Latest / Mostly College Football / #310 - Week Rive Recap: Michigan Is Trash, and Florida's Defense isn't much better
Transcript
- Micaiah: Hello and welcome in everybody. First Saturday of Spooktober has come and gone. Week five has come and gone, and we're getting a little more clarity about what the how the season is going to unfold. But we're going to start where I think all podcasts should start when the number one team in the country goes down on the road. No, not Texas. Not the University of Texas, who was on a bye week. So hopefully they won their bye week, but Montana State on Friday night went to Idaho to and four Idaho and as 14 and a half point favorites and lose 35. 34 Montana State, the number one FCS school goes down. And I just had to start there because they were on a 19-game heater. They were 14 and a half point favorites. And it was one of those situations where they got a second. Idaho got a second to put got a second put back on the clock to throw a touchdown pass. They went for two. They won the game. So congrats to the Vandals of Idaho for knocking off Montana State in a shocker in the FCS. But let's go over to the FBS. It was quite a week. Another week where c the college football chaos teased us a little bit. There was still some chaos, and we'll get into that, but not the full-blown. At one point it looked like Notre Dame could might be able to go down. It looked like Georgia was in a close game. Ohio State was never in doubt. BYU was in a close game and actually finished a close game. Miami kind of messed around for two and a half corners until they grabbed control. Texas Tech looked like they can go down. All these teams ended up winning. The team that did not end up winning, though, was the number eight team in the nation, the Florida Gators. They went on the road to Missouri. And that defense finally gave way. If Florida had a problem, it was a defense. And the question I posed to the Florida fans and the Florida fan base was, and in general, was what happens when you make Aaron Philo a pocket passer? What happens when you take away Jaden Ball and that vaunted Gator's rushing attack? And you make Aaron Philo pass the ball? And we found. That out on Saturday. Florida had 42 rushing yards. Jaden Ball had one yard a carry, 12 carries for 13 yards. So they made they made Florida one-dimensional, and it was a 45-17 route of the Florida Gators by the Missouri Tigers. Austin Simmons was fantastic. 23 of 30, 340, two touchdowns. They ran the ball for 220. 20 yards. They dominated this game, but that answered the question. Now, if you're John Summerall, this is kind of what you want because people were hyping you up, hyping you up. Yes, you never want to lose a game, but they were hyping your team up. Maybe, maybe the kids were starting to eat that rat poison, as Nick Saban calls it. So now you can go back to your plays and see and say, hey, this is what happens when we don't play. This is what happens when we're not locked in as what we should be. This is what happens when you don't do your job. So I still like the Florida Gators, especially if they can just balance out the offense a little more. But I have my answer now. What happens when you make Aaron Philo a pocket passer and you take away the running game and Jaden Baugh and the weapons in the backfield? Well, you get blown out. And the defense. St still has a long way to go. And especially that secondary has a long way to go because Austin Simmons and he's a great quarterback. He got overshadowed by the whole Trinidad Chambliss thing from last year. But if you remember, he was the starter at Old Miss last year to start the season. Ankle injury, Trinidad Chambliss came in and never looked back. Austin Simmons is a good, good SEC quarterback. And he played his best game yesterday. And they are four and one now with a loss to Mississippi State last week, but they were in that game as well. So Missouri is right in there. I hated that they were ranked 25th last week. I was wrong. I did pick Missouri to win the game. And so no shocker there, but we are off and Rolling here at the week five recap. Iowa State, West Virginia, it was the classic Big 12 thriller, all offense, no defense. And you know if you listen to this podcast, how much I love all offense, no defense type games. It was the final score was 40. I'm pulling it up. Five to forty-two, Iowa State in a back and forth. Again, West Virginia just doesn't have defense right now. Michael Hawkins threw the ball better. They ran the ball for 300 yards. Michael Hawkins and Cam Cook were the only two people who ran the ball, but West Virginia just could not stop anybody. And in a time slot that featured Michigan and Minnesota, and I'll