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- Aaron: Howdy howdy and welcome back to Run After Cast, the college football podcast. I am your magnanimous host, Aaron, joined by my two compatriots Chandler: Yeah. Aaron: in football love, Ryan Ryan: still guys Aaron: and Chandler. Chandler: What's going on, gentlemen? Aaron: It's my new goal each week. Find a way that I can surprise you. Ryan: What did you say? Chandler: What Ryan: What even word did you just say? Chandler: That's grim I don't this I don't even know, it was too big. I didn't get that far in English in in school. Aaron: I know. We're I i it's at least all agreed on that we're too dumb. So I just I I picked them long words. Yeah. Chandler: Yeah, I'm just a measly podcaster man. I just I don't do these kind of things. Aaron: But we have wrapped up week three of football. We're so deep into it that we're even a day behind now. You'll be hearing this on Tuesday instead of Monday. But this was a great weekend. Normally we cut over to the reaction news desk, but once again, all the reaction news is all the football games that went on. So we're gonna jump straight into it, talk about all the games from week three, kicking off with our teams this time. So Let's start off in the grueling, daunting battle over in Ohio State. You c you had the feared Kent State come up against you, with a we could say not surprising, overwhelming victory from Ohio State, a 49-3 win. What did you Chandler: Why are you taking away ten points from us? Aaron: Did I say forty nine? Chandler: Yeah. Aaron: Well, you know, I thought you guys need to be knocked down a peg You could've used those ten points and won at the Texas game. But No, no. Overall y Chandler: That's crazy. Aaron: y'all y'all produced over five hundred yards. what did you see in there? Well, after the Texas loss, was this the bounce back you were looking for? Chandler: You know, I'm gonna take my homer glasses off. And yes, it was a good win. Yes, I expected them to beat the breaks off Kent State because, you know, even though it's an in state rivalry, it is Kent State. But short yardage situations were still a major issue in all offseason, all we're hearing is red zone short yardage, cleaned it up, heavy emphasis. And yes, it could have been a vanilla game plan. Yes, it could have been all these things. But there's no reason why If you're this outmatched, opponent to opponent, that you can't make them first man miss, maybe, you know, push the defensive line back a few yards, maybe get a third and one, third and two every once in a while. But on third down conversions, they were one and eight. Not gonna fly. No. I Aaron: Which is rough. That's a rough Chandler: mean, they missed a third and one and a third and two, and they had a fourth down that Julian just airmailed Jeremiah. So, I mean, it there's a lot of just miscommunications or mistimings that I'm not used to seeing Jillian make. Like last year he was so clean and yes he like when he was under d duress, he made some mistakes, but usually like the air mails and the miscommunications with the receivers, all that stuff didn't really happen. It was more just like a he let the ball go a little late or he rolled out and tried to make something happen and he just took a sack or he threw it out of bounds. But this time it's a little different. I think he's almost when pressure comes, his internal clock speeds up and he just is a little hot on his release and the ball comes out just a little high. And it's it's I don't know, it's interesting to see because it's not what I expecting to see from a game where he went all last season and was the highest completion percentage quarterback in college football. And now to this where he's making just lot of freshman esque mistakes that you would expect. But again, I'm being very nitpicky, fifty nine to three, they did what they were supposed to do. Now they're about start Big Ten play. So Illinois, they're heavy favorites, but then when they go to Iowa, which has a historically good defense, usually not a very good offense, but a good defense. That'll be a good test. Again, on the road for them. So yeah, I know Ryan over there has some has some chirping to do. about me Aaron: Ha ha ha. Chandler: saying Iowa has a historically good defense. Aaron: Hey, I before Ryan gets his take on Iowa, I think Iowa's always, always a trap game, no matter who you are. I think Iowa, if you were playing at Iowa, they can pull out some weird magic that you just can't really account for. Chandler: I will say my one takeaway that I was hoping to see this season, that I was hoping to see more of in this game and like against the Ball State, and hopefully Texas, but it never happened, was the explosive playmakers like a Trevion Henderson or Quinshawn Judkins, or like a threat like Will Howard had, like, the national championship year, where you had those guys that you make a man miss and it's six points. Like, there's not a lot of missed tackles and breakaway plays and these explosive plays that Ohio State fans are used to seeing. And outside of Jeremiah, I I was hoping like a Devin McEwen or a Legend Bay would step in and have a more of an impact role to have those speed guys create space and create those middle of the field short yardage plays and turn those into big explosive plays. But I haven't seen that yet. And I know Legend Bay battled an injury last game and I know Devin McEwen has been going through an injury. But there hasn't been a real standout offensive player Other than Jeremiah. And I'm hoping as the season develops, the chemistry between the receivers and the offensive line and the running game, you know, keeps picking up and those things change. But that's one thing I'm still kind of waiting for is that X factor guy to really make an impact outside of Jeremiah. 'Cause we Jeremiah and Jillian are gonna be okay. but Ryan: We'll say Julian did make me a little nervous. Like you're talking about, Chandler: Yes. Ryan: he speeds it up, he goes a little high. Him and Jeremiah have like the most chemistry ever. And on that route, Jeremiah was open on the fourth down. He missed Jeremiah high and he was open and he missed it. And the other one, you're down there in goal line. He has his eyes to the right. You know they're in zone coverage. The dig's gonna open late and he doesn't see it. And then the... pockets collapsing around him and he doesn't go in the wide open hole and run so he just his decision making is kind of throwing me off I feel like he's like fixing his eyes too much on certain things Chandler: Yeah, he's a little skittish. Ryan: yeah but I like to see there was a lot of potential in the young guys we got to see Chris Henry great walker by the way he is huge and we got the little Brock Boyd ho tap you know we got to see all the young guys and and and Faye Chandler: Mm-hmm. Yeah, Luke Fey looks great. Ryan: he look good yeah a lot of potential but we need stuff now too and I think you'll have it you are Chandler: Yeah, so Ryan: like the best team in the country, but we are being nitpicky. Chandler: Let's hope things let's hope things ramp up. Get the groove on. You know, again, fifty nine three, can't be that upset about it. But let's hope the chemistry keeps building, the defense plays a little more you know, chippy. Let's let's get some more intensity there. Let's let Riley Petageon play a little bit more. Let's let TJ Alfer play a little bit more. Let's get Harry Wilder