Latest / The PatteFacts: A College Football Show / Ep. 137: College Football Playoff First Round Takeaways

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Ep. 137: College Football Playoff First Round Takeaways · The PatteFacts: A College Football Show

0:02
Durant makes his move, spins of the pace turn, puts it up, puts
0:05
it in. John Morant knocks it down.
0:08
Chioza with the dollar to curve back.
0:16
Take it down, LeBron. Oh, look like James.
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LeBron James with the rejection. And here.
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We go. Episode 137 of The Paddafax,
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streaming on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you get
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your podcasts from. It is December 23rd, 2025.
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Thank you so much for tuning in. I'm William Patterson.
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All right, back for another edition of TPF, this time for my
0:55
College Football Playoff First round takeaways.
1:00
And we've got four games to cover, two of which we're a
1:04
little bit closer than the other, but we'll have takeaways
1:07
and storylines from all of them, and I'll wrap it up with a
1:11
final, larger take away of how I plan to fix.
1:15
The. College Football Playoff.
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So we'll talk about that a little bit later on.
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I do want to say as it is, December 23rd, Merry Christmas
1:26
to all, Happy Holidays to all, whatever you celebrate, a great
1:31
time of year as we wrap up the 2025 calendar year.
1:35
And sincerely thank you for listening, thank you for
1:38
supporting. Hope you guys have a Merry
1:40
Christmas and a happy holiday. And a happy new year as I don't
1:45
think I'm going to be able to get another one out until after.
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The new year, maybe, maybe, maybe get one right out before
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the College Football Playoff quarterfinals kick off.
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But if I don't see you guys again, speak to you guys again,
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happy holidays, Merry Christmas, happy New year.
2:04
What a great second-half of 2025 that we have had and I
2:08
appreciate all the support. Make sure to follow at the
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Padifax on Instagram, at the Padifax on Twitter, at TP Fax on
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Sports on TikTok, and at the Padifax on YouTube.
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And if you're watching this on YouTube, make sure to like and
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subscribe, support the channel. And if you're listening to this
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on a podcast network, click that bell up at the top right.
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Make sure you never miss an episode.
2:34
So much great stuff going down right now.
2:37
And I cannot wait to talk about the plans that we have for 2026
2:41
continuing to build on all of this momentum.
2:43
So I'm really excited about it. And I think this is going to be
2:49
my last time recording on this current computer, which is a
2:52
little sad. I've had this computer since 7th
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grade and obviously it is not capable.
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Of. Doing everything I wanted to do
3:01
at this point in the game it's an it's a MacBook Air and doing
3:05
graphics video and all this stuff it's a little too much for
3:08
it to handle it it's at its fair share of the fan coming on.
3:12
If you guys know what I'm talking about the the fan on the
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under the keyboard will will pop on and it's it's loud as can be.
3:20
It tells you you can tell it's being overworked, but I'm really
3:24
excited for the opportunities in 2026.
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Some new stuff coming out looking to continue to grow, to
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grow. I should say, excuse me, grow
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the college football brand and we're coming off of a great
3:37
season. Still a lot of ball left to be
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played, by the way, but a good time to get things rolling up a
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notch a little bit. So really excited for that.
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Once again, thank you all for listening.
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I'll be going game by game in chronological order.
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And it just so happens that it is like the order of the best
3:56
game. So like Alabama, Oklahoma by
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far, maybe not by far because I did enjoy Miami and Texas A&M,
4:04
but that was the closest game. We'll we'll we'll say that and
4:07
most exciting game back and forth.
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And then we had Miami and Texas A&M.
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I enjoy that because it was two really, really talented teams.
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A lot of talented players. We knew that.
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And then two lane on this Oregon, James Madison had a
4:21
little bit of a different story, but we'll have takeaways for all
4:23
of those. So once again, I do appreciate
4:25
you listening along with me. I want to begin with this, and
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it's my First things first topic #9 Alabama takes down #8
4:34
Oklahoma 34 to 24 on Friday night.
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And heading into this one, the pregame storylines were that
4:42
this was one of two first round rematches of the previous
4:46
meeting. Oklahoma upset Alabama 23 to 21
4:51
in Tuscaloosa on November 15th. And that was a game that I
4:55
remember vividly. That was a game that I had a
4:58
pretty sharp side of. Oklahoma on.
5:01
I had Oklahoma on the 5 1/2 had them on the money line.
5:03
I looked at that game as. Alabama continued to regress
5:07
offensively. I liked what I had seen from
5:09
Oklahoma's defense and felt like that was the right spot.
5:12
It ended up. Being that and heading into this
5:15
one, Oklahoma's defense versus an Alabama sputtering offense,
5:21
it was kind of the same deal as when they matched up in
5:23
November. But this time, Alabama was
5:25
coming off of 1 of their worst offensive performances of the
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season against Georgia in the SEC Championship, a game that I
5:32
was there for just 209 yards of total offense -3 rushing yards.
5:37
And I just did not seem like the Alabama team that we had
5:41
witnessed in October, the same team that beat Missouri and beat
5:46
Tennessee and beat Vanderbilt. It looked like they were
5:50
unstoppable and that Ty Simpson had really caught his stride,
5:54
but unfortunately that was not the case in the SEC Championship
5:57
and didn't seem like it'd be the case against Oklahoma.
6:01
I mean, Ty Simpson for the season. 64.3% completion
6:06
percentage, but the last three games in the SEC heading into
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Friday night. Just a 56% completion rate.
6:13
We knew the Alabama had an issue with running the football.
6:16
Just 121st in the country at 3.3 yards a carry, 123rd and yards a
6:22
game on the ground as well at one O 3.8.
6:26
And my big thing was Oklahoma's defense is so versatile.
6:32
It's so deep. There's so many different
6:34
players that have made an impact this season, whether it's an Eli
6:37
Bowen or an Luke Heinecke or or an or Mason Thomas, who I love,
6:42
or Mason Thomas and. That's why this Oklahoma defense
6:46
was top ten in the country, 41st excuse me, 41 sacks on the
6:50
season, tied for first best in the FBS.
6:53
They get off the field on 3rd downs at a 29% rate.
6:57
So heading into this game I liked.
6:59
Oklahoma, I had Oklahoma at the -1 on the paddle locks and I
7:03
talked about it last week that I, I, I liked Oklahoma and the
7:07
match up and I. Thought at least for 1/4.
7:13
That I was going to be dead right on this game and we'll get
7:17
into that first half of football as that's one of the big
7:20
takeaways from this one, folks. Oklahoma LED this 117 to nothing
7:27
with scores on all three of their initial drives.
7:31
And this looked like a different Oklahoma offense that, you know,
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Alabama wasn't the only team that had a bunch of criticism
7:39
offensively. Oklahoma was not exempt from it
7:41
either. They haven't been the same team
7:42
since John Mater returned from injury.
7:45
All of us remember what they look like in the Red River
7:47
Shootout against Texas. We all remember what materials
7:51
look like over the course of the season.
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Just kind of a guy that peaked in September.
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And how much of it do you play in, you know, how much of that
8:01
plays into his injury? But you know it, it'd be up to
8:05
you, but I I felt like the injury has significantly
8:08
handicapped him and he hasn't been that good of a thrower.
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But the initial drives of this one it it.
8:14
Looked like a different version of him and looked like the
8:17
version of him that helped put up 408 yards against Michigan
8:20
and and in the early part of the season.
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He had a ton of zip on the football.
8:24
He looked comfortable. Was using his legs and.
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I I, I I. Thought this was going to.
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Kind of get out of hand like Oklahoma and kind of gotten that
8:32
second wheel offensively again and this was going to be.
8:34
A. Really, really good football
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team now on both sides of the field.
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Oklahoma had a 260 to 100 yard advantage at halftime and that's
8:44
typically reverse for Oklahoma. I talked a lot about how their
8:48
method of winning I don't believe is sustainable.
8:51
Very similar characteristics and traits to BYU, an offense that
8:55
is very one-dimensional. In BYU's case, it's a lot of the
9:00
ground game. For Oklahoma.
