Latest / The Jake Wimberly Podcast / Kelley Ford on the National Championship Game and 2024 college football
Transcript
- 0:00Kelly Ford. Thelones dot Com is where you can find his work. Also
- 0:03k Ford Ratings on x Kford Ratings dot com. Kelly, Welcome in,
- 0:07sir. How are you. I'm doing okay, Jake. I was just
- 0:11talking with Ben off Air here before we started. Uh, it's hard to
- 0:15be doing well when we know we have two hundred and twenty seven plus days
- 0:20till we get to see cosgo ball again. But outside of that, it's
- 0:23always fun talking to you, Jake. No say likewise here brother, and
- 0:26look, yeah, you know we got a while, it seems, but
- 0:29there are so many moving pieces in you know, roster changes. I mean
- 0:32we talk about quin Shawn Judkins now going to Ohio State. I mean,
- 0:37just to watch these teams kind of build into what they're going to be next
- 0:40year is honestly. I know a lot of people don't like NIL and the
- 0:43transfer portal and the collectives and all, but it's actually kind of fun just
- 0:46to watch how these teams are developing right in front of our eyes. I
- 0:50mean, we saw Will Rogers on the sidelines with Washington last night. Just
- 0:54to see that happening, and we will kind of look forward just a little
- 0:57bit. Talk some NFL with you as well, talk about the lines,
- 1:00but your thoughts of what you saw last night with Michigan and Washington. Yeah,
- 1:04Jake, last night, it was an interesting National Championship game, and
- 1:08it was a competitive National Championship game really into the fourth quarter. It was
- 1:15surprising to me after the start that we had in that game, with Michigan
- 1:19running the ball at will, not even edwards, I mean ever, first
- 1:22couple of touches, it was just off and running and that was it.
- 1:25They showed a graphic on the broadcast. Can't remember what the exact numbers were,
- 1:29but it was just an astounding number of yards before first contact. And
- 1:34if we go back to what we talked about before the game, you know,
- 1:37Michigan being more balanced team, the Washington defense being the weakest unit in
- 1:41the game, all of that came to fruition. It probably should have been
- 1:45over before it was. Michigan for some reason, decided to get away from
- 1:49the game plan in the first half that had worked so well on the first
- 1:53couple of drives, and that really allowed Washington to stay in the game.
- 1:56They get up a couple of big plays in an a big play or two
- 2:00keeps them in the game. There at halftime, it's still a one score
- 2:01game. Throughout much of the third quarter to a one score game. It
- 2:05wasn't until the force that Michigan pulls away. But all in all, thoughts,
- 2:07are you know Michigan all the things that went on in and around that
- 2:12program. Say about it what you will. The on field performance, and
- 2:15again I get it, Hey, you know, Kelly, they were stealing
- 2:19I understand that's the backdrop the results on the field. Michigan was throughout the
- 2:23course of this year the best team in college football. They really didn't have
- 2:27a weakness. Defense certainly travels and shows up every single week, and when
- 2:30you have a defense like Michigan, you know you're going to be in those
- 2:34games, and they did. They did a ton to shut down what was
- 2:37a really high powered Washington team. At the end of the night, I'm
- 2:39not overly surprised by the game that we got. The model did pick Michigan
- 2:44by about nine and a half. Of course, they win by much more
- 2:46than that late pulling away, but it was always going to be a tall
- 2:50pass for Washington. They had a great season and they stayed in the game,
- 2:53which which is credit to them. But Michigan was the best team in
- 2:55college football in the twenty twenty three season. You know, it's going to
- 2:59be interesting. And we've talked about this with you just a little bit.
- 3:01I'm sitting here just looking at you know, let's just use this for fun.
- 3:06Jesse Simonson two four seven sports dot com or should be on three dot
- 3:09com. Apologies for that his way too early top twenty five. As we
- 3:14think about the twelve team playoff, and you know, right now he's got
- 3:19Georgia, Texas, Bama, all SEC. Now, I think that's fair,
- 3:23Oregon, Ohio State, Michigan, that's all, Big ten, Ole,
- 3:25miss SEC, Notre Dame Independent, Penn State, Big ten, Missouri
- 3:32SEC, Utah, Big twelve, Oklahoma SEC, followed by O L s
- 3:38U SEC. We're gonna get a heavy helping of SEC and Big ten next
- 3:44year, are we? Yeah, we certainly are, Jake. And you
- 3:46know, with the way that the conferences are comprised here, moving forward,
- 3:50with the realignment and the new membership starting in twenty twenty four and moving forward,
- 3:53that's not just going to be a twenty twenty fourth thing. That's gonna
- 3:57be year in and year out. What I am most curious about is,
- 4:00of course, you're gonna have one spot reserved for a non Power four champion
- 4:03most likely. I know that the CFT Board of Governors did not officially approve
- 4:08the recommendation, but everyone expects it to be a five AQ plus seven at
- 4:11large, so not at least one spot reserve for a team outside of the
- 4:14quote power four moving forward. At least Notre Dame's always going to be in
- 4:17this now because if Notre Dame finishes a regular season ten and two with the
- 4:20schedule that they play historically, and again any given year it could be different,
- 4:25but historically a ten and two Notre Dame, that's going to be a
- 4:27spot outside of those two. I mean, you're looking at the power conferences,
- 4:31and if you go kind of team by team in the ACC, you
- 4:34know, Clemson's been a power here the last decade or so. Florida State
- 4:38certainly seems like they are on the ride. Miami always will have the capability
- 4:43to explode and return to national prominence as they have been in the last forty
- 4:46years or so. Outside of that, in the ACC, though, there's
- 4:49really not a team or a program that you say, man year in and
- 4:54year out, they're going to be in contention you go to the new look
- 4:56Big twelve, there's really not a team right now that you say year in
- 4:59here they're going to be in contention. Kansas State's got some nice things going
- 5:01on. Utah course has had a lot of success in the Pac twelve,
- 5:04so they're a team to keep an eye on as they make the transition of
- 5:06the Big twelve. You know, Arizona a team that really came on this
- 5:10year, is that there to stay with Jetfish Kansas As crazy as that might
- 5:14sound, they're really building Momenta with Lance lightfold. But ultimately, at the
- 5:17end of the day, when you're looking at CFP spots, Jake, I'm
- 5:21hard bretted to see a year where it's not you know, seven, eight,
- 5:29maybe even nine teams right that come out of just the big ten in
- 5:31the SCC. Certainly every single year it's going to be at least six.
- 5:35I cannot envision a world in which we don't have at least six from some
- 5:39combination of the Big Pen. In the SCC, you're going to have the
- 5:42number four, number five in some cases teams in a conference making this playoff.
- 5:46It is certainly going to be a heavy dose of the SEC in the
- 5:47Big pen and that's not just next year. That is going to be for
- 5:50the foreseeable future until something changes, whether it's a change to the CFP again
- 5:56or conference realignment hits again. But yeah, those two conferences, they are
- 6:00certainly going to be playing college fob all playoff football at a much higher rate
- 6:03than any other conference out there.