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College Football Week 2 Wrap Up | Upsets and Triumphs · Run After Cast: The College Football Podcast

• Aaron: Howdy, howdy, and welcome back to Run After Cast, the College Football Podcast. I am your enigmatic host, Aaron, joined by my two very strong co-hosts, Ryan, and Chandler. Chandler: What on gentlemen. Can I get a can I get a definition of that word? Aaron: Means mysterious and unsolvable. Chandler: Perfect. Okay. Aaron: sounds good when you throw it in front of a name as long as you don't think about the definition. But we are doing pretty good this week. This is week two of football. We actually got to see real teams playing real teams this week. And across the board, we had some great games, some intriguing games, some surprising games. But before we get into it, this is normally where we go over to the Raction News Desk, see what's going on in the world of college football. I'm gonna sum it up real quick. SEC met to vote to kick LSU out of the SEC. They're not gonna. They're probably never gonna. So action or so raction news over. that was it. Everybody else was caught up in all the excitement of week two. So let's get right into it and start talking about these games we watched. So I think the first big one we could talk about, first real big upset would be the Oregon Oklahoma State game. What'd you boys think of this game? Ryan: I was very, very harsh in Oklahoma State last week because I was saying how they were a G five school and they were so bad because they lost to Tulsa. But they came out and surprised me. Drew Mestimacher played pretty great. He threw like 300 something yards. He ran the ball great. I didn't realize how big he was. He was just like every time they need a first down, it's like just run Drew Mestemaker up there. And he had like a hundred yards rushing and like six carries and like a couple of touchdowns. And Dante Moore was just awful. And I feel bad because I've been saying Oregon wasn't as good as I thought this whole time. But then it's like sad because like Dante Moore is a person, he has feelings, he's tr tanked his draft stock. People are gonna take him number one overall, regardless of what I thought of him. And now he's gonna get a third round draft pick. So I feel terrible for them and their season. I am pleasantly surprised with Oklahoma State and Drew Mestemaker and the rest of that program. Chandler: I mean, the play where he dove like five yards and to like hurdle somebody and then like helicoptered into the end zone on the hit, Ryan: Mm-hmm. Chandler: I fell in love with the guy. I mean that that is that's Aaron: Yep. Ryan: no. Chandler: that's that's the heart that you need in a game. And they wanted it. The whole Oklahoma Ryan: Yeah, it was amazing. Chandler: State team wanted it more than Oregon. And Oregon walked into that game as a multi-touchdown favorite, and they were overlooking it. And boy it was Oklahoma State and the whole rack team wrong about them having the option to win that game. And I love it. Because none of us are Aaron: yeah. Chandler: Oregon fans. And I I love it. I love the underdogs. Aaron: Yeah, I would say I I have a weak spot for rooting for an underdog every time. It's not Mississippi State out there, but we're the underdogs a lot of time as well. However, th this is one of the rack formal apologies from Aaron. I wrote Oklahoma State off this season. after that first game, after the Tulsa loss. I was like, okay, maybe next year you guys you'll use this year to like get everything back in order and next year you'll have a chance. So I was just wrong as wrong can get with that. So you know, congrats. Way to get out there, way to won it, way to put everything on the field. Mestmaker absolutely just was not interested in staying alive for the next game, much less. you know, not putting everything he had in there. And you love to see it. Like if if your team is on the back foot from an early season loss like that, this is how you want them to respond. They did. You can't ask for more. I'm surprised that we didn't see that same fire out of Oregon after how close Boise State was, that you feel like that's kind of one of those teams and moments that as a coach, as a whole locker room, you're like, okay, we got away. We're coming in next week with that fire. Let's let's get us back up in those rankings. Let's get everything the way it should be going. And I I don't want to throw a lot of heat on the Oregon players. I felt like there was a lot of call issues that we saw, a lot of a lot of background work seemed to be the problem with Oregon. And I'm not sure that's something we're gonna see resolved anytime soon. So we'll have to see if they get it snapped back together. But I and I could be completely wrong about this. I'm just not seeing it. And maybe they'll Chandler: But Aaron: prove me wrong. Chandler: football, especially in college, has always been a momentum and confidence game. Whichever team has that and can hold on to it usually wins the game. And For Oklahoma State to host Oregon and have that confidence and go in and beat a top ten team second week after Ryan: Mm. Chandler: a bounce back loss on paper, I mean, they can play with anybody in the country. With that with that mindset. So they can go and the rest of their schedule on paper should be easier than that. So they should have the confidence, you know, to have a clean slate, first loss of the season being the only loss of the season, and go through and just run the table. And you know what? Aaron: Yeah. Yeah. And Chandler: I'm I'm gonna be supporting it. Aaron: Ha ha. Ryan: No, I like it. And even preseason we were talking about how Oklahoma State was gonna be a really improved program 'cause they went from losing what, twenty one straight FBS matchups. So they got this new North Texas Green Wave, everybody going over there. And you know, I did write them off after last week, but they were just they outphysicaled Oregon. Boise State outphysical Oregon. This might just be an Oregon issue. I don't know what it is. Dan Lenning does less with more. They get these great players. They have five stars on five stars. They have all the money. Can get whoever they want. I don't know if it's a development issue, an on-the-field play calling issue. They just like don't do anything with it. And it's sad to see, you know, when you have all these players and you're wasting them. Aaron: Yeah, it's okay. Ryan: But Drew Mestermaker, I love a guy. Have we talked about he's playing Chandler: That's the guy. Ryan: with heart? A guy that plays with heart, that's what you want. And that's all college football is about, you know? He's just thinking, I have to win this game. This is my biggest game of the year. I love it. Aaron: Yeah. Sent them into Oregon failure. And that was it just was it's a fun game to watch because of that and enjoyed it. So Oklahoma State, I'll definitely be rooting for y'all's success for the rest of the season as well. Of it was great to see the comeback from that loss to that week to go into Oregon, not defeated. You know, Ryan, you said it. That that's what college football's about. It's about the bounce back. It's about what happens in your season. How do you develop it? And you know, now we get to fun to have that fun transitory math of Tulsa has a win over Oregon, through Oklahoma State. And those are some of my favorite equations we get each season. But Ryan: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Aaron: looking forward to it. Oklahoma State fans, you came at us in the comments a couple times. You were right, we were wrong. Keep it up. So next up, we also have a team that had a response to a difficult first game. We have Michigan at Oklahoma. What'd you boys think of this game? Chandler: This was the after wrapping up the day. This was this Aaron: Ha ha. Chandler: was the just icing on the cake of my sadness and sorrow going in and having Michigan I mean, on paper, genuinely playing about the same game against Western Michigan as they did to Oklahoma. I mean, yes, Oklahoma is a better team, I guess. Maybe not since I I don't know. But the score was like the same. So Aaron: Yeah. Chandler: their offense still couldn't generate any points, but their defense played just as good and just ended up winning the game for them and it sucked. Horrible. Bad. And go ahead and flame me in the comments, Michigan fans. I understand. Ohio State lost, Michigan won. Great day for you guys. But sucks. Horrible. Ryan: Yeah, I'm not taking anything back. I hate Team Up North, but I also don't like Oklahoma. This is a game of who is the bigger cheater. They're both a bunch of cheaters. Last year, Oklahoma had to give themselves 17 points against us, and their offensive coordinator flicked us off on the TV. And then Team Up North does all this stuff. They cheat, they steal national championship, they steal signs, they have all the off field problems. This is a game of who could cheat more. And my whole thing, I thought that Team up north couldn't score