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Honey, It's a Week 5 Recap · Honey, It's Saturday

• Mitch: Welcome back, y'all. Week five is in the books. This is the Honey It Saturday podcast. I'm Mitch Williams coming live from Charleston, South Carolina, here with Sam Grant, who's also in the area. It was a fun one. But I think before we get into the actual games and everything else, I need to do one thing. Sam, will you please just say a couple words into your microphone? Sam: Test, tests. One, two, three. Mitch: I know you guys love that. My boy Sam now has the same audio technology, audio equipment that I've had for the last couple episodes. So hopefully it levels it out for you guys, makes it a little bit easier to listen to. I'm pumped about it. Sam's pumped about it. Sam also Sam: Game changer. Mitch: has a little bit of a hot tech. I'm here wearing the new drip from AM. We we rocked this weekend. Our little hundred 150th anniversary uniforms, some military appreciation going on for the Corps of Cadets. Sam, why don't you share your thoughts on on these jerseys? Sam: Yeah, man. Like I'm all about the military appreciation and making sure we s we support our military. And I think there are some really cool opportunities for some military jerseys, but there's just something about these AM ones that I'm just I'm not a big fan of. I think it's the maroon mixed with the kind of lighter camo. It just it doesn't do it for me. I I texted Mitch on Sunday and I said, I don't know if this is a hot take after he sent me a picture of his jersey and I said, But I'm just not a big fan of those. So I'm gonna stick true to that. But everybody's entitled to their own opinions. Mitch: shout out to my mom. Thank you for this amazing early birthday gift, by the way. I love it. It's stitched. It's beautiful. I mean, I I'm a fan. You're entitled to your opinion. I'll tell you one thing though. Tennessee wore some smoky gray jerseys this weekend. Maybe this is my hot take. I wasn't a huge fan of those either. Sam: That's fine. I thought they were awesome. The helmets with the military j General Star in the background for General Neeland, the way they kinda had the mountains mode working into them, I thought it was awesome. But maybe that's just 'cause we have a little bit of bias for those teams, but Mitch: We might be a little biased. That that is correct. So I think I think we could let that slide. Also, shout out Adidas for two controversial jersey combinations this weekend for both schools. Sam: Yep, it's only fitting. Mitch: It's only finny. That's right. man. Awesome. Well, we have a couple of things to get into. It was kind of a jam-packed schedule this week. I wanted to talk about something that Sam caught because it's one of his pick seven matchups. What happened in the Colorado State game this week, Sam? Sam: I think it's the first time in my entire life I've ever seen a head coach fire his defensive coordinator in the middle of the game. And like he just flat out the defence D C just left. So they had their like co D C or like linebackers coach pick and play call the plays for the rest of the game. But I I know they had Colorado State had been struggling. He was the D C was the interim coach last year before Jim Moore got brought in. I don't know if you guys have seen those clips of Jim Mora yelling on the sideline, just those live action shots where he's screaming his head off, most likely at the DC. you could kind of tell they weren't getting along from some previous clips earlier in the season, but just f flat out fired mid game for week five is just mind boggling to me. Mitch: Yeah, that's absolutely crazy. I mean, it was a rough showing from the defensive side of the football. I Oregon State was pretty much doing whatever they wanted to, but that yeah, that unbelievable. So and I Sam: Yeah. Mitch: don't know, like, has it come up was it a mutual thing or he just like straight up left? Sam: No, I think he just like flat out left. That's how Mitch: He said, I'm done with this. I I can't deal with it anymore. If I can't do it my way, I'm out. Who's gonna hire Sam: I mean I th Mitch: him? Sam: I don't know. I think it was a mix of like he was kinda fed up, but also Mora was like, I relieve you of your play calling duties. Like so he was like, All right, cool, I'm outta here. Which is crazy. I mean Mitch: It's crazy. But but being relieved of your play calling duties is not the same thing as getting fired. Like he's still on staff, has a role on staff. He's just no longer calling the plays for the rest of the game. And that could have changed when they got back to practice that week. Like he had every opportunity Sam: Yeah. I feel Mitch: to earn it back, but he just, I guess he got a little bit emotionally wounded and couldn't take it. Sam: Yeah. I feel like there's probably just some button heads from somebody who was on the previous staff with Norvell to now Mora and just different cultures, different environments. I mean, I think it was probably just that was the last straw for both those guys and it it probably will work out better. I sure hope it does for Colorado State 'cause they've been letting me down in my pick sevens recently. Mitch: Yeah, they have a little bit. We're about to get into that actually. Before we do, I wanna shout out one of our soon to be, hopefully sponsors of the Honey It Saturday podcast, Cheerwine. Sam, you mind holding up your beverage for us for us all to see? So I will take accountability and responsibility. We're all about that on this podcast. First of all, I love cheer wine. It's just delicious. If you were on last week, you know that I Was on the other side of one of these little side wagers, Sam and I have, and I got to enjoy a cheer wine myself. Sam's got the bottle, a little bit jealous. But I picked a lock of the week, which was Clemson to cover 17 and a half against Miami. We'll get into the game a little bit later. But I just want to take accountability right at the top of this podcast. It didn't happen. Miami blew the doors off him, especially in the second half. So congratulations, Sam, for your cheer one. And Sam: Thank you. I really appreciate it. Mitch: I hope that none of you guys were hurt by my lock as well. Sam: Well, all right. It I I'm glad you've mentioned it early in the podcast because it's been kind of sitting in the corner of my desk. Like I've been waiting into it because where we had it in the script was a little bit further down. So shout out Mitch for that. Mitch: Yeah. Well I didn't want it to get warm on you. Sam: Yeah, but now I'm gonna return the favor. We made a little side bet last week of just Virginia Tech Pittsburgh, just flat out. And he had Pittsburgh, I had Virginia Tech. I still think that field goal was good. But it's a little too late for that now. So, Mitch, please present your item that I've provided you with today. Mitch: So if you listen, thank you so much, Reese's and Oreo, for this combination, this beautiful collab that y'all have done. I'm gonna enjoy that. Never tried it, so I'm very excited. But if you listen to the podcast, you know that was supposed to be a Twix. Man, I was at Foodline today. I looked all over left and right. The only way I could get a Twix is if I got like the big bags or the Halloween packs. And I'm not all about that. I'm not that large, although I do love me some sugar. but I think that this Reese's Oreo is gonna do the trick for me today. So thank you, Sam. Appreciate Sam: Yeah, problem number one was going to the food lion. You should have known better than that. Mitch: That's my grocery store. That's my spot. I'm a V P member. No slander. Yeah. MVP member of the of the of the food line. Shout out to all the Sam: Are you man. I respect it. Mitch: husbands out there. This is the Honey It Saturday podcast. After all, we talk most of college football, but every once in a while we talk grocery stores. That's just kind of what you get around here. Sam: That's right. I love a good publix or a Trader Joe's. Those are my go to's. Mitch: What no store does more than my H E B though. Only my Texas people know that. Sam: Yeah, s those down south people have no idea what you're talking about. All right. Yep, let's do it. Mitch: All right, let's get into pick seven. Sam, last week you had a really good week. This week it was kind of like what I I'm not gonna hate on it too much because I had a week that was very similar last week where I was kind of up and down and ended up being pretty much a lateral week for me. So why don't you just walk through first of all what your score looks like Sam: Okay. Mitch: and then the actual games themselves. Sam: Yeah, so last week, week five, I ended at five hundred and fifty two total points. Or I'm sorry, week four I ended at five hundred and fifty two total points. This week, week five, I lost twenty points. So I'm now down to five hundred and thirty-two. It was a rough Mitch: Mm-hmm. Sam: week. It was a rough week for Sam Squad. Tennessee got the win against Auburn. Ugly, ugly, ugly football game, but a win's a win, especially in the SEC. Virginia Tech versus Pitt, same thing. I obviously kinda already mentioned that I ended up losing this one. Not sure how many total points I lost for it being so close, but really wish Virginia Tech twelve. Mitch: I think you lost twelve, 'cause it'd be two plus the ten. Yep. Sam: Okay, that's right. So Virginia Tech ended up losing this one, which was just an absolute heartbreaker. Virginia Tech drove down the field, had a chance to win on a field goal. Again, field goal went in, but didn't end up going that way. Mitch: I don't know if it's that set in stone that it went through the upright Sam. I've seen a couple of angles where it's not quite there. Sam: I don't know, I've seen some other crazy angles where Mitch: But I will say, to give Sam some credit here, when I was watching it live, I was very stressed because I was on the other side of this for our side wager. And I thought live that he made it. So when the signal came in as no good, I was shocked. But I was I was happy, but I was shocked. Sam: Yeah. I I walked back in the house from a low country boyle