Latest / The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views / TABLE TALK: The Coming 2023 College Football Season
Transcript
- 0:22All right, folks, you are listening to Table Talk here at the Philadelphia
- 0:25Sports Table podcast show, the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast show in the
- 0:29world, that's right over ten years strong. It is June nineteenth, twenty
- 0:33twenty three, and we have got a great, great table talk discussion coming
- 0:37your way this week. The college football season, I feel, is right
- 0:42around the corner, and there are a lot of storylines that have been happening
- 0:46throughout this college football offseason that we wanted to get to here on our Table
- 0:51Talk show and interview this week. We have got a great guest. We've
- 0:55had him on before. I can't wait to talk to him, So let's
- 0:57get to it. You can find him on Twitter at Rise and draft.
- 1:02He is a great writer over at Sports Illustrated, writing for the Irish Breakdown
- 1:07dot com, and he's also the co host of the First Team podcast as
- 1:11well. I'd love having him on the show. Mister Ryan Roberts, Hey
- 1:15you doing Ryan, I'm good, Jeff, I'm good man. Everything's uh.
- 1:19The thing's moving, brother, things moving. How's everything on your end?
- 1:21It's going well. I'm really excited for this college football season, this
- 1:25upcoming season that I think you know there's gonna be a lot of great storylines
- 1:29that we're gonna be following, not just throughout the season, but leading up
- 1:32to the season as well. And I know you do a lot of writing
- 1:36again over at SI for you know, Notre Dame and the recruiting and what
- 1:40is happening with that team. And I want to go start our discussion with
- 1:44Notre Dame and their football program is so interesting to me. And you know,
- 1:49as somebody who you know, somebody who has gone to Penn State,
- 1:53and you know, we know some of the long term history between Notre Dame
- 1:57Penn State, you know, again many years ago. I still find Fighting
- 2:02Irish to be a very interesting football program. Look. Last year, you
- 2:06know, they finished their season ranked number eighteenth in the nation. Second year
- 2:09head coach Marcus Freeman, you know, he likely wants this to be a
- 2:14top ten team in the nation heading into twenty twenty three, if not a
- 2:17top five team perhaps. So I'm wondering where do you see this Fighting Irish
- 2:23team trending in twenty twenty three as the seasons right around the corner. I
- 2:27mean, I really do think and some people might call it bias, I
- 2:30guess, but I'm actually usually a little bit pessimistic about Notre Dame football at
- 2:34some point because I've been a fan my entire life and i haven't seen a
- 2:37national championship in my lifetime. But I really think that this team is good
- 2:42enough to compete for a playoff birth I really do, man, this is
- 2:46it's it's been one of those. And this is partly credited to Brian Kelly
- 2:50and then partly credited to Marcus Freeman. Now, is that Brian Kelly got
- 2:53the program to eight points of consistency, you know, double digit wins every
- 2:57single year they were they were a solid football program. I think Marcus Freeman
- 3:01has come in and it has really taken the recruiting to another level, being
- 3:06able to really acquire maybe a little bit more of high level talent as far
- 3:09as upside of talents. And the biggest thing that's been holding Her Dame back
- 3:15over the last few years, at least in most of my lifetime is quarterback
- 3:19play. Yeah, that's just been one spot that has not been consistent.
- 3:22I mean, you had two years of Brady Quinn, you had a year
- 3:24and a half of Jimmy Clawson of like elite play. Other than that,
- 3:29It's been good at times with the in book, solid at others with guys
- 3:32like de Shaun Kaiser and Malik Zayer when he wasn't injured, But it just
- 3:37has been very sporadic and it has been consistent. You bring in a guy
- 3:39like a Sam Hartman that is the all time leader in ACC history and touchdown
- 3:44passes one hundred and ten touchdowns, top twenty, top twenty all time in
- 3:47both passing yards and passing touchdowns in college football history. This should be the
- 3:52most decorated and consistent quarterback play that they've had, and at least since Jimmy
- 3:58Clausen, maybe since Brady Quinns quarterback play increasing getting better, and then plus
- 4:02the talent that I think that Notre Dame brings back in twenty twenty three,
- 4:06I think that this team is definitely a top ten team, possible top five
- 4:10team, and I think they could contend for a playoff spot because I think
- 4:12they have a very good team. And college football this year is changing a
- 4:16lot of quarterbacks, you know, just changing quarterbacks. Ohio states Like,
- 4:20there's a lot of different of changing. Alabama's gonna have a new starting quarterback.