9:02
It was more so just trying to find Isaiah Santanga and we're
9:05
lying off of that. But both of them had really good
9:07
defenses, but just kind of fraud characteristic traits like 2
9:11
lopsided on one side of the football.
9:14
And Oklahoma had had had, excuse me, had had these type of
9:16
numbers throughout the season against Tennessee and Neyland
9:19
Stadium. They were down 160 yards at
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halftime and it was the exact same number as.
9:25
This. Tennessee had 260 yards to
9:28
Oklahoma's 100, and the roles were reversed in this 117 to
9:34
nothing lead 260 yards to 100 yards at halftime.
9:37
Surely Oklahoma was up double digits.
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Right. No, unfortunately no.
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And really unfortunate for me and my paddle locks.
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No, I want to take you through a series of events, of events I
9:53
should say, but I believe is the reason why Oklahoma a lost this
9:57
game and B, even allowed Alabama back into it.
10:00
Let's start on that fourth down conversion for the Tide on the
10:03
red zone or in the red zone. On the goal line, very gutsy
10:08
play there. Very risky decision for Kailyn
10:11
de Boer, but I felt like he sensed.
10:13
But this one could possibly get out of hand and I kind of felt
10:16
the same way. I was surprised they went fourth
10:17
on 4th and two they marched all the way down there.
10:19
If they hit a field goal, they would have been only down by 14
10:22
points. But the way the game was going,
10:26
Oklahoma hadn't been stopped yet, so it didn't feel like a
10:29
field goal was going to be enough.
10:30
They decided to go for it and we'll talk more about lots here.
10:34
Brooks here in a minute. But he makes an incredible play,
10:37
is able to March his way into the end zone and we're at a 17
10:39
to 7 game. OK, Alabama's put in a little
10:42
juice. We'll see where this one goes
10:44
from here, but then Oklahoma has the opportunity to kind of open
10:48
this game back up. And they've got a big play down
10:52
the field, a big play opportunity down field to
10:54
running back Xavier Robinson and he drops the ball.
10:57
It's a third and three with about four, 3450 left to go in
11:02
the second-half or excuse me, second quarter.
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And Matir has the opportunity to run the ball.
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But he decides to zip it down the field.
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And I didn't think it was a bad decision.
11:12
Like, obviously, hindsight's 2020.
11:14
And I hate when people, like, look back on a play and be like,
11:17
well, since he did that now, that's why this happened.
11:20
Like, he could have run it. Yeah.
11:22
And that probably would have been a little bit of a smarter
11:23
play. But he gets it down the field
11:26
accurately and on time. And it hit your receiver's hands
11:29
that in this case, the running backs hands.
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It should have been completed, but Xavier Robinson drops it.
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And that was not the only thing that was dropped and that, you
11:38
know, ensuing to play possession because right after that,
11:44
Oklahoma's punter drops the football, Alabama pounces on it.
11:49
They get an opportunity, they cut it to A7 point game.
11:52
It's 17 to 10 at the time and you've just kind of given them
11:56
some life. But Oklahoma also has the
11:58
opportunity now to go back down the field, get a field goal
12:02
taken and 1/2 time with a double digit lead.
12:05
But no. John Metier turns back into the
12:09
John Metier that we had kind of feared heading into this one, or
12:13
Oklahoma fans had maybe thought was over.
12:17
You know, he, he again, he had a ton of.
12:19
Zip. He looked healthy.
12:20
That's the best he's looked since his return from injury.
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And he has a terrible read. A bad decision goes right to
12:26
Zabian Brown, who's become accustomed.
12:29
To making big time plays like that.
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He did so against Tennessee when the Volunteers traveled to
12:35
Bryant Denny Stadium. He's the one that had that pick
12:37
6 right before halftime, a play that left me with my jaw open
12:42
and not many plays have ever done that.
12:44
But like, it just was such a big play in terms of momentum, this
12:49
play did as well. I mean, it's just like, how is
12:54
that possible? Not only, you know, watching the
12:58
game on, you know, on the TV, something like that happens.
13:02
You don't get to see everything. But when they did the replay, it
13:04
just clearly is a miscommunication and poor Reed
13:08
from Matir and Xavier Brown eats it up, runs it back for the runs
13:14
into the end zone and boom, we got a tie game.
13:18
And I'm like Oh my gosh, well that's.
13:22
That's a huge deal because all all the momentum that Oklahoma,
13:25
the home team hosting a College Football Playoff game, had has
13:29
now wiped away. And despite the the 160 yard
13:34
advantage at halftime, this thing is tied up.
13:37
And that's when I knew. Oklahoma was in trouble because
13:40
Alabama did not run the ball well once again, 28 yards on the
13:44
night. Now some of that accounts for
13:46
sack yardage as well, just the way college football does their
13:50
statistics. But 28 yards on the night to
13:53
Oklahoma's 55. No real advantage there.
13:55
Two teams that haven't been able to run the ball that well all
13:58
season. You kind of figured that, but
14:02
Alabama's passing game really got going and I thought that was
14:05
a big thing here. I I'll, I'll talk about
14:07
Alabama's offense here in a second because I do think that's
14:10
the the second big take away here.
14:12
But going back to Oklahoma, John Mateer for the game goes 26 of
14:17
41, three O 7 for three total touchdowns and that one costly
14:20
interception. But I thought if you could get
14:23
John material over 300 yards passing for the game and I think
14:26
any Oklahoma fan would have taken that, especially 3 total
14:30
touchdowns. That's I mean, most Oklahoma
14:32
fans would probably hear that blind before the game and say
14:35
yeah, that's a win. Dionne Burke's a guy that I
14:39
really liked heading into the season, liked last year too,
14:42
even though he was banged up. 7 receptions for 107 yards and a
14:45
touchdown for the Purdue transfer a couple of years ago,
14:49
he was their best receiver. And I think that was a little
14:51
bit of a problem because Isaiah Santanga only had one touchdown,
14:55
excuse me, only had he had a touchdown, I'll give him that.
14:58
But he was not very involved in the catches.
15:00
I think he finished with two and just not a very big game from
15:03
him. And he's your best receiver and
15:05
he's been your speedster throughout the season.
15:07
Credit to Alabama's defense for keying in on him, but I I
15:12
thought that was a missing cog in in the Oklahoma offensive
15:15
wheel. So you match in the turnovers,
15:17
you match in blowing the lead, you match in a a costly drop and
15:21
your best receiver and a guy that was up for the Belinda
15:23
cough award for much of the season as a non factor.
15:28
It it was a tough, it was a tough, inconsistent day for
15:31
Oklahoma's offense once again, because.
15:33
You got the. Performance you needed from John
15:35
Mateer, but it you didn't get the complimentary performances
15:38
that you usually get so. That was frustrating, but also
15:43
give credit to Alabama. I thought the the big change
15:46
defensively for them was they started getting to the.
15:48
Quarterback. They didn't have a whole lot of
15:50
success in that first quarter against John Mateer and getting
15:54
in the backfield and sacking them.
15:56
They they made that a a point of emphasis coming out of the
15:59
locker room at that first possession for Oklahoma was shut
16:02
down immediately because of the type of defense that Alabama
16:05
played. We'll switch to that Alabama
16:09
offense because that is a big storyline in this one, an
16:13
offense that didn't have much momentum as I read off earlier.
16:18
Horrible outing against Georgia -3 yards for the game in the
16:24
rushing category. That is 209 for the game
16:27
overall. Not going to be good enough to
16:30
beat any high end team, let alone a really high end defense
16:36
like an Oklahoma and Ty Simpson was able to get it going. 18 of
16:40
29 for 232 yards and two touchdowns.
16:43
And really all these numbers I'm about to read off come in the
16:46
final 3/4 of the game because first quarter they didn't do
16:48
anything. 18 and 29 for 232 and two touchdowns.
16:53
Lotzier, Brooks. Let's.