get to that later, in that just awful. experience of offense. You had this great experience of offense. Iowa State is three and two, one and one in the Big 12. And they they got some players on offense that can keep them in this Big 12 race because I think the Big 12 is wide open. After Saturday night, and especially with Texas Tech messing around with Colorado, I don't Maybe BYU, but BYU even kind of struggled a little bit on the road with TCU. Now, was that for the kind of the classic, this is the first time this team is going on the road sort of situation with BYU this season? I I don't know, but the this Big 12 to me is wide open. That yeah, why can't Iowa State make some noise? Right? They're one and one in the Big 12. Why can't they make some noise? So Texas Tech sits at the top. They're 5-0. BYU 4-0. Baylor got a massive win last night. They destroyed Arizona State. They ran, they did whatever they wanted on the ground. And DJ Lagway finally looked like the prospect we all thought he would look. Meanwhile, Utah's also 4 0. Everyone knows how this who listens to this podcast, how we feel about the Oklahoma State Cowboys. They're right in it. Arizona won. beat Cincinnati last night, their four and one. Houston with a seventeen was down seventeen nothing, came all the way back and and beat UCF yesterday, their four and one and Cincinnati's four and one. This the Big 12 is wide open at this point. And I don't know if I can say for sure that any one team has a head up on the rest. Like last year it was pretty obvious it was Texas Tech, right? I I don't I don't feel that way about Texas Tech this year. I don't feel that way about BYU. Baylor, DJ, all it takes is DJ Lagway to turn back into Texas. DJ at Florida, DJ Lagway, and I think that's always just one pass away, right? Utah's solid this year. Oklahoma State's got the offense, but are they gonna have another Tulsa hiccup? Right. So there's a lot going on in the Big 12. So this is definitely in the conference. I think that this is a one big conference now, unfortunately. And I still think K Chaos 2026 is still yet to go full blown into effect. So, but the Big 12's wide open. And so Iowa State sitting there one and one with another handful of teams. They're sitting there one and one with Arizona, Houston, Cincinnati, UCF, and Arizona State. They are right in it, is Iowa State. So very, very interesting, and we will definitely keep our eye on the Big 12 conference as this goes along. Back to the noon slot, Alabama. drove, which everyone was kind of freaking out to Mississippi State. They got there in like an hour or something. They're not that far from each other. The two campuses aren't that far from each other. They got a police escort. Everyone's freaking out. I wasn't concerned at all. They made it in time. Everything went fine and everything went fine. 56 to 23 and the Alabama defense made the dude himself, Comario Taylor, look like a first year starter. Two interceptions, including a pick six. They completely shut down Mississippi State's running game, 18 yards total. Now, the the negative 26 yards in sacks also accounts into that, but their leading rusher, Colin Wilson, 10 carries, 27 yards, 2.7 yards a carry. Fluff Bothwell tried to give it a go, hurt himself last week against Missouri. He had one carry and then he was done. But Keelon Russell. 16 of 22, 285, three touchdowns, a QBR 97. And then Alabama, the thing they lacked last year, they have this year. 180 yards on the ground, five yards a carry. Alabama might have the most explosive offense in the country. And there are a lot of good offenses in the country, but they have now done it for five straight weeks, been explosive. With z they took a half off, maybe they maybe took a half off at Kentucky, but outside of that, they have just and then in the second half they exploded on Kentucky. Pause. Outside of that, they have just been gangbusters offensively. And they got enough playmakers, especially in the secondary and on that D-line. exhibit A, what they did to Mississippi State's rushing attack that was rushing for 180 yards a game, I think. Shut that down. They got enough playmakers that they will be in every single game, and it sets up a massive showdown with Georgia. Who kind of messed around with Vanderbilt. I mean, it w not messed around, but it was a close game until, you know, midway through the third quarter, and then Georgia and then Georgia left them in the dust. But sets up a massive showdown with Georgia next week. College game day will be there. This is a probably a two versus a two versus seven, six, something like that. Going to be a great game because Georgia is considered right now I consider Georgia to be the best in the