Stanford Steve and the Bear presented by Allstate, save money like a champion with Allstate's new lower auto-rates, visit Allstate.com or call an agent for a quote today, championship savings for the win. The underdog is howling. Stayed for Steve and the Bear. Ah yes, a home team getting points.
What's better than that? Welcome in week six, week six. Hopefully it's better than week five for me. Yikes, that was a bloodbath.
Sorry to everybody. Bad week, believe it or not that. And yeah, it makes you a little bit hesitant coming in for this week, but there are some things that stick out. We'll get to the picks.
Absolutely incredible week last week. A ton to get to as far as reaction last week. Looking ahead to this week. Cincinnati gets the job done, goes to Notre Dame and wins.
And when you look at it now, Bear, I believe they are still ahead of Oklahoma in the polls. I got Cincinnati at five and Oklahoma at six. Which they probably should be based on how Cincinnati is played in the Notre Dame win, which right now is better than anything Oklahoma has going for it. But we'll see.
Yeah, it's a season long deal. Oklahoma certainly has chances coming up. And Cincinnati, this is about as good as it's going to get for Cincinnati in terms of all of their quality wins and straight the schedule because you would assume that Notre Dame is not going to go to it. It's an extremely flawed team.
That's a ton of offensive line problems and playing a third string quarterback. So it's seen that probably should have two or three losses already, but they don't. They've won games. Nine and three probably is the Notre Dame ceiling.
Indiana appears headed towards a six and six year and the American is not a very good league this year. And hopefully, SNU can continue winning for the Bearcats to keep that playoff resume and give them a good league win as the season goes on. The one thing I wanted to bring up in regards to Cincinnati isn't really regarding Cincinnati. You talked about the American.
They obviously have to be, you know, you look at the schedule, we know Gabriel's out for UCF, you know, who was a preseason team that could challenge them when you look at the schedule before the season you saw Cincinnati had all the good teams that were supposed to be going to the conference coming to them. The last one, it looks like it's going to be, is SMU and they're still undefeated. They go to Navy this week and Navy. I don't know how, but they beat you.
That was that last week. I know I don't I didn't watch the tape on that one. I'll leave it at that. Memphis losing to Temple.
I mean, two of the teams that were considered to be upper echelon in that league just getting beat by two of the worst teams in the league. Because when you look at Cincinnati, obviously what else can they do? How else can they improve that resume? It's not great.
I mentioned SMU. They get them down the road. I think it's no, I think it's late. I think it's like November 20th.
I mean, how far can SMU get up in the rankings? We'll see. But you know, Cincinnati's got to be rooting for them because when you look at the other outsiders from the power five at number 10 right now is your Pac 12 South champion BYU Cougars who have plenty of games ahead where they could bolster their resume and be impressive. Obviously, if they get one loss, I don't care who it is, they're going to be out.
That's just the way it is. There's too many power teams, power five teams coming and the ones that won loss are obviously going to climb them once BYU gets that loss. But this week they host Boise. Weird spread.
I see five over under 56 and a half. Is BYU a top 10 team right now? Do you have them in your top 10? Absolutely.
Definitely. I definitely would. And you can remember that this is not a BYU is not technically group of odds. This would not be them replacing Cincinnati in the New Year's six.
If BYU happens to win out, they would have seven wins over power five teams. All they already have a better strength of schedule than Cincinnati and they still have games at Baylor and they have the game against Boise. They have the game at USC. They have the game against Virginia.
So their schedule was only going to get more difficult in the gap between them and Cincinnati in terms of the resume type metrics. It's only going to grow stronger. So we'll see what happens. You mentioned how much the line kind of is kind of tricky here.
This is what the spread was last year when they went to Boise in one, what was it 51 17 or something like that. Yeah, I had boys. Yeah. That was the last time I was anti BYU against them all year long.
That was all I needed to see. I don't think it should automatically be assumed that Cincinnati is the team from the non-power five league that is going to make the playoff. I think BYU, if they went out, it will be a very interesting discussion if it does come down to that and not one of the other power five leagues or a second team from a league or anything like that. Yeah.
And it's still, I mean, it's crazy. We're going to get to this with scheduled, obviously, with teams at play because now we're getting to the point where you start getting those data points and you have enough game tape on teams where people can really dive in and see what your strengths and weaknesses are. And to BYU, I think of BYU and I look at those other other other feet of teams that really aren't getting talked about. I don't know.
You talk about Oklahoma State and Michigan State. You know, teams like that, you want to see more, but I still have to give them the benefit because as I've always said, at this point, I ranked out other feet of teams higher than the teams that have a loss in that column. So plenty to see BYU tricky line. I don't want anything to do with that.
Coastal starts it off Thursday night. McCall is in a walking boot. Something to keep an eye on there. They're putting Arkansas State.