and had my phone like this and I saw it. I said, Okay, sweet, we won. And then I s I get a massive all caps text from Mitch that says, He missed and I'm like, What Mitch: Ha ha ha. Sam: in the world? Are we watching two different things? so that was Mitch: Just for the record, I was doing the same thing. I had it on my phone right here. I was just in an elevator in Austin. Sam: Pure heartbreak. Mitch: Yeah. Sam: spe speaking of heartbreak, this is a team that has been honestly a little bit disappointing for me in my pick seven. I expected a lot more kind of margin of victory from them. And I just flat out lost this week. USF lost a temple. and just again, very ugly football game. USF's games this year have just been very low scoring, very diff their their defense is playing lights out, but offensively with Michael Van Buren, they just can't get going. So that was that was a heartbreaker for me of just just Mitch: That one is that one is shocking. I I did not peg that one as a potential loss for you going into the week. Sam: Mm. Temple was one and three, man. I mean, they were they're not Mitch: I know. Sam: they haven't looked great. So this week they play UTSA, which kind of scares me from a point points perspective. But we'll get into that later this week and in our next episode of the podcast. Oklahoma State had a buy for me, which they them not playing kind of negatively affects me because they would have probably gotten me some pretty good solid points. Wake Forest just continues to dominate games. they looked fantastic against Stanford the other day. I think they dropped 59 points. which was just huge for the points. I mean, they really were the ones that kept me in in this week for my pick seven. I've just kinda obviously I lost twenty points, but they kinda carried a lot of the weight to keep me a lot a lot higher than I probably should have been. Mitch: Yeah. Wake Wake Forest is turning out to be one of the best picks possible. Like that was huge for you. And they definitely saved you this week from a little bit more of a a loss than you could have had. I also want to take this opportunity, no spoilers, but I do want to take this opportunity to let you guys know. Stick around for this podcast because we've got some feedback. The people want to know what the Honey at Saturday top twenty-five teams would be through week five. We're going to make it a weekly thing. Sam and I each did our own poll. We did a composite average. We got them together. So that will be a whole segment today that we're going to go over. Very excited about it. No, no foreshadowing, Sam: Yes. Incredible. Mitch: no spoilers. I just wanted to let you guys know. Sam, I apologize for interrupting, but I felt like that was an important thing. Sam: No, that's a that's that's a great plug for when we get into that. So I appreciate you doing that. Michigan State for me took a loss to Wisconsin. Michigan State just they're they're they're they're playing some of these tougher Big Twelve, Big Ten teams, excuse me, that they just I know Pat Fitzgerald is letting me down. They're gonna Mitch: Put the coaching staff, Sam. Put the coaching staff. Every week, every week it's put the coaching staff. Sam: win one of these games, I promise you. I still believe that, but I think it'll be later in the season. And then we already Mitch: Yeah. Sam: touched on it a little bit. Colorado State just got mollywapped by Oregon State in their building. Shout out to the Colorado State fans. They came out in full s full steam. was a little bit of a competitive game in that in that first half. And then Oregon State just continues to look like a really solid football team. So congrats to Mit Mitch on that win. but that kind of sums it up for Mitch: Yeah, Oregon State. Sam: me. Mitch: Oregon State, I I'll I'll talk about it now since we've already got the matchup. It was a head to head situation. So I'll cross it off my list when I get there. But Oregon State, they were one that I was optimistic about. Their record right now does not show the quality of team that they are. Now they've played some pretty good competition. They took Houston to the wire. Houston's a ranked opponent, solid. They've run into a couple of of buzzsaws along the way. And so their record doesn't reflect it. But I think as the season goes on, that pick is looking Like a pretty solid one to me. Sam: Yeah. Especially for the value that you got them at. I mean it was extremely low. Mitch: Correct. They were a very affordable team. Yeah, very affordable for this this pick seven set preseason. All right. So I'll get into my my teams this week. You know, last week I had a little bit of a struggle. I was behind Sam by about 20 points. This week I took a pretty big jump. I I got 86 points this week. I'm sitting at a total of 621. So Sam and I the last few weeks have kind of just been leapfrogging each other. it will be fun for the entertainment value of this segment if that happens throughout the whole season. I would prefer to just kind of run away with it. So then we can discuss and figure out what we're gonna do with you at the end. But we're leapfrogging each other just back to back to back. So it's kind of fun. But this was my turn to have a good week. Oregon was on bye. And honestly, I wasn't sure what I Sam: Yeah. Mitch: yeah, I wasn't sure what my week was going to look like with Oregon on by because that's one that I'm normally counting on. And to get 86 points on a week where they didn't play makes me feel a little bit better. Indiana, they were favored by 23 and a half against Rutgers. And they they handle business. They did their job. There were a couple of times in the second half where I was hoping they would pull away a little more than they did, but I think they bounced back really well from that Northwestern game last week. And by the way, I was panicked and all worried about that Northwestern matchup. I still would have preferred Indiana to play better in that game. Northwestern's turning out to be a pretty good football team. So Sam: Very much. Mitch: I I don't know if I feel quite as bad about Indiana struggling there. I still think Hoover didn't look great in that game. But I will take the win against Rutgers this week from Indiana, North Dakota State. Man, I am in love with the bison right now. Saw somebody at the airport yesterday. I had to let him know. He has no idea why. I mean, I was wearing this AM jersey, so he has no why. No idea why I have such an affinity for the bison. But man, they have been such a good pick and I gambled on them. First year in the FPS. I know it's a solid program Sam: It's a screen. Mitch: historically, and they've got a great culture. But that jump, you just never know what's going to happen. And I felt like at the point value They weren't super cheap. They were probably in the mid tier, but I felt like at the point value, if it hit, it was gonna be worth it. And so far it has been. They got a shutout win for me this week against Wyoming. That was that was massive. Sam: Yeah. I got I I gotta say, I love that you told that North Dakota State fan in the airport, like go bison or whatever you said. Cause for me, Mitch: Yeah. Sam: I've loved like when people ask me, what is your what are what is your team, Sam? I'm like, all right, first and foremost, I'm a Liberty Flame. I love my Tennessee Vols, but like I love me some Virginia Tech Hokies, I love me some Oklahoma State Cowboys, I love me the Demon Deacons, like those are full on my teams this fall. And I I love being able to kind of have those little separate teams that are not not as popular and not teams you would typically watch on Saturday and kind of get get attached to So it it makes it a lot of fun. Mitch: That's what makes college football special as a whole and this game makes it even more fun for us because we actually get to get attached to them. And when we otherwise, like Delaware is one of my teams. I have no reason to get attached to Delaware. Aside from the fact that it's kind of fun sometimes to get on the Blue Hen bandwagon. But now I actually have a reason to track and follow them every week. So yeah, to your point, I mean, I think this is great. maybe next year we'll have to get like a pool together and figure out maybe our audience can get involved. But Cal. Sam: That'd be awesome. Mitch: Cal was favored by two and a half against UNLV. This was the one this week that did not go the right direction for me. Sam: Ha. Mitch: The Golden Bears, they're not looking so hot. So I'm gonna need some other people to pick up the slack in this set of seven teams. They're not looking hot. They lost to UNLV, didn't go well. Sam actually informed me right before the game that the line flipped to UNLV anyways. So I guess this was supposed to happen, but I was not a huge fan of the way that went down. And then Delaware lost to Liberty. Delaware's on a backup quarterback. They didn't lose by as much. They lost by like 16, I think, which is not great, but it could have been way worse. if Delaware's quarterback is out for the season, that's going to be a huge loss for me because he was really the sole reason I picked the Blue Hens this year. I really like it. so that's a little bit of a dangerous situation. But overall, I survived the week. I survived the week because then we got the Oregon State, Colorado State game, which we already discussed. So not everything went my way. But I did come out on top in this week five version of our pick seven. And we'll preview what we've got upcoming for week six. It should be another interesting slate. But we're gonna do that in our midweek show, which will come out probably Thursday morning. Thursday morning. So you guys be on the lookout for that. Yeah. Sam Houston State, by Sam: Thursday morning. Yeah. Bounce back week for me. Mitch: the way, shout out to them. I didn't forget about you. You're my last team in the set of seven, but you were also on bye. So no games to talk about. Thank goodness you were on bye. Cause That's just a losing points machine at this point. Hopefully they can turn it around. Sam: Not against Liberty this week. Mitch: Yeah, they got the flames coming up