16:56
Talk about Lotzier Brooks. Lotzier Brooks goes 5 receptions
17:00
for 79 yards and two touchdowns and the story on this guy's
17:04
great. He's a 593 star.
17:07
True. Freshman wide receiver at
17:08
Alabama. How many guys fit those
17:11
dimensions and make a big impact at Alabama when you've got every
17:15
five star imaginable backing up another?
17:17
Five star and you're telling me a 593 star receiver from New
17:23
Jersey is the guy that comes in here and makes a big difference?
17:27
It's the Alabama effect. I guess we've just got to come
17:29
to learn that at this point. But lots of your Brooks was
17:32
really, really important in this one to go alongside him.
17:35
Isaiah Horton, 5 receptions for 65 yards.
17:38
Josh Cuevas, the tight end who was banged up a little bit of a
17:41
question mark heading into this game for reception for 43 yards.
17:46
And the 18 of 29 number I give for Ty Simpson honestly is a
17:51
little misleading because it could have been and probably
17:53
should have been like 23 of 29. He had five or six balls that
17:57
were dropped. Ryan Williams obviously had
18:00
something to do with that, but Jeremy Bernard, one of the most
18:03
reliable receivers on this team, dropped one that, you know, I I
18:07
thought was pretty wild. I mean, I watched the
18:11
broadcaster like, how the hell does he miss that?
18:14
So even despite a lot of the drop issues, Simpson had a good
18:17
three quarter end to the game. And I I thought that was a big
18:21
difference. He looked a lot more composed
18:22
and was able to deliver a really a couple of really good
18:25
footballs. The one a lot to her.
18:26
Brooks was probably the prettiest of the night.
18:29
I did want to mention Daniel Hill, the running back, 9
18:33
carries for 43 yards and a touchdown.
18:35
Obviously those are not eye popping numbers, but granted
18:38
this is a guy that did absolutely nothing in the SEC
18:41
Championship 2 weeks prior. I'll give him credit for
18:44
punching it in in a goal line situation.
18:46
And also, you know it, almost 3 yards of carry out.
18:50
I think Alabama would take that a solid performance there.
18:54
So overall, the Alabama offense just kind of took the momentum
18:59
that Oklahoma gave them. Alabama's defense was able to
19:03
get some key stops, was able to get a turnover.
19:07
Oklahoma's offense sputtered and they had the opportunity for the
19:12
kill shot, but they couldn't do it.
19:14
And Alabama took that momentum and used it for themselves.
19:17
And that was a. One of their stronger.
19:21
At least incrementally, one of their stronger performances in
19:24
the type of situation than they've had in the last couple
19:27
of weeks. They didn't do that against like
19:29
an Auburn. Like an Auburn, it was up and
19:31
down the whole game. Alabama to put up 34 points
19:35
against that defense and that type of environment after
19:38
scoring 0 points in the first quarter, I thought was pretty
19:41
impressive. Final thing from this game.
19:45
Something that I thought was going to be really.
19:47
Key. And I was really wrong about
19:50
special teams. Well, they were special and they
19:53
were big. I guess I was right on that
19:55
part. But Oklahoma had a significant
19:58
advantage coming into this game and it was a huge disadvantage
20:02
for them. I said last week, in a close
20:05
game, special teams can make a difference.
20:10
And the Sooners have won a lot of close games this season, a
20:12
lot of that due to their kicker. Tate Sandell, A Gorza Award
20:17
finalist, 23 of 24 on the season, 7 of seven from beyond
20:21
the 50 yard line. He made all three against
20:26
Alabama in that prior match up. Made all three at Tennessee and
20:30
Neyland Stadium in a rocking, dark mode environment.
20:33
They went one for three on Friday night against Alabama.
20:38
Now he hit his first one. It was long.
20:41
But he missed 2 critical ones, and obviously Oklahoma was kind
20:44
of already out of it at that. Point.
20:47
But it still would have given them the ball in A1 possession
20:49
game and he misses both, so that was bad.
20:53
Oklahoma's punting has been pretty good all year long, if
20:56
not one of the best in the SEC. That was an issue.
21:00
On Friday, I don't think I've ever seen a punter just drop.
21:02
It the way he did, I don't. Even want to mention the guy's
21:05
name because he knows he's an idiot for it.
21:10
Costly fumble. Costly fumble.
21:13
Gave Alabama the football in their own 30 yard line and then
21:16
shanked one as. Well.
21:18
Oklahoma goes 3 now, it's still A1 possession game and it's a
21:21
horrible, horrible punt shanked and Alabama gets it at the 35
21:26
yard line. He was off his game and that was
21:28
a big reason why Alabama was able to creep back into it.
21:32
Special teams can become emphasized in close games like
21:35
these. The game we're about to talk
21:37
about next, Tex A&M in Miami. Special teams being an issue was
21:41
all over that one. But this was supposed to be a
21:44
significant advantage for Oklahoma, and it turned into a
21:47
huge liability. And I didn't even mention the
21:49
late head out of bounds yet. You know, that tacked on 15
21:52
yards immediately allowed Alabama to March down the field.
21:55
Stuff like that is emphasized and magnified in a game like
21:59
this. And Oklahoma, a team that is
22:03
playing at home, had all the momentum in the 1st.
22:05
Quarter. Lost all the momentum in the
22:07
second quarter. You cannot afford those type of
22:09
mistakes. And.
22:11
Unfortunately for them, that's exactly what happened.
22:15
So now Alabama will travel to Pasadena, CA to take on Indiana
22:20
in the Rose Bowl, a match up between the number 9 seed
22:23
Crimson Tide and the number one seed Indiana Hoosiers.
22:27
And that should be a fun one. Indiana, a 6 1/2 point favorite.
22:32
The funny storyline here. Is that the two head coaches
22:36
have both coached at the opposing school.
22:41
Kurt Zunetti was under Nick Saban at Alabama for a good bet.
22:46
Caitlin De Boer was an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks
22:49
coach at Indiana not too long ago.
22:52
I believe it was 2019. And also, you should go look at,
22:56
just go look that up. But if you're not driving or
22:59
just hanging out, whatever you may be doing again, if you're
23:02
not driving, you know, look it up on your phone, but look up
23:05
Kaylin de Boer at Indiana it it looks like he's like dyed his
23:10
hair or something since I also posted about it.
23:12
So if like you don't want to do that, you can go check out the
23:15
pad of facts and see pictures of both of them at those prior
23:18
schools. But interesting ripple into this
23:21
one. Another thing is that all of the
23:25
BI teams. Last year lost all the BI.
23:28
Teams lost and that match up, their first match up of last
23:33
year's playoff, that's Oregon. That was Arizona State, Boise
23:36
State and Georgia. All those teams lost.
23:40
So I'm interested to see if that trend continues this year.
23:43
But I will say I like Indiana early in this one.
23:45
I think the number at 6 1/2 is the best number out of any of
23:48
these games. I think it's the most correct
23:50
number, and this is not going to be John Metier that Alabama's
23:55
going up against. This is Fernando Mendoza, A
23:57
Heisman prostyle quarterback. I don't like that match up for
24:01
Bama. Indiana's defense is really good
24:04
too. You know, if you don't watch
24:05
college. Football.
24:06
Closely, I I know everyone knows about Fernando Mendoza, but I
24:09
know not many people have watched Indiana with a ton of
24:11
intent and maybe that Big 10 championship game finally put
24:15
some people on. But Indiana's got a really good
24:18
defense, too, and they've got plenty of NFL talent on that
24:20
side of the ball. So I think that's a tough match
24:23
up for Alabama. Obviously, they're going to be
24:25
the underdog, but I like Curt Sunetti and company early to to
24:30
win and cover. But obviously, we've got a
24:32
little bit of ways to go until that one.
24:35
We'll switch over to #10 Miami escaping #7 Texas A&M 2:50 in
24:41
College Station and heading into.