We got their doors blown off last week. Cincinnati, we mentioned Friday night against Temple, which has been, I think I saw a number out there. Temple's covered like the last four times they played. Good luck if you want to do that.
You could say Cincinnati let down spot, but maybe Temple has a let down after that big one over Memphis. You just mentioned. So Temple's just not what they have been. Stanford goes to Arizona State Friday night and pretty eye opening spread of 12.
Arizona State getting a lot of love. Real big. The team's coming off without right upset wins and now you're laying double digits. One of them.
It seems like a lot. Yeah, to me, the story there is Arizona State defense. They were awesome against UCLA. I did not see that coming.
They were a better team. Jaden made some throws down the field and they got the job. That wasn't, you know, I watched the Fresno State UCLA game and you've had a feeling UCLA was going to get back in that game. They did not Saturday night against Arizona State.
That defense did really well. And when I think back to a couple of years ago being at that Arizona State Stanford game, I think it was a Thursday night. Bryce Love and company with Stanford comes in. Arizona State shut up now.
They had a great scheme for that Stanford rushing attack. So I think that's the storyline in that game. Want to get away, but can't live without Wi-Fi with select Chevrolet, PLEC, GMC and Cadillac vehicles connected by OnStar, you can enjoy an in-vehicle Wi-Fi hotspot with up to 15 meter range so you can stay connected even in unexpected places. Whether you're setting up camp or feeling up at a rest stop, you can enjoy the entertainment of home on the go.
Explore OnStarTech today at onstar.ca and elevate your travels. OnStar, better, never stops. But when we start looking ahead to Saturday, you'll be in Dallas, you'll be at the Red River. It's been a while since you've been there.
Is there anything you're looking forward to on the menu? No, I am not a fried food, corny dog, fried Snickers fried. No, why are you fried? They have fried, like fried pasta.
They have fried ice cream. No, just give me a good old fashioned American hot dog. There's some mustard on there. There's some some brisket.
Some some brisket. Get some barbecue, get some brisket. I'm sure there will be some brisket. Yeah, that'll probably be the way.
Any of that fried crap just goes. Reese is going to be in all those. I can't think of it. I'm good for it.
Reese is going to be all into those fried dessert things. Oh, absolutely. A little bit of the fried ice cream, a little bit of the fried Snickers, maybe some. Oreos.
Yeah, fried oreo. Yeah, that is right up of Reese's alley. A little bit of the fried dessert. It's sampling of the fried dessert.
Schmorges board. All right. So let's dive into that game. Oklahoma right now is minus three and a half over under 63 and a half.
Obviously everybody's going to say it's going to be a high scoring game. Last year. That's what I want to get to here. Last year, the only reason the game goes over because it goes to what?
Four over times? It rather gets benched, comes back in. They get to win. It wasn't really impressive.
People forget that Oklahoma was going right when they played last year. Yeah. Yeah. And that was coming off the loss of Iowa State, right?
Yeah. So Texas has covered seven of the last nine. And obviously with Texas, you got to start with Bijon. He's been incredible.
He leads the country in rushing at two 16 last week against TCU. Their average in 43 points per game. They lead the big 12 in scoring yards past efficiency. But when I look at Texas, I look at the defensive stage played since Arkansas.
I'm getting run off the field there. They haven't been great. Now, hey, they made the quarterback change. Everything's going well.
They're playing as well as they have all year. But then I look at last week too. They lost. They had a big injury on that.
Oh, line, Denzel, okay, four is their left guard. He's out. And when I think about the rush game, that's one thing Oklahoma has done really, really well. Is we talked about, you know, people liked him this year because of the deep one of the factors was defense was improved.
They liked this matchup for Oklahoma against Texas in the run game. I think they have enough to slow them down. And I actually feel the other way. Okay.
Because you have more confidence in Sarc? I do. And I think back to what West Virginia did, that opening drive, or it was an 11 minute drive and they brought green in a mobile quarterback. And that was why the best Lenny Brown had done in that game.
I think with Thompson and Bijon, I think they can do similar type things and really help a defense, which seems to be a little of a tackling optional at the early part of the season. And what I say, Oklahoma, I like it. I think they could keep them more in check where they have to put more pressure on Thompson to make throws and consistently score the ball. And that's why I like Oklahoma in this matchup.
Rattler comes off 22 to 25 for 243 against Kansas State. He's completing 76% of his passes. They went six for six in the red zone with touchdowns last week. And I know everybody wants to point to the offense.
What's not clicking. They are averaging 38 a game with 433 yards. Like there's a lot of teams out there. Take the Western Carolina game.
I got you. I got you. But when you look at Brooks and Gray, they're combined and still the average over five yards of Kerry. And just look at the personnel that Texas defense, they were hanging on last week, hanging on against TCU.