in there taking a few more Send him back to Alabama. Ryan: Gekwe Russo! Get him off the field! Gekwe Russo off the field! Aaron: Yeah. Ryan: We kept saying he was the Tegra Shabal of the defense line. You want yards? Come on! Chandler: Let's let's let let's let Kari Wilder come in there and take some in snaps. Let's let's let's let the young guys eat because that's where I think all the star power is. Like Jay Timmins, TJ Alford, Riley Petagon, Anseer Johnson, Kari Wilder, all those guys, those young guys come in, make some keep impact's plays. So that's all I have. Ryan: You gotta get pressure rushing 4. Back in the day, you Chandler: Yes. Ryan: you had Jack Sawyer and JTT, they're back there every single time you're only rushing 4. This year, I feel like you get no pressure with 4. Probably because Quay Russo's in. Even there's one time they're running. It's like he just takes you outside, gets double teamed, it's like you can't do that, you gotta shoot the right cap. Whatever. I don't know. You gotta get pressure. Chandler: But that's all I have. Can't be too nitpicky. We'll see how next week goes. Aaron: Well, in a game when you're playing up against Kent State, w when you are matched up against somebody where you know it's gonna be a big score game, you know, they're gonna try to do what they can to put up points just to not get shut out, which you know, credit to Kent State. They did put up three, which it's not a shutout. So you get to walk away with that. Let's cut over to a game that I would say going into this, everybody thought was a very even level program matchup, which was the game for me this week. Mississippi State at South Carolina. We had this game a wild momentum in the beginning for South Carolina going 16-0 with Mississippi State coming back in the end of the game to erase that 16-point deficit To close out the game, 4134, Mississippi State's favor. So this was a shootout of a game. One team at one point following up Mississippi State afterwards. Ryan: You know, South Carolina, Aaron: So what'd y'all see in this game? Ryan: South Carolina yet again gave up their annual comeback against a maroon team. Aaron: Yep. Yep. Chandler: Yeah, a twenty seven and run in the third quarter. Aaron: Yeah. Chandler: So it was almost Ryan: Incredible. Chandler: a thirty point deficit again with X CNM. But let me tell you, there was no lid on this game. The scoring was Aaron: No. Chandler: was a plethora. It was all over the place. A lot of scoring. But Camario, I mean, I'm impressed. He he went down early, sixteen zero at halftime. Comes back. Third quarter swinging. Completely different quarterback. So I mean that's what you want to see. It's only his second year playing. It's only his first real season starting. So Being able to bounce back at a multi possession deficit with only a half a game to play is impressive. And that's what you that gives you a lot of hope if you're a Mississippi State fan. Because he took the game back and he did what he had to do to win. Ryan: Yeah, and it's a huge adjustment that like you actually are playing a competitive SEC team one week and it's like you start moving slow, but that's what great athletes do. Camario bounced back. I feel like Bothwell still ran pretty good. Your defense held them. They're not scoring too many points. mean, like what else could you ask for, you know? I feel like we're starting this year and you're like, no, I don't know if we're going to win four games or land four and a half. Aaron: I know. Ryan: And now it's like, we might win like eight, 10 games, you know? Who's stopping? Aaron: It's starting to creep in. I I'm I'm I'm having to put a tamper down on my irrational fandom of being like, Is it our year? And I have to go, no, it's okay. We still have the grueling march ahead of us, but it does feel good. And I'll say that this is one of those things when people talk about Kamario right now, and before this, it's he's untested, you know, wait till the pressure gets there. This game, there was a lot of unsettling startups. We had the weather delay. And I think that's gonna throw off anybody out of a headspace of you know, going out there being prepped, having to cool back down, go back, warm back up, and to start the game off with a pick. That is something that we have seen quarterbacks crumble from. You can just go down, get in your head, try to dig out of a hole, and then you're making things worse and worse. In those first couple drives, we did see him throw high. We saw him throw off targets, something we don't see him that often hitting. And having them come back, bring back the accuracy, settle back down very quickly. And part of this is I think South Carolina ended up suffering from their success a little bit. I think they had those huge long drives for the first half and completely dominated time of possession. And we could see Mississippi State's defense starting to get gassed a little bit, but I think it also took a toll on the offense. I think they got gassed. And that led to when we went into halftime, those adjustments from Zach Arnett on the defensive side. Levy made adjustments and this is where I have to do my apology tour. I didn't have a lot of faith in Lev Levy's system at the start of the season. Last year we saw a lot of errors towards the end of the games that cost us a lot. And I didn't know if he'd have the opportunity or The wherewithal to make those changes as a head coach, to develop as a head coach. And I think we're seeing it here. They settle down. We might have let some points go on the board towards the end, but we did have that deficit. And towards the end of the game, I'm a Mississippi State fan. I never count a win before the final is blown. So it is still something where you have to be nervous. But Camario, his answers are just there are times when he's look you're looking like he's playing with cheat codes. That response drive, the first one we scored, which was like three or four plays where he just kind of airmails the ball straight into the cradle of the receiver, straight in for a touchdown. You're almost like you they needed more time on the defense to catch their breath. You scored too fast. And you'll just see those 30, 40 yard bombs that he lands and it's just a run in. You're like, how did somebody get that open? How did this, how did this work so consistently? Chandler: I will say the thing watching from a non Mississippi State fan from this game scoring forty one points in two quarters and having four hundred and thirty one total off its yards on an in conference opponent is incredible. And that gives you a lot of hope and a lot of one eighty of what you were seeing from last year. To if you if you can string those two quarters together through a full four quarters, th it's gonna be a A scary offense if they can start clicking. For all four quarters. Aaron: Well, absolutely. And I think having our net back as the defense, we saw those defensive adjustments be made that slowed this down, that caused South Carolina to have to pull back, not score for quite a while until it was close, Chandler: Yeah, they didn't score in the third quarter. Aaron: until we had snagged back the momentum, which I know there's always the discussions, momentum real or not. I think the mental place of football is such an underrepresented, under well, I won't say under. It's such an undervalued portion. I know people talk about it. It's hard to believe that sentiment because of