Latest / College Football Nobodies / Ole Miss BEATS LSU 32-24 | Kentucky Upsets Texas A&M | Week 3 Recap

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Ole Miss BEATS LSU 32-24 | Kentucky Upsets Texas A&M | Week 3 Recap · College Football Nobodies

• Erich: Welcome back. Week three. What a weekend. Upsets, emerging contenders. The circus game of the year. Lane going back to Oxford. It all happened. It was incredible. And I feel like we're to that point of the year where we are starting to learn stuff. Who's a contender? Who's not? Who was a fraud? Maybe I'm talking about A&M We'll see. But Kevin, I want to start out with what did we learn? And to queue up mine, I'm going to do a game of rapid fire with you. Here's how this is going to work. I'm going to say the power for conference. You just immediately answer the contenders, the top team's name, meaning like this is who's going to win that conference, or you say wide open. Don't think, you just answer. Are you ready? Kevin Ivers: I'm ready. I love it. Erich: A C C Kevin Ivers: Miami winning it, Louisville strong contender. Erich: Big ten. Kevin Ivers: Wide open. Erich: S E C Kevin Ivers: Georgia or Texas, but fairly wide open. Erich: Big twelve. Kevin Ivers: BYU or Utah. Erich: And for fun, G six playoff. Kevin Ivers: Poisey. Erich: Okay. So what I learned this weekend is that outside of the ACC, which I think is still fairly heavily Miami, and the people saying that, Miami's not that good because they they didn't beat Wake Forest by 60, those people are idiots. It's a powerful team. You were on the road. They still won by double digits. They're up by more than that before they kind of slow things down. So please just stop. I would say pretty much all the conferences are wide open, especially the SEC. Are Texas in Georgia, if I was doing a top 10 rankings, ranked ahead of the others? Yes. Could I see Georgia losing to Florida after what I saw this weekend? Could I see Ole Miss beating some people this weekend? Maybe that maybe I thought they wouldn't been able to? Absolutely. So to me, what I learned is these conferences are wide open. The NIL is clearly driving parity a little bit more every year. And we're starting to see some some teams emerge and we're starting to see which coaches are starting to get things together. Maybe I'm talking about West Virginia. We'll see here in a little bit. But that's what I learned. How about you? Kevin Ivers: I think you're spot on, Eric. You know, the point what stands out to me is, or what I hear you saying, is there's not off weeks anymore. And that's what kind of drives me nuts in the off season in the summer. And we're guilty of it too. Love looking at schedules. Who doesn't doing that throughout July and August? But You come across these games for teams and you just give them the win, and that's an easy win. But to your point with the NIL making the middle of the road team stronger, you know, there's no 2001 Miami team or O5 Texas USC teams roaming around out there. Conference games are hard. And you see it every week. Just like we talked about Miami and Lake Forest, that's why I had weight covering in that game. But the portals made it easier for teams like Kentucky or a Houston or a Mississippi State. Look at USC going on the road an awful Ruckers team. You just you'd never know in conference play. There is so much you know, when and where you play teams in college football, which is what I love. It's not always the who, it's when and where. And you saw some of that play this week. you know, you look to last year. Look at Penn State going out to UCLA. I think that same weekend, Texas lost to a four and eight Florida team, which is what essentially kept them out of the playoff. Sark would love to tell you is because they scheduled Ohio State, but no, is because you lost to a four and eight Florida team, which has athletes and can jump up Bite you just like a lot of these other middle of the pack teams. So we need to stop looking at college football Saturdays or slates and be like this is a down week or this and that. It never goes that way. That has been happening for years and years, and it's gonna happen even more now with NIL and the portal and all those things. So you're spot on. I you know, for the SEC itself, I still think Georgia, Texas, but you're right. You're a hundred percent right that Ole Miss surprised me at least with how well they looked and and Florida could be a real player. We'll see going forward. So That's what's exciting about college football. And that's why I'm so excited that SEC is playing nine games, Eric. I know you are too. It was a point of contention for years. Because SEC fans would laugh at Big Ten fans and say, okay, what's really the difference between going to Minnesota and playing UT chat? Everything. Like, from personal experience, going to Minnesota in November is not fun. So. Conference play matters, it's only getting better, and I'm excited that we really get into the the thick of it coming up here in week four. Erich: Yeah, me as well. So let's get into the Cold War. Which conference is best? A narrative that people love. A narrative that you and I are kind of whatever about because we love all the power four conferences. We love the group of six as well. But the SEC does seem to be the best conference right now. They improved their record overall against the Power Four teams this weekend. They're now ten and two. The Big Ten is now four and seven. The Big Twelve's five and seven. And the ACC. Is six and nine against the other power four teams in those matchups. Those are always sub obviously subjective numbers. It's not necessarily the best versus the best and so forth. However, one conference is way out in front right now. A little bit of an assistance to the SEC in regard to the way that Vanderbilt won over NC State this weekend. And for anyone who has not seen how that happened, go watch it. It is probably the most shocking ending. To a wrapped up college football game of all time, of all time. More shocking than like a Hail Mary, which we've already have seen one of those this year. You're talking more shocking than Mario Cristobal running the ball when all he has to do is take a knee and they fumble it, and then the team throws it twice to get in the end zone. More shocking than that. This is crazy. Go watch it. But the SEC, 10 and 2 against the other power four teams right now, the Big Ten, four and seven. The Big 12 five and seven and the ACC six and nine. So for those wondering, technically the Big Ten has the worst win percentage record right now against the other conferences for from power four versus power four play. Winning record is overall. The SEC is in first, Big Ten's in second, Big 12s in third, and ACC is in fourth. So I can confidently say SEC is probably the best right now. Big Ten maybe a little better at the top, maybe. But I would argue that BYU and Utah, I'd probably pick them against most teams in the Big Ten right now. So maybe Ohio State's above or below slightly depends how you look at it. But I think we got three real four really good conferences this year, from what I what I can see, and that the play on the field has shown that. So that's the update on the power for Cold War right now. Kevin, anything to add or should we just get right into the games? Kevin Ivers: Not a ton, just a quick nugget. You really don't want to fall behind in September in this race, Eric, because as we know, the bowl season's completely different these days, and that's where a conference like the Big Ten could make hay. They have a lot of built-in matchups, outback bowl, citrus bowl, etc. versus the SEC. But with all the opt-outs, which is really a shame that happen nowadays, th those games you you have to take with a grain of salt. So no, with that said, let's roll right into our recaps. Erich: Okay, so Friday night, you and I had picked Houston to beat Texas Tech. And it looked great for a while. And it was still close. You're talking a s a millimeter of Kevin Ivers: No. Erich: grass between the ball going over the goal line for a two-point conversion to send it to overtime and not. Great game. And kudos to Texas Tech. Look, they don't play Utah Utah or BYU. We've talked about this. And This was probably going to be one of their tougher games on their schedule this year. And so while you and I don't love them as the quote unquote favorite, they don't play that the favorites that I think are pretty obvious on paper right now on what you see on the field. So you know, they could go undefeated. That's the reality, just because of their schedule. but really good game that went down to the last second. Kevin Ivers: Yeah, came up just short in this one, Eric. Like you said, matter of millimeters. Connor Wegman, that kid is so tough. Fun watching him play. I once again came away more impressed with Houston in this game than Texas Tech, but of course, Texas Tech just keeps winning. I g maybe they'll just get outgained in every game this year and and still win. To your point, with their schedule. They don't have to light the world on fire and and that's what we're realizing. So I thought Willie Fritz outcoached Joe McGuire in this game, but the Red Raiders found a way of giving them credit because they got down ten zero early. A team that knows they're not playing great could have been shaken a little bit by that, but the home field advantage there in Lubbock helped and and they found their footing and and won a huge conference game. I believe they still have Oakie State and and West Virginia out there, who we'll touch on later in the show. So at least the Big Twelve has some teams stepping up to prov some more depth, but yeah, this league, Eric, as you know, it's very much like the ACC where it's a really fun league, but your schedule can really be pretty favorable when you avoid Utah and BYU, obviously, or like in the ACC when you know if you're able to avoid a a Miami Louva, which happens nowadays in these conferences. So Kudos to Tech. Will Hammond, I thought, did play better in this game, and he was able to do enough to get the Red Raiders over the hump. But big one, and and Houston still has a a ton to play for this season. That that's a really good team and a good win for Texas Tech over Houston. Erich: Yeah, I I agree. Why don't we stay in that state here and talk about what was the upset of the week? You and I didn't pick this to be the upset of the week, but it clearly was. I don't know how many people saw Kentucky rebounding from a really sloppy second half at home against Alabama last week to go play basically a perfect second half on the road against and when I mean perfect, I mean perfect on both sides of the ball in terms of Getting first downs, chunk plays, running the ball, throwing the ball, getting stops on defense. I mean, it was a perfect second half. Really impressed with what Will Stein put together here from a game plan perspective. Clearly new and played towards and forced I should say not played towards, forced Texas AM to it show their weaknesses, which is make Marcel Reed beat you with his arm. He doesn't want to do it. He wants to scramble. He wants to play street ball. They did a good job keeping him in the pocket for the most part. And they got the stops when they needed to, and they were really effective on offense. So I really like what I've seen so far from Kentucky from Will Stein. You know, outside if they're if they played clean in that second half against Bama, that would have been really interesting down to the wire because it was a very competitive close first half. But what you have to like is seeing the improvement. And you and I talk about all the time. Do you see the impact? Of the coaching staff on the field, and you saw it here. And AM, we love Mike Elko. We think he's a great fit for you guys. But the reality is your run on your SEC schedule last year was you beat the seven worst teams in the SEC, and many of which who were down, fired coaches, so forth. You're not getting that this year. You can see