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Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Welcome back to College Football Addiction. Zach Smith, Menace 2
- 0:04Speaker 1: Sports on with us. We are presented by PrizePix. More
- 0:06Speaker 1: on them in a little bit. But Zach, the question
- 0:09Speaker 1: everybody wants is who's starting quarterback and how effective are
- 0:12Speaker 1: they going to be on Saturday?
- 0:14Speaker 2: Well, you know, I don't really know. I mean, Ryan Day,
- 0:16Speaker 2: there's a lot of talk up here, not only amongst
- 0:18Speaker 2: Buckeye fans, but Ryan Day himself talking about Tavian St.
- 0:21Speaker 2: Clair and, you know, getting reps with the ones and
- 0:24Speaker 2: he's had a better week. But I think it's Luke
- 0:27Speaker 2: Fahey won the quarterback two job over the last 12 weeks.
- 0:30Speaker 2: That's not going to change in one week. And from
- 0:32Speaker 2: what I've heard, Tavian didn't have the best practice yesterday.
- 0:34Speaker 2: So I think it's going to be Luke Fahey. The
- 0:36Speaker 2: California kid gets to come home against USC. And I
- 0:39Speaker 2: think the saving grace for this team right now is
- 0:41Speaker 2: USC is not a very good football team. And so
- 0:44Speaker 2: they get a nice, a nice little appetizer for him.
- 0:47Speaker 2: USC's defense has been struggling specifically through the air. They're
- 0:50Speaker 2: pretty good up front watching that Wisconsin game. Wisconsin couldn't
- 0:53Speaker 2: run the ball between the tackles. So I'll be interested
- 0:55Speaker 2: to see what Ryan Day does. What's his philosophy, mentality?
- 0:59Speaker 2: Is he going to open it up a little bit?
- 1:01Speaker 2: Is he going to get this kid moving around? He's
- 1:02Speaker 2: a good athlete. But I think Ohio State should have
- 1:05Speaker 2: no problem with USC. And then really, I mean, it's
- 1:09Speaker 2: kind of crazy, but the game I'm most worried about
- 1:12Speaker 2: is at Nebraska remaining on schedule.
- 1:15Speaker 1: Their defense, I think their defense is legit. Their offense
- 1:18Speaker 1: is legit. It's going to be a rock fight, if anything.
- 1:20Speaker 1: That's what it was against Indiana for both you guys
- 1:23Speaker 1: and for Nebraska and Indiana. The stretch here, I'll talk
- 1:28Speaker 1: more about the game in a sec, but the stretch
- 1:30Speaker 1: here is brutal without having to say in there. The
- 1:33Speaker 1: next five games are no weeks off. They talk about
- 1:37Speaker 1: SEC grinds. Nobody would have predicted that Nebraska would maybe
- 1:43Speaker 1: be a team that was better than expected. Nobody predicted
- 1:46Speaker 1: that certainly their defense is really good. Northwestern would be there.
- 1:50Speaker 1: Michigan's not great, but that defense still like keeps them
- 1:53Speaker 1: in games. Like won't surprise anybody. If that's a 13,
- 1:55Speaker 1: 17 game, well, 13 might be a lot for Michigan,
- 1:58Speaker 1: but 10 to 13, like it's been before. And then
- 2:04Speaker 1: obviously USC, I wonder, so USC was so bad last week.
- 2:09Speaker 1: Scores seven points. Like the thing you wouldn't expect, like
- 2:11Speaker 1: the office, cause they'd have lost that game in camp Randall,
- 2:14Speaker 1: like 37 to 35. We just said like, Oh, there
- 2:17Speaker 1: goes Lincoln Riley's defense again for the offense to be
- 2:20Speaker 1: so bad.
- 2:21Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't get it. I mean, it was, it was,
- 2:25Speaker 2: it was really just, I think Wisconsin had a brilliant plan, right?
- 2:27Speaker 2: They played a lot of soft coverage to take away
- 2:30Speaker 2: their downfield throwing. Cause Jane, my Ava leads the big
- 2:32Speaker 2: 10 and deep, deep balls. He's thrown 37 deep balls
- 2:35Speaker 2: this year. And Wisconsin wasn't going to let it happen.
- 2:37Speaker 2: They weren't going to let USC get those chunk plays.
- 2:41Speaker 2: So they resorted to a bunch of hitches, a bunch
- 2:43Speaker 2: of five-yard completions, and they were just waiting for Jaden
- 2:46Speaker 2: Maiva to make a mistake. And he did twice. Two
- 2:49Speaker 2: bad interceptions that gave their offense a short field because
- 2:52Speaker 2: their offense certainly wasn't, like, lighting anything up at Wisconsin's.
