The Mike Blitz w Wade & White
Your weekly CFB podcast, hosted by Mike Wade & Mike White. We review last week, and preview the next, available wherever you get your podcasts!
The Mike Blitz w Wade & White
Rivalry Week Review (Week 12) & Conference Championship Preview (Week 13)
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Ready to relive the electrifying energy of the recent Thanksgiving week college football rivalries? Brace yourself as we take you on a wild ride, breaking down Michigan's triumph over Ohio State and examining Ryan Day's coaching performance. We'll also tackle the pressures of defining one's season by a single game, and share our predictions for Day's off-season.
We've got more than just Ohio State and Michigan on the table. Join us as we unravel the results of the Texas vs. Texas Tech showdown, Auburn's Iron Bowl letdown, and Clemson's solid win. Surprises are aplenty as we discuss Liberty's unbeaten streak and the frosty face-off between K-State and Iowa State. And, of course, we can't overlook Virginia Tech's Commonwealth Cup victory, where we'll highlight their potential for future glory.
But we're not stopping at game analysis. Prepare for an inside look at the recent coaching shakeups, the implications they might bring to the upcoming season, and our bold forecast for the imminent conference championships. Finally, we'll dive into the transfer portal, peering into the future of college football conference championship games. From the Texas vs. Oklahoma State bout to the Oregon vs. UW clash and the Georgia vs. Alabama showdown, we'll leave no stone unturned. Trust us, you're in for a treat!
Michigan vs Ohio State
Speaker 2I take a little break . The Thanksgiving's good to be back . Ladies and gentlemen , welcome to the . Mike Blitz , I'm your host . Mike Wade , my co-host over there , mike White , happy Wednesday , what is up , man . Let me get the jake hold down a little bit . My bad Sleep on the job , happy .
Speaker 1Wednesday and happy end of the regular season . Man , it's all . It came up too fast .
Speaker 2Way too fast . Way too fast . Overall , it was a really fun season . We got a lot to talk about , but just in general , yeah , it happened in a blink . I'm sorry about last week . Things came up . Small children doctor appointments had to cover for stuff the holiday those of you listening with children totally get it . I know . Apologize , we are back here , super excited for that , you know . We know you missed your 11 week 12 preview episode , but we're going to make up for it today .
Speaker 1So all in all , I know , I'm sure , that the lack of podcast really ruined a few Thanksgiving's out there .
Speaker 2I know I'm . There's a lot of people who are saying you know , one brother table saying you know I'm thankful for this year and they would have said the Mike Blitz , but they weren't because they were mad at us . So I mean I get it . So just want you to know that . My sincere apologies about that . Let's go ahead and jump into last week rivalry week , one of the best weeks of college football , super exciting . Let's start with the top , the big dog , the big playa . Michigan takes down Ohio State in exactly the fashion I thought they would just playing super , super physical ball . I was really impressed with JJ McCarthy but like he made a few more throws than I thought maybe he would . I thought Ohio State might pull off the upset here if JJ McCarthy and saw , but I think he was a difference . Ohio State is super physical and matched them , but I think it came down to JJ just make a few more plays .
Speaker 1Yeah , that was a great game . I felt like it could have gone either way . It was very much what everyone kind of hoped that it would be . It looked like it was going to be kind of more of a chess match . It did open up a little bit , had some splash plays . Overall , great game . You love it when those marquee matchups live up to the hype . And , yeah , michigan got it done . Good work on to the next one .
Speaker 2On to the next one . I'm impressed with Michigan's ability to turn every single game into a rock fight . Every single game they've played this year for 12 , for 12 weeks , has been the version of football that they want to play , and that's just a testament to like old school ball , which we're seeing less and less of , which is like hyper physical control , the clock control , the tempo , and you know you kind of . You see a lot of teams do this , especially 10 , 20 , even longer , but usually in this open offense kind of era that we are in with , the offense is so favored like you just don't see this brand of football really play out that often . So I mean , I got , I think Michigan , I think it's , I think Michigan's going to do it to everybody left except for Georgia . Georgia is the only team that I think is can , can , can match their physicality and can score fast , which is going to be a problem for Michigan .
Speaker 1But I think Georgia can , Georgia can play them at their own game . And then some .
Speaker 2Yeah , that's . That's kind of on my takeaway . On the other side , ryan Day man , he's got to be feeling this . I can't believe this . So Ryan Day is I think . I think Ohio State has an incredible record His record in the playoffs one in three . His record against Michigan one in three . His record against everybody else 54 and one . And despite that , which is obviously , I mean , I think , every , just by every college football fan in the country , maybe outside of handful of them , would be really really take that he's . His off season is going to be rough . He's going to get chirped at all seasons after 11 or one campaign .
Speaker 1Yeah , and I'm not , you know , I don't , I'm not surprised , and this is one of the downfalls of um . I I want to say playing in the big 10 , um , but I can't quite do that because Ohio State actually had a decent , a pretty good schedule this year .
Speaker 2Yeah , but overall Yep .
Speaker 1Overall in the past , when you only have one game that defines your season and you don't have , you know , two , three bitter rivals that are also very good , um , that's , that's the struggle . You know , the fans feel it too , because they're not , they're sitting around okay , sure , we're four , and oh okay , sure , we're five , and oh sure we're six , and oh , we beat Rutgers , cool . But like that's , I mean , it's not even an exciting season when you're not playing . You know Bama and Georgia , or you know FSU and Miami , or you know you don't have these rivals , that kind of can can not define your season , but can make it just , you know , justifiable or make it palatable . Um , when you , when you lose the one big one , you know you , you can say , well , at least we won this one and that one , yeah , yeah .