how much people talk about momentum. But I think once someone's in a hole, once somebody's lost that, once the bench goes quiet, the stadium goes quiet. I think that's something that it is very hard to bounce back. Ryan: No, momentum is so real for sure. I feel like especially like a guy like Kamario that's a young guy, can get in their head a lot. So I'm glad to see that it didn't really get to him too much. That's really hard to do. Aaron: Yeah. And to flip the atmosphere. Cause Ryan: Mm-hmm. Aaron: South Carolina, as I've said many times, love that team. I like Shane Beamer. I like the fans of South Carolina. They showed up. They were loud. You know, sold out. Love to see that. And for Camario and the offense to go in and silence, that's that's another factor of it is I think that can be demoralizing to a home team. is when this gets quiet. I mean at one point during the telecast you got what looked to be a twelve year old kid yelling fire beamer on the and you're like, man, it this turned. This turned on them. And I I don't know how as a team you can make that bounce back as strong if you feel like you've lost the fans. Chandler: speaking of losing fans, let's kick this over to Auburn. Not saying any fans are lost, but it was a heartbreaking loss against Florida. And expectations so far this season from the coaching staff and that program that's been said to the fans, I feel like are underperforming. So Ryan, take us through that game, what you saw, your immediate reactions, what your opinion is on how they're playing so far, and what your expectations are. Ryan: Well, this just proves again that Alex Goulash has just fed us a bunch of lies. Everything I ever hear him say, it like doesn't come true. Initially he comes there, we're gonna get player retention, all of our players leave and then he blames it on like they're terrible people. Then it's like we're gonna go and get all these guys at the portal and then we actually don't get any guys at the portal and we have all this money so he just gives it to us all as USF guys. And then it's like, we're going to have all this offense. see him at Ada. I'm like, they're not very good. But then all the people are hyping up. we're so good. We're so good. And I think it's now settling in for everybody. Like it's kind of over. This is our first tester. SEC game. This is our second easiest SEC game besides like Vanderbilt. But this game. I was going in. We're going to score. If we score 25 points, we're going to win because DJ Durkin, his defense is so good. But DJ Durkin. You got 44 points. How in the world? No one would have thought that. If someone told me last week that we scored 39 points, I'm like, we destroyed them. can't believe it. I actually can't believe it. But how in the world is a jerk in the issue? But like, we were actually. Half decent on offense where we actually created like a ton of third and long situations. We were 715 on third downs though, which is just absolutely awful. And I have a few stats here, which are terrible. Because every time we got in third down, Aaron: Yeah. Ryan: it's like, come on in. Come on in. You can have it. OK, third and 12, 27 yard play. Third and 21, 11 yards and a face mask penalty first down, which later yeah. Well, yeah. Then face-mess penalty, first down. Third and 20, 20 yard touchdown. Third and eight, 48 yard play. Third and 14, 12 yard play. Third and 11, 20 yard touchdown. just six of those third and longs, Florida had 138 yards. They averaged 23 yards per play on those. And they were just getting way more than even the yard to gain. But then even with that, if you throw in one of them on fourth and one, Jayden Ball had a 53 yard touchdown. So 191 of Florida's yards were on seven plays. Seven third and long or fourth downs, which is 38 % of their entire offensive production was on seven plays. Which they were three for three on fourth down and three touchdowns. were on those third and fourth down. Yeah, the 20 yard touchdown from Duke Clark, Dallas Wilson, a 20 yard touchdown, and then the Jaden Ball 53 yard rushing touchdown, which he was untouched. So out of their 44 points, 21 of them, 47 % were on three plays. Two third and super low, third and 20, third and 11, and then one on fourth down, which is absolutely unacceptable. Every time we get third and long, we should have a new turn. Third and Dirk. And now they think back on it, it's like, In previous years, it's like we joke, yeah, it seems like they get every single third down. But then somehow like some weird thing would happen. They'd fumble or they'd have an interception or something. And they just wouldn't end up scoring a lot of points on us. But then like, yeah, like last year in Baylor, like Sully Robinson did like 400 yards, but it seemed like it's just like, we got lucky, but it like over and over and over. Something happens over and over. It's like not lucky or whatever. But even our offense, even though we scored 39 points, it didn't sound like that was great either. yeah, like I was saying, if we score 25, we'll probably win. And we had 373 yards, which is like, kinda not that bad. But Byrom had 336 all-purpose, 4 touchdowns, and that looks good on paper, but it didn't look good. We go into this game, Another thing Alex Goldish promised us is that we are going to run the piss out of the ball. That is what he said. But our starting running back only had nine carries. We're giving nine carries to Jeremiah Cobb for 32 yards. Bryson Washington got three carries for eight yards. And Omar Mappeson got zero carries. He was in there. He Aaron: Okay. Ryan: got one target. Didn't get it. And Byron Brown had 18 carries for 65 yards. So our running backs ran for 40 yards. That is unacceptable. That's not running the piss out of the ball. And Byron Brown. Average is 3.32 seconds to pass the ball, which is the longest in the entire SEC. Yet he has 16 sacks, which is twice as much as the person second who only has eight. He had seven sacks this game, which is unacceptable. How in the world are you going to have the longest time to pass and the most amount of sacks? That's not an O-line issue. That's a Byron Brown issue. He's looking like Jackson Arnold, where you're just a statue in the backfield and you're just getting sacked. You got to go like one, two, no, my reads not there and run get out of there It was just really bad in the first quarter. We had negative three yards, but then we ended up in the second quarter We ended this first half with a hundred thirty three yards and we went in we were tied 17 17 when we got in the second half Florida took it up 34 17 pretty bad and they start kind of playing a lazy defense. They start playing bin. Don't break and then we got 240 yards in the second half which 22 of those points were on three straight drives and one of them was a two-point conversion that we got because it was 22 so 64 % of our total yardage and 56 % of our points were after we were down 17 because they kind of know we're just like letting us score running super lazy defense because they were just kind of trying to maintain their read and on one of those drives Byron Brown ran for three times for 60 yards on that drive, including a 20 yard rushing touchdown. So out of his 65 yards that he even had rushing, which looks on a paper, three of them were on one drive. But if we just didn't have that drive, he had five yards. We had 45 yards rushing if we take that drive out. And then we even had a Hail Mary