SEC. But this offen if Keelon Russell and this Alabama offense put up 30 something on Georgia as well, they're gonna have the best offense in the country and they're gonna be just fine. And they could easily then jump to my top pick for national champion this year. Notre Dame messed around with UNC or at least kept UNC in the game, but too much defense on that end. And then they were able to pull away late there on UNC. Houston, like I said, they were down 17-0, then ripped off 27 straight points to beat UCF. SMU. mess around with Boston College for a little bit, but they pulled away Alabama and Iowa. Jeremiah Smith is the best player in college football. Hands down, bar none. He is the greatest Ohio State wide receiver of all time, but he might be the best player in college football right now. And he has an argument to be the best college football wide receiver. I would still give that to Devontae Smith. He's the best college football wide receiver ever I've ever seen, but Jeremiah Smith is gaining fast on that accolade, in my personal opinion. He was a he's been a one-man wrecking crew all year, and he was yesterday against Iowa's secondary. 11 catches, 206 yards, 19 yards of catch, two touchdowns. Ohio State did whatever they want. I I tried to tell the boys on the podcast, but no one wants to listen to me. I tried to tell Robert and I tried to tell Simeon. Listen, if Michigan was able to put up like 400 plus yards of offense on Iowa, what do we think Ohio State's gonna do? And they're like, it'll be close at the start of the fourth quarter. No, it was 24 to 6 at the start of the fourth quarter. Ohio State got another touchdown. It was 31-6 and the game was over. Ohio State was the first play of the game for Iowa, who took the ball to start the game, which is bold and not very Kirk Ferrence-like. Normally you defer to the second half, right? And so you basically receive in the second half. But they took the ball. First play of the game, fumble, Ohio State recovers. Two plays later, it's seven-nothing Ohio State. And at that point, Iowa's done. Cause I cause Ohio State's defense is Really good, and Iowa is just still not great offensively. They're better, but they ran the ball for 40 yards yesterday. 40. Hank Brown had a QBR of 31. That's out of a hundred. It was a great win, comeback win against Michigan. However, now with how Michigan looks, it's you Iowa should have blown them out, but they didn't. So Ohio State. It and Jeremiah Smith are the best team in the country. I can't rank them number one because they I have to respect the result of the Texas game. I have to respect that. And especially the choke job in the second half for Ohio State. But to me, they are the best team in the country. Defensively off and Jeremiah Smith is just a matchup night nightmare. I will say, I and this I I won't know until next year. But Brian Hartline left for USF. He was a big part of the Of the monopolizing of the NFL wide receiver talent that Ohio State has had over the last couple of years, right? They have they have all the top NFL wide receivers, it seems, right now in the NFL. Is Jeremiah Smith just so good that I'm not able to see who's next in line? Because you could always see when it was Marvin Harrison, you know, you saw the next person. When it was Jackson Smith and Jigga, when it was Garrett, well, like you always saw who the next guy was. I don't see the next guy on Ohio State's roster, but I don't know if that's just because Jeremiah Smith is so darn good that he's covering it up. Because why wouldn't why wouldn't you feed Jeremiah Smith the ball? Why wouldn't you throw try to throw it to him every play? Why wouldn't you throw it to him 11 times for 206 yards, right? Like, so I don't know if he's just so good he's covering up the next Ohio State wide receiver. Do I think next year that they'll that they won't be able to throw the ball because they don't have Jeremiah Smith? Absolutely not. It's Ryan Day. It's Ryan Day. He'll find a way and he'll find the wide receivers. But right now I don't see that. So I'm just now I'm just curious. But Jerry, like, Ohio State doesn't have a problem this year. Ohio State's only problem is Indiana. And I think that's a mental thing. let me look at their schedule. Do they go to Oregon? Or Oregon comes to them. So they go in two weeks. Now they go to or in three weeks, they go to Indiana. No, two weeks, the 17th. They go to Indiana, they go to USC, and then they have Oregon, Northwestern, Nebraska, who's five and for the first time since 2016, by the way. Shout out Corn Huskers. And then they finish with a win versus Michigan. So like their gauntlet are the next. Three weeks. They do get a buy-in between Indiana and USC, but