Speaker 2So it does make sense . I mean , obviously it's . It's , it's your . Which you're trying to say is , um , ohio city has unvisited expectations for their coach and Ryan days will feel all of those . He can't lose next year . He can't lose in Columbus again . Um , I don't think he will . I think Michigan's going to take a step back next year for a lot of reasons we can talk about in the off season , but he can't lose again next year . I actually I don't believe he's on the hot seat for any reason . After this job , give him everything else we've seen . Yeah .
Speaker 2He loses again and he shouldn't be if he loses again in Columbus to Michigan . I think that totally , james . I think four straight , including two at home . I think that's when the tenor really does change . Kudos to Michigan they have . They have a um uh a . They have a uh practice game against Iowa next week to decide the big 10 , which they'll win by uh 40 . I think the over under uh for for Iowa is like less than half a point . They're going to get absolutely stoned in that one . But we'll talk about that second half of the show . Uh , moving on , uh quote been 1460 days since those pieces of shit beat us NC state Dave Doran after the UNC game . Wow , coming in hot Kudos to the wolf back for getting a win against NC rival . This is like I brought this quote to to to to , because this is like it summarizes what rivalry week is all about .
Speaker 1Yeah , I love that yeah .
Speaker 2This was a few times .
Speaker 1in sports you kind of see some true colors of these folks and how much they really don't like one another and they get it and and you see it on the field and you see it all around these games at the end of the season and it's what's great about it is everyone gets a pass . Yeah , yeah , I was going to be . No one's going to be talking trash about how classless Dave Doran is . Everyone loves that about college football . That's what rivalry week is Totally .
Speaker 1And you don't see that anywhere else in the sports it's like , oh , he's not a great sport whatever . Yada , yada , yada . No , that's not going to be weak .
Speaker 2Ever understood , that's what we all signed up for , it's true . And the and the and the quarterback that balled out , it wasn't Drake May , who's probably the number two pick next year one million Patriots , it was your boy , brennan Armstrong , going for 334 and three touches . Brennan Armstrong , former Wahoo , ballin' out getting the big win Probably the quietest nine and three team . They should be ranked by now Absolutely NC State really quietly putting together a nice little year . So good for them , well done .
Speaker 1Yeah , they've snuck into what . What are they in the college football play of 15 , 16 , something like that ? I have , I've not looked . I've not looked .
Speaker 2They're . I mean they're not they're . They're looking outside the New York six bowl , but still nine and three they're going to get a nice nod . There's some folks who are protecting them against my beloved LSU Tigers and the Bulliah Quest , which I think is the former outback bowl . Well , I'm really looking forward to seeing the obviously the playoff and the final ranking . As we can see about that Florida State , such an unfortunate situation . They get the win against a bad Florida team , which is good for you and me , florida being five and seven , the pressure being on Napier recruits jumping ship . That's obviously great news for Florida and Tennessee , florida , tennessee and LSU fans . But it's a I say unfortunate situation , florida State , because they are in no way a top 14 , but they 100% deserve to be there if they beat Louisville next week for the ACC at 13 and out , yeah .
Speaker 1This is a fantastic conversation to have because , I mean , we're we're expanding the playoff next year , so but it's still something that you'll see pop up from time to time in the sport . You've got a team that has gone undefeated this is a team sport but you've got their marquee player that's gone down and it's the quarterback position . You probably don't have this conversation with any other position . If it's to your best , running back your best wide receiver , but if they beat Louisville and are 13 and 0 , should they be in the playoff without Jordan Travis ? Jordan Travis , that's the . That's the question . Do they deserve it ? How can you leave them out because one player is gone ?
Speaker 2You can't , you can't , and that is my take , and I think the committee recognized that . I think every college football fan outside of Tallahassee would appreciate the Louisville Cardinals doing all the favor and beating them . If they lose the ACC , they obviously have no place , and then the best four teams , whoever they are we can argue a little bit who they are can advance . I think we can both agree , though , that Florida State without Jordan Travis , which is just so bad . That injury was so terrible . We want to see a full speed Jordan Travis . Those guys are lethal . Lsu fans know that very well . We want to see that game , but we're not going to get it because of this injury . It's just horrific and just just just crummy luck so um , but you have to .
Speaker 1I mean , yeah , everyone is hoping Louisville beats them so that it's a non-issue . But let me tell you something , man Louisville is fraudulent . I'm off . I am off on Louisville . If we would have had our pod last week , I would have said Kentucky won't just compete against Louisville , they will beat them . And they did . I called that , I mean Louisville . God , they have just had a horseshoe up their rear ends the entire season . Let's talk about that .
Speaker 2They are not a good team , so Louisville loses . They were heavy favorites I think there were like seven or eight points favorites going to that game against Kentucky . Kentucky wins the governor's cup . They had a um , they had a kickoff return touchdown . Uh , I think Ray Davis played pretty well 14 carries , 76 yards . Plumber actually had a decent day . He was not the reason they lost , it was . It was Louisville's lack of defense , which is not a good sign . Going into the Florida state game , kudos Kentucky . I had a higher hope for them than seven and five this year . I think I bet the over on their , over on their toes and get there . But getting a big in-state rivalry win , that's gonna be their best win of the year by far . Any other Kentucky Louisville takes .
Speaker 1Um , I know because I don't . Nobody wants to sit here and listen to me talk trash about Louisville for 10 minutes , but don't look at their schedule Go look at the teams they beat . Go look at how they beat them . Yeah , I don't know .