24:44
This. I knew this game was going to be
24:46
fun, I said. This was going to be the best
24:48
game of the weekend and. While I might not have been dead
24:51
on on that, I still think like I, I, I love these kind of back
24:57
and forth like grudge matches games because like the level of
25:00
error and the margin. For error, I should say, is so
25:03
slim you can't make mistakes and there were a fair share of
25:06
mistakes in this one and the win played a factor into it as well.
25:10
But I love this stuff. It's like a chess match.
25:12
You know who's going to make the next big play, right?
25:15
And I think you had to expect that because you've had two
25:20
units that were star powered and, you know, very balanced
25:25
offensively and defensively in terms of their production.
25:28
A&M is the only team in the country to win three Rd. games
25:35
against teams that were ranked at the time, and it's the only
25:38
SEC team in the SEC to rank in the top 20.
25:42
And offense and defense, you've got Casey Concepcion, a guy
25:46
that's had over 1400 all-purpose yards this season.
25:50
Marcel Reed has continued to evolve into a strong
25:53
quarterback. Mario Craver transfer for
25:55
Mississippi State, another guy I really like.
25:58
Le'veon Moss comes back for this match up.
26:01
That was another big wrinkle. He hadn't been seen since the
26:03
Florida game back on October 15th.
26:07
So you add that into the mix as well.
26:10
You have a Lombardi Award finalists and cash as Howell on
26:13
the defensive side of the ball. There is a ton of, you know,
26:17
talk heading up to the game. We'll just call it that a lot of
26:20
talk. Between the A&M defensive line,
26:24
the Miami offensive line, the Texan offensive line versus the
26:29
Miami defensive line, there were so many stars on both sides of
26:32
the ball. There were like a Trey Zoom the
26:34
3rd for A&M and Ruben Bain and Hakeem Mazador on the other side
26:39
and then Cassius Howe versus of Francis Magowa.
26:42
You know, there, there there's so many great players in this
26:44
game. I knew this was going to be a
26:46
good one. And you know, I haven't even
26:49
mentioned all the guys from Miami yet, like a Malachi, Tony,
26:52
a guy that should be. Attending a high school prom
26:54
here soon is instead playing for the Hurricanes and now is going
26:58
to be a big part of their College Football Playoff.
27:01
Quest. But between these two balanced
27:05
teams, I think it was the most unsullied hero that stood up.
27:11
And I, I, I say unsullied hero because if you watched Miami
27:15
this year, they've had a solid run game, but it hasn't been
27:19
consistent. And I think that was one of the
27:20
things that Miami was a little bit worried about heading into
27:23
the postseason because if Carson Beck is on, Carson Beck is on
27:28
and he's really good. I read those numbers off last
27:29
week. I, I think I still got him in
27:31
front of me here. And the two losses, yeah, 2
27:34
touchdowns, 6 interceptions, and they're two wins.
27:36
And they're ten wins, I should say, 23 touchdowns, 4
27:39
interceptions when Carson Beck is good.
27:42
The team is good. When Carson is bad, the team
27:45
doesn't have a chance and they've got a really talented
27:48
array of weapons like ACJ, Daniels, a Malachi, Tony, a
27:51
Keylon, Marion I was really excited about heading into the
27:54
season even though he hasn't been as big of a deal.
27:58
But it was Mark Fletcher who was the difference maker.
28:02
In a battle of two evenly matched teams, something had to
28:07
give and it was the Aggies inability to stop the run.
28:11
Mark Fletcher goes 17 carries for 172 yards and 10.1 yards of
28:17
carry. Now, Miami offensive coordinator
28:21
Shannon Dawson would have faced a lot of shellac if they had
28:25
lost this game. I thought he tried to get 2 over
28:27
his skis. He, he, he was trying to be too
28:29
creative. It was either too conservative,
28:33
too predictable, or like, why are they running that?
28:36
Like there wasn't a good balance in between those, and fans had
28:41
complained. That he was running the ball up
28:44
the middle too much in the prior weeks and and the losses like
28:47
where you got a bad version of a Carson Beck.
28:50
And at times Saturday, it felt like Dawson was trying a little
28:54
too hard to be creative, like trying a little too hard to do
28:57
something funky or throw off the the Tex A&M defense.
29:02
Like you had one moment where it was like Carson Beck and Malachi
29:06
Tony in the backfield. Tony took the snap, handed it to
29:10
back and back trying to get it down the field.
29:11
Like, I get what he's trying to do, like throw off a really
29:14
talented texting and defense, but a guy was going for 10 yards
29:18
of carry, That's a first down every time.
29:20
Give that guy the ball. And Miami still kind of refused
29:26
to do so throughout the game. He didn't get a single touch.
29:31
Did Fletcher on that third quarter red zone trip inside the
29:35
Aggies 10 yard line? Miami had to settle.
29:37
For a field goal. But Fletcher didn't even get a
29:40
touch and that was the deepest Miami had gotten all game and he
29:44
had chunk runs of seven 10/17/24 and 13 earlier in the game and.
29:49
Also had a huge run on that final offensive possession for
29:53
the Hurricanes. That was a like a 50 yard run.
29:57
That was the biggest run that Tex A&M has given up this
30:00
season. That is what really opened the
30:02
Miami come back up and the ability for them to win.
30:07
But Mark Fletcher was the difference here, folks.
30:09
And if you've watched Miami play a good bit this season, there
30:13
have been those type of performances where they're
30:15
complimentary, but they. Really haven't had to go to
30:18
Fletcher. As a go to source of offense in
30:21
a game of significance and I thought that was a big
30:24
revelation for this team, the ability to get that type of
30:27
performance from him and it was really cool as a camera pan to
30:30
his family. Time and time again they were
30:32
going nuts and I don't blame him, I would be too.
30:35
I would be too man, big stage and and your son's playing like
30:38
that. Mark Fletcher that the
30:40
difference in this one for Miami, but I also think we need
30:45
to talk about the defensive. Effort here because let me get
30:48
some straight I love the under in this game because of the wind
30:52
and the wind was most definitely a factor, most definitely a
30:55
factor in the passing game for both teams and the kickers.
30:59
But you've got the 6th ranked scoring defense in the country
31:02
in Miami. Absolutely shut down Texas A&M's
31:06
offense for 60 minutes in their building, turning the the Aggies
31:12
over three times and holding them to 2.5 yards a carry.
31:17
As I mentioned, I love this game because of all the talent, of
31:21
all the dynamic skill players. A Craver, a Concepcion, a Reed,
31:26
a Moss for. Texas A&M, They had a hard time
31:31
sustaining drives in their own building.
31:33
And I know Colin Klein defense, there's going to be offensive
31:35
coordinators since accepted the job at Kansas State.
31:38
And I always get weary about these type of games.
31:42
How locked in are these coordinators knowing they've got
31:45
a coach in this one? But.
31:46
Also, be a head coach somewhere else.
31:48
That always, you know, kind of makes me think and I'm not
31:52
saying that Colin Klein taking that job is the reason why Tex
31:56
A&M played like this, but you do have to think about it like
32:01
that's the most lethargic this offense has looked all year.
32:05
Their biggest issue was the inability to establish the run.
32:08
And again, going up against Mezador and Bain and in a very
32:12
violent, ferocious Miami defense, it's going to be tough
32:15
to expect a whole lot of, you know, yardage in the run game,
32:19
especially when you're going right into them.
32:22
But in the 1st 3/4 the. Aggies had just 60. 4 yards on
32:26
24 attempts. A mere 2.7 yards per attempt.
32:30
Le'veon Moss, again, as I mentioned, first game back since
32:33
Florida on October 11th. He doesn't do much.
32:37
He gets re injured in this 115 carries on, there's going to be
32:40
15 yards on just 7 carries. Went into the locker room in the
32:44
third quarter and really A&M's best run game came from Marcel
32:48
Reed. But their inability to finish
32:52
drives was really significant and Marcel Reed made a couple of
32:56
bad decisions. Obviously one of them is going
32:58
to be more emphasized than the other, but I'd really say this
33:02
was Texas A&M just not being able to get enough push
33:05
consistently in the run game and and put plays together stack
33:10
plays like early on the first drive for Texas A and MI didn't
33:14
think it was bad at all. Now they had a couple of stall
33:16
out moments, but they're able to March down the field and get in
33:18
field goal position. But it stalled out at some point
33:24
and all the drives kind of stalled out around the anywhere
33:28
between the 50 and the opponents 35.