their gauntlets like over the next month, and that's quote unquote. And they can't afford to suffer a second loss. Or they can, but then it makes it hard for the college football playoff. But Indiana, I think that, and especially because it's on the road, it's a mental thing, and Kirk Cincinnati's going to take away Jeremiah Smith. But you would think I I still think Jeremiah Smith gets 150 yards in that game. Ohio State's gonna be fine this year. I Maybe. Maybe if the if USC's a night game, like an 8 p.m. start night game, because then you have a team going two time zones who's not very successful and USC puts up points and it is a much different team at home than they are on the road. Evidenced yesterday by big win versus a Washington team. Ohio State's gonna be fine this year and Jeremiah Smith is the best player in college football and he right now has my vote for the Heisman. It's him, Malachi and Malachi Tony are one and one A. Tennessee benched their true freshman quarterback, Faison Brandon, yesterday in a win versus Auburn. Them and Michigan have the same problem. Where for whatever reason, it's just right now not working out with the quarterback. Faison Brandon was sacked like 10 times last week about Texas. So is that That's not helping with his development because then you know he starts seeing ghosts, his eyes drift down. He's not looking at at the reads down the field. He's not looking at one of you, but he had a very awful interception yesterday. Tennessee, tough win yesterday, 24-14 over the Albert Tigers, who are one and two. That fan base has gotta be starting to get restless with their new hire as well. But George McIntyre came in eight of ten, eighty-six yards, QBR of 90. really kind of played the second half, but Tennessee ran the ball five yards a pop. They kind of just turned back into a running team. So will Faison Brandon be sat down the rest of the year or and will McIntyre start who's more of a pocket guy and Faison Brandon's more of a dual threat with his legs and his throwing ability. And they kind of go more to the running game that that we'll have to see. But Tennessee is known for a high flying offense, but I have yet to see that this year with them. But they are one and one in the SEC And that's big with a close home loss to Texas. Tennessee is hanging in there at four and one. The rest of their schedule, they get Arkansas next week. Then it is Alabama, South Carolina, Kentucky, AM, LSU, Vanderbilt, all winnable games if they get better quarterback play. So let's keep an eye on Tennessee if they make quarterback change. Let's see how that helps the offense. Because if they can get that offense, Going that passing offense, especially going just a little bit more. The defense is nasty. The defense is real nasty and real good. I think Tennessee will be just fine. Miami's enemy this year is strictly boredom. And you saw that last night if you watched the game against Clemson. And I'm trying to find it, so I'm trying to pull it up so I have. Have the stats, but they like Clemson was in the game for a little bit. Home, home environment for Clemson at night. Yeah, I get all that. It was 10 to 3 at the end of the first quarter. Then it was 17-6 at the end of the second. Right. And Clemson's just hanging around. Miami's not putting them away, not putting them away, not putting them away. Then Miami in the third quarter got a touchdown. Then a fumble on the second play, then kick the field goal. It was 27 to 6. Clemson does cut it back within two. And then Miami goes touchdown, punt, pick six, and it's 41-13. So Miami's greatest enemy in the SEC is boredom. There's no one in the SE, or not the SEC, the ACC, I'm sorry, that scares me, that tells me right now after five weeks. That can hang with Miami. Pittsburgh's 2-0 and 5-0, but they just had a close game with Virginia Tech and needed a missed field goal to survive. Duke is 4-0 and 1-0. But they're not, Manny Diaz isn't scaring me. SMU's fourth, 4-1 and 2-1. Don't play defense. Wake Forest, great surprise. 