Speaker 2That's all . We'll see what happens next week . Uh , texas , oregon , mizzou , penn state all win and huge on Friday . No surprise that any of them I got . Those are all the . Those were all the other big dogs that went Texas tech , texas tech , oregon , oregon state . Mizzou demolished Arkansas , arkansas , bring them back San Pit anyway . Penn state I think they beat Michigan state 44 and nothing .
Speaker 1Any comments on any of those lopsided , just beat downs , no , I was a little surprised that Texas Texas tech game wasn't a little bit better game . Yeah , Texas tech wants to be their rival .
Rivalry Week Highlights and Game Recaps
Speaker 2Do you know what this narrative so like ? Obviously , like everyone , some people like to claim rivals like get into it . And like Texas , tech fans are dying to be recognized by Texas as their rival and it's . They chirp about it all the time . It's really fun on Twitter to watch , but that wasn't even remotely close . That was straight up beat down . And now they're like please ruin the SEC . So tough , tough luck for the Red Raiders . Yeah , tough nuggies , tough nuggies , tough nuggies indeed . Um , I'm just going to say one thing fourth and 31 , Mike . Fourth and 31 .
Speaker 1What was that Iron ball man ? Iron ball , I mean hashtag . I was so ready to celebrate that that win for Auburn .
Speaker 2Oh my God , you please needed it so bad . He needed it so bad . That was , you know , after the New Mexico State debacle , which we didn't talk about because we weren't there last week . Um , this was , this is the kind of game where it just catapults you into the off season . You know , recruiting in state , taking down him in year one . They obviously would storm the field , Bam would be out of the playoff conversation , which would just ruin all Bama's fan aspirations . Like they had them , had them on the ropes , I mean what ?
Speaker 1else was , that game was over . Man , I mean , you don't , you don't convert that .
Speaker 2No , you don't . I'll say this I'm not much of an XSO guy . This is something you're better at than I am , but I . One thing I saw and I think they're totally right is I really hate the fact they only rushed to , or two and a half . They put a spy on him because if they , if they rush that guy and they for they'll , they force him out of the pocket . Let's one . He has his timing for when he's throw is shortening and to say he runs , he's got to scramble for 30 yards and eight guys are going to come up and tackle him Like that's . Best case scenario is , honestly , is he takes off and scrambles right .
Speaker 1Yeah , I mean obviously hindsight's 2020 , but if you've got a quarterback with a strong arm that's sitting back there , that can plant his feet and deliver a ball , you've got a much better shot at at at converting that . I mean , if you rush , just rush your standard , for maybe you bring one guy extra guy off the edge and then the entire secondary drops back into the end zone . Yeah , I don't know . I mean , whatever , it's tough , they lost , sucks , suck . But yeah , that was a bad call .
Speaker 2Bad call for Auburn . Clemson wins an absolute rock fight 16 , 17 against in state rival South Carolina . South Carolina is stuck down . Shane Beamer might be in a little bit of trouble . He's going to have to turn things around going next season . I'm going to give dabble credit . People were piling on him , you and I included . Going into the very end of the season they turned it around eight and four , given they started four and four . The losses to Duke , ugly loss to Miami , I believe just was not the season that anybody had in mind . Some folks were picking Clemson for day CC championship , the playoffs . None of that happened . Turn around eight and four . Solid work for Dabble and company .
Speaker 1Yes , good season , still disappointing , obviously , but they definitely turned it around . They hung in there . There's a lot to be said for that . I do think that our perception of the ACC was completely off . So again , knee jerk reactions . Early in the season the ACC proved to be not quite as strong as we thought they were , so they took advantage a little bit of that . But yeah , you still got to win games .
Speaker 2True that U-Tap lost to Liberty . I'm always saying Liberty is 12 and now they're going to conference USA championship with playing the worst schedule ever . Did you see that Liberty hired a mariachi band into their locker room at the end of the U-Tap ?
Speaker 1No , I did not .
Speaker 2That was good Twitter fodder over there , Anything else for a while . Talk about quickly anything . Do we want to touch on Jimbo ?
Speaker 1Fisher very quickly .
Speaker 2Oh yeah , I got a whole coaching separate we're going to jump into . Oh , last one , we'll talk about K-State Iowa State . K-state finishes eight and four lose to Iowa State . Did you watch this game ? It was our first whiteout game of the season . Snow was .
Speaker 2Oh I did see some of that . Yeah yeah , k-state was a nine and a half point favorite . They lost . Winning in the snow is hard . It just changes the variety of football you play . K-state couldn't play as fast as you want to play Iowa State's running back , sama , I believe his last name is 16 carries , 276 yards , three touchdowns . That's how you win a snow game , mike . You run the ball , you just don't take off .
Speaker 1They still put up a ton of yards and points though in this game . I know that was the thing about it . It wasn't like this snow game that finished 10 to 14 . It was 42 to 35 .
Speaker 2It was crazy to see , yeah , it made for excellent television . So sorry , I missed that one . Anything else before we jump into the homers ?
Speaker 2No let's keep it rolling . Cool . Uva , virginia Tech , the Commonwealth Cup , huge win for Brent Dry . I'm going to talk about the good first . Everything went the way that he wanted . The drone strikes were just nonstop Big win in state . Virginia Tech gets to six . I think they're over under total going . This season it was four and a half . This is humongous . For proof of concept They've got playmakers . Drones is clearly the guy that defends . Clearly gels . Tootin got better . I was out on that guy with two or three this college fall season . He has improved as a runner Stock way up for the Hokies . I just I'm everything you know this is . I mean we already said a couple of weeks ago I just wish they could . I wish this was the product they had now when they played Purdue and we were there Marshall . This team could have been eight and 14 , but six and six year two is your Hokie fan Got to be feeling pretty good .