next. Sam: There's no other podcast in the college football world that talks about liberty the way that we do. So all you liberty folks out there, fan the flames, baby. Mitch: You're rocking the shirt right now. You're representing. We we have no bias on this podcast. Look at us. He's in a Liberty shirt and I'm in an AM shirt. We have no bias. Sam: I know. Flames. No. Yep. Just ignore the Liberty Football there too. It's no big deal. Mitch: Zero bias. All right. I do have a coastal banner to kind of cancel out the Liberty thing, but you know, it is what it is. Big South Rivals. All right, here it is. Ladies and gentlemen, we're not even going to talk about the AP poll yet. We're going to talk about the Honey It Saturday poll. We're going to go through what we think our top 25 teams are in the country. And then we're going to take a look at what Sam and I maybe disagree on a little bit. But overall, this is our composite average based off our completely separate rankings. Of the 25 best teams in college football through week five. Sam, I'm going to let you read out the top five. We'll go five at a time. Yep. Sam: Top five. All right. Top top five. We got number one, Texas, number two, Georgia, number three, Alabama, number four, Miami, and number five, the Ohio State Buckeyes. Mitch: I think this is pretty reasonable. I think for the the polls right now, the top five or six, maybe even seven, you can throw seven in there. I think they're pretty interchangeable. I think people will have some disagreements, but it's not going to be super fiery debate at this point in the season. Cause I think you can make a good case for a lot of these teams. I think if you had Ohio State at one, that'd be a little bit crazy because they have a loss to Texas. But you know what I mean. Like in general, I think there's a little bit more of fluctuation that's appropriate. But what stands out to you, if anything, among these top five? We got Texas at one, Ohio State at five. Anything surprising at all? Sam: nothing really surprising, but obviously this is kind of our initial first look at this top twenty five after you and I both created sep twenty separate top twenty fives and brought together. I think just having Mitch: Mm-hmm. Sam: three SEC teams, one, two, three, I think that that may get a little pushback. but honestly, I I think Georgia and Alabama this week's gonna tell us a lot. I think Texas just continues to do enough to stay at number one. they've they've they've won the games they've need to. I haven't hasn't necessarily been the prettiest, but You can't take him down, especially over that winning against Ohio State. And then Miami and Ohio State just continue to handle business. So I could maybe go about flipping Miami and Ohio State, but it's i at the end of the day, that's not gonna be a drastic s flip or flop, so to speak. Mitch: No, I don't think so either. And I mean, you say the SEC thing, I think you're right. People at first glance would give it pushback. But then when you really think about it, we've got Ohio State at the top of the Big Ten. They've already got a loss. So you can't really put up in that top three right now, even though it's a quality loss on the road against Texas. You still can't really do that. So I don't know if there'll be a ton of pushback, but yeah, three three SEC teams in the top three does kind of stand out. Sam: Yeah. Mitch: All right, I'll go through six through ten right here. We've got Notre Dame at six, Indiana at seven. Texas Tech at eight, BYU nine, and Ole Miss 10. So I'll I'll share a couple things here. I'll just be I'll be transparent. I don't have BYU in my individual top 10. So BYU at nine. I think in the AP poll, they're actually sitting at eight right now, which is pretty interesting to me because they were 10 going into the week and they kind of struggled against TCU, who is not a good football team right now. They came out with a win in Fort Worth by seven, but it didn't look pretty. And they jump two spots to eight. So that was interesting in the A P poll to me. but this is our first Honeyday Saturday poll. So nobody's jumping up or down. This is just we're establishing where people are. And BYU is sitting at nine. I don't have a huge problem with it. They're undefeated. I just haven't been super impressed. So they're not in my top ten personally, but the rest of these rankings, I don't have a huge issue with. Tech at eight is interesting. Sam: Yeah, the Big Twelve, I feel like, is just kinda with those top teams, you literally have right there Texas Tech, BYU, Old Miss is ten and then Utah's eleven, spoiler. they're just kind of up in the air for me of I think they're Big Twelve really good, but in comparison to the rest of the kind of college football realm, it's kind of hard to to figure out, in my opinion. And Old Miss at ten is kind of surprising to me. So I'm curious to see where you had them in your top twenty five. Cause for me, in my in my poll, I had them as the third SEC team in kind of this category. So I had Missouri, Florida, then Ole Miss. And they were twelve, thirteen, fourteen. So just I kind of just went off sequence of events of, hey, Missouri beat Florida, Florida beat Old Miss, Old Miss beat LSU, and just kind of went it through it like in that order. Mitch: Yeah, I'm not surprised by that either. I mean, the the cannibalism that's going to be going on in the SEC that's already beginning is just ridiculous. Like I said, some of these are almost impossible to rank at this point. Cause like, for example, what do you do with Mississippi? Mississippi Sam: Yeah. Mitch: has some great wins on their resume, but then they turn around and get blown out by Alabama, which is not a necessarily a bad loss, but like that's a blowout loss. And then you got Missouri, who just lost to Mississippi State. So they've got that on their resume. They have a loss in Starkville. Who turns around and just beats down on a Florida team that the previous week beat down on Ole Miss, who we all agree is a pretty good team as well. So it's like it's hard to know what to do with that bucket of SEC teams right now. So that's very interesting. But yeah, Ole Miss at 10, I don't think that's egregious, but it is, I guess you could you could argue their resume's gotten a little bit weaker too with Louisville drawing. Sam: Yeah, yeah, that's very true. It was a it was a l rough loss for the Cardinals this past week against NC State, but working our way down eleven through fifteen. Utah is eleven, Missouri is twelve, LSU is thirteen, Oregon is fourteen, and Florida is fifteen. That Mitch: Yeah. Sam: those five are honestly, I I don't hate those five. again, Utah is just kind of up there as that big twelve, where if if I think if you were to say Missouri plays Utah, LSU plays Utah, Oregon plays Utah, Florida plays Utah. All of those latter teams are probably going to be favored over Utah on a neutral field. so I don't know. I always struggle with rankings because I think Utah has looked good, but in my mind, I think 12, 13, 14, and 15 would all beat Utah pretty handily. Mitch: Yeah, I mean we think so. The we we we think that's the case. the other thing about the Big Twelve is they might be Yeah, the one thing I'll say, like, on the topic of Utah and the Big Twelve as a whole, we don't really know. We're talking about like, yes, those teams likely would be favored against Utah on a neutral field right now. I'm pretty confident in saying that. But with the Big Twelve, we're just not so sure. I mean, the Big Twelve could be better than we think it is this year. And there could be some you know, prior year judgment that we're using as our perception of the Big Twelve conference. But with the portal, things can change so fast year to year, not just for conferences, but for individual teams. So who knows? Maybe the Big Twelve hit it big this year. We don't know. Sam: Sure. Mitch: the the only non conference games I can really think of that were pretty marquee were Arizona State going to Kyle Field. And they obviously didn't look great in the end, but they did fight for the majority of that game. And then the big one, Oklahoma State in Oregon. That's the one where if you're a Big 12 fan, you might be able to point to and be like, but look, look what they did. That's a top team in the country, Big Ten opponent, top half of that conference. So I don't know. It's too early in the year, but I don't think we can write off the Big 12 either. I I do think based off what I've seen so far, the strength of the Big 12 this year, I would guess is elevated from where it was the past couple years. Just overall. I think there are more quality teams in the conference. Sam: Yeah, I can agree with that. And I want I want to make that point clear. I'm not writing off the Big Twelve. I think honestly, I from those top three Big Twelve teams that we talked about, maybe there is some serious depth. But for me, from what I've seen some from some other Big Twelve teams like Oklahoma State and Baylor look a lot more impressive to me than those top three. So I think maybe Mitch: I would agree with you. Sam: my point of reference for the Big Twelve is some of these teams that maybe have a loss a little bit further down have in the most recent weeks looked like Really solid football teams. Mitch: Yeah, I think there's more depth in that conference than people give it credit for right now. Because I would even throw Houston in that category as well. I think there's a lot of depth in that conference right now. All right, sixteen through twenty, Mississippi State is at sixteen. Little bit interesting, maybe Iowa at seventeen, Tennessee at eighteen, Oklahoma State, who we just talked about at nineteen, and then Pitt rounds out the top twenty. What are you thinking? Sam: Yeah, honestly I'm okay with this. I think Mississippi State, again, they have a great win against Missouri that looks really good right now after the way Missouri handled Florida. I think Alabama's just that good of a football team. And I know we'll we'll get into that a little bit as we break down that game a little bit later on. But I think I like Mississippi State in this spot. they've