that right off the bat. Kentucky is not a layup for anyone anymore. So just the reality is you weren't probably a top ten team right now. We'll see what Elkill can do with fixing mistakes and maybe game planning to play to his QB's strengths more when a team's trying to keep him in the pocket, not let them him beat you with your legs. You know, an example of that would be look at what V West Virginia is doing with their two way threat quarterback. We're not throwing the ball more than fifteen to seventeen times a game. We're gonna use his legs and how dynamic they are to open up the run game for other players. So stuff like that. I think Elko will get that right. But incredible upset. Really set the stage for what came later in the day in the evening. was a fun game to watch. Great, great environment. And again, I love this because last year and the year before, Kentucky w was kind of a layup for other teams, and they're clearly not anymore. So it's great for the conference. And congrats to K Kentucky fans. That one had to feel I mean reminiscent of like maybe beating Penn State in the bowl game a few years ago, right? Like this probably has to be their best win since then. So a great win and it's exciting to see Kentucky see what they can build and see what Will Stein keeps doing. Kevin Ivers: You mentioned the second half last week, Eric, versus Bama for Kentucky. If they just played okay in that second half last week and still came up short, this is a game I think we would have looked at closer for our upset of the week instead of Houston. Not that Houston didn't show well. But seeing this spread of Kentucky getting sixteen or seventeen on the road, I was like, yeah, odds makers are probably right here. It's at Cowfield, that'll just be enough to swing this in AM's favor. And it seems like Will Stein's a a really good hire, but I I just wasn't quite sure. I was ready to take the leap with an outright upset of Kentucky here. I have AM, as you know and listeners know, way down this year. I have AM going 7-5. So it is not a complete shock. I just thought this would be one of the few SEC wins I could get. Of their five losses, I have them losing to like the upper echelon teams, like you said, that they now draw this year. But yeah, maybe they're heading towards 6-6 AM. 'Cause we talked about last week, ASU thoroughly outplayed Really weird to say. When AM won that by 28, but that was one of the weirdest situational games like we went over last week. So kudos to Kentucky. A total flipped of the script in the second half this week. You know, they Erich: Yeah. Kevin Ivers: outgained AM 21-0 in the third quarter. They had like a hundred and ninety-two to twenty yard advantage. Kenny Minchy was excellent in this game. Erich: He's incredible. Kevin Ivers: Efficient, threw for over 250, was 14 of 18, no turnovers. So kudos to him. And Jay Bateman, Kentucky's defensive coordinator that was at AM last year, certainly played a role in this game. They were talking about that on the broadcast, you know, knowing some of Marcel Reed's tendencies. And like you mentioned, Marcel Reed's a good player, but he had all that NFL talent around him last year. Erich: Yeah. Kevin Ivers: Whether it was on the defensive side of the ball that could get them the ball back. You know, they had the SEC player of the year on defense. They had KJ Concepcion on offense. They lost four start four starting offensive linemen, which is a a big reason I'm not high on them this year. And and that has showed up in a big way. This is a beatdown. Mike Elko said that in the hat handshake at midfield. He said he kicked our ass to Will sign. He's spot on with that. So this is just a roster that's completely different this year for AM. Kentucky was well coached and prepared and took advantage of that. And Kentucky fans will hate this though. I am gonna throw a wet blanket on them a little bit. I think Will Stein is a great hire and he's gonna do some really good things at Kentucky. But for this season, I still think they could very well finish with a losing record. I do I don't think this is just gonna have them all of a sudden be this great surprise team because I really feel AM was that overrated. And when we look back on it, this win over a top 10 team for Kentucky, I think, is gonna be over a six or Or 7-win team. I firmly believe that. If I'm wrong, feel free to attack me, but that's where I'm at after this game. Erich: Yeah, it's like the age old question is well, one, it's the AP poll, which shouldn't even exist for a host of reasons we're not going to talk about right now. And two, it might be an upset today, but at the end of the season you might look in and be like, yeah, that wasn't an upset. And I will say this, I'll I'll close with this for Kentucky. You could see the money they spent on the offensive line in this game. And you were able to see it a little bit against Bama in the weeks before, but it really showed up. So If they keep that investment going, I really like what they can do. You know, they're in a a good area for recruiting in terms of their regionality and their access to these other really, really talent rich markets. There's obviously Kevin Ivers: No doubt. Erich: some there's some money there. I and you know, they and they're one of those programs that doesn't just bring in money with football, they bring in a ton of money with basketball as well. So they're new, they're well they could be well funded across the board and we'll see what they continue to to do. Kevin Ivers: And Will Stein can clearly coach quarterbacks. Look at the effect Erich: Yeah. Kevin Ivers: of him leaving Oregon. Look at Dante Moore's start to the season. Not great. Kenny Minchie, I was a little down on last week being a retread from Notre Dame and all those types of things. One week. gets him ready to perform in Kyle Field and have the game of his career. So coordinators matter as we talk about all the time. But with that said, Eric, let's dive into USC Rutgers, which I didn't know we'd be talking about a lot, but we are about to go. Erich: Yeah, I think the story here is we learn a lot about teams as we go through. And obviously, you know, I'll say USC has played more football than most at this point. However, the question was that you and I asked going to the year Is this USC team going to be different in that they can play tough, go on the road, show some defense? And prevent teams from just scoring on them at will. We maybe thought after week two that we could be trending towards that, but the last two weeks have completely turned me the other way to where I'm like, it looks to be the same old story there in Southern California. I want to believe otherwise. And traveling can be rough. Again, this one ended 4235 with Rutgers throwing a pick six as they're about to score from like the five-yard line. It's If that doesn't happen, this goes to overtime. And I gotta tell ya, with that monster of a receiver that Rutgers has, I would have liked their chances in overtime. Just cause you you have this guy that's six five, can jump over everyone and you could throw it up to in those short field situations. So USC kind of escapes here. Was it last year they lost to Rutgers or the year before? Kevin Ivers: Might have been the year before. Erich: Yeah, and just so people are aware, like Rutgers almost always loses to everyone in the Big Ten. And USC has now lost to him last year and almost lost to him again this year or two years ago and almost lost to him again this year. So Rutgers is not a team that has done well in the Big Ten r regular season schedule. Most people consider them the worst power four team in the country right now, or right there in the, you know, Shino I don't know how much longer he has left. I'll talk about this a little bit more later in our categories because it applies to some of my predictions from last week, but Right now, I'm not out on USC, and it's only because there's not a lot of teams that look great in the Big Ten right now. The Oregon game doesn't look as daunting on their schedule. The Washington game does not look daunting at all. So these games that we thought could be really difficult, I I mean, there's still a world where they're six and coming out of the first half of their schedule just because of the nature they get Oregon at home. Going to Washington, they probably win that game from what we've seen so far from Washington. So it's almost like they're the same, but their schedule is gonna allow them to be the same more effectively than they were the prior two years. Kevin Ivers: If you are Lincoln Riley in a pivotal must-have it year, you cannot be having a dogfight in Piscataway, Eric. You simply can't. I don't care about the coast to coast travel. I don't care that they play Oregon this week. We would forgive you if you won 38-21, you know, or something like Miami did at Wake, you know. It's a road game, it's a power conference team. I get all that. Sometimes it's not just 48 to 3. I just talked about on the opener. But this is a Rutgers team that lost to UMass and Boston College. There's nothing else that really needs to be said after that. The yardage in this game was even. 460 to 460. That's inexcusable for the Trojans. Inexcusable for Gary Patterson's defense. I want to believe in this team. They have the dudes. They have the guys on the defensive line. We've talked about this on the show. I have them as a surprise team in the Big Ten Championship. I realized that as a stretch. And now I'm realizing that might just be really, really dumb. Erich: Ha. Kevin Ivers: I just cannot get over this performance. And if you're Jada Maiava, you gotta be like, geez, like, come on, defense. Give me something. They're running the ball well, too. They have everything you need on offense. You know, yeah, Trent Mosley was down, huge loss for them at receiver. Didn't matter. They still do what they do. But defensively, I think Rutgers had like five plays over 20 yards. Rutgers has no explosives versus anyone. And you said it if Prophet Brown does not have that ninety-nine yard pick six, we're in the middle of the third quarter and Rutgers is leading Southern California. Erich: I think if that doesn't happen, Rutgers wins. That's the way that game Kevin Ivers: I I Erich: was going. Kevin Ivers: I do too. They were gonna take a 21-20 lead and set it's twenty-seven fourteen, and you're just pushing that rock up the hill the rest of the game. And they had to chase they had to chase those points. I'm with you. Credit to Shiano for getting just an absolute dead program with the way they've started this season off the mat to compete with a roster that's not even in the same stratosphere talent-wise. So Yeah, f this is a five alarm fire for Lincoln Riley. Oregon's coming to town. I know they've had their issues, but it really hasn't been It really hasn't been so much offensively for Oregon. Sure, they could be better there, but it's been mostly defensive. So USC's probably gonna find themselves in another shootout, and that's that's not a spot you usually wanna live with Oregon. That's a really hard game to pick this upcoming week. One of the hardest for sure of the early season, but Yeah, back to the drawing board and there's there's there's just no excuse that's not encouraging for where this program is going in the year, what needs to be the year for Lincoln Riley. Erich: Yep. Some predictions were made on that one and we got some of those right, but we'll talk about that here in a little bit. let's go to what was my game of the week pick going into the weekend, and I feel like it delivered about as much as it could, which was Florida Auburn. Obviously, you know I kind of flipped on this after what we had seen from week zero through week two, where we go going into we thought maybe Auburn was gonna be a little bit better than Florida. And then we both said last week, not from what we've seen so far, Florida just looks like they have dogs on both sides of the ball. And they looked just really efficient. Again, you really