Latest / Mostly College Football / #302 - Week One Recap: LSU Doesn't Need Pros, Trouble in Ann Arbor
Transcript
- Micaiah: Hello everyone. It is the week one reaction podcast here at Mostly College Football. I am your host, Captain Boring. Thank you for being here. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and share ⁓ with everyone. Your all that helps us out and helps us keep making this content. So go ahead and drop us a follow and a share. College football's back. Week one. A little boring, a little exciting. A lot of controversy there at the end of the night. And ⁓ just I mean, we'll get into all of this, but ⁓ not a pretty day, I would say, from front to back, but there were moments. So let's just get right into it. Let's just get in. Well, I want to start with the game of the day. And the game of the day wasn't LSU Clemson, ⁓ even though that's where game day was. It wasn't Michigan, Western Michigan. Get I'll get into that. In just here in a minute. No, the game of the day was Boise at Oregon. Boise goes in there, jumps out to a 17-7 lead. Oregon gets a touchdown to close the end of half, comes out, kind of dominates the second half, but Boise State hangs around, answered multiple times. And ⁓ but Oregon just stronger, faster, better ⁓ overall kind of scheme, I think. And they pull out the 34-27 win. Dante Moore was okay. A lot of people will say he was fantastic, pointed to the 28 of 37, 378, and three touchdowns. That is fantastic. Stat line early, he was not fantastic. There were a few throws that while caught were not accurate because it didn't allow for catch and run after the fact. It actually cost them on the four fourth down. But as the game went on, And in the second half, he got much better. And they kind of just spread things out and let their athletes on the outside ⁓ take control of it. And they kind of they got away from the running game because Boise was would they're not gonna allow us to run, or we're not gonna allow them to run all over us. And so they gave up the back end to stop the front end, and it it it came back to bite him in the butt. But ⁓ 500 yards total offense for Oregon. Again, they've kind of felt just. They sleepwalked through the first half, then came out firing in the second half. Oregon ran 119 for 119 yards. Again, okay, but normally Oregon's running for close to 200 yards ⁓ per game. Messy game in terms of penalties by Oregon. They did have the one fumble that led to a Broncos score. It was a muff punt and 10 penalties for 90 yards. And so this is definitely a wake up. I did say in the preseason, in one of the preseason pods, that I felt like Oregon may be due for like a mediocre year, and a mediocre year would be like eight and four, nine and three. And I felt that way because they lost both coordinators and I we had everyone has seen this before with Penn State a few years ago. Now I don't know if if that's going to be this or if this is truly a wake-up call, but what I do know is this was the best game of the day. Boise looks like a playoff team. This, if we get to the end of the season and Boise has lost no Pac-12 games, or maybe even just one Pac-12 game, and they win the Pac-12, and they make the playoff, I'm gonna point to this game and be like: Boise walked into Eugene and went toe for toe. Like, this is a legitimate team. They are in the Pac-12 now. Oregon. Like this is gonna go one of two ways. If Boisey's real great, this is gonna look like a great win. If Boise's real bad, this is gonna look like a really bad win. And and there are a win is a win, but there are bad wins and there are good wins. I think that this will end up being a great win for Oregon. Slow start, better finish, 500 yards total offense. They are at ⁓ they were at home. That crowd noise w was impactful. Created a few false starts, ⁓ untimely f false starts, but I was very impressed with the Boise State Broncos, and I'm very glad I did not bet ⁓ Oregon minus the points, which I was about to, because that just ended terribly for me. So yeah, shout out to the Oregon Ducks. ⁓ and Dante Moore in the second half of the game looked like a looked like the first overall pick. He he he truly did. First half, a little inaccurate, but you know, sometimes you gotta get into it, and that's what he did. So ⁓ Oregon Ducks, 34, 27 winners. ⁓ they are the number two team in the nation. They the number one team in the nation, Ohio State, just balled out against Ball State. All the puns intended there, 56 to 3. Georgia beat up on Tennessee State 63-3. Texas dismantled Texas State. Indiana beat North Texas 52 to 16. A little bit of a slow start there as well for Indiana. That was like a two-possession game in the second half, but then they early in the second half, I should say, they pulled away. Clemson. LSU. This was, we said on the podcast, this should be LSU and this should be LSU big, and it was big. And what impressed me the most about LSU is that defense. The reworked defense shut down Clemson in every which way possible. Clemson had 145 total yards. 