- 2:57Speaker 2: And I think they did a really good job winning
- 2:59Speaker 2: a football game. And they did it by taking away
- 3:01Speaker 2: USC's only strength. I don't even know if you say
- 3:04Speaker 2: real strength. Their only strength. is Jaden Maieva pushing the
- 3:07Speaker 2: ball down the field. They don't run the ball great,
- 3:09Speaker 2: and their defense is horrendous. So I think Wisconsin really
- 3:13Speaker 2: had a master plan to get that game won, and
- 3:16Speaker 2: I think that's got to be the key for the Buckeyes.
- 3:18Speaker 2: They've got to do the same thing. They have to
- 3:19Speaker 2: make Jaden Maieva make mistakes, and if they do, they
- 3:22Speaker 2: don't have the defense to hang with Ohio State. Almost
- 3:25Speaker 2: irrelevant of how well the quarterback plays. As long as
- 3:27Speaker 2: he doesn't turn it over, I think Ohio State should
- 3:30Speaker 2: cruise to a win.
- 3:33Speaker 1: The ups and downs. It would not surprise anybody if
- 3:36Speaker 1: USC came out and played better than they did last
- 3:39Speaker 1: week just because of the ups and downs of college football. Now,
- 3:41Speaker 1: the opponent's a lot better. The defense that Jaden and
- 3:46Speaker 1: Lincoln and those guys have to go up against is better.
- 3:47Speaker 1: I know the sport is different than when you coach, but...
- 3:52Speaker 1: Is it truly just like the portal and the change?
- 3:57Speaker 1: Why does this year more than ever seem to be
- 4:01Speaker 1: in your estimation? So up, so down, you can go
- 4:03Speaker 1: get a top five win one week. And then the
- 4:05Speaker 1: next week you play BYU goes and plays UCF loses
- 4:10Speaker 1: Georgia beats Bama in Tuscaloosa loses to Auburn. Like it's
- 4:13Speaker 1: not just one team. It's not one conference. Again, I
- 4:15Speaker 1: expect USC to look better this week than they did
- 4:18Speaker 1: against Wisconsin. Like why, why is that the case this
- 4:21Speaker 1: year more than ever?
- 4:22Speaker 2: Well, I call it the ebbs and flows theory because it's,
- 4:25Speaker 2: you're right. It'd be one thing if it was one team,
- 4:27Speaker 2: one conference, but this is, I mean, parody across the board.
- 4:30Speaker 2: This is every conference and almost every single team. They
- 4:35Speaker 2: look really good. And I mean, you, you form an
- 4:37Speaker 2: opinion and then the next week they're completely different team.
- 4:40Speaker 2: That was Jekyll and Hyde across the country. And I
- 4:41Speaker 2: think it's just parody in college football. I think one,
- 4:45Speaker 2: the transfer portal being one thing where you can have
- 4:46Speaker 2: a guy like Bob Chesney, you can have a guy
- 4:48Speaker 2: like Will Stein go into places that have never really
- 4:51Speaker 2: won and And all of a sudden they're year one
- 4:54Speaker 2: playoff contenders. And that's never been the case before. And
- 4:58Speaker 2: certainly the portal is the reason for that. And I
- 5:00Speaker 2: think it's also, it reflects back on kind of the
- 5:04Speaker 2: high school recruiting evaluation process because guys like Dylan Rayola
- 5:08Speaker 2: actually stink. Guys like Arch Manning stink. And here they
- 5:11Speaker 2: were five-star all everything players because these recruiting services value
- 5:16Speaker 2: seven on seven and, And Nike combines and all this bullshit.
- 5:19Speaker 2: Tavian St. Clair, five-star quarterback from Ohio, beat out by
- 5:22Speaker 2: a three-star freshman. Like, I just think that evaluation, high
- 5:27Speaker 2: school evaluation has declined. And a lot of it has
- 5:30Speaker 2: to do with allocating assets to evaluating players in the portal.
- 5:34Speaker 2: And that's how teams are finding success is portal players.
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- 6:49Speaker 1: Go check them out. What is, Is there anything about USC?
- 6:55Speaker 1: Is it just Maiava being able to push the ball
- 6:57Speaker 1: kind of down the field? Is that what worries you
- 7:00Speaker 1: if you're looking at this specific matchup?