see the coaching impact on their offense, their defense, they have some really good guys on the defensive line. I mean, it their ed rusher, one of the plays, just looked like Reggie White. He just pancaked. Or I sh I guess you should say reverse pancaked. Florida's left tackle and just ran right at right at Byron Byron Brown and and just knocked him down and really impressive with what they could do. I think they got like seven sacks against Auburn. To Auburn's credit, they did fight. They were able to get some some points in garbage time to make it look a little closer than it was. The only thing I didn't like about this game, Kevin, was the officiating really got in the way. Sometimes with some really ticky tack calls that I don't know if it impacted one team more than the other. Maybe it helped Florida a little bit more, but just the refs really impacted the flow of flow of the game at times when it didn't need to be impacted. I mean, sometimes these things just weren't even really impacting the play. Some really Kevin Ivers: Mm-hmm. Erich: touchy pass interference calls going both ways. I don't like it. But at the end of the day, I I do think the better team won. And the I think the sky's the limit for Florida. I really do. I mean at this point. You know, neutral field or home. I I mean, who couldn't they match up with defensively and offensively at this point from from what I've seen so far? Georgia might be tough just with how they'll slow the game down, but even Aaron Philo looks perfect for that offense. you know, Sumerall's clearly got those guys bought in. The transfers he brought in clearly fit, and they just looked deadly. And then don't forget they got you know, a top five running back in the country, Jaden Baugh, who's just these jump cuts he does are just like he's just gone. I don't know. People saying he doesn't have home run speed. I mean, he's had a long TD run like every week this this year. And yeah, maybe he won't outrun a four three guy from, you know, s you know, end zone to end zone, but he's clearly got enough speed to take it to the house 50, 60, 70 yards. So I'm really impressed with Florida. They look great. And I'm really curious to see how far they go. And this is great. I mean, Auburn and Florida being good is it just makes the SEC so much more interesting. The only Georgia Bama thing was just boring for five years. Yeah, I want LSU to be good. I want Florida to be good. I want I want them all to be good because they all have the the recruiting talent locally to be good. So this is great. And I do think Auburn looks much more capable than they were last year, but boy do they gotta clean up. the offensive line and the QB pressures because Byron Brown just gonna get I mean he's not gonna last the season if the he's I mean, and this this goes back to their week one game against Baylor. He got smacked quite a bit, a bunch of pressures. So they gotta clean that up. a lot of people were saying, like Auburn can't be a serious program with Byron Brown at QB. I I didn't see that. I actually thought I saw a really effective Auburn team that was just a little overmatched with who they were playing. But I really like both these teams. I think your prediction about Auburn getting to seven, maybe eight wins could still be a reality. Took a little bit of a hit because they probably needed this one to get there. But boy, the sky, the limit, is the sky just is the limit from Florida, from what I've seen so far. And and we and in our preview show, I'm sure we're gonna talk about it. Ole Miss goes to I think it's Ole Miss, right? Or is it Mississippi? Kevin Ivers: They got Erich: Yeah, Ole Miss goes to Florida. my God, what a game. We'll talk about that later this week, but yeah. So in great game. I thought it delivered for a game of the week and it was real fun watching it. Kevin Ivers: It absolutely was, Eric. Touching on that Florida Ole Miss game, I mentioned at the top of the show, it's not who you always play in college football, it's when and where. That's the ultimate letdown spot for the rebels having to come off that high, Erich: Yeah. Kevin Ivers: taking down Lane Kiffin, which of course we'll get to. And then rolling into the swamp a team that's on the highest of highs after this great win on the planes. Couldn't be more impressed with the Gators, as you said. It's so fun in college football, seeing the impact of new coaches. Really just in college sports in general. You just see that in college hoops too, where you just don't see at the pro level. And of course now even more with NIL and the portal. But you saw that even before that era. You get a new great coach at a program that needs it. It's like, there's There's organization here. The offense looks better and etc. etc. So Yeah. I would not come away big picture thinking Auburn is bad here. Erich: Agreed. Kevin Ivers: And Alex Golish can get this offense going. They're need they will need to recruit and get transfers in on the offensive line. It's part of the reason why Byron Brown is is struggling. And that's gonna have to change for them to get to maybe seven or perhaps eight wins in the SEC. This game is a little different or maybe the outcome's different if Florida doesn't go three for three on those critical fourth downs. That Jaden Baugh fifty-three yard touchdown run on the fourth and one was a backbreaker for the Tigers. Erich: Mind you, their receiver, I think right before that dropped a pass, that would have been a touchdown. So yeah. Kevin Ivers: Yes. But yeah, it right. No, I know. I think Goalish pointed out like there was twelve explosive plays by the Gators of over 300 yards. So their defense was a disaster in this game, which was surprising. I did not see a shootout like this because Auburn's defense is supposed to be their strength. DJ Durkin is back, I believe it's his third year there. Gives them some continuity. We knew the offense aligned with the pressures that you mentioned versus Baylor needed to come along and Byron Brown needed to elevate his play here now that he's in the SEC, but that didn't happen. Kudos to Florida. I think their defense was even better than allowing 39 points. Credit Auburn for fighting back, but you know, sometimes these kids check out a little bit when they know it's over. So Watch out for them. Their offense was incredible. Jaden Baugh is the real deal. Put up 162 yards and three touchdowns. what was their final? They had it was like 500 yards or like around Yeah, Erich: Yeah, four hundred and ninety five yards offense. Kevin Ivers: round two forty on the ground, just mauled the Tigers in Jordan Hare, which was electric. So what a win. The folks in Gainesville are fired up. Florida has such an opportunity this week, and I'm excited that they're back. They they even broke out the the orange pants, which they did sometimes in the the spurier days, which is a lot of fun to see. So great SEC game and I'm really excited to watch this team next week and moving forward. Did you have any closing thoughts there? Did you want to roll into the next game? Erich: Let's roll right into the next one. Let's go with let's cl let's skip a game. Let's go with Ole Miss LSU last. Let's go to let's go to Westfa, Virginia. Kevin Ivers: Okay. Erich: I mean we got this wrong and we can admit that here and what we got right or wrong here in second. I mean w w no one's talking about West Virginia and they probably should. Because when you can run the ball that well, you have your offense designed to support your dual threat QB. You know, you're only gonna throw the ball, you know, you're never as long as you don't throw the ball more than twenty times. They looked great. And If I'm West Virginia fan right now, I love that no one's talking about us. You know, people probably don't even realize they're in the Big 12. But you and I talked about the Big 12's open. Why not West Virginia? Right? I that's where I am. When you can run the ball like that and play, I mean, get you know, they win 38 27. Virginia is a really good team, really capable team, good offensive team. They have a really good QB, they have a really good coach. I'm really impressed. Now, if you remember. Our season preview, I mentioned, hey, let's we might want to look out for West Virginia. They might be a team that could win nine games this year. I feel really good about that prediction. And this is another one I I think it's this is a great for college football situation if we get West Virginia back to being this team that you just don't want to play because they're, you know, dynamic with how they run the ball, with their just their speed and other things like that. So Again, the way they use Michael Hawkins Jr. is is incredible. I I hope we I I can't wait to watch them play more as the season goes on. they have multiple running backs that can do it. but obviously they're obviously they're obviously are bought into what they're doing because this is one where, you know, Virginia was favored by ten and a half. Probably rightfully so. So I love this and I can't wait to watch more of their games as we go on here. Kevin Ivers: I'm with you. I love when West Virginia is good in college football. They have a unique history. Of course, everyone first comes to mind thinking of Rich Rodden, Pat White, Steve Slayton, or Corey Ivey in the late 90s, if you know, you know. My brother was actually Corey Ivy, the great West Virginia receiver, number eight in high school, because of him. So a little little tidbit. But they are fun. I did mention Michael Hawk. Jr. on the show last week going up against Bo Prabula and was this kind of fun early Erich: Mm-hmm. Kevin Ivers: mid-2000s like dual-threat quarterback matchup. And Bo Probula, of course, has a lot of experience at Penn State and Missouri. But it was Michael Hawkins who was the story in this game, like you pointed out. What I didn't expect the Mountaineers to have already was an offensive line that could mash Virginia Erich: Yeah. Kevin Ivers: in this game. They ran for about two fifty on a on a pretty good Virginia front seven. So that was a story in this game. They limited Bo Prabula. Virginia was not great on third downs. And West Virginia simply controlled this game at a neutral site. Remember, this was not in Charlottesville, it w it was neutral. And West Virginia might have even had more fans there. You know, it's it's the only game in town there. There's that's a crazy town. They burn couches when they win. They're all about the hoops program and football on Saturdays. So really fun to see them and what they can become in the Big 12. And Rich Rod, it's so cool he's back there because he is the perfect fit there. When he went to Michigan years ago, that was never the right fit. And he's been to other places and it's just fun to have him home and just it's like an ode to the past. And I know Rutgers fans certainly wish they could get those old feelings back with Ciano. Maybe if maybe if they weren't such a a tough conference, but Kudos to Westfall. That's a huge, huge win. And maybe we pump the brakes a little bit on Virginia as being a contender in the ACC. You know, it looks like it's gonna be Louisville, SMU, and Miami duking it out at the top because the Cavaliers just rely a little bit too much on Prabula and he needs a stronger ground game. And that was also concerning for their defense going forward. So those are my takeaways from that game. And and what a win. Morgantown is waking up very happy today. Erich: Yes, what a win indeed. And like I said, I just can't wait to see how that plays out in the Big Twelve because I mean if they're playing BYU tomorrow, I'm watching that game and I'm saying it's a coin flip. So I that's from what my I what my eyes have shown me is they because of how they run the ball, they're gonna be able to play with everyone. And in fact, they're probably gonna be able to have an advantage over most teams in the Big Twelve because I don't know Like who can run the ball as well as them right now? you know, it would be a great game would be them