to Nimrod with 28 seconds left that he caught. And it is sounding bad, but there was some good takeaways as well. I love Deshaun Spencer. He got to play a lot, which I was really happy about, and he got a touchdown. That was great. Our defense isn't that bad on first and second down because we keep putting them in super long third down scenarios, but yet we keep running three, three double mug where he either sends them all. And then we have our safeties and corners 15 yards off. So then it's like, he's wide open. I'll just dump it to him. Or we just drop everyone back and, and give them like a 50 yard touchdown or something, which is unacceptable. Byrom did throw a couple balls to Kishon Singleton and Nimrod, which they caught in single man coverage, which I thought those were great that you catch those jump balls, but both of them were out of line because you understand that red line, both of them were out of bounds, but they caught them. So that would have been nice. And the main issue, though, is that like when Florida was playing a real defense, they were just kind of loading the box and playing man coverage and our receivers weren't good enough to get open. They're blitzing Byron Brown and if we ran, they were flooding the box and then we couldn't run. So that's like kind of a huge issue. And we keep running these super wide passing sets. So we need to be able to run the ball out of those sets, but it's hard when they load the box. And yeah, you're putting your receivers in an advantageous situation that you're putting them in one-on-one coverage of those scenarios, but they can't get open. So that's not good. But I think this kind of just comes down to even last year when they're saying Byron Brown skittish and he would run too fast. And now that he's staying in the pocket too long. He just doesn't see the field good, he's way too slow to make his reads, he's too slow to get out of pocket, he's just not seeing his progressions in the field very good, and he's not triggering on those scenarios where the guys are actually getting open, he's not throwing it to him, he's too cautious, and then he doesn't get out of pocket and he gets sacked. all of that saying, pretty bad, even though it looked good on paper. Aaron: Ha ha ha. Ryan: We actually had offense on paper, which I was... Aaron: Yeah. Ryan: I was pretty excited about and I didn't think it would happen. But it's good to know I guess we could do it. But pretty much like everything was just terrible. And our entire season's over. That that was our second easiest game. So now it's like Besky scenario. We what? Win four games because we're pretty much just going to lose all the hard games. Every single game that's a little difficult. Like we have to play Georgia. We have to play LSU. We have to play Ole Miss. We have to play Alabama. Like every single one those is a loss. LSU is a loss. Tennessee is a loss. What, we gonna beat? Samford and Vanderbilt. Maybe Aaron: Yeah. Ryan: not even Vanderbilt. They had a little five-star guy and he made a bunch of mistakes, but he was actually like really good and like could do a lot of stuff. But that's like a young guy. He's gonna make mistakes. Like, why? Is he gonna come and beat us? Because somehow every single time they come into our place and they play the best game ever. We would literally be killing Filo in the backfield and he would just throw like a 40-yard bomb down the field with two guys in his face. It would be right on the money. People play their best games against us. DJ Lagway hasn't played since our game and he's been hurt and broke his ankle and he decided to finish the game but he's not gonna play the next game. They literally just play the best game ever against us. We play terrible and it's bad. Aaron: Yeah. Ryan: And I can't believe Durkin let me down because he is the only actual thing that I was saying how like the tangible evidence that I'm like this is what we have. It was Durkin. He's the only thing that I could put my faith and belief in would give us any success. And then it was flipped. The offense actually gave us success but they really didn't. So. Aaron: Yeah. Ryan: I don't know, I'm very worried for the rest of season. Chandler: I will short and sweet, I think Ryan covered all of it, so I'm not gonna drill down Aaron: Yeah. Chandler: and beat a dead horse. But as a non-Auburn fan, but guilty by association, the biggest thing that stuck out to me that I was shocked by was exactly what Ryan said, DJ Durkin not holding down the fort. Because last year, no matter what team they played, no matter how good their offense was, it was inside of 21 points almost guaranteed. And this year, to see Jaden Baugh come out there and run for two hundred and forty-three yards. No matter how many plays that took or how many explosive plays he had that inflated those stats, like two hundred and forty three yards on the ground. If you have that if you tell me that stat, that team won ninety-nine times out of a hundred, because Aaron: Yeah. Chandler: you that's just beaten down the defense over and over and over and over again. And it's just deflating. It's deflating. Aaron: Yeah. That's mad numbers for Ryan: Mm-hmm. Chandler: And and to see that happen was just shocking to me because their defense was so buttoned up last year. So I think that definitely has to be cleaned up. Aaron: Yeah. Now let me frame a hypothetical here. What are y'all's takes on do we think because when we're going into this, everybody frame this as two new programs on equal footing going to make the name of their season? Do we suspect that Florida's just been criminally underrated because we didn't know what to expect out of them? Something like Jaden Baugh. Putting up these huge numbers every game, which before this, it was they haven't been tested. We're not gonna see this because Durkin's defense isn't terrible. We know he Ryan: Well. Aaron: has the bones of putting together good defensive schemes. Is it just that Ball is performing on such a high level that he exposed every fault that was there to be exposed? Ryan: We knew Jane ball was gonna do good. I couldn't believe Phyla Aaron: Mm-hmm. Ryan: was amazing as he was it was like a what a backup quarterback at Georgia Tech Who's never played and he looked unstoppable? And no matter how much Aaron: Yeah. Ryan: pressure he was just putting the ball right in the money We knew Jayden ball was great and we actually contained him really well until the second half and then it's like they just had whatever they wanted You need a first down Jayden ball is gonna run for it It's fourth and one Jayden ball runs for 53 yard touchdown and there was another one. He ran for like a 40 yard Touchdown, like we just couldn't contain him anymore. The first half we had him like really low though. But I hate DJ Durk and schemes on third down. Like I was saying, no, no double hook on third down Aaron: Yeah. Ryan: anymore. You, I actually don't mind it though. If you're sending pressure though, you got to run press man. You can't run 15 off man when they're running slants and stuff. It's ridiculous. And then the one time we did, actually ran cover three one time and he just ripped us even for a touchdown. I don't know. Maybe run breast man cover two man something out of maybe like nickel three three over instead of three three double mug. I don't know. It's ridiculous Aaron: But with that, with Florida's success in this game, and I want to give Auburn some