enough points. Bryce Underwood had that one little run or whatever. He actually had a little bounce back game. I'm not gonna lie. I know we hate him. He played a lot better. Aaron: He did. He did. Ryan: But Ogo has the worst open field tackling I've ever seen. They take the worst angles. They missed every open field tackle. They throw with the screen. It's one on one. I'm he's missing this first tackle. And I also forgot that John Mateer can't throw a football. Because last year they would talk about how he's like a Heisman favorite, and I'm like, no, he's not. And then he still couldn't throw a football. And they blamed it on his thumb and the whole time he couldn't throw the football. But he was just throwing meatball subs up, you know, and it was terrible. They just handed the team up north a touchdown as well, because he threw the pick six on that 30 yard line. They just totally self imploded. I like that really I like that number one receiver on Oklahoma. That's the only positive on that entire team. Other than that, terrible. Terrible. Chandler: say the story of the game is the amount of pressure Michigan was generating on their Ryan: Mm-hmm. Chandler: defensive front. I mean they were living in the backfield and especially in the second half, Aaron: The whole time. Chandler: Oklahoma didn't have an answer. And that was a Aaron: No. Chandler: big reason why they were generating turnovers and they were generating tons of pressure. They worked hand in hand Ryan: Yeah, it wasn't Chandler: and their defense won them that won them that game. Aaron: 100%. and like I've I've been on the record here, not a huge Michigan fan. Offensively, not a huge Michigan fan. Defensively, y'all have got something there. that is something Chandler: I always do. Aaron: they do, they do, and they're showing it. It came in, and I do want to highlight that for what people are gonna talk about Matir here. It's still a negative. on Matir that all those turnovers happen. It is something that we had talked about early on that after the injury, people did look back at the early times with Mateer and I think had a little bit of rose tinted glasses with him because there were a lot of those questionable throws prior to the injury. And we wanted to see him back at full form. This is Mateer under a ton of pressure and you have to count that in that like a quarterback under constant, consistent pressure Is going to make bad decisions. You just don't want to see it so frequently that it's swinging the entire game. And that's what we saw is these rushed passes into questionable routes where either somebody's sitting off to the side, he didn't have a lot of time to look, he didn't have a lot of time to really evaluate. But that should have been something that it's like, okay, we have to have an answer for that. And either he wasn't getting that answer from the sidelines. to what he should be doing and and his improv was still making the questionable throws, it cost him the game. And I like I don't think there was a answer with the offensive line performing the way it was and the Michigan defense performing flawlessly. I mean, you just can't ask for a better defensive performance from your from the trenches to say like, well somebody's back there about to get a hand on him every single play. So absolutely swung the game. took out Oklahoma before really there was a good system in place. There was no rhythm. There was nothing that they could settle into and make productive. So it is a win on Michigan. I'm not gonna take that away. I'm not gonna say like this is not the performance of Michigan. It was not the performance of Michigan's offense, even though I agree, Ryan, Underwood did have a bounce back game here. I I do think he performed better. He wasn't deflated after that first game. Which we do see happen. So credit to him there. But primarily, I'm giving credit to Michigan's defense. It's scary. Ryan: Yeah, it's really good. And I obviously they're switching up looks, you're not running the whole the same thing the whole time. But even when they're rushing four, they're getting so much pressure and they kept running cover two man a lot. But even if they're rushing four, they were getting pressure, they were bottling up the run, and cover twos man's so good in real life because you pull those safeties down, you can leverage which way you want. And it it's really good. But even when there was a guy open, John Mateer physically could not throw the football. He missed three wide open screens, he just couldn't get the ball there. But Rocky Beers, I forgot about him. Great name, by the way. He was he was awesome. Aaron: great. Yeah. Ryan: He was making plays. There'd be bad throws. He was picking it off the ground. It was wonderful. He was very good. He's not a big old clunky tight end, too. He was fighting for extra yards. I like that. John Mateer needs to figure out how to throw a football, though. But yeah, he went north, great defense. I will give them that. Aaron: And I won't I won't make Chandler give any closing thoughts on Michigan here. It's gonna be a rough episode for him to begin with. So we'll go ahead and just move on to our next game, which we wanted to talk about A&M in Arizona State. I got to watch this game, thought it was a lot of fun to watch. Boys, what was your take on it? Ryan: You couldn't have been more spot on. It you said it was gonna be close at halftime, it was close at halftime. They couldn't hang long enough. And Texas A&M wishes the better team and they they took it away. Chandler: Yeah, I mean two fourth quarter turnovers for touchdowns. I mean that's a that's nails in the coffin. It was a very fun fourth quarter to watch. I think Texas AM, like we talked about a little pre show, there there's always a quarter or two years kind of questionable play with like whether Aaron: Yeah. Chandler: or not they're gonna blow the game, they're gonna come back, and then sometime a halftime, whatever the halftime pep talk is, takes over. And like we saw in the in the third quarter, then definitely in the fourth quarter with those two takeaways for touchdowns. I mean Just it's it's poetic that Texas A&M does this. Aaron: Yeah. It is it is the strangest consistent, inconsistent play in the league that AM a great AM team plays one really bad quarter a game. A normal AM team plays one bad half, whether it's the first or the second. And that w other half or the other three quarters that they're playing, immaculate. Incredible game play. Like you know, routes getting people open downfield, great explosive plays, or it's constant trudging downfield, just putting up scores, and then defenses getting great stops. Just and to the T. And it's just so funny that it's almost so guaranteed that they don't get four quarters of it. That that prime immaculate play that they have is only for a portion of the game. But it's enough for them. It's what they did all last season, where they'd have their stumbling blocks, they'd have their issues, but somehow they kept coming up top till the very end. And it's something I love about AM. I I do think there's there's some character there that maybe doesn't take them all the way, but it is something that makes them fun to watch. I did want to really talk about this game because Arizona State showed up, and there's always those questions after losing such a highlight player like. Scattaboo, Levitt left. And it's like, what do they have? Like, they're just gonna go back into the dust. And they didn't. They they showed up, they put up that first half of such a competitive game against AM. I do think they got gassed out a little bit in the second half. That can happen. That's something that you know, Arizona State is not someone constantly at that highest level with all the advantages that comes with that. And you just want to see. competitiveness and we got to see that AM's not a pushover. They're a very tough opponent. no matter when you get them, they're gonna put up a fight. And Arizona, that first half for Arizona State looked really tight. It looked really good. Gave me a lot of hope that they're gonna continue on this season with a lot of success. Chandler: Well said. Aaron: But all in all, I think that was a very fun game. you know, relatively clean. They got out of it. A&M with another win. Made the SEC look good. We'll take it. Let's go to an SEC head-to-head matchup, one of our first ones of the season. We got Alabama and Kentucky. And what'd you boys think of this game? Ryan: I mean, Kentucky just could not take the fact that they were supposed to play well. They came out so hot. They went up and it's like, seven nothing. No, let me just give you seven points. Here's a pick six. You know, they just couldn't handle it anymore. And it's so good. It was the perfect narrative. Ryan Grubb couldn't run the ball. They had five yards of of rushing in the first half. But I heard that they lost connection in the headset to Ryan Grubb at halftime. So in the third quarter, they weren't talking to him and they rushed for a hundred and fifty