versus Utah, just and the way Utah's QB plays with their running backs kind of similar to what West Virginia's doing a little bit. So it's gonna be a real fun team to keep watching. Speaking of fun. What you and I've called the circus game of the week. Lane made his return to Oxford, and I think it delivered on every level. The flow of the game, the comeback, the late push, how it ended. the the atmosphere was incredible. You know, Lane Kiffin talking in the post game conference, talking about how you know, everyone was there in an hour before the game started. You know, you know, we couldn't get that to happen while I was there. You're welcome. You know, take it. Kevin Ivers: I know. Of course. Erich: Taking a shot on the way out. Kevin Ivers: Had to. He had to. Erich: Yeah, the reality is is I I do think that Lane Kiffin, when he was doing all this, he probably saw in his head in his in his mind as he envisioned Trinidad and Shameless wearing The purple and gold of LSU. And I'm calling it gold because I was corrected by an LSU fan on one of our videos when I called it yellow and he corrected me and called it gold. Even though it's yellow, it's not gold. But sure, we'll call it gold. I think that's what he envisioned. I don't think there's a lot of narratives you can take away from this. First being is I don't think either of these teams is the best in the SEC, from what I've seen so far. I think they're both really good. I think Just like last year when people overreacted to LSU beating Clem Clemson, the same overreaction happened this year as well. I mean, you have people saying national champion, all these things. Like Clemson's not very good. And yeah, they routed them. But they should have routed them. Like that's how ineffective Clemson has been. In fact, like if there wasn't a weird delay, they probably would have lost to North Carolina this weekend. So Kevin Ivers: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Erich: This is why, you know, you should really wait till three or four weeks in before you feel like you have a good idea of who everyone is. And then even saw some people acting like Sam Levitt's not the answer, like like he had some game that wasn't great against Ole Miss. I I mean I thought Ole Miss played really good defense, way better than what we have seen to this point, which was surprising. And they have the best quarterback in the country on their team. Guess what? How many teams are going to Ole Miss and winning this year? And if we played the game where I start at one and we keep going until someone's not willing to go again, my guess is after five, whoever's up next is probably going to struggle to say six. Like, I don't think there's a lot of teams that are going to that environment and playing this year. They have, you know, even though there was a lot of transfers between Ole Miss and LSU this last year, Ole Miss's offensive line, I think, is is really underrated. I think they held up really well with how good LSU's front four is. I think that's a little bit better than maybe we had thought. but they have the best quarterback in the country. I mean, you know, and maybe he shouldn't even be on that team. When he goes to the NFL next year, when week one starts, he'll be twenty five years old. So that's another conversation we could have is this guy should be in the NFL this year. Like he'd probably be starting for a team in the NFL. That's how good of a QB he is. So yeah, they're gonna have an advantage. over pretty much everyone in the country outside of maybe a handful of teams, maybe, for that reason. So yeah, I think that night the better team won. But I don't think there should be many overreactions in here. I think still think both these teams are are really good. I just think when you have a guy who when you need a touchdown can just go down the field and score when you when you have that piece, that makes all the difference in the world and and that's you know That's what happened against Louisville late. Ole Miss needed to go down and score. Boom, they did. It needed to happen again against LSU. Kudos to LSU with the LSU dominated the third quarter. you know, they erased that lead that was there. And then what a sequence drawing them off sides to get the two point conversion to go up eight. I Kevin Ivers: I know. Erich: mean, talk about coaching beauty. I mean, that was incredible. The environment you and I talked about it, the SEC environments at night delivered. This one certainly did. So yeah, this was you know, you had this as your game of the week. It delivered. You know, this will be one of the games we look back when we talk about, you know, the we recap the season and be like, Man, that was such a great event to sit down and watch and it went down to the, you know, the last handful of plays and you know, kinda wish it would have went to overtime just 'cause it was that game you didn't want to end, but it ended almost in the perfect way with With heartbreak for LSU and you know, for me as the non fan of both these teams, or I should say the person who doesn't have a stake, I feel great about both these teams. I think they're both gonna win a lot of games this year. So that's where I leave it. Great game overall, and kudos to Ole Miss for getting this game. But also a warning you have a game in six days. So and a really, really, really like maybe even bigger game and more difficult. So Get back on the horse because we've seen it before where you get the one that you were looking to all year and now there's this team that wants to get you the following week to build their resume and that's where you're at now. Kevin Ivers: Yeah, as impressive as this win was for Ole Miss, if they win next week in the swamp, then all bets are off. I will be blown away with that. That'll be such an incredible turnaround to do that. My seven and Erich: quick let me interrupt you real quick. I believe it's of like the first six games or something like that. that Golding has coached. Five of them have begun against ranked teams. Kevin Ivers: Yes. Yeah, and he's five and one in those games. Erich: So incredible start. Kevin Ivers: Incredible start. Yeah, going back to the playoff last year was really impressive with the whole lame thing leaving and and rallying that team and and taking out Georgia and and nearly Miami. I was wrong on this game. I was heavy on LSU. I felt so good about it. I overlooked the Trinidad Chambless factor, which shame on me. I know he's the best quarterback in the country. I just really thought Ole Miss's defense looked vulnerable in that Louisville game and LSU could expose them. But LSU does concern me going forward with maybe the inability to take the top off defenses. The receiving core is good, but I think that hurt them in this game. Pete Golding kinda had them playing in a phone booth and and they couldn't get loose. Dylan Jones was tough between the tackles, of course the transfer from Wisconsin, so I think they can lean on him. And and Ole Miss is still, I think, a little bit vulnerable to that banging in between the tackles. And we'll see how they look versus Jaden Ball and the Gators next week on the road. What was brutal for me to watch a little bit at times was I was wondering what Blake Baker, the LSU defensive coordinator, was was doing at times on key third downs or second and longs. He had DBs like seven ten yards off from Ole Miss Erich: I know. Kevin Ivers: receivers. And just giving Trinidad Chambless free access throws and free slants, it's there is nothing more frustrating as a fan. I I felt for you in those situations, LSU fans. because I didn't understand that. Get up and challenge them. And if Chandless makes a throw over the top, beats you deep and drops one in the bucket 50 yards, great. You live with that. But they had to get up and press more, I thought. You have the athletes. So that was interesting. They didn't do that near as much as I thought they should have. I am with you on Sam Levitt. His numbers weren't great. 150 yards passing, but he is a gamer. He made some really tough plays. That play where he ran around the whole field essentially was incredible. Erich: Yeah. Incredible. Kevin Ivers: Yeah, he's a fighter. He fought hard. Tough environment. Kudos to LSU coming back in this game, getting down early. You could tell they were shell shocked. Even Lane was shell shocked and just like, Erich: Mm-hmm. Kevin Ivers: crap. Like this is not how I expected this to go at all. So Ole Miss looks definitely better than my seven and five prediction. That was dumb to lump them in the AM category. Should have probably had them more in the the nine and three, eight and four at worst. I still think there are some issues there. They're not gonna have that type of crowd behind them. too often. Obviously it's always a great scene in Oxford, but of course this was a special one with Lane. So they got the job done. They made the plays. Great goal line stand at the end. I thought for sure LSU was gonna get in. I didn't know if they'd get the two-point conversion, but that was a master class by Pete Golding defensively, clamping down on LSU's pass game and then like you said, the two-point conversion calls. So I was wrong. Omis is still really really good. Do I think they're as good as last year? No, but that was a harsh drop-off in my record prediction. And then lastly, to put a ball on it, like you mentioned, the SEC is just. I'm not overhyping this game, but it's like. Here was another game that's hyped up in the SEC and it delivers. Just Erich: Yeah. Kevin Ivers: like all those 230 CBS games through the years, whether it was Vern Lunquist on the call or Brad Nestler and they're playing that music as they sign off for the day. And it's how many times can you hear them saying in another classic from Knoxville or from Tuscaloosa or from Baton Rouge or wherever? Those games always ended up that way. Or when it was Ron Franklin at night with Mike Gottfried on ESPN primetime. And it was like an Auburn, Florida type game, like Erich: Yeah. Kevin Ivers: we saw. The the reason there's nostalgia for those games, and people think of those announcers or the CBS music is because it's because those games are so memorable. And this is just another one in the chapter where these type of programs and these SEC athletes get together and it's special. And the Big Ten really needs to take notice on this. The SEC's bands travel to every road game, Eric. I don't know if you know this. Erich: Yeah. Kevin Ivers: Every road game. In the Big Ten for years, they only pick two. What go to all of them? That is the soundtrack of college football. It's so great to hear the Ole Miss band playing their songs and LSU's playing and back and forth. It's almost like a little bando. And the Big Ten only traveling to two. Why? Athletic directors need to ask themselves that. So it's so great to hear that sound through the game instead of stupid piped in music, but I digress. Erich: Yeah, in that way and many other ways, the SEC's just always been ahead. I mean, the Big Ten's been ahead in terms of revenue generation, like kudos, but in terms of environment, national championship positioning, alignment on schedules, and how we're gonna do that. The SEC's just always been a step ahead. And, you know, when they say it means more, Kevin Ivers: That's where it comes from. Erich: that's where it comes from because it becomes those it's those fine details where you don't have the commissioner. The commissioner of the SEC, his his main focus is not let's grow our revenue. It's how do we win a national championship in football and basketball this year? I don't think that the commissioner of the Big Ten has ever had that mindset, just so we're clear. Like, yeah, you've you know you've created the Big Ten network first, and now there's a foul, then you've put yourself in key markets to grow revenue and all those things. Congrats. But yeah, they they could learn a lot from from that mindset in terms of the environment. And then yeah, it's just You know, the reality is