digit favorites against Unranked. This is the type of game that they've struggled in the last couple of years.

That's been the loss. Not the big Florida state. Miami, Virginia Tech Auburn, Shoutout. It's been the Unranked team.

It's a big favorite. Well, that's one thing you always try to draw on your experience as a coach and you try to motivate your guys, but you also give them reality, Bill, and put the tape on and say, look, you know, we were in the same position before and look what happened. We can point out around the country that so many teams they got knocked off that maybe we're supposed to win. You know, so the big thing with Dabbele, his kids, I've watched them practice.

You both have to. I mean, they work hard. They got a good scheme. They believe in it.

And the one thing he's going to dwell on is that, hey, we got tremendous respect for Jim Bo Fisher. But it's like, this is a chance for us to maybe restore some of the, what the ACC lost the last couple of games here that we saw with Miami and Florida State. And, you know, we're Clemson Tigers and we got to keep on going and we got a chance to go to the whole shooting match here. This might be a bigger game than it started out to be because what you mentioned, because maybe the strength of schedule won't be quite as good for them.

Now, the Miami and Florida State might not be as good, although I think both of them will rebound and be a lot better than they looked the other night. But he definitely is a master motivator. He got a tremendous staff. And one of the things I think the cohesiveness with that staff, the way they act and react during the game, they do a really good job at taking advantage of what you give them and what you take away from them.

And I think they really expanded on the offense since Morris is left and, you know, they really done a good job of running the ball and not just throwing it out, throwing it up for grabs all the time. Coach, it's Clemson out of time winning, then Georgia does. Well, that's a hard question for the old coach here. Now you put this is why you're on now.

People are still listening. I feel like when I was mockingberg standing up there on the way, I'm trying to keep on one leg when I'm a fall off or not. But, you know, I think from my standpoint, I think Clemson's got a little bit easier situation. It's going to be hard, but I think Clemson's got a, you know, and I'm not taking anything away from me.

And I just know South Carolina's got a little head start on Texas, say, and I'm as far as the coach and all that and then been around. So they're both going to be difficult games. There's no question about it. And the respected both staffs after each other helps both teams get ready too.

So, but I think Clemson with their firepower and particularly their defense, they're going to be in any game they play. I mean, they're going to create havoc on the other side of line of scrimmage. All right, coach. I checked that memory 32 years ago this week, you were an offense coordinator, Oklahoma.

You were number one in the country and Minnesota came in. You remember what the score was? 63 to 7, wasn't it? Even better.

63 to nothing. You put it on them. We didn't let them score. I mean, let them score.

Yeah, I'll never forget old John Gudek and Swiss the coach. And he used to coach against me at Duke. He was a heck of a coach there, gink, and then he went up to Minnesota under Lou and then Lou left to go to another game and he became the head coach. And a year before they had Ricky Foggy, they almost beat us up there.

And then Troy broke his leg and we went to the wishbone. And we were out there before the game and we were talking and he said, well, we really improved. We're going to be a lot better and all that and kept talking. I said, hey, John, I know you a long time, man.

And I tell you this, it's going to be ugly today. I want to try to keep it down. This is going to be hard. I said, that's wrong.

Safety was about 220. We got to have to embrace this leg on that roll clock. So it was a lot of fun. But you know, John's a good coach and I think his son's an administration down the pros and does a good job.

But was that when it was 32 years ago? Yes, sir. I'm not going to bring up what happened the next week. I think we lost Miami down there.

And the bear was probably at the game. We fumbled two pounds inside the dam and gave it away. Not when an offense coordinator wants. 86 was a better team than 85.

We won a championship in 85. But 86, we were just unstoppable set for that one game against Miami. And then we played Florida. We didn't get to play for a championship, but Miami and Penn State did.

But I never will forget down at the, we were playing Arkansas in the Orange Bowl. And before the game, Jamel Holloway, our quarterback came up with a switzer and said, hey, if we're kicking their butt at halftime, they got cool in the game. You think we can go out and watch them? And so we watched the halftime there against Arkansas.

That was pretty cool. Those were some games. It was 85 to 87. You lost four games and three of them.

Miami. We lost three. We lost three in three. All three years every year to Miami championship in 87.

And when Jamel got hurt and then we, but they did a good job. Jimmy's National Championship team. But that was, we went 28 straight big eight games bear. We were on the road.

You know, that's pretty strong. Oh, big eight. Can't forget it. All right, coach.

I appreciate coming on you. You have any, you have any steamers? So keep it alive. There I had a chance to look things up and I knew that somebody's my one and I only shot.