yards in the second half and just took the game away. It was it was close to going to halftime. Me Chandler played an NCA game to simulate it and it was fourteen fourteen a half. We're like, I can't believe this is happening. But Kentucky just played sloppy. They couldn't handle the fact they wanted to play that game. Keelon looked good. Daniel Hill was running the ball. They had 150 yards and a half. I I can't believe it. You know, that's like old Alabama. They just run the ball all over you. They figured out they could run to the outside. They kept doing those outside runs in the second half and they just couldn't catch Ryan Williams caught a couple balls. It was it looked good. It looked good. But yeah, they just totally took it away. It didn't look close at all on paper, but it was it was almost tied going at halftime. Chandler: Yeah, I think blown coverages were a big recipe for disaster for Kentucky. I mean, in a team like that when you're playing Alabama, regardless of what Alabama team you're gonna get, they're gonna take advantage of it. And blown coverages can't happen. And when with how tight it was going into halftime, the second half was just completely different. Penalties, blown coverages, can't win. Aaron: It was one of the games that was up on my second viewing screen. And every time I looked over, there seemed to have been a penalty down. I didn't even get the final penalty count for the game, but I assume it was very high. Just the amount of times I'd look over and I'd see the yellow banner going. But I did want to talk about this game because I did want to give Kentucky a highlight here. I I thought they came out that first half of football. was inspiring to see out of Kentucky. I I am a firm believer that I want the SEC to be strong. Every team. I I want everybody to look good. I want it to be a competitive Chandler: Yeah. Aaron: conference top to bottom. And I feel like for the last few years, there's been the top half of the conference and then there's been the rest of us. And we've been down there and we've all just been in a crab bucket. Just pulling each other down to the bottom. And watching Kentucky, I was like, they Stein has brought that program together. They felt really good. I this was Alabama. And I as much as people have that talk of Alabama's not the same, it isn't the same after Saban, but it's still Alabama. And I think being able to keep Alabama on its back feet in into the second half of the game and having Kentucky just shutting down the line for the entirety of the first half. Alabama came out with answers. Kentucky didn't quite have them yet, but I do have faith in what Stein's putting together there. It looked like he was fired up, the team looked fired up, the fans looked fired up, and it did feel like a loss for them to be proud of because it to me is a riding of the ship for Kentucky to have a escalation of a better season. Even though it's a loss, it is only a loss to Alabama. Which us in the bottom half of the SEC, we're pretty used to. And going forward, I think we're gonna have more answers out of Stein and team to shore up some of those issues that we saw, some of those outside, some of those gassed defensive plays that we saw that just is gonna come with more snaps, more time, more reps. Ryan: Yeah, they look good. It didn't look like the typical Kentucky team. I mean, they looked a lot better. And there was glimpses of like you can compete in this game with Alabama. You just have to do it for a full four quarters. You can't just do it every here and there. You gotta clean it up. It was super sloppy and like you said, way way too many penalties. Chandler: I will say though, Will Stein's kinda like the Curt Cignetti of the SEC as far as like his mentality in the media. And whether or not you think it's cocky or you or how you view it, I think it's good for a program like Kentucky that's not on that top end of the SEC, that wants to have that hope and progress through the ranks of the rankings of the SEC to have a guy come in and say, Well, why are you gonna win games? and his answer is because of me. And I I th that kind of confidence is the confidence you need to have as a buy in for a program to take that next step and to build back up to that competitive level in the SEC. And I think that he can do that. Their offense showed like like Ryan and you said they have sparks to be able to have the the mentality and the schemes to be able to produce production against anybody. And I'm excited to see where that season goes because i again it is only week two, but there's a lot of building to to be done. But I mean he he brings a great mentality and a great energy to Kentucky's program. Aaron: And it's and it's his first year. He's not gonna, Chandler: Course. Aaron: you know, not everybody can be a Cignetti. And I I do think we have to give people a little more leeway than we're used to. I didn't see anything coming down the pipe of like Stein needs to go. I I didn't see anything along Chandler: Mm-mm. Aaron: that. I think people are happy with this, but I do think as fellow SEC fans, we get to look at that and say, Yeah. He's bringing that cocky attitude in. I think that you're right. I think that's what a program in the SEC needs because you are still recruiting. You are still talking to players and they're gonna see those highlights. And they don't want to see a coach going out there and say, Well, we don't want to get your hopes up. we're hoping it'd be great to go bowling this year. That sounds nice. having a coach that you believe in that you believe will take you all the way. I think is a key thing for some of these players. As much as money is a huge factor, there's still that belief of am I gonna have that chance to run the table? And I think your coach has to bring that mentality. And I Ryan: What do you Aaron: think I think he lived up to it. I I do think it was a loss, but I do think he came out. He played a very aggressive first half, real like straight down the throat football. And I like that. Ryan: But even Curt didn't win year one. He did the whole Google Me line where y'all laughed at him and stuff. But then he turned around, year two national championship. I do think it's a little arrogant though. This guy, Stein, little arrogant. Everyone likes a humble hero. So he could tone it down a little. But Aaron: Nah. We don't in the SEC. You can admit it. We love drama. We like WWE plot lines in the SEC. We like that level of high drama. We always have, we always will, and if we say anything else, we're lying. Chandler: Yeah, I mean I think I'd rather have like a like a Will Stein or a Curt Cignetti than a like Kyle Whittingham, who are he's a very by the books old kind of coach that is just very about his business, he'll get it done. He's he's trying to turn around an impossible situation in Michigan. But I I think I would rather have the the very confident guy. Because I mean, yeah, you can get knocked down a few pegs, but as long as you have that buy in and that confidence around your program then That's something to that you can't just, you know, buy. You have to ha you have to have it and instill it in your program. Aaron: Yeah, on the scale to like Ryan: I I don't Aaron: Joe Moorhead, two lane kiffin, you gotta fall somewhere in the middle. Ryan: I mean, I don't like Nick Saban, he was pretty humble. He's the best coach ever. Aaron: Yeah. Ryan: But no, I get it. It it makes the players kinda buy in and stuff. The fans like it, especially if you win. They really love it if you're winning while he does it. So Aaron: Yeah. Ryan: I get it. But Aaron: We'll have to keep an eye on it for the rest of the season. Let's we'll we'll have to check in with Kentucky from time to time, see how things are going down there. But that brings us into the now. actually. but there were a bunch of other interesting games. There were bunch of explosive games, a bunch of things that we went off, but we're not gonna take too much time, you know, dogging on ruggers for losing again. but shout outs to Boston College, love to see it. Keep it up. Keep all the great work you're doing. Love the Red Bandana game. I didn't know about that before. actually Chandler told me about it. and I went and looked up some stuff. Awesome tradition. Keep that up. Love to see it. But it Chandler: Yeah, I mean they had me they had me crying on game day. I mean I was sitting there on my couch with a dog at nine o'clock in the morning just in tears listening to this red bandana story. So shout Aaron: Yeah. Chandler: out to Boston College because yeah, that's a it's a it's a great it's a great situation. Yeah. Aaron: That it's gonna be a game I tune in for now. Yeah, I I do love to see those. I think I texted you right after that. Like we need more of those modern traditions that mean so much and really stand for something for a great alum or e whether it's tragedy, whether it's heroicism, like whatever it is. I love to see it. I love the fan base standing behind it like that and them honoring it through that. So shout