this, like it just doesn't unless it's like Ohio State, Michigan or something like that, the environments just generally don't hit quite the same in those late afternoon and evening games the way they do in the SEC and you know, the bands and the other reasons that we could go into all tie into that. But speak why don't we just stay in the SEC since we're talking about it and start doing our our whip arounds here? A lot of great games in the SEC. I wanna talk about why don't I pick one to talk about, then you pick one. Does that work? Kevin Ivers: Works for me. Erich: So I'm gonna the one I'm gonna talk about is I think pretty obvious here. Kevin Ivers: Yeah. Erich: But let's talk about Mississippi State, South Carolina. And people need to start paying attention to Mississippi State. You and I've talked about this, but generally speaking, in college football, the team with the best QB wins. There's other factors, offensive line and so forth. But you know, when you're in that matchup where it could go either way. Again, and we saw that in this game I'm talking about right now. We saw it in, I think, the Florida Auburn. We saw it in Ole Miss LSU. Like it just it generally goes that way. So if there's not a huge mismatch everywhere else, like who's got the best QB? I mean, where would you rank Camario Taylor for Mississippi State right now? Like, if you're picking a quarterback to lead your team this year and maybe next year, let's just say this year. Obviously, Trinidad and Chamberless is one. I don't know. You can make the case. Camario Taylor is two. Because you Kevin Ivers: Yeah. Erich: know, one, what he's capable of, can make every throw. He kills you deep. He'll kill you with your legs. He sees the field well. He just he feels like he just he can pass in the pocket. He can you like he's just he I mean he's incredible to watch. And I think I'd pick him second. Like if you went first and got turned in, I'd be all I've got Camaro Taylor, and guess what? I got him for another year. So you're great. You might get me this year, but next year you're screwed, right? Like, that's kind of the way I would look at it. He's so good. Kevin Ivers: Yeah, I got him passing Dante Moore right now. Erich: yeah, I probably would pick him ahead of Dante Moore right now, just based off of he clearly he uses his legs better than Dante Moore does. I think he throws a better deep ball than Dante Moore does. and he's got years of growth ahead of him yet. And Dante Moore, this is his last year in college, so Mississippi State goes to South Carolina. They go down, I think it was like sixteen. It was like fourteen zero, sixteen zero. Kevin Ivers: Yeah, six sixteen zero in Williams Bryce places on glued. Erich: Places going nuts, and you're just like, okay, is this where Mississippi State? And then here comes Camario Taylor. He's like, he settled. I made my mistake. I'm not doing that again. And he just took over. They win 41-34. Again, it wasn't that close. that was some late garbage time scoring to get it to that point. And look out for Mississippi State going forward because This again is another team for several years that was kind of a layup. You know, obviously their coach died, and then they just they don't they hire the wrong guy, and then you know eventually they get Jeff Levy, they get a little bit better last year, and but I wouldn't want to play them this year. Like they look incredible, and they have and here's what's unique about Mississippi State. Generally speaking, when you have these V8 engines on the outside. You're kind of a finesse team. Generally, when you have this bulldozer of a running back, you're usually pretty slow on the outside. But guess what? Mississippi State has both. So you want to play Smashball football? They do that as good as anybody. you're gonna bring eight in the box? Watch this. We have two guys that run four threes and a QB who can throw at 80 yards in the air and drop it on a dive. This is a matchup problem for any team in the country. And and I don't say that lightly. Like it like you have to be like you better be like an Ohio State peak defense or a Georgia peak defense where you have NFL players at D B and on your front four and front seven because they can beat you both ways. And that is truly unique in college. Very seldom do you seldomly do you see it. So super fun team to watch. Most people probably thought they'd be three and one at best at this point, maybe two and two. They're four and Or is it three and Kevin Ivers: Four and all. Erich: Yeah, they're they're 4-0. And look out. I I mean what's their what's their ceiling now? I don't know, but I'm excited to watch it. they have some great games coming in that SEC calendar. I can't wait to see their home games going forward because that whole area just has to be absolutely jacked. The cowbells are gonna be super loud, loud the rest of the way, and good luck playing them there. Good luck beating them at home. And their defense has looked pretty good too. So Kudos to Jeff Levy. Really excited for those fans. So excited at the point where I bought myself a Bulldog shirt. Only $8 on Kevin Ivers: Love that. Erich: Amazon. But still, I bought it. And I know you're using them as your team in the video game. So we love seeing it. And how awesome is Ole Miss Mississippi State going to be later this year. I Kevin Ivers: Ugh. Erich: mean, what's the comparison? Do you remember in 2019 when for the first time in forever, Wisconsin versus Minnesota at the end of the year actually like meant something. Like the winner of that game was going to the conference championship. Kevin Ivers: Yeah, both ranked. Erich: That's what we might be looking l at. Kevin Ivers: God I with every everything on the line, Thanksgiving Egg Bowl, just sign me up Erich: So Kevin Ivers: now. Erich: that that's the one I wanted to talk about in the SEC. How about you? Kevin Ivers: I have to talk about it a little because it's Erich: Okay. All right. Kevin Ivers: it's Mississippi State, Kamario Taylor. They are arguably the story of college football right now. And that's what's so impressive about this. By the way, I was wrong. It is three, no, not four, no. I'm getting excited because I think Erich: Okay, sorry, yeah, three and Kevin Ivers: I I think they're gonna I think they're gonna beat Mizzou this week at home. I'm I'm I'm getting excited about that already. But that's what made this even all the more impressive is you're down 16-0 at South Carolina, the darlings of college football so far, Camario Taylor, that was cute and exciting, but you go on the road at SEC and you're about to lay an egg. And then no. Actually, we're gonna go off and then just flip this game and dominate South Carolina on the road and put a lot of pressure on Shane Beamer in the process. So what a win for them. Shane Beamer now. He's 0-6, I read, in game three of the season. And that's when South Carolina is playing that SEC opponent in week three, because they normally have that week opponent later in November. That's not good. They've lost six straight SEC games. And with Lenora Sellers, they went to the portal and put talent around him. And people are not thrilled down there in Columbia. But Kudos to the Bulldogs. I love your shirt. I'm all about They're must-watch TV right now, everybody. The those throws that Camario made. Erich: Every week he makes a highlight throw. Kevin Ivers: Super Camario, which is a phenomenal nickname. That one Erich: Incredible. Kevin Ivers: out of the pocket, just flip and and that other one just zinged the pylon and it was like off one foot. It was dumb. But man. Can't say enough about them. Moving along. I could talk about Georgia, Arkansas, or Oklahoma, New Mexico. I'm gonna choose to talk about the Sooners because there's real issues there. I will just touch on Georgia. I love that they're in the weeds and I know they haven't played anybody p prior to going to FanFil and just putting on the hogs, which there's some real concerns are it's sad what their attendance was and tailgating scene if if you Erich: Yeah, it's rough. Kevin Ivers: s saw that. There is no belief in Ryan Erich: Yeah. Kevin Ivers: Silverfield in that program right now. which he just got there, but I think it was didn't do a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Erich: But even the hire itself, it was like, okay, you know, well this is University of Walmart, all these big headquarters that are there, they're gonna hire they're gonna hire John Gruden, this, that, whatever, and it was like, welcome to Fightville. Ryan Silver just like, All right, I guess it can't get worse. Well, we'll see. Kevin Ivers: Yeah, we'll see. I'm not hopeful in that. I hope I'm wrong. But I do love that George's this team in the weeds. That it and really you don't need to see them in a big game because they've proven that through the years with Kirby. That's unquestioned. So that's why I love that for them. But two the Oklahoma Sooners. Things are not good right now, Eric and Norman. And Erich: I love the analogy that Brandon Walker used, which is they traded a coach who had an electric offense in Linker Riley Kevin Ivers: Yes. Mm-hmm. Erich: for a coach who can give them a pretty good defense, but a horrible offense. And that's that's not where they're at. Yeah. Coordinators matter. Kevin Ivers: Yeah, I just they just flip flopped. Mm-hmm. Just flip flopped itself. Erich: You and I've talked about this. And if you're a defensive coach and you're not an offensive guy, just like if you're an offensive coach and you're not an offensive guy and you're the head coach, you better make sure the other side of the ball is led by somebody who's a quasi head coach themselves and can just own that side of the ball. Otherwise, it's just not gonna ever be good. Kevin Ivers: Coordinators matter. It's like picking the right meal for your Saturday. Lunch for college football and dinner. Like, that affects things. Like, are you going with the pizza Saturday night? Is it a burgers and custard kind of night? That matters. So Brent Venable's postgame press conference. Not sure if you saw it, Eric, was very telling. He was asked if there's anything offensively that he knows, you can hang its hat on. His answer was not really, no. Erich: Mm-hmm. Kevin Ivers: I I applaud the candid answer there, but holy cow, that was a striking admission from a head coach that you don't see a lot. And take nothing away from your boy Jason Eck and the Lobos. Just like last year. Erich: No. Great performance from them. Kevin Ivers: Great. That's a great program. He's awesome. They played well in the big house last year, and then they showed up in Norman in a big way as well. But Oklahoma should not be beating New Mexico 14 to 6. Everyone knows that. The offense is now officially a major concern. There was thought of that when they only put up 10 points at the big house, but it was like, okay, well, Michigan's got a great defense, so we'll kind of give you a pass there. I don't know what happened to John Mateir. Please find the old John Mateir that was leading the Heisman candidacy candidate race after they beat Michigan last year. He looked brutal. He had two picks. You know, this was supposed to be the get right game for the Sooners. Instead, they needed their defense to carry them right now. And Mathir is the problem, and I hate to say that, because we really liked him, and I think he's a gamer, but maybe we overvalued him last year, is what I'm finding out, and got a little carried away. Or is it that the Sooners have literally no run game again? And he He is a quarterback that he he's not Trinidad Chambless. Like, Erich: No. Kevin Ivers: he needs a strong ground game with him, as most quarterbacks do. And so. That I think they rushed like it was 22 carries, 61 yards. It was ugly. You know, David Stone's fourth down stop late essentially saved Oklahoma from having to sweat out an even crazier finish in this game. Their offense is giving them just almost no margin for error. And now they got Now they got Georgia this