33:30
Like Annum had a couple of those.
33:31
And again, those were costly, had to settle for punts or had
33:34
to settle for, you know, a long field goal.
33:37
So the inability to continue the drives ended up being big on the
33:43
scoreboard because they didn't have as many opportunities but.
33:46
Give again, a lot of pressure to Miami.
33:48
It's going to be a lot of credit to Miami's defense for putting
33:50
that pressure on the Aggies. I mean, this is a Tex.
33:54
A&M team that allowed 12 sacks all season.
33:59
Miami got. 6 on them in this one the pressure from Bain and
34:03
Mesador off the side were really big and it was funny how Trey
34:08
Zune said that it's not that big of a deal and it wasn't
34:12
necessarily his guy that made it a big deal but Bain and Mezador
34:17
had a big night So in a battle of two defenses that are really
34:23
really good talented guys are going to play on Sunday.
34:27
Miami's defense just was a notch better, reign supreme, even
34:30
though at checks A&M got a costly or forced a costly
34:34
turnover on Malachi Tony late in the fourth quarter.
34:38
Again, A&M didn't do anything off of it because their Dr.
34:41
stalled out, but A&M's defense made their fair share of plays
34:45
as well. But Miami got the bigger ones
34:49
and Texas A&M made the more costly ones.
34:52
I go back to that final possession.
34:54
That was the best. A&M had moved the ball all day
34:57
outside of that first possession and they marched all the way
35:00
down inside the seven yard line. I thought this was going
35:02
overtime. I was going to love it.
35:04
Overtime game in college football?
35:06
Hell yeah, sign me up. We had one.
35:08
Last year between Arizona State and Texas, and that was a fun
35:11
game. I thought we were getting one in
35:14
this one. I don't know why Marcel Regis
35:17
didn't run one in or try to. I know you've only got 40
35:22
seconds, but A&M had a time out. And you got 40 seconds too.
35:25
You got 4 plays, 40 seconds. If you throw it, you know twice
35:31
you're going to get automatic stoppage.
35:32
If it's incomplete, you got a time out that gives you 1.
35:36
You can get up and. Spike the ball quick enough to,
35:39
you know, run the ball one time. I thought that was a big
35:42
mistake. Marcel Reed has been so good at
35:44
doing that throughout his career in Texas A&M, and he did so to
35:47
get in that position on the drive now.
35:50
They had a couple of chunk plays from the passing game, but Reed
35:54
picked up first downs with his legs, too.
35:56
You're 5 yards away and you're the fastest guy on the field,
35:59
most elusive player on the field.
36:01
I would have tried to get in there.
36:04
I know it's easy for me to say. Sitting on the couch watching
36:06
it, sitting on the mic talking about it.
36:09
But I thought that was a missed opportunity for Colin Klein and
36:11
company. The other thing I wanted to
36:14
cover is a storyline that I'm going to continue to follow
36:19
until Miami quits playing football games.
36:21
And that is the good Carson or the bad Carson, because Miami is
36:26
a different team when Carson Beck is turnover prone.
36:30
In Miami's two losses this season, Beck completed 69.9% of
36:35
passes for only 7.5 yards per attempt with two touchdowns and
36:39
six interceptions. And Miami's 10 victories, Beck
36:43
completed 76% of passes for 9.1 yards per attempt with 23
36:48
touchdowns and four interceptions.
36:50
Now those are the numbers heading into this game, by the
36:53
way. I'll have to update them for him
36:55
after this game now, but on Saturday.
36:58
He goes 14 of 20. For 103 yards and a touchdown,
37:01
no turnovers. The wind conditions definitely
37:05
made an effect on this game. Just that's ask the field goal
37:08
kickers and I think that could be a concern for Miami moving
37:11
forward as that's a huge liability.
37:13
Their kicker goes one of four in this one, including two that are
37:16
way off and you know one that doinked.
37:20
It's just a a bad day for him, a bad day for their kicking game
37:23
period. And Tex A&M has their own issues
37:25
and that facet, too. But I thought the big thing from
37:29
Beck was that he didn't turn the ball over.
37:32
Now, Miami did have a turnover that was significant, and that
37:35
was Malachi Tony. But that wasn't Carson Beck
37:38
putting it in a harm's way. That was just Malachi Tony
37:40
getting stripped in a Tex A&M defense, making a good play, but
37:44
no turnovers. This was a good Carson Beck.
37:49
We'll see if we see that in the Cotton Bowl against Ohio State
37:54
#10 Miami versus #2 Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl on December
37:59
21st. Excuse me, 31st, I should say
38:04
December 21st. That happened yesterday,
38:06
December 31st from Arlington, TX, AT&T Stadium, Jerry World.
38:14
That'll kick off the college football quarterfinals.
38:19
All right, we'll switch over to number six Ole Miss.
38:23
And #11 Tulane, as the Rebels have no issues with the Green
38:28
Wave, winning 41 to 10 as number six Ole Miss knocked off Tulane
38:34
in the first round of the College Football Playoff at
38:37
Vaught Hemingway Stadium on Saturday afternoon, marking the
38:42
beginning of a new chapter in Ole Miss football history.
38:46
And that's the Pete Golding era. The Pete.
38:49
Fleet marched in to the Vaught. And the storylines heading into
38:56
this one, obviously a lot of them had some ties to Lane
38:59
Kiffin. But it's a second of two
39:02
rematches in the first round as we saw two Lane loose to Ole
39:06
Miss 45 to 10 in early September in which the Greenway did not
39:11
score a touchdown until the final minutes of the game and
39:13
allowed. 548 yards of total offense to the Rebels, but there
39:20
was no Lane Kiffin in this matchup.
39:23
Who? You know what?
39:24
What? Would there be any change there?
39:26
Because the Rebels averaged 37 points and 498 yards of total
39:30
offense this season under Kiffin, and it had remained to
39:33
be seen if they could operate the same way.
39:37
But I'd say no Kiffin. No problem for Ole Miss 3 plays
39:42
and 59 seconds into the game, Ole Miss was on the board. 7
39:46
plays in the offense already up 14, setting the tone for what
39:51
was going to be a long day for Tulane.
39:54
Now, give the Green Wave credit, they tightened up a little bit.
39:57
They got better with their tackling angles.
39:59
But the offense was good for Ole Miss very good.
40:02
And I gained 497 yards, 41 points.
40:06
Prone to a couple of stretches where you had some flame out so
40:09
obviously had a costly turnover in the red zone as well.
40:14
But this was a solid. Performance for Ole misses
40:17
offense. A lot of that.
40:18
Talk of the Lane Kiffin offense. Lane Kiffin this a lot of people
40:22
forgot Charlie Weiss junior called the plays all year.
40:25
Long. I know it's Lane Kiffin's
40:27
offense, but Charlie Weiss was the play caller all year long.
40:30
Joe Judge still on the sideline, He's the guy doing the stuff.
40:34
Now. Lane Kiffin can, you know, jump
40:36
up and down and say, hey, this is where to go with it.
40:39
Like he did against Georgia. And Trinidad Chambliss was able
40:44
to identify that and hit a deuce Alexander down the sideline for
40:47
a big. Play like stuff like that and
40:49
the the little. Stuff is big, and we'll see if
40:51
that becomes a bigger deal against Georgia and the Sugar
40:54
Bowl, that is. But the offense looked fine and
40:58
it didn't look like they skipped a beat without Lane Kiffin.
41:01
Now, the defense is a different story.
41:03
We'll talk about that later, but Trinidad Chambliss goes 23 of 39
41:07
for 282 yards and two total touchdowns.
41:10
With 36 more yards coming on the ground.