145 total yards. Dabo, boy, is that seat boiling because this game wasn't even competitive. LSG ran the ball for 309 yards. Clemson was not competitive in any way. The only reason they had three of the 10 was because they threw an interception on the second play of the game. Meanwhile, Sam Levitt looked consistent. He ran the ball. He was the team's leading rusher, which again, you know how I feel about that. Quarterbacks can't really be your leading rusher. Well, 12 carries, 113 yards, but their the most carries went to Dylan Jones, 23 carries, 113 yards as well. But as long like Sam Levitt, I don't know that he can last a whole season carrying the ball 12 times. But if he is, could be up for a Heisman because he threw the ball twenty-eight times, completed sixteen for two hundred and thirty yards, touchdown, and then an interception. as well. Where does Clemson go from here? I have no idea whatsoever. I think their backup I think their backup was in when they scored their touchdown, Taint Reynolds. So they do they just start with him? He's a little more mobile. They changed their ⁓ Chad Morris came back to the program. He was with them for the Taj Boyd era. ⁓ this did not, this was a terrible start for them. They ran the ball for 1.5 yards a carry, 40 yards total. Very, very embarrassing. I don't I've always said that Dabo that Clemson was strongest, and Dabo's team were rocking when the quarterback run was supplementing their run game because Clemson's never really had the offensive line to push people around. Even when you go back to their championship years with ⁓ Watson, Deshaun Watson, and Trevor Lawrence. Look at those teams. Go back and study those teams. They're not pushing people around in the biggest games, it's the quarterback run. That is helping supplement. So people are shocked, rightfully so, because the fall from Graceford Dabo and Clemson has been just historic. But should we really be that shocked? Because in those championship teams, they've had they had to use the quarterback to supplement the run game because they weren't pushing people around. And now you're not even getting the quarterback run game to supplement. And so now you can't, now your offensive line isn't pushing people around, and you're not getting. 50, 60 yards from the quarterback. Sometimes more than that if you're Deshaun in back in the Deshaun Watch and Todd Boyd years. And then you walked into a buzzsaw environment with a new coach that wants to put on a show because his week was just lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit. And he wants to show that it wasn't just the pro players that would have made him good. And he said after the game that he's kind of glad that they put on the show they did without the players. Because it showed them just how good that they are. He made a quip at a halftime. Imagine what this score would be if ⁓ we had the players. That's his personality. He can't help himself. The media'll fry him for that. He it's whatever. LSU, as much as Robert on the Wednesday version of the podcast, the full-length podcast that's gonna come out, he he's gonna hate it. He's gonna have to take back all his words because c LSU looks like a championship contender. Now, is Clemson really that bad? This is stuff that we don't know that we won't know until the end of the season. Again, it's the Oregon Boise State. If Clemson looks if Clemson finishes the season f with four or five wins, which based on last night's performance, possibility, right? This is a meh win, right? But if Clemson wins the ACC or is a high level ACC contender, this looks like a really good win. But so like, but based on one data point, which was last night, LSU looks amazing because if they're gonna run the ball at 5.3 yards a clip, good luck to everybody. All SEC, all non conference, all playoff teams, good luck. Every if every time you hand the ball off, their starting running back, Dylan Jones, 23 carries, buck 13. For for those of you that are good at math, you did this in your head immediately. Plug it into your calculator, I have E S P and up. 4.9 yards a carry. Every time Dylan Jones touched the football, he was already halfway to the first down. That was the difference. Every