outs to it. Love to see it. You know, surprised I just learned about it now, but happy to that I know about it. But it does take us into the games we watched with our hearts. And what a great weekend for us. We all went into halftime with 20 plus point leads. That felt great. And we all held Chandler: Sure did. Aaron: on to them and nothing terrible happened, right? Ryan, Chandler: First. Aaron: you held on to your lead, right? Ryan: Mm. Chandler: Guys got jokes. Guys got jokes. Aaron: We held on to our lead. So you know what? Just to put you out of your misery, let's go ahead, let's start Ohio Chandler: Yeah, let me go first. Aaron: State, Texas. Chandler: I mean it was i I like we've talked about very recently in the week one games, the week zero games, and these week games, there's been a lot of games where it's been the first half is a completely different game than the second half. And this was a perfect example again of that. The first half, Ryan it was myself, my dad, and Ryan sitting right next to each other. And I looked over at them And after the first half, I was like, I cannot believe that they are efficiently running the ball up the middle for four, five, six yards a pop whenever they wanted to. They were creating second and third manageables. They were getting through. They were scoring points. The defense, yes, there was a lot of fluky stuff that happened with the Cam Coleman interception that was very strange. With the Aaron: One million. Yeah. Chandler: Ryan Wingo just drop in the end zone, like, yeah, great. But They capitalized on it and I appreciated that. It wasn't like a we're gonna get a fluky turnover and then we're gonna go three and out and punt. And they went into halftime, it was twenty to three. I I thought they even left some points on the table. I was like, Wow, this is going Aaron: They did. Chandler: so much better than I thought it was gonna go. Then the second half rolled around. And my Aaron: I do want to say that first half, I felt the exact same way. I thought Texas was done. Like they cut over to like Arch, they cut over to the players on the sideline. There was just this traumatic look in their eyes. It was just like, what is happening? They looked lost. So whatever happened at halftime, you know, credit to Sark and his team because whatever they said worked. And Chandler: And Aaron: I'll let you take it from here. Chandler: I think it's it's not there's the narrative of okay, Ohio State again as a kicker that's gonna choke in in big situations. I the zero blame in my mind goes towards Connor Hawkins. Because in that s the the when he took that snap to have that kick to ice the game, the play before that was third and four. And their play call was a fade ball to Jeremiah Smith that he was like getting fought out of bounds. And like which it was through an uncatchable ball and like we're we're not gonna throw like some drags across the middle. We're not gonna throw some like quick read read option like throw. Like we're gonna just chuck a low percentage fade ball to the corner of the end zone when we don't need to, from like the forty five yard line. And Aaron: That's that's something I know people have mentioned, like there should have been past interference on that play. I agree with you. I do think the ball was uncatchable. I do think it was just out there. And whether or not it gets called, that's football. That's that happens. Un uncalled penalties happen every game. You don't want to be in a position where it costs you the game. Chandler: Yeah, of course. Yes. Aaron: And I completely agree that that second half, it the play calling got so conservative in the third quarter. And You know you've got Smith double triple covered every play. You're still running them on that. Yeah, third and four, go to somebody like Boyd, somebody who's gonna be lightly covered, where Smith is dragging almost the entire secondary down the field with him. And it's still like toss the ball that Chandler: Yeah, and Aaron: way. Chandler: it shouldn't have even come to that point though, and that's why it frustrates me to see fans talking about it. Like, yeah, he had opportunity to ice the game and it would've been great if he would have won and and iced it and we wouldn't have be h be having the same conversation if that would have happened, which is all fine and great. But if you have a twenty point lead at eight minutes left in the third quarter, there's no business to where he should be trotting out there to ice the game with all of a sudden it's a one possession game. There that like that should never happen. And I think it's it's solely on the offensive play calling was very conservative in the second half. They were just playing not to lose. There was a lot of just obvious passing situations they put themselves in and Texas pinned their ears back and sent a lot of pressure and gave Jillian no time to throw the ball. They're in the defensive play calling, I this is the first time I've really like had a question mark of Matt Patricia. When when he was just in a lot of stock cover three formations and they were just sending four. the whole second half and they weren't getting back there. And just long drive after long drive after long drive, if you keep sending four, they're getting exhausted when you have ten plus play drives. You have to bring in a linebacker or a corner to corner blitz or somebody else to bring pressure back there. Because Aaron: Well, and it was working so effectively in the first half. Arch looked rattled. And that is something like Chandler: Yes. And the defensive line just couldn't do it. Aaron: like I get it if we were in the fourth quarter, you're up way more points and you pull back off the throttle a little bit to drag down that clock. But it felt like they made all these calls right after halftime to say, like, okay, let's play, you know, let's play clock, let's play all this stuff. And it just gave Texas the breathing room they needed to make these plays. to get down to bring the game closer and closer and closer until finally it was Chandler: Yeah. Aaron: too much. Chandler: I mean Arch could have had a Archburger back there. He could have been sitting there eating McDonald's every single snap of the whole third and fourth quarter. I mean it was it was unbelievable. And I mean you would think like okay if you're gonna come out at halftime and you're gonna play conservative and you're gonna chew the clock. I'm even cool with that as long as you make an adjustment to where okay, now the score is getting a little tighter. Now that we're not winning by three possessions, let's go ahead and bring the throttle back up. And let's get this lead back. Let's just not keep playing conservative and hope the clock wins in our favor. So my notes for this game were all clock related. They were, Okay, it was twenty three to eight, eight minutes left to go in the third quarter. Why in the world are we coming out and we're just allowing twenty one points in the fourth quarter to have them come back and win? Why are we why are we playing so conservative on both sides of the ball? So it just create just long drives where the defense is exhausted and the offense is three and out every single time. And if Bo Jackson is your second leading receiver on the team when you're flooded with a seven man deep receiving room that has starting capability, Aaron: Some of the best. Chandler: it's it's it blows my mind. There was only two receivers, not counting tight ends, two dedicated receivers that had receptions other than Jeremiah Smith. And granted, Jeremiah Smith had a great game. He had a hundred and sixty plus yards and a touchdown. He Aaron: incredible. Yeah. Chandler: he figured it out. Arthur was scheming him to get open. But you have other weapons. You have other people around you. Get the ball to other people. I mean, Aaron: Yeah. Chandler: it's it's the second biggest loss in Ohio State history, other than 27-6 Nebraska loss when Braxton Miller got hurt in twenty eleven. And it it's it's it's not good. It it it stung to watch. And my last comment and the last nail in the coffin of it was just a masterclass of a coaching disaster was When you have one timeout and Texas is on the goal line to go up and take a lead with a minute and thirty left on the clock, and you don't let them score, and Aaron: Yep. Chandler: you think in the pre post the post game presser, Ryan Day said he was gonna believe in the defense to stop them four straight plays on the one yard line, and that's why they didn't burn the timeout or let them score. So to to not let them score and give Julian an Any time to go down the field and at least give Connor Hawkins another shot is is insane because I looked at Ryan and I was like, Yeah. Aaron: Hey, Texas even tried because there was that insane snap where they snapped it at like the 20 mark, where they could have let that time bleed off the Chandler: Yeah. Yes. Aaron: clock. And you're like, what is like we're in some sicko ball right here at the end. Chandler: I mean I looked at Ryan and I