Speaker 1Yeah , and as much fight as UVA showed this year , I think , even though it was then is a rivalry , I think they were kind of ready to to call it quits . Virginia Tech got off to a fast start and I think , quite frankly , Virginia Virginia was was out of gas and kind of just ready to hang it up . Yeah , Ready for the season to be over man , they didn't show up at all .
Speaker 2Yeah , tootin 16 carries , 117 yards , felt in three catches , 133 yards , two touchdowns , drones , 250 and three . The score was 24 , nothing at half and really tech didn't want to break . It was what was it ? 48 to 10 going into the fourth quarter . So it felt like this game was over . Before that , did you see ? I did love the pettiness of the very end . So Virginia Tech got on the field for a team photo at the very end on the UVA field , uva grounds people turned the hoses on and the sprinklers should get them off . That again another piece of rivalry week . Mvp for UVA . I think the UVA grounds crew I'm going to go ahead and say it . Who played better than them on the UVA ?
Speaker 1spot . Yeah , I love to see it and that's just one of those things that's like awesome and so easily just like the Deny ability of like , oh , you know , it was an accident , whatever . But everyone knows .
Speaker 2Oh , they're on timers . Oh , you know , yeah .
Speaker 1Love it .
Speaker 2So kudos to , kudos to UVA grounds crew for that . I was talking about some on the homers . The other side , let's talk about I don't watch the second of this game . Tennessee beat the breaks off , vanderbilt got a little chippy . What was going on ?
Speaker 1Yeah , just honestly , the officials kind of let the game get out of hand a little bit . There were some hits on penalty calls where they didn't blow the whistle , they kind of threw the flags , let them play and then it was an off sides call . So you've got , you know , a Tennessee rusher hitting the Vanderbilt quarterback . Nobody knows what happened or why . A lot of weirdness again rivalry week . No one got thrown out , but just a lot of just you know , just kind of late stuff happening after the whistles on consecutive plays . They cleaned it up and it got better . But yeah , tennessee took care of business . It was kind of a you know , just get out there , do it , do what you're supposed to do . Vanderbilt is not a good football team .
Speaker 2But it was good to see ?
Speaker 1Yeah , it was good to see the seniors . You know Joe Milton had a great game , probably one of his best in an Orange Jersey . So , yeah , that's all I'm going to say about that , all right good stuff .
Speaker 2I'll throw out LSU a little bit . Lsu had their they have a handful with Texas A&M . They were losing at half time . What was it for was 20 , it was 17 , 14 and a half time it was , you know , with Texas . A&m came out with a really good game plan which was just controlled . The clock slows down . They've got a fantastic defense . They've got a fantastic defense and , honestly , with Jalen Henderson they can , they can move it to the pocket . They can do some stuff . He had a pretty good day .
Speaker 1He was running on him .
Speaker 2He was , and we know this is the same , the same problem , lsu's story all season . It's a defense couldn't get off the field . However , in the second half they totally showed up and Jane Daniels that is Jane Daniels Superman thing we ended up scoring 21 points in the fourth quarter . Jane Daniels finished with 250 , four touchdowns , 120 on the ground to counter for 360 total yards had a great game . Lsu gets a great win over a rival , texas A&M , which is so important for us because we're fighting for them from the start and we're going to get them back to the playoffs and obviously just in the in the , get them back for what happened to us last year in Texas A&M . We lost them a lot to the season . So really , really nice win to finish LSU regular season at nine and three . Okay , cool , before we talk about the conversation , we'll talk about the little , some off season stuff . Oh , oh , and one more thing JMU is going bowling based on a technicality , technicality , technicality , not enough six and 16s and so they get to go . So , who knows , to JMU , they also got to win . They're finished season 11 or one . The app state games only lost . Really
Discussion on College Football Coaching Hires
Speaker 2great year .
Speaker 2I wanted that coach . I wanted that coaches can stay on . He's going to be a hot season coach . Let's talk about some coaches . So since we've talked last , talk John Smith , former Oregon state , hired at Michigan state . Tom Allen out at Indiana . Jeff Levy , former Oklahoma officer coordinator , hired at Mississippi state , houston fire . Dana Holgren , mike Elto to A&M and Baylor is not firing a Randa and Sam Pippin is keeping his job at Arkansas .
Speaker 1Those are not only keeping his job at Arkansas , bringing in Bobby Petrino .
Speaker 2Yes , and Bobby Petrino is being groomed , apparently , or , excuse me , he's being , he's being . They say they're , they're , they're , they're checking them out . They know the guy . Those of you who don't remember , bobby Petrino was the head coach of Arkansas . Good head coach at Arkansas . I've been in a couple of 10 , 11 win seasons since 2009, . 10 ish had the scandal with a female volleyball player he was had a romantic relationship with outside his marriage . They got he that . That whole situation came to light when the two of them crashed on the back of his motorcycle . Pretty ugly , bad , and I'm costing him his job and a lot of personal shame . This is the SEC and he's back . So kiddos to him for the rebound situation .
Speaker 1Go ahead and you know what's so so funny about that situation . This is just like the culture that we live in . So many worse things happen all over the college football landscape , but that gets gets brought up so much more because there's that image of him in the neck brace , with his face all beat up , just in shame . Yeah , he became a meme and it became so , just became such a laughing stock because of the physical , just wreck that he looked like , because of this crash .