credit here that they didn't lay down and die. They did continuously fight, which is at least something to see, because if we had to force upon that, y'all's offense did keep churning, you did keep producing points, it just wasn't enough to overturn the deficit. And all that discussion aside. Do we think Florida might have a much stronger season than we may have predicted at this point? Because I think we've seen a lot of SEC teams this year getting exposed by the run. We had Old Miss get exposed a little bit in the run game when they were up against Louisville. And we're seeing, I would say, other than Georgia, we had AM this weekend, which we'll talk about here shortly. get exposed through the same thing where a pass threat with a solid run game seems to be a weakness in SEC defensive structure this year. Chandler: Know I think Florida surprised me just because I Aaron: Mm-hmm. Chandler: think recency is just a an Achilles heel to fans. Like it's just a a thing that you just can't put anywhere besides just the front lens of no matter how what what team it is, like that's your recency bias is always gonna take control. I think they have the tools to do well. I think they're like a young quarterback like that with not a lot of experience. can get flustered. I didn't really see it a lot. Like Ryan said he was putting the ball on the money whenever he was under pressure. but it's one of those things where you have to have a bigger sample size. I wouldn't count Aaron: Absolutely. Chandler: them out. I think my viewpoint on them is higher than it was at the beginning of the season because I was like a they haven't really played anybody, but now that I saw them play Auburn, I mean I think I'm my stock's a little higher in them, but i I need a bigger sample size. And I know Big Ten Big Ten guy Aaron: I agree. I I do think we're gonna see Ryan: Yeah. Chandler: talking about an SAC team, but like I mean I I One of those things, the same thing with Kurt Signetti a couple of years ago. I mean it it's like, he's he's putting together wins, but who has he really played? Like you need to see it a couple of times before you kinda start buying in and then more you see it, I mean, you can't argue against it until you're proven wrong. Ryan: Yeah, I think I- Aaron: yeah, yeah. Same thing being said about Mississippi right now, where it's Chandler: Mm-hmm. Aaron: like, okay, we did we had Minnesota, now we have South Carolina, and it's like we are still gonna have to go up against the top level teams to see how that performance continues. Chandler: Mm-hmm. Ryan: I think they are pretty good. They slightly surprised me, but we also played our worst game ever that we possibly could have played. But yeah, we know Jane Ball is one of the best running backs in the country. I was pleasantly surprised with Philo. I think they are actually pretty good, but it's crazy to see like they have like a huge like player retention from last year. Yet you have like such a surge in offensive production, which I don't know if it just came from Philo. It's not like he single handedly did it, but he played great, you know. Chandler: Mm-hmm. Ryan: It was like they come in, they have a new system, John Semerall walks in and you just have a surge in production, which is like pretty incredible for them, which that just kind of shows how held back Billy Napier was keeping them. Aaron: Yeah. And I'm coming to love Summerall. I'm I'm not the world's biggest Florida Gators fan. Some may say not a fan at all. But I do like listening to Summerall. I think he is somebody who's embodied that SEC coach vibe very, very well. Ryan: Yeah, he's funny. I like him. Chandler: Agree, yeah. Ryan: I like his mentality. He does cough like an iPad kid. I don't know if y'all saw that. He did it like a million times. Every time the camera's Chandler: Yeah yeah. Ryan: on him, he's coughing like an iPad kid. But I don't know. I wasn't very high on him coming in this season. I mean, it's good to see what he's doing. Aaron: Yeah. But with that, Mississippi State's last team standing out of the trio undefeated. don't worry, boys. I'll keep carrying us. I'll keep the torch lit. The hopes of a season stay alive on the back of a cowbell. you know, I'm sure it'll stay that way. There's nothing coming in my s very recent future that might undo that statement, but You know, you'll have to tune in for Thursday to see how we feel Ryan: Okay, Aaron: about the games coming up. Ryan: I'm not gonna lie, I actually can't see a deep end stopping you right now. And that's what I said about y'all going into South Carolina. Like, I just can't see this train getting stopped right now. You know? Aaron: I I I will say Georgia. Georgia is my from the start of the season, Ryan: Well, probably. But... Aaron: every team was a worry for me. Now yeah, Chandler: Defense that has a pulse might, you know, I don't know. Aaron: yeah. Georgia Georgia's still a threat. They always will be. ask Arkansas. you know, the Kent State of the SEC this weekend. no. Sorry, Arkansas fans. You know I love ya, but Once again, sorry for the way you're living. drop out there for y'all. But to another program that felt the woes of riding high only to crash down as hard as they could. We gotta go to Texas AM and Kentucky. We had the surprise, I would say, of the weekend, the surprise upset, a 31-21 Kentucky victory over Texas AM. Well, Texas AM producing over 400 yards of offense, but only putting 21 points up on the board. Kentucky's defense helped absolutely staunch AM's marches here. What did y'all see in this surprise? Chandler: This is an interesting one because four hundred yards of offense is a lot of yards of offense. Aaron: That's a ton. Chandler: But you pair it with four turnovers and Kentucky gets some points off those, then you have a completely different game. And I think that's what happened. I think Kentucky's defense still has some vulnerabilities, and clearly that showed with Texan putting up four hundred yards of offense on them. But they came through when they needed to. And the box score will show them beating them by double digits because of that. Aaron: Yeah. Chandler: So I think When Kentucky played Alabama, we saw some spurts of that offense that we talked about on the show and we were like, Well, you know, I I can see the vision here, I can see the scrappiness, I can see the sparks in that offense and the potential that's there. And it just kinda got away from them in the second half. Well, this game, I we kinda had that same mentality going into this in the back of our mind of like, Hey, well, you know, if if Kentucky can get that offense rolling and get some of those sparks going again, then Texas A and could be, you know, under a little bit of an upset alert. And sure enough, I mean, they did what they needed to do offensively to get the ball going and the defense came in clutch when they needed to to get four turnovers. So I'm I'm I'm riding the Kentucky train. I think they can compete with anybody in the country. They've I mean, they're fun to watch. They're scrappy. Will Stein's got a a lot of energy behind that program right now. And it's they're gonna be a fun team to keep looking forward to down the stretch. Aaron: I absolutely agree. Ryan: Yep. Aaron: I I'm in love with what Stein's doing with Kentucky, especially how fast he's doing it. I know we've talked a couple times now for the last couple of weeks of like it he might need time to show what he's