like, if they don't score on this play after he burned his last time out, I was like, This game is over because they don't Aaron: Yeah. Chandler: have time. Even if he gets the ball with twenty seconds left, it's not gonna be enough time to get down in field goal range. And sure enough, they didn't let him score and they just try to and and they got to third down, so I mean they did better than I thought they were gonna do, but still, like just let just part ways. Part the Red Sea and let them score and give Julian a chance to make a name for himself. I just Aaron: Absolutely. Ryan: Yeah, it it didn't matter. You know they're gonna score. They have a little meatball, Rakeem Brown. He's just gonna run Chandler: Yeah. Ryan: it in. And they didn't even do it. Hollywood Smothers ended up going up over it. But when you have the ball on the two l yard line, you know they're gonna score. Just do it. You played offense the Chandler: Let them score. Ryan: whole game, or I guess a half of a game. But yeah, that is the worst game management officiating I have ever seen. Arthur Smith was doing so good. Sark literally Chandler: The first half but Ryan: Sark literally Ripple teams Jeremiah Smith every game and he's just scheming him open as 160 yards. And I thought Devin McEwen was gonna have a great game because they were gonna lock up Jeremiah. But no, he decided to do that. And like you're saying, you can run up the ball with at will whenever you want, unless you do it every single play, because then they're just gonna blitz every time, which is not good. Aaron: Yeah. Ryan: But in the second half, I kept telling you, you have to score again. You'll this this might be bad. You have to score again. I'm sure the Connor Hawkins field goal could have done it. Yeah, like you're saying too, if you had a minute and a half, he could have just gone and kicked another one. And Matt Patricia was just playing playing too far back. You know, we joke about it. It's Chandler: Way co too conservative. Ryan: like, it's third down, let's all back up and give him the first down. And then they got two fourth down conversions. Aaron: It it was like we were playing for like that last two minute drill for the entire fourth quarter. And you're like, that lets so many plays happen that shouldn't happen. Chandler: I actually have two two yeah, two closing comments. Ryan: Yeah, and two fourths and longs. Two fourth and long. Chandler: Number one, exactly that. How in the world are you gonna have two fourth and long conversions on Texas's own like thirty-five and their own forty? They were on their side of the field both times. And one was like fourth and six and one was like fourth and like ten plus. And you're gonna i not bring pressure. One of them they did and J Timmons just kinda got torched. But the second one Fourth and sixth, they did not bring pressure, and and Arch Manning had plenty of time just to look around, find his read, and hit it. And that's unbelievable. Second thing, first drive of the game, when they go down the three-yard line and it's second down. Why in the world are we calling a toss to the weak side when you've been running up the middle and For five plus yards the opening drive every single snap. Now we're gonna go to the shortest side of the field and we're gonna throw a weak side toss. Unbelievable. Crazy. And then it was third and Ryan: You know Chandler: long, field goal. I mean it there's so many play calls in that game where it was like, why are we doing this? Ryan: I've seen that outside run before in the twenty Chandler: Yeah. Ryan: twenty four Texas Ohio State game when Texas Chandler: Texas game. Yep. Ryan: ran it and got stuffed by Lathan Ransom. And even I was like, That's terrible play call. Yeah. Chandler: Yep. Great. It's just a hor why on the short side of the field, with that condensed of a field, it's n it you're you're having to run like fifteen plus yards in a three yard situation to even get back to the line of scrimmage. Ryan: Yeah, it's bad. You're setting yourself backwards. You're setting yourself back. And even Texas was doing that a lot. Ryan Wingo would go back. Also, the Ryan Wingo drop, I just think he's not a good downfield threat. He's a gadget guy. People think he's a downfield field threat because he's 6'2. But even they had when they had like an and around, Jermaine held his ground and he got him back there for a negative loss. That was so good. Jermaine made me so happy. Yeah, the de the Demons played great. But Chandler: Jermaine played his mind out. He he he he played great. Jay Timmons played great. Aaron: Yeah. Ryan: but Matt Patricia kept dropping everyone back, only sending four. Y'all get so much pressure. In the audacity to say that Arch was having a better game in the second half. Technically he was, but they're like, this is different Arch. They're letting him play backyard football. No, he just had all the time in the world. Yeah, you could do Chandler: Yeah, they were dropping eight the whole second half. I mean, what do you what do you expect them to do? Aaron: Yeah. Ryan: He could do everything he wanted. He had all the time in the world, and then he would just find his his tight end in a soft spot. He did nothing. He lurked through with his tight end. Chandler: Or his run running back would just leak out because he didn't have to sit back there and chip block because they were only Ryan: Yeah. Chandler: blitzing three. Ryan: Yeah, yeah. And a lot of times, yeah, they would block the tiny, he would sneak out, throw it in the soft spot. He it was so bad. It was so bad. That's terrible game officiating. You gotta play Chandler: Yeah, frustrating game. Aaron: Now the one thing Ryan: aggressive from start to finish. Put a hundred on him. Aaron: Yeah. Chandler: Actually a lied last thing now. After the game happened, and at halftime, Ryan Day was asked. When it was twenty to three, Ryan Day was asked, You guys are off to a hot start. You've turned you've converted on a lot of like weird, fluky turnovers. Like you're you've put the pedal the metal, like you you've widened this gap. It's a lot farther of a of a point spread than it should be at halftime. How are you gonna keep going in the second half? His response was It's gonna be a four quarter game. We're gonna have to win every quarter. Great, but Why does it have to be a four quarter game when you're already winning by three possessions? Just go out there in the third quarter like they did against Tennessee, like they get did against Oregon in the playoff run, and just keep expanding the lead. Keep making it not a game. Keep closing it out to where the fourth quarter, everybody can just sit on the sideline and be like, there's no physical way they can come back. Like it's just over. So then yeah, you did Ryan: Yeah, ar Chandler: win the fourth quarter, but I mean it's j it's more so the fact that they just couldn't come back. Ryan: Yeah, Arthur Smith was too scared to put the ball in harm's way, but Joey Chandler: Agree. Ryan: and Saint isn't gonna put the ball in harm's way. I was mad the one time he he was kind of looking to Jeremiah a little bit because he was feeling him too much. He did miss a wide open steam Chandler: Devin McEwen. Ryan: in cover three to Brandon Innis. Other than that, he played a wonderful game. He was throwing it to everybody. He had great accuracy. Aaron: Mm-hmm. Ryan: He was running a little, you know, he was extending the pocket. I love to see it out of him. But yeah, you're playing too conservative. He's not gonna put the ball in harm's way, so I don't know what he was worried about. And Matt Patricia was just playing risk management. But I've been seeing so many things that's Arch sitting there, and it's the picture of him and Tom Brady in the 28 3 game against the Falcons and stuff. They're just glazing Arch. He did not win that game. Ohio State lost that game. No offense. Arthur Smith lost that game, Chandler: No, he got yes, yes. I mean i credit to Texas for Ryan: and then Ryan Day lost it by not letting them score. Chandler: And and credit to Texas for putting up twenty one points in the third in the fourth quarter and taking advantage Aaron: Absolutely. Chandler: of what was given to them because I mean if you're sitting in a situation to where you're dropping eight or you're dropping seven and you're only blitzing three or four down linemen, then yeah, it's gonna be tighter coverage downfield theoretically because there's gonna be more D Vs, more linebackers in coverage. But he had all the time in the world for those routes to develop and he did it. He converted on two fourth downs, he got he Aaron: Absolutely. Chandler: i sustained long drives and they won the game. So I mean all those things had to still happen, but the chances of them happening Aaron: Yeah, yeah. This is not to take away Texas's victory here, because you're exactly right. Chandler: But the chances of them happening were s extremely elevated because of the defenses they were in and how they were running the offense, because the defense played probably