- 7:02Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think because of the quarterback situation
- 7:05Speaker 2: at Ohio State, I think a high scoring game would
- 7:08Speaker 2: be problematic because I don't think we can rely on
- 7:11Speaker 2: consistent success in Luke Fahey in his first start. So
- 7:15Speaker 2: I think if I'm Ohio State's defense, we can't let
- 7:18Speaker 2: this become a scoring fest. We have to take away
- 7:20Speaker 2: their downfield throwing, make them march the field. If Wisconsin
- 7:23Speaker 2: can hold them to seven, we should hold them to zero, honestly,
- 7:26Speaker 2: just with the difference in personnel. So I don't know
- 7:30Speaker 2: that that's possible. I think Jade Maia is going to
- 7:32Speaker 2: hit one here or there, but it just can't be
- 7:34Speaker 2: a bad day for the secondary. So they have to
- 7:36Speaker 2: take away the downfield throws. They really do.
- 7:39Speaker 1: What about, you know, defensively, what are your, or offensively
- 7:43Speaker 1: for Ohio state defensively for USC, you talked about them
- 7:46Speaker 1: being able to kind of stop the run for Wisconsin
- 7:49Speaker 1: thoughts around the Ohio state running game, just this season
- 7:53Speaker 1: and going into that mat, this matchup. Cause does that
- 7:55Speaker 1: maybe put more pressure on Fahey or St. Clara, you know,
- 7:58Speaker 1: whomever starts if the game doesn't, do you expect them
- 8:02Speaker 1: to be able to run the ball pretty well this game?
- 8:04Speaker 2: I don't know. I mean, they, they haven't run the
- 8:06Speaker 2: ball well this year. I mean, they, they've, They've been
- 8:09Speaker 2: a consistent three-yard rushing offense, but they don't have big plays.
- 8:12Speaker 2: I mean, they're 56th in the country running plays over
- 8:14Speaker 2: 20 yards. There's no explosive nature about this Ohio State
- 8:18Speaker 2: run game. So unless they do something different schematically, personnel-wise,
- 8:24Speaker 2: I mean, that's the one thing that USC is not
- 8:26Speaker 2: bad at. You watch that Wisconsin game. Wisconsin couldn't run
- 8:28Speaker 2: the ball between the tackles, and Wisconsin has never not
- 8:31Speaker 2: been able to run the ball between the tackles. That's
- 8:33Speaker 2: like the one thing USC does well, and you look
- 8:35Speaker 2: at all the analytics, and even when you watch them
- 8:37Speaker 2: on film, Their weakness is in the secondary. So with
- 8:40Speaker 2: Julian saying, you'd be feeling great. Like, we can air
- 8:43Speaker 2: this thing out with the freaks we have on the perimeter.
- 8:45Speaker 2: But now with a backup quarterback, like, is that really
- 8:47Speaker 2: going to be the move? Is that going to be
- 8:49Speaker 2: the plan? Will Ryan, and not even will it work
- 8:52Speaker 2: or will they, like, will Ryan Day have the balls
- 8:54Speaker 2: to do that? He's been for two years a super
- 8:57Speaker 2: hyper-conservative coach. with Julian saying as a quarterback now he's
- 9:01Speaker 2: got a backup and it's like will he really open
- 9:04Speaker 2: it up or will he try to just pound the
- 9:06Speaker 2: ball control the clock shorten the game play great defense
- 9:09Speaker 2: all the shit you hear about in coaching clinics that
- 9:12Speaker 2: I don't believe can win you a national championship.
- 9:15Speaker 1: Do you think how do you view do I mean
- 9:20Speaker 1: do you think it's realistic they go five and oh
- 9:21Speaker 1: here down the stretch or do you think there's a
- 9:23Speaker 1: slip up somewhere without saying.
- 9:25Speaker 2: I mean, I worry about these two road games. I mean,
- 9:29Speaker 2: I do think Ohio State's going to win this game
- 9:31Speaker 2: against USC, but, you know, it's so different. A lot
- 9:33Speaker 2: of these ebbs and flows we're talking about, they're home
- 9:35Speaker 2: teams that are upsetting away road teams in just, like,
- 9:40Speaker 2: shocking fashion. So I worry about the two road games
- 9:42Speaker 2: the most. And then you always worry about Michigan because,
- 9:46Speaker 2: I mean, I was here in 2024 when Michigan legitimately
- 9:50Speaker 2: could not throw a forward pass and they beat the
- 9:53Speaker 2: eventual national champ national champions so like I I don't
- 9:57Speaker 2: I tell people that watch my show I tell friends
- 10:00Speaker 2: I don't ever care how bad Michigan is in that
- 10:03Speaker 2: rivalry game it doesn't matter and so I I think
- 10:08Speaker 2: I'm optimistic that they can go 5-0 down the stretch
- 10:11Speaker 2: but I would I mean I think common sense would
- 10:13Speaker 2: say with it with a true freshman backup quarterback, not
- 10:16Speaker 2: if it's not Tavia, not a guy that's been here
- 10:17Speaker 2: a year and a half, I think it's likely you
- 10:19Speaker 2: have a slip up. And I think the most likely
- 10:21Speaker 2: candidates are the rivalry games or the two road trips.