time the team touched the football to run, they picked up almost five and a half yards a carry. That's incredible. If you're always living in second and short, in second and four, in second and five, you're Lane Kiffin's gonna win that football game. Lane Kiffin and Charlie Weiss Jr. are gonna win that football game if you are always winning. If you are always winning first down and you're always living in second and short. So good for Lane Kiffen rallying the troops. The environment was hostile. It got a late start, 9.40. I didn't even watch the second half, if I'm being completely honest. I watched the first half and then I I went to bed because the game was over. I and I spent all day watching games that that were just over by halftime. But as my wife said, bad college football is better than no college football, and she is a hundred percent right. Shout out to her. Smartest lady I know. So Clemson's one or I'm sorry, LSU's one and ⁓ Clemson is, it feels like ⁓ and three after that loss. just running down Texas Tech thirty three to to ten win over Abilene Christian. I'm gonna not lie to anybody. I didn't watch that game. how did Will Hammond look? ⁓ will trust the Red Raider fans in the comments. Let it let us know. ⁓ do you feel about your team? Alabama put it on East Carolina. The secondary ⁓ ⁓ for Alabama. Very veteran. It's East Carolina. I know, but this is just the data point that we have. They had one guy that ran wide open for a touchdown or near touchdown. Other than that, that that secondary was shut down and the Running what impressed me is Alabama couldn't run the football against anybody last year. And I'm trying to pull it up. They ran the ball for 227 yards. Keelan Russell, again, leading rusher, concerning, but they ran the ball at 4.6 yards a clip. And if you're gonna do that again, if you're gonna live in second and short, that makes football very easy. What I did notice early is ⁓ there were a few times East Carolina had Alabama backed up in third and long. And in obvious passing situations, Keelan Russell, you're gonna have to keep your eyes on him because I think he tries to make a play. And he might be turnover prone down the road in SEC play. But he for his first start, not too bad. 18 to 30, 256, ran the ball 13 times, 86 yards. Very athletic. I see why they're starting him over Austin Mack. Ryan Col Coleman Williams had a drop early, but then kind of made up for it the rest of the game. Five catches, buck 30. ⁓ I found out on yesterday's broadcast that he also had a fumble, Ryan. Coleman Williams. So he he didn't have a great start, kinda made up for it on the back end. at nineteen, he is a dad and a stepdad. Got married, At 19. ⁓ Alabama's front seven shut down the running game. They East Carolina ran for two yards. Two yards. ⁓ their leading rusher was Ashton Gray for East East Carolina. Six carries, seventeen yards. So Alabama just outmatched them. But after last season, you knew that Alabama was going to come out and run the ball. You knew that Ryan Grubb and ⁓ Kaylin Daboer were gonna come out and run the ball. And that's what they did. And it was effective. Now can they do that against high level talent? We'll we'll have to find out. But very again, week one is one data point. That's all we can say. It's one data point. Some data points seem more significant than others. And the fact that Alabama ran for that ran as well as they did, the fact that LSU looked as dominant as they did, these are strong data points. in their favor. I you don't get any data point. I I it's just a data point for Ohio State, Georgia, Texas, Indiana, Texas AM beat Missouri State 50 to nothing, right? Some data points are stronger than other. BYU over Utah Tech. Oregon's data point as of right now, we'll have to see how it plays out, looks Stronger than anyone's because Boise State looks really good and really competent. And I do believe that they are because that's who the program's been for the better part of a quarter of a the a quarter of a century to the last 25 years, right? Boise State's been a really solid program year in, year out. They won the Mountain West last year. Everyone forgets that. ⁓ again, Penn State beat up on Mar beat up on Marshall, Tennessee beat up on Furman, Iowa scoring. 