There we go. Roll the dice. Maybe five years from now, I'll be back on it. But anyhow, I'm going to go with in the library bowl.

I'm going to go with certainly a tough to get to really get coaches, but I'm going to go with Northwestern minus three over Duke. I'm going to go with Stanford over USC just for you because USC is one in four against the spread against Stanford. And then in a big time steamer condo pick, if you can bet your condo on, I'm going to go with Boise State minus 30 over Yukon. Love those double digit steamer's coach.

Not like it. All right. It's fun to be with you guys and appreciate what you guys do for talks football. It's a lot of fun listening to you and watching you.

A lot of respect for both of you. Bear, I mentioned the coach that Georgia game is they're up to 10 point, 10 point favorite over under 55. I mean, it just feels really, really sticky, man. Like, and the way I will say about the difference, normally you're just failing SEC, you know, emotion, crowd, big road game, the home team's underdog, obviously, and you feel low scoring.

To me, I would lean towards the over because I know what I'm getting at the quarterback position on both sides. And I mentioned how I watched Georgia back again that that Franz got some like got plenty of toys to play with, man. So I just think with turnovers, oh, lines, I think might be a little underman. So you could get some, you know, scuba scores, sack scuba scores, pick sixes, you know, wait, if there is pressure tip balls, I would lean towards the over in an unconventional, you know, SEC division game.

Your thoughts? I thought that'd be a little bit more of a line might go the other way in this one where South Carolina will be taking more money just coming off of how they performed last week and just a little bit uncertainty. Georgia on the road. That's a lot of respect for Georgia as a double digit favorite on the road at a place where they've struggled in the past.

I mean, there have been some much worse South Carolina teams that have given them a bit more difficulty than they would have liked. I still think talent wise, I still don't think there's any comparison. But that's, I know you said you like the over. You go back and look at the recent scores of this game.

This game though, they tend to be more lower scoring, more defensive minded head coaches who know each other so well. I think I'd be on the opposite side of this one with you thinking this might be a little bit more lower scoring than one might think. Okay. And if I had to lean towards a side, I would take the home team.

I think I would. I think it's, I talked to some NFL scouts and they really, really like some of the sophomores and juniors on South Carolina's, you know, back end of the other defense. And with that though, I just, it just comes down to tackling, nope, in space. And I think Georgia's going to do and I'm just, I don't feel confident in the consistency of tackling across the board in the sport.

So I would, I would lean, I would lean towards South Carolina on the side. Would you, you're, we're both in pick and pools. Who are you taking in this one? I would probably, I'd probably lay it a 10 just because I think I feel more confident in Georgia offensively than I do South Carolina right now with this.

And I'm not saying that at the end of the end of the Saturday, I might feel completely differently, but I need to see South Carolina do it against someone other than, other than the shots. Okay. Now maybe, maybe they will be, you get on that, not to get on a slow way or tangent, but the tackling in the sport in general, I think the new, the targeting rules and everything, everybody's freaked out. There's no idea what that they're doing.

They're so worried about committing penalties now that I think that's a big problem in the defense side of the ball. Got you. Looking at Clemson, you think Lawrence plays more than Fields does for Georgia? No, I don't.

Really? I think, I think Dabo going on the road, look, Dabo couple of years back started, starts out on the road. I just said his dad's name, but how he started him off at Florida State when he got to Sean Watson on the bench. Now, Watson obviously came in in that game and took over, but it took a while.

I think Dabo is very loyal to an upperclassman who's bid there. And I think from watching a little bit of that game back to him, I mean, Lawrence is a big star, but I think this might be a game in a spot where the experience of Kelly Brian, I think Dabo and Inventables and those guys might think that they can win this game alone with their defense and Kelly Brian being efficient and try to see them making as many big places as he can. I think they can win this game just by doing that and not taking a chance at a freshman coming in and maybe making an uncharacteristic big mistake in a game that they might not use. It's up to Clemson minus 12 and over under 54 and a half.

This one feels like an under game to me. Yes. Yeah, I was going to say that's really high. I wouldn't screw with the side because this could be, I mean, if you like A&M, you might even get it a little bit more because I think Clemson is that much better.

But yeah, 54 and that seems pretty high. How is A&M scoring more than 21 points? That's the same 34, 21 is basically what the numbers telling you that seems really high scoring. Yeah, I'm on the other end this one for sure.

Even more so when you compare the two games. All right. So that's the two big games of the weekend. I know your fans out there are going to say your teams games are bigger than those, but that's what we chose the preview for the game.