kinda got to rebuild, get a little bit healthy. They have a bye week this week. So I'm comfortable with them being here. Iowa, same thing. I mean, Ohio State's just That good. they've they think they made a quarterback change late to try to get some stuff going. So I'm again I'm okay there. Tennessee, all out of whack on offense, but overall SEC wise has a good record. Oklahoma State, I feel like, was just gonna keep skyrocketing up. So I think I had Oklahoma State at eighteen in my pole. So not much not much wiggle room. That that Tulsa loss is kinda haunting them. And then Pitt should have been in the top twenty five last week. Sneaks or not sneaks in, but have we have him twenty here, but We'll be interested to see kind of where they're at going forward with the the loss of their starting quarterback. Mitch: Yeah, I I agree they should have been ranked last week. I think twenty based off their resume right now is probably fair, but with the rest of the season outlook without Heinschel, maybe maybe there's a little bit of a fall off. but maybe not. Sometimes teams respond really well to that. So we'll see. And then we've got Houston, USC, Kentucky, Wake Forest, and UCLA rounding out our top twenty-five. So we Wake Forest, one of your pick seven teams sneaking in there. Kentucky's at twenty-three. And then USC all the way down at twenty two. Sam: Yeah. I think I think that works for me. I kinda like how it seems like we pr kinda had a little bit of similar back half of the top twenty five. Mitch: Yeah, I think so. I think so. I actually had Houston somewhere in the teens. that's more of I I know I'm higher on Houston than a lot of other people are, but I was before the season too. And as of right now, they've shown a lot of resiliency. They didn't look perfect this week by any means. They were down seventeen to UCF, who was a three and one football team, but they had a lot of injuries going on as well. So wasn't situation you wanted to see Houston in at home in a very empty home stadium, by the way. That was disappointing. But the fact that they were down 17 midway through the third quarter, came back and won that game by 10 points, I think says a lot about who they are. I think Connor Wigman has looked really good using his legs and his arm. So they've got a lot of potential to continue that. USC is a weird one, man. I I it's almost the type of one where you think that's a one loss team that if their their brand wasn't as large as it is, they may not even sneak into the top 25 based off the way they've been playing the last couple of weeks. But they did sneak out a win. so who knows? Sam: Yeah. I mean, they've they've got a gauntlet of the big ten that's coming up for them. Washington was played a great game against them, but USC was able to pull away. the Houston topic kind of goes back to we have a little bit of following up on our top twenty-five, the Honey It Saturday poll of just disagreements that Mitch and I have had as we kind of put together or AI put together this combined poll for us, but he had Houston a little bit higher up at nineteen. I left them out completely. the Oregon Ducks, I had them as my number ten team. Mitch had them as seventeen. Mitch: Hold on, let's let's take Sam: mess. Mitch: a let's take a second right here. I wanna kind of discuss these as we go through The Houston one. Sam: All right, let's do it. Mitch: The Houston one, what's your logic on leaving them completely out? 'Cause I think A P coaches, they're ranked in both. I'm just I'm curious on why you think that's not a top twenty five football team. Sam: Yeah, for me, I kind of look at the back half of some of these like teams that are kind of around that top twenty five or sorry, like back half of the twenty-five. Like Duke, Duke is a team that's in there ahead of them for me. UCLA is same way. Pitt is, Kentucky is another team that's that's in there a little bit higher up for me. So I think i for me the UCF game, yes, there was some resiliency, but UCF was was out their starting quarterback and They were just non existent on offense in that first half. And granted, a win's a win, but I think when it's gonna kind of come down to some of these tighter games in the Big Twelve, where or even if you see even if UCF had Alonzo Barrett back this this this past week, I think it's a different story. So I just there hasn't been enough out of that team for me to confidently say they look like a top twenty-five team right now. Mitch: Yeah, I think defensively they've got more holes than they did last year. but I will also say watching that Houston game this week, they had about three possessions where they turned the ball over in the red zone. They were shooting themselves in the foot in that first half. So that 17 0 hole, they dug themselves into it. But I Sam: yeah. Mitch: thought Houston was playing better than 17 0, and then they finally snapped out of it and put up a twenty seven to nothing run in the last quarter and a half of that game. So I can understand you having that opinion. And then on the Oregon one, ten could be perceived as a little bit high for the Ducks, just as seventeen is where I put That could be perceived as a little bit low. So I'll let you defend your ten first and then I'll talk briefly on seventeen. Sam: I mean, to be honest, I love kind of where Oregon ended up for both of us in our poll of kind of being right there at that 13 spot. Oregon for me, I think I think that Dante Moore injury is gonna really turn around. Obviously they had a bad loss to Oklahoma State, but they continue to improve every single week. I think quarterback play, whether it's Riola or whatever, more gets healthy. I mean, again, a Dan Lanning team, when he gets when they kind of get that motivation and that little bit of a spark, they can become a very dangerous football team during the regular season. So I think they're gonna continue to build on that. And I just think as they kind of make their way through the Big Ten, they're gonna they're gonna be a team that's gonna be reckoned with. And I think for me it even goes back to I have them ahead of some of those like SEC teams, whether it's Missouri or Florida. I just think they have they have a ton of talent and I think I think they're gonna end up at that t that around that top ten spot anyways. Mitch: Yeah, I think that's fair. I mean, really the only reason I've got them behind a lot of those SEC one loss teams is because I think the losses that those SEC teams have right now are higher quality losses. Not that Sam: There. Mitch: we're like I I prefer measuring wins over losses, but I just think if you got one loss through week five, a lot of time my eye goes to who did you lose to? Oklahoma State turning out to not be such a bad loss, but they did also have a really tight one week one against Poisey. So I think in my mind, I still want to see a little bit more before I just throw them up. But I have been impressed recently and I agree with you on their trajectory. So I'll continue to to adjust that as the season goes on. Sam: Yeah. And then our next one we got was Old Miss. Mitch had at eight. I had them at fourteen. So I think they were old were they for us? Ten. Mitch: They finished at ten, yep. Sam: Yeah. And I I think I kind of elaborated on mine a little bit earlier of just kind of for where Old Miss kind of ranks in that kind of rundown effect from SEC teams, but why did you have them at eight? Mitch: I don't know. I mean, to me, I I just think they had the best quarterback in the country and their loss was on the road at the swamp and looked like they just got caught completely off guard on the defensive side of the football and never really got their rhythm going. So to me, that loss to Florida was a big loss, but I think Florida's still a quality team even after what we saw this week. And again, it's like who do you how do you stack up those one loss SC C teams, especially as they continue to beat each other? So I don't know. I think ten where they landed is pretty fair. Sam: Yeah. I'm I'm good with that. And then the last one for us, Kentucky. I had them as number twenty and you left them out completely, which is kinda surprising to me. Mitch: I did. I've got a couple of reasons for it. I I have no problem with people who choose to rank Kentucky at this point in time, but I just I haven't seen enough personally. The the win in college station continues to kind of book into their resume. And I just I'm not sure how quality of a win that truly is. and they they went to Columbia and got a win this week, which is huge, but they kind of like Houston dug themselves into a hole down seventeen to a South Carolina team that has been really struggling. And yes, they fought back and ended up pulling that game out in overtime, but I don't know. I mean, I don't I don't necessarily see that as a high quality win at this point in the season based on what we've seen from the Game Cox. And they they fought in the first half against Alabama. And I think that's also the other thing people will point to for Kentucky right now and say that's a strong team. I'm not saying they're not. I just haven't seen enough to put them over some of these other teams right now. Sam: Yeah, yeah, that's fair. I I think for me, you can't have a team in the top twenty five, goes out and wins a football game and then somehow drops out of the AP top twenty five. Mitch: yeah, if we're talking AP poll, that's a different story, but I mean we've never had a honey at Saturday poll, so who's to say I had him ranked last week? Sam: Fair, fair. But I guess for when I put together my poll, that was my point of reference of like there's no way Kentucky can't be in there and they got a chance to make a statement this week against LSU at home. admit Mitch: Yeah, that's valid. And I will say one more thing. I think we can actually go back in the podcast archives last week if you want to. I think I actually commented on Kentucky being ranked last week and said I wouldn't have had him in there. So I I believe there's some consistency coming from my side of the room. Sam: Well, I'll I'll go ahead and call Will Stein and let him know just to