- 4:26So I think that you are in a position where you could take advantage
- 4:29of a little bit of transitional stuff. So I think that's kind of what
- 4:30Notre Dames upside is this year. I know my Penn State and any Lions
- 4:34are gonna have a new quarterback. Thank god, Sean Clifford. I was
- 4:36a little tired of seeing him under center for the past which seemed to be
- 4:41twenty five years. So moving along though, with regard to Notre Dame two,
- 4:46another storyline that I think is going to be really interesting to follow is,
- 4:50you know, their pursuit of their next TV contract. And again,
- 4:54I think it's gonna be a real big storyline heading into this season because we
- 4:58know the rich tradition and history that this that this you know or Irish Fighting
- 5:04Irish team has had with NBC, and this is the last year of the
- 5:10contract with NBC, and there's gonna be other suitors out there for sure looking
- 5:15to pay the Fighting Irish some big bucks for that next Notre Dame football TV
- 5:19contract. So you know, some are saying Notre Dame could receive up to
- 5:23like sixty million dollars for whatever broadcast company is going to be paying them that
- 5:28with this next contract. I'm wondering what are your thoughts about this next contract,
- 5:31the direction it's going, and what might mean not just for Notre Dame,
- 5:35but potentially for college football programs across America. Well, I think that
- 5:42this. I think Notre Dame is getting into a very interesting points over the
- 5:46next couple of years, not only for the TV deal but also with redoing
- 5:50the apparel deals of the uniforms. And because right now, Jeff, what
- 5:55people are all talking about is realignments in college football. Right if this is
- 6:00truly going to a super conference conversation, you would think that if it goes
- 6:04a certain way, Notre Dame might be forced into a conference at some point.
- 6:09Now, I don't think it's going to be any time in the near
- 6:11future. But I was going to ask you about that. Yeah, I
- 6:13was going to ask you about that as well, But so I'm glad you're
- 6:15bringing it up now. Yeah, And I think that a lot of the
- 6:18TV contracts, the Jersey contracts, as far as you know your affiliation there,
- 6:27a lot of those are going to be speculated because they align with certain
- 6:31conferences, right like the Big Ten contracts and the SEC contracts, And so
- 6:35I think there's a lot of speculation about what this could mean. I think
- 6:40personally Notre Dame is what makes Notre Dame so unique is that they are a
- 6:46national brand obviously, right, Like even when Notre Dame isn't super relevant,
- 6:49and again, they haven't won in national championships in nineteen eighty eight, so
- 6:53they haven't been overly relevant as far as winning championships. They still have the
- 6:57namesake, they still have the following. People still love them or they hate
- 7:02them, like it's very volatile type of relationship with Notre Dames. So I
- 7:06think that what Notre Dame is gonna do and what they need to do is
- 7:10they're really it's almost going to become like a bargaining chip to a degree,
- 7:14right because if the worst case for me, because people keep saying and I
- 7:17completely disagree with this, Notre Dame needs to jump into a conference now before
- 7:20they get left on the outside looking, And I'm like, Notre Dame is
- 7:24never going to get left on the outside looking. In focus the conference so
- 7:29much money, like are we crazy? Like s SEC big ten whoever?
- 7:32Whatever, the conferences end up looking like they're all going to want Notre Dame
- 7:35to be a part of it because they're gonna make them more money. I
- 7:39mean, it's all about money at the end of the day. So with
- 7:42that in mind, I just think that Notre Dame is going to be looking
- 7:46out for themselves in the short term and the long term. It's just gonna
- 7:49let everything else take care of itself. Right, It's gonna be a bargaining
- 7:51chip. Don't join a conference, don't be forced to do something that's out
- 7:55of your norm until you have to, because at that point you're going to
- 7:59be more of valuable down the line than you are right now. Like that's
- 8:01just I mean, how much was a candy bar just like ten years ago?