twenty minutes of the last thirty minutes of the game. Aaron: Yep. They were given the opportunity to make a comeback and they took it. And so it is, it is still credit to Texas and credit to Ohio State and Texas here. This is a tough week two game. This is I I think this is something when people we are seeing that hyper reaction online of Fire Ryan Day. people posting that, you're insane. That's a crazy statement. It was a bad game for Day and Crew. Absolutely. Bad calls, bad coaching. It it didn't line up. But it is also week two. You are playing with what you think, not what you know at that point. I think later on we tighten this up. I don't think we see this game happen again for Ohio State. Maybe postseason. We can see something like that. But main season, they burn their one they can get away with here against Texas. And Texas is a strong opponent to lose to. I will say the one thing I noted in the game was Julian Sayin. Throwing wise looked great. When it comes to running, there's a hesitancy that costs so many opportunity that it's like he starts to get a run, he kind of stutters for a few steps, then goes into the run. But it's enough time for anybody in the secondary that's within range to see it react and get in trajectory. So it pushes him to the real far outside angle instead of going up the middle, getting a first down and being able to slide. He's starting to head to the sideline. So it's a lot of feet and a lot of movement for a yard, a yard and a half. When if he would have commit right off the gate, gone through the middle in the gap, he probably could have put up five, six, eight yards in a lot of those runs, but a lot of them ended on the sideline, avoiding the hit with. one yard or at the line of scrimmage. And I thought that was just a weird thing to see all these like stutter runs and then straight to the to the sideline, not really pushing forward with it. Ryan: I he wasn't allowed run the ball last year. So I could see a hesitancy that he's allowed to run it. Aaron: absolutely. Ryan: He had a good run, like I think it was in the first quarter. It was pretty good. But yeah, other than that, I mean I guess he's just trying to extend the pocket. But yeah, he tries to get outside or something. But I think it's like, I actually let a run now and then he is he is slightly hesitant. Like he shouldn't even need to run. Like most of the time he's able to get the ball off. I guess yeah, some of the time he had a little too much pressure. He's kinda extended the pocket. He could have could have ran, I guess. But Aaron: It is something where I just noticed there'd be a couple times where pressure was coming. There's an open gap on the front line. There's some yards to get, and you'll see him like indicate that he's going to run, pull back and do one more scan, and then go. And it's like anybody that's eyes on him, because I will say that was the issue on Arch we saw. Arch also hardlocked where he was looking. And anybody in that secondary, experienced secondaries are reading the quarterback. And they're gonna see that that hesitancy stutter stop run. And then when Arch was eyeing his primary target that he was gonna throw to and then go for a pump fake and then still keep eyes on target and throw to that target. That's why we saw so many jumped routes there. Like it was it was something that it is an issue. Week two, once again, big highlight, week two. But they're gonna need to work on those things. Both teams have a lot of improvement they're gonna need for postseason. Ryan: I just can't believe you lost that game. I feel like you're with a significantly better team. But yeah, it was like I'm not trying to take it away from Texas. But it was like, yeah, the second half, they kind of just took what was handed to them. That was the worst coach. That was the worst coach Chandler: Which is what good teams do. Aaron: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Ryan: second half ever. And it's not like they did anything extraordinary. They literally, yeah, they just took what was in front of them, took the few yards, I guess, that was in front of for a better figure of speech and And they got it done. And you had the worst second half coaching I've ever seen and you lost by one point. I still think you're the significantly better football team. I just still can't even believe the game's over. That happened. Like I can't comprehend it. It's bad. Aaron: Shocker. But by no doubts, it's not the end of Ohio State season. It's not the end of the run. This isn't a scenario that you know we we might say that about Oregon, but that's because we don't like Oregon. so we can say that. But no, I d I do think Ohio State still has all that talent, still have everything, they still have all the pieces that they need. We just need to fix. some of though some of those issues which I don't see them lining up with for the next stretch. So I think there's plenty of time to make corrections. I think we'll see a much cleaner remainder of the season. Hopefully. Chandler: Hopefully. But now we get to end the show with two positive notes and two wins. Because guess what? Last week Aaron: We do we do. Chandler: I thought we were all gonna have three wins. We're gonna all wear our rose petaled glasses and we were gonna have a great Aaron: I I did want to say Chandler: week. Aaron: I told my wife before we recorded. I said, who would have put money down that Chandler would be the first one with the loss for this season? Who Ohio State bringing the first loss of the trio here. You know, thank you. Thank you for taking that one for us. So, but Chandler: Of course, of course. They have a they have a lot of games down the stretch to where either they face the music and they just crawl in their shell or they, you know, make adjustments and clean everything up because they have to go to USC, they have to go to Indiana, they have Oregon at home, they have to go to Iowa, they have Michigan at home, they have a lot of games where they can still drop if they play like they just did. So i Aaron: Absolutely. Absolutely. Chandler: they're gonna be plenty tested by the time they get to the playoffs, if they get to the playoffs or when they get to the playoffs. So now over to you guys, the happy people. Ryan: No. No no no. First Aaron: Yeah, Ryan: of all, this is the Aaron: to the greener pastures. Ryan: this is the best game you're this is the hardest game you're gonna play. I mean, Oregon's gonna be a cakewalk. I don't even know you said them. And yeah, I mean team up north gives you a hard time. Chandler: I'm showing him my respects. Ryan: But again, this is the hardest team you're gonna play. And you know, it's good to see that even these veteran NFL coaches can have learning moments. You know, you live and you learn. They're gonna fix they're gonna do it again. They're gonna realize how much backlash they got. Okay. Chandler: Aaron, let's hear about your your Heisman front runner, Kamario Taylor. Aaron: Well, you know what? We'll actually close out with Mississippi State. I'm not gonna have many opportunities to do this. So Chandler: Okay. Aaron: let's go over to Southern Miss, Auburn, Greener Pastures. Ryan, how'd that game go? I I I know it was not as difficult as a scheduled game as going up against Texas, but what did you see in this game? Ryan: I mean on paper it went how I thought it would, but it didn't feel like that. You know, the game started off with a pick six. That was actually a new school record for the fastest touchdown ever, 'cause the first play, Andre Jordan got a pick six. other than that, it's like expected. Our defense played great. I thought they were gonna get three field goals to get nine points, but they actually just kind of sneaked a touchdown. But I mean Chandler: And a two point conversion. Aaron: Yeah. Ryan: Yeah, that was really Chandler: Crazy. Ryan: bad. But but Byrum threw for a lot of yards. He rushed more, but he's still too slow to run. He just doesn't look that fast. He tries to sit in the pocket too long. But he was actually putting some balls on some guys. He put a really good ball on Jeremiah Koger but again, it's like the little things. Alex Golesh always harps on being very attention to detail. He always talks about how important it is to have attention to detail. And there's little things that you can't bobble a ball going out of bounds. You gotta secure the ball. We had way too many flags, way too many sloppy plays, way too many drops. It's just bad. You can't do that. And it's all on the offensive stuff. It like our defense is very good and electric and Dirk's always good with that. And he always has him going. But on offense, it didn't seem like we really had anything going, even though we put up a bunch of yards. Because It it seemed fluky. It's like nothing really worked and we broke a twenty yard runner. It's like one yard, one yard, broke twenty. Against a good team, like you just didn't get anything. You can't have a game of runs. It's like we play in basketball. We we'd go on fifteen and stretches, and