I think Oklahoma brings a hell of a lot more to the table. I'm not saying a bust out game, but I feel like Oklahoma has been laying in the weeds here. And I think this is a good matchup for their offense too against the Texas defense. I'll take Oklahoma here and lay the three and a half in this one.
Yeah, I have no plan on this game. I've had a lot of really hard time going through this slate and figuring out what I like and what I might want to play. It's not a very good slate in terms for me of game to stick out. I don't like this game.
I think the majority of people will be on Texas in this game. I guess I would lean towards Oklahoma and lay in the small number there just because I think defensively they have some better players. But at the same time, it wouldn't trap you all up. The Texas won the game.
So it's a pass for me in terms of actual real money template. And obviously three and a half let's buy that hook to get it to a square number. Other new games, Maryland at Ohio State. I was at the Snake Pit.
It was not pretty. I would imagine Ohio State is looking at their chops looking at Maryland right now. But I will say it's amazing what turnovers can do. I mean, it was just short field, upper short field and credit to Iowa who we'll get to in a bit, obviously when they play the game of the week against Penn State.
Another new game I have circled. It's Michigan State. It's Rutgers. And a couple of weeks ago, it feels like the same exact scenario bear.
The brassica was coming off that lost Oklahoma real small number and he's lancing undefeated. Michigan State's still undefeated. This isn't going to be pretty. But I just have to get Rutgers in this scenario.
They were awful against Ohio State last week. They did beat Michigan State last year and week one. And then like just thinking about last year, I want to say like, is this is like when the big 10 started playing last year, right? Right around this wasn't at the beginning.
I think it was a week later. I think it was a week later, actually. But yes, it was in October. We got a new game that hopefully that sun's shining off the beautiful turf and to scataway.
She'll get a good effort defensively. Michigan State's been really good on defense. 18 sacks, two or more in every game. But I think they could I think Rutgers could throw the ball on them all.
Bedroom has to be great. From for believe it's over 200 and two of the last three. And the thing I go back on Rutgers here and say thing with Maryland and I will last week. Rutgers gave, you know, got themselves in the hole because it turned over.
They came in the last week only with one turnover. And that includes a some point loss at Michigan where it wasn't pretty, but they hung around. And that's what I think they could do here against Michigan State. Michigan State doesn't have the firepower of Ohio State, but I think Rutgers can do enough to hang around.
Like I said, it's not going to be pretty. There's not a lot to like in this matchup when you look at undefeated team, going to play a team with two conference losses already. But I think the line stinks and I'm going to go out there and take Rutgers. Remember the last year was a turnover fast from Michigan State turned the ball over a whole bunch when the upset when Rutgers pulled the upset in that first game of the year.
Yeah. Is there some type of injury or something going on that we might not be aware of? Like this game didn't get us to come off the board in a couple of places for a little bit. Oh, really?
I thought it was off the board in a couple of spots, which I haven't been on the road. I didn't see much of the Ohio State where I should take any of the Ohio State Rutgers games. I don't know if Rutgers player got hurt or we have our Ohio State insider on here. Does he have any?
You probably turn the game off at halftime though. I just think Ohio State is just finding their spot. I don't think Rutgers is. Yeah.
But hey, so you like CJ's drive again? I was never against you. It was the message boards, but you know, Michigan barely beats records and they're back and you know, high. So there we go.
There it is. Now it all comes out. Plenty on Michigan to come in a little bit. But yeah, it would be it would be Rutgers or past for me in this game.
Okay. All right. The other new game ESPN that follows you guys is both teams got I would quote him and Smith the bottled last week are number three Arkansas at number 17 Ole Miss Ole Miss now given six in this game. And I don't know.
I don't know. I total contrast here. You know what Arkansas is going to try and do is keep everything in front of you, which Alabama did to Ole Miss playing those safeties up top. I think now Lane's going to have to have a new kind of deal with trying to get downfield if teams are going to play those two high safeties.
That's with Andrew. I received it too. And yeah, and Arkansas to me, that's what you have to do against. And now I know Georgia, you know, when Adam are at the beginning of 21, nothing like that.
But Arkansas, they're going to play those three down guys and everybody back and eight guys off the line. You have to run the ball in those situations. And I feel like Ole Miss had the same scenario against Alabama and they still wouldn't do it. And it's terrible against Alabama.
You know, the fourth down is obviously he had magnified when you're not successful in a world where everybody just wants to go for it on fourth down. But this is a, I will say this, if Corral is that good Ole Miss wins and covers this game. But it's tough for me to go against that Arkansas defense knowing the super seniors they have and the veteran leadership they have. And knowing what's at stake here.
We saw last year where they had a crushing loss on a BS call at Auburn and they treaded water for basically and got out of what got out of him later in the year. It's a spot where I want to say it's the same thing a lot of teams. I need to see this. I need to see them in this situation.