invite me to let him let him know just to invite me this week to the LSU game. and Mitch: Yeah. Sam: I and I backed Kentucky this week for the honey, it's in the budget lock of the week. I had Kentucky at plus four and a half and they won outright, which good win for me after kind of starting that segment. last week I had a pretty embarrassing loss, but was good to have a little get back. Ban I sweated out that overtime two point conversion, but I'm glad Kentucky went in there. Got a win and during Cocktober, it's a hard thing to do in Williams Bryce. So a win's a win. Kentucky, if you guys tailed me, congratulations. Mitch: Yeah. Yeah, that was that was good for you. You needed it. I I'll just leave it there. Sam: Do you wanna talk about your pick? Mitch: My lock of the week? Man, I already showed you Sam: Yeah, you gotta you gotta at least say what happened. Mitch: I already gave you your cheer one. I I believed in Dabo Sweeney and the Tigers. I thought Tate Reynolds was getting better. The spread was 17 and a half. It was in Death Valley. I I thought I talked a lot about the rain last week. I thought it was gonna be a bad weather night. Turned out the rain wasn't a ton of a factor. And so all those things combined, Clemson did not cover the spread. The door kind of blew wide open into the end of the third quarter and into the fourth quarter. I I have more thoughts on that game that I'll get into a a little bit more as we go through like our our detailed recap of these games. But yeah, my lock of the week did not hit. I'm one and one. I hit last week, didn't hit this time. So we'll see. I got a bounce back opportunity. But yeah, Sam, I hope you enjoyed your cheer one. Sam: Thanks, man. And you know, I d I just had to ask that just so I know it could be brought up because I'm about to do something that I wouldn't have imagined I would have done again this week. But I guess my wife is just maybe I should have a a a hat that says my wife is a certified ball knower. but my wife is always right. That hat is going back on again. She she Mitch: Those two statements those two two statements go together. I mean, she's always right. She tends to know a lot about football to this point this season. I'm I'm pretty surprised and impressed with Cameron. Sam: Yeah, she's a sh she's been ballin'. So I am she went seven and one this week. I'm sorry, six and two. I went five and three. So the hat is on again. Mitch: Pat is on again. And just in case anyone's wondering, I did go seven and one this week. So no, no reason to worry for me. That's last week I was eight and This week I'm seven and one. So the last two weeks have been treating me really well. Cause I I was in a hole. I'm not trying to build myself up here. I to give context, I was in a hole before that. So I I really needed these last couple weeks. Sam: So I'm feeling really down on myself. So Virginia Tech Pit. Let's break that one down. Mitch: Let's break it down in a little more detail. Sam: the Pittsburgh ended up winning by two, but was it 35, 33? Virginia Tech quote unquote missed field goal. was a great college football game on a Friday night. Electric environment in Blacksburg, Virginia. I think honestly, there are two really good ACC football teams. that can can potentially make some run runway throughout the rest of the year. I think for Virginia Tech, have a little bit of a better chance now as this is a good litmus test for them with Pitts starting quarterback going down. But I mean, yeah, I mean, Blacksburg on a Friday night, I mean that that sight was beautiful to see. Mitch: Yeah, I mean, look, if you're Virginia Tech, I first of all, props to those fans. That environment, that atmosphere was everything you want it to be in Blacksburg. It was incredible. The fans were jumping around. Huge scene for James Franklin's first really marquee home game there at Virginia Tech. So that was great. And I don't think you really have any ri reason to be overly disappointed. I think Pitts really good team, first of all. So it's not a a terrible loss. They're a five and a team. Let's not forget that. But second of all, I think you really beat yourself. You look at this game, it was an incredible college football game, back and forth, 35 33 finish. Sam: Do you want me to like just let you ride it out? Or do you want do Mitch: Yeah. Sam: you want me to stop? Mitch: I think it's the way Sam: this could be interesting. Mitch: What's up? but we're here and what I was calling out was the turnover margin. If you look at the turnover margin, Virginia Tech turned the ball over four times. Pitt turned the ball over zero times. That's a recipe for disaster. I don't care how many total yards of offense you have compared to what they have, because they did out game pit by about like 250 yards in this game. It was like 500 to 250, something around something around there. So That's why I say you have a lot of positives to take away because clearly you moved the ball really well and you you did a lot of good things. But if you turn the ball over four times, that's not a recipe to win a football game. So regardless of whether you think that field goal went in or didn't go in, you can't really blame that if you're if you're sitting there turning the ball over and handing it to the other team four times. That that's that was really my that was really my No, I'm not talking to you, Sam. I'm talking to the hookies. I I think that they've got Sam: wr I was wrong. I get it. Mitch: a lot of positives to take away, but I just think really the story of the game was the turnovers. Sam: Yeah, I agree. This that one just hits a little bit close to home for me because it was a bet and a pick seven team. So I needed that. Yeah. Mitch: I understand. I understand. I've been there and I'll be there again. It's okay. You gotta go next play. Next play mentality, Sam. Sam: That's right. And kind of transitioning into our next game, but this is a very similar position I've grown up in a lot of times being a Tennessee fan, where you go into Alabama with a lot of hopes and they just crush your dreams and dominate you from start to finish. And that's how it felt for me against for Alabama, Mississippi State. Alabama went into Starkville and just dominated. was Keelan Russell's, I think, just coming out party. You could kind of tell Kamario Taylor wasn't fully healthy, but he also just made a lot of uncharacteristic decisions. defensively, Kane Womack and that that staff made enough stops in the in the in the first part of the game for Alabama to kind of be able to just kind of continue to take a step away and just kind of hit away at that lead. So I mean. I think Mississippi State is still a really good football team, but man, Alabama on offense looks really scary. Mitch: Yeah, for me, this was the Alabama statement game. This is kind of their announcement to the country that, hey, we're legit, we're different this time around, and and here we are. And I I feel like they went into Starkfield and just handled their business from the jump. And yes, Kamario Taylor made a couple mistakes that were uncharacteristic. He also made some great plays that were characteristic, but I think they get overshadowed when you throw two interceptions. And again, they're another team that turned the ball over four times. So Bama's defense is flying around forcing turnovers too against an offense that's very good. and has proven to be that against some tough comp competition this year up to this point in Mississippi State. So that that is a really good football team that Alabama just completely manhandled. And it's very interesting the dynamic going into that Georgia game this next week and what we're gonna see. Sam: Yeah, I agree. I mean, that that game is gonna be electric. But I think for Alabama just continues to just kind of turn away and continue to kind of put themselves right there at the top of the top. Mississippi State, tough loss at home, but you guys still have a great schedule like great schedule to be able to prove yourselves. You have a great win against Missouri. Mitch: Mm-hmm. Sam: I think they have a lot to look forward to of this year. I mean, they're in a they're an electric football team. I just think they kinda met their match a little bit on Mississippi State. I'm sorry, against Alabama. So I'm excited to see how they respond in the next coming weeks. Mitch: Yeah. No, I agree. I agree. And we've talked about a couple four and one teams that you're debating on how good is their loss, how bad is their loss, how good are their wins at this point in the year through week five, as we were going through our Honey It Saturday poll, those kind of topics came up a lot. I think another four and one team now that's pretty interesting, and it'll be interesting to see how hot or cold people are on them after this past week is Tennessee. They did end up winning. They won by 10 against Auburn. Benched quarterback situation, a lot of different things going on here. So I'll let Duvall kind of talk through this one first. Sam: Yeah, it's I'll start with Auburn and then we'll kind of transition to the winners. But Auburn for me, I think I'm very surprised at how little their offense has kind of transitioned to the SEC. it was a very similar offense that obviously Hypels run before at Tennessee and they just and they just haven't been able to be in sync and in function f throughout the kind of start of this year. And granted, I think Tennessee is looking like and turning into one of the best defenses in the country. I mean, Jim Knowles is just putting on clinic after clinic after clinic every single week. he's the reason why I think Tennessee is going to be continue to be in this position is kind of this like how really how good are they, how bad are they? Because defensively, no matter who we play on offense, I think they're gonna be able to keep them in the game. Offensively, Deshaun Bishop, shout out him. He think he ran for two hundred twelve yards on thirty plus carries for two touchdowns, carried Carried the balls throughout the day. Tennessee was able to kind of establish the run game in the second half, but ended up making a quarterback