We will be back with our picks after this. All right. Before we get to our picks, just want to remind people it's been a long off season without football, but FanDuel has spent it getting into the best shape of their lives. That means this.

FanDuel is ready for more, more ways to play, more ways to challenge your friends and most importantly, more ways to win. If you're not a daily fantasy expert, then FanDuel is clearly the best place to play. They have all kinds of contests for just a casual fans in particular beat the score contests are great because they pay out everyone who hits a certain score. So all you have to do is finish in the money to split an equal share of the cash and FanDuel also has new options for playing daily fantasy with your friends because the only thing better than winning cash is winning your friends cash.

Best of all, FanDuel is doing their part to make the preseason bearable with preseason fantasy contests running up to week one of the NFL. Right now you can get a $20 bonus when you make your first deposit on FanDuel. Just sign up at fanduel.com slash behind the bets. Age and state restrictions apply.

All right, bear. Now it's time for the nitty gritty. I'm just going to go right off the cost pair. I'm going to lay my not confident picks out there.

I'm going to start with one of the first games you see when you pull up the slate. It's going to be Liberty and Army Liberty made famous last week by Van Pelke giving him out. I am sad to admit that I watched that Liberty game because he gave them out on winners this past week as they went to Old Dominion in an in-state battle and just gave it to Old Dominion. I looked at a totally different scenario.

I watched Army against Duke last week impressed with Duke, but also Army is Army and I think Liberty might be feeling themselves a little bit too much after a big win. You know, they obviously they're back up as an independent playing, you know, division one ball. Army is a whole different animal. I could see that Liberty bus going up those mountains up in the Mikey stadium and them just not being ready for what is that Army offense.

I know Army is giving a lot, but I like how it's going from 12 down to 9.5. That means I think people are just looking at the scores from last week. So I'm going to take Army to cover the 9.5 against Liberty. A little bit of a week, one to week regression there as well, maybe for Liberty for a full time FBS game in state rival last week.

You could be on the right side there. I wouldn't talk to you or anybody off of that. I'm going to disagree with our friend, Mr. Jim Donan, that he gave out a little while back.

I like Duke in the Northwestern game, Duke getting the field goal. I know there's a big revenge at State for Northwestern after Duke and Daniel Jones really put it on him last year, but this is a situation where Duke, I think you'll look at how Miami played the other night, they get Virginia Tech at home. I think this is a chance where Duke could get a little bit of confidence and really believe that they're a contender in the ACC Coastal. And I think go on the road, win an early season, not a conference game like this, but that would be just the recipe.

I mean, this is a situation where David Cutt's teams typically play well. If you go back the last 14 games, they've been in underdog four points for fewer. They're 12 and two against the number 10 and four straight up. I think they're live here too.

I love both head coaches, but I think David Cutt is a plus coach, basically any matchup out there. I think their defense is really good and I don't think Northwestern will find it as easy to score points as it did last week. It's a really inexperienced Purdue team. All right.

I'm with, I hope so for that one. I gave out Duke as the season totals at the beginning of the year at six. I like the over there. And I did mention then that I thought they might start one and two as they have this game at Northwestern and then next week at Baylor, who's a very improved team.

So if Duke could get this one, that would be huge when you look at the forecast for the season and the win total. Next, I'm going to go to the Alma Mater and I just keep looking at this line inflating and I get that J.J.R. SEGA Whiteside. I call him Jaws with two J's if you want to get that out there.

I'm pretty sure people like that as a nickname. It's pretty good. I like that. Yeah.

See? All right. I like paying attention. But I look at that as a desperation as desperation plays.

They turn the whole game around. Yes. But San Diego State just said, Bryce, love you're not doing it. And San Diego State just doesn't have the talent.

I think overall as a defense that SC does and they just throw, you know, jump all the SEGA Whiteside and San Diego State's offense is pewter and they still rush for over 100 yards in the first half against Stanford. I still think there's some holes on that Stanford defense. And I think SC learned a lot about themselves. You know, obviously that's Daniel's at the freshman quarterback playing a team about UNLV who you were on, you know, got a lot of points.

It was a close game. But I think UNLV is a good team. I'm not saying they're great, but it was a good team. And I think SC learned a lot.

I think Stanford probably wins the game by a field goal. So this is up to five. I'll take USC here because I don't, I just look at the versatility of Stanford's offense and I still don't see it in order to win by, you know, a touchdown or more. So I'll take the five with SC here.