You know, where's the game? It's a winnable game on the road in conference. But I still don't know what to expect from Arkansas on the road in this scenario. I actually liked the way Arkansas battled last week and kind of hung around after the initial first quarter onslaught and getting punched and completely knocked out in that game, which didn't surprise me.
But I was happy to see the way that they competed over the next couple of quarters. And I think they'll be okay this week. And I think Jefferson will be a week better. But it'll be a week better.
I think Arkansas obviously is a really good team last week. But I think at the same time, the injury at wide receivers really going to be a problem for them offensively and they got other guys. But I guess that's a big part of it. Yeah, I could, this would be Arkansas our pass for me.
Yeah, I think I would go Arkansas in the office pools and stuff like that. But it's not a play for me. It's definitely a sit and wait and see what happens because when you look at that SEC West, I still think that whoever second best in that division is up for grabs. And it could be a weekly thing in that division seeing who's the second best team because I have no idea who to put there right now after seeing a couple of games of conference play.
Tennessee's at home against South Carolina Shane Beamer still looking for that first SEC win. Big spread 10. Is that over reaction? You think Tennessee coming off that?
No, no, no, okay. South Carolina was fortunate to get the points a lot of those points last week. I'm still a little, little bitter about that. Okay.
I don't want to bring up bitterness topics. All right. West Virginia's at Baylor. Baylor's laying three.
I have this one circled. I'm not sure if it's going to make it, but West Virginia just keeps getting caught to me in a scenario. They don't know what to do with quarterback. It's green.
You know, it's deji. It feels like it's making things choppy. I think they're better with green. You put him back there with Lettie.
But I feel like when you look at Baylor, they don't have the talent they've had on their good teams in the past, but I like what Grimes does on offense. And if there's going to be a guy that's ready for two quarterbacks, it's going to be Dave Oranda. I would think Baylor's in a good spot here at home. Laying a short number.
Anything else around the noon slate. Big one in the Mac. Northern Illinois is getting a lot from Toledo. That's kind of scary.
Northern Illinois is pretty good. Catch a 12 and a half. If you beat Georgia Tech, well, if you used for Michigan last week, it is a lot. But I don't know if I could play them there.
Maybe I might wait and see if that maybe hits 13 or 13 and a half and then maybe bull trip on that if you want, if you lean towards wanting to play. All right. Virginia at Louisville. I don't know how you look at anything except over possibly in the game because those teams will get after on the offensive side.
Number two, Georgia is at Jordan Hare against number 18, Auburn. I was totally wrong about Auburn last week and they came out. Thanks to Beau next who was just incredible. That effort was unreal.
He wasn't going to let his team lose. You saw Georgia in person. Do you buy the idea of a possible letdown spot? Do you think there's just too much?
Give me your thoughts on Georgia. I think there's too much. I think I mean, Georgia played and was what I thought they've been kind of all along. They're so deep up front on that defensive line and linebacker that so many playmakers, you can't run the ball on them.
It'll be a massive, massive test for Auburn to try and move the ball and its work points on this team. Last week, LSU kind of let him hang around the game kicking a lot of field goals. I don't know what a punching in really got any separation. Then Auburn did their thing in the fourth quarter of that game.
But I actually would consider laying the points here with Georgia. We talked, had lunch with the coach last week and hung out with him for the while at the house. It was great to see him. We were talking and he brought up a pretty good point.
It was a head of last week's game and really moving forward. He said, look at the coaches. Rather than trying to look at the quarterbacks that Kirby has lost to at Georgia. They've all been in FL quarterbacks with the exception of Eleanor who that was the ball game in a weird situation with all the opt-out.
So the Alabama guys would all be dressed at Trask. They've all been pro-court backs that have beaten Georgia. So like, is onyx one of those guys? I don't think so.
That's something just to consider moving forward. Kirby will and will and will and planning on that defense. They certainly will be able to get after someone who is not a transcendent talent. Yeah.
To me, it's not the Georgia offense because I have a question for you. Obviously, Georgia and Alabama are everybody's favorites. Right now we got the prop out there. Was it minus 240, Georgia and Alabama against the team?
Yeah, there are a couple of different numbers. I think the Cesar's will have almost 240. I think I saw like a 310 out there. And I think there was like a 190 or something out there too.
But yeah, what was the difference to go 240 down the middle? I'm like it. I'm like it any day and every day. There is nothing in my mind that could happen in an SEC Championship game between 12 and 0 Georgia and 12 and 0 Alabama that would keep the loser of that game out of the playoff.
If there are the two best teams all season long and they just happen to be in the same week and they have to play each other in the conference championship game with an extra number of the schedule and one one loses to the other. It doesn't mean they're still not one of the best for teams in the country. They should both be in the playoff. The winner will be number one and the loser will be two or three.
They won't be four. So they won't play again. But you're going to get half field. I couldn't even tell you right now like who is the who is number three in the country.