week, they gotta head to Athens. That's not who you want to be playing to get your offense right. To state the very, very obvious. That could get really ugly between the hedges for them this week. Then they're staring at two and two. My playoff prediction of them looks like it's on life support. I don't know if they can get things turned around because that offense just seems broken. Erich: I don't know if you have all the same things or not often just things. Yeah, I think sometimes with teams and with these QBs who are using this extra year to their advantage, this that whatever. One thing that can happen that's not talked about a lot is you now have a lot of film. To study about someone. And if there's not growth to their game, and you say, well, there's there's a real glaring weakness here, like if we keep John Matir in the pocket, like he's known for overthrowing his guys or throwing high, all these things that Michigan made him do, that other teams have made him do, you know, last year. And and New Mexico would be like, they can't run the ball well. So if we just stuff the line and make it so that there's no play action, all these other things are taken out. You know, he's not an effective passer. He I mean, you look at the talent at QB in the conference for the SEC, like John Mateer is on the lower side of it right now. I mean, that's just the reality. So I think that's one thing, you know, I think multiple things are true there. They can't run the ball. Mateer hasn't evolved to the point where people know how to play him. Think you could have made the same argument about Oregon with people learning their tells. Clearly, multiple teams had seen that and figured that out, which is why what happened probably did. and still water. So that's the thing, too, is once there's a lot of film on a guy, if there's not like when is John Mateer good? Well, if they can run the ball, run play action, then he's gonna be good. But if you can't do that, he's not Trinidad Chamberless, he's not Camario Taylor, you know, he's not. He's not philo at Florida. He's like one of these guys that has these other aspects to his game to where he can beat you. So I think that's what's happening. Is there's just a it's a compilation of things that lead to a glaring weakness, and we'll see how they respond as they go. Because I don't think their defense is good enough this year to carry them like they did last year. And I might this doesn't look like a playoff team right now. In fact, with how much better the SEC looks this year, and boy. If you're ranking the SEC teams right now, my guess is most people are not putting Oklahoma in the top six or seven. So I'll leave it at that. Kevin Ivers: No. Erich: Well, why don't we go to the big ten? So what game do you want to talk about here? Kevin Ivers: let's see here. I will tackle the ND Michigan State game first. So. Erich: Okay. So the team that should be in the Big Ten versus the team that is. Here we go. Kevin Ivers: Correct. We previewed Yeah, Erich: Ha ha ha. Kevin Ivers: we could talk about that for a long time. We previewed this game and we talked about how this could go one way or the other as far as viewing these teams going forward. I guess that was really stupid to say, of course we're gonna view it one way or other, but You know what I mean. We we really talked about like this spread was so big. Is Andy capable of covering that 30-point spread? Or would Michigan State hang around a little bit? And Michigan State darn well hung around to this game. Pat Switz Pat Fitzgerald, who we love as a higher there in East Slancing, had the boys ready. They were only down 17-10 at halftime. They were Erich: Mm-hmm. Kevin Ivers: not completely overwhelmed by ND. Of course ND's talent eventually took over, but it was nothing spectacular. Michigan State only finished with 167 total yards, and ND controlled the game for having the ball for almost 40 minutes. But I really like Michig State's toughness in this game. Last week I talked about how they're a little further ahead than what people would think along the line of scrimmage, and I think that bore out in this game. To only lose by 17 on the road in South Bend when oddsmakers had you losing by just about 30 points. Is a really great result for Michigan State in year one of this new error. So they held ND to four of twelve on third down. You know, Michigan State couldn't capitalize a those small margin a couple times. They they crossed midfield, I believe. Yeah, down 17 10, and they couldn't get anything out of that. But I took away That Michigan State is going to be a little bit better than people think in year one of Fitzgerald, which which is great. And I also take away that ND is not the number three team in the country, as we've discussed. They just simply aren't. They do not Erich: Yeah. No, they're not. Kevin Ivers: have some of the explosiveness and the dynamic playmakers at quarterback or wide receiver or even running back that Erich: Yeah. Kevin Ivers: other teams have. There's they're solid, they're good, don't get me wrong. And Marcus Freeman has built a team from the inside out, and I do believe that is the right way to build a team. But they're mi they're missing those skill players and that showed up versus Mich State and Mich State was able to just kind of play volleyball with them back and forth and and and hang around there. So that was interesting to look and we got more feedback on those teams there. What say you, Eric? What you want to talk about? Erich: Yeah. Yeah, I I I think this one went, you know, I was interested to see how Michigan State would do c against Notre Dame compared to, you know, the way Wisconsin looked and what it looked like to me was a team that didn't turn the ball over as in critical situations as when Wisconsin did. I mean, they had some turnovers, but it wasn't like return for a touchdown and fumble on the seven-yard line off a kickoff, that type of stuff. So when you Kevin Ivers: Right. Erich: I think, you know, when you don't spot a team 14 points, it it clearly makes a difference. I still think Notre Dame's run defense is is the most elite aspect of their game. It's really, really, really hard to run on that team. And I I think that's going to be that way for the rest of the year. And, you know, kudos to Freeman, I guess, for structuring his game plans that way. It's like, all right, we don't think teams can run on us. Let's just make sure we don't get beat deep. Kevin Ivers: Their secondary's tough too. They got Leonard Moore's maybe Erich: Yeah, they do. Kevin Ivers: the best corner. Erich: Very, very handsy secondary. So we'll see, like I said, in those higher profile matches, how that looks with the officials and how they're calling the game. but very aggressive, very physical secondary, very talented. So that aspect of their team was highlighted going into this year. Like might be the best secondary in the country, really, really good front four. And and you've seen that. And the reality is you can go a long ways. So if they they still haven't run the ball well. They're still struggling to run it effectively, and that's what they want to do. CG Car has been efficient, doesn't really turn the ball over. So that's a game plan that I think will work just with the way their schedule works and works out, but still curious to see how they look against a team like BYU, Miami, SMU. They have those challenges later in the year. So we shall see how those games look. I wanted to just I'm gonna talk about it here. That way we don't have to talk about in the Big 12. Shocking score. Northwestern 41. Colorado 7. Boy, did we learn a lot about Colorado. You and I thought, like, I don't know, this seems too good to be true. There's video of the Colorado players making fun of Northwestern's temporary stadium because their new one's not quite ready. It's like, if you Kevin Ivers: Yeah, those what Erich: idiot, why don't you idiots go look at their new stadium? It's gonna look 10 times better than the one you guys play in. You know, you and I love the Buffalo Stadium, but like You're making fun of the team that has a eight hundred million dollar, you know, whatever it costs, new stadium that that's going up. And you got Kevin Ivers: Yeah. This place sucks. It's a it's a library. Erich: You guys got destroyed. They clearly think that they're all that because of their coach. Our coach is Dion. You know who doesn't care? Everyone you play doesn't care. And you just got just run on by, I don't know, middle of the road, Big Ten team. I don't know what else to really call Northwestern at this point. Who knows? But wow. ridiculous there. And then I'm going to give a shout out to Iowa, putting up 55 in Northern Iowa. Look, as an Iowa fan, you get score fifty five points. It's not a common thing. That had to be fun, obviously against much of a much lesser of a team, but coming off of escaping Iowa State the week before by three, this one probably had to feel good and sit back and put your feet up a little bit and watch lot of scoring. So good for you, Iowa fans. kudos there. Kevin Ivers: Yeah, I love that northwestern thrashing of Colorado. You know my thoughts on the current state of Colorado's program. Vod Tech got a big win at Maryland. You know, Mike Loxley, it's just how many times they have an opportunity to get like Erich: Ha ha Kevin Ivers: a somewhat big win and James. It just doesn't happen. Erich: Just not happening. This is probably his last year. Let's be real. Kevin Ivers: Yeah, yeah. James Franken continues to own that coaching rivalry, if you can even call it that. So that was of course a letdown for the Turps, which they might have even expected that at this point. Ethan Grunkmeyer, the Penn State transfer, Erich: You look good. Kevin Ivers: of course, at Vod Tac. Yeah, looks looks really good. Erich: Looked really good. Kevin Ivers: Yep. So most of these results expected. Of a game that will be of just maybe a little bit of interest for us this coming week. Penn State got their ground game going, albeit versus a really bad Buffalo team, but that was one box they wanted to check before Big Ten play versus the Badgers next week, of course. So that's encouraging, but we'll find out a lot more next week. And did you have any thoughts on your game there, Eric? Erich: You know, game you should have won and you did. I'll just say if anyone wants to look up the definition of karma, watch the last ten seconds of that game if you can find it, where it's over, there's a sack, the clock's running out, and the coach calls a time the the opposing coach calls a timeout with two minutes left or two seconds left to try to kick a field goal to make the score a little bit better. Blocked, returned the other way. By Wisconsin for a touchdown to to make it fifty fifty-four to ten instead of forty-eight to to thirteen, which is what they were going for. So that's all I would say is there. You don't really need to watch anything else. But all I will say about the Big Ten scores is, and they're up on the screen for those that are watching, pretty wide open conference. If you look at these scores, I still think Ohio State's probably the class at the conference. We don't know anything about Indiana because they haven't played anyone. So we'll see once big ten play actually starts what that looks like. And it should be fun to watch. Kevin Ivers: I Did like Purdue fighting again. We two weeks in a Erich: Yeah, no, that was good to see. Kevin Ivers: row solid wake team, you know, lost a tough one double overtime. They go out to the West Coast versus Bob Chesney and the Bruins and throw up thirty-eight points. Yeah, they gave up fifty-two. Their defense obviously leaves a lot to desire, but that that's a complete rebuild and Erich: Hey, you gotta start somewhere. Kevin Ivers: gotta start somewhere. And Barry Odom has those kids fighting and so it was good to see late at night and and UCLA continues to throw up points with with Bob Chesney. Erich: Agreed. So the big twelve I'll say that the powers in the class of the