It's gone up to five already. That tells me that there's probably a six in the future as well just with with with Daniels going on the road for the first time in conference game and that you went all the game being close. And I think people expected and SC have the injury that tells me that that number probably will go up. So I think if you like SC goes, you might be able to get a better number.

Remember last year, this number went ballistic. It came all the way down to like SC minus two or something like that or three and then the game was never in doubt in the regular season. Of course, the actual championship game was a great game. I'm going to say with one team in the conference champions, non conference match up this week, I like I like you saying, laying the floor against Arizona.

That Arizona's performance last week really worried me. Collety didn't look like the same player he did last year. Now, maybe they'll make some adjustments and maybe they'll incorporate a little bit more run into that offense, but he carries about eight times for 14 yards, completed 50% of his passes against what was a really bad BYU defense last year. Now, maybe the Cougars are improved, but I don't know how good Arizona is upfront.

And I think that could be a problem with that Oliver and that used to defense. We know how used in place so well against these Power Five opponents, I mean, the one seven over the last eight covering seven of the last eight chance for them to really make a splash. I know they fell behind rice last week and then they woke up and scored the final 28 points of the game. I think that's going to be the use and you see this week kind of slack walk the way again, that we were team where they really overmatched.

This is the game that they want to win. They were favorite last year in Tucson, won the game. It was a lower scoring game. And I think a lot of people thought it might be, but I like the Cougars laying the floor at home.

A couple of things on that. I didn't like what I saw from Tate on the sidelines. Just like, yeah, you're going to be frustrated. Like this team has had all off season the game plan for you.

Like, just get it together, have confidence. I just didn't like what I saw in that instance. And then the other side, I talked to some guys on the rice staff, obviously, you know, used to coach at Stanford and they were just blown away at Oliver and how the ability he has, where you think he's, you haven't blocked and he just runs place down to line of scrimmage. And like, I mean, they're like, whoever passes on him is really going to be mad.

So I'll just leave it at that. But that game fascinates me, man. I tweeted about it last night. Like, who had Houston favorite by more than a field goal in that game before the season?

No one, not one person. Everyone had Arizona is like a trendy, not everyone, but a lot of people thought they were trendy sleeper in that. Pat the game. I think it's a lot of people who are not going to win over possible USC.

I just look at Tulsa with 23 here and I'll take them. We've seen Tulsa over match on a couple of occasions and some big 12 teams, but you do hit on an interesting point that I think Tulsa is an offense that can score some points. So I'd probably be on that side with you if I had to play that game. Thank you.

One team that I was high on a season, one total of over five and a half is in the state last week was you all Monro. I mean, they were a big favorite against the state team. And I think a lot of times in week one, maybe it takes a, I think you mentioned this is all the improvement from week one to week two. I think maybe they underestimated the SES opponent.

Maybe the SES team saw a team to knock off SBS vote from the same state. I think there are reasons to think you all Monro can play better this week. I know Southern Miss Blue out Jackson state is bad as things were last year for you all Monro on defense. They gave a bunch of yards, 219 on the ground to Eosmith who's now with the Atlanta Falcons and he's gone.

They held you at Southern Miss pointing points. I think they can do a better job defensively than they did last year. I think Caleb Evans and the offense, they're going to get some points. Whether it's enough to win outright, I don't know, but I would, I would side towards taking a UL Monro plus the points plus the six year.

I think a lot of times you see some in a lot of instances and I have my feeling with a couple of other picks as well. You get a little bit of an overreaction week one seeing a team maybe struggle as a big favorite. Oh no, they're really not going to be very good at well. We overrated them.

And then I think we killed a lot of times the team will come out and play a lot better. So also that'll be the case here this week. I'm out. Totally off the board here, bear.

If Rutgers and Oregon State were playing this week, what would you make a line? Oh, at least Oregon State showed some offensive capability last week on the road against a really good team. Where's the game? Where were we playing it in Columbus?

Rutgers, I would maybe make Oregon State one. Okay. All right. So you're feeling the same as the guys out in the desert because I just look at like, I just, it's the same game or Ohio State's minus 35 plus, you know, they're playing Rutgers this week, you know, scored 77 last week to cover against Oregon State.

God, if you had Oregon State and you scored 31 points, you had to feel like you were going to cover that game, right? Oh, I had Ohio State minus the 39. And I was like, Oh my, I would not have thought Oregon State would ever get a cover with Oregon State scoring 31 points. But we talked about last week how we thought that Ohio State offense was going to be much better this year and doing the things that Kevin Wilson wanted to do offensively with asking and I think they showed that that indeed is going to be the case.