I think if you really asked people to be honest, I think people would probably say Ohio State is the third best team in the country. But you just can't put them there right now because they lost Oregon and with the three big 10 teams sitting there with your losses right now. So I think the gap is huge and I would feel pretty good. If I had half of the college will play up between Georgia and Alabama.
Where's their wheels? Okay. You mentioned Iowa possibly Ohio State being possibly the third best thing. Whatever.
If you're going to pull people do whatever you want. If you had to pick a scenario, let's just take Ohio State as that team. You've got Ohio State and you get to pick who you could be. Who would you rather face Georgia or Alabama?
Hmm. I might choose Alabama and I won't say that because of a young quarterback and defense I think which has allowed plays. I think we saw that in the Florida game. You are going to be up against it.
No doubt. No doubt. I would probably choose. If I had that I had to take my pick as to whether I had to face Georgia or Alabama in the field, I probably would choose Alabama.
Okay. I say Georgia and that's and this is why and this is what I want to see more. And I know Jt is going to be battling this is whatever. Librum whatever it is.
That feels like it's not going to go away. And when I look at the Georgia offense, I just want more. Like you got a defense that's good. That's putting you in these scenarios.
more shots, do more things. But I know, we know, we know what Kirby's gonna do. He's gonna rely on that defense. So I would just say right now, if I want to say I would rather take Georgia because of inconsistencies on offense as opposed to what Alabama, I still think we're gonna see improvement from Alabama defense.
I totally get your take. I just wanted to ask you because I know how I feel, and I was just wondering if you've differed. But it's, I agree. I mean, those two teams are in their own class, the battle for number three, and the SEC as a whole, I think is up for grabs and the battle for number three in the country is up for grabs.
But it doesn't take away the possibilities of what we have in store. Like, you know, obviously Oregon loses last week and you know, everybody wants to throw the pack to well about the Big Ten, you know, alone from Iowa against Penn State, Iowa's got a pretty good run here to go after it. But we're gonna have really, really good games in the Big Ten for teams to find out how good they are. And I think that start, you know, Penn State has been, you know, they've gotten the job done.
They're undefeated. They have that when it was constant. You can say what you want, but they still have it. They have again, win against Auburn.
That win could look better or worse as the season goes out when you look at Auburn. So with the Big Ten, we're gonna get the majority of these teams to play, especially in the East. You got Michigan, you got Penn State, you got Ohio State and Michigan State, you know, all those teams are gonna play each other. And I think it sets up for awesome scenarios to find out, you know, answers to the questions we have.
So when you look at Penn State and Iowa, you know, we saw Penn State go on the road to Wisconsin. What do you take from that that helps them this week in Iowa? I think the fact that Clifford has played so much better this year than I expected. The fact that he hasn't been turning away, he's got the 41 touchdown interception ratio.
He's got nearly as many 20 yard passes this year as he did all of last year. But I like the Iowa in this game. I mean, I just, they, I hate like using like cheesy corny analogies like this Iowa has this year, but they're getting, like they're creating their own walk with it with the with the turnover, rude, all the field position is a massive result of it. Up front that we talked about before that, they were just gonna continue blocking guys up front.
And I just trust that staff. I trust Farron's and I trust the Parker to put Penn State and someone talk to positions on offense. And maybe you do get an uncharacteristic bad game out of Clifford this year. But I would, I'd lay the two with with Iowa in this game.
I agree with you there. You mentioned Penn State with the turnovers, they're plus six on the year. And that's only because I think they've had one turnover in each of the last three games. But when you talk about Clifford, that's obviously what you want to go to.
You cannot be in on the fields where that came last week. You can't give Iowa the ball. I don't care what you think of their offense, they're going to be able to eventually take care of it. When you give them two in plus territory, opponents this year at 15 turnovers and seven touchdowns.
That's just ridiculous. Yeah. So when you look at Iowa, I just the discipline they play with and to see guys on that sideline, just just keep playing and knowing what they're going to do in the confidence that the defense gives the offense because they're obviously, as you mentioned, given in the ball in plus territory all the time, I really like the offensive line. I think Peaches has enough to do it when they need it as far as moving the change and giving that defensive break.
So I'm with the Penn State still only 36% on third downs this year. And they're two upper tier teams Wisconsin and Auburn, they played they rushed for 134 yards combined in those two games. That I don't like that mixture. Yeah, that's the thing like we we talk about they went to Wisconsin and one, but that was more bad Wisconsin than it was.
Yeah Penn State did make the the plays in the red zone when they needed to and they got but that was more bad Wisconsin than it was. Great Penn State. And then what happens if if Auburn doesn't call an awful fourth down play, I'm gonna throw a fade on fourth and goal for that like, I don't know, I think Iowa is certainly the more proven team in terms of how they have handled big spots and the bigger name opponents on their I we're in agreement there. It's it's do you think there's more points scored in this game Penn State Iowa or Georgia and Auburn?