- 10:24Speaker 2: I think Nebraska is the one that I've, I've been
- 10:26Speaker 2: nervous about since I watched them play Indiana. Yeah, for sure.
- 10:30Speaker 1: I was kind of stunned by the way they played
- 10:32Speaker 1: on the road at, at Oregon.
- 10:33Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 10:34Speaker 1: By the way, like just a massive missed opportunity by them.
- 10:38Speaker 1: Cause if they're, what would they be six and one
- 10:40Speaker 1: at this point?
- 10:40Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.
- 10:41Speaker 1: Six and one. and looking at the back half of
- 10:44Speaker 1: their schedule saying, dude, we could win a lot of
- 10:45Speaker 1: these games.
- 10:46Speaker 2: Yeah. You got to figure if they could have pulled
- 10:48Speaker 2: that game out, which they should have, they'd be looking
- 10:51Speaker 2: at like, all right, even if we lose to Ohio state,
- 10:52Speaker 2: we were likely a playoff team. Yeah. Yeah.
- 10:56Speaker 1: Now it feels like you've got to do something either
- 10:59Speaker 1: spectacular or, you know, a hope that nine and three
- 11:04Speaker 1: is enough to pass it, which nine and three for
- 11:05Speaker 1: Nebraska is better than they've had in a long time.
- 11:07Speaker 1: So maybe that's fine, but still just a missed opportunity
- 11:10Speaker 1: with that Oregon loss. Um, Do you have a score
- 11:13Speaker 1: in this one?
- 11:15Speaker 2: Dude, I just I think it's likely to be a
- 11:18Speaker 2: low scoring game just because I think Ryan plays it conservative.
- 11:22Speaker 2: And I think they really I mean, they're going to
- 11:24Speaker 2: take us take a page from Mike Trestle and Luke
- 11:27Speaker 2: Fickle at Wisconsin on how they slowed down and exploited
- 11:31Speaker 2: Lincoln Riley's offense with Jade Maeva. And I think they, they,
- 11:34Speaker 2: they'll be able to control the game. And I, I mean,
- 11:37Speaker 2: I'm saying 17 to seven, something low. And that's solely
- 11:41Speaker 2: because of Ryan and his, his, I don't know what
- 11:44Speaker 2: you would call it, his philosophy or his, his nervousness
- 11:47Speaker 2: when it comes to losing football games and how he
- 11:50Speaker 2: thinks he can prevent that. Yeah.
- 11:53Speaker 1: I feel like the spread is weird and it kind
- 11:55Speaker 1: of puts like alarm bells up because Vegas is obviously
- 11:58Speaker 1: good at these things. Yeah. Um, So for it to
- 12:01Speaker 1: only be seven, cause I feel the same way, man,
- 12:03Speaker 1: coming off of a pretty disappointing performance against Wisconsin. I
- 12:06Speaker 1: think there's a potential bounce back opportunity, but just a
- 12:09Speaker 1: way better defense that Matt and those guys can copy
- 12:13Speaker 1: a lot of what was, or at least attempt to
- 12:15Speaker 1: replicate what Wisconsin does and say, dude, this is the,
- 12:18Speaker 1: this is the moniker on how to beat them.
- 12:20Speaker 2: Like, I don't know.
- 12:21Speaker 1: Vegas has me a little.
- 12:24Speaker 2: Yeah, it's fishy.
- 12:25Speaker 1: If it's a trap, I'm probably going to fall into
- 12:27Speaker 1: it on Saturday and take the seven. But it feels
- 12:30Speaker 1: like a trap.
- 12:31Speaker 2: Yeah, it definitely does. And this is not the first time.
- 12:33Speaker 2: I mean, there's been several spreads that made you scratch
- 12:36Speaker 2: your head. You're like, when Florida went to Missouri after
- 12:39Speaker 2: just boat racing Ole Miss, when Auburn went to Georgia,
- 12:42Speaker 2: I looked at that spread. I was like, what? And
- 12:44Speaker 2: of course, I bet it. I lost money on it.