doing here. And I think by week three to show that, to say, like, here's what we got cooking. Is it perfect right now? No. But we're showing progress this soon. That's great. You can't ask for more. Ryan: Yeah, I mean, I love what Will Stein does, you know, he said he's going to score points and he did. wish Alex Golis could have done that. But, you Aaron: Mm-hmm. Ryan: know, the efficiency of an offense matters a lot. And when you look at Texas A not scoring a of points, yeah, you got to look at that turnover margin. Like you said, four turnovers. And whenever Kentucky played Alabama, they fully self-imploded. Too many penalties, too many turnovers. It's like they're winning by a bunch. They hand Alabama pick six turnover. That's catastrophic. Cause turnovers are low, like you just hand a point so not just a turnover. So when you're winning the turnover margin, that's good. And we were saying their offense was going to produce a lot and they continue to produce a lot of yards, a lot of points and you win the turnover margin. So Willstein kind of did his thing. They were a lot more disciplined. They didn't put the ball in harm's way. And yeah, their defense kept them in that game. Cause even eventually against Alabama, Ryan Grubb lost his headset. So they figured out how to run the ball, you know, and their defense couldn't contain them anymore. But if their defense just continues to keep them in games. I think Will Stein and his offense are good enough to go score enough points and get them a win. Chandler: And regardless of Texas AM being potentially artificially inflated, this is still a top ten win. This is still a top Ryan: Yeah, that's sure they were. Yeah. Chandler: ten win for this Kentucky team and that momentum will bode well for them if they can stack it. Because I mean they if they can beat a top ten team, you know, then w who can they not beat as that program goes. I think they have the the momentum, they have the confidence they need. I'm not saying they'll go and win out, but That kind of win can catapult that program into an overachieving year and get them well into bowl game contention. Ryan: not been the best team in the country because some random committee just decided they were, you know, that's another conversation. But yeah, they beat a high opponent and even last year Texas A I mean, they made the playoffs. What did they really lose? They have Marcel Reed, they got more weapons, they have Mario Craver and Isaiah Horton. They should be able to score more points and not have as many turnovers. 23 points, you got all these weapons. You what are we doing? Aaron: Yeah. I and this is just one I couldn't see coming from the Thursday prediction. Chandler: Mm-mm. Aaron: I had this AM's favor all the way through. I couldn't have guessed. we knew Kentucky would be a threat in terms of they'd play well, they'd push, but I did not expect the fall of AM like that. That turnover margin is in i insane. And and credit to Elko. in the post game, if you haven't watched it, go check out the postgame speech. He owned up to it immediately. He said they went in there. Kentucky absolutely whooped us. There's no upside to that. But it's on me. I'm the head of the program. The fault's here. I'm gonna iron this out. We're gonna correct this. And then I the thing I think that really stood out to me here was that he said not to take the win away from Kentucky. We didn't lose this game on us. Kentucky came out here and played an amazing game. We made our mistakes. Kentucky still capitalized on them. still one. And I I just thought that was classy. I I just thought that's Chandler: Of course. Aaron: something that going into a loss in a hard moment, not not deflecting, accepting, and still showing respect for your opponent. Love to see it. however you feel about Elko out there, if you're a Texas fan and just can't stand the look of the guy. I get it, but I it is something where you gotta call out some that that's done well. He did it. And I do think AM does bounce back. I think it was their Off game. It's what happens with AM, where for some reason when they have quarterbacks, there's a you know face of them that you may flip that coin and get an absolutely turnover prone game ahead of you. And then they'll button it up. But Kentucky, I think, is getting that momentum. Chandler, as you said, winning a game like this, this high of a win, it gets your fans back in the seats. You start getting sell out crowds again. You start getting full seats. And I think when you have a team coming together like that, that's such a boost to confidence that they can ride. And we'll I think we're gonna still see some great things. I think they have now escalated into trap game territory for anybody else that's got them scheduled this year. Ryan: And I don't hate it. mean, Kentucky's a good football team this year. And I like that you brought up the Texas Standard quarterback thing. I have kind of thought this for a while, but Marcel Reed is like very high, very low. I just always say, yeah, he'd be a great quarterback if he was just more consistent. The inconsistency, putting the ball in harm. Not not great from him, but I don't know, he just couldn't get it done. He can't get it done when he really needs to, but he's really good whenever. It's like someone bad or it's an easy moment kind of thing, you know? Aaron: I mean, but it to me it's just it's a pattern. It's happened across coaching staffs for them. You know, if we remember Kellen Mond, same thing. High ceiling quarterback, then would have games where he just threw the ball away over and over again. Angus King, same thing. Wegman, same thing. We saw it over and over. I don't know if it's a curse on the program, something going on with their. you know football department maybe they got some grease on the balls that can't come off too much barbecue sauce slinging around down there. I don't know. But it just to me it's crazy that it does affect AM so consistently that quarterbacks just'll have such a high performance ceiling and then all of a sudden just tank a game. Ryan: Except Johnny Manzell, he tore my grandma's aorta. Aaron: Yeah. We're still expecting an apology from him any day. But speaking of surprises this weekend, I do think we have to go to one of the most surprising ends of a college football game I can recall ever seeing. maybe the wildest last play of football in recent memory. We gotta go to Vanderbilt NC State. And I'll frame this with last week we spoke about. Sometimes the right answer is just take a safety. And I th I th I that's all I could think about when that play went Chandler: Yeah. Aaron: down. And I was like, how timely. So what did you all think of one of the craziest plays? Ryan: Well, Aaron, I thought this was hilarious, yeah, because we talked about it last week and you said you wanted to the line moving and him rolling up to the right. Well, they tried it. They must have saw this video. Aaron: They did they listen to me and I was wrong. Ryan: Yeah, but no, CJ Bailey, here's the touchdown, here's the game Vanderbilt. Y'all deserve a win. Chandler: E I mean first, if we rewind to half time, twenty four seven four. Awfully similar to the score that I was watching against Texas. Aaron: The curse of this season, a 24 7 halftime. Chandler: Yeah, and look, Ole Miss, twenty four seven. Same thing. Ryan: Or just a 17 point lead, because even South Carolina, 17 to nothing. Chandler: Exactly. And listen, Ohio State