- 8:05Right? Like now it's like incredibly expensive. Like it's anything, right,
- 8:09Things are getting more expensive, things are getting It's just it's a natural
- 8:13kind of process of this world. So I think that it's it's gonna be
- 8:18hyper focused. But I think Notre Dame is really going to for this next
- 8:20TV do do you do what's best for them as far as what gives them
- 8:24the best platform because a lot of people didn't love the NBC broadcast over the
- 8:30last couple of years, it's been a little bit up and down. I
- 8:33think it's just the short term looking out for yourself and then long term,
- 8:35let everything else kind of align itself. Well. Obviously, NBC would absolutely
- 8:39hate to lose having Notre Dame on on their you know, their college football
- 8:45platform, because they're probably one of the most consistent aspects of NBC Sports has
- 8:50been Notre Dame football, you know, for how many decades now. NBC
- 8:54would hate to lose that. But you did touch on something that I kind
- 8:58of did want to ask you, and just turns of them being an independent
- 9:01college football team, and you kind of touched on it a little bit.
- 9:05I think at some point Notre Dame will end up joining one of the conferences,
- 9:09one of the either Big Ten or the SEC at some point down the
- 9:13road, but they're going to do it on their terms, as you indicate.
- 9:16I completely agree with that, but I do think it may actually happen
- 9:18sooner rather than later, And what I mean by that is perhaps within the
- 9:22next five years or so. So I don't know what are your thoughts in
- 9:24terms of when they might actually feel that need and not necessarily be forced to
- 9:30join. I should say they're not forced to join a conference, but from
- 9:33a financial standpoint, it's going to be extremely beneficial for that football program the
- 9:37university for them to do. So, yeah, it's such it's kind of
- 9:41a double edged sword for me because I think the great part about Notre Dame
- 9:45is that it's a very unique place, right Like, it's a very difference,
- 9:48and I think the independence really works to their favorite ton I mean,
- 9:54they can schedule their national schedule, they can go out to USC, they
- 9:56can play the Midwest Powers, they can go down to SEC country occasionally,
- 10:01like, they can kind of play all over, which is appealing to the
- 10:05recruiting side of things. It's also appealing just from the general sense of being
- 10:09relevant if you haven't won a championship in so long. So I really think
- 10:13that they're going to hold on to the independence as long as they possibly can.
- 10:16The uniqueness, I think is the big part about that. But I
- 10:20think I think so for me, it's just trying to feel out what the
- 10:24landscape's gonna look like. You know, there's a lot of people that are
- 10:26speculating, you know, the two major conferences and then you know, maybe
- 10:31they'll just play each other. And there's a bunch of like you know,
- 10:33basically G five programs at that point that are just kind of on the outset
- 10:37looking in, I'm intorts to see where it goes, because I do agree
- 10:41with you. I think eventually their hand will get forced a little bit.
- 10:45And it's not forced of like you don't get anything out of this, you've
- 10:48got to come here or else you fail. It's more of like, okay,
- 10:50now I do have to sell my soul a little bit to be able
- 10:54to join one of these conferences. So I think it's going to happen eventually,
- 10:58But I think for Notre Dame sake, I think staying independent as long
- 11:01as possible is the best. So whether it is five years your hands force,
- 11:05whether it's ten years, whether it never happens, whatever, it is,
- 11:09independence as long as possible, and then you kind of figure that out
- 11:11when you have to figure yeah, yeah, it's gonna be interesting to watch
- 11:16for sure over these next years what actually happens with that dynamic. But there's
- 11:20another aspect of college football that I wanted to dive into with you, Ryan,
- 11:24And look, we still have another year to go before we see that
- 11:28twelve team college football playoff, and personally, I just I really like the
- 11:33expansion of playoff college football because for me, inevitably, in the end,
- 11:39different teams in different schools are gonna have the opportunity to showcase themselves, at
- 11:43least I believe so that teams that in programs that might not normally get that
- 11:48publicity we're gonna end up seeing at some point in January and throughout December likely
- 11:54playing. And I also think that there's the ability to potentially potentially in over
- 12:00time, spread out the college football talent a little bit more, which I
- 12:03think would be good for college football. So how are you feeling about this
- 12:07college football playoff expansion that's going to be coming in twenty twenty four. I
- 12:13mean, I love it personally, I really do. I mean, I'm
- 12:15a football guy, right, so I want to see more football. But
- 12:18I would also say this is that growing up, I loved Bowl season,
- 12:22right like I loved watching the different bowls because people, because players seem to
- 12:26really buy into it, like they loved it, right and they don't love
- 12:28it anymore. It's just the fact of the world we're living. We're seeing
- 12:31kids opt out at such a high rate, We're seeing teams not really care
- 12:35about what we're seven seeing teams drop out of bowl games at this point.