Um, George Auburn. Okay, George Auburn is at 45 and a half. This one's at 40 and a half. So you're looking at like a they're calling for what a 21 19 game right around there 20 2018.
But it should be fascinating. Really really fired up for that matchup to see it. I mean, one thing I will say and you mentioned Clifford, John Dodson for Penn State is one of my easily one of my favorite players to watch in the country. That guy, him in space is he's at his routes are just effortless.
He catches everything. And I'm definitely gonna have my eyes on him knowing what Iowa brings to the table in that secondary knowing how they can can can bottle up guys and obviously step in front of throws and create turnovers. What else is sticking out for you from this league? You have anything circled yet?
I know there's one thing that I do like, I like Syracuse getting the six and a half against Wake. Sticky, kind of just flashes back to what we talked about a couple of weeks back on that Friday night game against Liberty, like Syracuse Defense at home has been very good this year. Getting after the quarterback and not allowing big pass plays. I know it was far to state but their offense did come a lot a little bit more last week.
It's a tricky spot I think for Wake Forest to be going on the road lane, lane six and a half. We love Wake. You and I, but they're not the type of team that just shows up on the road and put them out on the field and they can play a B-minus type effort and cover seven points on the road against the power five team. So I think Syracuse getting the six and a half is something that I will be on and the Michigan Nebraska game, you talked about Michigan State records before.
This number is three, three and a half. And regardless of what you think about Nebraska and what you think about Michigan, like it's a second straight week conference road game. It's a hard spot. We'll see if Michigan can go and pull a double remember too.
It's not Frost's first game at Nebraska, first big 10 game at Nebraska. It was a 56 10 loss to Michigan. I would think he probably remembers that and whether Nebraska's good enough to do anything about it we'll find out. But Nebraska, look, I know what their record is.
Their special teams have been horrible in spots. They've made, continued to make stupid penalties and they continue to lose these one possession games which has been the M.O. Frost, the Frost era. But defensively, they've been really good this year.
I think only one game they've allowed 400 yards. That was the old home game. They've been in every game. They should have been Michigan State.
Isn't it Nebraska or past? Isn't Nebraska the only side you can play here? Yeah, I'm in agreement. First of all, I want to take a second.
I'm Michigan. Okay, because I'm really, really interested to hear how they feel right now. I mean, I don't see how you don't feel great about your team. You're undefeated.
You've exceeded expectations this year. The turnovers have been great. And you've been able, you know, you got back to an identity where you want to run the football. And to me, the circumstance comes into it because I don't think you can win just run the ball in this scenario.
And you mentioned Frost at loss against Michigan. This goes back even I think another year back to I want to say 2016. Everyone UCF went there. And Frost was like, you know, I really liked the way we competed.
And you know, we hit harder than that. Like there's there's some press conference stuff with Frost and Harbaugh. If you go back, it's what title 97. It's there's a lot going on there.
But I mean, yeah, I never thought I'd say this after they're opening week lost to Illinois. But I love the way the brassias responded. They got on the ball. By the way, that's the way that the defense is only averaging given up 15 and a half points game and that includes the gaming and Oklahoma, which they were in the whole game and had a bunch of misfield goals.
Michigan's defense has probably been a lot. I should say probably has been better than what I thought. We know about how whole new coaches staff comes in. But if you're Michigan, this is how you got to win games.
And this is what they've done. Don't turn up all over, run it and play good defense. And that showed last week. And you know, you want to say, I just, I thought I was getting more out of Wisconsin last week.
And then I figured, you know, of course, I put my name on them. And I see Wisconsin's true colors. They are not the Wisconsin. We thought they were going to be.
And listen, I'm not taking anything away from Michigan. When I pick against your team, it doesn't mean I hate your team. It's because I like the situation for the other team. So Michigan's, you can get at me again this week because I'm taking Nebraska.
I like the way they play defense. I want to say besides Rattler, this is probably the best quarterback Michigan's going to face. I'm trying to go through their opponents of my head, Washington and Western Michigan, you know, merch, we saw that. So I think a night game, a chance for Nebraska to really get a win in conference to feel good about, which is, you know, avoided them for what feels like for us whole tenure there.
But I just like Nebraska in this scenario. I need to see Michigan again. Proom me wrong again. Great.
Keep winning games. But I'll take the home dog. It's three and a half right now with Nebraska. I think they have a good chance to win the game.
So I'll take the three and half there with Nebraska in Lincoln. I expect that place to be an awesome atmosphere for Michigan. What did you think about the Navy blue pants for Michigan? I liked them.
I liked them. I thought it was pretty short to get kind of a really good like helmet, dark, dark up top on the bottom. I thought but I thought I caught the compliment each other really, really well. It went a lot better than I thought it would.