Speaker 2No , it really was talking point . I mean it's , it's , it's . You think you're having a bad day ? Check out this guy , just horrific but obviously seems recovered and you know the way things are going in Arkansas . Like I'm going to make a low hanging fruit hot take . There is Bobby Patrino , the next head coach at Arkansas .
Speaker 1It's a really easy way to bring him back in . If so , it'll be a year down the road , but yeah , it could be .
Speaker 2It could be . So what are the other coaching takes ? Obviously I can quickly tell on him . I love Johnson Smith , michigan State . I feel really bad about Oregon State losing their coach , losing all those seniors losing their conference . I mean that is a tough transition Johnson Smith making to Michigan State . He is so good at bringing quality to the trenches Michigan State is going , they're going to . He's going to do really good things in Michigan State . I don't know if he's going to compete with the top dogs in Michigan , the Penn State , especially with what's coming from the pack .
Speaker 1But I really like Michigan .
Speaker 2State . I really like the Michigan State higher Anything on Mississippi State . Jeff Levy , elko to A&M , that's a big one , I think . Oh , the big one .
Speaker 1Yeah , elko to A&M is the big one and the sort of shit show that that turned into . Because here they are in the 11th hour reportedly hiring Stoops from Kentucky and there's this outrage and all of a sudden he's not getting hired anymore . Apparently he flew in and then it's a no-go . So there was just a lot of smoke and I don't know . It just seemed like they didn't have a plan . Luckily they did land on a very solid coach , but I don't know . I mean , what's your take on all that ?
Speaker 2So a couple things . So I one , I don't know why Texas A&M fans are pappeling Mike Stoops . He's a darn good coach and honestly , they wouldn't be lucky .
Speaker 1I agree with you there .
Speaker 2They would have been really lucky to have him , considering what he's done at Kentucky , of all places , given their lack of resources and whatnot . My speculation is , I kind of think , although I think Elko is probably the same caliber of coach , all things considered , what he did at Duke is pretty impressive as well , and he knows A&M . Being the former D-Fila coordinator there , I think he was a much cheaper option . Stoops was making 7 million , something like 7 , 8 million , so they were going to have to pay him 10 a year for , I don't know , eight years , something like that . They're they are , they are buying , they are in the process of buying out the biggest contract in the history of college football , like a buying a three times multiplier .
Speaker 2I know Texas A&M money . We all talk about it . They got money , they got oil money for days , blah , blah , blah . That's still a lot of cash . I wonder if my speculation my speculation is Texas A&M , while being incredibly resourceful , might not be , might not be running from this guy . I kind of think they were like let's get see if we can get a coach at a reasonable price with a high upside , which is exactly what they got in Mike Elko . And what if he brings Riley Leonard with him . Like you know , crazy things have happened .
Speaker 1Yeah , I don't know . Does Leonard have eligibility left ?
Speaker 2I don't know , I'm totally speculating and I , you know , I kind of I'm in the eye of the kid , the . I think he's a red shirt freshman who was hurt . He has a lot of high upside , so I mean , it takes A&M , they're going to get stubs .
Speaker 1I guess my take on this is as a big time program , with all the resources you have at A&M , you want something proven . Everybody thinks they're entitled to hiring a coach who has done it before throw money at them . We want a sure thing , right ? We both know there's no such thing as a sure thing in college football . Look at Jimbo Fisher . They thought that was a sure thing .
Speaker 1But if I'm an A&M fan as much as I've been impressed with what Elko has done at Duke , it's he has such a short period of time that he's been a head coach . You know this is a big step up for him . Duke is not A&M . Duke had zero expectations . Everything he did there was a surprise , was great . Pat's on the back good for you . Now he's stepping into the A&M job after the biggest debacle of the Jimbo Fisher era . He's going to be under a microscope . He's going to be in the SEC . It's a big jump for him . This is like a big step up . So it's just , it's going to be interesting to see that If you're a fan , you're kind of wanting somebody who's maybe been there , done that a little bit more , even though he was the DC at A&M prior . This is , you know he's pretty new to the head coaching gig .
Speaker 2Yeah , but let's talk about it really quickly . So like I hear you're saying like , yeah , let's make go out and get like a sure thing , but like honestly , in the last 15 years there have been two programs that have gone out and done that successfully Alabama McSaven and Michigan Jim Harbaugh . Look at all . Look around the college , look around the college football world , look at the best coaches .
Speaker 1Ohio State .
Speaker 2Chiefs Arcation had tons of baggage in Texas .
Speaker 1Urban Meyer .
Speaker 2Urban . Okay , oh yeah , okay , I'm sorry , who currently ?
Speaker 1No , I'm not saying . I'm not saying that there is such a thing . I'm just saying you want to see a little bit more of a track record . Yeah , yeah , yeah .
Speaker 2I'm just saying that there's so , so few teams have actually pulled that off , like you know . Oh , you're right , urban Meyer , a couple of years ago they had Ryan Day , who's a coordinator . Dan Lanning , former defensive coordinator . That was a risk . Davos Sweeney at the time that was a risk . Kirby Smart no head coach , very bad coach .
Speaker 1Well comes in . Had zero expectations prior to Davos Sweeney Sure , so like that's not even in the conversation .
Speaker 2Sure , but like my point is is , like all of these coaches which are now considered like the best coaches in college football and for good reason , they've earned it all of them , when they were hired , were not like sure things Like they were taking things .