it's like, well, we just missed all of our threes, we didn't score. Or in baseball, we kind of play the same way too. I don't know why it works for all the sports like this. We would just have a running or an inning every here or there that we'd score six runs in an inning. And if you don't have the inning You don't win the game. It only worked 'cause we played Southern Mist that you just break these fluky runs every here and there. And then you're not gonna it's not gonna work and it's a good team. But yeah, we put up forty something points. Like we wanted to see us score forty or fifty. It just didn't feel like that. But also Byron Brown caught a ball for a two point conversion. And I was like, they're gonna put up that video of Cam catching the the touchdown and they're like, he's Cam Newton and I've been seeing this all day. I knew immediately that they were gonna do that. Aaron: Yeah. Ryan: But yeah, it's the same story. Defense played great. I mean Byram technically ran for a hundred yards. He he needs to figure that out a little. He threw good still. I got to see Deshaun Spencer, who is my guy, and he scored a touchdown. Chandler: He looked good. Ryan: But he made it so hard. That's the other thing. We make things so difficult. He just like had to make like a diving catch and he's wide open. Or we had a wide open ball in the end zone and he threw it and he dropped it. Stuff like that. The attention to detail and the amount of flags that's all Golesh preaches, but yet it doesn't come out on the field. And I feel like he always promises these things and I feel a little lied to. But yes, it was a good win. I'm worried for Florida. Aaron: I would be too. I like I do think that'll be a moment where that's gonna really show you a good portion of the rest of your season. When when Florida whatever the answer is to Florida, if Golesh and the rest of the Auburn team show up, put up an amazing game, even if Florida comes out on top, but it's really close and we saw a lot of these things solved, I think that gives you an answer. But I think if we see these same issues, Florida completely takes advantage of them and it goes one way without looking back, that's gonna be really concerning. Ryan: Mm-hmm. And it's gonna be up to our offense. And even the announcers were talking about how great Florida's offense is and how we have to fix this great foot offense. And I think that's crazy. Why aren't they talking about our great offense? Alex Golesh was supposed to come here because he's a super offensive minded guy, and he was supposed to fix our offense and let us have this great dynamic offense that's so great that we don't have to have fixing because it's all already developed and Byron Brown's so great and developed that we don't have to fix anything. So this is the ceiling. But they're talking about Florida's great offense, and I almost thought It's like Alex Golesh's offensive guy. It's good we're getting them. Summerl almost seemed more like a great defensive guy. And yet we're the team with the great defense and they're they're a great offense. But at the end of the day, they're Chandler: So I will say Ryan: gonna sneak a couple and we have to score 30 points. We have to score 30 points. And I don't know if we can do that against a real team. But we have such a hard stretch. Florida is the easiest SEC game we're going to play. If we lose that game, we're losing them all. We're losing the LSU at Ole Miss and Alabama. in Georgia and all those games. We we can't do that, you know? We can't lose every single game that matters and then only beat the Southern Missus. Chandler: I will say it's gonna be a little undershadowed by the Ole Miss LSU clash next week. But Aaron: Hundred percent. So if you guys lose, at least no one will have seen it. Chandler: But if you're a diehard football guy, you're listening to this show, you love college football, then you're gonna appreciate the narrative and the coaching clash of John Summerall and Alex Golesh. Because in the offseason, Aaron: percent. Chandler: those two teams were battling for those two coaches. And for a long time, it looked like John Summerall was the next guy at Auburn. So to see those two coaches go head to head, that's another great storyline. Aaron: A hundred percent. Chandler: It's not gonna be as high, but again, it's another great game to watch and it's gonna be cool to see them play each other. Aaron: Yeah, there's a much lower threshold of chance of one of the coaches dying. And I don't think Chandler: Yeah. Security's not gonna be as high. Aaron: it gets, yeah, Ryan: Mm-hmm. Aaron: it doesn't get higher than that for Ole Miss LSU. But I I completely agree. I think this is a classic game in the making for football sickos of like, Chandler: And they haven't played in so long. Aaron: yeah, they haven't played. You got two programs in a rebuild, two new coaches. two teams that pursued these two coaches and now it's like which coach got their team into shape first? There we're gonna find out. Ryan: Yeah, and I I kind of love this rivalry. Yeah, we used to play all the time. I think we won la three of the last four meetings or something, and technically Alex Golesh is undefeated against Florida. That's why I'm so nervous that I don't think we can withstand that very well very long. Yeah, we we used to play them back in the Tebow years and we beat them every time. But I'm excited to see it. And it's more of actually like Summerall I guess kind of almost agreed to come be our coach, but didn't sign anything. And then they offered him more money and just kinda stole him from us. And no one was really looking for Golesh. But we got him. And then at the time I was like, We need a great offense. Sure, Golesh. Sure. You can come over and give us that great offense you have. So Aaron: Well I will definitely be diving deep into that Thursday for the Thursday episode for predictions. I am very excited for that one. I can't wait to to cover this week. Yeah. Good SEC. Yeah. Ryan: Yeah. But I love this rivalry. I love it. Glad we're doing it again. Hopefully we can win. Mm hmm. Aaron: But for me, I get to be in the opposite scenario here, where we did have a new coach. Things were looking bad. And I'm gonna fully self-admit here, I I was skeptical, very skeptical. Y'all heard the episodes. Y'all know I didn't see a path where we were successful this season. I knew we had Kamario. I knew he was good. But we get to this final game we're gonna talk about. Mississippi State, Minnesota, which was a great game. Really enjoyed watching it. Primarily as a Mississippi State fan, but I did think it was a good game all around. But the biggest commentary I have is gonna be the same that everybody has. Kamario's a hell of a quarterback. He's insane. It was and I think the thing, the narrative that a lot of people are gonna miss about this Minnesota was prepped. Minnesota spent off season time prepping specifically against Kamario Taylor and Mississippi State. This was one that they saw as a competitive game. They saw what we all see in Kamario. That he's an incredible quarterback that can really punish you. Same thing I was talking about last week in predictions, when the problem with him is he's composed and you can bring pressure on him, but that doesn't rattle him. He might make a mistake. We did see one big mistake, which I'll talk about here in a few minutes. But if you bring pressure, he'll just kind of find a way to either step forward into a pocket, step back out of a pocket, move a little bit. Keep his eyes downfield, make a pass. And when you have receivers as fast as the guys we've got who are catching the balls, which I think is a huge, huge boon to Kamario here, he's dropping 40-yard passes downfield right where they need to go. So where a receiver just hands out to the chest, keeps going. And that's turning into points for us. So Lebby offensively has Got the pieces he's wanted in place and now capitalized. And I think Arnett being back with defense, I was able to see it a little bit, some of that Arnett defensive scheming right out the gate. Because I'll say Arnett, if you aren't watching a lot of Mississippi State, which I get a lot of people aren't, but when Arnett was there, even as head coach, but when he was def coordinator, I do think he's one of the most difficult coordinators to Play predict on the way he covers his schemes, how much that defense is moving around from play to play. He's not, he doesn't really have like a sit-in comfortable structure. He's just constantly adjusting the defense. And I think that rattles a lot of people. I think that rattles quarterbacks. I think it rattles offensive play callers. And having him back, seeing that back in motion, there's things to tighten up. It's only been with the team for a very limited amount of time right now. I was starting to see it. I was like, the defense is coming back. That was our biggest issue last year. And now that they're back and they're getting better, I think we are climbing up this season. And that is something I did not