change. We've talked about Faison Brandon on this podcast. as I said last week, he's just got to be able to open up. He needs to throw his first interception just to kind of get that out of him. a little bit hesitant throwing the football, just scared to make the turnover. granted, I think he's still a little bit banged up from the Texas game, but ended up making the quarterback switch just before the first half for George McIntyre. Who came in, I think he was eight for ten, let us down, led us down the field for just really bad clock management where we didn't get any points. But he did enough for us to win the football game on Saturday. we'll be curious to see kind of how that quarterback room progresses throughout the year. But that that's the one question mark for Tennessee is that quarterback position. And they got all the running backs. They got a a decent offensive line that I think is looking a little bit better, honestly with the quarterback change and receiving core just needs to be able to get the football and they just haven't been able to really have that with the quarterback play. So interested to see where they Mitch: Yeah. Sam: kinda go. Mitch: Yeah, it's definitely an interesting start to the year for Tennessee. I think you're satisfied that you're four and one if you're just looking at the record. And you know, your loss is still to the number one team in the country at this point, three-point loss at home. So that's not awful. But I think you just want to see more out of that offense. And you're kind of starting to see the writing on the wall a little bit to where if this continues, there are going to be a couple losses along the way that you really don't want to take. But that defense is elite. That Tennessee defense is not to be messed with. I just the one thing stands out to me, it does stand out to me a little bit here, is that Tennessee was actually outgained by Auburn in this game by about 25 yards. I don't think a lot of people would have saw that coming. They gave up 345. Tennessee had 323 total. Auburn again lost a turnover battle. So three to two on the turnover line. And Deshaun Bishop, Bishop, to your to your point, three touchdowns. Sam: three, I forgot one. That's right. Mitch: Two hundred and twenty yards, three touchdowns. So what a day for him. I mean, that's a positive you can take away on the offensive side of the ball if you're Tennessee. I think you just take it and keep moving and hopefully you can get some consistency at quarterback. I've seen those AI videos have started including phase on Brandon this week. Sam: He's a true freshman. He gets a he gets a pass. Mitch: Welcome, welcome to the conversation. Nah, nah. Him and Marcel Reed are AI buddies right now. Sam: It's so raw. Mitch: He's thrown in there. All right. We got we got Florida Sam: Okay. Mitch: and Missouri. This one was a shocker. At least to me, this was a shocker. I I thought Florida after last week, I mean, most of the country probably overreacted. It's hard not to when they just go and obliterate Ole Miss the way that they did. And we all know how good Trinidad Chamblis and that team can be in Oxford. So no, I'm not taking any credit away from that win Florida got. I don't think anybody should. But I think we do need to just turn our eyes to Missouri and say, well done, because how do you hold Jaden Ball to under 20 yards rushing? I mean, has Sam: Yeah, I don't know. Mitch: what we've been seeing this year been a fluke? I don't think so. I think he's a great running back. I think Florida just got completely manhandled in the trenches, both on the offensive and defensive side of the ball in this game, which we hadn't seen to this point in the year. So Missouri, man, that front seven, they really got it going and completely stifled the Florida offense, forced forced Philo to make plays and I maybe that's the recipe moving forward against Florida. But I not that stopping ball in that running attack is an easy task. So I just I don't think that's a recipe a lot of schools are gonna be able to follow the same way that Missouri did. But man, shout out to them. That was a a huge day. And on the other side of the ball, they ran all over Florida. It was like they completely flip flipped the script. So gr great Sam: Yeah, I think I think you hit it on the head there. It makes me wonder if Corey Batoon in Missouri kind of figured out the the way defensively to be able to shut down Florida. Hey, if you can stop the run and really force Aaron Philo to throw the football, maybe that's the game changer. Cause up to this point, Florida hasn't had any pushback on running the football and Philo has been able to kind of have some great play action shots. And I I think he's a consistent great quarterback. And but I I think Florida's identity is running the football. And they just weren't not able to do that on Saturday. we we have something in our podcast where we do a moment of silence for a team that really struggles kind of on Saturday. And but if there was a way to flip it and we created a segment that was for the team of the week or whatever we wanted to call it, Missouri's that team. Austin Simmons, man, he is just again, we talked about quarterbacks last week. He to me just again, that was a little bit of his coming out party. I think he looked pretty good in Miss against Mississippi State and has previous weeks, but man, the di the difference that he makes at quarterback, he was just lights out. Very consistent throwing the football. And he is just somebody that he I mean, he's a he's a top three quarterback, I think, for me in the SEC right Mitch: Yeah, it's hard to argue that. He's looked really sharp. His deep ball is beautiful. I mean, dude, their their numbers from this weekend are just ridiculous. He threw for 340 and they ran for like 250. I mean, they just did whatever they wanted against Florida this week. So huge win again for Missouri. Hopefully they can carry that forward for my sake. Hopefully they don't carry it forward this week because we got the Aggies coming to town immediately. Should be a very interesting one, hopefully. that we can discuss this this week coming up on our preview episode. But that's big in Florida. You got you got everything in front of you still. Just gotta make sure that that doesn't that cause that is the type of win that especially with a first year head coach can kind of shake up the room and the confidence a little bit. You just want to make sure Sam: Yeah. Mitch: Florida still believes in that locker room. Because I think if that team believes and they they they have a lot of potential to bounce back and still be a very good football team and fight in the SEC, but you don't want that one to get to your head. If if it gets to your head Things could go south quickly. Sam: Yeah, I I agree. good transition for us into the next game for Ohio State at Iowa. Ohio State won, I think it was what, thirty one thirteen, is that right? I don't have the final score Mitch: Yeah, they Sam: in front of me. Mitch: they won this game by seventeen points. Sam: Okay. Yeah. I honestly I think this game pretty much wrote itself out exactly how most people kind of in the college football world thought it was gonna be. They know Iowa wasn't gonna be able to do enough on offense to keep them in the football game. And at some point Jeremiah Smith was just gonna break out, and that's exactly what he did. Two touchdown again performance by him broke the Ohio State all time receiving record, like continues to just dominate, no matter who the opponent is. but this result This game was not surprising to me at all and was pretty much exactly how I thought it would go. Mitch: Yeah, not at all. I mean, total domination. The scoreboard, it's only seventeen point loss, but I mean, four eighty four total yards to two thirty eight, two turnovers for Iowa, none for Ohio State. Jeremiah Smith goes for two hundred yards and two touchdowns, which we talked about on this podcast we thought was gonna happen. Satan had a pretty decent day over three hundred yards. It just that Ohio State team's really good and I think they're figuring it out. And they held Iowa to twenty seven their their leading rusher, Moulton, they held him to twenty seven rushing yards on the day. They held Hank Brown to 132 yards passing. So I I just think this Ohio Tate Ohio State team is going to continue to get better. And promise to Iowa because statistically on paper they got demolished, but they found a way to to make this game relatively relatively close. And I mean, I I think you walk away, you lost by seventeen to one of the best teams in the country. And again, that's another team that's still got everything in front of them in the Big Ten. Sam: Yeah. And I and I think for me, continuing to watch Ohio State on a week to week basis continues for me to go back in my head of just how impressive that Texas win was. I mean, you watch Ohio State and it just they seem like they're just clicking on all cylinders. And besides that second half, they haven't looked phased at all. So I think that's gonna be a huge resume booster for Texas. But Ohio State, they're just gonna keep making making their runway in the Big Ten to get back to Championship slash Mitch: Yeah. Sam: playoff. Mitch: Yeah, Texas is not a complete team. I don't think Texas fans would tell you they're a complete team. And I don't think they've put together really a a complete game yet to this point in the season, but you gotta be happy about that Ohio State performance. Sam: Yeah, absolutely. another game we've touched on a little bit with a team that didn't look all that great. compet considering the opponent, it was BYU against TCU. BYU won seventeen to ten. really just underwhelming performance by the BYU Cougars. Hank Bachmeyer just didn't look all that great. TCU just kinda hung around. I feel like BYU had every opportunity to kinda run away with that game and they just didn't. It's like very low pitch. I don't know. Still very low. You're good, dude. Mitch: Unplug it. Okay. Can you hear me? Sam: Mm-hmm. I gotcha. Mitch: Yeah, this is the one for me where I just when we talk about the AP poll, I cannot I