Speaker 1I'm not saying that . I'm saying you want someone with experience , yeah , but even I don't care if it's a national championship on the resume . Obviously that didn't work out for them . But you want , as a fan , you want somebody who knows how to manage a program . At least . What does Duke and Mike Elko's experience with the NIL ? What is his experience going into the transfer portal ? What is his experience managing a big time roster where you've got five stars all over the place Like ? What is his recruiting track record at Duke ? Like ? These are my . This is what I'm talking about .
Coaching Candidates and Conference Championships
Speaker 2All right . So it sounds like if I'm crossing words , so it sounds like if you were an A&M fan , you would have preferred Stoops to Elko because , given what he's done , given the track record at Texas , I mean at Kentucky as a head coach , I think so honestly and I've been I mean Stoops has done about as good of a job as you can do at a place like Kentucky .
Speaker 1He's been a head coach for a very long time . I think the big thing about what has changed about coaching over the last several years is it's not about purely exes and noes anymore and recruiting talent Every year . I mean , right now you're managing COVID seniors who you don't know if they're gonna stay or leave your program . You might have a mass exodus of like 15 guys and you're gonna have to turn around in the transfer portal and fill those slots , you don't ? I mean there's just a lot more moving parts . It is a nonstop grind and Elko just doesn't have as much experience . He may turn out to be great . I'm just saying as a fan of A&M , I would want someone who has shown the ability to do that a little bit more . That's all .
Speaker 2Yeah , that's a reasonable take . I would go the other way with Elko , just because I like the lightning in the bottle . What he did I thought Riley Leonard healthy with that Duke defense did last year and this year , despite I mean they got ravaged by injuries Like he . The sample size is smaller , but what he did was more impressive in a singular season . So like I would argue that way , but I mean either way , I can't count the first place with both hands . I think we both agree , though overall either one would have been great hires , and I don't know why . A&m with Puku , mike Soos . Anyway , that's enough about A&M's situation . Hopefully they both fan out . You and I get all their recruits forever and always . Conference championship week , let's move on .
Speaker 1Yeah , let's go .
Speaker 2So we don't want . It's a pretty thin slate . I really only have six games that I want to talk about . First one we'll talk about is ACC championship . Louisville opened up as a five and a half point dog . This game is down to two and a half . Vegas , the Sharps they are all bullish on Louisville . I heard what you said earlier about Louisville being fraudulent , but I think everybody is reacting to what they saw happen in Gainesville last week , which was a like I mean , let's say it , they looked bad on , did not look good , and Florida is bad with the capital B bad they're not a good team .
Speaker 1This is another example of Louisville just moonwalking through their season with a horseshoe up their rear ends . Because here they are , they've got FSU right in front of them with no quarterback .
Speaker 2Yeah , like I mean , I think Jeff Brahm is a really , really good coach . I think Plummer is a good quarterback . They've got George Johnson on that . They've got some playmakers . I'm taking Louisville to win this game outright . Maybe I'm just wishing it into existence . I really want Florida State to lose so we can get a Texas or a Pac-12 loser , or even Ohio State . I want a better team in that four spot besides Florida State . So I think I'm just kind of hoping into existence . But I will generally believe Brahm is going to scheme up some really brilliant stuff . I got Louisville winning this game outright .
Speaker 1Yeah , I do too . All right good stuff . How can you say that after you dunked on them so hard ? Well , Ebisu doesn't have a quarterback .
Speaker 2Ebisu doesn't have a all respect to Tate Rodmaker , I just don't think you're the guy . It's a good four hits . You have to care with Diva . The thing that makes four states so deadly and I'm going to put this from personal hand is those receivers . And if Tate can't get them the ball , then that's that . You know , like , if they can , if they can neutralize or just downplay the impact of the Keon Coleman's out there , then like that's going to go a really long way to Louisville's chances to win Big 10 championship . In Indiana , Michigan is a 23 point favor that opened up as a 20 and a half move in Michigan's favor . I don't think Iowa scores . I'm just going to go and say it right now . I think this is going to be a . I mean they get a field war touchdown . They're lucky , I think . I think Michigan's going to get the 31 points with ease .
Speaker 1Yeah , this will be a snoozer . It'll be a tune up game .
Speaker 2Yeah this is . I'm expecting the backups to get lots of snaps . I'm expecting Edwards to have a big day , quarrel probably going to get rested . I just could you say Iowa for taking advantage of an obscenely ridiculously unbalanced big 10 with conferences that are 100% going away next year . This is never going to happen again for Iowa . So enjoy your trip , enjoy the gear , enjoy the swag , enjoy the TV time , because it's all over after . Yeah .
Speaker 1I don't even think this is one of those where you can like look at it and say , like what could Iowa do if they wanted to make , like make this a game in the fourth ? They just they can't .
Speaker 2Nope , I hate to do this . I never say never like crazy things happen , but I just I can't , I can't see it . Let's move on Big 12 , texas opened up as a 10 and a half point favorite against Oki State . It's moved to like 14 or 15 in some places . Big money coming in on Texas . I feel the exact same way . I'm going to tell you now , other than Louisville . I'm like I'm pretty chalky . I'll tell you why at the end of the whole segment here . Ali Gordon is an awesome running back . He is about to hit a brick wall
College Football Championships and Transfer Portal
Speaker 2. The reason Texas has not had a is Texas back game where you and I joke about , have talked about for years , is because this defense has played outstanding all season . What is Oklahoma State going to do to take on this team ?