Yeah. They're gonna wear it. I'm like, I don't know how that's gonna look. And I was like, all right.
It was all right. We got to see it again, right? After they got it. I think so.
First time is an under I'm just not a fan of like the all black tree in front of him. When teams bring out like the all blacks on that. I'm not I'm not a fan. As long as the brass wears the black cleats, I'll deal with him.
What times your flight's set anymore? I'm trying to figure out right to Bradley. It's a 330 kickoff at Olmaguerk Stadium, Yukon at UMass. Will it be covered on Yes.
That feature picks segment the whole nine, right? Come on. Feature I don't see I tried to get I pitched having Ryan McGee right like a bottom 10 game of the year. Yeah.
Type essay with all the pop and circumstance of this game deserve it. But I unfortunately think that I got overruled by the powers that be. So if you don't see that on Saturday morning, don't yell at me. I tried.
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OnStar. Better never stops. If you read anything what Yukon did since they fired Randy Edsel. Do you know what they're doing?
Yes. You should. They you know remember Noel and Missoni, right? Yeah.
They're paying him like a couple hundred bucks every week. I swear to God. I swear to God. Look it up.
I think it's hard for current or any way to register. It's on there. A couple hundred bucks a week and he's devising offensive game plans. And hey, I think it's the best couple hundred bucks a week that they're competing.
They're competing with my home. Yeah. Those are killers. I thought I was dead.
We obviously could have really used last week because we still have middle Tennessee. Really need the UMass game. I don't know. I mean UCF at the end of the year.
I think that yeah, they have them. They do have to go to Clemson. But I don't know. I just wonder what the hell was going on when Edsel was there.
Like they're a totally different team. They had no business. You show you how much they hated. That's the only conclusion I can draw.
All right. I can't argue. But yeah, Noel and Missoni doing wonders in stores with that. You can see.
All the CC influence. I will be watching that game just saying 330. It will be on one of the TVs. No doubt about it.
And then as far as Ryan McGee in the bottom 10, like who thought before the year Akron, half Bowling Green will be given 14 and a half. That's his eye opening. Somebody's paying attention. People are sick and tired of paying out.
Just pulling green tick. Other games on the night. Another night game. I want to say I want to give them out last week and it's shied me off.
They covered for me the week before. But Air Force has been really good. And they get Wyoming at home. All right.
So I say Air Force is hosting Wyoming. That's a really good game. 7 o'clock. CBS Sports Network Saturday night.
I'll have my eyes on that one. You mentioned Notre Dame. You touched on before. Is this a must for Fuente at Virginia Tech to get this game?
Must in terms of what him? His longevity in Blacksburg. No, I don't think so because I think what happens if they lose here than the one again to the SEC championship. Now they should win this game.
This surprised me. I thought that they would be a bigger favor than this. It scares me that this is the number because I don't think Notre Dame is very good. I think Virginia Tech is better than Notre Dame.
And the fact that the number is not indicating that is screwed with my head somewhat. I look at Virginia Tech and it feels like it's the same thing every year. Like you've watched against North Carolina. They're like, all right.
They got the defense going. Vermeister can make plays at the quarterback. And then I watched the West Virginia game and they were just like, it was like two totally different teams. So you would think at home night game, we all know the story there that they would be a mustare.
And I don't know why but something makes me want to take Notre Dame in this game. I don't know what it is. I think they've obviously been back up against it. As everybody's dealing with this time of season, you know, injuries are starting to take a factor.
They got a quarterback or dealer trying to handle. I just I don't know. I feel like Notre Dame has the goods to go into the win this game. But it's it's just a weird like like just like you said, the spread has totally messed with my mind when I look at this game.
I believe it's Notre Dame minus one right now, which that is I wouldn't I wouldn't be surprised if Virginia Tech closes is a favorite. Yeah, that's a good call there. By the way, if you want if you want to lock, be hashtag because it's packed well. Like as I tweeted out yesterday, I would have never have imagined that I'd be sitting here the second week of October saying that Oregon State at Washington State is a game with significant game day implications.
So you know what's happening. Oregon State's off next week before they go to the 20th or you know, you know what's happening here. By the way, where did that come from last week? What was that in in in berserkle?
I don't know goodness. Not good. Not good. Really, really bad for things over there.
Across the bridge from from Palo Alto. It was not as you can see by the final score, not pretty at all. And that's the thing I thought that would be bad with them with Garbers. He's been good as a starters one playing age and they just can't do anything offensively.
It's pretty idling. Oregon State has been awesome to watch. Their offense is phenomenal. And that's like you said, it is a tricky, tricky spot when it's spent.
Those Oregon Washington teams play, there's so much animosity towards those schools like watching to end Oregon State last week, you get to Washington. There's there's 30 years of frustration in Corvallis up against Seattle and knowing getting that opportunity. You could see people's faces that field goes going up. Like are we really going to let them win this game again?