2-1 and 4-1 on the year, but they already lost to Miami, but they hung around. And then it's Clemson, Florida State, Virginia, who lost another game. So they're three and two. You know, Virginia Tech ended like who exactly is scaring you in the ACC if you're Miami. So you're gonna have to fight complacency, fight boredom. They got their running game going. Malachi Tony last night was excellent, yet again. I don't know if he had a drop. Did he have a drop last night? I don't think they credited him him with the drop. It doesn't tell me. I don't think he has a drop in his career. He only had forty yards, but he had so many eyeballs on him last night that Cooper Barkate went for five catches, ninety-eight yards, but they ran the ball for two hundred yards last night. They finally got this running game going that carried them through the college football playoff with Mark Fletcher and Javian Mallory. So Miami's just gonna have to fight complacency and boredom, and they'll be all right. They do have to play Notre Dame, but even if they lose the game at Notre Dame on November 7th, they're still making a college football playoff, assuming they win the ACC, which again, I don't know why. And again, they face all the right now, all the top teams in the ACC. They play Pitt in two weeks, then they play Notre Dame, and then they play Duke, they play Virginia Tech. All within the top half of the ACC. So I the ACC is kind of boring to me because outside of an upset in Miami and Miami just losing concentration for 60 minutes, ACC is a rap, and congratulations, Miami getting a first round bye or whatever. That that's how I feel about it. Texas Tech, I mentioned them a little earlier. They can't bully people this year. They won the game 29-7. But it was a lot closer than that. It was seven to three Colorado. Until And it was seven to six Colorado until midway through the third quarter. And Texas Tech has messed around with their opponents. And this is their drive chart yesterday. They went field goal, punt, downs, downs, missed field goal, end of half. Then it was punt, field goal. Colorado threw an interception. They got a touchdown off of that. Colorado threw another interception, then field goal. Hunt, they got a pick six, touchdown, end of game. They did not do that. Colorado's bad. They did not dominate this. Like this game should have been 45 to 7. 51-7. Texas Tech just is not pushing people around this year at all. Colorado outgame them. Total yardage outgame them. 375 to 315. Passing 134. Will Hammond just right now, as a passer watching the game last night, just not very comfortable. Maybe that will grow. He grew into the game. But at no point, like they beat Abilene Christian thirty three ten, Oregon State thirty five twenty four. Houston was a two point conversion stop at the end of the game. Sam Houston State, great, you beat an FCS school forty nine fourteen. And in a wide open Big Twelve, I they're not my clear cut favorite. They can't bully people this year offensively like they could last year. And in the college football playoff, they weren't very good at it. So we're just gonna have to see with Texas Tech, but they cannot bully people this year. Their defense is all right and they have really talented players on that defensive line, but they're not all that great. Like I don't think they're the twelfth best team in the country. In my personal opinion. But then again, what do I know? Because my team sucks, and why don't we just get into that? Michigan is just awful. There's 17th out of 18 teams in the Big Ten in offense. They lost yesterday to Minnesota for the first time at Minnesota since 1977. The Little Brown Jug goes back to Minnesota for the first time since 2014. So we held it 12 years. It is the lowest out offensive output at 180 yards since the Minnesota game in 2014 under Brady Hoke. Michigan is putting up Brady Hoke era numbers in 2026. And I am absolutely shocked because Jason Beck in Utah last year and Kyle Winningham had the second best rush offense in the country and a top five scoring offense in the country. Jason Beck needs to figure things out play calling wise because he like Joel Clatt said it yesterday. He he's trying to do this horizontal, like running game and kind of like passing game. He's trying to play more horizontal than he is vertical. But the Michigan offensive line in the and what Michigan is used to is run is doing things vertical. And now you're going horizontal and it's just not meshing very well. They're 0 2 in the big 10. Them, Penn State, Michigan State, are owing two in the Big Ten for the first time in like ever. Congrats to Minnesota. Minnesota did what they had to do. They like their quarterback threw two interceptions, but they overcame that. That's how Michigan got the 14 points, include they got a pick six. But you know, they they held on to the ball. They played solid defense. But and Michigan's defense is good. Michigan's defense is very, very solid. They were just on the game forever yesterday. They got almost doubled up in time of possessions. Penalties again, six penalties, 43 yards, and three turnovers. It was a just this is what Michigan has been all year. I made on the socials yesterday, and I'm gonna back this up because I like to be a man of my word. If Bryce Underwood starts after the bye against Penn State, I'm not watching any more Michigan football until Bryce Underwood is