wanted to do three more points. They wanted extra extra cushion. Twenty. Twenty point cushion. Still couldn't get it done. But the I that's the only thing I can think about. It's like all these games, man, awfully similar score. Hopefully they don't throw it. Aaron: Ha ha. Chandler: And then we go down last play of the game. I like, my gosh, like NC State. This is a great, you know, out of conference win. Great momentum boost. And instead of just taking a knee in the end zone, just falling down, throwing the ball into the end zone. Turning around and punting it, doing anything else other than what he did with that football would have won them that game. Because if they have a safety, they have what four seconds by the time they get it to go seventy plus yards? Like it's not gonna happen. Aaron: Yeah. Chandler: It's so I mean, l do anything else. Like put the ball underneath your shirt and run around like it it like anything else with the ball other than fall and fumble it. Anywhere. Anywhere. Aaron: Just throw it. Throw it as far downfield as you can. Burn it. You could get a fit in Ryan: Yeah. Aaron: the air for a couple seconds. Like Yeah. Yep. I I expected Chandler: Turn around and give it a give a souvenir to the crowd. Like i i it do anything with the ball. Ryan: Yeah. Aaron: it. But I will say, with the framework of having last week as Mississippi State, I turned to my wife Chandler: It was fantastic. Aaron: right before they hiked it and I said, This could be a potential disaster. If they are gonna run it around in the end zone, I've seen this one before. And sure enough. Like I wasn't even that surprised because I was like, this is what happens when you run around trying to make a pass happen. And the end zone, no, I don't think it was. I know they were going for the safety, but it just was an insane motion. Yeah. Like Chandler: Go for it a little faster. Aaron: just even just stand on the back goal line. And Chandler: Get the safety a little safer. Aaron: yeah, it and it is something you want to pick apart. Like the football fan in me just goes berserk at this because it does feel like a very much like we should know better, but so is everybody. Everybody's gonna do it. It was the moment. Was it the worst call to make in terms of what Chandler: Yes. Aaron: CJ Baylor was doing? Yes. Yes, it was. There's there's no argument. Chandler: As a toddler playing pee wee football you learn in that situation but not Aaron: Yep. Chandler: do that. Aaron: Yep. And and it came up with the worst possible idea, had the worst possible outcome. And Vanderbilt wins. I mean, whoever I I I can't remember off the top of my head who recovered the safety or well, who recovered the fumble for a touchdown, winning the game, but that man is not gonna buy a beer in Nashville for the rest of his life. That is going to be remembered, you know, everybody remembers Music City Miracle. And this one, I don't know what they're gonna call it. it's gonna be it's gonna be named something, and they'll we'll play it. We'll play it over. It'll be next season, season after that. It'll probably be on loop in some kind of TV screen and Vanderbilt's hallway forever. it's a very memorable, it's something that you will only see in college ball. It's what we watch the sport for. Chandler: You know what's crazy too is like yeah it might be on a loop like at the end of it NC State. Like it's not like he like upset like Georgia to win a playoff game. Like he shouldn't have been losing in the first place. But you know, maybe I'm just being a little harsh. Aaron: Yeah. Yeah. Ryan: No, they're pretty... State's pretty terrible. Yeah, NC State... Chandler: So I don't know. I Ryan: You're winning the game. You're still gonna have totally blow it. Yeah, like you said, put it in the end zone, get four seconds of hang time, game's over. You know? Like, what are we doing? Chandler: Like Yeah. Anything else, I don't know. Aaron: Yeah. And like I said, we we could go through the motions. I'm sure everybody else in the world of college football has done that now. let's just say a collective round of just shame. Like don't do that again. Learn your lesson. Don't try that anymore. Yeah. Yeah. Chandler: Listen to the show. I mean we'll teach you a thing or two. Aaron: Well, don't because I said I suggest rolling the right out line out to the right and rolling the quarterback with them to get the throw. that apparently bad advice. Don't listen to it. Chandler: Well, they forgot to get the throw part. He didn't throw it. Aaron: That's true. That's true. You know, listen to the whole show. Ryan: He did, well more of a handoff I guess. Aaron: Don't don't skip fifteen seconds. Chandler: He could've done anything, any he could've thrown it anywhere, he could have thrown it lefty out of bounds. Any any any solution was better. Aaron: Yep. Throw it backwards. Yeah. Chandler: He could've he could have caught the snap and snapped it again between his legs. Aaron: Yep. Hand it back to Ryan: Double snap, that'd been good. Aaron: the sinner. Let him try to take it. Yep. Chandler: Do anything. Bake snap. Yeah. Here you go. Aaron: no. No. It was it was just crazy and sad. But bandy won. Way to go, Bandy. Enjoy it. But all this to bring us to what we could say one of the most talked about, one of the most hyped. One of the most electric leadups to a game we've ever had in college football, at least in recent memory. The LSU Ole Miss Reunion, back at Ole Miss, Lane Kiffin taking a nostalgic walk down memory lane back to his old position that he left so f many months ago. This game had a lot of ups and downs. We had LSU trailing in a 24-7 deficit at halftime, coming back to get tied up again in the fourth quarter. What did you all think about the ups and downs of this game? Chandler: I think first and foremost, lack of competition and testing exposed a lot of things in LSU. When Aaron: Yeah. Chandler: when off the first week we thought, yeah, Clemson may be bad, but beating the brakes off of them fifty one of ten is not a good look regardless. And then Clemson does what they against UNC and then like, wow, they're actually really are bad. Aaron: Yeah, they're they're they're quite bad. Chandler: and Ole Miss, whether it be Louisville or not, Having the kind of game they did against Louisville, I think helped them going into this game, experience a little adversity before that this game happened. And I think that holistically helped them a ton. But same thing, 247 at halftime, and then playing a little lax. LSU figured out some things, they made some adjustments, the game got a little tighter, which we all expected. We didn't expect to blow out. It would have been nice to see a blowout because Ole Miss, you know, they deserve it. Because they were doubted by everybody. But Aaron: No. No they don't. But Chandler: I mean on the last drive of the game, what was it? It was a thirteen play drive. Size the game. Trinidad, redoption, keeper. I mean, what better way to seal the game than that and then go off and throw a a seed off of Franklin's Ryan: Mm-hmm. Chandler: guardian cap to have the interception to really seal the game. I mean it was it was a poetic ending and I'm happy Ole Miss got the win. I think the picture of all the Ole Miss DBs running by the sideline and pointing at Lane Kiffin Aaron: And waving. Absolutely. Chandler: was one of the greatest pictures ever. it's but overall, I mean it was exactly what you would ask for from this kind