40 points. Good for them. Good for them against Northern Illinois. Houston, Oregon, that was a in a ⁓ storm delay as well. That was only a six-point game late in the fourth quarter, midway through the fourth quarter. Houston then pulled away there. But that would that was that game, the Houston game, and then the Nebraska, Ohio game were the most entertaining noon slots. Nebraska they both pulled away in the second half, but Nebraska was down. Ohio went down, not Ohio State. Ohio, the Bobcats went down and kind of gave it to them right away. And then Nebraska laid it on them in the the fourth quarter. Nebraska outscored them, what is that, 35 to 8 in the second half and pulled away. They finished with 248 rushing yards. They ran the ball extremely well in the second half. Dana Holgerson kind of just said, fine, we're not going to throw the ball. We're just going to run the ball. And they did that. And they did it with ⁓ their quarterback a little bit. ⁓ Jamal Rule, 15 carries, Buck 22, 8.1 yards a carry. He was very effective. And then ⁓ Kalandria threw the ball 32 times, three of them for touchdowns. Robert did notice that the quarterback, every time the receivers dropped the ball on a pass that wasn't The best. Calandria was yelling at the receivers a little bit. Accountability's good, but if you do that over and over when things get bad, how does that go? Just something we keep an eye on if you're a Cornhusker fan. That's all we're saying. But again, a good data point. ⁓ I wouldn't say this is strong data point, but Ohio's not not terrible, not a terrible Mac team. But them and so the Nebraska Ohio game and the Houston, Oregon State game. We're the best games at noon, and that that says a lot. ⁓ all right, let's get to then what we really want to talk about. What's behind me on the wall, what's on my shirt. My hat is backwards, but it is also on my hat here. ⁓ the Michigan-Western Michigan game. I want to start everyone. I want to start by saying I do not think I originally thought Western Michigan got screwed up. A hundred percent. I am a self-aware, diehard fan of Michigan. But I am a college football fan. And I'm not, and I don't want to be the type of fan, the the I call them Portnoy fans, that just go all in no matter what. And it's and it, you know, and I'm defending Michigan and it's and it's Michigan, ride or die, you know, like, and I'm not gonna be self-aware enough to to notice their mistakes and their blemishes and all that. Okay. So ⁓ I thought Western Michigan got screwed over. This morning then I wake up, the Big Ten released a video and a statement. The Mac, ⁓ the the president for Western Michigan, they sent ⁓ went through the Mac and the Big Ten sent Mac their stuff and the Mac signed off. So I understand. I do understand people's frustration in the fact that what NBC's game clock was and what the review process game clock was clearly were not in sync, and I totally get that. They should be in sync. A hundred and ten percent. It looked like Western got screwed over. Turns out that wasn't the case. Michigan got extremely lucky. But from here on out, on mostly college football, on this podcast, whether that be the reaction podcast or the full length podcast. Michigan lost this game. That is how we ⁓ Michigan is 0 1. So next week when they play Oklahoma, when they lose to Oklahoma, they're gonna be 0 2, according to this podcast. Shout out Western Michigan. They went into the big house and they outplayed Michigan and it was not even close. They had a 14-minute drive. A 14-minute, they out they doubled their time of possession, Michigan's time of possession. It was 40 minutes to 19 minutes. They had a fourteen minute drive that ate up n the last nine minutes of the fourth quarter. And five min or six minutes into the fourth court. Absolutely embarrassing for the Wolverines. ⁓ Rain Man, Simeon, ⁓ congrat congrat he says congratulations to Western Michigan too. This was a gutsy performance all around for the Western Michigan Broncos. I think that they will be a high level Mac team. ⁓ by the way, very they had 11 returning starters from last season. Everyone in their secondary, Western Michigan, stayed. They had to rebuild the front seven, which played phenomenal last night. We'll get into that in just a second. And most of those ⁓ offensive starters stayed, I'm pretty sure, which is rare in this day and age of transfer portal and people wanting to be better. Their coach is ⁓ was under the Sabin tree. So I we shouldn't be surprised. But Western Michigan won this game yesterday. And Michigan stole it from the fire. All right, but this is a reaction podcast. I'm a Michigan fan, so I'm gonna take the final eight minutes of this podcast and I'm gonna react to this. This was surprising in many facets. The most is that the offensive line did not push people around. You look at the stat line, 25 carries, 106 yards, 4.2 yards of carry. It looked better in the second half. For sure. It looked better in the second half. First half, they played with six offensive. I I don't know the strategy. They played with six offensive linemen, but pushed n but didn't push Western Michigan around at all. ⁓ we were told they were gonna use Bryce Underwood's legs. They didn't use it in the first half at all. They used it a little more in the second half. Pass the passing concepts were still super basic. Andrew Marsh, two catches, 15 yards. JJ Buchanan was was really good. He caught the Hail Mary at the end. So his stats were a little inflated. Bryce Underwood's stats, 46 yards of those. 