- 12:39Yeah, So I think that if you're gonna supplement things, right, supplementing
- 12:45Bowl season, and it's gonna be bittersweet for me because I did love Bowl
- 12:48season at one point, but it just doesn't matter as much anymore, right,
- 12:50So it supplementing Bowl season with a larger playoff bracket that's going to kind
- 12:56of supplement what games you're losing from the bowl season. And I think that,
- 13:00Look, I'm a big fan of competition. I'm a big fan of
- 13:03getting teams a bigger platform and opportunity to play. And because last year,
- 13:07I mean again, I know some people are gonna say it was just one
- 13:09year, like it doesn't happen like this, but we saw a national championship
- 13:13game that was sixty five to seven last year between TCU and Georgia, Like,
- 13:16wouldn't have been nice to maybe get a different team potentially, because I
- 13:22think that everyone knew TCU was a flawed team. So if it's a bigger
- 13:24playoff bracket, there's a better chance, in my opinion of the teams that
- 13:30I don't want to call him fraudulent, because TCU earned the right to be
- 13:33there, but a team that maybe the parody isn't as high might get knocked
- 13:37out against maybe a better team that just maybe dry. Like I'm gonna use
- 13:41Alabama for instance, Right, Alabama wasn't a great football team last year,
- 13:43but I do think that Alabama plays Georgia tougher at any point in that playoff,
- 13:48and I think that if they play TCU, they win pretty convincingly as
- 13:50long as everybody plays right. So I think expanding that playoff I think strengthens
- 13:56the opportunity. I also think it's strengthens college football in the sense that players
- 14:00are going to be more likely to not opt out to play the full season.
- 14:05To really, I mean, wouldn't it be awesome if it's a twelve
- 14:09seed versa whatever seed and the twelve seed has this kid that's going to go
- 14:11in the top ten in the draft, and he was gonna opt out of
- 14:15any bowl game. But now that's a playoff game he's going to play.
- 14:18That's better for college football. And so I agree, man, I love
- 14:20the expansion. I think that you know, there's gonna be some conversations of
- 14:26is twelve the right number? Should there have been a different number, and
- 14:28we could have that conversation. I think that's a legitimate, you know,
- 14:31conversation that we could have. But For me, I really do like the
- 14:35playoff nature of college sports where it's going because it's just I think that the
- 14:39level of parody to your points is going to start to increase and that you're
- 14:43going to give more players a national spotlight, which I think could be good
- 14:48for college football. Absolutely can. And you kind of segued into a topic
- 14:52that I wanted to get into with you as well, Ryan, which is,
- 14:54you know, players are opting out of these bowl games because at the
- 14:58end of the day, it's a business decision for them. They're looking after
- 15:01their futures, They're looking after their potential financial futures as they look toward the
- 15:05NFL. They don't want to get injured. It's it's understandable from a business
- 15:09perspective in that regard, but the business perspective of what college football really has
- 15:15become has just completely taken off. And that is because of name, image
- 15:20and likeness, a better known as NIL as we have all known now and
- 15:26are following, and we're at a point where, you know, some members
- 15:31within the United States Congress are actually looking to regulate the overall NIL process because
- 15:37it is becoming more and more like a business on college campuses and even away
- 15:43from the college campuses as well as these college football players, many of them
- 15:46are trying to really create their brand and what they're going to do to elevate
- 15:50their business and professional careers after college. So I'm wondering, like, what
- 15:54are your thoughts about what the NIL has brought to college athletics and college football
- 16:02and how it's really kind of changing the sport. Here just some reflections on
- 16:04it. What are your thoughts. I love NIL from a I love the
- 16:11idea of NIL, and I love some podcast too. Yeah, we have
- 16:15too, because we've always felt that college athletes should have some sort of compensation
- 16:19if multimillions of dollars are being funneled into these programs, you know, and
- 16:26college players not getting the benefit of that. So anyway, I'm sorry to
- 16:27interrupt. Go ahead, No, no, no, you're good now,
- 16:30because I really think that we see that at kind of on the same similar
- 16:33wavelength. And I think that for me, Like, if you ask me,
- 16:37do I like NIL? Yes, I love NIL. I think that
- 16:40it is great that players are able to profit off of their namesake. Yeah,
- 16:44they're impact on the sport and their symbolism, and like it's great.