of game. It was the game of the weekend for sure. I think it's probably the game of the year. If not, I don't know what else will be. but all in all, happy Old Miss One. Ryan: Yeah, I like it and it feels like all's well again. And yeah, the interception off Cam Franklin's helmet. I love Cam Franklin and it's so funny because he's the only one out there wearing a guardian cap so you can see him really easy. Chandler: Like Guardian Cap, yep. Ryan: I would make all my D linemen wearing guardian caps. Their heads are so big. They just throw an interception of their helmet. Yeah. Aaron: They just dig the ball off him, yeah. Ryan: Yeah. That picture was great. And when Trinidad is locked in, he is like the best quarterback ever. we saw in the Georgia game last year. And even like in Louisville, there's spurts where like, you know, he's really locked in and he gets it done. And he had an LSU game. This was like the most locked in he had to be. And I was worried that that almost get to him a little bit. He has to perform too much, but it really only even makes him better. And when you saw him or you see Kiwan Lacey down there on the goal line, he's carrying three people and he's getting in the end zone. He get, and then like Trinidad gets loose on the read option. It's like, he's getting in the end zone. You can tell they wanted it more. That was their game. And it feels like all is well, you know, I love Trinidad. He's such a nice guy. He's so presentable. He's so good on camera and he's a great football player. So I just love to see him all happy after the game and his interview and the fans grabbing him and stuff. You know, it was just so happy that Ole Miss, you know, they conquered the villains. I liked it. Chandler: think the only like real moment Trinidad had was when he forced a throw, like pretty much taking a sack when it wasn't a blind side sack, it was just coming off his side that he could see. And he just threw the ball a little late when he could have thrown it away w before he got that pr the the when he took that hit. And I mean that was like once that interception happened, I was like, man, this could be a real momentum swing. Yeah. Yeah. So Ryan: He flipped it in. You know, he was locked from there on. It's great. Aaron: Yeah. Ryan: He seems unstoppable. Aaron: And Chandler: There was a lot of adversity. Aaron: yeah, I I wanna say out of obligation, I gotta go and say it's a shame LSU didn't win this game. that but that's a Mississippi State fan in me. I just don't want Ole Miss to win. I'm gonna take my Mississippi State fan hat off for a minute, say Ole Miss did amazing here. I I even have to like apologize for my Thursday prediction saying I I thought the surrounding game atmosphere maybe too much for them. Trinidad did come in here and looked incredible. I like if we're making arguments for best quarterback in the league right now, I I think he made a case. I think he made a statement here to say when he showed up, he didn't let it get to him. And a second credit point that I don't want to give out it hurts to say this. Way to go, old Miss fans. For keeping your composure. I expected this to be a riot. I expected this to be an absolute nightmare scenario. And y'all kept it together. And LSU's even coaching staff is antagonizing them, going up to the student section and yelling at them, all this. It's like they wanted that to happen, but y'all kept your composure. And I I gotta respect it. I don't want to, but I gotta. And Ryan: Yeah, they didn't even storm the field! Aaron: Everything just came out so good. I know. I I couldn't believe it. I was like, everybody was on their best behavior. And I I was like, you're taking this away from me. I needed you to be monsters here so I could relish over it for the rest of the season. But y'all did it. Y'all did an amazing, amazing job at that game. And like I said, Chambliss, I I don't know who would bet against him right now. I do I think old Miss is impervious? No, LSU did show up. They did come in, but if we kind of take a look at like take those big plays, lock in on what Chambliss looks like. then you cut over and look at San Levitt in those same situations and tell me which one looks composed, ready for the play. Levit looked a little shaky when we got down to those plays, to the the drive makers. And I I think that is something that not necessarily all on Levit's shoulders, not anything like that, but I think it was the difference. Chambliss was the difference in this game. Ryan: There was a wide open touchdown that Sam Levitt missed. He was wide open, just couldn't get it to him. You you gotta make this critical, critical throws. Aaron: Yep. W duck to those reeds, yeah. And it was a game where you couldn't you couldn't miss something like that because it was too close. Ryan: Yeah, he was standing wide open, Chandler: The margin of error was tight. Ryan: standing wide open in the end zone and he just couldn't get it to him, just threw it at his feet. Aaron: Yep. So it was, I wouldn't say a shocker, because I do think everybody wanted this. Everybody needed this in college football. We needed Lane Kiven to lose here. I don't think he expected to. And he still was chirping. But that's who he is. That's what he's gonna do. LSU got their first loss of the season. Ole Miss still running it. But I will say after this week. Other than Georgia, the SEC looks very vulnerable right now. We look like there's a lot of faults that could be exposed. I do think the SEC is wide open outside of Georgia. Georgia is still looking very, very good and they are very, very scary still. But that wraps up the big moments that we got to see for week three. There were still tons of things that we didn't get a chance to talk about. I want to make a formal apology to my wife about the Thursday show, who talked to me over and over again about mentioning Kendall Bryles being Jeff Levy's brother in law. So his brother in law is going up against each other in the Mississippi State South Carolina game. I had it in my notes. was too excited to talk about how I thought Mississippi State was gonna win, forgot to mention it. So apologies to Jen. she's a better sports reporter slash media person than I am. and loves Mississippi State so much. She can't watch the games without a blanket over her head for every big play, and then immediately ask me what happened. And I told her she's not allowed to do that anymore. So, you know, apologies to her and then you know, say something embarrassing about her. So come back Thursday. We're gonna be doing Predictions. We're gonna be talking about week four's games and a or line over under guess and our final score predictions. So y'all have been wonderful supporting that format. the shorts have been so much fun to read the comments for. Shoutouts to the old Miss fan who took a picture from the end zone seating and just commented that on one of the shorts this week. It it it was wild just see no text, no nothing. Just here he is. He's at the game. That was awesome to see. So that leads me into saying thank you to all those who have engaged in with the shorts, following us on social media. If you can leave a review on whatever podcast streaming platform you listen to us on. That does so much for pushing us out there, getting the podcast more listens for those of you that already have. Thank you. We can't wait to see you. for our week four predictions Thursday. Looking forward to making them. So until then.