Speaker 1Yeah , and well , not to get ahead of myself , because I completely agree with you , I have been really high in Texas all year , obviously , and I've said that I didn't think they would have one of those games and they've almost . They've almost slipped up a couple of times but they haven't , and that's the difference . They are kind of peaking at the right time . I thought Texas Tech would give them a little bit more of a game and I think Texas can see the light at the end of the tunnel now and there's no way they drop this one .
Speaker 2Yeah , I don't see either . I just think what Oklahoma State does well , which is throwing the ball , just plays right in Texas defense , right in the Texas strength and where Texas has kind of spotted a little bit . On the other side of the ball , quinn Ewers not necessarily living up to the lofty expectations , although he's overall had a pretty good ear , despite being hurt some of it . When he's healthy , I mean he's played pretty well . I just don't think Oklahoma State potentially has the ammunition to the Cowboys under the M out of that stat . No pun intended , hey , keep it rolling . Anything else on Big 12 champions no , all right , pac-12 championship this game is in Vegas .
Speaker 2Oregon is a nine to half point favorite versus UW . That line's too high . I don't know why . I mean we are all impressed with Oregon . They've done a lot of really good things . Bonix is awesome . He's the highest contender . Got thoughts on that , but it's a different conversation . This game is too high . Uw has been resilient . They won't get . We didn't talk about last . We didn't talk about the Apple Cup because Washington State's kind of fallen off , but they escaped that one as well . The Oregon State in the rain last week was a really impressive one . Who would have were out . I don't know why . Or I don't know why Oregon's two score favorites over UW .
Speaker 1I don't know . I don't know the line , but I know Minus nine .
Speaker 2They get nine points right now .
Speaker 1Yeah , I don't know why that is as high as it is , given the last time they played each other , but I do think Oregon wins this game . I do like Oregon better . I think I called this game a couple of weeks ago when we saw this playing out this way . I do like Oregon , they're just . I like Bonix . I mean this is the one I'm the most excited about , probably outside of , I guess , bama Georgia . I think I have my eye on this one the most , though , just given what the first game looked like , and you know the two quarterbacks that we haven't played here , with Jayden Daniels sitting on the sidelines , I mean a fantastic performance . You know , to win this game could put Nix or Panix Jr back in the Heisman front runner . So , yeah , there's a lot of intrigue to this one .
Speaker 2So it's also it's Friday night . It's gonna be a Friday night game , it's a little treat . And also it's as high as over under the week . At 67 points they're calling for some offense . So from just a fan college football fan perspective , I think it's gonna be a really exciting game . I think the line is too high . I just wouldn't be shocked if UW pulls it out , because they've been doing it all year . They've just proven to be just a tough tough out . So if they're getting two scores , go ahead and give me that . I'll take those points .
Speaker 1No , I do like your pick there . I like it to be a closer game than that , but I still like Oregon to edge them out .
Speaker 2SEC Championship big one , number one , georgia . It seems Atlanta is about an hour from Athens . It's not a home game , but it almost feels like it . Some way this line has moved in Georgia's favor . Yeah , I got Georgia . I got Georgia's number one team in the country . Dude , you and I are gonna nail our offseason pick . You and I both had Georgia and Michigan in the championship . You're both on different sides , but we're both gonna get there . That's pretty exciting . I got Georgia , georgia's Go ahead .
Speaker 1No , finish your thought . I know what you're gonna say .
Speaker 2I think Georgia's elite , I think they're peaking . I think Carson Beck is gonna be the Heisman frontrunner next season and he's absolutely doing . They got Brock Bowers back . I think Alabama's defense got gashed by a bad Auburn offense . And I get the games in Jordan hair . That game is weird . I don't think Kevin Steele is that good , I don't think their defense is that good and I also don't think Jayden Milrow has . He plays a check with me offense . Look at the sideline . He can make a couple of reads . He plays . This is Georgia . There's seven NFL guys on that squad . I don't know why Georgia's gonna win this game by 10 plus .
Speaker 1Yeah , I do think it's gonna be close for most of the game . Just because Saban is that good and I think he can prepare this can be a really good game , x's and O's wise , but Georgia's just too good . They've got too many weapons . They're more efficient and reliable on offense . I think that's what you're gonna see . They're better at the quarterback position . They're better on defense . Bama has shown to be vulnerable in a lot of ways and their strengths don't really match up well against Georgia's lack of deficiencies . Really , I mean , they're not gonna get after Carson Beck with that pass rush and , frankly , georgia doesn't really have to run the ball . Which is again a strength of Bama's defense is that run defense . Georgia hasn't really shown that . They've had to rely on the run and , yeah , just there's too many pieces that stack up in Georgia's favor . I think they end up it's a close game and then they end up separating a little bit late .
Speaker 2Yeah , I mean Kendall Milton is an outstanding running back .
Speaker 2He can definitely . He can certainly bring a little if they want to . That offensive line has like three guys that were on the USA today . All SEC team Like what's in the outstanding front .
Speaker 2Dallas Turner is a great pass rusher but I mean I agree with you like he's going against , he's rocking a hard place here . He's gonna be really tough and Carson Beck has proven to be not that shakeable and I just don't know that Bama's gonna do it in Atlanta . The one thing I will say for Bama is their record against Georgia and in Atlanta is superb . It's outstanding . I think they're like 16 , something . They've got their win percentage . They've done really , really well historically . I just don't think this is that spot . So we will see . That'll be a phone to watch . In terms of the group of five games , I'm gonna give a quick shout out to Tulane . They are in the . They're in the AAC championship against SMU . This game's in Yulman Stadium in New Orleans . They're 11 and one . I think they're gonna dust SMU . Willie Fritz is one of the most impressive coaches in G5 . He's the other name that people are gonna be calling him in . Jeff Trailer UTSA for an upgrade . Go Green Wave , roll wave , good for them .