can't understand the logic behind this one this week. They were the number ten team in the country in the AP poll going into this week. They're facing off against a two and two TCU team that have really struggled in a lot of, you know, their bigger matchups to this point in the year. And they really got beat in a lot of football aspects on the field. I mean, Bear Bottmeier threw for 60 yards. He ran for 66 yards, and that was their leading rusher. So, like, they did not have a good day. He was 11 for 24 with 62 yards on that TCU defense. Jaden Craig didn't have a great day either, 180 touchdown, interception. But it's just, it was a really ugly game against a TCU team that has not looked great to this point in the year. They get outgained by TCU. I just They they won the game 1710. Props to them, road win, but it was not pretty at all. And they jumped two spots in number eight. So AP poll, I just got some questions there, but you you gotta give BYU credit for the win. I just to this point in the season, we talk about the Big Twelve. It's interesting because I would have had Texas Tech and BYU as my clear top teams in the Big Twelve before the season started. Both are still undefeated, but I have a lot of questions about both of those teams right now. So we'll see what ends up happening in that conference. But yeah, TCU, 0-2 in the Big 12, 2-3 starts of the season. It's not looking great for Sunday Dykes. Sam: at all. That's and that's again, like you said, BYU just couldn't get it going offensively. TCU does not have a good defense. Mitch: No, they don't. Sam: So for them not to be able to establish some kind of rhythm, just I don't know. For me it says a lot about BYU. Mitch: I agree. I agree with you. I agree with you. Another team that couldn't establish any rhythm. Clemson Tigers. Miami is a really good football team. Clemson was hosting. It was a huge game. It was an opportunity for them to, again, they've had so many of these in the last couple years that they just they're continuing to tell us who they are. And it's hard for us to, I think, believe it. But opportunity for Clemson to say, we're still relevant on the national stage. We're still here. And they just they blew it. They got beat they got beat down, especially in that second half. So I I would like to hear what your initial takeaways are. Sam: Yeah, I think for me, Miami is just a really good football team. I think I am starting to get a little bit concerned about them just from an injury standpoint. they are continuing they played a lot without some of their best corners. They have some injuries up front on the offensive line. Their health is honestly kind of similar to LSU for me, kinda as you look through the rest of the season of kind of how they're gonna progress into the team that they wanna be. But I mean, they over talented, just overmatched this Clemson football team. I think Miami and Darien Mensa just the ability for him to be able to stand in the pocket and make some of these throws when he did have pressure in front of him sticks out. Honestly, commend the defense a ton with the injuries injuries that they have on that side of the football for keeping a little bit of a makeshift, just kind of all out of sorts. Clemson offense, which I think honestly played their best game on Saturday, which is crazy as that may sound. I think you see a lot of the future and hype with Tate Reynolds at quarterback at Clemson. But just just couldn't put it all together against a Miami team and then Mitch: Yeah. Sam: look looking on the flip good. Mitch: No, I was just gonna say I I agree with you on that. I'll talk about it a little bit more later. But I mean he had about 300 yards on this Miami defense. So I I Sam: Yeah. Mitch: think he showed a lot of flashes. I think Clemson's main problem on Saturday was they couldn't finish drives, which Sam: No. Mitch: is a credit to Miami's defense. But they they had a lot of momentum throughout the game, especially in that first half, and they were moving the ball pretty well, but they just could not capitalize or finish any of their drives. Sam: No, not at all. And I think I think that was the big thing for them. And even look back last week against Chapel Hill, same thing. They were lucky to win that football game, but there were just multiple points in the red zone where they didn't make it on fork down, just kicked the field goal. And they had a lot of moments like that against Miami and especially against a key team of that caliber caliber. You can't afford to do that. Mitch: Well, they are towards the bottom of the FBS and red zone offensive efficiency, and I think at some point you also have to look at Chad Morris and start quest asking questions there. Sam: Yeah, from a red zone perspective, I I would definitely agree. But I feel like in every other part of that offense, they look much improved. so I'll be curious to see like from a week to week basis, because Reynolds just keeps getting more comfortable and defensively, Tom Allen's got those guys rolling. I mean, I know the box score would look a little bit different, but they they kept Clemson in that football game for the extent that they needed to, and Clemson just couldn't capitalize. But I I think for the rest of the year, as Clemson got back. beat pretty handily in this game from what it looks like on the scoreboard. I think this is a great catapult for them for the rest of the season, as crazy as that sounds, for just against a caliber opponent like LSU, like Clemson, or I'm sorry, like Miami, to see, hey, we can once we start to kind of get this stuff together, we can compete with some of these teams. Mitch: I agree with you. That was one of my main takeaways from Saturday night was the box score looks a lot better for Miami than I think the actual game went. I think you you take the win and and if you're Miami, there's not a ton of complaints, but I think Clemson showed a lot more positive signs this week than maybe I even expected to see. I think if you would have told me that they were gonna hold Mint at two hundred and twenty passing yards and one touchdown, I would have felt pretty good about Clemson covering that seventeen and a half spread. Sam: Yeah, I agree. And I think the thing for me, I'm I'm pulling up Miami's schedule now. Like I don't know who they're gonna play in that ACC that's gonna kinda compete with them right now. 'Cause I don't think Clemson played an awful game, but Miami just flat out outplayed They play pit. Notre Dame's that one at the back end that they I forgot they play Mitch: Mm-hmm. Sam: Notre Dame, which will be a fantastic football game in the Virginia Tech, but I don't think until Miami plays Notre Dame they're really gonna get tested. Mitch: No, that's a huge one though. I I think this leads really well for us into our moment of silence of the week. And we're actually pairing our moment of silence this week because we have a moment of silence for a team in Pennsylvania, and we have a moment of silence for a team in Charlottesville, Virginia. And it was hard to choose between both. So we're just gonna knock out two birds with one stone here. Penn State. Got rocked by Northwestern in that brand new, gorgeous stadium that they have over there in Chicago. And the University of Virginia, after all the promise that we thought they had after week one, has continued to stumble week after week. And they got rocked by the Florida State Seminoles and Ashton Daniels. Ashton Daniels, the quarterback for Florida State, had five rushing touchdowns. Those are all of Florida State's scores, by the way. Five rushing touchdowns on the Cavaliers, who we thought after week one were going to be pretty dominant in the trenches. So let's just take a couple seconds here for the Nittany Lions in Penn State and for the Cavaliers in Virginia. All right, we appreciate you guys doing that out of respect with us each week, Sam, Penn State Northwestern. Let's get your thoughts. Sam: Man, I I I told you guys last week when we kind of previewed and mentioned this game that Penn State better watch out. I think Northwestern has evolved. I think this is gonna be this will be a great first game in their brand new stadium. Chip Kelly and that offense and the ways that he is finding ways to get his players to football in just incredibly creative ways. Obviously, Northwestern doesn't have the talent that you would honestly have at Penn State. And just the ways for him to be creative to kind of create an advantage for his squad offensively was awesome. Rocko Beck just does not look great for Penn State right now. Northwestern defensively, I feel like contained him really well. all in all, just a dominant performance by Penn St or by Northwestern. And honestly makes me wonder a week ago when we talked about this Indiana Northwestern game, Indiana talked about more of them struggling, but how good is Northwestern? Mitch: Yeah. I I was asking the same question. I think Northwestern's starting to show they're a pretty good football team. And that Indiana Sam: Yeah. Mitch: game is going to boost their resume if I mean as much as a loss can. It was a competitive loss. that's going to boost their resume throughout the year if they can keep winning football games. You know what stood out to me in this game? What do you think Aiden Child's line was from a passing perspective? If you had to guess, they won this game 34 to 13. Sam: Mm, I don't think he threw the football that much, unless I'm wrong. Maybe twenty five times. Mitch: No, he threw he threw for ninety-three yards and they won thirty-four to thirteen. They ran for four hundred and thirteen yards on Sam: Mm-hmm. Mitch: Penn State. Sam: Four hundred and thirteen yards. How much does is he? Mitch: They ran at they ran as a team for four hundred Sam: Mm-hmm. Mitch: and thirteen yards this week. They only threw for ninety-three. That's where if you're if you're Sam: How many pass? Mitch: Penn State, you just you feel sick to your stomach about that. Sam: Yeah. Mitch: I mean, that is a recipe for disaster. Sam: That's brutal. Yeah, I went back and watched the highlights, but I didn't I didn't think it was that minimal on the