41:13
Key 1. Lacey, A name we will talk more
41:15
about here in a minute as well. 15 carries for 87 yards and a
41:19
touchdown. Deuce Alexander 7 receptions for
41:23
87 yards at. 12.4 yards a catch, Dejean Stribling and Oklahoma
41:27
State transfer, 5 receptions for 79 yards and a touchdown.
41:31
And overall man, Oklahoma, or excuse me, not Oklahoma, I guess
41:35
I just said Oklahoma State and had my mind on that.
41:37
Ole Miss just look like the faster, better team, an SEC team
41:43
up against a group of five. That's what it looked like
41:46
offense versus defense. And I think you had to expect
41:50
that because this is an Ole Miss team that ran 2 lane out of the
41:54
building in September and they've only gotten better since
41:58
then. Trinidad Chambliss has only had
42:00
more reps at quarterback than that previous match up.
42:03
So overall, I was not surprised to see the offense of production
42:07
and give credit to Charlie Weis Junior, a guy that probably
42:11
heard a lot of noise, maybe not internally from Ole Miss.
42:14
But there were a lot. Of people, a lot of national
42:17
people curious to see what Ole misses offense would look like
42:21
and Charlie Weis junior pretty much shut him up and real quick
42:25
on Pete Golding. He talked about it after the
42:27
game, kind of almost in the same moniker I'm using of Lane Kiffin
42:32
offense, Lane Kiffin this, Lane Kiffin that.
42:35
It's not Lane Kiffin's offense. It's been Charlie Weiss's
42:38
offense throughout the entirety of the season.
42:41
And Goulding talked about that. But Goulding also started
42:46
talking about the changes they've made since Kiffin left.
42:49
And I think this is a very interesting dynamic because
42:51
like, Kiffin did hire Pete Goulding to be his defensive
42:54
coordinator, but Pete kind of takes shots here and there.
42:57
I don't know if he's upset about it still.
42:59
I mean, hell, he's got ASEC coaching job because of Kevin.
43:02
I'd probably be a little bit happy for him, but I don't know.
43:05
Anyway, I'm not trying to read into the the drama here, but
43:09
Pete Golding's got a very directness to him that I think
43:11
is funny. They were asking about what
43:15
changes transpired leading up to the matchup.
43:18
And Pete Golding looks to the right and goes, you notice what
43:23
used to be here and what he's referring to is Lane Kiffin used
43:26
to have a basketball goal in the team meeting room also, where
43:29
the hell the the press conferences are held.
43:32
And he goes, well, we had a basketball goal here.
43:35
We don't need a, you know, blank and blank and basketball goal in
43:38
here. So we got rid of that.
43:40
Like just the straightforwardness to him.
43:42
He's very blunt and I think that's that's good for Ole Miss
43:46
to have a guy like that. I don't think he's going to pan
43:49
out long term. It would not have been my long
43:51
term hire. I would have made him the
43:52
interim for this year and next year as you go and try to find
43:56
your next guy. But he does have the locker room
44:00
and you know, Kevin Carter, the AD has a lot of respect for him,
44:05
has a lot of passion for him, a lot of trust in him.
44:10
So, you know, ultimately they made the right decision for at
44:13
least this season continuing, but I don't know if I would have
44:16
made that the long term higher. But I I do like how Goulding
44:19
handled this week and and the questions fall in the game.
44:24
Now. What I don't like about P
44:25
Goulding is the Ole Miss defense in this game.
44:30
There was a big concern from Ole Miss in the win over Tulane.
44:36
Their defense did not look the part.
44:39
For as lopsided as Saturday's score.
44:41
Was. Tulane moved the ball well,
44:46
finishing with 421 yards of offense and going 3 and out just
44:50
once. The problem?
44:52
Well, the Green Wave couldn't score, and I guess that's a plus
44:55
for Ole Miss. But Tulane got into the red zone
44:58
just twice all afternoon, finished with only 10 points.
45:01
But they moved the ball really well.
45:04
They continued to get into striking distance up against
45:07
this Ole Miss defense, 421 yards against Tulane, a team that I
45:11
think is very limited with their quarterback play due to Jake
45:15
Retzloff. I'm not a huge fan of him and I
45:18
know Tulane's got a couple of talented players like a Preston,
45:21
who was a former five star recruit to Alabama that
45:25
transferred to Tulane. He had a really big catch in
45:27
this game. Look the part.
45:29
But Ole misses defense did not look the part and I think that's
45:32
a big concern heading in. To that Georgia match up, Pete
45:36
Golding, the defensive coordinator is the new head
45:38
coach. Why was the defense such an
45:41
issue at times? And I know if you just look at
45:44
the box score and look at the number O 10 points, they must
45:47
have had a really big defensive night.
45:49
I disagree. I thought Tulane had too much
45:51
consistency with their offense, at least in getting in position
45:55
to score. They had some self-inflicted
45:57
wounds. They fumble a couple of times.
46:00
Ole Miss was able to pick those up.
46:02
But I thought they moved the ball methodically time and time
46:06
again. I felt like Tulane got in their
46:11
own way and and and not putting up more points here.
46:16
Now I talked about it last week. Ole Miss has not done a great
46:18
job this season causing turnovers.
46:20
They don't do a great job getting in the backfield for
46:22
tackles for loss and sacks. But they did have 3.
46:24
Turnovers here. Green Wave had two fumbles.
46:29
Both of which. The rebels were covered finished
46:31
with three on the night. So just Ole misses one.
46:34
Ratzloff goes 20 of 35 for 306 yards with one touchdown and one
46:38
pick, a marked improvement from the 56 yards that he had in the
46:44
regular season loss to Ole Miss. But still, it was not enough as
46:49
Ole Miss is just the more talented team and put up a a
46:52
boatload of points and they didn't allow Tulane to tack more
46:56
points on the board. But again, for the season, this
47:00
has not been a Rebels defense that I would, you know, take to
47:04
the I don't know. But what?
47:07
Yeah, take it to the award show. I wouldn't take it to the award
47:10
show. We'll say that they're good, but
47:13
not great like last year's defense.
47:14
I liked a little bit more of it, some other guys that could fly
47:17
the ball a little bit better. And I do like players on this
47:20
team, like a certain Perkins and Principal Umanlian or Uman
47:28
Lillian, you know, whatever you want to call it.
47:30
I I've always said Umanlian, but whatever.
47:34
But they're going to be, they're going to need to be more
47:36
disruptive the rest of the playoffs.
47:39
They're going to be, they're going to have to be more
47:42
disruptive against Georgia. They're going to have to be
47:44
more. Disruptive if they want to, you
47:47
know, win games outright and not have, you know, many doubts.
47:52
I thought this was a big concern for Ole Miss.
47:55
We'll see if it plays into a bigger factor moving on.
47:58
But I thought Tulane moved the ball with too much efficiency
48:02
and too easily to get into the 30 yard line area and and March,
48:09
you know, close to the red zone. They had a lot of Dr. stall out
48:12
because of themselves, self-inflicted winds.
48:15
I know they only put up 10 points, but I have a little bit
48:18
of a concern about Ole Miss's defense.
48:22
Finally, another major concern here.
48:24
Ole Miss may have a key injury to watch for heading into that
48:28
Sugar Bowl match up. As star running back Kiwan,
48:32
Lacey was injured late in the first half and went into
48:36
halftime favoring his shoulder. They were asking him if they
48:40
wanted to put a harness or a collar on his shoulder.
48:46
He decided not to. And he goes back out in the
48:50
second-half and gets a little bit of action.
48:53
I'm trying to find the number right away.
48:56
Five times for 20 yards in that second-half.
48:58
But he went back out due to re aggravating it, Goulding said
49:02
after the game. Quote, he banged up his
49:04
shoulder. We'll address it from here going
49:06
forward. But he went back in the game and
49:08
is a bruised shoulder. Now.
49:11
This is big because Kiwan Lacy. Was the SEC second?
49:13
Leading rusher this season and gives Ole misses offense a
49:17
completely different second wheel than any of the other guys
49:21
like Diggs offer. I mean it's a guy that helped.