Speaker 1Yeah , go wave , go green , Go green wave .
Speaker 2Anything else from the other non G5 , sun Belt game , mountain West game , the Mac game or the CUSA conference , usa game .
Speaker 1No , I'm kind of been off that right now I haven't been dialed in .
Speaker 2I will say , since I visited the Virginia team , liberty 12-0 , 8-0 conference USA . I mean the rate of the schedule was very low , but 12-0 . You play . All you can do is beat the teams on your schedule , which is what they did . So they're 12-0 . They are 10 point favorites in this New Mexico State . But they're probably going to roll kudos to Jamie Chadwell and Liberty Flames for that . Captain .
Speaker 1Roland , no follow-up after Frizzler .
Speaker 2No follow at all . Last thing I want to talk about really quickly is transfer portal season . It is heated up big time . A couple of names have already announced Malik Murphy , who you and I talked about already , is one of the top transfer . Will Howard , kent State quarterback Max .
Speaker 1Johnson .
Speaker 2Yeah , TVD is in the transfer . Max Johnson , former LSU , Texas A&M , Amade Goodwin . He started for LSU running back high four star . Couldn't get healthy .
Speaker 1Will Rogers , state quarterback is in there , will Rogers will be a nice pickup for somebody .
Speaker 2Yeah , and what hasn't happened yet at least not technically as of this morning , but very well happened any day now . Cam Ward , washington State . There's a lot of smoke around him leading as well . This is weird in this weird era of college football . It's like the NBA offseason . Some NBA fans talk about the offseason so exciting because of what you see in the free agency . This is these are good to great college football quarterbacks that are going to completely change or I should say , have the capacity , the potential to completely change the makeup of some of these programs . I can't wait to find out where some of these guys go .
Speaker 1Yeah , and this is what I'm talking about . I mean , this is silly season , man . You've got guys you don't know who's going to the NFL , right , you don't know who's going into the portal . You're a head coach who thinks you've got your starting offensive line coming back . You could wake up tomorrow and they could all be gone . Yeah , and you've got to . And then you've got to go out and figure out who you're . You've got to know these things . You've got to say , hey , kid man , I'm sorry to have to do this to you , but I need a decision . And the kids looking back at you like , look , coach , I don't know what to do , help me out . I kind of need some in-a-own money if I'm going to stay . And you're kind of looking back at him like I just need to know because I need to fill your spot . So like it's tough , it's tough and all this stuff has to happen , like within the next couple of weeks . So yeah , it's definitely , it's definitely tough .
Speaker 2And there's going to be a lot of high profile spots available . I'm not , you know , all respect to the backups , the quarterback prospects that are there , but the team's just on the top of my head that could be vying for big time transfers Oregon , uw , usc , oklahoma , ohio State , oklahoma , notre Dame , florida State . These are all quality , awesome teams that are either losing their senior quarterback or we're , I'm presuming , michigan , jj McCarthy Like these are teams that are probably going to have somebody else . Now they might have a quality guy weighing the weight that they already like and they're excited about . But Texas A&M , like these , like where these guys are going , like you might be seeing some headliners there's going , like Sam Hartman last year going from Wake . Notre Dame was exactly that . That was that part of the whole excitement .
Speaker 2Devon Leary , devon Leary it didn't work out in spades the way we thought it would , but like it could . So keep your eye on the offseason transfers it's going to be . I mean , does any of the any particular transfers stick out to you the most that you're the most interested in , excited about ?
Speaker 1Not specifically . And here's why and at this point not yet Because we saw so many of these transfers that we thought were going to come in and make instant impact , game changer type transfers for these programs that like oh wow , like I wasn't that worried about Kentucky , but now they've got Devon Leary , like , and then we've seen it not quite work out . So that's the interesting part . Like you know , we talked a little bit about DJ Weonga Lollay , but you look at , you look at the best teams in the country . Bonix was a transfer , but it took him a couple years .
Speaker 1Yeah , Michael was a transfer , but it took him a couple years . Jane Daniels in the same boat , and then you've got McCarthy and Carson Beck , you know , with their programs , not transfers , so like it's really a mixed bag . But again , there's no surefire solution . You don't know who's going to work out and who's not .
Speaker 2Yeah , I mean the high upsides are the Bonix's , the Caleb Williams , the Jane Daniels , guys that transferred and took 13 to great heights , at least offensively . But yeah , I mean you could have a same heart man , you could have a brand-new Armstrong , although they finished 9 and 3 . Let's give him some credit . You know , like some transfers that just don't work out . So , lots of potential , lots of fireworks is going to be really exciting . I think that's everything for me . Anything else before we go ahead and put a bow on this thing .
Speaker 1No good show , let's , let's watch some conference championships .
Speaker 2Folks , thanks for listening Again . Sorry about last week . Life comes at you fast , man . Some movie clips somewhere . Be sure to engage with us , like subscribe , get us at the Discord , send us a DM . We'll do a mail bag . Next week we're going to talk about next week's my favorite episode , well one . We're going to talk about the conference championship and then we're going to go back . Mike and I are going to dig up all of our August predictions and we're going to go through our hot takes , our bull predictions , our division winner picks , and we're going to roast each other accordingly . Most fun episode last year . It's going to be the most fun this year . Very excited for that . So make sure you tune in next week for our hot takes . All right , folks ? Mike Blitz signing off . Have a great week , See you , see you .