Big Twelve, which I think is Utah and and BYU, look strong. We talked about Texas Tech earlier. that that was probably the toughest matchup that anyone had in the conference. I do want to talk about and they look they got their win over Houston, and Houston's supposed to be one of the, you know, maybe better five or six teams in the conference, so good for them. I want to talk about how ridiculous it is that Arizona State and Kansas was in London. We gotta stop this. This isn't the NFL. The NFL works in England in other countries because what makes the NFL great is the high-level top level of athlete and skill on the field. What makes college great is the environments. You can't transport an environment like, you know, a Lawrence, Kansas environment on a Friday night. Hosting Arizona State, or you know, vice versa, down in Tucson down there. Like you can't flip those things and transport them to another country. It doesn't work. Good win for Arizona State, but like I almost don't care who wins those games. You got kids traveling across the ocean on one week's notice, trying to play a game in a foreign country, distractions. It's ridiculous. I want to see home and home games. Like, I want to see Arizona State go to Kansas one year. And then next year I want to see Kansas go to Arizona State. That's what I want to see. I don't want to see some production value in Wembley. you know, it just you just can imagine the nerd at Fox and these other networks setting these things up and acting like it's this great idea. I like who watched that game? I didn't even watch it because I was like, I'm not watching this game. I'm not giving this game ratings. Because Kevin Ivers: No. Erich: it's stupid. It shouldn't be there. Big noon being there was just dumb. And and you know that. Brady Quinn and you know Urban Meyer. You know, they don't wanna be there either. Like it's not a vacation for them. They're going there to work. They wanna go, they wanna go to these campuses to where the energy's there and that's what they're looking for. So ridiculous. I hope that ends and we need someone to step in and just stop this nonsense. That's not you're not gonna grow the game by having games in other countries. It's just not gonna happen. Kevin Ivers: Everything you say, I everything you said, Eric, I hate it so much. Just I can't even explain on this show how much I hate these international games in London in London. Wembley Stadium's the dumbest stadium I've ever seen. It this isn't soccer. It but you you said it. It's so these fox suits can come on the air and be like, Mark Ingram can say he was at the tavern last night in London and he's having a great time getting ready Erich: Yeah. Kevin Ivers: for it. No, he's not. It's dumb. You took away this game from the folks in Lawrence. For ASU to come in. And I'm sorry, I'll say the same thing for the game in Lambo for Wisconsin ND. Of course, that's a little better because it's it's Lambo and it's what No, that's where the Packers play. You took away opportunity for Camp Randall to have ND come in that history and vice versa a couple of years ago when it was that stupid soldier field. Save those games for where people play. I don't know who came up with several years ago these ideas of that that's fun and it's so unique. That's for all the casual. BS people that think that's cool. That's not what college football is about. I'm starting to yell and I'm-I'm I need to calm down, but I ooh, it touches so many nerves of mine. But I'm gonna bring it back here. Deep breaths here on college football nobodies. And what is the next game you want to talk about, Eric? Because I need a drink of water. Erich: No, I I think that's about it. I mean, ultimately I don't think anything too exciting happened in the Big Twelve this weekend. I think I my takeaway on these scores would be I feel like we have a pretty good idea who the players are. BYU, Utah, Texas Tech, Arizona State, Arizona's a little I think a tier below, and then West Virginia. That that would be my class of the the conference right now. Kansas State's interesting. you know, I made the joke of like how long has Avery Johnson been a quarterback in college football? Is this like year eight for him? But I think he's just one of those guys when you when you're a starter for three or four years, that's just how it feels because at the quarterback position you don't usually get more than a year or two to start. So for me, nothing crazy happened. looking forward to see that. I mean, it it was it was the conference matchup of Texas Tech Houston was obviously the the game of the week there for that conference. And Yeah, I think we're starting to see some separation for some of those teams. Kevin Ivers: I'll say these things really quick. BYU, great win. It wasn't as close as that score suggests in Erich: Yeah. Kevin Ivers: Fort Collins. Jim Moore and Colorado State play hard. That's a meaningful rivalry to them. That means even more than for them than BYU. So kudos to the Cougars. They continue to look phenomenal. Your Ute's out there in Utah. I know it's Utah State, but they're just a bowl constrictor and just 33-0. They're dominant. And then it may mean absolutely nothing. I know bowling. Green's a Mac team, but Iowa State literally a completely new roster, a complete Erich: Yeah. Kevin Ivers: re-haul with Jimmy Rogers, throwing up 55 points on Bowling Green, who's generally respectable, like that easily could have been 34-7, something like that. So maybe the Cyclones are like we talked about last week, just a little bit better than people think. So that's my Erich: Agreed. Kevin Ivers: closing thoughts on the Big 12. Now we roll into the Atlantic Coast Conference. What do you got for us there, Eric? Erich: Well, obviously the we talked about it earlier, but the Louisville win over SMU was the the best win in the the conference that week. was fun seeing Florida State show some life at Alabama. I think it's similar to what I had said about Rutgers playing them being at home, but playing USC, where I think that's kind of the probably the last signs of life before a very long season the rest of the way for Florida State. Kevin Ivers: Mm-hmm. Erich: Would have been really interesting to see if they could have pulled that off, like what kind of energy that could have injected into the program, but I think we're gonna we're gonna see it taper off from there. The weird one, Duke Stanford. I hi how bad is Stanford? Duke wins that one. I I I mean, we thought maybe there'd be a little better this year. Maybe not. I think they probably have a long way to go and maybe we shouldn't have talked about them as much as we did early, but it was week zero. There wasn't much to talk about. But boy, do they look like Kevin Ivers: It was heavy Stanford. Erich: I mean, who wins Stanford versus Rutgers? That is maybe that should be like a the like w worst teams in the power four bowl game type type gain. So what we'll see, but boy, did they look bad. and you know, kudos to Duke to get the win versus Illinois. And then they come back and get this win. And I think with what they lost in the transfer portal, people thought maybe they would be real down this year, but not not a bad start for them. North Carolina kind of I don't know if they they kind of blew it against Clemson. I the the lightning delay probably helped the home team there. It it usually does. so that's interesting. And you know, I were thinking, like, man, if North Carolina beats Clemson and starts three and who would have had forecast of that? But Clemson gets the win. Both teams look ugly. It just there's a lot of there's just this handful of really ugly looking teams in the ACC right now. and it's just it's unfortunate. I was hoping that they would kind of build off the success they had last year, but If I had to pick the weakest power forward conference right now, it's to me it's pretty clearly the ACC. Kevin Ivers: We buried the lead here though at the ACC and so we're we're sorry to Mustangs and Cardinals fans for Erich: Yeah. Kevin Ivers: having the SMU Louisville game here, which was a fantastic game Erich: It was. Kevin Ivers: as As we thought it might be. Shootout lived up to it. Cardinals come away at the victory. 41 31. They finally got that explosive ground game moving, Eric. And the funny thing is, it wasn't Isaac Brown, it was the other Brown in the backfield. As Keywan Brown went off for 163 yards on only 10 carries. Those long runs he had, like 58 yarder and like a fifty-three yarder, that completely changed the game. What I really liked about this for Louisville is Lincoln Keynotes did not have to be. Superman like he did versus Ole Miss on Libber. Erich: Yeah, the ground gate was incredible and it gave him the ability to s to kind of manage the game a little bit more than he had to against Ole Miss. Kevin Ivers: A hundred percent. And sometimes Kevin Jennings needs to learn that more for SMU because they had a great run game. Kondri Kendrick Raphael Erich: Yeah. Kevin Ivers: went for about two hundred and One of my few predictions I got right this week was if Kevin Jennings turns the ball over, which she threw two Erich: He did. Kevin Ivers: picks, that's the difference in the game. Louisville had no turnovers, SMU had three. And a game of pretty even teams, you can't have that. So great win for Louisville. And they are now clearly in that driver's seat with Virginia going down and them taking out SMU. They are the lead. Erich: Yeah. Well, Virginia didn't lose a conference game though. That's the only thing. Yeah. Kevin Ivers: They didn't, my fault, yeah. I just think I didn't love how that looked for them going forward. But no, Erich: Totally. Kevin Ivers: you're absolutely right. I'm getting ahead of myself. But eyeballs tell me Louisville is going to be that challenger, and that would be really fun to see them play Miami and Charlotte in early December. So great game, the headliner and the ACC. What else? What else? Do we Erich: Yeah, I just I just want to close the ACC by saying for the SMU fans, it's gotta be really hard because in terms of talent, I mean, that's a roster that is loaded with talent. It's just your quarterback Kevin Ivers: yeah. Erich: has to not throw not throw interceptions. Kevin Ivers: Yes. Erich: And if he doesn't, and I don't, you know, at this point in his career, it's just like he hasn't learned he's not going to. With how well they can run the ball, like at some point you have to start thinking, as good as he can be, he's also the reason we're losing games. Like he's the reason the game against Florida State was competitive. He's the reason they lost this game. With how talented they are, they need someone in that can come in there and just manage the game. Or they need him to dial it back. Like, first read's not there, throw it away or run. but it isn't happening. So it's just gonna be unfortunate because it's gonna be like SMU could you that's they have a playoff talent caliber roster and it's gonna it's not gonna go that way because their quarterback just can't avoid throwing at least two interceptions a game. That's just the reality. Kevin Ivers: Yeah, because this game was clearly a game where Louisville wasn't dominating snap to snap. Like SMU played right with them. It's just Louisville played better in the bigger moments. Some Erich: Yeah, agreed. Kevin Ivers: of those some of those or, you know, they avoided the mistakes in the big moments. And you're right. I remember Rhett Lashley's face when Jennings made a horrible interception in the end zone to keep Florida State alive in that game. And he just has this face that basically if you could put a caption says like Gosh, I love you. I love you, Kevin Jennings, but like why do you keep doing this to me? Like that's just what his face says. Like, he knows, like, this is our this is our guy, but like, why again? So polling for the kid, hopefully the Mustangs rebound. But tough day for them at Papa John Stadium in Louisville. Moving into the group of six, Eric, anything stand out here? Erich: nothing here this week other than the only thing I'll say is Wyoming losing twenty four ten to Central Michigan is not a good look for one of my favorite group of six teams, a team I own a sweatshirt for. So hopefully they they find their way. Kevin Ivers: Same. Yes, I own a lovely Wyoming hooding as well. Shout out to the folks in Laramie. Tulane. Good program, but they are in a bit of a rebuild. Came up short in the Little Apple. Toledo and Temple played a wild one in overtime. 