passing attack. But hey. Mitch: Well they didn't they didn't have to. It's not that he it's not that he couldn't do it. He was ten to fourteen. It's just they didn't have to. Sam: Yeah, no, I'm just I in my head I feel like I remember there being a little bit more of a passing threat, but I guess they really just did run the football game the entire run the football the entire game. So props to Northwestern, Mitch: Yeah. Sam: sleeper team in the Big Ten. Everybody better watch out. Mitch: Yeah, seriously. Big time. any other games that you wanted to touch on really quick before I get into our mailbag? I appreciate you guys for being active on the Instagram today. Sam: Okay. Mitch: We've got some good comments and some thoughts from our audience that I want to share. Sam: Yeah, so there's a a big one that I I am currently representing the Texas crowd right now more than Mitch's. So I just want to make that abundantly clear. How he didn't think to talk about Baylor putting on the Mitch: man. Sam: domination against Arizona State. And you picked this game right. No. So all of Mitch's Mitch: I'm never gonna be forgiven by a couple of guys for that, by the way. Sam: friends that are in Texas that you guys are friends with, like, just come be friends with me. Like, I got you covered. Mitch: Yeah, whatever. Tyler will probably take you up on that too. Sam: Tyler, what's up, man? I I'll shoot you my phone number after this one. Mitch: I'm not a man to I'm not a man to make excuses. I'll own this one, but I will say our technology that we use changed. They gotta update this week. And it's a lot more difficult to see our itinerary and our script. And so as I was scrolling past Miami Clemson, I just completely missed Baylor, Arizona State. I apologize. Sam: It's all right, man. I forgive you. Just just somebody's gotta stick up for the Texas folks. Mitch: I hey, I agree. I'm embarrassed. Sam: But I know you had kind of talked a little bit about the Miami Clemson box score being a little bit misleading. This one was not misleading. Baylor just B2A, just domination over Bay over Arizona State. I picked this game completely wrong. I'm kind of out on my Arizona State Sun Devils right now. But again, this DJ Lagway finally got his groove a little bit and they looked great going into Tempe, Arizona. Mitch: One of the better games, one of the better games of Lagway's career. He looked great. That offense was ripping, the defense was flying around. I that that was a complete performance from the Bears on the road. I was very impressed. Sam: Yeah, I agree. And then the last one I kinda wanted to touch on, don't really need to talk too much about it. South Carolina blew another seventeen point lead. Sixteen it was against Mississippi State, seventeen against Kentucky. Beamer seat just continues to get hot. We'll just be curious to see if he makes it through the season, just kind of how how South Carolina responds just after another brutal loss, especially in the month of Cocktober. Mitch: Yeah, absolutely. We've got a couple comments now that I want to get into. The people, by the way, love Gavin Freeman. We just talked about the Bears. We've got like three Gavin Freeman comments on our Instagram story. So shout out Gavin Sam: Yeah. Mitch: Freeman. Maybe, maybe eventually he'll listen to the podcast. We need to we need to get him on here somehow. I know he's had that initial Tennessee connection that kind of rubbed you the wrong way, but he he's looking really good for the Bears this year. Sam: yeah. I mean he's got a better quarterback play than Tennessee would. So I'm glad he's been able to shine right now for Baylor. Mitch: Yeah, to stay on the Baylor topic, I've never thought this before, but Tyler Herndon says DJ Lagway kind of looks like Franklin the Turtle. Sam: That's wild. I Mitch: Thoughts on DJ Lagway looking like Franklin the Turtle. Sam: feel like we gotta pop up a a picture of DJ Lagway and a picture of Franklin the Turtle, but that is you know, Mitch: Yeah, maybe we need to throw those on there. Sam: you said we talked about mailbag. That is not what I was expecting, so I'm not quite prepared for that, but that Mitch: Yeah. Sam: that is a pretty fair assumption. That that Tyler, that was pretty Mitch: All right, well here's Sam: spot on. Mitch: it it was. It was pretty spot on. Here's our legit one. Let's just go through you and I each pick you and I each pick one coach that you think is most on the hot seat right now. We can't pick the same one. And I'm gonna go first to make it difficult on you. I'm gonna go Shane Beamer at South Carolina. I just think the leash is running out. It's it's been too long. They've been patient with him. They were patient with him last year. I know he's he's shown flashes, but it's really the way they lose games. Sam: Yeah. Mitch: I don't think losing games is ever fun for a fan base, but it's the way they lose games. It's just consistent. They cannot hold a lead. The 30-3 game against AM stands out. But I mean, even this week, you're up 17-0. I think you had a 21-point lead at some point in that game against Kentucky, and you just can't hold on. And it seems like that's such a theme. They had a 16-0 lead against Mississippi State a couple weeks ago. They blew that one too. Both of those games were at home. Sam: Yeah. Mitch: So I just think if you're a South Carolina fan, it's getting real tough, it's getting real old, and I think that that seat's getting really hot under Beamer. Sam: Yeah, that's that's a good pick. And honestly, it's like you saying that pick makes it really easy for me 'cause the guy that I have locked in is Mike Loxley at Maryland. I think he, unlike Shane Beamer, has shown zero promise. Their team is just getting they honestly competed a little bit against Nebraska this week, but it's only a matter of time before I think he's the first head coach hired fired in this cycle. I just he hasn't done anything in Maryland and It's it's year seven or year eight for him. It's just been it's been too much for him. I think it his his time is about to be run out. Mitch: I can see that. If there was one coach right now that you could call out that maybe we wouldn't have seen on the hot seat radar that might surprise some people to lose their job at the end of this year, who would that be? Sam: Lincoln Riley. Mitch: Yeah. I mean, I don't know if that's gonna be a huge surprise. I think people knew he had high expectations and it's kind of boomer bust, like this is the year you gotta get it done. But I yeah, I would agree. I think if it's on the fringe of of that category that I was listing out, and he's he's really gotta turn it around. They've only got one loss, so it's not like they're you know, their season's over, but they really don't have much margin for error throughout the rest of the season, and they didn't look super great this week against Washington. Sam: No. Did you have somebody else kind of in mind? Mitch: I don't think so. I think Luke Fickle is doing a fantastic job of saving his job right now. I think he's really showing the promise of that Wisconsin program. And I've always thought highly of Luke Fickle. I just think some pieces haven't Sam: Yeah. Mitch: lined up well for him. And I think to this point in the season he's doing a great job over there. And PJ Fleck, by the way, huge win for him this week. We didn't really talk about it much, but that win over Michigan's big. and let's not forget we talked about that Mississippi State resume. They went up there and beat down on Minnesota. Sam: Yeah, they did. They put they put a a pretty big whoopin' him and Michigan Minnesota bounced back this week. There there are two names Mitch: Mm-hmm. Sam: that I well, I guess some people have talked about Sunny Dykes, but what do you think about Dion Sanders hot sea wise? Mitch: I think if you're Colorado, it's a tough situation to be in because he's a revenue generator. And he has been since he got there, even before he started winning. So I think it makes it a little bit more complicated than your average coach hire just be from a publicity standpoint. Sam: Yeah. Mitch: But yeah, man, things haven't looked great. And I know he struggled, he was battling. last year with illness and he was able to come back from Sam: Yeah. Mitch: that. And so you want to have some maybe extra patience in that scenario. But I'm not sure. It's gonna be an interesting one. And it's another one too where like he was coaching his sons and I know that was super motivating for him and now his sons are no longer part of the program. It's like how long does he really want to do it is the other question for me. Sam: Yeah, that's true. Mitch: Yeah. So great, great Great mailbag. Thank you guys for hopping on tonight. Continue to follow, continue to engage. We're having a blast. We're just two guys working day jobs who love talking college football. So thank you for for tuning in. We appreciate you guys' feedback. Hit us up on all of our socials, and we will be uploading our next episode for the week six preview, which is going to be an electric slate headlined by Georgia, Alabama on Wednesday night this week. It should be uploaded by Thursday morning. So stay tuned. Sam, final words. Sam: No, just appreciate you guys for watching, continuing to give us feedback and just Instagram and engaging with us on the socials. Please be sure to give us a follow, like, subscribe, all that kind of stuff. as we get into the month of October, obviously today we'll be uploading this as Tuesday. So be sure to watch that and make sure you have time to watch your conference USA midweeks. You got your maxion starting up. It is pretty much nonstop football until January up to this point. Every yeah, every Mitch: Every day. It's football every day. Yeah. Sam: day. So It's hard to believe we're already kinda rolling into week six. Take advantage of the fall that you have now. Take advantage of the season. there there's never any season like like another. So just just cherish every moment you got with this and just continue to be able to to just love this love this amazing game. Mitch: Absolutely. I smell chaos. And with that, honey is Saturday's out.