49:25
Ole Miss put up 498.1 yards nationally this season in
49:30
offense per game and before Saturday he averaged 21 1/2
49:33
carries for 106.58 rushing yards a night and recently became the
49:39
first Ole Miss Doke Walker Award winner finalist.
49:43
An incredible player. A huge part of this Ole Miss
49:46
offense. A big reason why Lane Kiffin is
49:49
probably going to poach him out of Oxford and take him with him
49:51
to Baton Rouge. That type of player.
49:55
But you got until now until January 1st to figure out if
49:58
he's good to go. And if he got injured and tried
50:02
to come back in and looked re injured, I don't know if that's
50:04
going to be 100%. Obviously he's going to play.
50:06
They'll probably stick some horse tranquilizers in them and
50:09
I'll get ready to go. But that's something to watch
50:12
for because if he's out, this becomes not as dynamic of an
50:16
offense as they have had throughout the season and they
50:19
need that. All hands on deck against the
50:21
Georgia defense that has slowly started to figure things out and
50:25
also set a full month of preparation for Ole Miss.
50:28
Because it's not like Georgia thought they were going to play
50:31
2 lane. Let's be real.
50:33
So Ole Miss versus Georgia, a rematch of a match up earlier in
50:37
the season in the Sugar Bowl on January 1st, should be a good
50:44
one dial between two really good SEC teams.
50:49
That'll be a fun one. All right, we'll wrap it up with
50:53
#5 Oregon hops on #12 JMU early, but let's up.
50:59
And this one goes final 51 to 34, which was very significant
51:04
to some, including me. I know I had the over in this
51:07
one, which I was fine with as it soared over put Oregon 20 1/2.
51:14
That was brutal. Brutal.
51:17
I mean that's like a Scott Van Pelt bad beats type moment.
51:22
Not only did they come back and I say come back, I'll put it in
51:27
quotations, not only do they come back, but they have to
51:33
drive like 98 yards in order to do so.
51:35
Like what the. It's like, Oh my gosh, like,
51:37
come on. Yeah, they got a big chunk
51:39
playing that helped out, but it was just like, dude, come on,
51:42
man. So look, it was evident from
51:46
kickoff and this 51 to 34 win for the Ducks that James Madison
51:50
was just completely outnumbered. And there was one side far
51:56
superior than the other. In particular, Oregon's offense
51:59
versus the JMU defense. And heading into it, you know,
52:03
the the big storyline was can we see a Cinderella story here
52:06
because James Madison maybe put something together?
52:10
Well, no, this one wasn't close. And I don't really like how the
52:15
way this game has been put out to be since the game ended.
52:19
And and that's what I want to focus on here because let's be
52:23
real, don't box score. Watch Oregon and James Madison
52:27
because this one was not close. Oregon LED 7 to nothing after
52:31
the first four offensive plays. Oregon scored touchdowns on its
52:36
first five drives, marching down the field for plays of 63 excuse
52:40
me of drives for 63687578 and 80 yards to take a 34 to 6 lead
52:48
heading into halftime. James Madison struggle to tackle
52:51
on the edges. They struggle to tackle Oregon's
52:54
ball carriers between the tackles as the offensive line
52:57
continued to create big holes. They struggled to protect their
53:01
dual threat quarterback Alonza Barnett.
53:05
They were just out manned. Oregon averaged 16.6 yards per
53:10
play over its first five drives, more than quadruple what James
53:15
Madison had been allowing for the season at 4 point O 5 yards
53:18
per play. And this was a JMU defense that
53:22
was top two in the country in terms of the metrics and all the
53:27
stats. This was supposed to be a really
53:29
good defense, and I'm not trying to bash them here.
53:33
But or he can finish the night at 9.7 yards a carry.
53:36
The Ducks made it look easy. And look, I have been all for
53:40
the Group of Five in the representation in the College
53:43
Football Playoff, but this was the type of game where it's
53:46
like. Whoa, this is a little.
53:49
Out of hand, like James Madison's defense did not even
53:53
look like they belonged on the field against Oregon.
53:55
And I know there are a lot of people out there that are going
53:57
to take that box score and the final score of 5134 and say.
54:02
These guys held their own. But it was 34 to 6 1/2 time when
54:06
things were like real and live and James Madison didn't play
54:09
bad offensively. Like I thought even when the
54:12
game was going on that they were holding their own.
54:15
But let's be real, this one wasn't close.
54:18
And many of you did not even finish watching it and are
54:22
forming your opinion off of what the box score finally said.
54:26
So that's a big issue that I have with this game because the
54:29
perception of it is twisted because everyone was watching
54:33
Packers Bears after this first half was over, honestly,
54:37
probably after the first quarter was over.
54:39
Now, me, I love college football.
54:41
So I was watching it and I watched every game in its
54:44
entirety this weekend and I'm watching every bowl game in
54:47
their entirety. I love college football.
54:49
It's part of it. And I don't want to be one of
54:53
those group of five guys. That just sits there and bashes
54:55
it. But let's also be real about
54:57
something else. The same people that wanted the
55:01
Group of Five to be represented in the College Football Playoff
55:05
because they're tired of Alabama and tired of Oregon and tired of
55:08
Ohio State making it every year are now the same people
55:12
complaining about these games and why they're lopsided.
55:16
Like if the same thing happens in the NCA tournament, remember
55:19
a couple of years ago when San Diego State, Florida Atlantic,
55:23
UConn and Miami was the Final Four?
55:26
Everyone loves upsets. Everyone loves them.
55:29
Oh my gosh, Florida Atlantic. And then you get to the Final
55:31
Four and you're like, oh, I don't want to watch this.
55:34
I don't want to watch Florida Atlantic, San Diego State and
55:36
Miami play UConn. People want the blue bloods.
55:40
That's why the year before everyone was so spoiled.
55:42
You had Kansas and Villanova and Duke and North Carolina.
55:46
You had all the blue bloods. People loved it because people
55:50
want to see the best match ups. The Cinderella stories are fun
55:54
until people have to actually sit down and digest it for three
55:57
hours. In this sense of.
55:58
College Football Playoff. Again, I'm not against the group
56:01
of five, I think they deserve representation, but the same
56:06
people that were arguing that we needed more representation are
56:10
now the same one saying oh this sucks so pick a side because I I
56:15
think. People are having a hard time
56:16
doing that. And I'm I'm, I'm going to
56:21
probably take a little debrief there because I got fired up
56:24
about it. But I mean, I do like James
56:26
Madison. They had a great season but I
56:29
don't think anyone in their right mind thought they were a
56:31
better team like if they matched up against.
56:34
Duke. Duke probably wins that one.
56:36
And Duke's not a great team and they are completely
56:38
undisciplined and horrible, but they did win the ACC
56:41
Championship. Like if we were being real of
56:45
who should have been put in the College Football Playoff out of
56:47
the automatic buys, it probably should have been Duke.
56:51
But there would have been all hell raised if.
56:54
James Madison didn't make it. It's the right move, but I want
56:58
the best teams and I've always said that I want the best teams
57:00
and the most deserving. Regardless of that, I do think
57:05
there are concerns from this game for Oregon I mentioned.
57:09
Don't just read the box score and form your opinion of James
57:12
Madison. Kept this one close.
57:16
But I will say Oregon's defense did disappoint me.
57:22
If I'm Dan Lanning, I'm pissed at the way that game ended.
57:26
I know there were backups mixed in with the starters, and I know
57:29
you don't want to get injured before going to the Orange Bowl
57:31
and taking on Texas Tech, but James Madison was able to grind
57:35
out lengthy drives early. But just kept.
57:38
Settling for field goals and once one of them was blocked,
57:42
but things open up in the second-half.
57:46
James Madison running back Wayne Knight.
57:48
Who's 6.65 yards a carry this season only trailed Notre Dame's
57:52
Jeremiah Love. With more than 150 carries, by
57:56
the way. Finished with 110 on 17 carries
58:00
against this Oregon defense. Wayne.