All right. I'm going to go to a game that probably not a lot of people are going to watch. I think they're the worst team in all the football that you tap. You disagree?

It's hard. It's hard not to agree. You know, another loss last week. They're playing UNLV this week.

We obviously talked about by the way. You probably know I might ask this is a trivia question. I want to embarrass you. You know who the UTIP is correct.

I do. Oh, man, he was an assistant last year. I remember watching a game and he's been a longtime assistant and he was a former head coach in the Mountain West. Actually, they were not.

They were not listening. Oh, my Lord. I watched it. I was a head coach.

Anyway, I looked at UNLV playing UTIP. Now I'm just hoping for a touchdown from UTIP here. The line's over 23 and a half, I think, but the over under 55. I think UNLV can score 50 themselves.

They rush for over 300 against SC. People are going to say, why do you like SC if they're playing Stanford? I just think UNLV with that spread in our mining rogers is a different animal in the first game. SC is going to be able to load the box against Stanford when you look at the rushing defenses.

But I think UNLV is legit, man. I think they have legit talent on offense. And I think they run away with this game. I think they get score 50.

If you kept score one touchdown for me, that would be nice. So we're going to UNLV UCEP over 55. Yeah, and UNLV left some points on the board there in that game. I said, I see.

I should say, like, it went from, oh, this is automatic, you know, close one score game to oh boy, it's at 22. What's going to happen here? Yeah, so that one, it was dicey. So I got one more bear.

What do you got left? I got three more. So you want me to go? Let's go.

Go to go to go to and then we'll go back to you. I will take Arkansas State plus 37 at Alabama. It's solely a play on the situation. You go back to 2011, last 13 times, Bama's been a 28 points favorite versus an FPS non-conference opponent.

They're one 10 and two against the number that cover came against Ken State a couple of years ago when I had the Golden Flashes plus I think 43 it was. And I think it was 48 or 49 nothing and Ken State had a touchdown call back by a boost review in the four quarters. I wasn't happy about that. I believe that was a bad beat.

Arkansas State, by the way, is a good Cooper 5 team. Yeah, just as handsome is a really good quarterback. I think they get just enough. I think two touchdowns will cover it for sure.

So maybe something along the lines at 48, 14, 45, 14. Saving typically doesn't embarrass and warn it up. I mean, maybe their second unit will be so much better than he will be able to help himself. But I think Arkansas State plus the huge number just on principle of the trend in the track record of Alabama and saving in these games is worth a point.

Who's the quarterback behind hurts? You're going to see a lot of match-ups. All right. I think that's a great point.

I'm curious to see how the hurts thing plays out. But I think you're going to see a lot of match-ups. All right. There you go.

Is there, I'll go ahead. You have another one. Go. Give me Fresno State.

Getting two and a half. It's the boat. I think the boat was much improved week one. Did it get a Fresno State?

Got you off in Fresno almost like 80 last week? Yeah, it was like 77, not that it was against Idaho. But we saw Minnesota last week, brought up and down and beat up on New Mexico State. And I think after two weeks, we can see New Mexico State as a team that is nowhere near what it was last year losing all those guys on offense.

But I like Fresno. I like Ted for it in the spot. There were seven and oh last year as a dog under Ted for it. One for the games outright.

And I thought maybe they were a candidate to regress this year. Maybe last year was a bit of a flute. But it certainly didn't look like that defensively and offensively. I know it's an FCS team now, but I know.

But with the track record from last year of the improvement, I'm still not. I need to see Minnesota do it. Again, someone who I think is a little bit better than New Mexico State. So give me the Ted heads, plus the two and a half in Minnesota to pull the outright win.

I'll tell you what, the Mountain West is really, really intriguing to me this year. And as much as I watched that Boise Troy game and I know people are looking at Boise and we're coach Donnie give them out against Yukon and ripping to get all this stuff. Troy gave them that. I mean, they just with turnovers, it was just brutal.

So I look at the Mountain West as an opportunity for some other team. I mean, Wyoming did lose to Wazoo, but still, I think they're going to be a force in compromise. Well, you lead 20 to 19 and then or 19, 13 rather. That third and four drop and then the big hit, cost them potentially touchdown.

After that, it just went. 21-0 in the fourth. Credit Wazoo for making the plays. I'm coming back on the road to the game that Wyoming certainly for 30-35 minutes.