- 16:49It really is the issue that's happening right now though, and I cover recruiting,
- 16:52so like, see this so much is that we are I think too
- 16:57many people are coupling everything in the NIL And there's a big difference between NIL
- 17:03and pay for play. They're very different things. So we're seeing we're seeing
- 17:08a bunch of players just getting a payout in the beginning to come play college
- 17:11football. Right, It's like, that's not nil, that's improper benefits that
- 17:15now people are putting under the same umbrella so they don't get in trouble,
- 17:18Like that's all that is. That's part of what the US Congress wants to
- 17:22kind of regulate in a way. And it's it's so sad, Jeff,
- 17:26because you know who should be regulating that is n't Yeah, NC double A
- 17:33doesn't feel that it is their responsibility. For whatever reason. They're like,
- 17:37yeah, nil, cool. Now we're just gonna go, you know,
- 17:38have a tea party or whatever. We're not gonna enforce any role or put
- 17:42any stipulation. So there may be a clear understanding of this is nil,
- 17:48this is legal, you can do this, this is not nil. Stop
- 17:52putting it under the same umbrella. And it drives me crazy. I'm on
- 17:55Twitter all the time where I see people saying NIL killed this team. Nils,
- 18:00you know, is the reason that this team is doing so well.
- 18:02And I'm like, that's not an I l that's not a team having a
- 18:06committed player for the longest time and then all of a sudden a university comes
- 18:10in and gives them five hundred thousand dollars to come play for their school for
- 18:14no real Like, that's not NIL, that's improper benefits. So I just
- 18:15think that we as a society needs to better understand what name, image and
- 18:21likeness is for one and I am glad that someone is taking the stance of
- 18:26like, hey, we need to regulate this stuff, and we need to
- 18:30make sure that you clearly understand what NIL is. Because I love I love
- 18:36a player going to a college. You know, I cover Notre Dame,
- 18:40so I'll use another Dame as example. You're the quarterback at university Notre Dame.
- 18:44These six companies want to sponsor you and they want to have a deal
- 18:47with you because you are the quarterback or Notre Dame. That's great, it's
- 18:49fantastic, But again, big difference between the pay for play and the NIL
- 18:56stuff. And I really think that we need to separate that. So if
- 18:59it has to go to Congress or up that up the ladder, that's fine
- 19:03with me, because unfortunately we can't depend on the NC double A to do
- 19:06anything that's true, that depend on them, Absolutely true, the NC double
- 19:08A is very just endemic when it comes to regulating you know what goes on
- 19:14within the ranks, for sure. Absolutely completely agree with you when it comes
- 19:19to nil for sure. And again, folks, we're talking to Ryan Roberts
- 19:22at Rise and Draft on Twitter. He writes about recruiting for Irish Breakdown dot
- 19:27com over at Sports Illustrated and catch him and his co host over at the
- 19:32First Team podcast as well. And as we're moving along here, we're gonna
- 19:37talk about the quarterback situation because it's what we so many of us college football
- 19:41fans focus on even before the season starts. You know what quarterbacks are going
- 19:45to be the dominant ones throughout this college football season looking at the next NFL
- 19:51draft, so, um, you know, most people they're gonna be focusing
- 19:55on Caleb Williams for sure. You know he is a very talented quarterback in
- 19:59college football here, but some folks, you know, they're gonna be looking
- 20:02keenly on guy like you know, Drake May out of out of North Carolina,
- 20:06Jaden Daniels out of LSU. They're certainly gonna be getting some looks at
- 20:08some top tier quarterbacks as well. I'm wondering, Ryan, what quarterbacks are
- 20:14you specifically looking forward to watching seeing their talent on the field this coming season
- 20:18and why? Well, I think that for me, I'm always because there's
- 20:22always the names that you hear that are the known commodity, like bow Nicks
- 20:26from all Oregon's gonna be a guy that's name is thrown out there, Michael
- 20:30Pennocks junior obviously with the season he just had at Washington. Yeah, I
- 20:33love kind of keeping an eye on some of the more toolsy quarterbacks that maybe
- 20:37just don't have the national name yet. And for me, there's two quarterbacks
- 20:41to fit that bill. One is Michael Pratt down at two lane. Yeah,
- 20:45actually just beat Kyle, just beat Caleb Williams in the Rose Bowl this
- 20:48past year, right, So, like I think that for me, he's
- 20:52a young man that is six two and a half sixty three, two hundred
- 20:55and twenty plus pounds strong arm, good athletes. I think that his play
- 21:00improved tremendously from twenty twenty one to twenty twenty two. He's got some of
- 21:03the most raw gifts of any quarterback in college football. It's just about fine
- 21:07tuning everything, being a little bit more consistent, and on a team that
- 21:11just won eleven games last year in a major bowl victory, I think Two
- 21:15Lane is a really fun team to keep an eye on because Willy Fritz has
- 21:18done a tremendous job with that program. Because I mean just two years ago
- 21:22they were two and ten yea and now they win eleven games in one season.