58:02
Not a great player, no disrespect to him at all, but
58:06
Oregon shouldn't be allowing a guy to.
58:07
Have that type of success. And earlier this season, he
58:10
managed just 12 yards on five carries and JMU's only power
58:14
four loss only loss of the season.
58:18
To Louisville. Louisville's not a good team.
58:24
James Madison is a championship team at a Group of Five level
58:28
and it focuses, you know, a lot of their success offensively and
58:33
getting it out to their playmakers, but also utilizing
58:36
the abilities of Alonzo Barnett and Wayne Knight.
58:39
And I thought they did that and give a lot of credit to JM use
58:42
offensive scheme. I thought it was very creative.
58:46
Coach Chesney and company did a really good job throwing Oregon
58:50
off, but a lot of that production was in the
58:54
second-half. But again, perception is going
58:58
to come back to bite you. And the perception of the
59:00
national lie in this game is that Oregon allowed 34 points to
59:03
James Madison after being up 34 to 3 at halftime.
59:09
There's an Oregon defense that is top tier, one of the best in
59:12
the country. Dan Lennon ought to be pissed.
59:14
In the locker room was Malik Benson talked about it after the
59:16
game, saying it was like a loss, as it should be.
59:20
Because Texas Tech, they're not playing around.
59:22
They got a ton of guys that can make plays.
59:25
Wide receiver, tight end, running back, veteran
59:28
quarterback. The defense, let's not even get
59:30
started with that. The defense is a different.
59:31
Level good, but I'm Dan Lenny. I'm pissed watching the way my
59:36
defense performed to end that game.
59:40
Give James Madison credit, They fought.
59:42
They put up. Points.
59:43
They made it look easy, or may not easy.
59:45
They made it look more convincing, I should say.
59:49
That's the most points Oregon has allowed this season.
59:52
James Madison. I think it was a level of
59:55
attention, attention to detail. You're up big.
59:59
You think you're just going to. Cruise, you kind of lose a
1:00:02
little bit of juice, I get it. But not a lot of people are
1:00:07
going to get that. And those type of people are the
1:00:10
ones that are going to sit there online and say James Madison
1:00:12
kept it close and that's not what you got to deal with.
1:00:15
They did that to themselves. Overall, just the the lack of
1:00:20
talent and I talked about it last week, just the skill guys,
1:00:23
just too big, too much for James Madison.
1:00:27
A hell of a season for them. Congratulations to making it.
1:00:31
But let's be real about that score wasn't as close as you
1:00:34
people are trying to put it together.
1:00:36
And I promise you, I've been one of the big advocates for the
1:00:39
group of five. Let's wrap it up with this, my
1:00:42
final thoughts as what this could be.
1:00:46
My final episode of 2025. 2026 will mark 4 calendar years now,
1:00:54
4 calendar years of the Padfax being on the airwaves.
1:00:58
My final thoughts are this. The College Football Playoff
1:01:03
format has got to be changed. The criteria has got to be
1:01:05
changed. The selections committee has got
1:01:08
to be changed. This thing is not a perfect
1:01:11
system right now, we all know. That.
1:01:15
But I've got ways to fix it. Let's begin with the committee.
1:01:19
The committee, I think, needs to go away.
1:01:21
We're in 2025, about to be in 2026.
1:01:24
Folks. AI is everywhere.
1:01:26
Electronics are bigger than ever.
1:01:28
We've got robots being built. We don't need human error in our
1:01:35
college football selection committee when a computer can do
1:01:37
it a much easier. The BCS everyone complained
1:01:42
about because it was computers. Why are we getting mad at
1:01:44
computers? Computers are much smarter than
1:01:45
any. Of us.
1:01:46
There's a reason why you do your homework.
1:01:48
You ask ChatGPT what to do or to do it for you.
1:01:52
Why are we asking 60 year old Bob who played college football
1:01:57
in 1963? That's drinking a blue moon and
1:02:00
nachos on Saturday watching a a playoff game dictate who plays
1:02:06
in the college football playoffs.
1:02:08
No disrespect to them, they've probably got a lot more
1:02:10
credentials than I do, but I don't care.
1:02:14
Put the 12 best teams in. If we're going to stick at 12,
1:02:16
get rid of the committee, go back to the computers.
1:02:19
They can put everything together.
1:02:20
That's smart. Second thing, if we're going to
1:02:25
expand this thing, let's go to 16 and call it.
1:02:27
That. I know, I know, I know, I know.
1:02:31
If you expand one time, you just going to keep, you know, there's
1:02:34
always going to be a team that's upset, but let's just do 16
1:02:37
because you look at the NCAA tournament and basketball and
1:02:40
baseball, like there's all like a 16 team format at least
1:02:43
whether it's quartered up into different regions, whatever it
1:02:46
may be. Do 16 teams one play 16.
1:02:49
That can be the group of five spot 15 teams that large get in.
1:02:52
I think that's enough. If you want a true 1, you know,
1:02:55
one through 16, like I think that'd be fun.
1:02:58
Home games to the highest seed in that first round, home games
1:03:02
to the highest seed and the second round and then you get
1:03:04
into the host sites. Boom, done.
1:03:08
No more stupid buys, no more automatic.
1:03:10
You know, all that crap. One through 16.
1:03:13
Let's do that. And finally, I just hinted at
1:03:16
it. Let's get rid of automatic buys
1:03:19
or automatic qualifiers. Conference championships should
1:03:23
be a criteria to make the playoff, not an automatic
1:03:28
submission to make it. And you might be saying, well,
1:03:31
William, that's going to totally derail the importance of the SEC
1:03:34
Championship or the Big 10 Championship.
1:03:36
Why play the game? No, it's going to give you the
1:03:39
opportunity to strengthen your resume.
1:03:42
And you could be a higher seed or for some folks, an
1:03:45
opportunity to buy their way into the College Football
1:03:47
playoffs. But getting them an automatic
1:03:51
buy or an automatic entry is ludicrous because we just
1:03:56
watched that unfold this year. Duke, When's the ACC?
1:04:00
We get James Madison and Green and and Tulane into the College
1:04:04
Football Playoff. There's always going to be a way
1:04:06
to beat the system, but I think this is the most foolproof by
1:04:09
not guaranteeing anyone to make the field unless you get that 16
1:04:14
seed. The overall group of five number
1:04:18
one team option 15 teams make it.
1:04:20
I feel like that's enough. We've seen the 16 team format in
1:04:24
a lot of other sports. I think that's the best way to
1:04:27
do it. So no more computers.
1:04:30
Excuse me? Oh, gosh.
1:04:31
Sorry. Missing.
1:04:32
That's a terrible gaffe on my part.
1:04:34
No more Bob. With a blue moon and nachos in a
1:04:38
hotel room watching games. We'll go to computers, we'll go
1:04:42
to 16 teams. We see that in almost every
1:04:46
other sport in the NCA. And I know college football's
1:04:50
not an NCAA sanctioned sport, at least Division One.
1:04:53
It's owned by all the networks. But 16 teams works and a lot of
1:04:58
other formats. Let's try it here.
1:05:00
No more expansion after that 16 is it?
1:05:03
The one seed will play the 16 seed, the Cinderella team.
1:05:07
If they're really legit, we'll give them one opportunity, a
1:05:11
Group of Five team. There's at worst of the 16th
1:05:14
best team and if they're better, give them a higher spot.
1:05:18
But you know, we'll let that be their opportunity.
1:05:20
So there's still Group of Five existence.
1:05:25
And then let's get rid of these automatic qualifiers.
1:05:28
That's my way to fix College Football Playoff, folks.
1:05:30
Thank you for listening along with me.
1:05:32
Hope you have a great holidays, a Merry Christmas, a happy new
1:05:36
Year. If I don't talk to you again,
1:05:38
thank you for your support of the podcast, of the channel, of
1:05:42
the Instagram, whatever it may be.
1:05:43
However you may support, I do appreciate it.
1:05:46
I'm William Patterson signing out.