12 of 22, 170. Again, 46 yards of that came on the final play. So not great there. Bryce Underwood turnover machine. Really bad interception before half. That was late and on the inside on an out route. He fumbled, he lost a fumble late in the fourth quarter that led the Western Michigan to go be able to go up 7 to 12 and not 7 to 9 instead. Andrew Marsh mu muffed the punt. So three turnovers. And then what kills me is the nine penalties for 80 yards, and they were all untimely. It would be big play brought back. Good run, brought back. Good something, brought back. They were just untimely runs. They played with six offensive linemen for a majority of the game. Why? I don't know. Do we not have tight ends? So we're just going to play with six offensive linemen to try to block better. Well, it screwed up the blocking assignments. We look like trash. We ran the ball better with a head coach who was more focused on getting laid from his assistant than we were with quote unquote, and these are Kyle Whittingham's words, an adult in the room. It was embarrassing last night. The opening drive looked fantastic. Underwood ran the ball really well. It was good passes. The running backs got involved a little bit. And then all of a sudden, the rest of the first half, we didn't run the Underwood at all. We tried to run up the middle instead of out. There was no variation to running, run up the middle. The ⁓ Underwood was on his first read all night, never got to his second read, even though his second read was wide open. There was one where it was a hitch and it should have been a pick six, but ⁓ it was just missed. It was Buchanan on a hitch. It was clearly taken away. And if he just turns this way, he had a backside hitch, which is ⁓ the the guy running 10 yards and then in towards him, right? So he's running. He's on his right side, he runs straight, and then about 10 yards in, two, he then turns left. Wide open. Wide open. If he just turns this way, fires it, it's wide open. It's like a 20-yard gain. So people are say so Whittingham said that they had to start over with Bryce Underwood. Bryce Underwood's super behind schedule. If this is starting over, like I understand that he didn't have a dedicated quarterback coach, but he looks not improved at all from last season. The footwork is sloppy, everything is a hundred miles an hour fastball. There's no layering or touch to the football. And it is first read. And if it's not first read, it Is get out of the pocket, which he's athletic enough to do, but then it turns into a negative play. Interception came on ⁓ interception came at the end of the first half, which allowed them to kick a field goal late in the first half. ⁓ and by the way, he got bailed out. When another interception actually touched a Western Michigan player that was already out of bounds. So that's actually twice in the game that a player already being out of bounds that touched the football saved Michigan. Because that would have turned into points. So really Underwood threw two interceptions last night. And that one, again, rolling out to his right, just throws it late, nothing open. And then shout out, not shout out at all to the fans. Why are we rushing the field after we were 30 point favorites, 27 point favorites, whatever we were? Why are we rushing the field? That's pathetic. Michigan fans, be better. The Hail Mary, everyone goes crazy. You should have then booed that team off the field. That's how embarrassing that performance was last night. You and you were almost prepared to boo them. That stadium was full. And the boo birds and the stadium was only full so that they could boo that team off the field. I said it back in the spring. I had a solo podcast back in the spring. You can go find it. It's on our page somewhere. I I do not remember which one, but I it was right after the spr the Michigan spring game. So just find out where that was and then just go look up the episode that we posted right after. It was a solo spr it was a solo podcast. And I said on that podcast, Tommy Carr's footwork, if I'm speaking strictly