So Wyoming certainly had their way and very easily could win that game. But Wazoo stepped up in the second half and made some plays. Yeah, for sure. If I was going to tell you, is there, I'll just put this way.

Could there be more opposites of teams than Air Force in Florida, Atlanta? In every aspect of football, life coaching, yeah, for church. I'm kidding. I'm kidding about the church thing.

I just look at this as like, I could see how Lane is really obviously frustrated last week. They were pretty confident thinking they could score, you know, go back and forth with Oklahoma last week. But the overdid come in. Thank God.

But then I look at how anxious, nervous he could be, even though he is this big, you know, bad, you know, bull string guy and you know, not afraid of anybody and you know, likes to play the bully. But man, it's going to be hard to do against Air Force. That option, I remember watching FAU last year. I know it was the beginning of the season, but they, you know, Navy did what they wanted on offense and Navy.

I want to say turn it over on some punt returns that only kept that game closer than it really was. But I look at Air Force going down, don't go down to Boca this week. They're catching nine and a half. I think are going to are looking at the at the over in this game.

I actually went back and look the under is six and two in the last eight home games for Florida Atlantic. So I just look at Florida Atlantic, want to score all these points, but Air Force just keep in the ball, moving the chains and getting sevens instead of three is because they have the ability. I mean, Florida Atlantic has skill guys. We know this.

He's done a great job getting transfers and all that. But as you saw last week, they don't have anything up front. And I think Air Force has their way with them keeping the ball away from that owl offense. So I'm going to take Air Force here to keep it within 10 points and I'll take the nine and half of the Falcons.

Big year for Air Force coming off of last year's disappointing. So this could be a game that the Troy and next half and those players have circled to really show that the direction the season's going to change out. I like that. I agree with you on that one.

I've saved the best for last. Okay. Last week, you and your boy got to say, give me Liberty or give me debt. Give me Kansas plus four and a half in Central Michigan.

Yes. Cool of bad teams. This guy. The loss against Nickel State sounds awful, but it's really not as bad as the numbers might say.

I mean, Nickel State was a team that last year gave A&M all look at handling, college station. Two years ago, they gave Georgia all look at handling between the hedges. I mean, they're a good FCS team. If you look at the SAGRA and ratings, Kansas is 127.

Central Michigan is 124. Nichols is 138. So it's a really good chance. Nichols would have beaten Central Michigan if they played last week as well.

I think people might have seen that close score for a while between Central and Kentucky. But you'll look inside the numbers. Central Michigan, they're all offense completely new from last year. They had just two or 55 yards in the game.

Kentucky turned it over four times. Now, look, Kansas is certainly capable of turning the ball over a bunch. It's not a great team by any means. But if you go from plus four to the plus one or zero or even negative, I don't know how many points Central Michigan is going to be able to score.

Give me Kansas in the spot. I think they'll play better this week. Everything that's gone on off the field or even the football program. And here we go again.

I think maybe getting away, going on the road in a spot where there's no pressure on them now. It's going to be a spot where they potentially get away. So I'll take the J-Hawks plus the four-half. The road hawks.

Let's get on the road, Kansas. You're not worried about the line movement in this. Open that seven down to four and a half. No, actually, that surprised me.

I just think that the line's coming down. But I think that's probably a good money. All right. I like it.

We did forget to give the people our money line picks last week. And people are not happy about that. Do you have one for the people this week? Well, I gave you a bunch of dogs there.

So I guess if we want something other than the games I gave out there, we just want to kill them. What do you think Arizona State? That's one that certainly gets stuck out because they still got talent. They sure do.

Michigan State's one of those teams that we talked about with USC and U.S.C. and U.S. and U.S.C. didn't play well.

We're going closer than expected week one. And then you get a big jump from week two. So Michigan State might be one of those. I think Dino and those guys might have a...

Yeah. You get Arizona State a better shot to win than Pitt. No. Yes.

Okay. Yes, I do. All right. How about Nevada plus the nine against Vandy?

Now, now, now, this isn't rooting for your Vandy under, is it? No, no, no, it's not. I think Nevada was a team that was on the improve late last year. I think Vandy was favored last week.

It's a match up that has really favored them the last few years. It was a situation where the last three years they've been a field goal favored against a middle and they won and covered all of those. So I think the familiarity with that opponent will help. I think Nevada plus the nine.

I give them a good chance potentially going on the road. I'm a junior in Nashville. Ooh, that's good in the middle right there. So we'll give him a give me a wolf pack two words.

All right. I'm going to go. God, am I going to go another service academy? Because I like Navy because that line keeps going up.