not the starting quarterback under Kyle Whitting. You have to sit him down. He is he is so locked in on JJ Buchanan and Andrew Marsh. He's not looking anywhere else. And the last play of the game, fourth and five, just get a first. You still have a timeout. You got 50 seconds. Like there's time to do an Iowa. Get yourself in position to eliminate make a shot at the end zone. Fourth and five. The play before that on third and five. He throws into double coverage, targeting Andrew Marsh. Look right at Andrew Marsh the whole way, targeted him on a little out route. The play before that, JJ Buchanan goes out, and he just like there's three guys around Andrew Marsh, and the play was actually stopped. Minnesota called a timeout, but that was an interception. That turned into it because he's staring right at him. But the last play of the game, I don't know what the Patterns were on the outside, the ball got thrown out of bounds. But there's a tight end who kind of stayed into chip block and then leaked out, is wide open. Wide open. And Bryce is just staring to his left and he just looks back to his right. A little dump off gets you 15-20 yards. You're probably at midfield with 40 seconds left and a timeout. Bryce Underwood just is not seeing things clearly right now. He cannot play the quarterback position. I don't know if Tommy Carr is. Helps at all because of maybe some things they're doing offensively. But when your head coach Kyle Winnieham says that this is the most challenging thing he's ever gonna have to do in his 40 years of coaching because the offense doesn't have an identity, you have a big, big problem. And I'm gonna Robert sent this in the chat yesterday. And I'm gonna clean it up a little bit because he he would he was pretty angry, he said for the next headline of the podcast Big 12 coaches are ass outside of the Big 12. Therefore, the Big 12 is ass. He sent that and he goes, Congrats, Michigan. You hired the version of Utah of Mike McCarthy. And then all these Big 12 coaches need to go back to their to the mountains. Because you cannot come into Big Ten Country and play Big Ten football. And that goes for, and he was talking about both the Penn State situation and the Michigan situation. It's it's really bad right now in Ann Arbor. Really bad right now in Ann Arbor. And in a year where I still think chaos is gonna reign supreme. And and this sport humbles me so much because I on the Wednesday episode, I was like, Michigan's gonna go ten and two, because I like what they see. Because Bryce Underwood showed progression and the offense was good. You know, they just had the turnovers. This is now a year, week after week after week problem. Penalties, turnovers, and Bryce Underwood just being absolute trash at the quarterback position. And I don't know if it will continue to be that, but you gotta sit him down for the Penn State game. It is at home. You have to sit him down. Jason Beck has to run the ball vertically, not horizontally. And you just have to give Tommy Carr a chance. You ju at this point you jud because Bryce Underwood at this point he's b he has more turnovers than he does touchdown. Give it give Tommy Carr shot, sit him down, give Bryce Underwood at least a refresh. Maybe it's not for maybe Tommy Carr comes in and he's amazing and he's like his brother. But you got to change a whole bunch of things. You got two short, short weeks to do it. You do get a Penn State team that's reeling and is in no better position offensively than you are right now. So that's a help help. But then the rest of your season is awful. So you have to get the Penn State game to. To get to a fourth win because then you get Indiana, Rutgers. Okay, fine. You get Ruckers and Michigan State, two variable winnable games. So you gotta get Penn State, Ruckers, Michigan State, because after that, your teams outside of that are Indiana, Oregon, UCLA, who can score just millions of points whenever they want, and Ohio State. And your road games are at Oregon and at Ohio State. You're looking at six and six right now. And everyone told laughed at me when when I said the floor of Michigan was seven and five, six and six. You can go on a run, but I doubt it. That offense is trash. So they gotta figure that out. All right, I think that is where I will leave you with my ranting done. We got we're gonna have a great episode for you on Wednesday. So come back then. Again, make sure to download this episode, subscribe so you never miss a single episode. Wash your hands, you filthy animals. Thank you so much for being here. Share with your family and friends, and check out the socials. Mostly college football and mostly college CFB on TikTok. Till next time, peace out, God bless you.