- 21:25I think when you look at them, they're going to have a really
- 21:27nice year. They should. I mean, they're losing Taija Spears, but
- 21:30outside of that, it's a lot of guys coming back for two Lane.
- 21:33So I'm excited about Pratt, the other guy who is only a redshirt sophomore
- 21:37this year, or actually it's gonna be a true junior technically, because I
- 21:40think he had to play when he was a true freshman. So I don't
- 21:42know if he'll be in the draft. But I really like Riley Leonard down
- 21:47at Duke. He is one of the more intriguing quarterbacks in college football Jeff
- 21:52for me, because it's like if I just separated the athlete from the quarterback
- 21:56and I just said, stay in the pocket, be the quarterback you are.
- 22:00I really liked Riley a lot. I mean, he threw for about
- 22:03three thousand yards and you're near three thousand yards. Last year he threw for
- 22:07twenty plus touchdowns and in a season where I just talked about two lanes turnaround.
- 22:11Duke was a bad program before the year before Mike Elko took over.
- 22:17Mike Elko comes, Riley Leonard becomes one of the more consistent pastors in college
- 22:21football. I think he's got really nice timing. I think he throws with
- 22:23anticipation. He's got a plus arm. But then he's an athlete. Man.
- 22:27I talked to Riley and he was hit. So his dad and his
- 22:30uncle both played major college basketball. There was a time where Riley Leonard thought
- 22:34he was gonna be a college basketball player, not a college football player.
- 22:37So he ran for like he read for like seven hundred yards last year,
- 22:41ten touchdowns, like really nice Russian numbers, so like six to four,
- 22:45two hundred and twelve pounds, still filling out his frame. But he's an
- 22:48athlete. He throwed the football well, he's a really nice runner. I
- 22:52like Riley and a quiet nine and four season for Duke in the first year
- 22:56of Mike Elko. I wouldn't be surprised if Duke was a double digit win
- 22:59season this year and in contention to play in the ACC Championship. Wow,
- 23:03I think they have been upside So Michael Pratt and Riley Leonard, I'm Duke
- 23:07like, those are a couple of guys that I really have my eye on
- 23:08because they're a little bit of the under the radar guys. But I think
- 23:11they both have great, great tools to work with. I think that's and
- 23:12that's a great segue Ryan into the last topic I wanted to dive into with
- 23:17you, which is some under the radar college football programs and teams. And
- 23:21I just I love every year how we see, you know, a few
- 23:25teams here and there each you know, we see it every year. Each
- 23:27we have a season where teams just surprise us, you know, whether they
- 23:32are moving up the college football ranks or they just get into the top twenty
- 23:34five, whether it is you know, a Duke or what Tulane did in
- 23:38terms of their football play last year. Is there are there other under the
- 23:42radar college football teams and programs that we should be looking at heading into this
- 23:47season that's going to be really fun for us to watch on Saturdays. Well,
- 23:52I think Duke is a big one for Yeah, I really think so.