expect to be saying at this point. Ryan: Y'all look really good. And I really like Kamario. The biggest thing with him, I know y'all have some design runs. I almost think he's more of a threat with his arm. He reminds more of Jaden Daniels, the fact that he is a dual threat. But he's gonna beat with his arm. I'm gonna sit back here. I'm gonna try to make the throw first. And then if he gets too much pressure, then he's a threat with his legs. And I know y'all plan runs for him, but I feel like he's a lot better when he has to extend plays rather than just having like QB draws and stuff. But even Fluff Bothwell can run the ball great. And you'll actually do run a lot of kind of wide spread formations, which we kind of try to do, but that can only work if you're able to run the ball because you're you're spreading guys out. Then you have less guys in the middle and you have to go to run the ball. We can't run the ball out of but Fluff Bothwell, he's Yeah, I'll get like five yards every time. If you're gonna do this on me and you have the numbers and that works great, then it opens things for Kamario. Yeah, and he's just so good with his arm. He's one of the best passers I think I've seen. It's just so natural. And he throws the ball so hard and it's so great. And he finds up receivers. I don't know a single receiver on your team though. They're kind of randoms, but he gets them open. And yeah. Aaron: Well, yeah. Yeah, but there is a lot of talent there. Evans, Evans is very talented and like I said, very sure handed. So when you see that deep ball coming down, and you just watch the camera have to scroll up to the sky a little bit and stay there for a minute, that's probably going down into Evans' hands, and he's probably gonna catch it. And now we did play Minnesota. I I I can see where I've seen state fans already into this is our year, Kamario for Heisman. That overreaction. But Minnesota's not a bad team either. At all. Like they they are a decent team. And like I said, they prepped for this, they played well, but there wasn't an answer. It was they brought pressure onto Kamario. He just kind of moved up into the pocket. And he would either go up through the line, get something with his legs, he'd throw a clean throw. But it's just that worry that he's gonna, if one of those receivers slips behind you, now you've got a 30, 40 yard play downfield that there's not a lot you can do to stop. So it was great to see. And I do think there's a timeline that if a lot of things go wrong, Kamario could be in contention. If he if Mississippi improves on what they're playing right now, Kamario stays healthy, our receiver core stays healthy. Then I could see something that happens along that way. Am I gonna sit here and say we're gonna take the whole thing? No. It's an overreaction. I think we are a lot better shape than we were when we were discussing this in the preseason. The way I describe Mississippi State right now would be they're the wolf at the edge of the firelight. They are somebody there. Right now you can kind of make them out. You can kind of see them, but if you fall asleep for a second. There's a chance they're going to get your throat. And that's something I think you gotta watch for. Like I think you have to start taking this very seriously. And that I like to have that for our team. As a fan, as a Mississippi State fan, that's all I want. I don't need the whole thing. I don't need the championship. I need to win the egg bowl, and I want to be a threat. Ryan: I like it. And I have to kill Aurothreat. Chandler: Mario for Heisman. Aaron: Ha ha. Chandler: No, I like it. He's a he's he's from the bowl game last year to just the off season expectations and the rumblings that you have for six plus months waiting for football to start and the things you kinda start fantasizing over and the predictions you start having in your head that you can kind of draw these conclusions that might not be accurately represented once the season rolls around. I think he's the opposite of that. I think he has been such an improvement from when the bowl season w happened to now that I mean you saw the flashes, you saw the raw athleticism that he had, but he was still young. And now you have a whole off season development. He's the determined starter. He comes out first two games and he's just a light show. And I mean it's just it's fun to see that that young of a guy can come in and look like a fourth year starter and just have so much composure in a pocket, be able to read defense as well, know when the internal clocks down to zero needs to ex either extend the pocket or extend plays with his feet. And it's it's just it's fun to watch because that kind of quarterback just brings so much life to fans outside of just your team and just as a viewer from the couch. It's it's it's amazing to watch. Ryan: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Aaron: Yeah. Yeah. And I do think there's the point to talk about of the fumble touchdown. which as a young quarterback, I'm not gonna put that all on him. He he made a mistake. Should have taken a safety. But you could see that fight in him where he's like, I'm not I there's an answer here. He just didn't realize the answer the good answer is the safety. And I I don't put that on him entirely as well because that's an obvious Punch up the gut run, get some breathing room. I didn't like that they dropped him back into the end zone for a pass in the pocket. If they were gonna go for a pass play, I would have liked to see the line shifting and allowing him to move up further since they had about a yard or two cushion, get out of the end zone to make the throw. Might not have been a good throw, but maybe given a little bit more. That wasn't a time to take a deep bomb pass. I get the we know we're coming in, they think we're gonna run. We're gonna go for it. But if one defensive person slips through, you're looking at a safety. We unfortunately looked at a touchdown because of the fumble. So, like I said, just a learning moment. And that's the first thing he said post-game. They came up and they said, Are you happy? And he's like, No, I fumbled in the end zone. Should have taken the safety. I that's something I need to learn. And you know, with that kind of intensity and that answer, he immediately went and started watching that tape. He started like he's gonna be practicing reps. He's gonna be putting himself in that scenario over and over and over again till his body has the solution to do the right thing without him having to think about it. That's the faith I get from that and what he's giving us to believe in. And I think that's great. Ryan: I'm not gonna lie, I know it would have been a safety, but I love the idea of throwing it from the one yard line. Florida was so Aaron: I do too. I do too. Ryan: good at it back in the day that drove him up, throw a touchdown. Alabama did it to us one time in the Iron Ball for a ninety nine yard touchdown to Amari Cooper. Like, I love the idea. Yeah, can't can't get a safety. That is kind of unacceptable. And then worse, fumble. Give him give him the ball, you know, for a touchdown. It's unacceptable. But I love the idea. Bad execution. Aaron: Yeah. Yeah. Like I said, I I would have rather seen the line moving, shifting right, letting him roll out, make that throw. Cause he can. He can move and make a throw. He can set. He just didn't show a good answer. And I know there's going to be a lot of defensive coordinators sweating in the coming weeks as they line up. South Carolina next week, gonna be another great game. Looking forward to it. Like I said, I'll save that for the Thursday episode predictions. But man man, is this the first time in a little while that I feel that spark of like the cowbells are ringing and it's a beautiful sound. Ryan: Yeah, I'm excited. That'll be a good game. Lenoris and Taylor are gonna be a fun, fun matchup. Aaron: Yeah. It's gonna be a Q V fire fight and I I can't wait. But that'll all be for discussion Thursday when we come back With our predictions and pick'em episode where we're going to cover week three of what we're watching, what we want to see, and what do we think is going to happen. So tune in, look forward to that. We have had some very scarily accurate predictions so far from all three of us. We've had some absolute fumbles in the end zone. So it's been So much fun and has brought a new level of watching to see like, well, I'm on record saying this now. How close can this be? and that's been a lot of fun. So to all of you that are watching it, thank you for all of you out there that have been engaging on social media. Some of our new followers that have joined in over these last couple weeks. absolutely incredible to see the show growing so quickly. Hey, I'm shocked every week. Every week I'm like, there's more. so been great. Thank you for all that can. Please read a review, leave a comment, like and follow social media. All that stuff helps us grow so much. And once again, we'll see you Thursday in our predictions and pick episode.