- 12:47Speaker 2: They just know things, dude. And I... The one saving
- 12:51Speaker 2: grace that I've been saying since Julian saying got hurt
- 12:54Speaker 2: was he wasn't playing well. Like we remember Julian saying
- 12:58Speaker 2: for all these plays and games over his career, but
- 13:01Speaker 2: this year specifically, he was not the consistent completion percentage
- 13:05Speaker 2: monster that he was last year. And he was, I mean,
- 13:07Speaker 2: he had, he was starting to turn the ball over
- 13:09Speaker 2: a little bit, missing overthrowing throws things that he'd never
- 13:12Speaker 2: did last year. So it's not like we're there, like
- 13:15Speaker 2: replacing this first round draft pick quarterback play. They're replacing
- 13:18Speaker 2: a guy who honestly was kind of struggling.
- 13:21Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 13:23Speaker 2: Florida, Georgia? That's a tough one for me. You know,
- 13:27Speaker 2: I'm a Gator grad. I don't know what to make
- 13:30Speaker 2: of teams this year. I really don't. I mean, every
- 13:33Speaker 2: other year I could give you some insight, but I
- 13:35Speaker 2: got nothing. Like, who is Florida? And how does Georgia
- 13:39Speaker 2: lose to Auburn? Like, how is this even possible? I
- 13:42Speaker 2: like to think that John Summerall– he's clearly moving in
- 13:46Speaker 2: the right direction at Florida. There's no doubt about that.
- 13:48Speaker 2: They're far better than they were under G5 Billy ever.
- 13:51Speaker 2: And so it's, I like the direction they're heading, but
- 13:55Speaker 2: I think Georgia legitimately might be the best team in
- 13:57Speaker 2: the country if you just didn't watch that one game
- 14:00Speaker 2: against Auburn. Yeah.
- 14:01Speaker 1: How do they bounce back? Is this the last time
- 14:06Speaker 1: that Mike Norvell and Dabo Sweeney ever coach against each other?
- 14:10Speaker 2: Oh, yeah, without a doubt. I mean, it might be
- 14:13Speaker 2: two new head coaches in that game next year.
- 14:16Speaker 1: It might be a complete reset in Death Valley.
- 14:18Speaker 2: It really might.
- 14:21Speaker 1: Zach Smith, what do you got coming this week on
- 14:23Speaker 1: Menace to Sports? We'll get you out of here.
- 14:25Speaker 2: Well, it's the quarterback conversation in Columbus, man. It's all
- 14:29Speaker 2: the rave up here. And Ryan Day sure knows how
- 14:31Speaker 2: to keep a fire hot because he won't name a
- 14:34Speaker 2: starter or He won't give you any insight onto who
- 14:37Speaker 2: has an edge. And luckily, I've talked to people there,
- 14:39Speaker 2: and I have an idea. But that's it, man. Just
- 14:42Speaker 2: getting ready for this USC game and buckling up, because
- 14:45Speaker 2: God knows who's going to fall on Saturday.
- 14:49Speaker 1: The stretch run. And next week's insane, too. Next week
- 14:53Speaker 1: is an absolute dream from a slate perspective. Do you think, Ron,
- 14:57Speaker 1: is that all gamesmanship? Are these guys just, I mean,
- 15:01Speaker 1: you've been in these buildings. Is it truly as much
- 15:04Speaker 1: gamesmanship as it is, I don't know, trying to see
- 15:08Speaker 1: if somebody shows you something two days before the game?
- 15:11Speaker 1: Or is it just they're being dicks and don't want
- 15:14Speaker 1: to tell people?
- 15:14Speaker 2: Is it all the above? I think it's a self-serving
- 15:17Speaker 2: combination of all of it, right? He cannot name a
- 15:20Speaker 2: starter that keeps Tavian St. Clair motivated and hopeful and
- 15:23Speaker 2: practicing well and pushing Luke Fahey. I think it also
- 15:26Speaker 2: is he doesn't want Lincoln Riley to know who the
- 15:29Speaker 2: quarterback is. He wants him to think that it could
- 15:31Speaker 2: be either or, which, again, I don't know what that means.
- 15:34Speaker 2: There's not really tape on either of them. So it's like, oh,
- 15:37Speaker 2: they're preparing for two guys. No, they're preparing for the
- 15:40Speaker 2: unknown because we watched them against the end of the
- 15:42Speaker 2: Indiana game where he was pissing down his leg and
- 15:44Speaker 2: then against two MAAC teams. Like, what are you really
- 15:47Speaker 2: game planning for?
- 15:48Speaker 1: Right.
- 15:49Speaker 2: So I think part of it is gamesmanship and part
- 15:53Speaker 2: of it is mentality like, yeah, fuck you. I'm not
- 15:54Speaker 2: telling you anything. I don't have to.
- 15:57Speaker 1: Zach, I appreciate it, man. Good luck this weekend.
- 15:59Speaker 2: Talk to you soon. Appreciate you, TJ.