- 23:55I firsthand obviously saw Mike Elko. He was a defensive coordinator for another
- 23:59Dame a few years ago before he went over to Texas AM and I think
- 24:00he's a tremendous coach. So nine and four and twenty twenty two with Duke,
- 24:04I think was a incredible first season and a great step obviously for the
- 24:08Duke program. So I think that year two of Riley Leonard, full time
- 24:14starting quarterback Jaden Moore and a couple of the wide receivers coming back, a
- 24:17good defense, and a really good defensive coach obviously as their head coach of
- 24:19Mike Elko, I think they have a chance to be a very good team,
- 24:22you know, double digit win season, a team that I think is
- 24:26going to take a big step forward this year that had a seven and six
- 24:30record last year, and it's the team I've been kind of hyping up all
- 24:32offseason, is a potentially at ten win season that maybe no one's talking about
- 24:37and that's Washington State out in the PAC twelve. Yeah. I keep looking
- 24:41at the schedule from last year, Jeff, and they were a young football
- 24:45team, still a young coaching staff there. They owe seven and six,
- 24:48But if you look at the schedule, they lose a three point game to
- 24:51Oregon that could have went either way. They really played USC tough man down
- 24:56the stretch. USC kind of took the lead there in the fourth and then
- 24:59it was kind of the game was a lot closer than what the thirty to
- 25:03fourteen final score was. I mean that was a one score game for the
- 25:06majority of that football game. They lose by four points to Utah as well,
- 25:10that obviously went to the Rose Bowl, won the Rose Bowl, and
- 25:14you know, was a Pac twelve championship obviously, Like actually they lost to
- 25:17Penn State. I completely forgot for that, but yeah, the Pac twelve
- 25:22championship though, two straight years of Pac twelve championships. So you lose by
- 25:25forty to Utah, you lose by three points to Oregon, who were tooting
- 25:30the better teams in the Pac twelve. And I really think that this team
- 25:33defensively, this is the first time in a long time where I look at
- 25:36Washington State and I'm like, defensively, they're gonna be a good team coming
- 25:38back man Brenan Jackson, I think a defensive end is one of the better
- 25:42players in college football that no one talks about. Cameron Ward was a record
- 25:47setting quarterback at our Cannet Ward at down in in Texas FCS program, and
- 25:55then he transferred up to Washington State. He had an up and down solid
- 25:57twenty twenty two season. I think he's going to take a massive step forward.
- 26:02So Duke's one, but I really think Washington State going from seven to
- 26:04six too. I think that they can win double digit wins in twenty twenty
- 26:08three, and they can be in contention of maybe I don't know if they
- 26:11win the Pac twelve, but the at least be in the conversation down the
- 26:14stretch of the team that could potentially play in the game. I love it.
- 26:17I love it, you know, Washington State. I think they're a
- 26:18team that is certainly not just on the rise, but it is going to
- 26:22be relevant for sure, and not just this coming college football season, but
- 26:26potentially in the future as well. Ryan Man, I greatly appreciate you coming
- 26:30on board. Our table talk interview discussion this week and folks again at Rise
- 26:34and Draft. On Twitter, you can find him and all of his great
- 26:40content over at Irish Breakdown dot Com, over at SI and again the First
- 26:44Team Podcast. Listen on Apple Podcast. It's where I listened to all my
- 26:48podcasts. And I gotta tell you, Ryan, it was great talking to
- 26:51you again, my friend. Come back join us down the road. Let's
- 26:52talk more college football when the season gets here. I'd love to have you
- 26:56back on the show, my man. Absolutely yet anytime, brother, Thank
- 27:00you as always. Some really great teams there that Ryan was talking about because
- 27:04you know Washington State, you know he's talking about Duke, and I really
- 27:08think that Duke could be one of those teams. Again, like Ryan was
- 27:11talking about this, it's really going to surprise us this coming year within the
- 27:15college football ranks. And of course we are going to see how that you
- 27:18know, Top ten shakes out. It's always interesting to see from year to
- 27:22year what happens with various SEC teams, what happens with various Big ten teams
- 27:29as well. And I can't I can't wait for college football to get here,
- 27:32folks. I miss football. I need football in my life. Let's
- 27:36get to it. Let's get to it sooner rather than later. So it's
- 27:40gonna do it for us here on table Talk. If you're listening to us
- 27:42on Apple Podcasts, we'd appreciate a follow. Subscribe on put over a podcast
- 27:47platform you are on, and if anything happens to your feed, you can
- 27:48head on over to Philadephia Sports Table dot com. Got all of our shows
- 27:52over there. We are on the Instagram. You can give us a follow
- 27:56there. We'd appreciate it. Search out the Philadelphia Sports Table and we are
- 27:59all on the Twitter dot com as well at Philadelphia PST and you can follow
- 28:03me at Jeffrey Underscore Warren Take everybody, We will catch you next time.