But Oregon State shot to them. I mean, on the field in the pack 12, it's been awesome. The offense is legit. No one is really, really good and good with the ball.
And Jonathan Smith's got it going, man. It was a curious hire and things have worked out for them in a huge, huge way. Is Ellis, you're going to win another SEC game? I'll tell you what, we'll know the next five weeks.
They could be at the top of that first drop on the rollercoaster and you left the hill and they could start to go over the top of that hill very quickly here if they lose. And I was happy for Mark last week, but let's be real, let box for what we watch the game. What they talk across midfield twice, I think. I mean, that was not a representative final of how that game was played.
Ellis, you can't run the ball, man. They don't try. They don't try and it boggles my mind because they have guys on office of line that have played. They have experience.
So then I start thinking like LSU, the LSU doesn't have a running back. Like it's LSU. You don't have a guy you can give the ball and feel confident about getting five yards. And then I see Max Johnson, I think the world of him, he's tough as hell.
And he's just out there chucking every single snap. And same thing, just like Arkansas, and Arkansas did the Georgia and Georgia said, all right, we'll take those five yards of clip. You want to put three guys down and play everybody back? We'll do it.
And Mason did the same thing against LSU and LSU would not run the football came out great up 10 nothing. And then that lead slowly, but surely goes away. This feels like a huge tipping point for me. And I'll admit I was wrong last week.
I read too much into the body language of bonecks, what I saw in that Georgia state game and credit to Auburn. And I think I'll get back to Auburn a second. But this tipping point, man, LSU, it just doesn't give me, I mean, you mentioned your thoughts on the secondary before the season started. The defense has been better.
It's still not great. It'd be nice if you could tackle bone next on one of those 34 pounds and they don't get a touchdown. That fourth or two is still nuts. But it feels like a real tipping point.
You know, I mean, I would, you know, normally you would say Kentucky's in a letdown spot here after a big win against Florida. I think this is the perfect scenario to get back and get your kid's attention knowing that you have a chance that LSU doesn't come here often. We all know about the the miracle of Lexington or whatever they call it down in Baton Rouge way back with Saban. I can't believe that game's like 20 years old.
That's crazy to me. Yeah. But if I had to pick this one, I would take Kentucky and lay the three because the line even streams more. You get undefeated team at home against team of two losses only given three.
It's a good under game to me. Yeah, that's good. 50 and a half. But if LSU can't run the ball, I mean, Kentucky could play defensive the best of them.
And now you're gonna tell me, you only have to play the pass. That that that plays right in the stoops' hands for me. So it's a Kentucky or nothing for me. Is there anyway, A&M covers?
I was just gonna ask you, do you think A&M now being as bad as they are and unranked and no pressure, basically, or no expectations now to be in the SEC West race? Do you think this actually sets up better for them to keep this game closer than had it been this highly anticipated undefeated versus undefeated top six, top seven showdown where where A&M has just felt flat in the past. Like, this might actually set up better for them to actually give a much better effort than had there been so much at stake. I totally see where you're coming.
A couple of things on this game. I think back to game day was there right when Clemson came in. Yes, right. Trevor Lawrence's first pass was a touchdown, great game, Kellerman battle back on A&M.
I think back to that game where I really didn't give A&M a chance because I really didn't know what they had, you know, but then you know that obviously that home crowd builds it up and they played well that night and covered a big number but lost the game. And that was way at the beginning of the Jimbo deal there. But I was talking to Colke Pubelek who was on the sidelines for A&M this city state last week. And he's just, you know, we're going back and forth just about A&M and like what the hell's wrong with him.
And he made a great point, you know, with the idea of no matter who he didn't care who was the quarterback this year, he still thought they had to talent everywhere else to compete and win a lot of games in the SEC. And that's what that's what confuses him is you look at the defensive line, you would take that defensive line almost against almost anybody in the country, you know, at least in the top five, the offensive line had an experience, you know, new guys, but they had experience, they had five stars up there. You look at the running backs, you look at the wide receivers, they have everything and they're just they can't score and consistently, you know, do well on offense. And like he said, it didn't matter.
He saw it, I was out on the spring game, he saw Haines King and that decision didn't matter because he trusted Jimbo to get things going. And that's what's puzzling to me. When I look at them, the inefficiency just doesn't make sense with the talent they have. And that's what's really, really confusing.
So when you think about that, uncertainty they have, you know, there's a lot of pro town on that defensive line. Are they going to get jacked up to play Bama as a 17 and a half point underdog? I don't know. And I think Alabama next set it again this week, he learned a lot about himself, about his team and that went at Florida.
And now you get another scenario where you're going to a crazy environment. I hate giving double digits on the road. But if I had to lean in this game, I'm laying there. I just, I think too much of Alabama in defense they showed last week, the improvements the linebacker showed against those RPOs.