49-48. The Rockets got the win there. And worried about UCF this year in the Big Twelve, barely beating Georgia State. Scott Frost is really not a guy pull for anyway, so I think it could be tough times in Orlando for UCF this year. Erich: Yeah, the last thing I'll say is ND State, brand new FPS team, four and the Wyoming and UNLV games they got coming up no longer look as difficult as they did. But October twenty fourth, North Dakota State at New Mexico on the CW. That is going to be eight p.m. mountain time. Kevin Ivers: It's electric stuff. I hope Tom Brenneman's Erich: That Kevin Ivers: on the call. Erich: that is where men are made in games like that. Potential playoff ramification type group of six game, then. so that's all I'll say about the group of six, but love that ND North Dakota State off to a great start. would be a really incredible story if they can go to the playoff in year one and fully pay off their FBS Mountain West entry fee with just the money they get for being in the playoff. that'd be incredible. So Kevin Ivers: yeah. Without a doubt. Erich: Onto our categories. Let's go with most Kevin Ivers: Love this. Erich: impressive team. Who do you have? Kevin Ivers: I went old miss here, Eric. Have s have some crow to eat for the folks in Oxford. I know your buddy asked me about the 7-5 prediction before the Erich: Ha ha. Kevin Ivers: season. Total totally fair. Gave my reasons. Those reasons look like they they might not matter now. You know, I thought LSU was gonna come in there and. They were just gonna plant their flag and get a nice a ten, eleven point victory. And Lane was gonna be the ultimate villain, but Ole Miss came out ready to go. They played flawlessly to start. They hung on the end. Phenomenal coaching job by Pete Golding. What can you say about Trinidad Chambliss? And kudos to the Rebels. I really didn't see that coming. And they got a huge win. And they're very happy this morning and last night, I'm sure, with that's putting it very Erich: Of course. Kevin Ivers: mildly. Putting it very mildly to get that win. So what do you got? Eric for your team. Erich: So I went with Florida. I just think that They really showed significant matchup problems for the rest of the country, just in terms of what they can do offensively and defensively. it's gonna be really fun to see. In fact, we get to see the two teams we just mentioned play next week at the swamp. That's gonna be incredible. so I'm sure we will talk about that more in our preview. But for me, Florida, Summerall, what a start. What a team. Even just the way he left Tulsa, where he's like, I'm taking just the kicker and the punter or whatever it was. No one else is allowed to transfer to Florida. Gave him a million dollar donation for NIL when he left. Like, how can you not root for a guy like that? Clearly, Kevin Ivers: Mm. Tulane by the way. Erich: what's that? Kevin Ivers: You said Tulsa, Tulane. I just wanted to Yep. Erich: Two, excuse me, Tulane, you know, really cares about the program that gave him his start. And, you know, I again, you just don't hear it that often. And and when a guy is wired that way, you know his players probably love him. You know, he's he's I'm sure he's hard on his players, but that's just a guy who clearly understands culture and respects where you come from and and you're seeing the results on the field and great hire by Florida. This is the guy that I think Auburn wanted, remember, and in Florida. That job opened up and they they kind of took them away. So I think Florida has to feel excited for not only what what they've done so far, especially after this weekend, but what's coming. So those are the highs. Let's get to the lows. Letdown of the week. And I'm gonna go first. And I think ours are similar for different reasons. Because these teams both won. I'm going with USC. So USC had, I think, one job to do in its first four weeks, which is weeks. Zero through two beat up on these lesser opponents. Week three. Now we're gonna travel east and show that we can travel east and beat what is I think right now the worst power four team in the country. A team that lost to Boston College, a team that lost to UMass, both these games at home. So they've lost to the bottom of the barrel at home already, and all you gotta do go is go there and play effectively. And you almost lay an egg. And without a pick six that goes in your favor, you probably do. So for me, USC, huge letdown. Hard to know what to think of this team going forward. I will find out here pretty quick with Oregon coming to town. And of course, they win that game. Then I'm like, maybe most impressed with the team of the week in USC. That's how this goes in college football. But for me, let down of the week, you could go a lot of different directions. AM was a contender here, but I'm going with USC who had the this is the homework assignment where all you gotta do is watch the movie. And they couldn't even do that. So me, USC, let down of the week. Kevin Ivers: Yeah, just or the just get your syllabus signed. Erich: Yeah. Kevin Ivers: No, that is a hundred percent a And you said almost laid an egg, Eric. I believe when you're USC playing this Ruckers team and you look like that, I I think it still was an egg that was laid. mine is Oklahoma, as you said, all the same reasons. Ugly, ugly 14-6 win over New Mexico. There's no offense. Brent Venables has no belief in the offense. He clearly said that, as I touched on earlier. So times are tough in Norman and they Only get worse this week heading between the hedges to face a Kirby Smart Georgia defense. Erich: Mm-hmm. Kevin Ivers: I am worried for John Mateir, that offensive line. They might rush for like, you know, two yards. That that might be generous. So Erich: Ha ha ha. Kevin Ivers: I'm I don't know what's going on there. I really thought they were a playoff team, and who knows now. We have where Eric was right and wrong. Eric, where were you right this week? Erich: So I had the Ole Miss pick correct. went under the wire, but it went my favor favor, excuse me. Florida, you and I were both all over that, so I had that right. Mississippi State, that one was an upset pick that we both had correct, and so great that I feel like I had a pulse on that. Notre Dame in regard to we didn't think they would cover. And we thought they would still struggle rolling the ball. So I'm gonna say we were we were right about that. And that just that they don't look like the top five team right now. I still think they're top top 15, top twelve. Like very much still think that. And that appeared to bear fruit this weekend. And then my point spread let down on the week. So for those who gamble, who listen to me, and I would assume some people did, because that was one of our better performing short videos this week in terms of views. But USC not even coming close to covering twenty three and a half. I do think it moved to twenty one and a half. before the game started. But e even still, that was easy money for everyone who took that pick. Kevin, where were you right? Kevin Ivers: I was right about Florida and Mississippi State as well. Almost wasn't, because we were on Auburn going into the season and and Erich: Yeah. Kevin Ivers: kind of leading up to that game. So a last minute switch there worked out. Louisville, of course, been high on them ever since that Ole Miss performance, and they were able to carry that into their big win over SMU. And then I was really pumped about having people take Wake with the points Friday night, Erich: You nailed that one. Kevin Ivers: nailed that down to winsome Salem. That felt really good. They easily covered the twenty and a half. And they really, you know, yes, Miami got off to a good start, but Gio Lopez can play some ball at quarterback for Wake, the North Carolina transfer. They moved the ball and I think Nick Saban said it best this past weekend. Miami's offense is upgraded with Darien Mensa and Malachi Tony and Mark Fletcher only being better. But their defense Has definitely taken a little bit of a step back Erich: Agreed. Kevin Ivers: without Ruben Bain and Hakeem Mesador and some of those absolute freaks they had. So I think that's what it could be for Miami going forward. And yeah, they only got out of there 3320. So the Deks got it done. And now to where we were wrong. do you want me to start that off? I will go. Erich: Yeah, where were you wrong? Kevin Ivers: I was wrong in lots of places. Alabama not covering. I didn't think Mike Norval's team would even show up, and it was pretty staggering to see them up 21 to 6. So they fought, but it's like you still give up 50 points. You you can't be happy with that. but Alabama didn't cover, so Mike Calen DeBoer and their defense, they certainly can't be happy giving it up 36 to that Florida State team. It was wrong about Virginia. I'm kind of mad about that. Just we liked West Virginia and S I I I put too much stock in that NC State win and after how Erich: Agreed. Kevin Ivers: they lost, it's like what why? That's Erich: Yeah. Means nothing. Kevin Ivers: means nothing. LSU was clearly wrong about just touched on that. And yeah, I guess I was wrong on Houston, but when you lose by an inch, I'm I'm not mad at the cougs. Erich: Yeah, so for me, same. We both picked Alabama to easily cover, and they didn't cover the points were there, just the defense was soft, and that just was really surprising to me considering just what this game did to them from a narrative standpoint last year. I really thought they were just come out and more or less dominate. But I I do think we have to see what Obama Alabama looks like week to week. I think they're a team that'll get better that goes throughout the year, but it looks like there might be some holes on that defense and and we'll see how they go there. Like, can they get off the field without a turnover is where where my head goes and we'll see how that goes. Virginia saying we are wrong. Just really thought that was a team that's a little further ahead than where West Virginia would be, but clearly we are wrong about that. And kudos to West Virginia for just laughing at that ten point spread and flipping it to their favor. SMU. a couple of Louisville fans let me know out on my short about predicting SMU to win that game. Yeah, I was wrong. Like Louisville won. And I would have gonna say because I was wrong because I said Jennings would play clean and he didn't. If Jennings plays clean in that game, I might be right. But thus is the world of making predictions. And then obviously we were half wrong about Houston, one inch away from taking it to overtime. They covered that spread. so we thought they were gonna upset outright. they still at least upset the spread, if you will. but ultimately we picked that to be our upset this week, and we were wrong about that. So that is the week three recap. And we will be back in a couple days with our week four preview. We are officially approaching that 20% ish of the season, Kevin, already being behind us. So bitter sweet in ways, but a lot of great football ahead of us. Kevin Ivers: Week four is always phenomenal, Eric, because you know what that means. Erich: Conference, conference, conference games. Kevin Ivers: Yes, it is full conference play for any everyone. There is no more Ohio State, Kent State big noon games, and all that other stuff going on. So it should be awesome, everybody. We will look for you on our week four preview show this week. And thank you again for listening. Have a wonderful rest of your day. Erich: See you guys.