for footwork, strictly for throwing on time, strictly just quarterback mechanics, Tommy Carr looked better than Bryce Underwood in the spring game. And Tommy Kayan, I said in that podcast as well. Tommy Carr is going to get starts. And if Tommy Carr gets starts, that means Michigan season has gone to shit. And that's gonna happen. I saw that there was a there's a Michigan radio show. I I can't think of the name, so ⁓ to give them credit, but I it was on Instagram and they said the Oklahoma game's the test. They felt like that Tommy Carr won the number two job. And that Winningham was always like, Bryce is our guy, Bryce is our guy, Bryce is our guy. He said it multiple times. And normally when someone's your guy and someone's a clear-cut starter going into the season, you don't have to say it multiple times. So I found that interesting. The fact that he said it multiple times was hey, maybe this quarterback competition in fall and spring is a lot closer than what we think it is. And the radio show in Michigan said they've heard from unidentified sources that the Oklahoma game is Bryce Underwood's last audition. Team's gotta be better. Penalty wise, the offensive line supposed to be the strength of the team. Was not at all. I heard that through out throughout fall camp as well. Strength of the team's gonna be the offensive line. Lie. Strength of the team is the defensive front. Well, now it got pushed around for a 14 minute drive. Not real pleased about that. But Dom Nichols looks incredible. Oklahoma, like Tommy Carr is gonna start games for Michigan. And everyone got on me because I said Michigan ceiling is ten and two, nine and three, depending on how you look at it, and their floor is six and six, seven and five. How's that opinion looking right now? Michigan fans. They're gonna get blown out next week at home. Tommy Carr's going to start after that. Because after after Oklahoma is UTEP. Three thirty BTN. Michigan should not be ranked this coming week. I hope that they drop them from the pool. They're ⁓ and one according to mostly college football. Bryce Underwood's gonna start the UT or I'm sorry, Tommy Carr is gonna start the UTEP game. They're going to lose by two touchdowns or two scores to Oklahoma. They'll look improved because Kyle Winningham comes from Urban Mild, Urban the Urban Meyer tree. He's not gonna put up with that. It'll be cleaned up. But Underwood is not talented or developed enough, improved development enough to win them that game. And unless if this offensive line just comes out and runs for two hundred and fifty yards at four and a half, five yards carry, which isn't gonna happen. Terrible. Jordan Marshall, you need to run north and south, not backwards. Savion Hinner hit hider, excuse me, had it figured out, maybe for a few runs. They were twenty-seven and a half point favorites. They closed as twenty-seven and a half point favorites. A win is a win. And in for the first time in history, a win is actually a loss. And Michigan nailed. It's embarrassing. Tommy Carr is gonna start games for Michigan. Mark my words, he's gonna start the UTEP game. I said it back in the spring. And if that happens, Michigan's looking at seven and five. I'm sorry, five maybe even five and seven. Somewhere between five and seven and seven and five. They look terrible. ⁓ that will do it. ⁓ lots of good games. Today is Sunday. We're recording this on the sixth. Three games today. Washington State, Washington, Wisconsin, Notre Dame, ⁓ Ole Miss. That Louisville Ole Miss game tonight is supposed to be the best game of the weekend. Gonna be hard to top Boise State, Oregon. Really good gonna be really hard to top Boise State, Oregon. Those two teams put on a show. I can't get over how good that game was yesterday afternoon. I couldn't turn it off. I had to get on the quad box. That was the game I was watching. I was mainly watching that one. Wasn't even paying attention. ⁓ Baylor Alburn, by the way, that game was shit as well. Pardon my language. ⁓ we'll get into that. Robert kind of again, because I was lock locked into b ⁓ organ ⁓ boisey. Robert will get into that game on the Wednesday episode. So tune in. There. So we got three games today. We then we got another game tomorrow night, Monday night, Labor Day. That's SMU at Florida State. I think SMU walks away with that one. Go listen to our full podcast that previewed all these games. And then thank you again. Like, subscribe, share, turn on those notifications so you know when we ⁓ post a new one. And we will see you guys later. Wash your hands, you filthy animals. Thank you for being here. God bless you. Peace out.